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A Day in the Life of Flash Sentry | The Last Talk | "Quite," Solar said and with that they all were suddenly back where they were before this whole thing or event began. Flash was back home at the caste in the party room, and he couldn't be happier being back than he was right now.
But his joy was cut short by Princess Celestia when she spoke to him.
"We may have won the games," she said, "But we still have a war to fight.
One that will require every pony to do their part and royal duty, especially you.
It seems like we have been barely gone for long by the look of things here, no pony looks lost or confused as they would be normally, I suppose that this is lucky for us, but perhaps not for you as much, after all, you still have a party room and castle to clean up, so get busy, you have lots of work to do."
Flash groaned at the prospect and sight of this big huge giant task, he would rather take on Nightmare Shadow any day of the week rather than this.
He said this statement out loud and Celestia merely laughed at this statement and said that she didn't blame him and she wished him good luck before she left, and so Flash Sentry was left all alone to do his royal duties as the next day rose up on the horizon marking the start of another regular ordinary day. |
A Day in the Life of Flash Sentry | Epilogue: The Apprentice | Epilogue: The Apprentice
Nightmare Shadow stood in the darkness waiting for somebody very special to show up so that he could test them, and then he would learn from them.
And soon enough he came, Tirek was there and came to greet him at last.
"Well hello there, Tirek," Nightmare Shadow said, "Nice night isn't it?"
"Yes it is, one perfect enough to steal your magic," Tirek said, but when he tried to he couldn't, "WHERE IS YOUR MAGIC?" he shouted out loud in anger.
"It is in a safe place where I can access and use it a moment, but that's not the real question that you should be asking here, the real question to be asking is this, will you help me learn how to steal magic like you do, or will I have to send you down to Tartarus myself? I would like us to be friends you know."
"I don't make it a habit to make friends or to teach any pony my tricks."
"Well suit yourself then," Nightmare Shadow said clicking his hooves together as a portal to Tartarus opened right besides Tirek almost touching him.
"Wait!" he said, "Alright, I will teach you, if you spare me from prison."
"You have my word," Nightmare Shadow said clicking hi hooves once more again and the portal closed, "Those are the words I like to hear from you, now then, hall we begin? I am most anxious to be your friend and your apprentice."
With that said they began to train at once, and Nightmare Shadow mastered the art very quickly, and when he finally did, Tirek wanted to be released.
"I have done what you have asked," he said, "Now release and free me."
"I'm sorry, did I hear a demand come across to my ears? I am the master now Tirek, and I control you now. And you should have never said yes to our deal, because everybody knows not to ever make a deal with the bag guy or villain, and if you ever do, you have to specify everything, so I am sorry my friend, but your usefulness has now expired, and I no longer need you anymore."
And with that said Nightmare Shadow clapped his hooves together and sent Tirek back to Tartarus. And then he gently held the amulet that he wore around his neck that had his power, and the other one that had another far more mysterious power that could corrupt the minds, thought, ideas, fears, and dreams of all the other ponies of Equestria. Something to help him win this war, and so with hi new knowledge he flew off into the night and vanished. |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | pre | "Oh." She drooped even further, then both ears perked up in a way that Turpentine knew was going to involve more pain.
* * ✹ * *
The thunder of the small waterfall pounding Turpentine into the gravel bottom of the streambed made it almost impossible for him to make his protests known, but while he shifted positions with considerably less pain than before, he really could not come up with any reason to move. It was cold, but he had been sweating most of the evening anyway, and being underwater was starting to feel oddly normal. After several positional maneuvers to get the last of the knots out of his abused muscles, Turpentine eventually floated over to the edge of the pool and let the warm morning sun soak into his damp coat while half-in and half-out of the water.
The gravel-lined banks of the pool seemed hollow and empty, spread in a large arc around the wet cascade of cool water as if it were waiting for an entire school of seaponies to be lounging around, brushing their hair and filling the air with song. Even unoccupied, it was still beautiful, with sparkling mist drifting through the air and the sound of the falling water soothing to his ears. While waiting for Ripple to return, he got up and stretched his stiff legs by striding around the outside edge of the pool and checking on the dark green vines twining their way up the sides of the little stone-lined niche. He didn't nibble on them, but he did tuck a few of the little sprouts into the stone walls so they would be able to continue their ascent toward the sun. It would make a beautiful backdrop for a painting, provided the subjects were painted with hooves instead of flippers in order not to endanger the shy seaponies.
The warm air of the beautiful grotto seemed to chill with a breeze that evaporated some of the dampness from his coat, so he returned to the warm rounded gravel beside the pool to drink in the last gasps of summer. Someday soon, winter would turn the surroundings to a skating rink and the river into an ice-choked mess, with the seaponies swimming around under it, most probably enjoying the warmth of their temporary home far more than the lightless depths of the icy ocean. Turpentine had just begun to draw a sketch of the watery grove with one hoof in the sand when Ripple surfaced.
It was a mark of how accustomed he had gotten to seaponies that he noticed the convulsive motion she made to expel the last of the water through the gill slits on her chest before taking a breath of air to speak. The spell-created gill slits on his own chest acted much the same way, with the spell somehow managing to embed the unconscious reflex of Ripple into it. It explained the problem she had with transforming her own flippers and thick tail into pony appendages, as she could not push those natural features to another pony, but had to manipulate her own internal structure without something to compare it to.
Maybe if I did a comparison study of hoof structure against her flippers, it would help her with the transformation spell?
He was still holding one hoof up in the air while deeply contemplating just what changes would be needed to turn it into a flipper and back again when he became aware of little droplets of water being flicked in his direction. Ripple was resting stretched out on her belly on the shallow bank of the grotto while watching him, although the sun had snuck forward an hour or so while he had not been looking. He blinked several times, placed his hoof back on solid ground, and asked, "How long was I out?"
Ripple shrugged and flipped a few more droplets in his direction. "I dunno. Maybe an hour." She held her own flipper up in front of her face the same way. "It was weird, but kinda nice. You get this really, really, really serious face on when you do that, like you can see through things."
Now it was Turpentine's turn to shrug. "It's a painting thing. The best way to show something is if you know it inside and out, the way it bends, the way it looks in the light and shadows, how it moves, and what kind of perspective you are looking at it with. I must have drawn a couple hundred noses when I started. All the ponies in the town started getting really squirrely when I would come around and stare at their faces."
"Mister Baron Gaberdine says it's a lot like that for transformation spells. You have to know where you start and where you end or you can't find your way between, and you have to want what it is you're trying to do." She splashed a little more water at him before asking, "So, do you want to try moving the raft now?"
"No," said Turpentine. "Everything still hurts, and I'm hungry. All I'd do is get covered in sand."
"Ooo, I know," said Ripple. She splashed her tail in the grotto and darted off into deeper water, popping up and calling over her shoulder, "Come on! I've got something I want you to see, and we can get lunch too."
Turpentine rather stiffly trotted to the end of the gravel bar and picked his way down into the water. It seemed so natural now to feel the spell-created gill slits in his chest open up when he became fully submerged and the first breath of water pushed out his remaining air in a cloud of bubbles. Even through his sore muscles, he could not help grinning while he paddled further down, following the flick and swish and swirl of Ripple's tail as she darted back and forth and all around, waiting on his slow progress.
They traveled underwater for a short distance, through a ragged opening in the underwater rock wall and up into a larger open area behind it with light filtering down through cracks in the rock walls and the uneasy rustling of bats somewhere on the dark ceiling. The cave was not as inviting as the outdoor grotto, but it had a mystic shadowy quality with the illumination of Ripple's hornlight making reflections from the water surface dance across the walls and the drip of water echoing off the glittering damp walls.
"I wish I had my sketchpad," blurted out Turpentine. "This is beautiful."
"Yeah," said Ripple. "I wish I could take Mister Baron Gaberdine here."
"Why can't you?" asked Turpentine.
"Well, he..." Ripple frowned and fidgeted, then vanished under the water with only a tiny 'bloop' of disturbed water. Turpentine followed while the little seapony swam down to the bottom of the shimmering cave and stopped at a number of pony-sized indentations in the pebble-covered cave floor. "This is my home," said Ripple, pointing with one flipper at a smaller 'bed.' "I sleep here, and my mother sleeps there, and the rest of my aunts sleep scattered around here. It's very nice and cozy, except when the thunderstorms make the cave rattle and boom and crash. Then it's scary, if my mother isn't here."
It did not take much mental effort to imagine the cave filled with seaponies curled up in the little gravel indentations. It was vastly different than his former little bedroom, in particular due to a broken spear driven into the pebbly ground next to where Ripple's mother slept. The spear had a long steel blade with a thick shaft, which ended abruptly in a cluster of tooth-imprints and splinters, much as if a monster had bitten it in half with one snap of its massive jaws. A set of thin mane ribbons were tied around the short section of shaft remaining, giving somewhat of a macabre floating air to the underwater sleeping chamber as the various currents caused the ribbons to undulate like tentacles. If he had thought about asking for a sleepover before, the idea vanished.
Still, sleeping underwater with the water breathing spell was a weird enough concept that he really did not think Ripple would have invited him over to a sleepover anyway, even if her skittish aunts would permit it. A deep rumbling reminded him of the second reason Ripple was showing him around, and he drifted toward several dark shadows at the bottom of the cave. The slow but steady stream of mineral-tasting water flowing out of the holes in the cave wall felt chilly after being out in the warm river water, much like standing in front of some strange underwater icebox.
"Is this where you store your food?" he asked while paddling forward until he could look into the dark passages.
"No, it's a bunch of caves," said Ripple while drifting almost effortlessly up beside him. "Sometimes, we play tag or hide and seek in there. The caves go back for hundreds of furlongs, all twisting together and branching off. There's big domes and crystal formations, and a couple of spots where there was some collapsing, but no monsters," she added before Turpentine could ask. "Just a few white fish and crawdads." She licked her lips and looked up at him.
"Not a chance," he said, backed up by a low growl from his stomach which sounded more than a little creepy in front of the dark cave entrance. "Can we find something to eat first, then go back to the raft and try to figure out how to unstick it? Slowly," he added.
"Slow is boring," said Ripple, making a quick loop around him.
"If I wanted the excitement of being pulled at high-speed through the water, I'd go water skiing," said Turpentine.
That triggered a whole series of questions from the little seapony, who had never seen the speedboat from near Turpentine's home and the family of unicorns who liked to race it up and down the narrow tributary on weekends. By the time they visited a nearby collection of pickerel weed, and then ate their fill on a huge bank filled with elderberry plants, Turpentine was feeling much better with most of his sore muscle pain replaced by a distended belly and a desire to just lay in the warm sand beside the water and relish the sticky feeling of purple juice smeared all the way up to his ears.
"I bet you could make elderberry jam out of this," said Turpentine with a quiet belch. "Bottles and bottles of it for winter. Jam on hot bread right out of the oven is great."
"Do you think they have jam in Baltimare?" asked Ripple, spread out on the sand next to him and looking a little flattened, only with a round lump around her middle much like his.
"Yeah, but Mother Windrow said city jam isn't like country jam. They make it in huge factories with a bunch of frowning ponies checking each jar to make sure none of them taste any better than any others." Turpentine picked at an upper tooth which had picked up a few extra seeds. "They take all the seeds out too. Does Baron Gaberdine have any servants to make jam in his castle?"
"Just Sen, and he's old, like a hundred or something. He does say something about going into Gravel Flats to get some sweet sugar sometimes, but he doesn't seem to bring much back with him." Ripple stirred the tip of her tail in the stream and turned enough to be able to look at Turpentine with her sparkling green eyes. "After we get the raft to the castle, could you show Baron Gabby how to make elderberry jam? It sounds yummy."
"There's more than just elderberry jam. Mother Windrow showed me how to make gooseberry jam, but the season is already over for that," said Turpentine. "And apple butter, and blueberry, and a whole bunch more. Maybe when I become a famous painter, I can come back occasionally and we can make jam."
"We could do that now and you could be a famous painter later," suggested Ripple with a little splash of her tail. "Winter is always so quiet and peaceful under the ice, but Mister Baron Gaberdine said he'd make a nice, warm snowsuit for me if I wanted to come to the castle and play."
It made an interesting mental image. Odd, but interesting.
"First things first," declared Turpentine, rolling onto his side and beginning to draw in the sandy streambank with one hoof. "We have to get my raft off the sandbar before Baron Gaberdine sends me back to Mother Windrow."
"Is she really that bad of a mother?" asked Ripple, who had rolled over to face him on the other side of his sand drawing. "She sounds like one of my aunts."
After finishing drawing the island in the sand, Turpentine paused with his hoof over the sketch of the raft. "No, not really. She likes me, but we're so different. She never had foals of her own, so she talks down to me, and doesn't let me make my own decisions."
"Like taking a raft to Baltimare?" asked Ripple.
"Eh. Yeah, I guess." Turpentine finished drawing the raft into the diagram, even though it was not quite to scale. "She must have been so scared."
"I know," said Ripple. "One night during a thunderstorm when I was hiding... I mean... Well, hiding is the right word, I suppose." She splashed her tail in the water and frowned at the drawing of the island in the sand. "I was hiding in the castle during a thunderstorm and my mother came looking for me the next morning. She was scared of Mister Gaberdine and scared for me, but she was most scared for me. But it worked out. She woke up Mister Gaberdine and he gave her breakfast and they like each other now, so she's hardly afraid of him at all anymore."
"Somehow, I don't think that will work for Mother Windrow," said Turpentine. "You know, I made a painting of her. I could show it to you and we could look at the raft instead of just trying to draw it in the sand."
* * ✹ * *
Every time Turpentine returned to the raft, it looked more dirty and plain instead of the vessel of adventure and excitement it had been several days ago. Several of the ropes tying the logs together had little tufts of cocklebur spines on them from the many and diverse population of burrs on the island, making sitting down on the raft a somewhat chancy proposition. He decided instead to simply float around the outside edge with Ripple, ducking underwater to see if there was some sort of hidden spot to pry or tug on which would un-stick the quite stuck raft.
Nothing really looked obvious.
"What we need is a pulley out about here," said Ripple, swimming a distance from the raft and splashing. "Then we can put another pulley on the raft and run a rope back and forth between them to get leverage."
"All we have is this little chunk of rope here," said Turpentine, holding up the tow rope, which was starting to look a little chewed on his end. "We can't use all the rope from the raft, because it will fall apart."
He paused, feeling like an idiot. "Well, that's one problem fixed. I'm not sure if we can put the raft together again afterwards, though. The ropes are tied pretty tight."
"We could float the logs downstream by tying them together in a long string, nose to tail like ducks," said Ripple.
"What about my stuff?" Turpentine looked at the boxes and folders he had stacked up in the middle of the raft. It was not a lot of stuff by pony standards, particularly if he got rid of the camping gear and the scattered odd items he had thrown on the raft in the hopes they might be useful somewhere, but it was everything he held dear, including the paintings he was going to show off in Baltimare.
Ripple gasped, coming almost all the way out of the water and lunging up on the far end of the raft. "I know! We could bury it like pirate treasure and make a map and swear to come back next year and dig it back up and split it among our crew."
He almost took her seriously, except for the impish sparkle in her eye and the quirky smile that crept onto her face. She splashed a little bit of cool water at him and waggled one eyebrow. "Had you going there for a minute, didn't I, Captain?"
It was just so silly. Turpentine had to sit down before he fell overboard, without even a plank to walk. "River pirates," he managed to get out between chortles. "Hoist the Jolly Roger and we'll storm a barge full of brussel sprouts. Arr!"
Ripple joined in his carefree laughter, rolling backwards and making a quick jump out in the river which only splattered a little water back on the raft as she spun and danced over the sun-silvered wavelets. He remained sitting while being both entranced and bemused at the antics of the graceful seapony, taking the occasional face full of water in stride as payment for the entertainment.
Eventually she ran out of giggles to fuel her acrobatics and surfaced at the edge of the raft with a sharp salute of one flipper against her horn. "Captain, what are your orders, sir?"
"Aye, First Mate Splashy," he replied with a giggle. He jumped up on the tallest box in his collection of stuff and struck an appropriate pirate stance. "Raise anchor and hoist the colors. We're setting sail!"
* * ✹ * *
Admittedly, it was a lot easier to set sail in the books. It took most of the afternoon to carefully untie all of the wet knots and pick apart the raft, making sure not to cut or break any of the worn ropes. After all, it was going to take every scrap of rope they had in order to tie all the logs back together when they were done. The clever way the lumber ponies had tied the raft together left very little slack rope to spare, but as the sun approached the horizon, the new raft was bobbing at the end of a short rope, ready to be sailed down the river once more.
It could not have come quickly enough for Turpentine. The ache of splinters in the frog of each hoof was intolerable, and if he never tasted hemp rope again it would be too soon. He curled up on the edge of the New Horizons and alternated between splashing a hoof in the river water and trying to bite one of the many elusive splinters out from under his sensitive frog.
"Here, let me." Ripple slipped up to the edge of the raft and lit up her horn, using her magic to gently probe the bottom of his ticklish hoof for the tiny fragment of wood. "Captain, you're just lucky First Mate Splashy knows how to do ship's surgeon stuff or we'd have to fit you with a peg leg."
"I think I already have one from all of the splinters. I haven't worked this hard in ever," said Turpentine, trying to keep his face straight as the little seapony probed for the little bits of wood. "Everything hurts. Are you sure you know how to do that?"
"Mama did it once for Mister Baron Gaberdine," said Ripple, looking very uncharacteristically serious under the pale green light of her horn. "He was cooking dinner for us when Mama smiled at him and he dropped a jar. Then he stepped on a little piece of glass when he was cleaning up. There was even some blood. She wouldn't let me watch her take the glass out, though. Stop twitching."
"I can't help it," said Turpentine, ruthlessly suppressing yet another spasm as Ripple's magic touched him on the bottom of his hoof. "Ticklish. Kinda hungry too."
"I'm starving," declared Ripple while she plucked out splinters. "If you had a frying pan big enough, we could noodle some catfish and make fillets. Mister Baron Gaberdine showed me how to cook 'em. Only we'd need some eggs too. And some flour. And pepper. And salt. You really need to soak catfish in salt water for a while before cooking it so it doesn't taste as muddy as it does raw."
"Noodle catfish?" Turpentine wrinkled his upper lip despite the tickling of his sensitive frogs. The thought of eating raw fish was weird and stomach-turning, but with as much as Ripple had talked about it over the last few days, it was less odd than whatever 'noodling' a catfish would involve, and it scratched at his curiosity itch. "How do you noodle a catfish?"
"I've never actually done it, but it's a lot of fun to watch. Next." Switching her ministrations to a different ticklish hoof, Ripple continued, "My aunts start by transforming a foreflipper into a hoof like they're going up on land. Then she finds a catfish hole where they lay their eggs and kinda pokes at it until the catfish lunges out and grabs her!"
Turpentine frowned at the mental image. "Doesn't that hurt?"
"Not a lot." Ripple shrugged while probing for a deeper splinter. "Catfish don't have teeth. She gets a little scraped up sometimes, but she gets her foreleg back through their gill slits and lifts the catfish out of its hole. It's more for fun than eating, because they taste all muddy without proper preparation, but Mister Gaberdine is gotten really good at cooking them. He doesn't even turn green anymore when we dress them."
Somehow, Turpentine did not think dressing a fish involved clothes. It most certainly involved knives, much like the one that Ripple removed from her mane and used to prod at the bottom of his hoof where the most painful of the wooden splinters had lodged. It was a slightly longer knife than the short single-edged blade Turpentine had in his luggage, and much larger than his pigment-stained palette knife. Unicorns did not need the larger grip an earth pony would use to hold it in his jaws, so Ripple's knife was mostly slim and sharpened steel, tapered to an off-center rounded point and sharp all the way down to the short handle.
She wedged the tip under a thick wooden splinter and pried back and forth. There were little grating noises under his shoe and a sharp twinge in his frog as it popped free, and she ran the edge of the slim knife around the inner edge of his hoof in order to catch any more loose splinters. Switching to the next hoof, she sighed and tapped the long knife against his steel shoe while her stomach rumbled again.
"I wish we could at least steam some clams. I'm starving." Cleaning out a few more minor splinters, she waved the knife and continued, "Normally, we just shuck 'em out of their shell underwater and eat 'em there, but I don't think you want raw clams."
"If you go get the clams, I can build up the fire," suggested Turpentine, because his aching muscles did not want to move far from the campfire anyway, and there already was quite a bit of driftwood accumulated, even without the splinters he had gotten. He was not all that hungry, and clams did not really sound that tempting, but Ripple had shown him quite a few experiences he had never dreamed of in his life. Plus, time was getting short. When he would drift the raft down the river tomorrow, it could not be more than a day's travel to the castle/steamship that Ripple seemed so enthusiastic about. Baron Gaberdine had promised to see him on the way to Baltimare afterwards, and it could be weeks or even months before Turpentine could return. It might even be winter by then, and the thought of swimming below the ice with her did not really appeal to him.
While Ripple darted out into the sun-drenched river for the main course, Turpentine arranged the campfire as best he could and soaked down the cattail reeds he planned on using as a grill. He had seen freshwater clams before in the creeks around home, ugly little brown things about half the size of a hoof, and with only about a mouthful of meat--
He shuddered and poked the fire with a thick dampened cattail to get it more level. At this rate, he would be growing his own tail by the end of the month and be a seapony by winter.
By the time the sun touched the horizon in smears of gold and orange, Ripple returned and dumped her findings on the sandy shore. The smallest of the clams she found was twice as big as the largest he had ever seen before, a ridged arc of shell he could not have covered with a hoof, and the largest...
"Are you sure that thing is good to eat?" asked Turpentine. The huge mollusk was the size of a pony's head, and most probably had teeth.
"Um..." Ripple tapped the huge clam, apparently getting second thoughts now that she could see it in what was left of the light of day. "It'll probably take forever to cook. I'll just go put that one back. And... that one," she added, picking up several of the larger clams in her magic before vanishing into the river again.
It took a little to arrange the damp cattail reeds over the fire, but Turpentine felt a little better about arranging the clams on their new 'steaming' rack once he realized the mollusks did not scream or thrash when he put them out on the thick mat of reeds. He almost had half of them arranged when Ripple came back, lunging up out of the water onto the sand at the edge of the water in a way that would have given him a panic fit a few days ago.
It still startled him into dropping a clam in the fire.
"Aren't they done yet?" asked Ripple, adding her magic to the task of arranging the last of the clams across the damp reed mat. The last couple of clams she held back, getting out her knife and settling down in the light of the setting sun and glowing fire.
"I don't know," said Turpentine, unable to take his eyes off the silvery knife glittering in Ripple's green magic. "Are you going to eat those raw?"
"Sure!" Ripple settled down with an intense frown and brought the first clam up to the blade. "You just gotta get the knife in between the edges, then go around all the way until it pops."
There was something about the way she brought the knife up to the doomed bivalve that triggered a memory in Turpentine's head, and he spoke out loud without really thinking. "Why then the world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open."
"What?" Ripple looked over at him, seeming slightly confused although her slim knife did not move from its position next to the clam.
"It's something from the Merry Mares of Whinnydor, a book that the orphanage had in the library," explained Turpentine. "I was bored, and it looked interesting. I was wrong. Go ahead."
The magic-driven knife traced a path around the clam and the top shell popped off, revealing a goopy lump of yellowish flesh. Ripple tossed the empty shell over her shoulder and into the river with a forlorn 'plop' as she continued to scrape the remainder together, then slurped it up in one gulp. "Yummy!"
"Ewww!!" declared Turpentine. He shook his head and swallowed once while Ripple got out the next clam. "I mean it's neat and all that, but eww just the same. It's not anything like what I expected from the books."
"Maybe you'll like the cooked ones better," said Ripple just before slurping down another one of the slimy things. It was worth some thought, and as he thought, a few of the clams on the fire began to open up just the way the books said. Besides, Mother Windrow had always told him to try something before rejecting it, even cooked beets.
"Maybe one of the cooked ones," he hesitantly offered over the objections of his churning belly. "Two at the most."
After Ripple finished her snacking, she took the damp cattail reed Turpentine had been using to poke the clams and used it to poke the clams in the way she wanted to. He could not see any difference in technique, because one poked clam looked very much like another, but he would not have been able to lift one of the lid-opened clams off of the steaming reeds and float it over in front of him, as he lacked her magic.
The clam didn't smell that bad when cooked, sizzling and popping a little from the fire. He retrieved a fork and poked it a few times in a forlorn attempt to pry the meat free while it cooled, but eventually gave in to Ripple's clam-eating technique.
He shoved his nose into the hot clamshell and slurped.
It was all over before he realized it, in and over his tongue and down his throat where the steamed clam meat made a warm glow in his tummy. It was so quick, in fact, that he could not even tell what the clam had tasted like other than 'vaguely clammy.'
"Good, aren't they?" said Ripple before slurping another steamed clam down and sucking cool air over her tongue afterwards. "They're even better hot."
"Yeah." Turpentine managed to slurp down another clam. "I think I'm full. Well, of clams." He nudged a toasted cattail out of the fire and blew on the steaming root before taking a large bite. "Much better."
Ripple sniffed the offered root and took a bite too. "Not bad. Needs salt."
While the evening grew darker and the fire died down to glowing coals, the two of them settled down on the remainder of the cattails and watched the stars come out. From his time outside watching the stars with Mother Windrow, Turpentine knew a little about what stars went where, but it was at least one area of knowledge where he knew a lot more than Ripple. They watched the night sky and traced the lines of the constellations together with the lapping of the waves and full tummies contributing to a slow reduction in conversation, and ever so slowly, the two of them drifted off to sleep together under the stars.
In the quiet, with the night insects chirping away in the darkness, a faint green glow surrounded Turpentine's wool blanket. With great care, it drifted over the two young ponies and tucked itself in while a pair of dark green eyes out in the river kept watch. |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 7 - Fly, Flown, Flu | Drifting Down the Lazy River
Fly, Flown, Flu
"My nose begun to itch. It itched till the tears come into my eyes. But I dasn't scratch. Then it begun to itch on the inside. Next I got to itching underneath. I didn't know how I was going to set still. This miserableness went on as much as six or seven minutes; but it seemed a sight longer than that. I was itching in eleven different places now. I reckoned I couldn't stand it more'n a minute longer, but I set my teeth hard and got ready to try. "
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
Dawn should have been more respectful to Turpentine's feelings, in particular the throbbing aches stabbing through muscles that he did not realize he had before and the dull pain covering every single hair on his coat. In short, if discomfort were paint, he had enough to make a mural over the outside of a barn with enough left over to paint the insides with two coats.
The morning sun had just begun to warm the itchy wool blanket draped over his aching hide when Ripple lifted her head off his side where she had been using him like a lumpy pillow. Her motion left a cold spot, made only worse by the way the rest of the wool blanket followed her when she stood up and yawned.
"Oh, fishguts. I didn't go home like I was supposed to last night. Do you think my mom noticed?"
Turpentine painfully blinked several times, his eyes tracing a glint of sunlit silver to the reassembled raft bobbing nearby. Everything was blurry and far too bright this morning, but the raft was fairly close and the shiny object sitting on it next to his ramshackle collection of camping gear was fairly obvious. He yawned and nudged Ripple.
"It looks like one of your aunts brought us breakfast, so your mother probably knows."
The silver tray over on the raft was a lot larger than Turpentine had expected, but since he really had not expected breakfast to be delivered in the first place, he started to wonder if perhaps some of Ripple's aunts were also going to join them. There were a lot of little silver domes concealing breakfast items on the tray, but before Turpentine could get up the willpower to stagger to his hooves, Ripple flopped through the sand and vanished into the river, reappearing over by the raft with a tiny splash. She used her magic to lift one of the silver lids and gave off a little gasp of wonder.
"Bag-etties! With honey!" The tray lifted off the raft with a glow of her light green magic and floated the short distance to shore while Ripple vanished underwater and surfaced in one rapid motion. By that time, Turpentine had heaved himself up to his hooves and hobbled over to the embers of the campfire.
"Can we get the raft launched first, Ripple? That way we can eat on it while drifting downstream." Despite his ongoing pain, he kicked wet sand over the remains of the fire and tossed the ragged blanket back on the raft before working on the loose knot of the anchor rope. Ripple seemed disappointed that they would not be dining on the wet sand, but he really was getting a little tired of having a gritty rear end.
It felt good to see the island drift away once the raft had been released to float along on its interrupted journey, but a little sad too. So much of his ordinary life had turned extraordinary on that simple strip of sand, and it was all because of the young seapony who was lying half-on/half-off the raft and sorting through the silver breakfast tray. All he really wanted to do was collapse and go back to sleep, but Turpentine decided to at least try to appreciate the gesture Ripple's aunts had made to bring them breakfast.
"So, Ripple. What did your aunts make?"
"Duh! My aunts can't cook." Ripple distributed a plate over to each side of the tray and started sorting through the rest of the covered dishes as if she did not know where to start. "My mother can a little, since Mister Gaberdine is trying to teach her, but they keep burning stuff whenever they try to cook together and we wind up eating apples or oranges."
"So, this would be from Mister Sienna the Seneschal, right?" asked Turpentine. "The earth pony servant at Baron Gaberdine's castle?"
Ripple nodded instead of speaking, because her cheeks were puffed out from two of the baguettes. When she finally got enough of them chewed to swallow, she added, "They taste a little stale, like they've been out here for a while. Did you want some pancakes?"
The pancakes tasted off too, even with the minced apples and lukewarm syrup. He suspected the clams from last night were still influencing his taste buds, and between the two of the young ponies, they did not do any more than make a slight dent in the amount of food on the tray. Still, when he settled down on the bare logs to digest in the sunshine, he was content to just stay put and not move. Even Ripple was less energetic, and flopped down with her front half up on the log deck while her tail and rear floated in the river. She gave a yawn and dropped her head onto the wadded-up blanket as a pillow.
"This is boring. It's going to take all day and then some to drift down to the castle. After we take a nap, can we go swimming somewhere? I've still got a bunch of spots I haven't shown you yet."
"Probably not," said Turpentine with a matching pained yawn. He pulled over a bag with the unused tent in it and cautiously put his head down on top of the lumpy and musty-smelling thing. It was too hot out to use the blanket, even if Ripple had not appropriated it for pillow usage, but at least this way he did not have to rest his head on the logs. "I should stay with the raft in case it gets in anypony's way."
"Part of our jobs is to drag floating logs onto the river sandbars so they don't do that," said Ripple.
Turpentine considered her statement. The reason behind the difficulty he had steering his raft away from the sandbar several days ago had just become obvious. There really did not appear to be anything to gain by asking Ripple about it, though. The events had turned out for the best, after all, and the last thing he really wanted was to be run over by a tugboat with a load of barges, even with the magical beacon tied onto the raft to warn them away. Besides, it was probably one of her aunts who had grounded his vessel on the sandbar.
He cautiously settled down on the raft and closed his eyes to the bright sunlight. The lure of a morning nap to make his aches and pains feel better was tempting, but after remaining still and breathing regularly for a while, he cracked one eye open and peeked at the length of rope he had left tied to the end of the log at the 'front' of the raft.
It was difficult to see in the morning sunlight, but there seemed to be a faint green glow much like Ripple's magic around the rope, and it was nudging the raft away from the shore on its trip down the river, much as a mother duck would look over her little ducklings.
He closed his eyes. Seeing Ripple's mother's magic made a nice, warm feeling fill his chest, and combined with the warm morning sunlight made it easy to fall asleep again.
* * ✹ * *
By the time he woke up, Turpentine was fairly certain something was horribly wrong. His eyes burned, his throat itched, and he had to go to the bathroom so bad he could hardly keep it in. He shuffled to the other end of the raft away from where Ripple was still draped half-on/half-off, and squatted down to stick his rear out into the water. At least there were no riverside villages or tugboats within sight, or Turpentine would have died of embarrassment.
It took far longer than he had anticipated, because there was far more to deal with, but by the time he was done soiling the water, Turpentine expected that the seaponies in the river would never invite him back again. He took a few minutes to rest his abused rear end in the cool river, just watching the clear blue sky through runny eyes and trying not to cough.
His nap had not made him feel better. If anything, everything hurt worse than before and his chest gurgled deep inside as if he had not exhaled all of the water the last time Ripple had used her water breathing spell on him. Turpentine took an experimental cough that triggered several more, along with a little more poo and a sudden, abrupt need to turn around and throw up.
Much like his other end, once Turpentine started to vomit, he was unable to stop. Clams, if anything, tasted far worse coming up the other way than they did going down, and some of the stuff he saw drifting away on the river afterwards he was fairly sure he had not eaten. He spit through dry lips several times once he was done and had determined neither of his ends was going to start up again, then just sat there and looked at the still water slowly becoming clean again.
He really missed Mother Windrow. Whenever he was sick at the orphanage, the elderly mare would spend all day reading him stories or fussing over him despite his objections. She would make boiled milo tea and insist that he keep drinking it every time he woke up, even though the stuff tasted awful and had no health benefit he had ever found. And when he got better, she would always keep him in the house 'just one more day' until she was certain the outside air would not cause him to double over and die on her doorstep. She must have been so worried when he left their little home.
The water rippled and shimmered, feeling cool on his forehooves while he splashed the last evidence of his diarrhea and vomiting episode off the rough logs. The illusion that Ripple had an easier life than he did was a fragile thought, and he wondered just what it would be like if they had traded places. She certainly would have enjoyed the diversity of experiences that could be found in his little town, and with her buoyant personality, she would have had no problem attracting and keeping a family there. He, on the other hoof, would have been frustrated by the wealth of beauty to be found under the water with no easy way of preserving it in ink and paint.
He shuffled back to the front of the raft and regarded the little seapony who had barely moved from her initial resting spot other than a few twitches and the occasional shiver. Ripple even had the most adorable little whistling snore as she slept with her head turned away from the blazing sun and her ears twitching with the breeze.
At first, Turpentine was going to lie down next to her, but after suppressing another wet cough, he moved to a less infectious corner of the raft and allowed his aching body to rest against the damp logs. It should not be too much longer until the raft drifted downstream to the castle Ripple had been all atwitter about, and he would be going ashore to deliver the raft as promised. Maybe if he was still sick, he could ask Baron Gaberdine to put him up in a guest room for a day or two. After all, castles were big, impressive buildings with all kinds of servants and guards, and he was just one little colt. Even if he had to sleep curled up next to a fireplace in the servant's quarters for a day or two until he felt well enough to head to Baltimare, that would not be too bad.
Of course, if Turpentine's raft was going to be confiscated by Baron Gaberdine, he was going to need some other form of transportation to Baltimare. It seemed to be a very long walk, and he had no idea which roads actually led in that direction.
While the special talent of his cutie mark let Turpentine accurately remember and draw even the smallest detail on a landscape he had studied, it was a constant mystery to him how those pictures fit together into a map of actual ground filled with roads and paths. At least with a raft, he knew where he was going, and would make constant progress in that direction as long as it floated. But still, no raft meant no easy way to his goal.
While he stayed on his belly and looked down into the water under the hot afternoon sun, his mind wandered. What if his special talent was not urging him to Baltimare, but instead wanted him to travel up and down the river, finding all of the beautiful places and putting them on canvas so other ponies could admire them. He could get a job on a riverboat as... no, that would not work. Few if any riverboats would want a painter. They wanted somepony with Ripple's skills, who could fix their engines and other parts of a tugboat, not just paint a pretty picture of the broken equipment.
Baltimare had to be his destiny. He would learn all of the techniques that professional painters used, and then once he had sold a few paintings for money, he could hire his own boat to travel up and down the river. Every fascinating place Ripple had shown him could be painted... no, that would not work either. The boat he would hire would be full of ordinary ponies who would frighten the timid seaponies and let the other land ponies know about them.
He took a deep drink of the river water, tasting the sun-warmed tepidness of it but swallowing anyway, as Mother Windrow insisted he drink fluids until he was about to pop whenever he was sick back home. At least the river water did not taste of milo tea. It still churned in his belly, and did not make him feel one bit better.
There was something peculiar about his reflection in the river as he drank, and the longer he looked, the stranger it seemed.
I'm pretty. And I'm a unicorn?
The pale pony floating like a ghost below the surface of the river had to be Ripple's mother, if nothing else from the color of her sea-green mane floating along in the current, which matched tints almost perfectly to Ripple's coat. Her every facial curve and shade seemed perfectly proportioned, matching so well against the beautiful mares of the fashion magazines which Mother Windrow purchased for the articles, except for the eyes.
There was something haunting about her dark green eyes that called out to his soul, as if she were holding back an immense flood of grief with a shaky dam of confidence and love for her daughter. It made him want to draw her and capture that elusive pain, but he was more afraid to move for fear of frightening her away. For several long minutes they stared at each other in motionless stasis, until little hints of concern and worry began to slip onto that perfect face, and with a faint motion that could have been a swallow to steel her timid nerves, Ripple's mother began to move.
Ever so slowly, she floated closer to the surface, moving slightly to one side until she was barely underwater with only the tip of her short horn above the river. Her lips moved, and Turpentine could barely hear her soft, beautiful voice drift up above the water, like mist in the dawn.
"Are you feeling well, Turpentine?"
"I'm sick," he managed to croak in response.
Ever so slowly, Ripple's mother continued to rise up until her entire head was above the water. He could see the way she swallowed to make the gill slits on her chest flare slightly above her pale creamy coat, thereby allowing her to breathe air in and speak above the water in a low whisper almost quieter than before.
"Mister Gaberdine has the flu. I'm afraid he may have given it to you."
The faint, raspy sound of Ripple coughing into her wool pillow brought a cold chill up Turpentine's overly-warm flanks. He spared a look back over his shoulder at the little seapony, and the way she was also trembling just as much as he was in the warm sunlight.
"Us," croaked Turpentine, turning back to Ripple's mother.
For a brief instant, Turpentine thought the beautiful seapony was going to vanish into mist right in front of him. With a twitch, she looked over at her daughter who was sleeping in the afternoon sunshine on the edge of the raft and her expression grew even more terrified, as if she were afraid that at any moment the little seapony could breathe her last.
Then there was a quiet bloop and Ripple's mother was gone, leaving nothing behind but a small ripple in the river that quickly faded away.
* * ✹ * *
The rumble of moving water and the slow oscillation of the raft woke Turpentine from a fitful dream about a terrible storm raging across the river. It took a moment for him to blink the sleep out of his eyes, and then several more moments to make sense of the real world. The raft was violently bobbing up and down, making a spray of mist flick into his face and a strange breeze blow through his sun-warmed coat in a sharp chill that baffled him at first, or at least until he raised his head further.
The shore is going past awfully fast.
The front end of the raft was at least a half-length out of the water and a spray of water hissed out to each side in a haze of mist. It was not the shore that was moving, but the raft, traveling much faster than Turpentine had ever gone before including the terrifying time the unicorn family from his home town took him water skiing. His first instinct was to look for Ripple, and to his relief, she was still on the raft, but had apparently been nudged closer to the center where she was awake and regarding her surroundings through bleary eyes. To the back of their raft--
Turpentine blinked again. There were eight seapony mares of various pale shades of blue and pink pushing on the back end of the raft, with their tails churning the water up into a froth behind them. The combined glow of their magic lit up the glistening logs in rainbow colors, which shifted abruptly as the raft turned to the right, or maybe starboard if his fevered brain was interpreting maritime directions correctly.
Ahead, it appeared the seaponies were pushing the raft into some sort of lagoon surrounded by tall cottonwood trees and illuminated by afternoon sun. It almost had to be where Baron Gaberdine had his castle, but there were no structures in view at all, just the trees and a beat-up old sidewheel riverboat tied up at the shore.
Maybe they're going to use the boat to take us down the river to a Baltimare hospital. Or maybe...
He squinted as the raft continued its rapid progress toward the shore and considered the old riverboat, from the peeling paint to the fresh rigging of a radio aerial up the single mast. It was a far cry from the Castle Paradise which Ripple had described. He had been expecting some sort of huge stone structure with a speedy riverboat as a kind of taxi for carrying the baron out on inspections of his domain. This looked more like a decrepit boat about ready to sink into the swamp, perhaps being lit on fire first in order to illuminate its path.
The raft had barely touched the shore when all of the seapony mares pushing the raft vanished back into the lagoon, abruptly leaving him alone with Ripple in the growing silence. Their wait was not for long, because an elderly earth pony with a grey mane and a faded coat which once must have been the color of sienna was already hobbling down the path to where their raft was beached. He certainly looked like the seneschal to the baron that Ripple had told him about, right down to the concern in his eyes when he saw the two young ponies both simply remaining in place instead of moving to get off the raft.
"Land sakes." Sen stopped at the edge of the raft and tried his footing cautiously. "What's going on here? I've been tending to Gaberdine most of the day, and somepony goes and hammers on the bottom of Castle Paradise, shoutin' like the world is comin' to an end. Miss Pearl?"
Turpentine turned to see the beautiful seapony leaning over the deck of the raft, with her green magic just starting to cautiously envelop a groggy Ripple. She hesitated, with wide terrified eyes and just the slightest push away from fleeing back into the river. "Ripple's ill."
Sen nodded, and those sparkling topaz eyes glanced over at Turpentine once before the old earth pony nodded again. "Yep, the flu's got 'em both, just like the baron, it looks like. If'n you want, Miss Pearl, I can bed them both down in the castle and tend to 'em along with the baron. Ain't that much more difficult to make three bowls of carrot soup than one, I suppose. Can you walk, boy?"
"Yes," rasped Turpentine, staggering up to his hooves, then slowly sagging back down to the damp logs of the raft. The world seemed to waver beneath him, and somebody had turned up the gravity on Equestria to a degree where he felt almost as heavy as the raft. "Well, no."
"And how about you, Miss Ripple?" It took less 'up' for Ripple to stand, because her flippers sprayed out to either side and the flukes of her tail dragged along the back, giving her the awkward look of a seal on dry land. She made a few short waddles in the direction of the shore before sinking down at the edge of the raft and giving a damp cough.
"Sorry, Sen," she rasped.
"It's up to you then, Miss Pearl," said Sen, looking at the frightened seapony mare. "You can take her home if you want, or we can give her a place to stay here until she's over it."
"Can I stay with Turpentine?" asked Ripple with a short cough. "I promise to do whatever Mister Sienna says, and I can help look after Mister Gabby too."
"Are you certain?" asked the nervous seapony in almost a whisper. Her eyes darted over to Turpentine, then over to the old earth pony, who really did not look very medical to Turpentine's evaluating eye. Taking a long look at her sick daughter, Pearl took a breath and a wispy green aura formed around her horn again.
Ever so slowly, one step at a time, Pearl moved toward the shore and began to emerge out of the river with little rivulets of water pouring down her sides and pasting her sea-green mane to the side of her neck. Her stride was so slow and deliberate that Turpentine wished he had a pencil to capture the way she moved and the grace in every hoofstep. Her deep green eyes were wide with suppressed panic, and if even a mouse had emerged to squeak at her, Turpentine was certain she would have been back into the water instantly. Still, she persevered, and moved to stand next to Sen with only the smallest of trembles in her creamy white hide.
It was the first time he had been in the vicinity of a seapony transforming their flippers into oversized hooves, and Turpentine wished he had been closer to actually observe the process. It gave him enough energy to scoot forward and pull the folder with his sketchpads and pencils out of his pile of supplies, then stagger to his hooves while Sen and Pearl helped the two of them up the grassy embankment and into the old riverboat.
* * ✹ * *
Inside the corridors and comfortable quarters of the riverboat was a decor far more attractive than its peeling outer skin indicated. The scents of wax and camphor drifted through the hallway, with the gleam of polished wooden paneling reflecting the lights from several small firefly lanterns. Even the doors were thick and well-constructed, swinging open on well oiled hinges when Sen ushered Turpentine into a small guest cabin and whisked the dusty tarp off the large bed inside.
The ship's guest cabin was even more rich and beautiful than the hallway, with the dark wood and gleaming brass glimmering in the muted illumination of Pearl's hornlight. The bed was soft as a cloud, and Sen apologized several times for the nonexistent mess and discomfort while stowing the folded up dust covers in the cabin's unused cabinets. The seeming inattention by the servant gave Pearl enough courage to come the rest of the way into the room and arrange Ripple and Turpentine at opposite ends of the bed, but she cringed back when he was done and turned around to supervise her ministrations to the young patients.
"Sorry, Miss Pearl," said Sen, touching his forehead with one hoof. "I'll just slip out and get our young guests some juice."
"I don't mean to be a bother, sir," rasped Turpentine through the sharp thorns that seemed to be filling his throat.
"You ain't no bother, and neither is you, young miss," said Sen. "I'm well over my flu, an' I'm probably the one who gave it to the young stallion to give to you, so it's my fault you two is sick after all. Jus' a minute."
He vanished out of the room to next door, then returned with a dark brown bottle and two large spoons. "Somethin' to drop your fever and let you breathe a little better. It should work for seaponies jus' fine, Miss Ripple, on account of it's the same stuff that got used on a couple of your aunts a few years back. Open wide."
"Yuck," declared Ripple after the first spoonful. "It's terrible."
"Better than struggling on a coughin' and a wheezin' all day," said Sen. "Asides, if'n it tastes bad, you'll wanna get better fast so you don't havta take it anymore." He sat the used spoon on a table at Ripple's end of the bed and got a clean one for Turpentine. "You get two spoons full, young lad, on account you sound so bad."
Ripple was entirely correct. There was a sharp bite to the sluggish brown fluid like raw tannin, quite similar to several of his inks for the more darker shades whenever Turpentine had gotten a little sloppy while inking a drawing. After dutifully swallowing the allocated dosage, Turpentine got out his sketchbook and a pencil while settling in next to the lamp.
"What'cha dooin?" asked Ripple, awkwardly shifting position in order to crane her head in his direction.
"I wanted to do a quick sketch of your mom, but my paper is all damp," said Turpentine out of the corner of his mouth. "Oh!" he added when Ripple lit up her horn and the sheets of damp paper promptly flattened out and regained their original dryness. "Thanks."
"Can I watch?" The little seapony wriggled closer while he shifted positions so they could both see the paper at the same time. She remained perfectly quiet and still while he sketched from memory and Sen tidied up the room, getting out more towels and a bucket, just in case. There was a grace and symmetry to Pearl that Turpentine struggled to convert into dark lines, making several smaller sketches before his eyes watered so much he could not see the paper any more.
"That's enough, young lad." Sen picked the sketchpad out of his hooves and sat it on the nearby table. "The two of you need to get some rest. Miss Pearl was supposed to be back with some orange juice already, but--"
"I've got it, Sen." The young tan stallion who Turpentine had last seen on his raft came cautiously into the room, using his magic to carry two large glasses of orange juice and a pitcher with condensation running down the sides. Baron Gaberdine looked a lot more tired now, with shallow bags under his eyes and a rumpled mane, as well as a wrinkled nightshirt in some sort of plaid print which was almost painful to look at. After Sen excused himself from the room, Gaberdine floated each of the glasses of orange juice to their respective young pony and nodded in an obviously false stern fashion. "Drink it all up, you two. I don't want you getting dehydrated, particularly you, Ripple."
It was fairly easy to obey the bedraggled baron, even if he really did not look very noble or royal at the moment, but more like somepony's older brother who had been rather abruptly woken up in the middle of a nap. There was still some good light coming in off the glass-block windows on the side of the riverboat, and Turpentine figured that if he played along until the young stallion left, he'd still have some time to draw until it got too dark to see. The orange juice burned a little going down where the thick medicine had irritated his throat, but it sloshed down into his belly like liquid nectar, even if it did make him a little more queasy and glad that there was a bucket within reach, just in case it wanted to come back up again.
Once both of them had polished off their glasses of orange juice, the baron filled them up again and sat them on the little endtables in the room, Ripple's at one end of the bed and his at the other. "The two of you need to take a nap now, and no staying up to draw," admonished the baron, giving Turpentine a very stern look. "When you get better, I'll see if I can get Miss Pearl to let you draw her, and not before."
"Are you sure, Mister Gaberdine?" asked Ripple while she was fashioning her blankets into some sort of a nest-like structure. "My mother is awfully shy."
"I'll ask," said Gaberdine with a faint smile welling up behind his impassive face despite his best efforts. "It would be nice to have a portrait of her around."
The faintest of noises, much like a mouse clearing its throat sounded from the doorway, and ever so slowly, the pale seapony mare poked her nose around the corner. There was a hint of a smile on her face matching Baron Gaberdine's expression almost perfectly, and her dark green eyes seemed to reach out and capture Turpentine in their timid but still firm gaze. "I think... I would like that too," she said in a near whisper.
* * ☽ * *
Between the medicine and the orange juice, Turpentine was feeling better, and not even the slightest bit sleepy, particularly with so many things he needed to get down on paper before he forgot. Still, he closed his eyes and put his head down on the pillow for a few minutes and pretended to sleep so Gaberdine would leave the room, which would allow Turpentine to make a few more quick sketches in the afternoon sunlight before it got too dark.
When he opened his eyes again, the flaw in his plan was obvious.
It was already dark in the room other than the glow of the firefly lantern and the faint glow of silver moonlight coming through the window. All around him were the faint noises of a riverboat moored to the shore, from Ripple's quiet and thankfully not as raspy snore, to the gurgle of water under the hull and the songs of the river's nighttime inhabitants outside, which he had gotten quite familiar with over the last few days.
He blinked heavy lashes and coughed, which he had expected to be a quiet and polite noise in order not to wake up Ripple, but the first cough triggered a larger second one, and then another, until he found himself on the floor, scrabbling for the empty bucket.
It was not empty for long.
Thankfully, he did not have much in his stomach, but what little he had soon occupied the bucket in streams of orangeish fluid and green slime. He coughed and threw up and coughed some more while the room filled up, first with a concerned Ripple beside him, calling out to the rest of the boat just as loud as she could, then Sen, who brought a brighter lantern. Baron Gaberdine was close on his heels, with his horn lit up to illuminate the room, casting stark shadows dancing along the walls until a suspiciously dry Pearl also crowded into the room with her horn lit up as well.
"He's running a good temperature, even with the medicine, sir," said Sen with one hoof on Turpentine's forehead. "Do you want me to get the thermometer?"
"No!" croaked Turpentine, in between spasms at the moment and with his tail tucked tightly to his rear. "Mother Windrow used to check my temperature every hour when I was sick. I hate it!"
"Then I'll go make you a nice cup of milo tea," said Sen before vanishing in the direction of the castle galley.
"Should we give him another spoon of medicine?" asked Pearl. She held the bottle close to her eyes and read the small print with her delicate lips moving to sound out the complicated words. Turpentine knew he was really sick because the sight of her concern did not even give him the urge to grab his pencil again and get it down on paper.
"He'll just throw it up again," said Gaberdine. "He needs a doctor. I'll go into Gravel Flats and see if I can wake up Doctor Wallaby."
"You're still sick," said Pearl, looking up abruptly from her examination of the bottle.
"I'm feeling a lot better," countered Gaberdine, which was promptly undermined by him stifling a brief cough against his shoulder.
"You're staying," said Pearl with an unexpected hint of steel in her voice. Gaberdine made a brief show of resistance before shooting Turpentine a glance and retrenching his position.
"I'll see if Sen can go wake up the doctor," he countered. "You should probably take Ripple out of the room while the doctor's here so she doesn't find out about... you know. You can use my room again," he added. "I'll stay in here."
Being surrounded by concerned faces was a new experience for Turpentine. At home, Mother Windrow had been the only one worried about him when he was sick, and that warm feeling of being loved was somewhat muted by having a thermometer shoved up his rear every hour so she could keep track of how sick he really was.
"Here we go, young lad." Sen slipped back into the room with a cup of steaming tea from which the nauseating scent of boiled milo wafted into the air. "Up and over the gums, like my mother always said. It'll help keep your tummy calm so we can get some more medicine into you."
Turpentine wrinkled his lip and resisted as much as he could, but eventually gave in and took sips of the awful substance between weak coughs. It did not seem to calm his tummy the same way as before, but the faces of the three concerned ponies around him brought a warmth to his heart that no amount of tea could match.
Is this what it's like to have a real family? They barely know me! How can they care so much about me?
Around his second cup of tea and his uncounted wet cough, he noticed an absence in his audience. At first, he thought Ripple had left because she was upset about the way he was monopolizing the attention of her mother and the ponies she had begun to think of as the rest of her family. It did not quite match with the caring little seapony he had gotten to know over the last few days. In fact, if she could somehow turn Turpentine into a seapony and have her mother adopt him, he felt fairly certain she would have done that already so they could play all day as brother and sister while growing up under the water. Not that the concept was all bad, but... Actually, that would not be such a bad thing, if he could somehow get paint to work underwater. Still, he wanted to develop his talent, to learn what his talent was capable of instead of doodling with watercolors until he was old and grey. For that, he needed to get to Baltimare, and for that to happen, he needed to get well.
A cold shudder traveled up his flank, turning into a similar wave of fire as it traveled back down. The tremors were getting worse, despite the warm blanket that Gaberdine draped over his shoulders and the spoonful of medicine that Pearl gently slipped into his mouth between coughs. Sen had vanished after a few whispered words with the baron and most likely was on the way to Gravel Flats to get the doctor. Not that he needed one. It was just a cold, and would go away in a day or two, even if he was more sick now than he had ever been before.
Through the shivers and the tea, he could hear Pearl call out, "Ripple? Where did you go?"
The distinct slither-flop of the little seapony could be heard coming down the hallway outside, growing louder until Ripple came into his cabin and promptly climbed up on the desk in front of the window. She did not say anything at first, but just kept looking outside as if she were waiting on something out in the moonlit darkness.
"Ripple," said Pearl in a quiet reproach for her misuse of furniture. The pale seapony mare turned back to Gaberdine and smiled in a way that made Turpentine ache for a paintbrush even as sick as he was. "I'm sorry, Gabby. Will you be able to take care of Turpentine here while I take Ripple back to your cabin?"
"I want to stay here with Turpentine," stated Ripple in a loud, clear voice, although she kept looking out the window.
Pearl winced almost as if she had been pricked by a pin. "You can't," she whispered. "We don't know if the doctor will be able to keep our secret. Sen said Doctor Wallaby is fairly new, and she talks to ponies all over this settled area."
"Turpentine is sick, really sick," said Ripple insistently. "He needs a real doctor, not just some young filly just out of school."
There was something about Ripple's alert posture and the stubborn set of her chin that Turpentine recognized, even as sick as he was. Pearl recognized it too, as she sucked in a breath of air and her terrified gaze went to the window, making her next words come out in a bare whisper. "Ripple, what did you do?"
The moonlight outside the window flared up briefly, almost as bright as the sun for a moment, then the sounds of beating wings could abruptly be heard while the light faded back to normal.
"I sent a letter," said Ripple.
* * ☽ * * |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 8 - Night Moves | Drifting Down the Lazy River
Night Moves
"She was at work on what they said was her greatest picture when she took sick, and every day and every night it was her prayer to be allowed to live till she got it done, but she never got the chance. It was a picture of a young mare in a long white gown, standing on the rail of a bridge all ready to jump off, with her mane all down her back, and looking up to the moon, with the tears running down her face..."
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
"Baron Gaberdine of Fen." The female voice from the darkness outside of the riverboat was both strong and measured, as if the speaker were exerting the greatest control over her words. "Your Princess of the Night begs permission to enter your domain. With guests."
With a mouse-like squeak of fear and a clatter of hooves, Pearl vanished out the cabin door that lead to the bathroom. From the sounds afterward, she might have also hidden in the bathtub too, but what drew Turpentine's attention more than anything was the stunned and quite wide-eyed expression Baron Gaberdine was giving to the other door in the cabin.
The one that led outside.
"P-p-princess L-luna?" he stammered.
Ripple nodded and coughed once, covering her mouth with a flipper. "I used some of the enchanted paper you use to send Princess Celestia and Princess Luna reports about us, Mister Gabby. I wrote the note and put my magic to it just like you showed and it whooshed out the window on its way to them. She got here awfully fast," added Ripple. "I hope she brought the doctor I asked for."
Even though Gaberdine's hooves seemed to be welded to the floor, his wide eyes turned to give Ripple a disbelieving glance, then turned on Turpentine, who was still wrapped around the bucket and splattered with specks of vomit. "It's P-princess Luna," he repeated almost automatically. "She came to..."
"Baron Gaberdine," came the soft voice from before. "I'm waiting."
"Yes!" yelped Gaberdine, scrambling forward toward the door and out of Turpentine's vision as he galloped down the gangplank to the shore. Even if he were well, Turpentine would not have been able to hear the conversation going on at the shore from inside the cabin, but he tried to listen anyway. While he sat there, Ripple scampered down from the desk and padded up to him so she could put a cool flipper on his forehead, shaking her head much the same way as Gaberdine had.
"You're really hot."
"You didn't have to write to Princess Luna to get a doctor," rasped Turpentine.
"I was worried." Ripple poured him a little more milo tea and sat there like a pale green lump as he drank it between coughing fits. "I have my mother, but I never had a good friend before, other than Baron Mister Miller, and he passed into the Eternal Pastures in his sleep because he was old, not sick. I didn't want you to go there too, just like I don't want you to go to Baltimare."
"Going to Baltimare isn't the same as dying." Turpentine forced himself to take another mouthful of the vile tea. "I'd come back."
Ripple moved closer and nuzzled him along his neck, her coat feeling almost ice cold against his blood-warmed skin. "My father said that too," she whispered, remaining pressed against him until the door to the cabin cracked open and a very old unicorn poked his nose inside.
The doctor was more grey than sky-blue across most of his coat, with a nearly pure white fringe of a beard and twinkling grey eyes. The unicorn did not look startled or surprised at all at the way Ripple was nestled up against his side with her flippers spread wide for stability, but he lit up in a warm smile that showed a golden tooth while he slipped the rest of the way into the room. He was obviously a doctor, from the stethoscope around his neck and the wrinkled white labcoat which bore signs of being put on in a hurry, but he certainly seemed friendly enough when he addressed Ripple in a warm, deep tenor.
"Hello, Ripple. My, how you've grown. You'll be as tall as your mother before long."
Ripple did not respond right away, because Turpentine could tell she was suppressing a sniffle against his neck, but he looked up in her place and nodded a silent greeting to the old unicorn.
"And you must be Mister Turpentine who Princess Luna told me about," said the doctor with a warm smile. "I'm Doctor Plover. Let's see how you're breathing before we do anything else."
Ripple finished sniffing and watched as the old stallion put the cold end of a stethoscope against Turpentine's barrel, moving it around with occasional instructions on breathing and introspective noises that doctors always seemed to make whenever they did not have anything important to say. She cleared her throat to get his attention, then gave a brief cough, but he continued ignoring Ripple as he worked, which was probably a bad idea.
"So, can I call you Turp?" asked the doctor as he moved the cold stethoscope over some particularly ticklish ribs. "Breathe."
After as deep a breath as he could take, Turpentine said, "Please no. Some of the colts from home called me Turp the Durp."
He coughed raggedly after speaking, which gave Ripple the opportunity to float the end of the stethoscope over to her and ask, "Why did--"
"Ahhahyea!" yelped the elderly stallion, jerking away and yanking the stethoscope out of Ripple's magical grasp. "Ripple, don't do that." He rubbed his ears and added, "I saw you when you were very small and your mother brought you up the river. You needed immunizations to live in Equestria, and Princess Celestia made the arrangements."
"Oh." Ripple sniffed, still leaning up against Turpentine's sweating side. "The immunimumizations didn't work. I'm sick."
"Not nearly as sick as your coltfriend," said the doctor. "It sounds like you have some fluid in your lungs, young lad. Have you been underwater lately?"
"Yes, he has," said Ripple while Turpentine was suppressing another cough. "I took him swimming and used the water breathing spell on him." She sniffled again. "Did I hurt him?"
"Nothing a few shots won't cure, since we caught it early," said the doctor. "Let me get my nurse in here and we'll have you both right as rain in a few shakes. It will take a few days for your lungs to recover before you can use that spell again, young lad, so no swimming for at least a week, just to be safe."
Doctor Plover gestured at the door, which he had left open a crack, and a slim young pegasus slipped into the room carrying a bag in her mouth. She was as dark as a shadow, with well-shaped membranous wings and the furriest ears Turpentine had seen, topped with a white nurse's cap over a woven dark blue mane that glittered and sparkled with faint threads of silver in the room lights. Both golden eyes had slitted pupils like a cat, giving her an entrancing gaze, although she quickly looked down into the doctor's bag whenever Turpentine caught her looking back at him. Her cutie mark was a thin silver line, almost invisible against her grey coat and looking much like the hypodermic needles she was producing from the bag or putting away as the doctor used them. Turpentine almost did not notice the sharp pains of the shots while he studied the body shape and subtle tints of the batpony nurse, along with the almost fluid way she moved when responding to each of the doctor's instructions.
"Ow!" said Ripple, which broke Turpentine out of his entranced study of the nurse. He rubbed his warm neck against his seapony friend in delayed reassurance while the nurse got out a second needle.
"Now Ripple," chided Doctor Plover. "You didn't hear Turpentine complain when he got his shots."
"Yeah, but he was making googly eyes at your nurse like Mister Gaberdine does when he looks at my mother." Ripple stuck out her bottom lip when the doctor gave her the second shot, but she cheered up after he put away the needles and got out a pair of colorful lollipops.
"No hugs," cautioned the doctor when Ripple started to lunge forward. "Since I'm the official castle physician, I still have other patients to see in the castle tomorrow, and I don't want to catch your flu. I've had my shot, but let's not take chances."
"Aw..." Ripple pouted briefly, then perked back up again. "Will you have to come back out again and give us a checkup like Quackers the Duck did when he had to go to the hospital in the book?"
"Ah, Quackers Goes to the Hospital," said Doctor Plover with a smile. "I read that book to the little foals in the castle infirmary. Whenever we have any, that is." He gently tousled Ripple's mane with one hoof.
* * ☽ * *
After the doctor excused himself to go talk to Gaberdine and Princess Luna, the quiet batpony nurse tucked Ripple and Turpentine back into bed, although she seemed momentarily puzzled at the nest of blankets Ripple had made instead of curling up against the pillow with a sketchbook like Turpentine. Once she left the room, he drew feverishly, using a soft pencil as if it were a weapon against time, because he was still sick and trying to cough but as long as he was putting lines on paper, he could hold the impulse back. Something was happening outside, but it seemed as if the grown-ups were determined to hide all of the interesting things away from the sick little ponies.
Turpentine did not mind. He was drawing, and the rest of the world did not matter.
He was vaguely aware when another pony slipped into the room, but he was just finishing a tricky curve at the corner of the nurse's eye and trying to get the shading just right when the soft voice from before spoke just to one side of his face.
"That is a wonderful drawing, young Turpentine."
Turpentine looked up from his sketchbook and his heart stopped. Almost within nuzzling distance, the darkness of the star-strewn night flowed over Princess Luna's crown, coiling down her neck in little whorls and streams sparkling with the glittering gems of tiny stars that almost matched exactly with the glitters of mischief he could see in her pale teal eyes. The smallest of smiles touched the corners of her narrow lips and brought the shadows over her tall cheekbones into a perfect contrast. The grace and beauty of the young batpony nurse suddenly looked crude and awkward by comparison, and Turpentine fumbled with his sketchpad to turn a page while lamenting his current state of un-wellness, as well as a lack of the specific tint of Luna's eyeshadow in his painting supplies.
"You're beautiful," he blurted out. "Can I draw you?"
Luna's magic smoothed down the page in his sketchbook he was trying to turn and she rotated the drawing of the batpony nurse for closer examination, although with the faintest shadow passing over her features while she scrutinized it. After a moment, the hint of sadness went away and she smiled, like the full moon emerging from behind a bank of clouds, and Turpentine could breathe again, even if it was just in short, raspy breaths.
"I... am flattered, young one, but thou art ill, and in need of rest. Lie down and sleep, for you are safe here. I have volunteered to watch over the two of you while the physician and young Ripple's mother administer the rest of the flu shots among your family so no more may be affected by this distasteful plague."
Luna's magic lifted the sketchbook away from his desperate grab, although she seemed curious about the rest of his sketches, leaving Turpentine to settle for a careful examination of the seldom-seen princess from the edge of his covers. While Luna pretended not to notice his rapt attention, she paged through his sketchbook in silence with the occasional small smile or amused shake of the head.
It was curiously restful, even if Turpentine could not spend his time drawing. The peace and quiet of the riverboat cabin was broken only by the muted lapping of the waves against the hull and the distant cries of birds as they hunted through the night. Even Ripple did not say anything except a few small grunts when she settled down into her nest and a polite thanks when Luna floated a glass of juice over for her to drink. Turpentine did not ask for any juice because enough of Sen's milo tea was still sloshing around in his belly for a few days, and far more importantly, he was watching Princess Luna's face for every hint of emotion she showed as she paged through his sketch book.
It was entirely unfair the way the world simply faded away as he watched, until the eye-burning light of dawn broke through the cabin windows the next morning.
* * ✹ * *
"Good morning, sleepy."
Someday, possibly soon, Turpentine really needed to teach Ripple about personal space. At under nose-booping range, her bright green eyes were so sparkling with happiness that he could see himself reflected in them. Twice.
"Morning, Ripple." Turpentine's voice was a dull rasp until he cleared his mouth and turned his head to cough into the provided tissue. At least the phlegm he hacked up was clear, because if it had been dark like Mother Windrow had always worried about, he probably would have thrown some sort of nervous fit to follow the cough. He blinked several more times, accepting the tissues Ripple floated over to him to get the crusty junk out of his eyes and one more cough until he felt like talking again. "Where's Prin'ess Luna," he croaked.
"She went home," said Ripple, obviously conflicted by the concept from the way her perked-up ears drooped and then popped back up again. "She musta really liked your pictures, though. She took the sketchbook and said she'd bring it back in a week and pose for you. She was gonna have her nurse stay here and watch over us to make sure we're getting better, but Mama didn't like that." Ripple lowered her voice and glanced all around the room before whispering, "I think Mister Gaberdine was watching her."
"She was really watchable," said Turpentine after another cough. "I'd love to see her fly sometime so I can see how her wings work. I'd never seen a batpony before, other than in pictures."
He coughed again and shifted positions on the bed, moving to slide his hooves out from under the sheet on a slow but steady progress that necessity was driving. After taking a moment to let his legs get used to the unaccustomed weight of his body, Turpentine asked "So, is your mother going to watch over us while we recover?"
Ripple shook her head. "No, but Mister Baron Gaberdine and my mother had a talk and then they talked with Princess Luna, and then they--"
"Oh, you're up, dear!" The elderly earth pony mare who scurried into their room with a pot of hot milo tea was a familiar sight to Turpentine because he had grown up under her roof for many years. The faded pink of Mother Windrow's coat, as well as the contrasting purplish orchid of her grey-streaked mane had become so familiar to his painting that he most probably could mix the tints out of his limited collection of oil paints blindfolded. He had not realized her hazel eyes were the exact shade of Baron Gaberdine's until she stopped in front of him and placed a hoof on his forehead.
"You're still too hot, dear," she said, nudging him back toward the bed. "Lie down and I'll pour you a cup of tea. And one for you too, dearie," she added with as much of a smile to Ripple as possible while holding a teapot in her mouth.
"I have to go potty, Mother Windrow," he blurted out, although his ears burned with embarrassment after speaking. "I mean the bathroom," he corrected. "Now?"
"Mister Sen says it's called a head on a ship," said Ripple before Turpentine vanished into the small room next door. "And that right is called starsboard, and left is ports, because sailors speak a different language."
In whatever language, the toilet felt comforting and cold against his rear, far more than the scanty cover of a prickly bush, and the silky toilet paper could have been sculpted from clouds. His abused rear appreciated the caress, and afterwards he found himself casting an envious eye at the nearby bathtub, which also had soap and shampoo as well as other things like brushes and combs he had missed so much over the last few days.
"Could I take a bath before I lie down, Mother Windrow?" he called out after all of the wiping was complete and considering the embarrassing possibility that his orphan matron had brought along her thermometer.
Ripple squealed and burst through the door to the small bathroom, lifting herself up on her rear flippers and tail to look into the bathtub. He quickly flushed and put the lid down on the toilet, thankful that she had not come in a few minutes earlier.
"The water's even hot!" declared Ripple after she stuck a flipper under the faucet and popped the cork into the tub. "Come on!"
In the orphanage, Mother Windrow had always overseen his bathing practices, with the iron-clad opinion of 'Not frequent enough' and 'Not stringent enough." She would check beneath the frogs of his hooves with a stern frown, inspect the inside of his ears for any speck of soil, and inevitably order him to remain in the freezing water while she applied a little more soap and elbow grease to the problem.
Also, he had gotten used to swimming with Ripple over the last few days, and learned to appreciate the almost liquid grace in the way she moved through water.
He had never thought those two experiences would ever be mashed together.
Mother Windrow obviously did not either, and although the frequent sniffles and occasional coughs of her two bath-ees restricted the inevitable splashing and bubbling between Ripple and Turpentine, it was a much more fun experience in the tub than he ever had before, even with having his mane shampooed twice. They splashed and sudsed through what felt like about a pound of sand and dirt getting scrubbed out of Turpentine's tangled mane and coat, with Mother Windrow maintaining control over the long-handled bath brush with her steel-like jaws. There was even a faint smile leaking out from her grip on the wooden brush handle, and Turpentine could have sworn the elderly mare had intentionally splashed Ripple back with it once or twice during the bathing process.
By the time they were drying off, Turpentine could see two curious older ponies peeking through the crack in the bathroom door, both smiling. It was a fascinating scene for him, with Baron Gaberdine fairly bursting with pride and Pearl looking actually comfortable for a change instead of radiating an intense desire to be elsewhere. He soaked up the details revealed in their faces like a little watercolor sponge as related elements clicked together, much like the dot to dot drawings he had done as a foal and the brief experiment he had with Pointillism. Although he was tired and feeling sore everywhere, and certainly did not want to incite Mother Windrow into getting out her thermometer, he needed something to distract her while he grabbed one of his blank sketchbooks and wrote something down.
It was just a guess from the way Mother Windrow seemed fascinated with untangling and brushing the little seapony's perpetually tangled mane, but he asked, "Could Mother Windrow braid your mane, Ripple?"
Ripple shrieked in happiness.
Mother Windrow smiled and got out her manecomb.
Turpentine slipped out of the bathroom, still a little damp.
* * ✹ * *
He managed to get almost three pages filled in his spare sketchbook before Ripple flounced back into the cabin, proudly displaying the way her mane wove into itself as it descended her neck. Mother Windrow had even found a few pink ribbons from somewhere to tie into her mane and flutter in the wind while she bounced around, still a little damp but mostly dry. She insisted on having Turpentine draw her with the braid, although it was quite difficult for her to hold still, look at the artist, and turn the back of her head to him so he could draw her mane accurately.
Thankfully, there was a mirror in the room.
As he worked, Mother Windrow slipped by with a spoonful of medicine and a glass of chilled milo tea for each of them, and after watching him draw for a while, forced Turpentine to lie down even though the sun was high in the sky and giving the perfect light for painting. The bed was a far cry from resting his sand-encrusted flank against wet logs, and he relished the relative quiet when Ripple slither-flopped out to the galley with Mother Windrow to work on a little bit of oatmeal and some juice for her recovering little ponies. It made a good time to think instead of drawing, or at least think of something other than drawing.
He was still looking rather contemplatively into a corner of the room when Baron Gaberdine poked his nose through the doorway, obviously expecting to see a little slumbering pony instead of Turpentine's wide-awake eyes.
"Oh! Um... You're awake," said Gaberdine. He fidgeted, casting a plaintive look at Turpentine's sketchbook, and then out the window. "I happened to see some of your work when Princess Luna was looking it over and I was just wondering... Since you were sketching just now..."
Turpentine nodded and Gaberdine lit up his horn, floating the sketchbook over and flipping through a few pages. "Very nice," he murmured, although the next page he flipped over seemed to confound him briefly. "Very..." Gaberdine coughed once and swallowed. "You seem to have caught Miss Pearl..."
The sketch he was looking at was not really that good. Turpentine always had problems with getting eyes just right, so he had drawn Gaberdine and Pearl leaning together at the doorway with his eyes half-closed and hers all the way shut. The dark pencil could not reflect either of their manes well, with his straight and proper, and hers tangled and water-blown, but the mixture of them together had made a nice counterpoint to the sketch. The baron did not say much more other than to flip through the few pages in the sketchbook Turpentine had managed to fill while waiting for Mother Windrow to come in with the oatmeal, but there was a question, or more correctly a series of questions that was bothering Turpentine.
"Mister Baron Gaberdine, sir--"
"Gaberdine," said the baron. "Please. And no sir. From Ripple, it's cute. From you..."
"It's sucking up," said Turpentine. "Yeah, I know. I just wanted to ask. Is Mother Windrow staying here for very long?"
"Only until the two of you are over your flu." Gaberdine still looked a little distracted while he flipped over another page in the sketchbook. "She was very worried back when you ran away from her home, and when Pearl asked about finding somepony to help take care of you two, I thought it best to have somepony familiar with smaller children. In addition--" Gaberdine frowned and looked intently at the sketchbook instead of Turpentine "--I was not looking forward to informing her of your condition."
"And since Castle Paradise only has three rooms... er... cabins, she's staying in Sen's cabin, right?"
Gaberdine waved a hoof in the general direction of town. "Sen is staying in Gravel Flats for the next few days with Madame Shutters... I mean at Madam Shutters Bed and Breakfast."
"And Pearl is staying in your room, right?"
"Yes," said Gaberdine, although he froze almost immediately afterwards and started backpedaling with the speed of a clown on a unicycle. "Not that there's anything wrong with her staying in my cabin while her sick daughter is being cared for here. I'm sleeping on the floor. By myself. It's perfectly proper." He eyed Turpentine over the top of the sketchbook and gave a polite cough that had nothing to do with his own battle with the flu. "By the way, my father has made arrangements to meet me in Baltimare four days from now. If you would like, I can provide transportation and introduce you at an artist school there."
"And I don't mention this to your father?" asked Turpentine.
"And you don't mention this to anypony," said Gaberdine. "Particularly, my father."
Turpentine nodded. "Good. That will give me a few days at school to set up for Princess Luna's portrait." |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 9 - What Lies Beneath The Surface | Drifting Down the Lazy River
What Lies Beneath The Surface
"Well, as I was saying about the parlor, there was beautiful curtains on the windows: white, with pictures painted on them of castles with vines all down the walls, and cattle coming down to drink."
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
Three days of enforced bed rest in Castle Paradise with Mother Windrow and Baron Gaberdine doing their best to keep Turpentine from spending all the time drawing should have seemed like forever. In actuality, it fairly flew by as the two of them seemed to compete with how many stories they could read to their sick little ponies or how much coddling they could provide. Turpentine got to experience every Quackers the Duck story in the castle library, complete with Mother Windrow doing the voices and descriptive quacks from Gaberdine.
The only ponies missing from their recovery were Sen, who was in town working on a project, and Pearl, who seemed to waver between being afraid of Turpentine and fascinated by him. She stayed mostly out of sight, but frequently during story reading time he could hear the faint creak of decking out in the hallway when the older seapony would drift up the corridor and take shy peeks inside the room, mirroring Gaberdine's duck quacks with quiet giggles of her own.
It gave Turpentine a greater respect for the timidity of the rest of Pearl's relatives, which although Ripple called them all 'aunts,' were actually second cousins and nieces and all kinds of connected-by-a-great-grandparent relations that boggled Turpentine's orphan mind. 'Aunts' did seem to be a much better way of referring to them, although when he would stretch out on the sun-warmed deck of the riverboat and look out across the lagoon with his sketchbook, he could imagine them shyly just beneath the water, studying him in return while he drew.
And perhaps from the occasional ripple or bubble breaking the surface, he may have been right.
It took no effort at all to imagine Ripple in the same environment. She sprang back from her bout with the flu much faster than Turpentine, who spent most of the last day of his recovery watching her leap off the deck of the riverboat into the lagoon, then squelch-flop up the shore, back onto the riverboat, and back off the deck again. Mother Windrow was tickled pink at the way the little seapony played, and was so distracted she did not even take Turpentine's temperature once before it was time for her to return home.
Home. The meaning of the word had changed for Turpentine, to the point where he was unsure what it really was now. After so many different families had attempted to turn their home into his, Turpentine was not sure if he ever could find his place in the world. Much like a bird or a pegasus leaving the nest, it was time for him to spread his wings and fly, but all he could see now was the very long drop in front of him.
On the morning Mother Windrow was to return to her home, it was somewhat of a relief for Turpentine to wake up and get out of the riverboat before dawn instead of sleeping as much as he had been ordered to over the last few days. Out of guilt, he had even volunteered to carry Mother Windrow's rather limited baggage since Sen was still in Gravel Flats until his cabin became vacant again.
While he strolled silently behind the old mare and the young baron in the pre-dawn light, Turpentine could not help but feel torn. If Baron Gaberdine had not stuck his neck out, Turpentine would have been on that same pegasus wagon, headed back to the small house he had spent many years of his young life in. His dream of going to Baltimare and becoming a famous painter would have been dashed, or at least delayed a few years, and he never would have seen Ripple again. Instead, the young baron had been writing letters on his behalf in order to make Turpentine's dream into a reality. He owed the baron far more than the five bits Turpentine still had in the bottom of his painting box, and he owed Mother Windrow far, far more than he could ever repay. Neither of them owed him a single bit, but they each in their own way had invested a lot of time and effort into making a young colt's life better without any promise of reward.
It gave Turpentine a strange twinge in his chest while they walked through the cheerful town of Gravel Flats and its early-rising inhabitants. If things went the way Baron Gaberdine had said, Turpentine would not be going back to his home town other than for the occasional visit to Mother Windrow. She would have to do all of her household chores by herself again, like carrying the laundry to the wash house or bringing in the mail every morning. It made him feel guilty at leaving her behind, because she was almost fifty, and could not do all of the things she did at a younger age.
He thought he was concealing his worry, but before they went into the Speedy Cargo building, Mother Windrow took him aside for a brief chat.
"Hey." She put a hoof under his chin and lifted until Turpentine was looking into Mother Windrow's dark eyes. "Still feeling guilty about running away?"
"Yeah." He tried to look down at the dusty ground again but Mother Windrow would not let him. She kept a constant pressure under his chin until he looked her in the eyes again, as he knew he was going to have to.
"I was so worried when I found you missing, terrified you were going to get hurt, and frightened that I had said something to drive you away. There's been a lot of little colts and fillies through my house, and each one of them is special, but you..." She paused to wipe away a tear. "When I started the job, they told me you were all a bunch of heartbreakers, and that I was going to want to keep each and every one of you like some mother hen with a dozen chicks."
"Chirp," said Turpentine rather sullenly.
The old mare giggled and rubbed Turpentine on the top of his mane. "See. You can always make me happy. I've just not been able to make you happy in return."
"And somewhere out there is a family where I'll fit in, and make us all happy." Turpentine sighed. "You gave me this talk before."
"And I get the feeling this is going to be the last time," continued Mother Windrow with a warm smile. "I had the opportunity to talk with Baron Gaberdine quite a bit over the last few days. If anybody can figure out where a complicated little puzzle like you belongs, it's certain to be him. Now," she added, straightening up and wiping her face quickly with the back of one hoof, "you be good for him and no more running away, or I will be most displeased. Missus Pearl is going to watch over you as long as you're at Castle Paradise, so I told her all of the little tricks you've used to get out of chores."
"All of them?" he asked with a sense of unfairness at the possibility of losing painting time. Still, he could not resist her warm eyes, and gave her a goodbye nuzzle anyway. "I promise to behave and not cause the baron or his... friend any trouble. I'm sorry for making you worried."
"You're forgiven." Mother Windrow leaned her head into his neck harder than she ever had before. "I could never be angry at you for trying to find out where you belong. I know you'll find your place, even if it isn't with me."
* * ✹ * *
After Mother Windrow made sure his mane was combed properly, they joined Baron Gaberdine in the Speedy Cargo building and were introduced to the two pegasus sisters who ran the place, a bright pink pegasus named Powderpuff and her sister, a lemon-yellow pegasus named Lemon Drops. The sisters seemed perpetually perky, and through their happy babbling, he learned they had a weekly cargo route around the area, as well as on-demand delivery trips to other small towns in the area through the week. Tomorrow when they went to Baltimare, he and Baron Gaberdine were going to share their ride with locally-grown radishes, carrots, and parsnips, but for today, Mother Windrow took her place between several crates of dry popcorn on the cob and gave a farewell smile with small wave to her young ward.
Then the sisters braced themselves and rose up into the air with smooth synchronized flapping, curved their flight to the west, and headed for Mother Windrow's home. It normally would have made Turpentine dive for his pencil to capture the moment, but he just stood there and watched the wagon vanish into the distance instead, trying to make sense of the strange feeling in his chest. It could have just been some leftovers from his flu, but he did not think so. It was more like something that he had almost experienced several times before when he had been given away into an adoption for absolute certain that it was going to work this time.
While standing there next to the nondescript baron and watching the unblemished sky, the sensation in his chest was just about the way he had once imagined having a father might feel.
Imagination aside, Turpentine's visit to the rather odd liquid barony was about over. He needed to get ready for his trip tomorrow, when he was scheduled to travel with Baron Gaberdine to Baltimare and meet with the teacher in the art school he had read about. Once he was accepted, he had a great number of things to do to get ready to paint Princess Luna's portrait.
She was going to be a tricky one, with dark shadows and silver highlights making the picture appear to be in the moonlit darkness even when the watcher was standing in the light. She might not even like it. There must have been hundreds of artists already who had been begging to capture her likeness since she had been freed from Nightmare Moon's power. His would just be another child's scribble, not even worth being put on the icebox.
"Well, Turpentine." Baron Gaberdine took a deep breath and looked back down at the young colt. "Tomorrow's going to be a big day. We'll have to pick out some of your best works to show off. You'll knock the shoes off those stodgy old art teachers and have them begging to let you in. I was holding this back, but I received a response from Mister d'Or at the Baltimare School of Modern Art in last evening's mail and he is willing to personally show us around tomorrow morning before I have to go have lunch with my father."
"Will I get to meet your father, sir? I mean Mister Gaberdine. Gabby," Turpentine finished, as he had been corrected several times over the last three days.
"With luck, no." There was a faint twinge of emotion traveling up the baron's tense jaw as he spoke, which piqued Turpentine's curiosity. After all, the riverboat did not even have any photographs of Gabby's parents, which struck him as odd. Mother Windrow had dozens of portraits of her around the house, and had started to gently complain that she kept standing in front of one of them, thinking it was a mirror.
"Don't you like having a father?" asked Turpentine.
"Well..." Gaberdine paused again, although his expression relaxed. "I guess I've been taking him for granted. He's always been there for me, right up until I came here. I mean I appreciate him, and I'm exceedingly glad to have him available. He's just... difficult at times when our plans for my life conflict, and since I've moved here, he's been planning a lot. I love him."
In Turpentine's decade of experience, a sentence like that was a walking pony, as it was almost always followed by a 'but.' He waited respectfully for the baron to continue, but after a short time and a glance back in the direction of his floating home, Gaberdine took the conversation in a different direction. "I'm not quite the pony I was a few months ago, Turpentine. Ripple is a large part of that."
"And Pearl," added Turpentine, watching as the baron's cheeks flushed and he nervously twitched his ears. It was always nice to see the joy radiate out of the otherwise plain stallion, much like a lantern glowing with an internal golden fire.
"Most certainly," said Gaberdine. He took a breath before turning and beginning to amble slowly back in the direction of the castle. It was a picturesque stroll through the middle of the small town of Gravel Flats for the two of them again, only this time with more of the dawn light spreading colors across the small houses and along the dirt paths. They walked for a while, greeting the pleasant early-rising ponies and passing alongside colorful flowerbeds before a nagging worry made Turpentine speak up.
"About picking out some of my paintings." He took a breath as they walked, feeling a tight band around his chest as if the flu were just lurking inside, waiting to come back. "What if they're not good enough? They'll still let me in, Baron Gaberdine, won't they?"
"With your talent?" Gaberdine let out a quiet raspberry. "They'd be fools not to. But..." He paused and looked down at Turpentine with a peculiar upward quirk to the corners of his lips. "If you don't get a scholarship, have you considered how you are going to pay tuition?"
"Pay tuition?" Turpentine stopped cold in the middle of the dirt path. "You mean I'd have to pay them?" The brief surge of terror at the thought of how little education his last five bits might buy only lasted until Baron Gaberdine chuckled.
"Don't worry," he said. "I'll pay for it."
Despite being momentarily stunned, Turpentine asked, "You mean it?"
"Of course!" Gaberdine nudged him back into a brisk walk down the path as he continued, "You're a talented young colt with a sharp mind. The world needs more ponies like you."
It was sincere praise, the kind which Turpentine was only used to hearing from Mother Windrow and it stuck with him as a warm glow when he later settled down with his collection of drawings, sketches, drafts, paintings, and general doodles. He wanted to take them all to show to Mister d'Or tomorrow, but that might take several trips, and the compact crate with padded dividers that Mister Sienna had made for his trip would only hold so many.
He sat on the floor in 'his' room at the castle with all of the pieces spread out around the walls and across the bed while deciding. It was a very difficult decision, but he had help. Even Pearl hesitantly accompanied Gaberdine into the room, with Ripple's encouragement. The older seapony turned out to be fascinated by a case study he had made of fluttering butterflies, with so many colorful wings across the painting it was difficult to tell where any of them started or ended. Despite Gaberdine's faint protests, Pearl insisted on including the butterfly painting, and Ripple convinced him to take the painting Turpentine had done when they first met. She said it was a very nice smile, and he had captured it better than anything she could do by making faces into a mirror. Even Sen convinced him to take one of the paintings he had made of Mother Windrow sitting in her rocking chair in a corner of the room.
They stopped once the crate of art was generously full and went out on the riverboat's deck to play catch, with Ripple out in the lagoon and Turpentine dashing back and forth on the wooden planking of the deck. It was a good way to burn off some of his excess nervous energy, but his recent bout with the flu left him gasping every time the ball bounced back up onto the deck and he had to headbutt it back.
Once it got dark, Ripple came up on deck and settled down with Turpentine to have Gaberdine read them both a bedtime story about pirates. The scent of bug repellent and the bright light of tiki torches filled his senses as they read about Stubhorn and the Pirate King with Pearl snickering somewhere out in the dark lagoon whenever Gaberdine tried to sound like a pirate and Sen lurking by the door to the galley with conveniently-timed snacks. That niggling sense of family was tugging at Turpentine's chest again by the time Ripple vanished off into the dark lagoon with a splash smaller than a frog would make and two pale green unicorn lights of mother and daughter departed out into the night.
"Well, we better get to bed too, Turpentine." Gaberdine got up after two tries and stretched, still holding the hardback book in his magic. "It's going to be a long day tomorrow for the both of us."
"Yeah." Turpentine took one last moment to lean on the riverboat's rail and look out across the moonlit lagoon while Baron Gaberdine began putting out the tiki torches behind him. "I can't help but think that was the last time I'll ever see her again."
Gaberdine paused with the door open to his cabin and looked back at Turpentine, still draped across the riverboat's rail in the darkness. "Don't worry. You'll have breaks during the school year to visit, and I'll be more than happy to pay for your trips. You'll be back."
Turpentine rested his chin on the rail and stared out into the night. "That's what Ripple's father said."
* * ✹ * *
Dawn, or at least what could be considered almost-dawn came much sooner than Turpentine had expected. Their morning flight to Baltimare was supposed to be in the air before dawn in order to get everything done on their list, and Turpentine found himself regretting not having his own head-based light source like Gaberdine as they fumbled around the castle galley for breakfast before they left.
Limiting himself to a single slice of toast like the baron had prepared for his meal, Turpentine hefted the crate of art on his own back, followed the baron outside, and trotted down the dark path to the town. Sen had volunteered to get up with them and do the carrying, but the baron had insisted he sleep in, due to his lumbago flaring up. Turpentine had shouldered many heavier burdens, but the weight of the crate was more in memories, as every touch of the brush he had made on the paintings and sketches seemed to take up its own space. Some of his creations seemed so primitive, so crude now, as with every painting he had done, he had learned something which made all the rest cheap and tawdry.
What really made him drag his hooves was the realization of how much he missed a mischievous pair of green eyes as his first sight of the day. If this trip went well, Turpentine might not be back to the castle to visit before First Snow, and that most certainly meant his time swimming in the river with the little seapony had come to an end. At least until Spring. Late Spring, when the water warmed up.
The walk to town warmed Turpentine up, but it still struck him as a little odd on how close they were to town and only rarely visited. The lagoon was like a little world unto its own, much like his home town had seemed to be a bubble of existence he had popped when leaving. The heavy crate on his back shifted as he walked through town beside Gaberdine, nodding to the early-morning residents and trying to smile. After all, he was going to Baltimare to become a famous painter, which was his goal, so he should be happy.
Right?
Powderpuff and Lemon Drops already had the parsnips and radishes loaded for their trip to Baltimare, with a space on the wagon large enough for the crate of paintings and the rest of the shipment: Local Barons and Wandering Artists. It was not until the wagon became airborne with the powerful wingflaps of the two sisters that Turpentine remembered he had not ever flown before. Gaberdine was chewing on a piece of gum with single-minded concentration, and with little effort, he was convinced to give up a second piece for his fellow passenger. It did wonders to calm Turpentine's queasy stomach, but he still felt a lead weight in his gut when he looked down from their altitude and watched the shrinking of the little town of Gravel Flats and the distant riverboat nestled into a cottonwood-lined lagoon.
And in fairly short time, they were gone, and all he could see was the green of the distant grass and the blue lines of rivers and streams knitting them together. Steam tugs chuffing up and down the river looked like tiny toys, although they became more numerous as they approached Baltimare and the criss-cross of train tracks headed in all directions away from the city. Even there, it seemed to be a far more dingy and dismal place than his imagination had painted, with grimy freighters tied up at the docks and shabby airships bobbing next to them as cargo flowed from one to another in endless lines like ants.
In less time than he was expecting, the wagon gave a little lurch when the drivers angled themselves downwards, shaking Turpentine out of his musings. Gaberdine had kept up a friendly conversation with the two pegasi during the trip, but Turpentine had been so distracted he had not even studied the way the young pegasus mares' wings moved during the trip, even if the stiff breeze of their passage would have prevented him from sketching any accurate motion studies.
He would have dug out his most current sketchbook and tried anyway, if yet another object had not caught his attention and held it firm. The Baltimare School of Modern Art (because it could not possibly be anything else) sprawled out in an ungainly fashion over several buildings, each of which seemed to be finalists in an Ugly Architects' contest, with the central and largest one the obvious winner. It was so pink and tan and brown and disfigured that for the longest time during their descent, his mind refused to stick the obvious label on it, but after several exaggerated blinks and a surreptitious glance at the tail ends of the two young pegasus mares pulling the wagon, he had to whisper to Baron Gaberdine.
"Do they know what that building looks--"
"Yes," said Gaberdine, quite firmly.
"Was it intentional?" he whispered.
"Quite certainly," said Gaberdine. "Just don't mention it. To anypony. Ever."
The landing was gentle as thistledown and far enough from the odd building that Turpentine could try to ignore its feminine attributes, so he hefted up the crate of paintings on his back and trailed along behind Gaberdine while the sisters took off and headed to the town market with their cargo.
This was the moment Turpentine had been looking forward to for years, but with every step, all he could think about was Baron Gaberdine headed back to his riverboat all alone in a few hours. It was like going to the candy store to get a banana lollipop only to find out it was sugar-free once you popped it in your mouth.
Mister d'Or was a middle-aged unicorn with spiky twists in his mane, several earrings, and a little stubble underneath his chin where his clippers had not trimmed very well. Turpentine had the feeling that all of the students in the school knew about the prim unicorn's failed grooming but had not said anything for fear of being snubbed in some fashion, as the premiere of the school, as he preferred to be called, was a total snob.
The riverboat was looking better every moment.
The tour of the school was interesting, and totally different from Turpentine's expectations. None of the students walking around the building seemed to be anywhere as young as him, and they all dressed like beggers or homeless ponies, with dirty tattered rags tied around their legs and greasy manes. Not all of them were painters either. There were quite a few sculptors, although the line appeared to be blurred somewhat as the application of stuff to canvas could technically be called painting, if not graffiti, or even wanton destruction of private property. If art was supposed to make one think, Turpentine supposed it classified as such, because he could not help but think 'How many bits did somebody pay for this and were they drunk at the time?'
Most of it probably had not been paid for, because there were odd chunks of plaster or twisted metal all over the school, each with an informational plaque in front of it and a name which bore no resemblance to the object at all. There was even a structure in the process of being disassembled in the center atrium of the main building, which raised Turpentine's hopes that the ugly building was going to be torn down, but that brief hope was extinguished by a sign that said 'New Exhibit Shortly.'
The only painting 'art' he saw was in a classroom where the teacher in front was wearing a spotless white jacket, and all of the students were vigorously painting on their easels in brilliant oranges and bright violets, seemingly attempting to duplicate the garish explosion of color displayed at the front end of the room.
While they walked, Turpentine nodded whenever his opinion was asked for, which seemed to be the expected response. He really did not want to open his mouth and ask about... well, anything around the school from the eye-burning colors splashed across the corridor walls to the weird framed monstrosities placed here and there like cow patties after a good grazing. One of them even smelled like dung.
A sense of normality began to assert itself as they climbed a set of stairs into a large, open room with expanses of glass on all sides and paintings across each wall, edge to edge as they dried, or possibly decomposed in some instances. The light here was perfect, not the dry and blue-ish tint of the artificial illumination in each of the rooms, and although the paintings filling most every inch of wall space seemed like hostile explosions of contrasting confused flowers, it was the kind of room Turpentine could see himself working in. It would have to be cleaned up first, of course. The floors were dusty, and there was an enormous heap of trash in the center of the room with a few orange cones around it. Still, Mother Windrow had taught him how to clean quite well, and as a beginning student, he probably would have to earn his keep somehow.
All in all, after his first dismal impression of the school, things seemed to be looking up. A little.
One of the tables with display easels on it was empty, and after Mister Gaberdine took the lid off the crate Turpentine had been carrying around, Mister d'Or began removing the contents and putting them up. His upper lip curled a little more with every painting displayed, giving a particular sneer for the painting of Ripple's smiling face.
"Rubbish," he finally said, ignoring the paintings he had removed so far and flipping through the nearly-empty sketchbook Turpentine had planned on using later today, although he did pause for just a moment at the drawing he had done of the batpony nurse. "Ugly antiques. I thought you said he was an artist."
Mister Gaberdine frowned just a little at the corner of his eyes in an expression which did not reach his lips. Turpentine's heart had plunged down into his hooves when d'Or had delivered his condemnation, but picked up a little when Gabby said, "I did. He does magnificent work."
"Puerile trash." Mister d'Or tossed the sketchbook to one side, not even noticing when Gaberdine's magic caught it before the pages hit the dusty wooden floorboards.
"Princess Luna liked his work," said Gaberdine in a very quiet voice, only to have d'Or dismiss him with a derisive snort.
"Her tastes are a thousand years out of date, nearly as bad as this colt. It will take twice as long to teach him proper technique because he will have to un-learn all of his bad habits first. Still..." The unicorn made a peculiar circular motion with one hoof.
"Ah," said Gaberdine. "I understand. Why don't we talk about this in your office while my... guest packs his things away."
"Wonderful." Mister d'Or's face lit up and he gestured back to the staircase. "My office is one floor down. Boy," he added, looking coldly at Turpentine. "Come down when you've disposed of this trash," he said with a sniff.
The two unicorns strode away and down the staircase while Turpentine packed his works away. It was a little heartening to see the way Gaberdine seemed to be optimistic about getting Turpentine a place at the school, although his opinion of artistic education was falling rapidly. He had reached his goal, and with Baron Gaberdine's assistance, would be able to stay and learn how to paint the way professionals painted. He should have been happy.
At least he was going to have a nice place to paint, with good lighting and the kind of solitude he preferred, even if he had to send all of his old paintings to Mother Windrow. Nopony would interrupt him up here while he sketched or just stood and thought on a whole new collection of paintings. If he could move some of the tables around and get rid of that huge pile of trash, he would have enough space to even work on murals.
Sticking the packed crate of art to one side, Turpentine went in search of however the building got rid of trash. A chute at the end of the hallway labeled 'Incinerator' seemed to be the obvious choice, and it took several trips to haul the huge pile of trash Mister d'Or had wanted him to clean up over to it. Once the majority of the problem had been taken care of, he got a broom from a nearby closet and swept the room thoroughly, resulting in another pile of dirt to be tossed down the incinerator chute, and then mopped the clean floor afterwards with a little dribble of wax in the water to give the varnished floorboards a glossy shine.
It took a little while to find Mister d'Or's office on the next floor down, because it was camouflaged between a bunch of upside-down bushes waving their bare roots in the air and a collection of brightly-colored machine tools in a bathtub. When he tapped gently on the door, Gaberdine opened it almost immediately and smiled.
"Ah, Turpentine. I was just going to look for you. Mister d'Or made a very tempting offer, but I told him I would discuss things with you before we made a decision." He lowered his voice to a near-whisper. "Come on. Let's go."
The adult unicorn had the advantage of long legs and no cargo while the two of them strode back down the stairs and into the atrium on their way out of the building. Gaberdine noticed Turpentine's flagging progress and promptly picked up the crate in his magic, allowing it to bob along behind them while they strode for the front door at a faster clip.
"Why are we hurrying?" asked Turpentine once they had gotten outside and started heading for the pegasus landing area.
"Two reasons," said Gaberdine. "First, time. I do not wish to keep Powderpuff and Lemon Drops waiting for us--" while crossing the lawn, he briefly waved at where the two young pegasi were waving back, harnessed to their wagon and ready to fly "--and the reservations at Mi Quintile are fixed in stone."
"What's the second reason?" asked Turpentine before Gaberdine nearly broke into a gallop. The baron did not say anything until the wagon was airborne and headed toward the central part of town, but he did look back over his shoulder as if he expected some sort of pursuit.
"Let's just say I know you're a very clean and tidy sort of pony and leave it at that." Gaberdine took another look over his shoulder and did not quit looking back until the wagon descended into the busy downtown of Baltimare. |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 10 - Dinner and a Show | Drifting Down the Lazy River
Dinner and a Show
"Steamboat captains is always rich, and get sixty bits a month, and they don't care a whit what a thing costs, you know, long as they want it. "
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
* * ✹ * *
The restaurant Mi Quintile turned out to be in the middle of a very busy section of Baltimare, packed with busy ponies headed in all directions at the same time, most of them seeming to be pegasi who intended on running into the Speedy Cargo wagon, or at least it seemed that way to Turpentine. He clutched the edge of the rail while they descended into the chaotic mess, trying to figure out if he should close his eyes so he would not see the inevitable crash or keep them open so he could lean from side to side in order to help the pegasus sisters steer their unstable craft. At least it kept his mind off their recent trip to the art school for a little while, but after they tucked the wagon away in an underground parking area and trotted up to the surface street, Turpentine's anxiety managed to push its way to the surface again.
And with the anxiety, came a return of the grumbling rumble in his tummy which reminded him of his short breakfast this morning. Eating had always made him feel better after a disappointment, so Turpentine kept quiet with his flank pressed up against the baron while they negotiated their path through hoof traffic to the ornate door of the restaurant and were quickly let inside by the ornate doorpony.
"Coo, this must be a fancy place, sis," said Lemon Drops, trying to look at every corner of the quiet restaurant. "It's got three hoofprints on the sign out front, so that means it's got a real good rating."
"Only the best for my father," said Gaberdine. "Ladies. Turpentine. If you will please follow the server, I will pick up the bill as I promised. My father wanted a private lunch."
"Oy, ya," said Powderpuff. "Come on, kid. You can tell us all about how you wowed the socks off those stuffy unicorns at the art school."
"If you don't mind, ladies," said Turpentine suddenly. "May I sit with you, sir?"
"I..." Gaberdine hesitated, obviously uneasy with the request but seeming to be impressed at Turpentine's good manners.
"Oh, go on, Baron Gaberdine," said Lemon Drops, making a coy flick with the tip of her wing that brushed up against the baron's flank. "He's such a polite young colt, and all we were going to do was talk about stallions anyway."
"Eligible stallions," added Powderpuff with a giggle before they followed the server away to a distant table, out of sight.
Turpentine remained beside Gaberdine and looked back at him while fighting an uncertain tremor in his bottom lip. Ignoring the impatient serving mare waiting for them, the taller stallion bent down and whispered in Turpentine's ear, "Keep your chin up. That school wasn't a good fit for you anyway."
"How can you know that, sir? I mean, Gabby," said Turpentine at the baron's bemused look. The older stallion turned and pointed to his puzzle-piece cutie mark, then gave a short nod before following the second server with Turpentine tagging along, feeling puzzled.
- - ☸ - -
"Duke Whinnysfield, your guests have arrived." The tuxedo-coated serving mare stood beside the open door to the secluded dining room and gestured inside with one wing. "Please, be seated, Lord Gaberdine, and a waiter will be by shortly to take your order."
"No need to trouble yourself, ma'am. I'll have the special of the day with mineral water." Gaberdine cocked an eyebrow at Turpentine and gestured him into the room.
"Spaghetti," said Turpentine at the obvious prompt, "with garlic bread and some orange juice. Mother Windrow always said the orange juice cuts down on stinky garlic breath," he added with a glance up to the baron.
Both Baron Gaberdine and the serving pony's formal expressions cracked with a brief snort of amusement, although the server quickly regained her composure, made certain Gaberdine and Turpentine were seated, then whisked back out of the door with their order.
Whenever Turpentine had a dinner with a new couple wanting to adopt him, Mother Windrow had never permitted him to eat spaghetti, since there was a near-certainty of messy splatters on his infrequently-worn clothes. It had always been the time to make the best impression possible for the prospective parents, although when things had always inevitably worked out for the worst, after he returned to her little home she had always made him spaghetti and allowed him to eat until he was nearly spherical.
The friendly young serving mare who had just left reminded him of the adoption attempts he had been through, because she seemed to be trying so hard to be something she was not. She was stiff in her suit and obviously wanted to smile at him more than the restaurant owners wanted her to, much like a mother in a starched dress who was being told to act formal instead of rubbing him on the top of his head like Mother Windrow always did when he made her smile.
He did not like it, because that made it nearly impossible to see below the surface, to the pony she really was. He liked seeing ponies for what they were, although Turpentine had no problem with seeing the real pony when looking at Gaberdine's father.
Duke Whinnysfield was a stocky short-horned unicorn with a seemingly permanent expression of great sincerity, and very few laugh lines on his face. He greeted his son with a brief hoof-clasp and spared Turpentine a scant nod before launching into a conversation with Gaberdine. Well, less a conversation and more a series of statements, each of which Gaberdine would either passively deflect or take under consideration.
The elevation of their dining area above the main floor of the restaurant gave Turpentine a good view of the diners through the beautiful clear windows, although it cut the sound down to a bare whisper. Since he was not participating in the conversation with Gaberdine or his father, Turpentine quietly got out his sketch pad and settled down to wait for the food.
He made a few quick line drawings of Duke Whinnysfield and the way he dominated the table with his aggressive posture and fierce expression, but the older stallion moved far too fast to make a very good subject. Instead, Turpentine turned to some of the patrons outside the room's windows and found them to be much more interesting subject matter.
In particular, there was a little old mare with a tiny dog sitting on the table, who she was feeding right off her plate, as well as a pair of expressive businessponies seeming to argue over a small sheaf of papers with the food to their sides being totally ignored. There were few foals in the restaurant, or even young ponies of any type, but most of the patrons were a great number of old to really old ponies who seemed to be doing their best to be seen by each other while paying only minor attention to their food. It was a wealth of fascinating subjects he never would have found in his home town or even on the riverboat, all caught in place while dressed in their finest clothing.
All except for one.
When an old pegasus came through the restaurant door, Turpentine almost missed him. He was a natural grey with some brown mottling to his coat indicating Appleoosean ancestry, and a raspberry-colored mane flowing down his neck like a red waterfall. All in all, he was not that impressive compared to the peacocks and plumage on display from the rest of the wealthy patrons, and he would have never even noticed the old pegasus except for the reaction of the young serving pony from before. She seemed to light up with an inner fire when she caught sight of the old stallion and glided deftly across the room, shooing a different server away from the guest and escorting him to a smaller booth in a less-traveled section of the restaurant.
His clothing certainly could not have been what sparked the young pegasus server's attention, because the old stallion was only wearing a simple white shirt and mauve vest, a little rumpled but nothing out of the ordinary even with the simple silver bracelet he had around one foreleg. Turpentine found his attention drawn in that direction while he sketched, because every time the server returned to the booth with the old stallion, they both smiled in a very drawable way. He almost missed it when the server returned to their own table with the three covered dishes, so intent was he on catching the way her mane flowed down her neck, but he looked up abruptly when the young mare cocked her head to look over his shoulder and gave a low whistle.
"Lord Gaberdine, your son certainly has a way with the pencil."
"He's not my son," said Gaberdine, although somewhat slowly and with the most peculiar quirk at the corner of his lips. "Merely a young artist I was taking over to the school today."
"Oh," said the mare, although with a second look over Turpentine's shoulder to add, "He doesn't draw much like the local students."
"He'll learn," said Duke Whinnysfield. "Now if you'll excuse us." The older stallion watched the young mare leave with only a fractional rising of one eyebrow until the door to their glassed-in room was closed behind her.
"Down, Dad," said Gaberdine. "You're married."
"And so should you be," said the duke. "Your mother and I have been receiving letters from quite a few interested families since your rise in rank. You can't duck out on your social responsibilities by hiding out in the countryside any longer. It's time you were introduced to some proper young mares."
"But he's already got a marefriend," said Turpentine before he realized what he was saying.
"What?" Both of Duke Whinnysfield's bushy eyebrows lowered to frame his blue eyes in a very strict stare that Turpentine was quite glad he was not the direct target of. Turpentine did flip over the sheet and drew a few quick lines to capture the emotion framed in the duke's craggy face, though, and was still sketching while father and son continued their conversation as if he were not there.
"Father," said Gaberdine in a disapproving tone, but his father was having none of it.
"You told us there were no mares of appropriate breeding in that benighted backwater you got yourself trapped in. No royals at all other than the East and West Fenwick families." The old stallion sniffed. "Vinteers. Hardly quality enough for my son."
"My life is my own business, Father."
"Business is business," scoffed the duke. "Your so-called barony is scarcely breaking even."
Gaberdine shrugged. "Where would I put the bits, Father? At the bottom of the river? I have my new home, and I have a barony to administrate--"
"But no wife to establish a family and no bits to grow your estate," said Whinnysfield. "You can hardly expect to be able to hold your head up at court if you wed some plain ploughmare from carrot country."
"She's very pretty," said Turpentine abruptly, flipping through his sketchbook. The spaghetti on the table was probably getting cold, but this was more important. He had been very careful not to draw any flippers, so there was no real danger of exposing the seaponies with just a sketch. He picked the picture of Gaberdine and Pearl leaning against the doorframe and turned it around to show it to Duke Winnysfield, only to have Gaberdine's magic grab his sketchbook and flip all the pages over.
"No!" Gaberdine and his father exchanged stern glares, although after a few moments, the father seemed to gain the upper hoof. Whinnysfield's cheery yellow aura picked up Turpentine's sketch book and floated it over to the old stallion, who flipped through it with the occasional appreciative grunt or evaluating squint.
It was only then that Turpentine caught the subtle way Gaberdine was looking at him, somewhat wide-eyed and a little panicked while his father leafed through the pages. Turpentine had thought he was helping, but after a little consideration, it was obvious Gaberdine's father would not be satisfied with a simple sketch. The forceful and aggressive stallion would want to meet Pearl, possibly even bringing Gaberdine's mother along for an extended conversation on Gaberdine's riverboat. And if the two of them met Pearl, they might also find out about...
"Who's this little filly?" said Whinnysfield, flipping the sketchbook over and showing the page to Turpentine. It was a very good flipperless drawing he had done of Ripple when Mother Windrow had been reading them a story, and it captured both of their personalities quite well. The old mare had been trying unsuccessfully to conceal her smile from the little seapony, who was bouncing on the bed every time she got to the end of a page.
Between the time Turpentine took a breath and speaking, inspiration struck. "Her Royal Highness, Princess Persephone of the distant sea-kingdom of Atlanteris, daughter of Queen Siliunas, the rightful ruler of her undersea lands and the pirate Captain Stubhorn of the Blighted Barnacle, home of the scurviest pirates of the seven seas. On account they don't eat their lemons like they should, you see."
"Oh." The old duke looked at the drawing, then over at Turpentine, then back at the drawing before turning the page with a faint scoff. "Kids and their imaginations."
- - ☸ - -
The spaghetti was good, even if the portion was not as large as Turpentine had wanted. Something about bathtub-sized where he could eat until he could not move would have been more appropriate for the way he felt, although it would have been inappropriate for the situation. Still, it was far better than the two older stallions and their microscopic meals, which looked more like a few beans and a scrap of bread than anything worth eating. Near the end of their meal, Baron Gaberdine had taken to snitching Turpentine's garlic bread whenever he could, and even Whinnysfield seemed to be eyeing the last few dinner rolls before they vanished.
After politely saying goodby to Duke Whinnysfield outside the restaurant and collecting the two young pegasus mares who had flown them to Baltimare, Turpentine really expected for them to travel directly back to the riverboat. It was a journey he was looking forward to with similarly mixed emotions, because it was a temporary failure to achieve his desired goal, but with the added benefit of getting to see Ripple again for a few days at least until Baron Gaberdine arranged things with Mister d'Or and he could return to the school.
The awful, hideous, terrible school.
"Ladies, if you would like to shop for a while, my... guest and I have some things to purchase before we return home," said Gaberdine, reaching into his slim saddlebag and bringing out a small bag of bits for each of the mares.
"Ooo, so are you buying your marefriend anything special?" cooed Powderpuff with a flutter of her eyelashes before her sister elbowed her in the side.
"Cool it, sis." Lemon Drops nodded at the baron in what almost could have been a bow. "Thank you, sir. Just let us know when you want to leave for home. We're going to go grab something to eat and head down to the boutique at the end of the street."
"Didn't you just eat at the restaurant?" asked Turpentine, momentarily distracted from his morose moping by the question.
"We had lunch, yes. Ate, no."
Powderpuff made a face and stuck out her tongue. "Five tiny flecks of cardboard and beans on lettuce. Rich pony food sucks. No offense, sir."
"None taken." Gaberdine made a casual salute, touching a forehoof to his horn with a playful twinkle in his eyes. "Have fun this afternoon, ladies."
"Thank you, sir!" chorused the sisters before they trotted down the street, leaving Turpentine and Gaberdine standing on the corner.
"Now they made me hungry." Gaberdine cocked his head slightly to one side as he regarded Turpentine's obviously depressed face. "Cheer up, lad. At least my father bought lunch for both of us, and you got something to eat out of the deal. Now, let's go get some painting supplies for your portrait sitting with Princess Luna. On me," he added when Turpentine looked up.
He had left two of his last five bits as a tip for the serving mare at the restaurant, and Turpentine was not quite sure how far the three bits he had remaining would go. He might not have even been able to buy a brush without the baron's financial assistance. "I really don't see why you're doing this, sir. I must be such a problem for you. Disrupting your river. Getting you in trouble with the sawmill about the logs. Goofing up lunch with your father." Turpentine picked up his pace while Gaberdine began striding downtown.
"Don't worry about the logs, my boy. Besides, you're not a problem. You're a project! I love putting together puzzles, and you're one piece that has to have a spot somewhere other than that school." He shuddered in an exaggerated fashion.
"You mean you're not going to get me into the school?" Instead of the explanation Turpentine expected, Gaberdine trotted along in silence for a while before asking an unexpected question.
"Did you ever put together a puzzle in preschool?"
"What?" School in Turpentine's agricultural home town had been somewhat limited, and there was no pre- in any of it.
"I mean when you were a foal," explained Gaberdine. "Trying to get one of those little cardboard pieces in where it doesn't belong. Maybe even mashing it to fit."
There had been a lot of puzzles in the orphanage, most of which had been donated in somewhat of an incomplete state, and the rest of which had been made that way by decades of orphans with a preconceived notion of which piece went where, and strong young hooves to hammer it in.
"That particular school is not a place for you," said Gaberdine firmly. "They would mash you and smash you until you fit into one of their ugly little slots cranking out ugly stuff to hang on the walls. No, you're a puzzle. Admittedly, you're not an edge piece, or you'd be a lot easier to fit. You're more like one of those twisty inside bits that has to match up just right."
Turpentine had slowed down somewhat while Gaberdine was talking, but picked up his pace as not to lose ground. "If you say so, sir." They dodged a few fellow pedestrians and crossed the street, which frightened Turpentine enough to shut him up until they had gone nearly another block. "I'm sorry about telling your father about Miss Pearl."
"What's done is done." Gaberdine shrugged. "My father's not a fool, and I'd be a fool to try to fool him. He knows I don't want to talk about her, so he'll keep quiet. Might even grumble a little about his son falling for a local." They dodged across another crosswalk before he continued. "It's probably a good thing, and should help keep some of the worst social parasites from flying out to the castle and trying to catch themselves a royal, even if he is all new and green with no estate to speak of."
"If you say so, sir. I mean Gabby." The chaotic surroundings of the big city were distracting Turpentine from being nearly as upset as he should have been, with all of the cabs galloping down the streets and the crosswalk lights. He kept one flank against the taller unicorn while they trotted briskly across the street and into a painting supplies store called The Painting Palette, where the noise and confusion of the city cut off with the closing of the door, but was replaced with a much more welcome atmosphere.
It was the powerful scent of the place which struck Turpentine the hardest. Oils and dry cardboard, canvas with the primer already applied, and the smell of his namesake turpentine over it all. He paused to take a deep breath, and when he opened his eyes, there was an elderly clerk standing in front of him and blocking Turpentine's view of the rest of the marvelous store.
"Good afternoon, sirs. Can I help--"
"Brushes," murmured Turpentine before taking a sharp left turn into an aisle filled with all kinds of bristles, both the short-handled variety for unicorns and the longer-handled type for ponies who lacked horns. His brush collection had always been made up of whatever Turpentine could find on sale or donated to the orphanage, leading to an eclectic mish-mash of all kinds which he treated as if they were made of solid gold. He moved to one particularly fine-haired brush with his mouth open to pick it up, then paused as he saw the price. A similar type seemed less expensive, but was made for unicorns, so it would take an awkward grip between his lips to achieve the same results. Then there was a packed collection which would be less expensive than buying them individually, but had a few brushes in it he had never worked with before.
"Do you need me to pick out a selection for you? You're going to want the good stuff, since you're painting a portrait of Princess Luna." Baron Gaberdine's voice cut through Turpentine's indecision and made him realize he had been darting back and forth between the displays for quite some time without actually choosing a purchase. He blushed slightly with embarrassment, because Mother Windrow had used that exact tone of voice whenever he had been indecisive about which candy he could get at the market in return for carrying the groceries home.
"I'm a big colt," said Turpentine, trying not to sound defensive. "I don't need anypony to pick out my stuff." He reached over to the nearby shelf and removed the first brush he had spotted, dropping it into the basket which Gaberdine floated over to him. Then, after a suitable amount of consideration, he looked up at the baron and asked, "How much can I spend? I mean some of the brushes and paints can be awfully expensive, and--"
"Whatever you want." Gaberdine snickered a little at the acquisitive expression that must have passed over Turpentine's face. "Try to leave at least one brush on the shelves when you're done," he clarified. "I'll set things up with the owner while you shop. Do you need me to stay here until you're done, or can I step out for a few minutes to do some shopping of my own?"
"I'm a big colt," repeated Turpentine. "I'm almost eleven. I did just fine on my raft by myself, so I'll be fine here."
As much as he just wanted to run down the aisles while putting everything he could into his basket, he was going to have to carry his purchases back to the Speedy Cargo wagon, and the two pegasi were going to have to fly them home, so Turpentine restrained himself.
Well, mostly.
He really did not think he was going to need every brush he picked out for just one painting of Princess Luna, but he was seduced by their velvety softness and firm handles, all standing in rows while begging for him to apply them to canvas in the act of creation. There was just something so appealing about unwrapping a fresh brush, peeling off the protective outer layer and tasting the sharp tang of factory varnish. It made him drool despite his best efforts, and by the time he was ready to leave the brushes and head over to the canvas selections, he had an embarrassingly-large damp spot on his shoulder where he kept wiping his mouth rather than drip.
"Now, what size canvas do I want to use?" he mused quietly, looking at the vast array available.
"The baron filled me in on your assigned task, Mister Turpentine," said the clerk from behind him. "Although he left out many of the pertinent details. A school project, I take it?"
"Uh... Kinda." Turpentine twitched when the clerk swept past him and placed several canvases into a basket, then proceeded into the paint aisle where he continued to add items. "Hey, wait. I don't need any acrylic paints. Where are the oils?" He cautiously put the items back on the shelves where they belonged and looked at the canvas in his bag. "Linen? I've never used that before. Maybe I should stick with cotton."
"Linen gives a smaller grain for smaller details," explained the clerk. "Her Highness is very complicated to paint, particularly for such a young colt, and more particularly with a difficult medium such as oil paints."
"Oh," said Turpentine, squirming a little at the thought of Luna's displeasure.
"If you like, we have a selection of photographic prints for you to copy from, although they all look like she's trapped in a room with the photographer in front of the door," admitted the clerk. "Let's go pick out a pose and we can build your purchase list from there. The baron insisted on the proper tools for the job, no matter the price."
"I really had an idea of my own." Turpentine pulled his sketchpad out and flipped through it before remembering the sketch of the grotto was on the pad Luna had taken with her. He settled down on the floor of the shop and began to draw it out from memory, from the way the water glistened as it struck the rocks and sprayed out into the sunlight all the way to the depth of the pool. It was difficult to frame Princess Luna's proportions without having her actually there, but he sketched in the pose he was thinking of and the way the water would redirect around her body. It was a world of unknowns, because he had never actually seen what it was he wanted to turn into paint all at the same time, but he had seen the parts of the painting individually, and pieced them together in his mind much like one of Baron Gaberdine's hypothetical puzzles.
It took several attempts and many pages of his sketchbook as he lost track of time, flat on his belly on the cool floor with the pencil between his teeth. The ratio of width to height would be important if he were to frame it just right, with the eye drawn to Luna's body instead of the surroundings. He played with different wing postures as he drew, with the clerk occasionally pointing over his shoulder and offering suggestions such as sweeping the wings forward to emphasise her strength or having Luna tilt her head back for the water to run off her head, but not too far as not to have it run up her nose at the same time.
"Why do you have her eyes closed?" asked the clerk during one of Turpentine's contemplative pauses.
"I can't do eyes very well."
Turpentine winced when the clerk placed several canvases in his purchase pile and turned back to the paint aisle to make more selections. "You're going to need a few acrylics for the body."
Turpentine shuddered. "No. I don't see how I could paint Princess Luna in acrylic. It's ugly, and she's beautiful."
"It's useful," insisted the clerk. "You need to diversify your experiences, or you will be stuck doing one thing wrong forever. You wouldn't do an entire portrait with a Number Zero brush, would you?"
"I have before, when it was a very small portrait, and it was the only brush I had. I did one of Mother Windrow that--" Turpentine blinked several times as he took the time to look at the clerk instead of the surrounding store. "Oh. It's you."
The old pegasus stallion chuckled. "I was wondering when you'd recognize me. You spent enough time at the restaurant staring at me. May I?" He took the sketchbook and flipped back a few pages to the sketches Turpentine had drawn at the restaurant. He stopped, pursed his lips, and took a sideways glance at Turpentine, who felt it important to defend his activity.
"You were both very sketchable, sir."
The stallion nodded. "It is a good thing you are not a few years older, or I would be suspicious of your intentions toward my married granddaughter, Sympathique. You seem to have captured her essence fairly well. Even the eyes."
"It doesn't come out in paint, sir." Turpentine traced the pencil lines with one hoof. "I can feel it, right there, but it just won't..."
The clerk grunted. "My name's Caractere, by the way, not sir. Makes me feel like some old fossil."
"I'm sorry, sir. I mean Mister Caractere." Turpentine craned his head to look around the small shop, but the two of them appeared to be the only ponies still there. "Where did Baron Gaberdine go?"
"He's been back twice since you started drawing." Caractere shrugged. "He said he'll be back again. Until he returns, pull that easel over by the store window and let's see how you do with oils."
It took little time to set up two easels, one for the drawing and one to prop his canvas on, allowing Turpentine to get comfortable with the familiar motions of getting ready to paint while Caractere nodded approvingly and watched his motions in the background. The linen canvas was a softer, more precise surface as Caractere claimed, and soaked up the pencil strokes of his outline in neat curls and wide arcs. The drawing of the two ponies, grandfather and granddaughter in the warm confines of the restaurant booth, was right and flowed naturally under the graphite of his pencil, although when he picked up a freshly-unwrapped brush to continue in oils, the old stallion held up a hoof.
"Stop. Is that how you would paint her?"
Turpentine glanced between the canvas and the old stallion before nodding with the brush still in his mouth.
"Watch." Caractere got out a light pink acrylic and a wider brush, painting over the guiding lines of Turpentine's outline of Sympathique in long strokes. After a similar process with a dull grey over his own sketched image, the clerk dropped his brush in the thinner.
"There. You want depth. Shadows. The old masters, they painted their underlying strokes first in oils and waited for days until they dried and could paint over them, and over again, until they had built up the surface to where it seemed more real than the subject." After a quick swish and clean of the brush, he dabbed out some dark green and continued with parts of the restaurant booth, talking from between his teeth as he painted. "You want the eye to linger on the colors and shadows, but always travel to your subject, as if the viewer is watching the same scene. The eye is sensitive, able to pick out even one or two layers of paint at greater distances than you'd expect. The shadows, they have to fall naturally or the viewer does not believe in what they see."
Caractere dropped the brush back into the thinner and snatched up a pencil between his teeth. He drew several straight lines to give perspective to the restaurant booth and chairs, talking all the while. "The sun, she comes into the picture here and here, reflecting to illuminate your subject. Do you know what your subject is, boy?"
"It's both of you," said Turpentine reflexively.
"But which is more important?" he pressed, still drawing short lines on the canvas to indicate light directions.
"Both of you," repeated Turpentine, feeling a little confused. "It's the way you were looking back and forth--"
"Wrong." Caractere pointed with the pencil. "You are a colt. That is a young mare. You placed her near the center, where the eye lingers, as is only correct. The old stallion, he is important, yes, but the mare. Oh, the mare." A smile formed around the corners of his lips as Caractere plucked the brush out of the solvent and began to highlight the flowerpots with a brick-red acrylic. "You may not know it in your head, but your heart knows. You remind me of Reiindear. Oh, he was a tricky one. Spent too much time on cutie marks, though. They should be there, but the eye should slip over them to the face, not linger. There."
Caractere dropped the brush back into the acrylic solvent, cleaning it with a few experienced motions and placing the acrylics to one side while fanning one wing rather absent-mindedly over the painting without even looking. "Never use the same brush for oils as acrylic. They hate each other. Stains and seeps. Not good. Now what do you see, Turpentine?"
"It's ugly. And skeletal. Like... a skeleton made out of shadows." He tilted his head to one side before starting to dab little bits of paint onto his new palette. The taste of varnish on his tongue and the tang of fresh oils in his nose faded into near insignificance as he painted around the drying acrylics. They were still slightly tacky, but there was much to do away from them around the outside edge and the background.
While he painted, every once in a while the old stallion would reach over his shoulder to point, once even to push him to one side with a fine pointed brush in his teeth and give a little swirl to a paint point by her ears that Turpentine just could not get right. As he worked, the dry acrylic vanished under the oils and gave those sections of the painting depth, just like the old stallion had said. More tubes of oil paint found their way onto his mixing palette while he worked his way through the rest of the scene, feeling something deep in his chest open like a flower while he painted. Even if he had to work in ugly colors and plastic paints in school, he would still be able to paint like this when he wanted. The warm sun shining through the shop windows gave him a perfect lighting to work by, and although he could tell when other customers passed by behind him and the clerk had to go wait on them, his mind focused on the painting to the exclusion of all else until the sunlight changed to a reddish hue and he found himself working on trivial little bits like the dust motes in the air and the way the leaves of the potted plants reflected the restaurant's artificial lighting.
"He's good, isn't he?" Baron Gaberdine's voice distracted Turpentine from where he was washing out his brushes in the afterglow of creation, and he turned around to see the clerk nodding.
"Having him in the front window certainly brought in the shoppers," admitted Caractere. "I hear he's going to be one of d'Or's prospective students."
Turpentine was still not quite up to talking yet while the unrealness of painting was wearing off, so he nodded instead.
"I suppose that will smear if we try to take it home today," said Gaberdine, cocking his head to one side to examine the painting of the pegasus mare. "The feathers aren't quite... right."
The old stallion snorted. "Feathers always give non-pegasus painters trouble. Even Cloudou never could get the joints in the wings right, always too short or too long."
Gaberdine nodded while cocking his head to the other side. "Maritine back in the late Diaspora period did wonderful feathers. The Canterlot Museum of the Sun has some beautiful works of his behind glass."
Caractere did not seem impressed and shook his head. "No, most of the works in there are fakes, done long after the period and magically aged. The real pigments of that age have faded almost beyond recognizing. Take a look at the Storm Glider period of Cloudsdale art, if you can find any that the humidity has not ruined."
"Grand-pere!" The young pegasus server from the restaurant walked in the front door with a hesitant smile for the two additional ponies in the shop. "Lord Gaberdine, was it? And your delightfully talented not-son." As her eyes traveled upward to the painting, she stopped cold with the smile on her face freezing in place, then slowly, bit by bit, the corners of her lips began to lift further until her expression grew into an astonished grin. "Madre dios."
"He didn't quite get the feathers right," grumbled the old pegasus.
- - ☸ - -
It took a fairly short time to pay for the collection of art supplies Turpentine had used for the creation of the painting, plus the books and additional supplies Baron Gaberdine had picked out while waiting. The accumulated purchases seemed more than enough to make paintings of a whole flock⁽*⁾ of princesses and made both of them stagger a little under the additional load, although Turpentine could carry more on his muscular back than Gaberdine. The resulting slow walk back to the wagon for the flight home seemed like a good time to ask some of the questions still bouncing around in Turpentine's head while he still had some privacy.
(*) Technically, two princesses is a Crisis, three or more is a Disaster. --
"What did you mean when you told me the school wasn't a good fit for me? It's an art school, even if they paint... Um..."
"Art." Gaberdine shook his head cautiously as not to disturb the packages he was towing in his magic field. "They take a perfectly good word and glue so many ugly things to it."
"They glue some weird stuff to the paintings too," said Turpentine.
"Like somepony with a puzzle who wants a piece to fit somewhere it doesn't belong, and hammers it until it fits," said Gaberdine.
"Yeah," said Turpentine, who then paused and looked back at Baron Gaberdine's puzzle-piece cutie mark. "Oh."
Gaberdine chuckled while they headed over to pick up their drivers for the trip back to Gravel Flats. "Don't worry, Turpentine. I've never had a puzzle with a loose piece that I haven't been able to find where it goes. You just focus on your painting of Princess Luna and I'll see about finding the you-shaped hole in the universe." |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 11 - The Hardest Teacher | Drifting Down the Lazy River
The Hardest Teacher
"It don't make no difference how foolish it is, it's the right way-- and it's the regular way. And there ain't no other way, that ever I heard of, and I've read all the books that gives any information about these things. "
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
Turpentine wanted to sleep until noon the next day. After all, he and Gaberdine had gotten back from Baltimare in the dark, far later than expected. Although the trip back had given him time to examine the way pegasus wings looked in the moonlight, the Speedy Cargo wagon had still been in the air when the sun set, and Gaberdine nearly had to carry him into the riverboat half-asleep. The image of moving feathers glittering in the silver moonlight even pursued him into his dreams, and when Sen gently shook his shoulder in the light of the morning sun peeking through the cabin windows, Turpentine was momentarily set back by trying to figure out where the old stallion's wings had gone.
"Good morning, lad. Breakfast is almost ready and I thought you would like to be up and awake when Ripple and Pearl arrive." A small muscle twitched in Sen's cheek when he added, "Baron Gaberdine has been helping cook this morning."
"Is anything on fire?" Turpentine held a hoof over his mouth when he yawned, but he was all the way awake now. Gaberdine was the only pony he knew of who could burn orange juice. "At least we have lots of water to put it out."
"I hope we don't need it." Sen took a quick glance over his shoulder and sniffed the air. "Better go back and help him before he figures out I unplugged the toaster."
Breakfasts on the riverboat were almost as good as Mother Windrow could make, at least if Gaberdine had not burned things too badly. Turpentine hurried through his morning brushing and combing to get to the table, only to be chased out onto the deck by Sen until things were ready. It was probably for the best, because something had gotten into Gaberdine's coffee this morning. He was as twitchy and jittery as Mother Windrow always got before one of her gentlecolt callers came over, constantly darting to the galley window overlooking the entrance to the lagoon.
So Turpentine went out on the deck and flopped down on his belly to look out across the sunlit lagoon without even his sketchbook to keep him company, only a poppyseed bagel he had snitched off the table. It was a tough, contemplative food worthy of Turpentine's present mood while he thought about his goals, both short and long-term.
"I probably would have wanted to make my preliminary sketches next to the waterfall at Ripple's grotto anyway," he mused out loud to help order his thoughts. "There wasn't really any place at the school where I would have been comfortable painting her. All of the students would have wanted to watch a princess, and Mister d'Or would have... annoyed her by calling her old or something, like he annoys everypony, I suppose."
He chewed some more on the tough bagel while watching the morning breeze make little glittering ripples all across the surface of the lagoon. It was peaceful and relaxing until he spotted a pair of v-shaped wakes out in the river inlet. Turpentine had gotten better at being able to spot the motions of underwater seaponies due to their abovewater ripples, and since one of the ripples was smaller than the other, it was most likely Ripple and her mother, here for breakfast as usual.
He checked the sky out of reflex, because the seaponies seemed to have an uncanny ability to spot passing pegasi, then got up to watch for when mother and daughter would emerge from the river, move up the grassy riverbank, and over to the gangplank. He liked to watch every morning, because there was something magical about the way Pearl transitioned from graceful underwater seapony to graceful unicorn, although with large hooves which at first glance would seem horribly ungainly.
Whenever Ripple would flop onto the shore, there was nothing graceful about her energetic motions. Still, she could move like lightning on land, even encumbered by her flippers, and Turpentine was looking forward to seeing just how she would look once she managed to get her transformation spell to work as her mother could do so effortlessly.
He just barely managed to catch a glimpse of the growing wave out of the corner of his eye while turning, allowing Turpentine not to be caught completely flat-hooved when the speeding form of Ripple fairly erupted out of the water next to the riverboat. Soaring through the air with flippers wide open, she caught him around the middle in a flying tackle and sloshed across the deck with Turpentine locked in her vice-like grip. A near tidal wave of water followed her up onto the deck, enough to nearly wash the two of them back over the side again, but he managed to get his hooves on the deck first, spluttering and coughing while Ripple squeezed him with all the energy she could. The world was just starting to go dim when he became aware of Sen standing over them on the deck, gently tapping Ripple on the shoulder and speaking in a low, soothing tone.
"Ripple, you may wanna let go of Turpentine before you squeeze all the air out of him. He's looking a mite pale."
"I'm sorry!" Ripple managed at least to relax her wet constrictive hold enough for Turpentine to get a breath of air, but she trembled while holding him and did not move her face from his neck.
"I told you I'd come back," he managed to gasp.
Ripple did not respond at first, or at least not until her mother glided quietly across the decking to put a hoof on both of their shoulders. She patted them a few times, obviously wishing she could just go jump back into the lagoon again, but eventually cleared her throat and asked in a near-whisper, "Did your trip to Baltimare not go well, Turpentine?"
Her mother's soothing voice relaxed some of Ripple's waterlogged grip so Turpentine could afford to talk while breathing, but he really did not know quite how to respond to the question. "Sorta, I suppose," he managed to say. "Baron Gaberdine... I mean Gabby says the school isn't quite right for me, and the more I think about it, the righter he seems. I don't know where he would look, though."
"Canterlot," said Sen, who was still dry because he had been standing to one side in order not to get soaked by the recent tiny tidal wave out of the lagoon. He passed a fluffy dry towel to Pearl and two to Ripple before giving them all a short nod. "I'm off to town to mail a few letters, now that we have the kitchen extinguished. One of them is to the Canterlot Prestigious Institute for the Arts, and yes, 'Prestigious' is part of their name. Apparently, Duke Prestigious endowed it soon after Canterlot's construction, and there's been a member of his family in charge of the place ever since."
"Canterlot?" Turpentine grimaced as Ripple began using the towel to dry his mane. "That's an awful long way away. And up on the mountain, all full of high-class unicorns."
The self-doubts only grew while Pearl and Ripple helped towel him off after his inadvertent bath. Turpentine had seen pictures of the legendary city, and Mother Windrow got the weekend edition of the Canterlot Times for the crosswords and cryptoquotes, so he had read articles about the fancy galas, balls, and parties. The top of Mount Canter was even visible on a clear day if you looked in the right direction and squinted a little, and Mother Windrow had let him stay up late the night Princess Cadenza and Prince Shining Armor were married, so he had seen the fireworks off in the distance, looking like tiny sparks of light. Thinking about going to fabled Canterlot made him feel like a little colt again, and just a little bit afraid.
Still, if he was going to be the famous artist he wanted to be in the future, Canterlot seemed to be where he needed to go. But for now, the present demanded his attention.
The oatmeal only had a few burnt flecks on the surface and the orange juice just had two pieces of peel in it, showing that Sen had caught the baron fairly early in the cooking process, but the rest of breakfast was just as delicious as ever. The only thing out of the ordinary was the way Gaberdine kept running over to the galley window every few minutes as if Santa Hooves were about to arrive on Hearth's Warming morning.
And right at the end of breakfast, he did. Or at least somepony who Gaberdine treated much the same way. The Santa's Little Helper in question was riding in a large, speedy riverboat with a smaller boat towed behind it as he sailed across the lagoon. The boat pilot, a cheerful yellow unicorn with a captain's cap, waved while he pulled his boat up beside Castle Paradise and called out in a loud voice.
"Baron Gaberdine! I got your purchase right here. Ain't she a beaut?"
"What?" Turpentine looked up at the grinning baron, who was staring entranced out the window, then over at Ripple and her mother. The seaponies seemed conflicted at the sudden appearance of another pony in their isolated lagoon, but at Turpentine's nod, they both scurried away from the breakfast table to the cabin to hide until he was gone.
"Isn't she beautiful," said Gaberdine in an abstracted voice. "I saw her while waiting on you in Baltimare and wrote a check right there. You told me about going water skiing, and I thought that would be a more efficient way to cruise up and down the river than trying to swim the whole length of my domain."
The motorboat in question was a sleek red model, looking fast even when bobbing beside the much larger riverboat like a baby duckling next to a giant swan. A giant broken-down swan, admittedly, since Gaberdine was overly-optimistic about getting the riverboat out of the lagoon before winter for a test... float, or whatever it was called when a riverboat went out to test all of the repairs done to it over the last few months.
Hopefully, Castle Paradise IV would not sink as several of its predecessors had.
It was more comfortable to watch Gaberdine crawl over his new purchase from the castle deck, even though Turpentine was fairly confident that if he had fallen into the lagoon, he probably would not even get damp before several of Ripple's aunts would save him. It took remarkably little time for Gaberdine to tie the speedboat up and see the salespony on his way, but he remained in the bobbing craft afterwards, looking into all of the little drawers and doors with all the excitement Turpentine remembered the Hearth's Warming morning several years ago at the family where he had gotten a paint set.
"It's got everything," bubbled Gaberdine. "The most current traffic monitoring enchantments with automatic braking in the event a snag flag is detected, dynamic stabilization for high sea states, and--" Gaberdine pushed a button on the dash with a growing grin that faded ever so slowly until he was frowning. "That's funny. It's supposed to blow the horn. Maybe the button only works when the engine is running."
"Where's the engine?" asked Turpentine.
"Um..." Gaberdine looked around, then began flipping through the sheaf of papers the salespony had left with him. Turpentine had not seen many small speedboats other than the one the unicorn family upriver had let him ride, but that one had a large and quite noisy engine on the rear.
"Is the salespony gone?" whispered Ripple, peeking over the ship's rail and looking around the lagoon.
"Yes, I think so." Turpentine pointed down. "Baron Gaberdine bought a speedboat."
"Oooo," said Ripple with a low whistle while she peeked over the rail. "It's a pretty shade of red. Does that make it go faster, Mister Baron Gaberdine?"
Turpentine rested a hoof on his forehead and sighed. He expected Gaberdine to be irritated or even angry at buying a motorboat without a motor, but the look of consternation on the unicorn's face only lasted until Ripple's comment had a chance to soak in, then turned into a sardonic grin and short snort of Gaberdine's own while he called back up to the two of them.
"No, I think it's going about as fast as it's going to go for a while, at least until I buy an engine. I wanted something to carry Turpentine's painting supplies so he could go paint the areas on the river the two of you visited. The river's a beautiful place, and I think other ponies deserve to see it through both of your eyes."
"Really?" asked Turpentine, looking down at the smiling baron. "You mean it's not for you?"
"Ah... Maybe a little," admitted Gaberdine.
- - ☸ - -
When Turpentine got up enough courage to scramble down the ladder and inspect the speedboat closer, he had to admit, it was cool. There was enough space in it for four ponies in close proximity, or two with Turpentine and his painting gear, and it certainly seemed safe enough, particularly since it would not move without a set of oars or...
"Do you think Ripple could pull the boat, Mister Gaber-- I mean Gabby?"
"That's a great idea!" Ripple bounded out of the little boat and vanished into the lagoon with a quiet splash, quite nearly followed by Turpentine as the motorboat rocked with her departure and he stumbled up against the side. In a few moments, she reappeared with a rope in her magic and floated it over to the boat. "There's a big ring on the front there, Turpentine. Tie it up there."
He scrambled up to the front of the boat and began tying the rope to the ring, putting in extra knots to to be safe. When done, he took a step back (a short one) and looked over his work next to Gaberdine while the speedboat began to bob out into the lagoon, pulled by an underwater force. "That seems to work even if it is a little slow," said Turpentine. "Why am I worried?"
"Experience," said Gaberdine while spreading his legs out for a more stable stance to counter the bobbing of the speedboat.
Turpentine duplicated his movement and tried to bend his knees with the waves. "I guess it must be what that ring is for, right?"
Gaberdine shook his head and looked back over his shoulder at the castle/riverboat. "No, it's for attaching a winch so you can bring it up on deck. There's one on the back too. They're fixed above the center of gravity so..." The baron paused, his eyes growing wide. "Ripple! Wai--"
The rope went taut.
The front end of the speedboat went forward, but it also went down while the back end of the boat went up. With one loud 'gloop!' of outrushing air, the speedboat vanished underwater, leaving Gaberdine and Turpentine paddling on the surface.
Managing to keep his nose above water, Turpentine gasped, "I guess the red ones do go faster."
"Down, at least," added Gaberdine while the two of them swam to shore. Fortunately land was fairly close and also fortunately did not have any witnesses to their embarrassment other than Pearl, who was looking over the rail of the riverboat and snickering into one hoof. Ripple popped up behind them and paddled up to match their speed with the tow rope still grasped in her magic and the soggy speedboat surfacing like a red whale behind her.
"Oops?"
Gaberdine chuckled and blew a little water out of his nose while getting to his hooves onto the sandy floor of the lagoon. "We'll work on it."
The fix was both easy and complicated. The first solution Gaberdine suggested, buying an actual motor for the motorboat, turned out to be less than optimal, as every motor in the catalog the salespony had helpfully dropped off was labeled 'Out of Stock' or 'Backordered' in large letters. While Gaberdine and Ripple worked on an engineering solution to their propulsion shortage, Turpentine took a break on the sunlit deck of the riverboat to dry out and talk with Sen.
There had been a crane on the side of Castle Paradise to winch a boat onto the deck, but Sen said it had broken a decade ago and the pieces were stored below decks. They both dutifully tromped down the stairs and took a look at the components, which did not look that badly-bent except in a few spots, and there was a blacksmith shop in Gravel Flats which could probably piece them back together. After a side-trip to examine the disassembled steam pistons which Gaberdine was on his third attempt at reassembling, Turpentine took a long look around the engineering space of the riverboat and sighed.
"It just seems too complicated for one pony to operate. How did you and Baron Miller manage for all those years?"
"Ain't really that complicated." Sen brushed a hoof across a nearby dented blue pipe, then swept into a grand gesture across the greasy and dark equipment all through the room. "Everything has its place and its purpose, jes' like them puzzles Baron Gabby keeps goin' on about. I started as Baron Miller's cabin colt about the same age you are now and took over for his seneschal when the old coot retired. Seneschal Sentinel, that is, not Baron Miller. He was a retired Royal Guard, an' loved goin' all up and down the river with the baron. A mare in every port, or at least until they caught up with him and dragged him away to be married. Still don't know which one tied him down, on account I was kinda-sorta promoted to be the seneschal in his unfortunate absence. By then, I nearly had the whole manual memorized, an' a pretty good grasp on the way the parts of the ship that weren't in no manual worked too. You can't just expect to walk in and know everything from teachers, young lad. You gotta go out and live it for yourself. Reckon you thought art school in Baltimare was gonna teach you everything, am I right?"
"Yeah," admitted Turpentine. "Until I met Ripple. Still, I thought there'd be at least something I could learn from the school."
"Everything and everypony is a lesson." Sen reached out with one hoof and tapped a nearby pipe, which was color-coded a dark blue. "After Sentinel quit, Baron Miller tried hiring himself a engineer. Nice young colt with a talent for fixin' stuff, but he was color-blind. Couldn't read the color codes and wound up cross-connecting the steam pipes with the septic tank. Blew Baron Miller right off the toilet one morning. If'n he had paid any attention to what I was sayin' while he was working, he wouldn't have screwed up. So what lesson does that teach you, Turpentine?"
"Listen when others try to tell you things, and think before you act." After chewing on his bottom lip for a while, he added, "He didn't sound like a very good example of an engineer."
"Everypony's an example. You. Me. Princess Luna." Sen patted the pipe again as if he were reassuring a loyal dog. "Some ponies are just bad examples."
"So we learn from both the good things and bad things that happen to us." Turpentine thought about his trip to Baltimare, and the ponies he had met. "Like three hooves over a restaurant doesn't mean the food is any good, and just because an art school is famous, doesn't mean it's a good place to learn about painting... That is, a good place to learn positive things about painting."
Sen had a quirky way of smiling where only one corner of his lips turned up and one eye squinted. It made him look almost like a pirate, or at least a happy pirate. "I can see why Gabby thinks so much of you, lad. Most ponies, when the words go in one ear they don't do much inside the noggin, but with you, they come out in unexpected ways."
"Painting helps me get my thoughts together." Turpentine nudged the pieces of the boat crane to see how heavy they were. "While Ripple and Mister Gaberdine... I mean Gabby. While they work on the boat, why don't we take the broken crane into town and see if they can fix it. I should be able to make a drawing for the blacksmith to show how it's all supposed to fit. And," he added quickly, "I'll carry the pieces so you don't have to strain your back."
- - ☸ - -
He should have been using his time to prepare for Luna's upcoming portrait sitting, but Turpentine found it more enjoyable to follow Sen around for a few days, getting the parts of the boat winch over to the repair pony in Gravel Flats, shopping for groceries at the market, and getting up early to help with breakfast. Sen was a lot like a male version of Mother Windrow for Baron Gaberdine, but Turpentine did not bring it up, because he was afraid of being laughed at.
Besides, Turpentine could cook.
Spending mornings with Sen was not as much fun... well, it was a different kind of fun than going out in the afternoon with Ripple to explore places in the river he might want to paint. The water seemed to be getting colder by the day, but it was still fun to be towed at high speed through the river to the various brooks and estuaries filled with colorful pebbles across the streambottom or overhanging trees making shaded tunnels to play tag inside. Eventually, it would be too cold for Turpentine to spend time underwater, and Ripple would be alone under the ice with her aunts again. Even if Gaberdine could get a new motor for his fancy new motorless-boat, it would not be a very usable substitute in the cold weather. Until then, in the afternoons Turpentine found himself in the rather strange position of helping Gaberdine test just how his motorless motorboat performed with a substitute power source.
"We got an eye bolt stuck through the centerline post on the boat," explained Ripple, pointing at where the back end of the bolt came up out of the floor and was supported by a substantial washer. "A couple of my aunts volunteered to pull, and Mister Baron Gaberdine found a sound spell to make a motorboat noise, so anypony watching won't get suspicious."
"That doesn't explain why I'm here. Why am I here? Why not somepony else?" asked Turpentine through the grip he had on the wooden handle of the tow rope. He shifted positions uncomfortably, with the two water skis strapped to his hooves making him even more awkward than Ripple.
"We need an excuse to go out and cruise up and down the river so we can test the boat configuration," said Ripple as if it were the dumbest question in the world. "It's perfectly safe. You can always adjust the throttle by screaming. If it goes too fast, just scream and my aunts will slow down."
"Can I start screaming now?"
Ripple giggled and booped him on the nose with one flipper. "You're silly."
- - ☸ - -
In the end, Turpentine did not scream very much, mostly because he found out a good, loud scream meant letting go of the tow rope with his mouth open when he pitched forward into the churning wake behind the speedboat. That did not keep him from whimpering a lot while being pulled up and down the river with Baron Gaberdine proudly steering his new purchase. Turpentine even got to sit in the boat and pretend to steer when Gaberdine decided he wanted to see what water skiing was like too, which went about as wet as expected.
Still, the little boat did make a good way to transport Turpentine's painting equipment. He managed to get a part of the afternoon to sketch a few drawings of the little seapony grotto while Ripple watched and Gaberdine went off with Pearl to do something else. Over the next few days, they visited the grotto several times, finding it both a relaxing place to just sit and talk, as well as an inspirational place to paint using the shading technique Caractere had taught him.
And before Turpentine realized, the morning of Princess Luna's scheduled sitting had arrived.
- - ☸ - -
To be honest, Turpentine had expected Princess Luna to arrive sometime early in the morning, most likely after breakfast, when Baron Gaberdine would have the speedboat ready for their fairly short trip upriver to the grotto. He really did not expect to be awoken by a pair of glowing golden eyes just a few inches from his face, but after having Ripple wake him up that way several times, at least he did not panic. In fact, the slender batpony mare who was intently staring at him seemed familiar, even in the dim light of his cabin.
"Miss Syrette? Is Princess Luna here already?" Turpentine rubbed his eyes and suppressed a yawn. "Let me get my brushes and--"
"Go back to sleep, Turpentine." The nurse put a hoof onto the center of Turpentine's chest and pressed down slightly as he tried to get up. "I'm just here a little early for your checkup, and I wanted to see how you were breathing after your little bout with the flu." She giggled, but in an extremely quiet fashion to keep her voice from being heard outside the cabin. "When you woke up, I was afraid you were going to scream."
There was just the tiniest flicker of regret in those big golden eyes, as if the nurse had frightened a lot of little foals who were not perceptive enough to see the soft and kind soul behind those sharp teeth and strange oval pupils. Turpentine put one of his own smaller hooves over hers and patted gently.
"That's okay. I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep anyway. Why don't I get breakfast started and we can wait for Ripple. You're going to want to check up on her too, right?"
"I..." The nurse blinked, and her somewhat artificial smile smoothed out into a real one. "Yes, of course. I'd be more than happy to join you for breakfast."
- - ☸ - -
It was not that much earlier than Turpentine had been getting up anyway, and he had wanted to try out the waffle maker in any case. The slender batpony mostly stayed out of the way and watched him work, although she did offer to get the blueberries out of the icebox and helped smush the oranges. It made Turpentine curious after a while, because he had not seen any other of the nocturnal ponies other than Miss Syrette, and eventually he had to ask the question which would not leave his head.
"Do batpony families adopt?"
It seemed to catch Syrette off-guard, and Turpentine quickly moved to clarify. "Not that I want you to adopt me. I mean it would be nice, having a nurse as a mother, but I don't think I would like staying up at night and sleeping during the day."
Syrette nodded. "You're not the only one. You know what it's like when a unicorn is born into an earth pony family, or a pegasus has a non-pegasus foal? Most of the families can adapt to differences like that, but when a foal wants to sleep all day and be awake all night, even the best of parents can get a little..."
Turpentine had never been adopted by a family with a newborn of their own, but he could remember when he had to share the orphanage with the occasional foal who had been given up by the natural parents or taken away due to abuse. Most of them had at least slept partway through the night, but to have one with a sleep schedule completely inverted from his own would have been a continuing nightmare.
"So, do batponies even have families of their own?" Turpentine squinted a little as he thought, because it helped, or at least it felt that way.
"Big families, called clans, who all live in one house and help share the various family responsibilities." Syrette tousled his mane and grinned. "We adopt nocturne from all over Equestria whenever the original parents can't take care of them, and in return, we... um..."
It was a fairly short logical step to his response. "So batponies with non-batpony foals give them up for adoption in exchange?" Turpentine sprinkled some water on the waffle maker and decided to wait until it heated up some more. "It makes sense, but it sounds a little like trading hoofball cards on the playground. We never had anypony come by the orphanage to make an exchange. Well, other than when they brought me back."
It was obviously an uncomfortable topic for the both of them, but the nurse let out her breath and continued. "Maybe it is a little awkward. I've only met with my birth parents twice in the last few years, but my sister... well, my sister by another mother, she's doing well. Sells insurance in Fillydelphia, has a foal and one on the way. Day ponies, of course. We write."
"Oh." It sounded even more complicated than Ripple's family. "What about your clan in Canterlot?"
It was as if the moon had emerged from behind a cloud. Syrette fairly radiated happiness from the way she fluttered her lashes, even though she looked down at the table. "Just over thirty of us now, with one on the way. That's one of the reasons I came down here today. Your Mother Windrow is taking care of a little nocturne colt whose parents are giving him up for adoption. As soon as I give you two a clean bill of health, I get to fly up there and give him a quick once-over."
- - ☸ - -
After he woke up and saw Nurse Syrette at the breakfast table, Sen seemed pleased that his tiny little kitchen was being put to good use. The rest of the ponies had somewhat different responses when they took their plates of waffles and sat down to eat with their guest. Baron Gaberdine made a rather strange statement about how he did not realize how being a sailor attracted so many beautiful mares or he would have run off to join the navy when he was Turpentine's age, although Pearl was somewhat cool to the nurse, and Ripple still seemed to be holding a grudge over her flu shot from last time.
It took until Sen and Gaberdine were washing dishes in the bright light of dawn for Syrette to speak up, probably from the way Turpentine kept opening up the curtains to look nervously out the window.
"Princess Luna's not coming out today, Turpentine." Syrette rooted around in her saddlebag while looking for something and eventually came out with a pair of her sunglasses. "There, that's better."
"Oh." Turpentine tried not to look as disappointed as he felt, but he could feel his ears droop down and he could not look in the young nurse's direction. "That's okay, I guess."
"Whoa, wait a minute. Time out." Syrette nudged his chin up and looked him in the eyes, or at least as much as the dark sunglasses allowed. "What's wrong? Are you still sick? I need to do both of your one-week checkups and give you each a last booster shot." Syrette held a hoof up to Turpentine's forehead. "You don't feel like you have a fever, but--"
"That's fine," insisted Turpentine. "I'm fine. I knew she didn't want to come out and be painted by me. You don't have to make excuses for her."
Instead of acting as Turpentine expected, Syrette giggled, going so far as to bring one dark wing forward far enough to cover her face. She fairly quaked with suppressed mirth, much like one of Mother Windrow's fruit salad gelatin desserts, and gave out a brief snort before attempting to regain her composure and look back at her subject.
"Is that all?" The nurse gave a brief sideways glance at Pearl, who seemed somewhat confused by the attention. "Pearl was right. You are a serious little colt. No, the reason why Princess Luna is unable to sit for a portrait today is--" Syrette giggled again, but kept it short "--she's sick."
"She's sick? echoed Turpentine.
"With the flu."
"Oh, no." Turpentine tried to think of something apologetic to say, but the nurse just giggled some more.
"Oh, yes! Alicorns make the worst patients. She won't go to bed, she won't stay there, she keeps dragging herself out to court, and all of the royals scatter whenever she shows up all coughing and wheezing. They're calling her 'Princess Fluna' now."
"It's my fault. She must have caught it from me," said Turpentine, but the nurse refused to let him mope about it.
"It's her fault. She didn't get her flu shot this year, and she won't rest so she can get better."
The early-morning glow of the dawn suddenly got much brighter as the sun fairly exploded up into the sky and hung there, vibrating in place. "Celestia caught it too," explained the nurse.
- - ☸ - -
After the batpony nurse gave Turpentine his booster shot and went out to find Ripple wherever she was hiding this morning (most probably in order to avoid her own preventive punctuation), Turpentine went to his room to get out his watercolors and a fresh piece of paper. Seeing the sun move back to its correct location with what looked like an embarrassed shuffle had given him an idea. It only took a few minutes to rough out a sketch, but while he worked, Baron Gaberdine stepped into the bedroom behind him.
"I talked to Syrette just now when we cornered Ripple in the engine room and got her booster shot administered. Sounds like our royal reception will be delayed until Princess Luna has recovered enough to reschedule. What are you doing?"
"Working on a get-well card for Princess Luna, since I'm the one who gave her the flu," said Turpentine. "Mother Windrow always had me do one for anypony in town who got sick. Said it made them get better faster."
"Let me get you something first." Gaberdine slipped out of Turpentine's room for a minute and returned with a thick and most probably extremely expensive piece of high-quality paper. It held the ink of the line drawing almost perfectly while he converted his rough sketch into a more finished form, drawing with long, sweeping lines.
The new art materials the baron had purchased for him in Baltimare really made a difference, being smoother and higher-quality than anything Turpentine or Mother Windrow had been able to afford before. Even the watercolors flowed well as he filled in between the lines with as close to the coloring of the two princesses as he could.
At the orphanage, the magazine articles Mother Windrow collected had made a lot of references to Princess Luna, but more as if they were promoting some new product, like she was a doll for little fillies to buy and comb her mane. The photographs of Luna had always bothered Turpentine, because they all seemed to show a hesitancy and timidness the young mare had been unable to hide.
Certainly, the sisters he had met in school never acted that way. Sisters should be frivolous and mischievous, and while he finished up the painting of Celestia and Luna in their sickbeds, each with an ice pack on their head and one of the more preferable thermometers in their mouth, he could not help but draw the busy nurses surrounding them with the same patient and tolerant expressions on their faces that Mother Windrow wore whenever he had been ill. He even decorated each bed with a cartoonish drawing of the sun and moon, both also with red cheeks and thermometers just like their royal guardians.
He finished by writing in the white space left behind, "Stay in bed, drink lots of fluids, and listen to your doctors. T."
It took until he had put the ink pen back into its holder before Turpentine realized he had an audience. Four ponies were crammed into the back of his room, even though Pearl had just her head poking in the doorway and Ripple was sitting on his bed.
"Very nice," said Gaberdine. He used his magic to pick up the ink pen and added a script 'G' next to Turpentine's message, and passed the pen to Ripple and Pearl, who each added their own letters. "Watercolors, I presume?" asked Gaberdine once the signing was over.
"Yes, sir. I mean Gabby." Turpentine put the pen back away and started cleaning his new brushes. "It's still a little wet, so I'm glad I wrote the cover on the other side before I start--" The pale blue of Gaberdine's magic covered the watercolor painting, and in an instant it was perfectly dry.
"I've gotten very good at that spell over the last few months," said Gaberdine. "I know not to use it on oils, but it should be just fine for watercolors." He checked the cursive 'Get Well' written in broad strokes across the other side of the paper, then took a long look at the painting of the two alicorns, depicted with bright reddish noses and boxes of tissues scattered around them. After a moment, he shook his head with a muffled snort which might have been a laugh. "Perfect. They'll love it. Ripple, do you want to do the honors?"
The light green of Ripple's magic touched one corner of the paper which promptly burst into fire, consuming the entire painting before Turpentine could blink. The smoke rose up and drifted through the door while Turpentine whirled around, his eyes wide open but unable to speak due to the conflicting emotions churning around in his head.
"Dragonfire imbued paper," said Gaberdine with a calm smile. "From here to Celestia in just a few seconds. It's how Ripple sent a message to her when you were so--"
"Celestia? Princess Celestia?" Turpentine looked frantically out the door with the hopes of being able to find a jar and catch the smoke before it got away, but he was far too late.
"Luna's a princess too, even if they're both royal stinkers. I'm thinking it's just what those two need." Syrette giggled again and pointed to his initial sketch. "Can I keep that?"
"I..." Turpentine took a deep breath and tried not to panic any more than he already had. It was only a silly drawing, and he was a very young artist. Certainly Princess Celestia would not be too angry. The nurse did not look as if she was worried. It was her fault, after all, with those mischievous eyes making him all scramble-brained after waking him up so early.
"I suppose," he said while a plan blossomed inside his head. "On one condition."
- - ☸ - -
The morning sun lit the rock-lined grotto with a welcome warmth fighting against the chill breeze leftover from last night. The trip to the seapony relaxation spot had been without incident, as several of Ripple's aunts pulled the motorless motorboat with Syrette sitting inside next to Turpentine. Ripple had suggested that she use one of the water skiing ropes to be towed like a glider, but the idea was vetoed, because the curious ponies along the riverbank would probably ignore a speedboat, but not one with a batpony in tow.
It took a little while to get all of his equipment set up, but after both the sketching and painting easels had been set up and Turpentine framed out the scene on both of them, he called out to the nurse, "Miss Syrette, if you could please stand over by the waterfall?"
"Since you asked so nicely." The batpony took her directions well, backing up into the waterfall and extending her wings as requested. It took a while to get her arranged just the way he wanted, but the river was warm even this late in the season and she seemed to be enjoying both the attention and the sensation of water cascading off her. Between the pencil and the paintbrushes, Turpentine was fully engaged with his work for a long time, long enough that the seaponies started to come up out of the water around him in order to talk to Syrette about minor medical issues and peek over his shoulder while he worked.
His jaw was cramping up by the time he had gotten the lines and the colorful way trickles of water sparkled when they ran off the nurse's mane just the way he wanted. He put away his brushes while Syrette took a peek at his paper, with her mane and tail draped in several dry towels.
"That's... um..."
"Sexy," said one of the seaponies over his shoulder, which nearly made Turpentine look back to see who it was if not for the certainly of all of them vanishing back into the river. He cocked his head to one side and took a longer look at the unfinished painting. With the shading provided by the acrylic undercoat lines, it popped out of the canvas better than anything he had done before, but it did not look sexy. Admittedly, he had painted Syrette in a pose much like some of the undergarment models in Mother Windrow's magazines, but had not drawn any clothes. He looked back and forth between the batpony mare and the painting with a thoughtful frown.
"Do you think it would look better if I painted some underthings on you?"
"No!" blurted out Syrette, although she blushed at the titters of amusement from the watching seaponies. "That... um..."
"I wish I could have painted it at night for more realistic shadows," said Turpentine. "Princess Luna just comes to life in the dark."
"That she does," agreed the nurse. "But I don't think you should be painting any underthings on her either. It's... um..."
The painting did seem to be quite 'um,' as Syrette looked at it a long time before she gave a definite upward jerk to her chin and a small smile crept onto her face. "Yes," she said. "Yes, I think if you paint Princess Luna this way, with feathers and without underthings, of course, she will love it."
- - ☸ - -
The next few days fell into an awkward routine for Turpentine. As a guest at Castle Paradise, he was treated... well, as a guest instead of the young working pony he had always been before. It bothered him far more than he told anypony, so he made his best effort to be useful around the castle while waiting for the results of Baron Gaberdine's letter writing. He got up in the morning with Sen to help make breakfast, and helped as much as he could below decks while Baron Gaberdine worked on the steam engine, or just stayed on deck and painted if Ripple was around, because she was a much better mechanical helper than he was.
After the two of them had lunch with Ripple, she would take Turpentine out to another one of her beautiful places on the river for the afternoon, which was an awful lot guest-like, but he excused it under the principle of diversifying his experiences, as Caractere had suggested.
In the evening over dinner in the small but efficient castle galley, Ripple would tell Baron Gaberdine all about their afternoon and any work out on the river she had done in the morning, although Turpentine suspected Pearl had already informed him while they had been out having fun. All of them including Sen would spend some time playing boardgames or reading out on the castle deck until the sun went down, and then Ripple would vanish off with her mother to their underwater home while Turpentine would return to his cabin to make a few more sketches before going to bed too.
It made Turpentine feel more like an odd duck than ever, or perhaps the misplaced puzzle piece that Baron Gaberdine considered him to be. It was bad enough that when he was in the middle of an underwater landscape one morning and Sen had dropped by to say he was going to town to get groceries, Turpentine had dropped his brush into the solvent and trotted right after the elderly earth pony, catching up with him just as he left the gangplank.
"Wait up, Seneschal," called Turpentine, even though the call was largely superfluous, due to Sen's slow pace.
"Ay, lad. That I'll do willingly." He did not stop his slow trudge, but he did look over his shoulder when Turpentine drew up beside him and slowed to his pace. "Going a little stir-crazy on the ship, young lad?"
Turpentine really did not know how to respond other than nodding briefly.
"Ya, ya. The old girl can wear on you," said Sen. "I've been walking her decks nigh on fifty years now, ever since she was a new ship straight out of the Baltimare yards. The old baron, he tore the bottom out of the Paradise III on some rocks, and that took some doin' I'll tell you, on account of the riverboats don't draw much more water than a cup. Then he up and died when he slipped on a gangplank while shopping for a new one in Baltimare, an' his grandson took that as a sign."
"A sign of what?" asked Turpentine. "Slippery when wet?"
Sen chuckled. "On Sale, Price Reduced. Got 'em to knock over fifteen percent off. Oh, it was a wonderful time. Up and down the river, with mares wavin' to us in every port. Baron Miller, he was a cagy old cuss, but he could pinch a bit until it squealed. When somethin' needed fixing, he made sure it got fixed right, but if it were just some gee-gaw cluttering up the ship, out it went." Sen eyed the little colt strolling along to his side. "But I suppose you don't want to hear about some old stallion, do you boy?"
"Actually... yes." Turpentine made an abortive wave of one hoof after a passing mosquito while hopping on three legs for a second. "Baron Miller taught Ripple all about the boat... I mean ship, but I've never seen a picture of him. I thought I could maybe paint one for Baron Gaberdine as thanks for putting me up while he looks for another art school for me. Once I get my picture of Princess Luna done, it sounds like he may have another school he wants me to try." Turpentine caught the troublesome mosquito landing on his rear and squashed it with one precise flick of his tail.
"Practical." Sen nodded in agreement. "Most likely if you offered him money, he'd turn you down, but a portrait, that's a coin of a different denomination."
- - ☸ - -
Although Sen did not have any recent photographs of Baron Miller, he did have a way of describing the old pegasus stallion that brought him to life in Turpentine's head. While Sen reminisced about their river journeys together, Turpentine sketched out a few line drawings of the baron's square chin, his steely eyes, and the awkward way his feathers always stuck up on both wings, due to a birth defect that made flying difficult for him. A few of the town residents added their own tidbits of information, including Madam Shutters at the stall and breakfast, who had inherited his captain's hat. It was ratty and stained, with the white top being more an ivory shade and the black bill having faded to a patchy grey, and nothing left of the golden thread but holes, but it brought a youthful smile back to Sen's face, particularly when Madam Shutters gave it to Turpentine by putting it on his head and refusing to take it back.
"You wanted to see what the old reprobate was like," said the old mare with a wink. "He wore that old hat every day I'd ever seen him. Said it gave him luck, an' you've got the look of somepony who needs a little luck of their own."
It was really too large for his head and made Turpentine's ears bend down in an uncomfortable fashion from where they stuck out of the holes in the sides, but it did feel 'lucky' in some small way. The old stallion had seen so much of the top side of the river, and Turpentine had just gotten a little glimpse of the underwater side, which made him feel a little like a reflection of the gentlestallion when he looked in the mirror and gave the hat a generous rake to one side.
After he helped carry the groceries back to the ship, Turpentine managed to convince Sen to dig out his old photograph collection, which soon attracted Baron Gaberdine, all grease-splattered and dirty from working on Castle Paradise's piston rebuilding. It baffled Turpentine how a unicorn who held things without touching them could get so greasy, but whenever Ripple helped out with the ongoing rebuild, she was just as smeared with oil or even more.
One picture in particular caught Turpentine's eye, slightly blurry and out of focus as if the camera user had moved while shooting, but it showed the old baron posing in front of the steamboat with a much younger Sen in the background. They both were sporting mustaches of generous volume and length, with straw boater hats and matching vests, making them look as if they were in a singing group of some sort.
"That's from the Mill Stream's Winter Wrap-Up Song and Dance Contest," explained Sen. "Every year, we'd pick up a dozen or so partygoers from downriver and shuttle them to and from the contest. Let 'em blow the whistle and everything. That's where I met Missus Shutters back when she was still married. We did the trip every Spring until the old baron sprained an ankle and couldn't dance any more. Still stopped by once in a while just to watch. Those were the days." Sen chuckled as he held the photo, lost in his memories.
- - ☸ - -
Several days later, Turpentine had reached the end of his patience with his project. Using the photograph of the old baron, he had tried to make a painting of Sen and Baron Miller, but every time he hit the wings, things just went sideways. After his third attempt had ended with the unfinished painting floating in the lagoon, Turpentine had been coaxed out from under his bed with the most sincere promise from Baron Gaberdine that he would 'fix it.'
The 'fix' apparently involved a pre-dawn wakeup call and a brisk walk through Gravel Flats to the Speedy Cargo office, whose wagon was loaded down with radishes and parsnips for the sisters' weekly trip to Baltimare and the surrounding vicinity.
"Here you go, girls." Baron Gaberdine dropped a pouch of bits into Powderpuff's outstretched hoof and patted Turpentine on the head. "Have fun in Baltimare. I'll see you this evening."
"Wait!" Turpentine's eyes could not decide whether to look at the wagon or the departing tan stallion, who was not stopping. "You said you were going to fix how I can't paint feathers."
"You said you're a big colt now," said Gaberdine over his shoulder. "Powderpuff is going to drop you off at The Painting Palette before they do the rest of their deliveries. They'll pick you back up when they're done with their delivery route and you can tell me how it all went this evening. Sen packed you a lunch, and there's bits in your bag for supplies and bribes for that old codger who runs the place. Last week, it sounded like he really knows how to paint feathers, so have him show you. Enjoy your day!"
And with that, the young baron passed around a corner and vanished, leaving Turpentine alone with the two pegasus sisters.
- - ☸ - -
"Can't believe he just left me," grumbled Turpentine as he shouldered open the door to The Painting Palette. "Sending a little colt into the big city with a bag full of bits. It's irresponsible, that's what it is."
"Good morn, Turpentine," said Caractere from where he had been opening the shades to the large front windows of the store. "I thought you said last week you were a big colt."
"I am! It's just..." After a brief consideration of his vanishing logical high ground, Turpentine dug into his saddlebag and got out Gaberdine's bag of bits. "Here."
The old pegasus took the bag and looked inside with a low whistle. "So, you have robbed a Baltimare bank and are looking for poor, old Caractere to hide you until the polizia have finished searching, yes?"
"No." Turpentine was trying to scowl, but his eyes kept getting caught by bits and pieces of tempting floor displays, and an entire spectrum of oil paints out on display like some overly enthusiastic rainbow. "The date for my sitting with Princess Luna got pushed back, and I need to get more supplies for my practice piece. I was going through canvas like it was paper for a while, even scraping off the old failures. I just can't get feathers to come out right!"
The storekeeper snorted deep in his throat, then coughed twice into a kerchief which he tucked back into his vest. "Sorry, getting over a cold. Don't be embarrassed about painting over your failures. The old masters did it all the time. Didn't you read any of those books your friend bought for you?" At Turpentine's incriminating silence, Caractere pulled one of the books off a nearby shelf and leafed through it. "Foolish children, always wanting to make their own mistakes. Here. Read before you do anything else. You can read, can't you?"
Grumbling to himself, Turpentine settled down at the table. It was just a dumb old history book, even if it was about artists and their works, but the longer he read it, the more interesting it got, particularly the section on Cloudsdale artists. He took to doodling in his sketchbook while reading, with the old pegasus owner dropping by the table every once in a while to see how he was progressing. Most of the time at school, Turpentine had only figuratively nibbled at books, but he fairly devoured this one, using the book's example diagrams to make notes and little practice drawings as he went.
"They all did feathers a different way, but they all worked," he said to Caractere when the elderly stallion dropped by the table during a break from helping customers.
"Everypony does feathers different. Here, come look at your painting from last week and tell me what you did wrong."
The painting of Caractere's granddaughter looked different to Turpentine's eyes now that it had a week to dry and his mind had some time to wrap around the concept of feathers. "I didn't do anything wrong," said Turpentine, squinting with his nose almost against the dry paint. "I didn't really do anything. Can I borrow a brush and some paint again? I'd like to fix it."
"I thought you might." The old stallion reached behind the display of art supplies and pulled out a primed and outlined canvas, which he put on the second easel. "I was going to see if I could do your painting in the style of Cotton Boll, but I only got this far before my neck cramped up again. Let's see what you can do from scratch. Again, but better this time."
- - ☸ - -
Time slipped away from Turpentine while he sat in the front window of the store and painted, trying to make the feathers in the portrait breathe the way the photographs in the books had. Caractere dropped by to offer encouragement and advice whenever he had a break between customers, and by the time he broke for lunch, there were several ponies outside the store window just watching the young colt work.
He barely tasted the sauerkraut and mango salad Sen had packed before he was back with a brush in his teeth and the flowing lines of wings filling his mind. The owner of the store was a great help with the finer details, making several references to various old masters and their techniques, each of which he seemed to be able to describe and demonstrate with ease. Still, none of the styles matched exactly what Turpentine wanted to do with the sweeping rows of feathers, even after having Caractere bring his own wing over for a nose-length examination of the faded feathers. A fusion of techniques fit Turpentine's own painting preferences better, with little flicks of the fine brush for details and vanes, and dry brushing for the way the light glistened off the oils on the surface layers of the secondary feathers.
It was almost a shock when Powderpuff touched him on the shoulder, making Turpentine realize the shadows in the streets were starting to get long and the store should have closed nearly an hour ago.
"Coo, you've got a sweet touch with the brush there," said the pink pegasus with her head cocked to one side while she looked between the two different paintings of Caractere and Sympathique in the restaurant. "Yer gettin' better too. It's worth gettin' home late tonight. Princess Luna's gonna be awful proud of bein' painted by a sharp colt like you."
"He still didn't get the eyes right," grumbled Caractere before carrying Turpentine's bags over to him. They were stuffed to the top, with a half-dozen primed canvas blanks in a bag to one side, and he hoofed them over while escorting his last two customers to the door.
"Since you were busy, I took the liberty of packing your purchases. Your change is in your saddlebag, and I'll let the painting dry here so you can pick it up next week. Just do me a favor." The old shop owner paused once Turpentine and his older escort were outside of the door. "Just... paint Princess Luna with her eyes closed." |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 12 - What Is Love? | Drifting Down the Lazy River
What Is Love?
"These was all nice pictures, I reckon, but I didn't somehow seem to take to them, because if ever I was down a little they always give me the fan-tods."
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
"Good morning, Princess Luna. We're very glad to see you. No, that's not right. Hello, Princess Luna. Please come in. We're honored to have you as a guest this morning. No, that's still not right." Turpentine shuffled uncomfortably, trying to use one hoof to get a little slack in the collar of his unaccustomed suit jacket. "Mister Gaberdine, I don't understand why I can't just paint Princess Luna out by the waterfall like I wanted. Besides, I'll get paint on the suit."
"I had Sen borrow an apron from Missus Shutters for you too," said Gaberdine while tucking in the bedsheets on Turpentine's bed for the seventh time this morning, each time seeming to twist the sheets tighter and more rigid than the last until Turpentine thought he might need a crowbar to get into bed tonight. "Besides, this is an official visit. Many other baronies or duchies haven't had one of the princesses visit in centuries. I wanted to do this the right way." He gave a twitchy glance around the inside of Turpentine's room, now with all of the woodwork polished to a mirror-like gleam. "I just wish I could have gotten the engine all the way put together and the outside repainted. What if she wants to take Paradise out for a short cruise? What if she brings a photographer? Maybe I should clean up..." His eyes drifted over to the oil painting of the batpony nurse, in the last stages of drying on the cabin wall before it could be framed, but Turpentine stepped in front of it.
"No, Mister Gaberdine. I'm not putting it away. It'll smudge, and besides, I wanted to show it to Princess Luna before I give it to Syrette."
"But it's... um..." Gaberdine helplessly gestured with a hoof and struggled to find a word that better described the way the nurse looked while under the waterfall, but he was interrupted before he could finish.
"It most certainly is." Luna's soft voice from almost directly behind Baron Gaberdine rendered the young stallion rigid and almost speechless, except for a subdued whimpering.
"Good morning, Princess Luna." Turpentine looked around his room, which would have been a little crowded with all three of them in it, as well as the paintings on the walls. "Do you want to come in? You'll need to be careful. Some of these are still wet."
"Certes." Luna's dark magic aura formed around Gaberdine and floated the immobile stallion back out into the riverboat hallway so there would be a comfortably larger space in the room for the somewhat larger form of Princess Luna. She moved almost as graceful and smooth as she had the night Ripple had summoned the princess, with only a few hesitations that could have been from her own recovery from the flu, or perhaps just caution with so much wet paint on canvas against the walls. "My, my. You certainly have been a busy little colt."
"Thank you, Princess Luna. I've been practicing a lot for your portrait. Mister d'Or at the art school said my style was old and out of date, but I think they're pretty good." He carefully straightened an inked line drawing he had done of the lagoon and let out his breath in a long sigh. "Baron Gaberdine says we should paint your portrait in the castle galley, since there's better light there through the day."
"I see." Luna's interested gaze stopped at the batpony nurse painting, which was just almost dry enough to be packaged up for shipping. "Syrette said you were planning a surprise, and refused to tell me what it was."
"Well, I was." Turpentine wriggled inside his itchy borrowed suit, which seemed determined to strangle him to death before the portrait sitting. Missus Shutters' son had outgrown it several decades earlier, and as much as Turpentine liked Sen's elderly widowed marefriend, sometimes she seemed just a little too helpful for his own good. The suit's unwelcome scent of mothballs conflicted with the much more preferable perfume of drying oil paint, but with Luna in the same room and looking over his most recent works, the somehow sweet scent of perspiration from her morning flight drowned all of them out, and was terribly distracting to his almost eleven year old mind.
"I thought about painting you out by Ripple's waterfall. Before it got too cold, that is. Baron Gaberdine thinks that's not a good idea. He's been getting awfully nervous over the last few days about having you out here."
"I see." Luna stopped her intensive investigation of the drying paintings and turned that warm teal gaze on Turpentine. "You must understand that Baron Gaberdine is a Canterlot unicorn. They set great store on propriety."
"What's that?" asked Turpentine.
"Doing things properly in the traditional fashion," explained Luna. "And as is proper, we would prefer our discussion with our portraitist to be private."
Gaberdine had been lurking outside Turpentine's cabin, looking as if he wanted to interrupt, but Luna reached out with her magic and firmly closed the door with a quiet click. It seemed a little rude, and with as much as Gaberdine had done for Turpentine over the last few weeks, he felt it necessary to stand up for the young stallion.
"I really wouldn't mind having Mister Gaberdine in here while we talk. He's been very kind to me and very supportive of my work. Mother Windrow always said most of the Canterlot unicorns have a stick up their..." Turpentine considered his next words carefully. Princess Luna seemed to be pretty normal for a princess, considering just what he had read about Celestia in the weekend editions of The Canterlot Times. He had even expected Baron Gaberdine to be much like the haughty mountain unicorns, but once they got to know each other, Gabby was more friendly than anypony in Turpentine's home town.
Luna's friendly warmth to him felt much the same. It seemed almost impossible that the smiling mischievous alicorn was related to the Princess Celestia he had read about in any fashion, or that Luna had once been the terrifying Nightmare Moon.
"My sister hath an upcoming event called Chuckle-Lot or something silly like that," said Luna with the subdued smile Turpentine wished he could reproduce half as well in paint. "In it, she doth act the fool, both in dress and in activity. She insists that I participate this year, and even hath given me permission to use her unicycle. It is supposed to loosen up the stuffy court ponies and make them--" Luna coughed into a hoof "--lose the stick for at least a day."
The smile was back on Luna's face complete with dimples once she finished and Turpentine stood watching, trying to commit every single detail of her face to memory, because this opportunity would not likely come around again. Far too soon for his preferences, that enigmatic smile faded back into the calm expression the princess wore like a familiar practiced mask to keep her emotions from leaking out all over the ponies around her.
"Is there something you wish to ask, young Turpentine?"
"I..." He really did not want to say it, but he had to know, and it was just the two of them since Luna had shut Mister Gaberdine out of the room. Still, she was a princess, even if she seemed enough of a scamp to be one of Ripple's relatives. "Before I paint your portrait, could I ask you something really important, Princess Luna? I mean really, really important."
"Please. You may call me Luna, young one. And you have my leave to ask any question you wish."
"Well... Okay." Turpentine took a breath. "What was it like being Nightmare Moon?"
The warmth of her smile vanished and barriers across Princess Luna's emotional reserves shuddered. Turpentine could see the interplay of dozens of small muscles in her face, fighting to get out from behind the frosty shield of her powerful restraint, and he quickly added, "Unless you don't want to talk about it."
"Why would I not wish to speak of my greatest failure?" asked Luna in a voice so cold Turpentine could swear he saw her breath in the warm air of the cabin. "It is quite simple. I was jealous of my sister and the love our ponies showered upon her. The Nightmare used that weakness to take advantage of my foolishness so that I would bring Night Eternal to our beloved world."
Taken momentarily aback by Luna's intensity, Turpentine sat back on his haunches, waved his forelegs, and talked rapidly. "No, no. Not that. I meant we read the newspaper articles and the history story that came out for school, and I've always loved Nightmare Night, but I always wondered about what it felt like. I mean all of the good villains in the stories in my books always do what they do because they feel it's the right thing to do, but when I read the newspaper story I just couldn't feel..."
The silence stretched for a long while until Luna let out her breath and closed her eyes. "I shall not justify my actions with lies, even to one young as yourself. You cannot know the jealousy burning within my breast during those dark days when my sister received the majority of our subjects' love. Night Eternal was to be my victory, where all the ponies of Equestria would finally see the beauty of my night sky, and love me as they did her. Instead, it was a betrayal of the worst kind, as I threw away the love of my sister for the false hopes of a lie."
"I see," said Turpentine. "And when you reached the goal you fought so hard for, you found out it wasn't at all what you expected. You did what you thought was right for yourself, even though it turned out to be very wrong for everypony."
"And my sister paid the price for my foolish vanity." There was a flash of something dark and dangerous in Luna's eyes when she turned her gaze on Turpentine. "Why do you ask this of me?"
"Because I felt like that too. Well, except for the whole Night Eternal stuff," explained Turpentine. "I was so convinced that running away to Baltimare was going to make me a famous painter that I didn't realize how much it hurt Mother Windrow. I learned my lesson and she forgave me for it, but when I found out all the work I had put into achieving my goal and all the worry I caused was pointless, I didn't know what to do."
He looked down at the wooden flooring of the cabin and scuffed one hoof across the perfect waxed surface. "I lost my way, and I was hoping you could help me find it again. Only you can't, because you're just as lost as I am."
The scuffing of his hoof back and forth stopped when Princess Luna gently touched his chin and lifted until his eyes met hers. "Verily, thou art a most peculiar little colt. Pray tell, why are these dark and distasteful matters a concern of yours for the simple task of painting my portrait?"
"Because Mother Windrow always told me a pony is made out of their life experiences, and Sen says everything we see can be used as an example to learn from, both the good and the bad." Turpentine took a deep breath while swimming in the beauty of her gaze. "I like to paint who a pony is, and I can't see any of Nightmare Moon in you at all."
"Really?" The princess blinked several times, much as if she had a particle of dust in her eyes. "From the reactions of the Canterlot royals, it would seem as if they expect for me to resume my previous dark mantle of failure at the slightest provocation. Every shadow, every angered shout, and they recoil from us as if they wish to run about like frightened foals and scream in terror."
There was a sense of suppressed rage behind those huge teal eyes, but a small sparkle of amusement too when Luna straightened up with her wings extended as far as they could go in the small room. Dark magic skittered across her coat, shifting her colors to an inky near-black while her eyes narrowed into oval slits, armor materialized across her head and legs, and lightning flashed outside the cabin windows to the deafening sound of an eerie laugh.
"Behold, little one! See the Nightmare which lurks within my--" Luna paused with dark wings extended and her fierce scowl slowly turning into an expression of puzzlement. "What are you doing?"
"Jus' a second, Princess Luna," muttered Turpentine through the pencil gripped in his teeth. He scribbled furiously on his sketchpad, looking up only long enough to add, "Can you do that face where you were cackling again? This is so cool!"
Despite looking as if she were about to burst out laughing, 'Nightmare Moon' held her position until Turpentine had finished sketching, even through several frantic efforts by Baron Gaberdine to poke his nose into the room and interrupt. As with all good things, it had to come to an end eventually, and Luna shifted back into her regular shape with a subdued chuckle and no sign at all of the stiff and unyielding mask she had kept over her expression earlier.
"We certainly hope that is not the pose you use in our promised portrait." Luna attempted to peek over his shoulder while Turpentine finished a few smaller details in his sketch pad. "It certainly would be unique when placed upon the walls of our castle with the great number of my sister's portraits."
"No, I don't think..." Turpentine looked up from his drawing to find himself nose to nose with the dark princess and almost poking her with the pencil. "You want to hang my portrait of you in the castle?"
Luna shrugged, although the twinkle in her eyes showed her good humor still remained. "It shall be a good start. In truth, were I to be painted or photographed every day for your lifespan, it would not match the number of her portraits which lie within the art galleries and corridors of our fair city. Sitting for a photograph is a less burdensome thing which I still fain would prefer to avoid, but your offer intrigued me."
"Mister Caractere said the photos of you looked kinda like you were trapped in the room," offered Turpentine.
Suppressed emotions flowed across Luna's face like ripples in a fast-moving stream, but turned back into the reassuring impassive expression the princess wore like a mask. "Ah... Yes. Since our experience as Nightmare Moon, we have been somewhat... reluctant to be confined..." She trailed off, somehow looking faded and small in the filtered sunlight coming through the windows of Turpentine's cabin. It somehow made Turpentine think of the time he had broken a priceless vase in one of his foster family homes, with the sharp shattering sound of porcelain shards skittering away into the darkest corners of the room, and how Luna's feathered wings were now clutched tight to her barrel in the close confines of the small riverboat cabin. She deserved to be soaring through the sky, playing tag with the stars and laughing throughout the night, and he could think of no worse punishment for the beautiful princess than to be forced to sit in the stuffy riverboat galley for several hours during her sitting.
"Let me get my things together and we'll go to the seapony grotto for some preliminary sketches."
- - ☸ - -
The warmth of the sun on Turpentine's thankfully bare coat mixed with the waterfall to fill the grotto with a comfortable humidity. It was certain to turn within a few weeks to a chilly coldness, but for now, it was quite nearly the perfect environment to sketch. The trip to the grotto had been somewhat of a blur to Turpentine, as his mind had been filled with painting potential, but Princess Luna seemed to really enjoy it. The exciting novelty of Gaberdine's new speedboat, which Ripple's aunts pulled at a much more conservative velocity than before, even made her steal the old baron's captain cap off his head and take a dramatic pose at the wheel with the breeze flowing through her starry mane.
It was just the three of them in the speedboat with Luna, Turpentine, and Ripple. Although Baron Gaberdine had wanted to come along, both Luna and Turpentine had discouraged it as there was not really enough space in the boat and nothing for him to do during the painting other than to watch.
Still, they were being watched quite well.
Once he had reclaimed his cap and gotten his ears situated in the holes, Turpentine set his easels up fairly close to the waterfall in order to get a better view on the way the water ran off Luna's wings and down her neck. Close behind him, Ripple positioned herself where she could keep a waterproofing spell over his dry paper while he worked. And then, of course, there was a general sensation of an audience from the deeper water out in the grotto where the other seaponies were hiding.
The problem Turpentine was having was not being watched, it was his subject, who had donned her mask of royal detachment again once she had approached the waterfall. It was more than a little frustrating, and he probably could have dealt with the problem by drawing her elusive smile from memory, but he decided to try talking the smile out of her instead. Plus, he had some more questions.
"Princ'ss Luna, did you ever have foals of your own?" That line of questions did not work at all, because Luna only seemed to shut herself away further, and even withdrew slightly under the waterfall, becoming only a dark silhouette against the shadows of the morning. "Not that I wanted you to ado'pt me," added Turpentine around the pencil. "I mean you must be awf'l busy around the castle, 'n wouldn't have much time for a colt."
"Indeed." Luna emerged from the back of the waterfall, although she still looked a little more like a half-drowned rat than the majestic sight Turpentine had intended. There was little or none of the mischievous scamp in her, and the smile she wore was so patently false that even Ripple seemed to sense something was wrong, and was giving him a worried sideways look.
He put the pencil back in the holder on the easel and tried to find a way to tell her that his idea for the sitting was not working. It was noisy with the water all around, but he was close enough to hear Luna give out a deep sigh, much the same as Mother Windrow did whenever one of the orphans would leave the house for a new family.
"Did you ever want to have foals of your own?" asked Turpentine on impulse.
This time, Luna did not retreat further into the waterfall. "Once," she said after a while.
"So..." Turpentine squirmed inside at how nosy he was getting. "You had a special somepony?"
"Oh, yes." It was amazing to see how a simple change in attitude made the wet and bedraggled pony into a true princess. Wings shifted, her mane flowed along with the sparkling water, and for one tiny brief instant, Turpentine could see what he wanted to capture in paint.
Then it was gone, and Luna slumped under the incessant waterfall. "But he is long gone, passed away into the ages. We were in love, so much in love. Have you ever tasted the sweet nectar of love, young Turpentine?"
"No, Ma'am. I'm only almost eleven," he added. "Love is for old ponies."
"Then perhaps it is best you never drink from that stream." She swirled one hoof absently in the pool, looking down and away from Turpentine. "Nay, forget I said that, young one. Drink deeply of the love of family and others, rejoice in their presence, for your life is far too short for regrets. Live, love, and let your star shine bright, for soon it shall be gone, and never to return."
Ripple spoke up abruptly, which shocked Turpentine, because she had been almost totally silent up to now. Her voice was cracking with emotion and a little sniffly, but she spoke up loud enough to be easily heard even over the sound of the waterfall.
"Mama says death does not end true love, for as long as we remember, our loved ones live within us. I was too little to remember my father, so she has to remember for both of us."
There was a slow motion to Turpentine's side when Pearl broke the surface of the grotto pool, her eyes downcast and her motions almost glacial. She emerged out of the water, taking small and hesitant steps on the wet gravel while shifting from seapony to unicorn form, but moved no further until Ripple spoke.
"Go ahead, Mama. Please."
Ever so slowly, Pearl lifted her head up until she matched gazes with Luna, then took a hesitant step forward into the streaming waterfall while Luna stepped forward toward her, one small mutual step at a time until they rested their necks together and embraced.
It was a poignant and solemn moment that Turpentine did not want to break by attempting to draw it, but he did shift positions to be closer to Ripple for needed moral support. They sat and watched both love-lost princess and widowed mother hold each other together in the waterfall spray for a long time until Pearl drew back and sat down on the water-damped ground.
She was silent for a time as she built up her confidence, but when she spoke, her voice was far louder and stronger than Turpentine had ever heard from the timid seapony.
"His name was Tidal Surge. We were so different in so many ways, from our families to our desires, but those differences drew us together, like two parts of a broken shell. Where I was weak, he was strong. Where I was afraid, he was brave. Our life together was perfect, and from that perfection, our love brought forth a child. She was so defenseless, so weak that I begged him not to go to the Lightless Deep as was his duty."
Pearl swallowed, then turned her face up to the sun and let out a quiet wail of despair that rose up above the sound of the waterfall. It was a wordless song of pain and grief that built and echoed from the surrounding rocks, shifting in tone as the seapony sat in the waterfall's spray with the tears pouring down her cheeks indistinguishable from the surrounding water. The echoes seemed to surround Turpentine, an unbreakable sorrow crushing in from all sides that made Ripple press against his side and a cold shiver travel up his spine while the wordless song of grief grew louder.
With a jolt, Turpentine realized the growing chorus from around him was not from echoes, but the sweet voices of one seapony after another as they quietly lifted their heads above the water to join in the eerie song until the whole grotto was filled with their sorrow. The music did not so much surround him as fill his entire being with the sensation of loved ones lost, as all of the seaponies must have had friends or family taken from them before fleeing their homes to this unfamiliar shore. They were as lost and lonely as Turpentine, clinging to each other in order to make it through life until they could hopefully return to their familiar undersea world as he never could.
It made Turpentine recall the muted russet and gold colors of his own mother from his oldest memories. Her loving face, the way she smelled of lavender and strawberries when she kissed him and booped his tiny nose. The stillness of her form when he last saw her. The warmth of Mother Windrow as she held him for hours while he cried afterward.
The wordless song swelled and grew in his heart until he thought he would burst, then slowly faded away until only the everpresent sound of the waterfall was left and Pearl slipped into the grotto pool without even a splash.
At his side, Turpentine could feel Ripple lean away from him momentarily as if she wanted to follow her mother into the water, then lean again back into his side, pressed firmly against him and trembling just as much as he was. The rest of the seaponies including Pearl remained silent on the surface of the grotto, witnesses to both his uncomfortable support of his little friend and the motionless form of Princess Luna, still kneeling at the edge of the waterfall.
Then Luna looked up and spoke.
"His name was Stardust." Luna's voice sounded clear and strong, despite the falling water. She rose to her hooves and shook out her mane, sending sparkling droplets of water in all directions, even though the waterfall soaked it completely again. "When he died, I sent his body into the heavens so I would never forget the love we had together, but that was a mistake. For years, my sister had to talk me into raising the moon every night because I did not want to see his form in the night sky looking back at me, forever out of reach. I tried to block away his memory in order to return to the world, but a part of my heart passed with him and shall forever be lost among my stars."
"Did you kiss?" asked Ripple.
"Aye, that and so much more." Luna spread her wings and pirouetted around under the water spray. "We used to dance among the waterfalls of Canterlot as it was being constructed. Torrents of water not much more than ice from the snowpacked mountaintop, but it could not cool our desires."
Princess Luna stretched under the pounding water, her wings spread wide and her head thrown back to luxuriate in the chill flow while she floated in the embrace of her phantom lover from centuries ago, but Turpentine did not say anything.
He was far too busy drawing.
- - ☾ - -
"Um." Baron Gaberdine stood in Turpentine's cabin and regarded his most recent painting. "Um," he repeated, as he had done so several times. "It's..."
"Um," said Turpentine. "You already said that."
"Yes, but... Um..." Gaberdine gestured with one hoof rather vaguely.
"Um?" prompted Turpentine.
Gaberdine nodded. "Very much so."
"I need to do a little touch-up work and put in a few of the finer details, but Princess Luna says she wants to put the portrait into the castle gallery," said Turpentine with just the tiniest bit of smugness as he returned to looking at the painting.
"Oh," said Gaberdine, which at least was a change.
"She says she's going to drop by Castle Paradise next week with her sister to pick it up." Turpentine studied his work, making a mental list of the tiny tweaks and details he needed to add before letting the oils dry for a few days. He did not want to ask, but after having such a successful sitting with Princess Luna, he had to. "Do you think... Princess Celestia would like me to paint her portrait too?"
"No!" said Gaberdine almost reflexively. "I mean... Um... Not in the same way, correct?"
"Oh, no." Turpentine turned over a fresh sheet in his sketchbook. "She doesn't seem like a waterfall pony. I really don't know where I should paint her portrait. I don't know anything about her."
"I used to think I understood her, until I became a baron," said Gaberdine. "Now, I'm not too certain." He eyed the painting again. "I've never claimed to understand Princess Luna."
"I think I do." Turpentine took a deep breath. "She's an orphan too, just like me. Her parents are gone, and all she has left in the world is her sister and memories."
He stood and looked at the painting for a while, then added, "And us."
Gaberdine stood in the cabin and looked in the direction of the painting also, but his eyes were focused off into the distance for a long, long while before he nodded his head.
"I made an appointment in a few days with Dean Emeritus Palette Brush, the present curator of the Canterlot Museum of Fine Arts and former Dean at the Department of Arts in Celestia's school." He paused and tapped his chin. "You know, it's amazing how somepony's response changes when you start a letter, 'When I met with Princess Luna, she asked...'"
"It's the weight," said Turpentine. "In my home town, we moved the main meeting hall away from the river because of some erosion and flooding issues. It took every earth pony in town, all moving very carefully together, to keep from breaking something or hurting somepony. The princesses move a lot more than that every day. And night."
Gaberdine gave an unconvinced grunt. "In any case, Celestia's school turns out some of the finest artists in Equestria. They have a supervised boarding dormitory section for young students from outside of the city, or if you wish, I can talk with my father about letting you stay at the estate, since he's so insistent about having the pitter-clatter of little hooves around the place again."
"Will I get to meet with both of your parents?" Turpentine unconsciously flipped open his sketchbook to a blank page. "You don't have any photographs of them around the castle."
"Errr... Right." Gaberdine nodded. "I need to fix that."
"And you should tell them about Pearl. Mother Windrow always said a truth left unsaid is just another way to lie."
"Errr..."
"And sooner the better," added Turpentine. "Your father is kinda old. You should spend as much time with him as possible, because you never know when he might go away."
For the longest time, it looked as if Gaberdine was going to argue with him, and since Turpentine was so young, he really expected to be ignored like his long string of foster parents had always done whenever he brought up a suggestion that seemed so obviously correct. It was a side effect of his one-pony-wide stubborn streak that Mother Windrow had complained about constantly, and normally combated with a stern phrase that ended in, "or no painting for a week!"
"You know, kid." Gaberdine gave out an enormous sigh. "You're right. Just like my father. I don't know if it's safe to have both of you under one roof. I mean, Canterlot is built off the side of a mountain, after all. It may not be stable enough for the two of you to share a house."
"The dormitory doesn't sound too bad," ventured Turpentine. "Kinda like an orphanage, only with more kids."
"Huh." Gaberdine turned and left the cabin, returning with a single sheet of paper in his magic. "In any case, it would be impolite to visit Canterlot without informing Princess Celestia. And Luna. After all, it is their school we would be trying to get you into. Why don't we sit down and write them a letter. I can show you the proper introduction and format, and how to phrase your request, as well as the proper form for..."
He sat there and blinked for a while before Turpentine hesitantly asked, "Sir?"
"Tell me," started Gaberdine very slowly. "Did I sound like my father right then?"
Turpentine nodded. "Very much so."
"I thought as much." Gaberdine put the blank sheet of paper down on the small writing desk in the cabin. "Why don't you write Princess Celestia and Luna a letter in your own words, telling them we will be in Canterlot four days from now... and include whatever else you want to tell them."
* * ✹ * *
The next day, Ripple was uncharacteristically quiet during their afternoon trip to the cattail bog, even when Turpentine managed to get one of the ripe cattail seed pods and bonk her lightly on the horn with it. The resulting cattail battle was not conducted with anything near her normal level of energy, although it did carpet the immediate area with flying cattail fuzz to the point it was difficult to determine just where either of them were wildly swinging their explosive weapons of fluffy doom. It took until the two of them had collapsed against the sunny side of a grassy area in order to catch their breath and try to blow the cattail fluff out of their noses before Ripple finally blurted out what was bothering her.
"I don't want you to leave."
Turpentine had a moment to think before responding because a fleck of cattail fluff had gotten into his eyes, but from the way Ripple was tearing up, her problem was far more than some errant cattail debris. "Mister Gaberdine says the next class wouldn't start until after Winter Wrap-Up anyway," he started, trying to sound as reassuring as he could despite his own insecurities. "Even if... I mean when they let me in, Mister Gaberdine says he'd pay for Miss Powderpuff and Lemon Drops to bring me back for a few days every other week, which I think I'll need. Canterlot is big, and all built up and the biggest crowd I'd seen in Tidewater wasn't even a Baltimare street and the mountain is huge and..." Turpentine took a deep breath and put a foreleg over Ripple so he could give her a hug without looking too much like he was.
He did not want to admit he was afraid. Turpentine had built a mental image of Baltimare that was far, far different than reality, both in being so much larger and full of ponies than he had expected. Canterlot was even bigger, and full of snooty important unicorns who threw fancy balls and dressed in elegant outfits, which part of him wanted to paint so badly he could taste it, and the other part just wanted to dive under the surface of the river and hide.
But worst of all, when he went to Canterlot, he would have to leave Ripple behind.
Unless... |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 13 - The Heights of Culture | Drifting Down the Lazy River
The Heights of Culture
"And then one by one they got up and stood, and went a-weaving around the ring so gentle and wavy and graceful, the stallions looking ever so tall and airy and straight, with their heads bobbing and skimming along, away up there under the tent-roof, and every lady's rose-leafy dress flapping soft and silky around her hips, and she looking like the most loveliest parasol."
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
The sun was just barely peeping over the low hills around Gravel Flats when Baron Gaberdine trudged into the hangar of the Speedy Cargo office. Powderpuff and Lemon Drops were supposed to be loading the last of their packages for the morning trip to Canterlot, but the only thing he could see in the garage was the wagon. He stopped to look around, resplendent in his suit coat with well-brushed mane and polished hooves for the trip, although his confident air was somewhat offset by a nervous frown at the interruption in his schedule.
"Turpentine? Are you here?" called Gaberdine into the otherwise empty building.
"Just getting my box of paintings tied down, Mister Gaberdine," came a voice from inside the wagon. "We'll be all set to go then."
"Hima, Bar'n Ga'dine!" Powderpuff fluttered in through the open doorway with a paper bag in her mouth and placed it inside the front of the wagon where the passengers were to ride. "Whew. Sis will be right here in a few, 'cause she's gotta pay for our breakfast over at Crullers. I got'cha some sodas and a couple of poppy seed bagels to chew on for the trip, too. Canterlot's a little longer than just runnin' down to Baltimare, an' your passengers might get hungry."
"I've had my piece of toast," said Gaberdine, sounding a little uncertain about the concept of an in-flight meal of any kind. "And I bought an entire pack of gum for the trip. We really should be leaving if we're going to make our scheduled meeting with Dean Palette Brush. Ah, good morning, Turpentine."
Turpentine briefly nodded from where he had just stood up in the wagon bed with his captain's cap snugged down on his head far enough that only the tips of his ears poked out of the holes on the sides. Mostly it was an attempt to keep his hat from blowing off in the slipstream, but he also wore a nervous smile on his face about the other thing he was bringing along with him to Canterlot. "Good morning, sir. We're all ready to go now."
"Yeah, come on up, Mister Baron Gaberdine," said Ripple, popping up over the edge of the wagon beside Turpentine. "The bed of the wagon has these neat tie-downs so all of the cargo won't shift. We should put some on your motorboat so the painting supplies won't fly out if we make a sharp turn or hit a big wave."
Gaberdine stopped cold. "Ripple?"
"I wanted to come along," said Ripple, wavering a little between determined resistance and uncertainty. "You said if I got good enough with my transformation magic, we could go to Baltimare. Well." She lifted one slightly oversized hoof over the edge of the wagon and waved before quickly setting it back down so she would not fall over.
"Yes, but..." The presence of a witness obviously upset Gaberdine. He kept casting panicked looks at where Powderpuff was buckling herself into the wagon harness and unlimbering the second set of straps for her sister's imminent arrival.
"We practiced every afternoon," said Turpentine, standing right next to the little seapony who was wobbling slightly on her newly-transformed legs. "You told me magic was a matter of willpower, and Ripple really wanted to go to Canterlot with me."
"But..." Gaberdine waved into the distance with one hoof. "Canterlot."
"An' we wrote to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna," said Ripple. "On account you said we should be nice and tell them we're coming. Aren't you happy?"
"Ecstatic." Gaberdine scrambled onto the wagon and lit his horn in order to give Ripple's legs and pony tail a quick examination, then stopped cold again. "Did you tell your mother?"
"Kinda-sorta." Ripple cringed. "I wrote a note for Sen to give her. She said she was going to be so proud when I--" Ripple glanced at Powderpuff, who was looking back over her shoulder at the passengers.
"Is everything all right, baron?" Powderpuff wrinkled her nose up at Ripple. "I couldn't help but overhear your little friend earlier. Do you think we might meet the princesses?"
"Oooo, really?" Lemon Drops dropped out of the sky and slid up to her sister's side to start shrugging into her own harness. "I heard that you were going to paint Princess Luna's portrait, Turpentine. Is that why you're going to Canterlot?"
"He finished that days ago," bubbled Ripple with a bounce in the wagon that made it rock on its springs. "It's still drying so we can't take it with us but Mama says it shows the softer side of Princess Luna she hides. And Mister Baron Gaberdine keeps looking at it and um'ing, just like he does the painting of the pretty batpony nurse. Oh! That one's in the crate, so we can take it to her family in Canterlot today. Let me get it out and I can show you."
"Can we please get going?" asked Gaberdine plaintively. "And hurry?"
* * ✹ * *
The trip to Canterlot was not that much longer than Baltimare, particularly with Ripple and the pegasus sisters to talk with and all of the scenery to see. Baron Gaberdine remained resolutely quiet, much as if he were thinking ahead to what would happen when they returned to the riverboat and had to face Pearl. Turpentine was not very enthusiastic about that upcoming conversation either, but until then, he was determined to soak up every single experience of their trip for future inspiration.
And when the shining towers and buildings of Canterlot swelled in front of them, he was so filled with inspiration that it leaked out all over. Ripple looked over his shoulder and used her magic to hold the sketchpad steady for him while he drew, but there was no way he was going to get even a small fraction of the city down on paper before they arrived. He wanted to tell the sisters to slow down, but even if they had hovered in place for several hours, Turpentine knew it would only interfere with the real reason he had for coming to Canterlot.
At least the architects here knew how to put beauty into their craft. Hopefully, the artists at the school did too.
Still, the wagon slowed as they approached the city and the lower commercial landing area Baron Gaberdine had selected for their landing zone as fairly proximate to both the art museum wing of the castle and his own family home. Turpentine was quite busy with getting the curves of an ornate roof just perfect, so he did not notice at first, but when the wagon changed course and began to climb, he looked up.
"What's going on, Mister Gaberdine?" Turpentine looked at the two Royal Guard pegasi flanking their path and directing the Speedy Cargo wagon toward the castle. "Did we break some sort of traffic rule?"
"I'm not certain." Gaberdine gave the stern guards a cautious glance before resuming his intent stare at the destination they were being guided toward. "I think that's the private chariot landing spot for the Royal Sisters over there."
"Guidance Flight to Big Perch," said one of the guards with a hoof held up to his helmet. "Destination in sight and on final approach. Are Sunburst and Moonglow in position?"
Whatever the pony on the other end of the communication link said must have been positive, because the two guards spread further apart and gave the wagon a little more maneuvering room for the upcoming landing. Their destination ahead was obvious, and had such a starkly elegant simplicity that it took Turpentine's breath away. The landing site was a plain disc of creamy white marble quite nearly the size of Castle Paradise held suspended over a huge amount of empty space by a simple cantilevered bridge sticking right out into the middle of the air with nothing supporting it other than its own structure and presumably a number of unicorn spells which Turpentine was finding a sudden distrust in.
It would have taken a considerable lack of skill for Powderpuff and Lemon Drops to miss their landing, but the two pegasi placed their worn working wagon right in the center of the stone slab and fidgeted about what was supposed to happen next. Turpentine could understand their discomfort, because the peeling wagon had most likely not been repainted for the last several years, and there were a few sections in front where the paint had been abraded down to the bare wood by constant tail-wind interaction. It probably would not have been as bad for the young sisters if not for their royal observer.
Princess Luna was standing patiently at the other end of the bridge, looking as calm and serene as ever despite the morning sun washing much of the color out of her coat. Her presence was an obvious invitation for Turpentine and Baron Gaberdine to move forward and greet her, but they both were hesitant to leave the secure confines of the wagon for the insecurity of the huge stone slab.
Ripple had no such hesitations. She scrambled right out over the sideboard with one of her normal leaps, only to slide across the cool stone with a clatter of hooves going in all directions, skidding along until finally stopping perilously close to the edge.
"Whoops. Watch that first step, Turpentine. Wow." The little seapony scrambled to her unsteady hooves and looked over the precipitous drop to the city far below. "We're up so high they look like minnows."
Turpentine was torn between crawling over to Ripple to make sure she did not trip and fall over the edge or walking up to Princess Luna, who was watching the whole thing from beneath hooded eyes and with the tiniest hint of a smirk at the corner of her lips. Since Gaberdine was similarly frozen with indecision, he bumped the older stallion and whispered, "You take Luna. I've got Ripple."
"Luna. Right." Gaberdine scrambled over the edge of the wagon with Turpentine and both went separate ways as planned, although after a moment's consideration of just how far above the city they were, Turpentine had second thoughts about his choice.
"Ripple." Once he was closer to the edge where the fascinated seapony was, Turpentine flattened down on his belly and scooted up far enough to be next to her, just in case he had to make a sudden grab for a vanishing tail when gravity took its inevitable toll. "I think Princess Luna wants to talk with you. Over there." In a burst of inspiration he added, "Remember, this isn't like the water. You can actually get hurt falling."
"Oh. Right." Ripple turned to go over to Luna and Gaberdine, but promptly tripped and nearly went over the edge as Turpentine had feared. It would have terrified Turpentine out of his wits if he had not noticed both Luna and Gaberdine's horns were lit up with a low shimmer of magic, as well as a unicorn guard tucked into a nearby alcove, and two pegasus guards who 'happened' to be flying in slow circles below the landing platform.
He was reminded again of the immense amount of planning that had gone into moving the town hall building to higher ground and how the mayor seemed to be just standing and watching unless you watched her very carefully to see how she was tracking every single pony and their actions. Equestria was far larger than his tiny home town of Tidewater, and the princesses had to keep track of far more things than a little colt could even dream of. And still, Princess Luna had taken time out of her scheduled activities for him and Ripple.
"Good morning, Princess Luna," said Turpentine once he had helped Ripple over to the waiting princess and more stable ground. "We're honored to..." He trailed off and looked around. "What are we doing?"
His confusion caused Luna to smile in an authentic fashion, much better than the artificial smile she had been wearing before to conceal her emotions. "My sister is a prat. First, she wanted to accompany your trip amongst the myriad of her portraits with the old dusty fossil who runs the museum. Then events interfered, and she asked me to stand up in her stead. We're about on the seventh revision of her schedule so far this morn, and I can hardly wait to see how it turns out. In the meanwhile."
She turned to the two pegasus sisters who were still harnessed to their wagon. "Miss Powderpuff. Miss Lemon Drops. The guards will show you a place to store your vehicle until it is time for your departure. Until then, you are honored guests in our residence, and we have instructed our guards to give you access to every area except our private dwellings."
"You mean," gasped Powderpuff, "we could go visit the--"
"Yes," said Luna.
"And the--" started Lemon Drops.
"Of course," said Luna.
Somehow managing to mix a bow/curtsey/takeoff into one motion, the sisters and their wagon rapidly dashed out of sight and Luna turned her attention to the rest of her guests.
"We thought it wise to introduce an element of security into your visit, young Ripple. These guards--" Luna gestured towards four rather intimidating pegasi in golden armor "--have been briefed on your unique circumstance and shall remain in the background while you are here."
Luna motioned down a nearby path leading to an open doorway. "Young Turpentine, Dean Palette Brush awaits your presence."
* * ✹ * *
The tour of Celestia's school went far better than the one in Baltimare. Dean Emeritus Palette Brush, who insisted his name was "With one l and two t's please," was a warm and friendly unicorn with a magnificent white beard almost sheep-like in its depth and consistency. He even helped set Ripple back upright after she fell over trying to shake hooves with him, and shared a laugh with all of them about the feeling of light-headedness other ponies got when traveling to Canterlot's altitude for the first time.
Palette Brush greeted Turpentine with a firm hoof-clasp and a clap on the shoulder, taking a few moments to leaf through his sketch book and comment positively about his skills before opening up the crate of painting examples much the same way a colt on Hearth's Warming Eve would tear into presents. He gave little 'umm' and 'ahh' noises while looking through the collection of Turpentine's paintings, holding the butterfly painting up close to trace the way the wings all seemed to blend together, and examining the painting of the batpony nurse with much the same expression as Baron Gaberdine, complete with repeated 'um's' before declaring it 'unique and visionary, worthy of a much older artist.'
On the following tour through the hallways and classrooms of the school, there were young unicorns about his age who greeted them, and Dean Palette Brush actually smiled on occasion, although it was difficult to see through his thick white beard. The group had to take several side-trips to get glasses of water or juice for Ripple due to the dry air, and one of the guards eventually vanished for a time in order to return with what he called a 'Super-mega-big-gulp' of strawberry soda. The monstrous foam container topped with a straw was just what the little seapony needed, and she slurped her way down it at an astonishing rate while they walked and Palette Brush talked about the advantages of a proper unicorn education in the field of classical painting.
"And now the art museum wing of the castle," announced Palette Brush, which baffled Turpentine a little due to all the other 'wings' they had seen around the place. Any more wings and the huge structure could probably take flight. "Here we have the Celestial Gallery, filled with centuries of portraits and paintings of our beloved Princess Celestia--"
Luna cleared her throat.
Dean Palette Brush paused. "And... um... while efforts are underway to procure historical portraits of Princess Luna from various private collectors, they have been understandably reluctant to loan them out to our collection due to their recent escalation in value."
"As well as other complications." Luna let out her breath in a huge huff. "Many of the portraits painted before the time of Nightmare Moon were not flattering of my emotional state, or were stored away and forgotten upon my banishment."
"Such a terrible loss to history." The dean lit up his horn and floated over a brochure. "We have plans for constructing a Lunar wing of the gallery, as well as beginning the expensive process of restoring what few paintings we have been able to locate, but funding has been an issue. If Your Highness will note, a simple grant of a few hundred thousand bits--"
"Can't you just put Princess Luna's pictures in the same gallery with Celestia's?" asked Ripple while pointing down the corridor with her enormous foam cup of soda. "I can see some pictures of her daughter."
"Where?" Palette Brush whirled around so fast his beard nearly hit him in the face. "Oh! No, that's Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. She's..." The elderly pony paused while trying to find a word, only Luna found hers first.
"Special." Turpentine could see Luna stick her tongue into her cheek a moment before continuing, "She is a young alicorn who was discovered several years ago and brought to the castle for my sister to raise. The Night used to be the domain of Love, but we have seen the advantage of permitting our younger 'cousin' to retain that title and associated duties. She seems to be bearing them far better than I ever did."
The last words came out in a husky whisper while a brief wave of dark emotion swept across Luna's face. Far too late to stop the conversation, Turpentine remembered the special edition of the Canterlot Times which had pictures of the new Princess of the Crystal Empire and her little foal. Flurry Heart was a tiny little pink thing with abnormally huge wings, much like the foal Princess Luna was unable to have.
"Oh," said Ripple, missing Luna's emotional cues totally. "You mean like sometimes late at night when my mother puts me to bed and thinks I'm asleep but then slips back to the castle and--"
"Moving right along," said Gaberdine rapidly. "We should continue with the tour before adjourning for a late lunch at my family's estate. You're free to join us, if you wish."
The invitation seemed to have been aimed at Dean Palette Brush, but Luna perked up and moved to intercept it faster than the elderly stallion. "We would be delighted, Baron Gaberdine. Ah, and here comes my dear sister, only a few hours late."
Over his short span of years, Turpentine had seen the sun rise many times, but always outside with the growing light bringing life to the trees and fields, and activity to the happy ponies of his home village. Sunrise was a repeating joy to his heart, much like opening a new box of paints or fresh cookies right out of the oven.
That same sense of rising majesty overcame him now when he looked down the corridor to see the huge white form of the Princess of the Sun striding purposefully in his direction with her glowing pastel mane flowing behind her. The guards stiffened up in even more rapt attention, the elderly dean adjusted the thick mustache over his beard, and even a tired Ripple seemed to brighten up. The newspaper photos could not possibly do Celestia's statuesque form justice, or capture the inestimable grace in her stride. If there was a mother to the entire country of Equestria, it was certainly her.
She stopped briefly to talk with Baron Gaberdine, who had swept into a deep bow upon her approach and seemed to glow with the same reflected joy as whenever Pearl graced him with a subtle smile. Even the air seemed warmer in her presence, and Turpentine was eternally grateful that the suit jacket Gaberdine had found for him had been 'lost' by Sen last night, or he would certainly have broken into a sweat under its itchy embrace now. She was indeed the Sun, and there was no way he could possibly paint Celestia under a waterfall without including a cloud of steam wafting off her long and smooth primaries.
Celestia continued to grow in his sight when she bent down to talk with Ripple, then greeted Luna with a soft sisterly nuzzle. The presence of the Day turned Luna's soft colors into faded memories of her similar glory under the moon and stars, a mere shadow of her larger and older sibling. For one long heart-piercing moment, Turpentine could understand just exactly why Luna had succumbed to the temptation of the Nightmare after she had experienced centuries of shadow under her sister's light.
Then the light shone down on Turpentine and all of his thoughts went away. Celestia bent down and leaned close, with the exact same playful smile as Luna while she spoke to him. Even her words were soft and gentle, rolling out in the precise cadence of a diplomat who had spoken to tens of thousands of creatures over her lifespan. In the midst of his delight, Turpentine despaired, for he would never be able to capture the gentle curves of her lips, the deep violets of her eyes and the way a small reflection of a small colt showed up in the deep blacks of her pupils.
Oh. That's me.
"Turpentine," the soft voice repeated. "Hello?"
"Yes!" Turpentine blinked his dry eyes and paused. "How long was I out?"
Princess Celestia's giggle was almost identical to her sister's, only deeper. "Just a few minutes."
"He certainly is a dedicated little pony," said a familiar voice which Turpentine could not place for a moment. "Most artists can't concentrate on a subject half as well."
"Caractere?" Turpentine blinked some more while taking in the sight of the old pegasus, still dressed in his maroon vest with the pencil and notepad in the top pocket where he would write down the prices while following Turpentine around his store in Baltimare. "What are you doing here in Canterlot?"
"An extremely good question," snapped Dean Palette Brush, turning to Celestia. "What is this criminal doing out of his cell?"
Celestia seemed unperturbed. "Turpentine's letters mentioned Monsieur Caractere quite favorably, which led me to check on his probation records. He has been a very law-abiding pony over the last few years and a positive influence on our young artist recently. Due to exigencies of my position, I may be called away at any time, and I thought it wise for Turpentine to have a friendly expert here in my place."
Turpentine did not realize he was trembling until one of those huge white wings reached over and touched gently on his shoulders, feeling much like a sun-warmed blanket on a chilly night. It helped, particularly since he was so close to Palette Brush that he could feel little splatters of saliva when the old unicorn shouted.
"Why was I not informed! He was sentenced to many more years in prison than he could have possibly served by now!"
"Dean Palette Brush," admonished Celestia. "Please control yourself. You once worked with Monsieur Caractere here in this very building. I thought you would be more forgiving of him, particularly due to his injuries. He was released early from his sentence due to ongoing medical probation." She reached out with one gold slipper-clad hoof and tapped the thin silver bracelet around the old pegasus' left forehoof. "He is well tracked, Dean Brush."
The school dean bristled. "There is nothing medically wrong with him that a good flogging or two could not cure."
Caractere started to make a response, but Celestia was faster, holding a hoof across his mouth and fixing Dean Palette Brush with a sharp glance. "I know you are still upset about Monsieur Caractere's actions, but--"
"Upset?" exploded Palette Brush. "He betrayed the trust of our entire department! He stole from our collection, and used his position to defraud dozens of our patrons! There is no punishment severe enough for his crimes! He should be thrown into the deepest prison in Equestria for a thousand yea--"
It was fascinating to see the change in the elderly unicorn's face while he went from incandescent to icy cold with fear, his eyes absolutely refusing to look in Princess Luna's direction at all. The Princess of the Moon had faded into the background when Celestia had appeared, but now her silent presence seemed to fill the hallway with the bitter chill of winter.
"Go on," encouraged Celestia. Her voice had not changed one iota, and her face still wore the polite smile like a mask. In fact, there was no sign at all that Celestia was anything but patient and kind other than perhaps a slight increase in the sunlight coming in through a nearby window.
"Excuse me, Your Highness. Your Highnesses." Palette Bush bobbed his head in a brief nod while backing up. "I'm feeling ill and must go lie down for a while."
Both alicorns turned to watch the old unicorn go clattering down the hallway in a near-trot, but remained silent until he had turned the corner and the sound of his silver shoes against the granite floor had died away.
Luna cocked an eyebrow at her sister. "One of Duke Prestigious' line, I presume?"
"Yes." Celestia let out her breath and Turpentine could smell the faintest tinge of something burning for a second. "I am so sorry, Monsieur Caractere."
The old pegasus hung his head. "The fault is all mine, Mademoiselle, both in my original crime and my assumption that Palette Brush, that's one l and two t's, would ever find it in his heart to forgive my betrayal of his trust."
"As I recall," said Luna abruptly before her sister could open her mouth, "Duke Prestigious had a list of his grudges cast into the bronze cover of his mausoleum, and made it a requirement of his descendents that they keep the list well polished."
"Indeed." A small sliver of an authentic smile crept onto Celestia's face. "For some reason, after the first century or so, the list was polished so briskly that the words became illegible."
"Undoubtedly poor quality bronze," put forth Caractere with a series of quick glances between the two alicorns. "Would that a mortal pony's heart be so easy to change." He transferred his full attention to Princess Luna, and when he did, the old pegasus seemed to shift slightly from nose to tail, his posture straightened, wings rustled as they settled back on his flanks, and he slowly went to one knee with only a few small pops of aged joints. "And you must be Princess Luna. I am so delighted to meet you, beautiful lady." He placed a soft kiss on the proffered Royal Hoof and remained with head held low while Luna giggled.
"Arise, you old charmer. Mine sister hath put me wise to thy schemes. Let us hope that thy manners may fall upon young Turpentine without the addition of your criminal past."
"Criminal?" asked Ripple very quietly.
"Yes indeed, young lady." The old pegasus turned to Ripple and stiffly bent down on one knee in the same way he had for Princess Luna, and kissed the somewhat larger hoof the seapony filly offered. A look of enlightenment seemed to sweep over his face and Caractere hazarded a brief look at Princess Celestia, who nodded back.
After a brief cough to clear his throat and a few moments to stand back up, Caractere added, "You certainly have come a long distance from your home, young lady. And yes, I am a criminal of the worst sort. While I worked in the Canterlot Museum of Fine Arts as an art restorer for many years, I was never content."
He gestured at his cutie mark, a pair of roses which were mirror images of each other. "My talent is in painting, which is true, but I could never capture anything new onto canvas and paint. I could only copy that which others more talented than myself had first created. I studied for years to master my talent, but I seemed doomed to remain in the art restoration department restoring old masters until I died."
"So you copied paintings out of the museum and sold them?" Turpentine cocked his head to one side. "That sounds like you'd be caught pretty quick."
"Meh." Caractere waved a hoof back and forth. "There are always ethical collectors who hunger for quality reproductions, particularly if they are identifiable as one. It was good money to raise a family with, but after my dearest Gratuite passed away, something in me was unleashed. I ventured into the darker shades of morality, making better and better fakes for more unscrupulous buyers until one day I found myself unable to tell one of my creations from the original."
"What did you do?" whispered Ripple.
Caractere shrugged. "I hung one back on the museum walls and sold the other. It made me consider something I had never thought of before. Perhaps, I could create. I threw all of my time and effort into making a new project. Something that would shake the art world to its rotten foundations. A Bledoe. A new Bledoe, something discovered in a dusty attic which all of the pompous art skeptics would hail as brilliant and original."
"It most certainly was," said Celestia. "Everypony was talking about it for months. When it went up for auction, the starting bid was supposed to be over ten million bits."
Gaberdine frowned. "Wait a moment, Your Highness. My father told me about the Bledoe auction. He said you just walked up to the painting, gave it a good look, and told the auctioneers it was a fake."
"The room went mad," said Celestia with a giggle. "My guards caught Monsieur Caractere boarding the train with just a little over a million bits in a suitcase, and enough evidence in his workroom to prove the old master was anything but old." She giggled again, but put a wide wing over the grimacing old stallion. "Do not despair at your lost art, but rejoice at your other creations. I understand your grandchildren are keeping you quite busy in Baltimare. How is Sympathique? Still teething?"
Gaberdine coughed quietly to break the silence. "Actually, Your Highness, she has turned into a fine young mare. She was a hostess at Mi Quintile during our recent trip there, and young Turpentine painted a very nice picture of the two of them."
"I'll bring it back to the riverboat so you can look at it when you and Luna come by to pick up her portrait," said Turpentine abruptly. "And... can I paint you then?"
"Ah..." That sense of perfection wavered when the Princess of the Sun cast a quick look over to her sister. "I can attempt to get free that day, but things always tend to pop up at the--"
"Something always comes up," said Luna.
"Not always," protested Celestia. "We're just a little behind schedule with being sick for a week."
For some reason, the Royal Sisters exchanged a subtle glance and giggled.
"Are we about done here?" asked Ripple. "My hooves hurt."
Gaberdine checked his schedule. "Well, Dean Palette Brush was supposed to run our tour through the Celestial Gallery for another hour and a half."
Ripple whimpered.
"...and then we were going to visit the Statuary Hedge Maze to view every one of Equestria's most famous sculptors' works," continued Gaberdine.
Ripple's whimper rose in pitch.
"...before a leisurely stroll through downtown Canterlot on our way to my family's estate and lunch."
"Or," said Luna, "If you wish for young Turpentine to continue his artistic tour with my sister, I could take you to the airship port and tour The Indomitable, the biggest Griffon Empire airship in the entire world. They're here on a mission of goodwill and friendship, so I'm certain they would welcome visitors, particularly ones who appreciate their nation's fine engineering talents."
Ripple perked up. "Could we go with Baron Gaberdine by the batpony house and take the painting to Miss Syrette like Turpentine wanted to do today too? Maybe she can explain why he 'hm's' at it all the time." A little bit of the perk went out of Ripple's ears and she tucked her tail down. "As long as she doesn't give me another shot."
"Of course," said Luna. "Then we can go look at the grand engineering projects of Canterlot, like the crystalline pillars anchoring our city to the mountain. And I'm certain Baron Gaberdine would be willing to carry you when you're fatigued. Meet you over at the Whinnysfield estate when we're done, Celly?" She turned her sparkling eyes on Celestia and grinned.
"You may borrow our guests for a time, Luna. Caractere and I shall see to young Turpentine's education in the artworks of Canterlot." Celestia gave a short nod to Gaberdine. "You are dismissed, Baron Gaberdine."
Gaberdine looked anything but dismissed when Luna trotted away with a perky and re-energized Ripple bounding along beside her. He looked at the departing seapony and back at Turpentine several times before Turpentine spoke up.
"I'm a big colt, Mister Gaberdine. Go with Ripple. I'll see you at lunch."
With only one plaintive backwards glance, Gaberdine hustled down the corridor Luna had used and within moments, the sounds of their departing hoofsteps faded to nothing. The silence stretched a long time before Turpentine took a tentative look up at Princess Celestia.
"Ma'am? Shouldn't we be going? We're blocking the hallway." Turpentine looked up and down the empty hallway and wondered for a moment just why it was still empty of visitors, or even officials. After all, the mayor of his hometown had a secretary who followed her all of the time with a pencil and a notepad just in case she said something important which needed to be written down. A princess should probably have a dozen or more of them, but the hallway remained quite empty and somewhat cold.
"Luna told me a great deal about you, Turpentine." That glass mask was back over Celestia's features again, and although she was still projecting warmth and friendliness, it was impossible to determine how sincere she was. With centuries of experience in hiding her emotions, Celestia could easily have been simply toying with him, or using her time with Turpentine as an excuse to avoid other, less pleasant chores around the castle.
It was still hard for Turpentine to accept just how old Celestia was, except for the absolute sense of calm and peace she had drawn around her in inviolate layers until steel would have been soft and malleable when compared to her will. Even her posture seemed specifically arranged to make smaller ponies feel comfortable around her tall stature, and since every pony was smaller than her, she had to feel like she was forever living in a world made for children. It must have been frustrating, far more than for Turpentine living in a world made for larger ponies, because in time he would grow into the world while Celestia had outgrown it long ago.
"He's just going to sit there and look at you until he figures out what makes you tick, Your Highness," said Caractere. "We could be here for days. Months, even."
The unexpected shock made Turpentine blink his dry eyes and turn his attention to a problem which would be more easy to solve. "How were you injured in prison, Mister Caractere?" he asked abruptly, which seemed to knock the elderly pegasus back a step and make him stumble for his words.
"Some of the individuals I sold forged paintings to took my fall from grace rather badly, because it meant attention from the authorities and confiscation of their 'original' artwork when I talked." Caractere moved his head from side to side and turned it slightly. "They hired some of the prisoners to beat me up. Between age and injury, that's about all the mobility I have left now. My days of forging masterpieces are over, in more ways than one."
"I arranged for his early parole," said Celestia. "He is no longer a threat to my little ponies, and with a locator bracelet, he can be found whenever needed."
"Somepony put up the collateral for my store when I got out," said Caractere without looking up at Celestia at all. He shrugged stiffly. "Guilt money or not, I have a job where I contribute to the community and have begun to pay off my debts." He shrugged again. "Another century or two and I'll be done."
"What did it feel like?" Turpentine moved closer and peered deeply into the old stallion's blue eyes. "When your Bledoe painting was discovered to be a forgery, that is. You worked so hard to accomplish an impossible task, and almost did. What did it feel like when your plans crumbled?"
"I..." Caractere looked back and forth between Celestia and Turpentine rapidly several times. For a moment, it almost looked as if he were going to flee out of the window at the end of the hallway when his wings raised up and he leaned into a starting position, then he slumped back and dropped his rear onto the cold marble tiles.
"I had plans. I was going to make sure my grandchildren were taken care of so they would never want for money. Endowing scholarships, building hospitals, high times with the important ponies in the world. Maybe my own airship. Living out the rest of my life on some tropical island, eating fruit and playing in the sand. I had entire worlds built out of glass, and with one word, they all shattered into a million pieces."
"A truthful word," said Turpentine. "Princess Luna said much the same thing when I asked her about Nightmare Moon. All of her plans for Night Eternal were based on a lie, and when they broke..."
"We shattered," said Celestia almost under her breath. For just the tiniest fraction of a second, Turpentine could see the immense form of Celestia staring up into the moonlit night sky where she had just banished her sister. It was far more weight than even carrying the town hall back in his hometown had been, and no number of backs could make that dreadful crushing burden lighter.
Then the smooth mask slipped over her features again and Celestia smiled down at Turpentine. It was a natural motion, much as if she had practiced it for centuries, but no amount of emotional control could stop the single tear he could see tracking down her cheek.
"It is the past," said Celestia, "and all that has come of it, good or bad, is still the past. Come, now. We have many portraits and statues to examine before we go to the Whinnysfield estate for lunch." She lowered her voice. "Young Turpentine, do you think there will be cake?"
Turpentine nodded. "Gaberdine told me their cook always makes cake."
"Good." Celestia beamed. "Cake always makes me feel better."
- - ☸ - -
Luna might possibly have been exaggerating when she said how many portraits of Celestia there were in their castle, but not by much. Although they were spaced out with lots of empty wall around each one of them to accommodate a crowd of interested onlookers, the long corridors of the castle seemed to have hundreds of Celestias watching their slow educational path. The tour was supposedly for Turpentine's benefit, but he found the lessons learned went far better if he remained almost silent and watched the back-and-forth between Celestia and Caractere. It was almost a contest where the old pegasus attempted to break down Celestia's cool walls of self-restraint while the Princess of the Sun danced around his verbal jabs with all the skill of a barn swallow skimming across a grassy field and snagging airborne bugs. Still, while he sketched little snippets during their visits to individual paintings, his natural curiosity forced him to ask questions of the both of them in the middle of their odd verbal dance, even when the answers were totally unexpected.
"So the Canterlot castle has a name." Turpentine thought about the revelation for a moment before asking the inevitable. "What is it?"
Princess Celestia looked strangely reluctant. "Yes, it's rather silly, which is why I've discouraged its use over the--"
"The Heavenly Abode," said Caractere.
That earned him a long flat glare from Celestia and a deliberate, "It was a far better choice than 'The Nest of Heaven' which certain members of the nobility seemed set upon during its construction."
Now it was Caractere's turn to nod knowingly. "That seems to have been a low bar to clear."
"Nest?" asked Turpentine with his head cocked to one side.
Celestia blushed and nudged the little colt down the hallway toward the next portrait. "On account of several of the more poetic artists centuries ago referring to me as the... No, you don't need to--"
"The Swan of Dawn," said Caractere with an absolutely straight face.
"How many years do you have left on your parole?" asked Celestia.
"Fifty-three, Your Highness."
Whatever retort Celestia was going to use in response was lost when a coil of smoke traced down from above, curled around her horn, and appeared with a sharp popping noise as a rolled-up scroll. She caught the message in her magic and held it to her side while giving a short bow to her guests.
"I'm sorry, but it seems Princess Twilight Sparkle has a concern. I was afraid things were going too smoothly today." She let out a brief huff of frustration. "I had better go see what emergency has popped up that requires my presence. I'll leave the rest of the tour in your able hooves, Caractere."
The old pegasus bowed. "On both of our behalfs, thank you, Your Highness."
Turpentine stood by Caractere and watched the princess stride down the corridor toward a prepared servant peeking around the corner. Her movements were smooth and unhurried despite the interruption, placing each hoof with impeccable grace. He had never really understood that phrase before, but the way Celestia made each step and motion into a dance of sorts made it obvious that it had been created by somepony just like him many years ago who watched the Princess of the Sun walking just the way she was walking now.
"Equestria's largest rooster." Caractere shook his head. "Ruler of the roost and undeniably above all who she surveys. All that is missing is for her to crow while raising the sun."
"No." Turpentine squinted a little to watch Celestia talking with the servant at the other end of the corridor. "I see... a playful little filly, like Ripple. Then one day, she grew up. She bent her neck to lift a heavy burden nopony else could, and has been stuck beneath it ever since."
"Right," said Caractere. "A little filly who plays ball with the sun and moon."
"It's why she took time off from her schedule to be with us this morning." Turpentine stood for a while, sketching the way the beams of light from the window played across Celestia and the distant mustached servant. Little flecks of dust danced in the breeze, making circles and starlit paths around the two of them, served and servant, but Turpentine could not tell which role they each played.
"She's trapped," Turpentine said after a moment. "She can never go back to being that little filly again, but she can spend time with us and live out her lost dreams in our lives."
Caractere took a deep breath. "Thanks. Now I've got guilt. I should go apologize for that 'Swan of Dawn' comment."
"No, I think she liked it," said Turpentine from around the pencil in his teeth. "The muscles in her cheek tensed up to keep her from smiling. The whole castle is full of ponies who have her up on an untouchable pedestal, just like those statues we saw."
"And all she wants to do is run around in the grass and play." Caractere looked down the hallway full of portraits. "I think we're done here. How would you like to go out and walk in the garden?"
"Is your neck bothering you?" Turpentine looked up at the old pegasus who had not seemed to be in pain, but some ponies hid their pain really well. "We just got started with the tour and I've only made a few sketches," he added, "but if you think we should quit now..."
"Good news," said Celestia with a happy smile while she trotted back down the hallway. "Just a minor detail involving a foreign diplomatic visit that Kibbitz can take care of, so we can continue our tour. And--" she lowered her voice "--have cake."
While they continued their walk among the portraits, Turpentine could see little bits and pieces of Celestia appear from under her mask, much as if the close proximity of so many other oil painting images gave her some sort of shield of anonymity which she could never get in reality. The real Celestia did not really 'let her mane down' like Luna in the waterfall, but she was much more relaxed and conversational than her companion. Every time they approached one of the portraits, Caractere began to avoid small talk. Instead, he would list the techniques the artist used, how they compared to other masters of that period, and sometimes the subtle hints of context which the artist was trying to say.
Still, Caractere seemed to get tenser while Celestia relaxed and became more chatty. As they walked to and from each painting, she simply talked about the artist, waxing poetic at times about little details of the actual sitting or events of the time like some sort of living history book which fascinated Turpentine in ways that ordinary paper and ink never had. No small bit of information or odd occurrence happening during the painting escaped her piercing memory. Sometimes, it was the artist's pet who would be distracting during the session, or their children, and one time it was a simple piece of fruit.
"To be honest," said Celestia while they were looking at the portrait, "the Hustzchupokian ambassador brought a banana and I accidentally left it on the table during my sitting. Before I knew it, we had a trade route with Hutzchupokia dealing in nothing but bananas, twenty-seven varieties of bananas, express delivered to every corner of Equestria before they could spoil. That was two centuries ago, and Hutzchupokia still has over a quarter of its exports strictly due to the fact I wasn't very hungry before my portrait sitting. So yes, small things matter."
"And to Celestia, all ponies are small," added Caractere. "Well, smaller."
"The smaller they are, the more attention they require," countered Celestia softly.
"The fruit's a distraction," said Turpentine. He drew a quick outline of the painting and a few lines for reference. "It's a focal point, but it's a primary focus instead of being a secondary. The subject is supposed to be what everypony looks at." He looked at the picture again without trying to stare at the banana. It was difficult, because the painting seemed to be staring back at him, and in a most disconcerting way.
In fact, nearly all of the paintings they had seen so far had Celestia portrayed with her eyes partially hooded and looking slightly past the observer. It was a little like every painting kept watching his cutie mark while they left their vicinity, and the accumulated attention was causing Turpentine to act a little jittery, as well as making him keep his tail tucked firmly against his rear. He asked about it, of course, and received the most peculiar response which he should have expected.
A portrait. A huge portrait.
"What is it?" Turpentine looked over the wall-sized painting depicting a grassy hillside with dozens of young foals at play and Celestia reclining in the middle of them. It was vibrant and alive with color, but somehow creepy right down in the pit of his stomach.
Caractere answered without taking the hoof from over his eyes. "Celestia Among The Flowers. It's the most famous painting by Spiegelei, quite old, and preserved by generations of protective spells. It's survived no fewer than five mysterious fires in art galleries, being stolen twice, and a bad case of Dragon Sneezles."
"The Dragonlord emissary Carnage took a week to get over his illness before he could go home. We used to brew him huge vats of lemon and honey tea in the courtyard. That's when we put the volcano into the Royal Baths for him to soak in," explained Celestia as if it were only natural to put a volcano into one's bathroom. "I never thought we'd use it again until Twilight Sparkle hatched Spike. He learned the backstroke in the lava there. Wonderful little dragon."
Turpentine considered for the moment how many little freshly-hatched dragons available for painting might be found around the castle. After all, he had never drawn a dragon before, and the Canterlot newspapers tended to crop Spike mostly out of any pictures they had of Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends. It would be a challenge. Plus, he had never drawn scales before. Or lava.
"How do you teach a dragon to swim in lava?"
"Very carefully." Celestia cleared her throat. "What do you see in this painting, Turpentine?"
"It's... very detailed, Ma'am." Turpentine found the little foals romping about the hillside a more comfortable subject than the immense bulk of Celestia laid out in bright white paint. There was a... theme to their play, with raised wings and sprawled limbs making them appear to be more dolls than ponies, much as if the painted Celestia had surrounded herself with a group of lifelike toys. It took quite some time for Turpentine to get a good look at all of them, because the painting was quite expansive, but he started at the outside and worked his way inward, taking notes on his sketchpad while he worked.
Even up close, the behavior of one of the subjects was nearly inexplicable. "What is that colt--"
"Nursing," said Caractere, who still had one hoof over his eyes even though he was turned with his back to the subject.
"Oh." Turpentine took a sideways glance at Princess Celestia, who seemed to fairly radiate an aura of divine tolerance. "Did you have a foal, Princess? Or foals?" he added, looking at the rest of the little colts and fillies.
"No." Celestia nodded at the painting. "Herr Spiegelei painted me alone on the hillside."
The layering of the pigments where the little foals touched Celestia or vice versa made that abundantly clear, but it forced Turpentine to look at the main subject despite his misgivings. He got up close and squinted, or took a few steps back at times, tilting his head from side to side while he considered the painted alicorn and compared her to the real thing just a few lengths away. He really did not want to say it, but despite the stylistic themes that each painter brought to their works, there was one thing that stood out enough he had to make a comment about it.
"I don't like the eyes."
"I don't either," said Celestia. She stood looking at the field full of little foals with an expression of deep regret. "I should have explicitly told him so at the time. All I said was 'It's perfect except for a minor detail' and went off to another appointment. He took my comments entirely the wrong way. It was months before I had time to look at it again, and by that time, every artist in Canterlot was copying his style. I tried restricting any young ponies from the exhibit, but that only drew more attention. It got so bad for a time that parents would hustle their little foals away from me whenever they saw me approaching."
"I see," said Turpentine. "Were you the one who tried to set it on fire?"
Despite Caractere's astonished gasp, Celestia nodded. "I couldn't ban it, because that would only fuel the rumors about my--" she coughed "--activities to a fever pitch. Every century or two, I try again. It's become a little bit of a tradition whenever too many paintings of my rump start stacking up."
Turpentine nodded. "Mother Windrow sprays for crickets every spring. She doesn't mind a few of them, but they're awful noisy and get into the kitchen."
"Your Highness!" spluttered Caractere. "You can't mean you burn down your own art galleries?"
"I'm very careful to ensure nopony gets injured," said Celestia calmly. "And I only burn the older ones that really need to be burned. Between the protective enchantments and the caution of the museum staff, this one has escaped the culling so far, but eventually it too shall pass."
"Like all of us." Turpentine turned away from the painting and regarded Celestia, who was sitting calmly in the beam of sunlight coming through the skylight above. "Mister Spiegelei really didn't capture you very well."
"Thank you, Turpentine." A fraction of the authentic Celestia smile broke through her restraint much as the sun would rise above a cloud layer, and the beam of sunlight from above felt much warmer and more welcome.
"It's close." Turpentine stuck his tongue in his cheek and looked over the princess, who towered over him like the sun and just as bright. "The eyes are all wrong, but there's a little something in there."
"Arson," muttered Caractere. "Ten to twenty years, at least."
"I think we have enough time to visit one more exhibit." Celestia turned and strode purposefully along the corridor. It was a short trip with only two turns before she stopped in front of yet another portrait of herself.
"Ah, here we go. The museum found this one a few years ago, but I just never had time to look at it until now. What do you think of it, Turpentine?"
He inspected the portrait while trying to watch both Caractere and Celestia out of the corner of his eyes. The painted Celestia's pose was similar to several he had seen during their tour, and composed in what Turpentine was starting to think of as the 'Cluttered Room' period of art. Thankfully, there were no bananas, but something bothered him about it. Other than the eyes.
"It's another painting in the Spiegelei period," he ventured. "A Fruhstuck, it looks like. Done a little more recently than the other one we saw."
"Good. And?" prompted Celestia. "Luna said you were a very perceptive little pony. What else do you see?"
One of the advantages of owning the building and the contents was that Princess Celestia had no problems at all with letting a little colt walk right up to a painting and put his nose almost on it for a close-up examination. The brushstrokes were perfect, just like the other huge painting, and layered in order to bring out the shadows and highlights in the room. He followed the lines and swirls of paint with a growing discomfort, breathing in the faint scent of antique paint and tracing the painted Celestia's form while he worked. There was something wrong with it, but he just could not put a hoof on the flaw until he turned around and saw Caractere's face.
Then it was obvious.
"It's a fake." He turned back to the painting and examined the portion he had first been suspicious of. "Right there. The way he did the tufts of hair inside your ears. That's exactly the same way Mister Caractere helped me do on my painting. It must have been his practice piece he did before making the Bledoe." Turpentine turned back again and looked up at Celestia. "That's not why you knew, though. Every painting we've seen so far, you've posed for. You talked to the portraitist, learned about their families, their pets, their lives. You took the time to get to know the artist so..." He paused.
"Go on," encouraged Celestia.
"So you would remember them." Turpentine swept a hoof in a broad gesture down the hallway. "These aren't pictures. These are memories. That's why you knew Mister Caractere's other portrait was a fake. You weren't there for it. No matter how perfect he managed to duplicate Bledoe's style, he could never duplicate your memory of the portrait session."
"You sneaky little..." Caractere stood with his jaw agape and stared at Celestia, who was obviously suppressing an expression of supreme smugness. "You said you recognized the portrait as a fake but you never said why! I didn't realize... You sneak!"
With her air of gentle restraint gone completely, Celestia giggled like a schoolfilly. "Oh, you should see your face," she snorted.
Turpentine, however, was drawing. |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 14 - High Cuisine | Drifting Down the Lazy River
High Cuisine
"I didn't see how I'd ever got to like it so well at the widow's, where you had to wash, and eat on a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever bothering over a book, and have old Miss Watson pecking at you all the time."
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
One thing about Canterlot was that everything was somewhere else, and that somewhere was up or down, left or right, or some combination of all of them. The inside of the castle had been a complex maze which Turpentine could have been trapped in until he starved to death (or asked directions from one of the ever-present guards), but once Princess Celestia got outside and started trotting through the city on the way to the Whinnysfield mansion, it got at least a little easier to figure out just where they were going. According to Caractere, the city was roughly divided into thirds, with the unicorns being closest to the mountain and the castle, while the pegasi preferred houses out by the edge of the city with the astonishing view, leaving the earth ponies everything else.
There was a lot of everything else.
The bill of his captain's cap did a wonderful job blocking the sun from getting into Turpentine's eyes, which is probably why Baron Miller had worn it everywhere. Despite Sen's best efforts washing and re-dying it, the cap still felt a little shabby and plain in the elaborate city, particularly while trotting along at a rapid rate next to Princess Celestia who seemed to attract the attention of every pony on the street. Some would simply wave, while others approached with a bow or nod of the head to exchange a few words with their divine goddess descended from her heavenly residence and to the little colt trotting along at her side. Caractere might as well have been invisible with as little attention he attracted, most likely due to his clerk's vest making him look like a servant, but they all were introduced to Turpentine, 'the young colt who drew that delightful Get Well card.'
Once they managed to get into a section of road where there were fewer listeners, Turpentine had to ask about it, of course.
"Oh, that." Princess Celestia hid a mischievous grin behind one of her large golden shoes. "It was a positively adorable little card, Turpentine. We had to share it with the servants, and then the royalty saw it, and before either of us knew it, the Canterlot Times had printed it with some blank space under it and an invitation for their readers to fill in their own message and send it to us. We've gotten hundreds of them so far, and they keep coming, even though we're over our little illness now." Celestia coughed once, most likely just for form, and continued. "Luna and I took straight to bed and spent our entire recovery time writing thank-you letters to each of them."
"Hundreds?" Turpentine blinked a few times at the thought of something he had just dashed off in a few minutes being sent to all of Equestria in the newspaper.
"It was a delightful gesture on your behalf, Turpentine." Celestia giggled. "Very appropriate, too."
Caractere nodded agreement. "Perhaps he can be contracted to do another one next year as a public health announcement to encourage ponies and princesses to get their flu shots early."
"Undoubtedly." Celestia's smile smoothed out into the normal polite mask she wore before she stopped by a roadside bench next to a fountain and motioned Turpentine up onto the seat. "On a more serious note, I wanted to take a few minutes before we go into the Whinnysfield estate to talk, and don't go away, Monsieur Caractere." The elderly pegasus stopped his subtle shifting in position away from the upcoming conversation and stood uncomfortably while Celestia sat down next to the bench, bringing her eyes level with Turpentine.
"Ma'am, is this about your portrait?" Turpentine moved to get his sketchbook out of his saddlebag, only to have Celestia rest a hoof over the saddlebag flap.
"No. It's about family." Celestia reached out with her magic and brought back a shimmering ball of water from the nearby fountain, which she held in front of Turpentine while talking. "Twilight Sparkle and I used to have our little talks out in the garden next to a fountain. Ponies are the opposite of water. They go uphill, they fall in love, marry, and have foals. Ponies need other ponies, just the same as I needed Luna for so many years. All we have left of our family is ourselves. Our family ties are more important than almost anything else, and I would be willing to live in the dump and sort trash if it were the only way I could keep her.
"Every year in my school, I see young unicorns away from their families. They pretend to be happy, but I can tell. Lack of family makes them close themselves away from their teachers and their friends. I can help some of them, but others..." The globe of water in her magic shifted colors into a swirl of gold and crimson before turning back into ordinary water.
"I care very much about all of my little ponies, so I don't want you to be at my school without a family. It can be very lonely for some of the students with family to be away from their homes, even though they can return for a visit at any time." Celestia touched him on the cheek with the tip of one forehoof and looked Turpentine in the eyes.
"I know you've been adopted several times before. It can be very difficult for someone who has been rejected and alone for a long time to allow another into their heart, but I think you're ready for it now. I think it's time you had a family."
"Oh." Turpentine blinked several times, looking into Celestia's deep eyes. It suddenly made sense to him, although not quite what he had expected. He nodded and tried to put on a smile. "Thank you, Princess Celestia. You'll make a fine mother."
The ball of water splashed to the ground.
Caractere snorted behind him, a brief and quickly choked off noise that Turpentine's quick glance showed the old pegasus had suppressed by sticking his head under one wing, regardless of how stiff his neck was.
"That's... not quite..." Celestia swallowed once and took a breath. The polite smile she had been wearing looked just a little strained, and it seemed to be taking a long time for her to continue her part of the conversation.
"I know you're awfully busy running the country," said Turpentine helpfully, "so Princess Luna can help. There was one of the orphans adopted by a family of two mares so I know it's not that unusual, and that way you can share the responsibility, since Princess Cadenza is all grown up and moved out, and Princess Twilight Sparkle is living in Ponyville now."
"Turpentine?" Caractere had taken his head out from under his wing, but he still looked rather peculiar, as if he was holding back a sneeze. "Princess Celestia wasn't talking about her adopting you. She's... a little old to become a mother."
"Oh?" Turpentine frowned while thinking, but Caractere's eyes suddenly grew larger.
"And not me," he added in a rush. "I'm too old to be a father again."
"Oh." Despite his best efforts to remain positive, Turpentine's ears drooped, only to perk back up when Princess Celestia placed a very motherly nuzzle across them.
"I'm not that old," she insisted. "I raised Princess Mi Amore Cadenza to be a princess, and taught Twilight Sparkle to be a very powerful unicorn. If I were the best pony available to be your mother, I would be proud to call you my son." She nuzzled back his captain's hat and kissed him on the bare forehead. "But I'm not."
The kiss made his ears fairly glow red with embarrassment, but he still had to ask, "How will I know? How am I going to find a family?"
She let out her breath in a huge huff that smelled vaguely of jasmine and rosebuds before nuzzling him around the ears again, giggling at the way his mane tickled her nose. "I have faith that one is going to find you very soon. Now come on," she whispered into one ear. "We need to get going to the Whinnysfield estate before they put away the cake."
- - ☸ - -
As it turned out, Princess Luna and her tour group arrived at the Whinnysfield estate gates almost at the same time as Turpentine, and the sight of Sun and Moon rejoined after even the brief separation made him dive for his sketchbook and a pencil. After the Royal Sisters shared a mushy hug and nuzzle, Luna immediately began to talk without allowing her sister to get a word in edgewise.
"Oh, you should have seen the little foal," cooed Luna. "We stopped by the nocturne clan house to drop off the painting of Syrette, and found out that Missus Windrow brought the new little nocturne colt up today." Luna giggled. "We got to watch him sleeping. He does this cute little scrunched up thing with his nose. I'll have to see if they'll bring him by the castle later this evening, Celly, because I know how much you like the little ones."
Celestia winced, but recovered with a warm smile directed at Baron Gaberdine, who had a sprawled-out young seapony (with hooves) draped over his back. "And good day, Ripple. Did you and my sister have a nice time exploring the city?"
"It was soooo cool," said Ripple in nearly a moan of joy. "We went everywhere, even to the baths." The little seapony turned to look at Turpentine and slowly waved one hoof. "Hi, Turpentine. Did you know Luna's got a volcano in her bathroom? It's a huuuuuge cave with a bunch of pools all different tempreatures an' she said I could come by and swim in them sometime--" Ripple looked around for eavesdroppers "--once I get good enough to be sure I can switch back."
"That will have to wait until later, young lady." Celestia swept a hoof in the direction of the estate's front doors. "Right now, Baron Gaberdine needs to introduce us to his parents, and I believe somepony promised cake for dessert. Oh, and just one more thing."
- - ☸ - -
Owning a good suit was starting to seem like a good idea for Turpentine as he sat patiently on the front steps of the Whinnysfield estate and waited for the results of Baron Gaberdine's polite knocking on the thick oak door. A suit would give him something to hide behind, or use as armor against Duke Whinnysfield's sharp glare, although Baron Miller's cap seemed to be a good substitute. Next to him, Ripple struck a similar pose, without a captain's cap, and whispered out of the corner of her mouth.
"This is so exciting, Turpentine. Thank you for inviting me."
"You're welcome." The door was remaining very quiet and unmoving, quite unlike his rumbling tummy, so he added, "Do you think we're too late for lunch?"
"Father will hold lunch for our arrival," said Gaberdine very quietly. "The condemned stallion should eat a good last meal, after all. I don't think Ripple's mother is going to be very happy about our trip."
For some reason, that set Celestia into a giggling fit where she was standing to one side of the door, just like her somewhat puzzled sister was on the other side where they would not be seen at first glance. It seemed to work fairly well, because when Duke Whinnysfield opened the door and looked at his son, he did not notice them.
"Well?" The heavyset duke frowned at Gaberdine, giving a short glance down at Ripple, then a second glance once the little seapony's features seemed to trigger a memory. "Oh! Beg pardon, young miss. Son, it's only polite to introduce your guests."
"Of course." Baron Gaberdine placed a hoof on top of Turpentine's head. "You already know about the young artist staying at my estate. Turpentine, you remember my father, correct?"
Turpentine nodded. "Good morning, Duke Whinnysfield."
"Good afternoon," said Whinnysfield in a sharp tone just short of a rebuke.
"And this is a... friend of a friend," said Gaberdine, moving the indicating hoof over to Ripple's head and giving her a brief rub. "Miss Ripple of Gravel Flats."
"Charmed to meet you," said Ripple while extending one hoof and leaning up against Turpentine so she would not fall over.
"Young lady," acknowledged Whinnysfield, bending over and giving the little filly's oversized hoof a brief brush of the lips.
"And a friend of young Turpentine, Mister Caractere of Baltimare."
The duke nodded at the elderly pegasus, who stiffly nodded back.
"And, of course, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna," continued Gaberdine with an absolutely straight face.
Both princesses stepped out of their concealing position and took their places at Ripple and Turpentine's side, much like large bookends around a pair of very small books. It made an amazing shift of emotions cross Duke Whinnysfield's face, a collection of rapidly-changing motions that ranged from bafflement to sudden realization. He glanced between the two proffered Royal Hooves, quite obviously trying to determine which one to kiss first, before giving into tradition and placing his respectful smooches in order of seniority.
"Our house is your house, Your Highnesses," said Whinnysfield, opening the door the rest of the way and gesturing inside. "Will you be joining us for lunch?"
"Of course." Celestia proceeded forward with Luna at her side, moving as if they were one.
"We shall need to freshen up before we dine," said Luna.
"Right this way." Whinnysfield took a brief look over his shoulder at Gaberdine before vanishing around a corner with the alicorns right behind him.
It really was amazing. He looked just like Baron Gaberdine when he did that.
- - ☸ - -
Between bathroom breaks and the tendency of larger ponies to look up at new things while Turpentine was below their line of sight, it had been easy to slip away from everypony else and travel where his instincts led him. The jingle of silverware and clink of plates attracted him to the dining room, because Turpentine had always set the table back at the orphanage while Mother Windrow prepared the meal. When he had gotten older and returned from more homes, Turpentine had been given more responsibilities in the kitchen, but their little table could not hold a candle to the magnificent wooden structure in the Whinnysfield dining room, all draped with linen and adorned with glittering crystal while the servants bustled around, putting an extra leaf in the table and laying out several extra place settings.
He drew the scene, of course.
It was easy to pick out Missus Whinnysfield, a slightly thickening older mare the shade of dusky rosewood, with a curled auburn mane spilling down her neck in a way that must have taken her hours to brush and style. She placed herself in the center of the busy dining room, pointing and gesturing while occasionally giving an extra swipe of polish to a piece of crystal or taking a tiny taste out of a passing dish. She looked happy in her environment much the same way as Duke Whinnysfield when he had been pressing Baron Gaberdine at the dinner table in Baltimare.
The Whinnysfields were action-ponies, as Mother Windrow would have described them, and he could see where Baron Gaberdine had gotten the idea that Turpentine would not have been comfortable in this house. He was more of a noun-pony, interested in things and stuff, and how they reacted to each other instead of being driven by actions, tasks and protocol.
He could not help but think about his recent conversation with Princess Celestia. Turpentine had always thought finding and using his own talent was more important than family, but when the Princess of the Sun said she would rather sort garbage than live in a castle if it was the only way for her to keep Luna, it really disturbed him on some deep, primal level. Being a part of a family was painful for him, and painful to admit. It reminded him of his dead mother and the missing father who never returned to raise him in her absence. He was jealous of families who seemed to do this 'togetherness' thing so effortlessly, and that had made him focus instead on his talent to the exclusion of all else.
Well, almost. As much as Mother Windrow tried to deny it, she had been his family up until now. A little odd, a little awkward, and not quite perfect, but always there when he needed her and always waiting when he returned from another failed family. No doubt Missus Whinnysfield would be there for her son if Gaberdine ever failed and had to return to his foalhood home, but Turpentine could not imagine himself calling her mother, and particularly not calling Duke Whinnysfield father.
There was a photograph of the Whinnysfield family on a nearby wall, with three young sons in suits dutifully lined up in front of their solemn and well-dressed parents, but it did not really reflect the actual ponies Turpentine had met so far. It was wrong in some fashion, and he bent his head over the sketchpad to draw what he could see instead of what was hanging on the wall.
It took some time and several sharpenings, as well as digging his colored pencils out of his saddlebag, but nothing else mattered while he was drawing. Lines and swoops, stubby little horns on mischievous little unicorn colts, parents gently chivvying their children back to the table. The varnished boards of the floor felt comfortably cool on his belly while he drew, alone in his bubble as the picture grew beneath his touch.
He was just finishing up drawing the dark lines of the wooden flooring when Turpentine became aware of the relative silence in the room. He looked up from his comfortable spot on the floor and met the eyes of at least a dozen ponies crowded around and looking down at him, all paused in rapt attention to what he was creating. Even Ripple was engrossed in his drawing while holding onto a celery stick she had snitched from the table, but was very carefully not-chewing in order to be not-distracting.
"My word." Missus Whinnysfield scurried over once she was certain Turpentine had finished. "What an astonishing picture. You even got that little tuft of mane that Gabby never could get to lie down correctly." Her hoof traced over the picture of a family at the table, all doing something different but somehow all together, from youngest Gaberdine building a tiny little lake of gravy in his mashed sweet potatoes to eldest Elderberry reaching across the table with his magic to lift a pot of creamed asparagus, and both parents trying to keep order.
The room murmured agreement, even the servants who had stopped work in order to watch.
"I told you he was a talent to watch, Celly," said Luna with just ever so slightly the tiniest bit of snark. "Now will you make time to get your portrait painted next week?"
"We can discuss this later, Luna. Right now, we have a more important task." Celestia's ears flickered while she moved back toward the table, being promptly followed by the rest of the family and guests much like little baby swans after their mother. "If everypony will be seated. Turpentine, please put away your things and come to the table. I have an announcement before we eat."
It took very little time for Turpentine to do the practiced motions of putting away his pencils and folding up his sketchbook, although he kept it close at hoof just in case an idea struck between plates. There was something odd going on, and it probably had to do with the sound of hooves in the other room, both the distinctive sound of the Royal Guards' armored shoes and several other, lighter hoofsteps.
"We have some additional guests at lunch today," announced Celestia. "I received a letter earlier this morning and dispatched my personal chariot to bring them. It's an unexpected surprise, and I would like all of you to make them feel welcome. I apologize, Duke Whinnysfield, for not notifying you earlier, but I was not certain they would be able to make it."
"That's perfectly fine, Your Highness," said Whinnysfield with a short nod. "Our house is yours."
Turpentine was not quite sure Duke Whinnysfield was being entirely truthful, because a small muscle in his cheek twitched while he was talking, and the soup on the table looked suspiciously thinned out much the same as when Mother Windrow had unexpected company and added a few cups of hot water. Still, all of the books in the library back at the orphanage had been very specific about the dainty appetites of royalty, and between both alicorns, they could probably dine on a single lettuce leaf. Oh, and the piece of cake which Celestia had been so determined about.
"Thank you, Duke Whinnysfield." Celestia turned to the open doorway of the dining room. "Mister Sienna, Seneschal of Castle Paradise, if you please."
Sen strode slowly out into the open doorway, his thinning grey mane looking windblown and most of the normal grease stains on his coat having been washed out, which made him look ten years older. He nodded at the group and bowed briefly to the Royal Sisters before clearing his throat.
"Gentlecolts and ladies." The elderly servant moved to one side in order to allow the new visitor into the dining area. "May I present the Lady Pearl of Fen." |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 15 - Family Dining | Drifting Down the Lazy River
Family Dining
"The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with them."
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
Turpentine was not stunned when Pearl walked into Duke Whinnysfield's dining room because he was too busy trying to figure out how to get his sketchbook back out to capture what he suspected was going to come next. Unlike his young guest, Gaberdine was obviously stunned, and stumbled getting up out of his chair, nearly winding up sprawled out across the floor. Ripple was stunned also, sitting in place on her chair with her eyes locked on the pale form of her mother striding ever so slowly through the dining room doorway. Princess Celestia was obviously prepared for Pearl's entrance, but Luna had a faint quirk around her lips that indicated a mild distaste at her sister's preference for theatrics.
Duke Whinnysfield was likewise apparently prepared for any circumstance, and in particular unwilling to show any sort of weakness in front of both of his sovereign princesses. He moved fluidly up out of his seat and took several steps in the direction of the shy seapony, only to stop once Pearl recoiled at his aggressive approach. Without even a pause, the duke sidestepped and gestured to his own chair, which was located between Princess Celestia at the head end of the table and Baron Gaberdine.
It had seemed to be an awkward table seating arrangement at Turpentine's first glance before, with Celestia, the duke, Gaberdine, and Ripple in a row down one side of the table, and Luna, Whinnysfield's wife, and Caractere on the other. Turpentine was supposed to be seated next to the elderly pegasus, but on seeing Ripple looking slightly uncomfortable on the other side of the table, he had swapped in a moment, leaving the table lopsided.
Taking one slow step at a time, Pearl seemed poised on the knife's edge between terror and determination, with her eyes locked on Baron Gaberdine like he was the marker for a safe harbor in a world of terrible storms. There was no way she would have, or could have traveled to Canterlot on her own without her concern for Ripple's well-being to drive her and Baron Gaberdine's presence to reassure her. The combination made Turpentine both a little embarrassed and somewhat proud to be partially responsible for her trip here. He was going to get into trouble for it, but she was a beautiful mare, and Baron Gaberdine's parents deserved to personally see who she really was instead of just looking at one of Turpentine's paintings, no matter how well he could reflect her glory.
Guided by Duke Whinnysfield and Sen, Pearl settled into the chair next to Gaberdine much like a mother bird resting her feathered breast upon fragile eggs. Once he was certain the young mare was comfortable, the duke promptly moved over to the other side of the table, causing his wife and Caractere to each scoot down one chair and leaving Sen in the last seat on that side. There should have been an awkward silence at that point, but Celestia smoothly started up the conversation with a polite cough and a soft introduction.
"So good of you to join us, Lady Pearl."
The older seapony might have said something, but Turpentine did not hear what it was other than a faint noise that could have just been somepony shifting in their chair. It could have even been from where she was pressed up against Gaberdine, and Turpentine suspected she would remain so until the lunch was over and quite possibly all the way back to the riverboat.
"An unexpected surprise," said Luna in a perfectly calm and polite tone that still maintained a slight bite directed toward her nearby sister.
"A welcome surprise," added Duke Whinnysfield. "The sketches young Turpentine drew do not do you justice."
Pearl did not say anything at that, but blushed a bright pink under her pale coat.
"Are we in trouble?" asked Turpentine.
"Can we eat now?" asked Ripple almost at the same time.
Celestia nodded. "Of course."
And that was the end of the awkward conversation for a while as the servants began to serve the meal. Thankfully, Gaberdine had been giving etiquette lessons to both of the younger ponies at the table or they certainly would have embarrassed themselves with all the forks and their obscure rules for use. There were several occasions where it just would have made more sense to dive into a dish nose-first, but both Turpentine and Ripple worked their way through soup, salad, and main course without any major spillage or disasters.
Although Turpentine thought Pearl would be quieter than their morning breakfasts at Castle Paradise, Duke Whinnysfield proved himself a masterful expert at teasing out little words and shy giggles from the reclusive seapony mare while Missus Whinnysfield remained mostly out of the conversation except to relate a few embarrassing foalhood stories about her son. After a slow start, it turned into a long and interesting conversation filled with pauses and abrupt changes of direction.
While the older ponies talked, certain sections of the conversational field were marked out with cautionary flags so that sensitive topics could be avoided, in particular, the fate of Ripple's father. When Duke Whinnysfield made a cautious inquiry in that particular direction during the serving of a creamy strawberry dessert cake, both little ponies and Gaberdine shot such alarmed looks at the older stallion that he stopped cold in the middle of a sentence, leaving an awkward hole in the conversation.
"Princess Celestia," said Turpentine in an effort to say something, anything other than talk about Tidal Surge and the dark underwater monster which had killed him, "I don't recall seeing a painting of you and Princess Luna's parents anywhere on our tour today. Did we miss a section?"
Celestia paused with a fork full of cake almost at her lips, swallowed once, then placed the fork back down on her plate in order to take a few deep breaths. Luna started to reply in her place, but stopped almost immediately at her elder sister's quelling glance. There was a suppressed look about both of the old alicorns' faces, both pain and pleasure in the memories that Turpentine had inadvertently stirred by his impulsive words, and by the time Celestia responded, her accustomed glass mask with enigmatic smile had slid back down over her features again.
"No, I'm afraid there are no paintings of our parents which have survived the years. And to answer your next question, no, I do not think you need to paint us one from our descriptions."
"Oh." Turpentine fidgeted and looked down at his somewhat smaller than expected slice of cake. "Do you miss him? Your father, that is."
"Yes." Celestia's voice was nearly a whisper, and without a word, Luna slid her piece of cake over next to her sister's plate before patting her gently on one hoof.
"Some pains are best forgotten," said Luna.
"Like Nightmare Moon?" asked Turpentine before pausing and wishing he could unsay the words.
"No." Luna pursed her lips, and for one timeless moment she was the only pony at the table except for the shadows. "My time with the Nightmare was a lesson which is best held close, so it is not forgotten."
Turpentine nodded carefully and measured his words with great respect for both of the alicorns at the table. "Nightmare Night teaches all of the little ponies to face up to their fears, and to have fun out in the night instead of just staying home and playing with a pencil. Or at least that's what Mother Windrow always said," he added quickly. "I went as Clover the Clever last year, with a paper horn. This year..." He paused, trying to figure out just where they were on the calendar. Time had gotten away from him while out at Castle Paradise, and the single week he had expected to stay was now quite some time ago.
"What's Nightmare Night?" asked Ripple.
Duke Whinnysfield smiled gently at the little filly and started to respond, only to draw up short when he abruptly realized the extraordinary nearness of the former Nightmare Moon. His eyes seemed to track sideways to look at Princess Luna despite his best efforts, and he almost jumped out of his chair when she spoke.
"It is an Equestrian celebration of the upcoming Winter, when small colts and fillies race about their neighborhoods collecting candy under the guise of sacrificing a portion of it to appease the spirit of Nightmare Moon, who otherwise would gobble them up." Luna picked up a fork in her magic and used it to sneak a bite out of the still uneaten piece of cake she had slipped over to her sister. "Upon my return, I had considered doing away with the holiday as unneeded frivolity making light of my exile to the moon, but upon closer examination by a wise philosopher who had spent a great deal of his life studying the finer points of the celebration, I found the positives far outweighed any negatives." Luna paused for a moment while chewing her bite of cake, but nopony else at the table interrupted before she continued. "We would have thought your education at the school in Gravel Flats covered such holidays and their customs."
Ripple drooped from her ears to her tail, even though one of the servants placed a piece of cake in front of her at that moment. "I don't go to school. Mama teaches me at home, and Mister Baron Gaberdine..." She stopped, and ever so slowly raised an oversized hoof over the edge of the table while her expression turned from dismal to anticipatory.
"No!" said Pearl abruptly, and louder than she had spoken at the table so far.
"But why not?" implored Ripple, leaning her head out over the table so she could see around a suddenly immobile Gaberdine. "Turpentine's going to go to school all the way up here in Canterlot, so why can't I go to school in the pony town? You'd take me to school in the mornings, wouldn't you, Mister Baron Gaberdine?"
"Um..." A trapped Gaberdine seemed to be paralyzed with every muscle in his body locked into position except his eyes, which flickered back and forth from Ripple on one side of him to Pearl on the other. Turpentine wanted to help the poor stallion, but he had made a mess of things by jumping in without thinking before. There had to be something he could do which would help all three of them, and the words just popped out before he could stop them.
"I could walk her to school, Mister Gaberdine," said Turpentine. "At least until I start school in Canterlot."
"A generous offer, young Turpentine." The flicker of a smile formed at the corner of Celestia's lips and she finally picked up a dessert fork in her magic. "I have seen your school transcripts from Tidewater, but when I sent an inquiry to Gravel Flats, they were unable to find any evidence of your attendance. My Canterlot school will need to see your educational progress before you transfer. Some of your grades are less than stellar. Mathematics, for example."
"Math is easy," scoffed Ripple.
Celestia made a noncommittal noise while making her second bite of cake vanish. "Lady Pearl, I can provide assurance that your daughter will be perfectly safe in the school at Gravel Flats, particularly with a friend like Turpentine to help watch over her." Two more large bites vanished in short order and Celestia smoothly switched to the second piece of cake. "Ripple, I understand that Duke Whinnysfield has a simply marvelous model train set in his den. Since I would like to speak privately with your mother about your attending school, once we are done with dessert, I'm certain if you asked him politely he would be willing to show it to--"
Turpentine had never seen a piece of cake vanish so fast. One moment it was sitting innocently on Ripple's plate, and the next it was gone with the little seapony scrambling out of her chair and around the table in the direction of Duke Whinnysfield.
"Mist'r Duke," she spluttered around the cake packed into her mouth. "Can we go look at y'r train? I've alw's wanted to see a train!"
Turpentine barely managed to get his cake eaten by the time Ripple had fairly towed the larger unicorn stallion out of the room, and after he excused himself from the table and darted off in pursuit, he could have sworn Celestia had somehow managed to steal Duke Whinnysfield's unfinished piece of cake too.
Somehow, he suspected that was part of her plan.
- - ☸ - -
There was a surprising amount of painting involved in making a model train set, from the detailing and aging of train cars to tiny little model houses and buildings around the tracks. Ripple was more interested in the complex little innards of the electric engines and the tiny couplers tying them to the following trail of cars, but to Duke Whinnysfield's credit, he managed to entertain both of his little guests for quite some time before Turpentine managed to slip away. It was not the size of the train pieces or the complexity of the construction which made him find more interesting things to do in the huge house, but a nagging pain somewhere around Turpentine's heart to see the large unicorn stallion and the small seapony filly with their heads together while peering through a magnifying glass much like grandfather and granddaughter.
It was unfair. It was also jealousy. Turpentine had never known his father, let alone any grandparents. He was not some cute little filly with a beautiful exotic mother who was falling in love with a baron. He was just a lazy colt who preferred to play with his paints rather than put in a good, long day pulling a plow.
The dark depression was all too easy to pull around himself as it always had whenever a new family was getting a little too close for Turpentine's comfort. It was hard to keep it wrapped around his gloomy soul, though. The kitchen servants refused to let him wash dishes, and instead tried to bribe him with sweets and unending compliments about his colored pencil drawing of the Whinnysfield family. The library likewise was not a refuge because both Sen and Caractere were having a spirited friendly discussion in which Turpentine could hear his name repeated several times. Even going outside and finding a place in the garden to hide was a lost cause, because Baron Gaberdine and Pearl were proceeding slowly through the rows of flowers, and would most certainly be able to spot him wherever he hid.
In the end he managed to find Gaberdine's old room, slightly dusty and a little disorganized from his abrupt departure several months ago and seemingly never returned to afterward. It made Turpentine feel useful to dust and put away the unshelved books, but after what little clutter he could find had been dealt with, he found himself drawn to the sun-drenched window with his sketchpad. It was probably not a great view by unicorn standards, but Turpentine could see dozens of houses before the long dropoff to the valley far, far below, and it kept him warm and busy with his sketchpad instead of thinking uncomfortable thoughts.
Some time later, the eventual creaking of the door jarred Turpentine out of his sketching, with the shadows in the room considerably lower than when he had started. Missus Whinnysfield stood in the doorway, her horn lit up to illuminate her path in the dark shadows left by the afternoon sun, peering into the room and looking at Turpentine with a false smile.
"Turpentine?" She moved quietly into the room and stopped at the edge of the warm sunbeam coming through the window. "Gabby said we'd find you somewhere with a big window. It's getting late, and you should be getting back to Gravel Flats."
She stood and watched while Turpentine put away his sketchpad and his pencils, waiting until he was done before asking very quietly, "Is everything all right?"
"Yeah," he muttered, shouldering his saddlebag while keeping his eyes on the varnished floorboards. "I don't want to keep Mister Gaberdine waiting."
"Oh, he already left," said Missus Whinnysfield. "Princess Celestia had her Celestial Phaeton take him and that nice young seapony mare back to his castle. I'm sorry you missed it. They really looked quite the pair standing together on that huge golden chariot when it took off." She wrinkled up her nose. "Is Gabby's castle really just a riverboat, or is he pulling my leg?"
"It's not just a riverboat," said Turpentine, feeling a little better as he stood up for Gaberdine's rather unique house. "It's a Hampton and Smythe Rivermaster with a three-piston steam engine and a streamlined sidewheel which lets it skim over sandbars, and the rudder is on a spring, so it goes places you barely can get a hoof wet. Well, once he gets the engine put back together." He paged through his sketchbook and produced a line drawing for the older mare's examination. It was one of his better colored pencil drawings of Castle Paradise IV as it once had been, flying its Equestrian flag proudly with the old baron and his young crew out on deck enjoying the theoretical cruise.
"My. It's certainly... a boat." She flipped through a few more pages with her magic, fast at first, then slowing to a quiet examination of a sheet which really did not have much on it. "Gabby certainly seems happy with his... friend."
"Yeah." Turpentine tried not to let his shoulders slump. "Is Mister Caractere or Sen waiting on me? Or Ripple?"
"No, Mister Sienna and Miss Ripple went with my son, and Princess Celestia sent a special chariot to take Mister Caractere back to Baltimare. Your friend is a most accomplished art historian, Turpentine. I can see why he likes you so much." Missus Whinnysfield settled down on the hardwood floor next to Turpentine and pulled over a cushion for him.
"Please. Sit down. I can tell something is bothering you. You've got that same look Gabby had when he walked into the house today, and somehow I don't think it's just because you didn't get to ride home on Princess Celestia's magnificent Phaeton. I promise, I'll keep your secret just between us."
With a subdued grumble, Turpentine settled down on the cushion and stewed. He probably would not have said anything if Missus Whinnysfield had not seemed so much like Mother Windrow, but the lump inside his chest would probably feel better outside, and the only way for that to happen was to let it out.
"I'm afraid." Turpentine took a deep breath. "I'm afraid about everything. I'm afraid something will happen in my life that I don't get to see, like Celestia's big fate-on chariot. I'm afraid I'll never find my place, and I'll wind up growing beans for the rest of my life. I'm afraid of missing an opportunity, because once it happens, it's done and I'll never get another chance. I'm afraid of finding another family, because I'll lose Mother Windrow, and she's been the only family I've known since my m-mother d-died." He huddled up closer to the older unicorn mare, who he had not realized was sitting quite so close. "Was Mister Gaberdine ever afraid?"
"Constantly. Particularly during thunderstorms," she added with a tense giggle. "He'd come scrambling down the hall with snot coming out of his nose and trembling before climbing up into his father's bed. When the thunder started to roll, I always knew he was coming, and I'd sleep over in my own bed on those nights."
When Turpentine looked up with a puzzled glance, she looked down and added, "It's an old unicorn tradition, having two beds in the bedroom. One of them always gets a lot less use than the other, but it upholds the dignity of our station, or so Grandfather Whinnysfield said when we moved in and Poppy took up the title."
She let out her breath in a long sigh and leaned up against Turpentine. "I was so afraid back then. We were Poppy and Lily in love until one day we turned into the formal and proper Duke and Lady. Thankfully, it didn't change him on the inside. He had a new coat of paint, but under the surface, he was still my old Poppy, just as fresh as when I met him."
"It gave him texture," said Turpentine.
Missus Whinnysfield looked puzzled, but after a moment said, "Yes, I suppose so." She sat there by his side for some time, looking at the way motes of dust drifted in the sunbeam before adding, "Are you still afraid?"
"Yes," admitted Turpentine. "But it's better."
"Good." Missus Whinnysfield patted him on the shoulder. "I haven't needed to be there for a little colt in some time. I was afraid I had lost my touch."
He thought about the way the duke had enjoyed showing Ripple his model train set and decided that just because a pony was an action-pony did not mean they could not also have a solid stripe of noun-pony in them too, like he did. It did bring up a question, though.
"Missus Whinnysfield, if I stayed here while going to Celestia's school, would I be able to talk to you about... stuff?"
The path of her nose was warm when she nuzzled underneath his captain's cap and across his forehead much like Mother Windrow used to do. "Call me Lily, please. You can talk to me about stuff anytime," she whispered into his ears. "If it were not for you, our son would have hidden his special somepony away from us forever."
She paused and settled Turpentine's cap back on his head, looking much more serious. "Do you think..."
"I don't know," said Turpentine rapidly.
"Don't worry about your secret," said Lily. "Princess Celestia told me that Pearl and Ripple are seaponies, and that I should keep it quiet. I was just wondering about... grandfillies, I suppose. Hooves or a tail."
It was a topic Turpentine had considered at some length once he had discovered Gaberdine was an ordinary unicorn instead of a disguised seapony, as he had first thought. It had been more of a practical consideration for artistic expression rather than the poignant need for drooling and diaper-filling grandfillies like Missus Whinnysfield, that is Lily seemed to be implying. Still, he had come to a conclusion back then which had not changed up until the present.
"I don't know if Mister Gaberdine... that is if Gabby and Pearl are ready to make that kind of a decision yet. Besides, if they do decide to have more little fillies like Ripple, would it make a difference either way?"
"No." Lily rubbed him across the top of the captain's cap. "Horn, wings, tail or not, grandfoals are still heaven's gift." She gave him one last warm hug before looking out the window at the diminishing sunlight. "Well, the pegasus sisters who are supposed to take you back to Fen will be here shortly. Do you need anything before you go? I could get Cook to throw together some of her famous muffins if you want. I know poor Gabby is lost around a stove. I'm surprised he hasn't burned his new riverboat castle down to the waterline yet."
"Sen cooks, and I help," explained Turpentine rather defensively, but he wavered at the thought of some of the wonderful baked goods that had been served at lunch, and his stomach put in a low rumble to express its own opinion. "I suppose a few muffins wouldn't hurt."
"Anything else?" asked Lily with a smile. "Gravel Flats is such a provincial town, and we can get you anything you need in Canterlot."
"Anything?" He devoted some thought to the wonderful word, so filled with promises of paint. "Well, Princess Celestia is going to show up at the castle in a few days, if Princess Luna can pry her loose. I'd like to..." A plan unfolded in his mind and Turpentine began to smile. "Can I get you to buy some painting things for us?" |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 16 - Cruise Shipping | Drifting Down the Lazy River
Cruise Shipping
"Wake up by and by, and look to see what done it, and maybe see a steamboat coughing along up-stream, so far off towards the other side you couldn't tell nothing about her only whether she was a stern-wheel or side-wheel."
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
A simple touch of the blade peeled off the white paint in long spirals, curling around his hooves much like the leaves which were just starting to come off the trees in ones and twos. It was probably a little late in the season to paint, but Princess Celestia was going to be at the castle in just a few days, and Turpentine wanted...
Well, he was not quite certain what he wanted.
Sunglasses would be welcome, due to the way the dawning sun was coming right through his narrowed eyelids just about no matter where he stood on the riverboat deck to scrape paint. He had just found a comfortable and slightly shaded spot to scrape when the sounds of an early-rising pony heralded the arrival of Sen, who looked at the long bare patches where Turpentine had already been hard at work.
"Paint for breakfast, lad?" Sen picked up another paint scraper and positioned himself to scrape the taller areas where Turpentine had been unable to reach, and scrolls of dull white paint began to spiral to the deck while the old earth pony pitched in. The two of them scraped in tandem for a time until a third pony holding onto an empty coffee cup stumbled out into the bright morning light.
Gaberdine looked at the two earth ponies, one large and one small, before wordlessly picking another paint scraper out of the collection of equipment Turpentine had brought back to the castle last evening under the cover of darkness. Using his magic instead of gripping it in his jaws, Gaberdine scraped even higher, working his way along the side of the ship until the black peeling paint of the smokestack caught his eye.
"Yes, I got s'me paint for that too, s'r," said Turpentine from around the paint scraper. He spit the scraper out onto the deck and took a deep breath. "You weren't kidding, Mister Gaberdine. Canterlot has everything, even ship paint, on the top of a mountain without a ship anywhere. And I got some black metal paint that's supposed to stand up to dragon breath, so doing the smokestack shouldn't be a problem. Paint and primer, not like whoever painted the castle before."
Sen took advantage of the break to spit out his own paint scraper and stretch with a popping of aged joints. "About a decade ago, Baron Miller hired a couple of young unicorns who priced out the low bid. They got paid half in advance and tore out of here right after collecting the other half, but it all started peeling about a week later. Never got around to getting a professional to fix it up afore he up and died. Sometimes I think he liked it this way, all shabby and tore-up lookin' in order to keep the looky-loos away."
"Ripple said the paint flakes get into the water when the wind blows," said Turpentine. "They sting when they get caught in a gill and taste terrible."
"Hm..." Gaberdine's horn changed hues when he pressed a section of his magic against the paint and began to run it back and forth. "At least it's not lead-based. Oh!" The paint he had been pressing broke loose from the wall and slid down to the deck in a disintegrating sheet. A second application of his magic brought down a broader sheet and Gaberdine lit up with a gleeful grin. "This is a lot easier than the scraper."
Sen exchanged a knowing glance with Turpentine and lowered his voice to the point where the happy unicorn, surrounded in sheets of falling dry paint, most probably could not hear. "Well, Baron Gaberdine always did say 'The right tool for the job.'"
Turpentine gave a quick glance out into the lagoon and a series of inverted v's headed in their direction. "We better get the trash bags and a couple of brooms."
"No." Sen patted Turpentine on the head, which the captain's cap was doing a very good job of keeping free of paint flakes. "I'll get the broom. Gaberdine had a meeting with the school teacher last night before you got back. Today's your first day of school in Gravel Flats."
"But--"
"Half-day," clarified Sen. "Classes are morning-only until First Snow. You need your book bag and a towel."
"A towel?" Turpentine turned to look at the departing servant with a puzzled frown, but figured out just what he meant when Ripple came bursting out of the water in a long arc and wrapped around him with all four flippers.
"School!" she cried. "We're going to school today! Isn't this terrifffically fantastically great!"
Turpentine could not immediately respond, because he was busy attempting to get a breath of air while trying not to be swept back out into the lagoon with the backwash from Ripple's abrupt appearance. Likewise, he did not say very much while being dried off, or even during the fairly short trip into Gravel Flats while Ripple was attempting to skip and talk at the same time, which required quite a bit of support on his behalf.
School turned out to be not that bad at all.
* * ✹ * *
By the time they were walking back to the riverboat, Ripple was showing signs of fatigue. School was a place where she had to remain quiet until called upon, which reminded Turpentine a little of a closed-up boiler building a head of steam due to the speed at which the little disguised seapony could spit out words after having to remain silent for even a little while. It was a little disconcerting for him, because he normally would have thought of a teakettle as an analogy for her explosive energy, but the longer he stayed in Ripple's vicinity, the more 'engineery' he had been thinking. She had even helped Turpentine out with some of the tricky math problems the teacher had assigned, with numbers being carried from column to column as well as his evil nemesis, the nefarious Long Division.
Someday, Turpentine would probably meet a colt with that name and get beat up by him. It seemed inevitable. It had not been today, though. All of the little colts and fillies at the school had been various degrees of friendly, and they all knew Sen, so it was a little like the school was... nice. Turpentine had certainly felt more comfortable with only a dozen names to remember, rather than the hundreds or even thousands who could be at Celestia's school in Canterlot.
One of the colts, a trouble-making little pegasus with a cutie mark of a frog, had even asked if he could come out to the riverboat and play after school. He had even asked Turpentine instead of Ripple, which was really confusing, but he seemed to accept being told he would need permission from Baron Gaberdine.
I wonder if he's the little brother that Powderpuff and Lemon Drops were talking about?
The constant flow of chatter between Ripple and Turpentine faded out into a long and expressive pause once the two little ponies crested the hill on the near side of the lagoon and got a good look at Baron Gaberdine's floating castle.
"It's... naked," said Turpentine, almost in awe at the way the entire structure and smokestack had been stripped down to the bare metal or wood, depending on where he was looking. Even the cover over the sidewheel had been removed and placed on the grassy bank, allowing complete access to the bare wooden blades sticking up in the noontime sun.
"We missed it," said Ripple, breaking into an awkward gallop that made her hooves fly in all directions at once, leaving Turpentine to follow at a respectful distance so he did not get kicked by accident. They both made it to the gangplank just in time to catch Baron Gaberdine staggering the other way under the load of several trash bags destined for the trash cart. The baron used to be somewhat of a tan-brown, but now looked more Appaloosean with the number of white spots embedded in his coat and mane, as well as the dark flakes of peeled smokestack paint.
"Ah, Turpentine." The baron grinned, then spat to one side. "Yuck, that's terrible. How was school?"
After waiting a moment to let Ripple respond, Turpentine spoke up. "It wasn't bad. Did you get the whole ship stripped?"
"Yep." Gaberdine heaved the filled bags of paint flakes into the trash cart. "We should be able to get the first coat of primer on this afternoon, and start painting for real tomorrow morning."
"Did you wash the stripped surface with the soda phosphate?" asked Turpentine.
"Um..." Gaberdine stopped and looked a little guilty. "We did get out the primer and made sure it was stirred up."
"Put the lids back on," said Turpentine. "We need to wash and rinse the surfaces first, then fill any voids with caulking compound, then--"
"Paint the primer?" asked Gaberdine.
"Condition the wood surfaces with two parts linseed oil to one part turpentine or the surface will absorb too much of the binder." Turpentine paused. "Then we can apply primer."
* * ✹ * *
It had been a long time since Turpentine had worked up a good sweat while painting. Between school in the morning and painting the castle in the afternoon, both mental and physical muscles were well exercised, and his painting grew around him. Ripple still seemed to be a little put out that she had not gotten to help strip the old paint off, but Baron Gaberdine enticed her with the need for putting the engine together (again), so while Turpentine worked above decks, he could listen to the thumps and rattles of Gaberdine and his little helper doing whatever arcane wizardry they were doing to the 'Steam Engine, Reciprocating - Model 57V with Triple-Action Pistons and Regenerative Steam Recapture' that was so difficult to understand when he had read through that section of the manual.
By the time the weekend rolled around, passed by in a flurry of brushing, and approached again, his painting was taking shape. Far more progress had been made than he expected, because Turpentine had found working on one side of the riverboat made a correspondingly larger amount of work happen on the other side, particularly if he talked loudly about how to caulk holes in the siding or properly stroke in the conditioning formula or paint with the broad brush before switching sides. At times he could even hear Ripple's aunts chattering between themselves or giggling at little jokes, and twice several of the busy seaponies were so focused on brushing on a smooth layer of wood conditioner or primer that they painted right past Turpentine without even a pause.
He was going to miss that kind of delicate acceptance in Canterlot. Ripple's aunts were a contradiction, both powerful and talented, as well as timid and sensitive. They could not help but treat Ripple a lot like an outsider, while Pearl was somewhere in between, trapped between two worlds and unable to truly embrace either. It bothered him, and much like anything bothering Ripple, the words had to come out of Turpentine eventually.
It was nearing the evening while they were just finishing up some final bits of trim work. The rest of the ponies had gone into the galley to start dinner, leaving Turpentine and Pearl to paint alone for a few minutes. Pearl had a small brush for the light teal swirl pattern cresting atop the cabins like Celestia's blowing mane, while Turpentine was following up with a smaller brush to tidy up the lines and add whatever flourishes struck his fancy at the moment. It took concentration to wait until Pearl had reached the end of the trim and was cleaning her brush, but Turpentine had gotten better at not ambushing ponies out of the blue, which was critically important with an already shy pony like Pearl.
"Miss Pearl. I was wondering." Turpentine shifted the brush to the side of his cheek and kept his eyes on his work, because he knew looking at her would only make her more nervous. "Are you and Ripple ever going to go back to the ocean? Not that I want you to. I really don't. I mean... You don't have to tell me if you are. After what you said about your husband..."
The words had been a lot easier to say and made more sense when Turpentine was only thinking about them. Once they got out of his mouth, they started flapping around like crazy butterflies, taking off in all the wrong directions and only getting worse when he tried to fix them.
"I don't know." The quiet words made Turpentine relax a little. He had expected to only hear a splash when Pearl fled back to her underwater home, and he really did not expect to hear the words that followed. "Are you ever going to find a home, Turpentine?"
Now it was his turn to be flustered. Turpentine took a deep breath and almost inhaled the paintbrush, but covered for his action by wiping it clean and quickly dunking it into the solvent. "Yes," he muttered finally. "I just need to find the right parents."
Behind him, Pearl gave out the smallest of giggles, sounding almost like the tinkling of fairy bells in the cool evening air. "Princess Celestia would make a nice mother for you. She told us about your... misconception. It was very touching." Pearl giggled again. "Prince Turpentine."
Turpentine was grateful that the captain's cap allowed his ears to stick out, because they turned bright red with embarrassment and itched uncomfortably. If they had been stuck under the cap, he would have needed to scratch or else. As it was, he hunched over the solvent bottle with the brush until the gentle touch of an oversized hoof on his shoulder made him look up.
Those dark green eyes were only darker and more entrancing in the evening shadows. Gaberdine had confided once that he was first attracted to the beautiful seapony from her voice, but Turpentine was fairly certain that those fascinating eyes had a powerful role in his infatuation, and possibly if Turpentine was reading his eleven years of worldly experience correctly, something far more permanent in their relationship. They were so much like Ripple's eyes, only with most but not all of the mischief faded away and considerable pain mixed in. Still, the pain seemed muted, even missing whenever Gaberdine was in the immediate vicinity. And over the last few weeks, that same pain had faded slightly whenever Turpentine was around too.
His introspection was gently cut off by a soft but persistent touch on the end of his nose. When Turpentine blinked his way back to awareness, he saw Pearl with her own small smile as she continued to boop him until he moved to push away the hoof with a protest. "Hey! Did Mother Windrow teach you that?"
"Yes." She giggled again, a musical noise that Turpentine could never tire of listening to, and much the same as Ripple's happy laughter, but quieter. It was also far too short, and although her smile remained, there was considerable regret in her eyes when she turned the unwelcome nose-booping into a more familiar caress along his cheek. "I will miss you," she added. "I feel safe when Ripple is with you. I worry about her so. She's all I have left."
"Uh... Thank you, ma'am."
"Pearl." The seapony's smile thinned, and the hint of a tear appeared in the corner of one of those beautiful eyes. "I wish you could stay," she whispered. "I wish I could turn you into a seapony and steal you away to live with my Ripple forever beneath the waves."
"What about Mister Gaberdine?" asked Turpentine. It was a question he had not intended to ask, but his mind was still deliriously scrambled by Pearl's beautiful eyes, and he had to say something.
"I..." That terrible pain crept back into her eyes again, and Turpentine reacted by instinct. He reached out and wrapped his forehooves as far around the mare as possible, only instead of holding the hug for the absolute minimum in the way he always had done with Mother Windrow, he clutched her just as tightly as Ripple would have, and kept holding her until she started breathing regularly and relaxed her own crushing grip.
"Better?" he asked hesitantly, not certain if his ribs could take another aquatic hug.
"Better," she reassured him from where her nose was pressed into the top of his cap. They could have remained holding each other for longer, except for the sound of a familiar sharp beeping of the smoke alarm from inside the riverboat galley and some associated commotion.
"Oh, fishguts." Pearl cocked her head to one side and looked at the trail of smoke leaking up from the galley vents. "Gabby was baking your birthday cake."
"Birthday?" Turpentine glanced between the embarrassed mare and the trickle of smoke, which was rapidly dwindling while Ripple and Gaberdine dealt with the source. The days had snuck up on Turpentine despite his best efforts, but it was only a birthday, and nothing really special. Normally, Mother Windrow would bake them both a few tins of cupcakes and they could apply whatever sprinkles and icing desired. And she bought him some new paints, which were normally not the ones he needed but he never complained. A whole cake...
He eyed the suddenly shy seapony again. "Were you supposed to keep me out here so I'd be surprised?"
"Yes." She tried to look down, but Turpentine slipped under her chin and wrapped her up for another hug instead. After a considerably gentler squeeze and some thought, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and a smile.
"Thank you, Pearl. That's one of the best presents I've ever gotten for my birthday." He chuckled, because giving in to an urge to giggle was not a very eleven year old colt thing. "I've never had somepony tell me they wanted to turn me into a seapony and steal me away before. I think it'd be fun, but I'd miss painting."
"We can't have that." Pearl lifted his captain's cap up and arranged Turpentine's mane before putting the cap back on his head and settling it down. "Just as long as you don't invite any more of those kind of pegasus over to paint anymore."
"Do you mean batponies?" asked Turpentine, still feeling a little giggle-y inside. "Or female ponies."
"Princess Celestia is a female pony," said Pearl very sincerely despite the smile that kept trying to sneak into the corners of her mouth. "You have my leave to paint her this weekend, only if you don't put her under the waterfall."
"Oh." A little of the levity in his heart lessened at the thought. Princess Luna's rescheduled visit was the day after tomorrow, during a period of time where Celestia had punched a temporary hole in her schedule and might be able to come along. Baron Gaberdine and Ripple had worked from dawn to dusk on Castle Paradise's engines, so there was supposed to be what he called a 'smoke test' tomorrow that did not involve cooking, and if it succeeded, the riverboat would be able to take a short cruise up and downstream all decked out in bright white paint with the pastel colors of Celestia's mane on the trim like some giant celestial swan out for a daytime paddle. Everything was all in waiting except the most important part of all.
Where was he going to paint her portrait?
He had not put any thought into the problem over the last week, due to the immense amount of work it had taken to get the castle properly painted. He couldn't just paint her alone and fill in the background later, because that's how that terrible, awful, creepy painting in her art gallery happened, and all of the paintings over the years that followed with those eerie eyes. Turpentine did not think his portrait of Celestia would become that popular, but it was best to err on the side of caution, particularly since his get well card had wound up being printed in the newspaper, and he had not expected that either. He really needed to find somepony with an answer to his question.
By the time his birthday party was over and he settled down in bed, he knew just exactly who he was going to ask. |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 17 - Fatherhood | Drifting Down the Lazy River
Fatherhood
"...because a body don't see such a storm as that every day in the week, not by a long sight. My souls, how the wind did scream along! And every second or two there'd come a glare that lit up the white-caps for a half a mile around, and you'd see the islands looking dusty through the rain, and the trees thrashing around in the wind; then comes a H-WHACK!--bum! bum! bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum--and the thunder would go rumbling and grumbling away, and quit--and then RIP comes another flash and another sockdolager."
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
The adventure book which had given Turpentine the idea to drift downstream on a raft had a scene in it where a fierce storm rocked the character's raft, all crashing and booming with thunder and lightning filling the night and the wind screaming along. It was all fantasy, of course, because no pegasus competent enough to get on a weather team would ever let a storm get out of control like that, but it was something to fantasize about while he would lie in bed at the house of whatever family was trying to adopt him and listen to the rain fall in long, gentle sheets. The families always tried to give him his own room, mostly painted in what they considered creative patterns with appealing colors. It never really made him feel comfortable as they had hoped.
When the nighttime thunder rumbled at the orphanage, Turpentine would always creep down the hallway and sneak onto the little rug right next to Mother Windrow's bed, listen to her soft snores until the storm was over, then sneak back to his own bed without anypony noticing. He never did that at the foster parents' houses, no matter who it was attempting to adopt him or how colorful they had made his room. He was a big colt. He did not need to go hide from the thunder like Ripple when the storms were rolled in. Hearing from Gaberdine's mother how the brave and kind baron acted when he was Turpentine's age had been a little disconcerting. After all, Turpentine was eleven now. Next year he would be twelve, and the year after that, thirteen. Someday he would be old, like twenty or something, and with that age always came nose-dribbling and stinky-ended foals who would be afraid of thunderstorms and want a big strong father to hold them like he had never been held.
The unwelcome realization really would not have been that bad if Turpentine had not been in the bed of the Speedy Delivery wagon while the pegasus sisters descended into the rainstorm covering Baltimare, and might not even have been so bad if the rain slicker they loaned him had not been only slightly worse than useless, and seemed in an oversized way to be funneling all of the pouring rain into the insides of the waterproof garment. At least there were wingholes in it to drain, or Turpentine thought he might drown from all the water he had picked up during the trip.
He heaved himself over the edge of the wagon to land with a sodden splash in front of The Painting Palette and scurried for the relative dryness of the overhang. The traffic was thin, which was why they managed to drop him so close to the store, but Turpentine only had time for a brief wave over his shoulders to the sisters before they hopped back up into the air and vanished into the driving rain. The marketplace they were headed to was covered, and therefore dry, but Turpentine would much rather be inside and dry than try to keep himself warm with the outdoor firepits scattered around the market stalls which let the native Baltimare residents enjoy their fresh vegetable and fruit shopping even in the upcoming winter snow.
It only took a moment for Turpentine to shoulder open the door and stand dripping in the atrium of the paint store, which made it obvious why there were hooks by the door. He shucked out of his oversized rain slicker, hanging it on the second hook to drain into the loose grating under his hooves, and most likely into the sewer system below. Likewise, Turpentine also dripped, or more correctly streamed water off his sodden coat in a way that somehow felt even wetter than when he had been swimming with Ripple in the lagoon.
The store was quiet, but it had been so both times Turpentine had visited before, plus one of the hooks already had a rain slicker on it and the store lights were on, so somepony was in. The difference this morning was in the clerk who came around the corner and spotted Turpentine, giving him a brief frazzled smile before darting back into the store.
"Hold on, little dude!" The young pegasus returned, bearing a fluffy towel over his back, and winged it over to the sodden little earth pony still dripping in the doorway. "You better dry yourself off before you catch a cold."
Turpentine had really been expecting the much older Caractere. This young pegasus was just barely out of his teens if that, and had a number of metal or plastic objects jutting out of his face and body which made him look somewhat like an unfortunate victim of some sort of explosion, even if they did go well with the dark blue of his coat. It would have been easy to stare, but Turpentine restrained himself and tried to get dried off as much as he could while sneaking glances in the direction of the teenaged store clerk, who he could not help but think looked a little like one of Mother Windrow's pin cushions.
"Sorry we're not quite ready for business, little dude." The young clerk had scurried off to the back section of the store and his voice sounded oddly muffled. "The old lady had to go into work this morning and I'm covering for Gramps. Just go ahead and pick out what you want to buy and I'll ring you up in a minute."
"Actually, I wanted to talk to Caractere." Turpentine finished drying his mane and hung the towel on a nearby empty rack next to another damp towel. "Is he in?"
"Naa. Grandpa-in-law went to do physical therapy this morning. He'll be in this afternoon, once the rain is over."
Turpentine followed the sound of the clerk's voice, and far too quickly found a familiar scent wafting on the stale air of the shop and competing with the much more preferable scent of fresh paint. The teenaged pegasus stallion was hunched over the floor and engaged in a wrestling contest with a little half-diapered foal, a match in which he seemed to be winning, although a few poop-smeared wipes in the general vicinity made Turpentine stop cold and eye the ground for potential land mines. Just in case, he looked behind him before stepping back out of the potential splatter zone. Mother Windrow had been very determined to share the experience whenever she had to take care of a newborn foal, and his reluctant education had included--
"Just a minute, little dude. Do you want to help diaper?" asked the clerk.
"No!" Turpentine took a breath at the sudden surge of guilt that swept over him and quickly moved to clarify his position. "I mean, let me help... pick up."
The young stallion was obviously unpracticed at this odious task and unwilling to go diving in nose-first, which really was understandable. The few foals who had passed through the orphanage were all endlessly hungry or poopy, even the little foals from the town who Mother Windrow foalsat on occasion. It really did not make Turpentine resentful of the way that they soaked up most of the attention in the house...
Actually, that might have been it.
He sat nearby and helped out with the wet wipes, watching foal and father work their way through the process and even holding the wriggly little pegasus filly while the clerk rolled up the changing mat. She seemed to have an unfair advantage in number of limbs to wriggle with the wings included, and even managed to thwap Turpentine across the nose, although she looked apologetic afterward and made it quite impossible for him to be angry about it.
"Thanks, little dude." The clerk shoved the diaper bag and foal carrier combination pack under a nearby shelf and took a deep breath. "I didn't think she'd be that hard to get cleaned up-- Hey!"
The clerk lit up with a metal-punctuated smile and stuck out a hoof, which thankfully did not have any jewelry sticking out of it or any poop still sticking to it. "You're the little dude Gramps has been talking about! Cool beans! I'm Pierce, and this is my daughter, Gleaming Dawn, but you can just call her Dawn because like most little pegasus fillies get a name like that because like weather and stuff."
Turpentine cautiously shook hooves before Pierce scooped the little filly up in the crook of one leg and took off across the quiet store over to a corkboard next to the window. There were a number of photographs stuck there under the title of 'Budding Young Artists' in several rows, including his familiar paintings as well as two empty spots labeled for the past painting of Luna and the future painting of Celestia.
"You've got some righteous vision, little dude. Grandpa says you could probably sell your pictures of him and my old lady for a bunch of bits, but he'd rather take them home and hang 'em on the wall," bubbled Pierce happily while boosting Dawn up to look at the two paintings. "Still, dude, it's your decision. Look at your mama, Dawn. Say 'Mama.' Come on," cajoled the young stallion, but all he got out of the little filly was a toothless yawn.
Both paintings Turpentine had made of Caractere and Sympathique were still up on the wall with the precautionary 'Wet Paint' signs to discourage any unwanted touching, although there was an additional 'Not For Sale' sign added more recently. He could remember Baron Gaberdine asking for permissions to photograph some of his pictures and Sen taking the resulting used film into town to have it developed, but Turpentine had never really considered showing them to Caractere or anypony else, for that matter. He had always been thinking of his next painting instead of what happened to the one he had just done.
"We've gotten a lot of requests for prints, and some mare from the restaurant said she'd give you a hundred bits for the second original painting with the wings done up so good," said Pierce, stating the impossible number as if it were pocket change. "I dunno, though. I get upwards of a thousand for my stuff when I get a painting commission, and you've got some primo colors and stuff."
The young pegasus pointed with a wing at a set of other photographs showing colorful hot air balloons soaring through the sky. They looked like they had been vigorously bombed by pegasi with paint buckets, but after a moment of introspective observation, Turpentine could see a certain attractive vigor to the explosions of color splashed across the aerial vehicles. Since most ponies could not fly on their own, there was a prideful appeal to showing off their purchases to their fellow ground-bound brethren. When he had surprised Powderpuff and Lemon Drops by secretly repainting their wagon one night last week, the sisters had been overjoyed and insisted on covering his cheeks with kisses, so even pegasi were not immune to wanting to fly in style.
"Whoops," said Pierce when the bell over the front door of the shop chimed. "Can I get you to watch Dawn for a few minutes thanks I gotta go--"
The yawning filly was abruptly passed to Turpentine when Pierce darted past, headed for an important-looking unicorn carrying a magically-levitated umbrella, which she was just tucking to one side of the door. The additional weight of the filly was a little unbalancing, but Ripple had provided good practice for keeping his balance over the last few weeks, so at least he did not tip over. He took a quick trip back to the counter to grab a blanket and some toys, then went back over to his windowed painting spot with the intention of doing what he always did with something new. After all, the little filly smelled of poop and spoiled milk, so Turpentine would have been much more comfortable behind his painting easel at a safe distance. A few miles would have been nice.
He settled Dawn into the store window display on a pale blue blanket with more than a few frazzled spots and a patch on it, showing that the young stallion must have purchased it secondhoof. According to the Rules of Foals, she was supposed to want to sleep now that she had a new diaper, or at least curl up and look paintably cute, but every time Turpentine managed to get the pencil into his teeth, there was a rumble of thunder outside that attracted her intense attention and made her look away. Either that, or she would look up at Turpentine, all bright-eyed and alert to the scratching of his pencil while moving forward toward the edge of the window sill and a certain tumble onto the hard floor. It took five captures before he gave up on drawing and settled for just keeping her caged in the window display, splitting her attention between him and the ponies splashing by in the rain.
Since he could not draw or paint, Turpentine thought. Since Caractere was not around, and the concept of where to paint Celestia if she showed up tomorrow was a topic he had beaten to death in his own mind to no result, he thought about other things.
And since Dawn seemed determined to play instead of napping, he thought about little fillies, and in particular, how Ripple would react to her mother bringing another little seapony into their lives. It seemed to be an inevitable addition to the riverboat in the future. Once older ponies started sneaking off for activities they did not want younger ponies to see, foals happened. Pearl was a fine mother, and had proven it by raising Ripple, which certainly could not have been easy for the shy seapony. Gaberdine, however...
The baron seemed to get along just fine with older ponies like Pearl and medium ponies like himself and Ripple, but little fillies were difficult. They pooped and cried and needed bottles and all kinds of things Gaberdine had never done before. Pearl could help teach him, but it still seemed about as awkward a situation as if Gaberdine were to paint Celestia's portrait while Turpentine tried to put the steam engine in Castle Paradise back together again.
"Hey, little dude. Thanks for watching Dawn." The young pegasus clerk plunked down on the floor right next to Turpentine and held out a pacifier for his infant daughter.
"That's not how you do it," said Turpentine with an authoritative air. He took away the binkie and stuck it with the small stash of foal toys he had brought over to the window display area. "She's not hungry yet, so you'll spoil her by giving her a pacifier. How old is she?"
"Four weeks," declared Pierce proudly. "She sleeps through the night and everything."
It made Turpentine think about what really made up a family, and how his own definition had changed over the last few weeks. The little batwinged foal who Mother Windrow had taken care of for a little while was now in Canterlot with a whole family full of ponies just like it, while Turpentine had not even been able to find a pair of parents. That was not the end of it, though. Somewhere, there was a little foal just like this one who had been traded for the batwinged brother or sister she had never met, and that foal would also be raised by strangers who had no real connection to her. It would be accepted for who he or she was and not have to go from family to family like Turpentine had.
The unfairness grated on him. Dawn had it easy. She had her own father and mother without having to go looking, even if her father was kinda-sorta young and had odd chunks of metal sticking out of him in weird places. There had to have been some sort of class he passed to become a father, with tests and study guides since it was such an important job, but Pierce seemed like he had skidded through with a barely passing grade. Still, it looked as if he liked having to deal with the heavy responsibility, and did not have the expression of strained patience that so many foster parents had gotten after only a few hours with Turpentine.
"What's it like being a father?" asked Turpentine during a brief lull in Dawn's game of Hoof-Pounce.
"It's cool." Pierce moved his hoof back and forth, making the little filly angle her wings back and crouch as if she were some sort of hunting cat, watching the elusive hoof for a weakness to pounce upon.
"No, I mean what's it like?" asked Turpentine. "You've got this helpless little pony depending on you for everything. She can't eat on her own, or clean up her own poop, and she sure can't tell you what's wrong if she gets sick, and you've got years before she's a big pony like me and can be left alone for any length of time. You've got to watch her so she doesn't eat any oleander leaves or gets into the pantry and dumps the flour or hurts herself with a fork. There's shots and school and teaching her everything she's going to need in her life, and it's all on you."
"Whoa." Pierce stopped moving his hoof. "Grandpa was right. You are a deep little dude."
Turpentine nodded, but with a frown. "Yeah. I like to know things. It kinda makes families a little weirded out, so I haven't gotten adopted yet. Well, none that stuck."
"Bummer, little dude." Pierce scooped up the little pegasus filly and rocked her in the crook of his foreleg. "My old man and lady were never there or drunk, so I grew up all on my own, like an eagle, flying free. Worked a few odd jobs doing weather or delivery when I could. Ran with a rough flock for a while, until I met Sy and she made me straighten up and fly right. I've never really had a father before, but that don't matter now." He brushed a strand of mane back from the foal's forehead and smiled in such a way that his entire face seemed to light up, even the little bits of golden metal in his lips and ears. "She's gonna be different. I'm gonna be the father I never had, and it's all for her."
"So... were you afraid?" It was a very practical question, because Turpentine knew he would have been terrified in the same situation, but the young stallion nodded too.
"Buck yeah. When Sy told me we were going to have a foal, I freaked. No job, no family, and school was going to kick me out anyway. Gramps really came through for us. Set me up with a couple of artist gigs from some old friends, and cleared out his workroom so we could use it as a bedroom. We're packed into that apartment tighter than-- Um, really tight."
Dawn did not look sleepy enough to finally take a nap, but Turpentine tried to keep her entertained while his mind whirled along. He really wasn't concentrating on his work or even his upcoming portrait session with Princess Celestia. An unexpected perspective filled his head, because he had never really thought about the adoption process from the other end.
If he were to have a father for the first time in ever, somewhere there needed to be a stallion who wanted to have a son, and to complicate matters, they both would need to be the same pony. Just like Gaberdine's puzzle piece cutie mark, the two pieces of father and son would have to match. It was obvious that Pierce loved his daughter, but she was a pegasus just like him, much the same as Pearl loved Ripple in their home under the water, but finding the elusive match for himself seemed both closer and further away than ever.
"I have another question. It's about batponies."
Turpentine described as best he could about the adoption process when a nocturnal pegasus was born into a non-nocturnal family and vice versa, which was made more difficult by the way Dawn constantly attempted to pull the conversation into how cute and adorable she was with flutters of her tiny pink wings. What was worse, every time Turpentine was about to ask his question, the bell over the front door would ring and Pierce would have to scurry off to help a damp customer. Earth ponies would hang up their extensive raingear, unicorns placed umbrellas to one side, and pegasi...
The first time a sodden pegasus stopped in the glassed-in atrium between the street entrance and the front door, Turpentine expected him to take a brisk toweling instead of the sudden explosion of shaking feathers and mane that sprayed water in all directions until it was streaming down the glass walls and into the slots in the floor. Afterward, the ruffled pegasus proceeded into the store and made his purchase, with the only concession made to the constant rain outside being a plastic bag to carry the results.
"Don't they know it's raining outside?" muttered Turpentine when Pierce darted away for the umpteenth time. The only pony listening to his complaint was Dawn, who was more interested in the sharp cracks of lightning and the low rumble of thunder that followed, giving each loud noise an enthusiastic applause of beating winglets and giggles. It was a far cry from what Baron Gaberdine's mother, that is what Lily said about her son's reaction to thunder and lightning.
"She's gonna be a flier, that's for sure. Wants to be right out there in the action." Pierce slid down next to where Turpentine was entertaining the little foal and gave her a quick wing-ruffle across the mane. "So, what was it you were wanting to know again, little dude?"
Quickly, before the next customer showed up,Turpentine blurted out, "I wanted to know if you would be able to be a father to an adopted pony just as well as you're being a father to your own."
"Oh." The pierced pegasus seemed set back at that. "Err... I dunno, little dude. I mean if Sy hadn't gotten pregnant, I don't think I'd ever... I mean we wouldn't have adopted. It's a big step. I aged about ten years in the last few months."
"Me too." Turpentine thought back on the last few weeks and how his life before Ripple seemed faded and fuzzy. "I don't want to grow up wrong, though. I mean... not like you, I mean. Not like that. Sorry."
"Chill, dude. I don't mind." Pierce held a dark wing across his chest. "The hard cases I ran with a few years back? Didn't none of them have fathers worth a drizzle. I don't think I'm the right pony to be your father, though."
He had done it again. Turpentine winced inside, but kept his external expression down to a thoughtful nod. He had not really thought about being adopted by a pair of ponies just barely out of school, because it would be too much like having a big brother and sister. Or in Pierce's case, a really strange big brother.
At this rate, I'm going to be in a cardboard box beside the street in Baltimare with a sign. Free to good home.
- - ☸ - -
Once the leftover clouds had been cleared away and the sun shone down, the little filly curled up in a sunbeam coming through the window, most likely saving up her energy for sometime late at night when she could keep her young parents awake.
Taking advantage of her distraction, Turpentine eased over to the easel and began to work in earnest. Gentle touches of pencil against canvas made too little noise to awaken the little filly, but when he switched to the brush and began to work on the texture layer in acrylic, she settled down into the most perfect pose of pure pegasus happiness imaginable.
He had to admit spending time dozing in a sunbeam was pretty awesome, because Turpentine had spent quite a few hours of naptime in the same position, but he had big colt work to do now, and as much as he would have liked to curl up with her and take a nap, capturing that elusive moment was his goal. Images of that horrible portrait with Princess Celestia surrounded by little foals kept coming back to Turpentine while he painted, and he concentrated as hard as possible to keep his mind on his subject. The last thing he wanted to do was make a portrait of Dawn looking like that.
The shadows and sun made Dawn's pink coat seem dappled in shades of gold, which was devilishly difficult to reproduce in paint even with several trips over to the store's paint selection, and even a few tubes of the really expensive tints. Price did not matter, because he still had quite a few bits in the bag Gaberdine had given him, and he would have spent his way down to his bare hooves in order to make this painting the best he had ever done. It was a long and difficult process, but Caractere's advice was a great help when he pointed over his shoulder and gave little suggestions on tint mixtures, as well as giving Dawn a bottle when she woke up and started to get fussy. It was a warmer and more pleasant experience than Turpentine had expected, and little thoughts of what an infant seapony might look like kept creeping into his head.
What kind of older sister would Ripple make? She's certain to get them both into trouble or get hurt.
For a while, Turpentine was slightly tempted to add seapony flippers to the portrait, but there were quite a few ponies outside the store window who stopped to watch, and his caution overrode any mischievous feelings he had. Celestia must have looked like this when she was young, a sun-warmed little filly who had to grow up far too soon, and with a little sister so different from herself, cool ice to her burning fire but still sisters to the heart. Regret would have made it far too easy for the immortal alicorn to hide away in some cave for the centuries that her sister was imprisoned in the moon, but she remained with her little ponies instead, taking the doubly heavy burden of guiding and protecting them on her own shoulders.
How much guilt must she have felt after defending herself against her own sister and hurting her that way even though she had no other options. Turpentine had only known Ripple for a few weeks, but he would rather chew off one of his own limbs than hurt her, even if she turned into some sort of seapony Nightmare... Ocean or something. Regardless of his own will, his mind skipped forward several years and tried to imagine Ripple the same age as Caractere's granddaughter. Someday, the seaponies' war beneath the waves would be over and she would be old enough to go home. Ripple was just as brave as her father, and would be able to protect Pearl when they...
Turpentine put his last brush into the solvent and bent his efforts into cleaning up his workspace. The fumes were getting into his eyes, and it was difficult to see the places where he could have dithered on touching up for hours. There was a time in every painting project where the brushes needed to be put away and the painter needed to move on.
"Something bothering you, s--" Caractere cut off with a sharp coughing which almost woke up the little filly he was cradling in the crook of one foreleg. "Turpentine," he added much quieter, "is there something wrong?"
"Oh!" Turpentine had been concentrating so hard on the painting he had not even really realized the old pegasus had returned to the store. All of the 'wrong' that had been building up in his head for the last several weeks fought to get out, but thankfully stacked up in the back of his mouth because Turpentine could not immediately decide which one of them was the most important. After a few moments of spluttering, he decided to state his situation first, then the problems in whatever order they came out, followed by the goal he was attempting to reach. Baron Gaberdine had taught him the technique while they were painting Castle Paradise, side by side and all covered in white paint drips. It had worked fairly well then to deal with minor painting panics, and it was worth another try now.
"Princess Celestia says I can go to her school in Canterlot and become the famous artist I want to be, but I need to find a family first. That means I need to find an orphanage in Canterlot and start searching the prospective parents there, but I'm... afraid." Turpentine finished washing his clean brushes and put them to one side to dry. "I'll never become as great as I know I can be if I don't get an education. There are so many things I don't know."
"Ah. It is a wise pony indeed who knows how little they know." Caractere's eyes crinkled up as he fought to keep a straight face instead of smiling. "First, what do you fear?"
"I'm... afraid of failing," said Turpentine in a very small voice. "And succeeding. Painting has always been the only thing I've been good at, other than making families give me back to the orphanage. If I goof up, I know I can always go back to Mother Windrow, but that's where I always went when I failed before."
"And if you succeed?" asked Caractere. "If you become the famous painter that I tried to become and failed. What then?"
There were no words. Turpentine had always imagined his fame as being in an art gallery, surrounded by cheering ponies admiring his latest painting, but now that goal seemed as false as artificial sweetener, and tasting just as bad.
"You know," started Caractere, "you're already more famous than I ever dreamed of. You have two princesses wanting to put your work in their museum gallery. I had to sneak my first painting in by deceit and failed miserably on my second."
"Really?" Turpentine could feel his ears perk up from where they had flattened against his skull unnoticed.
"You have something I never could understand until it was too late." Caractere settled down on the floor with his foreleg still crooked around his sleeping great-granddaughter, who was making cute little snoring noises and twitching her nose. "Tell me, do you paint your pictures for yourself or for the pony you're painting?"
The obvious answer was also obviously wrong. Even the study he had done on butterfly wings was somehow directed as thanks to the colorful insects, who liked to flutter around him to be admired instead of escaping. Nearly every painting he had ever done wound up being taken home by the subject, even the batpony nurse and Baron Gaberdine's parents. Something inside of Turpentine was aware that paintings were supposed to be paid for, but they had always seemed to be a gift to the subject in exchange for putting up with being stared at by a little colt with a paintbrush in his mouth.
"I want you to have both of the paintings I did of you and your granddaughter," said Turpentine abruptly. "When I get famous, they'll be worth a lot of bits. And I want Dawn to have this one. After I touch it up a little in a few spots. Next week. She can sell it when she's bigger and it will pay for any school or training she needs for whatever she wants to do."
Caractere shook his head slowly. "I'll never sell your painting, Turpentine, no matter how many bits it will bring. You were right about Celestia. Paintings like this are memories, and I never want to forget what you taught me. After all, I don't think you really want to be just a famous artist. It sounds like you want to be a great artist, and greatness can come from the most unexpected places." Caractere swept a little strand of mane out of the little filly's eyes and remained looking down at her while he talked. "I forged that Bledoe because of me. I wasn't doing it for anypony else. I tried to justify my actions that way, but in the end, it was just me. When I see you paint, you're painting for the subject, not yourself, and... I'm a little jealous."
It did make a lot of sense, but Turpentine took some time to mentally chew on this tough vegetable. The portrait of Baron Miller was a gift for Sen, and painting the castle was a farewell gift to both Ripple and Baron Gaberdine. It made Turpentine uncomfortable to think that he had been considering his portrait for Princess Celestia as some sort of bribe, like he was trying to buy his way into someplace he did not belong.
I've never found a place where I belong. If I ever do, how will I know what it feels like?
It was a disagreeable thought, but the school where he would learn how to truly utilize his gift was in Canterlot, so therefore, that was where he needed to go. Undoubtedly, as Celestia had said, a family would find him there. A little colt... that is a big colt with a talent for painting should find it a lot easier to locate a family in a city where there was so much art that even Princess Celestia had to burn some of it once in a while to make space.
"I can see why Sen likes you so much." Caractere's voice was a shock to Turpentine, who found himself staring out the window of the shop in the general direction of what he thought was the distant riverboat castle. The old pegasus was nearly in the same position as before, only Dawn had been moved to a blanket coiled up on the floor next to his forehooves and the sunbeam illuminating her had moved a little closer to horizontal. "I like having you drop by every week. You actually think about what I say. Whenever I talk to my grandchildren, I can see the words bouncing off their hard heads. They're too much like me, I suppose."
"I like visiting you every week too," said Turpentine in protest. "You've been a lot of help with my painting, and... I like talking to you. And your grandchildren. Pierce is a lot smarter than you realize. He's going to be a really good father to Dawn, and he's really got..." Turpentine glanced sideways at the colorful pictures of hot-air balloons in flight, particularly one called Raspberry Sunrise which seemed unusually aggressive, possibly even to the point of wanting to jump out of the photograph. "Does he actually paint those with a brush, or drop buckets on them from the air?"
* * ✹ * *
Holding a brush between his teeth meant idle conversation had never been one of Turpentine's strong points, but he found talking with Caractere different than his usual awkward speech between clenched lips. Later this afternoon, the pegasus sisters would return to pick him up, but for now he just relaxed and let the time flow along much like the rain had done this morning. The concept of fatherhood mostly drowned out his normal questions about painting technique, and Turpentine sat in rapt attention while Caractere talked about his younger years when he and his wife Gratuite had been trying to raise four troublemaking children in Canterlot. It did seem as if brothers and sisters were meant to fight for the limited resources of parental affection, but on the other hoof, there never seemed to be a shortage of that affection to go around, even after Gratuite died and left Caractere in an empty house. It was weird to hear about fatherhood from the other side after Turpentine had been looking at it from underneath for so many foster families.
The arrival of Powderpuff at the front door of the shop signaled the end of Turpentine's visit, and he quickly picked up his purchases to get ready for departure. It had been a worthwhile trip, with a pretty good portrait of Gleaming Dawn on the wall to dry and a few additional paints for his portrait sitting with Princess Celestia tomor--
Oh, fudge.
"Mister Caractere," said Turpentine quickly while Powderpuff was chatting at the counter with Pierce and cooing over his tiny daughter. "When I paint Princess Celestia tomorrow, where do you think I should... I mean how should I have her pose... I mean--"
"Why ask me?" The old pegasus reached out and poked Turpentine gently in the chest. "It's your life. I don't have answers to your problems. The answer is right in there. You just need to follow your instincts instead of listening to the advice of old fools."
"Hey, Turp!" Powderpuff strolled up to him and eyed the small bag of paints and things by his side. "Did you find everything you were looking for?"
"Yeah." Turpentine nodded while running his tongue around the inside of his teeth. "I think so." He looked up at the drying portrait of the little filly, all cute and innocent. Dawn only cared about the now, so she was happy. She had no idea what awaited her out in the world, success or failure, and it made no difference to her at all. Someday she might become an alicorn and bear the weight of the world on her pale pink shoulders, but for now she had a family to love and toys to play with, and nothing could make her happier. "Thank you, Mister Caractere. I know how I'm going to paint Princess Celestia now."
"You're welcome, Turpentine." Caractere smiled just the slightest around the corners of his eyes even though he was trying to keep the straightest face possible. "You may make it my gift to Her Highness as well."
"Great." Powderpuff shook her attention away from the portrait of the adorable little foal and picked up Turpentine's bag. "Let's go home." |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | 18 - Home | Drifting Down the Lazy River
Home
"And then when I went up to bed she come up with me and fetched her candle, and tucked me in, and mothered me so good I felt mean, and like I couldn't look her in the face; and she set down on the bed and talked with me a long time."
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
Everypony loves a parade, particularly in a small town, and wherever the princesses went, a parade seemed destined to follow behind them. The guests of honor had not arrived yet, but there were still speeches out in the Gravel Flats oval-ish town square, while the town's brass band was busy playing for the crowd between speakers, despite a certain lack of tuning and having to borrow instruments and players from several surrounding towns. Booths had been set up all around the circular square to sell custom small-town items, games were on display to entertain all the curious travelers, and a showpony who specialized in magic tricks put on her act to one side of the street. There was even a banner stretching across the main street of the town proclaiming 'Welcome Princess Luna and Princess Celestia' in huge letters, the order of the princesses determined by the possibility that Celestia might cancel and therefore a brief bit of editing might need to then be done on the banner to make it a little shorter and more applicable.
Turpentine had been quite busy all morning since dawn, because the arrival of the Royal Sisters was scheduled for 'Midmorning-ish depending on workload' and he had certain arrangements to make before they showed. He would have preferred a quieter visit, but the town seemed to be bursting with civic pride and quite excited, which upon further consideration only made sense. Many of them had never seen a princess before except for photographs in the newspaper. Even the Duchess of East Fenwick had dropped by to make a speech and greet Celestia, which was only fair since Gravel Flats was inside her domain. With a little bit of consideration, Turpentine could easily think of their visit as sharing his own good fortune, because he certainly would have been upset if a princess had visited his hometown and nopony had told him until she had departed.
So once things had been all arranged, he took his place with the two other Very Important Ponies in the general vicinity of the Gravel Flats Town Hall, a somewhat large-ish building for a house and small-ish for a town meeting hall. It never would have been able to hold all the neighboring city ponies who were visiting for the festivities, so the unveiling of his portrait of Princess Luna had been moved to the front porch where at least most of them could see.
His part in the earlier section of the visit was fairly limited. The sisters would arrive, be greeted by the mayor and duchess, there would be the inevitable speeches, and then the unveiling. Afterward, there was a tour of the town scheduled, and once lunch had been taken care of, the rest of the afternoon was all his to spend with Celestia and his paintbrush.
"Are you nervous?" Mayor Knothole grinned in a very insincere fashion while glancing around at the rest of the local lesser notables who were over by the street and looking to the sky for the incoming chariot. "I know it can be a such an honor to meet Princess Celestia. When she spoke at the mayoral conference in Canterlot three years ago, I even got to shake hooves with her and my knees were weak for hours afterward."
"She's not that intimidating," said Duchess Calyptra, an elderly earth pony mare who smelled slightly of dye, which was probably how she kept her deep magenta coat free of grey hairs even though her mane was nearly white behind the glitter of a thin gold coronet on top of her head. "Whenever I'm at court during Parliament, Princess Celestia is the model of warmth and acceptance for all of us. I'm certain that your Baron Gaberdine expended a great deal of political capital to bring her here under the excuse of you painting her portrait, but that does not mean you should be worried about offending your patron. I'm certain she will be accepting of whatever kind of painting you produce." Her pale grey eyes slid sideways to pass a quick glance at the covered portrait. "I'm certain Princess Luna will be just as forgiving as her sister."
"No, I'm not going to let you look at it before it's presented," said Turpentine. "I'm more worried about how--" He shut up quickly, taking another look around the crowd. There still was no sign of Baron Gaberdine or Sen, even though they had promised to show up. Their absence did not make him nervous, because every step of Turpentine's actions had already been stage-managed by the two other important ponies. It did make him curious, because Ripple and Gaberdine had been very conspiratorial last night at dinner and refused to tell him anything about their plans. Even Sen had simply nodded along, as if he were a party to their conspiracy.
The three troublemakers really needed a responsible adult to keep an eye on them. Pearl might have been able to keep them under control, except she was obviously biased, and just giggled a little whenever Turpentine attempted to appeal to her mothering nature and tell him what was going on.
In any event, the Royal Phaeton with four Royal Guards pulling it was soon spotted on approach to the small village, and Turpentine fell in beside the mayor and the duchess like he was supposed to. After the huge chariot landed and the princesses emerged, he stepped forward with the rest of the delegation, shook hooves when prompted, then stood quietly with the rest of the ponies while the duchess, the mayor, and anypony else who seemed to want to make a speech got up and said very little in quite a few words. Princess Celestia and Luna did not speak, but took their places and roles much the same way as Turpentine, although with considerably more grace and poise because they had most likely gone through much this same kind of routine more times than Turpentine had cleaned his brushes.
In fairly short order, it was time for Turpentine's brief presentation. He did not make a speech, but the mayor was perfectly happy to speak on his behalf while he got ready, and then step out of the way when Turpentine swept back the cover from the painting of Princess Luna under the waterfall.
At that point, the machinery of formality and routine seized up and ground to a halt.
"That's a very nice--" Celestia cut off abruptly once she had gotten a good look at the portrait and just stood there afterward with her jaw hanging slightly open. In contrast, the muscles on the sides of Princess Luna's cheeks tensed up into nearly steel cords to prevent her polite smile from breaking into an extravagant grin, and she nodded politely to Turpentine.
"An extraordinary portrait, young sir. I can hardly wait to see how Celly's turns out." Shifting positions to her right, Luna continued, "Mister Mayor, what do you think of my portrait? Didst young Turpentine capture mine essence, and that of the Night which I represent?"
"Um..." Mayor Knothole stood almost frozen, with a look on his face that seemed remarkably like the first time Gaberdine saw the painting.
"Ah..." Duchess Calyptra mirrored the mayor's pose, but after a short time, a wave of joyful realization swept across her face, and she leaned up closer to Princess Luna to whisper something into her ear. If Turpentine had not been so close and the crowd so silent, he would have missed it, but he could barely hear the duchess ask, "Who was he?"
It was obviously the question Luna was looking for, because she also lit up and giggled just as much as the duchess. After exchanging a few brief words with Calyptra, Luna turned to the crowd who were all looking at the painting with varying degrees of emotional confusion, cleared her throat, and gestured in the direction the tour was supposed to be headed next. It took a few minutes of confused scrambling around and backwards glances, but while she herded them along, the group began to wander in fits and starts in the correct general direction.
Celestia was almost left behind, but after giving one last glance at the painting, she lowered her head and whispered into Turpentine's ear, "I hope you don't--"
"I'm not going to paint you under the waterfall," said Turpentine quickly. "Unless you really want me to, and I get permission. Princess Luna seemed just right there, but you're... not really a waterfall pony, I don't think."
A faint twitch appeared in Celestia's cheek and she gave another quick glance back to the portrait of her sister. "I could be a waterfall pony," she said in a tone of slight protest. "I've been a waterfall pony before. It's just... undignified."
"Celly!" Luna's voice drifted back on the wind from where the tour group was headed up the street. "We're headed to the bakery. Hurry up, or there won't be any cake left."
"Coming, Luna!" Celestia lowered her voice and turned her attention back to Turpentine. "I have every confidence that you will paint my portrait... well," she finished almost apologetically. "I can hardly wait to see how it turns out. Now, we need to catch up with the rest of the tour."
* * ✹ * *
The tiny town of Gravel Flats had a lot more 'tour' in it than Turpentine expected. The blacksmith shop had the davits for Gaberdine's speedboat almost done and put out front on display, while the greenhouse had put out one of every kind of flower they grew and seemed to expect Celestia and Luna to graze down through them all. Even the Speedy Cargo wagon was out in front of their delivery hangar, all gleaming in dark green with golden letters under several coats of fresh wax. The wagon painting was a gift that Turpentine was extremely proud of, and he tolerated the additional kisses that the sisters gave his cheeks today with all of the adult poise of his eleven years and several days of age.
Turpentine had to admit he was not paying as much attention to the town tour as he should have near the end, but his ears perked up when he heard the mayor say, "And thanks to Baron Gaberdine and his generous gift, our town now has a brand new dock."
It was an impressive riverside dock, all fresh and covered with spar varnish to prevent rot. They had even sprinkled sand across the varnish before it dried so hooves would have a good grip on the wooden planks when they got wet. The whole construction was quality craftsponyship, much like the compact crate Sen had put together on short notice for Turpentine to carry his paintings, and it was a worthy replacement for the rotting wood he could see just a little distance under some tarps, awaiting disposal.
The new dock also looked very familiar.
"Do you like it?" whispered Missus Shutters from right behind Turpentine. Sen's widowed marefriend seemed overflowing with happiness at Turpentine's stunned expression and patted him on the captain's hat she had given him when they first met. "Sen and a bunch of the townsponies spent almost a week driving new pilings and putting it together."
"It's... very nice," admitted Turpentine. "Sturdy."
The elderly mare had a youthful twinkle in her eyes when she swept him up in a brief hug, complete with an additional nuzzle across the captain's cap. "Sen said you'd appreciate the use we found for your raft. He talks so much about you every time he comes over in the evenings, particularly about the portrait you did for him of Baron Miller. He won't admit it, but he's an old softie and your gift hit him right in the heart. If we were fifty years younger, I think the two of us would adopt you in a moment."
"Thank you," said Turpentine in what was becoming a reflex. It was not an unwelcome offer on her behalf, because Missus Shutters had been very welcoming, and several times over the last few weeks had sent particularly tasty desserts for Baron Gaberdine's dinner table by way of Sen. He started to respond further, but something had caught the elderly mare's eye and she was looking upstream with a growing expression of fascination matched by others in the crowd.
Although Turpentine was a big colt, he was still short, and all of the rest of the adult ponies in the crowd were far taller than he was. It took until he had wriggled through the crowd to the fairly empty area around the princesses that he managed to see what was so interesting, and then it was his turn to stare in open-jawed amazement.
Castle Paradise was steaming downstream, all bright with new paint and trailing a thin stream of pale grey smoke from her tall smokestack. Baron Gaberdine had managed to find triangular white pennants to fly on each side of the cabin, which when combined with the pastel pinks and blues of the trim paint, did actually make the majestic riverboat look like a larger version of Princess Celestia proceeding grandly down the river.
Or an enormous swan, if Turpentine squinted and turned his head just right.
It was impossible for Baron Gaberdine to look any prouder while standing behind the ship's wheel, although at first glance, Turpentine could not tell if the source of his pride was the beautiful riverboat working the way it was supposed to, or the beautiful pale mare at his side. A few weeks ago, Turpentine would never have guessed that Pearl would be willing to be seen out in public, and he was fairly certain that Gaberdine's presence at her side was the only reason she was there now, but she was smiling more than the baron, and there was a certain appeal to the scene that Turpentine was determined to immortalize in canvas and paint soon.
Even though he was a beginner pilot, Gaberdine managed to get Castle Paradise nudged up to the new dock with only a few small thumps, and once the townsponies had tied it up, the town tour took on a more aquatic nature. It felt odd to have other ponies climbing all over the place Turpentine had called home for the last few weeks, but he adapted in short order by showing the little ponies from school around the riverboat and cautioning them to keep their hooves and noses away from any of the dangerous parts. The most popular part of the tour was the whistle, of course, with short toots from each student, but when Celestia and Luna took up Gaberdine's offer of a short cruise up and down the river, all of the little whistleblowers took their place behind the rails to wave at the older town-bound ponies.
Although he wanted to be on board for the short cruise too, Turpentine stayed behind in town to make final arrangements for the painting (and to sneak a bite of Missus Shutter's pecan pie out of the buffet). It was a little lonely, standing on the new dock and waving to the departing riverboat and the waving students, but it allowed him to catch the exact moment Princess Luna sounded the whistle and the stentorian honk of a giant swan came out instead. It was a moment of great levity for everypony involved, particularly when Princess Celestia unceremoniously tossed her sister overboard before the echoes of the enormous honk had quit echoing from the surrounding landscape.
* * ✹ * *
In a few months, the snow would cover this section of hillside with a downy whiteness that would be great fun for ponies of all ages, providing material for snowball fights and snowponies, little ponies making snow alicorns and big ponies using it as an excuse to drink hot cocoa drowned in marshmallows. Right now, it was carpeted in white dandelion fluff from Mister Pectic's fall crop of seeds, which Turpentine had purchased... well, promised to purchase before the vintner found out about his plan and promptly donated the use of the entire field to him.
The crate that Sen had made to carry Turpentine's painting equipment securely also made a pretty useful something to stand on, and he raised his voice in order to be heard by all of his classmates, as well as the four Royal Guards who had been convinced to pile their armor to one side. Since they did not have to pull the Celestial Phaeton back to Canterlot for a few hours, there was no reason to leave them out of the fun too.
"What I want you all to do this afternoon is to go play in the dandelions," said Turpentine in as authoritarian voice as he could muster. "That includes the princesses, and... yes, Mister Guard?"
"Specialist Pinion," said the broad-shouldered white pegasus, who seemed acutely uncomfortable with the twenty of Turpentine's classmates scattered around him and the two princesses he was responsible for guarding being likewise separated from their crowns and armored shoes. It was a very awkward time with everypony looking at everypony else, but the guards looked even more hesitant than some of Ripple's aunts considering a trip onto the shore. Without being able to hide under the river's surface or behind his armor, the fidgeting pegasus looked much like a rabbit after a shadow passed over him from above. "You want us to... frolic?"
"I'm not sure I remember how," mumbled one of the other guards.
Some ponies follow. Others lead. What kind of pony am I?
"I'll show you. Come over here, and Princess Celestia, if you could lie down here."
"I'll stain," said Celestia abruptly with her knees locked together and her ears laid back. "You have no idea how hard it is to wash grass stains out of a white coat."
"You've been rolling in the grass before?" asked Pinion reflexively, only to freeze up even more rigidly than Celestia when her cool gaze swept in his direction, and not relaxing a smidgen when she turned her head back to Turpentine with all of the powerful sincerity she had acquired over a lifetime of diplomacy.
Before she could get a word out, Turpentine quickly asked, "Before Princess Luna turned into Nightmare Moon, the two of you played a lot?"
With considerable trepidation, that noble head nodded once, not taking her eyes off Turpentine for a moment. "Oh, certainly. But our times together got shorter--"
"And after you had to banish her to the moon, you didn't have anypony to play with, so you just worked all the time," continued Turpentine.
"Not... all of the time," said Celestia, sounding somewhat guilty and not looking to where Luna was standing by her side.
"And now that she's back, you don't play together at all?" pressed Turpentine.
"We have--" started Celestia.
"Not," completed Luna with an air of absolute finality.
"I've been quite busy," protested Celestia. "And rolling around in the grass is a little beneath the dignity--"
"Chuckle-Lot," said Luna quite firmly.
"Once a year," countered Celestia. "And not rolling around in the grass. Or dandelions," she added with a glance at the waving field of whiteness.
It put a snag right in the middle of Turpentine's plans, but he had one final option to try before giving up.
"Oh," he said, trying to sound as disappointed as possible. Turpentine turned to the rest of the school ponies and kept his chin down in order to look dejected. He had quickly practiced this with Ripple and the rest of the students several times earlier, and it seemed like cheating, but it was cheating in a good way. "I'm sorry, guys. We can't romp in the dandelions without Princess Celestia. I guess we'll just have to go back to town."
"Awwww..." The sheer force of twenty young ponies all projecting their best mournful eyes over his back and in the direction of Princess Celestia made his mane stand up and the hair between his shoulder blades prickle. It was probably an unfair advantage to bring all of his classmates when he only needed Ripple to break through Princess Celestia's tough crust, because Turpentine could even hear the Royal Guards whimper with the impact of that many begging eyes.
"I'm not going to do it," repeated Princess Celestia behind him, although her voice faltered once a few practiced sniffles sounded from the crowd of school ponies. "More than once," she finally offered.
"Good!" Turpentine turned back around to the cheers of his small school companions. "Now lie down there in the grass at the top of this hill."
"I can do it if you're frightened, Celly," offered Luna with a smirk.
"You're next in line," said Turpentine, nearly missing Luna's stunned blink at the news. "Now, keep your legs stuck out in front and behind, and... uh... keep your wings tucked in, I guess."
"I feel ridiculous," said Celestia while stretching out a considerable distance in both directions. "Are you quite certain that I need to go through with this in order to have my portrait painted, young Turpentine?"
"Yes." Turpentine nudged the 'volunteer' Royal Guard into position. It took a little poking and prodding to get Specialist Pinion rather uncertainly set up beside his prone princess, looking as if he really wanted to be on the other side to keep Her Highness from rolling down the hill, but he looked up abruptly when Turpentine said, "Now, push."
"Push?" echoed Pinion.
"Like this!" Luna promptly demonstrated the proper technique for rolling a rather large alicorn down a shallow hill covered in dandelion fluff by giving a solid shove and laughing uproariously at the result.
"Luna--!"
The effect was really more dramatic than Turpentine had expected. Celestia fairly vanished into a moving cloud of dandelion fluff, but her tumbling path was easy enough to trace, both vocally and by the constant explosion of fluffy whiteness trailing out into the area where the hillside flattened out.
"My turn!" proclaimed Luna, flinging herself down and getting into the correct hillside tumbling pose. This time, Pinion really did give her a push and watched in fascination while the second princess whooped and shouted on her way down the hill.
"That looked like... fun." Pinion turned to look at Turpentine. "You know, this was never in the Royal Guard Manual."
* * ✹ * *
The middle of the field was almost foggy with flying fluff when Turpentine took a break from rolling around in the dandelions in order to carry his painting crate down to where the largest lumps of giggling ponies were located. His plan had not really included playing in the fluff with the rest of the students, but the princesses needed some time to unwind and tire themselves out before he started painting. It made for a little free time on his behalf, and it looked like so much fun. When he would go to Canterlot next week to start looking for a family, it was most likely none of them would have dandelion fields like this, and this would be his last opportunity to have fun with Ripple while doing something silly they both had never done before.
Besides. Dandelions.
Celestia and Luna had been playing in the fluff even more enthusiastically than any of the colts or fillies from school, with wingfulls of fluff dumped over each other's heads and dandelion fluff blowing contests that left both of them out of breath. They were obviously out of practice and had tired out quickly, finding a slight rise where they could both recline and watch the Royal Guards and school ponies frolic instead.
"Oh! Turpentine!" Celestia started to rise, only to have her sister dump a wingfull of dandelion fluff on her head, making her look like Celestia the Bearded until she shook most of the fluff off.
"Sister! Just relax and let young Turpentine paint."
"But I'm such a mess!" She was too, with green smears of grass all along her sides and a thick coat of dandelion fluff stuck even in her flowing mane, making little waves as it was carried around in swirls and ripples much like an immaterial river. Celestia obviously braced herself before looking up at Turpentine with an expression of mixed worry and pleading, although the note of command in her voice was almost absent. "You're not going to paint me like this, are you?"
Without even a hesitation, Turpentine said, "No, of course not."
"He paints what he sees, silly." Luna took a moment to blow the contents of a particularly fluffy dandelion over her sister's face and smirk at the resulting uncomfortable twitch. "It's not like a photograph."
"Oh. I suppose." Celestia looked up again, more subdued this time and a little plaintive. "It's just that I've never been painted outside in the grass since Herr Spiegelei." She took in Turpentine's instinctive shudder and seemed to finally relax a little.
"You could close your eyes," suggested Turpentine while setting up the easels. "You're always busy around the castle, so you never get a chance to just relax."
"Should I move?" asked Luna, although she did not make any preliminary motion to get up from her perfectly comfortable position snuggled up against her sister's warm neck.
"No," said Turpentine. "You could probably close your eyes too. Mister Caractere said I should paint you both with your eyes closed, since I don't do eyes very well."
"Do you mean," asked Celestia while shifting positions slightly and leaning back against the fuzz-covered grass, "that you want the both of us to just lie here in the sunshine with our eyes closed and not move?"
"I can do that," said Luna, who had already closed her eyes and snuggled a little further into her sisterly pillow.
"But I have important things to do," protested Celestia faintly.
"Getting your portrait painted is an important thing," stated Luna.
Although she opened her mouth to protest, after spitting out a few little bits of fluff Celestia closed it again. And then after a period of contemplation while Turpentine drew his initial sketch on the canvas, she closed her eyes too. "Just for a little while," she stipulated.
- - ☸ - -
Frolicking, gamboling and playing leapfrog was quite tiring for Turpentine's young peers, who had abandoned the field of battle after several hours of intense play for home, hearth, and most likely, sincere scrubbing at the hooves of displeased mothers who would appreciate their little colts and fillies to be somewhat closer to their original colors. Even the guards had looked a little embarrassed at the number of green stripes on their snow-white coats, although their dour expressions cheered up whenever they took a subversive peek at the two giggling greenish alicorns striding onto the Celestial Phaeton and the drifting swaths of fuzz they were carrying along behind them.
At times like these, Turpentine was rather disappointed at not having a naturally greener coat like Ripple or even a darker green like her unicorn magic tutor, even though it had not kept Ripple from being gently herded back to the riverboat by her mother once the flying fuzz frolicking had died down to a few little fillies making dandelion alicorns. Before Pearl had gotten out of sight, she had sent a glance in his direction which seemed to somehow be encouraging and disparaging at the same time, as well as estimating how much soap it would take to get both of them clean. There seemed like no escaping the bath in his future, but the more important item of the moment was the damp canvas which Baron Gaberdine was floating along in front of him while on their way back to the riverboat.
"Careful," urged Turpentine for the umpteenth time. He had his own burden, because Turpentine did not want his painting and his equipment carried by Gaberdine at the same time. After all, he might get distracted and drop one or the other. So the heavy crate of paints and the collapsable easel had been hefted up on his own smaller back while he supervised the painting's move. It felt a little strange to be ordering the older baron around, but Gaberdine did not seem to mind. In fact, he seemed to enjoy their walk through the afternoon streets of the small town and toward the new dock where Castle Paradise was moored for the moment.
"I've got it," repeated Gaberdine, carefully walking one step at a time down the street. "Did you get everything the way you wanted?"
"Almost. Just a little touch-up left for tomorrow. There's a raised cobblestone here, so be careful."
"I told you, I've--" Gaberdine caught the tip of his hoof on the cobblestone and stumbled a half-step, making a smooth recovery and giving a short snort of irritation. "Okay, no more questions until we get this hung up in your room."
The quiet stroll gave Turpentine a chance to think while walking. In a few days once he was in Canterlot, the small room in the riverboat would not be 'his' any longer. The contents would all have to be packed up and stored somewhere until he found a family there, a search that Turpentine was looking forward to less and less as time went on. He would miss his weekly trips out to Baltimare and talking with Caractere about painting, although Baron Gaberdine would be making occasional trips to Canterlot for sessions of Parliament, and might be willing to stop by and pick the old pegasus up for a visit.
No, that would take Caractere away from his employment, and besides, Baltimare was almost in exactly the opposite direction. Also, long trips by air were probably not good for the old stallion. Even Sen had expressed his intense interest in remaining groundbound for the rest of his short career as seneschal, and had offered the services of a distant relative of his for Gaberdine's Canterlot visits, but only for there. Friday Haystings had no intentions of stepping into Sen's professional shoes and moving to Castle Paradise. He was a proper Canterlot gentlecolt's gentlecolt, and had responded to Sen's letter of invitation with such dry wit that the letter had to be shared among the five ponies at the castle's dinner table, as well as being posted on the icebox for humorous contemplation whenever needed.
When Gaberdine reached the gangplank going up to the riverboat, Turpentine carefully dropped off his crate of painting materials on the dock and held castle doors open to guide his wet painting to the bedroom wall where it was going finish drying. Both of them breathed a sigh of relief once the wire on the back had been looped over the stout hook and the painting of the Royal Sisters was secure. After a period of close examination of the damp paint on both of their parts, with Turpentine looking for smudges and Gaberdine just looking, the baron reluctantly spoke up.
"It's a fine portrait, but I think you may have lost a few... years for the Royal Sisters."
"Centuries, more like," mused Turpentine. "I wanted to show the way they were at their happiest, and I couldn't have painted Celestia without her sister."
Balancing their ages had been the hardest part, because Luna had to look young, but not helpless, and Celestia had to seem older, but not old. In the end, he had decided to show Luna at about Ripple's age, young and filled with energy and mischief, while Celestia was more his own age, old enough to know better and to protect her younger sibling from harm. But still young enough to have childish fun, like rolling in dandelions.
Turpentine flicked an ear, which was playing involuntary host to at least three pieces of fluff and considered that perhaps a bath this evening would not be all that bad. After all, the sounds echoing around the riverboat revealed Ripple was already in the tub being vigorously scrubbed by her mother. From the way Gaberdine smiled and glanced toward the closed door to the bathroom, he also enjoyed the sounds of mother and daughter sharing his floating house.
Adding a stallion-like chuckle to his smile, Gaberdine said, "What a day. Fluff and grass stains everywhere. Oh, you have a couple on the paint." Gaberdine leaned forward and squinted at the troublesome little bits of fluff. "Don't worry. I can get them."
The baron lit up his horn, but Turpentine held a hoof across his nose. "No, sir. Leave them."
"But--"
"No," said Turpentine in his most authoritative voice, although quiet enough not to disturb the bath going on next door. "Please."
"Hmm... I suppose." The baron cast a mischievous glance Turpentine with a twinkle in his dark eyes. "Looks like you could use a bath too. Are you sure you don't want to go hop in the tub with Ripple while the water's still warm?"
After a moment's hesitation, Turpentine shook his head. "I don't think it's very... properity. I mean... she's a filly. And I'm eleven now."
Gaberdine's mischievous smile calmed down to a faint echo of itself. "How quickly they grow up. Well, there should be plenty of time this evening after we get the castle docked back in the lagoon. Sen is staying the night with Missus Shutters again, but he laid out fresh sheets so Ripple and Pearl can stay the night here too. That way we can talk for as long as you want tonight, before... You know."
"Before I go to Canterlot."
Whatever Turpentine was going to say after that was lost when the sound of seapony voices began to rise from the bathroom next door. It started with Ripple skipping merrily up the musical scale in a glissando of fluid notes, leaping and dancing through the melody the same way she could dart through the water. Then Pearl joined in, supporting her daughter in a resonant harmony that made Turpentine's heart ache, a powerful chorus of both joy and sorrow that simply cried out for a strong tenor counterpart.
The music swept through the bedroom where Gaberdine and Turpentine stood in silent witness, holding them spellbound as it surged and ebbed against the walls of the riverboat like a tidal wave of music until the older stallion leaned forward and opened his mouth. Gaberdine held that pose for an impossibly long time, although it was only for a few seconds before he settled back onto his hooves and blinked away tears. Turpentine knew just exactly what the older stallion felt like because he too had wanted to join in. The pang of yearning in his soul begged to be released in song, to the point where if there was a way to sacrifice his entire painting talent in exchange for the ability to capture the moment in any fashion at all, he would have given it up in a heartbeat.
Then, after a period of timeless beauty, it was over, and all that could be heard from the bathroom next door was mother and daughter giggling over the bubbles again.
- - ☸ - -
Sitting on Gravel Flats' new dock beside the riverboat was a good place for both Turpentine and Gaberdine to recover, since there was a quiet breeze from the north and a hint of upcoming frost in the air. They had both almost crept out of Turpentine's bedroom on the tips of their hooves and did not exchange a single word until they were out in the fresh fall sunshine for several minutes and the feeling of reality had finally sunk back into their skins.
"Wow," breathed Turpentine almost in a whisper.
"You said it," echoed Gaberdine after a few more calming breaths. "Wow."
After due consideration of the late afternoon sun and the way the clouds near the horizon promised an unforgettable sunset for the evening, Turpentine took a deep breath. "You're a very lucky stallion, Mister Gaberdine."
"Far more than I deserve." Gaberdine turned his head slightly to look at the distant mountain peak of Canterlot, just barely poking up above the horizon. "It's hard for me to believe that was my home, until I came here. I thought it was where I belonged, but I was wrong, and I didn't realize it for..." He chuckled and shook his head. "A week. That's all it took. A short lifetime of growing up and working my way up the bureaucracy, all gone away in less time than it takes to check the numbers on a budget."
"Maybe I'll find my home there," said Turpentine while trying and failing to sound enthusiastic about the possibility.
"Doing budgets?" Gaberdine laughed again, but this time in a much more carefree and relaxed manner at Turpentine's instinctive shudder when faced by his mortal enemy. "Sorry," he added with a smile that indicated very little regret, but it was perfectly fine with Turpentine, who promptly proceeded to laugh too. It was the perfect end to a wonderful day, and it was not even all the way over yet.
"By the way," said Turpentine, trying to sound older and mature with the secret entrusted to him. "I talked with Princess Luna about you after the painting was over. She said there was going to be a surprise meteor shower this evening in your honor."
"Really?" After a moment of consideration, Gaberdine gave a short nod. "I'll have to make lemonade for while we're out on the deck tonight appreciating it."
"I'll make lemonade," said Turpentine with a brief snort of amusement. "I talked with Princess Celestia too. She said Luna is just as bad with cooking as you are, or worse."
"I'm not that bad," protested Gaberdine without much sincerity.
"Luna admitted she once managed to set ice cubes on fire." Turpentine rubbed his nose to get out the dandelion fluff he had accidentally inhaled. "She also said she thought you were cute, and that it was too bad you were taken."
"Oh?" Gaberdine nodded and took a quick peek over his shoulder at the riverboat. "She's a magnificent mare. Whenever I saw that painting you did of her, I could see the stallion who was worthy... The stallion I could never be for her." He took a long, shuddering breath and looked back up at the cloudy horizon, but did not say anything else.
"I talked with Pearl before my birthday party," said Turpentine, somehow triggered by the distant expression in Gaberdine's eyes. "She wished she could turn me into a seapony so I could go live with her and Ripple beneath the waves. I thought it was... nice." Turpentine took a moment to rub a fleck of irritating fluff out of his eyes before they got too watery. "She needs you. She needs you to protect her, and to be with her, and never to be apart."
"I know." Gaberdine wrinkled up his nose and wiped away a piece of dandelion fluff.
"They need you." Turpentine tried to put as much emotion into the words as possible, but he could not help feel them backlash on himself. All he could think of was the good times of the last few weeks, from diving through all of the secret underwater playgrounds with Ripple to feeling the glory of creation while painting princesses. It was like he had stumbled on some secret garden full of magical beauty, and if he ever left, he would never be able to find his way back.
"I'm going to miss this." It was actually Gaberdine who said what Turpentine was thinking, and he kept silent while the older stallion continued. "Ripple is a joy to be around and Pearl is... Pearl, but having you here really makes my day, Turpentine. You've given me a look at life I've never seen before."
"So have you, sir. I mean Gabby." Turpentine glanced back at the riverboat and lowered his voice. "One of the first things Ripple ever asked me was if I thought you would be a good father for her. I wasn't sure at the time because I'd never met you, but... I think you are."
"No, I'm not," said Gaberdine slowly, somewhat as if it were a mental path he had trod many times. "A father should always be there for his children, from when they're born until they no longer need him." He paused for a long time after that, still looking off into the distance at the clouds until with considerable reluctance, he added, "I'm sorry."
"I'm not," said Turpentine, who had been waiting for the inevitable apology, like everybody tried to apologize after saying something awkward about his absent parent. "A real father should be there when his children need him, just like your father tried to help you. He was wrong, but he tried, and that's what is important. It didn't matter to him when you said you didn't need his help. In his eyes, you did, and he'll always be there for you, no matter what. Ripple trusts you, and treasures her time spent with you as much as she loves to play with me. You may not be Ripple's father from birth, and you may think you're not ready to be a father, but when she needs a father--" Turpentine blinked back something that had gotten into his eye "--you are an excellent one to her."
"Hm..." The corner of Gaberdine's lips twitched ever so slightly and he gave Turpentine a sideways look. "I did say you saw things in a way I couldn't, didn't I?"
"Sometimes, you get too close to things and you can't see them very well." Turpentine patted the logs of the dock they were sitting on. "When I saw this raft, all I could see was an exciting trip with Baltimare and my destiny at the end of the river. I knew the happiness I was looking for was there, and all I needed to do was drift downstream until I found it."
"I would say happiness found you first," said Gaberdine with a chuckle. "She tracked you down on that little island, suffered through the flu at your side, and gave you years worth of material to paint. And I've got to say, you've spread a lot of happiness here too, between getting Ripple to practice her transformation magic enough to be seen in public, managing to get Pearl to meet my parents, and having both princesses at your beck and call. You got Celestia to roll down a hill full of dandelions, of all things. Fluff and grass stains everywhere, and I've never seen her happier."
Gaberdine's words seemed faint and distant to Turpentine, because something inside his gut seemed to explode into fireworks and fountains that held him frozen in place even more than the seapony song.
He was happy.
There was no time in his life where he was happier than this moment, not when he got his cutie mark, or his faded memories of his mother, or even just after the first time Ripple had nearly drowned him. It had slipped up on him so quietly and grown by one seapony giggle and drop of river water at a time, but it was there now that he knew what he was looking for, filling his chest with a warmth that he had searched in vain for without knowing how to recognize it.
All of the times he had been adopted, he had been looking for happiness to be given to him, just like the other gifts the prospective parents had insisted on giving to him. He had never given back to them with his own heart and soul, not like the paintings he had done for the strange but recognizable family on this old riverboat. He had only felt safe opening his heart to Mother Windrow, whose words now resonated through his head all the way to his tail.
You can always make me happy. I've just not been able to make you happy in return.
It was a moment he wanted to cherish forever, a full circle from the time he had first stepped onto the log raft and pushed it away from his old home until now, where those same logs had been given as a gift to this town. There was risk of failure on all sides now, with the newfound happiness in his heart in danger of being snuffed out if he made the wrong move, but it did not worry him in the slightest. Caractere had encouraged Turpentine to follow his instincts while painting the princesses, and those same instincts drove him almost effortlessly into his next words.
"I don't think I'm ready to go to Canterlot."
Gaberdine seemed a little set back and cocked his head to one side before responding, "You mean this week?"
"No. Like..." Turpentine's eleven year old mind churned with words, kinda-sorta overwhelmed by thinking forward in time and grasping for some solid point of reference that would make him sound less like he was babbling. "Like this raft, sir."
"Gabby, please," said Gaberdine.
"Sir," insisted Turpentine. "Please let me finish. You see, I've been drifting through life just like this raft, waiting to see where I'll wash up. I thought that would be Baltimare, but I know better now. I need to be somewhere I belong, somewhere I'm happy. A place where I can practice my painting and learn the skills to become the famous painter I can be, even if it's not the way I thought about it at first. A place where others need me as much as I need them. Here."
There was a very long pause while Gaberdine soaked up his little speech, and although the baron looked reluctant, there seemed to be some sort of spark in the back of the older stallion's mind urging him onward too, and making his discouraging words in return lack a great deal of sincerity. "You know I really don't think I'm ready to become a father yet, Turpentine."
"I know," said Turpentine rapidly. "I'm not sure if I'm really ready to be a son yet either, and I don't think Miss Pearl is ready to be a wife again, or a mother again either. But time has a way of sneaking up on me. Someday, you're going to be a really good father. Maybe you could... try?"
At least Gaberdine was thinking about it, even though he was slowly shaking his head from side to side. The glow of happiness in Turpentine's chest flickered a little, but did not go out, because there was something familiar to Gaberdine's expression which he had last seen on this same raft several weeks and a lifetime ago, during an afternoon much like this. It reminded Turpentine of the stressed unicorn that Gaberdine had said he used to be, and how life with the seaponies had made him a better pony.
It was difficult, but he was still happy, so Turpentine took a deep breath of the river-scented air, trying his best to look at things from Gaberdine's point of view. It only stood to reason, because if some pony had walked up to Turpentine and asked to be his little brother, it would take some time to get used to the idea and not turn him down immediately. Plus, he had practically ambushed the older stallion, and possibly frightened him much the same way Pierce had been frightened when he discovered he was going to be a father.
From somewhere under the dock, a bullfrog let out a raspy croak while a few dragonflies buzzed by on iridescent wings. It was a rich environment of sight and sound he had gotten accustomed to in rapid order with Ripple's helpful assistance, and one in which he could feel the little corners and notches of his life fit, not perfectly, but with time...
Giving a noncommittal noise halfway between a grunt and a sigh, Gaberdine finally shook his head. "No, I don't think so."
It was difficult, but Turpentine nodded. "I understand. It was a dumb idea, anyway."
"No, it's a good idea," said Gaberdine, still looking thoughtfully across the river. "The timing is just a little off. I mean, you said it yourself. I'm not really ready to be a father and Pearl really isn't ready to be a mother again. And Ripple--" Gaberdine cut off with a chuckle.
"Ripple is ready for anything," said Turpentine. "Sometimes, too much so."
"You said it." Gaberdine shook his head again. "She's going to be a problem when I go to hire my next seneschal."
Turpentine nodded. "Sen is getting a little old. He seems to spend more time at Missus Shutters' house than out at the castle with you."
"Missus Shutters has a softer and warmer bed," said Gaberdine, looking like he was concentrating on something else and the words just slipped out without him realizing it. "You see, I've been thinking about taking Castle Paradise up and down the river this spring to survey my barony, but Sen is getting a little old to be traveling for days at a time. Since he and Missus Shutters have... well, an arrangement of sorts, I was considering hiring a new seneschal on a training basis for the barony while I was out and about."
"Oh," said Turpentine, trying to think of what the riverboat would be like without the old earth stallion. "He or she had better know how to cook."
"True." Gaberdine nodded. "They would also have to be aware of the... special nature of Miss Pearl and Ripple."
"Absolutely." Turpentine nodded. "The seaponies need to be protected."
"I doubt I'd be able to find an experienced seneschal who would be willing to move to the castle. Management skills and sailing experience is an odd skillset to find around here." Gaberdine pursed his lips and looked up at the bright white riverboat. "She's a magnificent place, but a little smaller than most employees would prefer, and moving around on the river all the time would be a strain. Most experienced seneschals have families, and there's just no room on board for more than four or five ponies. So I was thinking about hiring a cabin colt to do the work Sen can't do, just like when Baron Miller hired Sen to help out Seneschal Sentinel."
"That makes--" Turpentine's mouth stopped, but his mind kept working. He examined the idea carefully from all sides, giving it little pokes and prods to see if it was going to fall apart.
"It would be a part-time job," explained Gaberdine, who seemed to be looking downstream at a distant steam tug chuffing along down the river. "Sen may not retire fully for several years yet, so whoever I hire as cabin colt is going to have a lot of spare time when they're not studying for their promotion."
"Would there be math involved?" asked Turpentine hesitantly.
"Most certainly, in order to keep the books up to date," stated Gaberdine. "However, I have a young and talented engineering assistant who can help out with the training, so I don't see that as a problem."
Nothing was ever as easy as it seemed, but having to work his way through math did not seem quite so much of an obstacle anymore. "Would I... I mean would this cabin colt be able to make trips to Baltimare on occasion?"
"Yes, as well as traveling with me to Canterlot when Parliament is in session," added Gaberdine. "Several of the nobles there are quite fascinating, and would make a trip very educational. Not to mention Their Highnesses, who have always been willing to assist young talent along with a gentle nudge or two."
Turpentine thought back to his hometown and the busy mayor when she had been supervising the moving of their town hall to higher ground. To even think the alicorns who moved the sun and moon would take the time for a young colt like himself would have been ludicrous a few weeks ago, but he had not one, but two paintings which proved otherwise.
Princess Celestia had been so completely right, much like he suspected she was most of the time. A family had found him. A little strange, somewhat awkward, and not anything like he had expected. He would have to grow into it, but he was going to grow anyway, and like a plant growing toward the light, he would change for the better.
Speaking of changes...
"Mister Gaberdine." Turpentine reached up and took the captain's cap off his head. It really was not his size, and he turned it around in his hooves before extending it forward to the older stallion. "There's something I noticed when you were piloting Castle Paradise. You're a captain, and that deserves a hat to go with it. Princess Celestia has her crown, and Duchess Calyptra has that little golden circlet in her mane. If you're going to be a captain, you should look the part, just like Baron Miller."
Gaberdine's horn stuck up at an odd angle, so the symbolic gesture did not go as well as Turpentine had hoped. The hat still fit, but did not look as natural as a new one from the store would, and despite the gesture, he made a mental note to buy one at the earliest opportunity. Besides, Gaberdine looked good in a captain's cap. Decisive. Taller, somehow.
"About that job, sir." Turpentine looked up and fought the mischievous grin which was trying to sneak onto his face. "Is Captain Gaberdine accepting applications today?"
"For a limited time." Gaberdine cocked an eyebrow at him. "Can you think of any applicants?"
"Just myself, sir." Turpentine tried to look as serious as possible. "I'm done drifting through life, sir. I need someplace to... I need a safe harbor."
Gaberdine nodded, although he seemed to be blinking more than usual. "I'd be happy to provide you that safe harbor to drop anchor in, Turpentine. I may not be ready to be a father just yet, but I think I can be a pretty good captain until we're both ready."
The smile that Turpentine was holding back could not be denied any longer. He saluted, or at least held a hoof to his face like some of his storybooks had shown. "Permission to come on board, Captain Gaberdine?"
"Aye, aye." Gaberdine saluted back. "Welcome aboard, son."
- - ☸ - -
Barony of Fen
Official Census (Revised)
Permanent Resident(s)
Castle Paradise IV: Five inhabitants
- Baron Gaberdine of Fen
- Sienna, Senechal of Fen
- Lady Pearl of Fen, and her daughter, Ripple
- Turpentine, Cabin Colt for Castle Paradise
Transient Residents
Four (4) Ducks (one adult, three adolescents, currently out of the vicinity to return in the spring)
Your faithful servant
Baron Gaberdine of Fen
P.S. Correction
One turtle, 'Aspidochelone' currently hibernating in the mud by the castle.
Thank you both, from the bottom of our hearts.
Gabby and Pearl |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | Epilogue | Drifting Down the Lazy River
Epilogue
"...and so there ain't nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I'd a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn't a tackled it, and ain't a-going to no more."
-- The Adventures of Buck Fin
Beauty in Equestria can be found everywhere, but the skills to capture those sights and events are rare indeed. The artistic world is always looking for new talent in the galleries and ballrooms of the rich and powerful, in concert halls and receptions of the well-connected, and the bistros and coffee houses of the cultured, but over the last few years, a number of paintings have emerged to fascinate and frustrate even the most serious collectors. First there were, of course, the inevitable paintings of the Royal Sisters, done in a fashion no other artist had ever attempted, but when the artist was sought to claim the fame which they deserved, none stepped forward.
Then there were the other places these strange and captivating pictures began to appear, from both noble and common houses around Canterlot, to a restaurant in Baltimare which soon had more of the new artist's pictures on their walls than any other location in the world.
To this day, the artist has yet to be found. But there is one tiny hint to their location.
Of all the strange places to find artistic talent in Equestria, the rural Fenwick valley ranks among the most peculiar. If a traveler is very lucky on their journey through the vineyards and farms of the river valley, they may find a home or business along the riverbank with one of these treasured paintings, done in the same stunning style that no other artist could possibly match. It may be a painting of a family member, or their home, or even a sunset, but just like the rest of the recipients, no matter how many bits they are offered, the owners always refuse to sell.
Some say the mysterious painter is an alicorn who paints with the colors of the sky, while others claim she is a water sprite, because the paintings always seem to crop up near the river somewhere. Still, the owners of the paintings refuse to say just who the artist is or where they hang their easel.
However, it is rumored that if one is very lucky and happens upon a small riverboat working its way up or down the river, a miracle may occur, and one of these miraculous paintings will find its way to your home. The description of the mysterious boat is different in every telling. Some say it sails without a crew, a mechanical spirit of the river itself. Others claim it is really a haunted castle, and the ghost of a beautiful pale mare walks its halls, vanishing without a trace when confronted. A few even say the rumor is false, and the riverboat is just an ordinary speedboat, piloted by a young earth pony diver and his unicorn engineer wife who travel up and down the river to mark the underwater snags for the river Fen's barge traffic.
Still... |
Drifting Down the Lazy River | Inspiration, Author's Notes, and General Stuff | What a long and wonderful trip this has been, drifting along through the last year while working in bits and pieces on something that would compare well with the original story.
I think I did it.
Inspiration for the story goes to Mark Twain, otherwise known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, and of course the story The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (pdf link) In particular, I would like to thank Andy Thomas Studios for their permission to use the painting 'Huckleberry Finn' in this story. As it is commercial art, all rights remain with the artist, I just have permission to show it to you here on a limited basis. The original painting is $29,000, but you can get 8x16 signed prints starting at $35 here (which I'm going to, as soon as I can talk my wife into it).
(Ain't it pretty?)
And of course a second thanks for Pen Mightier and Manifest Harmony for their great (and only slightly late by a day or two) cover art of Turpentine and Ripple on the raft.
Moving right along, interesting things happen in the margins while writing. Odd conversations you never see in the finished product (unless Georg adds them, which I am here)
(On Pearl and Ripple's 'aunts' in the river)
Tek: Ok this line of talk just makes me wonder if Ripple has any other siblings or cousins either living or deceased from the conflict they are refugees of. Their names being oh I don't know Tsunami, WaveFront and Big Kahuna.
Hmm that last one meeting Big Mac could be amusing. Maybe they can form a Big Club.
Me: Gabby: So, you're Big Kahuna. Pearl says you're her brother, right?
Gaberdine tried to smile while waiting for a response, but the only thing he could think of was how much the huge seapony looked like he had some blue whale in his family tree somewhere, or perhaps a megalodon shark who had eaten a blue whale.
(after the scene where Turpentine throws the coffeepot out into the river)
Tek: Wilson!
TheMaskedFerret: Noooooooo!!!!
Me: Sigh.
(Or on occasion, my editors leave little bits of knowledge for me)
Tek: Maybe he starts to think the island is a Aspidochelone
Georg: Even I don't know what that is. I'm trying to keep the reading grade level down.
TheMaskedFerret: Giant sea creature, often a turtle the size of an island.
Georg: Maybe I should slip in a baby Aspidochelone.
Turp: It's a turtle.
Ripple: It's a baby Aspidochelone.
Turp: Is that some kind of turtle? (eyes the turtle) And how can it be a baby? It's about twice the size of any turtle I've seen before. How big do they get.
Ripple: Greece? Of course that's centuries from now. He's just barely big enough to have some dirt on his shell. It'll take a least a hundred years before he's big enough to get even a small town on his shell. So do you have a pet?
Turpentine: Not really. I had a cricket back a few years ago, but it got away.
Ripple: I'll share, if you want. He's not much of a bother. He eats water lettuce and pond weeds, mostly.
(Since I'm mostly a discovery writer, there are times when my plans don't work or I find something better while I type. Example in point: I had not *planned* on Pearl going to Canterlot. I had planned on having the confrontation when they returned to the riverboat, but while I was writing, it made a much better theatre to have her overcome her fears and show up, using the dragonfire parchment and Celestia's authority as background plot point 'movers.' Here's what the original plan showed)
I have this mental pic if Ripple ever gets to Canterlot.
Gabby: Ripple convinced my father to let her play with his train set. They spent the whole afternoon in there, messing around with the locomotives and adjusting the scenery.
Pearl: Is that.. bad?
G: Wel... No. Although she got busy with a screwdriver when my father's back was turned... (produces small box that rattles) Once Ripple gets the locomotive put back together, we need to bring it back to him.
Pearl: (long pause) All the way to Canterlot?
G: Yes. (pause, eyes slowly track to Pearl) Not that you have to--
Pearl: Yes. If you'll go with me. And Turpentine.
rest of the day, Gabby is a little foggy, drifts
(Back in the section where Ripple first saw Turpentine)
Tek: yup he never saw her, it's not like he has a painting to prove him a liar on that, I wonder if you'll make him smart enough to hide it
Me: Well, he is still a little in shock. First female unicorn he sees it will be like
"I didn't see her."
"Who?"
"Your daughter."
TheMaskedFerret: Snerk!
(On the hissing of the waves against the shore of Turpentine's Island)
Tek: I thought waves lapped not hissed?
Me: These are very snaky waves.
TheMaskedFerret: I had a sudden mental image of all these little water snakes crawling out onto the bank for mating rituals. XD
Me: Small Town Charm with snakes. Brr.
(On the use of the phrase 'mountain unicorn' for the Canterlot nobility.)
Tek: may want to use Noble or Canterlot. This mountain bit had me thinking of Gabby as part mountain goat for a minute, after all I believe that Canterlot nobles say 'bah' often enough :)
Me: I like that mental picture. I'll have to see if I can introduce some goat-like climbing into it later as Turp thinks they do. And yodeling, of course.
(On Gaberdine hiring Turpentine)
Tek: what he's not going to ask or Gabby going to state the benefits package?
Me: What, and look a gift horse in the mouth? (sorry! No, not really.)
(On a discussion about Ripple and any future siblings)
Tek: a case of to many cooks spoil the broth I assume, though Ripple not understanding a reference to them trying to put a bun in her mother's oven could be cute.
Ripple: that doesn't make sense Mom doesn't even have an oven
Me: (I gotta stash that one away for later)
Tek: Ripple: Gabby's the one with the oven, so the bun should go in there :) hmm would a seahorse (where the male incubates the eggs) be to much with this joke?
TheMaskedFerret: Not at all
(On the pegasus sisters and their names, particularly Lemon Drops)
Tek: yup that what I want in a pony's name who is hauling cargo. Drop :)
Me: Who who's your cousin? Horrendous Crash.
Tek: What's her Aunt? Terminal trajectory?
Me: If Rainbow Dash ever has a foal, she's naming it Escape Velocity.
Tek: That or Rainboom or Awesome, since it's something she produced :-)
Me: And these are the triplets, Awesomesauce, Rainboom, and Are You Kidding!!
Tek: naw the third would be Prankasaurus Rex
(On the discussion of their landing spot in Canterlot)
Tek: shouldn't proximity to the school where their appointment is be a bigger priority than the castle or is the school in the castle, I never did get that aspect of Canterlot geography straight
Me: Yeah, I was jumping the gun.
Tek: Umm when or why did the school become a museum?
Me: (I have to use this) Well, it does house this one ancient old fossil...
(On where Turpentine is touring the castle art gallery)
Tek: reminds me of an old Rupert bear episode which features the "dove of dawn", of course it could be worse they could have referred to her as the worlds largest rooster crowing to bring up the sun :)
Me (in my head): Chicken Boo, Chicken Boo, you don't do like the other chickens do...
Twilight: She's a chicken, I tell you! A chicken!
(On the painting of Celestia and Luna in the dandelions)
Tek: one would think being in a field with a bunch of foals and Turp about to paint her would have alarm bells ringing for Celestia
Me: Heheh
Tek: I was thinking of 'that' painting and not just hijinks
Me: "Ok, now who wants to be painted nursing?"
(On Celestia's little arson every century or two)
Tek: sudden vision of Celestia stabilizing a wobbly table with a Rembrandt under a leg just because
Me: Luna: Celly!
Celestia: What? There's a couple dozen of them still in the gallery.
Luna: No, I mean you could have used one of the Renour's. The closet is full of them.
Celestia: (sigh) I guess I better go find the matches.
(On the Royal Sisters and their plot tinkering)
Tek: Sudden vision of the sisters playing croquet or pool with ponies as the balls.
Me: (Celestia aiming her pool cue) Baron in the side pocket, and artist over at the end.
(On naming a young pony Long Division)
TheMaskedFerret: Ah, yes, that evil beast.
Tek: I suddenly have a vision of that pony's job or special talent not being math but the old saw a pony in half trick :)
(On the seaponies helping repaint the riverboat)
Tek: making me think of helpful elves like those that help that cobbler in those old tales.
Me: Why are all these shoes flipper-shaped?
(When Turpentine put the infant Dawn in the store window)
Tek: how much is that pony in the window :)
Themaskedferret: The one with the fluttery wings n_n
Well, that's all there is for now. I hope you enjoyed our little trip down the river Fen and meeting all of its interesting inhabitants, both above and below the waves. A big thanks to all of the readers and staff on FimFiction.net without which so many quality stories would not have been told, and of course the biggest thanks to Hasbro and the staff of My Little Pony, who have created this wonderful world in which we are privileged to enter.
Thank you all.
-- Georg |
The shrinking Pegasus | pre | BE A MAN!
She's got the will of a great typhoon
BE A MAN!
With the bravery of a mighty lion
But still cute and cuddly as a little cat!"
The Tiny Discord choir sang once again.
"BE A MAN!
We can't stop now she is starting to bloom!
BE A MAN!
She's got the will of a great typhoon
BE A MAN!
With the bravery of a mighty lion
But still cute and cuddly as a little cat!"
"Hoo-ah!"
The music stopped and the tiny Discords disappeared.
Discord and Fluttershy was enjoying the sunset together, it had been a tough day full of jump scares and whatnot.
"So how did I do?" Fluttershy asked timidly.
Discord looked at her and smiled. "We are making progress, in a few day you will be as brave as a lion!" He picked her up and swung her around.
But he tripped and she landed right on his face.
They both started to laugh, they laughed for a while and then they looked deep into each other's eyes, their lips were slowly getting closer to each others and they were both thinking the same thing. But as we know fate is a butthole.
In the midst of their little moment Angel bunny interrupted, he squeaked angrily at Fluttershy.
"Oh, I'm sorry Angel, I'll get you your dinner right away! I'm sorry but I gotta go." She got up and walked back to her cottage with Angel.
She turned her head "I'll see you tomorrow then?"
"Of course dear, I'll be here sometime after lunch." He waved at her as he took off into the air.
As Discord flew through the air he realised the he was feeling a sharp pain in his heart.
He stopped mid flight and opened a small panel to reveal his heart.
"Now let's see what's wrong with the old ticker." He observed it closely. "Hmm, oil level is fine and so is the all the parts. Hmm I'm stumped." He turned his heart one more time and noticed a small syringe piercing his heart and injecting some unknown pink substance, straight into his heart.
"Hmm what is this?" he pulled it out and looked at the conveniently placed label. "Love essence.....LOVE ESSENCE!" Discord landed on the ground, he put his heart back inside his body and closed the panel.
At first he was worried, but then he got the biggest, most joyful smile he had ever worn on his lips.
"Hahahah." He laughed nervously. "She loves me...............But do I love her?"
He took off into the air again and soared slowly back to the castle. "I need some time to think about this. Maybe Celestia can help!" He flew inside the castle and started looking for Celestia.
"Celestia! Where are you? C'mon cakeflank, for once in my life I need........ your advice!" He peaked inside Celestia's room and saw the she was reading Luna a bedtime story, all while embracing Luna tightly.
Discord teleported himself to his room and fell to the floor, with a thud. "HNGGGG, MY HEART!" He grabbed his chest right above his heart.
A few moments of intense heartbeats later he passed out. Love and adorableness does not mix well, so remember to be careful.
" And the prince kissed the princess and they lived happily ever after." Celestia shut the book and gave Luna a nuzzling. "So did you enjoy the story, little sister?"
Luna yawned and nodded. Celestia picked her up and carried her to her bed. "Well little sister, I still got some work to do. Will you be alright by yourself?"
Luna looked up at her sister and said. "I might look like a foal, but I promise that I'll be fine. Go and finish up your work and I'll see you tomorrow." She ended with a big smile.
Celestia smiled back at her sister and left the room, leaving a small gap between the door and the wall open, so she would hear if Luna was crying or something.
The moon was shining as it always would, but the stars were acting strange this eve. Luna would normally have noticed such a thing, but in her current state she had other things that occupied her mind.
He fear of the dark had returned to her, she was shivering like a scared puppy beneath the sheets. `I'm not scared of the dark, the night is my friend, it won't hurt me and there is no such things as shadow fiends.´ Luna tried desperately to comfort herself with encouraging thoughts.
But to no avail.
She was scared and there was only one pony who could make her feel better, but she was busy with other things. Luna wanted to cry, but she didn't want to be more trouble than she had already been.
Her sister had to reschedule her entire day, just to be there for her and now when she finally had some time to work, The last thing Luna wanted was to to bother her further.
Luna's tears fell silently in the night and she did everything in her power not to make a sound.
Suddenly a powerful force appeared out of nowhere and manifested itself inside the room, it walked up to the bed. Luna sensed it and cried even harder, even when she was trying her best not to be a bother, she failed.
She moved the covers from her head and sniffled. "I'm sowwy, I'll be good." Luna opened her eyes and to her surprise it was not her sister that was standing beside her, it was the same entity she had seen while traveling through space.
What was it doing here and what did it want?
Luna wanted to scream, but something about the entities aura feel familiar and comforting.
Without thinking, Luna raised her hooves and whimpered, she was picked up and held by the shapeless entity, it hugged her tightly and rocked her slowly from side to side.
Luna's fears were melting away and she was overcome by a warm and gentle feeling, she could not remember the last time she had felt this safe.
Luna quickly fell asleep in the entities grasp and she was gently put back into the bed, but the moment it let go of her, she started to whimper.
The entity looked up at the night sky, it held out a limb and a star descended down from the sky, It then molded the star into a fuzzy white spider plush, with blue eyes, it handed the plush to Luna who hugged it tightly and started sucking on her hoof.
The entity kissed Luna's forehead and faded away back into the darkness of which it came.
Fluttershy had given Angel his dinner and was heading to bed, she was going through everything that had happened today.
She had have so much fun, Discord was a real sweetheart after all, but she already knew that, even though he tried to hide it for some reason.
She got into bed and pulled the covers up to her face and shut her eyes, within seconds she was asleep.
Meanwhile Discord was still laying practically dead on the floor from a cuteness overload, he twitched a little now and then. But point being he was out for the night.
But not every part of Discord was out cold, his tail sprung to life, it morphed into a finger and let out an audible snap, a hushed wicked laughter echoed throughout the night.
Fluttershy was enjoying her dreams and was sleeping tightly, she was completely unaware of the fact that her body was glowing with a familiar yellow light. The curse which had been planted had been awakened and was free to ravage it's victim.
Fluttershy's dreams went from happiness and sunshine to a dark and twisted nightmare of grand scale, she was sweating, panting and she wanted nothing but to wake from the nightmare which haunted her.
But as we know fate is a butthole and she suffered all throughout the night.
It was early morning and Grayscale was finally back to the place he called home.
He was still worried about his goddess, so she slithered up the stairs and into her bedroom. To his great surprise his goddess was nowhere to be seen. But something was moving around in her bed.
`A mouse perhaps? Probably a new houseguest, I should introduce myself and lay down the basics for it.´ Grayscale slithered into the bed and pulled the covers away with his fangs. Standing before him was his goddess, a whole lot smaller, but it was still her.
Fluttershy turned around to see a giant snake. "Epp!" A yellow aura engulfed her and she got even smaller.
Fluttershy's eyes were filled with tears and she was terrified. "What is happening to me?"
Grayscale lowered himself to the mattress and looked at his tiny goddess. He saw fear in her eyes. He could only think of one creature capable of something like this. "Discord!" He hissed angrily.
Fluttershy looked at huge snake again and realised that it was her old friend Grayscale. "Oh, Grayscale, I'm so happy to see you! Please can you take me to Twilight, you remember Twilight right?"
Grayscale scratched his chin with the tip of his tail. `Twilight........Twilight..........who the heck is Twilight?´ He pondered.
Fluttershy noticed that he was having trouble remembering, she tried to think of something that could trigger his memory. She clapped her hooves together thus gaining Grayscale's attention.
"She is the purple mare that you scared, when I accidently left you in her bed a few weeks ago, she lives in the big tree in the center of town. Do you remember?" Fluttershy bit her lip.
'Tree. Purple. Scared..........Oh yeah, she is the one who wet herself and looked like she was staring straight into death's eyes.´ He nodded his head.
Fluttershy's mood got way brighter and she smiled happily. "Great! Umm, can you take me to her, you think, please?" But her mood fell flat in an instant, how was she going to get there.
Even with Grayscale's help it would be incredibly dangerous considering her size, and she did not want to risk getting any smaller.
Grayscale noticed the distress in her eyes and slithered off the bed and into the closet, he returned shortly with a big balloon in his mouth, he spat it out on the bed and motioned for Fluttershy to get inside.
She had no clue what he was planning but she trusted him, once she was inside.
Grayscale forced his head inside and tied the balloon with his tail.
"What are you planning to do? If you don't mind me asking that is."
Grayscale knew she was unable to understand him perfectly, but he tried anyway. "Get on my neck and hold tight." To his surprise that is exactly what she did.
"Um, like this?" Fluttershy clinged to his neck.
Grayscale nodded and started to blow air into the balloon, a few moments later they hovered into the air and hit the roof with a soft thud.
Fluttershy was at a loss for words, how was this possible, it broke several laws of physics, but then she remembered that she got that balloon from her friend Pinkie Pie, so she just allowed it to slip.
Grayscale started spinning his tail like a propeller blade and set course to Ponyville library. |
The shrinking Pegasus | Chapter 4: Am I changing? | The once beautiful land of Equestria is aflame, the wicked green flames of chaos will eventually devour the entire world and in the middle of all this destruction, stands the living embodiment of chaos.
Her wicked laughter is echoing through the shattered world, she is enjoying every second of the pain and suffering she is causing upon the mortals that once lived in peace in this world.
Celestia has fallen and her once yellow sun, has been split into four green orbs which are constantly burning one of the corners of the world.
nothing will survive this onslaught. God has abandoned this realm and moved on.
The elements of harmony have been fallen and the gems have been forged into a green, pink, striped crown which she wears around her head, by her side is a massive white snake with flaming green eyes, who will serve her untill the end of time.
Stomping her hoof into the ground she causes yet another earthquake, shattering even the mightiest off mountains.
The rivers run red with the blood of the innocent, the once green meadows have been burnt to the ground and now there is only ashes, all the flowers that once bloomed in the world have been replaced with colorful candy canes.
The world is in pain, is there no one who can help? Is there no one who can end the suffering of the world?
She sits upon her black throne, playing innocently with the few living creatures whom are left in this world. Her father standing behind her with a proud smile upon his lips.
A massive twin headed dragon, one head as black as the night and the other head white as the first snowflake that gracefully falls upon the world.
Once upon a time they represented the balance between chaos and harmony, but as chaos devours the world, the white head is slowly dying and the black head grows in strength with every passing second.
The second child of chaos have manage to fulfil the task the first child failed to do, much to their fathers content.
The first child abandoned his duty as the counterweight to harmony thus leading to the birth of the second child.
Her pink hair, malformed skeletal limbs and the three eyes of ever changing color which don her beautiful face, those are her distinct features that no mortal would ever forget. Sadly there are no mortals left alive in this world, so her features will fade away in the never ending stream that is time.
Nailed to a wall, formed by the spirits of the ones that loved him and everyone that he failed.
The first child of chaos is a pathetic waste of air compared to his younger sibling, her precise control, massive power and lust for blood, made her the perfect child.
The father is pleased with the work of his second child, there is only one task remaining for her.
Killing her useless brother thus shattering the last strand of harmony and releasing the true power of chaos upon the universe.
"GO FORTH MY CHILD, KILL YOUR BROTHER AND ALLOW CHAOS TO ROAM THE UNIVERSE!" The father said, his voice rumbling like a thunderstorm.
The second child stood before her brother, smiling innocently like a child. "Okay daddy!"
Her hands split into thousands of black tentacles, each once sharper than the other, so the pain she would cause upon her brother would be as unpredictable as herself.
The first child looked at his sister and said. "This is not who you are. Don't let that snake of a father control you." He said with a gasp.
The second child tilted her head and her lips formed into a such a wide, wicked grin that her chins broke and her black blood slithered down her face. She licked her blood and proceeded to devour her own head. "Yummy! I taste like pink frosted sprinkled donuts!" Her head slowly growing back as she chewed on her old head.
"This is not who you are. Don't let that snake-" The first child was interrupted by his sister.
"SNAKE! SNAKEY COME HERE!" The giant white snake did as his goddess commanded him.
"Snakey, you always hated my brother right?"
The giant snake glanced at the first child and nodded.
The second child squealed with delight, she kissed her massive servant and whispered. "Kill."
The snake roared and sank its fangs into the first childs body. His fangs penetrated the weak flesh that holds his body together, the first child screamed in agony. The second child laughed happily like a child who had gotten a new toy to play with.
Stuck onto the fangs of the snake, the first child was gasping for air as he choked on his own blood. He coughed violently, his blood going everywhere.
Inside the mouth of the snake, the second child was bathing in the blood falling from her brothers body, she opened her mouth and drunk deep from her brothers blood.
She licked her lips and smiled. "You taste like chocolate milk!"
"DAUGHTER. PLAYTIME IS OVER, END HIS PATHETIC EXISTENCE AND DADDY WILL GIVE YOU A PRESENT!"
The moment the second child heard the word present she leaped into action.
Seemingly out of nowhere she pulled out a scythe fashioned by what looked like a big candy cane.
She hovered up to her brother and raised the scythe, the wicked smile on her lips would put even the Joker to shame.
"Bye bye, big brother!"
The scythe came closer to his neck and he screamed. "FLUTTERSHY!" His scream came quickly to an end as his head rolled down the snakes throat.
Both the Father and the second child laughed as the green flames of chaos consumed what remained of the world.
Discord awoke with a scream and as usual, Discord got hit by the pipping hot water, he hovered into the air, thus leading to him swallowing the bar of soap in his mouth, he gagged, slipped on the oil on the ground and with the speed of a oiled up draconis, he slammed into a giant block of ice, this time shaped as a big butt, his head emerging from between the buttchecks.
Discord sighed. "Oh, hahaha. I'm a buttface, hilarious!" he rolled his eyes.
Discord teleported himself back inside his room and sat down. "Why does this happen everyday?" He remembered his dream. "But more importantly what the heck kind of dream was that? I mean wow, I think we need to change the rating from E to Teen.
Discord got slapped by a mouse cursor and a straight line started typing out a sentence in bright yellow text, in front of him.
"STOP BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL, GOD DANGIT!" The text read.
Discord grabbed the cursor and tied it to a fishing rod and threw it out over the document, which the story is written on. The cursor was going all over the document, clicking on everything and altering the layout of the story so far. thus leading to more work for the author.
"PLEASE STOP!" The text read, in a sad blue text.
Discord reeled the cursor back in and released it. "Now what have we learned?" He tapped his tallon on his chin.
"That Discord does whatever he wants and he's got more swag than I will ever have. :( "
The text read, in black text.
Discord nodded his head and threw a trophy at the screen, it broke the Authors screen and hit him in the head. "First prize good work! But never say that I have swag ever again. Everyone know that I have class. Swags is only for little boys like you."
"F%¤k you, I'm leaving!" The text read, in an angry red shade.
Discord shrugged and forgot all about his disturbing dream. He rowed a boat down the hallway of the castle, he was looking through a telescope as he made his way forward.
"Ah, there she blows!" he said as he laid eye upon Celestia's flank. He got out of the S,S Tiny boat and walked up to her.
"Good Morning Celestia, such a wonderful day, is it not?" He glanced around her, but to his surprise Luna was nowhere to be found. "So where is Lulu today? I want to throw her up and down, while saying sugar coated baby related words to her.
"Discord. For your information Luna is taking her afternoon nap and the time for good morning have long passed." Celestia said as she walked past him.
Discord knew that something was wrong, Celestia was never this cold to him. "Is this about the mustache?" He floated through the air right next to her and grabbed her face. "Here let me remove it." He manifested a permanent white marker and colored over the mustache.
Celestia batted his hand away and gave him a death stare. "I got rid of that stupid mustache yesterday. Now leave me alone I need some time to think."
Discord snapped his talon and teleported himself and Celestia, to a beautiful grove filled with flowers, cakes and a big heart shaped bed.
"Now tell me what's bothering you or I'll eat all this cake by myself." He said as he stuffed his face with cake.
Celestia knew there was no escaping him when he had his mind set on something. "Fine, give me a slice of cake and a cup of tea and I'll talk." She sighed.
"Splendid!" Discord poured Celestia a cup of tea, he then put a whole cake in front of her and sliced it into tiny pieces. She rolled her eyes and a small laugh escaped her mouth.
Discord hovered in front of Celestia, he placed his hands under his chin and looked at her. `She truly is a beauty, but she is not my type of girl.´ The mere thought of them being together made Discord snort loudly.
"Spill the beans and don't hold back on the juicy details!"
Celestia put her cup down and sighed. "I'm worried about Luna, last night I found her sleeping with a spider plushy and sucking on her hoof.
I fear that she might be regressing mentally and I have never seen that plushy before.
I can't describe it, but, there is something odd about it, the aura surrounding it, is familiar but I can't quite place my hooves at it."
Discord sat down on a pillow and tugged at his beard. "I think you are overreacting, about the whole Luna regressing thing. I mean, when this happened to you, you were acting a lot more juvenile than usual.
That plush however, if you can't figure something out about it. Then maybe I can, I'll take a look at it and try to figure it out.
Don't worry about Lulu, mental regression is a rare occurrence, even with a regressed body, the chances of ones mind reverting to the same state that the body is currently in, is one in two hundred thousand twenty seven and a half to one.
Unless there is a greater power at bay, interfering with her recovery. But I doubt that."
"I'm still worried. But I'm grateful and surprised that you are taking this somewhat serious, what's happening to you? Lately you have been acting a bit more rational than usual."
Discord's eyes widened in horror. Was he losing his touch, when was the last time he did something chaotic?
Discord blew a raspberry at Celestia and snapped his fingers, transforming the bed into a giant marshmallow, summoning several rainbow pooping poptart cats into the air, calling forth several cotton candy clouds, raining chocolate milk everywhere and finally the Kraken appeared out of a pond filled with chocolate milk, flailing its tentacles all over the place. "I'm sorry, did you say something?
Celestia sighed, shook her head and looked at him.
Discord sighed and clapped his hands together, making everything disappear. "Well I kind of feel guilty about the whole thing with Luna and also I........................... I think I might be in......Lo- You know what nevermind!"
Celestia walked up to him and laid a hoof on his shoulder. "Is there something bothering you Discord?"
Discord scratched the back of his neck and started mumbling to himself. She embraced him in a hug and said. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.
Regardless, thanks for helping me and Luna." She broke the hug and walked back to her mountain of cake and cup of tea.
Discord laid down on the bed and continued to mumble to himself. Was he truly changing? What was he doing differently, from before? So many questions and yet he had no answers to them. Suddenly his dream flashed before his eyes, he grabbed his head and roared in pain.
He rolled of the bed still clutching his head, he had a hard time breathing and he was coughing up blood. Celestia ran up to him and picked him up, using a levitation spell, she teleported to the infirmary and called for Doctor Scalpel. Discord continued to cough up blood, until he eventually passed out.
Inside the ponyville library sat a very uncomfortable Twilight and a nervous Fluttershy.
Fluttershy was standing on Twilight's coffee table, Grayscale had wrapped himself around her, he would not let anything get close to her, the mere chance of her getting scared and shrinking further was the last thing he wanted to see.
"And when I woke up I was like this." Fluttershy said her, voice barely audible.
Twilight was doing her best to listen to what her friend was saying, but the big black snake on the table was making her sweat, she remembered that snake, it was that snake that had scared her half to death, not to long ago.
And now it was glaring at her, observing her every movement, if she tried to get closer to Fluttershy it would hiss at her and bare its fangs at her.
"Well, I would say that this is most likely one of Discord's pranks and he can probably fix it, but I can give it a try if you want me to." Twilight glanced at Grayscale and felt a shiver go down her spine.
"Does he have to be here? He is creeping me out."
Fluttershy looked up at Grayscale, his eyes were focused on Twilight, but he occasionally glanced to his side to make sure that she was okay. "Well I can ask him to leave."
She tapped Grayscale on his cheek and said. "Grayscale, don't take this the wrong way, I'm happy that you are helping me and all, but you are making Twilight uncomfortable.
So would you mind waiting outside for a moment?"
Grayscale turned his head and looked at his goddess, normally he would never defy her will, but right now he was dead set on staying by her side, he did not trust the purple unicorn that his goddess referred to as Twilight, and that pet of hers reminded him of Discord. There was no way he was leaving his goddess in the care of strangers.
"Forgive me my, goddess, at this time I can't leave your side. I won't risk it, please forgive my disobedience. I will accept any punishment once you return to normal."
Fluttershy enjoyed his voice, it was deep and cold, but it radiated with his love for her. His voice reminded her of her late father, it made her feel calm and less jumpy, which was just what she needed at the time.
She turned around and looked at Twilight. "I'm sorry he says that he refuses to leave my side, due to the state I'm currently in. I'm sorry."
Twilight sighed "I knew you could understand animals somewhat good, but it seems like you can understand everything he is saying. Can you?"
Fluttershy looked at Twilight and smiled. "Yes, for some reason, ever since this happened to me, I've been able to understand animals perfectly, Grayscale at least, I have not had the time to try it on any other animal, due to obvious reasons."
"Interesting, anyhow. I can't concentrate with him in here." She rose from her seat.
She called for her number one assistant. "Spike! Can you come here I need some help."
Spike arrived in the room and saw Grayscale laying on the table, he flinched, he was such a big snake and his glare was enough to make Spike's knees shake. "Yes, Twilight, what is it?"
"Would you kindly, take that snake outside for a moment." Twilight pointed at Grayscale, he hissed in at her sudden movement and wrapped Fluttershy closer to himself.
Spike nodded and walked up to the table, he reached out with his claw and tried not to look into Grayscale's eyes.
But Spike failed, he meet his gaze, he suddenly felt smaller than usual and the snake before him seemed to be towering over him. Spike fell to the ground and crawled backwards, never breaking eye contact with the snake, once he reached the door he stood up and reached for the door. "I-i-i-i-i... I'm sorry Twilight I promised to help Rarity with something." He then bolted out the door, screaming in fear.
Grayscale smirked and returned his gaze to Twilight, he hissed at her, letting her know that it was pointless to try anything.
Twilight sighed and walked closer to the table. "Fine, I'll just levitate you out of here!" Her horn started glowing and Grayscale was engulfed in a purple glow and levitated off the table, away from Fluttershy.
Grayscale let out a hissing roar, it was unlike anything both Twilight and Fluttershy had ever heard. He gave Twilight a death stare and bared his fangs at her and struggled to break free from her grasp.
Fluttershy was worried that something bad was going to happen. "Twilight! Please put him down, he is getting angry!"
Twilight was shaking, but she had no reason to fear him, he was trapped and he was not going anywhere. "It's fine Fluttershy, he can't break out, I'll be back once he is outside."
But love is a powerful force, in his struggle to break free, his rage grew beyond anything he had ever felt before. The mere thought of leaving his defenseless goddess made his blood boil. His rage was so strong that it revived his since long dried up venom sacks, thus letting it flow freely along his long fangs.
Grayscale was not late to notice it, he manage to whip himself forward, launching a lethal dose of venom straight into Twilight's eyes.
This caused Twilight to scream in pain, thus dropping him from her magical grasp.
Grayscale wrapped himself around her neck and was about to sink his fangs into her neck and kill her.
But the voice of his goddess stopped him, she was hovering in front of him, smaller than before and she was yelling angrily at him.
"GRAYSCALE! HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING? RELEASE HER RIGHT NOW OR ELSE I'll NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU EVER AGAIN!" Smoke steamed form Fluttershy's nostrils and she was giving him.The STARE.
The mere thought of never being allowed to see her again was enough to send him into a deep depression. He slithered off Twilight and hid under a bookshelf, tears were flowing down his face and his rage quickly died down.
`What have I done? I scared her, my actions made her even weaker than before.
I'm no better than the monster I hate and now my goddess will hate me forever........ I have nothing to live for.´ Grayscale tried to strangle himself with his tail, but to little success.
Fluttershy landed on her friends face and looked over the damage, her old friend had caused. She had no clue what kind of snake Grayscale was, so she had no clue how dangerous his venom was, but she knew that she needed to get Twilight to wash her eyes, quickly, otherwise the possible damage could be irreversible.
"Twilight! Wake up, you need to wash your eyes!" She said tears running down her face. Twilight was not moving at all and her breathing was getting more and more unstable.
She was pressed for options, in her current state she would be unable to reach the hospital in time, she had to ask Grayscale for help, she had no other choice.
She hovered in under the bookshelf where Grayscale had disappeared beneath. She heard a scuffling sound and followed it.
Before her laid a white snake with tears flowing down it's face. She was uncertain if it was Greyscale, but she saw no other snakes around and she doubted the mere thought of another snake living inside the library.
She walked up to the white snake and tapped on its snout. "Grayscale is that you?"
The white snake opened his eyes, they were an intense green color, they were truly beautiful. It looked at her and opened its mouth. "Forgive me, goddess, I know it means nothing to you, but I have shed the sins of my body together with my own skin and now I pray that you will allow me to serve you once more." His voice was sad, he was truly devastated by what he had done.
Fluttershy hugged his snout and smiled warmly at him. "It's okay, I forgive you. Do you mind if I call you Whitescale from now on?"
"I will carry any name for you my goddess, I'm your servant and I will never leave you side."
Fluttershy got lost in the moment, but then she remembered about her friend's condition. "That is great. But we need to help Twilight, right now!" She grabbed ahold of his neck and they were quickly by Twilight's side.
"We need to wake her up, she needs to wash her eyes and then go to the hospital!"
Whitescale slithered up to Twilight's ear and hissed loudly. This caused Twilight to wake with a jolt and she screamed loudly. "AHHHHHHHHH!" she held her hooves over her eyes and ran to the bathroom.
The sounds of pouring water could be heard from insider, along with several pain filled grunt and moans.
When Twilight finally got out of the bathroom, her eyes were bright red and tears were streaming down her face. She levitated a book to herself and opened a chapter on healing spells, she read it as good as she could and focused her magic on her swollen eyes.
Her eyes quickly returned to their normal state and she sighed in relief.
She walked up to Fluttershy and casted a spell on her and sat back down by the coffee table.
Whitescale hissed at her, but calmed himself with some deep breaths.
Twilight looked at him, with anger in her eyes. "Take it easy, Snake! I only amplified her voice so I can hear her better." She said with snort.
Whitescale looked at his goddess, he carried her inside his mouth and ascended to the top of the table. He then curled up around her, just like before, his eyes glued to Twilight, despite everything that had happen, he still had no reason to trust her.
Fluttershy looked at Twilight and sobbed. "I'm sorry, but I told you to let him go." She cried into her hooves, much to Whitescale's displeasement.
Twilight looked at her friend and her ears fell flat on her head. "I'm not angry at you, Fluttershy. And I'm not angry at him either, he is just an animal, I should have known better........... Anyhow, feel free to stay here, I'll start looking for something that can cure you and once Spike returns, I'll send a letter to Princess Celestia, asking her to send him to Ponyville."
Fluttershy, looked up at her friend and a tiny smile crept up on her lips. "Thank you, Twilight. But I still don't want to believe that Discord would do something like this, he is not a bad guy anymore."
Twilight gritted her teeth and mumbled something under her breath. "Well that remains to be seen."
She walked over to her books and started going through them. "Oh, and if there is anything you need just tell me, I'll do anything I can to keep you from shrinking further.
Fluttershy smiled. "Thanks, Twilight, you are a true friend.
Several hours passed and the sun was setting over the horizon.
Inside the royal Infirmary, Discord was laying down on a bed, shaking violently, sweating heavily, his breathing was harsh and he was still coughing blood. "Get away from her, you beast!" He said in his sleep. |
The shrinking Pegasus | Chapter 5: Father. Unedited. | The moon had climbed to the peak of the night and its soft glow bathed the village of Ponyville in an beautiful yet eerie light. Most of the village residents had since long gone to bed, but there was one house that the night had yet to claim.
Inside the Ponyville library sat,Twilight sparkle, her friend Fluttershy and The snake knows as Whitescale. They had spent the entire afternoon and most of the evening trying to figure out a way to cure Fluttershy.
But they had come out empty handed. They had come to the conclusion that they had to wait for Discord to come back and that he would hopefully be able to fix this whole mess.
Twilight Sparkle was sitting on the floor in the main room. She had earlier that day gone out and bought a dollhouse for Fluttershy to sleep in.
"I hope you don't mind sleeping inside a dollhouse, but it was the only thing I could think off." Twilight said.
Fluttershy had crawled into the tiny bed and had made herself comfortable. "Oh no, not at all. This bed is actually way more comfortable than it looks. So I'll be fine."
"Okay then, just tell me if you need anything. *Yawn* I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning. Sleep tight, Fluttershy. Twilight, extinguished some of the candles in her house, she let one of the candles stay lit, on the table next to the dollhouse.
"Goodnight, Twilight."
Twilight retired upstairs and fell asleep quickly.
Whitescale had laid himself in a circle around the dollhouse. He would keep watch over Fluttershy for the rest of the night.
He knew that he needed to stay awake incase she had a nightmare or something. The last thing they needed would be for Fluttershy to shrink even further.
"Do not fear my, goddess. I'll keep an eye on you through the night. I won't let anything get near you. I swear upon my everlasting loyalty to you!"
Fluttershy was happy for everything Whitescale had done for her. Still she was very sad over this whole ordeal.
Had Discord done this just for laughs? or was it truly just an accident?
She wanted to believe that it was an accident, but he was the living embodiment of chaos afterall and it had merely been three months since she had helped reforming him.
"Would you mind placing the end of your tail in the bed? I know that sounds weird, but it will make me feel safer if I could hug you. I always do. I mean if it's okay with you." She said quietly.
Whitescale place the end of his tail into her tiny bed. "Like this I'll be able to feel your presence better. So it's a win win situation. Also if you for some reason left the bed I would get to know instantly. Besides I'll do anything to aid you. I hope you know that."
She hugged his tail tightly. "Do you think he did this to me just for laughs?" Tears started forming in her eyes as she spoke.
"I don't like him at all, but I would be a liar if I said yes. He seems to care about you just as much as I do, but I'm not ruling out the possibility........ And If I find out that he did it........I'll kill him!" Whitescale bared his fangs and hissed loudly.
Fluttershy dried her tears. "Okay. Can you promise me that you you'll always be by my side?"
Whitescale proceeded to stick his head into the dollhouse. He stopping only inches away from Fluttershy. "I will never leave your side no matter what. I Swear upon my life!" He nuzzled Fluttershy's cheek with the tip of his snout.
Fluttershy in return hugged his snout. "Thank you."
"The night is long my, goddess. You should try to get some sleep." He retracted his head and regained his watchful stance.
Fluttershy pulled the covers over her body and laid her head to rest against the soft pillows. She shut her eyes and soared away to the land of dreams.
Discord awoke late at night.
His head was pounding and he was suffering from frequent flashbacks of that horrible dream he suffered through the other day.
Her laughter would not fade from his mind. A laugh so pure and innocent, yet so full of malice that it would bring any beast to its knees.
He clutched his head in a futile attempt to rid himself from her laugh. He threw the blanket off his body and got out of bed.
He walked out on the balcony and gazed up at the stars, but even in the shining stars he would see her. That disfigured version of Fluttershy that wanted nothing besides killing him.
"A second child of chaos................ Why? And how?" Discord laid down on the balcony. The cold winds felt nice as they slithered against his wounded body.
Why was this happening? All he wanted was to tell Fluttershy that he loved her. Sadly he feared that the dream was more than just a regular nightmare. What If that dream was a vision of the future. Then how could he possibly go through with it?
He closed his eyes and wished for peace. The peace that he longed for never came to him. Instead he was greeted by a pair of massive fangs. They belonging to the white snake in his nightmare.
The pain of getting penetrated by that monster overcame him. He rolled over on his stomach and tried to push himself onto his four legs. However the moment he did a sharp pain overcame him and he once again vomited blood.
He lost his footing and fell into the red puddle that had formed beneath him. "He- Hel- Help!..........." His call for help was drowned out by the very same winds that had offered him comfort mere moments ago.
"Any- Anyone........ help me.........FATHER OF CHAOS! WHY DO YOU TORTURE ME!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. Before everything became black and he passed out.
The night grew darker, the winds grew colder and rain started falling from the heavens. Is there no one in this world that can help him?
Doctor Scalpel was sitting by his desk. He was trying to figure out a way to help the Draconequus. It was unlike anything he had ever treated before. He hated the entire thing, he felt so helpless.
His eyes grew heavier, he proceeded to remove his glasses and rubbing his eyes. He grabbed his cup only to realize that it was empty. He grabbed a tiny bell on his desk and ringed it.
"Yes, doctor?" A young nurse said as she poked her head inside his office.
"How is the, Draconequus doing?"
The nurse entered his office with nervous steps. "There have been no changes in his condition, Doctor."
"Sigh......I expected nothing else. Keep me informed. Also before you leave bring me more coffee."
"Yes, Doctor!" The young mare grabbed his cup and quickly exited his office.
He rubbed his eyes again and a yawn escaped from his mouth. ´This chair is way too comfy.` Those were the last words that went through his mind before sleep grabbed a hold of him.
Discord regained his consciousness and pulled himself back onto his legs. He rubbed his eyes and looked around.
Fire!.....The green flames of chaos were everywhere, burning anything that came into their path. He saw a familiar cottage in the center of the flames. It belonged to Fluttershy and her screams could be heard from miles away.
"No....NO!" Discord screamed as he tried using his magic to put them out. Sadly to no avail, they only grew bigger the more he tried.
Ignoring the flames he dove straight through them. The pain caused by the flames were nothing compared to the possibility of losing his dearest Fluttershy.
He refused to abandon the only one he had ever loved. She was in trouble and he was not going to stop until she laid safely in his arms.
He pushed on getting closer and closer. He tore the door down.
"FLUTTERSHY!"
He looked all over the burning cottage but she was nowhere to be found. He was starting to lose hope, but a familiar scream coming from outside caught his attention. "Fluttershy!" He crashed through the window and landed in her yard.
He quickly got to his feet and ran towards the source of the screaming.
On a nearby meadow, standing tall in the center of the flames. The father of chaos with his hand clenched tightly around Fluttershy's neck.
She was gasping for air and the father was grinning like a madman. The flames came to life from beneath the Father's feet.
"FLUTTERSHY!" Discord yelled.
The father turned his head and shot him an impatient glare. Once their eyes meet he quickly resumed to whatever he was doing to Fluttershy and completely ignoring the child of chaos.
Discord threw himself at the father. "YOU MONSTER! LET GO OFF HER! He slammed into the father's back. This causing him to drop Fluttershy.
Discord grabbed the father hands and pushed him to the ground. "I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS!"
"Hahahaha! You can't kill anything. You worthless waste of life. " The father's voice was the pure embodiment of evil. His words so cold, that ice formed on Discord's face.
He brushed Discord off his body just as easy as he would with dust or similar worthless dirt. Discord slammed hard into the base of a tree. The impact knocked the air out of his lungs and he laid on the ground gasping for air.
The father walked up to him and grabbed him by the tail. He proceeded to slam him into the ground several times. Until finally Discord's tail broke free from his lower body. this sent him flying into the burning remains of the cottage.
The father's eyes wandered back to Fluttershy who was cowering in fear as tears were streaming down her cheeks.
Not even in her worst nightmares had she ever seen anything like this. She was praying for someone to save her.
But her prayers came to a halt as the Father of Chaos once again grabbed her by the throat.
"Now my dear. Let's finish what we started. "
Fluttershy wanted to scream, but the grip on her throat was too strong.
She glanced over at her burning cottage hoping that Discord would come to her rescue.
The Father of Chaos used his free hand to reach inside of her. His hand passed straight through her. It was like she was made out of air, but surprisingly this caused her no pain at all.
Unfortunately the sight alone was enough to make her sick and she vomited on the father's hand. He however paid no thought to it.
Discord laid inside the burning cottage. He rose to his feet only to fall down again, the injuries caused by his father were too great and he was lucky to be alive.
"No........I won't let it end like this...........I WON'T LET IT END LIKE THIS!" He flapped his wings with such force that he broke the sound barrier as he catapulted himself through the air towards the father.
Discord, put every last bit of his power into his griffin talon and it started to glow with a bright yellow light. The father was going to pay for this.
"DIE!!!!!!!!" Discord's talon pierced the father's chest all the way to his heart and Discord tore it out and threw it into the fires.
The father's face turned pale and he fell to the ground, but his fist never loosened up its grip on Fluttershy's throat.
"Don't worry, Fluttershy I'll save you!" All the colors in Discord's face slowly faded and he looked like he was about to fall over and die at any moment.
He tore his fathers hand from Fluttershy's neck and proceeded to hug her tightly. "I love you and I swear......I'll keep you safe." He said, tears running down his face.
Fluttershy returned the hug her eyes overflowed with tears, but this was not tears of fear. They were tears of joy.
"I Lov-" Fluttershy's words came to a sudden halt and she was once again gasping for air.
"FLUTTERSHY!"
Discord looked over where his father's body was supposed to be laying, but it was gone.
Discord could not believe it. Where had it gone?
Fluttershy was viciously torn from his arms. She was hovering in the air gasping for air the now severed arm of the father was once again choking her.
The Father of Chaos walked up to her and reconnected his arm to his heartless body. He phrased his hand through her body and grabbed a hold of her spine. With a single motion he separated her head from her body.
The nightmare inducing sound of Fluttershy snapping in half threw Discord's mind into panic. His stomach turned itself inside out and blood traveled up his throat at the same rate as it gushed from Fluttershy's decapitated body.
The Father of Chaos threw her head so it landed perfectly in front if Discord's face. This caused, Discord to throw up yet again.
He fell to the ground feeling like everything he ever cared for in his entire life crumbling and crashing down upon him.
His hopes and dreams had been shattered. He did the only thing he could do. He cried like the worthless piece of filth that he was.
"Insolent child!" The Father of Chaos roared.
He threw Fluttershy's body into the flames and walked up to the crying Discord. "I watched with pride as you grew into a weapon of Righteousness. Because when my life come to and you were supposed to carry on my legacy. You were my finest creation and this is how you repay me! You Ungrateful worm!" The father kicked him hard. This sent Discord flying far away at a dangerous speed.
Discord slammed into the side of a mountain the impact alone shattered every bone in his body and the cold hand of death clutched his immortal soul.
The father slapped the hand of death away and grabbed hold of Discord
He allowed Discord to rest against his chest for a few seconds just to make sure that he stayed alive and then he tore his eyelids off."Before I allowed death to claim your pathetic soul. We shall watch this world burn to the ground. As father and son. Hahahahaha!" The father's evil laugh echoed as the flames consumed the world.
Discord did not care anymore. The world could burn for all he cared. A world without Fluttershy was not a world worth living in.
The rain had gone from a soft drizzle to a full blown storm. The winds were cold and Discord was still laying outside. His life was coming to an end. Could this truly be his final chapter?
We all know that fate is a butthole. Fortunately. Sometimes even fate can be altered.
A large hooded entity stood above Discord. With the flick of its wrist he stopped the elements of the world from ravaging the area around him.
The ancient laws of the world were ignored by this powerful entity.It reached out with its hand and touched Discord's forehead. A single tear fell from its yellow eyes.
It reached down and took Discord into its big arms. It carried him back to the bed and tucked him in.
A chair materialized beneath it as it sat down. It's hand slowly hovered over Discord's wounded body healing most of the injuries. With a sigh of relief it stood up again.
The chair vanished as it stood up.
It bent over and embraced Discord in a soft hug.
"Jag forstår inte varfor du avskyr mig med hela ditt hjarta. Men jag kommer aldrig att gora dig illa.
jag alskar dig like mycket nu som jag gjorde den dagen du foddes.
Vi kommer att ses snart min son."
The entity faded away into the night, like it had never been at all. For the first time in millenniums Discord was able to enjoy a good nights rest.
The nurse returned to Doctor Scalpel's room. She place a cup of warm coffee on his table and gently nudged the Doctor awake before leaving.
He rubbed his eyes and yawned widely. "Coffee! Thank the heavens." Just as he was about to take a sip the door slammed open.
"Doctor! Discord's injuries."
This caused Doctor Scalpel to drop his coffee. He ran towards Discord's room. "What about his injuries!?"
He entered the room and saw Discord sleeping soundly. He was in shock this Draconequus was dying a few minutes ago and now it was sleeping like a baby.
"As you can see. They are gone."
"Amazing."
The rest of the night went on smoothly. Doctor Scalpel still kept a close watch over him. After all he was an unpredictable creature and It was impossible to anticipate anything.
Fluttershy shoot up from her sleep her heart was beating fast and she was hyperventilating. She had no clue as to why she had woken up so suddenly.She could feel in her heart that something was wrong.
She got out of her tiny bed and flew over to Twilight's bathroom. She landed on the sink and tried to figure out how she was going to turn the nozzle on the faucet.She hovered up to the handle and tried turning it, but with her current body she was too weak.
Her lower lip quivered and a few tears flowed from her eyes and down onto the porcelain.
Then to her surprise a single stream of cold water started flowing from the faucet.
She looked up at the nozzle and saw that Whitescale had turned the nozzle.
"You left your bed in such a rush that you made me worried.There are things you are unable to do right now. But please remember that I'm here to aid you in everyway I can." Using the end of his tail he pushed the cork into the hole. This caused the water to rise a little before he turned the nozzle the other way and making it stop.
Fluttershy wiped her eyes and hovered down into the sink. She drank deep from the cold water, once she was satisfied she gathered some water in her hooves and splashed it onto her face.
The cold water slowly flowed down her face. It felt nice.
She took a deep breath and flew out of the sink. She landed on Whitescale's head.
"Thanks for being here for me. I don't think I would have been able to handle this without you."
Whitescale slithered back to the dollhouse. He made sure that Fluttershy got back to her bed safely.
Once she was back in bed he said. "Don't worry about it. I live to serve you and I will never leave your side. Please remember this."
After hearing those words. Fluttershy ventured back into the realms of dreams.
It was late afternoon and a young nurse was galloping down one of the many hallways of Canterlot castle. She was on her way to deliver some good news to princess Celestia.
A day had passed since Discord's blood coughing beginned. Doctor Scalpel had been by his side the entire time running tests and whatnot.
He was hoping that he would be able to find the reason to Discord's sudden illness and his sudden recovery.
Sadly no matter what he tried he came out empty handed. Discord's body was nothing like a ponies therefore he was unable to properly identify anything. Even Discord's blood type was unknown which made the whole thing even harder.
If Discord started to fade away due to lack blood. There would be no way to help him.
Discord's sudden attacks of harsh blood coughing had continued throughout most of the night. Doctor Scalpel had never felt so helpless before. He wanted to do something anything at all.
But the fear of losing a patient was too much. He was afraid he would cause more harm to the draconequus than the illness had already done.
All he could do was give him something to soothe the pain, he still unsure whether it did anything or not.
Then late at night all of Discord's injuries had vanished. He had stopped coughing and was snoring loudly.
Doctor Scalpel took this as a good signs and left his nurses to treat the draconequus. While he walked into his office to get some proper shuteye.
Princess Celestia was laying in her bed watched over her little sister who was sucking on a pacifier while she happily played with some colored blocks. Luna did not let go of that spider plus for more than a second. This worried her to no end.
What was that thing? It had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and Celestia had no memories of ever seeing it before.
She was worried that it might be affecting her little sisters natural magical regeneration. It was incredibly slow and it almost seemed like it had stopped completely, seeing as Luna was regressing mentally.
If her little sister mind were to regress to the state of her current body. Celestia would have no choice but to break out diapers and other supplies that Luna was going to need if the regression continued.
Perhaps she was being paranoid. Luna might just be enjoying herself. Since it's not an everyday occurrence that someone gets to relive their young childhood.
But She still found it strange. Luna had been devastated when she found out what had happened to her. Why would she suddenly start to enjoy it? And why to such a degree?
She could not help it. That spider plush had to have something to do with this whole ordeal. But she could not sense even the tiniest bit of magic radiating from it.
The best course of action would be to seal the plush away. Unfortunately she knew that she would not be able to keep the toy away from her little sister.The guilt of making her sad would eat her alive. So Celestia decided to simply keep a close eye on it for now. If she started to sense anything odd she would blast it to smithereens.
Luna was happily playing with her toys giggling from time to time. It brought joy to Celestia's heart to hear her little sister laugh once again.
Ever since they had been reunited Luna had been very gloom. She had rarely laughed and the few times she did it had been forced.
However now they were the purest form of laughter and they reminded her of the precious times she spent with her student. when she was just a little filly. Celestia had many precious memories of her and she only continued to make her teacher proud.
But despite all the happy memories this ordeal brought to Celestia. She was unable to ignore that something was very wrong with both her sister and Discord. She was worried about the draconequus but Luna's health would always be her top priority.
Still laying on her bed Celestia was trapped in deep thought.
`What should i do? I could take the plush away from her, but my heart won't allow it........ I wish I knew someone who could aid me. Sometimes being one of the oldest creature in this world sucks. With the exception of Discord there Is no one older than me. I hope that he knows something about that spider. I need all the help I can get. Once he wakes up I'll ask him about this whole mess.
Maybe I could feed Luna's body with some off my execs magic. If I'm successful. Her own regeneration should stabilize and her body should return to normal in a few days.´
Celestia's train of thought was interrupted by the soft knocking on her door. She snapped out of her trance and opened the door with her magic without leaving the bed.
The door opened and behind it stood a young nurse. She bowed to the princess and once she rose to her hooves. She said.
"Forgive my intrusion princess.........." The nurse glanced over at Luna who was sitting on the floor playing with a stuffed animal of some kind.
She cleared her throat. "Forgive my intrusion, princesses. But I came here to tell you that Discord have regained consciousness and is currently awake and that you can visit him. I suggest that you do it now while he is still in a stable condition."
Celestia got off the bed and shook her head a few times in order to restore her mane to its regular everflowing beauty.
"Thank you. We will visit him immediately. Thanks for your hard work." The nurse gave a quick bow and left the room galloping back to the hospital wing.
Celestia walked over to her little sister who was smiling behind the pacifier.
"Did you hear? Discord is awake. Let's go and cheer him up with a quick visit shall we?"
Luna grabbed her spider plush and nodded. She held her tiny hooves up to Celestia. " Can you Cawwy me? please!"
Celestia did not want to treat her like a baby, but something those puppy dog eyes tugged at her heartstrings. She picked up her little sister and carefully placed her on her back.
Luna used the royal Canterlot puppy dog eyes. It was super effective!
Luna have gained 50 points of cuteness.
"Luna how about you leave the pacifier here? It's a bit hard to understand what you are saying when you have it in your mouth."
Luna looked sad and Celestia could swear that she saw tears forming in her little sister's eyes. Making Luna cry was the last thing she wanted to do. But she was afraid that her sister's mind might regressing further. Then again there are some things no older sibling can do. Celestia proceeded to tie a thread around the pacifier which she then put around Luna's neck.
"See, now you can take it with you everywhere without losing it. I'm not asking you to get rid of it. I'm only ask that you too not have it in your mouth when you are talking. Is that okay?"
Luna looked at the pacifier then at her sister. She spat it out, allowing it to dangle around from her neck. "Okay I understand. But, Mr Spider can come right?"
Celestia wanted to say no......but Luna had already been a good girl giving up on her pacifier. Besides Discord had to see the spider. "Of Course and I bet Discord would love to meet him.
A big smile spread across Luna's lips and she hugged Mr spider tightly.
Celestia shut the door to her room and started walking to the hospital section of the castle. Just as she left the room a scroll emerged from a poof of magic. It was carrying Twilight's personal seal.
It landed on the floor just waiting for someone to read it. Suddenly a fire came to life in Celestia's fireplace. The fire was flaring with wicked green flames and a set of pupils formed in the flames Their gaze fell upon the scroll.
A hand consisting of nothing but dry bones grabbed a hold of the scroll and pulled it inside the fire, burning it to ashes. The flames died out and a wicked high pitched laughter echoed through the room.
As they made their way to the hospital wing there was one thing on Celestia's mind.
´I hope Discord knows something about that thing. For Luna's sake.´
Discord was sleeping lightly in his hospital bed. He dreamed that he was a piece of cheese and a rat was about to eat him.
"No no. Don't eat me I taste horrible!" He muttered.The rat picked up the cheese and brought it to its mouth. With a scream Discord shoot out of bed. so fast that he slammed his head on a low hanging lamp.
*Bam!*
Discord clenched his head and muttered something under his breath. He put his head back onto the pillow and sighed.
"Owww. That really made me lightheaded."
The door to his room slowly opened and Celestia walked inside. Celestia sat down by the bed and Luna leaped from her back and onto Discord's tail.
Luna walked across him, carrying her spider plush. She sat down once she reaches his chest.
Luna dropped the spider."Hi Discord!" She said as she reached out with her hooves towards him, indicating that she wanted him to pick her up.
Discord picked her up and held her in front of his face. "Hello,Lulu! Adorable like always I see. How are you feeling?" He singsonged in a high pitched tone.
"The real question is how are you feeling? Luna said with a giggle.
Celestia walked closer to his bed. "Yes ,Discord how are you feeling? She had a concerned look on her face.
Discord turned his head and looked at the reader. "Well how about this. I'll tell you how I feel in the next chapter. Because the author of this story is a lazy butthole and his hands are getting tired. I'll see you all soon!" |
The shrinking Pegasus | Bonus chapter! | Discord was laying in his hospital bed, waiting for the story to continue. "So, Lulu didn't you have something you wanted to ask me?" Much to Discord surprise Luna was nowhere to be seen and neither was Celestia. He was all alone in a white space that had nothing but him and a hospital bed in it.
"What the heck is going on? This was not in the script! That lazy excuse for an author......Grrr!" Discord broke out from the empty text document and appeared inside the authors home. He explored the house, but found no trace of the author. "Where the heck is that guy?"
The front door opened and the author walked inside. He was whistling a merry tune as he walked into his kitchen. He put down his bag of groceries onto the kitchen table and started unloading them. "I got bacon, I got cheese, I got lamburges and fries, they will be my dinner tonight!" The author signed as he unpacked.
The author turned around and he was meet by Discord who had showed his arms so far into his ears that they had come out on the opposite side of his head. "Hello, Discord! I was not expecting you to come by today." The author walked over to his fridge and got out a bottle of carbonated water. He poured himself a glass and quickly drank it down. "Can I tempt you with a glass of water?"
"Shut your piehole! You know why I'm here!" Discord pointed an accusing finger at the Author.
The Author stroked his thinking beard. "I actually got no clue. You tend to show up whenever you feel like it."
Discord flailed his arms around in frustration. He was so annoyed that he was unable to form proper words. "Gah duhb ragh ga! Smaghagaga moshagadorababa!" Steam shot out from his nostrils as he continued his onslaught of nonsense.
The Author pulled out a chair, sat down, grabbed his water and took a sip. *Slurp* "Go on." He motioned with his left hand. *Slurp*
Discord stared into the Author's eyes."Why aren't you writing the next chapter?!" He said with a growl.
The Author nonchalantly pushed Discord out of his face. "So that's what this is about. Honestly, Discord don't you have any patience?"
Discord once again pointed his finger at the Author."YOU HAD ME COUGHING BLOOD FOR ONE AND A HALF MONTHS! YOU......You.....you Lamburglar!"
The Author took a moment to process what Discord just said. Once the hamster in his brain started running he smacked his fist softly into the palm of his other hand. Oh, I get it! Lamburglar instead of hamburglar! Since I brought home lamburgers. Hahahahaha. Oh you. You are a such a hoot!"
Discord's left eye started twitching and he grabbed the Author by the beard on his chin. "OW! OW! OW! NOT THE BEARD! NOT THE BEARD! I BEG YOU! SPARE THE BEARD!"
Discord grinned menacingly and laughed like a madman. "Mwahahahaha!" He then ripped the authors beard from his chin and ate it. *Gulp* "You'll get this back once the story is finished.
"AHHHHH! You douche! Do you have any idea how long it took me to grow that thing?!" The Author stroked his now naked chin. "Cold......so very cold."
"Ehhh. Not to ruin the funeral, but I would hurry up If I were you. Your beard won't last long in my stomach." Discord said as he twirled his own beard.
"I hate you so much right now."
Discord snapped his finger and dissolved himself into water. The Author quickly stuffed the rest of his groceries into his fridge. He walked upstairs and sat down by his computer. "I was going to continue this anyway!" He shouted.
Discord's laughter echoed through his house and slowly faded away. "The Author poured himself some more water and started typing. |
Sinister Stripes | pre | "Oh yeah, she's a total whore." Pinkie giggled, her throbbing size rubbing along the mare's insides so hard it was making a sizable bulge with each thrust. "You should see her whenever she sneaks off to fuck Big Mac."
"Isn't he married?" Zecora asked, whose eyes only widened a little in amusement when Pinkie nodded with a playful smile. "Oh you dirty little mare. Fucking around with a married stallion, you know what dirty mares get?" Cheerilee only let out a muffled sound as she continued to choke on the zebra's strong musk and thick size. Leaning in close, she whispered in her ear. "They get knocked up."
Cheerilee's eyes widened and her body continued to struggle harder and harder to free itself of the double dicking she was getting. But it was all in vain, this only made the two dick thrusting mares fuck into the teacher's holes harder and faster. Her mind was cracking under the strain of both the inevitably, as well as the pleasure being pumped into her with each motion of the fat sizes in her. Her body was already spasming hard from the simulations however, granting Pinkie's dick easier access to her womb as her inner walls squeezed but were so slick that she slipped in and out without issue.
"I think she's ready." Zecora cooed, pulling back as she placed her hands on Cheerilee's exposed and bouncing tits. Groping and teasing them hard, she pulled back, only to hump rougher and rougher, savoring the throat bulge she was making. "Time to fuck a foal in her."
"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie giggled with a goofy grin. Her tongue hung out a little as she felt the pleasure running through her like a deep seated addiction. "Hear that Cheerilee? You're gonna be a mummy. I'm gonna fuck a baby in you."
The two mares moaned in unison as they fucked faster and faster, bottoming out in the mare with each hard motion of their bodies. It was coming, they were both going to release their hot loads in this mare. Pumping and humping, closer and closer towards the breach, Zecora let out a low groan as Pinkie gave out a sultry, whorish moan before they both came. Their cocks throbbed hard as they fired off their thick and potent seeds into the mare. Cheerilee's throat bulged as she swallowed gulp after gulp, while her womb was stuffed to bloatation within moments as Pinkie's spunk saturated her insides a hot and creamy white.
"There we go, nice and full." Zecora commented, shivering as she settled herself before pulling out. Cheerilee's eyes were rolled back as she coughed up some of the zebra's potent load. "Now Pinkie, you're lucky I was in a good mood."
"I mean, it felt amazing right?" Pinkie replied, still giving Cheerilee's cum filled pussy a few more quick humps before pulling out, letting her own sloppy release spill to the floor. "She wanted it anyway, so it worked out."
"On my terms, Pinkie. I want to break these whores on my terms." Zecora said with a sigh, rubbing her temples as she looked across the room. Standing in the corner, blushing and still jerking his smaller dick off, was Button Mash. "Honestly slut, I expected better from you." Shaking her head, she presented her slick and dripping dick. Snapping her fingers, she gestured between both her and Pinkie's cock. "Here, clean it up."
Obeying his mistress, Button approached the two dickmares, dropping to his knees as they presented their twitching sizes to him. With a heavy exhale, and no further hesitation, he reached out to gently stroke the two cocks. His hands and fingers were soon sticky with the remnants of their cum and Cheerilee's juices, but he continued to jerk them off for a few minutes before leaning in. Knowing the two had a busy day planned, he rubbed them close together, taking them both in her mouth. At first, he struggled to take in even one of their cocks, but being played with by Pinkie these last few weeks had left Button with some experience. Though he wasn't able to deepthroat them both at once, he could take both of them halfway.
"There we go. Good job slut, keep going." Zecora commented, gently rubbing the top of Button's head, as one would treat a pet. "Behave yourself, and clean us off, and I'll let you fuck the whore teacher."
"Can I?" Button asked with a muffled sound, his voice somewhat being blocked by the cocks. "I'll do good, I'll do good."
Continuing his oral cleaning, Button sucked and suckled, licked and bobbed his head over both cocks. Taking both at once, his eyes nearly rolled back as he nearly came from the noxious smell and intoxicating flavor. Ever since being Pinkie's favorite toy, he had changed drastically, finding himself being fucked daily by either Zecora or the pink slutmare. And even on the few days he had neither their cocks in his tight holes, his own smaller dick was busy fucking his mother, who was now well rounded with a foal.
While Button switched between sucking off both Zecora and Pinkie, the two mares seemed content with what happened, though the latter was certainly enjoying herself more than the former. Where the zebra was composed and serious, as if coming down from her frustration, the pony was still panting and moaning like she was in heat. Groping at her fat tits, she pinched and teased at her nipples, her face blush as she was staring intensely at the twink stallion. This has become a growing concern as Pinkie's whorish nature was more open than usual.
Where Pinkie would be seen as the public slut, she at least kept some of this stuff somewhat private or at least not seen by too many witnesses. But ever since she's been having her fun with Zecora, the slutmare has been taking more risks. Fucking the Shys and Creamy Heart was fine, but her involvement with Button Mash has brought her to debauchery she worried would cause far too many potential issues. This recent one was the worse of these risks. Zecora only sighed as she looked back down at the femboi, who was currently being throatfucked by Pinkie as her own cock hung near a lump between her legs.
"I believe that's enough." Zecora commented, grabbing the top of Button's head. "Pinkie and I have a lot to do today." Forcing him off the mare's cock, both slut and twink let out a whining whimper. Before Pinkie could say anything else, she grabbed her arm and forced her forward. "Come on, we have things to do. And Button..." Looking down at the twink, she gestured towards the still panting Cheerilee. "You can fuck this whore, but you better clean up everything when you're done."
"Really? Thank you! Thank you!" Button said with a joyous expression. Rushing up, he wasted no time rolling the exhausted mare until she was laying on her stomach. "I've always wanted to do this...this fat ass was always in our faces when I was your student..."
Stroking himself off, he dipped his smaller dick against Cheerilee's cum moist pussy lips. But she was so loose after Pinkie fucked her silly, that she barely reacted to his dick going in her. Grumbling a little, he pulled himself out but angled his cockhead at the mare's tight pucker. Wasting no further time, he rammed his dick as hard as he could, which caused Cheerilee's head to arch back slutty moan.
"There you go, take that dick!" Button cooed, sounding just as sultry as the mare. "Fucking whore, you've made me so hard all the time!"
"There she goes, that'll settle that." Zecora said, stilling pulling along Pinkie's arm. "Come along Pinkie."
"Ugh...fine..." Pinkie groaned in frustration, wanting to join in the fun. "But you owe me!"
Walking down the streets of Ponyville, Zecora opted to take the scenic but more private route back home. This was mostly because she wanted to keep Pinkie under some degree of control, her behavior has become more than she could bear. At first, it seemed fine, the mare only fucked Button more often. But the problems only escalated when she was fucking Button anywhere she wanted. At his home, at Sugarcube Corners, Fluttershy's cottage, even in the local park. The only reason Cheerilee even caught them was because Pinkie broke into the school after class had ended and had the twink fuck the whore on his old desk, the teacher just happened to return to gather her things. Happenstance as it was, this was going to be an ongoing problem if she did not stop it.
"Pinkie, I believe we need to discuss what happened." Zecora said, trying to start the difficult conversation that it was. "What happened today...should not have happened." Pinkie pouted and was about to say something, but the zebra only continued. "Your obsession with Button is one thing, your desire to be Ponyville's resident whore is also one thing, but when you risk bringing the attention to me, that is another thing entirely."
"But...but...but it was fun right?" Pinkie asked, trying to diffuse the situation with a goofy and lovable smile. "You really loved pumping her full of your fat cock. So what's the harm? We did it a little faster than planned?"
"The problem, since you are so eager to know, is this!" Zecora commented, gesturing to what seemed to be a growing crowd in the Ponyville Square. Standing on a stage, Mayor Mare, dressed in her professional and organized attire, was addressing the crowd. "Come, listen to what she has to say."
"...and I say to you, I will crack down on the growing concerns with moral degradation." Mayor Mare announced to the crowd. "I have a rise in immoral, debaucherous displays. As well as the growing rumors of various lecherous facilities." Though some in the audience showed little interest in what she said, while a larger majority nodded in agreement. "I have already begun the drafting of a bill that will bring an end to this adulterous atrocity!"
"Ugh...this is becoming a very aggravating day." Zecora groaned quietly to herself as she rubbed her temples. "Pinkie, I believe I've found something that you may do to correct your previous mistake."
"Oh? What is it? What is it?" Pinkie asked, fully unaware of what her zebra mistress had in mind for her. "Can I bring Button?"
"Hmm, actually...yes." Zecora answered, pondering for a moment before smirking. "I believe he would be perfect for my idea." Turning away, she gestured the slutmare to follow. "Fetch him and meet me back at my house."
"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie said with a cheer. Swaying her sexy ass back towards the schoolhouse, she seemed complient, but Zecora knew the pinkie whore was going to fuck the femboy before coming over. "See you later!" The zebra only sighed as she continued to rub her temples.
Making his way towards Mayor Mare's office, Button, now dressed in a good button up shirt, tight pants, and a fresh tie, knocked at the door. Zecora and Pinkie's plan for handling the mayor involved having their femboy fucktoy offer himself as her new assistant. Seeing as despite being the only candidate who ever cares to run for office, Mayor Mare always seems eager to hire assistance with her election management. Though it was Zecora's idea to dress Button up nice, it was Pinkie's suggestion to have him in tight pants. This only created a feeling of timidness as he could feel his dick twitching with each step.
Knocking at the door, the femboy barely had to wait a moment before being let in. Without a proper secretary, Mayor Mare had to contend with managing her own affairs and paperwork. The moment the door was opened, Button was met with the organized and confident look of the Mayor. The mare held herself with an attire that displayed her prude nature. "Office mare" wouldn't be suitable, and yet she looked like something out of some vintage pornography.
"Mayor Mare." Button said, nodding his head and maintaining his most adorable and innocent smile. "I was told you might need help with your election campaign."
"Button Mash...right?" Mayor Mare asked first, looking the younger stallion over. As he nodded, she gave a small smile as she fully opened the door. "Yes, in fact you came at the best time."
Letting him in, Mayor Mare directed him to her desk. Despite how organized she was, her deck and paperwork was an absolute mess. Button didn't mind this, he had a messier room for the most part, doubly so ever since Pinkie would come over to plow his all for hours. Even triply so when his mum, now so much sluttier since getting pregnant, loved to visit him after Pinkie was done with him and would ride his dick all night. So he maintained a calm look as Mayor Mare gestured to the mess.
"As you can see, it's a bit of a cluster over here and I could really use the help." Mayor Mare explained, her eyes going up and down the stallion's body. Her lips curled a little into a gentle smile, shivering slightly before composing herself. "Now, let me show you what I need you to do." Button only nodded as she led him onwards.
"This is utterly ridiculous!" Zecora groaned in frustration, laying on the comfortable couch in Creamy's house. At her crotch, her face being brutally fucked was the slutty mare of the house. "It's been weeks, and nothing?!"
"Don't be hard on Button." Pinkie commented, her own cock hammering hard in Creamy's ass. "Button's working hard...right Button?"
Pulling her cock a little from the milfmare's ass, Button was currently face deep in his mother's pussy, while Pinkie's huge balls slapped against the bottom of his face. Having worked with Mayor Mare for the last few weeks, he had learned practically nothing about the prudish mare's possible weaknesses. It was as if she had not a single stain in her personality that could be exploited. This news did nothing but further frustrate Zecora, mostly taking out her anger on both his and his mother's tender fuckholes.
"Are you sure there isn't something?" Zecora asked, rubbing her temples as she sighed. "Leave nothing out."
"Well..." Button answered, gasping a little as his soaked face left his mother's sobbing wet pussy. "Mayor Mare is very to the point and let's me know what I need to do to help." Though he couldn't see it, he could almost feel his mistress' growing impatience. "B-but there was something I've been noticing. She gets very distant whenever I get a boner."
"Wait, what?" Zecora asked, stopping the motion of Creany's head on her cock, but kept her in place as the slutmare savored the musky flavor as it was deep in her mouth. "Explain."
"Well..." Button told his mistress. "Working with her can be really boring, and my ass misses Pinkie's dick...so sometimes I get hard and whenever she sees it, she looks the other way." He paused for a moment, but mostly because he was wiggling his way from under his mother. "But every so often, I've caught her looking at it."
"Did she now?" Zecora asked, rubbing her chin. After a few more moments of thought, her eyes lit up with excitement. "Well, that is actually very good to hear." As she spoke, she picked up fucking Creamy's mouth, but at a faster pace, maming the milfmare squirt her constant cumming all over the floor. "We're going to give that hypocritical slut a good...hard...look at herself!"
As she finished her words, Zecora thrusted and humped in and out of Creamy's mouth, tensing up as she felt herself reaching orgasm. Just at the last word, the erotic zebra let out a low moan as she felt the vast amounts of hot cum release from her heavy, sweaty balls. Creamy was all too happy to swallow the large volumes of her mistress' spunk, her hands grabbing at her tits, squeezing out the creamy milk that leaked from her twitching nipples.
"If this proves useful, then you'll be rewarded." Zecora commented, pulling Creamy off her dick as she looked at Button. "For now, get yourself cleaned up. We have work to do."
The next couple weeks went by without any issues, and upon closer observations, not only from Button but by Creamy whenever she would visit him volunteering, the two were able to determine that Mayor Mare not only had a secret fetish, but it was one for twink sluts. The news was so hilarious, Pinkie fell over laughing, as well as Zecora giving out a faint chuckle. This was all too perfect. And with her reelection essentially guaranteed, they prepared an extra special gift for her. Though not a drinker, Mayor Mare couldn't turn down at least one glass of hard cider to celebrate the victory. That was what Zecora would be counting on.
That day he arrived at work to celebrate with the newly reelected Mayor Mare, Button was sure to dress in something a twinking lover would enjoy. A tight looking short shirt that showed off his mid section whenever he lifted his arms. But what really caught her eyes was his extra tight short shorts. Though he wasn't that well hung, his femboi dick was more than alluring to a closeted pervert like the mayor. With a hard cider laced with an extra potent dose of her carnal brew, Zecora was ready to send Button to get the Mayor in her clutches.
Upon arrival, Mayor Mare's eyes were lit up not only with the sight of Button coming to their little celebration, but the clothing the twink slut was wearing. She couldn't take her eyes off it, her mind devouring every inch of his soft and easy to mold body. What's more, she could almost smell his faint but delicious scent, an allure that was making her body heat up. If not for the years of discipline she had honed within herself, she would've locked the door and claimed him then and there. Pinkie and Zecora were nearby, the two of them staying in hiding, ensuring not a single soul would wander by the Mayor's office.
"Congratulations on winning another election, Mayor." Button said, his lips curled in a colt like smile, making Mayor Mare's heart skip a beat. Pretending to not notice her hungry gaze, he lifted the bottle. "Here, I got something so we can celebrate!"
"Oh Button, you always know how to make my day even better." Mayor said, her voice almost cracking as she spoke. "But I'm not really a drinker."
"I know, but we should have something to celebrate your re-election." Button explained, walking slowly past her, making sure she got the best view of his soft, round ass as it swayed from side to side. "But this is a special occasion, for a special mare."
"W-well..." Mayor stuttered with a scarlet blush across her face. "I-if you put it like that, one drink shouldn't hurt."
Before she had even finished her sentence, Button was already pouring the smooth liquid into two cups. The brown cider spun before settling as he handed one over to the Mayor. Taking it, the two shared a playful moment, tapping the cups together in a cheer before taking a sip. It was delicious, far better than any drink she had before. It was rich, sweet, smooth, so much so, she barely noticed by the end of what she thought was a single drink, where she realized she had downed the entire cup.
"Oh, that must've been a better drink than I-" Mayor's words seemed to slur slightly as she felt a warmth growing within her. Starting from the throat, down to her belly, and finally expanding out until it reached her fingers and the ends of her legs. "It's been a little longer than I thought. What proof was this cider, Button-?!"
As she looked from the cup to the twink, her eyes widened at the sight of him. He was panting, sweating a little, and his body was fidgeting madly. But what drew her eyes in, was the bulge in his extra tight pants was growing, so much so, it seemed down right uncomfortable. Panting heavily, Button, with far less self restraint than the Mayor, started to undo his pants, struggling for a moment as the laced cider seemed to confuse his bodily movements. The mare could only watch in shock and guilty pleasure as she saw this adorable femboi start to strip in front of her. Eventually, he succeeded, his pants had come undone, and fell to the floor.
"Ahh, much better." Button moaned to himself, seemingly unaware the Mayor was standing mere feet from him. "My penis feels weird..." His words only seemed to trail off as he started taking his smaller penis with his delicate hand, and slowly began to jerk it off.
Mayor Mare was in shock over this, her body tensed up at the sight before her. This was wrong, this entire thing was wrong. Button, the adorable little stallion she took in as an intern. Button, the cute and lovable helper who assisted her. This same twink...was jerking off in front of her, his eyes gleaming with lustful wonder, and yet she couldn't bear to look away. Biting her lower lip a little, she tried to reclaim any semblance of control, but did she really want to? The thoughts poured into her mind, her eyes wandered ever so slightly about the room.
'W-we are in a closed room.' Mayor thought to herself, recalling the location of her main office was a little out of the way where few ever happen to walk by. 'M-maybe this is...my reward for holding fast to my convictions...yes, that's it! Nothing wrong with giving in once in a while.'
"B-Button..." Mayor said, stuttering as her voice went soft for a moment. Looking at him, she could see he was only partially paying attention to her. "I-if you're feeling some discomfort..." She approached as she spoke, her hand slowly reaching out for the stallion's twitching dick. "...maybe I can-"
"Hold it right there!" Pinkie shouted, bursting into the room. At her side, Zecora, holding a camera with a sinister smile across her face. "How dare you try to seduce my Button!"
"P-P-Pinkie Pie?!" Mayer said, her words showing now shock and growing panic as the last pony she wanted to catch her in this situation had seen her in her moment of weakness. "W-w-w-what are you doing here?"
"I came here to see how my Button is doing." Pinkie said, strutting her way into the room. Her own tight and revealing outfit letting her massive tits nearly spilling out from her top with each motion. "But I come here and you're trying to seduce my precious fuckboy."
"N-no...no...I wasn't...I was-" Mayor stuttered, trying to explain herself. But as she spoke, a thought ran across her mind. "Wait, your fuckboy?!"
"What? You didn't know?" Pinkie asked with a giggle, teasing Mayor as she wrapped an arm around Button. Pressing her tits against his back, she reached around him to start jerking him off, moving his hand out of the way. "Button here is my little bitch. Look at this dick, isn't it cute?" Button only moaned like a tame slut as he leaked out more and more precum.
Jerking faster and faster, Pinkie caused Button to moan louder and louder as she continued to jerk off his twink dick. He continued to pant and moan, feeling himself getting closer and closer to climax. Pinkie only giggled, kissing along his cheek, licking it slightly as she showed off her sexy femboy slut to Mayor Mare. She could only watch as this debased whore, the very mare she tried to make her newest policies around. And yet, she could feel the intense heat swelling inside her. Panting a little, she could feel herself becoming more and more aroused with each passing moment.
"You like that?" Pinkie asked with a giggle, releasing her hold on Button's dick. "Then you're gonna love this." Slowly, she drifted her hand down to her short skirt, lifting it to show her own throbbing cock growing between her legs. Mayor Mare's eyes widened in shock, taking a step back as she couldn't look away from the mare's massive size. "Can't look away right? Maybe I should show you how I make my little slut moan."
Before the Mayor could say or do anything, Pinkie positioned herself better behind Button. With the same skill that only a slutmare like she could display, the pink mare dropped the femboi's pants, revealing his round and smooth ass. Mayor could only watch as Pinkie angled and rammed her cock right into Button's ass. The force of his mistress' dick being shoved into his loose and silky smooth hole was enough to push him over the edge. The femboi's smaller dick twitched, then spurted out, landing in small droplets a few inches from Mayor Mare.
"See that, you hypocritical bitch?" Pinkie asked, a slight bit of anger echoed in her voice before picking back up into a perky and cheerful tone. "This is how I make him moan. Bet you wish you had him all to yourself? Maybe if you beg like a whore, I might share him with you."
Mayor Mare continued to watch in shock and yet growing arousal, her body was getting hotter and hotter, so much so, her clothes were feeling tighter and tighter. But she had to hold onto her convictions. If she didn't, then she'd be no better than some horny animal, like Pinkie Pie was. But was that so bad? Her mind raced with such thoughts. What was wrong with her? She would never have had these thoughts before, and yet she couldn't stop. Button seemed so happy, his adorable face, the soft voice that made her heart skip a beat as she continued to watch as the femboi's ass was being brutally fucked by Pinkie's throbbing cock.
Pinkie didn't care whether or not Mayor Mare was getting aroused by this. While she still wanted to help Zecora break the prude, while fucking Button, she seemed to forget a little bit of the plan. Pumping herself faster and faster in and out of her fuckboy, she reached to his arms, pulling them back to get a better angle to drive her cock as hard as she could to make him cry out in orgasmic bliss. His smaller dick continued to spurt out shot after shot of short cum ropes, more akin to strings of this sweet smelling nectar.
While all this was happening, Zecora was watching still, her camera switching between Mayor Mare and Pinkie, though she kept most of the footage on the former. But as she continued to watch and record, she could tell that her assistant was forgetting the planning, only wanting another excuse to fuck around both literally and figuratively. Letting out a silent sigh, the zebra continued to watch, seeing Pinkie only continue to fuck Button while Mayor gazed on in shock. Despite how much of an irritation this behavior was, it was still serving its purpose, so she was feeling a little forgiving.
Mayor Mare continued to hold onto her convictions, but anyone could see she was losing this battle of wills. Her mind was filled with all manner of fantasies and longing, the idea of this cute, precious twink moaning and begging for more. But rather than Pinkie's fat cock hammering in and out of his tight, perky ass, but Mayor's but with a thicker strap on. Shivering, her body could almost feel it, as her clothes were feeling tighter and tighter. Part of her wanted to run, but another part wanted to embrace this feeling, the sensation of want and lust, the very thing she built her reputation around.
"You seem to be enjoying yourself, Mayor Mare." Zecora commented, finally walking into the room, shifting one of the nearby chairs to fully block the door. Holding the camera close to her prey, the zebra only smirked in wicked confidence. "Perhaps you'd like to join...if you dare."
"D-d-don't be ridiculous!" Mayor Mare stuttered, still blushing intensely. Her eyes never left the sight of Button's moaning body, even as she continued to respond to Zecora. "T-t-there's no way I can find this...this..."
"Maybe you'd rather join in?" Zecora asked, leaning in over Mayor's body, letting her largest endowment press against her back. "Would you like me to show you?" The mare tried to say something, but the moment she turned to say something, the zebra mare only smirked a more sinister expression. "That wasn't a request."
Mayor Mare's body tensed as Zecora's lips smacked hard against hers. Whether by her will breaking, or her body giving into the effects of the drugged cider, but she was powerless against the zebra's assertiveness. Her mouth erupted with a low moan as she felt Zecora's lips rub and embrace her own. Her body became like a jelly, weak and malleable to this zebra temptress' command. There was nothing she could do now, she was defeated, the sight of the camera still watching her only momentarily roused her of this subtle daze. But it was too late. There was no going back, and yet part of her mind enjoyed that.
"There you go, isn't that better?" Zecora asked, pulling her lips away before helping her to start moving back a little. "Maybe we should go have a nice seat at that desk of yours?"
Mayor's response was silent, but her body only seemed to follow through with Zecora's bodily commands. Gripping her prey's sides, the zebra shifted to have her walk backwards, leading her back towards her desk. Seeing Zecora was getting into position, Pinkie moved herself and Button a little more, to give the other two more room. Still fucking in and out of Button's ass, the pink slutmare moved her femboy fucktoy over, bending him over the desk as her cock remained in and out of his tight tailhole.
"There we go, nice and comfy." Zecora hummed, setting Mayor's ass against the desk, her hands already slipping into her tight and clinging clothing. "These clothes don't suit you, maybe we should remove them?"
Zecora didn't give Mayor a chance to answer, or rather whenever she tried to say anything, some last bastion of resistance was met with the zebra's lips against her trembling pair. Pinkie could only smile in playful joy at the sight of the uptight mare getting prepared. Zecora wasn't going to just ram a cock down her throat and make her choke on it, no, no. The zebra wanted to play with her prey. She wanted to make the Mayor beg for it.
"Now then, let's see what I'm working with." Zecora commented, pulling her lips away from Mayor Mare, her hands already unbuttoning the formerly prude mare's shirt. After doing one of two buttons, she lost patience, tearing at the fabric, ripping the remaining buttons off, revealing the strange looking bra underneath it. "What's this? A custom made bra? Now why would you have something like this?"
Taking the bra in hand, Zecora carefully reached around, unclipping it with the same ease and skill she had mastered over the past few weeks, thanks to Pinkie. The moment the bra came loose, the zebra's eyes widened in surprise as Mayor's surprisingly huge tits spilled out. Though not as big as her's or Pinkie's, this mare's breasts were still more than twice as big as her clothes made them out to be. This was such a shock that even the pink whore mare stopped fucking her fuckboy with wide eyes and an open mouth.
"Holy moly?!" Pinkie said, her eyes staring intensely at Mayor's breasts. "Mayor Mare, your tits are huge!" Either by instinct or realizing she had stopped, she began humping into Button's ass again as she continued. "I always thought you were some stuck up grumpy ass because you couldn't get laid, but damn, with tits like that, how have you not been drowned in dicks by now?"
"Well, never too late to show her what she was missing." Zecora laughed, taking Mayor's top and tossing the clothes to the side. "Now let's see what kind of pussy I'll be fucking." Grabbing at her knee length skirt, she continued disrobing her, her curiosity pushing her to further and further points of growing carnality. Once off, she could see the Mayor's choice in panties were very risque, almost erotic in design. "And stallion catching lingerie? You're a dirtier whore than I thought you were!"
"No way?!" Pinkie gasped, giggling as she continued to mock Mayor Mare. "I figured you just couldn't get laid and took it out on the rest of us. But now you wear sexy underwear and have huge tits?! You are such a hypocrite!"
"Now don't go saying that Pinkie." Zecora said, her own tone sounding more akin to chuckling than sternness. "She was just ignorant. But now, let's show this slut how it's done."
Before Mayor Mare could do anything, Zecora pressed her lips back against the mare's lips. The mare moaned subconsciously against her partner's mouth, feeling her body shivering and trembling as the more confident zebra was easily overpowering her. Her nipples hardened, which only drew the attention of Zecora's hand, groping and teasing at her ever so sensitive bosom. Her pussy was becoming more and more sensitive, getting wetter and wetter and she ached to be touched.
"You like that?" Zecora asked, taking her lips away from Mayor's, but bringing them to the mare's chest. "How about this?"
As Zecora suckled on Mayor's chest, the mare let out a soft moan. Her body was on fire with pleasure. The cider has lingered too long in her body, leaving it in a state of longing, seeking to be released into a euphoric bliss. Her other hand slowly made its way down Mayor's cheek, along the neck, teasing the nipple for a moment, but kept going. Making the mare's skin tingle at her touch, Zecora eventually reached the mare's dripping, sensitive pussy lips. Rubbing it gently at first, the zebra wasted no time shoving her fingers deep in the soft, moist entrance.
Mayor Mare let out an even louder, more sultry moan of pleasure, her body surged with pleasure. Zecora's mouth and hands were too good, and she was far too inexperienced to endure this sensation. She was going to cum, and she was going to cum hard. Pinkie, seeing the Mayor getting closer and closer to climax, driving her to fuck Button's ass faster and faster as she was getting close to her own release.
"You want it don't you?" Zecora teased, her fingers rubbing along the inside of Mayor's pussy, making the gushing wet hole tingle with want. "Well, if you're a good slut, then I can make you cum."
The mare continued to hold onto her convictions, but it wasn't going to be enough. Her body was far too inexperienced compared to Zecora's skilled fingers. She was going to cum, no amount of discipline or restraint was going to stop it. Panting and moaning, her body tensed up as it became hotter and hotter. The zebra continued to finger her prey, driving her closer to orgasm, but doing so in a controlled fashion seemed to be more than the Mayor could handle. Twitching madly, the mare couldn't hold it in any longer. Her pussy spasmed masly as she came hard along Zecora's fingers.
"You fucking whore!" Zecora snapped, pulling her hand free of Mayor's pussy. But before she was to strike her cum soaked hand against her, she paused. "No...no...I think you need to learn another way." Her wicked eyes then turned to Button and Pinkie, the mare having also released herself into the femboi. "Button dear, I believe you've earned a reward for serving me so well."
"Oh?" Button asked, curious what Zecora was going to give him. "What is it, what is it?"
"I want you to fuck this slut." Zecora commanded, grabbing at Mayor's legs, spreading them wide to give the femboy a good look at the glistening pussy. "Since you did so well to set this up for me, I'll let you have the first fuck."
"Can I?" Button asked, looking between Pinkie and Zecora for confirmation. When both nodded, the femboy's lips curled into a happy smile. "Thank you, thank you!"
Pulling himself off Pinkie's cock, Button moved towards Zecora, standing in front of Mayor Mare. The mare was still in somewhat of a daze by the time the twink's dick was rubbing against her wet entrance. It was only when she got the rough groping of the stallion's hands against her chest, though the palms of his hands were still surprisingly soft, that she returned her gaze to the others. Just as she was about to say anything, Button smacked his lips against hers, forcing himself onto her.
Though not nearly as thick as the mares, Button took advantage of his body weight to help push his dick deeper into her pussy. Though she had originally rejected any notions of such debauchery, Mayor's pussy made sloppy sounds as it welcomed the femboy's dick. As well as this, her tongue forced itself into Button's mouth, swirling around his own tongue. Zecora and Pinkie only watched with great amusement as the formerly prude mare was moaning like a whore in heat as Button fucked her with seemingly reckless abandon.
"Once again Pinkie, keeping Button around has certainly brought more and more entertainment." Zecora stated, watching with amusement as Pinkie dropped to her knees and started suckling along the thick zebra cock. "Once I'm wet enough, I'll fuck this slut, and you can have Button back."
"But can I fuck her too?" Pinkie asked, her words getting mixed up between the bobbing of her head. "I wanna knock her up!"
"After I'm finished with her." Zecora commented, grabbing the back of Pinkie's head. With some hard and deep thrusts, she drove her dick in and out of the mare's mouth as if she was trying to fuck the back of her throat. "Just focus on getting me good and hard, I want my weaker seed pumped in your belly first."
Faster and faster, Zecora fucked Pinkie's mouth while the slutmare motioned her head faster and faster, her body twitching and spasming out her moist passion as she lustfully took in her mistress' throbbing size. All while Button continued to pleasure Mayor Mare. So enraptured by her pleasure, that the once proud and pride mare failed to realize she had long gotten some strength back. If she could, she would have no problems overpowering a femboy twink like Button, but she couldn't see it. She didn't want to escape, her mind was fracturing and her will was breaking.
'I can't stop.' Mayor thought to herself, the last remnants of her resistance was screaming out to her. 'I have to stop this, but...but if Button cums, I'll never live it down. I'm getting impregnated by this darkling stallion. This...adorable...precious...' Her thoughts only continued to drift and blue within the torrents of pleasure within.
Button was in a daze of pleasure, feeling nothing more than the same primal passion he gave his mother everyday after Pinkie finished with both of them. The femboy continued fucking in and out of Mayor Mare's pussy, shivering and moaning as he filled her pussy with his dick. Though far smaller than Pinkie's or Zecora's, it was still enough to rub about the interior of her pussy walls. The slutmare and zebra watched on as well, but rather one was having her mouth fucked hard and deep by the other.
"They seem to be enjoying themselves." Zecora commented, thrusting her dick in and out of Pinkie's mouth. "But I'm getting bored watching."
Pumping herself faster and faster, Zecora groaned a little, shivering as she bottomed out in Pinkie's mouth, stuffing the mare's belly with her hot and potent seed. The slutmare easily and eagerly swallowed gulp after gulp of it, savoring the flavor with each movement of her mouth. After a few long moments of holding herself in place, the zebra pulled herself free of Pinkie's suckling mouth, though it wasn't easy, as the mare had a strong suction on the thick zebra cock. But eventually, she let her mistress' dick go.
"Alright then." Zecora said, ignoring Pinkie's whorish attempts to keep sucking her off. "Button, that's enough fun with the Mayor. I need to show her what else she's been missing."
"O-okay." Button said, though as he spoke, he continued fucking Mayor Mare's pussy. "J-just a minute. I'm...I'm...I'm cumming!" Shivering madly, the femboy released himself in the mare's pussy, spurting out his climax all along the inside of her inner walls. Pulling back, he looked over to his mistress. "D-did I do good?"
"You did well enough." Zecora commented, letting it pass that he continued to fuck when she told him to stop. "Now strip her for me. I want her bare and ready."
Button did as he was ordered, taking advantage of Mayor Mare's limp and weak state to easily remove her clothing, leaving her panting and naked before Zecora. Staring down at the weakened mare, the zebra couldn't choose between sneering at this prude mare being brought so low, or smirk over what she was going to do to her next. Regardless, she approached her, slapping her wet cock along the Mayor's wet pussy.
"Now then, Mayor Mare..." Zecora said, leaning over the mare a little as she decided on a dominating grin as her expression. Her eyes gleamed like a predator as she stared down at her. "...time to break my new whore in!"
Shoving her full, thick size inwards, Zecora bottomed out into Mayor Mare's pussy, stuffing her and causing her to gasp as she came over the invading dick. The zebra only laughed, mocking the mare as she twitched from her climax. Not wasting a single moment, she continued to fuck in and out of the soft and soaking wet pussy as if she was trying to mold it to the shape of her cock.
"Fuck, Button plows your slutty cunt, and you're still this tight." Zecora laughed, continuing to mock the mare and she fucked harder, grabbing at Mayor's hips to get a better angle. "Such a terrible Mayor, being fucked like some loose whore."
Zecora continued to shove herself deeper and harder, making sure to ruin the Mayor for anyone other than her after this. Grunting and groaning, the zebra mistress matched with the mare's moaning and crying, her body trembling as she felt only the growing surge of pleasure. She couldn't go back after this, and her body was experiencing nothing more than the growing pleasure, the sensation of her pussy being used.
"Come on you whore!" Zecora demanded, grabbing at Mayor's tits, groping them harder as she thrusted in and out of this tight, soaked pussy. "Why does some stuck up bitch have tits like this?" As she grabbed and pulled at breasts, teasing at the nipples, the mare only moaned for more. "Oh? Your nipples are a weak spot? Then how about this!"
Pinching the hard nipples between her fingers, Zecora tugged, sending shivers of pain and pleasure through Mayor's body. Her mouth opened with a loud moan, the slutty tones becoming a melody to which Zecora continued to fuck in and out of her. Smiling with satisfaction, the zebra continue to fuck and make the mare moan, occasionally changing her pace every several humps or so.
As Zecora fucked the Mayor, Button remained near the mare's head, his cock twtiching so close to her face. The sweet but intoxicating scene of his dick makes her pussy quiver harder. But as he continued to watch, he felt the urge to fuck the mare consume him. Eventually, it was too much for him, he couldn't stand it as his mistress got to have all the fun.
"I'm sorry..." Button apologized, adjusting himself as he pressed his cockhead against Mayor's lips. Given the amount of pleasure coursing though her, the mare was barely able to respond, the second her mouth was open to speak was somewhat filled with Button's cock. "I-I-I can't stop myself."
"Looks like I'll need to punish you later for this." Zecora commented, but otherwise did nothing to stop as Button panted and moaned, driving himself in and out of Mayor's mouth. Leaning in, she tried to grope at her tits, his hands placing themselves gently on the zebra's. "Button, it seems you can't control yourself." Leaning in, she smiled at him with a sinister look. "I'll give you a choice. You can stop now, and I won't punish you. Or you can fuck this whore's mouth until you cum, and I'll punish you later. Which do you prefer?"
"...Um...well..." Button tried to answer, but it was an impossible question for him. There wasn't enough energy in his brain to contemplate anything past fucking. But equally, whatever Zecora could imagine as a punishment might even make him more aroused. Last time he was "punished", he had to wear a vibrator in his ass for a week, which only made it more and more thrilling. "I want more...please let me fuck her..."
"Aren't you just darling?" Zecora chuckled, leaning over to give Button a kiss, though it quickly became an open, sloppy, tongue kiss, the stallion only moaned like a mare at the touch. Pulling back, the zebra's eyes seemed to almost glow with intensity. "You'll be punished later."
Fucking in and out of Mayor Mare's holes, both Zecora and Button continued to fill her, making her release more and more muffled moans, making both only want to fuck deeper and faster. Button was far more enthusiastic than his mistress. While he humped and groped at the mare's tits, as if to squeeze out any milk, Zecora's motions were more deliberate, pacing herself as she moved her cock in and out of Mayor's pussy. The mare though, her mind was already gone, barely any shred of resistance remained.
"I think we almost have her." Zecora commented, looking down as the light of hope was dimming in the Mayor's eyes. Smirking, the zebra thought of an even better plan. Looking at Button, she gestured with her head. "Button, finish up and cum in her. I have an idea."
"Y-yes..." Button moaned, feeling the shivers of delight run through his body as he fucked faster and faster, his balls slapped against the top of Mayor Mare's head. Panting and moaning, he continued his pace, getting faster for some seconds, only to slow down again, but he was about to cum, Zecora could tell from the adorable look on his face. "Z-Z-Zecora...I'm cumming!"
"Do it Button!" Zecora ordered, her voice sounding alluring and sweet, yet held an undertone of control over the femboy twink. "Cum already!"
Shuddering at his mistress' command, Button felt as his smaller balls tightened against his body as he shivered. Though smaller than the zebra's, his dick was swelling inside Mayor's mouth. Zecora was already feeling as if she could cum, but decided to hold back a little bit. Given her generous mood, she wanted to give Button everything he wanted, especially since he had already agreed to take any punishment she can imagine when he's finished. A cruel smile curled her lips as he was getting closer and closer to release.
"M-M-Mayor Mare...I'm gonna...I'm gonna..." Button cooed, shivering as he was about to cum. "I'm cumming!"
Mayor Mare's body tensed up, causing her pussy to squeeze around Zecora's shaft as her mouth sucked in Button's cumming dick, whether purposefully or by instinct, she wouldn't let either dicks go. Shivering, the femboy stallion felt as his dick twitched, releasing his cum in Mayor's mouth, letting the smaller spurts of his bits of cum. The soon to be whore mare swallows each and every drop, her body becoming inflamed in pleasure as she tastes his nectar. Which only made Zecora's smile become a sneer.
"I believe that's enough of that." Zecora commented, gesturing with her hand to shoo Button away from Mayor Mare. "I have something special for the Mayor."
"Okay..." Button cooed, though his tone had a slight echo of disappointment as he pulled out of the mare's mouth, her tongue still rubbing along the length of his slick shaft. "T-thank you..."
Backing away from the mare, Button joined at Pinkie's side, who was already panting and moaning to herself as she wanted to fuck the Mayor too, but knew Zecora could do much worse if she was disobeyed. Regardless, she saw her femboy toy was joining her, so maybe later on, she can fuck his soft, little ass again. But she couldn't take her eyes off Zecora as the zebra began to better position Mayor, flipping her over on her stomach as she faced her towards the window. Within a few short moments, the zebra managed to adjust the mare, lifting her as she continued to fuck in and out of her sloppy wet pussy.
Angling herself back, Zecora fucked upwards, making Mayor Mare's body bounce on her dick with each upwards thrust. But unlike before, where she gave the mare somewhat of a chance to adjust, this time, she was giving no such chance. The thick zebra size continued to stretch out the mare's pussy, using her body weight to keep her coming back down. Though Pinkie and Button couldn't get a good look at it, they could tell Mayor Mare was sporting a lovely belly bulge as the fat cock reached all the way into her cervix.
"There we go, nice and deep." Zecora laughed, using her arms to leverage under Mayor's thighs to keep her elevated. "But this isn't enough for you is it?" Shaking her head from side to side, she could only savor the look of building climax on the Mayor's face. "Hmm, oh! I know! How about we show the town just how much of a whore you really are?"
If there was anything left in Mayor Mare's mind that could resist Zecora, it was far too weak to fight back, her body only seemed to tense up. Shivering a little, the zebra continued to fuck upwards, but slowly made her way towards the window. With a wicked smirk, she loosened her hold on her prey, letting the mare lean forward until her chest landed on the smooth, cool glass of the window. All at once, Mayor Mare's pussy tightened even more than before. It was the realization that at any moment, she could be seen. This shameful moment would be observed and she would go down in infamy as a hypocritical whore; and she came harder than ever before on Zecora's cock.
"Come on, you whore." Zecora grunted, groaning a little as she pushed Mayor's chest harder against the window glass. The mare continued to moan, but it was still too soft a cry for the zebra's liking. "I said scream for me you stuck up bitch!"
Raising a hand, Zecora smacked Mayor's ass harder and harder, leaving a deeper red mask across her flank. The mare let out another sound, but it wasn't nearly as loud as she wanted it to be. Zecora wanted more, she needed more out of this mare. Harder and harder, again and again, she smacked against the tender ass. Pinkie and Button watched with excitement, the two of them felt their bodies getting hotter and hotter as Zecora brutally fucked into the mare's pussy.
"Is she going to fuck her through the window?" Button asked, looking over to Pinkie, who was still feverishly masturbating as she moaned and groped her tits. "D-do you need help with that?"
"Aww, Button, you know how to make me feel good." Pinkie cooed, but stopped Button from reaching out towards her throbbing cock. "But I wanna get myself all pent up. Cause I wanna blow a load so hot in that slut, she'll be having a giggling brood!"
"Okay..." Button cooed, stroking his own dick as he wanted to release himself again. "This is so hot...I want to cum again."
While Button and Pinkie continued to play amongst themselves as they watch Zecora fuck harder and harder, smacking Mayor Mare's ass harder and harder. The mare's flank was sore and red as the zebra pounded in and out of her pussy, making sure she couldn't come down from her mind shattering orgasm. The mare was lost, leaving only some cock loving whore behind as her new mistress hammered her full of the thick cock that served as a new addiction. Zecora could tell this, but wanted to hold out a little longer.
"Come on, you whore." Zecora grunted, her breathing becoming harder, heated pants as she felt herself getting closer and closer to climax. "How does it feel? Knowing you can be seen, showing all of Ponyville how much of a whore you are?"
Mayor Mare tried to hold in her moans, but everytime she held back her breath, Zecora only smacked her ass again, and again. Making her try in vain to hold in her slutty cries. There was no way anypony in town could see the mare being fucked like some loose whore, but she did not know that. Zecora might have been aware of this, but her own lust was driving her actions over her reason. Any thought of discretion left her mind as she fucked faster and deeper, making sure her thick size waa stretching and rubbing along Mayor's inner wall.
"I'm gonna cum you bitch!" Zecora grunted, reaching to Mayor's mane, tugging it between thrusts. "You better tell me where you want it, or I'm gonna knock your whore cunt up!"
Mayor tried to speak, but all that left her lips were sultry cries. Zecora only sneered, raising one hand and smacked the mare's ass at the same time. This brought out a loud scream, Mayor Mare's body tensed as she spasmed in orgasm, spraying her lease all over Zecora's cock, and the floor. But it was only while a flicker of her original will happened to stare down from the window. What she saw caused every inch of her body to freeze, paralyzed in a mind breaking realization.
Standing close to the town hall, a lone pony, one of the younger school ponies was looking up at the window. Mayor Mare's eyes widened in horror as she stared down at the pony. This innocent, adorable colt who was still a few years away from learning of such things, was looking up at her. Could he hear her? Or worse, could he see her? The thoughts, the worries, the fears, they filled her mind as she was still being fucked hard by the zebra behind her. Mayor's body shivered, the shattering release of her climax surged through her body as she could feel nothing but the overwhelming pressure of the fat, zebra cock so deep inside her.
"Come on you dumb whore!" Zecora snapped, bringing Mayor's mind back to her senses for the briefest of moments. "Where do you want it? Or do you wanna be a knocked up whore?"
"I-i-i-inside..." Mayor said weakly, her words almost shivered as they escaped her lips. Zecora only smacked her ass harder, wanting to hear her cry out what she wanted. It didn't take long for her to let out another moan, her voice only seemed to resonate with the melodies of her sultry tones. "Inside! Inside! I want it inside me!"
"Oh? Is that right?" Zecora asked, smacking Mayor's ass as she tugged her mane a little harder. "Here comes you whore! Get knocked up!"
Zecora gave one final, hard and deep thrust, driving her cock as hard as she could, bottoming out in Mayor Mare's pussy. While before, the sheer size of the cock was enough to swell out her belly. But now, as the mare released herself into her newest victim, her belly swelled and expanded outwards even more so than before. Large and well rounded, by the end of the first thick load, Mayor Mare's womb was stuffed, her ovaries were saturated in the virile zebra spunk, and her belly looked as if she could give birth at any moment. Keeping herself inside the newly filled slutmare, Zecora released another heavy rope of cum.
Rope after rope, pump after pump, Zecora continued to fill Mayor Mare's pussy, letting vast amounts of her cum spill and mix with the mare's juices on the floor. Her body shivered as she couldn't even think any more, the mare's mind was nothing more than a desire to be bred by her new zebra mistress. Eventually, and with some degree of reluctance, Zecora pulled her cock free of Mayor Mare's pussy. The gaping hole that was left of her fucked open pussy immeditaly spilled out all the excessive amounts of still hot zebra cum. Though this would normally irritate the zebra, Zecora was willing to let this go.
"Now then, that's a much better sight." Zecora commented, staring down as Mayor Mare slowly slid her way down the glass window. "You look far better being a used whore than some mayoral bitch." Looking back to Button and Pinkie, both huffing and panting as they were feverishly jerking off at the sight of the Mayor's twitching, cum leaking form. Letting out a small sigh, she looked to her other pets. "Very well, feel free to fuck her in a little more."
Both Pinkie and Button grunted and groaned as the two of them drove themselves in and out of Mayor Mare's body. Pinkie's thick and skilled cock rubbing in and out of her pussy, as if to scrap out Zecora's cum to then pump her own strong loads in the fucked silly mare. Button, whose much smaller dick could never make anything out of the pussy, so instead focused on fucking the mare's tight and twitching ass. With Pinkie laying on the desk, the Mayor riding her dick, and Button fucking and smacking her ass. Each motion of their two sizes rubbing along her insides, stuffing her with the rest of Zecora's cum, while also getting close to releasing their own orgasms.
"Fuck, she's so loose." Pinkie complained, reaching up to grab at Mayor's tits, groping and tugging at them as hard as she could. "Come on you slutty bitch! Tighten up your pussy!"
"Maybe you can try her ass." Button suggested, seemingly content with the mare's ass. "She's really tight back here."
"Oh don't worry Button, I'll fuck her ass next." Pinkie said with a playful smile, her eyes looked at the femboy twink with a giggly expression. "But I think you have the best ass to fuck, Button baby!"
"Just be sure to clean her up when you're done with her." Zecora commented, looking over numerous papers while relaxing at the Mayor's desk. "I need her to still have something left in her head after this." Staring through the papers, her eyes seemed to gleam with some excitement. "It seems the Mayor has been putting down a list of ponies in town who she thinks was being too "indecent"." Looking back to the mare being double teamed, she scoffed. The documents would certainly be of good use to her.
"Fuck...Pinkie...I'm cumming...I'm cumming!" Button moaned, his softer voice only echoed out as Pinkie joined in the carnal melody; her own climax matching with the femboy. "I'm filling the Mayor's ass with my cum!"
"Keep going Button!" Pinkie moaned, her own whorish tones adding to the rhythmic motions of their cocks in the mare's holes. "Fill that bitch up baby! Stuff her full!" As Button filled Mayor Mare's ass with cum, her pussy tightened around the pink mare's dick, causing her to twitch until finally feeling her release. "Oh fuck yeah! Get pregnant you stuck up slut!"
Mayor Mare, or whatever was left of her was gone. All that remained was some broken down whore, one who would do anything she was told by Zecora. Especially now that there was no way to hide the fact she was now bearing her foal. Or it could've been Pinkie's foal, it was hard to say at this point in time. But what was fact now, was how she was now a broken mare, destroyed and what little remained was far too weak to oppose them. Zecora, her lips curled in a wicked smile continued to watch as Pinkie and Button, despite cumming in the Mayor, continued to fuck her, making a bigger and bigger sloppy mess all over the desk. Looking through the papers, she eagerly planned her next move. |
Sinister Stripes | Business Dealings | Zecora had always been known as a cautious mare, one who did everything she could with calculation of every step she took. But today felt a little different. As she walked with confidence down the dirt streets, the playful and slutty Pinkie Pie at her side, though she seemed to be purposefully skipping with each other step, making her already bouncing tits and ass move with a greater hypnotic rhythm. Shaking her head, Zecora looked to the side bag she held across her own endowed chest. A smirk ran across her lips as she was already putting together the plan.
"So...what's the plan?" Pinkie asked, breaking the silence, but not looking at her mistress. "We just go in, show them the papers, and then fuck them all?"
"Well yes, obviously." Zecora replied, sighing a little over how the airheaded pinkie bimbo behaved. "But first, we need to see how much we can get out of them. With the documents I found, we can not only get them to do as we say, but we will have the additional support to not worry about you...excessive behavior."
"I mean, we made the Mayor our bitch right?" Pinkie asked, shrugging her shoulders a little as she looked at Zecora. "So what's the harm now?"
"While the law, more or less, will be off our backs, the Mayor can always be voted out at some point." Zecora explained, sighing again as she didn't even bother to look at Pinkie. "Which is why our next slut just so happens to not only be a potential complication for the Mayor, but has some additional sway we can use." Looking up, she could see their destination coming into view. "Ahh, here we are."
The large manor belongs to the Rich family, a wealthy family of Earth ponies. Living on the outskirts of Ponyville, it was the perfect place for such an attempt of nobility to be "away from the commoners". Not that any of that mattered to Zecora, this isolated location only proved to serve her needs as a place far away from the community that now she and Pinkie can let loose. Especially given the information she had learned going through Mayor Mare's files, the zebra was certain her plan was going to work. Though she was equally certain things could go poorly, so she was making numerous countermeasures.
"Wowie! It's such a big place!" Pinkie exclaimed, almost leaning back to fully take in the sight of the manor's size. "It's way bigger than I thought."
"Really?" Zecora asked, sounding almost somewhat sarcastic as she spoke. "Given your hobbies, I half expected to find out you've fucked the entire staff and the Mr. Rich himself several times."
"Oh? Well yes I fucked Mr. Rich a few times." Pinkie explained, showing no subtlety in her story. "But it happened at Sugarcube Corners, back during Diamond Tiara's Cute-ceanera. He plowed me upstairs while everyone was handling the party. After that, he came to visit me at a motel once or twice, but after his wife caught us...yeah, it didn't go well. She did pay a lot to "keep me quiet". And well, whoopsie!"
"I see, that actually is very good to know." Zecora said, showing no concern for Pinkie's slutty story. If anything, this was expected of the mare at this point. Rubbing her chin, she pondered to herself. 'So while the husband could possibly be swayed, the wife thinks she can just throw enough bits to make the problems go away.'
Arriving at the door, Zecora raised a hand to give it a knock, only for Pinkie to not only move somewhat ahead of her, she was rapidly knocking at the door with a wild and giddy fervor. What followed was several minutes of loud banging before the door seemed to finally open. Standing there, rather tall and muscular, was an Earth stallion. Zecora couldn't help but smirk a little, her mind racing over if the wife was just as much of a cheater as the husband. Perhaps she's fucked the servants on more than one occasion. But this wasn't important, what mattered was meeting the Riches, not their servants.
"Yes?" The stallion asked, looking down at Pinkie and Zecora. Even his voice seemed to echo with a masucline sound; low and direct. "How can I help you?"
"Yes, we are here to see the Riches." Zecora stated, speaking before Pinkie could, though the pink whore mare was too busy looking over the strong looking stallion. "We have some news that may affect their business."
"Oh? Hmm, yes, yes, I understand." The servant commented, apparently used to hearing such things "Right this way."
"Actually, I was wondering if you could show me...where the bathroom is?" Pinkie asked, all but clinging herself to the larger stallion, making sure her large tits were pressing against his arm. "I really need to...you know..."
"I see..." The servant commented, still stoic in expression before turning to another passing servant, this time a pegasus mare wearing something that looks like a wealthy pony's wet dream. "You! Bring this zebra to the master, I must escort this one to the lavatory."
"The Master?" The mare asked, as if recalling something triggered by that word, only to shake her head. "Yes, yes of course. Right this way."
"Thank you my dear." Zecora said, following after the maid. Turning, she could see Pinkie was already sinking her fingers in this stallion, and it wouldn't be long until she was riding him exhausted. "Pinkie, don't take too long."
"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie cheered, her body still pressed against the stallion. "Come on, show me where it is."
Following the maid, Zecora took this time to get a better look of her surroundings. The Rich's manor was well furnished, as well as decorated with more than a few fine things. Portraits and paintings depicting what she could assume were various moments of Equestrian history. Though there were more than pony relics and art pieces, a few griffon busts, yak sculptures, and even a few zebra masks. Zecora couldn't help but chuckle to herself at the sight of the masks, as the ones the Riches seem to have obtained represented Peace, Comfort, Fortune, and Happiness. All these things were soon to change, and the zebra couldn't help but find humor in the irony.
"Here we are." The mare said, stopping in front of a large door. "I-I'm sorry, but what is your name?"
"Zecora will do it." Zecora responded, realizing she hadn't said her name to any of the servants. Perhaps she was about to be announced? "Please do not push me to overdo it."
"T-thank you." The mare responded, taking a deep breath to try and compose herself. Knocking at the door, she waited a moment before clearing her throat. "My lord, Miss Zecora, is here to see you."
"Zecora?" Called back the stallion's voice belonging to Mr. Rich. There was a pause for a few moments before a sound came again from the room. "Bring her in."
Opening the door, Zecora was brought into what was presented as a large study. Numerous books lined the various shelves, a roaring fire was blazing in a fireplace made of fine stone, and a massive painting of the Rich family was displayed above such a mantle. Rich in question, was sitting in a reclining chair, reading a newspaper, showing off what appeared to be the stock market. Understandable, given his business lifestyle. As fitting for his living, he was dressed in a beige suit and pants, with a darkened tie around his neck. The stallion only seemed to notice Zecora before putting the paper down.
"Greetings Zecora, what is it you have to tell me?" Filthy asked, showing a degree of courtesy he was known for in town. "It must certainly be of great importance to come all the way here from the Everfree Forest."
"I am sorry to trouble you with some news on this date." Zecora said, feigning her tone as she sought to lure Filthy into her trap. "But if possible, I believe we should first call for your mate."
"My wife?" Filthy asked, raising an eyebrow. Adjusting his tie, he gestured to the maid. "Fetch my wife. This must be quite serious." The mare nodded and left, leaving Zecora at the doorway. "Please, come in, take up a seat."
"You are most kind." Zecora commented, bowing her head as she entered the room. Unlike Pinkie, whose body was nothing more than lust incarnate, she tried a more subtle approach. Though she made sure to show off her curves with each step, even going so far as to ensure her breasts would bounce properly as she walked. "Though my news may have you in a bind."
"I'm sure we can settle any issues out without any further concerns." Filthy commented, showing no noticeable interest in her subtle display. "Whatever it is, it can't be that bad."
After waiting for several minutes, the door echoed with the sound of knocking. But rather than waiting for the maid to announce his wife, Spoiled Rich opened the door. Making her way inside, it was clear she was feeling inconvenienced by all this, not that Zecora would mind such things. If anything, this only made her plans more and more enjoyable. Unlike her husband, dressing for business and casual meetings, Spoiled dressed more like some nobility found in Canterlot, or rather an attempt at one. A tight looking single piece dress that flared outwards roughly below the knees and gave her chest a perky appearance.
"What is this about FIlthy?" Spoiled asked, her tone showing nothing short of annoyance in her voice. "Why are you bothering me?"
"Zecora here wishes to discuss a business matter." Filthy explained, seemingly unaffected by whatever harshness was in his wife's voice. "Apparently, it involves us both."
"I am sorry for the concern." Zecora commented, calmly keeping a stoic expression as she spoke. "But I believe you would like to know what I have learned."
"Fine, just be quick about it." Spoiled responded in a rude tone, nearly rolling her eyes with a groaning sigh. Walking to another chair in study, she sat, though not close to her husband. "What did you find?"
"I am sorry to say, but it seems Mayor Mare had some papers." Zecora explained, leaning forward to give a more serious expression. "Some with accusations taller than even Manehattan skyscrapers." Before the two could ask anything else, she continued. "It seems you both have been laundering bits through the Mayor's own office for some time." Pulling out the paper, or rather a copy of the paper, she handed it over to Filthy. "And as you know, that is a crime."
"Laundering bits?!" Filthy exclaimed, grabbing the papers. Looking them over, he couldn't believe what he was reading, and yet the evidence was clearly there. "Impossible! I'm an honest businessman, and I would never resort to such tactics to obtain wealth!"
"I do apologize that my words cut into you like a knife." Zecora said, still calm, but more direct, which seemed to make Spoiled more and more uneasy as she turned her gaze towards the mare. "Perhaps this is something you can ask your wife?"
"Spoiled, what is she talking about?" Filthy asked, looking between Zecora and his wife. The mare in question, who seemed to be looking away from the situation. "Spoiled?!"
"All you have are papers somepony just shows you and you suspect me?" Spoiled snapped, her venomous tone as she looked at Zecora. Though it was merely rumors and whispers, Filthy's wife wasn't known for tolerance of any kind. "Besides, even if it was true, what does it matter?"
"What matters is that this messes with my reputation!" Filthy snapped back at his wife, though her expression remained mostly unchanged. "I have spent decades keeping an honest reputation, and if you used my name to sully it, then you've ruined all my family has built!"
"Now, now, there is no need to fret." Zecora suggested, her tone was still soft, but seemed to hold some more alluring elements. "I can speak to the Mayor to remove anything that could be used as a threat." Filthy and Spoiled looked at her, though the latter only seemed to raise an eyebrow in disbelief. "Well, it is a simple matter of what you will pay." Her lips curled a little into a wicked smile. "And I make this all go away."
"Extortion?!" Filthy gasped, nearly getting out of his seat as he was now directing his anger towards Zecora. "How dare you! My wife's horrible betrayal aside, I will not be threatened by anyone about my business!"
"I see..." Zecora sighed, standing up. Looking towards the door, she seemed to be waiting for something. "I was expecting things to go better. Oh well."
Zecora's lack of rhyme seemed to throw Filthy and Spoiled off as the door slowly opened. Standing there, her clothes nearly torn from her body, which was covered in sweat and cum, was Pinkie. She looked somewhat messy and sloppy, and yet held a hungry, predatory look to her. But what seemed to widen the Rich's faces in shock and fear was the still raging, slick wet and dripping pink cock between the slutmare's legs.
"Pinkie, these two are being difficult." Zecora explained, which drew in the panting pink mare's attention. "Restrain them." Filthy and Spoiled, still almost frozen in shock and growing horror could only watch as the giggling, almost maddening Pinkie ran at them with a deranged laughter.
It wasn't the total black around them, the lack of sounds, or even the cloth being used to gag their mouths that caused Filthy and Spoiled to lose their composure. It was the harsh biting of the ropes around their wrists and ankles, tied so tight, it strained their limbs to struggle. Moving as best as they could, the two ponies could only feel as if they were stuck in whatever position they were in. Though this movement didn't go unnoticed, as the sound of giggling and laughter seemed to come from the silence around them.
"Now then, let's take these off." Zecora commented, pulling the blindfolds from Spoiled and Filthy's eyes. Looking at the two, the Riches were shocked to see both the mare and zebra were not only naked, but both were sporting a thick and throbbing cock. Aside from that, they all seemed to be in the same room as they were before. "Now then, Filthy Rich, let's negotiate new terms."
Filthy would try to say something, but his gag only made muffled sounds. This only seemed to make Zecora and Pinkie laugh at the two, which in turn caused their cocks to twitch some more. The stallion tried to think of something, anything to get out of this situation. He had dealt with all manner of threats before, even if they were strictly business concerns, the feelings were the same. But Spoiled seemed to be taking this differently, though not panicking, she was still far more afraid of what was happening than her husband.
"No need to say anything, not yet." Zecora commented, with Pinkie only playfully starting to jerk off as her mistress spoke. "You see, after Mayor Mare saw things my way, I found out just how fucked up your wife is, and since you didn't know, it'll only make this far easier." Pointing to a nearby table, there was what seemed to be a pen and paper. "Just sign your name on it, and this can all end."
Filthy only stared up at Zecora in utter hatred. He wouldn't be threatened by this, no matter what this wicked zebra was planning. It was Pinkie that seemed to make him more and more uncomfortable. Being a resident of Ponyville, he was well aware of Pinkie's reputation. Especially given their previous history too, but he had never seen her with a dick before. It was his knowledge of how insatiable she could be, now coupled with a cock that he knew was able to break any slut open was what seemed to freeze his blood.
"Looks like he's still being difficult." Zecroa commented, then turned her wicked eyes to Pinkie. "Get the wife ready."
"Okay!" Pinkie giggled, grabbing at Spoiled's clothes. The expensive and brand name fabrics were easily torn by the lustful mare, all while the victim struggled to fight back; all in vain. "There we go and woah!" Spoiled's body was far more erotic than she expected. Curvaceous, and yet held some slimness in the belly, wideness in the hips, and even some nipple, naval, and clit piercings. "Hey Zecora, Spoiled has a bunch of piercings! What a slut!" Grabbing at the mare's breast, she only continued to taunt her. "Miss high and mighty mega bitch is actually a slutty bitch?! Who would've guessed?"
"Well, this is expected." Zecora commented, stroking her dick as she licked her lips in anticipation. "Let's take this gag out and-"
"Don't you fucking touch me!" Spoiled screamed as soon as Zecora took the gag from her mouth. Snarling at the two like an enraged animal, she stared at them both. "I'm not going to be treated in this manner. I am Spoiled fucking Rich! And you will treat me in a-"
"No." Zecora stated, ramming her cock as hard as she could in Spoiled's mouth. The first thrust nearly gagged the bitchy mare, the thick size reaching the back of her throat. "There we go. Just like a whore like you deserve!"
Before Spoiled could do anything, Zecora grabbed the side of her head and started ramming her dick in and out. Her hips humped hard against her face as her heavy balls slapped hard against her chin. Spoiled struggled to breathe, only taking in more and more of the zebra's potent musk. It was burning into her nostrils and causing her lungs to ache with each terrible exhale that seemed to only make her dick wetter and slicker; all the easier to fuck her throat.
"Go Zecora! You got this!" Pinkie cheered her mistress, all the more excited to see Spoiled being fucked in such a fashion. But this wasn't going to be enough for the mare. Rubbing her dick, she couldn't help but long to shove her own size in the mare. "Hey, hey! Can I have a turn? Can I? Can I?"
"Let me just loosen her up a little more." Zecora said, not looking back to Pinkie as she continued to throatfuck Spoiled. "Shouldn't be too long now."
"But I wanna fuck this slut now." Pinkie playfully whined with a cute pouting face. Walking besides Zecora, she tried to not so subtly slip her cock into Spoiled's mouth. "See, she can take it."
"No, Pinkie." Zecora said, her tone sounding more direct and harsh. "If you want to have some fun...why don't you give Filthy some attention." Looking over she smiled a wicked and sinister grin at the stallion. "Looks to me he could use some loving."
"Oooo?" Pinkie asked, looking over at the stallion. Giggling, she walked over to him, swaying her hips and her cock as she approached. "You want to have some fun too?" Filthy only stared at her, but his expression was becoming less and less contained as the mare started rubbing on his crotch. "Oh? Feels like you're getting a little stiffie!"
Filthy could do nothing, barely able to struggle as Pinkie proceeded to undo his fancy and expensive pants. Quickly becoming bored in her attempts to get the pants off the right way, the mare only smiled with a giggle as she grabbed the pants. With surprising strength, she tore off the fine fabrics, revealing the silky underwear of the stallion. But what really caught her eye, was his bulge was much bigger than expected. Not as big as hers or Zecora's, but still a functional looking dick.
"Okay, I can work with this." Pinkie said, grabbing at the underwear, ripping it away, only for her eyes to widen a little. Under the clothes, Filthy's dick was held in by what looked to be a small cage to keep his dick limp. "Hey Zecora! Filthy has a cage on his dick!"
"What?!" Zecora said, raising her eyebrow, actually stopping her oral assault on Spoiled, keeping her deepthroat in place as she looked over to Pinkie. After a few seconds, she started laughing. "Alright. Just don't break him too much. Have as much fun as you want."
"Yay!" Pinkie cheered, using what locals of Ponyville would call 'Just Pinkie', she managed to remove the dick cage. "Now then, let's see what I...can..." As she spoke, grabbing at Filthy's cock, she started to stroke it harder and harder, but her words trailed off as the dick throbbed far bigger than expected. "Uh...Zecora...he's actually packing a massive dick..."
"Wow, that is unexpected." Zecora commented, looking from Filthy to Spoiled; the mare's eyes were rolling back as she was still being gagged on the fat, zebra cock. "No wonder you married him." Laughing some more, she looked back to Pinkie. "Well, I've seen you handle more, and bigger. So have your fun, but don't break him."
Pinkie didn't say anything else, only give a playful salute to her zebra mistress. Licking her lips, she returned her eyes to Filthy and his twitching dick. Wiping her mouth, she reached down with both hands. It was warm to the touch, even as she felt it just through her fingers, but it only drove her to want more and more of it. Filthy only gritted his teeth, his dick being far more sensitive than expected, the head dripping out beads of precum.
"Come on you slutty stud." Pinkie teased, stroking faster and faster, her eyes gleaming with delight as she was forcing out more and more pleasure. "You gonna cum for me? You getting off on some whore jerking you off?"
Filthy tried to speak, something, anything, but all that escaped with gutteral sounds, and muffled noises. Pinkie only kept going, stroking the stallion's cock as he was getting closer and closer to orgasm. Giggling madly, she only wanted to amplify the pleasure. Releasing her fingers from the cock, she quickly embraced it with her huge, pillowy tits. Presing them together, she bounced her chest up and down, rubbing the slick and cum dripping shaft along her face, giving only a delicate kiss here and there.
"You gonna cum? You wanna cum all over these pinkie tits?" Pinkie asked, squeezing her breasts harder and faster, nearly consuming Filthy's cock in the large softness. "Or maybe you want this!" Opening her mouth with a sultry moan, she took in the hard, twitching cockhead, swallowing down the first few inches with ease.
Filthy flinched, feeling his body nearly spasm out as he felt his cock ready to burst with orgasmic release. Pinkie's own cock was dripping, or rather oozing with her own nectar. She would've loved to just shove her cock in Filthy's hole, make him scream and moan like her little bitch. But that would be too much, at least as far as Zecora was concenred. But she always had her precious Button to fuck after this was done. The thought of running in and out of such a tight, petite frame made her body tingle with longing and delight.
While Pinkie played with Filthy, Zecora was enjoying Spoiled's body. Having finished blowing another thick load in the mare's mouth, she stared at her victim. Placing her hand on the mare's head, she shoved her off her cock, letting another spurt of cum splatter across Spoiled's face before she landed on the rug covered floor. Gagging and choking, some cum came back up from the back of her throat, letting some of Zecora's release to almost spill out, but she somehow held it in.
"Looks like you're having fun." Zecora commented, reaching down to grab Spoiled's mane, tugging it to pull her back up a little. "Hmm, the mouth isn't bad. But let's see how that pussy feels." Tossing her a little, her hands smacked at the mare's round, soft ass. "There we go, nice and soft."
"Don't you fucking dare." Spoiled groaned, her voice straining as she could still taste the cum on her tongue as the zebra angled her still hard cockhead against her soft, wet entrance. "I am a noble mare, I will not let some filthy fuc-ahh!"
"What was that?" Zecora asked, wedging her dick slowly into Spoiled's pussy. "I can't hear you over the sound of how much of a slut you are!" Before the mare could respond, she rammed her cock, bottoming out in Spoiled's pussy. "There we go...fuck you're tight. How can a whore like you be so tight?"
Smirking, Zecora only continued to fuck in and out of Spoiled's pussy, giving the mare no chance to adjust or recover from the savage assaults on her body. This zebra's dick was the biggest thing the mare had ever felt in her pussy, even the few times it had been since fucking her husband, there hasn't been a dick to even come close to making her slutty hole feel good. But not Zecora, her cock was already stretching out her pussy to the point of ruining it for any other stallion.
Raising a hand, Zecora brought it down, spanking against Spoiled's ass, causing the soft flesh to ripple as a moan continued to escape the mare's lips. She only savored the feeling of driving her cock in and out of the soft and wet pussy. It was a wonderous feeling to stretch and widen this whore's pussy walls, as well as poking her cum oozing cockhead against Spoiled's cervix. The mare tried to resist, but in every attempt to move away, Zecora's hands grabbed on her hips, pulling her back to fuck at a different angle, making her only want to hammer her dick in and out with greater fervor.
"How does it feel bitch?" Zecora laughed, smacking Spoiled's ass again and again, making her only cry out like a stubborn animal. "You pussy feels so tight, so warm, and so wet. Are you getting turned on? You're getting off on being raped by a zebra?"
"N-n-no." Spoiled cursed, though her words were little more than held in moans. It was clear, her mind was resisting, but the body was already submitting to Zecora's cock. "I could never feel good from some...some..."
"Then how about this?" Zeocra said, pulling her cock from Spoiled's pussy. The sudden feeling caused the mare to yelp a little. "Not yet!" Grabbing at her shoulder, she flipped the mare over on her back, letting her large tits bounce as she landed. "Let's try this angle!"
Taking her cock, Zecora thrusted again into Spoiled's pussy, filling her wet hole as her body twitched from the feeling. The mare gasped as she felt the feeling of dick deep inside her, as well as seeing her belly bulge out a little from thei thick girth filling her. Zecora only licked her lips, enjoying the sight of Spoiled's body moving, her chest bouncing madly with each hard and deep thrust. Unable to only back, she grabbed at the slutmare's chest, groping and teasing at her breasts, squishing the softness, while tugging at the sensitive nipples.
"Come on you whore! I wanna hear you moaning!" Zecora laughed, tugging at the nipples harder, causing Spoiled's head to arch back as she let out more sultry sounds. "There we go, keep making that sexy noise!"
Fucking harder and harder, Zecora only wanted to break the mare, make her into a drooling mess of cum filled submission. Filthy only continued to watch, anger still in his eyes but it was occasionally blocked as the large, round, pink ass of slutmare bounced herself over his dick. Grinding and ridings, Pinkie had her fat cock in both hands, jerking herself off wildly at the sight of her mistress fucking the rich mare. Panting, her tongue hung over the side of her mouth as she could feel not only Filthy's cock twitching in her pussy, but her own cock was getting ready to cum.
"Come on Filthy, you wanna cum inside my Pinkie pussy?" Pinkie moaned, using the most alluring tone she could muster as she showered with delight. "You miss fucking this pussy? You miss fucking a hot load in my pussy? You almost knocking up this slutty, pink pussy?"
Gritting his teeth, Filthy did his best to endure, but it was getting harder and harder. He couldn't deny, he did enjoy Pinkie's body. Back when they had their affair, he would never leave his wife, but he had been considering making the infamous town whore into his personal mistress. More of a status symbol, as well as controlling Pinkie's life if he could secure such a thing. Though unbeknownst to both his wife and his slutty companion of the time, Filthy was trying to get his hooves in the mineral trade Pinkie's father controlled. This was the only reason he was infuriated with his wife's actions to cease his fun, it was the potential finances he lost that truly angered him.
"You feel that?" Pinkie asked, rousing the stallion from his thoughts. "Cum in me FIlthy. I want your hot cum in my pussy, I want you to fill me up." Bouncing harder and harder, she moved her ass over the stallion's dick. "Give it to me, I miss your fat cock in my pussy! Fuck me! Fuck me!"
Just before Filthy was going to do something, anything in order to stop himself from cumming, he saw the mare look back at him, her eyes, the final thing that pushed him. The same longing eyes she gave him with the desire to be bred by him, to bear his foal and carry it over and over. Unable to hold back, the stallion let out a muffled cry as he came hard and deep in Pinkie's pussy. The mare moaned out in pleasure, feeling her womb being filled by the vast amount of cum. At the same time, her own cock came, releasing her long and thick load not only across the room, but it struck across Spoiled's chest.
"What the?!" Zecora said, the sudden sight of the wealthy mare covered in some cum, she bottomed out in her pussy. This in depth thrust was too much and she felt the release of her cum being pumped into her. "Pinkie? What are you-" Turning her head, she looked back to see the mare in question, her belly a little rounder as she continued to ride Filthy's cock. "Alright, I think that's enough from him. I need him to be able to hold a pen after all."
"But...but..." Pinkie complained, looking back at Filthy, seeing only the look of exhaustion across his face. "Oh alright...fine..." Pulling herself off the now half erect dick, it slumped between the stallion's legs as she made her way over to Zecora. "Soooooo...can I fuck Spoiled now?"
"Not yet." Zecora said, looking down at the mare, panting as she was getting more and more fatigued. "But if I recall, their daughter should be the right age for your dick."
"Oh? You want me to fuck Diamond?" Pinkie asked, her lips curling into a goofy happy expression. "Can I have fun?"
"You are free to do whatever you want." Zecora commented, looking more at Filthy than Pinkie. "I don't care about Spoiled or Diamond, all that matters is Filthy. So you have my permission to fuck her into whatever sloppy mess you want."
"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie cheered, only to look down at Spoiled. "Hear that? I'm gonna fuck your daughter. Hope she's as much of a whore as her mummy!" Without another word, she skipped her way out of the room, her half hard cock flopping freely as globs of cum dripped from the tip.
Relaxing in her room, Diamond Tiara, the only daughter of Filthy and Spoiled, was laying on her bed. Given her age, having only just reached her late teens, nearly twenty, she was looking through a magazine about potential colleges. But this was more just to satisfy her mother's insatiable attempts to control where her life would go. If Spoiled had her way, Diamond would be shipped off to Canterlot at some noblemare's school to eventually be the bride of some unicorn gentlecolt. But her father wasn't much better. Filthy wanted his daughter to go to a business school in Manehatten, to eventually take over the family business.
But despite these annoyances, Diamond still held some semblance of peace and security in his room. So much so, this was the only place in the entire manor where both parents had no say in her life. Laying in her bed, the mare was wearing nothing more than a pair of pink, silk panties, nylon stockings, as well as a shirt that barely covered down to her belly button that covered her modest chest. A point of frustration for her, Diamond has gone through her middle to late teen years watching as her friends and classmates have grown into their bodies.
It was beyond aggravating for Diamond to see her peers become far more beautiful and "mature looking". Sweetie Belle swelled out a chest that could nearly rival her busty sister. Scootaloo's ass gave the flightless pegasus a pear shape that stallion's wanted to smack. Apple Bloom managed to get a balance of both, but her thighs were the envy of many of the younger mares. But Silver Spoon was the greatest offender, bearing a body that only reminded Diamond of her mother. Looking down at her own chest, the mare on her bed was little more than a handful, a C cup under the best circumstances, but she did take some pride in her hourglass figure. Still, compared to the rest of her friends, she was dead last.
It wasn't until she heard a knocking at the door, that her attention was brought from the magazine across the room. Rolling her eyes, she assumed it was just one of the servants checking in on her. All she had to do was ignore her and the servant would leave her alone. But the knocking persisted. For several long minutes, Diamond did her best to ignore the knocking. Though when she started hearing the sounds of the door knob being jiggled, almost violently and aggressively, the mare nearly rolled her eyes to the back of her head.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaat!" Diamond said, more a comment than a question as she threw the magazine to the side. The knocking only persisted, which annoyed the mare more and more. "Fiiiiiiiiiiine!" Getting off the bed, she stormed her way over to the door. "What the fuck do you-"
No sooner had she flung open the door, her eyes widened at the sight of the naked, grinning Pinkie. Diamond tried to say something, but the mare's arms reached out and grabbed her throat. The pink slutmare only giggled, pushing her way into the room as her victim was struggling to breathe. But just as she was about to lose consciousness, Pinkie released her hold, giving her some needed air, but kept her hands still firmly around her neck.
"Hey Diamond..." Pinkie said, her lips were curled in a smile that was slowly freezing the mare's blood. "Mummy and Daddy are busy right now, and I know you've been lonely. But Pinkie's here!"
"What are you-" Diamond tried to say, only for Pinkie to start choking her again for a moment, but then released again. "P-Pinkie...why are you doing this?"
"Well...since your mum is busy being fucked my some nice cock, and I was getting bored straddling your dad." Pinkie explained, her words only seemingly to bring more and more confusion and fear across Diamond's face. "I was told I could do whatever I want with you."
As Pinkie spoke, Diamond could feel something swelling between her thighs. Looking down, she saw the massively thick cock attached to the pink mare. Swallowing hard, she could feel its warmth against her legs. Pinkie, noticing this, fully let go of Diamond's neck, but slowly shifted her hands down to her shoulder. Licking her lips, the mare stared at her prey, who was starting to tremble. Giggling, Pinke's fingers tightened on Diamond's shoulder, causing her to wince. This small sound escaping her lips was enough for the slutmare to smack her lips against the other mare.
Diamond's eyes widened in more shock than confusion. She tried to fight back, but Pinkie was not only stronger, but her tongue was invading her mouth, which only seemed to slowly rob her of her strength. After several long moments, feeling more akin to eternity, the mare released her victim from her oral hold, pulling back slowly to look Diamond in the eyes as her lust was overwhelming any remnant sense of restraint and reason. Fully letting go, Pinkie dropped her, her legs having been weakened by the kiss, leaving her on her knees.
"So forward." Pinkie teased, her voice having an almost sinister giggle in the pitch. Grabbing the back of Diamond's head, she positioned it to rub against her now swollen, dripping cock. "First we kiss, and now you're gonna suck my dick? What a little slut."
Diamond wasn't given a chance to speak, let alone protest as Pinkie aimed her cockhead against the mare's lips. Playfully, she forced her to kiss her throbbing dick, the oozing precum smearing all over her lips as she refused to open her mouth. As fun as it was to stain the mare's mouth, Pinkie wanted to throat fuck this new whore in the making. Taking her other hand, she arranged it so she had a firm grip on both sides of Diamond's head. Giggling some more, she pushed hard, and hard.
"Come on you little slut." Pinkie said, staring down at Diamond, who was still resisting. "Either you open up, or I'll make you open up." Diamond could only think of her throat being choked again. This fear loosened her lips, allowing this pink invader to ram her cock in her mouth. "Ooooooooooo...that feels nice!"
Bottoming out with the initial thrust, Pinkie let out a sultry moan as she seemed to hold herself in place for a second, savoring the feeling of the warm throat hole around her cock. But rather than let Diamond choke on it, she pulled back, just to fuck herself back into her mouth. Hammering her body at a hard, deep, and steady pace, Pinkie's panting became more and more rapid as she was getting closer to just hug around Diamond's head as she fucked her mouth. Diamond herself was feeling her entire body not only being defiled by the town's infamous whore, but strangely it was getting hotter as the globs of precum was forced down her throat.
"Oh Diamond, you feel so good. Your mouth is almost like my little Button's." Pinkie moaned, picking up the speed as a coming orgasm was churning up inside her. "You feel that? I'm gonna cum soon. I'm gonna fill your belly with my Pinkie spunk!" Hearing this, Diamond tried to pull back, pushing her hands on the mare's thigh, but all in vain. "Can't stop now...here...it...cums!"
Letting out her whorish wail, Pinkie released a torrent of cum in Diamond's mouth. Bottoming out again, she flooded the mare's belly, causing it to slowly swell out as rope after rope of dangerously thick cum was gushing into her. Diamond continued to struggle, even as her arms were going limb from the hard thrust in her mouth. Eventually, Pinkie released her hold, almost shoving Diamond off her cock as she let out a few more spurts of cum all over her body. Staring down at her, Pinkie not only marveled a little at her work, but the sight of a cum covered Diamond, gurgling up some of her spent release was making her hard again.
"Awwwwwwwwwww, look at you." Pinkie said, rubbing the side of Diamond's cheek as she smiled down at the mare. "You have a full belly, yes you do." Her lips curled into a more sinister expression, one that could rival Zecora's. "But don't worry, auntie Pinkie is gonna make sure your belly gets even more full!"
"L-l-look...whatever you're doing...it's not funny." Diamond said, trying to keep some attempts of being brave, but this was an obvious act. Her resolve crumbled easily. "What do you want? Bits? I have bits, I can pay as much as you want." Tears started to swell up in her eyes. "P-please...just go away."
"Oh no, no, no, Diamond. You got me all wrong." Pinkie said, extending a hand to give Diamond a hug. The mare was speechless as she felt the busty mare embrace her. Rubbing the back of her mane, she almost whispered. "I'm here because I want to be. Because I think a beautiful mare like you deserves to be loved."
"... ... ..." Diamond was speechless, her lip only trembling as an array of confusing emotions seemed to swell in all directions within her mind. Eventually, she did work up the courage to ask. "R-r-really?"
"Nope!" Pinkie said, no hesitation in her voice as she pulled back from Diamond. The look in her eyes, as well as how her mane was looking less poofy than usual as she stared at the mare. "I was just messing with you." Her smile sent a full surge of fear through Diamond's body. "Let's have some fun." The sound of her laughter, followed by the younger mare's screams echoed out for several dozens of feet down the long halls, only to be deafened by the size of the manor.
Zecora was enjoying herself, fucking Spoiled over and over again, stuffing her belly and womb full of cum. The notion that she was repeatedly impregnating a mare of wealth and status only made her desire to pump more of her virile cum in her. Filthy was becoming more and more broken, a look of defeat was clear across his face, but there was still something in his eyes that showed her he wasn't ready to give up. Spoiled, however, she was long gone. Her mind was in fragments, and her body was all too eager to accept some healthy zebra foals in her.
The only part about this Zecora wasn't enjoying as much as she could, maybe it was Spoiled was too broken. Any sounds leaving her whore lips were little more than sultry cries and slutty moans. Humping in and out of her cum stuffed pussy, the zebra only huffed in annoyance. Maybe she should've shared her with Pinkie after all. Regardless, she was just about done with the full slutmare. Pulling out, Zecora let out another smaller spurt of her cum over Spoiled's body, letting her lay in her twitching afterglow from whatever orgasm number she had reached.
"Alright, well this whore is used up." Zecora commented, looking over to Filthy. "I believe we're just about done. But then again, depending on your answer, we might have some more fun with you to have."
"You don't get it, do you?" Filthy said, his body still partially nude with his half erect cock out, but his eyes were as defiant as before. "My wife, my servants, all for nothing. All you've done is break what I can replace."
"You really think so?" Zecora asked with a sneering expression. Looking back towards the ajar door, she smirked. "Didn't you see where Pinkie went off to? Or were you too tired?"
"Pinkie? Where could she possibly..." Filthy's eyes widened as it dawned on him what had happened. The previous fatigue had deafened him a little as he realized who the pink mare was going after next. "No, not her! You can't take my Diamond!"
"I believe we can." Zecora commented, leaning over the struggling stallion. Her lips remained curled in a wicked smile. "And if I know Pinkie, she's probably raping your little girl into a proper whore." Her eyes tilted a little towards Spoiled. "Just like her mother."
Before Filthy could say another word, there was an echo coming from the doorway, a giggling and humming, accompanied by the sound of staging feet. After another moment, Pinkie all but kicked up the door as she announced herself into the room. Her cock was limp but hung between her thighs with a fine layer of cum, saliva, and mare juices. But it was what was behind her that caught both Filthy's and Zecora's eyes. It was Diamond Tiara, the mare was as naked as her captor, but it was what was on her that made the stallion cringe in worry and the zebra smile with delight.
After her fun with the younger mare, Pinkie had taken what could only be assumed to be Diamond's own panties, sticking it on her head while she held numerous tied together stockings around her neck. Like a leash, she was pulled and tugged to follow, her arms tied back by the torn remains of the shirt she had been wearing. She held a look of fear and pain as her pussy and ass were dripping vast amounts of what Pinkie had pumped into her. Her eyes only then turned to horror at the sight of her parents.
"Looks like you had your fun." Zecora commented, walking away from Filthy. "Did you break her yet?"
"Nope, I decided to get her all ready for you." Pinkie said, dragging Diamond by the stocking leash before tossing her over to Zecora. "She's all lubed up for you."
"Thank you Pinkie." Zecora said, grabbing at the leash to keep Diamond from running anywhere else. Looking her over, she was quite impressed, the mare was petite compared to her mother, but she didn't appear otherwise hurt or sore. "Looks like she's still in good condition. So you can have your fun with Spoiled."
"Yay! Thank you!" Pinkie cheered, rushing over to Spoiled. Looking at the cum covered, and filled mare, she only continued to giggle. "Wowie zowie, you really fucked her good."
"Yes, but I believe she can take more." Zecora commented, not looking to Pinkie as she spoke. "Be sure to have as much fun as you want. I'm done with her." The pink mare only giggled as the sounds of Spoiled's small moans came from their direction. "Now then, Diamond. What to do with you?"
"P-please...please...don't hurt me..." Diamond pleaded, almost tearing up as she looked at the zebra. "I-I-I don't know what's going on. Why are you doing this?"
"Well, your father and I have some business to do, and he's not being cooperative." Zecora commented, taking off the numerous clothes and restraints Pinkie put on Diamond. "And this is how I'm showing him how foolish that is."
Grabbing at Diamond's shoulder, Zecora threw the mare over to Filthy. Staggering as she moved, she tumbled forward, landing not only on the ground, but her face was only a few inches away from Filthy's cock. Her face erupted into a a blush as she saw the same dick that Pinkie had only fucked on not that long ago. She tried to look away, and yet her eyes couldn't. Zecora, seeing this, raised a hand and smacked Diamond's flank, making the mare yelp and twitch.
"Getting nervous, Diamond?" Zecora asked, smacking Diamond's ass again and again. "It's just the dick that helped bring you into this world. Shouldn't you give your dear daddy back something for it?" Keeping her mouth shut, the mare only seemed to struggle to look away. "Wrong answer!"
Grabbing Diamond's mane, Zecora tugged at her hair, pulling her head back. Though it hurt, she still kept her mouth closed, which only made the zebra's lips go from a smirk, to an annoyed sneer. Sighing, she looked down, Filthy's hate filled eyes trying to burn holes in her face, though he was too shocked by this to say anything. But as Zecora felt the tip of her hard cock kiss against Diamond's slick entrance, she smiled again. With a small chuckle, she kept a hold on the mare's mane with one hand, but used her other to grab at her victim's hip.
"Hard way it is." Zecora said, thrusting forward as her cockhead burried itself in Diamond's pussy. The moment she let out a gasp as her body betrayed this resistance, the zebra slammed her now open mouth over Filthy's cock. "There we go! Nice and warm!"
Filthy tried to resist, but whether it was his daughter or not, the feeling of such a warm, wet, and tight mouth over his cock was enough to bring it to full arousal. Diamond only struggled to breathe as she was forced to suck off her father. Zecora's hand kept the mare's head to bob up and down, sliding her tongue and lips over the full shaft. The zebra only laughed to herself as she fucked in and out of Diamond's pussy, stuffing the already cum full insides with her girth. Filthy only seemed to gasp as he could feel the reluctant pleasure grow within him.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" Zecora asked, smacking Diamond's ass again as she showed no mercy in fucking her pussy as she did with Spoiled. "Sucking off her daddy while being fucked by some fat cock, such a dirty whore, aren't you Diamond?"
Diamond was powerless to stop Zecora, her arms only became weak and wobbly as she was sucking off Filthy's dick. The stallion panted a little, the experience with Pinkie had already left him somewhat sensitive, and Diamond's throat was hugging his size as if she was born to be a cocksleeve. Even her pussy was squeezing along the thickness of the shaft rubbing and pushing its way within her. Despite how horrible the circumstances were for them both, their bodies were becoming more and more enraptured in pleasure.
"Are you two enjoying this?" Zecora asked, raising an eyebrow as she kept humping herself in and out of Diamond. Though she couldn't see it, she could tell her cock was making the mare's belly bulge a little. Her oozing precum sloshed in with the cum Pinkie had previously filled her with. "This is such a fucked up family. Isn't that right Pinkie?"
"Wowie zowie!" Pinkie gasped, moaning as she felt the rush of her orgasm flooding Spoiled's body, the mare in question was twitching and gurgling up the cum still in her throat. "This bitch's pussy is so tight, even after it was fucked open."
"Good to hear." Zecora laughed, looking back to Diamond and Filthy, her body keeping them in motion as she was getting closer and closer to a coming orgasm. "I'm gonna cum soon." Both Diamond and Filthy seemed to tense up at her words. "You hear that, Filthy? I'm gonna blow a full load on your precious daughter. Afterwards, maybe I'll let Pinkie knock her up, as well as your wife."
Filthy remained quiet, not saying a word as he looked away from Diamond. The mare was still sucking off her father, but she felt as her body was being forced into a coming climax as well. It was shameful, it was humiliating, and yet in the far back of her mind, the mare's body was enjoying this. Was this some slutty genes inherited from Spoiled? Was it some secret desire to be wanted to such an extent? Or maybe Diamond was secretly a major whore who always wanted to be used like a toy?
Smacking Diamond's ass again, Zecora continued her assault on the mare's pussy, while FIlthy's cock was twitching and swelling in his daughter's mouth. He was going to cum soon, he could feel it, and no amount of distracting thoughts, or even biting his lip was enough. He was about to blow a hot load in Diamond, and Zecora was going to stuff her womb until it was bloated with her striped swimmers to ravage her young and fertile eggs.
"Here it comes you little whore!" Zecora commented, groaning a little as she felt herself about to cum. "It's coming...it's coming..." Releasing her hold on Diamond's mane, she put her hand on the back of her head and slammed the mare's mouth over Filthy's cock. "Both of cum for me while I knock up your daughter!"
Filthy let out a breathless gasp as Diamond's own muffled cries were met with the feeling of her father's hot cum being pumped down her throat. On the other end, Zecora released a torrent of her own hot load into the mare's pussy. Diamond's eyes widened as she felt as cum was being stuffed in her belly and womb. Both swelling and growing as the warm, thick spunk was making her midsection even rounder than before. Holding herself in place, Zecora pumped one thick rope after another as she eventually let Diamond's head go. But as she lifted herself off Filthy's dick, he let out one more twitching spurt across her face.
"Such a lovely display." Zecora laughed, gently rubbing against Diamond's flank. "But we're not done yet."
Pulling herself free of Diamond's pussy, her cum spilled from the now gaping fuck hole. Staring at it for a while, the zebra was impressed with how much she had come. After Spoiled's seemingly bottomless holes, to see Diamond was nearly there was quite impressive. But the mare wasn't as durable as her mother. She was limp, nearly gurgling up some of the cum Filthy had come in her throat. Not that it mattered, Zecora grabbed at Diamond's leg, dragging her a little.
"Pinkie? Are you still good to go?" Zecora asked, finishing up with her two victims. Dragging Diamond a bit, she brought the mare up to her knees beside her as the zebra stood up. "Diamond here could still use some more cock."
"I'm still good!" Pinkie replied with a giggle, her hips still in rapid motion as she fucks another full load of potent cum in Spoiled's body. The mare looked even more of a sloppy mess than before, her body almost fully plastered and gushing cum. "I can fuck this whore all day!"
"I figured as much." Zecora laughed, her hand on Diamond's shoulder. The mare was far too scared to do or say anything as she could still feel the zebra's cum in her pussy. "You see that? You mum was a bad whore and so got punished. You can either be a good whore, or a bad whore." She could tell Diamond was nearly crying in terror. "Which whore are you?"
"A-a-a-a g-g-good whore..." Diamond stuttered, her voice trembling in intimidation. "I-I-I'm a good whore. Please don't hurt me."
"Oh I won't hurt you." Zecora said, gently playing with the mare's hair. "You're a good whore. And while bad whores get punished..." Grabbing her arm, she pulled Diamond upward until she stood. "...good whores get rewarded." Pushing her forward, she all but threw the mare to Pinkie.
"Hey Diamond, ready for more?" Pinkie giggled, almost manically as she grabbed the mare. Licking along her face, she forced a deep and passionate kiss on her new victim, her cock throbbing another thick load into Spoiled's plump and full pussy. "We're going to have so much fun!"
"Now then, are you ready to accept my terms?" Zecora asked, looking down at Filthy, her hoof was placed almost painfully on the side of his face as she stared down at him. "Just sign your name, and we'll be all set."
"No..." Filthy spat at Zecora in disgust. "You think this will break me? Yes, you've destroyed the only thing I made that mattered. But you've lost. You have nothing left, you have nothing more to take!"
"Apparently so...but that will change." Zecora said, her voice only seemed to become colder as her stare narrowed. "Pinkie?"
"Yes, yes, yes?" Pinkie replied, holding Diamond's head in place as she bottomed out on the mare's cock, gagging on the girth. "What do you need?"
"Mr. Rich here is being a little too difficult to work with." Zecora explained, looking over to the mare throatfucking the stallion's daughter. "So I'm going to take my leave, but I want you to stay here. Keep them company, and please, ensure they realize what happens when we're told no."
"Oooo! We're going to have so much fun!" Pinkie cheered, not even watching as Zecora got dressed and started leaving the room. The last thing the zebra heard as she fully left was the pink whoremare's giggles and sultry words. "I'm gonna fill you all up with my party cannon!"
Roughly a little over a week had passed since Zecora had left Pinkie with the Riches. And while no word seemed to have reached her about any issues, the talk around Ponyville about such influential ponies seemingly going away this long was starting to catch some attention. It was only after she had heard more than a few ponies talk about how they haven't seen Spoiled yell at the ponies at the market lately, or Filthy near Sweet Apple Acres, or even some not seeing Diamond for a while. Though for almost obvious reasons, word of Pinkie not being seen for more than a day was the most alarming part of the rumors spreading around. It was cause for thought, but not a major worry. Regardless, Zecora felt it was time to go and check in on Pinkie.
Returning to the manor, the door was unlocked and partially ajar. Sighing, Zecora continued through the mansion, her eyes gazing about the area. It was easy enough to find where Pinkie was, as there was practically a trail of juices and fluids leading back to the master bedroom. Along the way, she bumped into the collapsed and exhausted mares and stallions, the staff and servants of the Riches, but were naked and panting for breath. From the looks of it, they had fucked and been fucked nearly nonstop, and were sleeping it off. Chuckling to herself, Zecora continued on, hearing the sound of whorish moans before she even reached the open doors.
Within the master bedroom, Spoiled and Diamond were still being fucked by Pinkie. Her raging cock seemed to switch between mother and daughter as they lay atop each other. The two were moaning, making out in each other's mouths as they were seemingly fucked silly and broken. There was basically nothing of who they were before Pinkie had destroyed their bodies and minds with her cock. It was like watching some cum addicts screaming out in continuous orgasm. The room stunk heavily of cum and musk, leaving nothing more than an almost miasma of fuck fumes floating near the ceiling like a fog.
"Oh, hey Zecora!" Pinkie huffed, moaning as she didn't stop fucking the mares. "How's it going?"
"Quite well, I've been well." Zecora said, looking further around the room. Laying about the floor were some more mares and stallions, naked and lying about each other. "It seems you've fucked the entire staff."
"Oh yeah, I've fucked them all so many times, I lost count." Pinkie giggled, smacking Diamond's ass, making the young mare squeal like a whore. "Diamond is so much like her mum, they both love getting fucked. And Spoiled is so obsessed with dick, I can throatfuck her for hours!"
"You've probably been fucking her for more than hours." Zecora said, almost laughing as she held her hand to her chin. "You've been fucking this manor for a little over a week."
"Really?! Wowie zowie!" Pinkie giggled, her laughter echoing out across the room. "That's amazing! Well, that would explain Filthy." Pointing at a corner of the room, Filthy Rich, once proud stallion of the Rich household, was curled in a corner, seemingly staring at nothing. "He's been like that for a while now." Seeing this, Zecora smirked a little, turned from the pink mare, and swayed her way over to the stallion.
"Now then, Filthy Rich." Zecora asked, showing Filthy the paper she wanted him to sign. "Are you ready to sign?" The stallion only barely turned his head, the look of defeat, despair, and disgust in his eyes as he saw the paper. Though he didn't speak, she could tell he was broken. "Very good. Oh, but don't worry about your wife and daughter." Looking back to Pinkie, she could tell it would be a few more hours before the mare would be finished. "It'll all be over soon." |
Sinister Stripes | The Power of Love | Another wonderful and warm Sunny day came across Equestria. Especially in the quaint and quiet town of Ponyville. Deep within the Castle of Friendship, the sounds of activity could be heard from the Map Room. Here the Council of Friendship consists of Princess Twilight Sparkle, as well as the rest of her friends, the Elements of Harmony; Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. But here, within this room where the close friends would gaze over the magically constructed map of Equestria, was Zecora. Sitting in Twilight's chair, she savored the feeling of the alicorn princess riding her cock.
The purple mare had already fallen under the zebra's sway, now being little more than a living cocksleeve for her new mistress. But she was not alone. Within this room, the rest of Twilight's friends had been conquered. Laying in her chair, Rarity's mouth was still open and leaking out cum after being burtally facefucked by Zecora. Applejack's ass was still gushing out more cum as well as twitching from the red hand marks Pinkie left on her flank when she fucked her ass over and over. But it was Fluttershy who seemed to suffer the most savage of the fucking; all her holes were gushing out so much cum from her bloated belly, there wasn't anything left in the animal lover's mind but just another living toy.
As for Rainbow Dash, she was still being played with by Pinkie. Sitting in her own chair, the pink mare was busy ramming her cock in and out of one of her friend's pussy. The blue pegasus was only capable of moaning and gasping as she was being stuffed by the fat pink cock. Pinkie only giggled, reaching around, she groped at Rainbow's petite chest, teasing and playing with her nipples as she was getting closer and closer to another orgasm. Huffing and moaning, the pink mare reached her face somewhat around Rainbow's, turning her to face her. The two shared an open, passionate kiss as the former released herself, firing off her hot and thick spunk deep in the latter's pussy.
"Are you almost done?" Zecora asked, looking over to Pinkie as she shivered and settled in her afterglow. Seeing the mare was just about done with Rainbow, she reached up and groped Twilight's own tits, making the mare yelp out in pleasure. "Time for you to do your part."
"Y-yes Mistress..." Twilight cooed, composing herself as much as she could. Slowly, she got off Zecora's dick, letting the zebra move from the chair. As well as this, the princess magically grabbed her clothes, putting them back on as quickly as she could. "I-I'll be quick."
Igniting her horn, the map on the table slowly started moving more and more northward. After a few moments, the map settled over the Crystal Empire. Zecora, now stepping back, bringing Pinkie to subtly move the rest of the mares from the room as Twilight did her magic. Waiting for her Mistress to finish, taking a deep breath, she hesitated for a moment. But all it took was seeing the look in Zecora's eyes, that the princess remembered her place. Swallowing hard, she focused her spell, conjuring a sizable ring that started to spin. Faster and faster, the ring became a sphere, and the sphere showed images. After a moment, this image took the form of her sister-in-law, Princess Cadance.
"Hello? Oh, Twilight!" Cadance greeted to her beloved younger sister-in-law. "I haven't heard from you in a while, how are you doing?"
"Hey Cadance, I'm doing great!" Twilight said with a smile, giving no indication that she was now a pet to Zecora. "It's been so good, I finally have a cleared up schedule. Maybe you...and Flurry could come down for a visit?"
"A visit? That sounds wonderful!" Cadance replied with a cheerful expression, clearly ignorant to the trap she was being lured into. "We can come over in a few days, oh I'm sure Shiny wouldn't mind taking care of the Empire. He can come over another time."
"Sounds great! I can't wait." Twilight smiled, accepting what was going to happen to her loving sister-in-law, as well as her precious niece. "I'll see you in a few days." Closing her spell. With a sigh, she looked over to Zecora and Pinkie. "D-did I do good?"
"You did pretty good." Zecora commented, though her tone still held a slight disappointment. "I thought alicorns like yourself could just use magic to travel in an instant?" Walking forward, she stared at the mare with eager and yet stern eyes. But then she chuckled, gesturing over to Pinkie. "You think maybe she purposely delayed Cadance so she can have more time with us?"
"Oh? Oh, yes, I think she did." Pinkie exclaimed, smirking a goofy look. Her own pink cock throbbed as she walked besides Zecora towards her friend. "Maybe she wanted us all to herself before we'd fuck her sister-in-law. And maybe even a little Flurry. Didn't she just come of age? Oh, Twilight, you're so naughty."
"Well, when they arrive, you can have Flurry. She's of no concern to me, I want Cadance." Zecora explained, much to Pinkie's joy. "As for you Twilight. Well, if you really wanted us all to yourselves, then let's not disappoint you."
The next few days passed rather slowly in the Castle of Friendship. Though the Elements of Harmony were still seen around town, albeit spending many long hours in the Castle, Twilight made few appearances. Though she was a princess, her royal duties were so few, and her studious nature was well known. So no one would ever expect their loving princess was being fucked day in, day out by Zecora and Pinkie. Her friends, just as cock addicted as she was, only joined in the passions.
Rarity was a living, breathing cocksleeve, where her throat that would sing and speak such beauties was addicted to taking as much cock and cum to the back of her mouth as she could stomach. So many times that she drank deep from Zecora and Pinkie's balls, that often cum would leak from her nostrils, or she would even occasionally let out an audible, unladylike burp. From what Pinkie would tell Zecora whenever the zebra would check up on her, she would find this unicorn on the pink mare's cock. The way she sucked on it, it was clear she was fully addicted to cock. Cum was practically the main course of her diet by the end of the week.
Applejack was a fully converted buttslut, no two ways about it. If a cock in her ass wasn't enough, she would take both Zecora and Pinkie in her tailhole at the same time. She loved the feeling of being so violently stretched. Her nearly untouched pussy only served to tease her as it was soon apparent that she couldn't go a day with being fucked so hard in the ass, that cum was gushing out of her rear for several long minutes. Not to say they didn't fuck her pussy, but this was just to stuff her womb full of potent seed. It was only when they fucked her ass that the cowmare was screaming like a bitch in heat.
Fluttershy's body was practically a living sex doll. Her large tits were soft and malleable, perfect for handling both Zecora and Pinkie's sizes as she was repeatedly double facefucked. Her pussy and ass barely went an hour without either being brutally fucked by dicks or leaking out vast amounts of hot cum. While her body was the perfect fuck toy, her voice never ceased to let out such sweet and beautiful cry of pleasure. Often, Zecora was easily distracted by such musical sounds that she was almost in a daze, but wanted to make the mare make more of this noise.
Rainbow Dash's body was far rounder by the end of the week, Pinkie had taken a major interest in her friend. What was once a petite and modest frame was a mare that was either filled with maybe gallons of cum, or was long impregnated. Not that it really mattered to Zecora, though the blue pegasus was the hardest to break. She was stubborn, or maybe this was just some aspect of her personality in which she just wanted to last as long as possible. More than once, Zecora had to walk away from fucking the mare, leaving Pinkie to finish her off.
Twilight had the least done to her, at least nothing that would leave any long term or noticeable effects on her body. Though this didn't mean she didn't get some cocks in her slutty, princess holes. But for the most part, she had to watch her friends being broken and fucked like used whores. By the end of the week, Twilight was so overly sensitive and on edge, she was ready to cum with barely a touch of her mistress or Pinkie's. This would be perfect for the zebra's needs, keeping the alicorn to want more.
It was on the last day, Zecora and Pinkie were relaxing at the Castle of Friendship. The zebra was busy looking over the Friendship Map, while the mare was getting her cock sucked by all her friends, save for Twilight. The alicorn was standing at her mistress' side, but remained silent. She had not been touched, and it was clear by her nipples poking through her royal dress. Today would be the day Cadance and Flurry would be coming, so she wanted Twilight presentable. She can be fucked later.
"Hey Zecora..." Pinkie asked, her voice trembling a little between moans of pleasure as she was feeling four mares tongue wrestling over her cock. "Why do you want Cadance so much? Like I understand she's the hottest piece of tits and ass in Equestria, but isn't that a little...risky?"
"It is risky, but worth the chance to have it." Zecora responded, looking over to Twilight. "You see, after I made Twilight here into my newest whore, I learned there was something I could do."
"It's an alicorn's power." Twilight explained, taking a step forward. Tapping on the map, she showed Canterlot. "I'm still a young Alicorn, so I don't have any power. But Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have a great amount of power. But they are too strong. So Princess Cadance is much easier."
"But what power does she have?" Pinkie asked, paying more attention to the two than the four between her legs. "And if it's so strong, how can you possibly get it?"
"It's Love." Zecora explained, her tone becoming direct and serious. "Princess Cadance wields the Power of Love, a Love strong enough to banish the Changelings, to keep the Blizzards of the Crystal Empire at bay, and a Love that brings power by the love and devotion of those around her. But this power when used in a different way...it can subjugate others, and all they will feel is love and devotion. As for how I plan to get it, I learned these powers can be passed on but only voluntarily. So I plan to make Cadance willingly offer this power to me."
"And that's why Flurry is coming? To use it as a way to threaten Cadance, and you'll have Twilight help you?" Pinkie asked, to which Zecora nodded. The room erupted in the pink mare's laughter, slamming her fists on the table as she laughed. "That's hilarious! And if that works, we can fuck anyone in Equestria!"
"Exactly." Zecora said, taking a deep breath. "You, Pinkie. All of this is thanks to you."
"What? No, no way." Pinkie replied with a blush on her face, acting coy. "I didn't do anything."
"Oh but you did." Zecora explained, speaking in a ton of absolute sincerity. "Before you approached me, I was always ashamed of my appendage, my cock. But after you opened my eyes, we have fucked so many and I only see myself wanting more. So now, when I claim this Power of Love, I will be able to live and fuck as I wish. And it's all thanks to you."
"Aww, thanks Zecora! That means so much." Pinkie cooed with a blush. "But when you do, is there anywhere in this new world for me?"
"Of course! I couldn't have done any of this without you." Zecora exclaimed, her face turned with a cheerful emotion. "Hence why I'll be giving you Flurry. I believe you're already close to her, so please enjoy her to the fullest."
"Aww, thanks!" Pinkie said with a giggling smile. "When should they be coming?"
"I believe in a few hours." Zecora said, standing up. "I'll need to freshen up. So should you. So finish with these mares and I'll have Flurry sent over to you."
"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie cheered, looking down at her other friends. "You heard her, suck more hot cum out of me before I fuck me a little alicorn!"
Arriving in Ponyville, Princess Cadance and Flurry didn't waste any time. They wanted to see Twilight, and after the last few days, didn't want to wait any longer. Despite being royalty, the two of them chose to dress very modestly. Cadance was in a simple, but colorful blouse and long skirt that ended at her knees. Flurry, being a little more rebellious, was in a sleeveless shirt that showed a little much of her cleavage, as well as a shorter skirt that showed off some of her thighs. Normally, her mother wouldn't allow her to wear such a thing, but since they were visiting Twilight, she decided to let it go.
Knocking at the castle doors, the two of them were met with the smiling face of Twilight. Greeting and hugging each other, the three of them shared a loving embrace. Being led inside, the three of them went into the Map room, sitting and enjoying each other in a nice, long conversation. Catching up, Twilight was more than happy to hear how things were in the Empire, while Cadance and Flurry were glad to see her again. As they spoke, the three of them enjoyed some tea and cookies, each having such a strong, sweet flavor.
"Actually, there was another reason I called you over." Twilight said, finishing up some tea the three of them were drinking. "But I couldn't say it over the call."
"Oh, what is it?" Cadance asked, finishing her drink. "Whatever it is, I'd be more than happy to help."
"Thanks, I have all the notes and books in the library." Twilight explained, getting up. Looking over at her adorable niece, the younger Flurry was shoveling cookies in her mouth. Smiling, rubbing the top of the mare's head. "Now Flurry, since your mum and I will be busy with probably some boring research. Why don't you play with Pinkie? I know she's here."
"Auntie Pinkie's here?!" Flurry asked with a cheering sound. As soon as Twilight nodded, the alicorn got up, quickly finishing her food and drink. "Where is she?"
"She should be in her room down the hall, last one on the left." Twilight said, to which Flurry only cheered and flew off in that direction. "Now then, it's just this way Cadance."
"Thanks, Twilight." Cadance said, getting up. "Ever since she came of age, Flurry's been more and more eager to go off and do her own thing. I'm so happy you and your friends can be there. Especially Pinkie, I can't think of any other mare in Equestria to better take care of my daughter."
"I know what you mean. Pinkie is great with foals, and even better when they're older." Twilight replied with a laugh, though what she was thinking about was far different than her sister-in-law believed. "Anyway, just follow me. This shouldn't take too long, I hope."
As the two of them arrived, Zecora was sitting comfortably in the library. In her hands was a book about something, it was hard to read. But there was an air of confidence about her, seemingly expecting the two to arrive. Cadance seems unphased by this, taking a few steps into the room as she could hear the sound of Twilight magically locking the door behind her. Despite this, she only smiled as she continued into the room. Zecora noticed this, which only seemed to put her a little uneasy. The mare seemed too confident, too sure of something, unlike Twilight, who held the same innocent belief in her. For the briefest of moments, the zebra felt as though she had made a mistake.
"Oh? I didn't know Zecora was here." Cadance commented, her voice staying the same sweet, kindness as it was when she spoke with Twilight. "It's so good to see you again."
"It is good to see you as well." Zecora replied with a smile, closing the book. Putting it down, she gestured to a pair of chairs beside her. "Twilight told me you've been so busy lately, so I thought you could sit down for a spell."
"That may or may not be necessary." Cadance politely replied, raising a hand. "I think we should speak plainly." Her eyes narrowed at the zebra. Her cheerful demeanor switched to a much more serious expression. "I want you to free my sister."
Merrily flying her way down the hall, Flurry was in a cheerful mood. Like a little breezie, she was quick and nimble as she let her wings carry her to her destination. Just as she arrived at the door, she felt something. It was a warmth, but at the same time, it was some sort of...wrongness. Swallowing hard, she knocked at the door. There seemed to be a pause in this feeling, before it swelled back up in a way Flurry had never felt. Swallowing even harder, she mustered her courage and slowly opened the door. Inside, her eyes met with a sight she had never seen.
Pinkie Pie, the mare she had seen as an Aunt for so many years, was currently on this massive bed, with the rest of her friends. But the five of them were all naked, savoring and pleasuring each other. That alone seemed to bring a stuttering blush across her face. But what Flurry saw next only seemed to make her wings stiffen as she lowered herself to the floor. Between Pinkie's legs, was this big, meaty, throbbing cock. It was big, bigger than anything the little alicorn had seen, even when she accidentally walked in on her parents in bed.
"Oh? Flurry?!" Pinkie exclaimed, only now noticing the mare was in the doorway. "I'm sorry sweetie, I didn't see you there." Getting up, she opened her arms as she slowly walked over to Flurry. "Come here, give Auntie Pinkie a big hug!"
Flurry was stiff, nervous and trembling a little as she watched this naked, curvy, and massively hung mare make her way over to her. She couldn't help but stare at her as Pinkie approached. The pink mare was attractive, incredibly sexy as her curves rivaled that of her mother. But while Princess Cadance was rumored to be the living embodiment of love and passion, to see Pinkie almost beat her mother at this was beyond a shock. As well as this, Flurry couldn't help but stare at the big dick swaying between the mare's legs.
Flurry wasn't shy when it came to dicks, or rather, she knew about them, having gossiped with Pumpkin Cake as they were growing up. As well as sneaking peeks at some certain magazines they found under Pound Cake's mattress. And while her friend seemed to have eventually found a special somepony, Flurry's position as royalty made her very difficult to approach. Cadance wanted to find her daughter an appropriate suitor, both Celestia and Luna wanted to oversee such a selection, Twilight told her to just be herself, and naturally, her father, Shining Armor, watched over her like a protective animal.
"It's been so long, look at you!" Pinkie smiled as she reached the alicorn, giving her a big hug. Flurry's body was almost smothered in the mare's fat tits. The alicorn tensed up as she felt the hard cock rubbing against her thigh from this hug. Eventually, the pink slutmare released her, smiling down at her. "I mean really, look at you."
Flurry wasn't an average mare for her age. While many late or early bloomers were among the various denizens of Equestria, the little alicorn was a very early bloomer. From the very moment puberty hit, she almost overnight developed a body that could compete in just about any beauty contest in Equestria. And when she came of age, her body was like that of a young goddess of love. Curvy hips, a slim waist, and a pair of breasts that have caused a few guards, and some maids to turn their heads as she walked about.
"You know, Flurry. I was wondering." Pinkie asked with a seemingly coy expression. "Have you ever...been with a stallion?" Flurry's wings immediately stiffened as she was asked this.
"I-I-I-I...w-w-w-what are you..." Flurry stuttered as Pinkie leaned her smiling face a little closer to her's. "It's not that I...I mean...I never..."
"Aww, you're so cute!" Pinkie giggled as she went and gave Flurry another close hug. "But...have you ever considered...being with a mare?"
"A-a mare..." Flurry stuttered again as she seemed to go a little limp in Pinkie's embrace. Blushing, she only now realized just how close the mare's face was to hers. "I-I-I-I-I..."
"Would you like to try?" Pinkie asked, getting even closer to Flurry's face. The alicorn was stuttering her words as the slutmare was giggling in delight. After a few moments, Flurry nodded nervously. "Yippie!" She then smacked her lips against the alicorn's.
Flurry's eyes went wide as her first kiss was not only taken, or rather, given to Pinkie. But the slutmare wasn't finished with her. Her mouth opened the alicorn's, letting her skilled and eager tongue slip inside. Flurry's body all but melted in Pinkie's hold. Her clothes were feeling hotter and hotter as she couldn't help but moan. As the mares continued to kiss and embrace, the rest of the mares slowly rose from the bed. There was a look about them. Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity, and Fluttershy were looking at Flurry with lustful, longing eyes.
"So? What do you say?" Pinkie asked, pulling her lips from Flurry's. "Do you want to know what it's like to be with a mare...or five?" Flurry only nervously nodded, to which the mare hugged her face into her tits closer. "Yippie! Let's have some fun!"
"I'm sorry, but I do not think I understand." Zecora asked, feigning ignorance as she could only imagine what was going wrong. How did Cadance know? Was this something about alicorns she failed to notice? It couldn't be, Twilight fell so easily. But Cadance was older, more experienced. The zebra realized, she miscalculated. "But it seems you have to stay planned."
"I don't know what you did, or why you did it, but I know my Twilight. And what you did to her is obvious." Cadance explained, gesturing over to the other mare, who only stood there as the two spoke. "The way she talked, the confidence in her steps, and the fact she's clearly not wearing any bra. Twilight wouldn't do that, unless someone was making her."
"That's quite an accusation." Zecora sighed, sitting more direct and focused at the alicorn. "Perhaps you can give a better explanation?"
"As the Alicorn of Love, I can see the love between all creatures of Equestria." Cadance explained with an annoyed sigh. "And when I looked at my sister, I saw something that was wrong, a lingering, lustful rot that you are emanating like a foul miasma."
"I see...well...this will make it a lot easier." Zecora said, dropping the facade. "Crossing her legs, she leaned back in the chair. "It's as you say. I have corrupted Twilight. And I might be willing to let her go, if you do something for me." Just as Cadance was about to answer, the zebra raised her hand. "It's nothing too difficult, I assure you. I want you to be my whore for the day. If you can do that, I'll let Twilight go."
Cadance stared angrily at the zebra, the words only feeling like a painful poison in her ears. Looking over to Twilight, she saw the innocent sister-in-law that she wanted to save. Sighing, she knew she didn't have much of a choice. Looking back at Zecora, she nodded as if to signal the zebra without wording anything. With a wicked smile, Zecora clapped her hands. Obeying her mistress, Twilight approached Cadance. Before the older alicorn realized what was happening, she felt the firm, groping hands of her sister-in-law grabbing her chest.
"Wah?! Twilight?!" Cadance gasped as the mare continued to start to slowly strip away her sister-in-law's closed. "What is this Zecora? You said-"
"I said you'd be my whore for the day, and I'd let her free." Zecora explained, staring at the alicorn with an almost burning gaze. "I never said she couldn't help you be my whore."
Cadance almost growled in anger as she wanted to just smash the zebra with any spells she knew, but with Twilight being so close, she hesitated. Zecora continued to watch as her pet was stripping her soon to be new whore down to her bare form, but as she watched, something caught her eye. Cadance's clothes seemed to struggle a little to come off, but as Twilight was slipping the fabric off, the older alicorn's body seemed to change. More than halfway off her body, whatever enchantments that were on the blouse were being removed as Cadance's chest was swelling, growing in size until they were nearly twice the size as before.
Zecora was amazed by this development. She had seen numerous images of Princess Cadance, but when the mare was fully stripped naked. It was clear, her clothes were designed and enchanted to hide away her actual endowments. But now, naked and at Zecora's mercy, Cadance's real body was before her. Tits so big, they were almost larger than the mare's head, a waist so slim, it was nothing short of a miracle to imagine this mare ever held a foal, and hips wide enough where they appeared capable of handling many cocks of different sizes.
"Well now, I am shocked, really I am." Zecora commented, her attention so fixed on Cadance, she barely noticed Twilight getting naked as well. The zebra's cock swelled between her legs as it was growing to full arousal. Cadance's own eyes were almost trembling as she noticed the growing dick. "Oh? You see something you like? Did this catch your eye?" She laughed as she started to slowly stroke herself off. "Well, perhaps you should be more acquainted with it."
"You can't really think..." Cadance tried to say, but then silenced herself. She was realizing her situation. If Twilight was going to get involved, then this zebra bitch was going to use her as some form of protection. "Just...just do what you want..."
"Well, if that's how you're going to be, maybe I should get you more...prepared." Zecora commented, looking over to Twilight. "Get her ready for me."
Twilight said nothing, only giggling a little as she casually tossed aside Cadance's and her clothes. Before her sister-in-law could realize what she was doing, she felt the firm and yet soft embrace of the mare against her body. Cadance winced for a moment, but Twilight's fingers were exploring her in places she never imagined anyone but her husband should touch. The younger alicorn's fingers groped and teased not only Cadance's large breasts, but some were teasing her clit.
Zecora watched, stroking herself off more and more as she was enjoying the sight of both mares pleasuring themselves. Cadance hated this, but she couldn't deny the pleasure growing inside her. It was like an addiction, a wrong, vulgar, and dangerous addiction. But Twilight seemed to only make the warmth and passion in her become more and more inflamed. For a moment, even for the briefest of moments, she had forgotten about Zecora, turning her head to speak to Twilight. This only allowed her sister-in-law to give her a kiss. But as soon as their lips touched, something within Cadance snapped.
The mare moaned loudly as she embraced her sister-in-law, kissing and holding her. The two couldn't keep their hands and lips off each other. Zecora, still stroking her cock laughed at this. She was shocked, not so much how quickly Cadance seemed to fall into such a carnal display, but rather how effective it was. Thinking back, the sweets, the drinks, all such obvious and clever traps. At first, Zecora was worried the potions wouldn't work on the two, but since Twilight also ate them, she too was lost in this numbing pleasure.
"Well now, since you two are doing much better. Why don't you come and we can get started." Zecora commented, waving her cock over at the two. Cadance and Twilight, still in a lustful daze, approached the zebra. "And don't worry about your daughter. Pinkie's taking good care of her."
Flurry's own mind was in a lustful daze. She lay on the bed, her clothes long taken from her, and she was feeling the soft and loving mouths, hands, fingers, and tongues of these older mares all over her. As well as this, she couldn't help but give into the lust. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were busy kissing along her lips and neck, Rarity was licking the little alicorn's pussy like it was a treasure, and Fluttershy was partially on Flurry's body, her much larger chest pressing against hers. Pinkie, was behind Fluttershy, fucking the voluptuous mare with her throbbing cock.
'How can this feel so good?' Flurry thought to herself, her body constantly tingling as Rarity's tongue further explored her soaked entrance and deep places. 'What have I been missing?'
"You like this?" Pinkie asked, smacking Fluttershy's ass as she was delving her cock as hard and deep as she could in her friend's slutty hole. "See how good the others are feeling?"
"Y-yes..." Flurry cooed, her mouth still being kissed by Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "My body feels so...so...so funny..."
"Funny? Well, you just came of age, so that's normal sweetie." Pinkie smiled, her cock throbbing in Fluttershy as the mare was moaning over the alicorn. "But do you want to feel even better? Wanna feel as good as these girls?"
"Y-y-yes...I do..." Flurry moaned, which only seemed to make the mares increase their pleasuring of the alicorn's body. "P-please make me feel good."
"Please, who?" Pinkie asked, giggling as she continued to tease Flurry. "Come on Flurry, we've known each other long enough. Who are you asking?"
"P-please...Auntie Pinkie...make me feel good." Flurry moaned to the pink mare, much to the wide smile of the slutmare. "I wanna feel good. I wanna feel like them."
"Aww, okay Flurry. But only because I'm your Auntie, and your Bestest Friend Ever!" Pinkie giggled, fucking in Fluttershy faster and faster. "And I'm gonna make you feel super duper good." She was ready to cum in her friend as she spoke. "Right...about...now!"
Fluttershy let out a soft and sultry moan as she was being filled with Pinkie's cum for whatever number of times it had been by now. Flurry could feel the mare's moaning breath kiss against her body, making her tremble as Rarity was finishing up eating out the mare's pussy. The unicorn was getting her close enough to orgasm, but keeping her just on the edge. Applejack and Rainbow Dash stopped their kissing and positioned themselves to support Fluttershy as Pinkie slowly pulled herself out.
"Whew...sorry about that, Fluttershy just loves thick cream pies." Pinkie giggled, looking at the vast amount of cum leaking from the pegasus' pussy. "But let me help you feel good." Nodding to the girls, she silently commanded them.
Grabbing at her arms and shoulders, Applejack and Rainbow Dash started moving Flurry's body. Rarity, stopping her tongue fucking, secured the alicorn's legs to help in her movement. Fluttershy only rolled herself over, clearly too tired to help with the others. Pinkie only smiled with glee as she saw the slightly dazed Flurry being repositioned until her slick, juice and cum coated cock was nearly resting on the alicorn's face.
Flurry's eyes went wide as the dick was so close to her face. But because of this, she could smell it. The musk radiating off this thing, it was potent, it was strong, and it was making her senses grow number and number. Pinkie's smile, for the briefest of moment, looked almost sinister in Flurry's hazy vision, but her mind was unable to process anything too complex. Releasing her, the other mares help Fluttershy up and off the bed. Pinkie wasn't even paying attention to them as they left the room.
"You smell that?" Pinkie asked, seeing Flurry's expression; how her face was blushing and it was clear she had absolute faith in the mare. "Have you seen anything this big before?"
"...o-only in magazines..." Flurry cooed, seeing Pinkie's size throbbing and twitching. A glob of precum oozed out of the cockhead, dropping on her cheek. The warmth made her shiver, and as it trickled close to her mouth, she instinctively licked at the little glob. "It's...it's so strong..."
"Oh yeah, and I eat a lot of sweets...so my cock is going to be even sweeter." Pinkie giggled, smiling a lot more cheerfully at the alicorn. "Wanna have a taste?" Flurry wasn't given any amount of time to reply as the pink mare lifted and angled her cock against the alicorn's lips.
Pressing a little more forward, Pinkie's slick cock easily slipped past Flurry's lips, the alicorn didn't have the strength to resist as the thick girth was wedging its way in her mouth. Her eyes went wider than before, only to then half close as the taste was overwhelming her senses. Her nostrils filled with the burning musk that radiated off the thick, pink cock. And the taste was enough to make her body tingle with delight and she was feeling her sensitive pussy dripping out her own sweet juices.
"Oh Flurry...your mouth feels so good." Pinkie moaned, angling herself as to be more over the alicorn's body. Licking her lips, she leaned in closer to give Flurry's tender, younger pussy a gentle lick. "Oooo! You taste so good!" As she moaned, the pink slutmare only picked up her steady and deep humping against Flurry's face.
Flurry's mind and body were in a frenzy. Her throat was swelling with the size of the meaty cock hammering slowly in and out of her mouth. As well as this, Pinkie was eating out the alicorn's pussy with a much more cheerful and passionate display compared to Rarity's previous displays. Flurry couldn't help but let out a pleasurable moan, even as muffled as her voice was, it was making her body tingle with delights she had never felt in any wet dream. Pinkie's own mind was filled with all the things she wanted to do to the alicorn, and especially the cries of pleasure she was going to fuck out of her precious, timid body.
"Don't worry, Flurry." Pinkie giggled, licking and tongue fucking Flurry as she was getting close and closer to another orgasm. "I'm gonna cum...I'm gonna cum...your sexy mouth is going to make your Auntie Pinkie Pie cum!"
Pinkie could barely let out anything else but moans, matching the sounds Flurry was making as she was getting closer to the orgasm she was previously denied. The sweet tasting pussy was getting wetter and getter, and her throat was tightening around Pinkie's shaft as she was ready to cum in the alicorn's belly. Huffing and moaning, the pink slutmare was just at her breaking point. But just as she was ready to cum, she removed herself from Flurry's pussy.
"I'm cumming...I'm cumming!" Pinkie moaned, now arched back as to get a good look of Flurry's twitching and trembling body as she was about to cum too. Placing her hands gently on the sides of the alicorn's neck, but not enough to choke her. "Be a good girl Flurry, swallow it all!"
Flurry's body struggled, at least instinctively, to try and pull herself off this fat cock releasing such thick loads of cum deep in her belly. Pinkie's hold was too strong and the alicorn was too weak to put up much of a fight. Unable to get this dick off, Flurry could only swallow as much cum as being pumped into her. Drinking down this thick, milkshake like nectar, the alicorn felt as her belly was filling with this heavy load. As well as this, the combined taste, pressure, and smell was far too much for her. Flurry's pussy spasmed out in pleasure, squirting and spraying out in her own climax.
"Did you just cum?" Pinkie asked with a giggle, nearly done with her own climax. "Did you just cum from me filling your belly? Aww, Flurry Heart, you're so naughty." After a few more moments, she slowly pulled her cock free of the alicorn's mouth, leaving some strings of cum between the cockhead and her lips. "How did that feel?" Flurry could only gurgle out in a cooing sound. "That's the spirit. But I think it's time I make you feel better? Do you want that?" Flurry barely had the strength to nod, but the pink mare helped her. "There we go. Now just hold on a moment."
Moving herself to the other end of the bed, Pinkie angled her oozing cockhead towards Flurry's moist entrance. The alicorn didn't have the strength to do anything. If anything, she was barely aware of what was happening as her pussy was being kissed against Pinkie's cockhead. As the first inch or so was being slowly forced into this prime and somewhat untouched alicorn pussy, the pink slutmare's eyes sparkled as she eagerly licked her lips.
Flurry's belly twitched and jiggled a little, matching that of her sizable breasts and twitching nipples. She moaned as she could feel her pussy being slowly opened by this fat cock. Whatever passed for virginity on her was easily broken, and her inner folds made way for this girth size. Pinkie continued to move herself into the alicorn's pussy, savoring the slow build up of the tight entrance that was surrendering to her.
"And I thought your mouth was tight." Pinkie giggled, getting nearly half her length in there. "But your pussy feels so good, Flurry!" The mare continued to work her way slowly in the alicorn's pussy. Flurry tried to say something, only letting out low moans. "Shh, shh, don't worry. I'll make you feel even better..." Her voice slowly became a whisper. "When you shape your pussy with my cock."
"There we go, much better." Zecora sneered down with glee as she savored the sight before her. On their knees, both Cadance and Twilight were taking turns sucking off her cock. "Keep it up and I'll be good and ready for you, Princess."
"Don't get too full of yourself." Cadance protested, glaring angrily at Zecora as she was bobbing her head up and down along the cock. Her eyes would occasionally look to Twilight, who was shimmering with hearts in her eyes as she suckled on the heavy, leathery zebra balls. "Once this is over, you'll pay for this."
"Maybe I will, but not right now." Zecora laughed, playfully rubbing Cadance's mane, much to the alicorn's growling. "But right now, I think I'm ready to fuck that pussy." Snapping her fingers, she looked to the other mare. "Twilight, fetch a good table."
Twilight's magic summoned forth a table, a sturdy piece of solid wood that has been beautifully carved in the shame of a spread open book. The legs of this table took the shape of ponies lifting this "book". A "Weight of Wisdom '' as Twilight called it when Cadance commissioned this very table to her sister-in-law for her birthday. Whether Zecora knew it or not, this table was nothing more than another insult to her and her love for Twilight.
Not having a choice, Cadance did what she believed Zecora wanted. Getting up, she moved herself to the table, but stopped at its edge. Rubbing along its rim, her mind recalled getting this for Twilight. The sheer joy on the alicorn's face when she got a book table. And it was about to be defiled by this zebra; this vile mare who would sully any and everything Cadance and Twilight cared about. Swallowing hard, she leaned against the table, disgusted as she presented her ass to Zecora.
"Not bad, but not what I want." Zecora said, gesturing with her finger in a small, spinning motion. "But I want you to look at me when I fuck you. Turn around and lay back on the table. Oh! And be sure to beg."
"What?" Cadance asked, her eyes burning with hate as she realized what Zecora wanted. "You can't possibly-"
"Don't you want to see it, Twilight?" Zecora asked, only for the mare to nervously nod her head. "See? Now don't you want to show off to your sister-in-law? Or should I have her be the first to-"
"Please!" Cadance yelped out, only to clear her throat. She knew she had no choice. She had to protect Twilight; no matter what, no matter the humiliation she would have to endure. All was for her. Laying back on the table, she spread her legs, rubbing her pussy to get it wet with her fingers. "Please...please fuck my pussy." Seeing that Zecora seemed unconvinced, she tried again. Using a more sultry, alluring voice. "Y-you don't want a mare like Twilight. She's...too young...I mean inexperienced. She's never handled a cock like yours. You know my pussy would feel so much better."
"There, now was that really so hard?" Zecora asked, smirking as she approached the alicorn. Laying her large cock along Cadance's belly, she showed off just how deep she was going to be any moment. "I think we're going to see how long before you become my newest whore." Before Cadance could say another word, or even make another sound, the zebra pulled back and thrusted her full length in her pussy.
Zecora was just as brutal and merciless as Cadance feared. Bottoming out on the first thrust, and filling her insides with the thick zebra meat. Twilight only watched, still playing the part of the shy and submissive mare, but part of her was a little jealous of her sister-in-law. But she knew it wouldn't be too long before Cadance would join them. Zecora's cock was hammering in this milfmare's pussy and was set to reshape it until it was only fit for the zebra's cock.
Cadance gasped and moaned, her body was unable to deny the sheer pleasure being forced through her. She hated this, but Zecora only seemed to relish in the alicorn's anguish and humiliation. Twilight only continued to watch, doing as her mistress had told her before this all began. Cadance was going to be broken in soon enough, and part of her felt only a sliver of pity towards her sister-in-law. But the rest of her mind understood, it was futile. Far better to submit to Zecora's cock than to keep resisting.
"Fuck, you're so tight!" Zecora grunted, feeling Cadance's inner walls coil and squeeze along her dick. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were enjoying this."
"I-I'm not..." Cadance groaned, trying her best to hold back as many moans as she could. "I-I-I'm just doing this...for...for Twilight..."
"Sure you are." Zecora replied with a smirk. It was time to let Cadance in on the truth. "Twilight...why don't you tell your darling sister-in-law the truth." Cadance's eyes widened at those words, as Twilight slowly approached her.
"It's going to be so wonderful when you join us, Cadance." Twilight said, leaning over to the table. Her eyes were almost glowing with love and lust, powerful emotions the alicorn princess could see; and it filled her with fear. "I can't wait for you to join us. It feels so good to be Zecora's whore. You'll see..."
Cadance's eyes went dead, her will was nearly shattered, and her body lost almost all strength. She had been tricked, and she was only now realizing this. Zecora, cruel as she was, continued to fuck the mare without remorse. For what felt like an eternity, Cadance tried to process what was happening. Her sister-in-law, her beloved Twilight, was gone. All that remained was this slutty mare who was only in love with Zecora's cock. The flickering remnants of love and passion she could see that seemed to connect the two was nothing more than an illusion. She tried to free Twilight, and all Cadance did was walk into the wicked zebra's trap.
"Come on you slut!" Zecora commented, groping at Cadance's tits, teasing and tugging at her nipples as she brought her back from her thoughts. "Don't forget about me!" Thrusting hard and harder, she did more to force out every sound she could from the alicorn. "How does it feel? Do know your sister was never in trouble?"
Cadance said nothing, could she even if she tried? Zecora didn't care for words, all that mattered was making this alicorn her's; especially the Power of Love. That was the goal, that was the zebra's obsession. She wanted it, she needed that Power. To claim it as her own and make anyone she chooses to be her new fuck slave. It filled her with a rush of pleasure, Zecora wanted this Power.
"Oh, Twilight. You're free to go about your day." Zecora ordered, causing Twilight to tense up from the sudden attention. "Just be sure we're not bothered until I'm finished."
"I will, thank you." Twilight nodded, turning her eyes back to Cadance. Leaning over, she placed her hands on the sides of her sister-in-law's face. "Don't worry Cadance, it'll get better soon." Leaning in, she gave the alicorn a tender kiss on the lips before pulling back. "Have fun."
With Twilight leaving the room, Zecora wasted no more time playing around with Cadance. She wanted to have her fun with the alicorn before claiming the Power of Love. Moving her hands down from her chest to the hips, Zecora fucked faster and deeper, making Cadance's tits bounce with each hard and deep thrust. She used this better angle to fuck as deep as she could and this alicorn had a very, very fuckable pussy.
"I see you're not the Princess of Love for nothing." Zecora laughed, mocking the milf as she continued thrusting in and out of her. "Your pussy is so fuckable! Your husband has been hoarding this sexy hole for so long." Her lips then curled into a smirk. "Or maybe you're just a whore who loves being fucked!"
Cadance said nothing, not wanting to give Zecora anything more to use against her. As well as the fact she was still working through the shock of Twilight's betrayal. She was now trapped, and what's worse, what fate might await Flurry Heart if she resists. Swallowing hard, Cadance was accepting her fate, but still wanted to protect those she cared about. With some measure of resolve, she turned her eyes back to Zecora.
"I-If I give you what you want. Let you...fuck me...impregnate me...whatever it is..." Cadance asked, her words occasionally being cut off by some moans. "Will you leave...my daughter alone?"
"Flurry? I'm not interested with her." Zecora said, not exactly lying but not telling the truth. "So sure, be a good whore, and I promise I won't touch her."
"I-I-I promise..." Cadance replied, her voice was weak, and part of her wanted to look towards the door, a fleeting hope that Twilight would regain her senses, break down the door, and rescue her. But the throbbing cock hammering in and out of her pussy brought her painfully back to reality. "I-I'll be a good whore."
"Good whore." Zecora smirked, reveling in her coming victory. But then again, there was no rush. If she was going to get the Power of Love no matter what now, she might as well enjoy herself. "Now, let's really have our fun!"
Getting a firmer hold on Cadance's tits, Zecora groped, tugged, and teased her breasts. Pulling at them, she fucked harder and harder into the alicorn's pussy. There was just something about this warm, wet, and tight embrace, something that made the zebra only want to break it. She could only imagine how such a perfect hole was able to be fucked, impregnated, give birth, and even years later, be so fucking tight. It was the perfect pussy, made for dick. Zecora's lips curled into a wicked smile.
"Fuck, you feel so good!" Zecora moaned, thrusting in and out of Cadance's pussy. "I can't believe you've had a child, you're so tight!" Making the alicorn moan out in forced pleasure. "You're ripe for another pregnancy."
Zecora's words only brought further shame to Cadance's being, but a part of her couldn't deny how the pain and humiliation was slowly developing into pleasure. She wasn't new to rough play, nor was she a stranger to more brutal forms of fucking, but they were always done with the love and devotion she felt towards her husband. But this zebra, with a cock that could bring even her well hung stallion to shame, was reaching, stretching, and rubbing along her inner folds and violating her most delicate and special places.
"Come on, you whore!" Zecora demanded, releasing Cadance's tits, only to smack them; this only caused the alicorn to yelp from the sting. "I wanna hear more of those moans!"
Feeling herself falling further and further into the depravity and carnality. This was not unfamiliar terrain and feeling, but to be forced into this state by such a hated creature, this wicked zebra was making her feel good. Cadance hated it, but what's more, she was hating herself for falling. Zecora continued to fuck harder and harder, she was showing the alicorn no mercy, giving less than a fuck about her well being. All that mattered was her prize at the end.
"I think we're just about good here." Zecora commented, slowing down her humping as she tugged Cadance's nipples. "But don't worry, we're not done yet." Pulling herself out, she twirled her finger around. "Roll over, slut."
Obeying the zebra, Cadance weakly moved herself until she was face down, flank up. Zecora only snickered, laughing a little as she playfully patted her hand on the mare's ass. Rubbing and groping the soft flank, she reangled herself along the slick, wet, fucked open pussy lips. Try as she might, Cadance couldn't hold back the weak moan that escaped her lips. Raising a curious eyebrow, Zecora smacked the alicorn's ass, making a much more sultry noise leave her throat.
"Oh? What's this?" Zecora asked, only to then smile. "I think I found something that can really get you going." Cadance tried to say something, but whatever it was, the zebra smacked her ass again, making her moan outwards. "Sounds to me like the Princess of Love is a total butt slut. Is that it? You like your ass being fucked?"
Again, Cadance tried to say something, but Zecora silenced her by smacking her ass; this time harder. Enjoying herself, she wanted to push this alicorn further and further. Pressing the head of her cock back against the moist entrance, there was only a small laugh. This was the only warning Cadance was given before Zecora bottomed out back in this tight, wet hole. As the alicorn tried to say something, anything, whenever it wasn't a moan, the zebra smacked her ass again and again.
"Come on you whore! I wanna hear you scream!" Zecora commented, almost demanding Cadance to submit. "You're a fucking whore! A butt slut that gets off having your flank smacked!" Cadance tried to remain resistant, but it only seemed to make her soon to be mistress want to fuck her harder.
Smacking her ass, Zecora was leaving red marks on the alicorn's flank, making the soft flesh jiggle and bounce against her cock. But what really made her eyes gleam with amusement, was that Cadance's hips were bouncing her cock against the huge cock without her having to make her. The Princess' body was almost there, almost fully under the sway of Zecora's lust. But regardless, she continued to drive herself in and out of this sweet pussy, she wanted to stuff every possible inch of this hole.
"You're getting tighter." Zecora laughed, now smacking the other ass cheek, making Cadance moan in the forced pleasure. "You like that? You like being fucked like a whore?" Cadance remained silent, albeit the moans pulled from her. "Then maybe...I should...do..." Pulling herself slowly out of the pussy, but then press the slick cockhead against her tight pucker. "THIS!"
Ramming herself as hard as she could, Zecora bottomed out in Cadance's ass. The mare gasped and moaned in the sudden feeling. But not just from the pain, but the absolute bliss of pleasure that was surging through her body like an electric, magical impulse. Her pussy spasmed in orgasm, soaking the table as Zecora only continued to fuck in and out of the tight tailhole. Smacking her ass again, the zebra knew she had won. She knew the Princess' weakness, and was exploiting the fuck out of it.
"You like that? You love being fucked in the ass, you whore?" Zecora asked, grabbing at Cadance's arms. Pulling them back, she fucked harder and rougher, making sure her full length was buried in the royal ass with each throbbing moment. "You love being fucked in the ass by some fat cock?"
Cadance didn't reply with words, it was questionable if she could even respond with words. But she did moan, loudly and passionately. It was clear, she was broken, cumming, and submitted to Zecora's cock. Smirking at her victory, she continued to fuck, feeling herself getting closer and closer to an orgasm. Huffing, Zecora could feel it, the release that was ready to burst.
"Here comes your anal loving slut!" Zecora grunted, gritting her teeth. Pumping herself harder and harder, she was about to cum. "Take it! Fucking cum from me raping your ass, and give...me...the Power...of...Love!"
Cadance screamed out in orgasm, her pussy leaving a pool of juices on the table, soaking her knees and legs as she partially collapsed. Her ass squeezed hard against Zecora's cock, as the zebra released her full load in the mare's rear hole. The sheer volume of this zebra spunk flooded her insides, swelling her belly. But this wasn't enough space for the amount of cum filling her, as Cadance could taste the thick, potent, and virile cum coming up her throat. Unable to hold back, some cum gushed out of her mouth, causing her tongue to hang from her mouth and eyes rolled back.
Holding herself in place, Zecora continued to pump rope after thick rope of her cum in the alicorn. Her victory was almost there. Cadance had submitted, and soon the zebra would have the Power of Love. Staring down at the now defeated and fucked mare, she smirked. It was time, she could feel it. She wanted it, the Power...the absolute Power of Love. With it, she would no longer feel bound by the limitations of the rest of the world. She would have it. Zecora could have the land of Equestria, and beyond, all to herself.
Zecora felt it, the surge of pleasure, the lustful longing that she had fucked in Cadance's body. Her cum stuffed the milf's womb, possibly impregnating this mare with her potent, zebra seed. Cadance only went limp, her body too weak to do anything other than the occasional twitching. The zebra spunk leaked out of her pussy, between her dick. Even as her bloated belly swelled with every few breaths she took. But as Zecora stood there, still in the mare, she felt nothing.
"What...where is it?" Zecora asked aloud, thinking hard over why she wasn't feeling anything. Her eyes turned towards Cadance. Grabbing at her mane, she tugged on it to get the milf's attention. "Where is it? Where is the Power of Love?"
"The Power...of Love...?" Cadance weakly asked, her eyes were glossed over as she was slowly drifting into unconsciousness. More cum gushed out of her mouth as she spoke. "I...don't have it..."
"What?! Who then? Who has it?" Zecora demanded, shaking and tugging at the mare's mane to keep her awake. Grabbing at her face, she turned her to face her now angry eyes. "Tell me! Who has the Power?"
"It...can only...be given to someone...you truly love..." Cadance explained, her words almost becoming mumbled as she was nearly out cold. Her last words seemed to echo in the zebra's mind however. "...I'm sorry...Flurry...I'm a bad...mommy..."
Zecora's eyes went wide as she realized Cadance's words. It couldn't be...but...what if...? Pinkie?! Before she had another moment, the zebra pulled herself from the alicorn's fucked full, cum gushing ass. Running as fast as her legs could carry her, Zecora searched for Pinkie. Maybe it wasn't too late, maybe she could get the Power of Love. But above all else, that pink slutmare was the absolutely last pony to have what she sought. The only lingering hope was that she wasn't too late.
Pinkie's body was huffing and moaning as she was thrusting in and out of Flurry's body. The alicorn's pussy was squeezing and milking along the thick cock hammering inside her. Both mares were in a euphoric high, savoring and relishing in the raw pleasure that was echoing out in the room. Pinkie's cock beat hard and deep in Flurry's pussy, kissing deeply against her cervix. Having turned the alicorn over, the slutmare fucked her from behind, tugging at her arms to keep her upwards, as well as letting her tits bounce with each thrust of the huge cock.
"I'm getting close to Flurry!" Pinkie moaned, her own tits were bouncing with each motion of her body. She was loving everything about this, from the softness of Flurry's ass smacking against her hips, to her smaller tits and hard nipple, as well as her soft, wet pussy. "How does it feel? You like that? You like Pinkie's fat cock in your pussy?"
"I love it! I love Auntie Pinkie!" Flurry moaned, sparks flying out of her horn as she was cumming over and over again all over the pink mare's cock. "I can't stop, it feels so good. I never want this to stop!"
"You want your Auntie Pinkie to keep fucking you?" Pinkie asked with a giggle, her body was getting more and more tingly as she could feel a surge of pleasure fill her. "Do you love your Auntie Pinkie?"
"I do! I do! I love you, Auntie Pinkie!" Flurry moaned, her horn sparking more and more as the pleasure was filling her. Her pussy tightened around Pinkie's cock as it stretched and shaped her in the form of this girth. "Keep fucking me! Give it to me! I want all of it!"
"That's a good girl! Keep moaning! Keep loving me!" Pinkie cheered, her eyes gleaming with a triumphant euphoria. Her cock only swelled in size as she was getting ready to cum. "I'm cumming, Flurry. I'm gonna cum in your yummy, sloppy, royal pussy!"
Flurry only continued to moan feeling as she was ready to accept Pinkie's warm cum. The pink slutmare fucked faster and faster, not even noticing as the door was being opened by Zecora. The zebra shouted something, but it fell on deaf ears as Pinkie pulled as hard as she could. Flurry only screamed in the raw pleasure, feeling as her tight pussy embraced this huge cock, and the vast amounts of hot cum being released inside her.
The unicorn's horn erupted with magical flashes and sparks. As well as a mystifying aura that spewed out of her. Zecora could only watch as this aura drifted from Flurry's horn, and enveloped Pinkie's body. Pinkie seemed fully unaware of this, only shivering and her eyes rolling back as she came in Flurry's pussy. The alicorn's womb was flooded with the potent cum, saturating her insides and leaving only a wet mess that caused her belly to swell in a rounder size.
Holding herself in there for a moment, some sense of awareness returned to Pinkie, but it was just enough for her to pull out of Flurry's pussy. The alicorn collapsed on the bed, twitching as her tongue hung from her mouth, and thick cum gushed out of her fucked open pussy. Standing there for a moment, Pinkie was motionless, seemingly unaware of the aura that was swirling around her like a fine mist. But Zecora was livid, anger burning in her eyes as she stared at the slutmare.
"Pinkie!" Zecora shouted at the mare, trying to get her attention. "That power was meant for me. Hand it over to me...now!"
As the light illuminating Pinkie faded, her body changed. Her tits, ass and curves became large and more defined. Her height grew until she could stare eye to eye with Princess Celestia. Her cock throbbed and swelled in size and girth, becoming more like a third arm and just as hard. And while no horn or wings grew from her body, she radiated this commanding, authoritative aura, which only reflected in her serious, glowing eyes. But what seemed to be the most noticeable, her mane and tail, they were no longer poofy like some happy fluff, but were long and straight, falling down until it was along the middle of her back.
"Ze...cor...a..." Pinkie said, turning to face Zecora. The zebra nearly fell over from just the look alone. The mare's eyes, they seemed to only pierce into her soul. But what made her blood run cold, was her wicked and sinister smile. "Thank you...I couldn't have done it without you." |
Sinister Stripes | A New, Pink Reign | Things have changed since Pinkie Pie acquired the Power of Love. The once giggly and friendly earth mare, known infamously as the Ponyville Whore was now sitting on the high throne of Canterlot. Her former home of Ponyville was the first settlement to fall under her sway. Debauchery and carnal desires ran rampant. Ponies fucked other ponies, with almost no restrain and limits. Very few taboos remained as sons who had just come of age were fucking their mums, sisters, aunts, and cousins. Fathers were impregnating other men's wives, their now adult daughters, and harems were common.
Not even the Royal Sisters, Celestia and Luna could stand against Pinkie's new reign. Where once both were seen as the pinnacles of dignity and purity, were now naked and impregnated whores, chained and moaning at their new Queen's side, as she sat on the throne. Atop her head, a glimmering crown crafted from the melted and reforged remains of the other alicorn crowns, but Pinkie wore little much else. Hanging between her legs, almost always hard and throbbing, was her massive pink cock; the "royal scepter" as it was called, and any who stared at it for too long was prone to be fucked by its mighty size.
As well as this, the citizens of Equestria and even stretching to the Crystal Empire underwent a change. Like radiation, the magic that Pinkie commanded warped and twisted the common ponies. Not all were seemingly affected physically, but many were. Where some stallions grew bigger dicks, or even grew in size to become living embodiments of masculinity, others went in the other direction, becoming twinks and femboys with dicks so small, they were practically clits. Mares were just as affected, some growing cocks that were second only to their new Whore Queen, while others had their features exaggerated and swelled while their minds became more carnal than reasonable.
Regardless of how the ponies of Equestria were altered by this magic, all praised and cheered the new regime of Pinkie Pie. She was the new Queen of Equestria and all celebrated her rule by endless orgies, debauchery, and wild passions. Despite all this, the country still ran somewhat the same. Farm work was still done, albeit with many farmers fucking in the fields. Clouds and weather still ran as always, though often the taste of cum would mix with the rain that fell. And the general economy exploded with various boons brought about through the now open implication of prostitution.
It was as if Equestria was the same, and yet different. All things that kept the country going were maintained, but there were no longer any fears and concerns over the concepts of sex and perversion. If anything, just about every citizen in Equestria was happy to finally be free of their previously restraining and repressed feelings. When a mare wanted a dick, she could get one, or twelve whenever she wanted. Stallions no longer had to worry what others thought of them or their dicks, especially with the now common fashions of the country being more optional than anything else. Truly, Pinkie Pie had issued a golden, carnal age for Equestria.
Up in Canterlot, sitting upon her throne, Pinkie sat in comfort. At her sides, both Celestia and Luna, their bodies naked and bellies full of both their Queen's cum and heirs, were moaning and cooing as they sat in their latest afterglow. In front of the mare, kneeling before her mighty cock and worshiping at it, was her beloved pet, Button Mash. The twink had now been dressed in much more expensive clothes, but it was little more than a silk nightgown, some gold adorning his body, and his lips glazed with his mistress' cum. It was only the movement of her attendant that took Pinkie's attention from the twink.
This mare, Raven Inkwell, once the earth mare aid to Princess Celestia, was now little more than a giggling, busty bimbo wearing what was now a heavily modified version of her once proud but prudish attire. Her huge tits bounced, nearly spilling out of her tight, tied up shirt that showed off her midsection that held a shimmering silver piercing. Her round hips and sexy ass was barely concealed by a skirt that was less than mini that didn't bother hiding her lack of panties and dripping wet pussy.
"Like, my Queen?" Raven asked, speaking with what little remained of her intelligence. Though she was among some of the lucky bimbos that were not complete airheads, she still had dick on the brains. "If you're ready, I can let you know how things are going."
"Please, proceed." Pinkie responded, sounding somewhat serious, but her smiling face was only making the bimbo wetter. "How's my new empire?"
"Well...starting with Canterlot. The nobles have had a few minor complaints regarding your laws about open sex." Raven explained, she then flipped to the next page in her report. "But...your totally amazing idea to have the Grand Galloping Gala erupt into an orgy stopped them, and many have now started planning a dozen or so marriages."
"Very good." Pinkie giggled, placing a hand on the back of Button's head to keep his cock sucking pace steady. "What about the rest?"
"Ponyville has celebrated an All-Breeding Festival, in which many ponies have partnered up and the amount of pregnancies is like...really high." Raven commented, clearly starting to get a little hot and bothered in her explanation. "Cloudsdale has been celebrating open sex parties, especially with the Wonderbolts being able to raise money for the chance to fuck the flyers."
"Excellent, fucking excellent!" Pinkie said with a smile on her face. Facefucking Button's mouth faster and faster, her expression was twisting into a coming orgasm. "That makes me so happy I could...could...fuck!"
Pinkie moaned out in orgasm, stuffing Button's mouth and throat with cum as she forced him to bottom out over his royal cock. Her hot and thick cum flooded in his belly, causing it to swell and become round just like the Princesses. Shivering, her eyes nearly rolled back from the pleasure. Though she was the absolute ruler of Equestria now, making all who approached her feel the effects of the Power of Love, her own pleasure was greatly amplified, making every orgasm body shaking powerful.
"Well, I guess I better check up on my friends." Pinkie commented, still in the afterglow of her release, she lifted Button off her dick. Standing, her cock was still hard but seemingly cleaned of the previous climax. "Get the magic circle ready! It's time for inspections!"
With a bright and orgasmic sounding flash of light and magic, Pinkie was transported to Ponyville. At her sides, two royal guards, unicorn mares, both with their own cocks hanging between their legs. As soon as she arrived, her eyes were met with the sights, sounds, and smells of the open and loud sex that was happening all around her. Ponies who made a living selling their goods at the stalls were being fucked by their customers, a new form of haggling. Mares who were previously stuck up and bratty were begging for more cum to stuffy their slutty holes.
"Looks good around here." Pinkie nodded to herself with a satisfying smile. Looking around, she wondered what was the first thing she was going to look over. The sparkling, crystalline castle of Princess Twilight caught her attention. "I guess I'll see how Twilight's doing!"
Skipping her way towards the castle, Pinkie's tits bounced heavily, drawing the attention of many who looked at her. But this was a look of reverence, even from ponies who only not long ago used to judge her for being the local whore. Now, these ponies were either masturbating to her as she skipped by them. It brought a giggling smile across her face, though her eyes gave a momentary glance of pride and smugness. She was now their Queen, and those who once mocked and gossiped about her were now their obedient little sluts.
Arriving at the Castle of Friendship, Pinkie was happy to see the door was fully open, inviting anyone who wanted to, to walk in. Continuing inside, the slut queen could not only smell the powerful and delectable scent of raw and passionate sex, but could hear the sound of numerous mares moaning. Following the sound, her eager eyes were met with the sight of her friend, Twilight, as well as Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon. But it was who was being gangbanged between these three mares that made the mare smile.
Twilight Velvet, Twilight's own milf mother was being fucked in all her holes by not only her daughter, but Starlight and Trixie. Ever since they grew cocks, they couldn't help but fuck any mare that they could could get their dicks in. So it wasn't at all a surprise when her mum came to visit, and now she was being fucked like the milf whore she was. In Pinkie's new world, incest was so common, it was practically a requirement whenever meeting family.
"Come on mum, keep sucking!" Twilight moaned, facefucking her mother's throat on her dick. "I'm getting close!"
"Yes, so am I!" Trixie commented, letting Velvet ride her cock over and over again. Her pussy was squeezing on her length. "Be prepared Twilight. For the Great and Powerful Trixie may sire you a new sibling."
"Keep talking like that, and I might just stuff a foal in you, and your mother." Starlight added, pounding in and out of Velvet's ass. Raising a hand, she smacked the milf's flank, making the bimbo's flesh jiggling. "Fuck, Twilight. Your mother's a bigger whore than my dad!"
"That reminds me, we should invite your father over." Twilight suggested, giggling as sexual plans were forming in her head. "Maybe we can form a fuck line and stuff them both up with cum?" Starlight and Trixie only nodded, giggling in agreement.
Pinkie only giggled to herself, her eyes were looking all over the sexy curves of Velvet's body. Her cock was twitching, leaking globs of precum as she licked her lips. She wanted to fuck this mare's body, she really, really wanted to. But she held back. There would be plenty of time to fuck milfs and bimbos later on. Right now, she was just walking around and inspecting Equestria. Though she knew she was going to need to really blow her load eventually.
Continuing her walk through Ponyville, Pinkie's eyes saw a few models outside the Carousel Boutique, a relatively newer feature that Rarity had added. Her mother, Cookie Crumble, as well as her sister, Sweetie Belle were displaying these new clothes. Though "clothes'' was a very loose term as it was little more than short, short skirts that were angled to show off Cookie's pussy, or Sweetie's twitching dick. Passersby would occasionally approach the models, groping them, sucking them off, or even fucking them as they moaned in pleasure.
"Come now, everypony." Rarity called out to the ponies fucking her mother and sister. "If you're not going to come inside, then only sample my models for a few minutes, I need them to-" Her words were cut off by the sight of Pinkie approaching. "Oh! Queen Pinkie Pie! Welcome, welcome!"
"You don't have to do the whole Queen thing, Rarity." Pinkie giggled, giving her friend a close hug, which only sent shivers through their spines as their half erect cocks rubbed together. "But I am here to see how things have been."
"Oh, darling they've been fabulous." Rarity said, kissing both cheeks before guiding her friend to follow her. "Please, come, come, come inside."
"Rarity, that was always the plan." Pinkie giggled, staring at Rarity's bouncing ass as the mare led her inside. "But since I'm here, I'd like a fitting if you know what I mean?"
"Oh yes, yes, I would love to. Please, please, come this way!" Rarity replied, guiding Pinkie into the more secluded sections of her workshop. Setting up the slutmare on the small platform, she went straight to work. Taking her magically lifted measuring tape, the seamstress began to give proper measurements of her friend's cock. "Let's see...oh my. Pinkie, darling, your cock has grown bigger than the last time you were here."
"Well, when you get to see so many sexy things, it happens." Pinkie giggled, her cock throbbing as it was starting to swell from the feeling of Rarity's hot breath kissing at it. "Think I can still wear my queen's gown?"
"Oh, I would like to believe so, but I will need to take a much deeper measurement before I can give a full estimate." Rarity commented, pulling the tape away. Gripping at Pinkie's cock, the unicorn kissed the cockhead. "Well, the tip seemed to be about the same, but how long is the length?"
Opening her mouth, Rarity proceeded to take in Pinkie's length. Sucking a little along the cockhead, she took in inch after inch of this royal cock. The mare moaned in a muffled pleasure, unable to control herself. While she started bobbing her face more and more over Pinkie's girth, keeping one hand to stroke the cock, her other hand was busy stroking off her own dick. The sound of muffled moans continued to rise as Pinkie watched with a satisfying smirk.
Faster and faster, Rarity was now taking in more than half the length, almost fully deepthroating her queen's "scepter". This royal cock tasted heavenly and she couldn't stop herself from wanting more and more of it inside her. Pinkie didn't stop her friend as more and more of her pink dick was being swallowed by this classy whore's mouth. Letting out a small coo, the queen felt as she was going to get closer and closer to orgasm.
"It's coming, Rarity." Pinkie moaned, placing both hands on the sides of her friend's face. "But I want to feel it really deep."
After saying this, Pinkie started taking Rarity over and over as her cock was being hammered in and out of her throat. The queen was moaning louder and louder as she was getting close to orgasm. Rarity stroked herself off, letting out spurts of her own cum that was splattering against the platform. Pinkie continued to fuck into Rarity's mouth, getting herself right to the point of orgasm. Her tongue hung from the side of her mouth as she was just about there.
"Here it comes!" Pinkie giggled in orgasm. Rarity only moaned her muffled sounds, letting her friend bottom out her full length deep in the back of her throat. "Fucking take this dick!"
Rarity eagerly and happily drank her friend and queen's sweet and thick nectar. The throbbing cock between her own legs was spurting out in orgasm as she was cumming from the flavor of Pinkie's spunk. The pink mare held her friend in place as she emptied out as much as she could. Shivering from the pleasure, she eventually let the unicorn go, only for her to fall back and get a splatter of cum on her face.
"Got a good measurement?" Pinkie asked with a giggle. "Cause I'd love to play all day, but I have a really long day."
"I...can do it..." Rarity commented, panting as she was licking and savoring the cum on her face. "I'll have it ready before you know it."
"Okie dokie lokie." Pinkie nodded with a smile. And as she was getting ready to leave, both Sweetie Belle and Cookie Crumble walked into the boutique. Possibly taking a break from their displaying, but their sexy bodies were enough to get their queen aroused again. Giggling, she thought to herself. 'Looks like I have some time after all.'
Spending much longer at the boutique than she initially planned to, Pinkie made her way over to Sweet Apple Acres. Though it was closer to the middle of the afternoon, she knew her friend would still be hard at work. Walking along the apple trees, she looked for her friend, following the sound of what could only be whorish moaning and masculine grunting until she found who she was looking for. Not just Applejack, but her younger sister Apple Bloom, and their older brother Big Mac.
Though the effects of her new rule has granted many mares into bimbos and some even had cocks, some stallions did get the chance to become studs. Big Mac was already a studly and masculine stallion, but now he was even more than that. His muscles were impressive, rivaling rocks in their sturdiness. But it was the cock between his legs that made Pinkie's mouth water. It was massive, almost twice as long as it was the last time she sucked on it.
Bend over a tree, Applejack was being brutally fucked from behind by Big Mac. His cock was hammering in and out of her pussy, stretching it to points no sane mare could handle. But this earth pony family was known for their durability, and determination to get the job done. Below her, sitting and leaning her back against this same tree, Apple Bloom was getting her throat fucked by her big sister, all while feverishly masturbating and moaning.
Rather than join in immediately, Pinkie decided to watch this display. It was so hot watching those three fuck, even before all this happened. She was among some of the few who actually know the three apple siblings loved to engage in incest. More than one occasion, she had even joined in, but often liked to give the loving three their space. Shivering a little, Pinkie couldn't register stroking her cock though. Panting a little, a realization came to her.
"You two!" Pinkie ordered, looking back at the unicorn mares she had with her as guards. "I'm super horny. So get to it!" Adjusting herself, she didn't want to look away, but let the mares get close enough.
The first knelt before Pinkie's cock, taking off her helmet to allow better access to suck off her queen. The second positioned herself behind the monarch, angling her cock to press against the soaked pussy entrance. It took a couple seconds to get into the pattern and pace, but before long, the three of them were now matching that of the apple siblings. Pinkie only giggled out a low moan. She didn't want to be caught, at least not yet, but these guards were highly skilled at sucking and fucking with a cock.
Big Mac huffed and groaned, his cock was swelling as it was filling up Applejack's pussy. Her belly was already round enough from the countless other loads her brother must've filled her up with throughout the day. Apple Bloom didn't sport the same size, but her belly had a distinct shape implying she had been drinking a lot of cum all day too. Applejack continued to moan, her voice carried over like a sweet and alluring melody. It was so hard not to just rush over there and fuck her like mad. But Pinkie did her best to endure.
The two mares fucking Pinkie were doing the best they could. The mare behind her was fucking faster and faster, having pleasured her queen before, she knew the best and sweetest spots in the whoremare to pleasure. While the one now deepthroating Pinkie's royal size, she was a little newer to her charge. Having been trained to handle cocks, was still not fully prepared to take in the pinkie scepter for too long. She had a lot of potential however, and Pinkie could only imagine how fun it would be to fuck her more.
After several long and agonizingly sexy minutes of watching her friend get fucked, as well as feeling her own body be stimulated, Pinkie's mind was in a full lustful frenzy. Pulling herself free of her guards, the slut queen made her way over to the apple siblings. Though they saw her approaching, it didn't really stop them from fucking. Slow down, maybe, but not altogether stop. The mare guards followed their queen, but remained quiet.
"Pinkie Pie?! What are you..." Applejack asked, moaning as Big Mac's cock was making it hard to form words. "Why are you..."
"I came to see how you're all doing, silly." Pinkie replied with a smile. "But then I saw you three having fun, and well...I got horny. Really...really horny."
"Well...I'm sure there's plenty of Big Mac to go around." Applejack laughed, looking over as her brother was already eyeing Pinkie's features. "Or if you want. Can you help me double team Apple Bloom?"
"I wanna do both!" Pinkie exclaimed, walking up to Big Mac. She leaned her large tits against his side. "You wanna fuck my pinkie pussy again Big Mac?" The stallion eagerly nodded, smiling at her. "Yay! Well finish with your sister, while I fuck the brains out of your other sister."
Snapping her fingers, she got her guards to join her in this fun. Though it took more than a couple minutes to get this new arrangement to work, after a short while, Pinkie had what she was looking for. All the way at one end, Big Mac was fucking Applejack's pussy, stuffing her with cock and cum as the mare was moaning for more. In front of her, Apple Bloom was not only being fucked by her sister, but was having her throat fucked by Pinkie's own massive size. And at her sides, being stroked off by the mare's hands, Pinkie's guards were being pleasured.
Every so often, Apple Bloom would lift her mouth off Pinkie's to suck off one of the guards, switching between the two on occasion. The six of them were in a wild and passionate frenzy of pleasure and moaning. Big Mac was getting ready to pump in another load in his sister, while Pinkie was about to cum a thick glob of cum in Apple Bloom's mouth. Pushing themselves closer and closer, the ponies let out a loud scream of orgasmic pleasure.
The stallion came what could be assumed to be buckets or even a barrel's worth of cum in his sister's pussy. Every inch of her womb was soaked in her brother's potent seed. She in turn came a heavy amount in her own sister, stretching out her insides to fit the amount being pumped inside. This was added in not only by Pinkie's own spunk flooding Apple Bloom's belly, but her guards came their streaks of thick rope over their bodies. This carried on for a few moments before everypony all but collapsed, except for Pinkie.
"Now that's a fuck." Applejack cooed, laying against Big Mac in the afterglow of her climax. "It was good seeing you again Pinkie."
"It was fun. I gotta do some more looking around, but I'll be back." Pinkie replied with a giggling smile. Leaning down, she kissed at Big Mac's cock, which caused another spurt of cum to gush out, getting her in the face. "Ooo! So lively!"
"Big Mac is always good to go." Applejack cooed, getting up to give Pinkie a hug, as well as a sloppy wet, cum in the mouth kiss. "Be sure to come back anytime." She then rubbed a hand on her belly. "Cause I'm thinking the farm is about to get a little bigger."
"Oh my gosh!" Pinkie's eyes widened, sparkling in joy as she hugged Applejack closer. "I'm gonna plan the bestest party for you!"
"Thanks Pinkie, so happy to see how things have been." Applejack replied, hugging back. "Come back anytime." Kissing one more time, the cousins departed.
Nearly done with her inspection of Ponyville, Pinkie wanted to make one more stop. Walking along the streets, things have been pretty good. The town, even as the Sun was setting, was still as lively as it was during the day. Mares and stallions were still fucking like passionate lovers, but there were more and more street walking prositutes. Among one of them was Creamy Heart, joined by Cheerilee and Berry Punch. The three mares were seemingly competing to see who could suck off the most cocks, pouring the contents of their victories into a large bucket.
Since all things sexual had become legal and openly praised, formerly secret whores like Creamy have been everling in this new liberation. As well as this, friendly competition between many of the sluts have brought in numerous tourists. From how it looked, Creamy has become Ponyville's Champion Slut so far. Pinkie could only giggle, knowing she'd dominate the competition if she ever competed. But after another couple minutes, the object of her last stop came into view; Sugarcube Corners.
As soon as she walked inside, the overwhelming smell of sex, coupled with the sound of sultry moans only brought a smile to Pinkie's face. Following the sound and smell, she found herself in the kitchen, where her friend and mentor, Cup Cake was being brutally fucked by her daughter, Pumpkin Cake. Mrs. Cake's body had undergone a major change, becoming a living bimbo body. Her tits were absolutely massive, and her ass bounced in ways unthinkable. While her daughter sported a massive cock that seemed to always leak out precum.
In the corner, eagerly watching and jerking themselves off was Carrot Cake and their now twink son, Pound Cake. Pinkie only stood in the doorway, watching as the mother and daughter pair were fucking, while the milf mare's massive tits were seemingly being milked. The contents of her creamy breasts were spilling into a large bowl. The sweet aroma of sugar was being mixed in with this sexual smell.
"Smells like you're making a sex cake." Pinkie commented, now fully walking into the kitchen. "What's the occasion?"
"Well, we wanted to celebrate." Carrot spoke up, getting up as he walked over to Pinkie, giving her a big and tight hug. "Cup Cake is pregnant, and so we're getting the cake ready."
"Oooo! Congratulations!" Pinkie cheered, hugging Carrot back, her massive cock rubbed against his belly, twitching and leaking precum on it. "Who's the father?"
"No idea!" Pound added in, standing besides his father. "Mum's been getting fucked so much, we have no clue." He then glanced over to Pumpkin who was now fucking over her mother's body as if she was trying to slam as much cum as she could in her. "We're hoping it's either yours or Pumpkin's."
"Aww, thanks Pound!" Pinkie smiled, hugging Pound close to her. "Well if it's alright with you, I was curious if you all don't mind a quickie while I'm passing through."
"A quickie?!" Pumpkin called back, only now just noticing Pinkie was there. "Oh, Pinkie!" Pulling herself out of her mother, she rushed over to give the pink mare a hug, both their rather large cocks were rubbing together as their juices mixed. "I'm sorry I didn't see you there. Mum's pussy is so good, I couldn't think of anything else."
"Oh, I know what you mean." Pinkie giggled, looking at the fucked silly, cooing Cup Cake. "She's got such an amazing pussy. But since I'm here, I heard you might have gotten her pregnant. Maybe you'd like to have your Auntie Pinkie knock your slutty ass up?"
"You will? Oh yes, yes, thank you!" Pumpkin cheered, pressing her lips against Pinkie's as the two shared an open and passionate kiss. "I want your babies, Pinkie."
The mares made out for a moment as the daughter pulled her queen over towards the counter. As soon as her flank bumped against the counter, Pumpkin lifted herself up until she was sitting up on it. This lined up her pussy with Pinkie's hard cockhead. The mares moaned into each other's mouths as their dicks were twitching madly. Pulling back, both mares set themselves up so that when Pinkie would push herself in her pussy, Pumpkin's own cock would slip between the pink slutmare's lucious tits. WIth a giggle and moan, the two began.
Pumpkin's pussy was so tight, often never used as she had grown accustomed to using her new cock to fuck other mares. But she had still let Carrot and Pound give her pussy somewhat of a workout, though this didn't make her any less tight. Pinkie moaned in pleasure as she was wedging inch by throbbing inch of her already slick cock in Pumpkin's tender pussy. The mare's own cock was sliding a little between Pinkie's tits, kissing against the mare's chin as she was picking up a small pace.
"You like that?" Pinkie moaned in pleasure, not only thrusting in and out of Pumpkin's pussy, but was squishing her boobs together to give the same mare a soft and tight titfuck. "Auntie Pinkie's cock is filling you up and sucking you off."
"That's not sucking me off." Pumpkin giggled, igniting her horn. A magical force pressed against the sides and back of Pinkie's head, making her start to take in the mare's cock head. "That's cocksucking...fuck...Auntie Pinkie! You feel so good!"
Pinkie only moaned a muffled giggle as she started taking in more and more, savoring not only the flavor of Pumpkin's strong tasting cock, but the ever lingering flavor of the mare's cum and Cup Cake's own pussy. Shivering, Pinkie only used this feeling of joy and pleasure to keep fucking in and out of the mare's pussy. Both were moaning out in deeper and deeper pleasures. Pumpkin was panting, her tongue was hanging from the side of her mouth as she was loving every moment of Pinkie's sloppy wet blowjob, her goddess-like tits, and her huge cock stretching her.
Carrot and Pound only stood there, watching as both mares were enjoying each other. Whether they realized it or not, the two of them were jerking themselves off on their much smaller dicks at the sight, but this wasn't going to be enough for the two of them. Pinkie and Pumpkin were so enraptured in their pleasure, they didn't notice, mind, or care what the twinks were doing, even as they noticed how left alone Cup Cake was.
Though she had been fucked into an orgasmic rest by her daughter, Cup Cake loved being fucked into and throughout her unconscious. Unable to hold themselves back, both her son and husband, cocks still in hand, made their way over to her. Switching their attention between both the cum stuffed matriarch, and the daughter being slowly impregnated by their queen, Carrot and Pound were panting as they weren't certain what to pay more attention to.
After several moments of pondering, Carrot made his choice and started to hump his smaller dick in and out of Cup Cake's fucked open, cum gushing pussy. Whether she could even feel it at this point, it was impossible to tell, nor did her husband care. But Pound had a different idea, his eyes were marveling at the sight of Pinkie's head bobbing up and down his sister's cock as the two were getting closer and closer to what looked to be a massive orgasm. Swallowing hard, he went into a new position, behind Pinkie.
"Pound?!" Pumpkin commented, seeing her brother line up his smaller dick against Pinkie's fine and sexy ass. "What are you doing?"
"I can't help it." Pound moaned, thrusting forward. Though small, he still felt so tight in Pinkie's own pussy. "I'm sorry Pinkie, I've just...I've always had a crush on you, ever since I was little. I just wanna fuck you all the time!"
"Awww, thanks Pound. I love you too." Pinkie cooed, her voice was still mostly muffled by Pumpkin's cock in her throat, but her message was still clear enough. "Come on you two, give Auntie Pinkie a good fucking!"
Pumpkin and Pound looked at each other, a sense of sibling competitiveness seemed to burn in their eyes as they started picking up their own paces against Pinkie's body. Though this was clearly a somewhat one sided contest. Pumpkin had the cock superiority, but she was splitting her focus between making Pinkie gag on her dick, but she had to contend with the mare's own cock stuffing her pussy. Pound had a much smaller size, only able to give any pleasure by fucking Pinkie's tight ass rather than her pussy, but he didn't have anything to split his focus.
Pinkie was only savoring the feeling of this threesome. Fucking Pumpkin's soft and tight pussy was making her more and more eager to knock her up. While the taste of the same mare's cock was making her head all dizzy. And finally, feeling this cute stallion confessing to her while trying his hardest to fuck her ass. It reminded her so much of her precious Button Mash, she couldn't help but feel her nipples harden and twitch as her balls were throbbing with a coming orgasm.
Carrot continued to fuck his resting wife, the mare occasionally letting out faint moans. So while he could never compete with even his daughter, the twink stallion was still trying his best. Panting and moaning, he let out little spurts of cum that were like drops in a bucket compared to how much that had been pumped in my daughter. Sighing a little, he nodded his head, looking over to see the rest of the ingredients.
"You three have fun, I'll finish up the cake." Carrot commented, looking over to the three ponies enjoying themselves. He then looked over to the two guards who remained standing in the doorway. "Oh! Pinkie, will your...friends be joining for the cake?"
"I don't see why not." Pinkie replied, having to pull her mouth off Pumpkin's cock. "You two! You're free to have some cake when it's done. Oh! And if your cocks need cleaning, Carrot over there would love to do it!" Carrot only blushed a little as the two mares looked at each other.
Nodding, the mares made their way over to Carrot, both their cocks hung between their legs as they reached him. Standing there, they patiently waited as the twink was putting together the cake batter until it was eventually ready for the oven. Once the cake was set to be baked, they grabbed at him, pulling him closer to them. Carrot easily and eagerly dropped to his knees as he felt the pressing of fucked slick cocks against his face. Opening his mouth, he obediently sucked off these mare's dicks, licking along the shafts to clean them off.
"Fuck, I'm getting close Pumpkin." Pinkie moaned out in pleasure. The mare was shivering as she was going to cum soon. "Pound, when I knock up your sister, wanna clean me off?"
"Yes, yes, I'd love to!" Pound cheered, humping faster and faster as he was ready to cum in Pinkie's ass at any moment. "Pinkie, I'm cumming, I'm cumming!"
"Me too!" Pumpkin moaned out, reaching out to hug Pinkie close to her. She could feel her own cock being rubbed by not only the mare's tits, but her own. "I'm cumming!"
All three ponies let out their cries of pleasure, releasing their cum in and on each other. Pumpkin's cock spurted out an orgasm across not only Pinkie's face but in her mouth as she eagerly drank the thick spunk. The pink mare's own orgasm filled Pumpkin's womb with her potent seed, saturating her insides with what was most certainly more than a couple foals to be born several months from now. And Pound's smaller bits of cum left a few heavy drops in Pinkie's ass, which would leak out here and there.
"Fuck...so good!" Pinkie moaned, hearts in her eyes as she drank down more and more of Pumpkin's cum before pulling herself off. Backing up, she pulled herself out of the mare's pussy, where vast amounts of her steaming cum was gushing out. "There we go, nice and pregnant." She then looked at Pound, who had dropped down to get at cock sucking height. "Aww, Pound, you're such a good twink."
Pound only cooed like some pet as Pinkie presented her musky, fuck coated cock. His eyes were watering from the smell just as much as his mouth was from the expected taste. Opening wider, he started suckling along the tip, making Pinkie shiver with delight. Placing a hand gently on the back of Pound's head, she slowly started getting more and more of her length in the twink's eager mouth. Pinkie only panted as she was savoring the pussy-like tightness and wet warmth of Pound's throat.
"Aw, Pound. Your mouth feels so good." Pinkie moaned in pleasure, panting as her tongue dangled from her mouth. "You're gonna clean me off, make me cum in that sexy tight throat, and then clean me off again." Pound only moaned a muffled sound in pleasure. She then looked over to her guards, who were giving her a stern look. Playfully, she rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, then I have to continue my inspection. But I'm going to have my fun first!" With that, she started enjoying Pound's mouth, even to the point of slowly facefucking the eager twink.
The orgasmic feeling of the teleportation magic brought Pinkie from Ponyville, upwards to the cloud city of Cloudsdale. Thankfully, the guards had managed to not only secure the magical means to walk on the clouds, but gave Pinkie the same, as well as limited flight. No sooner had they arrived, the queen made her way, flying at a somewhat quickened pace, through the skies above the cloud streets to her friend, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's house. Following her conquest, both pegasi had spent a long time back home, fucking their slutty mothers while their fathers eagerly watched.
Arriving at Rainbow Dash's parents' house, Pinkie didn't see anyone was home. But this could only mean they were at Fluttershy's parents' house. With an eager giggle, she continued to fly about, enjoying the view of the many pegasi and occasional griffons fucking in the streets. In fact, griffons were coming to Equestria in greater and greater numbers. Though she had gone to griffon clubs with Rainbow in the past, often ending with her friend getting drunk trying to out drink the brutes, and Pinkie getting her holes full of dick. Not that she minded, she loved the gangbangs.
Now, such events were very, very common. Looking around, she could see many of the different pegasi having not so secret back alley fucks, while others were get gangbanged on larger collections of clouds. As tempted as she was to get involved in the fun, she wanted to see her friends. Once she arrived at Fluttershy's parents' house, she wasted no time, knocking at the door. Waiting maybe about a couple short minutes, the door opened. Standing there was Fluttershy's younger brother, Zephyr Breeze, who was almost as much a twink as Button or Pound was.
"Hey Zephyr! Are my friends over?' Pinkie asked, tilting her head to look inside. From the look on Zephyr's face, and the fact he was naked and leaking various amounts of cum from his ass, it was clear what he was doing. "Or are they busy?"
"Well, Rainbow came over with her parents and while she and her mother joined Fluttershy and my mother in Fluttershy's room to be all private." Zephyr commented, his voice sounding feminine and soft, but had a lot more confidence than before. "Her dad, my dad, and I can only watch from a nearby cloud."
"So did both the dilfs fuck you in the ass while you're all watching?" Pinkie asked, only to giggle at the notion of it. "So you're all just watching them fuck? Do they know you're watching them?"
"Oh they know." Zephyr explained, nodding without even acknowledging Pinkie's first question. "Fluttershy's been more and more obsessed with being watched rather than fucking herself. So it's a hot fetish for my big sis. Wanna join us?"
"Sure, I wouldn't mind that." Pinkie commented, only to turn and look at the guards. "You two can enjoy yourself in the city. You can come back in an hour to get me." The guards paused, looking at each other before their Queen's expression became serious for the briefest second. "That's...an order." The two guards tensed up before nodding. Giggling, she turned back to Zephyr. "Alright, let's check this out."
Following Zephyr, the two walked through the house, into the backyard, and flew up to a decently sized cloud; shaped in a fashion to be more akin to a lookout post disguised as a cloud. Standing there, small dicks in hand, both Bow Hothoof and Mr Shy were watching and panting like little sluts as they watched something in a short distance. They barely noticed as Pinkie and Zephyr arrived. The twink stallion returned to join the older fathers, while their Queen walked in on the fun.
"Hello boys." Pinkie asked, only to look and see what they were looking at. "So what are we-oh fuck!"
It was Fluttershy and Rainbow fucking their mothers, Mrs Shy and Windy Whistles. But it was how they were fucking them that was making the mare swallow hard as she was getting hotter and harder. Rainbow's cock was long and perky, twitching madly as it was full of energy as it was going in and out of Windy's throat. The milf was shivering with delight as she was riding on a thick piece of cloud in the shape of a girthy dildo. But it was Fluttershy's cock that made the pink whore's mouth water.
Though this wasn't the first time she had seen it, she loved seeing it every time. Fluttershy's curves and body was already that a feminine beauty, with features that were akin to some fertility goddess. Now that she had a cock, it only added to this idea of a breeding being. It was big, thick, throbbing, and always leaking thick and potent cum. As well as this, the way she was fucking her mother was what was making Pinkie subconsciously want to jerk herself off while panting and moaning.
Mrs Shy was laying on a cloud in the form of a table, while Fluttershy was pushing her own body over her mothers. Both had massive and seductive tits and hips, which pressed and pounded together. The thick cock that was clearly stretching the milf's pussy was almost impossible to consider, though Fluttershy wasn't as thick as Pinkie's was. Regardless, the formerly shy mare was savoring the feeling of putting her mother in what was nothing short of a passionate mating press.
Both pairs of mares fucked more and more, seemingly not noticing or caring that they were being watched. Even the cloud in which they were fucking on was pretty out in the open. Regardless, Pinkie could feel as her cock was aching to have fun. But equally, she didn't want to interrupt any of what was happening. She pondered for a moment as to what she could do, only to remember that there were three twinks nearby. Smiling a wicked and giggling expression, she took a step back and looked at the three stallions.
"So, who wants to be the first to suck my royal cock?" Pinkie asked, looking at the three. Mr Shy, Bow, and Zephyr paused from their watching, turning to look at their Queen. "Come on, at least one of you must be so horny, you can't-" Her words were cut off as all three rushed her, dropping to their knees and began to tongue wrestle over her cock. "Well...that went better than I thought it would."
Shivering with delight, she awkwardly made her way back over to the cloud wall that allowed her to look in on the fun. The twinks only followed, never taking their lips and tongues off Pinkie's cock for a moment if they could help it. Their Queen was now able to get her cock sucked by these three, while watching in on two of her friends fucking their hot as fuck, milf mothers. Pinkie shivered, feeling as some of her cum was already leaking all over the three twinks' faces, and they continued to serve her like cock starved beasts.
"Come on you three." Pinkie groaned, blindly reaching out to pet one of their heads. She couldn't tell who as she was more focused on the mares fucking. "You have me for an hour, and if you do well enough, maybe I'll fuck all your tight assed while we make the mares watch."
Following her fun with the pegasi, as well as taking an extra hour to enjoy herself with the twinks, Pinkie was eventually picked up by her guards. Though it took a lot more convincing than they had expected to, the mares managed to get their Queen to leave the twinks to their voyeurism, and let the pegasi mares to fuck around. Pinkie wasn't the most keen about it, but when the guards told her she was able to go anywhere else for the last stretch of their inspection, she was more into the idea.
The magic brought the three of them far from Cloudsdale, let alone anywhere else in Equestria. It was the barren, almost empty and rocky landscape that was the Pie Family Farm. Pinkie's eyes only sparkled as they went wide with excitement. Not even waiting for her guards to register where they were, the queen rushed off ahead. It's been so long since she's seen her family, and even she wasn't aware what manner of changes had happened to them.
The only thing Pinkie had heard from the family farm was Maud thanking her for having Rarity and Spike the Dragon over to them. The dragon had become a twink like many others, but he was one of the best at sniffing out gemstones, and the fashionista needed as many as he could find. So it was only natural of him to be sent to Pinkie's family. But that was the last she had heard from him, and it's not like her family to not send a letter once in a while. So this visit was the perfect idea.
The second she reached the door, Pinkie eagerly and happily started knocking at the hard wood. Opening the door, her eyes and smile slightly shortened at the sight of Maud's coltfriend, Mud Briar, standing there. The magical effects that spread throughout Equestria didn't seem to affect him. Or maybe he was just always a twink and she never knew. Regardless, Pinkie shook her head to keep her happiness going.
"Heyya Mud Briar...is Maud here?" Pinkie asked, trying to think of anything quick and simple to say to get through a conversation with this stallion. "Or Marble...Limestone...Spike maybe?"
"Maud, Marble, and Limestone are here." Mud commented, his stoic and mono tone seemed to remain in his voice. "The three of them are currently shoving their rather large and impressive penises into the dragon's various, sexual orifices." Before Pinkie could ask another question, he raised a hand. "Both your mother and father are out right now. They are inspecting the further corners of the farmland. Apparently Spike has been caught eating many of the gems and so he is being punished."
"Punished? Punished how?" Pinkie asked, her mind teeming with all manner of playful and alluring thoughts. "Wait...and what were you doing?"
"I was standing there, watching my marefriend fuck a dragon's ass as if she were hoping to impregnate it. As impossible as it sounds." Mud explained, not flinching or showing any emotion as he talked. "It was only after relieving myself, I went to get a glass of water, when you knocked on the door."
"So...can I come in and see." Pinkie asked, slowly trying to make her way into the house. "You know, so I can see my family."
"Sure, I'm sure they'll be happy to see you." Mud commented, only to then notice the two mare guards. "And what about your two other guests?"
"Oh yes, that's right!" Pinkie considered for a moment before looking back at the mares. "You two, I want you to fuck this twink." She pointed a finger to Mud Briar. "He's totally into it, and I don't want you to stop until he's squealing like a good whore." The mares only looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders. He didn't seem to oppose this, so they saw no harm.
"If that is the case, we can use my bed upstairs." Mud commented, gesturing for the guards to follow him. "Pinkie, you sisters are currently having sex with Spike in your parents' bedroom."
"Okie dokie lokie." Pinkie nodded with a smile, letting her guards walk into the house and follow behind Mud first. "I'll see you two when I'm done." With that, she let them proceed to Mud Briar's room, while she skipped her way to where her sisters were.
Upon arriving at her parents' house, Pinkie could already hear the grunts and moans of her sisters, as well as the muffled cries of pleasure coming from the twink dragon. Looking into the ajar door, she saw what looked to be the other Pie sisters fucking with massive cocks in and out of Spike's holes. Her own dick was getting hard just from the sight of it, as well as the musky and masculine smell that was almost leaving the room in a light fog of fuck fumes.
Maud's cock was a rock breaker of a dick. It was big, it was thick, and it was stretching the deepest cavity of Spike's ass. Even as she was the only one in this dragon's rear hole, she was so massive and thick, it was like two or three lesser dicks were scraping in and out of the scaly ass. Marble and Limestone had a little more modest sizes, though the former was not only a little bigger, but even her tits had grown to almost rival Pinkie's; almost, but not completely.
Both of these sisters were going in and out of Spike's mouth, rubbing along the insides of his throat, making him savor every second of it as the dicks rubbed together in his mouth. Spike was moaning like a loose whore. His body was slender and very feminine. To anyone who's never met him, or saw the tiny pair of dicks that were poking and leaking between his legs, they'd think he was a dragoness. Pinkie was genuinely surprised how well Spike had adjusted and taken to this change.
More than once, she had asked Rarity and Twilight how he was, only to have them show off their cocks fucking this dragon in his mouth and ass. And given what she was looking at as her older sister was brutally ravaging his ass, it was apparent that any other twink, or even mare that was taking such an anal beating would've already collapsed. But perhaps this was something attributed to a dragon's anatomy. Pinkie wasn't certain, but she couldn't look away from her sisters fucking Spike like a little slut.
Swallowing hard, Pinkie didn't want to wait any longer. Her sisters didn't stop as they noticed her walking in. Whether Spike was even altogether there mentally was impossible to tell. Watching on for a few minutes longer, Pinkie couldn't help but start to jerk herself off as she was getting herself good and aroused. Eventually, the three mares fucked faster, and faster, and faster until they finally released themselves in Spike's holes. The dragon twitched and moved his he was being filled with the mares' hot spunk. Eventually he settled and collapsed, the dicks still buried within.
"Sorry about that." Maud said, her stoic and emotionless voice seemed completely unaffected by her change. Pulling her cock out of Spike, letting out vast amounts of her hot seed gush out of her fucked open hole. "We were punishing Spike for eating gems when he wasn't supposed to."
"I see, and Spike was okay with it right?" Pinkie asked, giggling a little as she looked at her sister. "You know my laws, everything's got to be consensual."
"It was." Maud explained, raising a hand to smack Spike's ass. The dragon yelped out as more cum gushed from his ass. "When we caught him, we told him he can either pay us back for the gems, or he can eat as much as he wants but will get fucked every night. He agreed to the latter."
"Wowie! Okay!" Pinkie nodded in agreement. "That works out. But Maud, I had no idea you ended up getting a dick like that!" Pointing her own dick against her sisters, she rubbed the two together. "It's almost as big as mine."
"I'm sorry, I'm not fully hard." Maud commented, looking Pinkie in the eyes as she continued. "But if you want to see it harder, then we should get Boulder."
"Boulder? Your pet rock?" Pinkie asked, raising a curious eyebrow as she tilted her head. "Why do we need him?"
"You know when you see him." Maud commented, gesturing to Marble and Limestone. "I'm gonna show Pinkie to Boulder. You two can keep having fun."
"O-okay..." Marble nodded, smiling warmly at her sister. Her timid personality was still about the same as it was before. "It's good to see you, Pinkie. H-how's being the Queen?"
"It's pretty good actually. Everyone is just so happy now!" Pinkie smiled at her sisters. "How have mum and dad been?"
"They've been fucking constantly in the gem mines." Limestone commented, positioning herself around Spike to get a better angle at his ass. "They think we don't know...but we know. Dad's cock also got really big and mum's tits and ass are also as round as yours, Pinkie." She groaned in frustration. "Maud! You fucked his ass too hard. I can't get my dick wet in a hole this wide!"
"Just give it a few minutes, he should get tighter." Maud said, not even turning to look at Limestone. "I can't help it, I have a big dick now. So you'll just have to wait." Limestone only growled in annoyance.
"I-it's okay, Limestone." Marble commented, laying on her back and spreading her legs to show off her pussy under her cock and balls. "Y-you can fuck me...if you want."
"Aww, Marble...Limestone...Maud...I've missed you." Pinkie smiled, spreading her arms and angling herself to jump. "Pie Pile!" Shouting, she lunged forward, grabbing Maud and landing on the bed with Marble and Limestone, getting all of them in a close hug.
"Uh! Wha?! Pinkie!" Limestone protested, being partially squeezed against Marble and Spike's bodies. The shared and rubbing cocks in this pile of ponies were too much. Pinkie only moaned in the pleasure that had been building up. "Wait...Pinkie...don't you-" But it was too late, the mare fired off a massive, sticky, thick, and hot load of cum all over herself, her sisters, and a partially conscious Spike. "-dare...aw man, now I'm all sticky."
"It's not that bad." Pinkie commented, licking Limestone's cheek to clean off some of the cum. "I taste good." She then looked at Maud with a smile. "Now, what was this about Boulder?"
"Just this way." Maud commented, gesturing for her sister to follow her. Walking out of the room, down the hall, and out to the backyard, she guided her towards the rock farm's fields. Eventually, she stopped moving. "Boulder! Here, Boulder! Here, rock!"
The two mares waited a moment, which became a few seconds, and then a full minute before something in the distance started to move. It was slow at first, but soon enough, it became apparent that there was a massive rock...something making its way over to the mares. While Maud maintained her stoic expression, Pinkie's eyes widened as the rock thing approached them. By the time it was close enough, she managed to make it out. This was like a stallion carved of smooth and hard stone, as emotionless as its mistress, but with a cock that was even outshining Pinkie's.
"Boulder?!" Pinkie asked, only for Maud to nod in confirmation. "Wha...but how did...I don't even think..."
"I don't try to think about it." Maud commented, walking up to gently rub Boulder's hard, stone chest. "But he's better than my husband, and we both enjoy when he fucks me so hard..." She looked over to Pinkie with serious and sincere eyes. "That I start moaning like a whore."
"You...moaning?" Pinkie asked, laughing a little in disbelief, only to see Maud was serious. "Oh? Oh! Well I'd love to see that."
"Sure, and I know you'll ask, so sure." Maud commented, positioning herself in front of Boulder, but with her round ass pressing against his hard cock. "After my turn. Fucking Spike's ass has put me in a mood, and I need Boulder to help me with it."
The golem's hands were strong, and yet gentle as they rubbed along her hips. As well as this, its cock slipped smoothly between her soft thighs, getting wetter from Maud's pussy juices. After a few moments of getting it wet enough, Boulder lifted its mistress up and pressed the cockhead against her moist entrance. Taking barely a second to pause, the golem pushed itself up as it pulled the mare's body down on the size, bottoming out in the first insertion. Maud gasped, showing emotion for the first time in a long time. Her belly was bulging to an unbelievable extent.
"Wowie zowie!" Pinkie giggled, watching with an intense, lustful gaze. "Boulder is really fucking you good! And I can have a turn after?"
"You...can..." Maud replied, moaning between her words. This was the first time Pinkie had ever seen her normally stone faced sister smile like a fucked silly whore. "But...after...me...I...need...this...hard...cock..."
"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie nodded with a smile, starting to jerk herself off as she watched her sister getting fucked by this golem. "I'll be here, getting ready for it." Maud only nodded, and continued to moan out as she was being fucked in front of her younger sister.
Returning to Canterlot, Pinkie was quick to make her way back to her chambers. Opening the doors, her eyes widened with a massive sense of joy. Laying in her bed, fingering her pussy with one hand, while jerking herself off with the other, was Zecora. As well as this, Button Mash was laying beside the zebra, but at an angle for the mare to suck off his small cock. The stallion twink was huffing and moaning, almost trying to hump in and out of the soft, wet mouth around his tiny dick. But what really made Pinkie's eyes be filled with joy was the round, pregnant belly the zebra sported.
"Aww, you two started without me." Pinkie giggled, skipping her way into the room. Her tits and cock swayed and bounced as she made her way over to the massive bed. "I've missed you both so much. You would not believe the day I had today."
Laying on the bed, Pinkie stretched a little, cooing a little as she was getting herself comfortable. Zecora and Button stopped their own fucking as their queen lay on the bed besides them. Before anyone could say anything else, Pinkie leaned up to give the zebra's cock a tender kiss, followed by a deepthroating suck. Zecora only moaned out, gasping as she felt the surge of pleasure coursing through her.
The pink slutmare was even more skilled than she was before, making her zebra lover cum buckets of her thick and potent cum into her needy belly. Swallowing down as much cum as she could, Pinkie pulled herself off Zecora's thick girth to an audible popping sound. Giggling, she moaned as she nuzzled her face against the zebra's size, making it twitch and leak out more globs of heavy cum. Button only watched with his own dick leaking out little droplets.
"Much better, I so needed the Zecora Milkshake after a day like today." Pinkie giggled, but noticed how painfully hard and throbbing her own cock was. "Hmm, well, I know you're gonna be due in a few months...but I really wanna fuck my slutty zebra wife." Getting off the bed, she took Zecora by the hand. "Button, could you get Flurry for me?" Button only nodded, rushing out of the room with little moans. "Aww, such a cutie. Come on!"
Zecora's mind had been broken. Where once a scheming and powerful zebra was set to conquer all of Equestria. But now, she was the pregnant wife to the true queen of Equestria. Pinkie was so happy all of this came together. Though she had no idea it would come to this, she was happy to have corrupted the zebra, making her lustful, and so vulnerable to her. As soon as she sat on the throne, the pink slutmare gestured to have Zecora join her. Angling herself, the zebra lowered herself onto her queen's cock. Her pussy stretched as it was being filled with her massive size.
Gasping and moaning, Zecora eventually settled on Pinkie's cock, with Button and an equally pregnant Flurry Heart joining them. Taking their places at each side of the queen, they knelt before her massive cock and heavy balls. Licking and suckling along the huge and cum filled balls, both twink and knocked up princess moaned as they snuggled their faces against the mare's balls. Zecora's own cock twitched madly as Pinkie was moving herself up and down.
Queen Pinkie, master and ruler of all of Equestria, sitting upon her throne, savored the feeling of this conquest. The kingdom was hers, everypony could fuck as they see fit. She was now together with her beloved Zecora, and the former princesses were now cock loving sluts. And as far as Pinkie was concerned, any and everything in her life was now perfect, and her prosperous kingdom would know a new, erotic golden age. |
Two Sides of The Same Coin | pre | After a couple of seconds of silence, I turn to him. His head's slumped forward, and the rise of his chest had slowed. He fucking fell asleep on me.
"You really are a fucking child, you know that?" I yawn. "And this is my bed, you actual penis."
Cradling his shoulders and neck, I slowly lower him onto the bed. His head hangs off the edge, but at this point I could care less. Propping a pillow under my head, I lay down beside him. Settling down over the sheetsI close my eyes, focusing on my breath. Slowly, my thoughts begin to fog as the weight of my chest grows lighter.
I jump as a knock erupts from the door. The fucking timing here.
"Anon?" Spike calls from beyond the entrance. "Is Anton in there? He won't answer his door and I'm gettin' kinda worried here."
"Yeah!" I call back. "We're both in here, and we're fine."
"Great, well dinner's pretty much ready! I'll catch you guys downstairs!"
As the light pitters of Spike's feet slowly disappear, I rub at my eyes. Groggily, Anton rises to his feet, stretching his arms to the ceiling. He takes a deep breath, and rests his hands on his hips.
"So, uh." He says after a short pause. He turns to look back at me. "We cool?"
"Yeah, whatever." I roll my eyes. "'We cool'."
Anton spins towards the doorway. "Fantastic cuz I'm starving-"
"Hold it there, tough guy." I grunt, forcing myself to my feet. "You don't think we're done just yet, do you?"
"What're you..." He cringes when I tap my forehead. "No. No way you're bringing this back."
"Just this once."
"Can't we just hug and say we're sorry like normal people?"
I shake my head. "Hell nah, it's practically our tradition. And I think I deserve at least one good shot, all things considered."
Walking closer, I reach my hands out to Anton's head. He recoils at first, craning his neck away, but slowly allows me to grasp his cheeks. I keep my grip firm, but light; years of practice with him ensuring I cause as little discomfort as I can.
"Well?" I ask.
Anton rolls his eyes, bending his knees to level himself with me. I slowly bring our heads closer, until only a fraction of an inch separates our mouths, our warm breath licking at each other's lips. I close my eyes and he does the same. Then, I reel my head back as far as I can, slamming the front of my skull directly into my brother's forehead. A loud crack bounces off the walls as bone collides. In that moment, my vision goes white, and my body turns weightless.
I bite my lower lip, glaring at the half-completed Algebra worksheet on the table in the hopes that it may share with me its dark secrets. Unfortunately, my interrogation methods prove inadequate, and the paper remains unanswered. Man, why does 7th grade math have to suck so hard?
Sighing, I push back my dining room chair, and peek out the window. It's a gorgeous autumn afternoon; the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and our front lawn looks like it's on fire with all the leaves my brother and I promised to rake up. I mean, we still have a couple hours before mom gets home, I can start on it when Anton gets back.
My eyes drift to the microwave clock. Looks like he's a bit later than usual. That snake, he's probably trying to get me to do most of the work again.
Leaping off the chair, I pace to our refrigerator. Pulling back a handle, I grab the freshly chilled chocolate bar from the refrigerator door's shelf. I pull apart the tab on the back of the bar, and take a large whiff of its intestines.
Okay, putting that thought in the vault.
Feeling the saliva start to pool in my mouth, I swallow hard, slowly bringing the bar closer to my lips. Sorry, bro, but you have no one else to blame but yourself.
As one of the semi-sweet corners enters my mouth, my hand stops. I look down to see my other hand, wrapped tightly around the wrist holding the candy bar hostage. When I try to pull the chocolate bar closer, the other hand pulls in the opposite direction, leaving the bar in place.
"Oh come on," I whine. "What's a few bites? He's not even here. What's the point of sharing if there's no one to share with?"
The bar, in response, twitches just a little farther out of reach.
"Okay look." I plead. "I can just throw your wrapper in the neighbor's trash. I'll say it disappeared. No one has to know."
I try sticking out my tongue, but that just prompts the chocolate bar to move even further away.
"Ugh, fine! I didn't want to eat you anyway!" Tossing the bar back into the fridge, I slam the door. "Hurry the hell up, Anton. I swear to God when I see you, I'll-"
Suddenly, I hear the front door open. Whispering a silent prayer of thanks, I run to the entrance..
"Jesus Christ, Anton." I say as I round the corner. "Do you have any idea what time it..." My jaw drops as he closes the door behind him.
"Hey, Anon." My brother says, sniffling. His face is covered in bruises, and his eyes are red and puffy. He's got a cut on his arm and I can see both of his knees bleeding from under his shorts. The right strap of his backpack is completely ripped off and his t-shirt looks stretched to ruin. He's also missing his left shoe. "Sorry I'm late. I, uh, got into a fight."
"Oh my God, Anton!" I scream. "What the hell happened!?"
"Well," Anton smiles weakly. "I got into a fight."
I slam the palm of my hand into my forehead. "Well no shit, dude. Come on, we gotta get you cleaned up before mom gets home."
Grabbing his hand, I drag him to the kitchen. I toss Anton some napkins, and after wetting some paper towels, I dab at his knees. He winces at my touch, but doesn't say anything, reaching instead for a napkin and blowing hard into it.
"So...?"
"So?"
"So you gonna tell me why you thought it was a good idea to act like a dumbass or am I gonna have to beat you up too?"
"Anon, that's not funny."
"Great, cuz I'm not joking."
Anton sniffles again, looking away. "I told you, I got into a fight."
"Yeah, but why?"
"...'Cuz they made fun of me."
"And they are...?"
"The guys from Shaker St." He turns back when I don't reply. "...Uhm, Anon?"
Balling up the paper towels in my hands, I stare up at my brother. "Anton, let me get this straight: you're telling me that you, a fourth grader, decided to fight multiple ninth graders, because they made fun of you?"
Anton wipes away a few more tears from his face. "Yeah, I know Anon. I'm a big, dumb, stupid, idiot and all that other stuff you say-"
"No Anton, you're a fuckin' badass!" The napkin doesn't move from Anton's face.
"You really think so?" asks the napkin. I grab Anton's wrist and gently pull down, revealing his bruised, confused face.
"Look at me Anton. Yeah you're young, small, and inexperienced in fighting. But you rushed down a bunch of frickin' high schoolers because they thought they could push you around! Hell yeah that's badass! Pretty fuckin' dumb, but badass."
"I mean, I still got beat up..." He chokes, wiping furiously at his eyes.
I walk over to the sink, tossing the bloodied paper towels in the trash. Jesus, mom's gonna freak when she sees this. Then she'll probably call the schools, and make things worse.
I rub my chin. Yeah, if there's anything that won't make bullying stop, it's crappy faculty that just want to write up less incident reports. Oh God, is he sniffling back there? He's gonna start crying again. Gotta think of something quick.
"Okay. I think I know what to do." I walk back Anton, his Amber eyes gleaming back at me.
"What do you mean, Anon?" he asks, blowing into another tissue.
A toothy grin spreads across my face. "We're gonna be tough guys."
"...Tough guys?"
"Yeah, like Chuck Norris or Bruce Lee! If we get as tough as them, no one's gonna wanna mess with us!"
My brother raises an eyebrow. "But Anon, how do we even be tough guys?"
"It's quite simple, my dear little brother." I strike a pose, planting a fist on my hip and shoving a finger to the sky. "We just have to do tough guy stuff!"
"What do tough guys do?"
"Whatever you can think of! Tough guys practice fighting, eat bowls of nails without milk, anything you imagi-"
"Like headbutts?" Anton asks excitedly.
"Exactly. Hella' headbutts."
"Hella' Headbutts!" Anton roars, fists pumping in the air.
"Hella' Headbutts!" I bend down to Anton and lower my voice. "Okay Anton, tell you what. We're gonna be the toughest guys, but don't tell mom about this."
"But why not?"
"You know her, she'll just pull some lame excuse about 'muh friendship' and 'turning the other cheek'." Anton laughs at my impressions and nods vigorously.
"Okay, then." I say. "Tell you what, we can make a game out of it."
Anton's eyes brighten and he starts jumping in his seat. "Oh, okay! So what do we do first?"
"Alright, let's see..." I pace the kitchen floor as I speak, "For our first tough guy rule, how about, whenever you or I feel upset with each other, the only way to make up is with a big, hearty headbutt!"
Anton furrows his brows and looks up to the ceiling. "I dunno, Anon. We get mad at each other a lot. Are our skulls hard enough to handle that?"
"That's a good point, Anton! Since we get upset at each other so much, this'll be the perfect way to practice. The pain will make you tougher! Then, nothing those losers throw'll stop us! Trust me, Muay Thai fighters stuff like that all the time."
Anton tilts his head. "Is this like how you thought Mrs. Lee was a vampire in disguise because she had a garlic allergy?"
"Okay, first of all, I'm still not convinced that woman's human. Second, this is different 'cuz I read this from a reliable source."
"Where did you read it?"
"I don't remember."
"When did you read it?"
"I dunno."
"Did you see who the author was?"
"You ask a lot of questions for a fourth grader, you know that?" I jab a thumb into my chest. "Just trust me on this one."
"Oh, okay. If you say so!"
I nod. "Alright, you wanna try it out?"
"Sure!"
"Okay, I'll kneel down so you can get a better angle." I place both my hands on my brother's head and lower my own until our foreheads meet. "Now close your eyes, and think about those ninth graders. Think about their mean words and how it made you feel. Think about their dump, stupid, idiotic faces as they laugh and point at you."
Slowly, Anton's hands curl into shaky fists.
"Good," I say in a hoarse whisper. "Relish in the hatred. Embrace the darkness. Let it consume you."
"Anon?"
"Yeah?"
"Chill."
"ok."
Anton takes a deep breath and slowly reels his head back. As he does, I can't help but rethink my approach. Is it possible I'm making a terrible mistake here? I mean, I'm not even the one getting bullied here. And getting headbutt would probably hurt a lot. I should probably just tell him to try and talk it out, and let him deal with this on his-
A wave of pain pulls me back from my melancholic episode, the impact causing me to take a few steps back.
"Agh, FUCK!" I scream, cradling my forehead and blinking away black spots.
"Jesus Fucking Christ, bro!" I hear Anton scream, "Our 'tradition' fucking sucks!"
"The pain'll make you tougher! Work through it, pussy!"
"Goddammit bro, I'm not in Elementary School anymore. Bullies are not an issue!"
"I was talking to MEEEEEeeeeeee," I wail into the ceiling. My knees buckle and I keel over. Holy shit, I forgot how much this hurts. It feels like someone's hammering a chisel directly into my head.
I muffle my agony into the marble floor. Out of the corner of my eye, Anton rolls on his back, weaving a colorful tapestry of words of his own. I feel the corners of my lips curl again and my back bounces as I struggle to contain my laughter. Anton looks over to me, a playful look back in his eyes.
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up bro." He manages before curling up in his own fit. We stay like that for a while, rolling around and laughing like fucking children. When we finally push ourselves off the ground, my abs ache and I feel a little lightheaded.
"Okay, okay. Dinner?" I say, walking to and opening the door.
"Oh, why brother. Dinner sounds absolutely divine~" Anton coos, a large, red welt visible on his makes head. He promptly steps past me, into the hall.
I raise a finger to my own forehead, tapping it. A jabbing pain causes me to wince, and I pull my hand away. Yep, just like old times. ... ... ...
Well, this is unfortunate. I see I will have to try more direct measures. |
Two Sides of The Same Coin | Chapter 4: Anonymous - Dinner With a Princess | "We're lost."
"Nonsense, bro." Anton cranes his neck back at me. "We're just taking the scenic route-"
"We're lost. We're lost in some magic fantasy castle, owned by an equally magical, talking pony princess." We turn a corner and walk down another long hall, our footsteps echoing through the corridor. "This is retarded."
"Yes, thank you for the context." Anton rolls his eyes. "But yeah, this castle is like a labyrinth. Isn't this just the first floor? There shouldn't be this many rooms."
"Honestly." Reaching for the handle to Giant Green Door #34, I twist and push. "And how many empty rooms does a castle even need? I haven't seen a single person here other than us, spike, and that other..."
"Well, well. " Anton says, peering over my head. "What have we got in here?"
Pushing the door in fully, Anton and I walk through the doorway. Inside, a purple, full-sized mirror stands before us, various tubes attached to its frame. The frame itself is made of some kind of transparent glass, designed in the shape of a horseshoe, with additional smaller horseshoes scattered along its base. At its highest point, yet another horseshoe stands with a small, cartoony horse insignia emblazoned on it. Attached to the frame of the mirror, tubes connect to a large machine behind the mirror. There are also a few tesla coils fitted to the machinery. Why does a mirror need tesla coils?
Behind the mirror, a large bookshelf extends from the wall, filled to the brim in various novels. Anton circles around me and towards the mirror. He flicks the mirror, a light tink ringing as his finger bounces off the reflective surface.
"So" he says, "this is the Crystal Mirror, huh? Neat."
I follow up behind Anton and peer into the mirror. The skinny, green man from the hospital states back. He raises a hand to his chin, and smirks. Hello again handsome.
"Well this is a surprise," says a voice from behind. Standing in the open doorway, Twilight nods at the both of us. "I wasn't expecting you two to find this place on your own. I'm impressed, if not a little disappointed."
"I was planning on waiting until after dinner to show you." She approaches us, feigning disappointment at the ceiling. "There goes that grand introduction I planned."
"Hah, you can thank my bro for that." says Anton, dropping an open palm onto my head. "It was his idea to open every door in the castle."
Slapping his hand, I shoot him a sneer. "Oh bullshit. If anything, you wanted to do the snooping."
"Whaaat?" Anton raises a hand to his chest, resting the other on his hip. "'Snooping'!? Why brother, what are you insinuating? We're just looking for the dining hall. Honestly, and in front of our generous host."
"It's not insinuation, it's an accusation!"
"Wow, there it is. You did it, bro. You've broken my heart. Look, you can see little pieces of it on the floor now."
"I'm sorry," Twilight looks between us with a puzzled look, "but did I... miss something?"
"Ah, right." I turn back to her. "Almost forgot."
Running a hand over my scalp, I try to look her in the eye. My gaze drifts to the floor anyway. "I'm, uhm, sorry for my behavior earlier. I uh, acted like an idiot back at the bakery, and I made a scene. So like, yeah. I'm an idiot, and like, y'know, I get it if you're not cool with me, and like-"
"Bro, you're rambling again." Anton cuts in.
"Fuck off, Anton. Can't you see I'm trying to be apologetic?" I gesture to the air around me.
"I've heard smoother eloquence from a cactus."
"Anton, I swear to God if you do not shut up I will kick you so hard in the dick, you'll coom out your mouth!"
Anton grimaces. "Bro, please never say that word out loud in the presence of other people ever again."
"Anton, shut the f-"
A loud snort cuts me off, and I turn back to Twilight. She's brought a hoof up to her mouth and turned her head away from us. Her shoulders seem to bounce, as well.
Yo, she's fucking laughing.
"You two," she says between chortles, "are the strangest pair I've ever met."
I drag a hand down my face. "Man, why do I even bother with you people? I try to make a decent apology, and I still get clowned on. I give u-"
"I forgive you."
"I...sorry?"
"Of course I forgive you," Twilight says with a smile. She walks to the mirror and lays a hoof on its base, turning her head around to face us. "I understand your frustrations; you've been dragged from your home, far from your friends and loved ones, with no knowledge of how or why. It'd be strange if you weren't at least a little upset."
Twilight turns back to the mirror. "To be honest, I was in a similar situation too. I didn't want to leave my home, but had to go out of obligation. The next thing I knew, I was transported to a completely new world; separated from my friends and family, and aside from Spike, I was completely alone. If it wasn't for all of the friends I made on the other side, we'd likely never have even made it back."
Twilight sighs, resting a hoof on the surface of the mirror. "I...I do hope the girls are doing well over there..."
She goes quiet, masking her face from us. I turn to Anton and he just shrugs back at me. God-fucking-dammit, fine. I'll say something then.
"Hey Twilight," I start, my voice a little shakier than I'd like. "It's alright, I'm sure they're, uhm, I'm sure they're doing just fine. I mean it all worked out in the end, right?"
Twilight turns back, but she looks past us. "Heh, yeah. You're probably right. I'm sure they're all busy with each other on their side, too. I'd just be a bother, showing up out of nowhere."
She trots to the door, stopping at the entrance without looking back. "Come on you two, I'll show you to the dining hall."
Anton and I exchange a glance before hurrying after the princess.
We walk in silence, Anton and I tailing behind Twilight. Eventually, we approach another pair of green double doors that look exactly like every other pair of green double doors in this fucking castle. The sound of faint talking and laughter come through the other side. The handles glow purple as Twilight extends her magic, and we follow her into the room.
"Hey bro," Anton whispers from my side. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yeah, 'Dining Hall' my ass." I feel a grimace creeping on my face. "This is just disappointing."
The 'hall' is hardly more than a circular, medium-sized room. Red drapes hang from the walls, flanking more green windows. Much like the entrance, tiny crystals dangle from the ceiling, sparkling in the lamplight. A large, wooden round-table sits in the center of the room, surrounded by seven padded stools. Various dishes sit on the table, visible steam wafting into the air. Seated at the left of the table is both Spike and a blue pony I've never seen before. On the right, Starlight sits next to an orange pony with a rust-red mane and tail, silver glasses, and the dumbest looking beard I've ever-
"Holy crap, that is one magnificent beard!" Exclaims Anton.
The orange unicorn glances towards Starlight for a moment, before turning back to us. "I, uhm...Thanks, I guess?"
"Hey, no problem." Anton quickly strides to the table. He flashes the ponies a toothy grin, dropping himself onto a stool. He salutes two fingers to his temple before flicking them to the ceiling. "Name's Antonymous, and that's my older brother Anonymous. A pleasure to meet you. I assume Twilight's already told y'all why we're here?"
As they speak, Twilight motions me close, leaning in and raising a hoof to hide her mouth.
"Is he," she points a hoof towards the other human, "always like this?"
"Yeah." I cross my arms. "Isn't it great?"
"Actually, it's quite enjoyable." She says, trotting toward the opposite side of the table.
"...Fan-fucking-tastic."
I drag myself forward, pulling up a chair next to Anton, and listen as he finishes his introduction. I wait for a moment as everyone speaks. The orange, bearded pony is called Sunburst. The blue one with the cape refers to herself in the occasional third person as the "Great and Powerful" Trixie, whatever the fuck that means. As everyone speaks, I reach for the table, landing on a platter of weird-looking hot dogs. It's not until I drop one onto my plate that I notice the green stem sticking out of the end of it.
I peel the mystery stick from its bun, and nibble on the end of it. After a few bites, I hold it up to my eyes. Yep, it's a grilled carrot. They actually grilled a carrot and stuck it in a potato bun.
What is my life right now.
"Oh yeah," Sunburst says from my right. "We don't usually have, uhm, many foreigners at the dinner table with us. Hope you don't mind a vegetarian meal."
"Huh? Oh, uhm, no it's fine." I reach for a burger, tossing it onto my plate. "It's just a little...different from what I'm used to, is all."
I raise the burger to my lips, but stop just shy when I catch Spike staring. Sighing, I place the burger and plate back onto the table. Alright, fine, let's get this shit over with.
"Hey, uh, Starlight and Spike." I smack my lips. "I'd like to apologize for my attitude earlier today, I was kind of a jackass."
"Oh it's no problem, Anon!" Spike pipes up, bits of green falling onto his plate, "I won't hold it against ya. Don't see how that makes you a donkey, though."
Starlight tilts her head, raising an eyebrow at me. "I'm sorry, 'earlier today'? I don't believe we've met until now."
I glance at Anton, and he shrugs again, a small baguette poking out of his mouth.
"Whaddaya mean, Starlight?" Spike asks, "We saw you walking out of the castle earlier this afternoon."
"Spike, I told you this morning that I was going to be out most of the day running errands for the school-"
"So, Antonymous." A voice erupts from my left.
I turn to the caped pony at my side; her neck's craned forward and she's shifted to the edge of her seat. Her coat runs a light shade of blue, with a mane so light blue it almost looks gray. Like Starlight, a spiraled horn juts out of her forehead. However, unlike Starlight, a large cloak wraps around her body, small stars emblazoned on the hem and lower parts of the fabric. A similarly designed, pointed hat sits on the ground next to her stool. Her purple eyes dart between Anton and I.
"You've been on your own for nearly four days, correct?" Trixie continues. "I-er, Trixie is curious, why don't you tell us about your first experiences in Equestria?"
My brother looks around the table before gulping down his roll. Leaning back in his stool, he takes a deep breath.
"Well, let's see here." Anton grunts, squinting to the ceiling. "After a night on the town with a couple friends, I came home and hopped into bed. Not really sure what happened after; but next thing I knew, I woke up butt-naked in a crater, surrounded on all sides by trees."
Starlight tilts her head. "The Everfree Forest?"
"That's the one." He nods, leaning into the table. "So there I was, transported in an instant and with no recollection of how I got there. Also, my jammies were gone. My bro was there too, naked and blissfully asleep."
He grins at me. "You're a really heavy sleeper, by the way."
"So I've been told." I grumble. "So what then?"
"Well, after a couple minutes of shaking you around, I just kinda picked you up and started walking around. I swear, I'd probably have wandered for hours if not for the screaming."
"'Screaming'?"
"Yeah, I was just as confused. Judging from the sound of the voice, I expected to find a little human girl; but as I reached a clearing, instead I spotted three little ponies and a dragon. Spike, here, was flying frantically around, corralling the ponies together and blasting fire out his mouth around them. Lemme tell ya, it was one hell of a scene, and for a second I thought Spike was trying to hurt 'em."
He pauses, taking in a breath. "It took a second, but in the light of the flames, I thought I saw something moving in the dark. Sure enough, a shape lunged toward the small ponies, only to get blasted with green fire and run off. That's when it hit me: Spike was protecting the ponies. From wolves."
"'Wolves'?" Trixie asks.
"I believe you call them 'Timber Wolves'. Anyway, I did what any sensible person would do in my position: I ran straight for them!"
He looks at me expectantly.
Shaking my head, I reach for another hot-carrot. "Y'know, after all the shit that's happened, that doesn't surprise me. You're still actually retarded, though."
Anton raises his nose at me. "Oh come on, bro, I didn't want to just leave them there. Besides, what if there were stragglers lurking around? I figured I'd have better chances in a group than by myself."
I lean an elbow on the table, shoving one end of the bun into my mouth. The carrot's surprisingly sweet, likely cooked with some honey or sugar, but the bread helps it from being too overwhelming. "So you just ran in? I'm preeetty sure wolves also tend to rush animals running on their own, especially with their back turned to them."
"Yeah, that's just it, bro. They didn't. In fact, as I got closer, they started backing away." My brother sits up suddenly, placing his elbows on the table and hiding his mouth behind his hands. His expression goes hard, he glares into the table. "It was almost as if they were scared or something..."
A silence falls onto the dining hall, with everyone's eyes on my brother. For the longest time no one speaks up.
"Oh well!" Anton chirps, that cheery tone back in his voice. "I'm sure it isn't important. Anyway, I gave the group a bit of a scare when I sprinted at them, full speed, out of nowhere. Didn't get a chance to talk to them much, but they were nice enough to show me back to town. As luck would have it, one of the ponies was even the sister of a local seamstress, and convinced her to make us some clothes."
"Oh yeah." I pinch the collar of my shirt. "You'll have to remind me to thank her later."
"Oh, no problem." Anton hooks an arm around me, "Trust me, you'll love Rarity-that's her name by the way-nicest lady." He grabs a glass of water from the table, tilting its contents into his mouth and gulping it down with a sigh. "Anyway, that's enough about here. How about a story or two about me and my bro from back home?"
We spend the rest of dinner listening to Anton recount tales from our past lives: the one time we got in trouble for stapling bread to the trees of our elementary school, the time I accidentally set our neighbor's pool on fire during their birthday party, and even that time Anton blinded himself with a homemade flashbang. Holy fuck, we were dumb kids.
We have to take turns explaining a lot of things, from the internet, to the concept of automobiles and the comedic genius of tree-bread. Though our colorful audience nod their heads, it feels more like they're just faking it for our sake. Well, maybe except for Twilight. She leans in for most of the conversations, questioning each meticulous detail. I add very few anecdotes, leaving most of the tale-weaving to my brother. He tends to exaggerate some details; but I can tell he's having fun, so I bite my tongue.
"...And I couldn't see jack! I'm telling you, I was practically blind!" shouts Anton, a foot now resting on the edge of his seat. He keeps his arm around my shoulders, leaning more of his weight on me. I don't bother shaking him off, though. I gave up about a half-hour ago.
"And this guy," Anton points a finger at me. "This beautiful man, had to sneak out of the house at three in the morning, steal our mom's car, and come pick my drunk ass up off the side of the road!"
"'Pick you up' is a bit of an understatement," I chortle.
"Oh yeah, you hit me-"
"You walked out onto the road."
Anton closes his eyes, feigning a pained expression. "Please, bro, I was both blind and inebriated. I can't be held accountable for my actions."
"Yeah, and a fuckin' unaccountable psycho jumped out onto the hood of our mother's moving car in the middle of the night." I raise a cup to my lips. "Nearly broke a light, and gave me a fuckin' heart attack. Remind me to smack the shit out of you the next time you think of trying a stunt like that. Where the hell did you even get Magnesium shavings, anyway?"
I look across the table and spot Twilight, idly rolling on a broccoli stem in her teeth and staring into her plate. "Yo, Twilight, you good?"
"Huh? O-oh yeah, sorry." She stumbles, dropping the vegetable onto her plate. "I was just thinking about the technology you guys told us about. I've seen some of it before when I travelled through the mirror. But still, it's fascinating. You all lived your whole lives entirely without magic, and yet you've cured countless mortal ailments and illnesses, you've built civilizations off of nothing but the sweat on your brows, and you've managed to travel across thousands of miles of land, air, and sea in days if not hours. Even as far as past the outer atmosphere of your planet."
Twilight raps a hoof against the table. "Even without casting spells, the magic in our lands should give us a distinct advantage over your societies. And yet, the things you humans come up with are astounding! I've only seen similar innovation in places like Manehatten or Applewood. If we could somehow bring some of that knowledge and ingenuity here, I can only imagine the good we could provide for Equestria..."
"Uh," I start. "Twi-"
"Oh Twilight," Trixie guffaws. "Always looking towards the next horizon, always thinking about what's best for everyone. It's no wonder the others look up to you so much. My, I'm so proud-"
"Uh, Trixie," Starlight says. "Are you feeling alright? You're acting a little...different since coming back from your trip."
"Wha-erhm, Starlight, what do you mean?" The blue unicorn stumbles, "I-Trixie is perfectly fine."
Starlight furrows her brow, but nods. "I...okay, I suppose."
"Well either way," Anton says, raising a cup. "we can talk about that stuff later, let's just continue on with dinner!"
I, in turn, raise my now sufficiently cooled burger to the ceiling. "Hah, I can toast to that one."
I wrap my arm around my brother's shoulder, as awkward as it is, and take a big bite into my burger. I spit the contents out almost instantly, a shower of mushy bread and gold strands falling onto my plate.
"Bleck! What the f-is that hay!?"
Soon after, we finish our dinner and clean up the table. Starlight, Sunburst, and Spike exit to their dorms, and Trixie leaves for her wagon. No, really. Her friends live in a fucking castle and she's content with a "show wagon". When the door shuts behind them, Twilight, Anton, and I sit around the table in silence.
"Sooo." I grunt. "Twilight, we got time to waste. Why don't you tell us a bit more about the mirror?"
"Oh, sure thing." Twilight says. "Is there something in particular you were interested in?"
"Well, how about a quick rundown on how it works, and why we're not walking on four legs right now?"
"Oh, no problem." Twilight closes her eyes, a pale light enveloping her horn. A small flash erupts on the table, and out of nowhere, an apple on a plate and an orange in a bowl appear in front of her.
"So let's say." She motions with her hoof. "That the plate with the apple here represents our land of Equestria and its creatures. The bowl with the orange represents your world and species. Aside from these, there exists an infinite number of other dishes and fruits in existence. They all share their similarities at their foundation, but they express themselves differently. For example, the apple is a red pomaceous fruit, while the orange is an orange citrus. The plate is flat, while the bowl is rounded. Each fruit is bound to the laws and nature imposed onto them from their respective dish. An apple can only be an apple on the plate, and an orange can only be an orange in the bowl."
Anton and I exchange a glance, and Twilight laughs.
"I'm sorry," she giggles, "I'll try not to make the metaphor too confusing. Alright, so the plate and apple represent our universe and the equestrian citizens. The bowl and orange represent your universe and humans. However, should one try to cross into the other..."
Twilight raises the apple and orange into the air with her magic, rips off equal portions of each fruit, and swaps them between the produce. She then returns the fruit to their dishes. As she does so, the exposed orange flesh on the apple slowly takes on a red color, morphing into the apple and closing up the seam. The Orange does the opposite, slowly turning the apple flesh into a part of the orange.
"Neat trick, huh?" She says. "The laws of the dish-er-the universes force a change on those who pass through."
"Oh okay!" Anton says, "So the universe forces a change in order to compensate for the new, foreign objects. Wait, but then..."
"Exactly!" Twilight beams. "When I passed through the mirror, I walked out completely different. I had two legs and arms, I lost my horn, I looked exactly like you. I don't know why, but for some reason you both maintained your original forms when you came here. It's an exception to the rule and it's fascinating!"
The glint in her eyes tells me she's having way too much fun with this.
Anton rubs his chin. "Yeah, I think I remember Spike mentioning something about that. Wait, he said you attended high school?"
"Oh, heh. He told you guys about that? Well, the only way to get back the stolen artifact was to win it as elected princess in a Fall Formal Dance, so I didn't really have much of a choice."
I squint my eyes and tilt my head back. "How...how old are you?"
"19."
Anton and I glance at each other again.
"You're a 19 year old princess."
"Yep."
"With your own castle."
"Yep."
"All on your own."
"I mean I have Spike, Starlight, Sunb-"
"Holy fucking shit."
Beside me, Anton struggles to contain another laughing fit.
I bury my face in a hand and sigh. "God, this place is so weird. Please tell me we can leave soon."
"Oh, yes! Twilight perks, "You'll be excited to hear that we should be able to get you home by tomorrow. I spoke with an old, well I mean he's not that old-no I mean he is pretty old, but-ah nevermind. A friend of mine from Canterlot is on his way and should be able to help us out. He knows this mirror even better than I do, and should be able to help set it up and calibrate it correctly."
I raise an eyebrow. "What? I thought you traveled through it before. Did something happen?"
Twilight doesn't meet my eye. "Well, I would, but it was already set up before. And besides, there were some...complications."
"Not a problem, Twilight." Anton says. He turns to me with a nod. "Well bro, I guess there's not much else to do now but get some shut-eye."
"Y'know, Anton." Stretching back as I stand, I wave a hand back as I stride to the entrance. "That's gotta be the best thing you've said all day. Cya tomorrow Twilight."
"Goodnight, you two!" Twilight calls as we walk out the door.
As I enter the hall, my shoulders slump as I let the air out of my lungs. Yawning, my legs move on autopilot down the corridor.
What a fuckin' day.
"Tired?" Anton asks, flanking me.
"If I say yes, are you going to try and wring my arm around your neck again like a fucking towel?"
"Please, bro." My brother raises a hand to his chest. "You know it's not fun to embarrass you if there's no one around to see."
"Kiss my aaaaasssss." I moan to the ceiling.
As we reach the staircase, Anton walks ahead, bounding up two steps at a time.
"So, looks like things'll be back to normal soon." He says. "You sure you don't want to stay for a bit? "
I roll my eyes. "Oh, hell to the no, don't even start. We're going home if I have to drag your ass, kicking and screaming."
Anton jumps the last couple steps, twirling to face me. He holds his fists in the air, a playful smile across his face. He swings at the air, as though he's shadow boxing.
"Joking." He says, dropping his arms to his sides "But, you gotta admit that'd be a pretty funny scene. Y'know, cuz you're so short."
"Actually trip and fall." I smack him on the arm, turning to my room door and pulling it open. "Don't talk to me for 8-10 hours."
"Aye-aye, captain. Have a good night."
"You too."
Passing through the doorway, I let the door swing shut behind me. Walking to the window, I place my hands on the sides of its frame. The moon's risen high into the night sky now; waxing, but just on the cuff of being full.
Cracking my neck, I slowly let my head drop.
"A magic fucking mirror, huh?" I chuckle. "What a-"
What a waste of time.
The noise makes me jump. Turning around, I look left, then right, then left again. Squinting hard, I can hardly make out the silhouettes in the room.
"Is, uh, someone there?" I call into the darkness.
The only response is silence. As my eyes slowly adjust, the corners of the room sharpen, revealing themselves only empty.
Scoffing, I grab a corner of the bed cover and pull, before hopping in.
I'm actually going fucking crazy. |
Two Sides of The Same Coin | Chapter 4.1: Twilight - Reflections | Twilight's hoofsteps echo down the hall as she trots down the empty corridor. Although dinner had provided her with much insight regarding the two humans, their arrival continued to plague her. There was only one way of travel she knew of between Equestria and the human realm she visited, and she made sure to close it.
She sighs as she completes her third lap around the castle floor. How long has she been up now?
Something tugs at Twilight's chest and she hardens her gaze. Stopping, she raises her head to the right to the large double doors. One last check, then bed.
The handles glow in a purple hue as she swings the doors open. Further into the room, a large mirror attached to machinery greets her entrance. Taking a deep breath, Twilight steps through the threshold, closing the doors behind her, and approaches the Crystal Mirror.
Circling the machine, Twilight takes her time examining the various pipes, tubes, and gauges, but she catches herself as she nears the other end, stopping herself before her eyes reach the reflective surface of the mirror. She doesn't know why, but her hooves suddenly feel much heavier than before. Taking a deep breath, she trots into full view of the glass.
Before her stands an average sized pony, purple in color, with a horn and wings to match. In her scattered examination of the mirror, her golden crown's shifted to an awkward angle, and a few strands of hair can be seen poking out of her mane. Twilight chuckles as she straightens out her crown and mane with her magic. What's she so tense about? Even if the mirror was calibrated, it's not even powered.
She turns to leave when a soft whirring noise perks her ears. As she turns back, her eyes widen.
Before her in the mirror, stands Twilight Sparkle, a smile on her face under a pair of black spectacles. She's wearing casual attire: A pair of dark blue shoes, sky blue socks, a purple skirt, and a striped t-shirt. She waves as a small purple dog jumps into view from out of frame. The image of a sunny high school courtyard appears behind them, a large white star stained in glass above a large pair of glass doors.
"N-no." Twilight stammers. She walks closer to the mirror and rests a hoof on the glass. It's stiff, and the stillness indicates the machinery behind it isn't running. "No, that's not possible. This can't...how?"
In response, another figure walks into view. Her red and yellow hair shines like fire over her amber skin. She's wearing a black, sleeveless biker jacket over an orange T-shirt, with a violet skirt underneath. Twilight and the dog greet her as she approaches, hugging her tightly before turning their smiling gazes back to Twilight.
"Sunset!?" Twilight gasps. She takes a step back, but trips, landing on her haunches.
Two more people walk in from the background: a blue girl with rainbow hair juggles a soccer ball off her knees, and an orange girl with blonde hair and a stetson bites into an apple as she approaches. The blue one kicks the ball too hard, and it knocks the hat off the other girl. Almost immediately, an argument breaks out between the two.
A faint smile grows on Twilight's face as she watches the exchange.
"Oh stop it, girls." she laughs. "Rainbow Dash, Applejack; it was an honest mistake, I'm sure."
The two turn to Twilight as she speaks, then back to each other and laugh. The blue girl picks up and dusts the stetson, before handing it back to the orange girl. Hooking an arm around each other's shoulders, they approach the others in the mirror.
Another pair walk into the frame: a pale girl with purple hair fussily messes with a pink girl's vibrant pink mane. The hairy mess seems to resist any change from its natural shapeless mound, much to the pale girl's dismay, and the pink girl wears a visible frown.
Twilight raises an eyebrow, cocking her head. "Oh quit fussing, Rarity. Pinkie Pie's hair is pretty just the way it is."
The pale girl's eyes go wide as she looks at Twilight, then at the pout on Pinkie's face. They laugh together and run up to join the others. Then, a small patch of light pink catches Twilight's eye, scooting in and out of view at the edge of the mirror.
"Fluttershy, we can see you." Twilight says, rolling her eyes with a chuckle. "It's okay, come on in. You're always welcome with us."
A yellow girl shuffles into view, cloaking her face behind a waterfall of pink hair. She looks around before smiling at Twilight, and joining the cast together.
Twilight stares into the mirror, unsure whether this was all real or if she was just hallucinating. She stops when she feels something wet fall down her cheek. Raising a hoof, Twilight rubs at her face.
"No." She says. Gritting her teeth, Twilight struggles to her hooves. "No, those days are behind me now. I am a princess of Equestria. I have more responsibilities now, than ever. Princess Celestia and Luna are going to be stepping down soon, Canterlot needs to be rebuilt; there's so much to be done here. I don't have time for this."
"You hear me!?" Twilight braces her legs, raising her voice at the reflection. "I don't have time for you, so just leave me alone!"
Turning swiftly, she stomps toward the doors. As she reaches them, she grasps the handles with her magic, but stops. Taking in a breath, she casts one last look over her shoulder. The mirror is barren again, reflecting only a single pony in the empty room.
"I...I'm sorry."
Twilight stumbles out of the room, closing the door behind her and locking it shut with her magic. Her hooves echo louder as she walks down the empty corridor, her shoulder sliding against the wall. |
Momodora: Equestrian Adventure | pre | "They're magical. And they don't fix everything. I still lost a lot of blood, have a few cracked ribs and glass stuck in my right leg." She explained, taking a few deep breaths to calm down.
"A visit to the hospital can wait!" Honey called grimly and they turned to her. She was staring at something with an unidentifiable expression on her face. Shadow behind her was pale and pointing a shaking hoof at the same thing. Bold and Kaho turned their heads to the thing the other unicorns stared at and froze. A few streets away they could see a sand elemental towering over the buildings nearby it. It appeared to be fighting, if it's attacks where of any indication. A few pegasi were flying around it. It let out a roar and Kaho noticed it had a human-like face. She turned to Bold.
"Why is that thing in the village?" She asked stunned.
"I told you they're a vengeful bunch!" |
Momodora: Equestrian Adventure | Chapter 6 - "Is it over?" | Chapter 6 - "Is it over?"
The group composed of a high priestess, a town guard, his wife and a currency exchange shopkeeper did what presumably all groups composed of the same members would do while confronted with a three stores tall village destroying monster made of sand.
They ran towards it. Though in Kaho's case it was more like hobbling. And Shadow was tripping over his legs, pale at the thought of facing something way beyond his league. Bold's and Honey's faces were those of grim determination but it was clear they weren't thinking highly of their chances.
Needless to say none of them were looking forward to this confrontation.
Kaho's vision lost it's sapphire tint around the time they started moving towards the monster. That resulted in a pain filled gasp as the only completely safe body enhancer she had ran out. Bold turned towards her but she shook her head. They continued, but Bold was walking closer to her in case she fainted. She ran through the list of items in her bag that could help her right now and wouldn't worsen her condition. The Tainted Missives were out as they hurt both body and spirit by injecting spite and hatred directly into both. Definitely not safe or reasonable in her current condition but sometimes useful. The Faerie Tear was not useful in this particular situation, or at least she assumed so. Unless the elemental could curse things or poison people or burn them. She shook her head. She really couldn't see it doing that. The Magnet Stone was useless, same with the Dull and Edea's Pearls because there's no way you can poison sand. The Clarity Shard was a good idea if she wanted to blind herself right now. She didn't have any fingers to put her rings on. The Astral Charm would be useful, since luck is something she'll need a lot of right now. Those really weird arrows that the Karstian Archery used were not something she bothered to acquaintance herself with, except the ones she used a few minutes earlier.
Her magic items that cast spells would cause collateral damage. Not acceptable.
Kaho took a deep breath and settled with the fact that she might not be of much use in this fight. But maybe she could pass some knowledge along, presuming the townspeople, didn't know all of it already.
"Miss Bee, do you know any weaknesses of these monsters?"
"No, I don't. The same goes for the rest of the town. If we knew any, they wouldn't be a problem." Honey answered keeping her golden eyes on the monstrosity they were approaching.
"Well, while I was fighting the ones that almost killed me, I found out some things."
Honey's head snapped back towards Kaho and she fixed her with a look.
"Tell me. I'll run forward to repeat what you say to others. Quickly because lives are at stake!" She exclaimed while speeding up.
"They are vulnerable to fire hot enough to turn sand into glass. The glass parts restrain them, because they can't move them and they seem smarter the bigger they are. I also found out that there are stones inside their chest area that seem to animate the sand. Taking them out killed them or at least disabled them." As soon as Kaho finished explaining, Honey's horn glowed and there was a flash of yellow light, same as yesterday and she flied away as a bee.
"That does explain why they die when you cut them there enough times." Bold mused, increasing his tempo just a tiny bit.
"Fire hot enough to melt sand into glass..? That's crazy! Do you know how hard it is to make a fire that hot magically!" Shadow exclaimed, face even more nervous than before.
"Well technically water would also turn it's sand into mud which would at least slow it down but-" Kaho shrugged somehow,"- we are in a desert." Shadow shot her a look at that.
"You're not making me feel any better."
"Well sorry if I can't help trying to lighten my mood after almost dying." She deadpanned in response. Shadow looked guilty after those words.
"Stop arguing like foals! This isn't the time for this!" Bold exclaimed, and both of them jumped in surprise though Kaho quickly regretted it.
"How long do we have before we're going to be in the fight?" Kaho asked, lightning her horn and opening the bag once again. A few seconds later the Astral Charm was hanging of her neck and the Black Sachet was back in the bag.
"From what I'm seeing we'll be joining the guard in thirty seconds." Bold commented, speeding up again.
"Do you know if there's anyone capable of creating a fire hot enough to restrain it?" She asked, feeling her stomach trying very hard to tie itself into a knot.
"I think Honey should be capable of cranking up at least five fireballs to that level. Blowtorch is definitely capable of throwing much more of them around. He's probably doing it right now. I'm not sure about anypony else. It would definitely be a stretch for them." He responded, face growing more grim with every second.
"I think I can make one." Shadow spoke up nervously. He didn't appear to be confident about it.
"Save it as a last resort then." Bold replied.
They turned right after reaching a crossroad and were greeted by the sight of a column of sand rising from the ground and moving about rather fast. The massive elemental occupied an another empty space, same as the one she fought the smaller ones in. There wasn't a lot of room to run around in it, but it wasn't impossible. Two earth ponies rushed past them, carrying an unconscious bleeding pegasus on their back. Kaho assumed they were going to the hospital. Kaho winced when she saw the winged pony bleeding from their mouth, nose, ears and a hole in their torso.
A bright yellow flash appeared up above them and Honey fell down to the ground, rolling to prevent any of her bones from breaking.
"You're here!" She shouted.
"What's the plan Honey?" Bold asked. She let out a humorless laugh.
"There isn't! Sound Mind was rushed to the hospital a few minutes ago, no one can agree about anything, half of our guard is panicking and the other half is convinced that we should try to escape!" She took a deep breath.
"As you can tell the situation is far from optimal."
"Escaping doesn't sound like a bad idea right now." Shadow muttered absently, sitting on his flank and staring in horror.
"It would chase us down. We live in the desert but that thing is the desert." Bold shook his head. "Anyone got any good ideas?"
"The fire?" Kaho half asked, half reminded because the other mare didn't mention anything about it.
"Sunny is getting Blowtorch here, he lives on the opposite site of town and it was his off day. He decided to sleep in. They should be here in two minutes." Honey answered, her horn starting to glow.
"That's way too long, we need to start right now before it wipes out everyone!" Kaho argued.
"I know!" Honey turned towards the monster who was swiping at the remaining pegasi. A fireball about as big as Bold shot out of her horn straight into the elemental's head. An explosion of fire swallowed it's head and the surrounding sand. The glass on top of it's head was reflecting sunlight straight into their eyes, so it was harder to notice that it was now focused on them.
"Uh, oh." Honey made a weird face. It could have been described as one of a child who just realized that his parents did hear them mutter that curse.
"Dodge!"
The warning was entirely unneeded because their group was already moving. They scattered, Honey and Bold to the left and Shadow with Kaho to the right. The gigantic arm slammed down on where they were standing two seconds ago. Kaho took the opportunity to smash the leaf into their enemy. The amount of glass created by the hit was unsatisfactory. The arm moved to crush Honey and Bold against a building. Everyone looking in their direction gave a shout of alarm. Honey threw herself at her husband and grabbed him, horn glowing. There was a bright yellow flash, a loud crackle and both of them suddenly weren't there.
"Miss Bee can teleport?" Shadow asked, making the best impression of a fish Kaho's ever seen. The priestess only rolled her eyes at his reaction before grabbing him with her undamaged hoof and dragging him away from their foe. Seriously teleportation couldn't be that rare. She fought people and things that could do it a lot. She looked around trying to spot where the pair teleported to but couldn't manage to spot them. She did spot the next fireball impacting the right shoulder of the beast. It let out a deafening roar and both her and Shadow fell to the ground covering their ears.
"That thing can scream really damn loud!" Shadow shouted. Kaho only turned her eyes to him, still laying on the ground and deadpanned when the noise finally stopped.
"Really? I couldn't tell." He blushed in response.
"Sorry."
The priestess rolled her eyes and slowly got up, trying not to strain her right leg. Some cuts already reopened and more would soon follow if she didn't stop running around. But it wasn't like she could just drop out of the fight. The monster was currently occupied with her hostess who threw an another fireball, this time at the right arm, immobilizing one fourth of it. She already casted three and her husband was sure she could manage five. Honey's usefulness in restraining the thing was rapidly dwindling. That meant someone needed to step up their game and Kaho was willing to do just that despite the risk.
The mare opened the bag again and quickly consumed an another bellflower to heal the injuries on her leg before taking out a piece of bloodied paper. She speedily read through the contents, cringing when she felt her body burning, as the horrible, horrible words entered into her brain, their hateful message hurting her being. Kaho crumpled the paper in her magic. The world seemed more bleak, darker, evil, not worth living in. She shook her head to clear her thoughts before returning the text into her bag. The priestess ran forward and levitated the leaf up to the right arm of their enemy to hit it. Yet another explosion of fire was born from her strike today, nearly completely covering the limb in glass. She jumped away ready for a retaliatory strike from the monster, ready to run but no blow came.
She looked up slightly confused. The creature's right arm was completely restrained and the left one was reared back ready to attack... itself?
The glass exploded in every direction, as the elemental hit it's glass arm with the sand one. She heard screams of pain and shouts of alarm. It only took her half a second to register the fact she was one of those screaming. There were at least five shards of varying sizes stuck in her and countless more that grazed her. Her vision blurred, the world darkened.
The priestess grit her teeth and pulled out two more bellflowers and ate them. The bleeding stopped, but there was even more glass stuck in her body.
This was decisively not her day. Oh, how much time she'll spend at the hospital, assuming she lived through this fight. Kaho just couldn't wait. Her vision cleared a bit, but not completely. She estimated that she couldn't afford to lose much more of her blood, unless she really wanted to die today.
The priestess looked up, trying to judge if their chances have shot up with the right arm gone or-
"Dear Goddesses..." These words didn't really convey the horror she was feeling. The giant was supposed to lose an arm, make this fight easier, winnable. Instead there was sand flying off the ground attaching itself to the arm that was supposed to be gone. She fell to her knees, staring. Some part of her was screaming. Get up you idiot! Fight! Don't give up! but she just couldn't muster the will to do that. If she had been a human this fight would have gone differently. She still didn't figure out how to utilize the Karst Crest pieces in this form. It would take a miracle for the fight to swing in their favor.
"Cavalry has arrived!" A feminine voice called out, which was followed by a series of explosions. Kaho idly noted in her head that it was a weird thing to hear a pony say and she should probably ask about that later. An orange coated unicorn with a red mane was standing on a nearby roof, throwing fireballs like nobody's business. Nearby a pegasus was flying around, futilely stabbing their spear into the sand. It took all of two seconds for the regrowing arm to stop. The monster roared this time a bit quieter and Kaho noted again that it shouldn't be doing that with it's head being glass. It tried smashing the unicorn with it's other arm but was stopped almost immediately by more fireballs. The priestess let out a sigh of relief.
Then the elemental charged the building on which the unicorn who was probably Blowtorch was standing.
The pegasus with the spear let out a shout of alarm before swooping in, grabbing Blowtorch and flying away. The building collapsed and the beast turned around. Kaho suddenly realized she was still standing in place, without anything to hide behind. She backed away hastily, though their opponent seemed to be paying attention to Blowtorch. It tried to move it's arms around by rotating it's torso to break the glass.
"Blowtorch! Glass it's torso, NOW!" Honey shouted from somewhere.
"Can do!" He called back, as the pegasus put him down on an another roof. The monster surged towards him and Kaho rolled to the side to avoid the oncoming wall of very painful death. She got up and turned just in time to see his horn glowing an insanely bright pink before a wall of flames erupted from him. It couldn't stop in time and ran straight into it.
The roar of fire quieted down in a few seconds, after he stopped his spell before sitting down. There in place stood a giant statue of warped see through material.
"Is it over?" Someone called out.
"It isn't until we take care of the rock inside of it!" Honey answered, though Kaho still didn't know where she was.
"And how are we gonna do that? I'm not exactly keen on having it break out, just so I have to stop it again." Blowtorch said rubbing his head with a hoof. The pegasus - a mare, probably Sunny, Kaho realized as she touched down and hugged the orange unicorn. Honey walked into the strange space Kaho still couldn't determine purpose for, with Bold at her side. Both of them were bleeding from numerous wounds, though they didn't seem to be that bothered by it so Kaho ignored it for now.
"So how do we do it?" Sunny asked.
"I can rip out the rock, though I think it won't be enough to do this one in. It was more capable than it's smaller kin so I wouldn't put past it to be capable of living trough it." Honey answered again, because apparently she was an encyclopedia now.
"I'm pretty sure I can break it after you do that. These muscles aren't just for show you know, Honey?" Bold jokingly flexed. His wife rolled her eyes, amused.
"Okay then, everypony move away, Bold get ready." She commanded, as Bold took his gigantic sword of his back.
Honey's horn glowed yellow and the rock was ripped out of it's hold. The instant it was out sand swirled, moving towards it. There were shouts of alarm, Blowtorch lit horn, Sunny lifted her spear, Kaho levitated the leaf up. Bold calmly jumped forward and hit the magical rock vertically with his sword. It went straight trough and the sand stopped.
There was a moment of silence before the rock split into two halves. Everyone stared at the sword.
"What?" Bold asked with an innocent expression.
"What is that sword made of?! That was solid rock!" Sunny asked.
"You can ask my wife, I'm sure she'll share that information with you." He gave them a daring look. Kaho glanced at her hostess and noticed the expression on her face. She interpreted it as "Ask me that and I'll gladly rip out your spine." And Kaho would know, she's seen that one before. And she was now also becoming aware of the fact that there still is a lot of glass in her body. That probably wasn't optimal for her health. Dizzily she looked at them and spoke, swaying slightly to the left
"Well, I'm sure you all have things to do, like cleaning up this mess but would anyone mind helping me to the hospital?" She grunted.
Everyone present actually looked at her and noticed the sharp shards sticking out of her and the many scratches she was covered in. At the drying blood clinging to her fur. In the next five seconds Bold already had her on her back and was galloping through the streets. Sunny flied by them, too fast for them too catch up. Honey Bee was behind them but was slowly catching up despite her smaller size. And Kaho thought as her eyelids started closing and the world started quietening around her that maybe, it was her fault for not raising their attention to her sorry state sooner. There was some shouting about something, but she wasn't paying attention right now. What she was thinking about is that this was a perfect time for a nap.
So she closed her eyes and fell into deep sleep. |
Momodora: Equestrian Adventure | Chapter 7 - "Where the hell can I find a bell made of solid gold?" | Chapter 7 - "Where the hell can I find a bell made of solid gold?"
Being awake hurt. Kaho, if asked would say that she'd rather be unconscious right now. But Kaho was a good girl. Kaho would wait.
Kaho, was also currently on a lot of painkillers.
Kaho's bloodstream was as close to what would be to the lethal dose of morphine as one could get to without actually dying.
She was unaware of said fact, and probably for the better.
So while it could have hurt more and it probably did, she didn't notice. But it still hurt a bit. A bit of pain everywhere. Not enjoyable.
She might have been on some magical painkillers as well. She wouldn't know. The weird ring that that one nice nurse, which the name of she couldn't recall at the moment had, was also on her horn. It didn't let her do magic. When she tried to take it off, a weird, big yellow blob, which called her "girlie" came in and stopped her. It told her to be patient and lay in the bed like a good girl.
Kaho listened, of course. She was, after all, a good girl.
But while Kaho was a good girl, she was on a crap ton of drugs, so she simply forgot. You really couldn't blame her, forgetting all those twenty something times. There were many infinitely more interesting plain zany things just floating through her vision, one after another. But as long as she remembered, she would keep her promise to the nice yellow blob. Kaho was, after all, a good girl.
But one time when she took it off and no one noticed she did magic, and something else ran in. It was smaller than the yellow blob and white in color, with alternating yellow and black on it's top. It shouted something at her. Kaho didn't understand but that was okay. This wasn't the yellow blob who would yell at her for doing... something. So doing magic was probably fine.
Oh, how wrong she was.
Turns out the white blob could be much more scary than the big yellow blob. White blob was not nice at all, unlike Kaho. Kaho was scared by the white blob and started crying. It stopped it's horrible verbal assault of incomprehensible sounds and hugged her. Kaho was scared at first but the blob was no longer mean. The white blob apologized soothingly and Kaho didn't cry anymore. It even gave her an actual solid piece of the universe! Then Kaho had to promise to not do magic again. She was sad but remembered that she shouldn't anger this blob. The blob gave her an another solid piece of the universe and it bled rainbow juice! The juice wasn't tasty and she decided she won't drink it ever again. The blob laughed a bit after scolding her (gently this time which Kaho found lovely!), and told her to write on the first gift. She made her write "I won't do magic." and made her promise she would be more patient this time.
Kaho didn't forget. Not this time. Especially since the title of The Goodest Girl, was at stake!
So she waited. She smiled and laughed at the things in her vision, always remembering to look at her card before contemplating trying to do magic.
Eventually, she grew tired. Kaho fell asleep listening to the sounds of the universe even when the soft, incomprehensible words of the white blob reached her from beyond the Great Gate To The Even Greater Outside. They made her feel better and cozy, and there was a gentle warmth in her heart.
Kaho fell asleep.
She regained her awareness.
The first thing that welcomed her back into the world was a steady beep of something nearby. She was told what it was by her hostess when she was teaching her about Equestria. Really, medicine here was so advanced here it was actually off putting, in a way. Back home they had to make do with herbs and magic. There were some medicines that were widely available everywhere but they were only for often encountered diseases like the common cold. Nothing close to being capable of curing wounds she received as a reward for being sloppy.
The second thing to welcome her into the world was the sun's rays, falling directly into her eyes, again. She gave a small sigh after wincing. It would be nice to wake up without feeling the sun's glare on her.
The third thing to disturb her was pain. She was in it. Her wounds hurt, she was sure that headache was actually about to kill her and worst of all was the beeping that intensified said headache by hundreds of times.
There was also silence, however often it was interrupted by that infernal beeping. She was glad for that silence. It gave time for thought. To mentally come back to the fight and think about what she could have done better. And there was a lot of things she could have done better. It wasn't as horrible as it could have been, she decided to herself. Definitely room to improve, if only because she's still unused to this body. This equine body.
That still feels so weird.
She considered her situation while staring blankly at the wall. Eventually, sleep took her away again.
The next trip into the land of consciousness was caused by the sun, of course. Kaho was really starting to think that this Celestia had it out for her. The priestess found herself alone in the room again. And then something hit her.
"Dear Goddesses." One could not not hear the terrified note in her voice.
"I haven't prayed for two days! Of course I'm unlucky!" She gasped, rather dramatically. It was a fair concern however. Any priest or priestess should maintain contact with their respective gods, or bad things would follow. You can't just devote yourself to a god and then abandon them. It tends to irritate them at best and at worst... well, no one ever speaks about those cases. Of course things were slightly complicated as Kaho's gods were not the strongest ones around and her bond with them hasn't yet reached it's full potential. So she needed the item they've chosen to help channel the prayers of their followers.
"Where the hell can I find a bell made of solid gold? Those cost a fortune." She groaned.
"Definitely not my week. And I'm only like... three days in?" She asked herself, hooves covering her embarrassed and rather stressed face.
"Actually it's two weeks and two days." Clean Cut answered, walking through the door, idly flipping through a clip board.
The priestess looked ready to faint.
"Please, do not pass out. I would rather get this over with now, rather than later." The subtle note of annoyance had not eluded Kaho.
"Get over what now?" She asked cautiously. Clear Cut took a deep breath, closed her eyes and exhaled.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING PUNCHING GLASS!? Do you have any idea, how utterly inane that was?! You're lucky you had those magical fruits of yours or you wouldn't have made it!" Kaho yelped, moving away from the gray mare who just blew her top rather loudly and was advancing on her in a rather threatening manner.
"I think you should give the girlie some space." Bold said slipping into the room with a relived look on his face. The nurse whirled to him with a furious look on her face. She took a deep breath ready to start screaming again and... calmed down. For a few seconds she looked incredibly tired and old.
"Look, Bold. I didn't give her a clean check of physical health seventeen days ago and asked her to come for a check up the next morning to see her landing on my operating table the next day." She let breathed in and out again and turned to the still wary priestess.
"Kaho, sweetie, look I'm sorry for yelling at you. But when you are a doctor and you send away a patient just for them to come back three quarters into their grave the next day you can't help but feel a little frustration. It doesn't help that I've been holding back my lecture about attacking things that are made of fragile and dangerous material with your own hooves for quite some time now."
"I thought you were a nurse?" Kaho asked, slightly unsure of what to think and wanting to switch to a different topic.
"That's just what everyone calls me. It started out as an annoying nickname on medical university made up by a bunch of jokesters but it grew on me." She admitted.
"Don't change the topic." She said shaking her head slightly. "That was completely irresponsible of you. You are a grown mare so I trust you'll learn a valuable lesson form this. But if I see you or even hear about you getting hurt in a similarly stupid manner, I will be... most displeased."
Kaho nodded her head up and down like an aggravated bobble head. The other mare just sighed.
"You'll remain here until the next day until I'll check if everything healed as it should have." After saying that the mare left.
There was a moment of silence.
"So... is everyone alright?" Kaho asked.
"Yes, they are girlie. No one died thankfully, ponies in critical condition were stabilized and are on their way to recovery. You were the last one to be carried in."
"That's good. It would have been awful if anyone died because of me." The priestess admitted.
"It wasn't your fault girlie!" Bold protested loudly. "You were only defending yourself back then. It's not your fault those monsters can't take a hit to their own egos."
"Yeah... you're right. But people still got hurt, though."
"But no one died. No one was crippled, no foals were hurt. Everyone will recover fully in a month or two."
"Still it reminds me of things... in the past." Her voice was somber. Haegok... it wasn't stopped in time for there to be no casualties, even with the help of those two strange girls. The village was quiet for a month as everyone grieved the loss of family and friends. Kaho became an orphan that day. Donna became one as well even though she never learned what killed her parents. Kaho thought it was for the best. The girl didn't need to know that the God the village worshiped, turned on them.
But the worst part was the silence of their Gods. They used too much of their power to heal and protect and aid them against that Betrayer. It took years for them to regain their strength for the tiniest of blessings. Years where the villagers starved each winter, because the crops were too small, where sickness was more common than anytime else.
"You alright girlie? You've got that look on your face again."
"I'm okay. Just remembering the past."
A heavy silence fell on the room. Bold tried to restart the conversation a few times but was ultimately shot down every time. He eventually left, leaving Kaho alone in the hospital bed. It wasn't very long before she was asleep once again. |
Momodora: Equestrian Adventure | Chapter 8 - "Am I interrupting something?" | Chapter 8 - "Am I interrupting something?"
"So can I leave now?"
"Yes, you can. But if I see you back here within the next week, you won't avoid me talking your ears off!" Clean Cut snapped.
"Yes nurse." Kaho said solemnly, leaving the hospital room.
"You can get your things back at Bold's house." The nurse said without turning around, cleaning the room.
The priestess left the hospital and started wandering the town. The sun was high up in the sky, it's rays beating down on everything below harshly. Kaho slowly made her way towards the married pair's home, trying her best to ignore the whispering and stares directed at her. Ponies seemed to be attempting to drill holes into her body with their eyes and she was really not liking that. Then a small pony - a foal walked up to her. He had a green coat and a red coat and his yellow eyes were looking at her in... reverence?
"Miss?" He asked in a squeaky voice.
"Yes? What do you want child?" She asked, glad that some of the attention was now directed to him.
"I wanted to thank you for protecting our home."
"You don't need to do that. It's my duty to protect those in danger regardless of who they are." She spoke warmly. The foal walked up closer, got up on his hind legs and stood up to hug her. It was nice. He backed away and ran up to a group of other foals which started to chatting excitedly. Kaho continued, relieved that not everyone was looking at her now. It took her a few minutes to find the house again since she only once walked the road from the hospital to it. She knocked on the door and waited. The door was opened in a few seconds by Honey Bee.
"Oh! Welcome Kaho. I see you've been released from the hospital."
"Yes, with a threat of a verbal lashing if I come back too soon." She explained.
"Oh, well. That's just how Clean Cut is. In any case, I'm glad you're back on your hooves already!" The other mare exclaimed, giving her a big hug.
"Thanks." Kaho said, blushing slightly.
"Now come on in. You'll be getting your things back and we can talk a bit before dinner." Honey stepped aside, allowing the priestess to enter.
They walked inside, Honey closing the door with her magic. The living room was empty but there was a ridiculous amount of noise coming from the kitchen. It seemed like Bold was cooking again. "Maybe he's the cooking type of man." Kaho thought. She sat down on the couch, while Honey turned towards the guest room Kaho slept in before. Half a minute later her hostess came back with all her things plus a tiny purple wallet with yellow dots on it.
"Thank you. But what's this..?"
"Ah, Shadow dropped by a few days after the whole incident and said that he got you the dimensional wallet you needed. Your bits are in it."
"Oh, I'll visit him and thank him later then."
"And now onto the important bit!" Honey exclaimed, dumping everything onto Kaho.
"Which is..?" She asked after taking everything off of her.
"I want to hear all about those things you used when you were fighting! For research purposes!" She gave a winning smile and the same notepad and pencil as before popped into existence next to her with a yellow flash. Kaho sighed resigned before starting to explain.
"Alright, but after that I get to ask you some things as well." Honey nodded and made a 'go ahead' gesture.
"Well the first thing I used was the Pocket Incensory. It enhances any item held in the smoke it emits with fire, causing the item to cause small explosions of flames with each hit. They grow in size and are hotter the stronger you hit. I then hung the Black Sachet on my neck. It induces a horrible smell that makes you stronger, though at risk of entering a frenzied state where you lose most of your capability for coherent thoughts and nearly nullifying all pain you would feel. The frenzy wears off quickly and the user might experience a shock when they suddenly feel all the pain they previously ignored." She paused for a while to breathe.
"Then I ate a Crystal Seed. It also enhances your strength though it doesn't do much besides that and tinting your vision slightly blue. The plants I ate to stay alive are Bellflowers. They're fairly common where I come from. They can magically heal wounds, stop bleeding both external and internal but they can't fix broken bones. They're also unbelievably sour and the first five times you consume them you'll probably regret doing so a lot. Like throwing up, a lot." She concluded.
"Thanks! Now what do you want to know?"
"How did you meet Bold? I'm curious." Honey's face soured for a tiny fraction of a second but Kaho still caught it.
"I was doing an errand for... my employer at the time." She looked away. "It was here in the desert. I was supposed to find a specific item for her and come back. It was supposed to be a simple job. Turned out to be anything but that." She let out a humorless chuckle.
"Turns out a group of bad ponies was out for the item as well. We ended up fighting to no surprise. Just me against ten others. I might be good but I'm not that good. I probably would have died if he didn't find us at that moment." She paused.
"Admittedly it was much more complicated then I expected at first." Bold's voice came from behind them. Kaho looked back while Honey just looked away.
"To me it was just an unknown mare about to be killed by some strangers. But it was still someone to be protected. I came in and we defeated them. I was conflicted, I admit as she already killed four of them and murder is the greatest crime one may commit in this country. But... I saw the desperation in her eyes. She was only defending herself. So I helped. Honey didn't make anything easier on me when she fainted after the fight. What was I supposed to do with four corpses, six fainted aggressors and her?" He finished. Kaho was staring wide eyed at both of them.
"When I came to, he was nearby, standing guard. I didn't want to attract attention at first. This wasn't in the script and I never was in a like that before. So I pretended to still be unconscious. He found me out pretty quick and started questioning me. That was the hardest conversation in my entire life. I had to explain what happened, why was I here and for what purpose, why did I kill the-" Honey's voice cracked as she tried to continue. Nearly instantly Bold was at her side, holding her close.
"She lied throughout the entire conversation. Somehow managed to convince me they were some evil cult despite them not having any signs of it. I mean there were no black cloaks, painted faces or blood sacrifices around which normally tend to give away these things, so I don't know how she did it. Said she needs to go back to her employer and face her punishment. And here I finally managed to object."
"He told me he'd help me explain. He saw the situation, knew that I had to do what I did." The unicorn interrupted with puffy eyes, filled with tears.
"We weren't capable of dragging these ponies by ourselves. We left them there and went back to my home in Oasis. We went in at night so no one could see that she was covered in blood. She took a very long shower and in the morning we were on our way to mainland Equestria." He continued.
"She was calm like always but I knew it was just a mask. It always is. You learn that after a while under her. I explained the situation from my perspective and Bold from his. I don't know what she was thinking but I was... retired. I still run errands for her occasionally but mostly I just live on monthly stipend as long as I go to my monthly psychiatrist appointment in Canterlot so I don't have... issues." She finished.
"Oh, I... didn't expect that. Sorry for bringing it up." Kaho apologized awkwardly.
"No, it's okay. My psychiatrist said it's better to open up to people instead of bottling it in. I'm just... cautious not confess to anypony unless I trust them." Kaho blushed at that.
"Do you really trust me that much?"
"Yes." She said confidently. "From what I've seen and heard you're someone who can be trusted. You'd risk your life for others and seem like a genuinely pleasant young mare, so I feel like I can do it." She explained.
"How many people you've told already?"
"You're the first one I've told personally"
"Oh. Oooooh. That's... a lot of pressure. Well, I won't betray your trust Miss Bee." Kaho stammered, the blush returning full force and then some.
"Please. It's just Honey to friends." Her hostess gave her a very warm smile. Kaho blushed even harder and the married couple shared a short laugh at her expense.
"Thank you for the dinner. I'm going out for a few things." Kaho said.
"Alright. Be sure to come back before it's dark. The town gets really cold at night." Honey called out as the priestess stepped out the door.
The sun was approaching the horizon and it was getting darker with each minute. She decided to go to Shadow first. The walk was uneventful. She knocked on the door to his currency exchange office before coming in. He predictably was swinging back and forth on that creaky chair again with his eyes closed. She rolled her eyes and walked forward. She grabbed the chair with her magic 'and isn't that cool?' she thought while stopping the chair. With her thoughts. His eyes slowly opened and he gazed around confused with half-lidded eyes before seeing her.
"Oh, hi Kaho." He paused. "I swear I'm not asleep on the job all the time."
"Sure, whatever you say. I came here to thank you for the wallet." She responded. He narrowed his eyes slightly before responding.
"You didn't need to, I sensed your gratitude earlier in the day." He explained casually, giving her a smug look.
"I'm sure you sensed me coming here as well then. Would explain the way you greeted me when I came in." The gauntlet was thrown.
"Yeah, I have a way to make mares feel special I know."
"I'm sure you have to drive away dozens of adoring girls each day."
"Yeah. It's a bit hard on me having to do that everyday. I don't let it get to me, of course. I'm far too great for that."
"Yeah, with a name like that I would be surprised if you weren't a cunning leader of a dark cult bent on world domination. Humble beginnings for someone of your caliber."
"Don't worry I'm sure there will be a place for you in the new world order." He paused. "Somewhere."
"Probably as the heroic resistance's mascot. I'd be great for morale." Kaho boasted.
"Not the leader?" He tsked. "Disappointing Kaho, but it's good that you know your limits."
"No, the resistance leader always gets overthrown by their right hand with a chronic backstabbing disorder and an unhealthy desire for power. And at the end of the day the mascot is plain better, since they get all the credit."
"The heroic sacrifice you'd do to prevent my backup plan to destroy the world, means you wouldn't live to tell the tale and no one would know how you defeated me." He countered. Kaho raised her eyebrow.
"Backup plan to destroy the world?" She asked.
He scoffed in response. "If I can't have it, no one can."
"Of course you realize that I'm too good of a person to just die like that at the hands of an evil overlord. There would be a light from the heavens and all of the gods would bring me back to life and make me the ruler of everything because of my heroic deeds and my selflessness." Kaho said condescendingly.
"My evil cult would revive me as an evil god after centuries when the time is right to upset the balance of good and evil once again, which you wouldn't expect." He shot back.
"True." She admitted. "No one could expect such a failure to be revived, just to be defeated again by the line of my heroic descendants."
"How am I a failure! I took over the world once and am back as a powerful evil god fueled by hundreds - No, thousands of bloody sacrifices?!" He asked disbelievingly.
"But you failed the first time and won't get the second chance because I secretly suspected something like that would happen and prepared my child, who prepared theirs and so on." Kaho said, victory in every line of her body.
"You can't do that! That's cheating!" He exclaimed.
"You did it before me, Mr. "I suddenly have a dark cult", so you have no room to complain." Kaho justified.
Shadow stared for a moment before bursting out laughing and shaking his head.
"Very well. I am defeated. Good match." He offered his hoof. Kaho shook it, giggling herself.
"We have to do that again sometime." He said when they've calmed down.
"Sure. We might need to change the topic since I've obviously got you beat on good versus evil." She teased.
"That you do. We might only need to change sides though. We'll see how it will go next time I guess." He commented.
"Yeah, you're right. Now I'm off to do the rest of my errands. Goodbye!" She called as walked outside.
"Goodbye!" He called back.
Kaho left the building, shaking her head slightly.
"That was very enjoyable. We really do have to do that again." She mused, walking towards the market. The merchants were slowly starting to pack up their merchandise. She quickened her pace, looking around for the bell. After a few minutes of looking around, she spotted a pegasus stallion with a collection of various trinkets a tiny collection of bells included. Kaho walked up to him.
"Excuse me, do you maybe have a golden bell?"
"Sure do, lady! Covered in gold or made of gold?" He asked.
"Made of gold. How much for one?"
"Fifty bits."
The priestess fished out the wallet out of her bag and pulled out the bits, handing them over to the pegasus. In turn he gave her the bell.
"Pleasure doing business with you lady!" He called out as she walked away. It was getting darker and colder with every minute so she sped up. Not so long and she was standing before the couple's house and knocking on the door again.
"You don't have to knock every time! Just get in!" Honey's annoyed voice called out from the inside. Kaho blinked, before lighting up her horn and opening the door. The priestess walked in, closing the door behind her and blinked once again, not sure how to feel at the sight before her. Bold was laying on his belly on the sofa while Honey was standing on him and... jumping up and down?
"Am I interrupting something?" Kaho asked, her voice and odd mixture of confusion, embarrassment, amusement and simultaneous bemusement.
"Yes." Honey growled through gritted teeth while still looking at Bold.
"Just go to your room girlie. We're just having a... lover's spat." He answered grinning at his wife.
Kaho only shook her head and did just that. Before she managed to close the door to her room she heard a "Give it back already!" followed by "You need to take a break and relax." and a "I am relaxing! With research!".
Kaho took of her cloak off and tossed it on the bed before placing the bag on the nightstand after retrieving the bell from inside. She placed the bell on floor before her and took the closest position to kneeling possible in her equine form.
Closing her eyes she began to pray. |
Momodora: Equestrian Adventure | A Moderately Sized Author's Note of Questionable Importance | It has been seven months without a sign of life from me except for switching the story's status to "On Hiatus" about midway through. Now I'll be honest with you here. I blocked myself with the ending of the last chapter and forced myself into coming up with an actual prayer for Kaho to say. For the five months after that I spent time trying to come up with something acceptable and never once did I find anything. That slowly chipped away at my resolve to come up with something, anything and I gave up on this after the end of the school year.
Then I got a summer job.
Yeah. That went well. I still have two weeks left before it ends and I'm tired as all hell after each day but, somehow I managed to achieve enlightenment during a weekend about three weeks ago.
The prayer is done. It is not something I'm overly proud of but it will do. So I moved on with the chapter and lo and behold I got myself stuck on something else. I have just got past that block. The chapter is not done yet-It's still pretty far from it and I really don't want to write while I still have to work. This fic is not dead yet, and I'll try to keep it that way. Hopefully I'll manage a chapter before the end of the year. Anyway I'm off to write some more words.
[EDIT: Would you people be okay with me writing other fics, before I finish this one? I mean I'll still do it if I feel like it, since motivation to write isn't always focused on this fic in particular but just checking. Also with my writing speed we'll be here for actual years.]
This message will self-destruct after I post the next chapter. |
The Golden Armor | pre | A flash of lightning, followed almost immediately by thunder caused Angel to scream loudly and cover her ears, pulling her hoof away from Comet. She curled up on the ground as more lightning flashed around the sky, followed inevitably by more thunder and she screamed again. Horrible memories of the caves where she was raised terrorized her mind and she began to shiver. Outside, Comet stopped and turned back to Angel. He wrapped a leg around her and dragged her under the tree where the rain wasn't pouring down on them.
Comet placed her on the driest patch of ground he could find and left her be. He shook himself like a dog and flapped his wings weakly, getting most of the rainwater off. He turned back to Angel, who was now whimpering and couldn't help but wonder. He had never seen her scared like this before and the roll of thunder in the background wasn't helping. He cautiously approached her, like he would a wounded animal, and gently prodded her side.
"Hey, Angel? It's okay now, you're safe," he said gently to her and she opened one eye.
He couldn't tell if it was the rainwater, but her eye had a misty look to it. He slowly reached over and moved a lock of her wet mane away from her face. She allowed him to do that before jumping upwards and giving him another lung crushing hug. Comet stood there trying to catch his breath as Angel rubbed her face into his neck, crying weakly. Comet, unsure of what to do, gently began to stroke her wet mane to try and calm her down. The two stayed like that for two minutes before Angel finally released him.
The rain still came down heavily, but the thunder and lightning had thankfully subsided. Comet sat next to Angel silently, unsure of what to say or even think while Angel kept her gaze away from him. She was clearly embarrassed about her behavior around Comet, but she knew she had to explain it to him.
"You know, Comet, I've never told anyone this, but I'm scared of lightning," she weakly got out.
"You don't say?" Comet rebutted, smacking himself mentally after.
Angel sighed deeply and continued, "Back where I come from, bat ponies live in caves. My ancestors dug them out a long time ago, so generations of bat ponies have lived there. The design of the caves was flawed, though. They would make thunder echo through the caves and would sometimes flood. I nearly drowned when the caves last flooded. My parents were trying to leave and I was just a filly who couldn't fly yet. My father carried me, but the water made me slip from his grip. I was swept into the lowest part of the caves where the thunder continuously echoed and the water level rose. I screamed for help for twenty minutes and nopony heard me."
She began to tear up again and Comet instinctively tried to comfort her. He reached his hoof over and rubbed her back between her mane and wings.
She sniffed a couple times, but then continued, "I thought I was going to die. I wasn't able to swim very well, so I was sinking slowly into the water. My dad came back for me though and saved me, but now when I hear thunder, I think of that day."
Comet simply looked at the quivering bat pony mare who was the cause of his annoyance and for once, couldn't think of anything mean about her. She was sitting next to him, telling him about the closest brush with death she had and he felt nothing but sympathy for her. Without realizing it, he took his hoof and wrapped it around her, pulling Angel into a gentle hug. Her sparkling golden eyes widened, but she didn't protest. The water on her coat was making her cold, but Comet's chest was comfortingly warm. He gently held her there and said nothing. No words could convey what he wanted to at that moment.
The two stayed like that for several minutes and the rain kept pouring. Since it hadn't rained in Canterlot since two weeks after Comet and Angel started training, the weather ponies had made this quite the storm. Comet eventually released Angel and looked into her eyes, something that was so surprisingly easy to do. She wasn't looking at his, but he didn't care. She gave a large yawn and laid down on the grass, so Comet set himself down next to her. His mind was running rampant with all sorts of things to say, but he just said, "I never woulda guessed you would be scared of anything."
That finally got Angel to smile again and she nestled up next to him. He was warm and comfortable to be next to.
"Yeah, I would've thought you'd be afraid of a storm," she replied in her playful tone.
"Nah, not storms," Comet said, cracking a grin, "Dragons. Those are scary."
"Nuh unh!" Angel retorted quickly, "Dragons are sooooo cool!"
The two spent the next few minutes arguing about dragons before Comet conceded defeat. Angel, proud of herself for winning yet another debate with Comet, set her head down on Comet's hooves and fell asleep. Comet, who was hoping to Celestia nopony was around to see this, stayed awake until the storm passed and then some.
As he sat there with Angel snuggled up next to him and sleeping on his hooves, he finally forced himself to admit, not out loud, that Angel was indeed cute and that despite all the loud childish antics, she really was a good mare. 'I just hope she finds the perfect stallion for herself soon,' Comet thought to himself.
Angel, for her part, was dreaming of her dark memories trying to pull her down when a flash of orange light and a set of gentle yet strong hooves fended them away and kept her safe. Outside, she smiled contently. |
The Golden Armor | Fire and Feathers and Bat Wings | In the last three weeks leading up to their graduation from Basic, Comet and Angel were tested as never before. Everyday started the same, a thirty lap run around the Training Compound, but each one was focused on their specific shortcomings. Comet went through a more vigorous and detailed combat training while Angel worked on making herself more stoic and even in flight training.
Due to her bat wings, it made her far less agile than Comet in the sky. She could fly straight forward just fine, but the most basic obstacles forced her to almost come to a complete stop before she could turn. Corporal Feathermane even began to become less of an instructor and more of a drill sergeant, turning up the pressure for Comet and Angel to perform better, move faster and fight harder.
On the other side of the rankings, Shining Armor hunched over, blocking the door with his body. His horn glowed, making the windows unbreakable. He stared coldly at the phoenix in the center of the room who was cawing unhappily. He grumbled to himself as the phoenix turned away from him, acting like a stuck up filly.
"I knew I should've asked to use Peewee instead," he mumbled to himself.
Apparently phoenixes have really good hearing, because Philomena cawed angrily and flew over to Shining Armor, who for his part ran around the opposite side of the room, and tried to peck the living daylights out of him. Believe it or not, this was actually a successful training day for her.
Back in the barracks of the Training Compound, it was hard for Angel to sleep. Tomorrow was graduation day and she would become a real Royal Guard. She chewed on a lock of her mane as she lay there, wishing Celestia would decide to raise the sun early so it would happen. After about fifteen seconds of waiting, Angel got bored and peeked underneath her bed.
Below, Comet was sleeping soundly, as if tomorrow was nothing special. Corporal Feathermane had worn him out with the sparring matches, pushing him to mix both hoof to hoof and weapon combat. Angel knew from four months of being around him that Comet preferred to avoid conflicts, which led to him being very quiet and indecisive. She also knew his favorite meal was roasted carrots and fresh oats, he had one of the best Prodder faces ever, and he loved silence.
Deciding it was best not to wake him, Angel rolled back over onto her pillow and lay there, thoughts stuck on Comet. She knew him well, almost too well. Granted, the duo had spent the last four months almost glued together. Corporal Feathermane insisted that it helped them train when one recruit had a rival, but Angel never really saw themselves as rivals. No, they were more like friends, maybe even approaching a brother and sister relationship.
She had been thinking about Comet and how he had changed from their first meeting when he was mean, sarcastic and just plain unpleasant to be around. Although she would never admit it, Angel almost despised Comet's company at first almost as much as he did. The only reason she kept being happy was because she knew it annoyed him. However, after that black eye incident at the beginning of Basic, she had felt she was too harsh on her opinion of him and worked around that.
Then the incident in the mess hall happened. She had seen the guards mess with Comet, but only intervened after they had hurt Comet. She knew she could've stopped it before it got that far, but she didn't out of spite for Comet. Angel felt a sour taste in her mouth as she remembered that day.
It certainly stood as the meanest she had been to Comet and she was ashamed of that. Now he was her friend, quite possibly even her best friend. Plus, there was also a little inkling at the back of her mind that said he was more than that. He was strong, kind and now fun to be around. He had those blazing red eyes she loved the color of, he smiled at her almost exclusively and he even knew how to comfort her. Angel rolled over and closed her eyes. She had thought any mare would be lucky to have him, but now a new thought sprung from that. Could she have him?
Comet, asleep underneath her, was dreaming about winning a flying race against Soarin' and tons of mares screaming his name. Spitfire had even fallen for him for winning. It was a good dream.
The trumpets woke Comet and Angel, who was overtired from her night of introspective thought, and they both went out to meet Corporal Feathermane. He stood in his usual spot and wore his stoic face when the pair approached. "So, you both have gone through four months of training and you think you're guards now?" he asked rhetorically, "Then let's see how well I've disciplined you. We'll go for our usual run, but this time, we ain't stopping until the sun is behind that spire there."
He pointed a hoof over to the castle at what would just barely be called a spire. Comet and Angel immediately took off, running the usual course. Corporal Feathermane followed them, watching like a hawk as they ran. He was unusually strict today, but Comet knew this was a huge test not just for them, but for him as well. He had to prove he could train recruits. Angel was lagging behind, but Comet slowed down ever so slightly to help her keep pace.
Apparently, Corporal Feathermane had not noticed and soon Angel and Comet were side by side. Angel was tired, but she pushed herself to run. Soon morning had passed and so did lunchtime. It was the afternoon when the sun finally touched the spire Feathermane had referred to and he let them stop running. Both Comet and Angel were worn out beyond belief, so Comet collapsed on the dirt with Angel on top of him.
As the two recovered, Feathermane brought them each some water and a snack. When the two could finally stand, Feathermane grinned. "So, you think the hard part is over?" he asked slyly, "This is a two part exam. You have proved you have the toughness and stamina to be guards, but now you have to show off your flying skills. Come with me."
The trio walked over to the front of the compound, which hurt for Comet and Angel, but when they got there a rather large purple object sat in front of it. Corporal Feathermane walked up to it and said, "Here's your final challenge." He pulled off what apparently was a cover and revealed a spectacular golden cage and a fiery red bird inside. The bird cawed angrily and Feathermane continued, "This is Philomena, Princess Celestia's prized pet phoenix. She is very temperamental and likes to get loose. It's part of the pegasus and bat pony's job to keep an eye on her."
Without warning, Corporal Feathermane reached over and undid the clasp and the door swung open. As quickly as she could, Philomena bolted out of the cage and flew off.
"Your final test is to go get her before sundown. Dismissed!" he shouted.
Comet and Angel looked at each other before taking off after the phoenix who could fly just as fast as either of them could. Angel flew faster in a straight line, so she pulled away from Comet and bore down of Philomena. Philomena glanced back at Angel and cawed angrily. She tried to go faster, but noticed the castle rapidly approaching her. Philomena waited until the last second and broke off sharply to the left. Angel, for her part, flew by the turning point and frantically tried to stop her forward momentum. The castle wall rapidly approached her and she gave a small yelp of terror before she felt something grab her tail.
A swift and slightly painful yank later, Angel was being dragged parallel to the castle wall. She turned to see Comet pulling her along, a determined face etched on his. When Angel finally got her wings flapping again, Comet spit out her tail and flew next to her, never taking his eyes off of Philomena.
The duo continued to chase the phoenix around the castle spires, dodging and weaving around bridges, balconies and even the large telescope at the tallest spire. Try as they might, though, Philomena was somehow just as smart as both of them, forcing Angel to almost crash repeatedly and Comet to have to try and catch up. All in all, Philomena used their flying abilities against them since Angel couldn't turn too well and Comet wasn't very fast. To Comet, this was harder than the running. After about an hour and a half of chasing the bird, Angel set herself down to catch her breath and let her wings rest. Not sleeping a whole lot the night before was catching up to her and she watched Comet fruitlessly chase Philomena.
There had to be a way to catch her, especially if it was part of the guards job to watch her. Trying to watch Philomena's flying patterns was nearly impossible since she often changed her tactics to avoid capture. Maybe there was another way. Angel would have bribed her with treats, but she didn't know what phoenixes considered treats.
Finally, it looked like Comet had a breakthrough. He hid behind a spire, breathing heavily but keeping an eye on the bird. When she realized she wasn't being followed anymore, Philomena perched herself on a window sill near Celestia's tower. She sat there and happily began preening her feathers while Comet tried to sneak up on her. Philomena paid him little attention as he neared from behind. When he was about four feet away, Comet lunged for her, but Philomena easily dodged him and even got to peck him in the head a couple times.
She flew off in a huff to another window sill and this time kept both eyes on Comet, who was rubbing his head vigorously. Angel stifled a chuckle, but in doing do an idea hit her. The duo had only about an hour solid daylight before the sun would start setting, so they had to try it fast. Angel also knew it had to be done right since Philomena evidently made sure to fix her mistakes. She waved to get Comet's attention, and did.
He flew over and scowled at her. "Having fun watching?" he growled and Angel smiled at him.
"My dad always told me to take my time with problems. I think I have an idea on how to catch her," she stated happily. Comet rolled his eyes and let her continue before uttering a sarcastic remark. "Philomena thinks like us. She recognizes our tactics and prevents us from catching her by using them against us. She also remembers how we've tried to catch her and avoids that too. However, she can only focus on one pony at a time. If one of us goes and gets her attention, the other might be able to surprise her."
Comet narrowed his eyes and said, "I've been chasing that blasted phoenix for an hour and that's the best plan you've got?!" he hissed. Angel reached out a hoof and put it on his shoulder.
"It's a way we haven't tried yet," she offered. Comet grumbled in response.
"Then who's going to sneak up on her? Probably you, right?" he retorted sarcastically.
"Nope. I make too much noise when I fly. You are going to be the big strong phoenix wrangler," she said with a grin.
Comet groaned. He didn't like the idea, but he couldn't come up with a better one on the spot. He nodded and Angel smiled widely. She leaned over and gave him a small kiss on the cheek and said, "We had better hurry!" Comet sat there dumbfounded as she flew off to Philomena, who eyed Angel angrily. She knew that they were trying to capture her, so Angel did the obvious thing.
"Okay, Philomena, you win!" Angel called over to the phoenix. Philomena tilted her head to the side and Angel continued, "You've outflown both of us and you proved you are smarter. I can't catch you and neither can Comet!"
Philomena raised her head and puffed out her chest. It was about time she finally started getting some respect around here. Angel kept on flattering the proud bird as Comet quietly flew up the backside of the tower and landed on the tiles. He slowly leaned over and had a perfect view of the phoenix's back. Her eyes were closed and if she could grin, she would be right now.
Without warning, Angel dove towards Philomena, who in turn easily dodged her by flying straight up, right into Comet's line of sight. He lunged towards her back as Philomena glared down at Angel and easily caught her. Philomena, startled by the sudden grasp she was in, cawed loudly and angrily as she flapped her wings, trying to break free.
Comet, who was in control now, flapped his wings as hard as he could and bolted back towards the training grounds. Philomena protested loudly and began to peck at his forehooves. The cage, along with a surprised looking Corporal Feathermane, raced towards the pegasus and phoenix.
Comet managed to slow down enough to get Philomena in the cage, but the phoenix had anticipated that and nearly escaped again. A gray hoof shot out from behind Comet's head and slammed the cage door shut before Philomena could escape again. The phoenix cawed angrily and pecked at the door, but the latch clicked into place and the door was locked.
"We did it!" Angel shouted happily from behind and gave Comet another air crushing hug.
Corporal Feathermane simply stood there with his mouth hanging open and blinked twice. It usually took ten times the guards to catch Philomena than this duo, but they managed to do it. A steady clapping of a hoof broke the revel of Angel and Comet and they saw Shining Armor not too far away. The pair quickly took on their guard stances as he approached, but Philomena cawed angrily at him.
Shining smiled at them, but first turned to Corporal Feathermane and said, "Well done, Corporal. Your first recruits passed the final test." He then turned to the duo and said, "That was quite a performance. The guard usually need to overwhelm Philomena with numbers to catch her again, but you two did it with teamwork and logical thinking. I was a bit disappointed you decided to not help Comet for a while, recruit Angel."
He looked to her and she lowered her head, somewhat ashamed, but Comet cleared his throat.
"Permission to speak, sir?"
"Granted."
"If it wasn't for her observation of Philomena's behavior, sir, I doubt I would have been able to catch her," Comet said briskly.
Shining looked from Comet to Angel, who had now put her head back up and was slightly blushing, and grinned. "I suppose that is true. Commanders don't often fight with the troops, but they do provide a tactical advantage by looking for weaknesses. Still, though, Angel did quit on the test prematurely."
Comet, who felt a strange sensation to protect Angel, said, "If that means she did not pass, then I didn't either, sir. I only caught her after Angel suggested the tactic we used."
Shining Armor narrowed his eyes at Comet and said, "You're willing to jeopardize your promotion so she doesn't get left behind?"
"Sir... yes, sir," Comet managed to say.
Angel's eyes widened at that and a huge sense of incredulity flooded her senses. Comet wouldn't get promoted unless she did too? A twinge of an emotion stung her heart. It was a good emotion, though, one that made her want to squeeze him into a hug.
All the ponies remained silent as Shining stared at Comet who, in turn, never let his gaze falter. His future in the guard was on the line here, but Comet felt strangely calm. If Angel, his friend, wasn't there, then being a guard wasn't something he wanted to do. Finally, Shining broke a smile and said, "Congratulations, Privates. You have successfully passed Basic Training."
He held out a hoof to Angel first, who shook it and then to Comet who also shook it.
"In recognition of your amazing performance and the recapturing of Philomena," he paused as she cawed angrily in the background, "You both are hereby Royal Guards of Equestria and will report tomorrow for your first day guarding her royal highness's prized pet, Philomena."
He saluted the bat pony and pegasus, who returned it, and said, "The armory will be your first stop tomorrow so you may be outfitted with the golden armor. Dismissed."
That night, Comet and Angel spent the evening talking and exchanging happy emotions about graduating. |
The Golden Armor | Three's a Crowded Mess | That night it was Comet's turn to hardly sleep. He felt giddy, like a foal on Hearth's Warming Day who just saw the pile of presents. He tossed and turned in bed, anxiously awaiting on Celestia to raise the sun. Would the armorer custom fit his set of golden armor? How much would it weigh? Would mares dig it? So many thoughts ran through his head. Among them were of his parents. They would be sure to come and see him in his armor. Comet had missed them on his four month training spree, but he hoped to see them again. That's when his thoughts took a darker turn. How would she react if she saw him in armor? She'd probably smile and--
No, she wouldn't smile. She wasn't even able to see him. A dark expression overtook Comet's face as he tried to shove those thoughts aside. He was never going to think about her again. It wasn't his fault she... No, he had to stop there. That was not something to reflect on today. Comet dipped into his vast store of willpower to shove those thoughts back into the chained box they had leaked from in his mind. Those were thoughts that should've never been thunk. His good mood destroyed and his energy gone, Comet rolled over and shut his eyes firmly. However, to a trained eye, a single tear could be seen rolling down his cheek.
Angel, for her part, had a rather vivid dream of two bat ponies yelling loudly. So loudly, others from caves in the upper levels could hear them. Angel buried her hoofs into her ears and shoved her face into her pillow. They were at it again. She hoped this time it wouldn't result in violence. A loud yell of pain told her otherwise. They had begun to fight physically now. Angel felt the horrible sadness only found when parents fought tear at her chest and she began wailing into the pillow. The yells got louder, even as she dug her hoofs in deeper. She didn't want to be the center of the argument again. Finally, Angel thought she felt a hoof on her shoulder and she woke with a start. She spun her head around the empty barracks and found nopony was there. Suddenly scared beyond falling asleep again, she peeked under her bed and saw Comet laying there.
"Hey, you awake?" she whispered to him. She didn't expect a response, but Comet opened one blazing red eye and fixed it on her.
"Wha yu wan?" he mumbled through his pillow.
"I can't fall asleep. Can you?" she asked quietly.
Comet's eye rolled and he groaned, "Not wif yu tlkin ta meh."
Angel slowly flapped her wings and set herself on the floor next to his bed. As she did so, Comet's eye tried to venture somewhere he didn't want it to, namely her rump. He blushed and immediately looked away, but the image stuck in his mind. It was actually kind of nice, not big but not small either. Just the right size. Angel turned to Comet as he bucked and beat the living daylight out of himself mentally for even letting that thought happen, but all she saw was him looking up at the top bunk. She extended a hoof and put it on his bed and said, "You know, where I live, it's not uncommon for ponies to share beds, even when it's warm."
Comet's mind redoubled it's effort to kick the snot out of himself as he avoided making a snide comment, settling for just, "What's that got to do here?"
"Well, I kinda, well, I had..." Angel was unsure of how to say it and Comet prayed it wasn't what he thought it was. He knew of the bat pony reputation and didn't want to mess up his guard status. "I just, um, had a bad dream, so I was wondering," she took a deep breath before continuing, "Could I share a bed with you?"
Comet's eye never wavered from her head as she looked down, as if she was ashamed to ask. His mind raced with all sorts of terrible thoughts as he questioned what Angel's intentions were, so he managed to say, "Are you kidding me?"
Angel was worried Comet might've taken the question the wrong way and lucky the dark hid her blush. "Oh no, not like that. You see, my aunt and I used to share a room and bed together and I, well, when I had a bad dream, her presence always helped me go back to sleep," she said before giving a nervous but sincere smile. Comet hoped this wasn't another sinister prank, but as if she read his mind, she walked around the bed and said, "I'm not going to do anything but fall asleep. If I do, then I will report it myself and get thrown out. Bat pony promise."
Comet just stayed silent. Here was the worst possible candidate asking him a question that violated every personal space rule, but she was his friend and comrade, so he had to trust her. After twenty seconds of thought, he scooted forward and left a spot open for her. "Say anything and I will sleep in your bunk," he said and Angel smiled happily. Without another word, she settled into the bed, snuggling her back up against Comet's and sighed contentedly. In no time at all, Angel was fast asleep while Comet was too nervous to sleep. This really wasn't going to end well. Eventually, though, sleep finally found him and he rested happily.
The sound of the trumpets woke Comet again and he groggily pulled himself up. He turned over to find Angel missing from his bed and breathed a sigh of relief. Thank Celestia there were no other recruits around. Comet had learned that ever since the changeling attack, the Royal Guard was considered a joke by the ponies. Recruitment had dropped to nearly zero and the whole training program was being rebuilt from the ground up. Unknown to Comet, he and Angel were the first recruits to undergo the new pegasus/ bat pony guard training and had successfully passed it.
An hour later, after the morning run, a unicorn guard came and collected Comet and Angel and led them towards the castle. Angel was as giddy as she could be, bouncing up and down as she walked and blathering out excited nonsense. Comet, as usual, took his stoic face with him and trotted with the same demeanor as the unicorn guard. The trio finally reached the armory in the bowels of the castle, near where the dungeons were. The guard had explained to a very inquisitive Angel that when ponies were in the dungeons, part of their stay was cleaning up soot and garbage from the armory so they didn't lounge about all day. Comet was actually rather impressed by the thought process behind it, but Angel was vocal about hers.
Finally, the new guards reached the armory. The first thing to hit them both was the smell. Sulfur and the acrid smell of slag stung their noses and Angel protested it. "Ugh, it smells like a rotten egg factory!" she complained while scrunching her nose and face up. Comet maintained his straight face, but he couldn't help but agree mentally. The lead guard cleared his throat and a burly pony the color of burnt wood came up to them. He was a unicorn with cloudy silver irises and several large scars on his face and forelegs.
The guard nodded to him and the burly unicorn said, "So yer da newest graduates, huh? Well, c'mon. We ain' got ahl daee." He turned and started trotting over to a set of rather large anvils and several wicked looking tools. Comet obediantly followed and Angel gulped, but still trotted after Comet. A large wooden door was expertly cloaked with tools, specifically hammers, and the unicorn used his magic to swing it open. The hammers rattled in protest from their rude awakening, but Comet and Angel's eyes grew wide when they saw what was behind it. Several sets of brilliantly polished gold armor sat on several shelves, gleaming as if they were just made. On the opposite side, dark blue mythril armor sat in long rows as well, each trimmed with a brilliant purple. The golden armor sported a robin's egg blue star on the front while the dark blue armor wore an eye made of sapphire proudly on its chest.
"Ain' that ah purdy sight," the unicorn spoke, "Now less getcha ah set apiece." The armorer walked in and grabbed a chest piece and helmet of gold along with four sets of hoof guards, also gold. He levitated them over to Comet and said, "Here, try dees on fer size." Comet promptly started putting it on, but the armor was too big. The helmet sat over his eyes, the chest piece hung loosely about his chest and the hoof guards were three sizes too big. Angel laughed as Comet stood there awkwardly.
"Uh, sir? I think it's a bit too big," Comet said sheepishly.
"Oh, t'is, is't?" the unicorn mused, "Juss give't ah secon'."
Almost immediately after he spoke, the armor began to shift around Comet. He felt it start to shrink and soon the helmet fit perfectly, the chestplate was snug and the hoof guards fit so well, they felt like they weren't even there. Angel gasped and stared wide eyed at him before stuttering, "C-Comet, is that you?" Confused, Comet looked down to see his ocher coat had turned a brilliant and flawless white. He spun his head around to also see his tail was no longer long and brown, but short and brilliant blue.
"Da armor iz magically made ta fit anypony. It alsa changes yer coat an mane colors ta dose uh da Royul Gard," the unicorn explained. Comet was amazed by the radical transformation and even lifted his wings to see his cutie mark. It was still right there and almost blended in perfectly to his new color. About fifteen minutes later, Comet was admiring himself in front of a mirror. He was regal looking, tough and amazing. The unicorn was having problems trying to adjust Angel's armor to fit her snugly since mythril wasn't as easy to manipulate as gold. He had thrown the helmet out since it was really only meant for stallions, but the rest of the armor was genderless. Angel squealed and refused to stay still since she was so excited, causing the guard to have to wait to adjust the armor accordingly.
Fifteen more minutes of admiring himself, Comet heard Angel speak up and say, "That's real nice, Comet, but how about my armor?" Comet spun around, half expecting to burst out laughing at her disproportionate armor, but fell speechless as he saw her. Angel practically radiated toughness and beauty in her armor. She stood with her head held high, golden eyes fixed on him and armor gleaming in the firelight from the forges. Comet's heart skipped several beats as she took a couple steps to him and he tried to breath. Sure he had admitted Angel was cute, but in that armor she was positively beautiful, almost as much as Celestia and Luna themselves.
He was sure he was blushing as she strode by him and looked in the mirror. Comet tried to work out a sentance, but the unicorn thankfully saved him. "Now ain' dat a sight fer sore eyes. You two look mighty fine in dat armor," he mused and a huge grin broke across Angel's face. Several long squeals and three complete turn arounds later, Angel had finally calmed down enough to thank the armorer and left with a still nervous Comet.
Outside the armory, the unicorn guard was gone, but Shining Armor himself stood there and smiled at the two as they left. "Wow, you two look like real guards now," he mused, warming both ponies egos slightly. They both saluted them and he returned it before continuing. "Privates Angel Beats and Comet Burst, welcome to your first day of the Royal Guard. Usually we'd have a whole celebration for our newest members, but I have something far more special planned for you. Allow me to introduce..."
He turned and swept a hoof to the stairway and a gryffon stood there, clicking her claws impatiently. She had bright gold eyes with white feathers that covered one of her eyes in a downward style. the tips of her feathers were lined in black, giving her an almost scaly appearance. She had a black beak and claws with a brown rear half. her tail whipped around lazily and she regarded Comet and Angel with a listless look. "Valyrie. She's a gryffon sent here to help with her training in pony and gryffon relations and will be joining you in your duties."
Valyrie walked over to them slowly, keeping her bored look on her face but clearly on edge. She stopped within a hoofs reach and extended a claw. "How ya doin'?" she asked in a strange accent. Comet reached for her hoof, but Angel beat him by hugging her.
"Yay, a new friend!" she shouted happily and Valyrie's face contorted into one similar to Comet's first reaction to Angel's hugs, a mix of shock and repulsion.
Comet sighed as Shining Armor grinned awkwardly and Angel forced Valyrie to stay in her grip, even as Valyrie tried to pry her off. They were going to get along just fine. |
The Golden Armor | Valor and Excessive Celebration | It took several hours for Valyrie to get over the surprise hug by Angel. When the assault on her personal space was over, the group proceeded out of the armory and to their post; Philomena's tower. Shining had told them Philomena would still be upset about catching her and he was right. Comet was lucky he had on his helmet since she dive bombed him and pecked at it for two minutes straight, much to the amusement of Angel and Valyrie.
The two continued to laugh at Comet as he made some colorful insults at the phoenix, then at them when Philomena finally calmed down. Soon, all three oddballs were standing in silence, bored as bored could be. Comet stayed rigidly still, even as Philomena decided his back was a perfect place to perch herself and nip at his tail and mane. Valyrie tried her best to keep a straight face, but Angel's laughter eventually won out.
Finally, Philomena got bored of trying to get a response from Comet and flew back to her perch, looking sad. Angel watched as the phoenix hunger her head and approached the bird, saying, "Aw, poor Philomena. You just want to have fun, huh?"
Philomena cawed sadly in response and Angel gave her a smile. Valyrie tried throwing an annoyed look her way, but Angel clearly wasn't paying attention.
"Hey, Philomena," Angel whispered loud enough for Valyrie to hear but quiet enough for Comet to tune out, "Here's what you do. Go up to him slowly and quietly, then nip him between his wings. He'll respond to that."
Philomena gave her a sideways look, but glided down to the floor and silently walked over to the pegasus. She flew up and perched herself on his back again and cawed like before. Comet didn't even turn around to acknowledge the phoenix's presence and Philomena nipped him between his tightly folded wings.
Comet's response was immediate. A weird mix of both pleasure and excruciating pain shot through his back as the phoenix bit him. He immediately began to curl his spine and spread his wings out so quickly, it startled Philomena. She cawed in surprise and flapped her wings as Comet's left legs went numb and he toppled over. He hit the ground before finally getting control of his body back and quickly stood up to face the phoenix. Angel fell over laughing and Valyrie couldn't help but stare at Comet. It didn't take the gryffon long before she started to giggle as Comet angrily chased both Angel and Philomena around the room.
`The day generally went on like that, but after lunch Valyrie decided to join in on the fun. It started slowly at first, such as dragging a claw down Angel's armor to produce a rather annoying sound. It then graduated into a full blown female assault on the one stallion. Philomena, Angel and Valyrie all proceeded to try and annoy him in any way possible, but Valyrie seemed to have the most success.
Soon, Comet was soon sitting in the mess hall again with a plate of fresh lettuce and some sugar coated strawberries for dinner. Angel sat on one side of him, Valyrie on the other. Comet wondered why Angel wasn't on night guard duty yet, but kept his mouth shut as both girls talked around him.
"So, where ya from again?" Angel called over into Comet's ear, making it ring when she finished.
"The Gryffon Kingdom," she answered cooly, thankfully feeling no need to yell, "My home was in a place called Wyvern Pass."
"What's a wyvern?" Angel called over again.
"A big, scary creature with a dragon head, two big claws, breathes fire and lives in the rivers and lakes," Valyrie replied nonchalantly.
"Do they exist?"
"Well, duh! It's not called Wyvern Pass for nothing."
Comet tried to mentally picture such a creature, but all he got was a goofy looking dragon image stuck in his head. He chuckled to himself and Valyrie narrowed her eyes at him.
"What's so funny about wyverns?" She asked pointedly, "They're big creatures that level entire villages on a whim. They pop up out of nowhere, scare away all the gryffons in the area and take what they want before razing the place."
"Sounds like a typical dragon to me," Angel somehow said while sipping on the straw of a cup full of peach juice.
Valyrie switched her gaze around Comet to Angel and said, "Oh yeah? Well how big do they get? Wyvern's get up to about the size of a shipping boat."
"I heard a dragon that took over an entire mountaintop in Ponyville," Angel replied, "His smoke alone almost forced everyone in the town to leave."
Valyrie's face went from smugness to shock as she comprehended just how big the dragon had to be.
"No way," she said, backpedaling, "No way any creature gets that big."
"Uh huh," Comet finally chimed in, "Dragons here typically take over entire mountains. The one Angel was talking about was trying to sleep from what I heard. Celestia would've gone to the town herself if the dragon would've gotten violent."
Valyrie sat there, dumbfounded. If that was true, then dragons here in Equestria were typically twice the size of some of the biggest wyverns in the Gryphon Kingdom. She gulped and said, "Whatever. Wyverns are still scary."
After dinner, Valyrie suggested the trio go into town to celebrate their promotions. According to the forms the duo signed, guards were given two days off, but had to be on call at any moment. Since Comet and Angel were now officially Royal Guards and no longer recruits, they had found out their day off was tomorrow by asking how to find out from a unicorn guard, who materialized the shift list. Apparently Philomena guards were given two days off in a row since Celestia often spent time with her those days. Angel insisted to Comet they go with Valyrie, but he wanted nothing more than to go to bed. Eventually, he reluctantly agreed to go at Angel and Valyrie's combined pleas.
Soon, Luna's moon was high in the sky as the trio sat at a tavern known as The Shadowy Mug and chatted away. Valyrie had insisted on playing a couple games of Prodder, but had gotten very angry when Angel won all of her bits, as well as Comet's, who had no idea how to play. They each had mugs of cider they happily sipped on, but the barman had made the mistake of using hard cider on Angel and Valyrie's drinks after their fourth round since he was swamped by other ponies, so the conversation took some very weird turns.
"So what's up with you and Angel? Have you two done it yet?" Valyrie asked Comet while Angel was away getting another round for herself and Valyrie. It must've been the cider talking, but Valyrie was curious. Comet and Angel seemed practically made for each other, but they didn't act like they had anything between them. She had been keeping an eye out for a nice gryphon, but Comet was something new, like a toy. Comet utterly refused to answer that until she threatened to ask Angel.
"No, we are friends, nothing else," he stated tersely.
"Oh, so you're free?" she asked, moderately interested.
Valyrie gave a sideways grin to Comet that he pretended not to notice. Comet was a fuzzy mass of orange since he wasn't wearing his armor out in public, but Valyrie thought he was actually more gryphon like than anypony she'd met. Most ponies were loud and just too friendly, like somegryffon dumped sugar all over them. Comet was different in the way he didn't seem to care about her, and she liked that. Not to mention he was cute as well. If Angel hadn't claimed him yet, then there was no harm in Valyrie trying, now was there? Shoot, all she had to do was put a beak and claws on him and he was the striking image of a gryphon.
Angel returned in a haze and downed her seventh mug as Valyrie emptied her ninth. Comet had barely finished his second, which he felt was a good thing. Angel and Valyrie didn't realized it yet, but they were actually causing a scene. They laughed way too loudly, shouted to each other and even began to throw a couple cards out of the deck they played Prodder with. One managed to get in another ponies drink and Comet finally decided to take them back to the castle. After using Angel's winnings to pay for the drinks since it was Comet's and Valyrie's bits as well, he herded the two out of the tavern and back to the castle. Along the way, Angel somehow fell asleep while trying to get inside a shop window and Comet started to carry her back with a tipsy gryffon snickering at him the whole way.
"So, what's going on between you two?" Valyrie asked.
"I said nothing. We're just friends," Comet replied a little too quickly.
"Doesn't seem like it," Valyrie mumbled, "Seems like you take extra special care of her. I mean, look at you! Carrying her back like some sorta hero."
"Friends do that for each other," Comet answered defensively.
"Yeah, but dey usually don't put dem on dere back and carry dem," Valyrie had a sly grin slide across her face and Comet tried to ignore it. "You do like her, don't you?"
Comet didn't answer and Valyrie continued, "If you're nervous about making her happy, I could always... give ya some tips." Comet shot her a glare and she laughed loudly again.
It was only after they reached the castle did Comet finally set down the snoozing Angel. She looked rather happy wrapped up in her blankets and, despite the trail of drool running down the back of his neck, Comet was actually pretty happy to see her like that. She really was cute.
His mood almost instantly soured as he headed to his own bunks, though. A large claw dragged him into an empty room and, before he could ask what it wanted, a set of hard beaks met his lips. Comet almost shoved her away. Not only did it hurt a lot, but the claws wrapped around him and forced him to the ground. He lay on his back with a clearly tipsy gryffon on top of him, giving him a look he really didn't want to see. He saw the grin only through the slight moonlight peeking in through a window on the far side of the room.
"If she didn't claim you," Valyrie said in her best normal tone while tipsy, "Then why can't I have a little fun?"
Comet's face contorted into one of fear as he struggled to get loose from the gryffon, who now was leaning in way too close for comfort. He managed to spin over and try to push himself loose, but her beak nipped between his wings and he felt himself try to contort into a ball. Valyrie laughed like this was a game and Comet fought back harder. He dug his hooves into the stone, but they kept slipping, so he flared his wings in her face. That only made her laugh and earned each of them a slight, playful nip. Finally, as her beak approached his tail, he managed to slip out from Valyrie's grasp and bolted away from her.
She gave chase and tried to catch him, saying things like, "Come to mama, my brave stallion. Don't you wanna feel what it's like to be with a real gryffon?" Comet was in full panic mode as he darted around the dark room, listening to Valyrie's crazy laugh. Finally, he found the door and bolted out through it, much to the protest of Valyrie.
Comet didn't sleep well that night. Valyrie lay in her bunk several rows away from Angel and grumbled to herself about selfish stallions. Angel was fast asleep, but Valyrie could swear she heard her mumble.
"Comet." |
The Golden Armor | That Awkward Day After | Comet took an extra hour to get out of bed. He really didn't sleep well at all last night, and upon waking up he found out why. Somehow, he had fallen asleep in a storage room. Boxes and strange unused furniture, along with a glowing bust of Princess Celestia, lay about the room in no particular order. Comet was wedged in between some boxes labeled 'PROPERTY OF PRINCESS CELESTIA' and 'FOAL PORTRAITS'. He tilted his head at the one box, curious. Was this a set of pictures of young Princess Celestia?
Unfortunately, Comet's mind caught up to him before he could look. A frightful image of a gryffon bounced around in his mind and he remembered why he was here in this room. Valyrie was drunk last night and had tried to lure Comet into something he didn't want to do. He shook his head to get rid of the memory, but a small voice spoke in the back of his mind. Sure he had only known Valyrie for a day, but she was willing to go somewhere with Comet that he had never been. He was slightly ashamed of it, but Comet prided himself on the fact he wasn't a tail chaser. He had respect for mares, but he had never had one offer like that before. He was curious, but he had to have self restraint.
Still, though, Valyrie was willing to go through with it. She was even a gryffon, an entirely other species! How often did any stallion in all Equestria receive that offer? Then there was her figure. She was just as fit as any mare. Comet shook his head and tried to repress those thoughts. What she did last night did in no way improve Comet's opinion of her. It was reprehensible, mean and... somewhat kinky. Comet reached up a hoof and smacked it across his face. He couldn't possibly be attracted to Valyrie, not after he admitted Angel was cute. Angel was his friend and he had thought there was maybe some attraction between them, but Valyrie had only known him for a day. Finally able to bring his thoughts back under control, Comet pulled himself out of the piles of boxes and trudged back to the bunk room.
Valyrie, in turn, was woken up by an unusually loud Angel. "Good morning, sleepy head!" Angel seemed to shout at a decibel way too high for her ears. Valyrie pulled her pillow out and shoved it on top of her head.
"Go away," she mumbled weakly. Evidently she had too much to drink last night. She only had, what? Like nine ciders? That was nothing for a gryffon like herself who had only felt this bad after twelve stouts. Was Valyrie a lightweight when it came to pony drinks? She never got to think of her answer since a hoof poked her in her back, right where the feathers became fur.
"Aw, c'mon!" Angel's outrageously loud voice rang out, "You can't feel that bad!"
"How're you not hungover?" Valyrie moaned.
"Bat ponies have naturally high metabolisms, which means we don't get hangovers for long," Angel said happily, much to Valyrie's annoyance. The gryffon groaned angrily and pushed herself up by her claws, but immediately fell back to the bed. Her head ached and pounded like never before, so she pulled her pillow onto her head, hoping to relieve some pain. Angel giggled to Valyrie and extended a hoof to lift the pillow. She caught a brief glimpse of her pale gold iris before a claw shoved the pillow back down. Angel giggled again. She was just like Comet when Angel wanted to play around, so she proceeded to annoy Valyrie until she got out of bed.
Angel lifted the feathers on Valyrie's midsection where her feathers became fur to see if she was stitched together, then played a game of tennis using her hoofs as rackets and Valyrie's tail as the ball. It was only when Angel had taken an interest in Valyrie's paws did the gryffon decide to turn an annoyed face to her. "Do you really have to force me to get up?" she asked in her groggy voice.
Angel gave a big grin to the irritated gryffon and nodded. Valyrie groaned again and shoved her beak into the pillow. It wasn't just the hangover Valyrie was contending with. Something horrible had crept into her mind and she was trying to figure out what it was. It was a sensation of warm lips against her beak, some laughing and a taste of feathers and fur. Valyrie dreaded what it might mean since her memory of last night ended at the tavern, but at the same time, the sensations her body remembered were pleasant.
About half an hour later of Angel pestering, Valyrie finally got out of bed. The two of them cleaned themselves and headed down to the mess hall for a rather late breakfast. Valyrie silently thanked Griffon, the god of gryffons, that today was another day off. Upon reaching the mess hall, Angel instantly located Comet, who sat by himself chewing slowly on a bite of oatmeal. Valyrie approached him and his reaction said it all. His eyes went wide and he turned his head from her. Luckily, Angel didn't seem to catch that.
After a breakfast of plain oatmeal for Comet, fresh sliced pineapple and two apples for Angel and granola mixed with sunflower seeds for Valyrie, the trio headed off to the recreation room of the castle, Angel happily chattering away to both Comet and Valyrie while they gave small responses. When they were about halfway there, a pegasus guard approached the trio and said, "Private Angel Beats?"
"That's me!" Angel singsonged.
"Captain Shining Armor has requested to speak to you," he stated briskly, "I've been sent to collect you."
"Okay, then! Bye Comet and Valyrie!" Angel stated with a happy bounce and grin. Comet gave her a smile and Valyrie waved, but neither said anything. That worried Angel, but she proceeded off with the guard. Comet and Valyrie stood there in awkward silence for a couple minutes after she left before Valyrie managed to work up the courage to say something.
"So, um, Comet... About last night, what happened?" she asked tenatively.
Comet clenched his jaw, wishing there was a way for him to get out of this. "We came back to the castle, I put Angel to bed and then went to bed myself," he lied.
Valyrie turned to him and stared straight into his eyes. Comet hadn't noticed, but Valyrie had a wonderful golden color to her eyes, just like Angel. He felt they were nice to look at, but they conveyed the feeling he was being examined while Angel's were just blank pools of gold. "You don't have to lie to me," Valyrie stated, "What really happened? You can tell me."
Comet gulped and looked down. "You were tipsy and we almost, uh, did something we'd regret," he stated plainly.
Valyrie stared at his downturned face and felt like he was hiding something. "If something happened, Comet, you can tell me. I will report myself if it's that bad."
"No, nothing happened," Comet said lamely before giving her a sincere, yet awkward smile. Valyrie gave him a confused look before continuing.
"I don't think that's all of it."
"Well, it is. You were drunk, you made a move on me and it shocked me. The end."
"Then, you're sure we didn't..?"
"Positive. I wasn't tipsy last night."
Valyrie felt a wave of relief wash over her and she relaxed. She hadn't realized it, but her claws were curled up and her muscles were tense. She relaxed and gave a nice smile to Comet, one he seemed to relax at as well. She walked up to him and said, "Why didn't you report me?"
Comet gave a sincere smile and said, "Everypony makes mistakes. We just have to learn from them." He had just finished speaking when he found himself with a face full of feathers and in a hug grip. Valyrie embraced him gently, but tightened her grip to let him know she was grateful. Nogryffon had ever been that nice to her except for her parents and she felt an odd swelling sensation in her chest. She thought Comet was just cute, but now she knew he was kindhearted as well, something she really admired.
On the other side of the castle, Angel skipped along happily as the guard led her. It was a long walk to Shining Armor's office, but she enjoyed the tour of the castle. She had tried to talk to the guard, but he wasn't a talker. It was pretty uneventful walking, but Angel managed to find something cool in every passage. One had several old suits of steel armor worn by knights back in the day, one had a magnificent stained glass window of Celestia and Luna imprisoning a weird creature made up of all sorts of animal parts in stone, and so on.
Soon, she was standing outside an unassuming door of solid wood and the guard nodded to it. He turned around and left the bat pony alone there to wonder what was behind the door. As she reached for the knob, a musical voice rang out, "Oh dear me, I didn't know Shining was expecting you." Angel turned to see a bright pink alicorn with a pale yellow and royal purple mane smiling at her. She had deep magenta eyes and seemed to smile through them too.
Angel yelped slightly and threw her face on the floor, landing with a thud. It hurt her snout, but she made no noise in the presence of Princess Cadance herself. Cadance's face melted to one of concern as her horn glowed. "Are you alright, young one?" she asked gently but with concern as Angel's head lifted up.
"Just fine, ma'am," Angel blurted out, nervous. She was unsure of what the princess of love wanted with her, but she did her best to keep a straight face.
Cadance grinned to her and said, "Silly pony. I am only here to see my husband. He's been under a considerable amount of stress since the changeling attack."
Angel wondered if she could read minds and reached over to open the door. It creaked open and Cadance smiled sincerely. "Thank you. If I may ask, what's your name?"
"Private Angel Beats, ma'am!" Angel blurted out again.
"Well then, private Angel Beats, will you check the room for me? It would be bad manners for a princess to ignore the usefullness of her guards," Cadance said with a small giggle. |
The Golden Armor | Conflicts, Conflicts Everywhere | The first thing Angel noticed upon entering Shining Armor's office was how still it was. His desk sat all along, covered in papers of various scribbles, along with a mostly melted candle and a picture of two mares, one lavender and small and one bright pink. Angel assumed the bright pink one was his wife she was currently scouting the room for. Plaques and small trophies littered the wall behind the desk, offering commendation for exceptional service, exemplary behavior, Honor Roll and even Varsity Hoofball MVP.
Angel found it kind of funny as she went to examine the trophies that one of them, the exceptional service one, was from the famous fast food chain Sandwich Queen. There was also a picture of Shining standing proudly in his red officer jacket and Princess Cadance in her beautiful white dress.
Suddenly, the sound of hoof falls echoed over to Angel and she spun around. Three ponies all dressed in black were standing around the desk. Angel narrowed her eyes and whispered, "Ninja ponies. We meet again." Before anypony had time to blink, the three ninjas moved in on Angel, who was reacting accordingly. She leaned back and dodged a small silver shuriken as it spun by her head and buried itself into the wall. Angel swept a hoof out and caught one of the ninjas in the leg, causing him to fall over while the other two bored down on her. Angel quickly retracted the hoof and slid under Shining's desk as the two ninjas landed.
They made the mistake of spinning around to see her and she tackled one of them into the trophy wall. The ninja was stunned just long enough for Angel to deliver both rear legs to the face of the third. With one flying away, one in her grip and the other just now getting to his hooves, Angel had the advantage. She grabbed a large trophy of Shining's and stuffed it onto the head of the ninja she was holding on to, and then smashed her right front forehoof into the side of it. The trophy dented slightly, but range out a nice clear note loud enough to hurt the ninja's ears. She didn't even hesitate to throw the ninja into his friend who was staring at her, unsure of what to do. The two collided and fell to the floor.
Angel spun around and just barely dodged a hoof to the face. She leaned to her left to avoid the other hoof and countered with a kick. She landed right in the ninja's gut and he doubled over. She gave a quick spin to gain momentum and landed a particularly nasty hoof to the face, sending the ninja back into the wall. She spun around again to see the one ninja struggling to pull the trophy off of his head and the other trying to push him off. Angel ran to them and threw the trophy headed one into the wall of trophies again. The one on his head range out loud again as he struck the stone wall and the ninja collapsed.
Angel stopped and stared at the final ninja, who jumped up to his hooves. "Who sent you? Where's the captain?" Angel growled to him. The ninja responded by dropping a smoke pellet that caused Angel to cough. She cursed herself for being a bat pony then, as they were sensitive to smoke and dust, which is why they preferred damp caves. Once the smoke cleared, the ninja was gone. Angel stood there proudly and knew that she would not rest until she figured out what happened to her superior officer, the great Shining Armor.
At least, that's what she thought should've happend.
She had somehow thought up that whole scenario in the four seconds it took her to push open the door for Princess Cadance. Inside the room, Shining sat behind his desk, shuffling papers. A set of regal golden armor Angel had never seen sat in the corner on a ponyquinn. Four pictures sat on the wall behind him, one of him in the armor looking awesome, one of a brilliantly blue unicorn smiling with a pretty white mare unicorn who had streaks of purple in her mane along with a younger version of Shining and a small lavender filly. One was of both Shining and Cadance on their wedding day and a final one with the two of them overlooking a town from the balcony of a castle.
He looked up and smiled to Angel and said, "Oh, Angel! Just who I was looking for, please come in."
Angel gave an awkward smile and stepped aside, allowing Princess Cadance to stride in gracefully. "What about me?" she asked in a hurt tone. Shining immediately got out from behind his desk and trotted up to her.
"You never need permission to see me," he stated with a hint of playfulness in his voice. Cadance giggled sweetly and rubbed her nose against Shining's. Angel felt a little awkward standing there and Shining looked at her. "Oh yes! Angel, I have a special assignment for you. My wife, Princess Cadance," he started.
"Hi," Princess Cadance chimed in, waving a hoof at Angel.
"She wants to go into town tomorrow night to get to know the ponies in Canterlot better. I thought you'd be a perfect escort for her due to your amazing social skills," he stated.
Angel's eyes grew wide as she stared at the two ponies. She was being asked to guard the princess of love now? Angel cracked a huge grin. Sure, she liked watching Philomena, but how could she pass on that offer?
"Private Angel accepts this assignment, sir!" she almost yelled happily and gave a salute.
Shining nodded to her happily and Cadance smiled. "I'm sure you'll do fine, miss... Um, I'm afraid I don't know your last name," Cadance said, her nice smile turning into an awkward grin.
"Beats, ma'am! Private Angel Beats, but everypony just calls me Angel," the bat pony responded enthusiastically.
"Ah, okay! Angel, er, Miss Beats. I'm sure you'll do fine," Cadance said, her smile returning to one of happiness instead of awkwardness.
"Then it's settled. Report to my quarters tomorrow at seventeen hundred hours and I will brief you on the assignment. I would do it now, but I've got some more, uh, pressing issues on my plate," Shining said in his best official tone.
Angel saluted happily and trotted out the door. It shut, leaving Cadance and Shining alone and Cadance turned a sly grin to Shining.
"Pressing matters, huh?" she asked sarcastically.
Shining shrugged and said, "Hey, it worked when I was dating you." Cadance gave her sweet laugh that Shining could listen to all day and planted a soft kiss on him.
"It doesn't matter. Being around my husband is a most pressing matter," she cooed to him.
Up in the tall tower, Philomena cawed unhappily. Her guards were stiff and mean, ignoring the proud phoenix as she tried to play with them. She missed that one guard who had played with her, that one with really big golden eyes. Philomena was almost a thousand years old, but that didn't mean she didn't like to play. Being in a stuffy tower, stuck on a perch for days was really boring, not to mention Celestia was almost always too busy to see her phoenix. Philomena pecked at the perch she stood on and scanned the room again. Same guards, same place, same faces they had for the past four hours. She cawed loudly in frustration, hoping that guard would return soon.
As for Valyrie and Comet, the two sat down at a table and Valyrie made the attempt to teach Comet how to play Prodder. He was a quick learner, but he often forgot what the hooves were. He held out four nines and two princes and smiled proudly. "Straight flush!" he stated proudly and Valyrie buried her face into her claw.
"That's a Full House, and you're supposed to have only five cards," she repeated for the tenth time.
Comet looked back to his hoof scowled. "This game is too complicated," he mumbled to himself. He thought he was learning the game, but all he was really doing was annoying Valyrie. Cards were not Comet's strong suit since he had played board games when he was a colt. In fact...
"I've got it!" Comet shouted abruptly, startling the gryffon. He jumped up and dashed off to find something, leaving a bewildered looking Valyrie alone. She sighed and started gathering up the cards, humming a song to herself.
It took Comet a couple minutes, but he returned happily with a box in his mouth. He set it down on the table and Valyrie peered at it. "Checkers?" she asked out loud and Comet beamed.
"Yup! It's a fun game. It uses a lot of strategy and requires some trickery, like Prodder!" he said with a smile. Valyrie looked up at the oddball stallion and found herself starting to blush. She looked away and agreed to play.
After about half an hour, Valyrie was staring at the multicolored board of alternating red and black squares, intent on winning. Comet had two kings and three regular pieces left, but Valyrie had a single king of her own and five regular pieces. This game was intense as Valyrie thought of possible moves and their outcomes. Her king was back against Comet's side of the board, blocked by two of his normal pieces. His kings were in prime location to take most of her five remaining pieces, but she moved one anyway. Comet promptly jumped her piece, then another and another.
"Hey, that's not fair!" Valyrie shouted.
"As a king, I can take multiple pieces if they are within jumping distance from each other," Comet stated proudly. He had explained the rules beforehoof, but Valyrie must've not been paying attention. Valyrie grumbled to herself and looked back to the board. She was now down to one king and two normal pieces, but they were too far away from each other. Comet's pieces, however, had formed a nice line with her king near the far side. Valyrie studied the formation for a minute while Comet leaned back, stretching his spine. He was sure he was going to win.
Valyrie suddenly saw a pattern to his pieces and grinned to herself. She reached out, took her king and jumped one of the blocking pieces, then one of his kings, then another normal piece and then his other king.
She looked up and grinned evily to Comet and said, "Gotcha."
Comet looked down to see her make her move and watched as his pieces were wiped off the board. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as she removed his black tokens and he was left with one lone one on his side of the board. Valyrie leaned back as well and clicked her claws together, smiling smugly to Comet. Comet, for his part, was rendered speechless by her move.
It really didn't matter though, since Angel busted through the door and jumped around on the table, singing happily about an important assignment. After five minutes of that, she noticed Comet and Valyrie's game and wanted to play. The final score was Valyrie winning with seven victories, Angel with five and Comet with two. He sat there dejectedly as Angel and Valyrie rambled on about their victories. He was slightly mad at losing so much, but he wasn't going to be a poor sport. In fact, he was actually impressed both Valyrie and Angel had beaten him like that. They both were smart, really smart. Comet liked that in mares and found himself debating in his mind about who was cuter on his scale. Angel, the ever loving bat pony who spent a nice day snuggled up next to him, or Valyrie, the gryffon who was kind enough to apologize about being foolish and had a great personality.
Honestly, Comet thought they both had nice features. Angel had those eyes and the figure to match, since he had stolen a glance back in Basic he never forgave himself for doing. She was also his friend and had even opened up some of her personal information to him. Valyrie, on the other hand, was like a puzzle he had to solve. She revealed very little about herself, but that wasn't a bad thing. It kept him guessing about her. With his mind at war with itself about the two sitting at the table with him, he barely noticed a letter magically appear in front of him. Angel and Valyrie, though, did.
They both grabbed for it and soon Comet was trying to pry his own letter from a black claw and a gray hoof. It took some time, but he eventually did. He opened the letter and read it to himself. Valyrie and Angel watched with mild interest as his face grew from a stoic look to one of shock.
"MY PARENTS ARE COMING HERE?!" he shouted. |
The Golden Armor | Parental Control | Sometimes life doesn't work out. Sometimes, it just seems to take any situation and make it ten times worse. Take the letter Comet received, for instance. The letter was written on parchment made from a cheap material so the manufacturer could make a seven bit profit on each piece in bulk. The inferior material therefore made it taste like an old sock wrapped in a smelly shoe. The local mailmare in San Pranscico took the letter from Mangrove, Comet's mother, about a week ago and made the mistake to trying to talk with it in her mouth. The nasty taste caused her to spit out the letter so she could throw up, and as such the letter was blown away. She gave chase after it and finally caught it twenty minutes later. However, she was now late delivering the mail, so she stuffed it into her bag.
So it stayed there. For two days. The mailmare had completely forgotten about the letter in her rush to deliver the mail and found it two days later when she accidentally delivered it to the wrong pony. When the letter finally reached the post office to be sent to Canterlot, the dejected mail sorter had just broken up with his long time marefriend because he was too afraid to pop the question and threw it into the non priority mail. There it sat in a bag as he cried in the corner, waiting for Comet to finally read it.
Two more days later, the bag containing the letter was moved onto a train bound for Canterlot, ironically the same one Mangrove and Sun Storm were on. The couple, blissfully unaware of their son not receiving the letter, chattered away about how much they wanted to see Comet in his guard armor. Mangrove also speculated that perhaps Comet had found a nice mare to be with and though Sun Storm agreed externally, internally he was think about what to say to Comet about mares. His son, who Sun Storm was as proud to have as could be, was inexperienced in dealing with mares and he hoped he wouldn't reach Canterlot to find his son married or with a foal prepping to be born.
The train arrived three days later on time, a first for the letter's brief existence. As the passengers, including Mangrove and Sun Storm, departed, the bag the letter was in was carefully unloaded. By carefully, I mean taken out and thrown into a wagon. A few letters spilled out, but luckily not Comet's. Upon reaching the post office in Canterlot, Mangrove and Sun Storm were admiring the city's many shops. The letter was organized into the Royal Guard pile by a disgruntled pony who complained the other post offices should at least organize the mail for him. When it was all sorted, the letter was magically transported, along with forty others, to Canterlot Castle. There, a staff member of the castle took her time organizing them, giving Mangrove and Sun Storm enough time to reach the castle and pass a security inspection. As they were led to the relaxation room, the letter was finally sent away to Comet, who shouted just as his parents reached the door.
Comet stared intently at the letter while Angel and Valyrie cracked huge grins. They were finally going to meet Comet's parents? Angel thought of all the fun they would be while Valyrie thought of what would make a good impression. They didn't get much time, though, since the door swung open to reveal a unicorn guard with a bright green earth pony mare and a tall and cool looking yellow pegasus. Comet spun around to see who it was and his pupils instantly shrunk to pinholes. "Mom? Dad? You're here?!" he asked in a shocked voice.
"Well hello to you too, Comet," the yellow pegasus spoke up. He gave a skeptical look to the orange pegasus, but his lovely green wife squealed happily and charged him. Comet managed a small yelp of surprise and the green mare hugged him tightly while planting about three kisses on his cheek. Comet panicked and frantically attempted to push her away before any more damage could be done, but hysterical laughing broke out from the other side of the room. Sun Storm looked over to see a set of gray hooves up in the air, kicking about wildly and a feathered pony's head buried into the table, pounding what looked like a claw onto it.
"Oh, my sweet pie, I missed you so much!" Mangrove cried as she squeezed Comet tighter, "It's been so quiet around the house without you there. I was even cleaning your old room and started crying when I found your old stuffed alicorn from our first family vacation!"
"Mom!" Comet shouted in a mixture of dread and fear. Angel and Valyrie started laughing even harder, but Mangrove continued.
"Oh, do you remember the first time you said you wanted to be a guard? You were only just a little colt and ran around the neighborhood, trying to stop littering and bullying! You came home covered in garbage. Now look at you, a full member of the Royal Guard! Wait 'til they see you back home!" she reminisced. A look of utter horror crept across Comet's face and Sun Storm decided it was best to intervene before Mangrove listed something really bad.
"Mangrove, I think you should-"
"Oh and that time we went to-"
"Mangrove."
"-you were so bent of getting a guard cutie mark-"
"Mangrove!"
"-you accidentally picked up the wrong sword and-"
"Mangrove!"
"-had to get your teeth fixed-"
"MANGROVE!"
The brilliantly colored green mare turned a confused face to the yellow pegasus and he cleared his throat before nodding forward. She spun her head again and finally noticed two sets of golden eyes watch her eagerly. One was clearly a gryffon due to the feathers and beak, but the other one had small fangs poking out from under her upper lip and an adorable look on her, Mangrove guessed it was a her, face.
Mangrove's eyes widened just like Comet's usually did and she gave a louder squeal. Her son was spending time with mares?! Unbridled excitement coursed through her body as she let go of Comet in favor of this new pony, whose face of glee quickly melted into one of fear. Sun Storm planted his hoof into his face as apparently his wife had not gotten the cue to stop.
She tackled Angel as well into a rather large hug and Valyrie started to laugh again. However, Valyrie soon learned that was the wrong thing to do, because when Mangrove heard her girly laugh, she realized the gryffon was a mare too and brought her into the hug. "My son had two friends now?!" she almost shouted happily, "I must be dreaming! Here I thought he'd only have one stallion for a friend, but he has two mares! I'm the happiest mother in the world right now!" She squeezed tighter on Angel and Valyrie, causing them to lose their breath. Valyrie struggled to get away from the crazy green mare, but Angel somehow managed a grin.
"Yeah, Comet and I have been friends since day one!" she stated happily, "Valyrie here just joined out circle."
It took two minutes of Comet and Sun Storm prying away at Mangrove's legs to finally release Angel and Valyrie. The two stallions apologized a lot to the bat pony and gryffon, but Angel didn't seem to care. Once the stallions managed to calm Mangrove down, the two mares finally got to introduce themselves. Mangrove instantly warmed up to Angel due to her bubbly personality, but Valyrie shied away, preferring to stand close to Comet like a scared animal. Sun Storm, Comet's father, trotted over and said, "So, son. Two friends now, huh?"
Comet gulped as Valyrie leaned in closer to him, clearly afraid of what Sun Storm would do, and he managed an awkward smile. "Uh, yeah, dad. They're really nice, especially Valyrie here." He gave the gryffon at his side a little push and she looked up at the yellow pegasus nervously.
"Uh, hi. I'm Valyrie," was all she managed to blurt out.
Sun Storm smiled warmly to her and held out a hoof, saying, "The name's Sun Storm. If you can't guess by now, I'm Comet's father." Valyrie reached out tentatively with a claw and Sun gave a small laugh. "Don't be shy. I'm not going to hug you or invade your personal space," he said brightly. Valyrie took his hoof and shook it before quickly returning it back to herself. She looked up at Comet, who smiled back gently and started to blush.
"I've, uh, got something I need to do," she stated quickly while looking away from him, "I'll be back." She walked off to the door and left a very confused looking Comet with a smirking Sun Storm.
"Wow, son," Sun Storm mused, "I didn't know you were a hot commodity among the gryffon mares."
Comet blushed furiously at that statement and said, "She's just a friend, dad."
"You know, that's how me and your mother met. We were just friends too," Sun Storm said with a playful hint in his voice. Comet shook his head, forcing the blush to go away and looked up at his father.
"It's not like that, dad," he said plainly and Sun Storm shrugged.
"Hey, she's waiting on you to make a move, my boy. If you like her, don't wait too long or she'll get bored," he said before letting the subject drop. He was very happy for his son to have a mare like him, even if she was a gryffon. As the two trotted over to an animated discussion between Angel and Mangrove, Sun mused at the idea of possibly having a gryffon for a filly-in-law. Mangrove had always wanted grandfoals, but could a pony and a gryffon even have a foal? Sun shrugged the thought off for another time as Comet cleared his throat, catching both Angel and Mangrove's attention.
"So, Angel, it appears you've met my mother. This is my dad, Sun Storm," he stated with apprehension in his voice. Sun beamed brightly and held out a hoof.
"Pleased to meet 'cha," he stated nicely.
"Oh. My. Celestia! This is so cool!" Angel shouted excitedly, "I never thought I'd meet both of his parents! You two are so cool and..." Angel began to ramble as she excitedly looked over Sun Storm. Mangrove seized the opportunity to trot over to Comet and give him a gentle motherly hug.
"So, how's my little Comet?" she asked in her sweet voice. Comet simply smiled in return and Mangrove gave her own. "I'm so proud of you for making it in. I always knew you'd be a guard, even after-"
"Mom, don't talk about that, please," Comet stated quickly.
"Oh, right. I just wish she was here to see you. She'd be just as happy as I am," Mangrove said with a hint of sadness in her voice. Comet's smile turned into a small scowl as he thought about her. She really would've been happy to see him like this.
Pushing that thought out and wanting to change the subject, Comet said, "So, what do you think of Angel?"
Mangrove's eyes widened dramatically and a huge grin split her face. "Oh, she is just a doll!" Mangrove stated excitedly, "She's so fun and energetic, just the kind of mare I think you need. Not to mention she's adorable as well." Comet grinned awkwardly and rubbed his mane with a hoof as his mother continued, hoping to Celestia Angel wasn't able to hear this. "She's a bat pony to boot. I'm really impressed you found a mare like her. Have you taken her out on a date yet?"
"Uh, that would be a no," Comet said flatly.
"Oh, then you really should. She's so adorable, I'm sure there are other stallions here just drooling over her," Mangrove happily mused.
"It doesn't work that way, mom," Comet said in a pleading tone. He really wanted her to stop before Angel could hear the conversation.
"Oh, do you have something special planned?" Mangrove asked with a sparkle in her eyes.
"What do you have planned?" Angel said, sticking her head in a little too close to Comet. His eyes shrunk horribly and Mangrove smiled.
"Why, a date, of course!" she stated brightly.
Angel froze, staring at Comet with her big golden eyes. His face was locked into a scared expression and behind the three ponies, Sun Storm buried his face into his hoof. Mangrove was a very forward mare, often projecting her own wishes upon Comet. Now she had just put Comet between a rock and a hard place. A huge grin so big, Comet was amazed it fit, spread across Angel's face and she tackle hugged him. "You were going to ask me on a date?!" she nearly shouted in his ear, "Oh my Celestia, Comet! Why didn't you ask me sooner? Of course I would love to go on a date!"
Outside the room, Valyrie paused. She had thought she'd overheard something about a date between Comet and Angel, but she shook her head and trotted off. While she'd never admit it out loud, Mangrove actually kinda scared her. However, it wasn't long after she started trotting away that an odd thought popped into her mind, one of she and Comet on a date. Valyrie laughed at the notion, but noted how nice the idea felt.
Inside Comet's mind, he was yelling in frustration. Sure he thought Angel was cute, but this isn't how he wanted to ask her out. He was still fighting with himself about Angel or Valyrie, so taking Angel out on a date before he was absolutely sure made things a whole lot more messy. I mean, yeah Angel outclassed Valyrie at almost everything, especially the cute factor, but he wanted his first date to be special. Having his mother set him up with his best friend was not special in any way.
But still, Angel was cute, and sweet, and nice, and cute. Comet cracked a small grin at the bat pony who smiled as brightly as she could. Maybe going on a date with her wouldn't be so bad.
In Angel's mind, she was simply throwing the biggest party she could imagine. The stallion she had a huge crush on just asked her out on a date. Maybe she could have him after all. |
The Golden Armor | Past, Present and Future | "You know, that wasn't very nice of you," Sun Storm said. He was standing near the closet of a cramped room he and Mangrove were sharing while they stayed in Canterlot. The room was barely big enough for the two full grown ponies to walk around freely, but it had a large panoramic window to the south that had a spectacular view of Canterlot castle. Mangrove stood dejectedly over the bed, staring into a bag of clothes.
"I know. I was just so happy to see my little Comet spending time with mares, I just..." she trailed off. Mangrove reached into the bag and came out with a pale, but brilliant yellow dress and trotted over to Sun. She passed him the dress and, without opposable digits or magic, Sun somehow hung the dress up on a hanger. Mangrove trotted back to the bed sadly and sighed. "I want him to be happy. Does that make me a bad mother?"
"No," Sun replied, "But that doesn't mean you should try to control his life. He didn't ask that bat pony, er..."
"Angel," Mangrove said.
"Angel! Thank you. Yes, you shouldn't have forced him to go out on a date with her. Comet is a full grown stallion now and he can make his own decisions. If he didn't ask her out yet, he probably has a good reason. Now, if the date fails, that will probably ruin Comet's friendship with her."
As Sun stopped his chastising, he heard a slight sniffle come from the green mare standing over the bed and his chest instantly dropped. Mangrove was a very emotional mare, often bouncing between excessively happy to morbidly depressive in minutes. Sun rolled his eyes at the closet, gave a deep sigh and trotted over to her. She was sniffling more now and Sun offered a smile. He reached out his right wing and wrapped it around the gorgeous green mare and she looked up at him with big watery magenta eyes. "A-am I a horrible mother?" she asked, choking back tears.
Sun stared into her big magenta eyes with his own brilliantly deep blue ones and he planted a soft kiss upon her forehead. "No, sweetie, you are not a horrible mother. A stallion never really outgrows his mother. You may have been a little pushy, but Comet has always had a problem with mares," he spoke in his calming voice.
"B-b-but I, I might've ruined his relationship with her!" Mangrove almost wailed back.
Sun reached out his forehoof and put it around her neck. Mangrove allowed him to do that and set her head against his chest. He looked down as Mangrove looked up, and nuzzled her nose. "I highly doubt anything will be ruined," Sun Storm said gently, "Comet may not have any experience around mares, but there's only one way for him to learn." Sun lifted his chin and set it on Mangrove's head, gently holding her.
The couple stayed like that for a little bit before Mangrove finally calmed down. "Where would I be if you hadn't hit me with that hoofball?" she wondered aloud. Sun gave a small chuckle as he remembered the first time he had met Mangrove.
Sun was never really what you'd call 'popular' in high school. About thirty years ago, he was a skinny pegasus with an overbearing father who pushed him to be athletic. He went through endless days of training, wing conditioning and a strict diet to push him into peak physical condition. Sun Storm's mother was his savior, though, since Sun always went to the market with her and allowed him to have some sweets. That day, Sun was at school and, during his lunch period, was at the hoofball field, trying to perfect a long range kick pass.
Mangrove herself was no social butterfly. She looked very different back then than she did today. Mangrove had braces to perfect her smile, thick glasses and a saddlebag stuffed with large books. She preferred to read while other ponies spent their time making out, trying to start movements for equal equestrian rights or, if they were popular mares, making fun of her. Their favorite way to tease was to say Mangrove was still a blank flank. She had actually gotten her cutie mark already, a patch of several mangrove seeds, but the mares often tried to prove she stuck them on her flank herself.
So, with very few friends, Mangrove headed off to her favorite reading spot, the abandoned bleachers of the hoofball field. When Mangrove finally made it there, she sighed happily. At the same time, a hoofball flew awkwardly off of Sun Storm's rear left hoof. Mangrove smiled, but then felt a large impact against the side of her head and passed out.
When Mangrove finally came to again, she was laying on her side, staring at a horribly pale pink wall and felt the cold of an ice pack on the left side of her head. She blinked and gave a small moan, hoping to get the nurses attention. Instead, a violently yellow pegasus leaned into her vision and said, "Oh my gosh, thank Celestia you're awake! Just hold on, I'll get the nurse," he said in a voice laced with concern. He turned to leave, but Mangrove reached out a hoof and pushed his side. Why she did this, even she couldn't remember, but the yellow pegasus turned back and stared at the green mare. She looked at him weakly with her beautiful magenta eyes and he felt himself unable to move.
"Hey," Mangrove said in a weak voice, "What's your name?"
Sun gulped hard and said, "Sun Storm."
The green mare gave a cute smile and said, "That's a nice name." Sun never did go and get the nurse. Instead, he spent the last forty five minutes of school talking to Mangrove.
The two became good friends throughout high school and by the time their senior prom came around, Sun was almost inseparable from Mangrove. His other friends tried to get him to ditch her, saying she wasn't worth his time. When they both graduated, Sun had dumped his friends and had officially started dating Mangrove.
Three years later, he was standing at an alter, kissing a stunning Mangrove in a beautiful white dress. Seven years after that, Sun was holding a baby orange pegasus colt, smiling wildly at a gorgeous Mangrove laying on a bed, smiling weakly at him like the first time they met.
Sun looked back to the green mare now hugging against him and kissed her again. She really was the best wife and mother he could've asked for.
Back at Canterlot castle, things were less calm. Angel was excitedly trying to find Valyrie to tell her the good news, but the gryffon was nowhere to be found. Angel checked the bunks, the mess hall, the gardens, the mess hall, Philomena's room where she was assaulted by an overjoyed phoenix, the mess hall and finally the bunks again. Upon not finding her, Angel gave up and sat on her bunk with a roll of parchment and a quill. She spent her time trying to draw, but got bored and soon played Tic-Tac-Toe with herself, celebrating her wins and sulking at her losses. She had hoped Comet would take her out tonight and wondered just what he had planned.
Comet, in contrast, was sitting on his bunk, consulting a tourist's guide he had borrowed from his mother. He was frantically trying to find the right place to take Angel since he thought she expected the date to be tonight. He compiled nearly everything he knew of Angel and came up with some idea of what she liked. She ate fruit nearly all the time, she was loud and childish and she was afraid of loud noises, ironically. Comet narrowed down three ideas: a buffet, an outdoor restaurant and a permanent carnival. He mentally kicked the snot out of himself for thinking the first idea was any good. The second idea was a good one, but he could just see the other ponies staring at him and Angel, especially if she was trying to have fun, plus the prices were way too big for Comet. So, he settled on the carnival and hoped to Celestia this was the right idea.
Unknown to either of them, Valyrie sat atop a spire on the castle, thinking to herself. She had made the mistake of allowing herself to muse at the thought of her and Comet dating and wondered what it would really be like. Comet was nice, caring and sweet, but dating ponies in her homeland was strictly forbidden, as was free thinking.
Gryphons at home were heavily against gryffons like Valyrie doing anything but cooking, cleaning and raising a family. Her father even more so, drilling into her that she should be submissive to his leadership and she should be actively looking for a mate. Shortly before coming here to Equestria, a prospective mate had found her and tried to take her back to his place against her will. After beating the daylights out of him, it was agreeed that Valyrie would be banished as punishment while the gryphon would deal with the shame of getting his hide tanned by a gryffon.
Still, though, Valyrie was miles away from the Gryphon Kingdom. The idea of finding a mate here was slightly appealing, if only the stallions here were more like Comet.
Hours later, Comet and Angel trotted along, smiling happily at the carnival. Angel had attempted to win some prizes, but despite her amazing fighting skills, she hadn't won a single thing. Comet, however, had won several prizes of her choice and now she wore a fake gold ornate necklace, a plastic tiara in the style of the Element of Magic and carried a plushie Princess Luna on her back.
It was getting late, so Comet stopped by a food vendor and bought some caramelized pears for Angel and fried asparagus for himself. They sat at a picnic table and Angel ate her pears quickly while Comet fought with a tough piece of asparagus. Angel sighed contentedly and looked around at the carnival. Here she was free to be herself and she had Comet. He had won several prizes just for her and, although they were obnoxiously cheap, she wouldn't trade them for anything.
While looking around, she saw two ponies, one unicorn stallion and a pegasus mare, with three little foals, two unicorns and an earth pony, running around their legs. The three little foals made her happy as she watched them and she looked back at Comet. He was fighting with a piece of asparagus now stuck between his teeth and noticed her stare. He gave a terribly awkward smile and Angel laughed. It wasn't in her usual sarcastic tone, but one of just reacting to a funny situation.
She half opened her eyes and stared at Comet, who felt an increasing sense of embarrassment about the food stuck between his teeth. Angel was adorable, but looking at him like that, she was well beyond adorable. She was stunning, even if she was wearing those cheap props.
Angel began to lean across the table to Comet and he was sure he was blushing horribly. He stared straight into her giant pools of gold in her eyes and felt his stomach contort into several knots. He hoped to Celestia that she wouldn't headbutt him this time, especially with that tiara on, and he braced himself. She was less than an inch away when she rubbed her nose against his, beaming the whole time. Comet was fairly sure he was forgetting something, but when she leaned back, he realized he wasn't breathing. He took a deep breath and smiled to her, unsure of what to say.
When they had finally returned to the castle, Comet stood outside the bunk room with Angel. "Thanks," she said, "Tonight was definitely one to remember."
Comet gave her another smile and said, "Yeah, we should do this again." He mentally kicked himself for that boneheaded comment and Angel batted her eyes at him.
"Is that a request?" she asked slyly. Comet tried to work out a sentence, but felt his throat close up. Angel gave her soft laugh again and leaned in to the orange stallion. She planted a soft, but sweet, kiss on his cheek and bid him goodnight. Comet stood there, blushing as red as his eyes and when he was sure she couldn't hear him, began to celebrate.
"Yes, yes, yes, YES!" he squealed to himself and shot a hoof into the air. His wings fluttered happily as he trotted off to his own bunks. After all the stuff that had gone wrong in the guard, and by extension his life, taking Angel on a successful date made him view the next day more optimistically.Maybe, just maybe, his life would finally start moving in the direction he wanted. |
The Golden Armor | Paradoxes | Comet woke the next day feeling unusually refreshed. He happily hummed a random song to himself as he got up, cleaned up and donned his magnificent golden armor. He almost skipped down to the mess hall and even was happy to get some bubbling porridge that looked burnt. He grabbed a table and ate quickly, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Angel and Valyrie. After ten minutes, though, neither one showed up.
Comet looked around the mess hall uncomfortably, hoping to see the purple glimmer of Angel's armor or the pretty white plumes of Valyrie, but sadly saw none. With time not on his side, Comet hung his head sadly and left the mess hall, heading up to Philomena's room.
On his way up there, a familiar rustling of feathers and the sound of claws echoing through the hallways caught his attention. He spun around and smiled to see Valyrie rubbing her eyes as she walked up to him.
"Good morning, sleepy," Comet greeted with light sarcasm.
Valyrie threw him an amused look and replied, "I thought you'd still be asleep, lover colt."
Comet's face contorted into a confused expression, but he didn't reply as he and Valyrie headed off to the tower together.
"So, how was last night?" Valyrie asked.
"Uh," Comet replied with a stunned look on his face.
"That good, huh?" Valyrie replied.
"Um, if I may ask. Why are you so curious?" Comet weakly replied, unsure of where this conversation was going to go. Last time she did this, that scene in the dark room happened.
"Well, I'm always curious to see what pony relationships are like," Valyrie replied neutrally, "You see, where I come from, relationships are very different. Gryphons usually take gryffons like me and marry them on a whim, regardless of prior relationships. They are supposed to grow closer together over time and build a strong family of many hatchlings. Ponies, however, believe the opposite, where a stallion is supposed to woo the mare before marrying her."
Comet was unsure of how to respond to that. Gryffons just took their mares without any prior thought? Plus, there was that bit about marrage his mind seized up on. He was sure Valyrie was referring to Comet and Angel's relationship, but it was only one date. Who said anything about marrying her? Comet was still partially unsure of whether he wanted Angel or Valyrie, though Angel was winning by a longshot. "I, er, well..." Comet tried to sputter out, but no words came to him.
Valyrie gave a soft laugh and continued. "Don't worry about responding to that. I was just giving you some background of gryffon relationships."
She sighed and said, "It's kinda funny, actually."
"What is?" Comet asked.
"I think it would be pretty nice having a pony try to woo me," she slyly hinted and gave him a sideways glance. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Comet's expression go from comfortable to a 'Where did that come from?!' face. She chuckled again as they continued trotting over to the tower, enjoying at how uncomfortable she was making Comet.
After a day of watching Philomena, the trio ate their dinners and proceeded off to their bunks. Comet, being the gentlepony he was, walked Angel back with Valyire following closely behind.
Once he and Angel had said their goodnights, Comet breathed a sigh of happiness. Upon turning around, however, he accidentally ran head first into Valyrie. As if some cosmic joke decided to play out, the floor was wet from a leaky roof and Valyrie slipped, grabbing onto Comet as she yelped and fell to her side. Comet stumbled and, in order to avoid stomping on Valyrie, managed to somehow stand over top of her.
As the two of them looked at each other, Valyrie noticed how red Comet's face had gotten. Lying on the ground underneath him, she also felt a weird blush coming on. She actually kinda liked this.
Quickly, Comet scrambled to stop standing over her and, once he had moved, stood sheepishly about four feet away as Valyrie pulled herself up. Feeling her blush start to recede, Valyrie looked over at him and chuckled. He looked so big and strong a couple seconds ago, but now he was acting like a scared hatchling.
Feeling particularly brave, Valyrie slowly walked up to Comet, who fumbled with his words trying to wish her a goodnight.
"Hey, just so you know," Valyrie cooed to him, "I thought you looked rather hot standing over me like that."
If possible, Comet's face reddened even more and Valyrie chuckled. He was so shy and nervous, it was actually kinda cute too. She wondered just how far he'd ever gotten with a mare and decided to test it out. Completely forgetting the fact he had just gone on a date with Angel, Valyrie leaned a little closer to him and, when his head turned to her nervously, met his lips with her beak.
It was just a quick little kiss, but it was enough to tell Valyrie that he had no experience with mares. Comet jerked back after two seconds and blushed even harder as Valyrie gave another small laugh.
"My offer still stands, Comet," she whispered before disappearing into the bunk room.
Comet rubbed his head and trudged off to his bunk with a headache. As he walked, his mind continued to war with itself until he laid down on the bed. Today was a rough day, and Comet felt his newfound luck sour quickly. Maybe things wouldn't go his way anyways. Maybe it would go like it had for her. Comet immediately tried to repress those thoughts, but his conflicting feelings about Angel and Valyrie prevented that. He needed her advice now more than ever and he sorely missed her, his big sister Nova.
Outside on the castle grounds, two ponies were standing around by the forest. An earth pony had his flank in the air as he rustled about some bushes and a Royal Guard yawned.
"You almost done yet?" the guard complained.
The earth pony sucked his teeth and replied, "You know, asking me after we just started won't make it go any-- WAAAAH!"
The guard spun around, only to find the earth pony missing. "Ha ha, very funny," the guard sarcastically whined.
He barely had finished speaking when a black figure leaped from the forest and collided with the guard. He topped over, surprised, and landed on his right wing. It had been injured when he was younger and the guard wore a piece of steel over it to protect the weak spot. The metal scrapped across a rock and the guard thanked Luna he was wearing that. He thought it was the earth pony who tackled him and prepared to give a good tongue lashing at him, but a set of iridescent blue green eyes stared back at him. The guard gave a surprised yelp as he recognized what it was, but a bolt of green magic struck him, causing him to pass out.
"You fool!" came a raspy voice, "You shouldn't have let him see you!"
The dark figure turned its head around and bared two large white fangs. "Shut up!" he snapped back "You know this was going to be difficult."
"Gorgon, we need to be stealthy," came the voice again as several changelings cautiously exited the forest, along with the earth pony.
"If we want to get Queen Chrysalis to accept us, we need to do this right," The earth pony said in the raspy voice, "Now, hide him with the other, and do it quickly!" |
The Golden Armor | Truth In A Nightmare | Comet rolled as he slept, unable to stay in one position. His eyes were firmly shut, but he was doing things a pony normally did while awake. He kicked and shivered, bit his lower lip and shook his head. Inside his mind, a dark storm was brewing. Old thoughts of his past covered the warm spot Comet so desperately searched for. Images of his parents, himself and a light gold mare with tangerine eyes and a verdant mane whisked around him, followed by several lines of speech Comet had long ago repressed.
"Comet! What did you do?!" he heard his mother shout.
"Wake up, Nova! Please wake up!" Comet heard a younger version of himself sob.
"There was nothing you could've done," Sun Storm gently whispered to him.
"Don't worry about me," chided a soft voice, "Go have fun."
Comet's mind silenced at that voice and he dreaded the sound of it. He hadn't heard that voice in almost fifteen years, but the words sounded like they were spoken just yesterday. The image of the gold mare slowly materialized before him. She was taller than Comet, but had a sickly look to her. Her wonderful tangerine eyes stared at him gently through her half lidded eyelids and the small smile she always wore was still upon her lips.
Comet felt everything melt away as he returned her gaze and whispered, "Nova..."
He felt himself start to move and his voice grew louder.
"Nova, Nova! NOVA!" he shouted as he neared her.
Just as he was about to reach her, her form glowed like the sun. Comet threw himself at her, trying to hang onto her, but she dispersed into small orbs of golden light and wafted around him in no particular order. Comet swung his head around at the lights and fruitlessly tried to grab them. The lights, one by one, faded away even as Comet protested. She had left him again and a feeling of dread mixed with a sadness that couldn't be measured wrapped around Comet's chest. It was suddenly very hard to breathe.
Way outside of the castle, another nightmare for Comet was taking place. Angel sat alone at the posh restaurant, slowly sipping some frozen strawberry drink. It was delicious, but her mood wasn't in the right spot. She wished that Comet was here, her favorite and totally awesome pegasus, but sadly she was a bat pony and therefore a night guard to Princess Cadance.
The princess was actually not too far away from Angel, busily laughing and talking to random ponies as they waited for Shining Armor to arrive. Angel wasn't her only guard, though. Several other bat ponies and two unicorns stood very close, but at Cadance's insistence they were all spread out among the restaurant, still within a quick dash's distance of her. Angel took another dejected sip of her drink and wished something interesting would happen.
"Wait, don't I know that pony?" came a vaguely familiar voice.
Angel spun her head with a look of mixed feelings and saw Mangrove smiling widely at her while Sun Storm had his snout buried in the menu. He peeked up from it in just enough time to see Angel before a dark gray blur assaulted his wife.
Angel wrapped Mangrove in a rather large hug and gushed at her. "Oh my Celestia! It's so nice to see you two again! How've you been?!"
After a few odd minutes of Mangrove and Angel exchanging some strange information, Angel was sitting at the table with them.
"So, tell me, how was the date with Comet?" Mangrove asked invasively. Sun shook his head again and was about to stop the conversation, but Angel spoke first
"Oh, it was absolutely awesome!" Angel nearly shouted, "He took me to the carnival here and won me, like, four prizes! I didn't know he was so good at ring tosses and bottle towers!"
Sun froze up there and Mangrove's smile seemed to sour. Comet had played the ring toss and bottle tower? A sudden feel of dread crept into Sun's chest as he renewed his interest in his menu and Mangrove gave an unsure gulp.
"He, he sure is, isn't he?" she responded in a shaky voice.
Now, Angel would never call herself the brightest pony, but she could clearly see something was wrong with that bit of information. She narrowed her eyes at the couple and slowly talked. "Yeah, he did. Was that bad?"
"Oh, nothing!" Mangrove replied over enthusiastically, "He always had an affinity for games like that, even when he was young!"
Mangrove's face paled as she spoke the last word and Sun's eyes shrank. Mangrove wasted no time in examining the table as Sun Storm raised the menu up farther. They were trying to hide something from Angel, and she hated being in the dark.
"What is it?" Angel asked accusingly. Mangrove snapped her head up and Angel leaned in a little closer to her, eyes still narrowed. "What's wrong if Comet took me there and played those games?"
Mangrove gave a shallow smile and said, "Oh, it's nothing." She didn't get to finish before Angel cut her off.
"Yes, it is. You two are acting like Comet did when I first met him. Evasive and unwilling to talk. What are you trying to hide?" Angel almost growled.
It was really not a good way to talk to his parents, but Comet was hiding something from her ever since he had those pictures out on their first day. She initially just thought it was him being defensive of her invasion, but the more she thought about it, the more she was sure he was hiding something. His parents were no better at hiding it either.
"What is he trying to keep from me and everypony else?"
Mangrove's weak smile finally broke into a frown and she sighed. "Angel, you must understand, Comet has always been protective."
"Dear," Sun cut in, staring straight at her magenta eyes, "Don't. Comet will tell her when he's ready," His tone was almost angry to Angel.
"Sun, Comet will never tell her on his own, and you know that," Mangrove said in her sad tone. Sun's face hardened and he returned to the menu.
"Well, make sure when he finds out, you tell him I had no part of this, Angel," he said, clearly angry.
Right then, Angel became scared of exactly what she was trying to uncover. It wasn't just a secret Comet was trying to bury, but it seemed to be one his parents wanted to forget as well. She suddenly felt a massive amount of apprehension as Mangrove turned her head back to her, but if his mother knew Comet wouldn't tell her, she readied herself for whatever was going to happen.
"Did Comet tell you he was an only foal?" Mangrove asked.
Angel nodded slowly and Mangrove continued.
"Well, that was a lie. He never wants to talk about it, but he had a sibling. His big sister and our daughter, Nova."
"Nova?" Angel repeated quietly.
"Yes, Nova," Mangrove responded and Sun tensed up, but still refused to talk.
"She was four years older than Comet and was also very sick from birth. Nova had a rare immune system disorder that caused her to produce next to no white blood cells, so she was always coughing and bedridden. Comet, when he was old enough, made it his goal to keep his big sister healthy. He took it so seriously, he even got his cutie mark caring for her."
Angel's eyes widened and she sat in silence. He got his cutie mark caring for his sick big sister?
"He must've cared for her a lot," she mused quietly and Mangrove's face soured again.
"She meant the world to him," Mangrove pressed on with sadness edging her voice, "Comet even refused to go to school so he could care for her. He only went because she insisted he go, but he never hung around with anypony afterward. Whenever we came home, he was always right at the side of the bed fluffing the pillows, moving the blankets or playing a game with her. He always did it with a smile, though. Nova meant more to him than even us."
"Wow," Angel said softly. She never imagined Comet would do that, especially with how distant he normally acted.
"What happened to her?" she asked before thinking.
As soon as the question escaped Angel's lips, she instantly loathed herself for it. If the subject hurt the two ponies to even bring her up, what happened to her must hurt ten times worse. She broke her line of sight and stared at the ground.
Somewhere behind her, Mangrove sniffled. Sun, who was resolutely against telling Angel this, reached out a hoof and rubbed Mangrove's. What happened to Nova had nearly torn their family apart and Mangrove took it especially hard. Somewhere deep in Sun's chest, the familiar feeling of guilt and self loathing began to rise.
Comet stood in his old house and looked around at the features. That ugly furniture his parents had used since they were married littered the room. The violent shade of blue on the walls seemed to glow and a creak echoed to him. The rickety staircase leading up to the second story creaked again and Comet's eyes followed it up to the series of doors that lined the upstairs wall. Two were wide open, one being Comet's old room and the other his parents.
Comet slowly walked up the stairs and the familiar creaking as he walked pushed him forward. His eyes jogged to the right as he searched the hallway. At the end, one door remained shut and a large knot formed in Comet's throat. He walked slowly to it and felt the knot begin to choke him. That door was supposed to remain shut forever, but why was it pulling him towards it?
Comet stood outside the closed door and stared at it, afraid of opening it. Going into this room last time had made him cover himself with water and sit out in the snow where he caught hypothermia. Still, the door called him and he extended a hoof, pushing it open slowly.
Inside the room, bright sunlight flooded the room, washing it in a yellowish glow. Stuffed animals of all kinds, including a stuffed version of Princess Celestia sat on a shelf on the far wall, each smiling softly. Comet let his gaze wander to the left where a dresser sat covered with crayon drawings of an orange colt and a gold pony, each bearing a large red heart. His lungs seemed to fail as he saw those drawings. They were supposed to be six feet under the ground.
His eyes moved over to a bed covered in multicolored quilts and, much to his surprise, a light gold pony with a verdant green mane smiled at him. Her tangerine eyes seemed to glow themselves and Comet's heart skipped a beat.
"Nova..." he murmured and he slowly walked over to the bed.
"Hey, Comet," she said weakly, "How was school today?"
Without thinking, Comet put his hooves on the bed and stared at her.
"The same as always," he said slowly, unsure of what was happening.
Nova reached out a hoof and gently patted him on the head and Comet inhaled sharply. This couldn't be real. No, this just couldn't. Nova smiled at him and gently pulled him into a hug, one Comet's body reacted to without his mind. He felt her gentle legs hug him and his mind was wiped of all thought. It all felt so real.
"Nova required a lot of medication so she could have us around her. The doctors often said she should be quarantined, but she adamantly refused to be. She always said that if she was isolated, there was no point in living. She never said it out loud, though, but Comet was the main reason for her medication. He always washed his hoofs and sterilized everything, but being a colt, he was prone to carrying diseases." Mangrove continued, squeezing Sun's hoof.
"Sun and I tried our best to care for her, but Comet insisted of being her guardian. He worked hard trying to keep her happy and healthy. He even spent six weeks learning how to play a carnival game, the ring toss you mentioned, so he could win Nova a gift for her birthday."
Mangrove paused there and thought for a few seconds before continuing.
"He won her a stuffed Celestia and Nova cherished it. She always kept it close at night and talked to it like she was related to Celestia. It was during that time Comet swore he'd become a Royal Guard so he could protect Nova better."
Angel sat there, shaken by what she was hearing. Comet had a big sister he loved more than anything and she had a horrible feeling she knew where this was going. It also impressed upon her why his parents reacted the way they did when she told them about the carnival. That plushie Princess Luna she had suddenly took on more of a meaning than a simple gift. Comet had won a Princess Celestia for Nova and a Luna for her, so she could only guess at how much she must really mean to him.
After a couple more seconds, Angel finally worked up what little courage she had to ask a question.
"What happened to her?"
Mangrove's eyes watered and Sun gave a small shudder.
Comet was suddenly at his house, bundled up in his coat and wool hat, stomping his hoof angrily on the ground.
"But you promised we could go today!" he whined to his parents, who were in turn getting ready to leave.
"Comet, we have to go. I'm sorry we can't take you to the park," his green mother said gently.
Comet felt a couple tears well up before a sweet and familiar voice called out "Go ahead. I'll take him."
All three ponies spun their heads to see a thickly bundled up pony descending the stairs. Her green mane poked out a different increments and Comet's eyes widened.
"Nova, what are you doing out of bed?!" he asked worriedly.
She smiled back to him and said to their mother, "I'll take him. After all, the doctors say being in the sun helps with my condition."
After several minutes of arguing and making sure they were all warm, Sun and Mangrove left the house feeling a huge amount of regret. Nova was going to take Comet to the park.
Twenty minutes later, Comet and Nova stood at the park that was covered with snow. Comet checked and rechecked her wrappings as she sat on a bench.
"I'm fine, Comet," she cooed softly, "Now, go have some fun. You're young and need to play." '
Comet smiled at her and said, "Be sure to tell me if you need something!" before he ran off. He trusted his older sister explicitly and enjoyed himself for an hour and a half before returning to her. She was fast asleep, her head slightly nodded forward and Comet nudged her.
"It's time to get you your medicine!" Comet called happily. Nova remained asleep and Comet prodded her harder. She remained asleep and soon Comet was shaking her violently, screaming her name to wake her up. She kept her eyes closed and the small familiar smile on her lips as he did so, frozen in time.
"Comet pulled her halfway back home before we found him," Mangrove said, now fully crying, "He was a wreck and tried to feed her medicine as we waited for the ambulance and doctor. She was pronounced dead at the hospital and Comet blamed himself for what happened. She really died from the irregular heartbeat the medicines gave her, but Comet refuses to believe that. He has always held onto the belief that he was the cause of death to his older sister and never forgave himself. He withdrew into the state you met him in where he had no friends and pushed everypony away. He twice caught hypothermia on Nova's birthday because he sat on the bench where she died all day."
Angel stared down at her plate, trying her best to hold back tears. No wonder it took her four months to get Comet to be friendly around her. She could only imagine what Comet felt that day, the day his sister he loved more than anything was taken from him. Sun gritted his teeth and Mangrove finished.
"Comet has been trying to suppress the memories of his big sister, our daughter, for as long as we can remember. When he's around you, he's like a different pony. It's almost like he can forget about her and be happy again," She looked up at Angel and smiled to her, tears streaking her cheeks. "You're so much like her that maybe Comet can finally move on."
Comet sat at his footlocker, having woken up from that nightmare. Thinking about Nova always did that to him, giving him terrible dreams about her. He sat with the moonlight illuminating an old piece of parchment and he silently cried while reading it. The beautiful script was etched into his mind, but reading it always helped him through the night when he couldn't forget her.
To my baby brother,
If you are reading this, then the inevitable has happened. I'm sorry I can no longer be there to see you grow up and reach your goals, and it makes me sad to know that. I do know what your cutie mark means now and I wish to tell you. An exploding comet doesn't mean destruction, it actually means beauty. From our perspective, a comet burst is a beautiful sight since it makes hundreds of new stars for us to gaze at and enjoy. In the wake of a cataclysm, hope can be found. It will hurt when I'm gone, just like a shooting star exploding, but you must not give up. In the wake of your greatest tragedy, new doors will open for you other than taking care of a sickly pony. Become the Royal Guard you always wanted to be and don't hold back on my part. You are a great pony at heart and one day, you will show the world that.
Always remember as well that, even though I can't say it to you with my voice, I love you more than life itself. You were my only friend and the best caretaker I could ever want. I adored every moment I was with you and missed you every second you were away. I know you will miss me, but remember that I will miss you more. Please help mom and dad to get through my death by being yourself since you will be their only joy in the world after my time comes. I don't know how it will happen, but don't ever blame yourself for whatever happens. I was never supposed to live even this long, but your care and love has performed a miracle by giving me hope and a reason to live. Don't ever forget that, my little star. Don't ever forget that I love you more than anything else.
Your big sister,
Nova |
The Golden Armor | Fractures (revised) | Comet woke the next day, more exhausted than before he went to bed. The memories of Nova still tormented him as he forced himself out of the bed, wishing just to have some silence. The shower of scalding hot water barely registered on his mind, which was pressed against the tile wall. After ten minutes of that, Comet was dejectedly putting on his armor, watching his orange pelt magically shimmer to a brilliant white. He grimaced, thinking of what Nova would say seeing him like this. The world he was in felt far away, like he was watching it through a telescope.
As he left the bunk room, he turned back to his bunk and subsequent footlocker and murmured, "Goodbye, Nova. I'll be back soon, okay?"
The mess hall wasn't the same today. Everypony was talking as normal, but Comet couldn't hear them. The food had no taste, which was no surprise, but it felt odd when he ate a ripe apple along with two sugar cubes and his tongue didn't register there was food. Once he finished, he walked away slowly to his post, guarding Philomena. The hallway was long and winding, but it just seemed to go by without catching his attention at all.
Soon, he was outside Philomena's door and when he pushed it open, Comet was greeted by several loud caws and a happy looking Philomena who nipped at his tail. Comet ignored it and went to his spot, planted his rump and waited. Philomena tilted her head at him and got off her perch, curious to see why he wasn't being himself. She cautiously approached him, half expecting him to startle her, but soon was less than a foot away.
Philomena often had trouble reading pony expressions, but even she knew what a tear on his face meant. She cawed to him, hoping to catch his attention, but Comet kept his eyes fixed on the ground. Philomena had seen Celestia like this before and did what she did to Celestia. The phoenix rubbed her head against Comet's shoulder and backed away, hoping to garner a reaction. Comet just stared sadly at the ground and Philomena left him alone after that.
On the other side of the spectrum, Valyrie was still half asleep. Her less than ideal kiss with Comet from the night before had started to leave a bad taste in her mouth. She knew Comet had taken Angel out on a date, but tried to suppress the thoughts. Maybe if she let it drop, there would be no reason for it to be brought up.
When the door to Philomena's chamber came into view, Valyrie took a deep breath. With an increasing sense of nausea in her stomach, the gryffon pushed open the door. Inside the room, she noticed the absence of Angel immediately, but saw the familiar golden armor and white pelt of Comet sitting on the floor along with a worried looking phoenix.
"Hi, Valyrie," came the clearly sad voice of Comet. The gryffon panicked and rushed up to Comet, half expecting him to be hurt.
"Oh my Griffin, Comet! Are you okay?" she asked worriedly. She reached out a claw to see his face, but a hoof shot up to block her.
"I'm fine," Comet said without meeting her gaze, "I just want some silence, okay?"
Valyrie gulped and nodded, even though Comet wasn't looking at her and withdrew her claw. She slowly backed away from him, worried he was going to lash out at her about yesterday. The horrible thought of he and Angel fighting climbed into her mind and Valyrie made the connection. Evidently, Comet had told Angel what had transpired and she reacted as expected. She had probably broken up with him, yelled at him and made him feel guilty. It also explained why Angel wasn't here at the time too. Valyrie gulped hard and sat at the opposite end of the room, leaving a very confused Philomena unattended.
Angel was actually snoring slightly as she slept soundly in the empty barracks. She had gotten back really late last night after Princess Cadance and Shining Armor's dinner and was now dreaming. In her thoughts, a young Comet sat there crying to himself as he sat near a headstone. Angel stood back away and tried to call to him, but Comet seemed not to notice. Angel then tried running up to him, but she never gained any ground. The young Comet just sat there, weeping to himself even as Angel tried to tell him it wasn't his fault.
The day passed with little happening aside from Philomena and Valyrie spending some time together. The gryffon wanted so badly to ask about what had happened, but the fear of him getting angry at her stayed her voice. Comet, for his part, sat on the floor, trying his best to push out Nova from his mind, but with little success. His beloved big sister stayed at the fore, torturing his already hurt spirit.
About half an hour before the shift ended, Angel woke up, determined to talk to Comet. She had to tell him she knew about his deep dark secret and she was going to help him with it. She sped off to Comet, who she could only guess was up in Philomena's tower.
"Well, uh, I'll be going now, Comet. Are you okay by yourself?" Valyrie asked, hoping to get a reaction from him. Comet just sat there in his usual silence and Valyrie smiled weakly as she left. It was still early, but she did have to use the restroom like all living creatures.
Angel darted up the opposite hallway and stopped at the door just after Valyrie turned the corner. It was then the bat pony realized she had not thought of a way to tell him she knew of his sister, but she barged in anyways. Philomena cawed happily at her arrival, but Angel's big gold eyes automatically locked onto the white pegasus sitting on the floor.
"Comet!" Angel exclaimed as she rushed over to him.
Comet just sat there, lost in the darkness of his thoughts before he noticed a gray hoof reach over and move his head. Soon, he was staring at the familiar gold of Angel's eyes and he yanked his head out of her grasp, returning his gaze to the floor.
"Yeah, what do you want, Angel?" he asked with no intention of hearing an answer. The bat pony backed up a bit, clearly flustered by Comet's behavior.
"I, uh, I kinda, um..." Angel said, unsure of how to tell him she knew about Nova. Clearly Comet was in no mood to talk, but Angel felt she had to say something.
"Comet, I met your parents last night," she stated flatly and Comet's head gave a slight shake.
"Okay. You want a medal or something?" Comet retorted with an edge.
Angel gulped and continued. "Comet, I... I know about her."
"Who?"
"Your parents told me about your big sister, Nova," Angel said, voice filled with uncertainty.
That caught Comet's attention as his head snapped up. Angel had pestered Comet before to when he was irritated, but the look he gave her was one well past the usual reaction. His eyes were full of sadness and anger and his face was locked into a scowl.
"Where did you hear that name?" he hissed, barely concealing his anger.
"I said your parents told me," Angel responded a bit defensively. Comet's face hardened even further than Sun Storm's had yesterday.
"Get away from me," he growled, breaking his gaze.
Angel took a step forward before Comet shouted, "Get away from me, now!"
A look of hurt crossed Angel's face as she stepped back once. Comet took several deep breaths and cursed under his breath at his parents. Nova was not something for them to tell Comet's friends, no matter the circumstances.
"Comet, why are you--?" Angel started to ask.
"I don't care what you're going to say, I don't want to talk about her!" Comet shouted, his angry gaze coming back to Angel. Her face registered more hurt, but that only fueled Comet's anger.
"Comet, if you just listen..." Angel tried to say before Comet cut her off.
"No, you listen," he growled, now baring his teeth, "You don't know what it was like. You don't know, my parents don't know, those stupid doctors didn't know! They've never had to pull the pony they love most back to their home, knowing each second they spend is one less for her to stay alive. They've never sat at a dying pony's bedside for days, watching them slowly die and feeling helpless. THEY DON'T KNOW!" Comet finished with a shout loud enough to scare both Angel and Philomena, as well as Valyrie standing outside the door.
Angel looked back at him with a couple tears starting to roll down her cheeks and tried to say something before Comet turned away from her.
"Don't ever think you can sympathize with me. My sister was in my care and I failed her. My failure cost her life and I've continuously been told it wasn't my fault when I know that's a lie. I could've stopped her that day, but I didn't."
Comet repressed his own sadness welling up by using his anger to drown it and pressed on. "Just, just get out, Angel. Don't ever talk about her again."
Angel stared at him, defeated and upset. This was not how she wanted this conversation to go and now Comet was furious with her, more than she had ever seen. Philomena gently got off her perch and approached Comet, but he aimed a kick at her and the phoenix cawed in terror and flew to the other side of the room. Angel wanted to give him a hug, but feared for her own safety after that.
Instead, she gave a sob and opened the door, bolting away from the room, past Valyrie who stared at her running down the hallway. Valyrie slowly turned her head to Comet in the room, who had his back turned to her. Unknown to Valyrie, Comet stood there, biting his lower lip as hard as he could stand, trying desperately to hold back the horrible emotions he felt. His anger had burned itself out at Angel's sob and now he felt a gaping hole in his chest. The sadness from the memories of Nova were mixing with his own feeling of hate to himself for yelling like that at Angel. She was only trying to help, but Comet had pushed her away like he did his mother and father.
Finally unable to restrain himself any longer, Comet gave several choked sobs and Valyrie stood there, unsure of what she was seeing. She had thought Comet and Angel were fighting over her, but it was starting to dawn on her that maybe they were fighting about some other pony. Philomena walked over to Valyrie, clearly wanting to leave him alone and Valyrie extended a claw. Philomena climbed up her claw and onto her shoulder, finding a good place to perch herself. The gryffon cast one last look at Comet, who was clearly in no state to see anypony/gryffon, and she slowly shut the door, leaving him alone. She walked off, cooing to an upset phoenix as she walked back to the bunks, hoping to comfort Angel.
Comet lost all track of time as he stood there, unable to bring himself back from where he had gone. Years of sadness and self hatred just gripped at him, unwilling to let go. He needed his sister now more than ever, but she was six feet under the ground back in San Prancisco. In his depressed state, Comet's mind flitted back to the memories after Nova's funeral. He remembered his mother hugging him tightly as she cried, his father standing outside with him, watching the sun set.
While he needed his sister now, he felt a longing for his parents, only to remember the arguments they had as well. He remembered the anger he erupted with when his parents were upset about him catching hypothermia, the hurt look of his mother as he yelled at her and his father's apologies for what had happened that day.
Most of all, he reflected on Angel. All she had done was profess knowledge of Nova, not offer sympathy. Comet was in no mood to talk about Nova today, or any day for that matter, but he had treated her unfairly. In truth, he knew next to nothing about Angel and reacted as if he knew what she was going to say.
The bitterness of his anger had left the worst sour taste in his mouth and Comet knew he had to apologize to Angel. However, the memories of all the arguments he and his parents had stuck to the fore of his mind. He shakily rose to his hooves and spread his crumpled wings. He did need to mend his relationship with Angel, but first he had to see his parents.
Comet pushed open a window and flapped his wings, disappearing into the night. He knew where his parents were staying, so he made his way into town. |
The Golden Armor | Moving Forward | It took Comet several minutes to reach the hotel where his parents were. It wasn't a cozy looking place, but Comet had learned from them long ago that cozy was only as real as those next to you. Still in armor, Comet landed on the balcony outside their room and peered inside. His parents, Mangrove and Sun Storm, were busy doing various things. His mother was reading a book and his dad seemed to be cleaning up the room, particularly when he pulled up a blanket. Comet felt dread as he reached up and tapped on the door, getting their attention. His mother gave a huge gasp and ran over to the door, throwing it wide open.
"Comet, is that you?!" she asked in her usual gleeful tone. Comet managed a small smile and nodded before his mother wrapped him in a huge hug.
While she tried to make the armor fit even more snugly with some unimaginable amount of strength, Sun Storm walked up with a proud smile on his face.
"Hello Comet. I must say, that armor looks splendid on you," he said, happiness weaved into his voice. Comet offered another weak smile and when his mom let go, the smile instantly vanished.
"Sweetie, what's wrong?" his mother asked, her mom sense going off. Something was clearly upsetting her pride and joy and she hoped it wasn't what she thought it was.
Comet gave a large sigh before starting. "Did you two tell Angel about Nova?" Comet asked, confirming his mother's fears. The proud smile on Sun's face dropped like a rock and his mother took an interest in the floor. Neither one responded and Comet knew why.
"I thought we'd agreed I would be the one to tell anypony about Nova when I was ready," he said, feeling like he had to control his emotions again, though he felt empty inside.
"Son, we were only doing what we thought necessary," Sun said with no hint of regret in his voice.
Comet wanted to be angry with them for betraying his trust, he really did. Instead, all he felt was the hurt of his actions and the sadness of making Angel cry. Comet dropped his gaze like his mother and somehow found the power to continue.
"I was going to tell her eventually," he said bleakly.
"We all know that's a lie, son," Sun Storm replied firmly.
It irked Comet that he said that, but he let it drop. He wasn't here to argue with his parents.
"Look, I came to say something to both of you," Comet said through gritted teeth, "I wanted to say..." Comet clenched his jaw, knowing this would bring up raw memories better left forgotten.
He took a deep breath and returned his gaze to his parents, who were both staring at him with slightly wide eyes. To both of them, they were hoping he would say he was finally letting Nova go. They had secretly hoped for years Comet would one day come and tell them he was ready to move on.
"I just wanted to say... I'm sorry," Comet forced out, "I'm sorry for what I've said to you in the past. I'm also sorry... about Nova."
His mother gasped and held a hoof up to her mouth while Sun felt he had just been punched in the stomach. The moment they've wanted to have happen for years was finally happening. The first thing Comet registered was the sudden impact of two bodies against his. The second was the pressure they were exerting on the armor he wore. Both Sun and Mangrove held Comet into a powerful hug, one that almost brought Comet back to tears. The three ponies stood in silence and hugged each other, Mangrove silently teared up and Sun felt more pride in his son than seeing him in his official armor.
"I'm really sorry about her. I'm sorry I was okay with her leaving," Comet gasped, trying to hold himself together.
The two ponies let him go and Comet hung his head.
"Sweetie, you had nothing to do with her death," Mangrove started before Sun chimed in.
"Comet, look at me," he said in his assertive voice. Comet weakly raised his head and Sun put a hoof on his shoulder.
"It's not your fault. Nothing was going to prevent her from dying."
Comet snorted and Sun narrowed his eyes and continued, "Son, listen to me. It wasn't your fault. She died of an irregular heartbeat, and nothing you could've done differently, no medicine you could've given her, no amount of care was going to prevent that."
"Sweetie, she died smiling," Mangrove chirped up, "Nova was happy to see you being yourself. She loved you as much as you loved her, and nothing made her happier than seeing you smile."
Comet grunted and was about to give a rebuttal, but the rehearsed words got stuck in his throat at what his father said next.
"What could you have done to keep her heart from stopping? You didn't know CPR then and there was no heart medication for her. Comet, the doctors looked me and your mother in the eye and told us even if she was in their care, she would've died regardless."
Comet grimaced and knew he was right. He was only a colt when she died and only knew what she and his parents had taught him about caring for her. Still, the memory stung.
"I know, but if she hadn't gone with me, if she hadn't exerted herself..." he spluttered, trying to stop himself from crying like a foal.
This time, it was Mangrove who put a hoof on his back and spoke.
"Comet... Nothing would have changed. Whether she had left the house or not, It was just her time. Please Comet, take solace in the fact that she passed on happy because her loving little brother was there, being himself, and having fun. She wouldn't have wanted it any other way."
Comet ground his teeth, almost unable to stop from bawling until his mother said, "Comet, it was painless for her. The doctors said that all it felt like to her was a nap. She wasn't in pain with you."
That struck deep into Comet's chest and he couldn't hold back anymore. He felt he had caused Nova pain before she died, that if she would've stayed home, she might still be here, but his parents were right. Nova did die with a smile and she didn't act any different when he was with her.
"Comet," his father spoke, "I know no matter what we say, we weren't there when it happened. It will always sting when you think of her, especially those final moments, but you need to move on. It will hurt, but Nova's been dead for years and she would be so upset if she saw you like this."
"I know..." Comet said weakly.
"Why don't you just try talking to Angel?" Mangrove offered, "You looked so happy with her and she told us about the date."
Comet's throat tightened and he said, "She... I exploded at her. When she mentioned Nova, I just, I couldn't stop myself."
Mangrove and Sun Storm looked at their broken down son as he grimaced, evidently remembering the terrible way he had reacted to his new marefriend. Sun drooped his ears and tried to think of something to say, but it was Mangrove who spoke up after the brief silence.
"Comet, dear, if she's anything like we think she is, she won't stay upset for long. Apologize to her tomorrow and I'm sure she'll understand," Mangrove said in her best motherly voice.
At the castle, two guard unicorns stood still, almost as rigid as statues. As soon as one yawned, two bolts of green magic struck the two and knocked them unconscious. A set of black shiny ponies quickly ran up to them and shimmered before becoming matching gray unicorns. Two other guards walked by and took the two unconscious ponies away, leaving the changed guards to stand post.
After taking a long and winding journey avoiding any and all ponies, the two carrying the knocked out guards reached the armory. They walked up to a large wooden door and knocked twice before the big burly armorer opened it. He looked down at the odd sight and nodded quickly, moving aside to let the ponies enter. The door hidden by the rack of tools rattled open and revealed several ponies sitting in a trance while two changelings walked around, inspecting them. The guards dumped the ponies and the changelings hissed.
"Why don't you two do this while we prance around in armor?" one complained.
A guard glared at it and said, "You lost at drawing straws. You know the ancient code of ours."
"You made that up!" one shouted angrily.
"No, Queen Chrysalis made that official," the pony remarked before the door closed.
"Did she really?" the other guard pony replied.
"If you act that thick, we might think you're a pony too," the first guard replied. |
The Golden Armor | Remaking Friends | Angel woke the next day unusually tired. It took her an extra fifteen minutes to get ready for the day, something the corporal of the bunks didn't like. As she trudged down to the mess hall to grab a piece of fruit, she couldn't help thinking about yesterday and how everything went wrong. She had gotten Comet more angry than she could remember, all because of her lack of tact. Of course just barging in and confronting him about his beloved sister wasn't a good idea, especially when Comet cared for her as much as he did. She gave a large sigh and kept her head down. Her eyes were still puffy from yesterday when she sobbed into her pillow, fully believing Comet now hated her. Valyrie had brought Philomena to the bunks, something she got yelled at for as well, to attempt to comfort Angel, but Angel was too upset.
When she was crying, it felt like tons of little needles were being stabbed into her chest. It hurt her to remember, but her parents used to fight like how she and Comet just did all the time. It would usually start with her mother wanting to save the bat pony race and her father arguing against it, saying she had a family to take care of.
"You can't just run off and abandon your family!" her father shouted from down the hall. Angel felt her heart freeze for a second as she played with a couple crayons and a piece of paper.
"I'm not going to run off!" her mother replied, "I'm going to help save our species!"
"We don't need saving, dear! Our colony is doing fine."
"Then why are we on the brink of zero increase? We need help and I can do that."
"Sweetie..." her father pleaded.
"You know this! Why are you arguing with me?!" her mother shouted angrily.
"Because of what you want to do! I don't care if you can help, you're my wife and Angel's mother! You can't just leave us!"
"You know well enough I should. Angel also needs to know why I have to leave because she will be needed for the same reason!"
"No," her father said in a deadly serious voice.
"What?"
"No, I will not let that future befall our daughter,"
"And why not? It's a glorious future for her!"
"To be the colony's whore?!" her father shouted.
"No, to be the mother of the next generation of bat ponies!" her mother yelled.
Angel wasn't the smartest pony, but even as a filly, she learned her mother was one of the last fertile mares of her colony. Bat ponies, after years of breeding in their own colonies, had developed a genetic disorder where most mares could not successfully have foals. It usually took a regular mare nine failed attempts to have one successful pregnancy. A lot of bat pony foals were miscarried, causing their population to drop to an insanely low number. Most fertile mares, meaning those who could have foals on one try, were often kept in the colonies to breed new life and were heavily guarded. By a stroke of luck, Angel's mother was one such mare and Angel was suspected of carrying her mother's fertility gene.
Angel snapped back from the mental replay of her parents argument and past to find herself holding up the line in the mess hall. She grinned awkwardly at the chef, picked up an orange and darted off. Angel staved off the urge to cry again as she approached Philomena's room, but with her head down, she didn't realize there was a pony in front of her. She ran headfirst into a piece of gold and her head made a loud ringing noise as the pony shouted, "Whoa!" and the two toppled over. Angel's head hurt as she lay on top of the other pony, so she rubbed her forehead. "Hey," came the other pony, "Watch where you're... Angel!"
Angel opened one eye as the pony twisted on the ground beneath her to see a white pegasus stallion reach up and hug her. "C-Comet?" she asked nervously and the hug got marginally tighter.
"Well, duh," he responded, "Who else would just randomly hug another pony who tried to run them over?" His tone was unusually happy and sweet, something Angel was not used to. She didn't really hug him back, so she just kinda stood there, feeling awkward until he let her go, smiling widely at the sullen bat pony. "Hey, what's wrong?" he then asked, his voice losing the happy tone.
Angel looked away, ashamed, and mumbled, "I'm sorry."
"What?" Comet replied.
Angel turned her head back to him, eyes red and puffy, and said, "I'm sorry Comet! I'm sorry about talking about Nova!" Angel's head dropped and a couple small sobs escaped her and Comet felt a horrible rotting sensation in his chest. He took his mother's advice and was cheerful to her, but apparently Angel didn't let it go.
Steeling his will, he said gently, "Angel. Hey, Angel."
"I'm sorry, Comet." Angel spoke, ignoring his words, "I didn't mean to make you so upset. I just, I didn't know how to tell you, so I just blurted it out. I know you probably hate me and you don't want to date me, but can we still be friends? I just, I can't..." Angel trailed off, sniffling and gritting her teeth. She was sure he was going to yell at her again, just like her first coltfriend back in the caves she lived in. Instead, a calm and gentle hoof reached out and placed itself on her own. Angel looked at it and still sniffled. However, she managed to follow the white hoof back to the white chest, neck and head of Comet.
He smiled gently to her, trying his best to keep himself composed as he spoke to Angel. "Angel, I'm the one who's sorry," he spoke as gently as he could, "I overreacted to you and I'm sorry for that. I treated you like a jerk and I feel horribly about it." He reached up with his other hoof and gently wiped away a couple tears off Angel's face, just like he used to with Nova and sighed. "You know," he stated tactlessly, "The sad look isn't one for you."
Angel managed a chuckle out of that, halting the flow of tears and Comet gently pressed his forehead against hers. "Angel," he said with a smile, "I promise you, I won't get angry at you like that ever again. I've always been touchy about Nova, but you are not just some other pony I can get angry to. If you want, I would definitely like to keep dating you." Angel's big golden eyes flicked up and met Comet magically blue eyes and they just sat there, staring at each other. Finally, Angel broke the silence and said, "Yeah, I would like that."
A huge grin broke out on Comet's face and he gave her another hug and this time Angel returned it. The sad and lonely pegasus and the loud and obnoxious bat pony just sat there, feeling happy that the little spat hadn't ruined their relationship. As Comet sat there, he could almost see Nova smiling at him. The odd pair didn't end the hug until a set of guards rounded down the hallway and the two bolted off for their post, happy to be friends again. Inside Philomena's room, they took up their usual posts as Valyrie stood there, clearly unhappy with their tardiness. As punishment, Comet agreed to clean the room while Angel played with Philomena. The trio of females resumed their assault on the only stallion in the room, playing pranks and passing the day, only resuming their stoic looks when a corporal popped his head in to investigate the noises.
Later that day, after the shift had ended, the trio sat in the guard relaxation room, playing a game Comet dominated the gryffon and bat pony at. "Luna to E4," he stated proudly as he moved his minuature black figurine of Luna to a white sculpt of Celestia. Angel's jaw dropped as she lost yet again and put on her pouty face.
"This game is too hard to play!" she complained, "I liked checkers better."
"Yeah," Valyrie chimed in while she was playing with a deck of cards, "I want to play Prodder. This game is boring."
"Aw, come on!" Comet whined, "I played both of your games and got my flank kicked. You both can stand losing a bit in chess."
"It's more fun when you lose," Angel piped up, causing Comet's face to redden as Valyrie laughed.
"That isn't very nice," Comet stated flatly. Angel just sat back on her hind legs and shrugged, tilting her head slightly to the side. "Whatever," Comet grumbled, "I'll get the checkers." Angel squealed happily and reached across the table to hug him, knocking over a lot of the pieces at the same time. Valyrie laughed as Angel squeezed Comet's neck to the point she began to choke him and Comet tried to force her hooves from his neck. Flustered, he went off and got the checkers game while Angel and Valyrie cleaned up the chess pieces.
A long while afterwards, the trio sat around the table, each clearly tired but staring at each other suspiciously. They each held a set of five cards and a deadly silence permeated the air until Valyrie said, "You both ready?" Angel and Comet nodded and at once, all three slammed their cards on the table. Under Angel's dark hoof sat three nines, a Princess Celestia and an ace. Comet's hoof was two fours, two princes and a seven while Valyrie's claw was a six, three Princess Lunas and an eight. "I win again!" Valyrie shouted happily as Comet's face soured. Angel narrowed her golden eyes at her, but smiled.
"I gave you that win," she stated smugly and Valyrie clicked her beak.
"Then you shouldn't have let me win," she retorted and Angel's smile melted into a frown. |
The Golden Armor | Quality Time | To Valyrie, time seemed to have little meaning in Canterlot castle, particularly when she was with Comet and Angel. While she was sent to Equestria as punishment, it felt more like a vacation. Days of repetitively guarding the princess's prized phoenix, Philomena, just blurred together. It wasn't a job, it was fun. Angel made everything lively and entertaining, putting all her effort into making every other being happy. Comet, who had considerably warmed up to her, tried to maintain his stoic and cool demeanor while around them, which often saved the day when a superior officer came around.
Still, life wasn't all about work. Free time for the guards meant hang out time for the trio, often going into town together, playing card and board games, playing with Philomena or just a day of sleeping. As time passed, the other guards took notice of the trio and often made snide comments behind their backs, particularly about Comet. "Did'ja see that guy with the gryffon and bat pony? Can't keep his fetishes private, huh?" was a popular backbiting remark.
Being a gryffon and used to cruel remarks, Valyrie had easily shrugged off any comment made about them. Of course the other guards were jealous of Comet who got to hang out with a beautiful bat pony and a voluptuous gryffon like her every day. However, Angel often had a hard time dealing with the bat pony remarks she got, particularly those about foals. Comet merely shrugged off rumors, opting for his trademark silent mood, but secretly he did get upset about them, especially when one rumor went around that the only reason he was around Angel and Valyrie was because he couldn't satisfy a regular pony mare. That rumor quickly got quelled by Valyrie, saying if he could keep her happy, then he was four times better than the average pony.
Still, rumors eventually faded and life just kept moving onward. Soon, the warm sun began to set earlier and the temperature began to drop. Talk about the big event of the year, the Grand Galloping Gala, began to circulate in the castle around the same time. Almost every pony, including Angel, was bubbling over with excitement. For days, Angel went on about how it was the biggest party of the year, how she would polish her armor for the event and who she would meet. Comet just kept on being a guard, quiet and stony, but offered insight to Valyrie since she had never heard of the event.
As the weeks passed, Angel slowly became more of a night guard than a regular guard. She was sent out more often on escort assignments, posted at stations that lasted later into the night and pretty soon, she was even taken off Philomena guard duty, leaving just Comet and Valyrie to watch the tempermental phoenix. In her personal opinion, Valyrie absolutely loved spending time with Comet alone. Many conversations were had to pass the time, often about how gryphon culture differed from pony culture.
"So yeah," Valyrie said nonchalantly, "Most gryphons aren't considered adults until then."
Comet shifted uncomfortably as he contemplated what Valyrie had told him. Apparently, gryphons were a very barbaric group if they needed to fight a manticore to become a full adult. Comet couldn't imagine having to wrestle a manticore, much less hope to win, to simply become an adult in the culture. "Well, uh," Comet began unsurely, "Most stallions here are considered adults when they get a job."
Valyrie chuckled at that and smiled. "Oh yeah, it's also difficult for a gryffon like me to become an adult too."
"What do you mean by that?" Comet asked.
"Well, for a gryffon," she began.
"No, no. I mean weren't you just talking about how gryphons become adults?"
Valyrie tilted her head quizzically and said, "What do you mean?"
"You said 'that's how gryphons become adults.' Aren't you a gryphon too?" Comet inquired, scrunching his face up.
"Of course I'm a gryffon..." Valyrie worded slowly. Comet gave a frustrated groan and turned away, upset at the lack of communication. Valyrie shook her head in confusion, but Comet tried one last time.
"You said gryphons had to wrestle manticores to be adults, but then you said gryphons like you became adults another way. Aren't you a gryphon?" Comet asked, hoping what he said made sense.
Upon hearing that, Valyrie's mind clicked into place and she chuckled. "Oh, I get it! Yeah, I'm a gryffon, but not that kind. You see, male gryphons wrestle manticores. Female gryffons like me become adults another way."
"How's that?" Comet inquired.
Valyrie shot him a seductive look and cooed, "We mate," and Comet's eyes shrank at that. The gryffon busted out laughing and said, "No. Us females become adults when we reach the age and size to bear young gryphons."
"Oh, uh, that's good," he replied in a confused tone.
The rest of the day was spent avoiding another such conversation, centering mostly around what gryphon society was. According to Valyrie, male gryphons were drafted into military service once they had proved themselves adults and spent the next six years guarding against Wyvern and Ursa attacks, patrolling the borders of the Gryphon Kingdom or quelling worker uprisings. The king of the gryphons, Lord Bladebeak, ruled with an iron talon, commanding respect among the gryphons and even being rumored to have intimidated Princess Celestia during a border dispute when the Crystal Empire returned.
Comet found it fascinating to hear about a society not dominated by mares, but admitted to himself he couldn't thrive in such a place. At least, not at first. The day passed quickly and as the sun set, so did the temperature. It would start snowing soon and in the rec room for the guards, a magical fire had been lit. It produced heat, but required no wood and gave off no smoke. Valyrie marveled at the fire since gryphons forsook magic long ago in favor of a code of honor, Gryphido, which didn't allow for the trickery of magic, another tidbit she told Comet while examining the fire.
After the dinner of roasted oats and peeled carrots, Comet sat contentedly on a couch positioned near the fire. The other guard ponies had all gone off to bed and the room was silent. He had hoped to see Angel at some point tonight, but it was quickly becoming apparent to Comet that his bat pony wasn't going to be able to make it. He sighed heavily, wondering what she was doing when a voice broke the silence.
"Hey. Comet?" came a familiar voice. He spun his head around and saw a very timid looking set of gold eyes staring at him along with a glowing plume of white feathers.
"Oh, hey Valyrie," he replied, "I thought you'd be asleep."
"It's too cold in the bunk room, so I got up to get myself warm," she explained, "What're you here for?"
"Well," Comet started unsurely, "I was here to meet Angel, but she's probably not coming."
A tense silence permeated the room as Valyrie's gaze dropped to the floor and Comet watched her. Of course he knew she liked him, especially after that kiss they shared. He was wary of her, mostly because he was committed to Angel, but a small part of him wanted her to sit by him. Without even realizing he was saying it, he asked "Hey, you want to come and join me?"
Valyrie's head perked up and her beak kind of moved to the side, but she slowly started walking over to him. Suddenly very nervous, Comet scooted over to make room for Valyrie and she climbed up into the seat next to him. She sighed contentedly at the warmth that greeted her claws and paws, causing Comet to give a smile. The two sat there in peaceful silence, just enjoying the fire when Comet noticed Valyrie was shivering slightly.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Oh, I'm fine. It's just a small breeze," Valyrie responded with a smile.
"Oh," Comet replied, "Here, switch seats with me. There's no breeze over here." Valyrie protested at first, but another cold breeze washed over her and she reluctantly moved. When she took Comet's seat, she noticed how warm it was and thanked him for it. The orange pegasus smiled gently and the two sat in silence again. Nervous, but hoping to get somewhere with him, Valyrie slowly moved over to him. When she was close enough, she could feel the heat radiating from him and sighed. He would be a good pony to snuggle up with on a cold day.
Comet noticed her sigh and passed a quick glance over to her. The gryffon yawned widely and Comet extended a wing over her, wrapping her with it. Valyrie flinched at the initial touch, but stopped herself and enjoyed just being next to him. Soon, she had fallen asleep on the couch, leaning against Comet and dreaming about a warm color orange. Comet stayed awake as long as he could, trying to keep her comfortable before eventually falling asleep himself in her light and airy feathers. |
The Golden Armor | Monsters and Gryffons | Angel gave a yawn as she stood up on the tower's balcony. Her newest assignments were bummers, standing all alone up on a wall or a tower where nopony went. I mean, who would want to sneak in the Royal Launderers tower anyway? Still, Angel was a guard and as such, it was her duty to guard stuff. By now, Angel was used to being awake during the day, so her readjustment to staying awake at night hadn't been easy. She was twice found asleep by another guard, thankfully not a superior officer, and really missed her friends. Her big golden eyes lazily scanned the sky above her, stopping at the big bright full moon. Angel loved looking at it and often wondered what was up there. She personally thought it was cheese because Luna had to have something to eat while she was banished.
A creak behind her caught her attention and a bright flash of green just barely missed her. Angel yelped loudly and spun to attack whoever it was, giving a loud snarl. The pony behind her, a dark blue one with a white and blue striped mane, backed away in fear and soon was the victim of a merciless bat pony beat down. Angel simply reacted as she brought a hoof up and under his chin, then landing a powerful kick to his belly as he rose from her first blow. The pony hit the wall and his image shimmered before melting away to reveal a pony almost as large as Angel, colored midnight black and full of holes. A sickly colored green mane wafted around a large crooked horn while a small buzzing could be heard from the translucent wings on its back.
Angel's face melted into horror as she saw what she was fighting and tried to jump away before a sharp pain caught her tail. She was pulled backwards and hit her head against the tower wall, causing her to get dizzy. The last thing Angel remembered seeing was a large set of green eyes boring down on her before she blacked out.
The changeling stood over the unconscious bat pony, silently cursing to herself about missing with her first spell. Her wickedly glowing green eyes scanned the pony who had gotten in two cheap shots on her and she half considered throwing her off the tower.
"Niccccce one, Gorgon," came a slightly hissing voice and the changelings head whipped up to see three Royal Guard standing in the doorway, each snickering.
The larger changeling bared her teeth angrily and hissed in reply, "Assss your future queen, I'm commanding you all to sssssshut up!" The guards faces immediately hardened and their snickers faded away. Gorgon hated it when her own charge of workers treated her like one of them. She was their leader and as such, demanded the respect of one. She wasn't a changeling princess just for show and she vigorously reinforced that to this group.
"Sssso, what are you going to do about thisssss?" one asked and Gorgon returned her gaze to the unconscious bat pony.
"Do we need to imperssssonate anypony elssse?" she queried.
"No, but that one issss ssssuppossssed to be at the Gala," a reply came.
Gorgon studied the bat pony and wondered what to do with it. She could just always leave her here and have her believe this was a dream. As a race born in darkness, changelings had a wide variety of ways to disappear. One was altering memories to make the pony believe meeting them was a dream or hallucination, another was eradicating the memory entirely. Being the future queen of the hive and Chrysalis's own daughter, Gorgon knew how to do both. However, her natural ability to sense the changeling's main food source, love, was perking up at the bat pony. Narrowing her green eyes, Gorgon inched closer to Angel, sniffing at her. Silently, she weaved a spell to look into Angel's affections to locate the source of this emotion.
Since it was the first spell she learned, Gorgon easily peered into the bat pony's emotions, trying to locate the source of love. Every changeling had to learn this spell and it was how they often changed into a specific pony without knowing anything about them. It was also how Chrysalis jumped into Princess Cadance's role without anypony knowing since she met Shining Armor first. Gorgon suddenly felt the surge of love within the bat pony and saw the image of a Royal guard who had an orange pelt, brown mane and vivid red eyes. She even saw the pony's cutie mark, an exploding rock with a white tail, and grinned to herself. While the changelings were feeding on the other Royal Guards who were entranced down in the armory, Gorgon herself was rather hungry.
"Get out of here," she whispered to her subjects, who looked at each other curiously. "I know what to do with this one," she continued, grinning wickedly at the sleeping bat pony.
Comet woke up to a pretty violent sneeze. He jerked back, wide awake and looked around. Outside of his vision, he felt something rather large shift next to him and slowly looked down to see Valyrie's white plume of feathers shift as they wiggled closer to Comet's chest. A sense of horror crawled up his chest, as well as one of caring. He had slept next to Valyrie all night and while it horrified him Angel might've seen this, he felt very refreshed, like one does after a very good sleep. He sat there, unsure of what to do before looking up at the clock. Well, it was more of a magically charged sundial than a clock. The sundial reacted to the rising of the sun since Celestia didn't raise the sun at exactly the same time everyday. It was very hard to tell time in Equestria, but some genious unicorn thought of a sundial that reacted to the sun's presence to keep time.
As of now, the dial read about nine in the morning. Comet silently thanked Celestia it was his day off.
After slowly waking up Valyrie, who protested by burying her face farther into Comet's side and nipping at him playfully when he moved, the two made their way down to the mess hall to get breakfast. It was a rather nice day outside to them, but that was before they learned the windows were magically made to let sunlight shine through the stained glass. In reality, it was a gray and cold day outside, one that sounded the alarm of snowfall. However, this didn't bother Valyrie since the Gryphon Kingdom was always cold with its location north of Equestria. After the two finished breakfast, they went to check on Angel but found her sound asleep with a nurse tending to a large bump on her head. Comet was visibly worried, but the nurse assured him she would be alright.
"It's actually quite common for pony's who are not issued helmets," she said as Comet stood over the sleeping bat pony, "Now go on. I will tell her you came by." As the pegasus and gryffon walked away, neither one noticed the nurse's eyes flare bright green.
"So, what'cha wanna do today?" Valyrie asked.
"Well," Comet scratched his head unsurely, "I was going to take Angel on another date, but I guess that won't happen. I even rented a boat to go out on the lake."
Valyrie stood there and felt an evil smile perk at the sides of her beak. "You know, you and I haven't just hung out," Comet's head turned to look at her and she pressed on, hoping he wasn't going to get mad at her. "I have the day off too. Why don't we just go out and relax? Me and you and nopony else."
Comet had the creeping suspicion Valyrie wanted to monopolize of Angel's absence, but she didn't hint at any ulterior motive. He contemplated the idea of just he and Valyrie spending the day together before coming up with an answer.
"Uh, sure. That sounds fun," he said with a nice, but awkward grin.
Several hours later, Comet and Valyrie were walking down a street in Canterlot, smiling and talking to each other. The day, even though it was gray and started to snow, was going surprisingly well for them. Comet wore a new scarf Valyrie insisted he buy to keep himself warm, a rather plain brown colored one to match his mane and tail. After acquiring the scarf, the two had gone to the train station and sat on a bench, watching the random ponies walk by. There the duo just talked about everything, including why Valyrie was here instead of the Gryphon Kingdom. She explained that since her father was a high ranking soldier in the kingdom, she was a prized gryffon since she probably carried future great warriors. She also told of how one gryphon got stone drunk one night before the Picking, the ceremony where gryphons competed for gryffons, and tried to force her into an alleyway. Valyrie, according to her own words, beat the daylights out of him so bad, he had to be sent to the hospital.
What happened next was a series of honor and pride based mishaps. The gryphon's father claimed that unless Valyrie's father either banish her or repay his family's lost honor, there would be a feud between the two families. Valyrie's father was very unhappy with her, but in no way got violent. Instead, after hearing Valyrie's side of the story, he made the claim the gryphon's own son had shamed the family by going outside tradition. Thus began a war of words that got heated to the point where the lord of the village, a gryphon by the name of Hookclaw, settled the dispute personally. Valyrie wouldn't be banished, but she would be taught her place by being whipped publicly. The gryphon's son had to live with the fact he had dishonored himself and his family and suffer the consequences thereof.
After the proclamation, Valyrie's father consulted with Hookclaw personally and, after much convincing and gifts, he finally agreed to let Valyrie not be whipped. Instead, she would suffer only a partial banishment to Equestria where she would learn what would happen should she undermine the gryphon's authority again.
Comet simply sat there, stunned at what he had heard. Apparently gryphons were more barbaric than he had initially thought. Comet, in response, spent the rest of the day doing whatever Valyrie wanted to try and make her punishment leass of one. The two ate in a fancy restaurant since the Gryphon Kingdom solely had taverns, they went to an art museum since gryphons felt weapons on a wall were art and so on. Eventually, the sun sank below the horizon and Comet, along with Valyrie, sat on the roof of a building, watching the sky change colors.
Comet sat still, marveling at the colors while Valyrie had a hard time concentrating on anything but him. She hadn't told him about one thing from her homeland, the rumor of Equestria being the safe haven for any gryffon like herself. Now that she was here with Comet, it felt like a dream. She had come to Equestria without cutting ties to her family, met a wonderful and caring stallion and almost didn't want to return home. Comet, although not a gryphon, certainly had the build of a full adult stallion, muscular and strong while gentle and caring at the same time. He was handsome to Valyrie in a way no other gryphon could match with his fiery red eyes, brown mane that moved slightly in the wind and a smile that she never wanted to leave his face.
Comet looked over to Valyrie, who had a dreamy look on her face and chuckled. "So, I take it you enjoyed today?" he asked.
Valyrie answered by pressing her break to his mouth yet again. Comet sat there, wondering just what he was going to do. He had a cute and fun bat pony on one hoof, but now he felt a strange force vying for control of his feelings. |
The Golden Armor | A Pegasus and a Changeling | Comet sat alone in the rec room after coming back to the castle with Valyrie. He wasn't sure what to think as he stared at the magical fire. Images and sounds of both Angel and Valyrie bounced around in his mind in an unorganized mess. Little bits of previous conversations he had with both repeated endlessly in his mind and he felt his face tighten into a scowl. He knew the inevitable decision would happen soon, the one where he had to choose between Angel and Valyrie. As he thought about it, Comet's mind gave no forgiveness, showing him both the absolute worst reactions from either. If he wanted Angel, Valyrie would probably be distraught enough to hurt herself, or worse. If he chose Valyrie, well, Angel was another guard and would thrash him to within a couple inches of death, all while making him feel like he deserved it.
Comet eventually suppressed the thoughts concerning the mare and gryffon's reactions, knowing he first had to decide who he liked. He had known Angel longer and had even taken her on a couple dates. She was adorable to the point of almost too cute, was his friend and made him feel happy around her. Valyrie had a bit of an exotic and familiar feel to her. She was a gryffon, but her personality felt like she needed somepony to help her stabilize her life. She was also his friend, always wanted to spend time around him and just took on a different kind of persona, one of hope, when she was happy. Frustrated the answer didn't come to him, Comet buried his eyes into his hoof, wondering how he had allowed himself get into this mess.
"Hey there, Comet," came a voice from behind him. Comet spun his head to see a blue pony standing there who had a striped white and blue mane.
"Oh, hey Paradox," he responded, "What are you up to?"
Paradox sighed before replying. "Well, I'm here to relax. This is the rec room, isn't it?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Good, now it's pretty cold outside. You got some room over by that fire?" Comet nodded a reply and moved over on the couch, making room. Paradox walked over and planted himself next to Comet, sighing at the wonderful warmth. The two sat in silence, Paradox staring at the fire and Comet looking down at his hooves, still hung up about Angel and Valyrie. Paradox finally looked over to him and said, "Not very chatty today without your friends?"
Comet shook his head and replied, "No, just... kinda trying to figure something out."
Paradox grinned and said, "Figuring out stuff is my specialty. What's up?"
Comet avoided the topic, trying to dismiss it as a personal problem, but Paradox insisted on hearing it. Finally, Comet gave in and told him about how he felt for Angel and Valyrie and how he didn't want to hurt either one by choosing. Paradox listened quietly as Comet rambled on about both, stating all these things he thought that made each of them wonderful and how hard it was to pick one.
"Here's a thought, why not have both?" Paradox offered to the orange pegasus. Comet narrowed his eyes at the blue pony and ground his teeth at the thought.
"You must think I have a death wish or something," he replied tersely, "I would love to keep both, but even I know they wouldn't share. Plus, it wouldn't be fair to one of them if I did."
"Hey, you can always ask," Paradox said, his mouth hinting at a grin. "I'm sure they will agree."
"Then I evidently didn't explain it to you well enough," Comet grumbled before stepping off the couch and stretching his wings. "I'm off to bed. Goodnight Paradox." As he approached the door, it somehow swung shut just before he walked out of it. He jumped back, startled, and heard the lock click into place. "Hey! What the buck?" Comet yelped.
"I said, you just had to ask," came Paradox.
Angry now, Comet spun to face Paradox and yelled, "They both are way too special to do that! Now stop trying to convince me otherwise!"
"Oh, but having both isss sssso much more fun!" came Paradox again, but his voice had changed as he spoke. It went from Paradox to a weird hissing or buzzing kind of noise and Comet locked himself in place as Paradox got down, his eyes now glowing a sickly green. He turned to Comet and gave a wicked grin before saying the most creepy thing Comet could imagine. "I can get you both. All you have to do issss assssk!" After saying that and thoroughly creeping Comet out, Paradox erupted into green fire and Comet yelped.
The fire burned around him quite brightly and soon exploded outwards, along with a pulse of air that nearly knocked Comet over. Returning his attention back to Paradox, Comet suddenly realized Paradox wasn't here. Instead, a large black pony stood in his spot. The pelt of the pony was a shiny pitch black and was full of holes. Not missing patches, but actual holes that Comet could see through. A long and wispy bluish green mane hung down from the pony's head and neck, giving it an almost wet appearance. Splitting the mane at the dead center was an abnormally long and crooked horn that reminded Comet more of a dagger than a unicorn's horn. Finally, Comet stared in horror as two bright green glowing eyes opened and stared directly at him.
"You see?" came that weird hissing voice, "I can be whoever you want."
Comet found his voice at that and yelled, "Changeling!" before taking up a defensive stance. The changeling laughed at him and he frantically scanned the room for anything he could use as a weapon.
"How observant," mused the changeling, "No wonder you can't decide."
"Shut up, changeling!" Comet spat back, now very scared. Why in the world did he tell it about his mare troubles?!
"Oh, fiesty," it replied, grinning evily at him, "I like that."
Comet locked eyes with the changeling and gave his best scowl as he slowly circled it. The changeling lowered itself, grinning the whole time, and followed his movements exactly. Comet real objective wasn't to fight, but to get out of the room. Whoever this changeling was, it was bigger than the ones he had heard about. In fact, it looked almost as big as the one who attacked Celestia, at least, according to what he heard. Comet wasn't sure since there were no pictures or real ones to go off of.
"Go on," it hissed at him, "Make your move."
Comet kept circling, wondering what to do. He wasn't a very fast flier, but he was agile. He stunk at hoof to hoof combat, but specialized at weapons, particularly a spear. It didn't really matter though, since the changeling shot a green bolt of magic at him. Comet nimbly dodged it by jumping straight up and over it, flapping his wings as hard as he could and preparing to tackle the changeling.
Long story short, he did.
In what he felt was the stupidest move of his life, Comet's front hooves wrapped around the changeling's neck, much to the changeling's surprise as well, and his shoulder collided with its face. The changeling fell backwards as Comet folded his wings and tried to press down with all his weight. He barely missed landing on its neck and the two rolled a couple times, Comet delivering a couple quick kicks while trying to pry himself from it. The changeling cursed in its buzzing language and tried to get its own hooves around Comet, but luckily he was just slightly too small for it. He wriggled himself free, but landed on his back as the changeling skidded to a halt.
Comet frantically tried to get to his hooves, but the changeling had landed on its own and charged him. As he righted himself onto his belly, a shiny black hoof just missed his right cheek. Reacting instinctively, Comet rolled to his left and frantically tried to get himself up. Another green bolt of magic barely missed him again and Comet tried to run before feeling a set of hooves wrap around his waist. An impressive weight forced him to the ground and as he struggled, he heard laughing.
"Wow, you are a live one," the changeling mused as Comet missed with two kicks, "No wonder thossssse two like you."
Something must've sparked for Comet, because he did the second stupidest thing he could've done. Instead of kicking blindly, he spun himself over and managed to free one rear leg. He saw the changeling's grin and buried his hoof in it. The changeling howled in pain, releasing Comet's other hoof and he scrambled back over, trying desperately to get away in the couple seconds he bought himself. The changeling's smug grin quickly became an irritated pout as it tried to grab him again, but this time missed.
Finally loose, Comet spread his wings and bee lined for the window on the far side of the room. The changeling cast a spell instinctively, unwilling to let her prey escape, and Comet impacted with the window. It refused to shatter due to the changeling's magic and Comet fell to the floor with a nearly crushed snout. He yelped in pain, but managed to avoid yet another green bolt. Comet ran as fast as he could, hoping to dodge the changeling's attacks and wound up getting the table where he and his friends played cards blown up. Figuring his best way to win was to subdue the changeling, Comet ducked yet another bolt and ran straight to the changeling, who in turn was whining about him not staying still. When he was close enough, Comet leaped up and for a second, locked eyes with the changeling who was rearing up in response.
Just reacting, Comet brought a rear hoof up and kicked the changeling in the chest as a black hoof connected to the side of his head. The changeling's eyes went wide and it gasped for air as Comet was knocked off balance and collided with the ground. His left eye hurt and so did the right side of his body, but Comet managed to try and run away as the changeling wheezed.
"Oh, no you don't!" It shouted angrily and a hoof wrapped around his right rear leg. The changeling was strong and pulled him back to it. Comet slid on his belly, utterly terrified as he spun over to kick at it again, but a series of black hooves pinned down each leg as they moved. Comet tried as hard as he could to move, but the changeling was heavy enough to keep him immobilized. Fearful, Comet gazed up as the changeling lowered its head, growling and glaring at him. Two big teeth like Angel's fangs protruded from its mouth and the scary green irises of its glowing eyes seemed to bore into his own.
"You're..." it snarled and panted at the same time, "Going to LOVE me!" Comet's eyes went horribly small as he tried to scream for help, but before he could, a green bolt of magic hit him squarely in the forehead and he passed out.
Outside, Gorgon finally released the stubborn orange pegasus and wheezed, trying desperately to get her breath back. The little piece of meat was strong, really strong to knock the wind out of her. Before him, only her mother was capable of doing that. Still, though, she had her prize. She could taste the emotions he felt for the bat pony and gryffon just from looking at him. Like a satisfied hunter, Gorgon finally slowed her breathing and stood over him again. The sweet and delicious emotions were just pouring out of him and she felt herself salivate. That pitiful amount she got from the entranced guards was nothing compared to this one pegasus and she slowly allowed herself to consume the emotions.
The changelings had an odd way of consuming the emotions out of ponies, which was through physical contact. Unless a pony willingly fed it to them through magic, something only unicorns could do, changelings had to seduce ponies and siphon it out through acts ranging from holding hoofs to what happened behind closed doors. Only really strong changelings, like her mother, could siphon emotions from simple contact, something she used to her advantage with Shining Armor. Gorgon, however, was still a fairly young changeling queen and wasn't strong enough to just poke the pegasus and take the love from him. No, she had to actually be intimate with him, something she loathed.
Slowly, her head moved towards his and she licked her lips. The scent of his emotions got stronger as she neared him and she dove in. Her lips locked with his and a powerful surge of emotions raced into her. It was like a fire hose had just turned on full blast as she was assaulted by all sorts of emotions. Confusion, shame, terror and fear were in there, but they were overpowered by the sheer amount of other emotions. Joy, happiness, contentment and what she prized most, love, simply gushed from him and soon Gorgon had to pull away, gasping from the sudden surge. Her hive had been living off a pitiful amount of love for as long as she could remember, which is why her mother Chrysalis had lead an attempted coup of Canterlot, so the sudden amount of emotions she received overwhelmed her quickly. She looked back down at the unconscious orange pegasus and grinned wickedly.
"Oh, I'm definitely keeping you," she hissed with a small hint of eagerness in her voice.
In the bunk room, both Angel and Valyrie tossed and turned as they slept. Strange images of Comet entered their dreams, ones of him being attacked by a black mass and getting hurt. Angel woke up and bolted out of bed, straight to the stallions bunk room. A guard stood by the door and when she asked him to check on Comet, he went in and came out, saying he was just fine, sleeping away.
Angel returned to her bunk room, feeling slightly better but still upset by her dreams. Upon opening the door, she saw a familiar plume of white feathers bobbing up and down and Valyrie asked, "Bad dreams too?" |
The Golden Armor | Preparations | Shining Armor sat in his office, yet again struggling to get through the endless stream of reports. His mood was dour, but he pressed on. Apparently, recruitment had started to pick up again, so that was some good news. Other than that, he was buried in odd little reports. A changeling detector spell going off here but no changelings were detected, some guards got sick from eating spoiled cabbage, a couple were late to their posts and so on. Nothing made his job any easier, no matter which way he looked at it. His primary view was this was all to protect his dear wife and her aunts, but even then it just seemed like too much work.
A slight knock on his door caught his attention and he looked up. Nopony was scheduled to see him today, so he narrowed his eyes, suspicious. "Come in," he commanded in his best authoritative voice. While the door opened, he mentally went over three separate telekinesis spells and braced himself to fight off an intruder. While he was probably getting worked up over nothing, he still had the lingering thought in the back of his mind that Chrysalis would return eventually to either force him to love her or to stage another, and probably more successful, coup. When the door swung open to reveal an normal orange pegasus, Shining gave a brief sigh and relaxed. At least his changeling spell didn't go off.
"Oh, hello Comet," Shining said in a somewhat friendly voice, "This is a little unexpected. What do you need?"
Comet seemed to stand there for a second before walking in and saluting. "Shining Armor, sir, requesting permission to speak."
"Granted," Shining responded, "Now, what can I do you for?"
"Sir, I would like to volunteer to be a guard at the Grand Galloping Gala, sir," Comet stated plainly.
Shining tilted his head at Comet and responded, "But you're already supposed to guard Philomena that day. Why do you want to guard the gala as well?"
"Sir, I want to protect Princess Celestia, Luna and Cadance as well, sir," Comet replied tonelessly.
"Is there a reason you feel you have to guard them?" Shining asked suspiciously. It was odd for a normal soldier to come and request a specific assignment unless there was an ulterior motive. Requesting to help with the protection of all three princesses was especially odd. Shining darkly suspected Comet was here for one of two things; to either get close to the princesses or to prevent something from happening to them. With Shining already being on edge, this wasn't helping to relieve him.
"Sir, I wish to become better than a Private, so I would like the chance to prove myself," Comet stated nonchalantly.
Shining sat there in a discomforting silence before sighing. "Comet," he started with a tone of concern, "I've been a soldier for a while now. I've had to deal with a lot of threats directed towards the princesses and keep them quiet. I can tell something is upsetting you and I want you to tell me," He paused, narrowing his eyes at the orange pegasus, "What is the real reason you want to protect them?"
Comet stared directly forward, looking at a blank spot on the wall before blinking three times in quick succession. "Sir, I..." he started before stopping again and blinking twice. Shining leaned forward, slightly concerned before Comet spoke again with more force than before. "Sir, I believe there will be an attack at the Gala." Shining stood up in concern and before he could say anything, Comet cut him off. "I do not believe it top be a big enough threat to merit cancelling the Gala, sir. I believe all that is required to stop it is just a larger guard presence and I am here to volunteer myself to increase the guard's number."
Shining spent the next few minutes trying to pry more information out of Comet, but the orange pegasus remained stalwart in keeping the perpetrators identities in the dark.
"Comet, as your commanding officer and captain of the Guard, I demand you tell me who has made this threat. I promise you they will not retaliate against you or your loved ones," Shining almost shouted in his best commandeing voice, mimicking Princess Luna's Royal Canterlot voice.
Comet blinked six times quickly and finally spoke in a sheepish voice, "Sir, it is... a rebel group who wish to overthrow all three princesses, sir. I overheard them while I was on my way to my patrol. They have obtained disguises as Canterlot nobility and plan on entering the Gala that way."
After giving Shining some more information, Shining thanked Comet and assigned him to watch Princess Celestia. His job would be to help Celestia find the impersonators and to be her guardian all night. Should everything go well, he would be promoted to Celestia's personal corps, known as the Solar Guard. Comet thanked Shining and left his office as the captain teleported to Celestia's chambers to inform her of the threat.
Comet marched through the halls of the castle, gazing at nothing as he passed guard checkpoints, being cleared of being a changeling, before entering a room in a remote part of the castle not too far from Shining's chambers. Inside, several ponies lay unconscious while several clones of them scurried about, each emitting an odd green magic. At the far end of the room, an amorphous black blob swirled against the wall. Comet moved swiftly between the ponies and approached the black blob when a green glow surrounded his red eyes. Two large green ones glowing slightly less than Comet's opened on in the dark void and a toothy evil grin spread wide across the face pulling itself out of the shadow. A long mane of sickly bluish green fell all around the eyes as Gorgon pulled herself out of the amorphous black shape and reached out a hoof, lifting Comet's face to her.
"Ah, how did my newest and best actor do?" Gorgon cooed while her horn glowed a villainous green.
"I did exactly as you said, my princess," Comet replied tonelessly.
Gorgon grinned happily as she peered into Comet's eyes. Her newest toy was certainly turning out much better than expected. After the events of the rec room last night, Gorgon had sent a changeling to impersonate this newest acquisition so nopony, in particular his little fillyfriends, would get suspicious. While that happened, Gorgon had spent most of the night feeding off of Comet, satiating her gnawing hunger by impersonating that odd little bat pony guard she had beaten. While she had wanted to get her fill of some more primal desires, Comet had adamantly refused, stating he wasn't going to do that to a pony as special as Angel, whoever that was.
Now, Gorgon was impersonating Princess Luna as she stared at Comet. When a changeling had a pony under a spell, they didn't need to modify their exterior appearence, as Gorgon learned after trying to sap emotions from some particular ponies brought back to the hive. She had spent several days being attacked by her own kind until her mother embarrassed her by ripping away her disguise and publicly chastizing her. Chrysalis was always a terrible mother to Gorgon, being very cold and distant from her protoge, but she was under a lot of stress trying to keep the hive alive when there was almost no love to feed on.
At least, that's what Gorgon reasoned.
Gorgon's tongue hung out hungrily as she moved closer to Comet, wanting to eat again. She had never been so satiated before and her colt toy was still oozing affection for those two whelps Gorgon was going to enslave anyway. It was just instictual, but Gorgon's eyes flicked over to the rest of her group, which was staring at her orange pegasus and drooling as well. "Get back to work, whelps!" Gorgon snarled, "You have plenty of soldiers to feed on!" Returning her attention to Comet, a greedy and almost lustful look entered her eyes as she began siphoning off emotions from the Royal Guard again. He didn't protest since Gorgon had put him into a trance right before feeding. Her hunger and greed overwhelmed by the sheer rush of emotions, Gorgon gasped and panted after breaking away, savoring all the sweet flavors of his emotions. Squeeing slightly, Gorgon reached out and grabbed Comet, yanking him through the black portal before it collapsed.
The other changeling grumbled to themselves after that display. "Jussst like her mother," one commented.
In another tower, Angel the bat pony and Valyrie the gryffon sat around in the royal gardens, hoping to catch some wind of Comet. The stallion had disappeared this morning and Angel was getting worried. "Oh no," she moaned unhappily, "What if he got hurt? Or what if he's upset again?"
"Just calm down there," Valyrie said cooly, "We don't know anything yet. For all we know, he could be on a special assignment for Shining or out on a trip for Princess Luna." Secretly, she was worried as well. If Angel couldn't find him, that was usually because he was with herself. If both of them couldn't find him, something was wrong. Steeling herself from a worried squeak, Valyrie told herself the pegasus was fine. Angel, though, was sitting on the bench unhappily and mentioned about checking the castle again.
"I wanna check Philomena's tower again," she whined, "I wanna know where he is!"
From then until sunset, Comet was trapped in Gorgon's clutches. The changeling princess had discovered that the pegasus's relationship with the gryffon, a species her kind hardly ever imitated, was much more physical than the bat pony's. While he gushed life sustaining emotions from the sight of the bat pony, he allowed more physical contact with the gryffon and, since Gorgon was still young, she monopolized on the contact. She siphoned off his weaker, but still strong, affection for the gryffon by getting more heated with him until she was on top of him, preparing to get very intimate with him. They only stopped because Comet's affections for the bat pony prevented the session from going any farther. Still, since he so radically switched between the two females, Gorgon simply switched tactics and continued to feed on his feelings.
When she felt she was overstuffed with his affections for both mares, she put him to sleep and had one of her whelps take him to his room. Gorgon stayed on the floor, enyoting the sensation of having her hunger sated. If all of this went as planned, she would definitely keep that orange stallion as her own feeding vessel, that is, if her mom didn't take him. But still, if this attack worked, Gorgon would be queen, not her mother Chrysalis. By taking control of the city of Canterlot, Gorgon would have the food source on her side, giving the hive a better reason to follow her than her mother. She would also have pulled off a successful invasion, something her mother couldn't do. As Gorgon's mind raced with the ideas of usurping her mother, she smiled wickedly and realized she would also have the princess of love, along with her little stallion, under her control as well. Her mother had been stuck on losing that stallion more than failing the coup.
For once, Gorgon felt content. She had an endless food source, power, a swarm at her command and the ability to become queen. If this invasion was successful, which she would ensure it was, she would become the most powerful changeling queen since their race's first and only empire. It was a long story, but the first changelings had successfully attacked and took over another pony kingdom far away and the queen became almost as powerful as Celestia or Luna. The only way she fell was when the legendary first alicorn overthrew her.
'Still,' Gorgon thought to herself, 'That was mellenia ago. The only two who can stop me now are no more powerful than they were against my mother, and they will soon be under my control as well.' The grin spread wider across her face and a chuckle from deep within her chest started to escape her lips. Everything was going better than she had thought possible. |
The Golden Armor | At The Gala (part 1) | As the week drew closer to the biggest event of the year, the Grand Galloping Gala, Shining Armor got little sleep. He checked and rechecked placements of guards, spells to detect weapons of non Royal Guard issue, quick escapes for the princesses should things go awry. The lack of sleep also made him quite irritable, as Royal Guards who didn't want to be on duty during the Gala found out.
Comet resumed his normal routine the day after Gorgon had gorged herself on him, much to the relief of Angel and secretly Valyrie. However, when pressed for information, Comet couldn't seem to recall what he had done that day. Guarding Philomena was listless to the pegasus and gryffon, but they accepted their duty without complaint. As for the energetic bat pony, she was ecstatic to learn that her favorite pony, Comet, would be joining the guard on the night of the Gala after Shining posted a list of every guard on duty that night. Still, unknown to either of them, Comet slipped away at night, responding to the call of another princess. Nopony noticed this until Valyrie spotted him one night after using the facilities.
It took her several seconds to register the pony was Comet, mostly because of the glowing eyes. Curious, Valyrie stalked the stallion, avoiding any kind of contact or sight. The pursuit took her down to where she first met the stallion, the armory, which should have been devoid of life at this time of night. Instead, it sounded as if the guards were having a party in there. She watched from the top of the staircase as Comet shambled over to the door and knocked. What greeted him both suprised and scared Valyrie to the point of almost making noise. A rather large pony, about the same size as Princess Cadance, covered in a shiny black material with hideously large green eyes and an odd bluish green mane, stuck her head out and grinned slyly to the stallion, who remained stony.
"Ah, my favorite little toy," she cooed in a raspy voice, "Where have you been? I've gotten quite hungry." She reached out and wrapped her hole ridden hooves around Comet and pulled him inside, the door slamming behind them. Valyrie stood there, dumbstruck by what she just saw. Comet had another mare? One who he was meeting behind both Valyrie and Angel's back? A large sensation of anger and hurt welled up in Valyrie's chest, but she stifled it. There was no way Comet was a tail chaser, was there? Sure, he did like Angel and had allowed Valyrie herself to get somewhat physical with him, but he never seemed to notice any other pony or gryffon. That was when another idea hit her. His eyes were glowing the same color as the weird black pony's, so did she have him under some kind of spell? Feeling particularly brave, Valyrie marched up to the armory door and pounded on it.
"Hello?" she called as the noises fell silent. A sudden sense of intrepidation as a voice rang out.
"Go away!" called the armorer, "I don' care if ya didn' get an invite! Nopony'z allowed tah mah parteh!"
"I know a stallion by the name of Comet is in there!" Valyrie shouted in return, "I want to talk to him now!" Silence ensued for a couple of seconds before the armorer shouted a reply.
"Who'se dis?"
Valyrie took a deep breath and yelled, "His gryffon friend!"
Shuffling could be heard from behind the door as objects, no, ponies moved around and soon the door creaked open to reveal the familiar orange coat of Comet, along with his normal red eyes. Which were glaring at the gryffon. "Why are you here, Valyrie?" he demanded.
"Why are you here?" she retorted.
"I'm here with my friends, something you wouldn't understand," he rebounded with a trace of venom in his words. Valyrie grimaced at the last part, but kept her composure.
"I know you have no friends outside of me and Angel," she quickly responded, "You've been making me and Angel worry about you so you could come down here and pretend to have friends?"
Comet gritted his teeth as he worked out the next few words. "Why do you always force your way into my buisiness?" He blinked several times as he spoke and quite a bit more before continuing. "You show up out of nowhere, nearly rape me on the first day, force your way into my relationships and don't understand when to quit. Is it just some stupid gryffon thing to force yourself upon me because you have no life outside of fighting and dying?"
To that, Valyrie had no answer other than a small squeak of hurt. Tears began to form around her eyes as she said, "W-well, at least I'm not a baby over my dead siblings!"
Comet's eyes widened before narrowing into deadly arcs. "What did you just say?" he asked, almost hissing at her.
"You h-heard me!" Valyrie almost shouted in return, "I know you're still just a little foal over your sister, your sister who's been dead for years!"
Comet's angry face now became one of pure, unadulterated hate as he bared his teeth at Valyrie. "Don't you DARE speak of her like that again, you pathetic pile of feathers! You think your life was hard? Imagine never being able to leave your house, never eating a normal meal or never having any friends! You messed up your own life, Valyrie, don't try to mess up mine! I'm not a weak little pony who you can play the sympathy card with. I have my own life that doesn't revolve around you! Now get away from me!"
As the last word hung in the air, Valyrie lost all sense of composure. She lowered her head and started crying. As she sobbed, Comet clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth and said, "Dear Celestia, you really don't know when to quit." Valyrie's hear whipped up and a look of anger peeked through her tears.
"Shut up!" she shouted at him, "You are a miserable excuse for a stallion! To think I even l-l-liked you was stupid!" Reacting instictively, she reached up and swiped a claw across his face, leaving him yelping in pain as he covered his left cheek. He fell to the floor, writhing in pain and when he reopened his eye, Valyrie noticed it was glowing again.
"Ah!" he shouted in pain, "V-Valyrie, why?" The gryffon was about to say something hurtful when Comet wailed in pain again and clutched his forehead instead of his cheek. He tossed and turned on the ground as his eyes glowed brighter and mumbled "Stop... telling me... what to do!" Suddenly, he stopped convulsing and stood up as if nothing happened. He turned and glared several daggers at the gryffon before walking back into the room. The door slammed shut before Valyrie could enter, leaving her with a lot of unanswered questions.
As the door started to open, Valyrie darted away and bolts of green magic followed her. The gryffon ran and flew at the same time, trying desperately to maximize her speed as bolt after bolt barely missed their target. One thing stuck in her mind as she ran back to the bunks; Comet wasn't himself. She felt incredibly sorrowful as she ran, hearing the words they exchanged in her mind. She should've known Comet wouldn't say such things to her, especially since she felt he did like her too. Her thoughts were interrupted, though, by a Royal Guard who tried to swipe at her with a spear.
Valyrie just managed to duck it and dug her claws into the carpet, trying to slow down. She spun to face the guard, who was glaring angrily at her before jumping with the spear tip pointed at her. Valyrie nimbly dodged it by spinning to her left and swiped at the guard with her claws. The golden armor gained several scratches and only one swipe found a piece of flesh, but the guard didn't bleed. Instead, several long black scratches stayed on his pelt as he swug the spear at her again. Valyrie, her years of training in the Gryphon Kingdom kicking in, ducked it yet again and reached out with her left claw to grab the weapon. She felt the solid wood in her palm and closed around it, swiping at the guards face with her right claw. She made her mark as three particularly long black tears appeared on the guards face, one passing directly over his eye. Underneath the eye came a light blue glow and a hiss came from his mouth.
With the spear still in her claw, Valyrie pulled it back to her, smashing the hilt on the back of the guard's helmet. His head recoilded forward and Valyriegrabbed his chestpiece with her right claw. She tugged at it and he began to flip over. His face collided with the floor and acted like a pivot point as he rolled over. Valyrie wasted no time by flapping her wings to get higher than the guard and landed on top of him, bringing her claw back to his face while she successfully pulled the spear away. She pulled the hilt up into her right claw and brought it down. The guard had just enough time to reach up and block her from smashing it into his neck by holding it up. Valyrie's angry gaze shifted down and met the eyes of the guard.
"What, *grunt* are you?" she hissed through her clenched beak. The guard simply responded with a hissing noice and kicked the gryffon off of himself. Vayrie monopolized on this and made a hasty getaway as the guard pulled himself up. He hissed angrily and put a hoof over his eye. Valyrie for her part was flying through the hallways, attempting to reach Angel. She had to tell her what she saw about Comet.
Down in the armory, Gorgon hissed angrily as she worked on the spell she had used on Comet. Apparently, it was flawed enough for that gryffon to overpower it. She could only wonder what the bat pony would do to it. As she worked, a changeling ran up to her and reported the gryffon had gotten away. She screeched at that and thought while she worked. "Get somepony over to Shining Armor right away and report that the gryffon attacked two fellow guards and is crazy. She won't get very far with us and the guard after her." |
The Golden Armor | At The Gala (part 2) | Shining Armor sat with his head in his hooves, wondering what to do. As if the threat of the attack on the princesses wasn't bad enough, now he had a rogue gryffon to deal with. Apparently, this was some kind of cosmic joke, since all of this was happening before the biggest event of the year. He darkly wondered of the gryffon was in on the plot to attack the princesses since she attacked two key guards, Comet and Black Berry. Comet was supposed to guard Princess Celestia and Black Berry was to be near the royal table where the three princesses would be eating at. Finally, he put his hooves down and said, "No, we will continue as planned. If they are well enough, they can stay at their posts." The pony he was talking to, Paradox, nodded his head.
Angel bounced happily in her new armor she had been fitted for days earlier. It was now all dark purple with the blue eye on the chest, covered her entire back and even came with an awesome looking helmet and a new weapon, claws. With all of it on, shethought she looked rather awesome. As she sqealed with delight in her new garb, she heard the bathroom door open and slam shut. Curious, she spun to see a mass of white feathers and brown fur tackle her. Reacting instinctively, Angel brought her hooves around her assailant, effectively pinning the pony to her. She rolled in the air, flapping her wings to get upright and landed squarely on top of the intruder, bringing her newly forged claws to the neck of the body. A pair of brilliant gold irises looked up at her, along with a black beak contorted into a kind of angry look.
"Valyrie!" Angel shouted, immediately turning off her attack mode and hugging the gryffon underneath her, "Where've you been? I couldn't find you or Comet anywhere!" The bat pony squeezed the gryffon into a tighter hug, effectively wringing out what little breath Valyrie had. Before Valyrie could get a word out, Angel leaped up, giddy as a schoolfilly, and bounced in place. "So, what'cha think of my new armor? Isn't it sooooooo cool?! I got a new chestpiece, a helmet and claws! Look at these!" Valyrie grimaced at the set of purpleish claws thrust into her face by the goofy bat pony she called her friend. Any farther and she would've claimed at least one of her eyes.
"T-that's cool, Angel, but-" the gryffon tried to say before she was cut off by Angel.
"I KNOW!" the bat pony shouted again, "Aren't they amazing?! I can finally fight like you! The armorer said he was asked to make custom weapons by Shining Armor for the Gala to compliment each guard's fighting ability, but I never expected them to be this cool!" To accentuate her point, Angel took up two battle poses, one on her rear legs holding the claws above her head like a ninja pony, and the other standing on all fours, holding a claw up to her mouth like a cat. Valyrie did admit to herself it was rather cool, but she had more pressing matters than asthetic appearances right now.
"Angel, I really need to-" she tried again before Angel invaded her personal space. She reached out with one hoof and lifted one of Valyrie's claws up to her own face before lifting her own claw to examine them side by side.
"Yours are so much more longer and cooler," Angel stated with a hint of sadness in her voice before her happy mood kicked back in, "Still, you've got the coolest set of claws there is, bird claws! I've got claws that look like they're from some cool comic book, like Batmare or Spidercolt."
"Angel, I-"
"Or Superstallion."
"Angel,"
"Or even Green Torch!"
"Angel."
Angel gasped before continuing. "Wait, what about X-Ponies?! Isn't there that one stallion who-"
"ANGEL!" Valyrie shouted, breaking the bat pony's reveling. The large gold eyes she had darted up to meet Valyrie's own and the gryffon took a deep breath. "Angel, there's a serious problem with Comet." she stated seriously. Angel's eyes shrunk and before she could say anything, Valyrie continued, "Angel, he's in deep trouble with some really shady ponies. I saw him get up last night and wander down to the armory and-"
"Wait," Angel interrupted, "Why were you following him around at night? Why did you follow him?"
"I, well, he was acting suspicous!" Valyrie flustered. Angel narrowed her eyes at the gryffon, who clearly wore a nervous face there for a couple seconds before she returned to being serious. "That's not the point, Angel. Comet-"
"Why were you following him?" Angel almost growled, silencing Valyrie. Angel hated to be lied to and she knew Valyrie was hiding something. "What business do you have following my coltfriend?"
Valyrie's chest dropped into nothingness as her heart felt like it stopped for a second. She suddenly had the sneaking suspicion she had just revealed to Comet's marefriend something she should've never found out about. The silence quickly became tense as Angel's eyes narrowed, her slit pupils boring into Valyrie's own round ones. Valyrie tried to take a cautious step backwards, but Angel stepped forward at the same time. "What were you trying to do with him?" Angel snarled, now fully angry. She knew Valyrie was hiding something now, something big involving her and Comet.
"I was, uh, I was trying-" Valyrie stammered before Angel tackled her this time. It wasn't playful in the slightest. Angel quickly pinned Valyrie into submission and glared daggers into her eyes.
"What have you been doing with my coltfriend?!" Angel nearly shouted.
Now scared for her life in a way those black ponies couldn't have scared her, Valyrie began to tremble under the bat pony, who went from cute and adorable to downright terrifying in less than ten seconds. She gulped hard, trying to calm herself and barely managed to speak with a small squeaky voice. "C-Comet and I, we kinda, well..."
"SAY IT!" Angel shouted at her.
"We've kinda, uh, had a thing going on," Valyrie stated, utterly terrified.
Angel was quiet for a few seconds before she spoke again, hissing like a venomous serpent. "What do you mean by 'thing'?"
"We've kinda, well, we've kissed," Valyrie stammered out. A soft throated growl escaped Angel's throat as she began to raise her left front hoof, one of the two with a claw attached to it. Valyrie closed her eyes, bracing for the razor sharp material to connect to her face when Angel spoke again.
"How many times?" she choked out.
"Th-th-th-three!" Valyrie almost shrieked. Angel let loose a cry of frustration and Valyrie could hear the sound of her hoof coming down. As she waited for the pain, she instead heard the hoof collide with the floor and the sound of metal clinking against the stone. Valyrie opened her eyes to see Angel's face, pupils narrow with anger and fangs and teeth bared before a sharp pain struck her right cheek. Valyrie managed to see Angel's hoof pass away from her face as her other shook off the other claw. Valyrie didn't react as she struck her again and again.
"You stupid featherbrain!" Angel shouted in anger, "How dare you do that with my coltfriend!" Angel reared up to hit the gryffon with a fourth shot, but Valyrie's claw shot out and caught it, holding her hoof in place.
Valyrie panted, but she managed to talk. "There, you got three free shots. You hit me any more and I will hit back."
Angel cried out in anger and yelled, "You don't tell me what to do!" As quickly as she could, Angel brought her right hoof across Valyrie's face before a powerful kick was delivered to her stomach. Angel gasped as she lost her breath and realized her armor didn't wrap around underneath her. As she wheezed, a black claw shot up and scratched the pristine helmet the bat pony was wearing, causing her head to whip away. Seizing her momentary advantage, Valyrie pushed with both of her claws and paws to shove Angel from off of her. Angel flew backwards and landed on her back two feet away. The two females scrambled to their hooves/claws and Valyrie tackled Angel this time. Valyrie frantically tried to grab ahold of her hooves, but Angel's armor had spiny points on it, scratching the gryffon as she pressed herself against her friend, or rather, nemesis now.
Angel responded by roaring angrily and spun, attempting to best Valyrie's efforts to subdue her. She managed to deliver two swift strikes to the gryffon, one in the air and one after they hit the floor, before the gryffon clawed the front visor of her helmet. Angel just barely managed to close her eyes in time to feel the claw just barely graze her eyelid, not breaking the skin. If her eye would've been open, she might've gone blind. Angry beyond regular brawling now, Angel viciously headbutted the gryffon and while she was stunned, buried her fangs into the gryffon's neck, getting the disgustingly copper taste of blood on her tongue. Valyrie shouted in pain as she felt the teeth break into her skin and flailed with her claws, finding a weak spot in Angel's armor, her wing joint. As Valyrie's claw broke skin as well, Angel wailed in the exact same way, pulling her teeth out of Valyrie's neck.
With a final push, Valyrie shoved Angel away and brought a claw up to her neck, trying to stem the flow of blood. Angel landed in a heap on the other side of the room, unmoving except for her nursing her wing. Valyrie turned to face a mirror and examined the wound to her neck. It looked like something from that one monster movie, Vlad the Vampire Bat Pony. She had two pinpricks right near the base of her neck and it bled, not gushing but enough to worry her. As she tried to wash the wound clean, she heard a faint sobbing from the other side of the room. Spinning around, she realized it was Angel.
"Why?" she sobbed, "Why do you get to be so lucky? C-Comet has never kissed m-me, even on our dates. What makes you so special?" Angel broke out into louder sobs and Valyrie felt the pit in her stomach grow, threatening to consume her.
"Angel..." she tried to start, but Angel cut her off again.
"Tonight was supposed t-t-to be sp-special," the hurt bat pony cried, "Me and Comet at the Grand Galloping Gala, all alone. I was hoping h-h-he w-would finally..." Valyrie gritted her beak as she heard her friend talk. Why was she so special? Comet had everything he wanted with Angel, so why was Valyrie trying to take him from her? Tears began to form in the gryffon's own eyes as Angel continued. "Th-they say if you kiss the pony you love at the Gala, y-you'll be happy forever. I was hoping C-Comet and I would d-do that t-to-tonight." Angel broke out into full bawling at that point and Valyrie started crying to herself. Angel needed him just as badly as he needed her, so what was Valyrie doing? Trying to live a pipe dream to escape her own homeland? Regret, among other emotions, crashed down upon Vlayrie and she started sobbing louder than Angel.
Angel looked up at the gryffon, who had collapsed on the floor, and heard her speak. "I'm so sorry, Angel!" she shouted, "I'm sorry for trying to take Comet from you! I never wanted to hurt you, but being with him just... It just makes me so happy! I didn't want to lose that and I was a jerk. I'm so sorry!" The gryffon sobbed harder than she had ever done before, buried beneath her own guilt and self loathing. The bat pony, without any reason to, slowly stood up on shaky hooves and wobbled over to the emotionally distraught gryffon and put her hoof around her, laying next to her like Comet had done back on that stormy day. Valyrie flinched at her touch, but Angel persisted, hugging the gryffon close and trying to calm her down.
When Valyrie finally calmed down enough to look at Angel, the bat pony spoke up. "Valyrie, I know what it's like to be so happy you never want to lose it. Comet makes me that happy too, so happy I never want to leave him."
"B-but I'm a monster," the gryffon retorted, nearly crying again, "I'm no better than those pigs back at my home."
Angel gulped, but pressed on, "No, you're better than them, Valyrie. I don't know what your race is like, but I know you're nothing like them."
Valyrie sniffed at that and grumbled, "If you knew what they were like, you wouldn't say that."
Angel sat silently for a couple seconds, but steeled her will and said, "Valyrie, you are my best friend next to Comet and, while I may be angry at what you did, no amount of me hurting you or Comet will change what has happened. My father always told me it's easier to forgive and forget than to carry grudges with you everywhere. You're a good gryffon at heart and I know that, but Comet is my coltfriend. He asked me out."
Valyrie grimaced at that, but she didn't argue. She knew Angel was right. "But, why do you get to be happy and I can't?" Valyrie moaned.
"You can be happy too," Angel childed, "You just need your own dream stallion."
"But you have my dream gryph-er, stallion," Valyrie retorted bitterly.
"Valyrie," Angel spoke softly, "There is more than just one stallion in Equestria. There's one out there, just waiting for you to find him." Valyrie didn't respond to that, but continued to 'hic' for a while. Finally, Angel stood up and adjusted her armor, which had been knocked out of place in a couple areas, allowing Valyrie to stand. When the two of them were standing, Angel locked eyes with Valyrie, her best friend, and held out a hoof with a smile. "Friends?" Angel asked. Valyrie stared at the hoof, unsure of what to do. She was baffled by the ability to forgive this pony possessed, especially after what Valyrie had done, but she tentatively reached out a claw and shook it.
"Friends," she said a little less confidently than she would've liked. As she shook the hoof, Angel jumped to her and wrapped her in a nice hug. Valyrie stood there, unsure of what to do, but eventually smiled. While Valyrie had friends back in the Gryphon Kingdom, Angel was definitely better than them. When the two finally released each other, Angel grinned widely at her, just like her old self. "So, what do you plan of doing with--" Valyrie began, but stopped as she remembered why she had initially come here. "Comet!" she shouted.
Grabbing Angel's hoof, she pulled the bat pony along and said, "There's not much time! Comet's in a huge amount of trouble!" |
The Golden Armor | At the Gala (part 3) | The music played softly in the background as Princess Luna shuffled uneasily around the countless ponies who all made a point of bowing at her and commenting about how lovely the moon was tonight. All the poor princess of the night could do was graciously accept compliment after compliment as she tried to make her way over to her sister. Luna was late to the Gala, her first ever, and cursed herself for taking the back entrance through the gardens. As the midnight blue alicorn tried walking at an even pace, she soon found it fruitless to go against the tide of incoming ponies. Sighing to herself, she turned around and trotted over to the grand ballroom.
The ballroom was done in a spectacular fashion. Large tapestries bearing the Equestrian Royal Seal and images of both Princess Celestia and herself hung in a wide array around the room. The brilliant full moon she had worked on raising shone like the sun through the three story tall windows. A magnificent fountain sat in the middle of the ballroom, glittering wonderfully. Up on the stage, several ponies played a soft tune as one brilliant white unicorn sat behind them. She had on a rather large set of purple hued glasses and had the most outrageous mane Luna had ever seen. Electric blue and spikey, Luna secretly wondered if she could do the same with her own mane. However, the pony seemed more enraptured by another one onstage, a gray pony with a long black mane playing a cello. Luna couldn't tell what the white unicorn was thinking, but she somehow didn't want to know. What ponies did with their lives didn't concern her.
Upon realizing she was staring at the band, Luna quickly blushed and moved over to her table, a rather large banquet table with a squishy chair in her favorite color, onyx. As she sat in the chair, she felt her rump sink in slightly and wiggled it back and forth, making herself comfortable. Once she was, several stewards came by and offered her various things. Luna graciously accepted a moon pie, her favorite treat, and a cup of sparkling grape juice. As she munched on her treat, her magnificent sapphire eyes scanned the crowd of ponies. Several night guards strolled up and took positions around the lunar princess, staying as rigid as they could. Hazarding a try at conversation, Luna cleared her throat and spoke in the Royal Canterlot voice. "HOW IS THOU TODAY?"
Apparently, every pony in a twenty foot radius thought she was talking to them and got a jumbled response from all of them, excluding the guards she was trying to talk to. Luna smiled awkwardly and gave a nice reply before sipping on her juice again. Celestia had insisted this was how Luna could connect to their subjects more, but the princess of the night had never felt more alone. She sat at the table, munching away at her moon pie and occasionally glanced back at her only real friend, the brilliantly glowing rock behind her. However, upon returning her attention to the Gala, she thought she saw a pony she recognized. He was a light blue unicorn with wavy white hair, brown eyes, an hourglass cutie mark and a red jacket. Luna blinked twice before he disappeared, sure she knew that pony.
On the other side of the castle, right near the entrance, Princess Celestia stood gracefully, smiling and personally welcoming every pony that arrived. Her guards, a unicorn and a pegasus, stood attentive at her side, glaring at each pony walking up. Celestia had not wanted them there, but Shining Armor had insisted at least two guards be there to protect her. He had said there was a threat against herself and her sister, as well as her niece, but Celestia tried to shrug it off. She was used to threats against herself and her ponies after a thousand years of dealing with the stiff necked Gryphon Kingdom, the proud tribes of the Marengeti and even the race of horses over in Saddle Arabia. Thankfully, diplomacy from the pony who raised the sun always won out, but there were several instances she had to martial the Royal Army to be sure. Celestia shook her head slightly, bobbing her beautiful flowing mane of green, pink, indigo and blue. She kept her regal smile and continued to greet the ponies, one by one.
Unknown to either princess or their niece and her husband, Gorgon licked her lips in anticipation. She stood in line to enter the Gala, cloaked as some rich pony she had knocked out. Without them knowing, her group of changelings had successfully infiltrated the Royal Guard. They had built up enough store of love to power them through the entire attack and were now in place. This was to be her shining moment, the day she had done what her mother, Queen Chrysalis, could not. Hopefully, by taking control of the royal sisters and all of Canterlot, the changeling princess could gain her mother's approval. She danced nervously in her disguise, slightly raising and lowering her hooves. The other ponies, the snobbish lot, sniffed at her and even asked if she could hold it in. Gorgon grumbled to herself, wishing she could retaliate. However, she needed to keep her cover, at least until she was at the princess.
After what felt like hours, Gorgon was next in line to meet the princess. Her newest little pet was right where she wanted him, next to the princess. Comet, what she thought was his name, stared off blankly into space, not even making eye contact with her. The other guard, Hilgrind, pretended to check another faceless guest for weapons. Gorgon had to admit, both of her pawns looked rather stunning in their armor, Comet in particular. He had a freshly forged spear that crackled every now and then with a small arc of electricity, wore no helmet but had on a new armor piece that had a larger collar, covered his entire back and held the usual turquoise star in the front. When the pony in front of her walked in, Gorgon gulped. It was now her turn to greet the princess. Trotting slowly, Gorgon reviewed the spell she had to use to subdue Celestia in her head, making sure she could cast it quickly. Her whelp, Hilgrind, flicked his eyes up at her and gave a small nod. He was ready.
"Hello," came the almost ethereal voice of the solar princess, "Welcome to the Grand Galloping Gala, Miss DeTrostky." The beautiful princess gave her sincere and serene smile to Gorgon's disguise and the changeling princess smiled back.
"I am well received, my liege," she droned in her best sarcasm. She knelt slightly and locked eyes with the princess of the sun. She saw the princess begin to narrow her eyes and knew it was time. Drawing upon her stores of love, Gorgon gritted her teeth and a bolt of green magic struck the princess between the eyes. A small sense of satisfaction came from watching the eyes of the solar princess widen before rolling up. Gorgon had practiced that spell for weeks for this very moment. As the princess began to slump, Hilgrind jumped up and grabbed the solar princess and Gorgon shot another bolt of magic. Celestia was too powerful for a simple stunning spell to work, so she began to recover as Gorgon worked on subduing her mind. Somewhere behind her, she could hear ponies screaming and running, but her focus was containing over a thousand years worth of knowledge in the princess's mind. Every time Gorgon felt she had the advantage, Celestia would push back with some mental discipline she had learned.The princess bucked wildly, trying to throw off Hilgrind as Gorgon slowly began to gain control over her. The princess was not invincible, though. Using her full stores of Comet's love, Gorgon finally gained the leeway she was looking for and the solar princess slumped to the floor.
Gorgon breathed heavily, trying to recover her own stamina. The princess wasn't easy to subdue, several hundred times harder than the average pony. However, subduing normal ponies minds was too easy. Panting, she nodded to Hilgrind who let loose a horrible screech, silencing the ponies inside. As they looked around, the guards all nodded to each other and at once, all the guards began firing off green bolts of magic, even the pegasus guards. Ponies began to fall over, stunned, while others ran around, screaming in panic. Luna barely had time to react as her own guards turned around and shot her with the bolts of magic. With her mind suddenly blank and an inability to move her own limbs, Luna watched as several more guards rushed over and jumped up on the table, firing more bolts. Being an alicorn, Luna had a strong resistance to magic, like her sister Celestia. However, she was not impervious and after repeated blasts without one of her own in return, the lunar princess began to feel sleepy. She could faintly hear Shining Armor's voice, shouting something unintelligible before she felt herself fall asleep.
Shining Armor gritted his teeth as he looked around. None of his guards were responding to his commands and he had no idea what was going on. Surrounding himself with a magical shield, he ran off to find the princesses before the situation got any worse. Upon reaching the front door, his already pearly white coat paled even further as he saw a pony erupt into green flames, shedding its disguise along with a guard. When the flames vanished, a changeling queen along with a worker stood there, grinning at each other as they walked over to the unconscious form of Princess Celestia. Feeling a couple of pings from behind, Shining turned to see a horde of changelings, each wearing the golden armor of the Royal Guard, charging at him. "No way!" was all he managed to shout before the horde descended upon him. Without releasing the shield, Shining fought back the changelings. He wasn't Captain of the Guard for nothing. He delivered several swift hoofs to the faces of the changelings, which had run through his shield. It was meant to deflect magic, not actual beings, so it was almost useless now. Drawing upon his store of magic, Shining felt himself float for a couple of seconds before landing in the ballroom. Luckily, his magical wards would not prevent teleportation spells, something he had in place in case of emergencies like this.
"Princess Luna! We have to go! Now!" he shouted anxiously, running over to the table to find her. He had cast a spell which allowed him to locate the princesses easily long ago, but to his horror he found her in the center of a circle of buzzing changelings, each in the Night Guard's armor. Cursing to himself, he charged the changelings, attempting to break their circle. Instead, more changelings seemed to pour out of nowhere, each trying to hit him with magic. Deterred by the sheer number of changelings, Shining backed away and shouted, "Cadance! Where are you?!"
A soft voice responded from over the loud buzzing and screaming. "AH! Shining, help me!"
Spinning around, he saw his beautiful pink wife backed against a corner while she tried to fend off the changeling's magic with the same shield Shining was using himself. Cowering behind her were several ponies, each too terrified to do anything. Reacting instinctively, Shining ran to his wife, determined to protect her. "Get the buck away from my wife!" he shouted with a voice that shook the room. The changelings spun around and frowned as he charged. The first few ducked out of his way, but he didn't part the crowd like he had hoped to. Instead, one rather clever one stood its ground and braced itself. By a stroke of luck or cosmic bodies aligning, the changeling shot a bolt of magic at Shining the split second its horn passed through his shield. The green bolt of magic flew forward and struck the captain in his chest, causing him to stumble and let go of the magic keeping his spell up.
"Shining!" Cadance screamed as he slid forward and the entire changeling crowd jumped on him. She watched in horror as her husband was mercilessly shot by bolt after bolt of magic, just like her aunt. Turtling behind her shield, a couple of tears fell from her big purple eyes as she watched them slowly form a circle around him, keeping him in a trance, just like Luna. The rest growled angrily as they shot a couple of bolts at her, but they bounced uselessly against the shield.
As Gorgon strode into the Gala, she noted all the unconscious ponies, as well as her soldiers saluting her. Her pet, Comet, followed behind her, lost in a trance with his eyes glowing green. Slowly, she began to laugh to herself as the full gravity of what she had done hit her. She and her whelps had surprised Canterlot castle, overpowered the princesses and now were feeding off of countless ponies, restoring their used up caches of food. Her laugh got louder and soon became a cackle as she stood near the glorious golden fountain. Her changelings buzzed in approval as four dragged in Princess Celestia by her mane and tail, eventually depositing her next to her precious sister, Luna.
"The time of Celestia and Luna is over," she mused to herself, "Now, the age of Chrysalis and Gorgon will begin." Turning to Comet, she extended a hoof and raised his chin to meet her face. "And it wouldn't be possible without you, my dear. You gave me so much food to defeat Celestia, I will reward you. You will be my pet, forever." The changeling princess slowly leaned over to kiss him and just before she did, a new voice rang out.
"I swear to Celestia, I will KILL you if you touch him again!" came an unfamiliar voice. Comet's eyes began to focus as Gorgon pulled away, searching for the voice.
"Angel..." he moaned softly.
Much to Gorgon's horror, a large group of ponies stood at the entryway, all glaring furiously at the horde of changelings. A bat pony in full armor stared directly at her, along with a rather angry looking gryffon. The loud cry of a phoenix echoed into the hall as the normally beautiful bird was literally on fire, staring dead at Gorgon. The tension in the room built to a breaking point in several quick seconds, just as the bat pony yelled one word.
"Charge!" |
The Golden Armor | At The Gala (part 4) | It didn't take long for the ponies to reach the changelings.
Angel didn't seem to care what other ponies were doing. Her big golden eyes were locked on the only target she wanted to get; that large changeling who had almost kissed her coltfriend. As she ran, several shouts came from the ponies surrounding her.
"For the princess!" one rather weak shout came.
"Honor or death!" a scratchy voice shouted.
"Bugs!" a unicorn shouted next to her.
The two defining shouts, however, belonged to both Valyrie and Philomena, who let out piercing shrieks that seemed to paralyze several changelings. As the wave of ponies grew closer, Gorgon narrowed her eyes and growled. "Remember this day!" she shouted to her horde, "For today is the day you regain your honor as changelings!"
The sound of the collision was deafening. Bolts of magic flew everywhere, ranging in all sorts of colors from green to raspberry red to gold. Ponies and changelings alike shouted as they viciously began to attack each other. Philomena flew overhead, dodging the occasional bolt of green magic and raining down flames upon the mass of black. Several changelings screamed in panic and even ran around on fire, causing panic among them. However, since the changelings retained the Royal Guard armor, they seemed to have the edge in hoof to hoof combat. The ponies found their advance grind to a screeching halt as waves of changelings, some even on fire, returned their charge.
Angel, the only bat pony in full armor, did what she did best. Using her newly forged claws, she jabbed and swiped at the changelings, leaving long cuts on their hard shiny hides. Her whole focus was to get to that larger changeling, but if she had to wade through the weaklings first, then so be it. To her right, Valyrie was met with just as much success, having an almost feral look to her. Few things were as terrifying as an enraged gryffon clawing down three changelings in one swipe. She wreaked havoc on the horde trying to subdue the ponies.
Gorgon gritted her teeth as she fired off bolt after bolt of magic, attacking the ponies at random. One or two had managed to reach her, but if Princess Celestia was a match for her magic, these ponies were nothing. As one pegasus flew towards her, she locked her greedy green eyes with her. "Leeeeeroy Flankins!" the pony shouted as she dove to the changeling princess. Gorgon reared back, ready for the impact, but instead brought her hooves down on the pegasus, crushing it to the stone floor. As the pegasus shouted in pain, Gorgon delivered an over the top kick to the pony's face, silencing it instantly. Returning her gaze to the bat pony and gryffon, she fired off several more bolts of green magic at them, managing to only hit her own whelps who jumped in front of them. Screaming in frustration, Gorgon whipped around and pulled Comet over to her, who was somehow still in a daze from Gorgon.
As Gorgon neared him, a loud scream pierced the air and she looked up. She had only a split second to react to what was happening, but she could see a mass of fire descending upon her. Razor sharp claws met her face a second later, along with intense heat and the princess screamed. Philomena seemed to get a savage delight as she maimed the changeling's face, attempting to gouge out her eyes. Instead, her claws got mangled in her mane, ripping out parts with every movement. In full panic mode and now fearful for her life, Gorgon reared back, ignoring the searing heat with the intense pain coming from her scalp, and flailed in the direction of the mass of heat. Her hooves seemed to strike something and, with her eyes shut the whole time, felt the heat and claws try to pull away. It successfully managed to take another clump of her mane as well, making Gorgon howl in pain.
Recoiling from a shot to her wing, Philomena backed off slightly, knowing a wild animal is the most dangerous. Right now, that changeling was in survival mode and she would do whatever she had to. Her wing hurt, but she never backed away entirely. Instead, Philomena drew upon her own magical stores and shrieked again, unleashing a torrent of fire at the changeling. Unfortunately, that guard Angel, Valyrie and Philomena herself wanted to rescue, was in the blast radius. As the changeling screamed in fear, the pony seemed to wake up, panicking himself that he was catching on fire. His shout of terror caused Philomena to release the torrent, just as a bolt of green magic flew at her. It passed safely through her feathers as she flapped to gain altitude, but a body slammed into her, causing her to lose her balance. As the two plummeted to the ground, Philomena willed herself to erupt into more flames. At her command, she exploded into a huge fireball and crashed into the fray, fire exploding in all directions. Ponies and changelings alike had the fire wash over them, with only a lucky few dodging the massive wave of fire.
Gorgon managed to weakly cast a spell to protect both her and Comet as the wall of fire approached. The spell shielded them easily before dissipating, leaving the two on the ground. Comet's back was to the changeling princess, whimpering and nursing a whole side of his body as his armor glowed a dull red. Gorgon was in worse shape, though, weak and bleeding from the phoenix's assault. Burned strands of her mane lay on the floor next to her head, but the changeling managed to pick herself up, moaning weakly from the pain and numbness in her limbs. She bared her teeth, but cast a numbing spell on herself to ease the pain. She staggered over to Comet, collapsing on top of him as his watery red eyes turned with fear to her. Luckily, Gorgon's spell worked well, because she could hear her carapace sizzle as she lay on top of his faintly glowing armor.
Forcing herself to concentrate through her spinning head and cloudy vision, Gorgon shot a bolt of magic at Comet, muddling his mind. His gaze went slack and Gorgon dove at him. She felt her lips meet his and a surge of emotions washed over her like healing water. Drawing upon her newest reserves of magic, she felt her carapace begin to itch as she healed herself of the burns and quelled the bleeding from her scalp. Her head stopped spinning and soon, she got the feeling back in her legs. She broke for a split second to breathe and looked up at the fight. Her whelps didn't do so well at the fire wave, many of them lying weakly on the floor. The ponies now had the advantage since some of the unicorns had enough time to shield themselves and others. Her more intelligent changelings had also shielded themselves and were now engaged with the non burned ponies.
Returning her gaze to the pegasus below her, Gorgon dove in again. His breathing was weak and she could feel his heart racing. She knew unless she healed him quickly, he was bound to die. Feeling a sense of concern for him, she worked the same healing magic on him, soothing the burns and restoring his blood flow. She kept herself locked to him and felt a twinge of his thoughts. Normally, when under a spell, ponies thoughts were non existant since they had to have their minds blank to be controlled. However, Gorgon realized he wasn't under her control as she healed him. Instead, she felt his mind find an image that was connected to what seemed to be a deeper pool of love and regret. As she remained connected to him, an image of a tall golden pony mare with a green mane pulled around to one side and sparkling tangerine eyes manifested in her mind. Why he was thinking about whoever this was, Gorgon didn't know, but she welcomed the torrential flood of emotions from him.
Once she was sure he wasn't going to die, she released her lips from his and backed away. It was faint, but she could hear him moan, "No...va..."
Feeling an immense amount of an emotion she had hardly known existed, Gorgon reached over and rubbed Comet's forehead and shushed him. "Shh," she whispered, "It'll be alright, Comet. It will be alright."
As she comforted him, though, a swift kick was delivered to her face from a black claw. Gorgon howled in pain as she rolled away, bringing her hooves up to her face. Peeking through a hole in her hoof, Gorgon saw a rather angry looking gryffon glaring daggers at her.
"Don't you ever touch him again!" Valyrie shouted. Enraged, Gorgon leaped up at the gryffon, wrapping her hooves around her. Using her two big front teeth, Gorgon buried them into Valyrie's wing, snapping the joint. The gryffon shrieked in pain as she fell to the ground, on top of Gorgon. With her hooves still wrapped around her, Gorgon spun on over to get on top of Valyrie. Releasing her, Gorgon glared directly into Valyrie's eyes, ready to shoot lasers from them. Valyrie hesitated for a second in fear and Gorgon let her predator instinct take over. Hoof blow after blow pounded into Valyrie's face as the gryffon tried to claw at the changeling. Lost in her rage, Gorgon used her magic to pick up Valyrie and lifted her into the air. Unable to move because of the green magic, Valyrie had a second to react as she was thrown into the ground. Gorgon cackled gleefully as the gryffon shouted in pain and repeated it, a savage grin on her face.
After about the seventh time, Valyrie's shoulder gave a loud crack and she screamed in more pain than ever before. Her left arm and claw went limp and she felt herself fly at Gorgon, unable to do anything. The changeling reared back and impacted her hooves into the gryffon, cracking a couple ribs and knocking the breath out of her. Grinning like a mad pony, Gorgon stood over the gryffon, intoxicated with power over the weaker being. As she formed another spell, a small metal object struck her in the eye. Screaming in pain, she closed both and rubbed her face as a hoof collided with her cheek, knocking her off balance. She spun with the hoof, but bucked with her rear legs.
"Ha!" came a voice with a strong foreign accent, "You'll have to do better than that!" Opening her eyes, Gorgon saw a light blue pony with a wavy white mane in a red coat grin slyly at her. Growling, Gorgon brought her front hoof around to try and smack him out of the air, but he nimbly dodged it. Concentrating, she tried to trap him in her magical grip, but a sparkling blue aura shimmered around him.
"I already thought of that!" he replied confidently, but as he spoke, a changeling grabbed him from behind and his eyes went wide. "Didn't think of that," he said with a hint of fear in his voice and he was pulled backwards into a group of changelings. Gorgon grunted and turned around to finish the job with the gryffon, but her eyes shrunk in fear as a bat pony in full armor, minus her helmet, stood over her toy. Her big golden eyes were locked on the weak pony and Gorgon shouted in frustration. She had everything planned, everything! She had taken over the Royal Guard, subdued the princesses and the Captain of the Guard and even had her source of power completely within her grasp. Why did everything go wrong?!
The bat pony's head whipped up and locked with Gorgon. Suddenly, Gorgon knew why it had all gone wrong. She didn't kill this pony when she had the chance. Not willing to make the same mistake twice, she screamed angrily and began to charge the pony. Angel's eyes shrunk as she saw the rampaging changeling drawing closer and pushed Comet away. Bracing herself, she stared down the changeling and, just before she reached her, Angel ducked and rolled between her hooves, slashing at the hole ridden hooves that thundered around her. It wasn't much more than a scratch, but hopefully it would make her pause for a second. As she came out of the roll, Angel darted over to Comet, but before she could reach him, several changelings in armor jumped on her. She easily bucked off a couple, still weak from Philomena's fireball, which Angel and Valyrie had avoided by jumping into the fountain.
One, however, clung to her and grinned wickedly out of the corner of her right eye. Reacting based on pure instinct, Angel let her right legs give out and slammed down on the changeling as he fired off a bolt of green magic. It collided with her as her weight pressed down on the changeling. Instantly, Angel's vision blurred and her legs felt heavy, but she didn't pass out. The changeling, who hadn't finished casting the spell, rolled off of her, losing its grip. Staggering back to her hooves, Angel tried to find Comet in the mess of colors of her vision. As she looked around, she knew she couldn't find him. Behind her, Gorgon was pounding another pony into the floor angrily with her magic, a green unicorn. Unaware Angel was still up, Gorgon paused as she heard the bat pony shout, "Comet!"
The word rang out loudly around the ballroom as the white pegasus twitched. His thoughts were slow to return to him, but as he tried to think, they came back much quicker. He slowly opened his eyes, feeling unusually groggy. Comet tried to remember what had happened, recalling he was underneath a changeling, then felt like he was on fire. Pushing himself to his hooves, Comet shook his head, wondering if it was all a dream. Instead, he felt his stomach curl as he looked around. Ponies and changelings were laying on the floor while others still fought or were tending to their wounded comrades. Spinning around, Comet saw Angel in armor staggering around, right next to a weeping and clearly hurt Valyrie. Behind them, the large changeling roared in anger and began to run to them.
"Comet!" came an unfamiliar voice from behind him, "You have to choose now!" He spun to see a blue unicorn in a red coat grappling with a changeling. "Do it!" he shouted, "Choose one of them now!" |
The Golden Armor | At The Gala (part 5) | "Comet, choose one now!"
That one phrase bounced around in his mind, echoing with varied intensity as time seemed to slow for him. He saw the larger changeling approaching Angel and wanted to go save her, but Valyrie lay in a crumpled heap on the floor, moaning slightly. Inside Comet's mind, instead of buzzing with the dilemma of who was more important to him or some rather large introspective view of both Angel and Valyrie, it was blank. There was no time to choose. Instead, there was only time to act. If he had to choose one or the other, that would be for later. Right now, they both needed help and as a friend and stallion, he needed to save both of them.
Instead of locking eyes directly with one of them, Comet's stunned gaze narrowed as his red eyes locked onto his target, the changeling. He felt himself start to move before he could think and soon, he was running directly at the changeling. As he ran, he extended his wings and flapped them furiously, hoping to gain more speed. As they both approached the bat pony, Comet leaped into the air, directly over the staggering bat pony and collided with the furious changeling, who seemed to be surprised by his counter attack. Comet felt he knew this changeling, but it wasn't until they had hit the ground did he remember her.
Gorgon landed squarely on her back, surprised by how hard the pegasus had hit her. The next thing she registered was several kicks directed to her midsection, a particularly sensitive area. Growling angrily, she returned a couple kicks and caught Comet in the neck, making him lose his balance flying above her and falling to Gorgon's left, gasping heavily. Gorgon scrambled back to her hooves, ready to attack, but two sharp razors scratched across her face. Screaming in surprise and pain, Gorgon turned and smashed a hoof into Angel's side, sending her backwards.
"ENOUGH!" Gorgon screamed at the top of her lungs, sending out a pulse of air that pushed back the unconscious changelings and ponies around her. Comet and Angel managed to hold up against the pulse, but Comet was still choking as Angel, tried to keep her balance, The spell was wearing off, but it was still hard for her to control all her motor functions. As Gorgon looked down, she glared angrily at the two ponies before her and cast some magic. A sickly green aura surrounded both Comet and Angel at the same time, yanking them off the ground and directly to her. Comet, still struggling to breathe but getting air now, managed a somewhat angry look that, to Gorgon, looked more like discomfort. Angel tried to do the same, but couldn't tell which of the three Gorgons to look at.
The changeling princess pulled them in closer and scowled, baring her rather large fangs at them. "I should kill both of you now," she growled, voice full of hate and malice, "But, luckily for you, Comet, I need you, This one, though," she said, shaking Angel," Is completely expendable." Comet desperately tried to work out a word or two, but he felt himself get smashed into the ground. As a pegasus, he had a naturally thicker and sturdier bone structure for impacts like this, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. Gorgon's magic continued to hold him and he looked up helplessly at Angel, who was now directly in front of a wickedly smiling changeling. Angel's limbs suddenly snapped out in all four directions and Angel gave a scream. Comet wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew he had to stop it.
"Angel!" he yelled as he struggled. The changeling shot him a nasty look and returned to the bat pony, whose limbs she was trying to tear out of their sockets. Comet struggled like never before, feeling an intense amount of energy course through his body. The energy, in turn, seemed to amp up his muscles and he pushed even harder against his magical restraints. A wicked laugh began to come from the changeling as Angel's eyes shrunk in fear, staring directly into the changelings. With her concentration on Angel, Gorgon's magical hold on Comet weakened, enough to where he broke loose. Utterly furious and now able to do something, Comet leaped up at Gorgon, who turned to see his hoof collide with her. Gorgon screamed as the pegasus descended upon her, kicking her face and any exposed part of her body. Angel fell to the floor after the magic holding her up instantly faded, but picked her head up to see Comet mercilessly beating down the changeling.
Kick after kick blurred together for Comet. He had never been so furious in his life and now he was lost in it. It didn't matter what the changeling did, he was going to hurt her for what she had done to Angel, Valyrie and himself. She had a tough exterior, but he could feel it start to buckle under his repeated attacks. The changeling was screaming in fear now, desperately trying to stop the barrage by knocking away is hooves. Comet was not to be denied this time, though, as he continued. He bit down on the mane of the changeling while he kicked and pulled up, causing her to scream louder. As he did, though, he made the mistake of stopping his barrage, giving the changeling time to push him off of her. She kicked him directly into the air and made a mad dash out from underneath him, attempting to get away. Luckily for her, she did and backed up to the fountain, staring in fear at the white pony splattered in a turquoise liquid Gorgon knew was her own blood. The pegasus landed and trotted over to her, slowly but deliberately.
"P-p-please," Gorgon stammered in fear, cradling her wounded chest, "P-please. Mercy,"
Comet stopped at her voice and stared at her. Her pleading struck something inside of him, something that made all his rage vanish. He blinked twice and looked at the defeated earth pon-, wait, wasn't he just fighting a changeling? The earth pony looked up at him with sad tangerine eyes, partially hidden under a vibrant green mane. Her golden coat seemed to shimmer in the moonlight and Comet found his breath had left him. Nova was sitting in front of him, pleading for mercy. A cold shiver ran down his back as he stared at his deceased sister, part of him believing it was her. His eyes shrunk in fear and hate, knowing this was a fake. Nova had died years ago and the changeling was using her personage to shield herself from him. Part of him wanted to beat her until she dropped Nova's image, but another part stayed his hooves. He had sworn to himself long ago he would never hurt Nova in any way, living or dead. Paralyzed by the sight of Nova, Comet stood there, unsure of what to do. He ground his teeth, wishing it was just easy enough to shrug off his colthood promise to his dead sister, but he had lost Nova once and it devastated him. Hurting her, or rather the image of her, would scar him more than losing her.
Gorgon breathed a sigh of relief as Comet froze in place, allowing her some time to recover. She had only seen the image of this pony once, but it had to be more important to Comet than Angel. As she looked down and examined her wounds, a hoof shot out and grabbed Gorgon by the neck. The hoof was white and stretched back to Comet, who was glaring at her with tears in his eyes. Gorgon shuddered in fear as Comet stared into her eyes, knowing she would probably die if he attacked her again. Instead, Comet pulled her close and flapped his wings, rising into the air and smashing through the remnants of a broken window.
"Comet, what are you doing?!" shouted Angel as she took off after him. She pursued him, following him to the training compound and to the edge of the forest, where he set down the changeling. Angel dropped to the ground behind a bush not too far away and walked out from behind it to see Comet staring directly at the curled up changeling impersonating somepony.
As Comet looked down at the changeling Nova, he felt a loathing for himself. He should've just finished it by breaking the changeling's neck without looking. He shouldn't have done this, taking her out here. However, the big tangerine eyes that stared back at him told him everything the changeling was feeling since they did the whole quivering pupil thing the real Nova's eyes did when she was terrified. He had seen this twice when Nova was alive, once when she was scared of a lightning storm, the other when a doctor told her the disease was advancing rapidly and if untreated, she would die in two weeks. Ironically, she had died two months after the second incident due to the medicine she was on for the disease. Grimacing at the sight, fresh tears rolled down Comet's cheeks, but he kept his composure.
"Get out of here," he stated in a quivering, but authoritative voice, "Get out of here and don't come back. If I see you again, nopony you imitate will save you." Nova stared at him, unsure of how to react, but reached up a hoof to touch his cheek. Comet viciously knocked away the hoof, causing the Nova-ling to flinch. "Don't touch me," Comet growled, "I know what you are, even if you don't look like it." His eyes, which were a vibrant shade of blue instead of his usual red, locked with the Nova-ling's and she nodded. Picking herself up, she tried to hobble into the forest. Before she could get in, Comet said, "Wait."
Turning around, Gorgon expected another threat, but instead found Comet press his lips against hers. Gorgon was stunned, but she didn't fight back. All sorts of conflicting emotions washed over her like soothing water and fiery lava. She could feel the love he had for this pony pouring out of him, but also the anger he had over seeing her again. Regret, sorrow and contentment were also there, whispering into her mind what he was thinking. He knew he would never see her again, but he knew he had to forget her. Deep down, he had always wanted to do this before she died, to say goodbye his own way. The kiss broke as quickly as it had happened and Gorgon/Nova stood there in shock. Comet looked over the pony once more before looking down and turning around. "Goodbye, Nova," he whispered before trotting away from the forest, over to where Angel was. Gorgon wanted to say something, but the words were stuck in her throat. She had enough emotions now to heal and feed herself, so she limped into the forest without another word.
As Comet approached Angel, the bat pony stared at him in silence. She had seen everything and as Comet stood in front of her, she smashed a hoof into his face. Comet gritted his teeth at the pain, but didn't say anything or retaliate. Angel did it again, this time to the other side of his face. Again, Comet didn't respond. The bat pony looked down after that, trying to sort out what she was feeling. She was angry at Comet for what had happened and rightfully so, since they were dating, but at the same time, she didn't want to hurt him anymore. Seeing how he changed when she was being hurt by the changeling and returning to her after seeing what she assumed was his dead sister again, she knew he cared for her as much, if not more, than that pony.
"Angel," Comet started, "I'm sorry. Sorry for everything I put you through, sorry for being the cold and unhappy jackass I have been. Mostly though, I'm sorry for not being a good stallion for you." Angel perked up her drooping ears at that, but didn't meet his gaze. "I had, well, it's just, you and Valyrie, you both remind me of my sister. So much, for a time I wanted both of you. I know that was selfish of me, but being around you two made me the happiest I had been in years. I'm sure my mother told you that, but she wouldn't have told you this. It hurt me, losing Nova. It hurt because I thought I had killed her. Deep down, I knew that wasn't true. I was sad because she left and I didn't get to say goodbye. She was everything to me and then, she was gone. No time to say anything, or tell her I would miss her, or to remind her that I loved her one last time. She just fell asleep watching me, and I was too busy for her."
Angel was quiet as he spoke. Here he was, after everything that had happened, pouring out everything to her. She didn't want him to explain everything, but she felt it was all making sense now. His parents, everything with Valyrie, the first day they met, it was all making sense. Comet, she realized, had stopped talking and she looked up, meeting his vibrant blue eyes, which she knew was actually red. He stared at her, trying to work out things to say, but found himself unable to speak. Those big golden eyes of the bat pony looked back into his own and, as they did, he found his voice again.
"Can you forgive me, Angel? Will you forgive me for being so self centered?"
Her answer took a while, but her hug told him everything. |
The Golden Armor | Miracles Happen | Following the touching moment Angel and Comet shared, they returned to the castle where the princesses Celestia and Luna were just waking up. Several ponies had gotten through the fight with little injury and were in the process of checking on other, more wounded ponies. One was a night guard by the name of Shutter, who had a peculiar limp he swore was nothing to be concerned about. Another was a pegasus named Moonshield, who had gone to the aid of Princess Cadence and had a rather large black eye from a magical bolt that impacted against a statue, dropping a big chunk onto his face. Several other ponies wandered around, tending as best they could to those hurt. It didn't take the Princesses long to summon doctors from the medical wing of the castle, as well as staff to move those hurt to the wing.
Comet and Angel found Valyrie, who was weakly breathing but still alive, and rushed her to the wing. As the doctors rushed about, both Comet and Angel took a crash course in medicine, setting Valyrie's broken limbs and stabilizing her condition under the watch of a nurse treating a badly burned pony next to them. All in all, nopony had died, but some were hurt or scarred for life from this fight, mostly those being burned from Philomena's fire wave. Shining came to the infirmary personally to collect both Comet and Angel while seeing his soldiers. The three of them marched along in silence, past the ruined ballroom which had become a temporary infirmary as well, up to the Princess's chambers.
The door was unguarded as they approached it, but before they could enter, a wave of blue magic washed over all three of them. Angel yelped and grabbed onto Comet, but the magic didn't hurt them. "It's a spell to ward off changelings," Shining stated tonelessly and they proceeded into the room. In there sat Princess Celestia, Luna and Cadence, all around a table. They all turned their gazes to the newcomers and Cadence squealed at the sight of her husband, whom she greeted with a large hug. The solar and lunar princesses, however, stared at the pegasus and bat pony like they were expecting them to turn into changelings at any second.
Luna was the first to speak up. "DOTH THOU KNOWEST WHY THINE ART HERE?"
Comet gulped hard and Angel found interest in her forehooves. Celestia sighed and said, "Sister, not the time for that."
Luna looked at her older sibling, but cleared her throat and tried again. "Ponies of the Guard, dost thou know why thy are here?" she spoke in a much less intimidating tone.
Neither Angel nor Comet responded and Luna continued. "Thou were part of the invasion this night, were thy not?"
Comet looked away and Shining spoke up. "I believe the bat pony here, Angel, was the one who rallied the real guard to rescue us."
Celestia's eyebrows raised at that and she mused, "Well, I never thought a pony loyal to my sister would save me."
"Yes, we can underst-- WAIT! WHAT DOTH THAT MEAN?!" Luna responded.
"I also seem to remember this stallion being posted to guard me at the entrance, were you not?" Celestia continued, ignoring her sister. Every eye in the room turned to Comet and he felt a shudder run down his back.
"Er, I don't remember, my princess," Comet stated with a quivering voice.
"WHAT DOTH THOUT MEAN, 'THY CANNOT RECALL'?!" the lunar princess demanded.
"Yes, I too am curious," the white alicorn agreed, narrowing her magenta eyes at the stallion, "My captain, Shining Armor, was under the control of another changeling queen, but he could recall almost everything that happened."
"If I may, auntie," Cadence chimed in, drawing both stares of the princesses, "I was with a guest who said he saw the changeling attack you. He says one of the stallions eyes were glowing green when it happened. If it was this stallion, then he would not remember any of it, just like Shining didn't."
"AND WHO WAS THIS GUEST YOU DOTH SPEAK OF?" Luna thundered without meaning to.
"That would be me," came a new voice, thickly accented. Behind all of them, a powdery blue unicorn with a white wavy mane and a red jacket stood proudly as everypony looked at him. Luna gasped, Shining tensed and Celestia chuckled.
"Oh dear," she mused, "It would seem you had a hoof in things again, Doctor."
"I REMEMBER THOU!" shouted Luna, "I SAW THEE RIGHT BEFORE THE ATTACK!"
The unicorn rubbed his ear and responded, "Er, yes, I believe you did. It has been quite a while, Luna, but I'm glad to see you too."
"Wait," Shining interrupted, "Just who are you?!"
"I'm the Doctor," the unicorn replied comfortably.
"Doctor who?" Shining demanded.
"Exactly," he beamed. At that, both Celestia and Luna burst out into laughter, catching Shining off guard.
"My dear captain," Celestia said between laughs, "He is a very trusted member of Equestria. Do let him speak." The white unicorn remained tense, but allowed the Doctor to continue.
"Yes, well, you see this stallion here," he began, waving a hoof at Comet, "Was an important part of the attack, but not in the way you think. My companion, Paradox, was temporarily knocked out by the changeling force. I tailed him since he had stopped giving me reports on Artron energy readings around the castle, and I found that the changeling was manipulating this stallion against his will."
"How can you be sure, though, Doctor?" Celestia asked with concern.
"I noticed, as I'm sure his gryffon friend will confirm, he blinked quite often when he was forced to do something he didn't want to. I believe he did so with you, Shining, when he told you of the threat."
Shining recoiled for a second, but thought back to the day Comet told him about the fake threat. "Yeah, he paused several times and blinked a lot."
The Doctor beamed happily and stated, "There you have it. This fine, upstanding stallion was forced to do things against his will, whether he remembers them or not. I have been helping investigate changeling magic since the first attack and I now have a theory as to their mind controlling magic. The victim of such magic has his memory wiped to erase any trace of the changelings. The way it works eludes me, but now we have solid proof of my theory. I do believe, however, the changeling can manipulate how the spell works, allowing the pony affected to remember certain things, like Shining Armor's case."
Shining blushed slightly, but kept his composure.
"So, I do not believe either pony here is responsible for aiding the enemy. In fact, since the bat pony here marshaled the real guard in time and the stallion drove off the biggest threat, I think they deserve promotions," the Doctor stated with a confident smile.
The princesses stayed quiet for a while and looked at each other before turning to Shining. "I would actually like to have the stallion as part of my personal guard," Celestia said.
"WE WOULD ALSO LIKE TO ADD THE BAT PONY TO OUR OWN GUARD!" Luna shouted.
Shining bowed his head and said, "It will be done, my princesses."
On the other side of the room, and what felt like the world, Angel's eyes widened and a large grin split her face. Comet stood there, completely dumbstruck. The solar princess, Princess Celestia, wanted him as part of her personal guard?!
"In fact," the solar princess continued, "Didn't you say you were considering them for a special role not too long ago?"
"Yes, my liege," Shining responded, "With your permission, I would like to make them the new commanders of your personal guards."
Comet literally thought he was going to throw up. Angel almost squealed with delight.
Celestia nodded and Luna grinned. "THOU HAS OUR PERMISSION!"
"Sister, please."
Shining returned his gaze to the two ponies near the door. "You are dismissed," he stated brusquely. The two ponies saluted and left the chambers, Angel exploding with delight and Comet attempting to understand what had just happened. Back in the chambers, Shining rounded to the Doctor.
"Okay, now tell me, who are you?"
Celestia laughed and said, "It's quite a long story."
In the days following the attack, Comet and Angel busied themselves helping wherever they could. As Valyrie recovered, Comet and Angel spent time with Shining Armor, going over various things they would need to know as the commanders of the princesses personal guards. Several others were promoted as well, namely Shutter and Moonshield to the Lunar Guard. With the Solar Guard lacking, Comet found a couple fresh guards who had protected several fallen comrades, Holly Stalk and Wild Fire.
The days melted into weeks as the guards recovered. The wounded changelings seemed to disappear once they got better, but thanks to the Doctor, the rest of the guard was sure they left the castle. Soon, with about eighty percent of the guard back to full health, Shining decided it was time to promote Comet and Angel officially. However, a lingering thought in the back of Comet's mind still tortured him. He still had to choose between Angel and Valyrie. On the day of the ceremony where Celestia and Luna would personally welcome them into their service, Comet sat alone in Philomena's Tower. The phoenix had burned itself to ashes in the attack, but had shown up two days later, full of health and vigor. The phoenix had warmed up to Comet considerably, now sitting on his shoulder as he sat in the silence.
He had much to think about as he sat in the stillness. Angel was a beautiful bat pony who had effectively ruined his life in a good way. He loved her big golden eyes, her bubbly personality and her obnoxious behavior. The only problem was, now he'd hardly see her anymore with her captaining the Lunar Guard. Valyrie, on the other hoof, was a wonderful gryffon who needed a pony to look after her, something Comet was good at doing. She had a wonderful personality buried beneath her hard exterior and had openly shared everything with him. However, as he thought about it, the answer slowly came to him. Once he told Philomena about his decision, the phoenix cawed happily and gave him a gentle peck on the head.
Angel shuffled nervously behind the stage, itching from her new dress armor. It was pretty much the same as the armor she wore at the Gala and subsequent attack, but just with more points and shine. As she waited, she heard hoof falls behind her and sighed heavily. "Comet, you know you;re almost la-"
She was cut off by a pair of lips meeting hers.
Utterly stunned, it took a couple seconds for her mind to register what was happening. Comet's eyes were closed with his muzzle against hers. Angel thought her heart had stopped as she slowly returned the kiss. Everything around them just seemed to melt away as Angel and Comet stayed together, enjoying the moment and each other. Finally, after what would normally be deemed an excessive amount of time, Comet and Angel finally broke away, staring into each others eyes. Angel wasn't sure how to react, but a white light from behind her drew their attention. Angel's flank was shining.
Gasping excitedly, Angel leaned over and pulled up the side of her armor, which was metal plated over a thick wool coat. On her flank appeared the image of a heartbeat line. Angel's initial excitement gave away to confusion as she turned to Comet.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
"You didn't have a cutie mark this whole time?" Comet asked at the same time.
Angel chuckled at that and said, "Bat ponies usually don't have cutie marks. When Luna was banished, Celestia tried to gain our loyalty by making us more like normal ponies. She lessened our vision sensitivity, made us Royal Guards and attempted to give us cutie marks. Instead, the spell didn't work well with our natural magic, so many never get cutie marks. Only those who know for certain everything about themselves get them. So," she paused, looking back at her flank," What's it mean?"
Comet laughed softly and wrapped his hooves around the bat pony. "Why don't we find out together?" Angel's gaze turned back around to him and she kissed him again. She loved his strong frame, his gentle touch and how he always distracted her from whatever she was doing.
"Private Comet Burst, Private Angel Beats!" boomed Shining Armor's voice from somewhere. The couple stopped and looked around worriedly, but realized he had just announced their names from the platform in the other room, "Report for duty!"
Getting promoted was the best feeling ever. Getting tackled by a happy bat pony as the crowd was cheering, however, was not.
Afterwards, Comet walked along with Angel to his new office, one only three doors down from Shining's. Comet was still embarrassed and mad she had tackled him, but it sparked a question he had wanted to ask her.
"Hey," he started lamely, "That day in the alley, why did you tackle me?"
Angel paused at that and thought.
"I dunno," she said happily, "But I'm glad I did!" |
The Golden Armor | Epilogue | It took Valyrie a couple of times to try and open her eyes. The light was unusually harsh on her, causing her retinas to sting. Moaning, she reached up with her claw and rubbed her brow, hoping to alleviate the pain. It hurt in its own way, but worked enough for her to try and open her eyes once more. As the harsh light faded into more recognizable colors, she noted she was staring at the ceiling of a white room.
Valyrie blinked a couple of times, trying to recall what had happened. Her mind was foggy, but bits and pieces came back to her. The last vivid memory she had was her fighting a large and very angry changeling, all the while trying to reach Comet, who was apparently being held hostage. She remembered she wasn't doing too well, being lifted into the air and then...
Her left shoulder stung at the memory. Valyrie hissed slightly and tried to move it, but found she was unable to do so. Looking over, she saw not only her shoulder, but her whole left arm was bound securely with layers of white cloth and suspended in the air with a couple wires. Her mind went blank at the sight and a sense of horror washed over her. She knew the fight went badly for her, but she didn't think her entire left side was broken. Tentatively, Valyrie attempted to move her claws and found the tips of them wiggle out of the end. Valyrie breathed a huge sigh of relief and relaxed back against her pillows, knowing she could at least she could still move.
The dead silence of the room made her uncomfortable after several hours. Valyrie had never been so bored before, but she tried to pass the time as best she could. She experimented moving part of her left arm and shoulder, finding she had no pain from her elbow down. Upwards towards her shoulder, though, she could barely twitch without experiencing a mind numbing lance of pain. After that, she counted the speckles on the ceiling three times, confirming there were four hundred and seventy two in the three tiles above her head, meaning there were about one hundred fifty seven per tile, give or take a few. Once math bored her, she hummed to herself a couple songs from her home, wishing her mother was here.
A steady set of hoofbeats caught her attention as she looked to the door on her right. Standing in the doorway was a violet unicorn, levitating a clipboard. "Ms. Valyrie Coldclaw?" the pony asked.
"Uh huh?" Valyrie responded. She didn't particularly like the use of her last name, but she said nothing.
The pony lowered the clipboard and gave a sincere smile. "How are you feeling today?"
"Oh, uh, pretty good."
"I see," the pony said, "So, since you are awake, I gather you have some questions you would like to ask?"
Valyrie just looked over to her arm as the pony began to speak again.
"Ah yes, about your arm. Well, when you were brought to us, we did our best to splint it. Your clavicle had split and dislocated your humerous, meaning we first had to reattach your arm to your shoulder before we could fix what was wrong. We put you into a deep sleep and applied some very powerful pain relieving spells so you wouldn't wake as we maneuvered your arm back into its socket. On a side note, you had three ribs with rather large cracks in them as well."
Valyrie said nothing as the doctor rattled off item after item of problems she had. It took several more minutes for the doctor to leave and she sat in silence, wondering what her father would think. Here she was in Equestria as a form of punishment and she somehow managed to pick a fight with a powerful enemy, leaving her hospitalized with a completely messed up left shoulder. In the Griffon Kingdom, this was a sign of great honor as fighting off such an enemy and only getting one arm hurt was a rare thing. Many of those who fought larger beasts, like wyverns or chimeras, came back in an even worse state than she did. Plus, those monsters didn't use magic, unlike the changeling she fought.
About four days later, Valyrie sat alone in the same bed, thinking and staring at the ceiling silently. Comet had visited her in his new armor and told her of what had happened in the past few days. He relayed the promotion ceremony and told of his new rank, but saved the part about Angel for last. It made Valyrie sad to hear he chose Angel over her, but she wasn't bitter about it. She had accepted Comet wouldn't be hers after her confrontation with Angel before the attack, but that didn't mean she didn't shed a few tears after talking to Comet.
Now, all alone, she waited for the time to slide by. As she was nodding off, a couple of hoofbeats caught her attention. Looking over, she was rather amazed by what she saw. The familiar sight of a bat pony stood in the doorway, looking around as if lost. The pony was taller than Angel and had a more masculine appearence, showing off some larger muscles in his front legs and neck. He had a scar running across his right eye, almost like a wound from an encounter with a wild animal. His mane was shorter than Comet's, trimmed closer to his fur but long enough to tell it was a mane. His more feral looking eyes scanned the room and came to a dead stop on Valyrie.
"Oh!" He exclaimed in a voice that reminded her of a cello. "I'm sorry! I was looking for the head doctor and I got, uh, lost..."
"It's okay." Valyrie said automatically, not taking her eyes off of the pony. "What's your name?"
The pony watched her too and responded, "It's, uh, Midnight Glow. What's yours?"
The two wound up talking for a good long while, Midnight Glow totally forgetting who he was looking for. Valyrie found him likeable, more so than Comet when she first met him. He had apparently come to join the guard after hearing a sibling of his had, so he was hoping to find the said pony.
"What's the pony's name? I might know who it is." Valyrie offered.
Midnight Glow looked her straight in the eyes and said, "Her name is Angel Beats. She's my half sister." |
The heart of a dragon | pre | "Yeah I can't wait to see the what the world looks like from the air!" Selene said as she bounced around
"I still say that there is no way this thing can fly." Said Sky
"It fine Sky I made sure everything is perfectly and it's not the first time I have made this. Oh yeah I wanted to ask you girls if you want make the flag for the ship." Suddenly before anyone could say anything Selene squealed and ran back inside. And then came running out with a roll of cloth.
"I made this just in case you asked us to come up with one." She said as she unraveled the cloth to reveal two dragons circling each other in a yin and yang fashion, one of the dragons have a sun and the other a moon. Overall it was perfect
"It's perfect Selene thank you for this." I said as I walked over to the mast of the ship in hugin it up before walking back over to the girls "alrighty let get a move on!"
The Fluttershy, Foxy and Selene cheered as I started the ship.
(Side note scenes involving canterlot we'll be using this line break)
(Two months later canterlot castle)
"*Sigh* Two bucking months and my sister still gone and now the nobles are demanding to tell them where Celestia is. I swear if it wasn't for my sister telling me not to kill the nobles I probably would have killed most of them." Luna seized with rage as she paced back and forth.
"Uh Luna do you mind calming down and your starting to freeze the flowers." Discord said as he held up a pot full of Lily's.
"Calm down! Calm down! I am completely calm!" Luna yelled
Suddenly discord was wearing a suit and tie with sunglasses "would you like me to find somethings on the nobles that would be embarrassing or put them in jail."
"You know what, do it! I want them to learn not to be assholes to everyone and not to come to the crown to sort out every little thing!"
"Now your talking my language! And as the Italian once said let's a go!" Discord said as he jumped into the air before turning into coins.
(May 12 Sunday midnight POV Jay)
I yawned as walked out of the bridge and sighed as I looked up at the night sky. As looked back at the Bow and noticed nightmare (or how I like to call her my little moonlight) sitting on the railing. So I snuck up behind her picked her up which caused her to let out a small 'eep' as I put her on my lap and rapped my arms around midsection.
"So my little moonlight, what brings you to up and about at this time?" I asked as forced my primal instincts and grew my wings and rapped them around her. (Special training aloud me to focus my primal instincts in certain areas)
She let out a consent sigh as she nestled the back her head into my chest. "I know you told me not to worry about it, but I worry about it. I mean does anyone truly appreciate the night I've made for them? What if no one ever cared?"
"Moon... you know that's not true, hell I could probably sing a couple of song involving the moon. And due you know why?" I asked as I whispered the last into her ear which caused her to shiver.
"No"
"It's because people see a beautiful moonlit night as one of the most romantic things. A nice hand made dinner, soft music, underneath the stars while being next to the one you love." I said as I started to gently massage her sides which was causing her to fall asleep.
"Thank you Jay I love you." She said slowly as she fell asleep in my arms and wings so I decided lay back and let her sleep on top of me.
(12 hours later)
"It's the flying Dutchmen he's come to collect our souls!" Yelled a pony pirate as he saw a flying ship in the sky.
"Oh please don't tell me you believe what those old men said. Because there's no su-" suddenly four ghostly green harpoon Spears and better themselves into the ship connected by chains and complete forcing the ship to stop moving.
"Sweet mother of-" suddenly he saw what looked like stone soldiers falling on to the deck of the ship. "Quickly stallions to arms we can't let them take the slaves!" Yelled the Griffin captain as drawn his scimitar. The other pirates started to yell in agreement as they draw their weapons and charge at the soldiers. But before the battle could start three figures fell one was Jay wearing his armor and cursed charge blade, and to his left was Foxy with her newly made armor (that Jay begrudgingly made) katana kunai (32)
And Jay's right was daybreaker wearing her new armor and her hellberg.
"Alright ladies you know the drill take their treasure and look for slaves." Jay said he took hold of his sword and red barrier appeared over his left arm. Both daybreaker and foxy nodded and foxy disappeared in a flash of smoke and daybreaker broke the floorboards underneath her. "Okay men you know what to do!"
After 10 minutes someone yelled "I call for the pirates code!" I looked over the crowd and saw what I was guessing is the captain walked towards me. His men stopped and I stopped mine.
"You know the pirates code is more of a suggestion." His face turned white as I said that and in one quick motion I quickly cut him across the chest and fell to the ground. Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see daybreaker.
"Hey we got everything." I nodded my head as I motion for the stone soldiers to leave and as we left one of soldiers set fire to the deck. And we grab the chains as they were yanked free.
(30 minutes later in Fluttershy's medical bay)
"Hey Fluttershy how are they?" I asked as I walked into her medical room.
"Oh there fine but I'm a little bit scared of them but at the same time I'm not."
"What do you mean?"
"Well they both look like villains that tried to take over Equestria. The changeling looks like the changeling queen but she's shorter and her hair is blue. And the female centaur looks like a male centaur that tried to steal all of the magic in Equestria. But at the same time I know that it's not them." Fluttershy said as she rubbed her body against mine
"Do you want me to talk to them when they wake up?" I asked as I felt my body heat up
"I would appreciate it if you don't mind." |
Our Darkest Hour | pre | Redheart smiled feeling great about herself for doing such a good deed. Rainbow Dash and Olek went through the doors to the hospital to head back into town.
* * *
4:31 PM
Rainbow Dash and Olek made their way towards the center of town. Olek had come out of the hospital much stronger from going in as he was walking on his own with little to no support from Rainbow Dash by his side, but his sudden burst of strength was starting to vanish. While the water Olek received at the hospital was of great help, it will only last for a short time. Without proper nutrition it will all be in vein in a matter of minutes. Rainbow Dash knew that, and thankfully the buffet she was taking him to was now within eyesight.
Rainbow Dash can feel the eyes of the town on her and Olek once again, but it didn't get to her as much this time around. She ignored most of them, but she did give the occasional glare to the ponies who were obviously talking about her and/or Olek behind their backs.
"Ew gross! He looks like he had trouble finding his way out of prison!" cried the obnoxious voice of a filly from behind them, followed by laughing from her and another filly.
Rainbow Dash's eyes narrowed in rage and turned around to give one of the most fiery, hate-filled glares she had ever given to none other than Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon laughing away. Rainbow had heard about these brats from Scootaloo, but never witnessed their snobbery until now; and boy, she was one fiber away from murdering them. Rainbow Dash lifted herself with her wings and was just about to go over there and give the two fillies a piece of her mind, but she was stopped by a hoof from Olek to in front of her chest.
Olek shook his head, "It is not worth the fight... look..." Olek pointed towards Filthy Rich walking over from a shopping stall to the fillies with a rather angry expression.
"Diamond Tiara! Not another word out of you!" he cried dragging her by the ear with his mouth.
"Ow! But Dad!" Diamond Tiara cried as she was dragged away with Silver Spoon following with her head lowered.
Rainbow Dash landed and looked at Olek with a curious expression. "How did you know that was her dad?"
"It is my job to be observant," he replied as they began to walk forward towards the buffet in front of them once again.
"What is your job, then?" Rainbow asked.
"Good afternoon," says a male waiter behind a podium at the entrance to the fenced area outside the restaurant with tables made of large mushrooms, looking down at some paperwork, "Seat for t-" he looks up and sees Olek with wide eyes.
Rainbow Dash answers, almost sounding insulted, "Yes, seat for two. Inside will be great."
"Y-yes, of coarse... right, um, right this way," studded the waiter as he lead Rainbow Dash and Olek inside the buffet restaurant.
* * *
"Right there is fine, waiter," said Rainbow Dash pointing to an empty two-pony booth-styled table off to the left corner of the half filled restaurant buffet. Nearly everything from the carpets to the chairs were colored red. On the back end of the room was a long table with trays on both ends filled with all sorts of foods and cuisines.
"Very well, Miss," the waiter said, guiding both Rainbow Dash and Olek to their table. The waiter lays out two place mats on both sides of the already preset table. He leaves briefly as Rainbow takes a seat on the far side of the table, facing the door to the restaurant, while Olek sits across from her. The waiter returns with a pitcher of water and fills both glasses.
"Do think you can leave the pitcher here?" Rainbow asked.
The waiter looked over to Olek and nods, realizing who's it for, "Sure. No problem, Miss," He knew better than to ask why, especially since she already knew Rainbow Dash and her notorious temper, just seeing Olek's current state was enough to answer the question, "Enjoy your meal," he said plainly before leaving.
"Well," Rainbow turned to Olek with a sly smile, "you heard the nurse! Drink up! I'm off to get your food." She gets up from her seat to the back of the resteraunt, leaving Olek to drink the water before him. Rainbow picks up the try that had a strap on one side so ponies like herself can easily carry it, puttting it over her neck so she can freely pick out Olek's food. Soups, breads, apple sauce, squash, mashed potatoes, turnips, and various other soft foods she put on the tray. She knew Olek was not going to eat all of this, but she at least was going to make sure she gets plenty to wrap up to go with them back to Rainbow's cloud home.
All of this is reminding Rainbow Dash that she is going to have to do some serious grocery shopping very soon since all of the food at her house is not suitable for starvation recovery, let alone herself since she barely eats at home.
She returned to the table with they tray filled with soft foods and placed it in front of Olek, "Here you go, champ. Don't worry about eating all of it; we're taking the rest back with us."
Olek's eyes grew wide, as if he was seeing God himself. He didn't know where to start. He picked up the spoon and started with soup. It was heavenly to him as mumbled words in his native language as he ate before speaking English again to Rainbow Dash. "It is so hard to listen to the nurse about eating slowly," he says with his mouth full.
"Then don't!" says Rainbow Dash, "You don't have to worry about manners around me; trust me," she chuckles.
There was a brief pause, then he dove into the soup. Taking spoonful after spoonful, eventually loosing the spoon and going in head first, creating a mess all around him. This caused Rainbow to smile, eventually to chuckle. She figured that Olek will not be saying another word for quite a while, and that now was her cue to get food for herself, after all, all she had today was a few hoof full of chips earlier this morning, whose taste of vinegar still lingers in her mouth.
* * *
17 Minuets Later...
4: 48 PM
After the two have chowed down on their all-you-can-eat meal, as well as some idle chat between the two, both are now completely full. Rainbow Dash ate much more solid foods than Olek, finishing all of it. Olek only ate about half of what was given to him, but even for a healthy stallion it still was a lot.
"My goodness..." Olek murmurs with very pleased smile on his face leaning back into the chair with a hoof over his stomach, "I have not eaten like that for as long as I can remember..."
"You're telling me!" Rainbow agreed lazily, "I've always preferred this place the most because of this feeling right now."
"What about the bill?" Olek asked.
"Don't worry about that, I'll pay for it. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet, so the price is always the same; and this place is surprisingly pretty reasonable," replied Rainbow looking up to the ceiling, satisfied.
The two sat there for another few moments, allowing the food they were just devouring only minuets ago settle in their stomachs. Rainbow then decided to try and get Olek to open up about himself again, this time after getting his wing in a cast, getting him properly fed, and promising to take him into her care. She can tell that Olek, not only is breathing better, and in much better shape now than a few hours ago, but is no longer suspicious about her after helping him so much, and now is probably the best time she might ever have.
"So Olek..." Rainbow began, "Back at the hospital you said you were from Coltland, and just before coming in here you said it was your job to be observant. Now, unless I got my news wrong, wasn't Coltland the first nation that Germaneigh attacked in the war?"
"Yes it was," he responds.
"Do you think you're ready to talk about yourself, now? I gave you my life story, I think it's fair I know your's; I mean if you're staying with me, I would like to know who I'm dealing with," Rainbow said cautiously, but confidently.
"From the moment I saw you outside that cave I knew you were not some spy for the Gerneighians, especially after insulting you in their language; but I wanted to make sure just in case. After you took the time to rescue me, and even offer to shelter me; I think it's safe to let you know..."
Rainbow Dash was more than happy that her curiosity about this stallion was going to be satisfied. She leaned in, signaling that she was listening.
"I was born and raised in a distillery that was built on a small vineyard just on the outskirts of Coltland's capital of Horsaw," Olek says looking down towards the table recalling his past.
"A distillery? Like where they make liquors?" Rainbow asked, now even more interested as a smile grew on her face on the topic of booze.
Olek smiled at Rainbow's reaction, "Yes, we made both vodka and wine. Our vodka was sold across all of Europa before the war, though most of it rarely went to Western countries. Our wines were only a local commodity. I was the oldest of three siblings. My mother and my baby sister, Ruta, were both killed when I was only six years old from the Bird Flu epidemic in the 1020's. Ruta was only two when she passed."
"Wow... I'm, I'm so sorry!" Rainbow announced, debating if she brought up bad memories.
Olek smiled, "It is alright. I still had my brother, Mirek, and my father; though I rarely saw him in my foalhood. He always worked in the distillery or got himself drunk. Mirek was only a year younger than me, but he was so mature for his age while I was the immature troublemaker; nonetheless we were both very mischievous. It was only a five minute walk into Horsaw. We used to go into town almost everyday and did all sorts of pranks. Mirek and I were close. We worked together to get our Cutie Marks and formed a small time gang with other colts; even after I turned eighteen when my father forced me into the military, I refused to leave until Mirek turned eighteen as well so he can join along with me."
"So you're a prankster, huh? Oh, you and me are going to have some fun once you get healthy enough!" Rainbow commented, rubbing her hooves together wickedly.
Olek chuckled and continued,"Yes. Well. I joined the Coltish Armed Services at the age of nineteen in the summer of 1038. My marefriend at the time also joined as a nurse."
"Oh! A mare's stallion!" Rainbow commented as she nudged his hoof on the table playfully with hers.
Olek shrugged at that comment, but shook it off and continued, "During boot camp I was separated from my brother for the first time after showing my skills behind the gun. That's what my cutie mark represents under this ink," Olek points to his ink covered flank, "a set of crosshairs I earned from shooting the rats in the vineyard; with Mirek's help of coarse. They then shipped me out of boot camp early and into the Coltish 1st Sniper Battalion and began their training. These stallions were the best of the best, and were unheard of from the public. They can pick off an apple off one's head hundreds of meters away, and I became one of them."
"So that explains you saying it's your job to be observant, and those pinpoint accurate shots on those timberwolves," Rainbow thought. A question then popped in her head before Olek continued, "I don't mean to get off track, Olek, but how is it you know English so well? How did you get bilingual?"
"I'm trilingual, actually; almost quadrilingual. I am native to Coltish, and I learned Equissian while doing some missionary work in Equissia before I joined the military. Then I was forced to learn English after doing diplomacy work in Great Braytin later on, and I picked up on some Gernieghian during the war. I can assure you that it saved my tail more than a few times."
"Missionary work? You're not going going to start preaching to me are you?" Rainbow asked sarcastically.
Olek chuckled, "Maybe a decade ago when I was a little choir-colt. My father... was very religious, but my views on religion and even life itself have changed greatly since I first left the distillery with Mirek for the military. So anyways, I become a sniper. Trained in the art of stealth, precision, strategy, and most importantly... patience. I came out of training in the fall of that year, and I was then required to learn English for diplomacy work in Great Braytin. Apparently, I was hoof chosen by the Coltish government itself because of my missionary work in Equissia, along with a dozen other Coltish diplomats. They knew I can work well in a foreign country with foreign ponies."
"Why did the Coltish government send diplomats to Great Braytin, anyways?" Rainbow asked.
"Coltland was at the brink of war with both Equissia and Germaneigh and the Coltish government wanted to negotiate with the Braytish to allow the Coltish government to go into exile in their country, should Coltland were to ever fall. I remained in Liondon, Great Braytin's capital, for about two months; until war broke out in November of 1038."
"Wait a sec," Rainbow interrupted, "I thought the war began in September of 1039?"
"This was another war. Vladimir Stallion of Equissia wanted Coltland back. You see: Coltland only gained it's independence after the Great War in 1018, after being under Equissian territory for over a century before that. This war was called the Cotish-Hooviet War, be we called it the Winter War, for it only lasted through the winter. Let us just say it was the longest winters of my life; but I became a distinguished soldier and promoted to 1st Lieutenant as a result."
"Damn... That's so cool!" Rainbow cried.
"You weren't there," Olek looked down solemnly, "The first time I took a a life... was one of the worst things I ever had to do... We were outnumbered and outgunned in those freezing forests; but Coltland became victorious nonetheless; holding off the force of Equissia. I returned home to Horwsaw after that in March of 1039 as a hero, along with Mirek who helped man the artillery convoys. My father, for the first time, was proud of us. For the next few months it was quiet... quiet like the beginning to any storm."
Rainbow put her hoof out to connect with Olek's in sympathy, noticing that Olek was beginning to struggle with his narration and knowing where this was going, "Then this war begins, right?" Rainbow asked.
Olek was silent, "I'll never forget the day the Gerneighians first attacked. September 1, 1039. Wave after wave Sitler's war machine blasted through our defenses, inching - no, not inching: sprinting... Sprinting closer and closer to the capital. The odds were against us; Sitler attacked with a forty-to-one force against us. Sitler's bombers dropped their bombs over all of the major cities without end; night and day, even Horsaw. It was a miracle how the distillery managed to not get hit, out vineyard still has craters from those bombs today. Mirek and I were sent to fight in the decisively losing battle; as soon as we reached the defensive line we were ordered to retreat. To make matters worse, Stallion worked alongside Sitler and invaded Coltland's eastern borders on the 17th, splitting our nation into two halves. We had enemies, now at an eighty-to-one ratio all around us; surrounding us."
"But isn't Sitler attacking Equissia right now?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes. But at the time, they were mutual partners. On September 30, Sitler's army marched through the streets of Horsaw victorious as the Coltish government had fled to Liondon in exile and the Coltish military were ordered to stand down and disband. However, Coltland never officially surrendered, even to this day. The ponies of Coltland did not just let the Gerneighians parade through our streets so easily... We resisted. My brother and I were some of the first to organize an underground movement against the Gerneighians with some our colleagues during the Winter War. As they tore down our flags and raised their own above Horsaw, we fought back in the streets, marking the beginning of the resistance movement."
"Hold on a sec..." Rainbow interrupted again, "You mean to tell me that you are one of the leading ponies of the Coltish Underground?"
Olek simply nodded, looking right into Rainbow's eyes as she began to glow with amazement.
"That is... so awesome!" she squealed. Olek couldn't help chuckle at the sound she made saying that, "I mean it, Olek! That is coolest thing I heard since my friend Twilight grew frick'in wings!"
"I am surprised you even heard of us, the Allies seem to forget we even exist," said Olek, feeling rather comfortable and prideful at the moment. This is the first time he talked about all of this to another pony, ever.
"Well, I've been paying attention, unlike others who only say they do. And if it makes you feel any better, I have great admiration for what you resistances stand for," Rainbow reached for Olek's hoof again, giving a welcoming smile, "Although... I can't imagine the true horrors you've seen. It's probably not as glorious as I'm making it sound."
Rainbow can then feel his hoof shake, and Olek's eyes wonder. Rainbow began to worry if she had just triggered an hallucination that nurse Redheart warned might happen.
The look Rainbow gave to Olek, along with her previous statement about the true horrors began to fill his mind with the sounds from memories. The sound of his brother's voice, gunfire, the burning of buildings, the booms of artillery fire, the crying of foals, the screams of fear from mares... the voice of one certain mare.
Rainbow noticed Olek's facial expression changed rapidly and fear filled his eyes as he avoids eye contact in every way, his hoof beneath hers began to tremble, and his breathing increased. "Olek...? Are you alright?" she asked nervously. She must have said something that reminded him of something terrible. This must be an hallucination, all she can do is wait it out. She kept her hoof on his to comfort him, "Olek?"
"Olek!" that mare's voice cried in Olek's mind, "Hurry! They're right behind us!".
He then heard his own voice call out, "Mirek! Panther tank! Get down!"
After a loud explosion, Mirek's voice says, "Their coming up the stairs, get to the roof!"
"Olek!" cried the mare's voice again "I can't do it!
"You have to, come on!" cried Olek's own voice.
Olek looks up to Rainbow Dash's magenta eyes, although Olek didn't see Rainbow Dash, but something else; a blurry shadowy mare with the same outline Rainbow Dash. The magenta in the eyes are the only color that almost seemed to shine through the shadows. "Olek!" she cried. The sound of a gun fires and the hallucination disappears, only to have Rainbow Dash in front of him once more with a very concerned look on her face.
"Olek!" Rainbow cried, just loud enough to not disturb the other tables in the restaurant.
Olek shook his head coming back to reality, "Sorry... I... I must have hallucinated."
"Ya think...? We can stop and head to my place if ya want?" Rainbow offered.
"No...! No. You are the first pony I have ever talked to about any of this," Olek takes a second to recuperate. Rainbow Dash was staring at him with a concerned expression, he needs sleep. However, something about him showed he was just as stubborn as she was, so she listened to attentively knowing she can't do anything about it. Olek continued, "So for the next couple of years Mirek and I fought back; being a part of the formation of what was eventually called 'the Home Army', which was one of the leading groups that made up the Coltish Underground. We trained and lead civilians and soldiers alike in sabotaging Sitler's war machine and assassinating key figures and officers. Through it all we remained loyal to our government-in-exile. Stallions, mares, colts, fillies; we all fought back as citizens our nation, regardless of political or ethnic background, in hopes to one day we ignite an uprising that will free our nation from our oppressors."
"That's incredible..." said Rainbow Dash in awe, trying not to spark another hallucination from him, "You're so outnumbered and yet you continue to fight. I'm impressed. I don't think Equestria could have that much determination if we became occupied, even if Celestia was leading us the whole way."
Olek smiled at the comment, but it quickly vanished when he began talking again, "Then one day in February of 1042... we made one fatal slip. After detonating one of the railroad supply lines that went to the Equissian front, somepony forgot to hide our tracks in the snow. Because of that the Gernieghians found us, and our hideout, taking about a dozen resistance members, including Mirek and myself to... to that, that camp."
"Camp? What camp?" asked Rainbow Dash, curious about where this was going.
Olek didn't answer for another few moments, he simply stared at the table, slowly shaking his head. "Mój Boże," he whispered putting a hoof on his forehead. Olek looked up into Rainbow's magenta eyes with his light blue. Rainbow can see how serious he was. She noticed that she had forgotten her hoof was still on his, she grasped tighter in an effort to comfort him.
"That camp..." he says in a raspy voice, "is the true definition of Hell."
Rainbow was stunned by that sentence. They both sat there in silence. Rainbow Dash was unsure where to take the conversation after hearing what she heard. She wasn't sure if he should continue. After several seconds of silence between the two she took her hoof off of Olek's and was just about to get up and move to his side of the table to comfort him somehow; that is until the waiter came over again.
"Um... excuse me," said the waiter, looking and sounding almost like he was intimidated by something, "I don't mean to interrupt anything, but there are two foreign stallions looking for somepony that fits your... *ahem*... features," he said nervously after seeing Rainbow Dash's hate-filled glare to him.
"Two foreign stallions?" asked Rainbow Dash. Olek looked up to the waiter curiously.
"Um, yeah. They're wearing black leather jackets, some weird red armbands on their arms, and creepy military hats with a skull and crossbones on them. Judging by their accents, I think they're Gerneighian. They're at the front door, now."
Olek's eyes widened and his heart raced, he knew that description all to well. It took him a second to recuperate and turn around to peer over the seats to the door. Rainbow pushed her body up to look over everypony's heads. There stood those stallions, one Earth pony and the other a Pegasus, waiting impatiently at the entrance. Olek turned back around, his fear-filled eyes scanned around the room to find a quick exit. Rainbow continued to watch those peculiar stallions for another few seconds, getting an idea developed in her mind.
"Waiter?" Rainbow asked sitting back down, "You tell them that he is not here."
"But they said they have witnesses of him coming in he-."
"Do it or I'll personally see to it that you're out of a job by this time tomorrow! Got it, buddy?" Rainbow threatened gripping hit collar with her hoof and dragging his head down to her level.
The waiter nodded nervously and Rainbow let go. The waiter bolted back to the stallions by the door.
She gazed past Olek's head for another few moments to be sure the waiter was going to do as she requested. She looked back to Olek after sitting back down. Olek whispered nervously:
"I need to get out of here."
"No," Rainbow says putting both of her hooves onto his on the table, looking right into Olek's eyes, "You stay here; I'm not going to let 'em take you... I promise," she smiled.
It was Olek's turn to be stunned by Rainbow's sentence. No one has ever helped Olek to this extent before. This was the first time in a long time he looked into the eyes of an ally. No... a friend.
"NEIN!" cried one the foreign Pegasus, breaking Rainbow and Olek's bonding moment as Rainbow Dash looked back, as well as the rest of the restaurant as all other conversations ceased and all focus was to the Pegasus, "HE IZ HE'A! AND VE'A GOING TO FIND Z'IM! Gustav?"
Suddenly, the Earth pony through up his hoof and struck the waiter across the face. The waiter fell to the floor with a bloody nose that left everypony in the restaurant to gasp and be dismayed by the scene. The two stallions separated and began to walk the length of the two opposite walls. The Pegasus headed right for Rainbow Dash and Olek's table. From the entrance, only the the back of Olek's head was visible as he did not look back to the stallions in fear they might spot him. The stallions searched each booth as he passes each seat. Rainbow gazed at him angrily.
"V'e know you are her'a, Prison'a fifty-nine thousand, six hundred and seventy! Olek... Władysław... Poznan...! V'anted for treason, murder, reconnaissance, espionage, sabotage, resistance, counterfeiting, vandalism, thievery, jaywalking..."
The Gerneighian continued to spout out words that Olek was charged for. Rainbow chuckled and looked at Olek, "Nice middle name," she commented in a hushed voice. Olek felt surprisingly comfortable in this situation, chuckling along with Rainbow Dash. Rainbow's face returned back to seriousness, "I knew I shouldn't have taken you right through town before Ponyville knew who you were. Take off that shirt... put this on," she said quietly, taking off her blue Weather Patrol vest she wore that was still ripped at the bottom from it's use on Olek's arm back at that cave, and passed it under the table to Olek.
Olek took the vest and had swiftly taken off his blue and white striped uniform, being careful around the new cast over his left wing. He put on the vest with the same cautiousness, buttoning it; hiding most of his abnormal skinniness that would make him stand out in a crowd. He kept the uniform in his hoof since he mentally refused to leave it behind.
The Pegasus approached, ponies attempted to back away in their seat from their intimidation as he stared into each pony he passed. Thankfully, no pony besides the waiter noticed Olek enter the restaurant, so no pony was able to give him away. "You v'ill not escape! You hide yourself v'ell! But by the Fuhrer's name, you v'ill regret your treachery!"
"Now," Rainbow begins with her voice hushed, "I'm going to get their attention and lure them outta here. I'm going to bring them outside and turn left. Wait a few seconds, and walk out, then you turn right. Keep walking until you get to Ponyville's library just down the road. It's literally a tree, so it's hard to miss. Go inside, and I'll meet you there."
"Go inside? Isn't that where you said your Princess friend lives?" Olek asked.
"Yes, but she and her assistant are both in Canterlot right now. Twilight almost always forgets to lock up anyways, so it should be no problem getting in," Rainbow replied.
"Alright," Olek whispered.
Rainbow nods with a devious smirk on her face and got up from the booth table and dashed to the approaching Pegasus with a worried expression on her face, picking up her lessons from Rarity, "Quick! He just escaped through the kitchen! I know where he is going! Hurry, follow me and I'll take you to him!"
The Pegasus turned to the Earth pony across the restaurant, he nods to the Pegasus, "Very v'ell, Equestrian. Lead," the Pegasus ordered.
Rainbow Dash, acting anxious, lead the two stallions out of the restaurant, "He said something about blowing up the railroad! Come'on! We gotta stop him!" she acted.
Trotting outside, Rainbow lead the stallions to a fake destination and turned left on the cobblestone road. Since she just mentioned the railroad, she decided to head towards the train station. It was the perfect idea, the train station was well across town from both Twilight's library and Rainbow's home, so she can get Olek back with these Gerneighians far away. Now she has to find a way to loose them without getting herself in danger.
"Quickly now!" she urged the stallions in the black leather trench coats behind her, "It's only a matter of time before a criminal like him to cause harm to us... uh, poor Equestrians!" Rainbow's mind was on fire for saying such a thing since she can easily kick these guy's flanks, but she tamed herself.
"You better be right about this, Equestrian!" threatened the Earth pony.
"You won't be disappointed!" she replied with a big fake smile.
Rainbow's plan was almost flawless, though the same thought came to her. What's she going to do once she gets to the train station? Fly away as fast as she could was the best option; but then she will be wanted by these guys. She needs to find a way to get these guys about of town, at least long enough for Olek to blend in with the townsfolk.
After trotting towards the train station for a good few minutes, a stroke of luck appeared down the road. There Pinkie Pie came bouncing towards her. That's it! Thank Celestia!
"Pinkie!" she cried in both excitement and relief.
Pinkie Pie heard Rainbow and came over.
"Dashie! Where have you been? We're supposed to hang at Applejack's and when you weren't there we got all worried and set out looking for you and we had no luck finding you and we were like, 'where is she', and Applejack was like, 'I don't know' and then w-"
"ENOUGH!" cried the Pegasus stallion, "V'er'a is the prison'a!"
"Prisoner five-nine-six-seven-zero?" Pinkie asked, "He said something about heading to Fillydelphia."
Rainbow's eyes widened in shock. "How did...?"
"Come on, you silly Gerneighians!" said Pinkie said staring to bounce away, "He'll get away with you just standing there! And don't forget: it it never hurts to smile!"
The two Gerneighians looked at each other, the Earth pony rolled his eyes and the Pegasus chuckled, then begin to follow Pinkie Pie, leaving the confused Rainbow Dash to herself.
Rainbow shook her head, "I'm not even going to ask, anymore..." With that she took and flew over the buildings for the library where Olek was supposed to be.
* * *
5: 01 PM
Inside the library, Olek, wearing Rainbow Dash's ripped vest, sat at the center table with the wooden statue of a horse's head reading a book that was placed on the table next to Olek's blue and white stripped uniform with the red upside down triangle and prison number facing up. He had spent a few minuets reading the book he found about Coltish history during the 700's AC. Olek didn't read much, but when he did it always related to history somehow.
Rainbow Dash opened the door to the library, fully relieved. "I owe Pinkie, big time!" she said shutting the door.
Olek wanted to finish the paragraph he was on, without looking up to Rainbow Dash he asked, "Pinkie is the shy one, correct?"
"No, that's Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie is the exact opposite," said Rainbow, walking over to Olek. She noticed the book, "What'ya reading?" she asked.
"Something about Coltland under Sweetish occupation. I always found history fascinating," Olek exclaims closing the book and looking up to Rainbow Dash.
"Ha! Twilight would love to hear you say that. I only read the Daring Do series," said Rainbow Dash.
Olek picked up the book and put it back on the shelf he sound it. "I never read it," he announced.
"Then you got some reading to do, bub. Come on! Let's get you back to my place, you're sleep deprived enough as is," said Rainbow heading for the door. Olek grabbed his striped uniform and threw it on top of his back and followed.
Rainbow Dash and Olek leave the library and go around the tree-structure to an open field behind it with Rainbow's cloud house in the middle of the field that was in sight.
"So," Olek began "Pinkie Pie is the hyper one of your friends; Fluttershy is the shy one."
"Yep," Rainbow replied, "Don't let Fluttershy's shyness get to you when you meet her, she'll open up eventually. Especially once she sees you're with me, she'll trust you a little better."
"OK. Twilight is the Princess," Olek said searching his mind, "I heard about that coronation even imprisoned. Though, I never thought I would meet one of her best friends. I better not make you angry," he joked.
"Nah. I'll just kick your flank myself," Rainbow replied with a smirk lightly punching his shoulder.
"Um... the fashion designer... um, it starts with an 'R'... Rarity, correct?" Olek asked.
"Uh huh! You'll probably see her tomorrow to get you a new outfit. Just use big words and show off that accent of your's and she'll love ya," said Rainbow laughing to herself.
"The farmpony... Apple Joe?"
"Close. It's Applejack. I can already tell she's gonna like you. In fact, her and her family are serving their special cider next week. Perhaps you can give them a hoof if you're feeling up to it; perhaps a few pointers."
"Me?" Olek asked.
"Well, yeah! You said you grew up in a distillery, right? You can help them with the one thing they're usually lacking," Rainbow said with a smile.
"You mean alcohol?" Olek asked with a smirk.
"I mean, there's some in there, but not enough. Know what I mean?" Rainbow asked.
"Oh, I know what you mean," said Olek with a devious smile, "trust me."
Rainbow Dash and Olek are now at the foot of Rainbow's cloud house, "Well, this is it," said Rainbow, "Here, let me help you out," Rainbow took off to the nearest stray cloud and draged it down to Earth in front of Olek.
"Hop on," Rainbow ordered, "Until your wing gets healed, this is your only way in and out."
Olek smiled and stepped onto the cloud. He was amazed by the sight of the house, with it's tower-like structure and rainbow waterfalls, it brought back memories of peace. Rainbow Dash went to the other side of the cloud-lift and lifted it up to the cloud platform right to the front of her door.
"I haven't seen a cloud house in years," Olek commented walking towards the door.
Rainbow Dash opened the door, "Sorry for the mess. I wasn't really expecting company."
Inside was a small living room that lead into a kitchen. All across the carpet floors of the living room were crushed soda cans and other sorts of trash. Nothing appeared in order and disorganization was rampant. In the center of the living room sat a couch facing the radio, music player, and a dog's bed with a sleeping tortoise in it which was against the wall.
Olek chuckled as he walked in, "Don't worry, I've seen much worse."
"I'll take the vest and that uniform," Rainbow offered out stretching her hoof.
Olek complied and took off Rainbow's Weather Patrol vest and handed it and the blue an white striped shirt to Rainbow. After she closed the door and hung the two pieces of clothing onto a rack next to the door, Rainbow informed Olek who was looking around, "I only have one bed, and-"
"The couch is fine," said Olek moving towards the couch.
"You sure? I can sleep there if you want."
"No, no. It's fine. You taking me into your care is enough burden on you as it is," Olek said after leaping onto the couch, placing his head on the pillow at the end.
"Well, OK then. I've gotta head back out and do something I was supposed to do earlier, and I have to go back and pay for the food since we did just dine and dash," said Rainbow Dash.
"Rainbow," Olek said closing his sleep desperate eyes, "Thank you... for everything," he mumbled.
Rainbow could not help but smile, "No pony should go through what you went through; there's no need to thank me... I take it you're gonna to hit the sack?"
"Tak..." he said barely above mumble, clearly fading fast. Rainbow didn't understand, but she thought it meant 'yes' in his native language. Rainbow didn't answer, but opened a closet in the room and pulled out a large white feather blanket. She dragged it around the couch and threw it over Olek. Rainbow smiled as Olek's breath grew in depth and volume. He was already asleep.
Rainbow Dash figured he's not going to be getting up for a while, so she turned around for the door. Before leaving she reached into the pocket of her vest hung on the rack and pulled out a couple of bits to pay for the meal at the buffet. She opened the door to the outside world. Just before she was about to leave, she stopped herself, thinking about what she went through today to get Olek on that couch. More importantly, what Olek went through to get on that couch. She stared at Olek for about a minute or so, thinking about what Olek had said about his life, what he went through. She admired him for such strength and determination. Seeing him in his current state, and the look in his eyes while he told his story there was no way that was just a pile of horse apples.
Her thoughts then trailed to what Olek had not said. There were holes in his story that were not filled, like how he knew English to the extent he does despite is government just telling him to, or what happened in that camp he only briefly mentioned, or how he escaped, the hallucination he had right in front of her. She grew a small blush at the thought of him at full health and his mane fully grown back; fighting for his country's liberation in the resistance that he helped form.
Today she saw more in a stallion than just an escaped, anorexic convict. She saw a stallion with loyalty still burning through his veins, whereas any other pony would have just given up in his current state. Rainbow Dash turned to leave her home and shutting the door, she felt the best she had felt in a long time.
Princess Celestia's sun began to fall towards the horizon, over the buildings of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath.
"Man," she breathed, "what a day..." |
The Heralds of the Apocalypse... We Think. | pre | "Whatever," Nigel answered with a huff. "It's broken, there's nothing we can do about it so just walk." Dante rolled his eyes at Chalmer's immaturity and willed his legs to continue moving forward. Somewhere, possibly back at the saloon, his camelback had ruptured, leaking all of his precious water. His spare canteen was almost dry, only a few dregs left at the bottom.
"Do you have any water?"
"... No." Dante stopped at the lie.
"Bullshit, stop hoarding and share."
"I can't," Nigel replied as Biggles continued to sleep in his arms. "My armour has an inbuilt system, it's not like it has a tap on the left arsecheek that allows me to share it."
Dante sighed and continued to walk, they needed to find a source of water soon or else he'd be done for. Nigel seemed completely oblivious to this issue, whistling merrily as he led from the front.
They continued to walk, the moon beginning to descend towards the horizon. Dante's thirst worsened, the marine trying to convince Nigel again.
"Nigel, come on man, are you really trying to tell me that advanced space armour is unable to produce a single drop of water for someone else?" Nigel turned around and started to walk backwards, holding Biggles out in front of him.
"You see Biggles here?" Nigel asked as he waved the sleeping animal in the air. "Biggles isn't complaining about having no water." Dante sighed as he continued walking.
"Biggles is currently asleep and drugged," Dante explained to Nigel. "How is he going to complain when you ran into him, drugged him, and then claimed him as a pet?"
"Those points are true," Nigel answered as he began to walk up a dune, still facing Dante. "However, what is also true is that you're a-"
Nigel was interrupted as he suddenly fell backwards off the dune, his insult cut off as he toppled over. Dante froze, considering whether to help or not.
"Dante! There are more Biggles in this cave!"
"What?" Dante rushed over to the dune. He peered over the edge and spotted Nigel at the bottom of an eight metre drop. The agent was in a crouch, in the process of getting up to his feet. Biggles was still in his arms and strangely still asleep, Nigel's vision staring into a black cave under the earth. Unlike Nigel, Dante skillfully slide down the dune and landed on his feet at the bottom, lifting his glasses up to peer into the darkness.
Staring back at the two humans, and pet animal, were about thirty creatures that looked exactly like Biggles. The insects lowered their heads and hissed at the intruders, Dante raising his hands as Nigel held onto Biggles.
"Nigel," Dante began slowly, the creatures not moving forward but he saw a few retreat into the cave. "Maybe you should let Biggles go." Nigel clutched Biggles, who had awoken at the hissing and was now struggling in Nigel's arms. Chalmers held him tighter as he shielded Biggles from the hissing creatures.
"Hell no!" he replied while glaring at the hissing creatures.
"Please let me go."
Both Nigel and Dante stared down at Biggles with surprise as the creature spoke.
"Biggles!" Nigel exclaimed as he looked down towards him. "You can talk!"
The other creatures ceased their hissing, their angry looks fading to ones of confusion. Biggles shifted uncomfortably in Nigel's arms, the drugs evidently having worn off.
"I can," he answer, wincing as Nigel hugged him again. "Why are you holding me, and why are you calling me Biggles?"
"Well," Dante started, still keeping an eye on the other creatures. "Nigel was drinking and driving, so we accidently-"
"Found you dying in the desert next to a fallen meteor," Nigel cut in as he gave Dante a glance. "I accidently injected you with a larger amount painkillers than expected, and they kind of put you under for longer than expected. Then, risking life and limb, I carried you like my own child across the harsh, unforgiving desert in search of safety." Biggles paused at this, his head lowered in thought.
"Nigel," Dante whispered. "Just let him go. It's a sapient creature and its friends don't seem too pleased with you." Nigel looked up, seeing that more and more of the insect-equines were appearing from the depths of the cave. These new creatures seemed to have a heavier chitin plating and longer, sharper looking horns.
"Fine," Nigel grumbled as he placed Biggles on the ground. The creature got to his hooves shakily before looking towards Nigel.
"Uh, look," Biggles said as his fellows moved towards him. "Whatever happened, thanks for bringing me back." Nigel and Dante decided to not mention that they had no clue what they were doing. Biggles was helped back into the cave by two of the other creatures, leaving the two humans to face fifty identical equines.
"So," Nigel began as he shed a manly tear at the departure of his friend. "Nice weather we're having."
"Really?" Dante questioned as he shot Nigel a sideways glance. "Can't you come up with anything else?"
"Oh, I'm sorry," Nigel shot back sarcastically. "I forgot about the repository of knowledge and wit standing next to me. Tell you what Dante, why don't you offer a solution to this problem? You're the one that needs water."
"And you're the idiot that crashed the car and got us lost in the first place!" Dante replied with his voice raised. The insects stared at the two arguing creatures in confusion, wondering why them seemed so focused on fighting with each other all the time.
"Excuse me, bipeds," the largest insect-equine present addressed hesitantly. "The Queen wants us to bring you to her." Nigel stood up straight, Dante grumbling to himself as he tried to repress his anger.
"Very well," Nigel stated. "Take us to your leader." A loud sigh from Dante drew the attention of everyone, the marine having placed his face in his hands.
"Lord, what did I do to deserve such a punishment?" Dante breathed out, one of the creatures looking at him with concern.
"Is he okay?" the female, judging from the voice, asked.
"Yep," Nigel responded as he began to walk into the cave, the creatures surrounding him and Dante as they moved into the darkness. "He's just a little over-dramatic." Dante raised his face from his hands, not even bothering to grace Nigel with a reply. Instead, he glanced down at one of the creatures walking next to him.
"Hey you," he addressed, the bug looking up at him with its horn alight to help illuminate the area. "What is your species called anyway?"
"Changelings, I'm specifically a drone," he answered with a confused look. "You really haven't heard of us?"
"Well, we did think that Bigg- the changeling we rescued was an animal. So no, we have no idea about changelings." The changeling nodded and glanced ahead, the large form of Nigel reflecting the green glow coming from the changelings' horns.
"What is your species called? Is your friend a different class or another species altoghether?"
"First off," Dante began firmly. "Nigel is not my friend, we merely travel together to increase our chances against those golden cans on legs." The changeling got what Dante meant by 'golden cans' a few seconds later.
"You're wanted by Equestrian guards?" he asked, a wave of murmurs going through the changelings as they overheard. Dante noticed that Nigel was being unusually quiet, the agent's head moving from side to side like he was looking for something.
"Yep," Dante answered, prompting a follow up question from the inquisitive drone.
"What did you do to deserve that?" Dante paused and began to count off his fingers, a large number of the changelings stopping with him while Nigel and his escort moved on without them.
"Disturbing the peace, assault on police officers, theft, not paying for a train ticket, assault again, grand theft auto, more assault and that's it so far." Dante reconsidered some of the past events. "Oh, and I guess we can probably add a few counts of attempted murder; Nigel gets a little enthusiastic." All the changelings looked towards the group way out in front, a faint whistling coming from the armoured human.
"Okay..." the drone responded with a nod. "That might do it." Dante shrugged and began to walk again, his guards moving with him.
"I'm pretty much along for the ride at the moment," he added. "As for the species, we're both humans as far as I can tell, Nigel was a little vague when he introduced himself."
"Oh," a female drone entered the conversation. "We thought he was one of your human soldier caste." Dante felt a little insulted at the implication.
"Actually, I'm a marine, which is a type of soldier." he informed, the changelings glancing over his form.
"You have some armour, but he has more," one of the changeling soldiers observed while nodding. "That must mean he's higher up or a better caste of soldier." Dante ground his teeth.
"No, we're just from different places. We only met after we arrived on this planet." This revelation brought some surprised looks his way, Dante figuring that announcing their alien origins was probably not the best idea. Still, he continued to defend himself. "Besides, from what i've seen of his lack of discipline, I doubt he's a good soldier even with his fancy armour." Nigel must have heard the jibe somehow, the ISA agent singing at the top of his lungs.
"I have killed ten-thousand men, and I would kill ten-thousand more-"
"Shut the Fuck up Nigel!" Dante yelled, his voice echoing around the cave. The walls of the tunnel had lost all rocky texture and were instead constructed from a smooth, grey-green substance. Torches affixed to the walls and filled with glowing green goo provided lighting, the air getting warmer as they went deeper down into the earth.
"Make me, Princess!" came the reply as the startled changelings winced at the harsh exchange.
"Please," one male soldier asked from up where Nigel was. "Both of you behave, you are meeting the Queen."
"I can only promise to try," Nigel replied as Dante's group caught up with him. Dante and the changeling soldier shook their heads and sighed simultaneously. With the two groups merged, the two humans and their horde of changelings approached a large mouth in the tunnel, Nigel and Dante having no idea of what awaited them inside.
Chrysalis sat upon her ebony throne in the middle of her royal chambers,drumming her forehooves against the armrests. Her drones and soldiers had reported that two unknown creatures had entered the cave with an injured scout. She had ordered them to escort the creatures to her, so that she could determine if they were a threat, or more importantly, a potential food source.
The four, heavy-set guards flanking her throne stiffened and looked towards a doorway, the sounds of approaching steps echoing off the smooth, black walls. Chrysalis raised her eyebrows as two bipeds entered the room. Her changelings escorting them bowed, the bipeds not showing her the same respect.
"The two humans as you requested, my Queen," a male soldier addressed.
"I see," Chrysalis replied as she examined to two different 'humans', the creatures doing to same to her. She looked at the one on the left, shorter and wearing oddly coloured clothing decorated with tan and brown blotches. It's face was a light bronze, and the eyes were hidden behind black sunglasses. Many bags and pouches covered it's body, their contents a mystery. Chrysalis shifted her gaze to the other human, this one much more intimidating.
This one was covered in a hard black shell, no trace of skin or cloth to be found. Two red eyes looked back at her, Chrysalis shifting in her seat uncomfortably at the stare. Both humans appeared to be carrying no weapons, and so far they had been cooperative. Chrysalis decided that a diplomatic approach would be the best, they were both taller than her and after the recent failure to invade Canterlot, risking a war with a new race would be unwise.
"Greetings, humans," she began. "I am Queen Chrysalis, and I have been informed that you have brought back on of my subjects."
"Corporal Dante McClure, United States Marine Corps," the left biped introduced as he straightened up and saluted. Chrysalis looked to the other biped expectantly, wondering what his introduction would be.
"I'm Nigel." Chrysalis smirked as the smaller human broke his salute to elbow his companion in the side.
"Nigel, do a proper introduction. She is a Queen." The biped named Nigel sighed and shrugged.
"Fine then. Commander Nigel M Chalmers, United Imperium of Planets, Internal Security Agency. Despoiler of the Balthazar sector, Pillager of the Gilgamesh galaxy, Lord and Saviour Jesu-"
"Nigel!" Dante cut in. "Enough!"
Chrysalis watched the two argue, a small smile forming on her face. They amused her.
"Let's just stick to Dante and Nigel, it's what I prefer," she informed.
"Good enough for me," Nigel replied, while Dante merely nodded.
"Moving on," Chrysalis continued as she leaned forward. "You have my thanks for returning my scout after his unfortunate accident with... a rock I believe?"
"Yes," Nigel answered. "Biggles had an accident with a space rock. And nothing more." Dante shook his head, Chrysalis not noticing due to her surprise at the name given to the scout.
"Biggles?" she questioned with a grin. "That's hilarious! From now on Drone Three-Seven-Four-Six shall be known as Biggles. I decree it so!" The guards beside Chrysalis nodded, the Queen turning back to her guests. "I assume that you are unfamiliar with our people?"
"We've met ponies-"
"We are not ponies!" Chrysalis interrupted Dante with a snarl. "Those Equestrians will pay for the embarrassment they caused me! As soon as I have enough love I will rebuild my army and conquer them!"
"Well... then. I've heard some spirited declarations of revenge before, granted, most of them got blown up before they could carry it out. But even they didn't match the level you brought it to."
"Leave her alone Dante," Nigel defended as he turned to the Queen. "Evil is great, and revenge is always needed. Those Equestrians haven't exactly been that welcoming to us after all."
"You... you attacked them with a lamppost," Dante pointed out.
"They started it," Nigel retorted. "That's what they get for trying to arrest me."
"This isn't kindergarten."
"Oh really?" Nigel replied in a high pitched voice as he began to prance around. "Did your's never have fluffy unicorns and magical horsies? I guess that my childhood must have just been special." Nigel stopped his prancing, the changelings and Chrysalis staring at him. "You stupid twat."
"Oh, look. A special snowflake. My childhood involved having twenty different horses nearly stomp me to death and quite a few broken ribs, as well as smoke inhalation from the tobacco farm."
"Oh, you poor, innocent creature," Nigel replied with his voice dripping with false compassion. "I must have misjudged you, your horrible life is so much worse than being raised to serve in the military for a fascist empire until death. So terrible that the fact that I fight and kill every day is made to seem like a riverside picnic. Woe to you." Chrysalis found herself drawn into the conversation, these two were just so... interesting.
"You like fighting though," Dante observed. "So stop complaining."
"I'm not complaining," Nigel stated slowly as if he was speaking to a child. "I'm just pointing out how irritating you are sometimes."
"Me? Irritating?"
"Excuse me," Chrysalis spoke up with a smile. "As interesting as this is, I do have other things to do." Dante turned towards the Queen and nodded his head. Nigel huffed and crossed his arms.
"Apologies, your Highness, it's been a long night." Dante brushed some sand off his pants.
"Oh?" Chrysalis inquired.
"Yeah," Dante continued. "We're a little lost and running out of water. If you could just direct us to the closest settlement then we'll be on our way and you can continue your plans of revenge in peace." Dante glanced over at Nigel. "As you have already heard, we're not on the best terms with the Equestrians so you don't have to fear us giving away your plans."
Chrysalis smirked as an idea popped into her head, a way for both parties to profit from this situation. In addition, she might be able to secure some allies.
"I see," Chrysalis responded with a nod. "How about we make a deal?"
"A deal?" Dante asked hesitantly. He didn't like the look that the Queen was directing at them.
"Yes," Chrysalis answered. "I give you water, lend you one of my finest infiltrators as a guide, and even some food that we keep stored in case of... guests. You get supplies and my subject will take you to the nearest town, a border town in the Griffon Empire."
"What do you want in return?" Dante inquired as Nigel listened to the proposal. Dante didn't know what the queen could possibly want from them, the hungry glint in her eyes not helping.
"It's simple," Chrysalis replied as she idly twirled a hoof in her long hair. "We changelings gain energy from love." Dante's face didn't change, however he was mentally begging that she wasn't going where he thought she was going.
"Well," Nigel jumped in. "Looks like relations warmed up unusually fast."
Chrysalis looked at him with her grin widening. The large, rude human was her favorite pick, something about his uncaring manner drew her to him. She looked back at Dante, her eyes scanning over his form. He wasn't that bad either for an alien, she guessed that it would have to be up to them.
"They have, and I ask you to hear me out." Chrysalis looked around at her subjects in the room, the changelings all guessing what she was about to say. "I need more energy if I hope to have a chance against the ponies next time we fight."
"We're not exactly love-filled sugarplums," Nigel pointed out, Chrysalis bursting out into genuine laughter.
"Oh, I can see that you're nothing like ponies," she chuckled. "You're far too argumentative for that. No, while love is great, lust comes in a close second."
"So that means..." Dante began, praying to God that she only wanted a hug or a quick kiss.
"I wish for one of you to bed me," Chrysalis stated calmly, before her eyelids batted in an attempt at a seductive gaze. "Or both at the same time if you so desire."
Dante quickly turned himself around, making the sign of the cross and muttering a Gaelic prayer his grandfather taught him.
"Hell no," Nigel answered with a firm shake of his head. "I wouldn't want to share a bus seat with Dante, let alone a changeling queen." Chrysalis flicked her tongue out playfully, enjoying the humans' discomfort.
"So, you want me all for yourself then?" Nigel stopped still, before turning to the still-praying Dante.
"Dante, you need the water, so you have to pay for it." The marine whirled around and pointed at Nigel.
"But you got us lost, and caused the problem in the first place. Besides, you're probably okay with alien chicks and she seems to like you more anyway."
"That depends," Chrysalis murmured as she waved a hoof at Nigel. "Take off that helmet you're wearing so I can see what you look like." Nigel hesitated, for once in his life cursing the face that science had given him. Dante smirked, from what he had seen of Nigel the agent was doomed.
Nigel removed his helmet, Chrysalis licking her lips as the cold blue eyes stared back at her. His reluctance only made it that much sweeter.
"You," she picked, extending a hoof out towards Chalmers. Nigel muttered a brief curse under his breath before turning towards Dante.
"Nope," Dante said before Nigel could begin to complain. "She picked you. You'll just have to deal with it."
"I don't need water or food though," Nigel pointed out. "You need this more than me."
"You got us lost," Dante reminded. "Look at it this way, okay? You don't want to be here, I don't want to be here. The sooner you do this, the sooner we can try and find a way back to our own universes or whatever." Nigel sighed, wincing and looking back at the awaiting queen.
"So," he began hopefully. "All you need is a quicky in a storage closet or something?" Chrysalis shook her head and leaned back, making sure to stretch all of her limbs slowly.
"That will not do," she answered with a smirk. "I require the full deal, for maximum energy collection of course." She flicked her mane, Nigel muttering under his breath.
"Maximum energy collection, sure."
Chrysalis left her throne and walked over to Nigel, her hips swaying as her tail swished from side to side. The ISA agent shuddered as she drew a wing under his chin, Chrysalis coming up to his chest.
"Oh come on, I promise it won't be that bad," she cooed. Chrysalis turned to the soldiers and drones watching, the Queen raising her head high. "Subjects, return to your duties." Chrysalis gestured with her head towards Dante. "Organise a room, some water and pony food for our guest here. Oh, and a guard as well, we cannot be too careful after all." She said the last part with an apologetic look at Dante, the marine waving away her concern.
"I understand, alien creature and all that," he answered happily. He found Nigel's situation so hilarious that nothing much could phase him right now, all he could think of was that revenge had never been delivered in such an entertaining way.
His answer seemed to be enough for the impatient queen, Chrysalis grabbing Nigel's armoured hand in her mouth before pulling him towards a door at the back with a giggle. Dante felt a twinge, a small, tiny twinge, of pity for the other human, Nigel moving as if he was a zombie. The queen and agent left through the door, the black barrier shutting with an ominous thud behind them. Dante turned to the look around at the waiting changelings, all of them either muttering amongst each other or staring at him with curiosity
"So," Dante began. "About that room and drink..."
Dante took a sip of water from the cup. He held it up to examine it, the cup made out of the same shiny black substance that the entire cave system seemed constructed from. The water didn't taste any different, despite the container it was in. Dante shrugged, after his walk in the desert any water would be acceptable.
The room he had been put in was okay, a little warm but he could survive. Like every room so far, it's surfaces were also built from the same black material. He was sitting on a simple stool made from the same substance, the simple room devoid of any other furniture apart from a plain table. A tray with a selection of bread and fruit was placed upon the table, Dante preferring to not dwell on how the changelings kept it fresh.
He may have been okay with the room, but his guard was another matter.
The changeling that had been assigned to him was... weird. The guard was wearing heavy armour that seemed to be made of the same material as the chitin that covered changelings normally. It was female, the soldier introducing herself as number Nine-seven-two-one. Dante had mentally assigned her the name 'Swiss' due to the holes in her limbs reminding him of the cheese.
She was standing by the door, unarmed but her horn was as sharp as the other soldiers. Dante noticed that she stole glances at him, but when he faced her she was always was staring straight ahead at the wall. Something about her worried him, it wasn't her race but rather a primal feeling of fear at the back of his mind.
He drummed his fingers on the table, so far he had been waiting for two and a half hours according to his watch. He wondered just what was taking so long, surely they weren't going to spend the entire day underground. Granted it was shelter from the harsh sun, but Dante's uncomfortable feeling was increasing by the minute.
"So, you're called a human then?" Dante turned around very slowly as the soldier spoke up, this time she didn't turn away.
"Yes, I am a human," Dante replied with his unease fading with the soldier's willingness to converse. The changeling batted her eyes at him and grinned.
"Are all male humans as handsome as you?"
Just like that, Dante's unease was back with a vengeance. Now he knew for sure that something was wrong.
"Look, uh," Dante began as the soldier continued to stare at him. "Thanks for the compliment but I'm not too comfortable with where this is going. I'll sit here and wait, you continue to do your job." Dante punctuated his statement by continuing to drink his water.
"Oh come on, do you think the Queen is the only one who wants to have a little fun?" Dante spat out his mouthful of water at her words, the implication of her question sending a shiver down his spine.
"What?" Dante spluttered as he wiped water from his chin. The soldier left her post, a predatory grin on her face.
"I'm not asking for much, and it's boring waiting."
"No," Dante answered. "We can't."
"Sure we can," the soldier replied. "A few minutes up against the wall or on the table and that's all." She closed in on him, Dante pushing his seat back. "I promise you, I'll make it worth your time."
"No, I mean we can't because we're different species," Dante explained. His retreat from the soldier was halted as his seat hit a wall, the changeling continuing to advance on him.
"I don't mind," she informed him while licking her fangs with a red tongue. "It'd be a nice change and it's not like a good source of love just walks in every day." Dante found his back pressed up against the wall, the changeling now standing right in front of him. She lunged forward, Dante toppling off his seat as he dodged her. As he sat up on the floor the changeling recovered and placed her armoured forelegs on his stomach to pin him.
"I do mind," Dante replied. "It's wrong, weird and you're a fucking bug!" The soldier jerked back like he had hit her, her hooves leaving him as she stumbled back. Dante watched as she plopped down onto her rump and stared at him with sadness.
"Do you... do you really think that?" she choked out with a sob. Dante was incredibly confused, how did she expect him to react?
"Look, it's not you," he started as he tried to undo the damage. "You're a changeling, I'm a human, it's not meant to work like that." His explanation didn't solve anything, the soldier crying into her hooves. Dante sighed, cursing that Chrysalis was taking so long with Nigel. "Come on, I'm sure all the other changelings think you're great."
"You're just saying that," the soldier didn't fall for the weak attempt to console her. "Just forget it." Dante sighed, but at least she was going to leave him alone. He watched as she got up off the floor and returned to her spot at the door. She stood up straight and stopped sobbing, although the occasional sniffle still escaped.
Dante remained on the floor with his back resting up against the wall, the marine deciding to not return to his seat. The past twenty-four hours had worn him out, and the wall was strangely comfortable. His eyes started to droop, Dante leaning his helmeted head back and drifting off into sleep.
Dante jolted awake, finding that he was still in the same room as before. There were a few changes however. His guard was no longer at the door, Dante glancing around to try and spot the changeling. A weight on his legs drew his attention, the marine freezing as he looked down.
Curled up with her body over his legs and her head on his groin was the changeling, the creature breathing heavily as it slept. Dante couldn't move for a few minutes, the creature's horn resting on his thigh and he didn't want to risk waking her. His salvation came in the form of Nigel walking into the room with another changeling at his side.
"Soldier," the new changeling addressed as she walked over and nudged the sleeping guard. The soldier slowly awoke, groaning as she lifted her head and blinked her eyes. She smiled as she spotted the face of Dante, however another kick from the new changeling brought her attention around.
"Infiltrator!" the soldier scrambled off Dante's legs and stood to attention, raising a hoof in a salute. The infiltrator gestured down to Dante while she rolled her eyes.
"What are you doing sleeping on top of a guest of the Queen when you're supposed to be guarding him?"
"I... I was keeping him warm," the soldier stammered out. The infiltrator leaned forward and peered into the soldier's eyes, before glancing down at Dante.
"Was she bothering you?" asked the infiltrator. "If so, a punishment is in order." Dante noticed the soldier shiver in fear, the marine snapping out of his gaze.
"Uh... no she wasn't," he answered after a brief pause, the soldier shooting him a thankful look. The infiltrator glanced at the soldier once more before facing Dante again.
"Fine then. I'm Infiltrator Zephyr and I have been assigned as your guide. I've already met your companion."
"Corporal Dante McClure, United States Marines Corps. What's wrong with Nigel anyway?" Zephyr smirked, Nigel having not moved or spoken since he had left Chrysalis's chambers.
"He's still recovering from spending the day with her Majesty, or at least I believe that it's because of that. He hasn't said a word since I met him." This worried Dante, not much seemed to be able to stop the agent from talking. Maybe waking up with a changeling sleeping on him wasn't so bad after all.
"I see," Dante responded, before furrowing his brows at Zephyr. "Hang on, why don't you have a name and not a number like the rest of the changelings we've met?" Zephyr flicked her head and raised her head, her chest swelling with pride.
"I'm an infiltrator, the best of the soldiers. I was awarded my name by the Queen herself when I completed my first mission. Names also help us get used to introducing ourselves properly, helpful for when we have to live amongst ponies." Dante nodded, finding the reasoning sound.
"That's good for us," he replied while tilting his head at the soldier. "I was thinking of just calling her 'Swiss', all those numbers get confusing."
"You gave me a name?" Swiss asked with awe, Zephyr turning around to frown at her.
"You weren't addressed, soldier. Also, remember that the Queen, and only the Queen, can name you. You're still Nine-seven-two-one until she says so." Swiss lowered her a head a little at this, Dante using the time to get up off the floor. The two changelings watched as he moved over to Nigel and waved a hand in front of his helmet.
"Yo, Chalmers?" Dante got no response, not even a bit of movement. He turned around and faced Zephyr. "Just what did your Queen do to him? "
"I don't know exactly," The infiltrator answered as she headed for the door. "All I know is that it was apparently loud and the Queen was very satisfied with the 'payment'. Hence my service to you and the supplies waiting for us. The moon has just risen so we should get going now while it's dark and cool. We've got a few hours of travel until the border town, let's go."
Dante took a second to stretch his legs before gathering his gear, the infiltrator waiting for him in the door. Securing his backpack, Dante grabbed Nigel's arm and pulled, the silent human following behind. None of the three noticed the changeling soldier glance around conspiratorily and mouth the name that Dante had bestowed upon her before stealthily following the trio into the corridor.
"Water, check. Food, check. Nigel, check,." Dante tapped Nigel on the shoulder, an armoured hand smacking the finger away.
"Bugger off." Nigel had recovered from his state as soon as the three had left the cave, Dante's backpack now full of food and water. The marine shrugged and took a swig from his canteen, Zephyr smiling at the pair's interaction.
"Calm down you two," she requested before pointing out to the west. "The border town is just out that way. I take you there, I leave and you can continue to do whatever it is that you do."
"Sounds like a plan," Nigel muttered as he started to trudge forward. "The sooner we leave here the better." Dante gave Zephyr a shrug before following Nigel, the infiltrator increasing her pace to lead the two humans.
"Wait!"
All three stopped and looked back towards the cave, a lone drone running out with a large envelope grasped in his magic. The drone headed to Nigel, stopping in front of him and bowing.
"The Queen sends her regards and wishes you luck on your trip. She wished for me to convey that you, Nigel Chalmers, are welcome back anytime." Nigel grumbled in reply , the drone levitating the brown envelope to towards him. The ISA agent took it from the air, the drone bowing and leaving as soon as Nigel had it.
"I wonder what's in it," Dante remarked as he and Zephyr watched Nigel open the envelope hesitantly. The agent reached in and withdrew a set of twenty photographs, the marine and changeling unable to see what they showed. Dante waited for Nigel to speak, the photos fanned out in his hand. Chalmers was frozen however, Dante moving around to the side to get a look at the photographs.
He stopped in surprise at the sight, Zephyr buzzing into the air to also get a look at what Nigel held.
Twenty photographs, all showing Queen Chrysalis in various lewd poses, greeted them. Dante averted his eyes quickly, uttering a quick prayer in an attempt to ward off the unwanted images ramming themselves into his mind. Zephyr hovered in place with her wings buzzing, the changeling letting out a low whistle at Chrysalis's 'gift' to Nigel.
"Wow, you must have done a really good job," the changeling informed as she nodded approvingly.
"How did she get these made so quickly?" Nigel muttered like a shellshock victim.
"I don't have a single clue," Zephyr unhelpfully replied. "Come on, we should get going." Dante stopped Zephyr with a hand, the marine standing in front of Nigel while taking care to not glance at the photos again.
"Okay Nigel, what's going on?" Dante interrogated. "Just what happened that was so bad that you no longer constantly complain, whine and showboat? Surely it wasn't the end of the world so what the Hell has gotten into you?"
"Was it really that bad?" Zephyr asked as she tried to help, flying up to place a hoof on Nigel's armoured shoulder. "From what I've been taught and know, changelings aren't different from mammals in that regard-"
"It's not that," Nigel stressed out, Dante's eyes widening as he figured it out.
"My God, you actually... you actually enjoyed it didn't you?"
"No!" Nigel defended, Zephyr and Dante staring at him. Nigel's shoulders and head slumped, the agent breathing out heavily. "Fine. Yes, yes I did."
"That's it?" Dante questioned with a sweep of an arm. "You've been acting like a trauma victim purely because you screwed a changeling queen and didn't hate it?"
"Look," Nigel shot back as he pointed his finger at the marine. "I did what I had to do to keep your annoying arse alive! Don't you judge me!" Dante held up his hands in a pacifying gesture as he stepped back.
"Calm down, let's just drop it." Zephyr landed next to Dante as Nigel continued to glare at him.
"Let's go," Zephyr suggested, hoping that the issue wouldn't flare up again.
"You go on ahead," Nigel replied sullenly. "I have to burn these photos."
Zephyr furrowed her brows and her wings gave a small flitter. "You can't just burn them. They're a gift from the Queen!"
"Zephyr, let him do it," Dante ordered as he started to walk off to the west, Zephyr giving Nigel a final glance before following the marine and muttering to herself. Nigel watched them walk on without him before he looked back down at the photographs. He considered Zephyr's words and thought about just why he was gifted them.
Chalmers glanced up at the backs of Dante and Zephyr, the pair talking to each other roughly one-hundred metres ahead. Quickly he stuffed the photos back into the enveloped and opened a storage compartment in the armour on his side. Slipping the envelope into his armour he closed the compartment and started to briskly walk towards the Changeling and marine.
"You burnt them all?" Dante asked as Nigel caught up to them, Zephyr too busy looking out for landmarks to contribute to the conversation.
"Yep," Nigel replied as he resumed normal walking pace. Dante let it go and took a swig from his canteen, the three continuing to move west with the border town their destination.
"So what's this place called again?" Nigel inquired as the three peered over a sand dune at the quiet town, no activity due to the early time of morning.
"Sweswing," Zephyr informed before turning away from the town. The two humans stared as a green fire covered her body, the black chitin giving way to a cream-white coat and wings with a coal-black mane and tail. The changeling-turned-pony stretched her new limbs and took the time to neaten her mane.
"I suppose that's why you're called a changeling," Dante observed. Zephyr nodded and checked over her body, making sure none of her original form remained.
"That's right, as an infiltrator I do this stuff all of the time."
"is it genetic?" Nigel asked, Dante noticing that his voice carried more than just idle curiosity. Zephyr smiled at him, no fangs present in her mouth.
"Not that I know of, all I know is that it takes some magic to do and I can't hold the form forever without a steady supply of love." Zephyr tested her wings, spreading the feathered appendages out to the sides. "Why are you interested?"
"Just curious," Nigel answered. "Can you only change into equines or can you mimic other lifeforms with the same amount of accuracy?" Dante's brow furrowed. Something about the way Chalmers was asking precise, methodical questions regarding the changeling's abilities seemed off.
"Only similar sized creatures," Zephyr responded with her smile still on her face, enjoying the normally sour human's questions. "For example, I can turn into a zebra or normal pony, but only the Queen can take the form of an alicorn. I can't even use the most basic magic in this form," Zephyr explained as she turned sideways to give Nigel and Dante a better look at her new body and wings. "If I mimic a unicorn I can do magic but can't fly, not that I can really do much apart from a few battle spells and levitation."
"It's very interesting," Nigel continued, Dante deciding to try and offset Chalmers to hopefully shed some light on his motives.
"What, are you going to bang her as well?" Zephyr blushed a heavy green at his words, Dante assuming that the changes didn't include the colour of the blood. Nigel didn't react as expected however, something that confused Dante even more.
"I assure you that my intentions have nothing to do with that Dante," Chalmers replied calmly. "I am merely keen to learn about other lifeforms, for completely innocent reasons." As Dante was left completely gobsmacked that Nigel actually sounded like a competent soldier for once, the agent looked down at the equally surprised Zephyr. "Why are you coming into the town with us anyway? Your assignment was only to guide us here."
Zephyr shuffled on her new hooves uncomfortably, a faint blush still on her cheeks.
"I, uh," she started while the two humans gazed at her. "I like alcohol, the Queen doesn't allow it back home so I tend to use any opportunity I can get." Zephyr glanced up, ashamed of her favoured vice which she had confessed to the two humans. She was surprised to not find the disappointed glares she had come to expect, granted Nigel's face was unreadable due to his helmet but Dante didn't seem that disgusted.
"That's it?" Nigel asked. "Liking the occasional drink is not a crime, Hell I get up to far worse things than that on a daily basis."
"Same here," Dante added with a nod. "Just not as much as Nigel. I don't see wanting a drink to be that big a deal."
"Thanks," Zephyr replied as she rubbed one foreleg against the other. "It's looked down upon as a pointless and reckless pastime by my people. I only started to blend in with ponies but I guess it grew on me."
"We all have our quirks," Nigel finished, gesturing to the town in the distance with a hand. "How about we try and find a tavern and see whether they'll serve us, I'll shout you a drink." Dante smirked, seeing another chance to sneak in a cheap shot at the suddenly composed agent.
"First a drink, what next? A dinner date followed by a hotel room?"
"No," Nigel responded as he walked past the stunned Zephyr, heading towards the town. "I just happen to be the only one carrying money, so I don't think anyone else is going to buy one." Dante didn't bother arguing, he liked Nigel's current attitude a lot better than the previous ones and didn't want to ruin it. He followed Nigel and as he passed the still frozen Zephyr he gave her a brief pat on the head, the changeling focusing back on the current circumstances.
All three walked across the sand, the desert receding while rocky ground became more common. The town remained mostly quiet when they entered, the only activity coming from a large wooden building at the far end of the only main road. Hooves and boots travelled along the cobbled road as the trio approached the tavern. Oil lamps hanging from the roof illuminated the large, three story building and a few drunken figures exited out of the saloon doors. The four griffons glanced briefly at the humans and pegasus before continuing on their way, the hybrids not looking for a fight.
Zephyr took the lead, moving ahead of the two humans before walking through the doors. She was greeted by a large rectangular room filled to the brim with griffons and ponies in various states of inebriation, the two races often mixing in griffon towns bordering Equestria. Even though it was early in the morning the bar was showing no signs of quieting down.
Zephyr cringed, every being facing them as a loud smack rang out. The changeling remembered that Griffons were rumoured to exterminate changelings on sight.
She really needed to break her love of alcohol.
She turned around slowly, Dante standing behind her with his hands twitching. Nigel was standing in the doorway, a large chunk taken out from the wooden doorframe. Chalmers ignored the stares and calmly brushed wood chips and splinters off of his helmet, the entire tavern having gone quite.
"I hate these low doors," Nigel mumbled as he ducked and entered, this time without damaging the building. Zephyr had time to observe that the armoured human was almost as tall as a minotaur bull, his bulk probably the reason for the lack of action taken by the bar patrons.
"How's it going?" Dante inquired, the bar patrons focusing on him. He got no reply, leaving the three faced with an awkward silence.
"Hey, you three!" The trio looked towards the bar, a burly, ash-grey feathered griffon glaring at them. "Either buys something or get out, I have enough vagrants as it is." Dante expected Nigel to explode into a rage-fuelled frenzy at the bartender's words. The agent however showed no signs of anger, Chalmers swaggering up to the counter to place his looted gold down on the bar in front of the griffon.
"I assume you accept shiny gold coins?" The griffon glanced down, quickly counting the amount of money on the wooden counter.
"This pays for the door," the bartender informed with a glare at Nigel. "You'll still need more to buy anything." Under his helmet Nigel smirked, so the griffon wanted to play this game.
"You have a point," Chalmers answered while placing a hand on the bar. "However you should consider the amount of money you'd save in medical bills and further repair costs." The bartender's scowl deepened, everyone watching as a pair of talons carved furrows in the wooden counter.
"You're either mighty brave or mighty stupid," the bartender growled.
"Maybe I'm both," Nigel retorted lightly as he leaned down so that his eyes were level with the griffon's. "The question is just how stupid you think I can get." The epic staring contest continued, both participants not budging in their battle of wills. Dante and Zephyr shared a look, both wondering what Nigel was working towards and whether they'd have to fight their way out of the town.
The tension dropped as the bartender's scowl was replaced as a smirk, the griffon reaching under the bar and withdrawing three glasses.
"It' s been a long time since someone questioned me," he informed as he poured strong whisky into the glasses. He slid them across to Nigel, his smile fading. "You only get these though, after you finish I never want to see you or your two friends again."
"Suits me fine," Nigel replied as he grabbed the three glasses. Turning smartly, he marched to a free table near the door and sat down, the chair creaking under his weight.
"You better not break that too!" the bartender yelled, Nigel dismissing his concerns with a wave of his hand. Dante and Zephyr approached the table, the disguised changeling with much more enthusiasm. While they were sitting down, none noticed the lone earth pony mare slip in the door to lurk around the bar.
The attention of the bar patrons waned, the griffons and ponies returning to their own drinks. Zephyr adjusted her behind on the wooden stool before grasping her glass with her forelegs, the changeling taking a large gulp of the whisky. Dante and Nigel watched as she coughed and breathed in, the changeling greedily continuing to drink.
"Wow," Dante murmured. "Look at her go." Nigel nodded as Zephyr finished her glass, the changeling draining every last drop. Sighing, she placed her empty glass down on the table, Zephyr looking at it mournfully.
"Here," Nigel said as he pushed his untouched drink over to her. "I don't want it anyway." Zephyr didn't even thank him, the changeling immediately starting on the new beverage. Dante looked away from her and faced Nigel, the ISA agent keeping an eye on the rest of the patrons.
"Why'd you give up your drink?" Dante inquired before glancing at Zephyr, the changeling finishing her second drink with a burp. "I'd had you pegged as the drinking sort."
"Oh, I'm a slave to the drop all right," Nigel replied while continuing to scan for threats. "I just think taking my helmet off in this place is a bad idea." Dante looked around, the other patrons on closer inspection looking like a rough and tumble crowd. His fingers nervously drummed on the table while he reminded himself that he still had the AK and his pistol on him if trouble did start.
A whine drew his attention back to Zephyr, Dante and Nigel staring at the changeling as she eyed Dante's drink.
"Did you just..." Dante began, Zephyr's body twitching as she gazed at the desired glass.
"And I thought I had problems," Nigel mentioned, earning a flat look from Dante which he didn't notice. "I think you should cut back there Zephs, don't go and steal Dante's."
The changeling-pegasus pulled a dirty trick, fixing Nigel with a wide-eyed, pleading look. The human's red helmet optics stared back unmoved.
"That won't work on me, and besides, the glass is Dante's." The Marine silently cursed as the eyes were turned onto him, Dante unable to resist.
"Okay," he huffed out as he passed his whisky to Zephyr. "I wasn't planning on drinking it anyway."
Once again the changeling dove into the drink, both humans shaking their heads at her behaviour. Any threats were forgotten as Zephyr chugged down the alcohol, Nigel and Dante more interested to find out if changelings could get drunk or not.
It was confirmed, Zephyr shakily slamming her glass back down and letting out a belch. It drew a few glances, a few of the pony stallions eying the attractive and now drunk mare with interested expressions. Dante noticed the gazes and the warning look from the griffon bartender, the marine getting the hint that they were outstaying their welcome.
"Come on Zephyr," he addressed while he got up to help her down off her seat. "Do you have somewhere to go?" The changeling brushed off his concerns and headed to the door, Nigel also getting off his seat. Dante looked back at the bartender before the three left the tavern, the cool night air blowing in a light breeze.
"I'll be fine," the changeling slurred as she stumbled onto the main road. "Goodbye you two, I hope you don't get killed or arrested or anything for doing something stupid."
"Thanks," Nigel replied with a chuckle before Zephyr disappeared around a corner.
"Should we really leave her like that?" Dante asked as the pair stood on the road. Nigel nodded his head.
"It'll be okay, she seems like she'll be able to handle herself fine. Zephs is a big girl after all, she doesn't need her mummy Dante anymore." Dante was about to remind Nigel about just who seemed to friendliest to the changeling before a loud squawk of surprise interrupted him. Both humans looked towards the direction of the sound, having come from the corner that Zephyr had gone.
"Let's go help," Nigel sighed, moving towards the noise as yelling filled the street.
"I thought you said she could handle herself," Dante reminded as he followed Chalmers.
"Not the time, smartarse."
Dante rolled his eyes, wondering if the ISA agent had been trained in hypocrisy. The two rounded the bend and paused, attempting to process the situation.
Zephyr was picking herself off the ground, the pegasus apologising profusely to a group of eleven griffons clad in dark cloaks.
"I'm sorry," Zephyr blurted out as one griffon rubbed the side of his face while glaring at her.
"Look where you are going next time pony," the injured griffon lectured, Zephyr also rubbing her left cheek.
"I will," she answered, Nigel and Dante picking up a trace of fear in her voice. The two humans had ducked behind the corner of a wooden cart store and were peering out at the confrontation. It seemed like they wouldn't be needed, the griffons seemed to be letting the mistake go unpunished.
"Hang on," one of the griffons spoke up with a gruff voice. "Her bruise is green." Zephyr tried to back away but one of the griffons grabbed her foreleg with a talon, pulling the hoof away to reveal the green bruise covering Zephyr's face.
"Changeling spy," another muttered, the injured griffon backing away from her with widened golden eyes.
"Or an assassin!" he accused with a pointed talon, the other griffons leaping into action. Ten of them, likely guards, drew an assortment of daggers and swords and the griffon who had made the accusation glanced around fearfully. "There might be more out there, protect your prince!"
Griffons scanned alleyways and rooftops, Nigel and Dante catching the glint of metal breastplates before they ducked back around the wall to avoid detection.
"Hold her!" a voice commanded, Dante glancing to Nigel.
"We need a plan-" before he could finish, Chalmers darted out from the corner. Dante stared as the armoured human's boots cracked the road while he ran, Nigel heading straight towards the armed griffons holding Zephyr. The marine drew his pistol and ran after him, leaving his complaints about the rashness of the charge for later.
The griffons noticed Nigel as soon as he moved from the hiding place, however the agent moved with a shocking speed for someone in full armour. Dante almost stopped in his tracks as the agent reached the griffon grasping Zephyr's foreleg.
"Taste my justice!" Chalmers unleashed a vicious kick and nailed the guard in the chest. The griffon flew back, his talon letting go of Zephyr as a sickening crack rang out. He crumpled to the ground, holding onto his battered chest plate and taking rasping breaths.
Dante went for a griffon raising a sword to strike Nigel in the side, the hybrid turning around just as Dante got in close. Not wanting to use his precious ammo or kill the guard, Dante used the butt of his pistol as a club. The griffon squawked and dropped his weapon to clutch his head, the guard dropping to his knees. Dante ignored him, the other griffons reeling at the sudden attack while Nigel pulled Zephyr up to her hooves.
The changeling quickly took flight, still maintaining her disguise as her feathered wings propelled her upwards. She headed away from the fight, aiming for the desert and freedom. Zephyr stopped as the sound of metal on metal clashed down below, the griffons having forgotten her to focus on the humans she had guided to the town. Chalmers was currently using his armoured forearms to deflect the blows of two griffons, three more circling Dante who had no such protection.
Zephyr gulped as she noticed a trio of griffons flank the two, the hybrids cutting off the way the bipeds had entered from. She looked around, the changeling spotting a griffon airship with no decoration sitting out away from the town. Her inebriation had been dulled by the sudden flight for he life, but she still didn't question what a griffon prince was doing in a border town with ununiformed guards and an unmarked airship.
What she did question was what she should do.
On one hoof she was home free, the humans would buy her enough time to escape back into the desert. On the other, she felt a guilty that she was considering leaving them after they had saved her. Even with her mind still a little muddled, Zephyr made her decision.
Nigel was parrying the blows of his attackers, their short swords unable to pierce the armour of his suit. It wouldn't last forever though, Dante didn't have the same privilege and the griffons could probably overwhelm them with sheer numbers. Lights had started to turn on in the surrounding houses, Nigel having overheard that the leader of the group they were fighting was a prince.
He had no doubts about who would suffer if griffon reinforcements arrived.
One of his opponents was jerked back mid-thrust, Nigel and the second griffon looking up.
Zephyr was beating the un-helmeted soldier in the head with her hooves as she hovered, the griffon visibly rattled. Nigel took the opportunity to punch his other enemy square in the chops, his armoured fist breaking the guard's jaw with a crack and taking him out of the fight.
With a final hoof stamp, Zephyr knocked her griffon out, his sword clattering to the cobbled ground. A sudden bang and a scream rang out, Zephyr wincing and covering her ears like the surrounding griffons. Nigel looked over, Dante holding his smoking M9 out in front of him. A griffon guard was rolling around on the ground clutching his bleeding talon, having been shot in the fight.
"Let's go!" Dante yelled out, not keen for his life to be ended by a group of sword wielding mythological creatures. While the griffons were still reorganising after the gunshot, the marine dashed past them, heading towards the desert. Nigel followed after grabbing Zephyr's foreleg, pulling the still-flying pegasus with him as they made a run for it.
Zephyr recovered and pointed towards the direction Dante was heading.
"There's an airship just out that way! If we take it then we can try and out run them!" She was still slurring her words, however Nigel trusted her judgement.
"Dante, you hear that!?" Nigel shouted as the marine speeded up ahead.
"I did!" he called back as they neared the edge of the town. "Do you know how to fly an airship!?"
"Not a clue!" Nigel answered as Zephyr started to fly ahead of him, the changeling a little wobbly. "We'll just have to wing it!"
"So like the entire time we've been here!?" Dante panted, with the combination of running in full gear and shouting not doing him much good.
"Wouldn't change it for the world!" Nigel yelled.
"Keep going!" Zephyr called out as Dante almost tripped over a rock. "It's just up ahead!" The two humans looked up as they continued to run, spotting the airship with the plain grey airbag already half inflated. The main was about the size of the tavern, constructed from what looked like a light metal with glass portholes dotted along the side.
Nigel stumbled when two objects smacked into his back, the force causing him to almost lose his footing. Only his rigorous ISA training spent in full armour saved him, Chalmers avoiding falling to the ground. A female scream alerted him that not everyone was so lucky, Nigel noticing Zephyr fall out of the sky with two sticks embedded in her rump and one through her left wing.
Nigel glanced back as he dashed for her, Zephyr hitting the desert ground with a thump and further cries of pain. A mass of griffons, these ones wearing light armour and helmets, were flying after the group and closing fast. Chalmers guessed that these were guards from the town itself. They were wielding crossbows, a few more bolts flying past him as Dante turned to head towards the fallen Zephyr.
"I've got her, you get the blimp!" Nigel called to Dante as another bolt hammered into his back armour. He knew that the other human would not be as well protected from the projectiles, the marine wisely following the order and rushing up to the blimp's side.
Nigel skidded to a halt before Zephyr, the still-disguised changeling curled up in a ball on the ground. He quickly picked her up and held her in a hug, risking hurting her further to shield her from any more bolts. Nigel whipped his head behind him again as he stood up, receiving a bolt straight to his armoured forehead. His head was jolted, but the bolt failed to penetrate the armour made to deflect bullets and energy shots.
It did piss him off though.
Nigel glared at the griffon that had shot him in the face, the guard having flown out in front of his fellows. His empty crossbow was dropped, the guard drawing his sword and hoping that it would be more effective. The griffon closed, Nigel thinking quickly to avoid Zephyr getting stabbed.
The guard opened his beak in a warcry, aiming his sword towards the changeling assassin that the undercover royal guards had warned them about.
His cry and vision was interrupted by a payload of desert sand, Nigel having grabbed a handful and thrown it at him as he approached. Blinded, the guard careened to the ground, Nigel bringing up a knee to intercept him.
The armoured limb clipped the griffon on the side, the leather armour he wore doing nothing to stop the force of the blow from the power armour. The guard smashed down into the sand, much like Zephyr had, with a groan. The groan turned into a gurgled scream, Nigel stamping a boot down on the guard's right wing.
Bones snapped, taking the limb out of action and ensuring that the guard would be unable to continue the pursuit.
"Wanker," Nigel insulted as green blood ran down his armour.
"Nigel!" Chalmers turned to the blimp, the rest of the guards closing in and reloading their crossbows. Dante was standing on a gangway, a door on the side opened to reveal the interior. The marine had his rifle on his shoulder, the weapon aimed towards the griffons. Nigel didn't need to be told what to do, the agent sprinting towards the grounded airship, the now fully-inflated balloon raising into the air.
While Nigel and Zephyr were still two hundred metres away the airship began to lift off the ground, Chalmers putting on an extra burst of speed to reach it as yet more bolts thudded off his armour. The griffons kept their distance, wary of suffering the same fate as their fallen comrade.
Just as the airship was almost fully off the ground, Nigel made it and climbed aboard, Dante ushering him through the door leading to a wooden hallway before shutting it behind them and locking it with the heavy bolt. No one, human or griffon, noticed the shadowy figure that flew up to the back of the airship to hide atop of the metal structure.
"They're still coming," Dante huffed out as he looked out a porthole, Nigel flinging open cabinets and searching through them. He ignored Dante as he grabbed a handful of grey cloth, placing the bleeding Zephyr on top of it as he laid her down on the wooden floor. Dante winced at the changeling's injuries, the infiltrator shivering as she lay on the makeshift bed.
"Who the hell's flying the ship?" Nigel asked as he focused on entering mental commands to his helmet, a compartment opening on his right arm. Dante rushed to the front of the ship with his rifle raised, passing through two doors while Nigel knelt down over Zephyr. Guards banged on the metal door, Nigel paying them no mind as an assorted mass of needles and medical devices emerged from his arm compartment.
The griffons continued to break down the door, however their efforts were hampered as the ship had taken off and they had to fly at the same time. Zephyr gasped before going still as Nigel injected a mix of anesthetics, immune boosters and blood-production stimulants into her neck, Chalmers hoping that the chemicals would work and not kill the guide. She was in a rough shape and a lot of pain already though, so he thought that the risk was worth it.
He was lucky, the armour around his right hand receding back into the main arm armour and enabling him to check Zephyr's pulse. He placed his fingers on her neck, finding a vain that pulsed with a steady rhythm. He was lucky that she had retained her pony form, he doubted he would have been able to locate her pulse while she was a changeling. The drugs had gone to work, Zephyr fast asleep.
Nigel quickly pulled the crossbow bolt through her wing by the head, the back end sliding out with no resistance. He threw it to the ground and went for the ones in her rump, one in the middle of the left buttock while the other was located in the right. He quickly pulled the left one out, a stream of green blood flowing out as he did so. The same happened to the right, Nigel having to pull Zephyr's tail to the side to clear it away from the last bolt. He didn't look away as he pulled the last one out, preserving Zephyr's modesty in a situation like this was not his priority.
Besides, it wasn't like this was her normal body anyway.
He pressed wads of the cloth up against the wounds while the medical suture laser in his arm armour warned up. The ships swayed from side to side, interrupting him. Dante emerged from the door, dragging a kicking griffon with a large bump on its head that Nigel recognised as the supposed prince
"This guy was trying to fly the ship away, but he couldn't even work out the wheel," Dante scoffed before wincing at the state of Zephyr. "I don't even know how he managed to get it in the air. Sorry about the rocking, he was... resistant."
"Hold these on," Nigel directed to Dante, the marine letting the griffon go to hold the cloth to Zephyr's wounds. The Prince tried to crawl away but Nigel caught him, his armour allowing him to slam the hybrid against the wall. "Great job arsehole!" Nigel raged. "Thanks to you we had to steal this ship. Are you even a real bloody Prince?" Nigel's mind was currently seeing the griffon as the sole-source of his current problems, the cloaked hybrid's eyes bugged out in fear.
"I am!" he pleaded. "Let me go, or my father will make you pay if you hurt me!" Nigel sneered under his helmet, some green blood from his hands getting on the griffon's sun-yellow neck feathers.
"You think I care about your father? I should kill you right now!" The Prince whimpered, another bang on the outside door reminding Nigel that they had other problems. He grinned, moving towards the door and turning the Prince around so that the griffon's back was placed up against his armoured chest. "I've got another use for you though."
With that Nigel unlocked the bolt holding the door, the metal barrier banging open in the wind. Griffon guards flew back, five of the soldiers having continued the pursuit. Each one hovered in the air and eyed the human and Prince warily, their swords staying by their sides at the risk to the high-born griffon.
"Let him go," one of the guards yelled over the wind, Nigel looking down to see that they were very high off the ground. Instead of the desert, the blimp was drifting over a set of green fields far down below. Chalmers looked at the guards and chuckled a humourless laugh.
"Let him go? Sure, I can do that."
With those words Nigel held out and dropped the Prince, his right leg swinging up at the same time.
It was a perfect dropkick, the Prince squawking as armoured boot collided with his unprotected posterior. The royal griffon wailed as he toppled down the side of the airship, the guards giving Nigel a final, hateful look before descending in an attempt to catch the Prince whose wings were caught in his cloak. Nigel smiled and pulled the door shut, bolting it again before looking down at Dante and the unconscious Zephyr.
"You look after her," Dante passed off as he stood up. "I've got to try and not crash." He left through the door, leaving Nigel to tend to their companion's wounds. Chalmers knelt down and removed the cloth coverings, the thin beam from the laser searing flesh as he squeezed the wounds together.
Soon all of the major ones were done, the wing however had to be wrapped in bandages. Zephyr would not be flying for a while. Nigel wiped his hands on the cloth before picking the bloody changeling up off the ground, the cream fur stained green in a variety of places. He grabbed another few sheets of fresh cloth from the cabinets and walked into the forward cabin, Dante using the ship's wheel to steer the airship.
"Are you able to fly it?" Nigel asked as he spread the cloth on the floor and set Zephyr down.
"I think so," Dante replied as he stared out the large glass windshield. "I still have no clue where we're going." Nigel walked over and looked out, finding that instead of the desert they were passing over the top of a small coastal town. "I still have no idea where we are."
"We can work with that," Nigel replied as he scanned to plain wooden room. "How is this thing even flying forwards?"
"Asking the wrong person," Dante pointed out. Both dropped the issue, focusing on more important things. "Do you think they'll follow us?"
"Probably," Nigel commented as he walked back over to Zephyr. "Although we are over the ocean so they may just let us go."
"We did steal their ship," Dante reminded as he looked back at the two. "Is she okay?"
"Most likely, she's lost some blood but I stopped the bleeding. I have no idea if the immunity boosters I gave her will work though, being a changeling and all that." Chalmers crouched down and moved Zephyr to a more comfortable position on her side. Dante turned back to the front of the ship, focusing on the ocean.
"We are so screwed."
"Oh, undoubtedly," Nigel answered as he sat down next to Zephyr. "Those griffons were decent fighters, who knows who else we'll piss off?"
"With you, everyone we meet."
"Shut up."
"Fine," Dante said as he focused back on flying the airship. "The truth hurts I know."
"What hurts," Nigel replied coldly while rubbing Zephyr's head. "Is what I do to whiny, useless marines who are so full of themselves that they don't even realise it." Dante turned around, letting go of the wheel as he stared at Nigel in shock.
"I've done it," Dante muttered. "I've managed to find the most insufferable person in existence."
"Is that all young colt?"
"I'm not a colt, you imbecile!"
Fresh Produce rolled her eyes as she started to bag up the strange unicorn's food. The earth pony mare didn't bother lecturing the pony on respect for elders, the sooner the rude teenager was gone from her vegetable stall the better.
The purple colt stamped his hooves impatiently, Produce rolling her eyes at his behaviour. He didn't help himself with his childish attitude or his tacky cloak, Nightmare Night wasn't for another three months. Her three colts weren't nearly as strange as this one was.
"You're buying some food for a party?" Produce asked politely, earning a snort in reply from the colt.
"No, you vile plebeian," the unicorn shot back. "I am preparing for the end of the world. Your rudeness shall not be forgotten, and you can be sure that I will be laughing when you and all you love is burning in fire!" Produce's only response was to raise an eyebrow, the early mornings in Manehattan always brought out the weird ones.
"Prophet!"
Produce looked up at the voice, two more cloaked ponies approaching the weird colt. The one who had spoken, a very pretty young mare who shouldn't be hiding her face under a hood, approached the colt and gestured towards the last cloaked pony.
"What is it, Cultmember Fable?" The colt asked as he glared at Produce.
"Nut Case here has managed to track the two humans down!" Produce glanced at the last pony, a unicorn stallion who looked to be far too old to be playing with teenagers.
"Yes my Prophet!" the stallion cackled as he bowed before the colt. "Using the spell that my great grandfather taught me all those years ago, I have located our quarry!"
"Excellent!" The colt praised. "Where are the humans? We must catch them at once!" Nut Case's horn glowed a sickly orange, the stallion muttering to himself as he stared at his hooves. With a maniacal grin he looked back up at the colt, his lips pulled back in a disturbing smile.
"Just outside the Griffon lands, heading out across the sea!"
"We can't go that far out!" the mare complained. "It's too far away! You'll just have to find some other humans to use in the ritual." Produce almost dropped the squash she was placing into a bag.
'Ritual?' she thought with alarm.
"You're right," the colt muttered as he snatched his bag from Produce, giving the surprised mare a glare as he threw his payment down onto the wooden stall-top. "I'll head to the temple to prepare it, you take Nut Case and track them down."
"But-"
"No buts Fable!" the colt growled back. "Your eternal salvation is riding on your obedience, remember?" The mare nodded, the adult stallion continuing to cackle to himself quietly. The colt started to trot away, his paper bag balanced on his back. "I'll send you the directions once I find the mystical temple, now go!" With that the colt disappeared into the crowd, leaving the mare and the unhinged stallion left.
"Honey," Produce called out as the mare sighed and started to leave. The young unicorn turned around, her glimmering emerald eyes gazing questionably up at the middle-aged earth pony farmer. "You need some new friends, a pretty young unicorn mare like you could do so much better."
"Thanks," the unicorn acknowledged in a soft voice. "But the Prophet needs my help, I'm sorry about your eternal damnation."
Produce shook her head while the mare and her stallion companion wandered off, the farmer muttering to herself.
"Young ponies these days, what do they teach them in the schools?" |
The Heralds of the Apocalypse... We Think. | Shipwrecks, Stalkers and Striped Horses | Swiss, as she was now calling herself, sighed in relief when she finally managed to close the outside hatch. Infiltrating an airship was far more difficult when it was moving, and fighting against the strong winds on the outside was incredibly tiring. She stayed in the small crawlway for a few moments to catch her breath, before she remembered her goal.
To find, and win the heart of, Corporal Dante.
Swiss beamed at the thought of them being together, the first date, their first kiss, trying for children, most likely failing at that, but still living happily ever after despite it. Oh, she couldn't wait to see him again, and to hear his soothing voice.
With these thoughts driving her forward, Swiss began to crawl through the airship's ducting in search of her idea of happiness. She was in luck, after only a few minutes she heard a wonderful sound.
The voice of her beloved.
"Fuck off Nigel, I've had just about enough of your shit!"
Oh, even his cursing and raised voice was music to her ears.
With newly-rekindled vigor, she crawled as fast as she could towards the voices, the other human's nothing but incomprehensible noise compared to her Dante. With joy, she found herself looking down upon Dante through a vent grill, the hunky human soldier waving his strange weapon around in the air.
Carefully, but quickly, Swiss began to remove the grill from the vent, using her mouth to pull it up and away. Placing it aside, she examined the hole left behind and came to the conclusion that she would be able to fit through it. A solid plan in her mind, Swiss grinned, prepared her body, and leapt through the hole into the room below.
"And another thing-"
Dante's rant at Nigel was interrupted by a happy yell from above.
"Dante, I found you!"
Dante had just enough time to look up, and his heart had enough time to fill with dread, before a weight collided with his head and something wrapped around his face.
"They're coming out of the vents!" Nigel yelled, not really helping the situation but that wasn't his goal. Dante let out muffled grunts and screams while he ran around, his gun discharging in the confusion.
The bullet screamed out of the barrel, collided with Nigel's shoulder armour and ricocheted up through the roof of the airship. The gun fell from his hands, Dante using both in an attempt to remove whatever was attached to him.
"Get it off, get it off!" he screamed, remembering a certain movie that he had watched a couple of weeks ago.
It had ended badly.
"But I love you!"
Dante recognised the voice, and somehow his fear increased.
'No, not her! Anything but her!'
"Hold still!" Nigel commanded, Dante obeying in the hope that Swiss would be removed from his face as soon as possible. A harsh punch hit him in the stomach, the breath forced out of his lungs and Dante sank to the ground.
"What... what the Hell was that?" he wheezed, Swiss starting to nuzzle his helmet lovingly. "How did that help?"
"That's for calling me insufferable," Nigel told him, hurt evident in his voice. "Maybe next time, you'll think before you speak."
"Son of a bitch," Dante huffed, curling up into a ball and trying to alternate between holding his stomach and removing Swiss.
"Shh, do you want me to kiss it better?" Swiss offered, rubbing Dante's helmet in an effort to sooth him.
"I want you to get the fuck off my face." Dante's reply was muffled, and Swiss only tightened her hold on him.
"No!" she answered with fear. "If I do, you'll run off and I'll lose you again!"
"Nigel, help me!" Dante tried, him hands once again grabbing the changeling around the torso in an attempt to remove her. "I'll do anything!"
"You have to apologise-" Nigel began, before Dante interrupted him..
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Dante answered. "Just get her off me!"
With a satisfied nod, Nigel moved forward and grabbed Swiss under the forelegs. He pulled, and despite her attempts to remain hugging her i love Swiss found her grip to be lacking. With a wail, she flailed her limbs and tried to beat the armoured hands holding her with no effect.
"No! Put me back, put me back!"
While Dante took deep breaths of wonderful, changeling-free oxygen, Nigel turned Swiss around so that she was glaring into his helmet optics. "No, you leave Dante alone. Jumping out of vents onto people's faces without permission is a naughty thing to do, bad changeling!" Swiss continued to squirm in his grip, her hooves beating against his armour in vain.
"Holy Jesus that was horrifying," Dante shuddered before glancing at Swiss. "What the Hell is wrong with you!"
"It's obvious," Nigel chortled, enjoying the situation far too much. "You've gone and picked yourself up a stalker, congrats!" He held Swiss out like a carnie presenting a fairground prize, Swiss beaming at Dante with her wide blue eyes. Dante was not amused, so he responded in the way he had been since his arrival on the pony planet.
"That's funny, coming from you," he shot back, standing up. "Remember the Queen and her photos-"
"Shut up," Nigel ordered, raising Swiss over his head. "Or i'll sic your stalker back on you, and not help you remove her again."
It was at that moment when the ship jolted to the left, cloth and other unsecured items sliding towards the portside. Both humans struggled to maintain their footing while the ship listed.
"What the?" Dante began, glancing out a circular window. "We're sinking, and we're still over the ocean!"
As if prompted by his words, the ship tilted even more. Both glanced behind them when the injured Zephyr began to slide towards the wall, and Dante tried to figure out what to do.
Unluckily for him, Nigel was already enacting a plan.
"Catch!" Chalmers called out, throwing Swiss towards the marine much to Dante's terror. He held out his arms to stop the changeling from getting onto his face again, but in doing so he provided her the perfect opening.
With a happy yell and a buzzing of wings, Swiss guided herself into his arms, wrapping her legs around his body and holding on tight. Dante started down in her at horror, his arms still out to the sides as he was left frozen on the spot.
Nigel, meanwhile, quickly moved to intercept the wayward Zephyr, picking her up off the makeshift cloth bed before the sleeping changeling could smack into the wall. With their wounded companion safe, Chalmers looked around for a way out as the ocean drew ever closer.
"Dante," he addressed while moving over to a cabinet. "Look around for something that can float, and any supplies if you can them."
The marine was left shocked, and this time it wasn't because of the creature in his arms. There Nigel went again, talking without sounding like a whiny man-child without his juice box. If he acted civil and serious only in times of danger, Dante wondered if all the crap that happened to them was as bad as he thought it to be.
"Move it!"
At the yell, Dante was reminded that they were indeed in danger of crashing and then sinking. He gave Swiss a glare before stumbling over to pick up his dropped rifle. Next was the airship's wheel, Dante remembering that he had spotted a small cabinet which would hopefully have some supplies stored.
'The things I put up with,' he thought to himself, the changeling hugging him seeming to be oblivious to the oncoming peril while she rubbed her face against his shoulder. She seriously disturbed him, reminding him of those people that stalked Hollywood celebs only to steal things from their bins so they can construct shrines.
He didn't sign up for this.
Putting his regrets to the side, he awkwardly walked over, bent down and opened the cabinet. It contained three small boxes, Dante pulling all of them out.
One was marked 'Flares', the second was marked 'Life Raft', and the last was labelled 'For Most Dire Emergencies Only'. Attaching the first and third boxes to his combat webbing, Dante held aloft the box with the raft.
"I found a raft!" he announced, Nigel turning around from a set of cabinets.
"I found medical supplies and pills!" Chalmers informed back, holding a bag with one hand while the other was used to support Zephyr. "Is there any food or water left in there?"
"One sec!" Dante called back over the loud groaning sound that was echoing through the ship. He placed the life-raft box down on the ground and tried to rummage through the cabinet some more. Unfortunately, his burden prevented him from getting all the way to the back. "Look, can you just let go of me all already? It's life or death here!"
"I do not fear death, for I am with you," Swiss murmured happily, still refusing to let go. Dante hurriedly tried to figure out what to do, one solution coming into his head. It wasn't pretty, but he wasn't about to die on a griffon airship with a love-struck changeling holding him like a teddy bear.
"Okay, okay," he began to bargain. "If you let me go and help us get off this ship, I'll,,, I'll give you a kiss after."
"A kiss?" Swiss muttered with awe, gazing up at him with a grin.
"Only one," Dante clarified. "And no tongue either, just a simple kiss."
"Deal!"
Swiss detached herself, Dante immediately diving back into the storage cabinet and continuing his search. His helmet bumped the top when the ship lurched, their time running out. His searching hands found another box, and he pulled it free. Without looking at it, he held onto it and stood up. Chalmers was stumbling towards him, Zephyr in one arm and a bunch of cloth bags in the other.
"You find anything!?" Chalmers questioned with a yell.
"No food or water!" Dante shouted back. Both of them glanced to the port side, the blue of the ocean not far away.
"Forget it, we have to go! Where's the raft?"
Dante looked at the boxes on his waist, then he remembered that he had put the life-raft down. He turned to look behind him, hoping that they had enough time to inflate it.
He was met with the sight of Swiss holding an orange bundle in her hooves, the changeling's horn glowing with a green light appearing around a red tag marked 'inflate'.
"I'm helping!" she announced happily, Dante and Nigel's eyes widening as she started to pull the tag.
"Swiss, no!" Dante yelled, however it was too late and the tag was pulled free.
'Ouch.'
Zephyr grimaced and blinked open her eyes, the shining sun greeting her with full force. She shifted, a spike of pain flaring up her back as her wing and rump ached. Remembering that she'd been shot with crossbow bolts, Zephyr tried to stand up.
"Sit back down."
Glancing up, she was met with a black helmet, and she realised that the human called Chalmers was holding onto her.
"Why are you holding me?" she questioned, feeling weak while she sat back down as ordered.
"Look around," Nigel replied, Zephyr doing so and not liking what she saw.
Herself, Nigel, Dante and for some reason the guard Dante called 'Swiss' were all sitting in a small orange life-raft, the wide-open ocean churning around them. There was no land in sight, and Zephyr began to seriously question her life choices.
"Why are we in a raft on the ocean?" she inquired flatly.
"Well," Nigel began. "After Swiss jumped onto Dante's face, Moron Marine decided to shoot his gun while waving his arms around and screaming. The bullet hit me, then it must have gone up and hit the airbag. Then, after finding a raft, Swiss decided to help by inflating it... inside the ship. Luckily, we managed to get out before sinking. We've got no food or water though, and we're kind of just drifting along."
"Oh," Zephyr replied, not really sure what else to say. "That's... bad."
"No, really?"
Zephyr glared at Dante when he snarled at her, the marine sitting right next to Nigel in the cramped raft. Swiss was on his lap, the changeling soldier gazing up at Dante patiently.
"Hey, no need to act like that!" she growled back. "I don't know what's happening! I'm on a raft out at sea, with a sore behind and a useless wing! Why are you so grumpy!?"
"Swiss has been trying to get a kiss from him," Nigel informed nonchalantly.
"He owes me it," Swiss confirmed with a nod. "But he refuses to pay up!"
"I said I'd give you a kiss if you let go of me, not inflate the raft inside the cabin!"
Zephyr sighed and closed her eyes, leaning back against the cool metal armour that served as her seat. There was no way she was dealing with this now, or even bothering to figure out where 'Swiss' had come from. There was one thing she knew for certain, however.
The Queen would not be amused with her, or Swiss for that matter.
Grimacing, she shifted around on the spot to try and get a look at her injured rump. She wasn't able to see it clearly, but there was at least one scar on the white fur. While gritting her teeth, Zephyr prepared for the painful experience of changing while wounded.
Without a word of warning to her shipmates, she transformed, green magic covering her body and unleashing jabs of pain upon her.
"Fuck!"
A splash sounded, and the raft jolted violently.
"Dante! No!"
Zephyr couldn't see anything, her eyes shut in agony, but from the sounds she guessed that Dante had fallen overboard. Wincing as her rump burned, Zephyr opened her eyes and confirmed that the slightly less-strange human was in the choppy water.
"It's okay, I can swim!" Dante called, the raft continuing on without him. Swiss' wings buzzed, the soldier preparing to take off at a moment's notice. Despite Dante's assurance that he could swim, the raft was traveling too quickly and he was being left behind.
"I'm going to get him!" Swiss announced, buzzing away into the air with desperation.
"Hang on, take this," Nigel stopped her, holding out a box marked 'For Most Dire Emergencies Only'. Swiss grabbed it in her forehooves and flew off, tearing at it with her teeth.
'Almost... there.'
Dante huffed as he swam freestyle towards the raft, his gear and armour slowing him down but he didn't want to ditch it. He knew he could do it, being second in his class when it came to the swimming training he did back home.
An incoming black blur caused him to mentally curse, Swiss was not someone he wanted to deal with now.
The changeling held a box in her hooves, the top already torn off.
"Dante, catch!"
A coloured blob of yellow, brown and white was thrown to him, the remains of the box falling into the sea. Dante rolled his eyes and swam towards the item, reaching it and trying to stay afloat while he tried to figure out what it was. With relief, he spotted the red pull-tag that was the same on the raft, and a second later it was pulled. The plastic object began to inflate, blowing up to life right before Dante and Swiss' eyes.
The blow up Griffon reached its full size, Dante staring at it with a mix of confusion and horror. Snapping out of it a second later, he grabbed a hold of it and used it as a flotation device. From his position in the water, he could indeed see that it was anatomically correct. He shuddered, wondering how creatures that seemed so backwards could make self-inflatable sex dolls.
"Oh my..." Dante looked up, Swiss hovering in the air with a blush on her face and a hoof over her mouth.
Obviously, she had realised what she had just thrown him.
"What are you waiting for!?" he called up, trying to ignore what he was holding. "Tow me back to the raft so I can get off this thing!"
"Right, on it!" Swiss nodded, zooming back to the distant raft.
"Swiss!" Dante yelled, the changeling turning around. "Don't just leave me, tow me!"
"I'm going to see if there's any rope-"
"Forget rope!" Dante told her. "Just... use your hooves or mouth."
Dante wasn't certain, but he swore that Swiss grinned at his words. She flew down, wrapping her forehooves around the neck of the griffon and smiling at him.
"Don't worry Dante, I'll get you back and then you can give me that kiss in thanks!" Dante frowned, her words not soothing his worry at all. Swiss remained cheery however, her wings beating as she pulled them back to the raft. Meanwhile, Dante kicked in an effort to return as soon as possible. Nigel was bad, but being stuck in the ocean with Swiss, alone, was utterly terrifying.
With both working together, they soon caught up to Nigel and Zephyr in the main raft. The first thing Dante heard was a loud, booming laugh from Nigel, no doubt at the item that he was clinging to.
"For most dire emergencies only, I think you took it a little too literally Dante!"
"Shut up Nigel!" Dante shouted back, his teeth chattering from the cold water.
"Don't worry about him," Swiss whispered. "He's just jealous that I chose you over him."
'I wouldn't bet on it,' Dante thought, biting back a scathing reply. Currently, Swiss was the only one flight capable and she could prove to be useful in future situations that they would no doubt encounter given their current rate of luck. He'd just have to try and put up with her unwanted advances, even if it had crossed the line of creepy long ago.
Finally, they reached the main raft. Carefully, but quickly, Dante climbed back aboard and sat next to Nigel and the embarrassed Zephyr.
"Not one fucking word."
"I'm sorry," Zephyr apologised, despite his order. "I wasn't thinking and I should have warned you."
"He's lucky that I was here," Swiss informed while she buzzed down to sit back on Dante's lap.
"Do you really have to sit on me?"
"I don't see anywhere else," Swiss told him, gesturing around the cramped boat. "There's only enough room for you and Nigel if Zephyr and me share a spot with each of you. Besides," Zephyr grinned up towards him. "You owe me a kiss more than ever, and this makes it easier to do."
Another chuckle from Nigel diverted everyone's attention, Dante breathing out a sigh of relief.
Relief that was short-lived.
"Hey Dante, you could always ride the griffon until we get to shore." Nigel's tone was not something Dante was enjoying. Considering the fact that they were stuck out in the middle of the ocean, his constant humour was incredibly out of place. It was if it was all one big joke for Nigel, no matter what happened he was enjoying it immensely. Dante stared at the floating griffon doll, anger building up inside him.
"Stupid piece of Shit," Dante grumbled.
With a push, it was sent on its way out into the great ocean, everyone watching it leave without much regret.
"Alas, poor blow-up," Nigel began, placing a hand over his chest. "Dante knew you well."
Dante shook his head, not bothering to reply. A tug on his vest caused him to look down, Swiss grinning up at him as she swivelled around.
"Come on, pucker up," she commanded, raising an eye at him. "You promised, and I just saved you, so I want my kiss."
He winced, regretting ever making that promise to her. It's not like it had helped them in anyway. Still, he had made a promise, and the sooner it was over, the better.
Besides, it wasn't as bad as what Nigel had to do.
Dante closed his eyes, and took a deep breath to prepare himself for the unpleasantness that he was about to experience. He kept them closed and leaned forward, angling his head downwards. He ignored the laughter from Nigel and Zephyr, and soon his mouth made contact with another.
He grimaced and held the contact for three seconds, before pulling away and staring out to the side.
"See, it wasn't that bad, was it?"
"I don't think he has the same opinion, Swiss," Zephyr spoke up while Dante wiped his mouth with his hand.
"I kissed an alien, an alien bug horse," he muttered, earning glares from both Swiss and Zephyr.
"I kissed an alien bug horse, now I'm sad and blue," Nigel began to sing with a sorrowful wail.Swiss and Zephyr giggled, much to Dante's annoyance. "I kissed an alien bug horse, I'd recommend it too."
Dante sighed and leaned back, closing his eyes and praying for sleep. All three of his shipmates began to add their own lines, further adding to his torment. Thankfully, the warm sun aided him, and he was soon dozing off to the sound of the sea and the song created to mock him.
'I swear, one more day on this raft...'
Nigel maintained a steady eye over the three sharing the raft with him.
They'd been drifting for three days now, and tensions were running high. With all the supplies of food used up in the desert, they had nothing left to eat. It wasn't as bad for Swiss and Zephyr, the two apparently able to feed off the love energy that the changeling Queen had mentioned and they had some saved up. He still had his suit pumping in nutrients, but it just wasn't the same as real food.
Dante was another matter, the marine currently wearing his kelvar vest like a hat in an effort to shield himself from the sun. Without an alternate supply of food, he had become cranky. Well, more cranky than usual. At least they had a full two canteens of water left, but it wasn't Dante that was the main issue.
It was the two changelings with them.
Zephyr's injuries were making her irritable, and the whole 'I'm an Infiltrator and you're a Soldier' thing had started up again. In addition, Zephyr possessed the strong opinion that Swiss should stop pressuring Dante, something that the changeling soldier wasn't keen to do.
Nigel and Dante had found themselves holding their respective lap-sitters back multiple times.
The issues had increased over the length of time, and he and Dante had started to fight as well. It was no longer the relative friendliness of their previous disagreements, and Dante had pulled his weapons out on more than one occasion. To be fair, he hadn't really helped the problems, what with his time spent devising and singing an entire album worth of songs revolving around Dante and Swiss.
"Can you see anything yet?" Zephyr inquired, the changeling curled up on his armoured lap. Luckily for both her and him, his suit's cooling systems also affected the external surface of the armour so the sun didn't cook her to a crisp. Never before had Chalmers guessed that a system designed to help defeat thermal imaging optics would be used to keep an alien comfortable in a raft.
Swiss didn't have the luxury of a cooled seat, however she didn't seem to mind that much. It was probably due to the fact that Dante had been sheading clothing during the day, Nigel still finding her obsessive infatuation with the stuck-up human as hilarious as when he first found out.
Following Zephyr's question, he switched his helmet optics to full zoom and scanned the surrounds.
"No, no, no," he repeated, looking to the North, the South and the East. He stopped when he looked to the west, a small sliver of brown out in the distance. With a hum, Nigel leaned forward, provoking Zephyr to sit up in excitement.
"Land?" she asked hopefully. "You can see land?"
"Land?" both Dante and Swiss added in at the same time.
"Hold on, I'm not certain," Nigel clarified. "Still, it may be a long shot but it's better than anything else we've got. Dante and I will paddle, while Swiss flies and pulls. That okay with everyone?"
"I can help as well," Zephyr offered, prompting unsure looks from the other three.
"You're still injured though," Nigel pointed out with a gesture towards her bandaged wing.
"Plus how can you paddle?" Dante spoke up. "You know, with the holes in your legs?" Zephyr grumbled and lay back down, Nigel rolling his eyes and beginning to paddle. He was soon joined by Dante, and Swiss fought her own fatigue to take flight and tow them.
With the combination of teamwork, and a sweltering three hours of paddling and pulling, they had gotten close enough to make a confirmation.
"Oh, it's just a piece of rock," Nigel commented, earning looks of anguish from his companions.
"No land?" Zephyr groaned out, Nigel remaining silent for a few moments to let them huff and complain a little more.
"Nah, it's land, fooled you," he added, earning glares from all three.
"Fuck man," Dante replied, a scowl on his burnt face. "That was low."
"Relax," Nigel dismissed. "It's land, and we're drifting towards it. All we have to do is sit back, relax, and we should be on dry land in a few hours." He glanced u[pt the sun, almost halfway across the sky. "That's only another afternoon of sailing to go."
"Screw that," Dante huffed while beginning to paddle again. "I've had enough of the sea to last me a lifetime. When I get back I might even join the regular mud-stompers in the army."
"Oh, you have slurs for your different armed forces as well," Nigel tried to lighten things up with conversation while he joined in the paddling. "We just call our regular troops 'non-refundables', because once they go down to a planet you often don't want them back. You'd be surprised how many planets are covered in mud and filth, and probably less surprised at the amount of ships that then end up covered with that same stuff."
"I bet they also have colourful names for whatever the Hell you work for," Dante replied back, Nigel chuckling. In truth, there were a few for the ISA, but no-one was game enough to say them publicly.
"Not as much as you probably think," Nigel answered.
'Fifty-three.'
With his thoughts on the exact number unstated, Nigel shut up and continued to help propel the raft to the shore. In truth, he didn't really care if they spent an extra few hours out on the sea, he found it relaxing. Besides, given their track record, more trouble would be awaiting them on the island anyway.
'Can't wait,' he thought to himself with a grin under his helmet.
It was proving to be one of the most interesting, unplanned holidays that he had ever had.
"I hope your father doesn't find out."
"Relax Zarhara, all that talk about marrying a 'noble mare' is just hot wind. All the other tribes know that I'm far too wild for their daughters."
Two young Zebras emerged from the tall grass and onto the beach, the young mare and stallion laughing with each other. They both rushed to the rushing sea, seeking relief from the blazing sun that always seemed to dominate their homeland.
"As long as you think he won't find out, Zega," Zarhara replied to her secret coltfriend before dunking her head in the sea and drawing it back out. "Getting on the bad side of a tribal Chief isn't the wisest thing to do."
"Don't worry about it," he reassured her, flicking some seawater towards her. "It's my choice after all, and as Firstborn son I get some privileges." Zarhara's heart flittered when he drew closer, recognising the look in his eyes. "Choosing you is something I see as one of those privileges, and no concerns about 'standings' or 'tribal reputation' is going to stop me."
"Oh Zega," she murmured, the two moving their mouths closer and closer until-
"Land, finally!"
Both young lovers broke apart suddenly at the male shout from further down the beach. They glanced over, wondering who had interrupted their tender moment.
A bright orange raft was washed up on the shore, a black equine with insect features hovering in the air while a tall biped knelt on the sand and seemed to kiss the ground. Another biped, this one in some weird black substance, fell out of the raft with another of the insect-ponies in his arms.
"Nigel, watch it!" the insect-pony lectured, the biped regaining his footing and standing up.
"Oh, I'm so sorry Princess Zephyr, it's not like I've just spent three days in a raft on the ocean. Did my fall disturb you? Did it hamper your enjoyment of the free transport service that I am providing-"
"Okay, okay, just stop talking!" the creature referred to as 'Zephyr' gave in. "You know how it is, my rump and wing are still sore so cut me some slack."
"Fine," the black biped answered, before walking over and nudging the other one with a leg. "Dante, that's no way for a soldier to act. It was only three days."
"Three days of Hell," the other biped groaned out. "Stuck in a raft with you, a cranky changeling, and a changeling that's still trying to get in my pants despite my firm and total rejection."
"Aw, come on Dante," the flying changeling cooed while she flew down to land on his back. "You know you love me, stop this pretending that you don't."
"Yeah Dante," the black biped joined in maliciously. "Maybe it'd work out some of that frustration that you've got pent up and it'll help you stop being so grumpy."
"Nigel, I swear to God!"
Zarhara glanced at Zega while the smaller human waved a black stick-thing, threatening at the other. A light blush was on her face from overhearing the four newcomers discuss that topic so openly, and Zega seemed just as confused as to what was happening.
"Should we tell your father?"
"That would be a good idea," he agreed. "I don't think these creatures mean to trespass on our lands, and they did come on a raft. Do you think we should talk to them?"
"They're strange," Zarhara said with a shiver. "And the tall black one is scary, those eyes aren't natural..."
"I'll protect you," with a nuzzle and his words, Zega eased some of her fear. "Besides, as the future wife of the future village Chief, you're going to deal with stuff like this sometimes." Zarhara smiled warmly, and nodded her head. Both began to walk out of the waves and onto the beach, approaching the arguing four.
"Nigel, you always pull shit like this!" the biped called Dante stated while staring off with his faceless opponent. "Why can't you just let it go?"
"They argue a lot," Zarhara whispered to Zega, getting a nod in return from the determined zebra stallion. The insect-pony that was flying in the air noticed them, a grin forming on her face and she waved a hoof in greeting.
"Hello!"
Swiss beamed down at the two zebras below, the other three turning to look at them as well. She found the stripy ponies incredibly funny, and this was the first time she had seen one in the flesh. They however, didn't seem to share the same opinion about her or the two humans, the equines glancing at each other nervously.
"Go on Zega," the female whispered to her companion, the male evidently named 'Zega' stepping forward.
"Hello... um, travellers," he greeted, his yellow eyes glancing up at her before they scanned over the rest of the group. Swiss, guessing that they were nervous with her flying, landed and stood at the ready next to Dante. "Is there a reason why you're on our tribal land?"
"Yes, we decided it was a nice spot for a picnic, so we crashed our airship, got in a raft, floated across the sea for three days and then landed here." Swiss couldn't help but grin at Nigel's reply, even Dante cracked a smile.
"I meant no offence," the zebra stallion continued, slightly more hesitant than before. "We don't get many visitors, so I wasn't sure if-"
"Relax," Dante interrupted. "Nigel's just joking around. If you don't mind, could we possibly get some directions to the..." he trailed off and turned around, a puzzled look on his face. "Actually, where are we going?"
"Back to the Queen," Swiss suggested, however Zephyr rolled her eyes and snorted.
"You do realise how much trouble we'll be in, right Swiss? I've gone long past my mission time, and you weren't supposed to follow at all. I don't want to go back, not with how the Queen's been acting lately."
"We could always lie, and pretend that we never left in the first place," Swiss suggested, Zephyr sighing in response.
"Do you honestly think the Queen would fall for a trick like that?" Wisely, Swiss decided to not voice her own opinion on just how bright the Queen was, and instead went for the next best plan in her head.
"We could just bring him back with us," she tried, pointing a hoof towards Nigel. "You know, the Queen might have a thing for him. She'd be so happy that he was back that she'd forget all about us." Swiss grinned at Chalmers, hoping to convince him to go along with it. It wasn't that bad, surely.
"No way," he grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "I've already been used once to pay for Dante's water and food, I'm not sleeping with her again just to get you two out of trouble."
"Um, excuse me..."
"Hey, don't bring me into this," Dante stepped in, everyone ignoring the young zebra who was trying to talk.
"Don't worry Nigel," Swiss tried to convince him again. "Of course Dante will be coming back with me, so you'll have a human friend there as well."
"That's not better, you're horrible at bargaining," Nigel informed, Dante nodding with him.
"For once, we're in agreement. No way is that happening, I'm happy to keep you alive and all that, but as soon as you get back that's where my responsibility ends."
Swiss lowered her head in thought. He was proving a tough nut to crack, but she was thinking that it was like a siege. Never give up, and wear down the defences until he gives in, brilliant.
"I can take you to see the village chief," the zebra offered, causing all to stop arguing. "My father might be able to give you directions to a nearby port, he'd know about that stuff."
"Better than nothing," Dante said with a shrug. "Lead the way."
The two zebras turned and began to walk up the beach, casting wary glances behind them. Dante followed them at a respectful distance, Swiss merrily moving to walk alongside him. He gave her a strange look but didn't say anything.
'He must be warming up to me,' she thought with a grin, his lack of complaints an encouragement. Behind them, Zephyr and Chalmers brought up the rear, Zephyr limping with every step.
"So this is a Zebra village," Dante muttered as they stared at the horde of stripy horses, getting stares back. Nigel couldn't resist, a wicked grin forming under his helmet.
"What gave it away, the population of giraffes?"
"Fuck you," Dante hissed in reply as a Zebra decorated with a number of gold necklaces and a feather headdress approached them with a wide grin. "Couldn't get more stereotypical," Dante muttered, Nigel smirking at the words. The Chief did indeed look like straight out of an old film about tribal humans, and the grass huts that made up the homes in the village only helped the image.
"Greetings!" the old zebra cried out with glee. "Welcome to my humble village! My son tells me that you're seeking directions to the nearest port?"
"We are, sir," Dante replied, keeping his voice respectable. Nigel decided to hold back the remarks and jokes he had been planning to make, considering the circumstances. The chief was escorted by four guards wielding wooden spears, and as primitive as they were, acting nice might for once get them somewhere.
At least, that was the plan.
"Indeed," Nigel chimed in, much to the visual disappointment of Dante. With a flourishing sweep of his arm, Nigel gave the Chief a respectful bow of the head. "Due to unfortunate circumstances, we were forced to come ashore on your fine land. I apologise for all of my companions, and hope we haven't caused too much of a disturbance."
The Chief's eyes lit up with glee, buying Nigel's act without a second thought. Dante, and to a lesser extent the two changelings, stood where they were with their mouths open at the display of diplomatic expertise.
"Of course you are no burden," the Chief reassured. "In fact, I would love for you to stay and talk over a grand feast! It is not often that we get visitors, and ones so respectful and polite at that!" Nigel turned around quickly, and flashed his companions a thumbs up. They were in. "Now," the Chief continued, the rest of the zebras watching the meeting in the village centre with interest. "What exactly are you?"
"At the very basic," Nigel began to reply. "Dante over there, and myself, are referred to as 'humans'. The two ladies," a nod in the direction of Swiss and Zephyr directed the Chief's attention to the pair. "Are changelings, with Zephyr on the left and Swiss on the right."
"And your name?"
"Nigel M Chalmers," he replied to the Chief, standing up tall. "Commander, Nigel M Chalmers of the Internal Security Agency."
"Show-off," Dante muttered, the zebra Chief glancing towards the marine.
"Ignore Dante McGrumpypants, our raft journey took a toll on his normal relaxed personality."
"Oh, that's quite understandable," the Chief brushed off. "I am Chief Zeitgeist, and leader of the Three-Stripes tribe."
"Three-Stripes?" Swiss inquired, the Chief turning around so that his left flank was visible. His mark consisted of three, vertical, black stripes on his white coat, surrounded by a circle of black.
"This mark has been passed down for generations," Chief Zeitgeist stated proudly. "The firstborn always possesses it, marking them as the next chief of the village."
"Fascinating," Nigel breathed out in forced awe. In truth, he couldn't care less about a picture on the arse of a zebra, but he knew how some primitive people's valued birthmarks as signs from their gods and so he held his scathing comment back.
"Thank you, I must say that you're all interesting creatures as well. I've never heard of changelings or humans before, but now I can say with pride that I have. I'm looking forward to talking with you further, over a hearty meal of course."
"Yay," Nigel cheered through clenched teeth, Dante shooting him a warning glance at the tone. Nigel didn't care, there was a reason that he was no longer allowed on diplomatic missions.
Something to do with windows...
"I have noticed that, Zephyr I believe her name is, is wounded. Allow me to fetch the village healer for your mate. Healer Zapha, we require you out here!" The Chief faced a large hut, this one decorated with numerous pots and painted symbols.
'Mate?' Nigel thought, racking his mind as to how the Chief reached that startling conclusion. Looking down, he was met with the blushing face of Zephyr, the green-tinged changeling frozen with shock while she leaned up against his leg to rest. He hadn't even noticed that she was there. Quickly, he tried to get that idea out of their Host's head before it became a thing.
"Oh no, Zephyr isn't my mat-"
"Noble Chief, you have called. A young foal once again has falled?"
A zebra mare, middle-aged if Nigel had to guess, emerged from the hut while flicking her long, grey mane out of her silver eyes.
"Zapha, don't try to rhyme, we've been over this." The Chief shot them an apologetic smile, before turning back to the Healer. "There is a reason the tribal council doesn't want you going to the shaman meetings after all," he whispered.
"Pfft, they're all stuck up anyway," Zapha responded sourly, thankfully no longer in rhyme. If you could call it rhyme. "What do you need, information I need to... see-d?"
"One of the newcomers requires medical attention," Chief Zeitgeist answered with a sigh and a shake of his head. The Healer approached Dante, looking him up and down. This caused everyone a great deal of confusion, except for Nigel.
He was loving this, and he could tell what would happen next.
"He does indeed appear in need of treatment, a medical professional I come in greetment."
'How has she not been killed yet?' Nigel wondered at the atrocious rhyme. Dante however, seemed set to solve that issue while his fists clenched.
"It's not me," he growled, before pointing towards the bandaged Zephyr. "It's the limping changeling in bandages."
"I knew that," Zapha tried to bluff. "You're spiritual energy is out of whack, so I naturally headed to you first."
"This is what I get for coming late to council meetings," Chief Zeitgeist grumbled under his breath, Nigel able to hear thanks to his audio sensors. Meanwhile, Zephyr was wincing while the 'healer' prodded her cuts and wing.
"Whatever sealed these wounds used powerful magic," the healer nodded to herself. "Although the wing is not wrapped properly."
"I'd like you try and do a proper job on an unknown species while in a stolen airship with an army of griffons after you and a whiny Prince needing to be thrown out of the door." Everyone stopped at Nigel's defensive reply, the silence broken by a cough from Zephyr.
"Uh, well Nigel's right. Just... un-bandage it and it should be fine."
Healer Zapha stared at Zephyr, before following the request and removing the bandage. The wrapping came away, and there was a visible hole in the right wing.
"Does it hurt?" Dante inquired, Zephyr shaking her head.
"No, it actually feels okay," she answered with some joy, testing her wing a few times. "I shouldn't fly on it, but it doesn't hurt at all."
"Allow me to fetch a healing brew, so that I can give it to you."
Zephyr grimaced at the offer, and the rhyme, before smiling at the Healer.
"No thanks I think I should be fine, I'd hate to take up more of your time."
Zapha glared at her, before retreating into her hut with a huff. Zephyr looked up, and Nigel gave her a pleased nod. She grinned, and evidently the Chief was just as amused as they were.
"With rhyming like that, I might hire you as a new Healer," he joked, sparking smiles from all. "Come now, sit and talk in my home while the feast is prepared. I have some good beer that awaits us, the grain harvest was a blessing this year."
"Count me in," Nigel agreed eagerly, earning a chuckle from the Chief.
As they began to walk back to the Chief's house, Nigel missed the warning look that Dante shot him.
It was only a few drinks, what could possibly go wrong? |
Portentous - Lone Star's Chronicles | pre | "I noticed that. Is it because you are Lone-ly Star?" Pinkie said looking at me a little bit more animated.
I grunted and tapped my head, "My name has nothing to do with my personality." Well mostly anyway.
"But you like to be alone!" Pinkie said upset.
"Everypony likes to be alone sometimes, especially when they come back from a busy day," I told her while tapping her forehead.
"Everypony who want to be always alone says something like that as an excuse!" Pinkie exclaimed, "Sometimes a nice somepony just need a little pushy-push to meet other nice ponies!"
That sounded weird, but meaningful. I wondered if she was always like that. Anyway it made me laugh more in embarrassment than fun.
After she cheered up Pinkie helped me clean my garden and my cottage, she claimed she knew everypony in Ponyville and cited several ponies names and birthdays, I wasn't sure if she was telling the truth, though.
We were almost finished when Pinkie was spreading the tablecloth and noted something on the shelf, she went and picked whatever it was and put on the table, she called me immediately after peeking on the cover for a while.
"What is it, Pinkie. Whoa, where did you find this?" I was surprised, how I didn't notice those things before?
"It was in your house, but it's so dusty!" she said blowing the dust off the book and the small chest.
"I didn't even notice it was there," I scratched my head, "Wait a minute, were you snooping around?"
Pinkie giggled a little embarrassed, "It looked funny!" she tried to explain, "What if it was something dangerous or spooky?" she waved her hooves.
"Another reason you shouldn't have messed around," I said still looking at the old stuff laid on my table, "It must be from the old owner of this cottage... I think they forgot when moving from here or something."
"Aren't you going to take a look?" Pinkie said eager to open the small chest.
I tried to open the chest but it was locked, the book was nothing but a REALLY old blank journal. I thought on forcing the chest or even breaking it, but it was so well made, so perfectly crafted I just couldn't bring myself to break it, besides I think Pinkie would freak out if I did it in front of her.
"Oh gosh, what a bummer. Just boring stuff." Pinkie Pie laid her head on the table disappointed.
Pinkie helped finish everything and went back to Ponyville. She certainly was a curious mare, trying to cheer up a stranger and make him socialize with other ponies. To be honest at first I thought she was annoying, but if it weren't for her I wouldn't have ever found two things that would help me a lot in the future: the chest and the journal.
But there was something else I was feeling I did forget. I decided not to think about it, it was a very strange day for me and all I wanted to do was to rest. |
Portentous - Lone Star's Chronicles | Chapter 6: With scents and sounds | Chapter 6: With scents and sounds
Ponyville Clinic. I had finally decided to pay a visit to a doctor after an entire month since I wasn't getting any signs of recovery even though Princess Celestia and Twilight told me I'd remember everything with time.
I was getting impatient with my condition, although my amnesia wasn't affecting how lived in Ponyville it was my life I had forgotten, I really wanted to know at least if I had any relatives or if was working on something worth remembering.
The waiting in the hospital was killing me, for some reason I felt extremely uncomfortable in that place, the smell was making me feel weird, the ambient was also making me remember of some novels where the main character loses her loved one, which definitely wasn't helping. However my will to understand or at least get a hint of what was happening to my head was stronger and I managed to stay put until the doctor arrived.
"Lone Star," the doctor called looking at his clipboard.
I went inside his room silently, the doctor introduced himself as Doctor Stable and told me to take a sit and tell me what was afflicting me. I told him all about my amnesia, the day I woke up memory-less in that hotel room and even about Twilight Sparkle's theory on what could have caused or forced my amnesia.
"Your friend's theory sounds very plausible in fact, Lone Star," Doctor Stable said while taking notes.
"So I can't do anything to help myself?" I asked a bit saddened.
"Well, let's not jump into conclusions. I am going to need some exams to check your body, if you were victim of a mind erasing spell then we will know," the doctor said with an uplifting smile.
And so I went through exams checking every last bit of my head. I remember that some of those machines gave me the creeps and the doctor would have to explain me twice, thrice and even have one of the nurses to use it so I would believe him that the machine wouldn't suck my brains out, brainwash me or something.
After a long time waiting in the lobby Doctor Stable came bringing the results with his magic, but he was pretty serious. When a medic comes with a frown towards you can only brace yourself for the worst.
"I'm not sure if this will be good news for you, Lone Star, but your head seems to be perfectly normal with no signs of magical interference or anything," Doctor Stable said giving me the results.
"How come?" I asked still not sure if relived or disappointed, "I didn't suffer any traumas, and now you're telling me it wasn't a spell that did it?"
A mare, a nurse, approached and talked to me. "Just because the exams didn't detect any vestige of magic it doesn't mean there wasn't any magic involved in your case, Lone Star, especially because you said you didn't suffer any kind of trauma."
I was confused. I just wish there could be something to be done, a spell to force my memories to come back.
"Heck and hay, if it's so easy to erase memories, why is it so difficult to bring them back?" I asked upset.
The Doctor put a hoof on my shoulder and said, "I'm not an authority when it comes to in-depth spells and magic, but amnesia spells are relatively easy to create and use since they only need to do something simple: make you forget. On the other hoof creating a memory restoration spell is incredibly difficult, you'd need a meticulously crafted and analyzed spell for each pony since nopony's mind is the same."
"Compare to a puzzle, breaking it in pieces is very easy, but re-building takes time and you can't do it the same way with other puzzles since the pieces would be different," the nurse complemented the doctor's explanation.
I nodded and tried to cope with my situation, staying angry over it wouldn't help anything at all. In fact, grieving over something never did any good to anypony, anger clouds the mind and makes you only think on the problem instead of looking for a solution. Before going out I still had one last question regarding my amnesia, "Doctor, nurse, is there a possibility that this amnesia could be the reason that I don't have my flank mark?"
"Flank mark?" the nurse asked confused.
"It's another term for cutie mark," I explained. Well, say whatever you want but it just felt weird for me to say something sappy like "cutie mark".
The doctor hummed before answering. "I'm not quite sure, I've never heard of any case of somepony losing their cutie mark, but since your case is unique I wouldn't dismiss the possibility."
I paid what I had to, thanked them and left after looking at the results again. One thing I was certain after everything in there: I sure had never thought my head was shaped like that.
The chat with Doctor Stable and the nurse reminded of something I had read some time ago; that memories can be restored via outer stimulus like smells or sounds so I decided to go to a cafe first since it was one of the best-smelling places of Ponyville.
I wasn't feeling like working that day and thankfully I had some extra bits so I decided to slack off for one day while trying to recover my memories somehow. I stopped at the cafe and looked at the results and all those negatives again, if anything I was more satisfied with the fact I could read everything without needing that grade school book than the results themselves.
I had ordered a bunch of hay fries since I was in the mood for anything but oat that day, the meal was served and the smell was deliciously not helpful in recovery. I ate everything lazily, savoring each bite as much as I could having my mind off the amnesia thing at least for that moment.
For once in a good while I trotted around Ponyville without any worries or anything else burdening my mind, I didn't have anything else to do and wasn't in the mood for reading or even sleeping, I just wanted to walk around appreciating the scenery.
Like such idea could ever last living in Ponyville.
The second idea, sound, came even without looking for it. I was passing around several houses when I could hear a beautiful song from somewhere and started to look frantically for it. It was the most soothing music I've ever heard.
I knew it was the most entrancing music I've ever heard, I just knew, it was just like part of my amnesia decided to vanish and let me remember of this at very least.
I kept searching in several places until I had finally found the source of that beautiful song in an alley from a pony, a unicorn, playing the lyre. She didn't notice me, she was completely absorbed by her own music and I sat there watching her play such beautiful song until she finally finished, however she didn't seem to be even mildly satisfied with her own performance and sighed upset. I didn't feel that way, not even slightly, and applauded her which made her note me and smile a bit embarrassed.
"Thank you, thank you," she said shyly.
"That was the most beautiful song I've ever heard," as I talked she frowned a little.
"Oh, that's good... Yeah, good..." she said putting her lyre aside.
I don't know about you, but whenever I hear somepony saying "good" twice I'm sure they are all but satisfied with whatever they just did.
"Did I say something wrong?" I asked while she turned serious and a bit sad.
"No, thanks for appreciating my music. You're like the first pony here that ever did it, must be out of pity," she jumped off the barrel she was at and put her lyre in her saddlebag.
"Are you kidding me? That song was the most soothing and beautiful music I've ever heard!" I said enthusiastic, but that didn't budge her frown.
The unicorn looked at me with expectant eyes. "You're not a critic or a talent chaser, are you?" she asked then returning to pack her things.
I shook my head. "No, my name is Lone Star. I moved from Canterlot a while ago."
"Oh, I know you!" she said looking at me surprised.
That caught me completely off guard, how did she know me, was she from my past, a relative, a friend? My heart raced and my mind was stroke by a mental storm. "You... You know me?"
"Yes, you're that pony who destroyed an entire hay shipment about a month ago!"
I face hoofed myself so hard I think it left a mark on my forehead, am I never going to live that down? For Celestia's sake it was just a hay shipment, not even big, that I had already paid, I didn't hurt anypony and noppony was starving! At least she laughed from my reaction, it was better than her previous mood. "My name is Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings, nice to meet you, Lone Star."
"Nice to meet you too. Anyway why are you playing in this alley? You should be playing at the square so everypony here could hear your music!" as I finished talking Lyra scowled again.
"Do you really think I am that good? You must be really easy to please," Lyra said in a rude, mildly haughty tone.
"So, you're just disregarding somepony's honest opinion about your music?" I said upset on how she had replied.
"No. Sorry about that," Lyra apologized looking aside flustered.
"Anyway. Were you only practicing or just tuning up before making a presentation?"
Lyra looked at me for a second or two and then let out a sarcastic snicker, she turned around to trash some papers and then talked without looking at me. "No, I was just practicing here. Nothing fancy at all."
"I think there are better places to practice, like your home for example."
Lyra sighed and shook her head. "My neighbors would complain about the noise and Mayor Mare already told me to stop causing quarrels because of that. This alley is probably the most calm place to practice, I'd go to the Everfree Forest, but then I think the ones living close to that place would start complaining too."
"Is it because your neighbors complain about your practicing you think your music isn't good enough to make a public presentation?"
After I said that Lyra looked at me and proudly declared, "Of course not! I'm not so insecure of my skills that random complaints would make me feel like that," Lyra exclaimed almost overly confident.
"So, what gives? If you are so certain of your lyre skills you shouldn't be here hiding yourself as if you wanted to keep your music secret to everypony," I said trying to cheer her up.
Lyra wasn't so understanding though, she stomped and glared at me visibly upset. "What's your problem? Why do you even care? Listen, I'm glad you liked my song, but you weren't even supposed to hear it! That was just a shabby work in progress and I was here because I wanted some privacy! Do you understand now or I have to draw you a picture?" she raised her voice for every small pause but she wasn't finished with her rant, "I'm pretty sure you don't even understand music, let alone appreciate a real talent, so why I really should consider your opinion?"
"Because I am being honest when I said I liked your song, isn't that enough?" That's what I wanted to say, but she left me speechless with those words.
Lyra left without saying anything else with a depressed look in her eyes. I noticed the papers she trashed and went to look on it, it was scrapped music sheets. I'm no music specialist but I could note several mistakes here and there and I started to understand why Lyra could be so angry.
When I let my mind rest I realized I had my first piece of memory back. Finally! It was small, maybe even vague but finally a start. I liked music, especially classic music like the one Lyra was playing. I didn't like anything too fancy though and preferred solo concerts over orchestras. A start at long last.
I walked around Ponyville for some time humming, but I couldn't stop thinking about Lyra, not because of her music or the way she had left, there was something about her that started to stir my mind as if I knew her before. The problem was that it didn't make any sense, if I had known her then she certainly would have recognized me too. Maybe it was one of those cases when you confuse somepony with an acquaintance, in my case an acquaintance I still don't remember.
While strolling around Ponyville I passed by the public mural I usually go when looking for a job and saw an announcement about Canterlot's Royal Orchestra coming to Ponyville for a single presentation with the nobility alongside Princess Celestia and Princess Luna coming to watch. I felt that Lyra's distress could have something to do with this. Whatever, I had nothing to do with it and Lyra made it loud and clear as her song.
After more aimless strolling I was feeling hungry again. I walked until I was at Sugarcube Corner, after a set of hay fries I was ready for something sweet. As soon as I stepped inside a known face greeted me in all her pinky cheerfulness and glee.
"Hi, Lone-less! Whaddya doing here?" she was taking care of the counter today.
"Just passing by. Oh, I'm hungry too." I answered while window shopping.
"If you need something really good I can suggest these cupcakes!" Pinkie shoved a plate of cupcakes close to my face. "I've baked them myself!" she finished saying with her typical grin.
Regardless of how much grateful I was for Pinkie to have introduced me to the population of Ponyville and helped me improve my status in town by a large margin I didn't think it was safe for me to eat those cupcakes, Pinkie was nice and everything, but she really didn't look like the kind of pony that can cook.
"Er, I think... I think I'll have a small cake. Yeah, I'm feeling like eating cake now!" I tried to make an excuse to get away from those cupcakes.
Pinkie backed the plate to the counter. "Aww, but I've just made them, they are fresh and ready to be eaten."
There she was making those puppy eyes again, it was always like that when she wanted me to buy something. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing and I'm pretty sure she had noted by now. "Alright, I'll have two of them," I said pointing to the ones I'd take and placing the bits on the counter.
"You'll love them!" Pinkie said putting the cupcakes on the counter so I could eat them.
I stared for a couple of seconds at those cupcakes. I was hesitant, I didn't know what to expect from the food made by such random mind and I really wasn't all that curious to discover. After taking a deep breath I ate the first one as Pinkie looked at me expectant.
I can't say it was the most striking experience of my life, but I surely was surprised as heck when the flavor filled my mouth and nearly clouded my mind. It was delicious. That cupcake had such soft texture and its flavor so perfectly balanced and distributed it was impressive. It was even better than the ones Mr. and Mrs. cake used to sell in the bakery.
"Did you really make these cupcakes?" I asked still surprised.
"Yep! I usually make them here every day!" Pinkie answered cheerfully.
"This is even better than the ones I usually buy here--wait a moment--are you saying YOU bake the cupcakes?"
"Well, duh!" she said rolling her eyes.
Surprise, surprise. I used to buy cupcakes every now and then at Sugarcube Corner but could never expect that Pinkie was the one who made them, it was just hard to believe somepony like her could be so good at this.
"These ones are even better than the ones I'm used to buy here, what did you do?" I asked while eating a third cupcake.
"Uh-uhn, not telling, chef's secret!" she said shaking her hooves.
"Could you tell me at least if it's new recipe?"
"Yes, I'm trying new ones since the same cupcakes gets bo-o-oring fast!" Pinkie said while she watched me eat the cupcakes, she was satisfied seeing me eating them.
I couldn't help but feel that I was being her guinea pig at that moment. Well, whatever those cupcakes were really good and worth every bit. I thanked Pinkie for the cupcakes (even though I paid for them) and left the bakery. I was satisfied for the time being and strolled around Ponyville once again in hope to find something to help with my memory again.
The rest of the day was pretty much the same, it was a pretty weird day to be honest, I passed the rest of the afternoon strolling aimlessly around Ponyville while keeping an eye for anything that made me thoughtful.
How was I supposed to remember anything from my past? I wonder what I did for a living, if there was anypony I knew looking for me or something, I couldn't help but worry especially about my family (if I had one).
I just went back to my cottage after the lazy day and planned to go straight to my bedroom sleep. But something was different in my house, somepony visited my cottage while I was away. I knew somepony had been here because of the smell, it was a strange fragrance that was by the dining room, something too refined even for the finest perfume of the finest perfumist of Ponyville, if only I had a way to get that fragrance and get to somepony analyze...
Oh, wait, I had. I "held" that scent with a strange fabric I bought indenting to use as curtain, but it didn't quite work since the strong smell of the plants outside my bedroom kept me awake for the first two days I used it. Anyway I waved the fabric around the dining room for a while, put it inside a bag and then inside my saddlebag to make sure it wouldn't lose the scent.
I would go ask what kind of perfume this was and if somepony around wore it. I had locked my house before going out today and whoever broke inside must have done it with magic since the door lock seemed to be intact.
If he or she thinks that somepony amnesiac means "stupid" I'm sure as heck will prove how wrong this pony is.
What a way to end to a lazy day. At least nothing got robbed (as if there was anything to steal here anyway). |
Portentous - Lone Star's Chronicles | Chapter 7: Cutie Mark Squire | Chapter 7: Cutie Mark Squire
Sweet Apple Acres. I've been working there almost daily for weeks now. I usually went to help harvesting crops, fixing broken fences and tending animals. I really liked working there especially because I had a lot of fun talking to Big Mac, Granny Smith and Applejack, besides they always had excellent food there and also always let me take leftovers home. I didn't worry too much about the payment, the Apples were on a string of bad luck and some plagues took a good chunk of the other crops they usually sell, but even so what they paid was more than enough to live and save.
At that place the only pony I still hadn't met was the youngest member of the family, a filly called Apple Bloom. Applejack had explained me that thanks to new programs at school she had to stay the entire afternoon studying there, and since my job was usually done by the middle afternoon, sometimes even earlier, I never staid long enough to meet her.
To be honest I think it was better that way, Applejack often told on how crazy that filly was to get her cutie mark and what kind of trouble she'd put herself into trying to get it. I'm really not sure what would be her reaction if she ever saw an adult pony without its cutie mark.
That day I would have to work carrying and organizing the hay shipment the Apples had bought, it would be a heavy job but I was feeling super that day.
Before I could start Applejack went there to sign all the paperwork and as soon I approached the wagon she gleefully cracked that old joke to the pony who brought the shipment while poking my flank, "Careful with him, he has a thing for hay wagons."
Very funny Applejack, very funny.
It seems that I was getting some muscular mass working there, the hay packs surely were heavy as heck, but I could carry most of them without draining myself and finished the job after some hours, it was a lot faster than even I had expected. Big Mac was satisfied with my work and then told me to help Applejack harvesting grapes, I was a bit tired, but still good to go so I rushed to the direction he had indicated me.
Harvesting grapes was no easy task, it may not be heavy duty but you must be very picky and keen-eyed to spot bad grapes that could ruin an entire shipment if left there. It took us a lot longer than we had thought to finish the job since there were a lot of bad, or rotten, grapes. While we were walking back Applejack grunted upset saying that a pest ruined a good amount of nice grapes and that the sales wouldn't be nearly as good as the last year, I tried to cheer her up giving a nice apple I was saving for when I got home, but the best I could get was a forced smile.
At the end of another hard work day (for me) it was past half afternoon, I had my usual "all-you-can-carry leftovers buffet", decided to go home where I'd leave the food in the storage and go to the library. I was still feeling great and Twilight told me few days ago she had some new novels and a brand new book about magic, that she had already finished reading, of course. After going to Golden Oaks Library I would spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing, eating a plate of delicious Corn Chips while reading a good book.
That what I was intended, but hey, I keep forgetting this is Ponyville and there is no such thing as plans here.
I was at the gates of Sweet Apple Acres and Applejack was thanking me for another day of help. As she was ready to go back I could hear a voice of a perky filly zooming towards the gates, I'd bet my precious leftovers that it was her little sister, Apple Bloom.
Bullseye.
As soon I saw Apple Bloom, her obsession for getting her cutie mark came to my mind and I naturally tried to zoom to the opposite way, but that filly was faster than a lightning and as I turned she was already at the gates hugging her big sister.
"Sorry, Applejack, but I'm late for the cutie mark crusaders meeting!" Apple Bloom said giving her saddlebag to Applejack and trying to run towards another part of the farm, but Applejack halted her.
"Whoa there, missy! Don't you have any homework to do?" Applejack inquired with a strong, motherly tone.
"Not today! I finished everythin' so I could be free, now please let me go Applejack?" Apple Bloom pleaded with big, puppy eyes.
Applejack still had another question for her. "But what are you doin' this early home? I thought Cherilee had more classes for you!"
"Nope! Today we had less appointments at school, now let me go please?" Apple Bloom was hopping ready to rush as soon Applejack gave her clearance.
I could tell Applejack grew suspicious of her sister thinking she was skipping classes for her cutie mark hunting. I'd feel the same way. The thing was that Apple Bloom was talking eye-to-eye with Applejack, there's no way a filly like her would be able to lie like that.
"Let her go, Applejack. She's being really honest here," I talked in Apple Bloom's favor as I approached the Apple sisters.
"Whoa, Lone. I thought you already had left," Applejack spoke surprised.
"Huh, who are you, mister?" Apple Bloom asked looking at me.
"His name is Lone Star, he's been helpin' us here in the farm lately," Applejack said introducing me, I waved my hoof at Apple Bloom.
"I'm Apple Bloom, nice t'meet you," she said still anxious.
"Nice to meet you too," I replied
"Now Applejack, pleeease!" Apple Bloom started to hop again.
"Alright, alright," as soon Applejack said it the young filly grinned and bolted so fast I barely could keep my eye on her "But don' come back late!" Applejack yelled and her sister shouted back agreeing.
Applejack put her sister's saddlebags on her back and looked at me curious. "Well, care to tell me why did you stand for 'er?"
"Come on, Applejack," I shrugged. "Did you really think your sister would have the nerve to lie to you looking you in the eye? You, who are a living lie-detector?"
"You got a point there, city boy, but my sister is smarter and braver than you think," she said fiddling the grass in her mouth.
"I think 'crazy' would describe better somepony who tries to cross your trust," I said chuckling.
Applejack stood silently looking at the ground, she was obviously worried about her sister and after thinking enough she turned to me with a serious face. "Hey, Lone I have a favor to ask you," Applejack said while looking in the same direction Apple Bloom zoomed.
Her tone was much more serious this time, I wonder what Applejack had in her mind. "Sure, what is it?" I asked concerned.
"These kids have been up to somethin'. Lately they've been meeting and plannin' all the time, but didn't go for a cutie mark activity fer days," Applejack sounded very worried, "I'm afraid they are going to do somethin' reckless or even dangerous, so I'm needing somepony to look out for them and I think you'll be perfect for that."
I don't really know what happened to me when Applejack merely suggested that I should take care of fillies. My heart raced, my chest tightened like it was going to crush my internal organs, my head went AWOL and my eyes deadened. I shivered and clenched my teeth so hard it scared Applejack. Apparently I wasn't good with kids. That was the result of a mere thought of having to take care of a filly.
"Whoa! You just got cold all of sudden, Lone! What happened?" Applejack asked putting her hoof on my forehead.
"I, uh, I don't think that will work. Sorry, Applejack," I said gasping for air.
"Why are you saying this, what just happened to you?" she said visibly worried as I was still pale.
I was trying to get my head off that line of thinking, so I tried to dodge the question. "Er, why do you need ME to go check on whatever your sister and her friends are doing?"
Applejack sighed and took the grass out of her mouth before starting, "I already told ya my sister is part of a group called Cutie Mark Crusaders, didn't I?" I nodded. "Well, they are fillies, non-cutie-marked, lookin' for their cutie marks and I think you'd be the perfect pony to keep an eye on the girls at least until you can tell me what they are up to."
I rolled eyes. "Uh, Applejack, I don't have my flank mark either."
Then Applejack tapped my back. "That's why I've just told ya you'd be perfect to keep an eye on 'em."
My face changed from rigid of nervousness to a mildly sarcastic frown, "I think they would freak out if they saw an adult without flank mark, don't you think?"
Appleajck tapped her chin a few times, that definitely was a bad idea and I'm sure she would admit it.
"Not really," she said. That answer nearly made me want to bump my head on the closest fence.
"That IS a bad idea, Applejack," I declared confident.
"You're just being a stubborn mule, Lone," she replied bluntly.
I closed to her face giving her a glare. "What? Who's being stubborn here?"
"Sorry, my mistake, you're not being stubborn," Applejack paused to think. "You are bein' UNHELPFUL!" she yelled almost making me lose my balance. "Lone, I'm asking you this little favor. All you need to do is go and see what they are planning there and tell me," she said with a mellower tone looking in my eyes, "If you don' want to do it because I'm not payin' you, then tell me already."
I'll admit those words did hurt. Applejack may have said it because I'm the type that is always talking about saving money for this and that, but I really didn't want the pony who saved me from starvation thinking that I was a "hired good-doer". I groaned annoyed and then gave my final answer. "Alright, I'll go!"
"Thanks, Lone, don't worry about you not having a cutie mark, I'm sure you can even become part of their group like that," Applejack said teasingly.
Not fun. Anyway, Applejack gave the direction to where I had to go and thanked me again before going back to the farm.
Midway to my destination I started sweating cold and my breath became short and fast-paced. Why I was so nervous about it, it was just kids and all I had was to check on them, report to Applejack and done, no secret, no difficulties, no nothing.
I found the tree house after walking for a while, and getting lost for a few minutes on the way, and I could hear three voices discussing feverously inside it. I went closer so I could hear what they were talking about, but as soon as I stepped on the ramp that thing broke and I felt right on my face.
The noise obviously startled the fillies inside and they came out running to check what in Celestia's name was happening outside. I was dizzy from the fall and the next thing I remember was to have a small white unicorn with purple, slightly coiled, mane saying something to me, Apple Bloom was doing something still inside the tree house and there was another filly, an orange pegasus with purple mane yelling something.
It took me some minutes until I was clear-headed again, but then I felt something hard and cold hitting my head, I guess it was an ice bag or something.
"Careful, you're going to hurt him even more!" the unicorn shouted in a little squeaky tone.
"I told you we should've fixed that ramp last week!" the pegasus said smugly.
"Oh, quiet, Scoot! I was going to fix it when we finished plannin'!" Apple Bloom answered angrily.
"At least it wasn't one of us that fell, that looked like it hurt!" I guess I should've gave the pegasus a trophy for that statement.
"Are you okay?" at last one of them showed some concern, it was the unicorn.
I shook my head making the ice bag fell off and put my hoof to see if anything was broken but luckily for me nothing aside of a small bump on my head. "I'm fine, I'm fine, I've had worse since I got here," I replied and put the ice bag back on my head.
"But hey, what are you doing here, were you spying on us?!" the orange pegasus inquired glaring at me.
"Quit it you kiwi, he's hurt!" the unicorn intervened in my defense.
"I already told you to stop calling me... Whatever that was!" the pegasus answered irritated and flapping her wings frenetically.
"Hey, that's enough, stop shouting you two!" I said in a loud, upset tone making both stopping argue for a moment, but then the pegasus looked at me again.
"Humph, I guess we might need to change our club's location if stranges keep popping like that!" she said bad-mannered turning from me.
"He's not a strange, he's Applejack's friend," Apple Bloom said staying on my side.
"I'm Lone Star--" I introduced myself, but before I could explain why I was there the spunky pegasus stepped ahead and cut me off.
"You're a snooper," she said straightforwardly.
"Am not," I responded upset.
"Are too," she said closing to my face visibly angrier.
"Am not and stop calling me that," I spoke keeping my cool.
"Are too and no, because you are!" she said even more upset.
"I wasn't snooping around," I said still trying to keep calm.
"Yes you were, that ramp was a good thing after all!" she said with a mean smile.
I guess that just had claimed my last bit of patience. "Say that again?"
"Stop it you two!" the unicorn shouted visibly distressed.
The orange pegasus went away, crossed her arms and pouted, I sighed and shook my head. Getting upset with kids certainly is not the way to earn their trust.
"Sorry about Scootaloo, she doesn't trust ponies she don't know," Apple Bloom apologized on behalf of the pegasus while she blew a raspberry to annoy me.
"It's alright, none of you got hurt and that's what matters," I said getting on feet and taking the ice bag off my head again.
"Sorry, that was my fault, I didn't fix the ramp like I should had," Apple Bloom said anxious and looking at the pieces of what formerly was a wooden ramp.
I pilled the pieces of wood scattered under the tree house's entrance. "It's fine, besides this wood was rotting already, it would be dangerous to keep using it even if you had it reinforced. You need a new plank."
"Please don't tell Applejack about this! She's gonna get really mad at me and ground me for the rest o' my life!" Apple Bloom said looking at me nervously.
"Yes, she was going to fix it! We promise!" the unicorn aided her friend.
"Yeah, she would fix it if you hadn't break it!" the pegasus also went aside Apple Bloom defending her friend.
I didn't even think about that to be honest, I was more relived it was me that broke that stupid ramp than one of them. The fall didn't really hurt that much, but it could have injured one of them and seriously. "I'll have to tell Applejack what happened here, you know that," they all gulped, but I wasn't finished, "I'll also tell that it was ME who broke the ramp and why this was a good thing without blaming any of you, but you three has to promise me that you all are going to be more careful with things like this. Alright?" I made my point there speaking firmly, but not scolding.
"Thanks, Lone, we promise!" Apple Bloom smiled relived.
Finally I was getting somewhere, with this done I was finally able to gain a bit of their trust and begin to do what I was intending in first place. "So, what were you all planning after all?"
"Nothing that a non-member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders has to know!" the pegasus exclaimed as unmannerly as she could.
"Scootaloo!" the unicorn yelled at her friend.
The pegasus looked directly at me and proclaimed: "We are a secret society, we can't share everything we do with strange ponies!"
"Since when we are a secret society?" the unicorn asked Apple Bloom whispering, Apple Bloom answered with a simple shurg.
"What do you need to be part of this 'secret society' then? I guess the part of discovering it was already done," I couldn't hold the sarcasm while talking which infuriated the pegasus.
Bad decision, Lone Star. That made the pegasus nearly turn red from angry and now she was glaring at me defiantly while flapping her wings. Heck and hay, I was there just to check on them, not to get on their bad side. I had to act fast to fix my mistake.
"Listen here snooper--" before she could start spouting her anger on me I was faster and talked ahead.
"Hey, sorry! I didn't want to mock your group or anything, I'm really sorry," I spoke without raising my voice. When she had calmed down I continued, "Listen I think we started all wrong here, so can we try again?"
The pegasus looked at me still angry, but lightened a bit and didn't shout anything else.
After a deep breath I started. "I'm Lone Star, I'm a friend of Applejack and she asked me here to check how you all were doing."
"... Scootaloo," she spoke grumpy.
"I'm Sweetie Belle!" finally I had learned the name of the unicorn.
"Applejack told you to come here?" Apple Bloom asked a bit irritated, I guess I shouldn't have told she had sent me. Oh well.
"Yes, but she just wanted me to see what you were doing, that's all," I tried to explain hoping to fend off an incoming argue between sisters and one heck of reprimand from a certain mare.
"We were planning our next move towards our cutie mark!" Sweetie Belle said enthusiastic.
"Really? What were you planning?" I asked curious.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle smiled cheerfully and the unicorn filly bolted to the tree house, via rope ladder, she picked something in there and threw it through the door accidentally (or maybe not) hitting Scootaloo's head who grumbled.
Apple Bloom opened the case and spread the paper revealing it to be a map, a rather detailed and well-drawn map of somewhere.
"Planning on going in a treasure hunting?" I asked, but as Sweetie Belle slid back she negated my theory.
"Uh-uhn! This is a map to a VERY secret place!" Sweetie Belle said almost whispering as if she was afraid that somepony else could hear.
"What place?" I wanted to know so I could tell Applejack but I'd never admit in front of them that I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff, just thinking on the word "treasure hunting" made me smile.
"If we tell it won't be a secret anymore!" Apple Bloom declared shaking her hoof.
"Besides you're not even a Cutie Mark Crusader!" Scootaloo approached and looked at the map.
I sighed. I had to keep an eye on these fillies in case they wanted to do something crazy or go somewhere dangerous or else Applejack would eat me alive with candy apples for dessert. For the sake of my word, and well-being, I decided to play along.
"What do I need to do to become a member then, Scootaloo?" I humbly asked.
The moment I said that I could swear I saw a mischievous light shimmer in her eyes, the way she rubbed her hooves while giggling with that grin didn't help either I guess.
"Sorry, but you need not to have a cutie mark," Sweetie Belle said a bit sad.
"In that case I still fit in," I said rolling eyes.
I couldn't believe that they still hadn't notice I didn't have my cutie mark so far, but I still braced myself for reactions. Apple Bloom kept giving me a blank stare, Sweetie Belle asking me why I didn't have my cutie mark and Scootaloo laughing and mocking me.
Apple Bloom then broke the light-hearted mood with a shriek scaring me and the other two colorless. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were hugging each other completely frightened.
"Good Celestia, Apple Bloom!" I uttered with wide open eyes, "What's gotten into you?"
To be honest I already knew why she had done that. Horse apples, I told Applejack that would happen, but did she hear me? Well, heck and hay, now I had to control a filly from freaking out and to top that the shriek gave me the same panic-like sensation I was feeling until I bumped my head. I was looking to every side while my mind was being clouded by the sheer amount of adrenaline rushing through my body at that moment. Thankfully I managed to pull myself together and hear what Apple Bloom said.
"I-if you don't have your cutie mark th-then that means we can grow up and still not find ours!" Apple Bloom said stuttering and still staring at me.
I could see Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo sharing the same opinion of Apple Bloom and they started to look at me with eyes filled and taken by fear.
I had to think fast (again) to control this situation, I wasn't feeling like being responsible for traumatizing a couple of fillies. "Applejack, you're gonna get it when I'm done here," I thought to myself while still thinking what I would do. The best shot I could think I had was to tell them my story.
As soon I mentioned the word "amnesia" I noticed Scootaloo's eyes shimmering again, but this time in interest. I told about my brief life in Canterlot and how everything happened until I was sitting there. The story bored them, but Apple Bloom was calmer. Fortunately she believed I lost my cutie mark because of my amnesia and returned to her cheerful self. Calamity averted, huzzah!
"Amnesia!" Scootaloo exclaimed strangely enthusiastic, I figured it was because she didn't like me, but then... "That means your past is a mystery!"
And the trophy for "Captain Obvious" goes to Scootaloo!
"You almost make it sound interesting," I replied making a colossal effort to hold my sarcasm. Kids...
"Because it is!" she said flapping her wings this time animated.
"Because it didn't happen to you," I almost let it escape, but I just shrugged and said in a meek tone, "Yeah, maybe you're right."
"Then you should join us to help yourself get a cutie mark!" Sweetie Belle prompted with a cheerful voice.
"Yes! You could help us too! It's a win-win!" Apple Bloom said with the same enthusiasm as her friend.
"Wait a minute, he isn't a member yet!" Scootaloo opposed the idea.
"Come on Scootaloo, he can help us with lots of things!" Apple Bloom started, when Scootaloo gave a look that practically asked what I could do Apple Bloom continued, "He can help us with the map, and besides since he's looking for his cutie mark he's gonna let we go there!"
I couldn't care less about my cutie mark, I was just intending to keep an eye on these three.
"No!" Scootaloo protested, "I think we should call Rainbow Dash! She's a lot cooler AND reliable than him!"
Just who the heck was this Rainbow Dash?
"I don't think Rainbow would let we go inside the Everfree Forest..." Sweetie Belle countered the argument.
Scootaloo grunted upset admitting Sweetie's point. "Maybe you're right..."
Then they gathered and started to mumble, I barely could understand what they were saying. "But if Applejack knows we even thought about going there... I bet she's gonna tell Rainbow and Rarity..." Apple Bloom muttered fearfully, Sweetie and Scootaloo shivered upon realizing the consequences that would ensue, whatever they were.
"He has amnesia, so he might not know about the Everfree Forest," Scootaloo mumbled, but I still could hear it. I was amnesiac, not deaf.
"Maybe if we tell him..." Sweetie suggested something.
Then they started whispering so low I couldn't hear anything else, they occasionally looked at me while discussing between themselves.
While they were pondering what to do I tried to think what information I had heard or read about this "Evenfree Forest", it was a dark, creepy place and some said it was haunted, other say it was a jinxed and caused whoever went too far inside to have a streak of bad luck. Most of it were just rumors and superstitions, so I naturally ignored them.
Then finally the fillies finished talking and they approached walking confidently. I could only wonder what they had decided.
"We've decided to name you a temporary member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, you are now a Cutie Mark, uh, Squire!" Apple Bloom said tapping my shoulder.
Wohoo.
"Lone! You can come with us to the secret place!" Sweetie cheerfully said while carrying the map with her magic.
"Yeah, besides if we find something cool you'll carry it for us!" Scootaloo said blatantly like always, "You can start by carrying the map case!"
I shrugged and rolled with it, even if they didn't let me go with them I'd still follow these little adventurers. It's really not good to let them to go into a place where nopony likes to be.
I should've told Applejack what the hay was going on, but then I was afraid I'd earn the wrath of three determined fillies, besides I was planning on exploring that forest anyway.
Later in that afternoon we were all at the entrance of the Everfree Forest, a name that didn't suit that creepy place not even slightly. The Cutie Mark Crusaders stopped and stood there for a moment until Apple Bloom poked Sweetie Belle so she could start reading the map. Once the filly was ready they started marching to the insides that place that made even I feel uncomfortable. The last two things I could do before going into that forest was look behind for a last time and sigh, unaware of what was lying ahead of me.
A decision I'd regret later. |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | pre | "So there actually is some love in food?" she asks me.
"Not enough to be truly nourishing" I explain. "It's kinda like eating one cracker versus having a whole bowl of soup. Also, that little bit of love tends to dissipate after a while."
"That said, what you've done here is put an amount of love in that can provide as much nourishment for a changeling as the actual food would for a pony, and that love doesn't seem to dissipate so quickly either. It's really amazing!"
Twilight smiles at my praise, then jots down what appears to be a note regarding what I said. I'm tempted to ask what she's writing about, but decide not to. It's probably about the comment I made about food containing some love in it from the chef or cook who made it anyway.
I sit back and appraise the flask on the table. This potion, concocted by Princess Twilight and a zebra friend named Zecora, actually takes pure love and grows it inside the fluid. My mouth salivated at the smell coming from the flask, but my mind was blown as I thought that this solution could solve the problem of eternal hunger that I, as well as many changelings before me, have to deal with on a daily basis.
Of course, I must admit that my time in the Crystal Empire among friends has tempered my appetite greatly, so the hunger would be much easier for me to control than my hivemates.
As I consider the other possibilities for this solution, Twilight begins brainstorming some of her own. "This is gonna be amazing!" she says with excitement as she picks up the flask. "The uses for this stuff can go way beyond feeding you in a socially acceptable way. I tried some of this stuff just after Zecora and I first made it, and I felt so much happier and full of energy afterwards. If that's consistent across all pony tribes, than this potion can be used in a treatment regimen for depression and all other sorts of mental ailments."
"And if this stuff can do that, then maybe it can help restore the ponies that were fed on during the invasion."
She hadn't intended it, but her comment brought the mood of the room down a good bit. Even Pinkie, the normally energetic and seemingly always happy mare, looked rather saddened as her mane lost some of its puffiness.
Everyone sitting at the table was all too familiar with what happened during the wedding in Canterlot, and not just the queen's attempt to usurp the power of the throne. All across the great city, my brothers and sisters followed the queen's only order after the capture of Twilight and her friends - feed.
When the spell that Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor used to expel us from the city was finished, the guards very quickly found a large number of ponies that were either so drained of emotion that they could barely move, or ponies so catatonic from draining that they needed to be put on life support machines because even their bodies didn't care if they lived or not.
The thought of those ponies made me feel terrible, and not just from thinking about them being in that horrible state. Even before the invasion, I disagreed with the way changelings acted, and their disdain at the idea of friendship. I had intended to defect long before the invasion. Perhaps if I did, I could've warned ponies about my kind, and maybe with that warning, the guard could've provided better protection than what they were able to.
Since I couldn't go back in time and convince myself to leave, my next best option for atoning would be to help with the experiments involving this potion. If I could help make it strong enough, then perhaps it could restore the ponies that were drained the worst during the invasion.
The thought about healing ponies also made me think of Soothing Dusk, the mare I had attacked in a hunger-clouded haze in Whinnyapolis. I remember how gulty I had felt immediately afterwards and how I ran away in a panic, and then later on when Princess Cadance found out her identity and took me to see her so I could apologize face to face. I could still see her face in pure terror, even as I told her how sorry I had felt for doing what I did to her.
With this potion, It was now possible for me to do something I never thought I would ever be able to do before: I could give back what I had taken. If it could help Soothing like Twilight said it could, then I would volunteer as much love as I could to make up for that mistake.
"As much as I hate admitting it," Twilight continued, "there's also another application for this formula. If we ever caught one of Queen Chrysalis's agents, then perhaps we could use this to help sway them to our side and have them defect from her rule, or at least keep them alive as we hold them prisoner. At current, unless we sacrificed ponies for the changelings to feed on, they would starve in the dungeons, and the princess wouldn't want either of those situations to play out.
I thought about that idea for a moment. Using this potion to sway defectors from the hive? In theory, it could definitely work, but that was theory. Changelings were fiercely loyal to their queen. The only ones that weren't completely loyal were usually the younger queens that would either leave to start a new hive, or fight the previous queen for control of the current one. All other changelings obeyed the queen without question. If Twilight's potion could potentially sway the remaining changelings in the hive, it would only sway a few at best.
Thinking of the hive, I then thought about what Queen Chrysalis would do if she got hold of this information and shuddered. Twilight took notice of my reactions and got my attention.
"What's wrong?" she asked me. "I thought finding out about this would be wonderful news."
"It is" I assure her. "This potion is going to do a lot of good things for a lot of ponies. I just had the thought of what could happen if Queen Chrysalis got a hold of this stuff."
Princess Twilight frowned. "Yeah, that might not be a good thing, huh?"
I shake my head. "She could take all the research and destroy it so that the drones in the hive won't find out, or she'll keep it for herself and charge herself up with so much love that nothing in Equestria, even the elements, would be able to stop her."
Twilight looked rather disappointed upon hearing what I had to say about my former queen's potential plans if she were to learn of this potion. My intention hadn't been to shoot down her great achievement; just providing a word of caution to the mare about how she may want to proceed with this new discovery.
"Please don't take it the wrong way" I say to her apologetically. "You have created something wonderful. In truth, this potion may very well be the answer to the question of the hunger that's haunted changelings since time immemorial."
"What I'm saying is you should be careful with this discovery. Right now, I would take all the research and the recipe for that mixture and put it in the most secure place you can think of, and only call for it when absolutely necessary so that it doesn't fall into the wrong hooves."
Twilight digested the words that I told her and nodded in agreement. "You're right, Thorax" she said aloud. "This potion has the potential of doing a whole lot of good, but it's also possible it can cause great harm if it fell into the wrong hooves. We need to be absolutely careful with this discovery going forward."
The princess then produced two parchments, one written on and rolled up and the other blank and ready to be written on. Writing something very quickly on the blank one, Twilight the placed the rolled up parchment at the bottom of the other one and rolled them up together. "Spike, please send this immediately" she asked the purple dragon, who gave a salute and then took the letter and used his fire breath to set it aflame. I'd never seen Spike send a letter before, so I was rather shocked to see the little drake do that. Before I could voice my surprise, the entire letter transformed into smoke and vanished in a green flash.
Twilight saw my reaction and let out a small chuckle. "Spike has magic that allows him to send letters directly to Princess Celestia, wherever she might be" she explained. "I sent that potion recipe to her and asked that it be stored in her personal archives. No creature, no matter how powerful with magic, would be able to get in there."
I considered what Twilight had just told me and gave a nod of satisfaction. I knew for a fact that while some changelings were competent with using pony magic, none were at a level that could be called excelling. Unless the princesses themselves were to be mind controlled and made to unlock whatever spells and wards had been placed on the princess's archives, changelings weren't going to get a hold of that recipe any time soon, and I doubted that the queen or any other changeling could be good enough at mind control spells to use them against alicorns. If they had been, the invasion would've happened much differently.
A moment later, and a reply was belched out by Spike, who read it and said that the princess would hold onto the recipe for the potion and congratulated Twilight on her accomplishment. She also mentioned to give thanks to Zecora for her assistance with producing the recipe as well. Twilight beamed at the praise from the letter. In truth, I smiled a bit as well; Princess Celestia sounded like a nice pony, and I had been told by Cadance that she had written letters to Celestia about me, and both she and I hoped that time could be spared so that we could meet face to face in the future.
I had made an effort to convince both Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor to allow to stop in Canterlot on my way back from Ponyville, but they had shot down the idea. Cadance had told me sympathetically "Something could happen while you're there and it could end badly for either you or somepony else. It would be best for all parties to wait for a time when Princess Celestia could visit the Crystal Empire. That way, we could ensure everypony's safety."
With the great surprise revealed, and the mayor and Big Mac sworn not to reveal the secret of the new potion to the ponies in town, we continued eating breakfast. I whoofed down the love-infused pancakes with vigor; to actually eat pony food and be nourished by it had felt amazing. For one moment, in my true form, I felt like one of them, eating a meal with friends and having a great time as I did it.
I didn't want the meal to end, but there were no more pancakes to be had. Despite my disappointment, I elected to consider myself full from the meal. Something told me that drinking the love infused syrup would've gotten me strange looks, and there might have been plans for more pancakes later this week, so best to save it to use with them.
After we had finished breakfast and cleaned our dishes, Spike took me by the hoof and began giving me a tour of Princess Twilight's castle. Twilight had asked me before hoof to use my Crystal Hoof disguise until I had been introduced to the town, on the off chance a citizen came bursting into the palace due to some kind of emergency. Having heard the reputation of the town, I readily agreed and took on my most familiar form again.
Spike walked ahead of me as I walked just a half step or so behind him, looking at some of the doors he was pointing to.
"That's the royal guest suite, which we'll use whenever any of the princesses visit," Spike told me while pointing at one door, then pointed to another while saying "That's the royal guard barracks. If Twilight ever agreed to have her own guards, they would stay here. Of course, being the Princess of Friendship, she thinks having guards around would make ponies think she wasn't approachable."
"I don't think having some guards would be a terrible idea" I voiced my concern. "What if Chrysalis tried another invasion?"
Spike waved a claw dismissively. "This place is so disorienting that anypony that tried to get in here without having been here at least once would get lost."
I was still concerned, but I kept any further opinions to myself; I would bring them directly to Twilight, who I hoped would agree with me.
Spike continued the tour while I put our recent discussion behind me for the moment. I had to look around in awe at the castle and its crystalline architecture. It was reminiscent of my home in the Crystal Empire. I couldn't even see any seams in the crystal!
"And here's the castle armory."
Wait...
Armory?
I stop in my tracks and look at the door Spike is pointing to. Sure enough, a small plaque on the doors reads "ARMORY". My attention goes back to the little dragon with a questioning look. "Why would Princess Twilight have this?"
Spike rubs the back of his head while he forms a response. "Well... it's really just an armory in name. Most of it is bare, but there are a few weapons inside. Twilight wanted to get rid of all of them, but the mayor insisted she keep at least a few in case there would ever be need of them."
The mare with the graying mane was far more intelligent than I had initially given her credit for. I look back at the door again with a new question in mind. "Does Twilight use this room at all?"
"Actually, yeah, she does" Spike replies. "The portion that isn't currently housing weapons was turned into a little side project of hers."
"Side project?" I parrot in confusion.
"Yeah" Spike answers. "It's her 'friendship museum'."
"A museum about... friendship?" I question as I study the door further, now noticing a decoration of a sword and ax crossed together over a shield.
"It's not so much a museum about friendship as much as it's about Twilight meeting all the other girls and discovering that they were all the elements of harmony" Spike explains. "She hopes that ponies who see it will learn something about friendship, and one day..."
I look at Spike as he trails off. "And one day?" I prod just a little.
"I probably shouldn't say" he says in a weak effort to dissuade me.
"And one day what Spike?" I prod a little more firmly.
Spike considers me for a moment, and then looks around before moving in closer to me. "Can you keep a secret?" he asks in a whisper.
"I'm a changeling, Spike" I say to the little dragon with a smile. "A race of creatures who, until recently, lived in total secrecy. Of course I can keep one."
Spike looks around again before leaning in a little bit closer still. "Twilight wants to open up a friendship school."
I took a moment to process what I heard. "A friendship school?" I parroted.
Spike nodded. "She wants to start a friendship school so that ponies and other creatures can learn about friendship and harmony like she and the other girls did. Most of her nights staying up lately have been planning all kinds of things, like class curriculum and grading systems. She's even made up blueprints and picked out a spot that she believes would be perfect for it."
Somehow I wasn't surprised to hear that. Having known Twilight as long as I had known Spike, I knew the mare was very studious and enjoyed teaching just as much as she did learning. Her starting a school sounded just like something she'd do.
As I stood there, a thought occurred to me. "Can we check this museum out?" I asked him.
Spike thought it over for a second, but then nodded. "Sure," he said, "but it might be better to wait for Twilight. Not all of the exhibits are complete yet and despite her penchant for organization, she hasn't labeled anything yet. I helped out with this some, but I couldn't tell you what everything is."
"Then it's a good thing we're all here to see it too."
The voice behind us catches Spike and I both off guard. We turn to see Twilight and everypony else from breakfast. Pinkie and Rainbow are looking at us try to keep straight faces; they apparently thought our reaction was amusing. Rarity and Fluttershy were both smiling, and Applejack was shaking her head at her friends' reaction. The mayor and Big Macintosh were standing behind everypony else, small smiles on their faces and radiating contentedness. Twilight herself was beaming.
"I suggested to everypony after you left that they take a look at the museum and tell me what they thought of it," she explained, "and then I could use that input to help make it better."
"Well I'll be happy to give you my input as well" I told her. She gave a nod and I could feel appreciation roll off her towards me. She then moved past me and opened the door.
"Come on in, everypony!" Twilight said enthusiastically as she pushed open the doors to lead us inside.
The armory had been just as Spike said: A large room with only a few lockers that looked as though they could hold a couple of dozen spears or axes. I took notice that in one locker was a pony style bow, which had two cutouts on the main body for hooves to slide into, as well as an arm for a quiver of arrows to attach to. Looking underneath the bow, I saw about a dozen or so arrows. Raising one out in my magic, I saw that the end was capped with a slightly pointed piece of metal, telling me these were the "target arrows" that the royal guard used in training and practice. I replaced the arrow and moved to rejoin the group.
Twilight was standing underneath an archway that seemed to lead to another part of the armory. "This is the Elements of Harmony Friendship Museum" Twilight announced as she gestured towards a sign above her head. "Inside are some examples of exhibits that I want to feature in a more permanent museum in the future. You all are the first to see this besides Spike, so I want your honest opinion of what you see, and girls, if you don't think something you saw is accurate to what happened, please let me know so I can fix it." The princess then turned and walked into the museum, all of us following behind her.
The room Twilight entered was a section of the armory that was meant for artillery pieces. There were places where divots in the floor marked where cannons would be placed, with places for ammunition to go beside them. I made the guess that Twilight had the cannons and ammunition moved elsewhere so she could set up this museum here.
I elected to take in the exhibits so I could give proper feedback. The first was a diorama that featured Princess Luna, but she looked very different. She had fangs and armor, and her fur color was so dark that it almost appeared black. It finally struck me that I was looking at the princess's possessed form, Nightmare Moon.
Opposite the figure was miniatures of Princess Twilight and her friends. All of them appeared to be floating in the air, and a sphere giving off while light was at the center. Remembering what Sunburst had told me, I realized this was the moment that Twilight and her friends had become the elements of harmony and cleansed Princess Luna of the nightmare creature.
After taking the first exhibit in, I moved on to one where pictures and replicas of the element jewelry were located. Each one had been an ornate design, and the jewels at the center reflected their bearers, each being in the shape of that mare's respective cutie mark. Just below the replica elements was a picture of all six of the girls, posed around Twilight while wearing the elements. Interestingly, I noticed that Applejack had removed her stetson for the photograph, something that the mare rarely did. Her whole blonde mane was out for everypony to see.
After passing a few more exhibits that discussed events such as the Grand Galloping Gala party in Canterlot, the chaos god Discord breaking free of his stone prison, and some other minor events that held significance for the six mares that experienced them, I then came to an exhibit that made me stop in my tracks.
Sitting on the table was a replica of the wedding cathedral in Canterlot, and inside was Twilight and her friends, as well as Princess Cadance, standing at odds with Queen Chrysalis, who had a hypnotized Shining Armor beside her. Completing the display were several dozen changeling drones that were made to look as though they were flying around the cathedral.
"Sorry, Thorax" came Twilight's voice. I turned to see the mare approach me with a frown. "I should've warned you this was here."
"It's okay" I told her. "That was a bad day for a lot of ponies, and even for me, but you can't ignore history just because it makes you uncomfortable."
She nodded in agreement with me. "Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it, or at least that's how the saying goes."
I nodded in agreement with that sentiment. What I was trying to do in the Crystal Empire and here in Ponyville fit that remark to a tee. The only question was if I could succeed in teaching the other changelings.
After a few more minutes, our group had seen all the exhibits and gave our feedback. Overall, we enjoyed learning about all of the things that happened to the girls, but some of the girls had to criticize the exhibits for inaccuracies. Rainbow, however, proclaimed that her Sonic Rainboom that she had made to save her friends during a flying competition was "way more awesome" than the model one Twilight had made for the exhibit. When everypony had given their feedback, the mayor cleared her throat to get everypony's attention.
"I hate to interrupt," she began, "but I must leave now." She then turned to look at me. "Thorax, I've decided to introduce you to Ponyville this afternoon at two o'clock. It's nine o'clock now, so that should give you some time to prepare yourself however you need to. I'm going to try and get everypony I can to attend."
"Twilight, if you would please, I'd like to get Zecora to attend as well. I'm sure that she's curious to meet the changeling that she helped you make that potion for."
"If somepony would volunteer, I'd like Miss Cheerilee to be aware of this meeting so she can dismiss her class early. I would like for those foals in her school to attend."
"I could also use a few more volunteers to help set up the stage for this afternoon. Applejack and Big Mac, I'd prefer it to be you two since you've both set it up in the past and can do it rather quickly."
Applejack and Big Mac nodded. Fluttershy volunteered to get Zecora instead of Twilight, since her cottage and Zecora's hut weren't too far away from each other. The other girls also volunteered, with Pinkie preparing refreshments for the ponies, Rainbow making sure there were no stray rain clouds that could cause an interruption, and Rarity insisting she throw together a new ascot for the mayor and taking her to the spa so she looked her best for the meeting.
After everypony left to take care of their assigned or volunteered tasks, I found myself alone with Spike and Twilight. The purple mare had a smile as she approached me.
"I believe I'll help you prepare for your big moment" she said as she gestured for me to follow her.
"My big moment" I say as worry begins to build in me. "Oh, eggshells! How am I gonna pull this off?!"
I begin to panic and start hyperventilating, but Twilight uses a spell that causes a sharp, pinch-like sensation on my flanks.
"Ow!" I cry out as I rub the affected area with a hoof.
"Thorax, please calm down!" Twilight pleads with me. "I know that you're nervous, but this is something that you've wanted for a while. Everypony in the Crystal Empire has accepted you for who you are and doesn't hold your being a changeling against you. I can guarantee you that with a show of confidence from both the mayor and myself, the ponies here in town will give you a chance."
I listen to what she tells me and can sense the certainty she has in her words. One way or another, she was gonna convince the ponies here to accept me despite my appearance and the history between my kind and theirs. Calming myself down, I look back at Twilight and give her a nod.
"Thanks" I say to her. "I know I seem like I'm being a pain, but I hope you understand that a changeling revealing themselves deliberately is practically unheard of, and while I've gotten used to living with the ponies in the Crystal Empire without disguising myself, it's still really scary revealing myself to a new pony."
"I know," she replies, "but doing that is showing trust in the ponies you're revealing yourself to, and trust is a two way street."
She gestures for me to follow her again, and this time I do. "Where are we going?" I ask.
"To my private library" she replied. "I think the best place to start preparing you would be to show you some exercises that will help relieve anxiety."
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea" I respond as we both continue moving down the hallway.
Truth be told, I was gonna need all the help I could get. |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | Day 1 - Meeting the Town (Part 1) | "Oh, why did I ever agree to this?" I ask myself as I pace around the inside of the town hall building. Princess Twilight and Spike both walked me over here while Applejack and Big Macintosh finished setting up the stage. I was ushered inside and told to stay put until the mayor had given me my cue to come outside and meet everypony.
Currently, the mayor was waiting for the remainder of the town's citizens to arrive and get settled so she could begin her speech. I dared a peek to look out over the crowd and saw some faces that I recognized but wished that I hadn't.
All three of the mares that Queen Chrysalis brainwashed to keep Princess Cadance in the abandoned Crystal Mines were here. A grey earth pony with a treble clef cutie mark that was part of the orchestra at the wedding was here as well, along with the white mare that wore sunglasses and operated the record players. There were also some stallions that I thought I recognized as guards that had their enchanted armor knocked off during the attack on the city. All in all, more than a few of the ponies that attended the royal wedding were here, and they were about to be introduced to one of the creatures that was part of the attack on that day.
My panic was interrupted as Mayor Mare began her speech.
"Mares and Stallions of Ponyville, I thank you all for coming here this afternoon. Now, I know some of you are curious about why I have called a meeting this late in the day, and I have a good reason for that. Today, Ponyville will be welcoming a very special guest."
The mayor stepped away from the podium and allowed Twilight to speak.
"Thank you mayor, and Good Afternoon Ponyville. I, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Equestria's Princess of Friendship, am here to introduce all of you to a very unexpected guest: a friendly changeling."
Shocked gasps spread through the crowd, and I could feel the wave of fear and uncertainty pass over the ponies. I could even detect a bit of fear from Princess Twilight, but the lavender mare kept her composure as she spoke.
"I understand that all of you have reservations about the idea of a changeling that actually wants to be on friendly terms with us, but I am here to personally assure you that no harm will come to you from this changeling. Though I know that his word is good, a guard has been provided to keep watch of him so that you may all have piece of mind."
There were murmurs spreading through the audience now, and the wave of fear was starting to diminish. Princess Twilight continued speaking.
"I met this changeling last year in the Crystal Empire a short time after an event there called The Crystaling. That outpouring of love, combined with the excitement of my brother Shining Armor and fellow Princess Cadance giving birth to their first child, attracted him to the empire."
"His appearance caused a panic that put the empire into a lock down that would not end until he was captured. When we arrived and learned of a changeling in the vicinity, we offered our services to help protect the citizens and bring in this changeling."
"My assistant Spike, who is a well known and respected hero in the empire, offered to assist the guard in their efforts to find the changeling in the wastelands outside the city. His efforts were successful, but he panicked upon encountering the changeling and fell into a chasm inside the cave where the changeling was hiding."
The crowd reacted with shock upon learning that a hero of the Crystal Empire and one of their own citizens had been in such grave danger.
"This would've ended badly for Spike," Twilight continued, "but this changeling demonstrated his goodness by saving Spike from certain doom."
"Once he was safe, Spike heard out this changeling's story and made the decision to convince the Crystal Empire of his sincerity. While they had their doubts, and there were several hiccups along the way, the ponies of the Crystal Empire eventually accepted this changeling, and for about the past six months or so, the changeling and the crystal ponies have lived together without incident. They have shown him many lessons in regards to friendship and harmony, and he has stayed true to his word in regards to wanting friendship."
"Now, this changeling has asked to come before all of you today so that he can prove to all of you that his desire for friendship is genuine. Please, everypony give a warm Ponyville welcome to Thorax!"
I gulped as a very quiet applause sounded. By sound alone, I could tell it was only Starlight, the other element bearers, and a few really nervous ponies that were just as unsure about my being here as the ones who weren't applauding.
The mayor then proceeded to open the door and usher me out. She looked at me with worry for a moment, and I at first thought it was from fear, but I quickly realized it was genuine concern.
"We're ready for you" the mayor tells me. I think she had hoped that little bit of gentle pressure would persuade me to step outside, but my hooves decided to shape-shift into tree roots and hold me in place. The mayor makes a gesture for me to come outside but my body refuses to do so. I then see the mare turn and shake her head at Twilight, who reacts with nervousness that I am barely able to pick out from the background radiation of shock, fear and a tiny tidbit of anger.
"Sorry about this everypony" she addresses the crowd. "From what Thorax has told me, a changeling deliberately revealing themselves to another creature is a rather nerve-wracking thing for them, so he's just a bit nervous right now."
As she concludes her explanation, I hear her hooves slowly walk over to the door, but it becomes almost a gallop once she's a few steps away from the podium. She quickly joins the mayor at the door.
"Come on, Thorax" she says to me. "This is what you've wanted for a long time. A chance to meet ponies and be accepted for who you are outright."
"I know," I answer her, "but I'm still really nervous. I can tell that everypony outside is scared, and there's a few that are even a little bit angry at me. What if those ponies decide to act and the others join in? I know how angry mobs usually get started."
Twilight gestures for the mare to get out of the doorway. She comes inside and takes me into a hug, and I feel the love she has for me start to sink into my carapace, making some of the small pangs of hunger I've felt since the morning quiet down.
"I know how nervous you are," she sympathizes, "but nopony will find out how truly nice you are if you keep hiding in here. If you really want to start building a bridge between ponies and the other changelings, then you got to start right here. Let them see the real you, and they'll eventually come around."
"What about the angry ones?" I ask her.
Twilight looks at me for a second and then smiles. "Remember my brother?" she asks, to which I nod. "He was one of the angry ones too. Now he's not. I'm sure if you could get 'Mister Set In Stone' to come around, these few angry ponies will be a cinch."
I try to come up with a rebuttal, but the lavender alicorn is right. Shining Armor was my most vocal opponent in the Crystal Empire, but now he had accepted me as a member of the kingdom he and his wife call home. I could bring those angry ponies around with enough time and effort.
I slowly began to calm down, enjoying the bits of love coming from the princess, savoring them as my nerves began to calm down more.
"Feeling better now?" she asks me.
"A lot" I reply.
"Good" she says with a smile. "Now, how about we go outside and meet all the ponies?"
I practice the exercises that she showed me earlier, and once I finish them, I give her a nod. I step up to the door as the princess falls in behind me, ready to shove me through if I get cold hooves again. Tentatively raising a hoof, I take one last deep breath and place it outside the threshold.
The sun is still fairly high in the sky, but it's begun its trek to the other side of the horizon. Just outside the door is a stage with a podium set on it, and past that is what has my nerves so worked up at the moment: the population of the entire town, save anypony that may have taken a trip elsewhere today.
Princess Twilight steps past me and back to the podium. I hear a door closing and look to see the mayor has cut off my best chance at hiding. With nowhere to run besides out of town, I try my best to keep calm and approach the podium. Princess Twilight addresses the ponies again.
"I know that a lot of you are really unsure of the current situation," she begins, "and I know some of you have some rather bad memories from what happened at the royal wedding some time ago, but I am here to assure you that nothing bad like that is going to happen here today."
"And how do you know for certain?" a pony in the crowd cries out.
"Because my friends and I, as well as the guard stationed her, care about the well being of this town enough to have made sure everypony who has gathered here for this meeting is not secretly a changeling waiting to spring a trap."
"But how do we know they're not in our houses right now?" another fearful pony cries out. "I could walk home and be taken!"
"Nothing like that is going to happen!" Princess Twilight answers, more insistently than before. "I'm well aware of the dangers that changelings present ponies. I was at the wedding and seen first hoof what things they are capable of doing."
"That said, Thorax here is nothing like that. As I said before, he came to the Crystal Empire wanting to be friends with ponies there and he has proven his intentions to be true. Now, he wants to do the same thing here."
"And how do we know that's really true and you just aren't under some kind of mind control spell like your brother was?" A stallion steps forward, a scowl on his face.
"It's true because I was the only pony to see the changeling queen for what she was: a horrible imposter. I would never fall for such terrible mind tricks."
"I bet" the stallion says under his breath.
The mayor decides to step forward and try to deescalate the situation. "Please, everypony!" she calls out. "I assure you that all necessary precautions have been taken. If you have any doubts, then understand that a few minutes ago, this changeling was so terrified of coming out to see all of you that he was frozen in place. I must ask all of you this simple question: If this changeling is some evil mastermind here to take over our town, then why have we announced him? And why is he acting as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs?"
Nopony answers for a second, until one blurts out "That could be part of the deception." With that scenario put forward, the crowd devolves into murmurs that border on shouting. I immediately feel their growing hostility and know it is only a matter of time before the community of earth ponies break out pitch forks and torches.
Before things devolve any further, Princess Twilight steps back up to the podium.
"In the few years I have lived here in Ponyville", she begins, "I can honestly say that I have never felt more ashamed of you all as I do right now."
That comment causes the mob to quiet down and look at the princess.
"We've seen some of the worst that Equestria has had the displeasure of experiencing" she continues. "My first day here, we were confronted with Nightmare Moon. My friends and I became the new bearers for the Elements of Harmony and we cleansed the nightmare and restored Princess Luna."
"She was then invited back to take part in Nightmare Night, and what did we do? We treated her like she was still Nightmare Moon!"
"The princess still feels very ashamed of what she had done in the past, but you all made her feel even worse than she already did, because in her mind, you proved to her that she was never going to redeem herself and prove that she had turned over a new leaf!"
"In the end, you finally did see that she was no longer the princess that sought to cause destruction and mayhem and allowed her a chance to forgive herself, if only just a little bit at that time."
"I thought all of you had got past that mistake, but I guess you haven't, and now we're all going to do the same thing with this changeling that we did with the princess so long ago. I used to think this town was the most warm and accepting place in all of Equestria. Now? I'm not so sure anymore."
I stood in both awe and shock of Twilight. In her recollection of this event involving Princess Luna, she had evoked memories in a great many of these ponies, and I then started to feel shame coming from the audience. Each one of them was looking down and away from the stage, none wanting to make eye contact with the alicorn.
"Now that I've cleared everything up," she continues, "let's have a warm Ponyville welcome for Thorax!"
The ponies stood stock still for a moment before a slow drumming was heard, which gradually picked up in volume. I looked at the crowd and saw a few ponies begin stomping their hooves, some next to them joining in after a moment, and by the time a full minute had passed, the majority of the ponies in the crowd were stomping their hooves against the ground, making the small stage we were standing on shake a little bit.
Princess Twilight raised a hoof and the stomping ceased. "That was much better" she praised them. "Now, Thorax understands that all of you are rather nervous about a changeling being here, with some of you rather scared and wanting to go hide. In truth, he feels the same way too. He didn't want to come out of the town hall and show himself to all of you because he was afraid you would turn into an angry mob and run him out of town on a... rail."
Everypony turns to see two stallions carrying a long wooden pole on their backs. The two stop and see the disapproving stare coming form the princess, and after some rather sheepish smiles, back up and out of view again. Princess Twilight starts speaking again.
"Thorax was afraid of what he thought you all would do, but he got over that fear and came out to meet all of you. Now, I want all of you to get over that same fear as well, and I know from experience that the biggest motivator in fear is ignorance. With that in mind, I would like to invite all of you to please ask Thorax any question that you've wanted to know about changelings."
"Before we start, I would appreciate it greatly if everypony please keep things civil and not bombard him with questions about the incident at the royal wedding. He wants to move past that as much as I do. Thorax, the stage is yours." |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | Day 1 - Meeting the Town(Part 2) | I stood on the stage quivering in fear. Thousands of pony eyes were staring at me. Every single pony there feeling some kind of negative emotion, from simple nervousness to outright fear. It was so much that it was beginning to sour my stomach and cause me to throw up the wonderful love-infused pancakes Spike and Princess Twilight had made me this morning. I did my best to calm myself and alleviate my nausea, and I was fortunate enough to abate it for a moment.
With cautious steps, I approached the podium that Twilight and the mayor had been speaking at. As I stood before it, I looked out over the crowd gathered in front of it. They were a mix of all three races, and I could swear I saw a few ponies with slitted eyes like a cat; some thestrals that had decided to stay awake for the day so they could inform their nocturnal brethren of the goings on in the town.
Perhaps I could come out at night and meet a few, before it got too late and I had to go to bed?
My attention returned to the crowd and I prepared myself to speak.
"Um, h... he... hello" I managed to squeak out. "M... My name... My name is... T-T-Thorax."
Nopony reacted, and I couldn't sense a change in mood. A good sign, maybe?
"Princess Twilight has told you some about me," I continue with more confidence, "but I'm sure you all have questions-"
"WHY DID YOU ATTACK CANTERLOT?!"
"WHY DO YOU ATTACK US FOR LOVE?! CAN'T YOU MAKE YOUR OWN?!"
"WHAT'S WITH THE HOLES AND THE WHOLE BUG LOOK?!"
"WHY DO YOU HAVE FANGS?! DO YOU HAVE VENOM LIKE SNAKES?!"
The questions came flooding over me and I very quickly ducked down behind the podium. A quick flash of light and a loud "BANG!" silenced the crowd again as Princess Twilight addressed them.
"Everypony, please calm down!" she called out to them. "You all have questions, and some that are very deserving of answers, but it is completely unfair for us to expect Thorax to answer any of them when you're bombarding him like some Bridlewood star!"
Nopony spoke after that. Twilight looked back to me. "Don't worry," she assured me, "The mare and I have your back. Don't let them get to you."
I give her a nod as I rise back up to face the crowd. "As I was saying," I continue, "I am willing to answer questions, but for some of them, I may not have the answers. I was a drone, and I wasn't granted the privilege to know more than what the queen wanted. So, I will answer any questions you have."
"Need I remind all of you," Twilight interjects, "when it comes to asking questions, you need to do so in an orderly manner. You cannot bombard Thorax with questions and expect to get answers to every one of them. We will raise hooves and I will call on you to ask your question."
Nearly every hoof shot up into the air. The unison of the act made it feel somewhat creepy, and reminded me of the hive and training drills to an extent.
"We'll start with Lyra Heartstrings" Twilight says as she points to a mint-green mare with yellow eyes. I recognize her and then shudder; she was one of the bridesmaids that was hypnotized into guarding Princess Cadance in the crystal caves beneath Canterlot during the wedding. I could only imagine what kind of question she had to ask me.
"Is it true that changelings can control ponies' minds?"
...Yeah, that's about what I imagined she would ask. The worst part is she was looking for me to say there was. Anything else and she would consider it to be an outright lie or just dodging the question. It was a catch 22 for me: Answer yes and lose any chance at gaining trust in the town, but answer no and everypony will think you're lying.
I look at Twilight nervously. "I don't know how to answer that" I tell her.
"Why?" she asks as she looks at me with confusion.
"I can tell that she wants me to say yes and won't accept anything but yes as the truth." I admit to her.
Twilight turns to face Lyra. "Answer me honestly, Lyra: Will you except any answer besides yes, even if no is the actual truth?"
Lyra looks taken aback. "W-What?!"
"If Thorax told you no," Twilight elaborates, "would you accept it as the truth, or would you take it as he's lying?"
Lyra looks around at the crowd with discomfort. "U... Um..."
"Then I don't think it's proper for you to be asking that question" she tells the mare before facing the crowd. "Thorax is more than willing to tell all of you the truth and that he won't hide anything from you, but there isn't really a point to asking him questions if you would only accept an answer that wouldn't conflict with your own beliefs about changelings. That's what science ponies call a confirmation bias, and it prevents the real evidence of an experiment from being considered and the actual truth to be known."
"So, with that said, how many of you actually have a question for Thorax for which you will accept whatever he tells you is the truth and you won't call him out as a liar for it?"
Nopony raises a hoof for a few moments, but eventually, one hoof is raised very timidly into the air.
"Yes, Davenport?" Twilight calls on the stallion.
"Um... Why did you attack Canterlot?"
The question is another one I was expecting. For ponies, that attack was unprovoked, and the damage it had caused had taken away the peace of mind that their princesses could handle any threat the kingdom faced. It wasn't hard to understand that those affected would want answers.
"Well... I don't know ALL of the reasons we were made to invade Canterlot, but what I know for certain is that the queen promised us that going there and taking over would allow us to feed and we wouldn't have to feel hunger any more."
"Why were all of you so hungry to begin with?"
The mare asking this question was the one standing beside Lyra. She had a mane that was half indigo and half magenta. Her blue eyes appraised me as I considered how to answer her question.
"Well, we don't eat food like other creatures do. Our bodies our kinda like plants, where we make the nutrients we need to survive inside ourselves, but just like plants, we need an external source of energy in order for us to function. For us, that energy comes from the emotions of other creatures, and the kind that is preferred are the more amorous kinds of feelings, like love."
"So we're just some kind of walking smorgasbord for you lot, huh?"
The pony asking this question was a stallion wearing a necktie. He was close enough I could make out his cutie mark: an hourglass.
"Well, not me specifically" I answer. "The rest of the changelings don't see any problem with stealing love from all of you and making you so weak you can barely move. I don't think that's right, and that's why I left the hive to find a better way to live."
"That's why you went to the Crystal Empire?"
This was a mare's voice. Her mulberry coat and pinkish mane contrasted well against her green eyes.
"Well, not exactly" I answer. "I ended up in the Crystal Empire after I tried to make friends in other places, but as you can imagine, nopony really wanted to make friends with... a creature like me."
There weren't anymore questions for a few moments. Eventually, a pony did raise their hoof.
"How come y'all didn't wanna talk with us about bein' hungry?"
This question came from a foal. The little yellow filly had a big red bow in her hair, and she looked up at me with her orange eyes in genuine curiosity.
"I honestly don't know" I tell her. "I think maybe it was because we didn't think ponies would listen to us because of how different we are."
"That's nonsense!" Lyra's voice called out. "We ponies pride ourselves on being very accepting and friendly creatures!"
"I don't know" I replied to her. "Princess Twilight told me the story about how your town reacted to meeting a zebra for the first time."
Everypony winced a bit at that remark. They clearly hadn't forgotten about the shamare who lived inside the Everfree Forest and concocted herbal remedies and potions. She would occasionally come into town for some events and to purchase things she couldn't otherwise procure from her excursions into the dangerous forest.
Upon her first entry into town, the ponies believed she was an evil sorceress who would curse anypony who crossed her path. It was only later that she was revealed to be as normal as any pony living in Ponyville, save some eccentricities such as her speaking in rhyme and living in a place most regarded as being too dangerous.
"How did you make friends with Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor?"
The voice and raised hoof belonged to another mare in town. Her orange mane and cream coat made her stand out especially well in the sea of ponies gathered before the changeling.
"It wasn't easy" I reply. "After the story Princess Twilight told you all, I was allowed to stay in the empire, and even given a room in the Crystal Palace so I didn't have to worry about finding a home."
"The first few weeks weren't easy. Prince Shining Armor still didn't trust me and thought everything I did was a ruse to make him lower his guard."
"Princess Cadance, however, was more accepting of me. She actually helped me to make friends and demonstrate that my intentions were true."
"I also got to make friends with Sunburst. He's the royal crystaller that helps with the ceremonies that go on in the Crystal Empire, such as the Crystal Fair and the Crystalling itself."
"What about the prince?" Lyra asked with a raised hoof.
"He took the most convincing" I respond. "He actually opened up to me more around Hearth's Warming this past winter."
"While I was living in the Crystal Empire, I took up painting as a hobby. I wasn't terribly good to start with, but I did eventually improve enough to make some decent artwork."
"Sunburst had taught me about Hearth's Warming and I decided I wanted to participate in the holiday with other ponies. So, I decided to paint some pictures as presents. I did one for Sunburst and one for the royal family."
"I wrapped them and presented them the morning of Hearth's Warming. Upon seeing the portrait I did, the prince was skeptical of me, thinking I had taken another pony's artwork and tried to claim it as my own."
"Eventually, he reconsidered his overall stance with me and by that evening, he admitted to his change of heart. Now, we're on better terms. Maybe we're not friends, but we're certainly not enemies anymore."
"As it stands now, I have nearly convinced the entire Crystal Empire that I hold no ill will towards them."
"Nearly?" came Lyra's voice again, her hoof coming up along with it.
"I can tell that some of the ponies still don't fully trust me" I admit to the crowd. "I even feel it here from most of you."
"I can't blame you for feeling that way. While I won't call any of you out, I know there's ponies in the crowd who were present at the wedding, and some of you had rather unpleasant run ins with other members of the hive."
"I understand if none of you want to be friends, or even just acquaintances right away, but all I am asking of you is a chance to show that I'm not here to try some dastardly scheme. I just want you all to see me as what I am; another living creature just trying to live a good life with all of you."
I waited to see if there were any other ponies that wanted to ask questions. Going by the feel of the crowd, I didn't think there would be anymore. However, a hoof did raise up.
"Are there other changelings like you?"
The pony asking the question was a mare. Her cream colored coat was offset by red mane and green eyes. She had been standing beside the pony with the hourglass cutie mark.
Were they possibly together? I could feel some kind of a bond between them.
"I'm... not completely sure" I have to admit. "I never knew of any others like myself, but I suppose it's possible there's more and I just never met any of them."
"Do you guys have venom?"
The voice and hoof came from a pony that was just a tad more unusual than the others. She had a grey coat and yellow mane that paired with her yellow eyes. However, those eyes weren't focused on the same spot; I think I heard of that being called "wall eyed"?
"...Well, sort of" I confess reluctantly. "It's not meant to cause any harm in the way something like snake venom would. It paralyzes muscles so the one bitten can't move, and it makes the one bitten feel tired and drowsy as well. The main purpose is to make catching things easier."
I can see ponies wincing at my explanation. Honestly, I can't blame them. The idea of venom that makes you easier prey isn't something I would be fond of either.
Some frantic scribbling to my side causes me to glance and I see Princess Twilight scribbling down what I just told the audience. A shiver goes down my spine as I realize that I will probably have to give her a sample of venom later on so she can study it.
"Are there any more questions?" the mayor asks as she looks over the crowd. I see no more hooves go up into the air, and internally I sigh in relief.
"Well then," the mare continues, "Thorax will be here for a week's time, and he has agreed that for that time, he will remain without a disguise. He has been given permission to see our town and will have an escort with him, both so that all of you can feel safe and nothing happens to him as well."
"Don't be afraid to approach and talk with him, but please don't call him out or harass him while he's here. He wants to see a place he never really got to visit in his journey and it would do well for all of us to show him the same hospitality that you would show any other pony visiting."
"Did you come through here on your journey?"
The question came from Lyra again, but this time she didn't bother with raising her hoof.
"I did" I admit to her and the crowd. "I was so afraid of being discovered that I didn't stay for very long though."
A few different emotions went through the crowd, but one I wasn't expecting was guilt. There were actually ponies out there that felt bad that I had felt so unwelcome that I didn't choose to stay long. I suppose they didn't like their reputation of being a friendly town being tarnished, even if the one that felt unwelcome was a creature they weren't fond of.
"Well, that is something I think we can all certainly help with in the coming week" the mayor says with a smile as she approaches the podium. "I believe our new friend here is a bit worn out from this whole situation, so I think we'll end the questions for now."
"As a reminder, Thorax will be here for this week in town, without any disguise and with an escort to ensure that both he and all of you are safe. If you have any further questions for him, I'm sure he won't be afraid to answer them, provided you all don't gang up on him and make him feel uncomfortable."
The ponies all gave each other nervous smiles but otherwise didn't react too much.
"I will also be available to answer any questions you all may have" Twilight adds. "While he is here in Ponyville, I am considering him my personal responsibility, so any ponies that have issue with him will have to take the matter up with me. Does anyone have any issues at the moment?"
No hooves were raised.
"Good" Twilight says with a smile. "I believe this concludes today's announcement. I thank you all for coming today."
With that, the ponies began to disperse. I let out a sigh of relief, glad that that little affair had concluded. Right now, I wanted nothing more than to go back to the castle and crawl under a bed for a while.
"Care to join us for a late lunch?"
I look up at Princess Twilight as she gestures to me with a hoof.
"I asked Spike to prepare something before he came to see the announcement today. He should have it plated up and ready for us by the time we get back."
My stomach grumbled a bit at the thought of eating whatever love-infused food the pair had crafted for me. I give her a small smile.
"Lead the way." |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | Day 1 - Spike's Game | We headed back to the castle and had our late lunch. Spike had used some of the potion Twilight and Zecora made in a loaf of bread that everyone tried. The bread, and love, were both equally delicious.
Just as Twilight had said happened to her, everypony at the table seemed to have more energy and were in rather high spirits. My senses also told me that there may have been some amorous emotions to go along with the more upbeat mood, especially between Fluttershy and Big Macintosh.
I'd have to give Twilight a warning about this then; the increase in amorous feelings could cause the pony to engage in acts they wouldn't in normal circumstances, and may come to regret later.
After lunch, Spike invited me to come back to his room with Big Macintosh, where I was inducted into the game known as Ogres and Oubliettes, or O&O for short. Apparently, the way to play was for me to make up a character and pretend to be this character through the course of the game.
My character would join Spike and Big Mac's characters and travel around in the fictional world, engaging in fights with monsters and discovering lost castles and dungeons where we were to find loot that we could keep or sell.
For my first campaign, Spike and Big Mac accompanied me along on a quest that they'd already completed, and was also recommended for players just beginning to play the game. It involved traveling to a cave where a dragon that was threatening a village lived, and after doing the campaign my way, which involved convincing the dragon to leave the village and move on, my character was rewarded with a portion of the dragon's hoard and some experience, which I still didn't quite understand how to use yet.
In truth, I didn't understand much about the game and how it was played; Spike and Big Mac had to help me during pretty much every turn I took. However, seeing the happy look and feeling the love my dragon friend had for the game spurred me on, and we began a second campaign that was more involved than the first.
In this one, a village had called all of us to help capture a thief that had broken into some homes and stole some valuable possessions. The constable was unable to travel to the thief's hideout to apprehend them, and agreed to pay us a bounty if we succeeded.
We'd gotten to the cage to find out that the thief was part of a larger party of bandits that had been plaguing the countryside. Descending into their lair, we were met by not only the bandits, but several monsters they'd managed to enslave with a dark magic artifact.
My attempts at diplomacy were quickly defeated by a dice roll, so I changed my strategy after that to staying towards the back of our group and offering my potions to my friend and Big Macintosh, something Spike referred to as "being a support character". The two friends used their spells and combat abilities to defeat the remainder of the bandits and work all of the way to the head bandit.
"Upon entering the final chamber," Spike reads aloud from behind a screen he'd set up to keep Big Macintosh and me from seeing the possible outcomes of the quest, "you see the final bandit sitting on a throne. 'You've done well to come so far' he says to your party 'but it has all been for naught!'. The-"
Spike cuts off as he looks at me nervously. "Maybe we should call it here for today?" he suddenly proposes, fear and nervousness quickly spreading through him.
Big Macintosh looks at him with shock and a bit of anger. "After we done got to the last boss in the dungeon, y'all wanna give up now?"
Spike quickly walked over to Big Mac and whispered something into his ear. Upon hearing it, Big Mac's eyes go wide and he suddenly becomes as nervous as Spike.
"Y-Yer right" Big Macintosh concedes. "It is gettin' sort of late anyways."
A quick look at a nearby window shows me that the sun, while closer to the horizon, is by no means ready to go down.
I look back at Spike and Big Macintosh, both of them still exuding nervousness as they start to clean up pieces from the game.
"Spike" I say to get my friend's attention.
The little dragon winces. "Y-Yeah?" he responds.
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here" I begin as I take a breath. "That last bandit boss? It's a changeling, isn't it?"
Spike doesn't say anything, but his body language and emotions confirm what I had suspected.
"That certainly explains their nervousness" I thought to myself.
I sit back and think for a second about this recent turn of events. Despite my attempts thus far to present a more positive image of changelings, they were still painted as villains by a great many ponies. It was understandable though; our queen attacked two different princesses directly. Even with claiming that the attack was meant to provide for her starving subjects, ponies still view the act as unjustifiable.
Before he can even offer a retort, I let out a breath and make my decision.
"Let's finish playing" I tell the two.
Both Spike and Big Macintosh look at me. "Are you sure?" Spike asks me.
I nod. "I'm not surprised that ponies are using changelings as villains in different fictional stories, or game plots in this case. Until my kind change their ways and become more accepted in pony society, I'm just gonna have to live with this unpleasant fact that we'll be painted as villains."
Spike and Big Macintosh both look at me for a few seconds before returning to their seats. Spike places his pieces back in their spots as Big Macintosh does the same. The red stallion doesn't look me straight in the eyes, purposefully avoiding doing so as though he fears something will happen to him if he does.
Once the pieces are set back up, Spike resumes reading the campaign literature.
"The lead bandit is suddenly consumed by green fire, and after the column of flames dissipates, a changeling is left standing in his place. A nearby stallion witnesses this and attempts to run, but is suddenly caught in the changeling's sickly green magic. 'You have served me well' the changeling says to the stallion 'but now you will serve me in the way nature intended'."
Spike pauses and looks at me. "Do you really want me to keep going?" he asks, the uncertainty and fear greater than before.
I give him a nod. "I can probably guess what's coming next" I respond, honestly knowing what's going to happen next. In truth, I've seen it more times than I care to count.
"Okay" Spike says, giving me a nervous frown before continuing with the script.
"Before the stallion can protest, his breath catches in his throat as a pink energy is sucked out of his body and into the changeling's mouth. As more energy leaves the stallion's body, his gaze becomes unfocused and he becomes visibly weaker, his muscles sagging on his frame as energy leaves him."
"After a minute, the pink stream stops and the changeling discards the pony, tossing him away onto a few wooden crates, where the stallion's impact causes them to break. Due to the intense apathy of having his love stolen, the stallion doesn't even let out a groan of pain."
I don't show it, but I wince a bit on the inside as I hear what is more or less an accurate description of a feeding. It causes me to remember Soothing Dusk and again lament my actions. I once again hope to myself that Twilight and the zebra can perfect the potion. It would be rather nice to give back what I'd taken, even if in just a symbolic manner.
"Now full of love," Spike continues reading,"the changeling looks at your party with malevolence in its pupil-less eyes. 'Now that that pony has given me a decent recharge' he taunts 'I have enough energy to deal with the likes of you!' The changeling gets into a fighting stance and ignites its horn, prompting you and your party to adopt your own."
Spike looks to Big Macintosh. "What are you gonna do?" he asked the red stallion.
Big Macintosh flinches a bit during Spike's reading of the pre-fight encounter. Once Spike finishes, the stallion thinks over his choices and decides to attack with a distraction.
Spike rolls a die and it lands with a seventeen. Seeing he only needed sixteen, Spike reads the next part of the encounter.
"You throw a smoke bomb at the changeling's face and blind it momentarily. Taking advantage, you spot a boulder and step behind it."
Spike turns to me. "Do you follow Sir McBiggun or do you try something else?"
I look at the board for a moment before deciding on my move. I don't know what the changeling character is like in this game, but I am under the impression that it is quite under-powered despite its recent meal.
"I decide to attack."
Both Spike and Macintosh look at each other and then to Thorax.
"The changeling has really high stats, Thorax" Spike cautions me. "Are you sure that's what you want to do?"
"It is" I say with confidence.
Spike just looks back at Big Mac and shrugs. "Okay" he says to me and rolls his dice. They come up nineteen.
"You charge at the changeling ready to attack. What attack do you use?"
"I use electricity" I tell them confidently.
"Okay" Spike says, just a bit unsure. He hands me dice, telling me "Roll this one for accuracy and this one for damage.
I do as asked and both dice come up with high enough numbers to be considered successful.
Wide eyed, Spike refers to the campaign sheet.
"You charge up a powerful electricity spell and cast it. It hits dead center in the changeling's chest and incapacitates it. The changeling takes 13 damage out of its total of 150, leaving 137 health. The electricity also paralyzes the changeling and keeps it from using physical attacks for one turn."
Spike takes the dice in his hand. "I elect to attack with a fire sword!"
He rolls the first die, and it comes up with a six. Spike groans as he reads the sheet. "I charge forward with my sword but trip on a rock. My blade catches in the wall and I struggle to free it."
Spike turns back to Big Macintosh and the stallion tells him he wants to attack with his Gravity Hammer. The little dragon flinches, thinking the weapon might not be appropriate for the situation. Nonetheless, he gives Macintosh the dice.
The stallion rolls the big dice and it comes up twenty. The red stallion grins and stretches out his hoof, only to quickly pull it back into himself.
Spike smiles as he reads the script. "Sir Biggun produces his gravity hammer and approaches the changeling. It is starting to regain movement, but it freezes as it sees the stallion approaching. It makes one last ditch effort to get itself free, but to no avail."
Spike turns the page and then becomes shocked. "The changeling then ignites his horn and starts trying to drain the love from you!"
He turns to me. "You see Sir McBiggun in trouble and want to help. What do you do?"
"I cast electricity again" I say a bit too enthusiastically.
Spike hands me the die and I roll. I smile as it lands on 18.
"The electricity spell you conjured hits its mark," Spike reads on, "and Sir McBiggun is freed from the changeling's grasp. The insecto-equine is incapacitated again, and takes another 13 damage, taking it to 124 health."
"Since you were able to save Sir McBiggun, he gets to take his turn again."
Turning to Big Mac, Spike asks if he wants to repeat the same attack or try a different one.
"Gravity hammer" he says with no hesitation.
Spike hands Macintosh the dice again. The first is high and the second is low. "You bring up your hammer and swing it home. At the last second, the changeling tries to roll out of the way, only succeeding partly."
Spike then winces as he reads the next part.
"Because you've added an enchantment to this hammer for a triple damage multiplier, the glancing blow which would normally be worth only twenty-five points is now worth seventy-five, bringing the changeling's health down to forty-nine health points. The blow stuns the changeling and incapacitates it for one turn."
Spike picks up the dice in front of him. "I'm going to try my fire sword again."
Rolling the dice, Spike rolls a sixteen, which is just what he needs for a successful attack.
"I get my sword free of the wall and bring it back for a swing again."
He rolls the dice again. A low number on the first and a low number on the second.
"Shoot!" he swears as he reads the script.
"The changeling avoids my sword swipe and has gotten back to his hooves. Because of his dazed state from the hammer, the next player will get a free turn against the changeling."
Big Mac grins an evil grin.
"Gravity Hammer to finish him."
Spike rolls and the dice read fourteen. Big Mac deflates.
"Sir McBiggun winds up his hammer and strikes, but the changeling dodges at the last minute. Again, he grabs McBiggun in his magic and prepares to drain his love. What will you do Thorax?"
"Electricity again!" I call out, a little more enthusiastically than I had meant to.
Spike gives me the dice and I roll.
A six.
"Dang it" I curse.
"The electricity spell misses its mark," Spike reads, "colliding into a nearby wall. The changeling charges up its spell and prepares to feed. Since it's my turn, I'll try my fire sword one last time."
Spike rolls and his eyes go wide with a smile. Twenty.
"The blade cuts into the changeling right as the pink energy starts to leave Sir McBiggun. The blow deals twenty five damage, but the blade's burning effect will linger for the remainder of the match and take five health at the beginning of each of the changeling's turns, unless the changeling can acquire a healing potion. The changeling now has twenty-four health points.
"Sir McBiggun is freed from the changeling's grip, gasping a bit from the effect of having love pulled from his body, but not taking him out of the fight. What would you like to do?"
"Gravity Hammer again" Big Macintosh tells Spike. The dragon then rolls the large die and it comes up eighteen.
"The hammer swing strikes into the changeling's side and sends them into a wall. The powerful strike removes all remaining health points from the changeling and the creature lays on the floor, finally defeated."
"Your party binds the creature in heavy rope and hauls it out of the hideout and back to the village. The stallion he drained is taken as well, likely to be recovered by an apothecary before being dumped in with the changeling."
"For your party's efforts, you are rewarded with ten-thousand gold bits, a set of durability enchanted armor that resists up to twelve damage points, a dozen healing potions, and a dozen poison antidotes."
"The local wizard has crafted a unique item for one of your party to use. It is a cloak that, when worn by one of your party, will allow them to disguise as another character for up to five turns, or when they choose to reveal their identity."
Big Macintosh lets out a whistle. "That sounds mighty useful."
"It is" I say absentmindedly, then look around when I suddenly sense confusion. Both Big Macintosh and Spike are looking at me.
"I mean," I say nervously, "being able to disguise yourself would make getting into places you're not supposed to much easier."
"So YOU'RE the reason Princess Flurry Heart always has cookie crumbs in her crib after bedtime?" I hear Vigilant call out from his spot near the door to Spike's bedroom. I let out a groan upon hearing that, having more or less completely forgotten he was standing there. Spike and Big Macintosh both laugh at the chiding from my guard. I decide to just take the L and go about cleaning up the playing pieces I was using.
Spike and Big Macintosh clean up their own pieces. As they do so, Spike looks at me apologetically.
"I'm sorry, Thorax" he tells me. "That was a brand new campaign and it was the first time me and Big Mac played it. If I'd known about the last boss-"
"It's okay, Spike" I reassure the little dragon. "I'm not upset. Sure, it's a little disheartening to know that ponies still view changelings as nothing more than manipulative monsters; nothing has happened to show the good changelings are capable of. I knew when I came here and established that goal, I was climbing up a very steep hill, but I am determined to see it through to the end!"
Spike looks at me for a minute, and then smiles. "That optimism is infectious" he tells me.
"Eeyup" Big Mac agrees. "Good to have a positive outlook, especially when things look the worst."
I nod at the stallion's sentiment. Big Mac returned to putting his pieces away. I take mine and give them to Spike, but he pushes them back at me.
"I want you to have those" he tells me. "I'm sure there's other ponies in the Crystal Empire that play O&O. I know Shining Armor does, or he used to."
"He's so busy doing his guard duties," I tell Spike, "and these games seem like they could really stretch on for a while."
Spike nods in agreement. "They can, but that's what bookmarks and stat sheets are for; you can pick up where you left off if you have to stop for any reason."
"I know," I tell Spike, "but like I said, Shining Armor is always so busy, so who knows when he and I would get a chance to play the game. It's entirely possible we'd never get any time at all."
"What happens happens," Spike tells me as he pushes the pieces back to me, "but I still want you to keep those. If you ever visit again, we can have another campaign. I'm sure Big Mac wouldn't mind a brief round after his chores get finished for the day."
Big Mac nods at Spike's proposal, and then his eyes go wide. "Oh, Fiddlesticks!" he calls out before barreling out the door and down the hall.
Vigilant watches him go and shakes his head. "Whatever it was must've been important."
"It was" Spike confirms. "It's actually a mare named Fiddlesticks. She's a distant relation to the Apple family. She's due on a train in..."
Spike pauses to look at a clock.
"...about an hour. Big Mac needs to get cleaned up and brush out his mane."
"Couldn't he have cleaned up here?" I suggest.
"He wants to go home so he can get Apple Bloom and take her to the train station with him" Spike tells me.
I nod in understanding, then look up at the clock on the wall. "It's getting close to sunset now."
Spike's eyes widen as he looks at the clock with me. "I gotta go!" he announces as he bolts out of the room.
"Where are you going?" I ask him as I follow him out at a much slower pace.
"Dinner isn't gonna cook itself" he calls back as he disappears down a hallway.
I smile as I watch my friend leave. Vigilant, walking behind me, let's out a sigh.
"Has nopony around here ever heard of not running indoors?" |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | Day 1 - Meeting the Night Life, Part 1 | I enjoyed another great love-infused meal thanks to Spike. This time around, it was a souffle with sauteed vegetables on the side. Even without the love, it was still quite delicious.
Twilight had heeded my warning to her and had Spike omit the love from everypony else's meals. Surprisingly, Big Mac and Fluttershy still had rather obvious feelings towards one another, which made me think that it was possible the two had feelings that they'd been suppressing for fear of rejection by the other party.
Whatever the case, they still seemed to have quite an interest in one another. Fortunately, I finished my meal quickly and was permitted to go to bed earlier than most of the ponies. Vigilant unfortunately chose not to dine with us, but eventually conceded on the suggestion of Twilight bringing a serving of the meal to my room so he could eat while he performed his duties.
I went about preparing myself for bed, having a shower, brushing my teeth and fangs, and having a small glass of water to make sure I stayed properly hydrated. After bidding Vigilant a good night, my head hit the pillow and I was off to sleep.
A few hours later...
*TAP TAP TAP*
I slowly woke up and looked around, a bit groggy from the sudden noise. I look around the dark room and see nothing out of the ordinary. However, I take notice that Vigilant is propped up against a wall, lightly snoring.
*TAP TAP TAP*
I look around again but still can't find the source of the noise. Fearing it could be some kind of trap by either a changeling that had managed to locate me or a pony that was hoping to take revenge on me for Canterlot, I decide to go over and nudge Vigilant.
My gesture is rewarded by the stallion jumping on me and placing a spear to my throat.
"What are you doing?!" he whispers at me, his spear point just an inch or so from my neck.
"I-I heard a noise!" I cry out, my eyes closed and fear coursing through me.
Vigilant stands there for a few moments before he withdraws his spear and steps back, allowing me to rise up to my hooves.
"Sorry" he says to me. "When you woke me up it startled me."
"It's okay," I reply, "but I think there's somepony or something in the room with us."
*TAP TAP TAP*
I jump again as I hear the noise and Vigilant almost immediately picks up on it.
"It's one of the windows" he says as he moves to the side of the room where some windows are situated in the wall. Fortunately, they're stained glass, or maybe they're colored crystal; it was a castle made of crystal.
Vigilant opens the window and looks out. After a brief scan, he looks back at me. "There's nothing out there" he tells me.
I walk over to the window and look out, seeing nothing but a treeline, a few buildings off in the distance, and some bushes immediately outside the window.
"Up here, sillies!"
The voice surprises both of us and we look around for the source. After not seeing anything again, I process what the voice told me and look up. What I see catches me off guard almost completely.
Hanging upside down by their tail is a pony. It's a female, based on the overall body shape, but she had a few features that I had never seen in a pony before. Firstly, her eyes - they were bright yellow, and slitted like the queen's eyes. Next, she had fangs coming from her muzzle, gleaming white in some moonlight that happened to shine on them. After that was some tufted ears, and the last thing of note was a large pair of wings on her back that resembled bat wings.
The mare giggles at us as she releases her tails grip and opens her wings, silently gliding into the room and landing in an open space. After she touches down, she turns to face both of us.
Vigilant goes into guard mode and quickly takes up his spear and getting between the pony and I. "What do you think you're doing?!" he asks her in a sharp whisper.
The mare tousles her mane as she walks over towards me. Vigilant raises his spear in warning.
"Oh, just checking out the rumors I heard" she says as she steps around him and begins circling me. "So, there really is a changeling here in Ponyville, and without a disguise too."
She continues circling as she gets a gauge of me. After a few moments, she seems to be satisfied with her assessment.
"Well, the others are sure gonna get a kick out of this."
...Others?
Vigilant moves between the mare and I again. "You've had your fun now miss, so why don't you head on back to your roost?"
The mare looks incensed. "We sleep in normal beds just like you 'normal' ponies do," she retorts, "and we work all the night shift jobs so you colts don't have to!"
"I'm sure it's much appreciated," he counters, "and I'm sure lots of ponies would thank you, but right now, they're all asleep, and Thorax should be too!"
The mare stares down the guard and then starts giggling.
"I think that should be up to the bug here" she says as she gestures a hoof towards me, then turns to address me.
"So your name's Thorax?" she says. I give a simple nod in response.
"Well, I'm Amber Moonlight," she introduces herself with spread wings, "and on behalf of the thestral population, welcome to Ponyville!"
I stand there for a moment and process what she just said to me, and then it all clicks. The mare in front of me, Amber, is a thestral. They're a sub-race of ponies that most have almost been totally forgotten about until Princess Luna returned from banishment. Naturally nocturnal, they perform all manner of jobs that one expects to be done either at night or in very dark conditions.
Most went into hiding for the thousand years that Princess Luna had been banished, as a great many served in her night guard, and their nocturnal nature had earned them the moniker of "Luna's Faithful".
The thestrals were also known as lunar pegasi and bat ponies, as well as the rather offensive term "bug eaters" on account of their omnivorous diet, which insects were once a regular part of.
Wait a moment. Insects?
I suddenly get nervous.
"So, guard," Amber says as she walks up to us, "can the little bug come out and play for a minute?"
Vigilant frowns. "I understand this is probably like mid day for you," he chastises, "but it's the middle of the night for us, and I'm sure 'little bug' would like to catch some shut eye too."
"Maybe let him decide?" Amber countered as she looked at me. I looked back and I could feel the excitement coming off of her like she was a campfire in the winter. I look over at Vigilant with a guilty expression. The stallion lets out a breath and curses something under his breath.
"For how long?" he eventually asks the mare.
"Just an hour or so," she replies, "but we'll have to go to town square. That's where the rest are gathered."
Again, Vigilant lets out a sigh. "Can you give us some time to get there?"
Amber smiles. "Certainly. Just don't be squares you slowpokes!"
With that, she jumped through the window, spread her wings and flapped them hard to get her airborne into the night sky. I watch her go as I hear Vigilant mutter something about finding a cup of coffee.
Amber had left my room and flown around to the front of the castle to wait for us; she at least understood that Vigilant couldn't fly and needed to come with me. The stallion had made his way to the castle kitchens and prepared himself a cup of coffee to take with him. We both headed out the front doors and met up with Amber, who giggled as she stood up from her seat on the steps.
"You ponies sure are slow" she teased Vigilant and I.
"Hey!" Vigilant said in offense. "Thorax has to be under my watch twenty-four-seven, so wherever he goes, I have to go with him."
"Really?" Amber says with a quirked eyebrow. "Well, I guess that explains why he isn't flying."
The thestral then opens her wings and takes to the air, making a wide circle before passing over top of us.
"Just head to the center of town" she calls out as she passes over us. "All of the thestrals are gathered there. Don't be late, slowpokes!"
Vigilant and I watch as she flies off towards our destination. Vigilant lets out a breath as he takes a sip of his coffee. "Well, let's get going" he says after he's had a drink.
I nod and fall into step beside him. Everything is quiet for several minutes, and I quickly become uncomfortable.
"So," I begin awkwardly, "have you dealt with thestral ponies before?"
Vigilant just looked at me and gave a short nod. "Yeah. I got put on night shift a few days after Princess Luna returned. You see, when the princess came back, the guard was inundated with applications from thestrals to join. They held Luna in high reverence and consider her their patron, so for them to be able to serve under her as guards is a very high honor."
"Wow" is all that I can really say to that.
Vigilant nods. "Yeah, it is admirable. However, things weren't easy. A lot of guard ponies looked very skeptically at the first batch of thestral recruits. They had it a bit rougher than normal recruits because of having to change their sleep schedule."
I looked at Vigilant with confusion. "Sleep schedule?"
"When the thestral guards first joined," Vigilant elaborates, "we only had day guard protocols to go by, so the basic guard training all took place during the day, so they had to go against their natural instincts and sleep during the night and be awake during the day."
I wilt a little bit hearing that. "That kinda sucks."
"It does," he agrees, "but take that sudden change to sleep schedule and dump the thestrals natural aversion to bright lights and intensity of guard training on top, and you have a guard class that only graduated about three thestral guards out of sixty recruits."
Upon hearing that number, I look at Vigilant dumbstruck. "Th-Three out of sixty?!"
Vigilant nods, then continues.
"Of course, this was considered unacceptable, and Princess Celestia ordered an investigation into what happened. When it concluded, she appointed the three thestral graduates to a committee to help establish a guard training regimen specifically designed for thestrals so that they could complete the guard training within acceptable parameters."
"As an apology, she struck the first groups failures from the record and permitted the ones that wished to apply again to do so with the new course that was more favorable to thestral recruits. All the failed thestrals applied and each one passed."
"Since then, each new class of recruits is trained with the new protocols."
"What kind of new protocols?" I ask, then add, "i-if you don't mind my asking."
Vigilant shakes his head. "I don't mind. Really, the only differences are it takes place at night and is modeled more after the training regimen for pegasi than other ponies. The three graduates were given abbreviated tours of duty and brought back to Canterlot as instructors. They helped with some fine tuning to take advantage of several thestral traits, like improved night vision and more sensitive hearing."
"In the here and now, the night guard is almost entirely thestral, with the exception of some rare nocturnal unicorns."
"Nocturnal unicorns?" I ask, slightly confused by the subject.
"They're extremely rare," Vigilant tells me, "almost as rare as alicorns. They have eyes like thestrals but are unicorns mostly. In truth, they come about if their lineage has any trace of thestrals in it."
"Wow," I respond, "I didn't know the tribes intermingled as much as they did after the unification."
"Love is love," Vigilant replies with a chuckle, "and your kind are only concerned with feeding off it like a hot lunch."
I could tell Vigilant meant that as a joke, but what he said hurt me a little inside. Even with ponies that I'd gotten so much closer to, I still had an image to overcome.
Vigilant, upon seeing my reaction, becomes very apologetic. "I am SO sorry, Thorax. I didn't mean that as a jab at you. You're way different than the other changelings, and maybe you are right and there's some that see more eye to eye with your way of thinking."
I wave him off with a hoof. "It's okay. I know that you didn't mean it. It's just that that reminded me of how much further I have to go for true acceptance, and how far I've come seems so little by comparison."
"It is a lot, Thorax" Vigilant says with determination in his voice. "You're walking around in a pony town without having to wear a disguise and you haven't been attacked or lynched or anything negative of that sort, nor has anypony bolted from the town in a panic. You're the only changeling that holds that claim."
I smile at Vigilant's encouragement. He is right; I'm the only changeling in Equestria that can walk around without wearing a disguise and not be afraid of the consequences. No other members of my hive can make that claim, even if they tried to disguise as me. More than that, I had actual friends now, and they would make sure I didn't come to harm from somepony or a member of my hive sent to recapture or kill me.
"Aw, I think his smiles are just as cute as yours, Honeydew."
The voice catches us both off guard as we look around. We'd made it to the center of town, and upon looking up, we find ourselves surrounded by thestral ponies, all of them perched on rooftops, their slitted eyes fixed on us.
To be perfectly honest, it was a good bit unnerving.
Before either Vigilant or I could respond, a thestral stallion took to the air and glided down to us. From what I could tell, he was an older male, and he had some scars from what appeared to have been a rather intense fight. Once he landed, he walked over to us and looked us over.
"Vigilant, right?" the stallion asked the guard next to me. Vigilant gave a nod in reply. The thestral looked at him more sternly.
"I know I'm retired," he begins, "but I was under the impression that subordinates still saluted their superior officers, whether they're active duty or retired."
Vigilant looked at the stallion for a few seconds before his face went flush and his hoof went to his brow in a sharp gesture. "M-My apologies, sir!" he spits out.
"At ease" the thestral says, which causes Vigilant's hoof to return to the ground. The stallion turns to face me.
"My name is Orion," he introduces himself, "and I am the acting representative of the thestral population of Ponyville."
He then gestures to a rooftop behind him, where a familiar thestral is sitting and waving to us. "I believe you've already met my daughter Amber earlier tonight."
"We have" I respond.
"Good" he says with a small smile on his muzzle. Turning to face the group, he makes a gesture with his ears, and the other thestrals perk up theirs.
"Friends," he says at a volume just above private conversation but quiet enough it wouldn't disturb sleeping ponies, "we are gathered here during the princess's glorious night because the pony world, or more specifically Ponyville, have just met a former enemy who has chosen to embrace friendship and harmony as we do. In the interest of promoting a lasting peace, I believe we should all give a warm welcome to our newest friend, Thorax."
The thestrals all let out a series of quiet chirping sounds after Orion said this, which I assume was their way of saying hello or welcome. It was barely audible to me, but then I shifted my ear canal into one more sensitive to noise and I could hear what sounded like some strange language I'd never heard before.
Its structure seemed to be in squeaking and chirping noises, and with varying pitches. They spoke it so fast, it was hard to discern exactly what was being said. Unfortunately, I would have to learn the language if I wanted to ever understand it at the very least; something told me I'd have to change my voice box if I ever wanted to speak it.
Orion raised a hoof and the sounds stopped. He began to address the audience again.
"Now, we all remember the time before Princess Luna's return to us. It was not a good time for thestrals in the first hundred or so years after her banishment had begun, but things did improve. Princess Celestia, keeper of the sun, saw fit to eject the nobility that sought to hunt our kind and force us out of the kingdom, fearing that we would rebel because of what happened to the princess of the night."
There were murmurs among the thestrals, but Orion chose to ignore them.
"That fear was unfounded, and born from the same place many fears are born - ignorance. It is through this willful stupidity that we have seen the worst of Equestria, and it is only through the elimination of this ignorance that we can move forward and make a much better world for ourselves."
"In that spirit," Orion then faces me, "I would like to ask Thorax to answer the questions that we have for him. Thorax, will you help quell our ignorance?"
I looked at the stallion for a moment before nodding. He was wise, as one would expect from age, and quite correct in his assessment; many fears were born from ignorance. I stepped forward and looked around at the thestral gathering. In total, it appeared to be somewhere just less than one hundred ponies.
"H-Hello" I say to the crowd. "Um, I'm sorry if any of you have trouble hearing me."
"You're good" Orion said to me. "Most thestrals have exceptionally good hearing. The level you're speaking at is just right for this kind of thing."
I look at him and then take a breath to calm myself. "Thank you" I say to him. "I was afraid of not being loud enough."
Orion smiles and nods, then takes a step back as he watches the crowd's reactions.
"Your, uh, representative?" I say as I look back at Orion, who nods. "He's asked me to answer your questions. I'll be glad to, but my hearing isn't quite as good as you all, so if I call on you to ask a question, please come forward more so I can hear you a bit better."
Surprisingly, all the thestrals took off from the roofs and glided down the ground, quickly gathering around the fountain. Quickly, the air filled with excitement, and Orion had to step in.
"Please, everypony!" he admonished the gathered group. "We are going to become too loud for the others in their sleep."
Orion then faced me and Vigilant. "Would either of you be objectionable to relocating this gathering to the schoolhouse?" he asked.
I was uncertain, but then I heard the sound of liquid sloshing around in a cup, which caused me to turn around and see Vigilant gesturing with the mug he'd brought for himself.
"Only if I can get another cup of coffee." |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | Day 1 - Meeting the Night Life, Part 2 | The trip to the schoolhouse had been interesting. The thestrals all took to the sky and moved as one, the only sound being the occasional flap of wings. I stayed grounded with Vigilant, who was nursing another cup of coffee that had been generously provided by Amber.
The thestral also joined us on hoof, more than happy to have a conversation between the two of us.
"So, you really left your hive?" she said with surprise. "Even though you could've been... y'know?"
I nodded sadly. "It was scary," I admit to her, "but I knew deep down inside, there was a better way, and I knew that I was likely the only changeling willing to look for it."
Amber nodded as I spoke. "That's good" she told me. "Takes a lot of guts to do the right thing sometimes, especially if everypony you know thinks that's wrong or stupid."
I had to agree with the statement that everypony, or everyling in this case, thought what I was trying to do was stupid, and I suppose it did take some guts to find a way to leave the hive. It certainly took a lot of guts to approach Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor and ask for a chance to learn about friendship from them.
Even with Spike backing me up, I was still quivering in my chitin at the possibility of everything going south like a bunch of geese with their tail feathers on fire.
Amber, Vigilant and I got to the schoolhouse about five minutes later. Standing outside the schoolhouse were some of the thestrals and a pony mare. She looked tired, but her eyes widened and she became more alert as soon as she saw me.
"So he really came?" she said in a questioning manner.
"He did" Orion responded. "We asked him if he minded speaking here at the schoolhouse so that we didn't disturb the ponies in town."
He then gave her an apologetic look. "I sorry that we had to wake you up so late," he told Cherilee, "but I didn't feel right just barging into the schoolhouse without at least asking for permission."
Cherilee waved him off with a yawn. "That's quite alright" she tells Orion. "While it is a rather late hour, I do appreciate the consideration. You're free to use the schoolhouse whenever you wish. All I ask is that you lock it up and leave the key in its usual place."
"I'll remember to do that," he assured her, "and thank you again."
Cherilee gives a nod and heads to a small cottage behind the school house, the building most likely her home.
"Well," Orion says while turning to me, "now that we've gotten permission, why don't we head on inside so that we can have this little meeting get underway?"
"Sure thing" I saw with a nod as I follow the old thestral inside.
The schoolhouse was, surprisingly, quite spacious on the inside. It was one room, with a wall that had a chalkboard affixed to it, as well as some rolled up maps and diagrams that the school teacher would use to educate the students on various things.
The desks that the students would normally sit at had been moved off to the side and stacked on top of one another when it was clear there wouldn't be enough space with all the desks on the floor.
Once there was enough clear space, the thestrals filed in and began sitting side by side. A little more than half fit on the floor of the room, which caused the remaining ponies to take up roost on the rafters holding the roof up. Once everypony had found a place, Orion led me to the front of the room, where the teacher's desk sat on an elevated platform.
"Friends," Orion said to the gathering, "Miss Cherilee has graciously provided us use of the school house so that we may hold our meeting and ask our questions to Thorax. I ask you to give your thanks to her at the next possible chance, as she has been a friend of ours for some time now."
The thestrals all voiced their agreement or nodded in agreement with Orion's sentiment. Orion continued speaking.
"Now I will turn the floor over to Thorax here. I will allow him to speak how he wishes to speak to you and if you have any questions for him, which I'm sure you all do, I ask you to raise your hoof and wait to be recognized."
Orion turns to me with a smile. "The floor is now yours" he says as he backs away from the group of thestrals and offers the spot where he was standing to me. I step forward and look at the group of gathered ponies.
Several sets of eyes look back at me, all different colors but appearing to glow; a likely result of the cat-like nature of thestral eyes. I clear my throat as I begin to speak to them.
"Hello everypony" I say to the group. "I'm really happy that all of you have been so welcoming of me tonight. I can say with all honesty that this was a much warmer reception than what the earlier gathering was like."
I felt kinda bad saying it that way, but it was the truth and I refused to lie so freely anymore. I elect to push on with the meeting, knowing that Vigilant would like to return to the castle and get what rest he can. In truth, I wouldn't mind going back to sleep either.
"As Orion has told me," I continue, "you are all quite curious about me and likely have many questions. I ask you to hold onto those, because I intend to say a few things about myself, and in hearing them, you may have the answers you were looking for."
After that, I began giving them what was effectively my life story. How I was born different, how I grew up and realizing how much I didn't fit in, the attack on Canterlot and my decision to leave, and my ultimate trip to the Crystal Empire.
Once I was finished, I looked around at the gathered thestrals. Each of their faces considered the story I had just told them. Some looked sad. Others looked enraged, but their anger wasn't directed at me. All of them seemed to have made up their mind about some facet of the story.
I decided that now was as good a time as any to let the ponies who were still curious ask their questions.
"If anypony still has any questions..."
While there were hooves that did go up, I was surprised that the total number was significantly lower than what I had been expecting. In total, there were only about five or six hooves altogether in the air.
"Okay, let's start with you" I say as I gesture to a thestral colt sitting near to the front.
"What's it like to eat love?"
The question isn't surprising, as I expected somepony to ask it at some point. Nonetheless, the have it out there right off the bat catches me off guard just a little bit.
"Umm... It's kinda hard to explain" I tell him. "We don't consume love in exactly the same way ponies eat normal food, but at the same time, when we absorb it, it quells the need for it like a pony feeling full after having something to eat."
Another hoof is raised and I call on the pony; a mare.
"Have you ever drained a pony before?"
My ear stalks fold back against my head and I wince a bit. Two questions in, and I must lay my sins out before these thestrals.
I can only hope they're at least understanding, if not forgiving.
"In the hive, love is taken from any creature unfortunate enough to be captured by changelings and put into a pod, so... yes, I have."
"Do you feel sorry for it?"
The thestral in question, a stallion, didn't raise his hoof, but he really didn't need to. Orion goes to call him out for the question, but I raise a hoof to stop him.
"Not a day goes by that I don't regret the things I needed to do to survive" I say honestly. "I always knew deep down inside it was wrong and that there had to be a better way. All I can do now is hope that any of the creatures I've hurt can understand, and perhaps forgive me for what I had to do."
I hang my head in shame as I reflect on all the times I had to feed while living in the hive. More-so, I think back to the night I attacked Soothing Dusk and my regret is tenfold.
The thestrals see my remorse and decide not to propose anymore questions... until a young filly's hoof goes up.
"Can you really turn into anything you want?"
I look up at her as she looks at me expectantly. I get an idea and smile as I use my magic and turn into a duplicate of her.
"I can" I reply in the filly's voice.
Immediately, she laughs and claps her hooves together. The adults looking on are surprised that I was so able to accurately copy the young pony and clap along as well. Soon enough, there are calls for me to imitate almost everypony in the room.
Orion takes this as his cue to cut the meeting short.
"Okay, everyone!" he calls out. "I think that's enough questions for Thorax for one night. If you want to speak with him further, then I recommend getting into contact with Princess Twilight Sparkle at the Castle of Friendship to arrange a private meeting with him. Now, though, I think he would like to return to bed and so would the Crystal Guard assigned to keep an eye on him."
"Thank you, everypony, and have safe travels through this glorious night."
The crowd of thestrals bows to Orion and begins to file out of the school house. Once the majority have exited, a few stragglers move the desks back into their original positions so that the next day's classes can commence without delay.
After the desks are put back and the remaining thestrals leave, I look to see Vigilant standing by Orion and Amber. The young mare looks at Vigilant apologetically.
"I'm sorry about earlier" she tells the guard. "I wasn't sure how to approach and by the time I decided on how I should do it, you'd all went to sleep."
Vigilant waves it off as he finishes the rest of his coffee, this newest cup being decaf. "It's okay. I understand the curiosity about the first changeling to actually peacefully coexist with ponies, and I also understand the skepticism and uncertainty as well."
"It wasn't so much uncertainty as it was nervousness" Amber admitted. "Despite how the evening started earlier, I try not to be rude."
"Regardless," Vigilant persisted, "message received and message understood."
Amber gave a nod and turned look at Orion, who had just put the key for the school house inside a small pot hidden behind some larger planters. "All ready to go?" she asked him.
Orion gave a nod. "I left a note on the desk thanking Miss Cherilee again for allowing us to use the school house. Be sure to say thanks the next time you see her."
"I will" Amber told her father.
Orion nodded and then turned to me.
"Thank you for taking the time to speak with all of us thestrals" he told me. "If we want to speak with you again, we'll try to do it in the afternoon when you not likely to just jump into bed at any minute."
"It wasn't a bother for me" I tell the old stallion. "I was more than happy to answer a few questions and clear up any uncertainties."
Orion gave a nod and flexed his wings. "We'll be getting going now. Amber has a job she must go to, and I have a meeting with some other members of the thestral community on another matter. I again thank you for your time and wish you safe travels in your future."
"Thank you, sir" I tell him in response.
Orion smiles and launches himself into the air, getting to a high altitude and gliding off in the direction of the town. Amber gives me a smile and wave goodbye as she too launches herself into the air and off towards Ponyville, leaving me and Vigilant alone.
"We should head back" the guard tells me. "If anypony decided to check on us and we weren't there, it'd be a panic and you'd most likely be thought of as a criminal."
I winced at the accusation. "That's probably a good idea" I concede as I begin moving in the direction of the castle, Vigilant falling in behind me and keeping a close watch for anything that could cause us harm.
We move quietly for about ten to fifteen minutes before a question comes to mind that I decide I need to ask.
"Vigilant" I address the stallion. He responds by stopping in place and looking at me.
"Do you think Soothing Dusk will ever forgive me for what I did to her?"
I can tell he senses the regret inside me. He doesn't answer for a few seconds.
"I don't honestly know," he finally says, "but I do know that you meant what you said and you do regret having done that, even if you probably weren't in your right mind at the time."
My confidence deflates a bit as I hear him tell me the truth. He was right in that he couldn't predict what her reaction would be, but he also knew that knowing something like that was next to impossible.
"I know one thing" he adds as I look at him again. "If you are sincere in your words and you have friends there to vouch for you, I'm sure you can at least get her to understand, if not forgive you."
I consider what he says and give him a smile. "Thanks, Vigilant."
He smiles back. "Not a problem, Thorax. Now, let's get back to the castle and get some shut eye?"
I nod in agreement and we again start heading back for the castle, with thoughts of what could happen tomorrow dominating my mind. |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | Day 2 - A Batty Breakfast and Making Plans for the Day | "Hey! Thorax!"
Groggily, I woke up and looked around. Spike was standing by my bed, a claw out shaking me.
"Time to wake up, buddy!"
I let out a yawn as I look at him. "Did I sleep in?"
"No," he answers, "but Twi's finishing up breakfast now. We'd better get a move on if we wanna get some food while it's still hot."
I give him a nod as I push back the sheets and get up, stretching to the point of hearing a rather satisfying pop in my back.
"Oh, by the way," he adds, "one of your new friends from last night is here."
I go wide eyed for a second. "What?"
Spike let out a giggle. "Yeah. Twilight sorta figured that one of the ponies in town would've informed the thestral community and they would've wanted to meet you ASAP. She thought you'd get at least two days in before they set something up. Guess they moved a little quicker than she thought."
"Guess so" I respond. "Who's here?"
"Amber" he replied. "Apparently, she asked her father if she could stay with you until noon so she can get to know you a little better."
I blinked in surprise. "Really?"
"Yeah" he confirms. "Orion wants the thestrals to start being seen in a more positive light, and he thinks having Amber interacting more with 'day ponies' during the day will help with that."
"Day ponies?" I question.
"Yeah" Spike says while rubbing the back of his neck. "Thestrals and the other tribes kinda don't get along so good. Granted, it's better than it was before, but it can still be better. Both sides still have some rather interesting names for the other side, and thestrals refer to the other tribes as day ponies, since thestrals are more active at night."
"Yeah" I agree. "I was told once that thestrals were sometimes called bug eaters."
Spike flinched a little. "Yeah, sometimes they are. Also, you should probably watch saying that around Amber and the other thestrals. Might take quite the offense to it."
I blush a bit in embarrassment. "I'll make sure to watch what I say" I assure Spike.
"Not a problem" he says while waving a claw. "Now, we should definitely get a move on. Don't want to keep a visitor waiting."
I nodded in agreement as I did a quick morning routine of brushing my teeth and wiping down my carapace with a wet soapy rag. Once I was clean enough for the moment, I followed Spike to the dining room.
Inside, I saw Twilight and her friends, as well as Amber. The thestral mare herself had a cup of coffee in her hooves.
Upon entering, Twilight looked up and smiled. "Thorax!" she said enthusiastically as she used her magic to pull out a chair for him to sit. "Come join us!"
I give a nod as I take a seat beside her. As I sit down, Twilight resumes the previous conversation. "You said your dad decided to move your family here from Hollow Shades?"
Amber nodded. "Yeah. He was afraid we'd start getting some negative viewpoints about other ponies. You see, the day ponies, not every single one but a fair majority, don't exactly hold the thestrals in the highest regard."
"He says it's probably because many of the thestrals still supported Luna during her banishment, but I think ponies get weirded out by our looks."
Twilight looks aghast at Amber's insinuation, but after a second, she returns to something closer to a neutral expression. "Those ponies should be ashamed of themselves!" she says with conviction. "Equestria was founded on the principles of harmony, and accepting others for who they are plays a huge roll in that!"
"I agree," Amber tells Twilight, "but not everypony thinks that way. Honestly, that was the straw that broke the camel's back and made my father want to move from Hollow Shades. He was talking with one of my younger brother's teachers after school, and during the conversation, the teacher let slip what was, apparently, her and a great many teacher's opinions about the ponies in Canterlot, and he didn't much care for it. After all, he did serve in the guard."
"Yeah, I can understand that" Twilight agreed. "If my brother encountered something like that, he'd give that pony an earful."
Amber nodded at Twilight's statement. After a few moments of silence, Twilight asked Amber another question.
"So, your dad retired from the guard not too long ago. When did he enlist?"
"He was one of the first ones to enlist after Luna's return," Amber answered, "and he's actually one of the first three to pass."
Thorax looked wide eyed at her statement. Orion was one of the three thestrals to pass the original guard training?
"Wow" Twilight says in amazement. "I didn't know he was one of the first three. That must've been quite the honor for him."
"It was" Amber confirmed. "After he took a month long tour of duty, he was brought back to Canterlot and put on the committee to establish the thestral training program. Once it had been agreed on and put into place, he was given choice of assignment and chose to be one of Luna's personal guard."
"Remarkable" Twilight beams upon hearing of Orion's accomplishments. "Did anything interesting happen during his time as a guard?"
Amber's positive demeanor diminishes greatly and she becomes sheepish in a near full 180 from how she was before. As she does this, she shoots a glance at me, which is all the more information I need.
Twilight picks up on the body language and realizes her inadvertent mistake. "Oh, I'm sorry Amber."
Amber looked at Twilight. "Shouldn't that apology be for Thorax?"
The alicorn winced as she turned to me. "I'm sorry about that Thorax. As you can see, friendship is an ongoing lesson for everypony, even for me, and we sometimes have its lessons slip our minds."
"It's okay" I tell her. "I know nopony means any offense discussing that."
"We should still be more mindful though" Twilight counters, a frown on her muzzle. "I know you say that you understand, but I can tell it still bothers you. I might not be able to sense emotions, but I can read body language well enough."
I had to give it to her on that. As soon as the topic of the invasion became apparent, I'd slumped a bit. I should've known that Twilight would've picked up on that; Spike has told me before how incredible her attention to detail is.
"Well, since we're on that topic," Amber continued, "my father did find himself involved in the invasion."
Her remark piqued my interest. "Really?"
Amber nodded. "Every guard is required to serve both day and night shifts. They're usually rotated, but more recently, the guards have had to do so less and less on account of the increase in thestral recruits. However, at the time my father was serving, guards still had to do both fairly regularly, and during the invasion, he was stationed outside Princess Luna's room."
"He heard the shield break and the commotion outside, so he and the other guard standing outside the princess's room went on the defensive. They locked the room and set up barricades to keep anything from breaking in. They had been there for a few minutes when one of the windows broke and a changeling landed in the hallway. It looked at the guards and hissed, ready to attack them. He said that specific changeling seemed to have some kind of scar under its eye."
"Was it under the right eye?" I ask, thinking I may know who it was.
"I'm not sure" Amber replies. "It might've been."
I give a nod. "If it was, then it was probably Lycosidae. After we were repelled and returned to the hive, the queen had every changeling give a report on their participation. Lycosidae said he attacked the castle and encountered a thestral guard, so maybe that was the one your father saw."
"I suppose that's possible" Amber conceded. "He did say that after the changeling hissed and dove to attack, that shield started back up and sent the changeling flying back out the window."
"And Lycosidae said he was sent flying before he could get a lick in," I finished, then sheepishly add, "or, at least, that's how he put it in his report. Anyway, it sounds like that was definitely him then."
"I'll be sure to tell my father later" Amber says as she picks up a glass of orange juice and takes a sip. "I'm sure he'll find it amusing to be able to put a name to that face."
"Well," Twilight chimes back in, "if we sit here flapping our jaws any longer, we won't get to enjoy any hot food. I think it's time we got breakfast on the table."
She asks Spike to help and the two enter the kitchen to grab the food. While they're in there, Rainbow Dash leans over and nudges me in the side.
"Do you remember any of the names of the changelings you saw us fight?" she asks me, a hopeful look in her eyes.
"Um, not really?" I reply in a rather non-committal way; I got the strange feeling that she wanted to know for some rather not-nice reasons.
"That sucks" she says with a pout as she sits back down. "I was hoping I could taunt them if we ever encountered any mean ones again."
...Yeah. Definitely for not-nice reasons.
The doors to the kitchen open as Twilight and Spike come out of the kitchen with the food and plates and silverware so everypony can eat. The dishes today are a large fruit salad and a bowl of eggs, which were mixed through with pieces of onions and peppers, and what looked to be cheese mixed in for good measure.
Spike walked over with a smile and set a dish in front of me. It had a sampling of the fruit salad and eggs, but I could smell the love wafting off of them. My stomach voiced its approval, much to the amusement of Amber and everyone else at the table.
We ate breakfast with vigor, everypony ready to eat hearty in preparation for a new day. Amber asked why my dish was served separate from everypony else, and when informed of the extra ingredients, asked for a sampling. I offered a small bit of the fruit salad and she became quite enamored with it, and then quite enamored with Vigilant.
Princess Twilight is definitely going to want to lock up that potion and recipe. Even without the changeling threat, the possibility of stallions or mares using it to dope an object of their affections into a night of passion against their natural instincts and wills was too great.
Once we had finished eating, the dishes were taken away by Spike and Twilight. While they were in the kitchen, the other element bearers looked at me, and all of them were radiating nervousness and excitement.
"So," Rarity began speaking, "the girls and I have an idea for you on how to spend some of your time here in Ponyville."
"You do?" I said, feeling a bit nervous myself now.
"Eeyup" Applejack chimed in. "Ya see, since we only got to meet y'all for a short spell back in the Crystal Empire, me an' the girls thought it'd be a swell idea to have ya spend some time with each of us a day this week so we can get ta know ya better."
"Mhm" Fluttershy now chimed in. "We only got to spend a few hours with you that day, and that's hardly enough time to really learn about anypony, so we thought you could spend some time each day with one of us so we can learn more about you and you about us."
"Yepper eppers!" Pinkie Pie shouted out, a cloud of confetti flying from her hooves.
I sat back and thought about the offer. Spending time each day getting to know these mares that changed my life in such a profound way?
"When would we meet?" I ask to the group.
"Well, we didn't really have a schedule planned out" Rainbow admits. "Well, Twilight would, but she's not a part of this. We figured that since you're staying here at her castle, you'd have all the time you'd want to get to know her."
"We all got it planned out as each day you're with a different one of us" Applejack tells Thorax. "As for time of day, I think it's just when it's best for everypony. Hay, if there's a day where it doesn't work out with our schedule, we can swap days with somepony else and pick another that will work."
Now having a better grasp of the plan the mares put into place, I give them all a big smile. "That's sounds wonderful! I can't wait. Who do I get to spend a day with first?"
My question is promptly answered by a wall of pink latching onto me.
"Why me, silly willy!" comes Pinkie Pie's voice, the mare sounding as eager as a foal getting a new toy. "You and Amber are gonna come make cupcakes with me!"
"...Amber?" I ask with uncertainty. "I'm not sure if-"
"CUPCAKES?!" Amber yells out in excitement. "I've never made cupcakes before! You gotta show me a good recipe!"
"Oh, I'll show you one of the best recipes around" Pinkie says as she grabs up the thestral mare in a hug. Locked together, they begin dancing around in circles and carrying on about making cupcakes.
I admire the spectacle and the love and joy radiating off of it. If I hadn't had the breakfast infused with love, I would've been tempted to feed off a little bit of it.
As I sit back, a sudden realization comes over me.
I'm going to be alone, in a kitchen, with Pinkie and Amber.
Two mares that, at the current moment, are all too excited to be spending time with me, and also seem to be an endless well of energy.
I'll possibly be spending the whole day with them, surrounded and tempted by all that positive energy.
Positive energy and love that I'll have to resist the urge to consume.
"Oh... crumbs." |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | Day 2 - CUPCAKES! | After breakfast, Spike and Twilight collect the dishes as the other ponies have conversations with themselves. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were apparently planning on going to Fluttershy's cottage so the mare could perform an examination on Rainbow's pet tortoise Tank. Rarity was talking with Amber about having her possibly come by some day and allow her to make some articles of clothing with the thestral ponies in mind; there were apparently some small populations of the ponies in other cities that Rarity wanted to draw in business from. Applejack was talking to Starlight about doing some activities later, which the lilac unicorn seemed more than happy to agree to.
As for myself, I simply sat there and tried to think of how I was going to resist all of the positivity and love that was I was practically going to be swimming in while I was with Pinkie and Amber. My time in the Crystal Empire had done a great deal to help me gain better control of my instincts, but I would still have an occasional lapse and scare some poor pony when I hadn't meant to. While those incidents were becoming more and more infrequent, the common denominator in all of them was a massive outpouring of love, which is why I often excused myself from large gatherings such as the last Crystal Faire.
I was disappointed that I couldn't enjoy the festivities that the other ponies did, but I didn't want my failure to control myself to ruin what should be a rather joyous time.
"What's the matter, Thorax?"
I jump a little at the voice of concern, lost in my thoughts and not paying attention to my senses. Amber was sitting beside me, a look of concern on her face.
"Sorry" I say in response. "I was just... thinking."
Amber cocks an eyebrow. "What about?"
"Well..."
I have a difficult time trying to explain what I'm feeling to Amber. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, Vigilant was more than happy to explain.
"Thorax is afraid he'll revert to a changeling's tendency to hiss when exposed to too much love."
I turn around and give him a glare. "I could've told them myself" I say in my head as the stallion smirks and rolls his eyes simultaneously.
Amber looks at me in surprise. "Really? I thought the princess said you don't do that anymore?"
"Not as often as I used to" I explain to Amber. "When I first arrived in the Crystal Empire, I had went for so long without love that I was practically starving. Any time I was even close to a tiny bit of positivity, I was hissing like a snake about to strike. It's what usually happens before a changeling feeds."
"Since then, however, I've learned to control myself more. Of course, it really helped when some of the ponies started sharing their love with me, and I started to feel more accepted, but I still have an episode of hissing when I am exposed to a lot of love in one place."
"Like this breakfast?" Amber asks as she gestures to the table full of ponies.
"Well, yes and no" I answer. "A group like this could cause me to have a response, but with the love-infused food that Princess Twilight and Spike have given me, I don't feel the urge as strongly. I can control myself better."
Amber processes what I've told her, and appears to be thinking of something.
"You guys draw on love from ponies, right?" she asks me.
"Well, yeah" I answer. "Pretty much any creature that can feel love."
"But you don't like doing that because you think of it as stealing?"
"Yeah" I admit to her. "I've seen what it's like to have it taken from some creature by force, and I've personally felt it too. It's not pleasant, and I swore to myself I would never take any love that wasn't meant for me."
"So what's the problem?"
I look at Amber after she asks that question.
"I mean, you, Pinkie and I are gonna be spending a day together doing something so you can grow closer as friends. Any love you would take from either of us would be meant for you. Is it really stealing if the love is meant for you?"
I intended to rebut her statement, but I was stopped in my tracks.
"She had a point" I thought to myself. "Pinkie liked me as a friend, and so did Amber. Even though they haven't known me for a super long period of time, they do both care about me, and they wouldn't want to see me go without. That would mean that if I needed love, they would share it with me, and if they were sharing it with me intentionally, then it was being given to me and I wasn't stealing it from them."
"I guess" I finally answer.
Amber gave me a hoof slap on the back. "You're overthinking it, Thorax" she tells me. "Me and Pinkie like you and wanna spend a day with you, so if you get a bit peckish and feel a tad hissy, let us top off your glass."
The mare went back to her salad, while I sat in awe of the pony beside me. If I had these kinds of friends in the first week after I left the hive, I would've never made it to the Crystal Empire and ran into Spike. Who knows what my life would be like now.
All I know is that I have these ponies now, and they care about me, and knowing that made me smiling the biggest since I'd first been accepted by Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor.
For the first time in a while, I felt truly content.
After Twilight and Spike returned, we said our goodbyes and went about our days. Applejack returned to work on her farm, Rainbow Dash went to set up the weather schedule for the following week, Fluttershy had her animals to tend to, Rarity had dresses and other clothing to make, and both Twilight and Starlight had some studying they each wanted to get done.
Twilight wanted to improve her alchemy in an effort to perfect the love potion she had made for me, and Starlight wanting to read up on thestrals, as meeting Amber and hearing about the population living in Ponyville had piqued her interest in the somewhat reclusive tribe of ponies.
Amber, Pinkie and I all made our way out of the castle and headed into town, Vigilant following not far behind. The stallion was wearing a lighter set of armor that the guards normally wore in more arid conditions; he was originally a member of the EUP guards, but moved to the Crystal Empire to serve under Captain Shining Armor. One of his previous assignments had been to Appleloosa, which wasn't far from Dodge Junction and the hive.
As we walked, I continued to contemplate what Amber proposed to me at breakfast a little bit ago. A part of me could agree with her point, but another part couldn't. Perhaps it was just plain and simple guilt that had built up in me since my days in the hive just after the wedding when I began to realize what it was I wanted and what I felt, but I couldn't be completely sure.
"You okay Thorax?"
The question shakes me out of my thoughts as I look at Amber and Pinkie.
"Huh?" I ask, only aware they said something to me and not what was actually said.
Pinkie smiles at me. "Were you waxing your filly sock sickle?"
...what?
"What?" I say in confusion.
"I think what Pinkie meant to say was you were waxing philosophical," Amber chimes in, "which I can safely assume you aren't. More than likely, you're still thinking about the conversation we had this morning, am I right?"
The thestral was perceptive.
"Yeah" I admit to her. "It's just... I still feel like feeding on anypony is wrong."
Amber places a hoof on my withers and looks me straight in the eye, and proceeds to go over it to me again.
"Like I said before Thorax, you don't need to feel guilty. You're not stealing love from us. We care about you, and want to support you. We want to share love with you. You can't steal something that's being shared with you. Okay?"
Amber never breaks eye contact the whole time she speaks to me. I feel like she's looking into my very soul, and it makes me unsure of how I should feel. Ultimately, I nod my agreement.
"Good" she says with a smile. "Now, let's get to that bakery and make those cupcakes!"
Her infectiously positive attitude takes me over. "Okay!" I say with much more enthusiasm as we both begin trotting off towards town.
"HEY!" Pinkie calls out to the two of us. "Wait for me and Viggie!"
The four of us finally found our way to our destination, which had me standing with mouth and eyes both wide open. The building looked like a giant gingerbread house like I had seen decorating some of the tables in the Crystal Palace during Hearth's Warming. Every decoration I could think of was there: sprinkles, frosting, gum drops, lollipops, candy canes and little bits of chocolate. I was tempted to take a bit, but Pinkie Pie stopped me before I could even get a lick in.
"It's not real, silly!" she told me as she stepped in front and faced Amber, Vigilant and myself. "Everything you see is plaster, wood and paint. It's not edible, but it's supposed to look like it is. Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner!"
I oohed at the building before me, as did Vigilant, though his reaction was a bit more subdued than mine. Amber rolled her eyes with a smirk and trotted right along behind Pinkie, who practically zipped into the door and straight through it.
Everypony headed inside and we were greeted with a large room that had plenty of chairs and tables for customers to sit, as well as a glass display case full of all kinds of delicious goodies.
"Follow me, everypony!" Pinkie said as she trotted back into a room behind the display case. We all followed and ended up in a kitchen area, with several ovens against one wall, a pantry on the opposite side, and a large refrigerator between the two. Across from the fridge was a large counter with a large sink and drying rack beside it. Completing the kitchen was a large island in the center, with some pots and bowls beneath it and some pans hanging above it.
"This is where the magic happens," she told us, "and is going to happen now. Everypony go wash up and put on an apron, because we're about to whip up some really delicious cupcakes!"
Amber's eyes went wide and her fanged grin went ear to ear as she clopped her hooves. In all honesty, I'm surprised her wings didn't shoot straight up like sometimes happened with pegasi.
"Maybe it only happens to pegasi?" I thought to myself as I washed my hooves in the sink and procured an apron from a nearby hook on a wall. Once properly attired, according to Pinkie, we all looked to the mare, who had brought out what looked to be our ingredients.
There was a large sack of flour, along with a sack of sugar, a box of baking powder, a dozen eggs, a tall glass bottle with milk inside, a dish with some butter, and a small glass dish with what looked like chocolate chips inside it.
"This is what we're gonna use to make the cupcakes" Pinkie told us, then looked at me while pointing a hoof at the shelf below the island. "Thorax, would you get us the big pink bowl from under this counter?"
"Sure" I respond as I focus my magic and pull out a bowl that's actually white but has some pink stripes running around it.
"Thank you Thank you!" she says as she takes the bowl and places it on the counter. "Now, we'll need measuring cups and spoons."
Pinkie looks to our thestral friend and points to a cupboard behind her. "Amber, can you get the measuring cups out of that cabinet there?"'
"Certainly" Amber replies with a smile, then turns around and opens the cupboard, pulling out three cups with markings on the side. According to the writing, the cups can hold 1 cup, 3 cups, and 5 cups respectively.
"Perfect" Pinkie says before looking at Vigilant. "Can you get the spoons from that drawer there?" she asks him while pointing to a set of drawers below the drying rack.
Vigilant nods and turns, but Pinkie then adds , "Oh! And grab the two spatulas in there too please?"
The stallion gives a nod and opens the drawer. He produces a set of spoons in varying sizes that are all held together by a piece of string. After those, he pulls out a pair of spatulas; one with a long handle and the other having a shorter handle.
"Alrighty!" Pinkie says with excitement. "Now I just need to go get us our whisk and beaters and we can get going!"
Pinkie zips over to another cabinet and produces a whisk and a contraption I remember seeing before. It had two mixers on one end, and a handle with a crank on the other. By working the crank, you got the mixers to spin, and you could combine ingredients with it.
I looked at the mixer with confusion as my eyes spotted another mixer on a counter on the other side of the room. That one was a new electric mixer that didn't require cranking.
"Why can't we use that mixer?" I ask while pointing with my hoof.
Pinkie looks at the mixer and then blushes, her pink cheeks darkening to a nearly red. "W-Well," she stutters out, "Mr. and Mrs. Cake let me use it a few times, but I ended up making a really big mess, so they told me that I could only do the hoof mixing from now on."
I blink as I look back at the mixer on the counter. At first glance, it didn't look very complicated. Put the ingredients into the bowl and use the switch on the side. Depending on where you set the switch, the mixer either spun slow or fast. How could somepony mess up something like that?
Then I turned back around and saw the amount of ingredients that Pinkie was dumping into the mixing bowl.
"Okay, I can see how she would probably make a mess" I thought to myself as I waited for the mare to measure out and add the ingredients. After a few moments, she had added everything, and to what was apparently the correct proportions.
"Now," Pinkie says as she wipes her hooves off on a nearby towel, "it's time to mix it all up. Would you like to do the honors, Amber?"
Amber made a "SQUEE!" noise and stepped up to the mixer that Pinkie had stuck into the bowl. Taking the handle and crank, the thestral mare began whipping up the ingredients into a large brown paste.
"Really good!" Pinkie said as she admired Amber's work.
The bat pony smiled as she continued mixing the ingredients together. "I've always wanted to make these!" she says as she picks up the pace a bit.
"How come you never did?" I ask her.
Amber slows down a bit and looks a little sad. "I don't know. I guess it never occurred to me to try and make the time before. That and I never looked up a recipe before."
Pinkie pats Amber on the back. "Don't be sad" she tells the bat pony. "I'll make sure you have a really good recipe. Then you can make cupcakes whenever you want."
Amber smiles as she looks at Pinkie. "Thanks" she says to her. "I'm glad I decided to spend the day here making cupcakes and stuff with you, and you too Thorax and Vigilant."
I smile at the acknowledgment, and can feel the appreciation from Vigilant too.
Pinkie decides the ingredients are mixed enough and takes the beaters from Amber.
"Now Viggie," Pinkie says to the guard, "would you please get the cupcake pans from that cabinet there?"
She points to a cupboard to Vigilant's right. The stallion nods, but I sense a little frustration from him; I guess he's not a fan of Pinkie's nickname for him.
Returning with the cupcake pans, Pinkie reaches into another cupboard and pulls out some paper cups and starts placing them in the pans.
"Now Thorax," she turns to address me, "I need you to hold the bowl so I can get this batter into the cupcake pans. There's a good bit here so I need you to hold it steady for a good minute or so. Can you do that?"
I give Pinkie a nod and levitate the bowl with my magic. I strain a little on account of it being more weight than what I regularly lift with my magic, but I give her a nod that I'm okay as I move it over one of the pans.
Pinkie makes sure I'm lined up and gives me the okay. I then pour some of the batter into the paper cup in the first tray. Pinkie eyeballs it and holds up a hoof, telling me to stop pouring. I move onto the next empty cup and pour more of the batter out, getting another signal to stop. This pattern continues until all of the cupcake sheets are full.
"Good job, Thorax!" Pinkie tells me with a hug and quick kiss on the cheek. I stand there for a few seconds, shocked by the affectionate gesture and the love coming from it being directed straight at me.
Even after all these months in the Crystal Empire, I'm still rather surprised as the sensation of freely given love. It does seem to help that this love tastes almost like cotton candy.
"Now that Thorax has had a little snack," Pinkie says with a grin, "we'll get these cupcakes in the oven and set up for decorating!"
Pinkie walks over to the ovens on the wall and fiddles with some switches and knobs. Soon enough, I hear a fire ignite inside each one and see a thermometer on the front of each one start to climb up. The pink mare then turned and grabbed a pan of cupcakes in her mouth and returned to the first oven, which was now at the correct temperature for baking. We then each grabbed a pan and placed them in the other ovens. Once all the pans were in place, Pinkie set a timer to tell us when the cupcakes were done baking.
"Now comes another really fun part" Pinkie says as she retrieves another bowl and a fresh batch of ingredients. "Making the frosting!"
Amber again got excited, giggling and clopping her hooves together. I looked at Vigilant in time to see him roll his eyes; I got the impression either the cupcakes or mares were not particularly amusing to him.
Pinkie proceeded to dump a bottle of milk into a bowl, but this time, she put the whisk in and began stirring it very quickly. After a few minutes of this fast stirring, I noticed that the milk was starting to look... firmer?
"And now to add the sugar so it gets nice and sweet" Pinkie says as she adds a cup of powdery sugar. She whisks the milk and sugar mixture until it gets so firm that when the whisk is pulled out, parts of the mix stick to the whisk and break off, forming little peaks in the concoction.
"Looks good" Pinkie says after examining the results of her whisking. "Now I'll get some food color to make this frosting nice and pink like me!"
The pony proceeds to disappear in a flash, returning a moment later with a small bottle of a red liquid. I almost question Pinkie, as the dark red liquid almost looks like blood, but then she puts a few drops into the mix and begins whipping it again. As the liquid is incorporated, the color changes from white to pink.
"Okay Dokey" Pinkie says as she pulls the whisk from the frosting and sets it in the sink. "The frosting's done and the cupcakes are getting close to ready, so I'm gonna go get the bag we use to put the frosting on. You guys hang out here and I'll be back in a jiffy!"
With that, the pink mare zipped off to somewhere in the shop to retrieve the item she said she was looking for. Amber sat on her flanks as we waited, a slight frown on her face.
"I thought making cupcakes would be a lot more hooves on," she said, "but Pinkie's done most of the work so far. I mean, I'm excited I get to learn how to do this, but I thought I was gonna be doing more than watching and grabbing this and that."
I put a hoof on her withers, which makes her look at me. I then try to give her some encouragement.
"If it's anything like the cake decorating I've seen done in the Crystal Palace kitchens, then she's saving the most fun part for the rest of us."
Amber looks at me for a moment and smiles. "You know, you're probably right" she concedes as she then gives me a hug.
"Aww!"
We separate and look to see Pinkie has returned, and in her hooves is a bag-like object with a star shaped nozzle on the end.
"This bad boy is what we decorate all the cupcakes with" Pinkie explains as she heads over to the bowl of frosting. "Just scoop up a bunch and load it in the back, then give it a nice, gentle squeeze to get the frosting to come out."
She demonstrates by taking a large glob of frosting on a spatula and scraping it off into the bag. She grabs a second on and does the same, then places the spatula to the side and ushers Vigilant over.
"Hold out your hoof" she tells the stallion, who complies with a confused look.
The pink mare holds the bag over his hoof and squeezes out a large glob of the frosting she's made.
"You're the taster!" she declares, then asks, "How did I do?"
Vigilant looks at the frosting in his hoof and gives it a tentative lick. After the first one, though, the frosting disappears in the blink of an eye and some pink spots decorate the stallion's muzzle.
Pinkie giggles at the guard's reaction. "I think that's an A+ if I ever saw one," she remarks, "and I got plenty of those in my school lessons too!"
I look at the mare in amazement; I had a hard time seeing the pink mare sitting still in a school house as the teacher goes over boring subjects like math and history. Despite his best efforts, there were times Sunburst could put a rabid maulwurf to sleep, and I know that from experience.
A dinging noise catches our attention, but it's not the ovens. We hear a door open and turn to see a new mare enter the kitchen. She was a pale blue color with a mane that looked sort of like the frosting Pinkie had just made, even being the same color.
The first thing I noticed about her was her... size. She was the first pony I've ever really seen that was what one would call fat. Of course, I did not voice this fact, as Sunburst had taught me enough about what things one should and shouldn't say in polite company.
Coming in behind her was a stallion. He had long legs for a pony and was a lemon yellow color. Both his mane and tail were orange. On his head was a red and white brimless hat.
And atop his back sat two foals, a pegasus colt and a unicorn filly.
Well, that certainly explains the rotund mare that preceded him, if those foals belonged to the two ponies.
"Mr. and Mrs. Cake!" Pinkie explains as she zips over to the two. "There are my new friends! They've come here to make cupcakes with me."
The mare and stallion give her a smile. "Hello dear, and hello..."
Their greeting trails off and smiles falter a bit as their eyes meet mine. I give a sheepish smile and a small wave.
"You remember Twilight asking you about the nice changeling, right?" Pinkie asks the two ponies, who look at her and nod slowly.
"Well, here he is!"
They look back at and me, and again, I smile and wave.
Pinkie then smacks her face with her hoof. "Silly me!" she says in realization before pointing back to me. "You guys weren't here for the meeting yesterday."
"Twilight introduced Thorax to Ponyville and even had him answer a few questions to put the town at ease. He's even got a guard with him to make everypony feel safer yet."
At the mention of himself, Vigilant stepped forward.
"Vigilant Strider, sir and ma'am" he introduced himself while giving a salute. "I was sent with Thorax to make sure his stay in Ponyville went as smoothly as possible."
Mr. and Mrs. Cake regard Vigilant and I for a few more moments before the two give each other a look. Before they can respond, Pinkie suddenly blurts out "BE RIGHT BACK!!!" and disappears from the bakery in a blur. Everypony is silent for a few moments before there's a sudden pink flash out front and the door to the bakery chimes to alert all creatures inside of somepony entering.
The new pony is non other than Twilight, who looks at Pinkie with a bit of annoyance.
"You know, you could've just told them to come see me, Pinkie" the alicorn tells her energetic friend. "I'm quite sure they would've found the time to do so."
"But then they'd all be suspicious of Thorax and then not wanna let him in the bakery" Pinkie protested.
Twilight shakes her head at her friend before looking at Mr. and Mrs. Cake.
"Pinkie just told me what happened," she explains, "and I'm here to assure you that not only is Thorax here with a member of the Crystal Guard hoof selected by my brother to keep an eye on him, but he also wishes to have peaceful relations with ponies here in Equestria as well."
Both Mr. and Mrs. Cake look at each other before smiling again.
"Okay Princess Twilight," Mrs. Cake says to the alicorn, "we trust your judgment."
Mr. Cake nods his agreement.
"Good" Twilight remarks, satisfied that the incident hasn't led to me being given the angry mob treatment. "Now, if you'll excuse me-"
"Oh, no you don't!" the pink party mare suddenly says while putting a hoof to Twilight's chest. "We got cupcakes almost done and you're gonna stay and have some."
"Pinkie!" Twilight says to her in annoyance. "I was in the middle of something before you pulled me away!"
"...Please?" Pinkie asks with large puppy dog eyes.
Despite her best efforts, Twilight lets out a sigh. "I suppose pausing to have a cupcake or two wouldn't be so bad."
"Yay!" Pinkie shouts as she throws confetti she got from... somewhere.
Mr. and Mrs. Cake both chuckle, as do their infants. The parents nuzzle their children in a show of affection.
The sight immediately has an effect on me as my fear comes to life. I immediately fight to repress my urges to hiss at the display of love before me.
Before I lose control and give in to my baser instincts, a pair of leathery wings suddenly wraps around me, and I feel much warmer.
"You're loved," Amber says to me as her hooves join her wings, "and you're loved for who you are. Nothing will ever change that, Thorax."
I hear her words and both my fear and my instincts calm down. I smile as I wrap my hooves around Amber, returning the hug and love she'd given me. We stayed like that for a few moments but eventually broke away from each other.
"Better now?" Amber asks me after we separate.
"Yeah" I tell her. "Thank you."
She smiles, her fangs making her look almost predatory. "Hey, what are friends for?"
"What indeed" I thought as I returned the smile.
A giggling returned our attention to the other ponies in the room. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were standing with Princess Twilight, while Pinkie was holding their two foals.
"Come meet the family!" the pink mare said as she gestured for Thorax to come over with a free hoof.
I reluctantly did so, and soon had two sets of eyes trained on me. Both the little pegasus and unicorn were curious about the shiny black pony in the room, and their little hooves reached out to touch me.
"Aww, they like you" Pinkie remarked as she watched the two foals running their hooves over my chitin. The two foals coo a bit as their hooves glide over the places where holes pock mark my legs. The unicorn prods her hoof through one, then looks at her own legs, a bit confused by the difference between mine and hers.
The pegasus does much the same, but he then attempts to prod at my wings, clearly interested by the appendages. I give them a little buzz, and the little colt jumps back a bit, but then giggles and attempts to do the same with his own wings.
"Seems like we'll have a little flyer on our hooves before we know it" Mrs. Cake comments as she watches her son attempt to mimic my wing movements, only getting them to go so fast on account of the anatomy differences between our wings and his still to properly develop flight muscles.
"Yeah," Mr. Cake agreed, "and then we'll have to hope one of the other pegasi in the village will help us keep hold of him as his wings get stronger."
Everypony chuckles a bit, but that's quickly ended by a series of dings.
Pinkie jumps in excitement. "Cupcakes are done!" she proclaims as she zips over to the ovens and pulls out the pans and places them on the counter.
I look at them and see steam still coming off of them from the cooking. Pinkie zips over and sticks what looks like a miniature skewer into the cupcakes, pulling them up and looking at the end stuck into the cupcake. A few small crumbs cling to the wooden stick in her hoof.
"Perfect!" she beams with a smile. "Now we just gotta let them cool a bit and we can put frosting and stuff on them!"
We spend the time waiting for the cupcakes to cool by telling my story to the cakes, and having them tell their story to me.
Mr. Cake didn't have much of a story to tell. He grew up in a baking family and started the business after coming to Ponyville.
Mrs. Cake, however, had a bit more of an interesting story.
For instance, her real name was Chiffon Swirl, and she only discovered her talents for baking because of her foalhood friend Pear Butter. The mare looked a bit sad about mentioning her, so I didn't prod any further. If past history was anything to go by, her feelings were tied to not so good memories of a very particular kind.
Pinkie announced that the cupcakes were ready, and we set about decorating them. Vigilant added the frosting, but then smoothed them over so the top was flat and smooth. When asked why, he said it reminded him of the snack cakes he used to like getting from mess hall during his guard training.
Pinkie taught Amber how to swirl the frosting like the cupcakes in the display case out front. She topped hers off with cherries, a favorite food of the thestral mare.
Pinkie decorated hers in the blink of an eye, each having a perfect swirl and plenty of colorful sprinkles. Everypony's mouth watered at the delicious looking treats, including me; I did say I ate pony food from time to time because I liked how some of it tasted.
As for my cupcakes?
Well, I wasn't sure how to decorate them. When I asked Pinkie about it, she just gave me the frosting bag and told me to let inspiration guide my hoof. I looked back at the cupcakes and shrugged, using gentle pressure to force the frosting through the metal tip. I carefully moved the frosting around until I had formed a peak at the end.
"Not bad," Pinkie commented, "but maybe try to use just a bit more pressure?"
I take her advice and find that the decorating goes faster. I eventually finish putting frosting on all the cupcakes in the pan.
"So, what else do you want to add?" the pink mare asks as she studies my work.
I think on it for a moment before a thought occurs to me. "Do you guys have toffee?"
Pinkie looks at me for a moment before her eyes go huge. "That's a great idea!"
She again disappears and reappears with a candy bar made of the aforementioned toffee, along with...
BANG!
The pink mare smashes the bar on the counter with a large wooden mallet. She repeats the action until the candy bar is sitting in little pieces on the counter.
"Go ahead and scoop it up!" Pinkie tells me with an encouraging hoof. "Just sprinkle it over the cupcakes."
I follow her suggestion and gather the pieces of toffee in my magic, then depositing them onto the tops of the cupcakes as evenly as I can. Once I finish, I look up to see Pinkie whispering into Twilight's ear.
The purple alicorn huffs a bit but appears to go along with whatever Pinkie has suggested.
"Since this is everypony's first time decorating cupcakes," she begins, "Pinkie has asked me to judge who has done the best job out of all of you, so I'm going to sample one of each of yours and see who did the best."
Twilight's horn lights up as she takes one of each cupcake from our pans and places it before herself. Pinkie gives her a glass of milk that Twilight gives her thanks for. Pinkie steps back beside me and we all watch as she samples our cupcakes.
She tries Vigilant first, and comments on how she likes the "minimalist" approach he's taken to decorating. I sense amusement in the stallion as he snorts lightly.
Next is Amber, who Twilight remarks did a wonderful job swirling the frosting, and finding the cherry on top to be a nice touch. Amber beams at the praise given to her by a princess.
After Amber is Pinkie, who Twilight says "has done as good a job with decorating as she always does".
Lastly are my cupcakes, which Twilight looks over closely.
"This looks very nice, Thorax" she comments on my work. "The frosting is swirled just right and the bits of toffee you added give it a visual distinctiveness from the other three."
After a moment of looking over the cupcakes, Twilight shrugs her withers. "They're all so good in their own ways. I think you all did very well."
Twilight goes to give back our cupcakes, but Pinkie stops her. "Those are yours" she informs Twilight, pointing at the glass of milk on the counter. The alicorn shakes her head but complies, sampling each of the cupcakes once, but then making them disappear as quickly as Vigilant did the frosting.
Whatever Pinkie did with the cupcakes must've been some kind of amazing. Everypony else joined in and made short work of the cupcakes, taking one from each other's trays. I tried some as well, enjoying the one Amber had done with the cherry on top; the fruit went nicely with the frosting.
"Your cupcakes are really good, Thorax" Amber said after swallowing a mouthful. "That toffee on top is a really nice touch."
"I like your cherry topped ones too" I told her as I tried the one that Pinkie had done. It was incredibly sweet, but not sickeningly so, to my surprise. It made me wish that changelings could get their nourishment only from sugar.
Amber beamed at my praise as she tried Pinkie's cupcake as well, making quick work of the pink mare's treat. After a few short minutes, the cupcakes were gone, and everypony had their fill of sweets.
"I hope everypony enjoyed themselves" Pinkie says as she gives Amber a paper. "Here's the recipe for the cupcakes, Amber. I made sure the portions are for a smaller batch so you don't make more than you can eat."
"Thanks Pinkie" Amber says as she takes the paper from her. "I'm sure my family is gonna enjoy these once I whip up a batch."
Pinkie giggled. "I'm sure once they try those, they're gonna want you to make only those from now on."
The two mares hugged and then separated. Pinkie then turned and faced me. "Do you enjoy making cupcakes with us?"
I give a nod. "It was fun doing the decorating" I tell her.
"That's always the fun part" Pinkie replies. "Just imagine how much fun you can have with a full size cake."
I chuckle at her remark. Pinkie clearly likes her job here making all kinds of baked goods.
Amber approaches me with a tired looking smile.
"It was great to spend the day with you, Thorax," she says to me, "but I really need to go home and get some shut eye. I'm too much of a night pony to spend the whole day awake and away from my family."
I give her a smile back. "I understand. Thank you for spending all this time with me."
"Thanks for spending it with me" she says, and the two of us embrace in a hug.
After we separate, she says goodbye to the Cakes, Pinkie, Twilight and Vigilant and heads out the door. Twilight excuses herself so she can get back to whatever she had been doing before Pinkie had pulled her away. The Cakes then proceeded to apologize for their earlier behavior and told me I was welcome to come back to the shop whenever I wished to do so, a sentiment that their foals seemed to agree with.
Pinkie said her goodbyes as well, shoving into my hooves a box that had been filled with some special cupcakes that she had made for me. To my surprise, they were almost completely black, with frosting colored to perfectly match my eyes, and also infused with the love potion Twilight had concocted.
Needless to say, as soon as I walked outside with Vigilant and back towards the castle, the contents of the box disappeared, and I was licking turquoise frosting from across my muzzle and fangs. |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | Day 2 - Track and Field | Vigilant and I were walking back to the castle when we both felt a whoosh of air blow right past us. Vigilant reached up and held his helmet to his head while I moved my hoof to my eyes in an effort to protect them from any errant dirt and dust kicked up by the gust of wind. Setting my hoof back down and blinking my eyes, I was quick to see a familiar blue face with magenta eyes and prismatic mane.
"I was wondering what happened to ya!" Rainbow Dash said as she hovered in the air in front of us.
"Well, we're heading back to the castle from Sugar Cube Corner," I told her. I gave Vigilant a quick look and saw him brushing some dirt off of his armor.
"Oh, yeah, the cupcakes," Rainbow said as she remembered the discussion from earlier in the day. After a second, her eyes widened a bit and she looked at me. "What happened to Amber?"
"She went home to get some sleep," I told her. "She's a thestral, so staying awake in the daytime is not really her thing."
Rainbow threw her head back and cried out in what I was pretty sure was disappointment.
"Dangit! I was hoping I could challenge her to a race!"
I looked at Rainbow, confused. "You wanted to race Amber?"
"She wants to race everypony," Vigilant cut in. "I guess she thinks if she beats every creature in Equestria, they'll beg her to join the Wonderbolts or something."
"Hey, pal!" Rainbow Dash said, clearly incensed and poking him with her hoof. "I'll have you know I'm a reservist, which means I AM a Wonderbolt, and it won't be long before I get moved up to the main team!"
Vigilant rolled his eyes and smirked. "Whatever you say, Rainbow Crash."
Rainbow Dash sputtered for a few seconds before her face became one of unbridled rage.
"WHY YOU-"
"Rainbow, please!" I said quickly as I moved between the two. "He's just giving you a hard time. Vigilant doesn't mean anything by it, right?"
I gave Vigilant a pleading expression, hoping he'd take the hint to help me diffuse the situation.
Fortunately, he took the hint.
"Yeah, I'm just cutting on you a bit. Sorry if I struck a nerve."
Rainbow still looked miffed, but she did calm down. "Fine. Apology accepted."
There's a bit of a tense silence for a few moments afterwards. When somepony spokevagain, it was Rainbow Dash.
"How about you and me?"
"Huh?"
I looked at Rainbow, who was giving me an evil-looking grin.
"How about you and me race?" she proposed. "I'm sure everypony in town would like to see me beat the tar out of a changeling in a race!"
I could see how giddy the thought was making her, the mare's body vibrating like Pinkie's seemed to do whenever she was about to throw a party.
While I could tell that she was excited about the prospect of challenging me to a competition, I was not very enthused about such a thing.
"I'm sorry, Rainbow, but I politely refuse."
The excited mare went from trembling like an alarm clock with a grin on her face to being stone still and completely surprised. "What?"
"I'm not really the competitive type, and I'm not so proud that I can't admit that even a normal pegasus could beat a changeling in a head to head race based purely on speed."
Despite my objection, Rainbow was having none of it. "Uh-uh. I don't believe that for a second. You're honestly gonna stand there and tell me that you aren't even gonna try to race me."
"I'd get my flank handed to me twice."
Rainbow fumed for a few moments before an idea crosses her mind and she grins again. "What about some kind of competition where the odds are a little more even?"
The tone of her voice was not comforting at all. "What do you mean?"
"What if we find an event where ponies and changelings are relatively equal, and we compete against each other in that?"
I sighed. "Like I said, Rainbow, I'm not the competitive type."
"Oh, COME ON!" Rainbow blurted out impatiently. "You're telling me that you're not the least bit curious about who the better pony is between us?"
"Honestly? No, I'm not. I've never been the competitive type, Rainbow Dash. That's just not who I am."
Rainbow kept looking at me, feeling very flustered. I guess she doesn't take her challenges being refused too well.
I walked away from her, Vigilant moving to catch up.
"You wuss."
I stopped mid-stride. What did she call me?
"You... wuss," she repeated, a smirk on her face.
I turned around to look at her. "What did you call me?"
"A wuss," she said again, still smiling that taunting smile. "A sissy bug whose too afraid to lose."
I immediately realized what she was going for, and I had no intention of taking the bait.
"I'm still not gonna accept your challenge, Rainbow," I repeated as I turned and continued walking away. I got about two steps before something pushed me to the ground.
"Nothing but a wimpy bug!"
Getting frustrated, I turned and looked up at her with a scowl.
Except she wasn't there. When I do find her, she looking quite scared, and rightfully so. The blue pegasus was pinned down under spearpoint by Vigilant, who was scowling at her intensely.
"DO. NOT. TRY. THAT. AGAIN." he warned her, pushing the tip of his spear against her barrel enough that it wouldn't hurt her, but she'd still feel it.
"What's going on here?"
We all looked to see Twilight approaching us. Vigilant pulled his spear away, allowing Rainbow Dash to get back on her hooves. Before she can defend herself, the guard relayed exactly what happened to Twilight.
"Miss Dash came across us and challenged Thorax to a competition of one sort or another, but he refused. She tried to goad him into competing, which he also rebuffed, but then she took it too far and actually pushed him to the ground. Seeing as he is my charge, I stepped in to make sure she didn't cause further harm to him."
Twilight listened to the story relayed to her, but then gave a stern glare as he finished. "How come you didn't warn Rainbow Dash to stop when she started goading him?"
"He didn't appear distressed by what she was trying to do, and I was under the belief that Miss Dash would've given up on her efforts once she saw they would bear no fruit."
Twilight shook her head. "Rainbow," she addressed her friend, "I'm not sure what you were trying to pull, but please don't do anything like that to Thorax again. If he doesn't want to have a competition between you two, then that's his choice and you respect it."
Rainbow was going to retort, but the look she got from Twilight was enough to silence her. "Fine," she answered quietly, flapping her wings and taking off for a cloud building near the outside of town.
"Is she gonna be okay?" I asked, feeling the disappointment coming off the mare like a bucket of water was just dumped on her.
"She'll be fine," Twilight replied. "She's just gonna go mope for a bit, but she'll come back like nothing happened."
Twilight turned to walk away, but then stopped and looked back at me. "Just as a warning, Rainbow's probably not gonna let the whole 'challenge you to a contest' thing go, especially since you're a changeling and she's wanted to challenge one ever since the royal wedding, so don't be surprised if she nags at you until you agree to it. If it gets to be too much, just let me know and I'll pull her aside and drive the point home."
I gave her a nod, and she headed back to the castle, Vigilant and I not far behind.
We entered the castle and headed to the library, where Starlight had a book out on thestral ponies and was reading it by an unlit fireplace. Upon hearing the doors open, she looked up at us with a smile. "How'd the cupcake-making go?" she asked.
"It went well," I answered. "Amber headed home to get some sleep, but she took a recipe and said she was gonna practice when she got the chance."
"That's a shame," Starlight said, a slight sadness in her voice. "I was hoping we could chat for a bit."
"Maybe she'll come back tonight?"
"Maybe," Twilight cut in, "but Amber does have a job here in town, so she may not be able to."
Hearing that made me deflate a bit. I felt good knowing that the thestral ponies in Ponville were accepting of me, but not getting to see them as often as I would like to was disappointing.
"Anyhow," Twilight continued, "I thought I would show Thorax something interesting that Princess Celestia sent to me recently."
Something to show me? From Princess Celestia?
"She said she's had this in her personal restricted archives for quite a while now. In fact, I think she had put this in there even before Discord's first attack against Equestria."
I must admit, my curiosity was piqued now. Whatever that thing was, it had been locked away for more than a thousand years.
"She doesn't know much about the artist who painted this, but the subject matter certainly caught her attention."
"It's a painting?"
"Not just any. Have a look."
With that, Twilight wrapped her magic around a cloth that was covering an easel and removed it. Everypony, including myself, gasped at what had been revealed.
The portrait under the cloth was nothing like anypony expected. There was a gray, cloudy background, with a greenish-blue foreground, which weren't the most jarring parts of the portrait.
That honor went to the subject in the center.
Painted into this fairly unusual scene was a changeling drone; a female, going by the presence of eyelashes. She was wearing a hood with a band under her horn. She was seated, and held in her hoof was a scepter that had a headpiece resembling a beetle that was holding what looked like an amber gem as big as the changeling's eye.
Most interesting of all was the fact the drone was smiling, something I did not expect a drone to do.
"So, what do you think?"
I didn't have an immediate answer. Stepping forward, I looked over the painting in detail, getting close enough that I could make out brush strokes on the canvas.
After a moment, I looked at Twilight and shook my head.
"I don't know what to say about this," I answered honestly. "If a changeling made this, then it was something that they did in complete privacy and away from the hive, but I don't think that's the case here."
"So, you think a pony made this?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, but how they managed to do this is beyond me. The standing order is that anypony who finds out another creature is actually a changeling has to be captured and returned to the hive. It's been the rule for as long as the changelings have existed."
"But you just said that you think a pony made this piece."
"I know. It's just... the only explanations I have would be that a pony managed to observe a changeling and get away undetected, then made this work of art, or the more unlikely scenario of a changeling willingly revealing themselves to a pony and agreeing to model for a painting."
Twilight nodded, then produced a quill and parchment, writing down something on it and then rolling it up and placing a seal on it.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be of anymore help than that," I said to Twilight.
"It's fine, Thorax," she replied. "You can only tell me what you know, or at least what you think based on what you know already. Thank you for giving me your feedback on this, though."
I gave her a nod and look over the painting again. "I will say: this artist must've taken some creative liberties with the subject matter. Female drones don't have eyelashes like that."
Twilight nodded her agreement. Before anypony else says anything, Rainbow Dash comes fluttering in.
"Hey, Twilight, I was-"
She stopped speaking as she took notice of the painting that had been revealed a few moments ago.
"Who made that thing?" she then asked.
"Somepony a long time ago," Twilight answered. "Princess Celestia sent it to me and asked if I could ask Thorax if he had any ideas about it."
"Huh," Rainbow said as she digested the information, then shook her head looked at me. "Okay, so, Thorax, I know what you said about not wanting to compete against me-"
"Rainbow," Twilight interrupted, her voice becoming terse.
"Just let me finish!" the pegasus responded to Twilight. "Anyway, I know you said you weren't much for competition, but what about doing something that involved teamwork?"
Teamwork?
"What are you talking about?"
Rainbow Dash rolled her hoof as she gave me an explanation. "I have a little sister, kind of. We're not really related, but she looks up to me like I'm an older sister for her. She has two friends, who happen to be the little sisters of Applejack and Rarity, and they make up a trio called the Cutie Mark Crusaders."
I nodded my head in understanding. Spike had told me about the trio of fillies and their antics in Ponyville, including one time where they had become covered in tree sap. Apparently, these antics were meant to help the group find their cutie marks, which, to the best of my knowledge, they have yet to acquire.
"Anyhow," Rainbow continued, "they're in an actual competition with some ponies in their school."
"What kind of competition?"
"It's a relay race on hoof. They gotta run through with a baton and pass it off to one another, and the last pony has to cross the finish line first."
"So it's a race?" Twilight asked.
"Uh, yeah."
My alicorn friend rubbed her temples with a hoof. "Rainbow, please tell me that you didn't put Miss Cherilee up to this?"
"What? No!" Rainbow retorted. "Miss Cherilee has to give the foals a credit for physical education, and she decided to do track and field this year instead of the usual swimming courses."
"And you had nothing to do with that?"
"No, of course not!"
Twilight deadpanned at Rainbow.
"Okay, fine! I overheard Miss Cherilee talking about the annual swim classes, and I might've suggested track and field would be a nice alternative."
Twilight huffed. "Somehow, I knew you would pull something like this."
"So you want me to go with these fillies and... participate?"
"Miss Cherilee usually has a group of adult volunteers to help the younger ponies with swimming, but since she took my advice and has them doing track and field things this year, the adults are going to be part of a team with three of the students. We'll be spending the afternoon helping them and participating in the events the teacher has set up. She might put you with the Crusaders, but you might get put with another group too."
I listened to Rainbow's explanation and found myself nodding along. It was still a competition in a sense, but it was more of a way to get the colts and fillies of Miss Cherilee's class some exercise. Plus, it would let me interact with more ponies in my natural form.
"You know what, Rainbow? This actually sounds like a pretty good idea. I think I'll do it."
Upon hearing my agreement, Rainbow did a hoof pump.
"AW YEAH! This is gonna be good!"
The pegasus got a paper from off of a nearby table and gave it to me.
"This is all the information about where the event is being held. It'll start shortly after lunch and last until about the end of the school day, which is usually about an hour or so before most ponies start making dinner. I'd get a good, hearty lunch if I were you."
Upon hearing Rainbow's last sentence, I began to chuckle. The pegasus cocked her head at me.
"What so funny?"
I get my giggles under control as I answer her.
"I thought it was funny you told me to eat a hearty meal, since, you know, I feed on love."
Rainbow thought it over and gave a sympathy chuckle. "Yeah, I guess that is a little bit funny."
"Anyhow, head straight to the place on the paper after lunch. I gotta go meet Applejack now, so I'll meet you there."
"Okay," I replied, and the pegasus was out the window in a rainbow streak. Twilight, having watched the whole exchange, shook her head.
"If she devoted herself to everything she did like trying to set up competitions against other ponies, she'd get so much stuff done," she commented before putting the cloth back over top of the painting that we'd been looking at.
"What are you gonna do with that thing?" I asked her.
"I'm not too sure," she replied. "For now, I'm just gonna put this in storage to keep it safe. It would be amazing if we could ever figure out how it came to be."
She grabbed the painting in her magic and lifted it up in front of her, then turned and walked out an open door with the item in tow.
"Come on," Starlight said to me, getting my attention. "I know Spike is whipping up some tomato soup and grilled cheese, and I'm almost certain he has a special bowl set aside for you."
Licking my fangs, I gave her a nod and we both filed out and down the hallway towards the dining room.
The tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches Spike made were delectable. Even without the love that Spike put into mine, the meal was superb. Both Starlight and Spike giggled as they watched me bury my muzzle into the bowl to get every last drop I could.
Once we had finished and I had cleaned myself up from my less-than-dignified display, I thanked the two and made my way to where the school would be having their track and field events, which, according to Rainbow's directions, were taking place in a meadow just a bit outside of town.
As I drew closer, I paused for a moment as a thought occurred to me.
"Um, care to explain why we stopped?" Vigilant asked me as he came up beside me.
"Do you think I should put on my Crystal Hoof disguise for this?" I asked him.
He gave me a puzzled look in return. "Why?"
"Well, you know how the ponies reacted when I was revealed to them yesterday. I'm afraid that they might react more negatively than they did then since Princess Twilight won't be there to admonish them for their poor behavior."
Vigilant put a hoof to his chin as he thought, then looked at me and gave a shrug.
"It's entirely up to you how you wanna show up at this event," he told me, "but if you want my personal opinion, it's better to rip the band aid off and be done with it than to slowly peel it off, if you get my meaning."
I did. Sunburst had used the same analogy when I was unsure of doing something that involved interacting with crystal ponies during my early days in the empire.
I let out a breath and made my decision. In a quick flash of green, I was Crystal Hoof.
"I think I'll show up like this, and if I'm invited to, I'll drop my disguise. I know ponies will have to get used to me at some point, but I don't want to be ran off because I scared somepony's foal."
Vigilant again gave me a shrug. "Whatever you wanna do, but I think we should get moving now."
I nodded and we resumed our journey to the meadow. After coming over top of a hill, I saw the event and the ponies there.
There were foals lined up doing stretches, with a dark-raspberry colored mare in front of them giving instructions on what stretches to do. Off to the side were some older ponies, with Rainbow Dash among them. Upon seeing me, she frowned, but then smiled and waved me over.
"Hey, Thorax!" she said rather enthusiastically.
"Hey," I said, returning her greeting.
As I approached, I took notice to some of the ponies standing around. Big Macintosh was here, his yoke left at home and a towel in its place. Beside him was a mare with a carrot-orange mane and tail, goldenrod coat, and cutie mark of three carrots. Beside her was a blue-eyed stallion with moneys bags for a cutie mark, the collar and tie set also having a money symbol on them.
Behind the three ponies were a pair of stallions. One was a bluish-white with a darker blue mane and green eyes, while the other was a charcoal grey with a whitish-grey mane and golden eyes. Next to them was a mare with a pinkish-purple coat and raspberry mane and having a cutie mark of a strawberry and cluster of grapes.
"What are you doing?" Rainbow asked me.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean this," she answered while gesturing at me with her hoof. "Don't you remember Twilight saying it was okay to look like yourself?"
I let out a sigh. "I do. It's just that I was afraid that I would scare the foals with how I looked normally, so I decided to come here like this to avoid that."
"Well, the foals don't care, Thorax."
"Huh?"
"I don't know how it works with you guys, but I thought Twilight said you could smell emotions, or taste them, or something."
"It's an extra sense we have that lets us pick up on emotions-"
"Not important," Rainbow cut me off. "My point is these foals are more excited to see a real live changeling up close than they are afraid. You showing up like this is gonna disappoint them."
I listen to what Rainbow is saying and decided to get a feel for the ponies around me. Rainbow overwhelmed my systems with her disappointment, but once I got past it, I could sense pleny of other disappointment as well, and all of it coming from the group of foals that had just completed their warm up stretches for the day.
"I can't believe I didn't notice that," I admitted to Rainbow.
"Well, just go ahead and drop the act."
I deadpanned at her. "I'd prefer if you didn't call it an act. Crystal Hoof is a pony I created in my mind, and he's just as much me as my normal self is."
"Whatever. Just go back to being your normal you."
I looked around a bit apprehensively, but I can see a few ponies looking at me expectantly. Letting out one last breath, I let my disguise dissolve into a flash of magic, and my regular changeling appearance is revealed to the world.
"That so cool!" I heard a colt yell, which was followed by the thundering of little hooves as the class charged over to look at me more closely.
"Wow," I heard more voices say as the miniature army of young ponies surrounded me on all sides. Soon enough, the swarm of colts and fillies were asking questions a mile a minute.
"So you can look like anypony you want?"
"Can you do my dad?"
"Can you do my mom?"
"Can you do Princess Celestia? What about Princess Luna?"
"Do those holes in your legs hurt?"
"What does love taste like?"
"Can you wrap somepony up in a cocoon?"
The bombardment lasted for another few seconds before a mare's voice got their attention.
"Okay class, I think it's time we left Mister Thorax alone and took our places so we can begin."
A chorus of disappointed groans sounded out as the class slowly trudged their way away from me and went over to an area where some small orange cones had been set up.
"I'm sorry if my class made you feel a bit uncomfortable," the mare said to me as she walked over.
"It's nothing I haven't handled before," I responded, remembering a time in the early days of my stay in the empire, when I had to deal with an overly curious group of crystal ponies asking more questions than I could process.
"Still, they should have some better manners than that," she said as she offered a hoof to me. "I'm Miss Cherilee, and I'm the teacher here in Ponyville."
"It's nice meeting you," I answered, bumping my hoof against hers.
"So, Rainbow Dash said she talked you into a contest by using the foals to motivate you into coming here."
"Umm..."
I wasn't sure how to answer that. It was true to some extent; Rainbow did convince me to show up here by mentioning the foals.
"I came because I want to improve my public image. It's kinda hard after what happened in Canterlot not that long ago."
"It's been a couple of years at least, hasn't it?"
"About that. It's still pretty fresh in the minds of some ponies."
"Well, that's water under the bridge for me. I hope that's the same story for you."
"It is. I want to move past that day be known as the first changeling to give peace a chance."
"A worthy pursuit, but we can have a chat about that later. Right now, we have some antsy little ones that I need to get physical education grades for."
Miss Cherilee turned and walked over to the foals. Rainbow waved for me to follow as the group of adults moved over to the starting line the foals were gathered at.
"Okay class," the teacher called out to them, "we're going to be doing this a little differently this year for your physical education requirements. Normally, we take you to the pond and instruct you in swimming, but this year, Miss Rainbow Dash suggested some track and field events as a change of pace, and I agreed with her. I want to say before we begin, that if any of you still wanted to go to the pond for swimming lessons, I will be organizing an outing for this weekend. If you wish to come, I will give you a permission slip for your parents to sign. For all of you adults who wish to help, please speak to me afterwards and we will discuss the time of day we'll have the class so everypony that wants to attend will be able to."
"Now, to start off, we have twenty-four foals here and eight adults not counting myself. Who can tell me what the solution is for twenty-four divided by eight?"
A few eager hooves shot up, and Miss Cherilee chose a filly with pink and purple mane.
"Yes, Sweetie Belle?"
"Three."
Miss Cherilee nodded. "That's right. Now, I need everypony to divide themselves into groups of three. Once you're all grouped together, I will assign an adult to your group. Now, adults, your job is to make sure nopony cheats, and everypony stays safe. After we make our groups, I will go over the events being held today."
The colts and fillies all divided up as instructed. The most notable of the groups were a pair of fillies with a colt wearing thick-framed glasses. One was a purplish pink and was wearing a tiara, while the other was a grey color with silverish hair and a cutie mark of a spoon with a heart-shaped gemstone in the handle. Another group was three fillies, and I was pretty sure they were the ones Rainbow Dash had called the Cutie Mark Crusaders since they matched the descriptions that Spike had given me.
The last group was two colts and a red-maned filly with thick purple glasses. One colt was a silver color with charcoal mane and tail, and the other was brown with red hair and a small propeller hat on his head.
"Okay," Miss Cherilee called out, "Now that we have our foals in groups, it's time to assign parents to them. First, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle will be with Rainbow Dash."
The orange pegasus filly did a hoof pump as Rainbow trotted over to them.
"Mr. Rich, you may join your daughter's group."
Mr. Rich nodded to Miss Cherilee and walked over to his daughter. Miss Cherilee went through the rest of the ponies before coming to me.
"Mr. Thorax, you will go with our last group. Please say hello to Rumble, Button Mash and Twist."
I walked over to the foals and waved my hoof at them. "Hello."
The foals looked at me for a second before they all started smiling.
"Yeah!" the pegasus colt shouted. "We got the cool one!"
His reaction earned laughs from some of the ponies present. The filly with the tiara rolled her eyes but did smirked a little.
"Okay, now that we are in groups," Miss Cherilee continued, "We will get to the activities for the day. To start with, we'll be playing a little hoofie tournament. Foals will play the offensive positions while the older ponies will be the net-minders. It will be single game elimination, and we'll only play fifteen minute halves."
I smiled upon hearing that. Hoofie was one of the few games that both ponies and changelings both played. The ball was kicked around by the offensive players of one team, and attempts would be made to score by kicking the ball into a net. Players on the team that didn't have the ball became defenders, and would try to keep the ball out of their net and reclaim possession for themselves. The netminder's job was entirely defensive, tasked with keeping the ball from going past the goal line and into the net. While rare, a net-minder could score a goal themselves, but to do so would require either a lucky shot or the net-minder leaving their own goal area and going across the playing field to the opponent's net.
"To start with, we'll have the crusaders going against Rumble's group. Adults will pick their net and stay there for the fifteen minutes, then they'll switch nets for the last fifteen."
Rainbow smiled at me and nodded, but I could tell her smile was a bit more malicious than she had probably intended. I simply ignored her and went to the net opposite her and waited for the game to begin.
Miss Cherilee called the two teams over and made them form a circle. After explaining a few last-minute rules, such as where out of bounds was marked, the teacher placed a ball in the center of the fillies.
"Now, when I blow the whistle, Big Macintosh will start the clock and you'll try to get possession of the ball. Remember, even though this is a competition, it's a friendly one, so don't get too rough with one another."
The foals nodded as they focused on the ball. Once she was satisfied that the foals would follow the rules, she produced a whistle from her mane and blew into it, starting the clock and game.
About a half hour or so later...
The game was close and in the last few minutes. The two teams each had two goals a piece. One of those had been scored by Rainbow, who blasted one in my direction after I had tripped over Scootaloo by mistake. Feeling a bit disappointed, I decided I would try to get a goal myself.
Apple Bloom was bringing the ball up one side of the field, with Button Mash closing in on her. Scootaloo was behind him, and I heard her say something to the colt as he ran. He abruptly stopped and looked at the filly with a shocked expression, which allowed Apple Bloom to fly past him and have an unobstructed shot at the net.
I dived across and kept the ball from going in, but in the process, I knocked it out of bounds.
"Crusader's ball," Miss Cherilee called out as Apple Bloom came up beside her. Placing the ball on the ground, the teacher then blew her whistle. As soon as she heard the noise, Apple Bloom sent the ball in to Sweetie Belle, who kicked it around a little bit before sending it past Twist and towards Scootaloo. The orange pegasus then set herself up to buck the ball as hard as she could past me.
I threw my body in the way in time to deflect the ball away from the goal. Coming back down, I landed on my hooves and turned to look at the ball.
There were no ponies close to it, and with time dwindling, I took a risk and kicked the ball out and followed it, intent on taking it to Rainbow Dash and the goal.
The pegasus saw what I was doing and charged out to intercept me. I waited until she got too close to slow down, and then I made my move. Faking to the right, I went left and threw the pony off balance, causing her to trip up on the grass.
With the crusaders behind me and Rainbow momentarily stunned, I took my shot and kicked the ball into the net.
Miss Cherilee blew the whistle and smirked at us.
"Game ends 3-2. Rumble's team wins."
"Hey! No fair!"
Miss Cherilee and I both looked at Rainbow Dash who gave me a death glare.
"No fair!" she repeated. "You cheated!"
"What?"
"You heard me!" she spat at me with venom. "You cheated!"
"How did I cheat?"
"Well... you..."
Rainbow was at a loss for words, a rare instance for the trash-talking pegasus.
"Exactly, Rainbow. I didn't cheat. Besides, this is just a P.E. exercise for the kids, not some kind of professional league."
Rainbow wanted to retort, but couldn't say anything past "Grr. Fine. You didn't cheat."
I didn't appreciate the attitude, but I figured I would take the small victory.
We lost the next game against the other team that had Big Macintosh; hard to score on somepony that can just block shots by standing still.
Regardless, we all had fin.
The winner of the tournament was Thunderlane's team, who got to brag and not much more. Once the hoofie was done with, we moved on to a different event.
"The next event is the hammer toss," Miss Cherilee explained. "So you don't get confused, here's how you do it."
The earth pony teacher walked over to a heavy metal ball attached to a metal chain with a grip on the end. Grabbing the grip, Miss Cherilee proceeded to spin in a circle several times, and on the last spin around, she whipped her neck and released the object, sending it hurtling through the air a fair distance before it came back down and impacted on the ground.
Taking a moment to catch her breath, Miss Cherilee gave the foals a smile. "I doubt any of my students could throw one that far, but you are invited to try. If I was to take a guess at who would excel in this event, I would say Big Macintosh would have the advantage."
The stallion in question chuckled and turned a darker shade of red in his cheeks.
"Now, everypony gets a chance in this event, so who wants to go first?"
Miss Cherilee's guess was quite accurate. Big Macintosh threw the hammer such a great distance, she questioned whether she would be able to locate it later, and also pondered if it had ended up lodged in a tree.
Big Macintosh himself apologized and offered to look for it, but Miss Cherilee waved him off. "It's quite alright. It'll be found at some point, I'm sure. For now, let's focus on the next event."
We all followed Miss Cherilee to the next event. As we did, I thought about my throw.
I'd made a good approach, got good momentum, and was pretty sure I released at the correct point. My throw was true and went a comparable to Miss Cherilee, though the earth pony may have beaten my throw by a few inches or so.
Rainbow Dash made her best effort to give the hammer the old heave-ho, but she ended up slowing down a bit on her last spin because of what she claimed was a pebble under her hoof. Regardless, her throw came up a few feet short of mine.
A part of me wanted to chuckle since I must've beaten her by her standards in two different events, but another part wondered if I shouldn't concede the last two to her just to keep the peace.
As quick as I thought it, I dismissed it. Rainbow would have no respect for me if I took it easy on her just because she was getting frustrated.
Besides, at least in the first event, I had beaten her fair and square.
We arrived at the next event, where portions of the grass and topsoil had been dug up to make a sort of pit where sand had been poured into it.
"The third event is called the hop, skip, jump," Miss Cherilee told the class as she gestured with her hoof to several markers placed in front of the sand pit. "Each pony will start from this line and run as fast as they can to this point. Once they get here, they must take a hop and a skip to gain momentum, and at this last point where the sand begins, they will jump as far as they can. We will measure from the beginning of the sand to the hoofprint closest to it."
The teacher then turns to Thunderlane and Soarin. "Would one of our resident Wonderbolts care to give us a demonstration? No using your wings to glide either."
Both stallions rolled their eyes before Soarin stepped forward. "The higher rank sets the example for the subordinates to follow," he said, getting a frown from Thunderlane. Once at the start line, Miss Cherilee ordered him set, and once he was ready, she blew her whistle.
Soarin took off as fast as he could, and when he got to the first marker, he took two big skips and launched himself from just behind the line where the sand started.
With wings firmly tucked to his side, Soarin landed with his back hooves at what appeared to be a distance equal to ten ponylengths.
"A fine example of Wonderbolt athletic training," Miss Cherilee commented before turning to the class. "Now, I want all of you to form a line at the starting point over there. You'll each get one attempt, so make sure to give it your best. If the adult ponies wish to participate, or be excluded, they can do so at their discretion."
The foals did as instructed and formed a line where Soarin had started from. As Miss Cherilee blew her whistle, each foal would get a running start, then take two large skips before jumping as far as they could in the sand. Each time one landed, an adult would look to see where the foals touched down and marked it on the side of the sand pit, a little white flag that had the foals initials on it.
Once all was said and done, the side of the sand pit had twenty-four little flags, and at the furthest distance, was one which read "AB".
"Yeah!" Apple Bloom cried out as she celebrated her apparent victory. The other foals gave their congratulations, but going by the emotions that I sensed, most weren't all that happy about her winning.
"Okay everypony," Miss Cherilee called to us as she began walking, "we're gonna head over to the last event now, so please follow me."
Everypony began following the teacher over to the last event for the day. I tried to do so as well, but was stopped by a blue hoof on my withers.
"Come on, Thorax!" I heard Rainbow Dash say. "Let's go! Just you and me!"
I turned and looked at her. "What?"
"The hop, skip and jump. Let's see which of us goes further!"
Of course, I think to myself as I turn to face the pegasus. "Why is this so important to you?"
"Because I wanna see which one of us is better!"
"Why is that so important?"
"Why wouldn't it be?!"
"It's not that important to me."
"Well, it should be!"
"Why?"
"Because it is!"
The pegasus became frustrated as she tried to explain it to me.
"How can you not be the least bit curious about how much better or worse you could be than a pony at something?!"
"Because I don't let it bother me."
"WHAT?!"
I sighed as I explained how I felt about this to Dash.
"Rainbow, it's not important how you compare to other ponies, or other species. What matters is that you grow how you want to. If you start comparing yourself to others, then you start holding yourself back."
"That's ridiculous! I don't let how I compare myself to ponies hold me back!"
"Really? The Best Young Fliers competition doesn't ring any bells?"
Rainbow looked at me in shock, which quickly turned to anger. "Who told you about that?"
"Does it matter? My point is, you got all nerved up because you were afraid you wouldn't compare to the other ponies in the competition, or you wouldn't live up to the expectations of the Wonderbolts."
"Rainbow Dash, you're a fast flier, probably the fastest there is, but a good dose of humility would do wonders for you."
Rainbow's anger tapered off some. She stood there for a few minutes stewing over what I had told her. In that time, Miss Cherilee came back over to us.
"Are you two coming? We're ready to start the final event."
"We're coming," I assured her, then turned to follow. I did eventually hear Rainbow's hoofsteps behind me, but they were much slower than mine.
The last event was the one Rainbow Dash had told me about earlier in the day - a relay race. The foals and their adult were divided into pairs and placed opposite from one another. One of the foals was given a brass baton that would be passed off to the next runner when the previous one crossed over the start/finish line. The three foals would go first, and the adult pony, or changeling in my case, would run the last leg. The foals were being tested on how well they ran and their coordination and teamwork.
"Okay now," Miss Cherilee got the attention of the groups, "When I blow this whistle, the relay race will begin. Runners, keep a firm hold of your baton, and make sure that you pass it smoothly to the next runner. If the baton is dropped during the pass off, the pony who was carrying it previously must pick it up and give it to the next runner. If you drop it during the run, you must go back and pick it up before going any further."
"Would our first runners now get set at their starting line?"
The foals with batons in their mouths lined up to get set. Rumble was our first.
"Would the next baton carriers please approach your starting line?"
The next foals to carry got set. Twist took her spot at the front.
"Good," Miss Cherilee nodded in approval. "Now, runners, get ready."
Each runner squatted down, ready to explode away from the starting line.
"Get set."
The foals all looked at their partners across from them, eyes intent on their muzzles and hoping for a clean exchange.
Miss Cherilee reached down and put the whistle around her neck to her muzzle and-
FWEEEEEEET!
The foals bolted out after the loud whistling. Each made very good time crossing what was approximately the distance of half a hoofball field. Rumble and Apple Bloom were leading the ponies, with the gray earth pony Silver Spoon close behind. As they approached the other side, they prepared to exchange their batons.
For Rumble, the exchange went smoothly, and as soon as she had a good grip on the baton, Twist took off at her top speed, which was a bit slower than Rumble.
Apple Bloom gave a smooth pass off as well to her friend Sweetie Belle, who took off at a pace quicker than Twist, and found herself gaining on the filly rather quickly.
I noticed that Silver Spoon had dropped the baton in the exchange, and very quickly grabbed it before giving it to her tiara-wearing teammate, who took off as fast as her hooves could take her.
Twist and Sweetie Belle both got to their respective finish lines and passed their batons to the next runners. Button Mash took his and bolted as fast as he could to me, his speed comparable to Twist but perhaps just a bit faster.
Seeing him getting close, I prepared to grab the baton and finish the relay.
Sweetie Belle gave her baton to Scootaloo, who ran the fastest I had seen a foal run that day. She was gaining on Button Mash and about to overtake him.
I looked over to see Rainbow Dash at the start line, but surprisingly, she wasn't set to run.
"Come on, Rainbow!" Apple Bloom shouted at her. "It's your turn to run!"
Rainbow nodded at the filly, and halfheartedly got into position to take the baton and finish the race.
I heard Button's hoofsteps getting closer and I looked in time to see I had only a second to take the exchange. I opened my maw wide so he had a good target, but quickly found that to be a mistake; the sight of my teeth startling the foal and causing him to lose the baton.
"Button, grab the baton!" I called to him, but the colt froze up.
"C'mon Button!" Rumble shouted at him. "Get the baton and give it to Thorax!"
Button got the baton and eventually gave it to me. Once secure, I took off as fast as I could, crossing the finish line on the other side.
To my surprise, as I crossed the line, I felt a whoosh over to my side, and turned to see Rainbow crossing at the same time as I did.
Once all the foals had crossed the line, Miss Cherilee examined a device she had set up to help her keep tabs on the foal's run times. As she finished going over them, she smiled.
"I'm happy to say that all of my students have done well. Each of you has earned high marks for your physical education."
All of the foals cheered upon hearing the news. I wasn't sure what they would've had to do if they hadn't passed. Perhaps they would've had to attend the swimming class later this week?
"Now then," she continued, "for those of you curious about how the relay race ended, we have an interesting result."
"The group of Rumble, Button Mash, Twist, and Mister Thorax have tied with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Miss Rainbow Dash."
All of the foals gasped as they heard the news. Even I was a bit shocked hearing that the rainbow maned pegasus and I had crossed at the same time. I looked over at where I thought Rainbow was standing, but the blue pegasus wasn't there. In fact, she was nowhere near the track and field area.
"Did anypony see where Rainbow went?" I asked.
"She went up into a cloud," Scootaloo told me. "Said she wanted to be by herself for a bit."
The filly pointed up at a cloud, and upon looking at it, I took notice to a rainbow-colored tail poking out of it and twitching a bit.
"Maybe I should go talk with her," I thought out loud.
"We'll have a talk with her," I heard a voice call out from behind me. Turning around, I saw the stallions Soarin and Thunderlane approaching.
"Yeah," Soarin voiced his agreement. "After the race, she looked sort of upset and bolted for that cloud up there. I don't know what's going on in that head of hers, but she's gonna hear something from the two of us."
Getting a feeling that what they were doing was a terrible idea, I raised my hoof to stop them.
"Um, maybe we should just leave her be for a bit? I might not know her as well as you two do, but... she and I had a conversation earlier, and I think that might have something to do with how she's acting now."
Both Soarin and Thunderlane looked at me sternly. "What did you talk about."
"Well..." I rubbed my hoof on my neck as I thought of how best to explain it. "She was trying to get me to do the hop, skip, jump, but I refused. When she kept trying to push me, I asked her why it was so important. She told me, and I told her that comparing yourself to other ponies all the time was a bad idea and-"
"Say no more," Soarin interrupted, a smile on his muzzle. He then turned to Thunderlane. "Let's go see if we can talk Applejack out of a barrel of cider. I get the feeling that filly is gonna want a drink in a bit."
Thunderlane nodded his agreement, and the two stallions took off in what I presumed was the direction of Applejack's farm.
I turned my attention back up to the cloud Rainbow was laying on. Part of me was second guessing my choice to leave the mare alone with her thoughts, but then I thought about the situation a bit more and concluded that there was probably nothing at the moment that would help anything.
Sighing in defeat, I elected to return to the castle, the day slowly winding down into evening.
Dinner that evening was a veggie loaf made with zucchini, carrots, celery, potatoes and broccoli. My portion was given the dose of love potion so it gave me the necessary nourishment, though my mind was distracted by Rainbow Dash and her behavior in the later part of the day.
"Something on your mind, Thorax?" Twilight asked me.
"Just thinking about Rainbow Dash," I answered her.
"Don't worry about her too much," she reassured me, placing a hoof on my withers and rubbing. "If I know her, she's probably just taking a good, long think on what you told her."
"You think so?"
"Definitely. Rainbow gets really competitive, and a lot of times, that causes her to lose sight of the really important stuff. That's why the girls and I try to keep her grounded."
"Well, grounded mentally and emotionally, I mean. I doubt you could keep her grounded physically if you tried."
Both Twilight and I giggled at that assessment. A few moments after was stopped, the door to the dining hall opened, and through it walked a certain blue pegasus.
"Hi, Twi. Hi, Thorax." she greeted us.
"Hey, Rainbow. I'm sorry, but you're a bit late for dinner, but if I asked Spike, I'm sure-"
"That's okay, Twi," Rainbow interrupted. "I'm actually not feeling that terribly hungry at the moment."
"Oh. So what brings you by?"
"Um..."
Rainbow paused and traced her hoof on the floor.
"Can I talk to Thorax? Privately?"
Twilight looked at Rainbow for a moment, then at me. When her gaze turned to me, it was silently asking if I was okay speaking with her alone, or at least as alone as having Vigilant standing nearby.
After thinking it over for a second, I give a small nod, and Twilight turns back to Rainbow.
"Sure. Why don't you head on down to the map room? Nopony's there right now and you can lock the doors if you need privacy."
"Thanks, Twi," Rainbow answered as she walked out of the dining hall and headed for the big map room a little bit further down the hall. I stood up to follow, but Twilight stopped me for a second.
"Just let her say her peace first," she told me, "and then say yours. She kinda has a hard time with admitting when she's wrong, or she made a mistake."
I gave Twilight a nod and headed out of the library, Vigilant close behind.
"Um, Vigilant?" I said to the stallion as we walked.
"Yes?"
"Um... can you keep whatever you hear to yourself afterwards? I don't want Rainbow to feel like her trust is being violated or something."
I don't see it, but I can tell the stallion had rolled his eyes.
"I can keep secrets. Whatever she confides to you is also safe with me."
"Thanks. It's appreciated."
We approach the map room and find the door slightly open. Upon walking in, we both see Rainbow sitting at the table in the chair with her cutie mark on it.
"Should we sit down?" I ask her.
"Nah, I just popped a squat while I waited," came her reply, popping up and getting back down onto the floor and walking over to us.
"Listen," she began once close enough to Vigilant and I, "I wanna say I'm sorry for how I was acting earlier. The thing is... I've always been super-competitive, and when I meet a new pony or creature, I always wanna challenge them to see what they're made of. I think it probably goes back to when I was a filly."
Rainbow Dash let out a chuckle before continuing.
"Believe it or not, I did get picked on a bit during my flight schooling."
"Really?" I respond with surprise.
"Yep, the other foals would give me grief for this and that, but the worst was Fluttershy. I don't know if she's ever mentioned it to you, but she's not the strongest flier in Equestria."
"Yeah, I think she has mentioned that once before."
"Anyway, because of that, I always feel like I need to prove myself to show them what kind of pony I am, but what you did today reminded me that not everypony has to show off to prove who they are. You did it just by standing your ground and not budging when you got pushed. I really have to respect that about you."
"Bullying is always a hard thing to get past. I remember how much doubt I experienced when I first left the hive and started making my way to the Crystal Empire, even if I didn't know I was heading there at the time. All of that stemmed from how the others treated me, and how they bullied me. Even one of the older nymphs in my brood, what I guess you could think of as a brother, would bully me and tell me my dreams and ideas were nonsense."
"But every time I heard them say it to me, a little voice inside would tell me not to listen, that they were wrong. I would always feel depressed and downtrodden, but that little voice was always there, telling me to keep going, that I was on the right path. I listened to that voice, and because I did, I'm here now, talking to you, instead of attacking whatever innocent village of creatures to take them prisoner and steal their love."
"I'm not really a changeling known for giving advice, but if I can offer you any, it's to listen to that little voice in your own head. I'm sure it cries out to you 'Don't listen to them, Rainbow Dash! You know how strong you really are!'. You just gotta listen for it, or maybe give it a bull horn to shout through."
Rainbow chuckled at that last part. "Thanks, Thorax. I'll try to remember that."
She gave me a smile, and I smiled in return. Vigilant, who had been standing by the door, took the break in conversation as a place to politely interrupt our discussion.
"I hate to break up all of this warm and fuzzy feeling, but it's getting late, and everypony should probably get some shut-eye."
Rainbow Dash and I both looked at a clock nearby and saw it was getting close to bed time.
"Dang, I didn't realize it was that late," Rainbow remarked as she trotted towards the door, then paused.
"You don't think Twilight would mind loaning me a room for the night, do you?"
"Maybe?" I respond. "I don't really know."
"Might be for the best," she concluded as she opened the door. "I just remembered Tank hasn't had his dinner, so I better head back home and feed him before it's too late."
With that, the rainbow-maned pegasus left in a flash of bright colors. As she did, Vigilant let out another sigh as he brought a hoof to his face.
"Again with the running in the halls." |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | Day 3 - Sweet Apple Acres (Part 1) | The next day began with a bit of an overcast sky, since the sunlight shining in through my window wasn't as intense as the previous days. Vigilant and I made our way to the dining hall, where we found that a few ponies were unable to join us for breakfast.
Absent were Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, but present were Twilight, Spike, Starlight, Applejack and her older brother Big Macintosh. Also present, but not there when I had initially arrived with Vigilant, was Mayor Mare, who had stopped by to discuss some business with Twilight about an event happening later in the month.
I gave the mare a friendly smile and wave, which she returned. After the business with Twilight had been sorted out, she then surprised me by asking about my interactions with the thestral community. When I asked how she found out about that, she told me that Amber had filled her in on the meeting I had had with them after everypony went to sleep. Upon hearing the story, she expressed gratitude that things went well, as well as thinking up some ideas of how to better involve the thestrals in Ponyville's activities.
Looking over the spread on the table, I saw breakfast was an egg casserole with peppers, onions, and more than enough cheese; the recipe had come from Princess Luna, who was a connoisseur of cheese, apparently. In addition, there was a stack of toast, a bowl of fruit, a tea pot with sugar bowl, a coffee carafe, and two pitchers containing what looked to be milk and orange juice.
As with the previous days, Spike had prepared a special plate with love-infused food for me to enjoy, and I must say that it went quite well with the eggs and toast. The milk, while having no love in it, was also quite good, satisfying my thirst in a way love couldn't.
During the meal, Applejack initiated a conversation with me.
"Hey, Thorax?"
"Yes?"
"I know ya are only stayin' in Ponyville for a short spell, but my brother and I was wonderin' iffin' ya be interested in swingin' by the farm for a bit."
"Coming to see your farm? Of course! I would love to do that!"
Applejack looked back at me with a wide stare, but then became nervous, looking away and rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof.
"Well, what I was meanin' ta ask was if ya wouldn't mind lendin' us a spare hoof?"
"You want me to help out?"
Applejack nodded. "I hate imposin' on ya since yer visitin' for so brief, but Apple Bloom has a school project that she's gotta get done, and Granny Smith's watchin' her ta make sure she keeps her nose and hooves on the grindin' stone. That means Big Mac and I are down a set a hooves, and we ain't got nopony else ta turn to."
"I don't wanna be askin' like this, but I don't know what else ta do."
I gave Applejack a sympathetic look. "Applejack, I'm gonna spend the day with you and your brother doing the work that helps keep your farm running. Even if I wasn't there to help, I'd still end up asking you about it, and learning all about your farm in the process. Doing this for you is giving me a hooves-on approach to it."
Applejack thought over what I had said for a moment and chuckled, then smiled at me. "I didn't really think of it like that."
"So what do you want me to help you do?"
Applejack then explained that, since the apple season was a little ways off, they needed to prepare for it. When Apple Bloom was available, they went around the entire farm and spread various types of fertilizer and deterrent agents to ward off any parasites that would attack the trees or fruit. That had been a month or so ago, and now the apple trees were blossoming, and two things needed to be accomplished.
First, we needed to go through the whole orchard and prune some of the blossoms off. This was done to allow the fruit to grow to a large size, as well as making sure the quality of the apples stayed consistent. After that was done, we would need to do something that would be a bit dangerous: beekeeping.
Applejack and her family maintained a few honeybee hive boxes on their property. They were moved into the barn during the winter, and then moved out the day following Winter Wrap Up. The bees stayed fairly docile for the most part, but often weren't fans of having their homes moved. Applejack even told a brief story in which she had set a hive box down a little harder than she had meant to, and the jostling prompted the hive to start attacking her.
She had so many stings that she had become bed bound for a day or so afterwards, and had only escaped a worse fate because Fluttershy was nearby and able to calm the hive down, though not without the aid of a beekeeping suit and a smoker full of hemp cloth.
"That business was no fun at all," Applejack finished, "and even to this day, I still gotta watch how I go about handling them darn hive boxes."
"Wow," I remarked upon the conclusion of her story. "I certainly hope nothing like that happens today."
"Hopefully not, sugarcube," she replied, "but just in case, I asked Fluttershy ta join us with her suit and smoker. She's usually pretty good with them critters, but sometimes they get a bit ornery and come after her. A couple of puffs of that smoke gun an' they usually calm down."
"Don't you use a suit?"
"Just a veil to keep 'em from mah eyes. Truth is, the beekeeper ponies I know say you should get a few shots of the venom every once in a while. Helps build up a tolerance, or somethin' like that. Of course, some of 'em are older, and they say their joints ain't so sore after they get a stingin' or two, so maybe they just sorta learned ta put up with it."
"I think I read about something like that once. Most doctors don't really agree with it, since it involves the body getting injected with what is meant to be a poison."
"Caffiene is a poison, but ya see plenty of ponies chokin' down that black bean water every mornin' fer a wake up call, so maybe them doctor ponies don't know everythin' like they think they do."
Her comment made me a bit uncomfortable. Sure, doctors could get egos and think that they know more than the next pony, but at the end of the day, their job was to make sure to you were healthy, and if you weren't, they would help you get healthy.
"Umm..."
The ponies in the room turned to the one pony who hadn't spoke yet today: Vigilant. The stallion in guard armor looked at us all a bit nervously.
"I know I'm not supposed to leave Thorax unguarded, but I don't think I can come to Sweet Apple Acres with all of you."
Applejack looked at the guard with puzzlement. "Why's that?"
"Well..."
Vigilant trailed off for a moment before recomposing himself.
"I'm... afraid of bees."
Everypony looked at him as he hung his head. I understood why right away. Guards were meant to be fearless, so him admitting to a fear was basically admitting to weakness in his mind.
Twilight got up from her seat and walked over to him, placing a hoof gently on his withers.
"That's perfectly fine, Vigilant," she told the stallion in a supportive tone. "We all have things were afraid of. Can I ask why you're afraid of bees?"
Vigilant looked at the princess for a moment before nodding and relaxing his muscles. Once he was calm, he recalled the reason for his apiphobia.
"It's because of my sister. When we were little, we lived in a small hamlet not far from Fillydelphia. My dad was a guard like I am now, and my mother worked as a maid for an office in the city. They met on a lunch break one afternoon.
My sister's name is Faded Glory. She's a seamstress in Manehattan, working for one of those clothing designers; Polomare, if I remember right.
When we were still foals, Faded and I would play near a forest that bordered the western edge of the village. It wasn't the Everfree, but you only needed to cross a river to get to that place. We were chasing each other in a game of tag, playing with a few other local colts and fillies.
My sister had wandered off in one direction while the rest of us had started moving off into another direction. We didn't see her for five minutes or so, but by then, we heard horrible screaming. I knew it was her right away, so I took off through the forest as quick as I could, wanting to find out what had happened and help her.
When I got to the scene, I saw a tree limb had broken and fell, and on the end of it was a bee hive. My sister was in a nearby creek, thrashing about and covered in bees.
I ran to help but was hit with sudden, sharp jabs of pain, followed by a burning sensation. I looked at my hooves and saw that the bees were swarming me and stinging me in my legs. Just like her, I began screaming and trying to get the bees off as well as get the stingers out.
I kept this up for a good minute or so before I realized it was useless to try until we got away from the bees, so I grabbed my sister from the creek and hauled off in the direction of the village, getting fresh jabs in my back from the swarm attacking my sister.
By the time we had gotten back, we'd sustained more than a hundred stings each. The pain was so much that I started to become ill, and once I got to somepony's backyard, I passed out.
I didn't come back to until two days later. I was in a hospital bed and swelled up like a balloon. My parents came in and tried to hug me, but I was so sore from the attack that it hurt more than it helped.
Dad told me that both Faded and I nearly died, the amount of venom being so much in us that the doctors had to perform dialysis on our blood to help get the toxin out of us.
We both lived, and agreed never to go back to that forest, but even today, if either of us see a bee, that image of them swarming and attacking us gets us locked into a panic attack."
Everypony looked at Vigilant with sympathy. I had never known this about the guard assigned to me, and a part of me hoped that recalling that memory didn't trouble him more than it did.
"Do you wanna know a secret about me Vigilant?" Twilight asked him.
The stallion nodded.
"I'm afraid of ladybugs."
"Really?"
The princess nodded. "A swarm of them got into my home as a child, and my brother thought it would be funny to trick me into thinking the spots on their backs were eyes. I believed that for quite some time, and I always thought they were really creepy from that day forward."
"But you know that that was just a joke now, right?"
"Yes, I do, but... I still get really uncomfortable around ladybugs."
Vigilant looked at her with surprise. "But you know they can't hurt you!"
"I know that, but I've carried that fear with me from a very young age. I work to overcome it, but it's still there, even after all these years."
Twilight lowered her hoof from his withers and looked him in the eyes. "My point is that my fear is irrational; I have no legitimate reason to fear ladybugs. Your fear, however, is completely rational. You and your sister nearly died because of what was likely an accident. Those bees were agitated and went after whatever they perceived was a threat to their hive, which was you and your sister, unfortunately."
"Ain't nopony here faultin' ya fer bein' a bit on edge about not likin' the idea of bein' around all them bees," Applejack reassured him. "Iffin' ya like, ya can just stay up by the house and watch from afar. Would y'all be okay with that?"
Vigilant looked between the princess and Applejack before he let out a sigh. "I suppose if I don't have to get too close, then that'll be okay."
Twilight smiled. "That'll be more than okay."
Everypony finished breakfast and began going about their day. Spike took the dishes to clean them, with Starlight coming by and offering her help. Twilight needed to attend to some of her royal duties, so she left the castle a bit before Applejack, Big Mac, Vigilant, and I did. Unfortunately, I didn't see any of the other element bearers the rest of that morning.
The four of us made our way to the edge of town, where a long dirt road led us back to Sweet Apple Acres, the large farm where Applejack and her brother lived. Beyond the fence on either side of the path were apple trees that went as far as the eye could see. Even if I transformed myself to have eagle eyes, I wouldn't see an end to the orchards stretching on towards the horizon.
We finally found our way to the main part of the farm, where a large red barn and farmhouse sat. Scattered about the front yard were various kinds of equipment, from a large set of plows on wheels, a harvester for what looked like corn, a pair of wagons with wooden side walls, and the remains of a machine I didn't quite recognize.
"What's this?" I asked while pointing at the strange object.
"That's what remains of the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000."
"...What's that?"
"A while back, these two unicorn fellers came to us with that machine with hopes that we'd buy it from 'em. Well, us apples do all our own work 'round here, especially makin' apple cider, so we told 'em no. That didn't sit right with 'em, so they made a challenge to us that they could out-cider us with that machine of theirs.
Well, another thing about us apples is we don't back down from a fight, so we all accepted and went about makin' us much apple cider as we could. We spent dang near a whole day doin' nothin' but makin' barrels of cider."
Applejack's demeanor then turned a little sour. "Unfortunately, we couldn't beat out their machine."
"So, what happened with you all losing?"
Applejack then chuckled. "Well, everypony tried their cider and universally agreed it wasn't apple cider."
I was a little confused. "How could they make cider without making cider."
"That's easy! Their machine was runnin' so gaul dern fast that they weren't doin' all the proper quality checkin' like they shoulda been. Everypony that tried their cider was spittin' out wads of mud and chips of wood from dug up apple trees. It was so bad that even the pigs wouldn't touch the stuff, and they'd eat dang near anythin'!"
Something that was so foul tasting that even a pig wouldn't eat it? "That must've been really bad."
"It was, and when the ponies all went after them two unicorns, them fellers skedaddled like a cockroach when a light comes on."
"They didn't take their machine with them?"
"Nope. They was in such a hurry to get outta here that they left it sit. We sure as hay wasn't gonna use it for cider, but a lot of the parts on it work on some of the stuff we use 'round here, so we just left it sit there so we can grab a part or two off it when we need it. Sure does save on the money of goin' inta town to pick up a piece if somethin' 'round here breaks."
I looked at the machine one last time before looking back at Applejack. "So, we need to prune some trees?"
"Yessir!" she replied enthusiastically. "Big Mac's gonna go and grab the tools we need, and we're gonna follow him out to the spot we stopped at yesterday."
"Anything special I should know?"
"Y'all done prunin' before?"
"I have. I kept a buttercup flower in the Crystal Empire."
"Ah! I remember that now. Twilight filled us all in on that."
"I imagine that that kind of pruning and what we're doing are a little bit different though, right?"
"There's a little more to know, but the idea is the same. We gotta make sure that there's only enough blossoms to make a decent yield, and that the fruits can grow to a good size. If we leave too many blossoms, the fruits won't get real big. If we take too many, we won't have enough apples to sell. I can explain it all better once we get out there."
I elected to keep my questions to myself for the moment. A short wait later, and Big Mac returned with a cart containing a few sets of shears and a few ladders.
"Do you ever consider letting any unicorns do the pruning work?" I asked.
"Granny ain't a fan of it," Applejack answered, "but if we can't get anypony else, we'll use 'em."
"Granny Smith doesn't like unicorns?"
"No, she fine with 'em. She just feels that everythin' we do should be done the earth pony way, usin' nothin' but our own hooves."
"How come?"
"She's mighty traditional in that regard. Bein' honest, I am a bit too; sometimes doin' it the old-fashioned way is just better."
"But you're more open to the idea of having unicorns and pegasi pitch in?"
"To an extent. Sure, magic and wings can help us get some things done easier, but I ain't gonna change up the whole process from how we've been doin' it for centuries. Honestly, it's a bit more satisfyin' puttin' in the elbow grease."
I could sympathize with that sentiment. My own experience with with buttercup flower and its many clippings were a testament to that. Putting in the hard work and reaping the rewards was quite satisfying.
"Anywho," Applejack continued, "I think we should be gettin' underway. Daylight's a wastin' as it is."
"Okay," I answered, and the three of began our march into the orchard, while Vigilant took a seat beside the Apple family's matriarch to watch us from afar. |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | Day 3 - Sweet Apple Acres (Part 2) | Our trek through the orchard brought us to a place where there was a somewhat subtle divide between where the work of pruning had been completed and where it still needed to be done. Some of the trees had an abundance of blossoms, while others had been pruned back to what looked to be about half as many. Judging by what I could see, the work looked to be nearly complete, and our pruning efforts would be completed sometime by mid-morning, if we got started right away.
"Alrighty," Applejack said as she grabbed some shears, "I'm gonna give ya a crash course on how to prune these here apple trees. We're gonna start down here at the bottom and work our way up; that's where them ladders are gonna come into play."
She gestured to some wooden ladders leaned against one of the trees. They looked well used, but not in any state of disrepair.
The orange mare continued her explanation. "What ya wanna do is make space between the blossoms so that the nutrients from the soil get distributed evenly among the fruits once the trees get pollinated. If they're bunched too close together, then the fruit won't get big enough, but don't go whole hog and just cut a whole bunch back; we won't get enough fruit that way."
"A good rule for prunin' blossoms is to leave about two hooves of space between 'em. That's enough for spacin' for 'em to grow right once they start makin' fruit. Ya start by pick out a blossom and clippin' some of the others from around it. Take yer time and make sure ya don't clip too much. There ain't much work left to do, but I wanna make sure we all do it right. Watch what I do here."
Applejack approached a tree full of blossoms and picked one bunch towards the end of a branch. Giving it a look over, she then took the shears and started pruning some of the flowers away from that particular bunch. After a minute, she stepped back to examine her work, then turned back to us.
"That's how ya do it. Now, take a good look at what I done and see if ya can't do somethin' similar."
I stepped up to see what she had done. There was a space around the blossoms that, according to my measurements, was about a hoof and a half wide. Keeping the measurement in mind, I turn and gave a nod to Applejack.
The orange pony returned the nod, then passed me a pair of shears to start pruning. I pick a different bunch of blossoms and carefully trim around them, taking my time to make sure I don't leave too much of a gap. Once I'm satisfied, I move on to another bunch and carefully trim around those. After about fifteen minutes, I have most of the lower portion of the tree trimmed back to something that, to me, looks acceptable.
"Right fine job there, Thorax," Applejack gave her approval. "Now we'll set up a ladder and get the top part of the tree done."
The earth pony went over and hooked a ladder with her head and neck, using a front hoof to balance it as she made her way over to me. I offered a hoof and helped her get the ladder in place.
"Normally I'd give ya warnin' to watch how ya move at the top, but since ya got wings, ya can just float back down if ya fall off. Just make sure to keep that consistent gap ya got goin' with the blossoms. Once ya get this tree done, we'll move on to another."
I gave her a nod and carefully made my way up the ladder, keeping a firm grip on the shears with my mouth. Once I'm at the top, I resume clipping away at blossoms, picking bunches and clipping around them carefully to make a reasonable amount of space. After a few minutes, I need to move the ladder, which Applejack is more than happy to help me with, and I continue with the chore. After a half-hour or so, I've finished the pruning on this tree.
Big Macintosh comes over and helps me move the ladder to another tree, where I finish up with that one. It takes me a half-hour to finish that tree, and Applejack comes over to help me move to the next one. I keep a pretty decent pace, but I notice I am a little slower than the two ponies, each of them getting a tree done in twenty minutes. Nonetheless, they don't complain about my pace, as I'm not that much slower than the two, and we're getting done at a decent pace.
Our work goes on for another two hours before we finish the last tree. Applejack and Big Macintosh take a moment to sip some water, while I simply sit underneath one of the trees. The orange pony invites me over for some water, but I politely decline, not feeling particularly parched.
Of course, the pony won't have it.
"Ya gotta keep hydrated while we do work out here. Even if ya don't feel all that thirsty, ya gotta keep water in ya so ya don't wear yourself down and get wore out too soon."
I concede and take a few sips of the water, which I have to admit is quite refreshing.
After passing the ladle that we had been using as a cup back to the mare, Applejack turned to her brother and gave him a nod, then looked back to me.
"We're gonna head back to the barn and get the hive boxes now. Ya might wanna stand back a bit when we get 'em out. Sometimes the bees ain't so keen on us movin' their hives and get a bit onery. Me and Mac got special boots and veils we wear to help protect us from the worst of the stingin', and I don't know how your hide'll hold up to gettin' swarmed by them things."
"How does covering your legs protect you from most of the stinging?"
"I can't speak for other ponies, but my brother an' I can deal with getting poked in our ribs a bit better than our fetlocks or knees."
"I think I should be okay, mostly. My chitin is pretty resilient to damage."
"Well, yer eyes are still a good bit like a pony's, even if they don't quite look the same, so I'd still be careful if I was yah."
I gave her a nod in agreement; always better to be safe than sorry.
Big Mac hooked himself into the cart and we all headed back towards the house and barn. I could see Vigilant and Granny Smith sitting on the front porch observing us as we came back for the hive boxes. Vigilant said something to Granny, who gave him a nod, and the stallion went into the house, observing us from a window a moment later.
Once we got closer to the barn, Big Mac pulled the wagon around to the back, where I could hear a faint buzzing noise that got louder as we neared the rear. Once we turned the corner, I observed four stacks of wooden boxes that were painted white. Going to and from those boxes were hundreds of bees, the yellow and black insects hard at work to convert nectar from flowers into honey that would feed their hive, and presumably whichever ponies were brave enough to tend to them.
Big Mac walked past the hives and to a small wooden shed nearby. Opening the door, he retrieved a few items: three hats with netting going all the way around, three pairs of thick rubber boots, an old burlap sack, and a smoker.
"Don't ferget the matches," Applejack reminded her brother, who rolled his eyes as he retrieved a box of matches from inside the shed. Settting the smoker down, he removed the lid and proceeded to tear a section off of the burlap, stuffing it down into the smoker. Once satisfied, he lit a match and placed it into the smoker, where the burlap caught aflame and began making smoke. Replacing the lid, he gave the smoker a few pumps, which sent a few puffs of white smoke out of the nozzle.
"We're gonna give the hives a few puffs of that smoke," Applejack explained to me. "The hemp in the burlap calms 'em down so they ain't as apt to wanna turn us inta pin cushions."
Big Mac walked up to each hive and placed the nozzle of the smoker at the thin entrance where the bees were going in, giving a few pumps to send some smoke into the hive. Once he was finished, he placed the smoker on the wagon and stood off to the side.
Applejack walked over to the hives and placed a pair of boots on her hooves. "Go ahead and grab a pair of boots and a veil," she told me. "We're gonna carefully pick these hives up and put 'em on the cart. Once we get 'em loaded, we're gonna move through the orchard and drop a hive next to the rock piles we set up as markers. Puttin' a hive by each one ensures our whole orchard gets pollenated right."
I gave the mare a nod as I slid into a pair of boots, finding them to be a little loose, but not something a slight shapeshift couldn't fix. Placing the veil over my head, I cinch the bottom tight to my neck so that the bees can't crawl underneath it and get at my face. Once ready, I watch Applejack as she grabs a hive box near the bottom and lifts it up, carefully walking it over to the cart and placing it on the back.
Just as she moves away, the mare yips and utters what sounds like a swear under her breath.
"Mac, I got one in under mah right front leg."
The stallion nodded at her instructions and grabbed a metal tool from the shed. Applejack lifted her leg and allowed him to examine the area, eventually moving the tool against her skin, examining it once he'd finished.
"Got it," he told her proudly.
"Thanks," she answered back, wincing a bit as she moved her leg. "Dang varmints seem to always get me when I least expect it."
Big Mac set the metal tool down, and my curiosity led to me walking over and looking at it. I quickly deduced it was a plaster knife, repurposed for dealing with the bees. Looking closer, I could see what looked like a little piece of mucus on one egde, but it's constant pulsing told me it was the dislodged stinger continuing to pump out venom.
"C'mon, Thorax," Applejack called out to me. "Can't stop just 'cause I got stung."
I nod and move to pick up a hive box. Carefully, I take it to the cart and set it on the back. Big Mac grabbed one and slid it on after me, and Applejack loading the last one.
"Don't take yer veil or boots off yet," the mare instructed me. "We're gonna go drop these off in the orchard now, and we gotta be careful settin' 'em inta place. The smoke from the burlap will have worn off, and they might be in a stickin' kind of mood, if ya get mah meanin'."
I nodded my understanding and followed behind Big Mac, who hitched himself back up to the cart and began leading us back to the orchard.
"Your brother seems awfully confident doing this," I commented to Applejack.
"Yeah," she agreed. "That colt has some kind of way with these here bees. Ain't once been stung by 'em his whole life."
"Really?"
"Mhm. He seems ta know just how ta handle 'em right so they don't get ornery with him."
"That's good, I suppose. Too bad one of them stuck you back there."
"Like I said before, the beekeeper ponies say ya should get stuck every now and again. Body gets used ta the venom that way. Guess I got my first dose fer the year."
I nodded as we approached our first stop, a small pile of rocks set between two rows of apple trees, with a small rock painted red resting on top. Big Mac stopped beside it and unhitched himself, Applejack approaching the back and ushering me to join her.
"We're gonna take a side and, bein' real careful, lower it down over the pile of rocks. It'll fit over top of 'em just fine."
"Okay," I say as I carefully grip one side of the hive while Applejack takes the other. Working together, we raise it up and off of the cart and begin moving it over the pile of rocks.
"Consarnit!" Applejack seethed as we moved. "Another one of 'em stuck me."
"Should we set it down and-"
Applejack cut me off before I could finish. "Get the hive over the rocks. Then we'll worry about gettin' the stinger outta me."
"Okay," I replied as I kept moving back, watching as I moved over the pile of rocks. Once in place, both Applejack and I lower the hive over the pile of rocks.
Big Mac walked over with the plaster knife in his mouth. "Where'd it get ya?" he asked his sister.
"Base of mah neck on my right side," she told him, and the stallion moved over to that side, lifting her mane out of the way and examining where she told him. Once he saw it, he brushed the knife over that spot a few times until he dislodged the stinger.
"Mhnn!" Applejack hummed after the stinger was removed. "Gonna have to put some ointment on that once we're done."
"Does it hurt?"
Applejack deadpanned at me. "Sugarcube, imagine somepony making the tip of a butter knife hot and holdin' it against ya. Not burn yer hide off, but hotter than ya can reasonably stand."
I kind of got the picture. "Okay. That was a dumb question."
"I'm used to it from doin' this for so many years," she continued. "Ain't comfortable havin' it happen, but I get plenty a sore muscles during harvest time, so I'm used ta a little bit a sore."
"Let's get movin'," Big Mac interrupted. "Gotta get these out before lunchtime."
"We're comin'," Applejack answered, ushering me to follow.
We didn't say anything as we approached the next spot. Once there, Applejack and I got the next hive off and in place, this time managing to avoid the orange pony being stung by a member of the hive. The next stop resulted in the mare getting a jab in the left side of her neck, followed by one in the flanks. I happened to watch a third time happen on her back, watching the little bee wind up and jam its abdomen into her back, earning an angry grunt from the mare.
"Dagnabit!" she exclaimed. "Got another one, Mac!"
The red stallion huffed as he removed that stinger. Once it was out, he spat the knife on the cart and turned to his sister.
"Might wanna wash off down at the pond," he suggested to her. "Them pheremones are gonna get the rest of 'em riled up."
"We'll be fine. Let's get the last box out and head back ta the house. I wanna get washed off and put some ointment on these stings."
Big Mac sighed. "Alright. C'mon Thorax."
I followed behind the two ponies to the last spot, sympathizing with Big Mac and having to deal with his stubborn sibling; it reminded me of my relationship with Pharynx in a way.
We got the last hive off the cart and in place, with Applejack getting two jabs in her left side as a consequence. Mac was quick with the knife, dislodging the stingers and hitching back up to the cart.
"Finally done," Applejack sighed as she rubbed gingerly at the site of her most recent stings. "'Bout a half dozen or so jabs. That's better than last year."
"Could've been worse," I respond. "Could've dropped a hive and got swarmed."
"Oh, don't even talk any nonsense like that," she warned me. "Iffin that happened, I doubt any one of us could run fast enough to escape the hive's ire."
"Yeah, that wouldn't end well for any of us."
"No siree."
Big Mac coughed to get our attention, gesturing in the direction of the house and barn. Both Applejack and I gave a nod, falling into step behind him, commenting on different things we observed as we walked. Once we got back to the barn, Applejack opened the door and let Big Mac walk inside.
"Thanks a bunch fer helpin' us out today," the orange pony said to me.
"It's not a problem. I was glad to learn about some of the stuff you have to do to get the trees ready for growing apples."
"Aw, shucks, this ain't even the half of it. Gotta keep up with weeds during the summer, sprayin' repellents ta keep the bugs from chewin' holes in the fruit, and usin' that good ol' earth pony magic ta get these apples big an' ripe fer harvest time, then there's gatherin' up all the leaves and compostin' 'em so we got plenty a nutrient-rich material for the trees to get nourished from-"
"OW!"
Both of us look inside the barn to see Big Mac come limpin' out and shaking his hoof.
"Get the knife!" he said in a panic. "One of 'em finally got me in the hoof!"
Applejack grabbed the plaster knife and told Big Mac to turn his hoof over. Doing so, we saw the remains of a honey bee, and a pulsing stinger that created a red bump on the stallion's frog. Quickly, Applejack scraped the knife against his hoof, dislodging the stinger and preventing it from further envenoming her brother.
"Well, guess the streak of not gettin' stung is finally over, huh Mac?" the mare teased her brother. ...
Big Mac didn't say anything. Instead, he began to wheeze like he was out of breath.
"Uh, Mac?"
"Is that spot supposed to be that big?" I pointed out, the red spot on his frog getting rather large compared to the places where Applejack had been stung.
"C-Can't-HUH!-B-Br-Breathe!" the stallion forced out, continuing to have trouble getting air.
"Whoa nelly!" Applejack responded, a note of panic beginning to set in to both her voice and emotions.
"What's wrong?" I ask her, panic starting to enter into my emotions as well.
"STAND CLEAR!" a familiar voice cried out.
Applejack and I both turn to see Vigilant running straight at us, and in his mouth was a syringe with some kind of liquid inside it. The stallion ran straight to Big Mac and smacks his head against the stallion, jabbing the needle into his flanks, then smacking his hoof against the plunger to drive whatever the medicine inside it into the stallion.
For a few moments, nothing seemed to happen, but then, Big Mac started to breath easier, beginning to calm down a little. There was still a wheezing sound in his voice, however.
"Let's get him on that cart, now," Vigilant told us. "He needs to get to the hospital."
"What was that?" Applejack asked, a bit bewildered by the stallion's quick actions.
"Epinephrine," he replied. "Your brother most likely has an undiagnosed allergy to bee venom."
"Now how in the hay does that happen? Ain't nopony in our whole family got an allergy to gettin' stuck by bees!"
"It happens sometimes. Ponies just develop an allergy. Has he ever been stung before?"
Applejack looked a bit sheepish. "...Well, no."
"Most ponies never realize they're allergic until they actually get stung the first time," Vigilant pointed out, "but that doesn't matter. Right now, we gotta get him to the hospital. That shot'll help him, but he needs to be seen by a doctor as soon as possible."
"He's right," I agreed. "We need to get your brother there as quick as we can."
Applejack looked at her brother, then back to Vigilant and I with a nod. "I'm pullin' the cart. You two follow behind me!"
We ended up spending the next few hours at the hospital as Big Mac was examined. The red stallion did indeed have a severe allergy to being stung by bees, and had been sent home by a pony named Nurse Redheart with information about his newly discovered affliction.
In short, he was to make his best effort to avoid situations where bees could be present, so as to reduce his chances of being stung again. As for the beekeeping, he was advised to wear a full body anti-sting suit when doing the work with the hive boxes.
In addition to those bits of advice, Big Mac was also sent home with a syringe and several disposable needles, as well as a special container to dispose of the needles in. The syringe would be used for his new emergency doses of epinephrine, a medicine that would help counteract the immediate effects of an allergic reaction, and give him enough time to seek out medical help from the hospital or nearest doctor, whichever was appropriate for the situation. The last thing he received was an insulated satchel to wear around his neck and keep his emergency shot in, so it would be available to be administered quickly.
Strangely, I noticed that it looked remarkably similar to a piece of luggage that Vigilant kept with him at all times, so I asked the stallion about it after we had left the farm.
"I actually am allergic," he confessed to me. "It's pretty much why I have my apiphobia."
I can't say I blame him for that; I wouldn't be too keen on hanging around a creature that could potentially kill me if I was bit or stung by it.
"Well, it's a good thing that you were there and had a shot of that stuff. Big Mac might not have made it to the hospital if you hadn't been there to give him that shot."
"He might have made it, but with how his sister reacted, there was a chance he wouldn't. I'm just glad I could think quick on my hooves."
"I'm sure Applejack is in your debt for what you did for her brother."
Realizing what I said, I crack a smile at the stallion. "In fact, I bet there's a warm apple pie in your future."
Vigilant looked at me, but all I could notice in that moment was the little bit of drool coming out of his muzzle. Clearly, he was hoping for such a reward as well. |
Thorax's Visit to Ponyville | Day 3 - Other World (Part 1) | Upon returning to the castle, Twilight and Spike had both invited me to have dinner with them. It was a quiche dish made with heirloom tomatoes, potatoes, red and green peppers, spinach leaves and red onions. Mine, of course, had been given some of the love solution to give it some nutritional value to me. The dish was quite tasty, on both counts.
Afterwards, I was invited to spend some time in the castle's large library. Walls lined with books on nearly any subject you could imagine, from spell craft to cooking to various hobbies. Besides the books, Starlight had brought a kite into the library so that she could work on it. It was a diamond shape with a tail that had about five little bowtie-like decorations on it.
"So, Thorax," Twilight addressed me as she found a seat, "what kind of books do you like to read?"
"Umm..."
A good question to ask in a library, and I had to think on it for a moment. What did I like to read?
"I'm... not sure. Maybe I could look around for a bit and see what catches my eye?"
Twilight smiled and nodded. "Of course. Go ahead and check out the whole library. No book is off-limits in here; I keep all the really sensitive stuff in a different part of the castle."
"Uh... okay."
The princess gave me a nod and used her magic to summon a book to herself, along with a stack of parchment, ink pot, and several quills. Starlight set to work on her kite, a set of paints and a brush telling me she was intending to decorate it in unique patterns.
"I know Twilight said about all the books in here," Spike said, catching my attention, "but you don't have to look through them if you don't want to. In fact..."
Spike reached under a table and produced an old milk crate. Inside it were several small books, each one having a very detailed cover that was emblazoned with titles such as "Power Ponies" and "Mysterious Mare Do Well". Pretty quickly, I figured out that he had intended to share his comic book collection with me; a fact confirmed by the large smile and wave of love washing over me.
"We could go through these and you could tell me which one is your favorite."
His smile was infectious, and I could literally taste the glee in his voice. I glanced over them for a few moments before I relented.
"I suppose I could skim over a few and see if any catch my interest."
The joy in the dragon boiled over as he pushed the crate in my direction. Using my magic, I levitated out a few books and placed them on the table nearest me. Sitting down, I brought one of the Power Ponies comics in front of me and began looking through it. After a few pages, I realized that I was reading the story from somewhere in the middle, as some of the things being discussed were alluding to earlier issues. Not wanting to spoil anything for myself, I closed the comic and set it aside, opting to try another one.
Barely an hour passed when I gave up on the comics and opted for a book instead. I didn't want to lie to Spike, so I told him I wasn't a big fan of the comic books, but did like the character of The Mysterious Mare Do Well. Hearing that, the little drake chuckled.
"Yeah, there's a few ponies that like her comics, but did you know she was actually a real pony once?"
...what?
"A while back, Rainbow Dash started getting a hero complex and was rushing around trying to save the day all the time, and it started going to her head, so somepony came up with the Mare Do Well costume and started saving the day and fighting crime here in Ponyville."
"Wow," was all that I could say. "So what happened to her?"
"Rainbow Dash forced her to unmask herself."
"And who was she?"
"Pinkie Pie."
"Pinkie?!"
Spike nodded. "And she wasn't the only Mare Do Well."
"Who were the others?"
"I'll give you a hint - one of them is muzzle deep in a book right now."
I was confused upon hearing that, and then realization hit me as I looked over to see Twilight, muzzle buried inside a book and a quill working so fast that I was certain I saw smoke coming from the tip.
"Twilight?!"
"Yep, and it wasn't just her and Pinkie either. All the girls helped out by taking turns as Mare Do Well. In fact, Rarity was the only one who didn't go out and do heroic stuff, but she was busy making costumes for the other girls, so she did her part in her own way."
"And they did all that to call out Rainbow Dash on her boastfulness?"
"Nothing else seemed to be working, so they thought that creating that identity and making it seem like she was a better hero than Rainbow would humble her. Of course, Rainbow took it as a challenge, which led to the unmasking and all of them admitting what they'd done and why. After that, she got the message and eased off on always being a hero. Now she only does it when it's really needed, like if something threatened all of Equestria."
That was probably for the better; being a hero all the time would probably be very stressful. I was about to add another comment when I heard a strange sound.
"Oh! The journal!"
Twilight quite literally dropped what she was doing and turned her attention to another book, which appeared to be glowing with magic that was neither the princess's magic or Starlight's. As the princess brought it to herself and opened it, I noticed that the cover of the aforementioned journal had a unique marking on it - a sun design, with the main body of the sun resembling a yin and yang of red and yellow, its corona also half red and half yellow.
Grabbing a second quill, Twilight set to work writing something inside this new book.
"What are you writing?" I asked her.
Twilight paused her writing to look up at me.
"I have a friend that doesn't live in Ponyville," she explained. "In fact, she doesn't even live in Equestria, or even on the whole of Equus."
Unironically, I went bug-eyed at this remark.
"Where does she live?"
The alicorn then went on to explain a crazy adventure she had that involved a unicorn with a cutie mark the same as what was on the journal in front of her, and how this unicorn wanted to steal Twilight's crown and use it to take over something called a high school. Following her through a magic mirror portal, Twilight found herself in a strange new world, and as a strange, new, bipedal creature called a human.
Spike chuckled and chimed in with his two bits, telling me that he went through the portal as well, but ended up as a dog instead of a human. My mind immediately tried to picture what my first friend looked like as a dog. Maybe something with floppy ears?
Anyway, Twilight went on to tell me how this unicorn, named Sunset Shimmer, was once a student of Princess Celestia, but wanted to become a princess of Equestria and was refused by said princess. In a fit of anger, she ran away through the mirror portal and was not seen again until a few years ago, when she stole Twilight's crown and intended to use it in a rigged election to become "Queen of the Fall Formal", whatever that was.
Well, to wrap up a long story, Twilight told me that she met human versions of all her friends on the other side of the mirror portal and they helped her to reclaim her crown, showing Sunset the error of her ways and establishing the magic journal as a way to keep in touch.
"That other world sounds really interesting," I said as I reflected on all that I was told. "I bet it would be really neat to visit."
Upon saying this, I get a sudden cold chill running up my spine. I then notice Twilight, whose expression went from a small, somewhat neutral smile, to an ear to ear grin with all her teeth showing.
"That's a FANTASTIC idea!" she exclaimed as she then dipped the quill in ink and began frantically writing inside the journal.
"Um, what are you doing?"
"I'm telling Sunset that you want to come and see the human world!"
...what?!
"Twilight, I said-"
"I know, Thorax," she cut me off, "but this would be a perfect idea to explore! What would happen if a changeling went through the mirror portal? Would it turn you into a human? Some other animal? Would you stay the same and retain your transformation magic? There's so many unknowns, and unless another changeling comes forward genuinely wanting to give friendship a chance, you're the best bet on us answering any of those questions!"
"I'm... not sure about this, Twilight. What happens if something happens to me? I mean, some of the stuff you talked about over there seemed kind of dangerous, like those auto thingies."
"It's called an automobile, or just a car, and yeah, they can be dangerous, but they develop a whole road system with specific rules to help avoid as much danger as possible. Believe me, Thorax, it's not nearly as dangerous in that other world as it sounds."
"I'm still not sure. You said there was a chance that I might stay in my changeling form if I crossed over to that world, right? What if that did happen, and one of those humans saw me?"
This statement did give Twilight pause. "You do have a point, but being able to test whether or not your form will change or stay the same is the safest it can possibly be right now."
"How can you know that?"
"Because day and night are inverse between our worlds."
"Inverse?"
"When it's night over here, it's day over there. So that means that we have a couple of hours of night that we can use to check if you going through the mirror portal will cause you to change, or if you'll stay the same. It's the safest time to do it."
This whole idea still didn't sit well with me. I looked at Spike, who nodded at me, telling me to trust Twilight's plan. I then looked over at Starlight, who paused her kite-decorating to listen in on the conversation.
"What do you think?" I asked her.
"Well, there is a risk, like you said, but like Twilight said, this would be the best time to test what would happen. I mean, if you stay as a changeling and don't feel safe, you can just pop back over here before anyone sees you. I don't think there would be a problem."
"But what if there is somepony around?"
"Someone," Twilight interjected, "and the only person who would be there would be Sunset, and perhaps a few of our friends over in the human world."
"But what if one of them seeing me would cause a panic?"
"It won't; Sunset has spoken to all of them about everything in Equestria, including some of the races that aren't exactly as friendly as ponies, or at least, ponies most of the time. They know how dangerous changelings can be, but I've also told them about you, and what kind of individual you are, so if we came over and vouched for you, there shouldn't be a problem."
Trying to come up with any reason not to go through with this and finding none, I look around the room again, finding all three heads nodding at me in a form of encouragement. Not wanting to disappoint, I let out a sigh of defeat.
"Okay, let's go see this mirror portal thing."
The four of us, plus Vigilant, left the library and went down a few hallways, ending up at a door that, if I remembered correctly, was meant for storage. Upon entering, we saw all the things you would typically see in a storage room: stacks of boxes, racks of clothing, and various odds and ends. There was a space straight through the middle of the room, and we went straight through to the back, where another door awaited us.
"We keep a special lock on this door," Twilight explained as she used a spell on the doorknob, which made a click as the mechanism holding it shut released. She pulled it open and went through, ushering us to follow close behind her. We did so, and she shut the door after me, recasting the locking spell and turning back to face all of us.
"Well, here it is," she said while pointing her hoof.
Following her hoof, I was directed to a mirror with several wires coming out of it at different locations, and a frame decorated in horseshoes. Stepping forward, I examined the surface, taking notice of a slight rippling effect that one wouldn't notice if they were more than a foot or so away.
"According to the journal entry I got back from Sunset," Twilight continued, "she'll be waiting on the other side of the portal for us, and she said not to take too long; she saw some joggers and is afraid that they might loop back around sometime soon."
"Joggers?" I questioned.
"It's an exercise that humans do to help maintain their body weight. In their world, it's a lot easier to get out of shape, so they're often encouraged to perform different physical activities to keep from becoming overweight. If they do get too much fat on them, it can lead to some health issues, and more than a few of those can be, well, fatal."
"Being fat can kill you?"
"Yeah, but not really by just being fat. Your body has to work harder to do simple things like pump blood through your veins, so things like blood pressure can be elevated, and more weight on the body to carry around puts more strain on joints, and can lead to a human requiring medical intervention to alleviate joint pain caused by the excess weight."
"So being fat isn't a good thing. Gotcha."
"Really, being overweight is seen as a sign of an unhealthy lifestyle. Eating foods that have little to no nutritional value and living what's called a sedentary lifestyle, which is basically sitting around and doing nothing a lot, can cause a human to get fat pretty quickly, and the sitting around can cause muscles to shrink and not be as effect-"
"I think we're getting a bit off topic here, Twilight," Starlight chimed in, adding a hoof roll for emphasis.
"You're right. Anyway, jogging is an activity that is done to help humans stay healthy, and most joggers will start from one location and go in a loop back to their starting point, and will sometimes go back on the same route but in the opposite direction, so we can't waste anymore time than we have already."
Moving past me, she steps up to the portal and pauses, turning and giving me a reassuring smile before she walks straight into the mirror, the portal glowing bright and shimmering as she does so.
"Just keep moving and don't stop," Starlight advised as she went through the portal as well.
"See ya on the other side, buddy!" Spike called to me as he ran through behind Starlight.
Now alone with Vigilant, I looked at the portal and thought over my options. I could stay here alone, or I could join the others on the other side. Unsure, I looked to my guard.
"What should I do?"
Vigilant shrugged. "You can do whatever, but whatever you choose, I gotta go along with you, but as a word of caution, it's best not to keep a princess waiting."
Giving a nod and having made my choice, I approached the portal, closed my eyes, and stepped through.
> Day 3 - Other World (Part 2)
My eyes were assaulted with a rainbow of lights, and I felt like I was being stretched into a rope a pulled through a crazy straw. Whatever magic was responsible for transporting me to this other dimension was nothing like any I'd ever felt before, and it certainly didn't feel anything like the magic used for a changeling disguise!
The sensation eventually fizzled out, and suddenly, it was dark. I impacted the ground; not hard, but with a distinct THUD!
"Ow."
"Huh, wasn't expecting that."
That voice was one I'd never heard before, and I immediately looked over to see who it belonged to.
Standing a few feet from me was a bipedal female, or at least I had made that assumption based on her voice. Her species reminded me of apes, but she lacked the majority of the hair, the only kind I saw present being that on her head, which was grown quite long and styled.
She had red and yellow hair, cyan eyes, and was wearing a leather vest over an orange shirt with a red and yellow sun, it's center comprised of a red and yellow yin-yang symbol. She had a purple skirt with a black studded belt holding it in place. Her feet were in some kind of foot covering that was also studded. In fact, the lapels of her vest were covered in studs.
If I had to guess, this creature in front of me was Sunset Shimmer.
"It looks like the portal made you a human too," I heard Twilight say, "so I guess we don't need to rush you off the street right this second."
"Huh?"
My attention was turned in the direction of Twilight's voice. She too was a human, though her skin and mane still matched her pony form. She was wearing a blue shirt and purple skirt, the side of which was emblazoned with her cutie mark. She had strange black coverings on her feet, and leg warmers that stretched up to her knees.
I also took notice to the lack of a tail, but that could be a common trait of these humans.
"Ya done ogling Princess Twilight, bug boy?" the other girl asked me in a teasing tone.
Shaking my head, I elected to stand up and examine my new form.
I had green skin on my hands, and my arms were covered in what looked like a leather jacket. The arms had three teal stripes just above the elbows. I had on a teal shirt underneath the jacket, and was wearing a pair of dark grey trousers. My feet had coverings similar to the girls, but were different. They had white toes, a orange bottom with a diamond pattern, the sides at the bottom had a white stripe with a smaller teal stripe in the center. The tops were black, with teal stitching going around metal eyelets, a piece of thick flat string running through them, apparently holding them to my feet.
Though I couldn't see them, it felt like there were additional coverings over my feet. In fact, it felt like there was something around around my pelvis.
"So we know that anything coming through the portal turns into a human," the girl I assumed was Sunset observed, "with the exception of Spike, of course. Do you feel any of that hunger the changelings are known for?"
I considered what she asked me, and I realized that I didn't, not even a little peckish.
"No, I don't! It feels amazing!"
Sunset smiled. "Nice to know. How about we get inside somewhere? I don't much care to hang out around the school when it isn't in session, and it's almost daybreak too."
I didn't know what she was talking about, so I just nodded and got up to my feet.
"You don't have any problem moving?" Sunset asked me.
"No, I don't. Changelings can reorient themselves pretty easily to moving around in a new form. It's kind of necessary for us."
"Fascinating," Twilight responded as she took a notebook and wrote down what I'd just said.
"So, Twilight told me you left the changelings and went to live in the Crystal Empire. That must've been exciting, huh?"
I chuckled. "You don't know the half of it."
I then gave Sunset a quick recap of my life, from being born different, to Canterlot, to being drawn to the Crystal Empire because of all the love from Princess Flurry Heart's crystalling. Once I'd finished up with meeting Spike and being accepted, Sunset offered me a smirk.
"I'm amazed you didn't get blasted into pieces by somepony," she commented. "Guess Spike did a real good job convincing them not to."
"Honestly, even though we were doing that in order to protect Flurry from what we perceived to be a threat, it was still unfair of us to jump to conclusions about Thorax," Twilight chimed in. "If it had been a messenger with a genuine offer of peace and we acted that way towards them, then it could've started a war that would've ended badly for both sides."
"That's water under the bridge now. You all accept me now, and I couldn't ask for anything more than that."
Twilight and Sunset both looked at me with a smile and nodded.
A realization dawned on me and I looked down at Spike, who was in his canine form.
"I have you to thank for everything most of all, Spike. I don't know how I could ever make it up to you for all you did."
Spike shook his head at me. "Don't go thinking like that. Real friendship knows no debts, right?"
I chuckled and nodded. "Good point."
Just then, we heard a grumbling sound from behind us. We turned to see Sunset with her hand over her midsection, where I guessed her stomach was located.
"You feeling okay?" Twilight asked her.
"Yeah, just..."
She had a sheepish look on her face.
"I just grabbed a piece of toast before I came out here and it apparently wasn't enough."
"Well, it is morning, so why don't we all catch some breakfast at the diner?"
Sunset nodded her agreement, but then frowned. "The diner won't let Spike in, though?"
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because dogs are pets, and pets aren't allowed in places like diners," Spike answered, sound a bit offended by the observation.
Twilight, however, was smirking. "I might have a way to deal with that. Sunset, can I borrow your geode?"
"Sure," Sunset answered, reaching around her neck and unfastening a necklace I hadn't noticed before. It was an orange color, and it's center was nearly see-through, though it was also orange, and off center to the right was the same sun symbol that was on her shirt.
Twilight had told me that Sunset was actually a pony from Equestria, so perhaps that sun symbol was her cutie mark?
Sunset handed the necklace to Twilight, who thanked her as she took it. Looking at Spike, she held out the necklace and closed her eyes.
At first, nothing happened, but then, the necklace began to glow. At the same time, Spike also started to glow, and rise up into the air.
"Um, Twilight," Sunset interrupted, "Shouldn't we be doing this somewhere more private?"
Twilight gasped and lost her concentration, the glow from the necklace and Spike fading quickly, and Spike falling back down to the ground.
"Ow," he said as he got back on his paws. "Why couldn't the portal make me a cat?"
"Sorry, Spike," Twilight apologized. "I should've thought not to just cast magic out in full view of the humans in this world."
Once we made sure Spike was okay, we moved to an alleyway out of view of most people. There, Twilight conducted the spell she had tried before. Again, the necklace glowed, as did Spike, but this time, it became so intense that is was actually blinding.
When the light died down, I chanced a look at where Spike was before.
In place of the dog was a smaller human, presumably male due to lack of features I noticed on Twilight and Sunset. I realized after a moment it was really Spike, as his head now sported green hair, his skin had a purplish hue similar to the scales on his stomach as a dragon, and he wore clothes similar to mine, though matching his purple and green colors as a dragon.
Interestingly, his shirt had a green flame on his left side; I guess it was an approximation of a dragon's cutie mark, if they could get such a thing.
"Wow!" Spike exclaimed as he examined his new human form. "This is wonderful! Thanks, Twilight!"
Twilight chuckled. "No problem, Spike. Now, how about we go get a bite to eat?"
"Sounds good to me," Sunset chimed in, leading us out of the alley and onward towards the diner. |
Flurry Heart and The Original One | pre | Arceus faced down towards his child. "Absol in particular is what is known as a Dark-type. It is in tune with the aspects of the universe that those with a will to survive would rather repress, evil aspects- the dark side and cruelty of Nature." He faced out towards the darkened Crystal Empire. "Such as the evil that plagues your kingdom now.
Hearing such an explanation suddenly made Flurry weary of Absol. "Is that.....good?"
"Do not presume that means that Absol is evil itself. Even I cannot escape the dark side of the universe, so to understand it rather than fear or succumb to like many otherwise would is truly a strength to bear." Arceus said. "In Absol's case, they have the ability to foresee coming catastrophes, and they warn those that would be affected by appearing to them."
Flurry gasped upon hearing. "It appeared at my balcony just last night before Sombra awakened!"
Arceus looked down at Absol. "Did you now?" Absol nodded. He then looked back at Flurry. "Is this the first time one has appeared to you?"
"Yes! We had no idea such beings even existed! We've had plenty of disasters that we were able to take care of, but why would it appear now?" Flurry said.
"Perhaps you just answered your own question." Arceus said. "Absol will not appear before those who will not be left helpless to stop whatever disaster may come to pass, but it is quite clear that your situation now is most dire."
It was then that Flurry realized why Absol had brought her here. She gulped before speaking. "Mr. Arceus, I-I know it may not be my place to ask, but.....will you help me defeat Sombra?"
Absol perked up and faced his god as if to plead. Said god stared at her for a moment before speaking again. "Princess Flurry Heart, I do not believe I finished my origin tale." He said. "I mentioned before that humans were a species of great complexity- I meant that on an intraspecies level. In the latter years of their existence, wars erupting between them became almost a daily occurrence, and my children were often caught in their crossfire, sometimes literally. They had forgotten what it meant to live, to share this world and embrace its beauty, and they became more concerned with controlling it and even Nature itself.....the fools. Each day, more of my children became victims of their violence as did the planet itself. It would have cruel to simply exterminate them, so I withdrew my children from them and let them drive themselves to extinction. The world had become desolate, and I was forced to fall into a deep slumber along with the titans I had created. However I planted the Pixie Plate, the most frivolous aspect of Nature in my control in hopes that something, anything would come of it, and that my plate would return to me once the world had been born anew."
"That's.....That's terrible...." Flurry's heart sank upon hearing the tragic ending.
"So I must ask you one simple question, and if I am satisfied with your answer, then I will lend you my aid." Arceus said. "And I must trust that you will speak for the whole of your kingdom's populace as any ruler ought to."
Flurry's breaths suddenly became heavy. She knew that Arceus had no real obligation to help her or Equestria, but she was desperate and wanted all the help she could get now that Sombra's power had grown too much. Plus, looking into his eyes, she knew that Arceus was willing to do the right thing. She mustered some confidence and nodded. "Ok!"
"Very well..." Arceus said. "My question to you is this: What sort of world do you envision?"
Flurry mulled over his question, knowing that Equestria's fate was riding her answer. She thought back to her life and all the accomplishments she had performed. What did they all truly mean? Why did she do it all? Was it all just for the sense of accomplishment, or did she really adhere to her beliefs? She then thought about what her world was like beforehand. Would it have been better that way with everyone largely separated? Would their unity today do more harm than good?.....No. If she was truly doing so much harm, then her actions wouldn't have so celebrated, and she suddenly knew why.
"The world I envision is as simple as this, Arceus: You shared all of your essence, your wisdom with everything around you because you thought it could hold true beauty in all sense of the word. I've always thought the same for this world alone, so I did everything I could to bring everyone together when there would otherwise be unbuilt walls between us, walls that others were too afraid to break down, but I knew those walls prevented this world from growing further than it had before. I want to see a world where no one can be afraid of expressing their own beauty while accepting others and balancing each other's out if need be. I believe that a balanced world is a truly healthy one."
Flurry looked at Arceus with confidence, but deep down, she was incredibly anxious. Arceus had been completely expressionless this whole time, and the suspense was killing her. "I see...." He finally broke the silence. His tone remained as neutral as his expression, making the tension even more gut-wrenching. "And you hold these values of friendship that you preach close to your heart?"
Flurry nodded. "Friendship is practically the very basis of our culture."
"So you say..." Arceus said. He took another glance out at the dark cloud that had now completely shrouded the empire, and for a moment, Flurry could swear she could detect a hint of pity in his eyes. He then floated his Pixie Plate towards her. "I will allow you to make use of my Pixie Plate if you would so desire, so long as you return it to me."
Flurry shook her head and gently pushed it away. "No thank you, Arceus. This plate is a piece of you that you finally got back. I couldn't take it from you again in good conscience."
"Hmm..." Arceus returned the Pixie Plate to its orbit around his torso. "I now see why your subjects revere you so. Very well. I will gladly help purge this 'King Sombra' of yours and the darkness that he would use to infect the world."
"<GASP!> You will!?" Flurry asked. When Arceus nodded, she was about as overjoyed as a high school filly who had just been asked to prom by her crush.
Arceus then leaned his head down and looked at her more closely. "Hmm?" He seemed to be eyeing her necklace. "Well now! How did I not notice that right away?"
"Huh? You mean my necklace? I got this as a coronation present today." Flurry said.
"Did you? Well, that jewel that adorns it holds more significance than you may realize." Arceus said.
"Oh? Does it belong to you too?" Flurry asked.
Arceus shook his head. "No. It is what is referred to as a Key Stone."
"Key Stone?" Flurry asked as she looked at her present. "What does it unlock?"
"Power, Princess of Balance. Power that can only be attained by a strong bond between trainer and Pokemon." Arceus answered. "Although, it seems that this one has lost its luster over the many centuries it must have been buried and unused. Let me mend that." The emeralds on Arceus's pinwheel started glowing, and they shot little beams of light towards Flurry's jewel, which seemed to awaken it. Flurry looked it at in amazement as its grey hue had become something of a beautiful rainbow luster, and the DNA-like pattern in it was much more defined as it had turned black.
"Wow...." Flurry cooed. "But....there aren't any Pokemon trainers in Equestria, Arceus, least of all me."
"I beg to differ." Arceus said as he looked down at Absol, who was walking up to Flurry. "You seem to have formed a bond with this Absol quite nicely. While you are indeed not necessarily its trainer, it has nevertheless put its trust in you." His emerald glowed again, but this time, they created a silver necklace around Absol that also had a pendant. While it was similar to Flurry's Key Stone, Absol's jewel was a marble that had the color scheme of its body within its swirly pattern.
"Is that a Key Stone too?" Flurry asked.
"No. It is a Mega Stone, specifically an Absolite. Absol is one of few Pokemon that can Mega Evolve during a battle. When this happens, its power drastically increases, and it dissipates when all has become calm." Arceus explained.
Flurry eyed her friend in awe, imagining what Absol would be able to do with whatever this 'Mega Evolution' was supposed to do to it. "Wow... Really?"
"However!" Arceus said sternly, startling Flurry. "Mega Evolution puts quite a strain on my children, and is often very painful for them. I remember a few instances where it was even fatal, so you must solemnly swear that you will use it as an absolute last resort and nothing else."
His suddenly shift in tone was a little frightening, but Flurry could tell that Arceus was being a watchful father to Absol, as he should have been. "I swear on my honor as the Princes of Balance."
"Good." Arceus's tone was back to being neutral. "Then I see no time like the present to awaken forth some ancient reinforcements." Arceus rose back up into the sky as his golden pinwheel began to shine brighter than Celestia's sun. When he reached the clouds he emerged from, he unleashed a massive pulse of light that raced across the land. |
Flurry Heart and The Original One | The Titans Awaken | Within the tundra of the Frozen North, the frozen being that Flurry happened upon sensed the call of its master, and its yellow eyes glowed a piercing light that alone was able to crack the ice imprisoning it. Seconds later the iceberg was obliterated, and the ice dragon let out a haunting but powerful roar upon being freed. Sensing its call to arms, it broke into a sprint towards the shadow cloud.
*****
Far in the small garden kingdom of Japon where the legendary Mistmane once lived, priestesses at the top of a sacred tower carried out their duties under the watch of a stone statue of a majestic bird that towered over them. Nopony knew how it got there or even who built it, but it was loved and seen as a symbol of peace and harmony by the explorers who happened upon it, and it became the founding point of their culture and kingdom.
However, news of Sombra's return quickly reached even them, and those who had time to pray did so fervently. Their head priestess led their prayer around ceremonial torches that had been lit. "As we gather here in this hour of darkness, we hold our hearts up in great hope that the warriors we send to the Crystal Empire will be protected and their blades guided. May Sombra's darkness be forever purged this time and peace be returned to Equestria. Please! Whatever high power may hear our plight, answer us!!"
She got her wish when an inexplicable wave of light surged across the sky, startling everypony and leaving them to wonder what was happening. What startled them even more was that the giant bird statue suddenly began cracking, light pouring out of the cracks more and more and it came closer to crumbling. The fire from the torches even floated towards it began violently swirling around it. "Wha.... What's happening!?" one of the younger priestesses said.
Eventually, the stone statue exploded into countless pieces, prompting the priestesses to cover their eyes. When they opened them again and looked at what remained of their sacred statue, they were met with a sight both awe-inspiring and terrifying. The statue turned out to be a husk for an actual, humongous red bird with a golden crown resembling monkey tails. It spread its wings, revealing the rainbow and golden color scheme of its feathers. "<CAAAAAAAAWWWWW!!!!!>" It's caw was majestic and caused waves of fire to surge from it, but surprisingly, nothing was burned; the priestesses didn't even feel much heat.
They looked up at it, paralyzed in fear while simultaneously gazing in awe, and the rainbow phoenix looked back down at them, but it was strangely calm as it gazed back at them. It then lowered its head to the head priestess, causing the elderly mare to shiver in terror. Rather than being devoured by the fiery avian, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it gently nuzzled her with its beak while lightly cooing, as if to thank her and her disciples for tending to it for all the time it had been in apparent slumber. Its touch felt divine, as if it had been some sort of god watching over their kingdom this whole time and they were never the wiser. The head priestesses found herself giggling in delight at the divine birds gesture, and they all calmed down. The bird then lifted its head away and spread its wings, ready to take flight. It let out another powerful caw before taking flight and leaving its former caretakers to see it off happily.
*****
"COME ON!! SOMBRA'S GONE HAYWIRE, AND HE'S NOT PLANNING ON STOPPING!!" Garble had flown hurriedly from the Crystal Empire at Ember's command to get reinforcements from the Dragon Lands. A horde of other dragons led by Former Dragon Lord Torch followed him as they soared through the air at mach speed over the Celestial Sea.
"SAY NO MORE, BOY!!" Torch exclaimed, his massive form greatly dwarfing the other dragons. All of a suddenly a wave of light surged across the sky far above them. "WHOA!!" He and the other dragons were startled at the sudden phenomenon, but seeing as nothing else came of it, they resumed their course towards the empire without further delay.
"Huh...weird." Garble muttered. However, a few minutes into their flight, they suddenly heard something from the ocean below them. It sounded almost like....a song.
"Wha in blazes?" Torch said. The song repeated a couple of times as the dragons slowed down a little to listen for whatever might be making the sound.
One of the other dragons suddenly noticed something in the water. "WHOA! WHAT'S THAT!?" she exclaimed. Everyone followed her gaze to see a gigantic shadow just below the surface of the water that was following them at their speed. It seemed to know that its presence had been detected, and it dove quickly. A moment later, a huge waterspout suddenly erupted from the ocean. "YAAAHHHH!!!" They all banked away from it as they witnesses the shadow swim up its vortex.
The waterspout violently burst, revealing the shadow's true form. It was a bizarre, monstrous being that wasn't quite as big as torch, but its sheer power could be felt all the way to where the dragons were. It was a white being that could be described a majestic hybrid of a whale and a dragon with hand-like wings and a sky blue underbelly. It had a few navy blue scales that jutted out from it's back and around its eyes. It let out a whale-like roar that caused torrential whirlwinds to suddenly blow all around. It was unimaginably powerful. "HOLY SMOKES!!" Torch exclaimed, not in all of his years ever seeing anything like this being. It silently acknowledged its draconic peers without so much as flinching and took off at terminal velocity towards the Crystal Empire.
*****
On the rocky shores of the unnamed village once home to Rockhoof, the descendants of the Mighty Helm were arming themselves and getting ready to depart for the empire to lend their aid. Their families gathered food for them to take for the dangerous mission ahead, knowing that Sombra would put up a strong resistance.
"Let us make haste, everypony! The princesses will be waiting for us!" The battalion's leader ordered. They all shouted affirmations at him. Suddenly, an unexpected wave of light surged across the sky. "Huh?" the leader said. "Is everypony alright?" Nopony was harmed, but certainly frazzled by the sudden anomaly.
As if to make matters more terrifying, the volcano erupted with incredible magnitude minutes later, sending the entire town into a mass hysteria. However, the lava flow seemed oddly.....controlled, as if some force was directing the volcanic debris away from the town. Even if they had an anti-lava trench dug between their village and the volcano, they still kept their guard up. But what happened next was worthy of another legend.
Looking closely at the smoking summit, they could see enormous claws emerging from the fiery pit, and something began crawling out! What emerged from a wave of lava spewing out of the volcano was a gargantuan red lizard-like monster with black patterns lining its body. When it reached the foot of the mountain it stood up on its hind legs and let out a guttural roar that caused the black lines on its body to glow a deep blue, and it seemed to cause the sunlight to became radiant to the point that the townsfolk could barely look up without almost being blinded. They were nevertheless horrified that such a monstrous being existed right next door.
Its footsteps were heavy enough to cause small tremors as it made its way towards the ocean, largely paying the town no heed, but it seemed to be taking care to not have it burn. When it reached the shoreline, it let out another roar and slammed its claw onto the sand right where the land met the sea. The townsfolk watch as the land below the sea rose above the water, forming a bridge for it to cross the sea. It broke into a blazing sprint, bringing the intense sunlight with it.
*****
In the maritime city of Baltimare, the news of Sombra's return had thrown its populace into a panic. Some sailors and fishermen started leading their friends and family onto their boats so that they could evacuate, and they found themselves having to fight off some freeloaders that were trying to stow away. The mayor tried his damnedest to defuse the situation. "All of you, please calm down! There's nothing to be panicking about. I'm sure they the situation well under control over there!" Unfortunately, he was ignored. What nopony could ignore was a wave of light surging past them across the sky. Curious about the previously unseen occurrence, the pony's hysteria mellowed down as they discussed what it could have been.
Suddenly, they noticed that the sea water began to quickly recede as if the sea itself was about to sneeze. After a few tense minutes of observing the event, the ponies were terrified when they noticed an enormous wave making its way towards their town! They all ran for dear life inland to try and escape the sea's wrath, but they were relieved albeit very confused when the massive wave suddenly stopped in its path just before it could touch the docks. As they anxiously observed the unnatural phenomenon, they began to notice a massive shadow swimming back and forth within the wave. Something was underwater observing them, and it made the tension even thicker. The wave moved back a little and formed a sort of theatre-like shape, as if it was about to present something, perhaps the shadow beneath it. Lo and behold, it did.
What emerged in the center of 'theatre' was something from a sailor's nightmares. It was a gigantic whale-like fish that had a blue body with a white underbelly and red archaic patterns lining its upper half, as well as its fins. "<ROOOOOOOAAAAAARRRR!!!!!>" Its hollow roar that sounded as though it were still underwater caused its red linings to shine luminously, and it seemed to be what summoned a torrential downpour that the local weather ponies would never be allowed to bring forth during their rain schedule.
The denizens became even more terrified when the water beneath it began rising out in a sort of cushion for the monster to sit it. It roared once more and caused its water cushion to rise out of the ocean altogether and form wing-like add-ons to its massive fins that it used to fly at a relatively low altitude towards the Crystal Empire, taking its heavy rain with it.
*****
In Canterlot's Museum of Natural History, its guards were being excused by the curator to make way to the Crystal Empire. Even though it was an emergency, he had all of them check out one by one so as not to get their shift schedules confused, and he could reorganize them later once they came back.....if they came back... As they all left, he uttered a silent prayer for their safe return.
All he could do was walk around his empty museum and hope that everything turned out alright. Apart from Sombra conquering Equestria and potentially the world around it, those guards have been nothing but good to him, and he'd feel awful if anything happened to them just because he let them throw themselves to the wolves. Plus, he valued all of the wondrous treasures he displayed in the place he thought of as his second home. It was always such a joy to see them bring smiles to the guests that beheld them, especially the foals. What would become of this place should Sombra succeed?
Suddenly, he felt as though something powerful passed over him, and he got chills running down his spine as every hair on his coat stood up. "G-Goodness me..." He was startled by violent flaring sounds coming from another exhibit room. He rushed towards said room, which happened to be the geology exhibit. For whatever odd reason, two stones in particular had begun glowing, and they were ones that everypony at the museum, namely the curator himself and the researchers found peculiar simply for the fact that they're origins could not be discerned. Both were smooth, near perfectly round if not for the three concave indents in them that formed a perfect triangle if the dots were connected, but one was a vast white while the other was a deep black. The fact that looked almost identical made the researchers theorize that they were of the same origin, and the event the curator was witnessing was further proof of that notion.
Both stones were floating in the air and moved away from one another as if to give the other space. The white stone suddenly had flames swirling around it while the black stone began violently sparking as though a thunderstorm was about to erupt from it. They suddenly began bursting into flames and lightning respectively, causing the curator to cover his eyes. "MY WORD!" When the light subsided, he could feel two powerful presences before he could even open his eyes again. When he did, his heart nearly stopped.
The stones had inexplicably transformed into two ferocious looking monsters. One was a white dragon-like beast that oddly was furry rather than scaly, as if it were some strange mammalian dragon. It had piercing, yet gentle blue eyes and two wavy manes that flowed from its head much like the Royal Sisters. Its arms acted as it wings, and it had a shackle-like growth on its neck. The other was a black dragon that looked much fiercer than its counterpart and had a smooth body one would expect from a draconic being. Atop its head was single horn that had a blue tip to match the blue lightning that violently sparked from its body. It had red eyes that weren't so gentle unlike its counterpart. Also unlike the white dragon, it had four limbs apart from the two terrifying wings on its back. Both of them had tails that resembled generators of some kind, but the white one's radiated intense fire while the black one's was generated storms worth of lightning.
"<RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRR!!!!!>"
"<ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRR!!!!!>"
The white dragon's roar was strangely graceful and sounded like a high-pitched scream while the black dragon's roar was far more ferocious and dominant. Despite being in the presence of two terrifying beings, the curator found himself strangely mesmerized by them.....until the white dragon exhaled what must have been a megaton of fire onto the ceiling of his museum, blasting it wide open, and they took off into the Equestrian sky.
*****
Deep in the fabled Everfree Forest was Ponyville's famed shaman, Zecora out and about. The news of Sombra's return had prompted her to enact a doomsday plan she had crafted in the event that they would fail to sufficiently hold him back, much less defeat him. She examined a map of hidden shelters she had prepared throughout the forest and planned who would hide where. She sadly only had made enough room for three times Ponyville's population, but she swore that it would only be for those who were sick or injured, or otherwise were too weak to fight. She was on her way to one of the shelters to make sure it was optimally stocked with supplies and resources for whomever it might house when she felt an odd disturbance in the air. "Hmm?"
The disturbance then extended to a surge of light racing across the sky. Her sensitivity to the flow of Nature nearly caused her to vomit from how powerfully she felt the light's influence on the area around her. "Argh! What is this great power I feel?" She then felt another disturbance coming from nearby, one that even caused some manticores and timberwolves to flee, so she rushed in that direction to find a lake at the bottom of a pit that easily 150 feet deep. Zecora became worried when she realized that it was for some reason turning a murky black.
Suddenly, an unknown object began rising out of the lake. Looking closer, Zecora could make out a large black cocoon-like mass with white diamond patterns around, and she felt a dark aura emanating from as it inexplicably hovered far above the lake at about the level of the cliff's edge where Zecora stood trembling. Whatever this thing was, it felt ominously unnatural.
The cocoon then flared an oppressive burst of energy, and Zecora could sense everything around becoming weak. She then realized that this mass was absorbing the vital essence of everything around it, even her own! She choked and sputtered as she struggled against the devouring force that caused all of the surrounding flora to wilt exponentially faster. After a few tense moments, the cocoon suddenly began to fold open! It turned out to be a gargantuan, monstrous red bird with its wings and tail feathers spreading out to form a sort of 'Y' shape and had claw-like growths on their tips. It had black vein-like growths under its wings and torso, and its body was glowing in such a way that the vital essence it was devouring was being drawn into its heart. It had a large tuft of fur around its neck that resembled a storm cloud, and its head held its two horns that curved forward like scythes, and its piercing blue eyes.
"<CRRRAAAAAAAAWWWWWW!!!!!!!>"
It bellowed a blood-curdling mix of a caw from a bird of prey and a roar from a dragon, and a now skin and bones Zecora could only weakly cower as she stared at the seemingly demonic avian. It didn't seem to acknowledge her as its body suddenly glowed a bright red before taking off like a rocket.
Zecora could do naught but desperately take heavy breaths as her bones felt as though they could collapse into dust at any moment. She could even muster the strength to speak, much less scream for help. However, some other force must have heard her silent pleas, and there was a sudden swell vital essence surging from within the forest on the other side of the lake. Everything that had been drained by the demon bird had been instantly revived and rejuvenated, Zecora included. "What is this madness?" she wondered, despite being thankful for whatever restored the natural balance, even though it too felt unnatural.
She heard something coming out of the bushes in the direction of the vital surge, and when she looked, another bizarre being appeared before her. It was a majestic blue stag with eight tree branch-like antlers, four jutting out equally from either side of its head and strangely bearing various gems on them. The lower half of its body was a soft black with a bushy tail, and its legs had ivory colored growths lining down all the way from the sides of its knees to around its hooves. Zecora was awestruck by its angelic presence.
It gently gazed upon the shaman before leaping clean over the lake and landing right next to her. Even if she was surprised by its agility, she sensed its purity and wasn't at all frightened. It was a good nine feet tall and was looking down at her, making no sounds. The look in its eyes was somehow....motherly, as if it was assuring Zecora that all would be well and that she had nothing to worry about. It then sprinted away in the direction of the monster bird.
*****
After receiving news of Sombra's return from a courier, attendants of the king of Griffonstone began rallying guards and warriors that had stayed behind and taking volunteers from the townsfolk as militia to fight against the dark king. Being a proud species, any unrest one would expect from a threatened society was instead filled in by sheer seriousness. Even if their relationship with the ponies hadn't been eased by the mediations of Princess Flurry Heart, the possibility of Sombra conquering their kingdom was one they could not ignore regardless of the circumstances. Taking action was the only option.
"Get a move, you lot!! The king's in one sour pickle 'long with the rest o' the lugs in the Crystal Empire, n' Sombra won't be stoppin' to smell the roses once he makes his way south!" The griffon guard captain ordered. She was a fierce old hen who commanded respect amongst Griffonstone's populace, not just the military. She had allowed her lieutenant to take her place at the Crystal Empire without her supervision as a test of her aptitude in case it was finally time for her to retire her position after decades of service. Deep down her lieutenant knew that her superior wasn't into 'sappy stuff' like the coronation, but she was nevertheless thrilled to have so much faith put into her, which the king also approved of. Needless to say, the old hen was cursing herself for having too much faith that nothing would go wrong.
Suddenly, all the griffons were startled when a large pulse of light surged across the sky, even the captain. "What in Grover's name?" She put her talon down and stepped on something squishy. When she looked down, there was a small green mass beneath her talon. She lifted her talon and was shocked to see that it was a living creature! "What're you s'posed to be?" It was about the size of her talon and had a gelatinous green body with a hexagonal red organ inside of its belly. It had eyes, but one was much bigger than the other and actually had a pupil. It glared up at her, likely not happy that it had been stepped on while the captain was still frazzled that such a bizarre being suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
The creature jumped back and began shining very luminously, and everyone watched as inexplicable bolts of green energy suddenly appeared and began being rapidly absorbed into the little blob. Its entire body suddenly shined to a point where it couldn't be seen, and after a few moments, the light swell subsided to reveal an inexplicable and almost unnatural looking wolf with green and black skin that seemed almost cellular than animalistic. It had a scarf-like growth on its neck, and the patterns on it body seemed to be comprised of hexagonal scales, indicating that it had spawned from the green blob.
It let out a powerful howl before taking off at breackneck speeds.
*****
To say that all hell had broken loose in the Crystal Empire was an understatement. The dark cloud covering the city blocked out the sun, and the only light illuminating anything was the plethora of red lightning flaring from the shadow cloud as well as the street lamps that were now glowing a blood red. The royalties from all nations were valiantly fighting against Sombra while the guards did their damnedest to defend the townsfolk from the shadows, but were starting to fail. In the time that Flurry had been gone, Sombra had conjured shadow monsters that were black and demonic forms of manticores, timberwolves, ursa minors, giant worms, and even horrific knock-off's of Cerberus. One by one, the shadows captured townsfolk and imprisoned them in corrupted shackles that sent painful shocks throughout their bodies as they were forced to mine the crystals outside of the castle town.
Twilight and Airheart found themselves in a random street fighting off a pack of the shadow timberwolves when they realized that they were starting to get more and more out of control. The Princess of Friendship was reluctant to have to put heavy amounts of faith into her husband, but she charged his sword with the fiercest magic she could conjure, allowing him to hack and slash through the bestial demons with ease, which he did so with aerial agility that could rival that of Rainbow Dash. He stayed close to her in case any of them tried to sneak up from behind while she blasted them into puffs of smoke with her magic. Any townsfolk caught in their crossfire were ordered to flee and find shelter.
"Airheart, I hate to say it, but......we might not win this time. The Elements were useless, and Sombra's got us nearly pinned down! On top of that, Flurry left with that.....thing for some reason, and I'm worried sick about her!" Twilight said.
Airheart cleaved a shadow wolf in half before soaring back to his wife. "Don't you dare start losing faith now! The second you do is the second you become vulnerable! Keep your spirits up, and I promise we'll pull through!"
Twilight was ready to start crying. She knew Airheart was right, but how high of a price would they have to pay in order to best Sombra as he was now? Her train of thought derailed when his devilish laughter resounding from down the road. They looked over and were horrified to see him carrying the exhausted Royal Sisters and married couple with his magic. Laying at his hooves were Ember, Spike, Thorax, and Pharynx all completely spent and beaten within inches of their lives. "NOOOO!!!!" Twilight exclaimed.
"YOU MONSTER!!!" Airheart exclaimed
Sombra chuckled. "Oh, don't mind me. Just your average, everyday king claiming his rightful throne. And it just so happens that you're in the way as well, so if you don't mind, I'll be kindly making you wish for death!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!"
Airheart aggressively pointed his sword at the demonic king. "YOU'RE GONNA BE THE ONE WISHING FOR DEATH AFTER WE'RE THROUGH WITH YOU!!!"
"Oh, am I?" Sombra taunted. Suddenly, the atmosphere felt incredibly tense with an ominous pressure, as if something was enraged. Airheart and Twilight grew anxious as they feared that Sombra was about to do something drastic, but what happened next was something out of their nightmares.
A dark swirl suddenly erupted from the space between both parties that quickly expanded into a portal that seemed to lead into a void of darkness. After a tense moment of observing the sudden anomaly, Twilight and Airheart were startled when an enormous pair of red eyes shined from the darkness. Then, a massive hoof cloaked into shadowy goo reached out from the portal and slammed into the street in front of them. Gradually, a gargantuan form of some kind of draconic demon crawled out of the portal, eyeing them as they backed away in horror. When it completely emerged, the portal behind it closed, and the shadow goo covering it just dissipated, revealing its true form. It was a six-legged dragon-like monster with a dark grey body and golden growths around its hooves, head and neck. The underside of its neck had red and black striped patterns lining it, and its wings looked as if they were made of shadows apart from the red claw-like tips spawning from them. It towered over the royal couple of friendship as Twilight cowered beside her husband, who could do naught but eye the monster back in sheer terror.
They looked at Sombra, expecting him to be smirking deviously at summoning such a terrifying monster.......but he was scared stiff as well, as if whatever this beast was came of its own volition. It turned its attention away from Twilight and Airheart as it faced the now cowering Sombra, who had dropped the captive royal out of fear. "Wh-Wh-Wh-Wha...!?.....WH-WH-WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?!?!?!" The monster was completely facing him and lowered its head to stare at him more closely, as if to threaten the mad stallion or even size him up as prey. When it lifted its head once more, it let out the most chilling roar that anypony in history had ever heard.
"<RAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!>"
It's roar sounded as though it had echoed from whatever hell it just spawned from as its shadowy wings began to expand. It roared once again, and Sombra watched in horror as the dark cloud he had cast over the Crystal Empire was slowly but surely being absorbed and devoured in the monster's wings! "WH-WHAT!? STOP THIS PEST!!!" Sombra bellowed.
All of Sombra's shadow troops and monsters stopped what they were doing to assault the gargantuan demon dragon, and it glared at him, clearly not feeling threatened. As they all converged towards the beast, some of the shadows fired magic at it, but it tanked every hit as though they were barely flea bites. Just before they could reach the monster, another intense pressure suddenly pressed onto the atmosphere, so much so that it was enough to cause the unconscious royals and Spike to stir. They were shocked back to their senses upon seeing their 'guest'. They all gasped from the shock of seeing such a terrifying creature suddenly appear.
The pressure intensified when a blue swirl appeared low in the sky beside Twilight and Airheart, and just like the black one, it erupted into a portal. They could all hear the fearsome breathing of another ferocious monster resound from within it, and not even a second later, one burst out. It was an enormous quadrupedal blue draconic monster that seemed to be covered in some kind of metal armor that was growing from its body. Its head was elongated into a sort of diamond shape and head piercing red eyes. It seemed to have a blue diamond centered in its chest. The portal closed behind it as its hooves hit the ground.
"<HHHHHRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!>"
As it roared, Twilight and Airheart noticed in a clock store across the street that the hands were moving too fast and in random directions, and they could feel everything around them being distorted. When it ran out of breath, everything felt normal again, and that's when they realized that this being's roar was able to ripple the very flow of time! "WHAT IN THE HAYSEED IS GOING ON!?!?" Airheart exclaimed.
The blue dragon's chest diamond suddenly began glowing, and the steel plate growing out of its back expanded a little. They could feel time itself being....absorbed into its mouth and congregated into a cosmic cluster. Seconds later, it exploded from its mouth into a massive torrent of temporal fire aimed right at a group of shadow monsters rushing towards its presumed friend. The entire wave of enemies was obliterated in the wake of destruction, and time felt regulated once more.
Before they could process what all had just happened, a pink swirl appeared behind Twilight and Airheart and expanded into a large portal, and from it emerged another monster. It seemed to be a counterpart to the blue one that had just appeared, but was bipedal and was a pearly white with pink patterns lining its body. It had small fin-like wings that looked barely big enough to let it fly, and its shoulders were hemispherical and each had pearl-like growths in their centers.
"<AIIIEEEERRRRAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!>"
Its roar was short and sounded like a resounding whimper of a dog that actually sounded threatening, and as it did, Twilight and Airheart could feel the very fabric of reality shake like a wine glass right in front of a speaker. Already frazzled by the appearance of yet another extradimensional horror, the third dragon began charging vast amounts of energy into the pearl on its left shoulder. Its left claw started glowing a powerful pink light, and after a few seconds later, it released it as a blade of light that distorted space as it traveled towards another pack of shadow monsters, wiping them clean out and stabilizing space as it dissipated.
Sombra could only look on in horror as the shadow cloud became thinner and thinner, to the point where the sun could barely peek through. However, when it got to that point, the demon dragon stopped and began surging the darkness it had absorbed throughout its body. It then let out another howling roar as it blasted its energy in all directions, purging any nearby shadows and completely expelling the dark cloud. "H-H-HOW DARE YOU!!!!" Sombra nervously bellowed.
All of a sudden, a green sparkle appeared in the sky, and moments later, a large meteorite crashed into grassy terrain outside of the town. Surprisingly, it didn't cause a very big shockwave for its size, as if the meteor itself tried to control its landing. Green light began pouring out of cracks that gradually formed around. It then exploded as a green serpentine form squirmed into the sky. When it was still, it was revealed to be a serpentine dragon with yellow archaic patterns lining its body and no limbs apart from a pair of arms with three clawed digits. It had dorsal fins along its body and four large horns protruding from around its head in an 'X' shape. It let out a guttural roar as it slithered through the sky, breathing any assortment of elemental torrents at the shadow monsters.
The awakened royals looked on in complete confusion, namely Celestia and Luna, who had no idea that such being even existed, much less were attacking the Crystal Empire despite the fact that they seemed to be here to help. "Sister....what....?" Luna stammered, completely flustered.
Celestia could only shake her head in disbelief. In all the years she had lived and all the worldly knowledge she had accumulated, she was flabbergasted that she had never seen or heard of any sort of hints of such profound beings within her kingdom. Suddenly, the Royal Sisters' heads began painfully throbbing. The way their horns were acting up told them that their respective celestial bodies were somehow moving on their own. They appeared side by side in the sky like they had before shortly after Twilight became a princess, and the Royal Sisters could feel something trying to break out of the sun and moon. "Nrgh! RRGGHH!!!" The throbbing was getting worse as they could feel previously unknown seals being broken.
"Are you two okay!? What's wrong!?" Thorax interjected.
"AIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!"
"ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!"
The Royal Sisters' horn shined luminously as their celestial bodies burst into light. Cadance and Shining Armor happened to peek up at the lights in the sky and witness a light rocketing down towards them. It landed beside them with meteoritic force, but was oddly gentle. When they looked up, they were met with a huge white lion with an almost metallic-looking coat. It had black paws with golden claws and orange patterns around it's ankles, and it's mane had tufts of orange along with golden growth around it. Its forehead looked as if it were made of space, and it even its eyes were in it.
Understandably startled, they were frightened when they heard a hollow sound from the moon. Something just materialized out of the moonlight. Looking closer, it was a ring of gold with a cluster of cosmic matter within. It then unfolded in such a way that it revealed to be some kind of celestial bat hanging upside down. It fell from the moonlight and made a graceful yet haunting bat chirp as it flipped right side up and flew towards them, letting the moon lower again.
Once the Royal Sisters' headaches had subsided and they could process what had happened, they were in utter shock that there were now apparently beings living in the celestial bodies. However, they were even more flustered when they saw an assortment of more monsters rapidly approaching the empire. |
Flurry Heart and The Original One | Flurry's Rising | Arceus appeared out of a portal not too far outside of the empire with Flurry Heart and Absol riding on his back. The Princess of Balance watched in awe as the wide array of terrifying monsters, some clearly even bigger than Arceus converged on the empire and assaulted Sombra's shadow army. "Arceus...are these your reinforcements?"
Arceus turned his head to face her. "Yes. I gave rise to these titans to act as guardians in my stead as I slumbered, leaving the world to its own devices unless a state of great emergency demanded my attention." He looked back out at them. "How pleasing to see that they have remained ever powerful even after countless centuries of dormancy. I feel almost irresponsible for not allowing them watch the very world I charged them to protect change as it passed through the currents of time."
Flurry Heart put her hoof on his neck. "If they were eager enough to heed your call without so much as a second thought, I'd say that's proof positive that they trust you as much as they must revere you, even after so long."
Arceus looked back at her again and much to her surprised, lightly chuckled. "How lucky these people are to have gracious rulers such as you." Flurry blushed and smiled upon being flattered by a god. "Speaking of whom, I believe they are waiting for you."
"Hmm?"
Arceus turned his body in such a way that the side of his body faced the empire, almost as if he was a ship letting his passengers depart. "Go on, Princess of Balance. Fight for your kingdom in its hour of need."
Flurry was a little shocked that Arceus didn't seem to be accompanying her to the empire, but she looked in his eye and felt the divine trust he put in his titans being directed towards her, and any hesitation she had was thinned out. His pinwheel then glowed and gently poured light into her horn, which she readily accepted. She confidently nodded. "Right! Come on, Absol!"
"Sol!" She and her cat-goat friend leapt off of Arceus's back and rushed towards the Crystal Empire with Arceus's divine gaze being ever watchful over them.
*****
The royals and surrounding townsfolk watched in a mix of horror and joy as they watched the variety of monsters completely decimate Sombra's forces. They regenerated quickly, but the sheer power of these titans kept everything at a solid stalemate, and the dark lord himself was anything but pleased. Apart from the destruction, the blue deer used its holy powers to cleanse that corrupted shackles from the captive townsfolk as well as shred the shadows with its antlers and blast them with blasts of holy light. Its demon bird counterpart used a dark tractor beam fired from its body to devour the shadows and use them to generate dark energy pulses it fired from its mouth, which were surprisingly harmful to even the surrounding shadows. The green wolf, upon reaching the area howled and called for more of the green bolts of light to congregate towards itself, and it grew further into a bizarre serpent that had black frills extending from the back of its neck. It summoned a torrent of green arrow-like projections that pierced and shredded the shadows and caused miniature earthquakes below they're feet.
The black and white dragons seemed to join forces with the ice dragon in another sector of the empire. The white dragon vomited torrents of fire while the black dragon crashed and clawed into its foes with lightning surging around its body. The ice dragon made things easier for them by flash freezing the ground and making arenas of ice to trap their foes. At one point, the shadows made a desperate move and congregated together into a horrific draconic form of its own. It was serpentine with six arms that had long, serrated claws. The ice dragon and white dragon looked at each other and nodded, and the ice dragon folded it frozen wings and fired the spikes jutting out of them at the white dragon, who curled up into a ball of intense fire that the ice dragon plugged into its tail, and it was suddenly enveloped in a miniature sun. When it dispersed, the two dragons had fused together! It was still bipedal and had the generator tail, but it had red plug-like growths running between that and its wings. It looked as if the ice dragon had simply adopted the white dragons body type and fur while its face was still dominate. The black dragon unleashed a blast of lightning that paralyzed the shadow dragon just enough for the now fused dragon to blast it with burning ice that easily annihilated it. They then defused and resumed their reign of destruction.
The giant red lizard found itself surrounded by shadows as it summoned sharp columns of stone to pierce its foes and caused mini magma eruptions right beneath them. However, it felt the need to take drastic measures. It surrounded itself with powerful red energy that became crystalline around it. After a moment, the giant ruby burst to reveal that the beast was now glowing as if it had bright lava for skin apart from its red shell. Its very presence caused the grass around it to ignite from being so hot, and the shadows could only tremble as their monstrous foes volcanic power intensified.
The same went for the blue whale fish as it summoned torrents of water to swamp the shadows, but it surrounded itself with blue energy that crystallized over it. It too burst open to reveal that the aquatic beast had adopted similar traits to the now empowered magma lizard in the respect that it had lava-like flows within its body, and its water powers dramatically increased in magnitude.
The green serpent briefly returned to the meteor it had emerged from and began absorbing some kind of energy from it. There were green crystals from within the fallen rock that reacted to the dragon's presence and sent some energy up towards it. The serpentine drake became surrounded in a blinding ball of light for a moment, the earth below it trembling as if to fear what would happen. After a moment, the light exploded from it as if it were a shell to reveal a drastic change in the serpent. Its body now had black segments along with green which had luminous growths in them, and the horns on its head were replaced by two large tusks that curved outward. Flowing out from those tusks were long, golden ribbon-like growths that extended nearly down the length of its body. It top horns were still there and had those same ribbons as well. As it was being charged by a shadow ursa major, it soared high into the sky in and came slamming into it in a blaze of emerald light, completely destroying it's shadowy foe.
The solar lion made quick work of the smaller shadows by shredding them with fire-bathed claws and firing beams of solar light. It took out a bigger one by slamming into it with a meteoritic tackle. Meanwhile, the lunar bat blasted them with telekinetic waves and a few times, folded its body up and allowed six points along the gold rims of its body to converge lunar light onto its forehead, which it fired to purge the shadows.
The rainbow phoenix made a point of protecting the townsfolk and summoned pillars and walls of fire between them and the shadows so that could get away while the avian whale dragon blew destructive gales that tore the shadows to shreds.
*****
As they looked on, the royals felt safe enough to confront Sombra without having to worry about the safety of the townsfolk. "Well Sombra, I don't know where all of these monsters came from, but it's clear that they know who the real monster here is. I'd highly suggest you surrender now lest you suffer the same fate as your conjured fiends." Celestia warned.
Sombra was gritting his teeth in sheer frustration, not believing that a previously unknown army of do-gooder monsters had the nerve to appear now of all times just as he was about to finally succeed in his conquest, and he was trying to hide his fear of one them completely maiming him. "You must feel terribly lucky that they decided to show their ugly faces now! Otherwise, I surely would have had you biting at my hooves..." he growled. The grey demon dragon loudly hissed at him, causing him to wince in fear. "Nrgh! I'll conquer you all, rest assured! I WILL find a way to exterminate these pests!!"
"Pfft! Likely!" Everyone looked over to see a certain somepony they'd been waiting for.
"FLURRY!!" Shining exclaimed, both he and Cadance relieved to see their daughter safe and sound as was everyone else.
"You....." Sombra growled.
The extradimensional dragons seemed to acknowledge Flurry as if they were expecting her, likely due to Arceus's summon. "These beings were called here by someone I met atop Mt. Everhoof, someone my new friend, Absol introduced me to. I guess you all already know that they're on our side."
"And where is this friend of yours now, Little Miss Balance!?" Sombra roared.
Flurry smirked as her horn lit with the holy light blessed unto her by the ancient god. "He couldn't make it, but I have a gift for you from him!" She blasted a beam of magic at him that gleamed with the golden light of Arceus's pinwheel. Sombra snarled as he erected his force field, but Flurry's magic completely shattered through it and blew the dark lord off his hooves.
"UWAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!" Sombra screamed as he skidded across the ground.
"ABSOL, NOW!!" Flurry commanded.
"SOL!!" Absol rushed towards the fallen Sombra and charged his horn with the essence of midnight. "AAAAAB.... SOL!!!-SOL!!!-SOL!!!" He slashed at Sombra three times just before the dark king could stagger to his hooves and jumped back out of his range.
"Nrgh!!.... Cursed fleabag!" Sombra growled. He tried casting his shield again, but was horrified when his spell wasn't responding at all. It had been completely nullified! "WHAT!?" He started to panic and expelled a huge amount of dark magic from his horn. "COME TO YOUR MASTER, NOW!!" All of the shadows throughout the empire were pulled towards Sombra as though he were a magnet. They congregated into a gigantic mass of shadow that resembled Sombra if he were a horrific cross between a pony and a serpentine dragon.
"<ROOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!!!!!>"
It's bellow was about as demonic as the grey dragon's, who looked ready to combat the energized Sombra when he felt an influence from high above call to it. It looked up and was calmed by whatever this force was, as if it was being told to let Flurry handle the situation, to which it complied.
The Sombra dragon exhaled a torrent of shadow fire towards Flurry and Absol, but she shielded them both with a powerful magic barrier that she held just long enough until he ran out of breath. "Absol.....I know it might be early, but....you think now's a good time?" Flurry asked as she held onto her Key Stone.
Absol gave her a mellow, but confident smile and nodded. "Absol!"
That was all she needed to hear. "Alright." She held her Key Stone close to her heart as it began to glow. Energy strands erupted from the gem and converged onto Absol's Mega Stone. The Absolite reacted to the Key Stone's influence and shrouded Absol in a ball of light. Flurry watched in awe as it noticeably changed even in the blinding light, growing wings and its tail extending some along with its horn adopting a more curved form. The shell of light around Absol violently burst open to reveal its mega evolved form. "Wow...."
"ABSOOOOOLLLLLL!!!!!!" Absol aggressively howled at Sombra, breaking Flurry out of her brief trance and reminding her of the foe she had to fight.
"Okay, Absol! Let's dance with this devil!!" Flurry, having expended her blessing on the magic blast that nullified Sombra shield could only rely on her strength of heart to power her magic, which she thankfully had in strides. She fired another beam of magic at Sombra that was without Arceus's golden light, but was much bigger and abraded against the frenzied king like someone running barbed wire across his body, but he managed to blow it away with a burst of darkness from throughout his body, leaving him open for Absol to attack with its razor whirlwind technique, which was powerful enough to be classified as a mini hurricane. It then went into its hyper speed mode and blindsided Sombra from just about every direction within a matter of seconds before returning to Flurry.
Sombra swung his bladed tail at them, and Flurry, as though she learned by example formed a huge sword of magic from her horn and parried the tail away. She then lunged forward and plunged her magic sword into Dragon Sombra's abdomen, causing him to roar in agony, but he blasted her away with a bolt of shadow fire. While she managed to land on her hooves, she panicked for the briefest of moments when she saw Sombra lunging down at her. He would have chomped her had the Royal Sisters not blasted him with solar and lunar magic respectively, which only managed to hold him back as he tried to resist the assault. Shining Armor and Cadance took the opportunity while he was distracted to rush over to the Crystal Heart and cleanse it of Sombra's curse while it was unguarded; their combined love magic easily purged his poison from the sacred gem.
Having his source of power cut off from him, Sombra's empowered form began to shrivel as though it had been starved, giving Thorax and Pharynx an idea. They used their magic to copy Sombra's dragon form before it had been starved and held him in place while Ember and Spike cold clocked both temples and held his head still. "NOW!" Spike shouted.
The Elements of Harmony gathered together once more and began charging their spell. However they released their magic into Airheart's sword as he soared towards the pinned and weakened Sombra dragon. His sword brilliantly shined with the harmonious rainbow light, and he dove down from Sombra's head to his lower abdomen, cleaving his shadowy form wide open and exposing the weakened king himself.
"ABSOL, NOW!!" Flurry commanded. She fired a ferocious bolt of her magic that was carried by Absol's razor wind, which tore the shadow dragon to shreds and struck true on Sombra, who didn't even scream in agony as he fell to the ground in a heap, completely depleted of power and stamina.
The titans calmly gathered around their fallen adversary, powering down if needed and stood behind the royals and Elements. Absol's Mega Evolution suddenly disappeared in a flash of light right before everyone's eyes, and he dropped to his knees exhausted. Flurry rushed over to him. "Are you ok, Absol?" she asked as she cradled him in her arms.
Absol lightly nuzzled his head against her chest. "Sol..."
Flurry smiled and pulled out the last her apples and handed it to him. "Here you go, sweetie." Absol happily munched on his well-deserved snack, and she gave him a light kiss on the top of his head.
Everyone was incredibly thankful for the monstrous beings coming to their aid, but they were still uneasy with them being so close with how terrifying they were. Flurry, however, was completely unafraid of them, knowing that they were called to arms by Arceus. She looked around at all of them, and they seemed to recognize her as their master's ally and nodded at her. The solar lion stood next to Celestia, who was still shocked that there even anything living in her sun, but the lion, which wasn't much bigger than her lightly nuzzled her neck while purring, as if to thank her for watching over the daytime that presumably it did before. The same happened for Luna and the celestial bat, but it just levitated there and let a quiet chirp that exuded the same gratitude as its solar counterpart. Both sisters felt strangely comforted by their new friends.
Cadance and Shining Armor ran over to and embraced their daughter, thankful to every high power possible that she was alright and so proud of her monumental albeit inexplicable accomplishment given the....interesting circumstances. "Oh, honey!" Cadance said.
Flurry wasted no time returning the hug. "Mom! Dad!" Absol got out of the way just before he could be crushed between them. They broke off after a tender moment. "Are you all alright?"
"Our heads hurt a little from trying to fight Sombra, but other than that, we couldn't be better!" Shining said. "What about you? Where did all of these things come from anyway!?"
"Was there something that summoned them at Mt. Everhoof?" Cadance asked.
"Mt. Coronet, mom." Flurry said. They looked at her confused.
Twilight and Airheart ran over to them and hugged Flurry as well. When they broke off, all of their attention was turned towards Absol. "So this was the animal that visited you last night, huh?" Airheart said.
"I'm glad it helped you, but..." Twilight looked at the bizarre feline-like creature curiously, unsure of what to make of it as if it just calmly eyed her back.
Fluttershy eagerly approached it, being an animal lover. "Oh, my! I've never seen anything like you, little guy!" she cooed, trying to pet it, but Absol coldly pushed her hoof away.
"Sol." It walked back up to Flurry and affectionately leaned against her. Fluttershy was stunned that an animal actually resisted her attention in spite of her affinity with any variety of fauna.
"Ooh....rejected." Airheart joked, earning him an annoyed glare from the animal caretaker.
Suddenly, a flash of light briefly lit the sky, and in its place was a form Flurry immediately and happily recognized. "Arceus!"
The original god floated down towards the cluster of royals and fallen Sombra as his titans bowed before their descending master. When he was floating just above the royals and townsfolk onlookers, the titans all let out celebratory roars and howls as if to welcome him. After a moment, Arceus lifted his foreleg by his knee alone, which was enough to command these beasts into silence. He let his leg down once he was satisfied. As he did atop Spear Pillar, he gently floated down to the ground just as Sombra was beginning to stir. Arceus lightly touched the ground just like before, but he still sent out a shock wave as though he'd fallen onto it at terminal velocity, but it was noticeably gentler than before. It nevertheless startled everyone save for Flurry and Absol along with the titans, who were expecting it.
Celestia was especially shaken. She was in the presence of something far above even herself, and even with the position of authority she held, she couldn't help but to tremble at the very sight of such a divine entity.
Arceus looked down at the pitiful Sombra cowering at the sight him. "King Sombra, I presume?" He said, his voice booming.
"AIIEE!!" Sombra hyperventilated as he tried pathetically to keep his cool. "A-A-And who do you think you are!?"
Arceus's expression remained ever neutral, but Flurry could feel authoritative anger in his eyes. "I'm the one you should be thankful did not confront you this day, lest your tyrant spirit be erased from existence!"
Much to everyone's surprise, Sombra seemed to find the threat amusing, and cackled even in his panicked state. "I'm the tyrant? Hehehe.... I'd say you and I would work well together."
Even with his face unchanging, Flurry could suddenly feel an aura of wrath flare from Arceus. His pinwheel glowed, and Sombra was suddenly lifted in the air surrounded by a golden glow. He was slowly but surely being drawn towards Arceus's face, and he could see the ancient god's eyes gleaming red with rage. "Don't you dare presume me to be anywhere near your rock-bottom level, you tainted dung!" he growled.
Sombra choked on his own terror and couldn't even scream or plea for mercy. Even Flurry was startled Arceus's actions. Being a god, it was indeed admirable that he would be able to balance his wrath with his divine authority that demanded that he keep his cool, but she trembled at what the wrath of someone who shaped the universe must have felt like.
After a moment of staring him down, Arceus put the now curled up Sombra back down where he was apprehended by a few guards, one of whom put an anti-magic sock over his horn. Even as they did their duty, they found themselves marveling at their ally. Arceus then turned to face Equestria's highest authority. "Princess Celestia, I presume?" His tone was far gentler and actually friendly.
Celestia gasped, still terrified of him, but managed to keep herself collected. "<gulp> Y-Yes. And you're....was it 'Arceus'?"
"My apologies if I or my titans frightened you. We have only now just awoken from countless centuries of slumber. As such, you are as unfamiliar to us as we are to you, but I assure you on my honor that I am not your enemy." Arceus said.
"I'd say you've made that abundantly clear, Arceus. We cannot thank you enough for rising against our foe and saving us." Luna said.
"Why do you credit me? It was your esteemed Princess of Balance that is worthy of today's glory." He turned to face Flurry Heart. "It was she and her companion, Absol who returned to me my Pixie Plate and awakened me to this world once more. When we introduced and she explained the situation, I had no choice but to take action."
"Huh? But you said you'd only help if I gave you a good answer to your question." Flurry said.
Arceus chuckled. "I had every intention of helping you to begin with, Princess Flurry Heart. I merely wanted to test your conviction, and needless to say, I was quite pleased."
Despite feeling a little lied to, Flurry couldn't help but to blush at her divine friend's flattery. "But Arceus, just who are you?" Twilight asked. Arceus explained to them everything he did to Flurry. As he did, everyone felt Flurry's disbelief as he told them the history he had seen. "You....YOU ACTUALLY CREATED THE UNIVERSE!?"
"Not created, but simply shaped it. I know not what created the chaos that eventually settled into this universe, but I was the only one there to spark the fire that would create life." Arceus answered.
"The way say that your plate was planted....it sounds almost as though Equestria itself is what grew from it!" Cadance said.
"So it would seem. I knew to expect the unexpected from the Pixie Plate's essence, but even a god can be surprised." Arceus said. "But enough about me. I do believe a certain princess is deserving of praise."
"Is she ever!" Thorax said looking at Flurry. Everyone started clamoring around the Princess of Balance and cheering her name. Arceus's titans even let out mellow roars to celebrate her.
However, one of them apparently had something to say. The grey demon dragon let out a mellow call that Arceus responded to. "Hmm?" The dragon faced down at Sombra and growled. "Would you now?"
"Is something wrong?" Celestia asked.
"It would seem that my titan, Giratina would be willing to imprison Sombra in his dimension. He would be the only one there apart from his warden and unable to escape." Arceus said.
Celestia shook her head. "That's kind of you, but Sombra has offended us, therefore he answers to us."
Arceus and Giratina nodded. "Fair enough." Arceus said. "Then please don't let us keep you from your celebrations."
"Nonsense, Arceus. You and your titans are deserving of some pony-style gratitude!" Twilight said.
"Yeah! Let these guys find some room and enjoy the festivities." Airheart said. All of the royals agreed with them, namely Flurry.
Arceus chuckled. "I suppose we could relax for a while. It has been a few millennium anyway." With that, the many denizens of Equestria threw one of the biggest celebrations they'd had in years. |
Flurry Heart and The Original One | Epilogue | The day after the celebration, all of the foreign royals had returned home while the pony royalty were gathered at Canterlot Castle in Celestia and Luna's throne room along with the Elements, Spike, Flurry's Absol, and Arceus. The Pokemon god took up a lot of space even in the huge room, but nopony complained since they had made a friend out of him. Sombra had been imprisoned in the deepest recesses on Canterlot's dungeons.
"Arceus, I don't think I ever properly thanked you for helping everyone. I know better than to lose hope, but...I wasn't exactly optimistic." Flurry said.
"I'm afraid I did not give you my thanks either. You allowed me to awaken once more, and now I can watch this world grow and mature as did in ages past." Arceus said.
"Well! Guess that makes us even." Flurry said. The two shared a chuckle.
"I think I speak for all when I say that we look forward the future if it means you helping us." Celestia said.
"I'd say this is the start of wonderful friendship, Arceus. We can't wait to learn from you and better our world from your universal wisdom." Twilight said.
"This universe's balance will always be my priority, but I suppose a closer relationship with this world's inhabitants would relieve me of my ignorance of it. That error was largely due to my decision to leave it to its own devices and grow as Nature would ordain." Arceus said.
"As any leader should to some extent." Luna said. "Will your titans go back into slumber?"
"A few of them may until they feel the need to rise again. In fact, a few them may do so simply to contain their immense power from those around them. Otherwise, they will explore the world of their own volition. I assure you that they will not cause any destruction, lest they are willing to answer to me." Arceus said.
"Sweet! That giant red bird thing was totally the bomb! But so was that time-rending dragon! They were so awesome when I got to see them up close! I wonder if I'll bump into them again sometime?" Rainbow Dash said.
Arceus looked down at her. "They are not mere animals at a petting zoo, you know." He said sternly.
Rainbow Dash felt a chill run down her spine and was immediately prompted to mind her manners. "Ehehe....r-right."
"Though speaking of animals.....perhaps it's time to finally started bringing my children back into this world." Arceus rose into the air and let his pinwheel glow.
*****
From the outside all across the world, a vast multitude of eggs of varying sizes and colors appeared in locations both civilized and remote, charted and uncharted. Those who had the fortune of witnessing them appear knew that it must have been Arceus letting his 'Pokemon' return to the world. Everyone wondered what kind of wondrous creatures would hatch from them, and how they would affect their lives.
*****
Arceus lowered himself back down to the floor, but without releasing a shockwave this time and formed one egg for the each of the Mane Six, Spike, Cadance and Shining Armor, and Airheart. "In due time, these eggs will hatch, and my children's legacy will be born anew. You will share this world with them as humans once did in ages past. Though, I must say that you all are far more approachable than they ever were."
"Let's not dwell on the past, Arceus. We have an amazing future to look forward to." Flurry said. Her Absol purred as it rested its head on her shoulder. "Absol and I will help you ease your Pokemon into the world. It'll be part of my duty as Princess of Balance."
The look in the old god's eyes was soft and welcoming. He had certainly built a trust between himself and the new princess. "I will deeply appreciate that, Princess Flurry Heart."
"Please, Arceus. Just 'Flurry' is fine." She said.
"Yes. Let's not let formalities make our interactions needlessly complicated." Luna said. "Although....erm....not to be rude, but..."
Arceus chuckled. "You and your sister already have suiting companions in the form of Solgaleo and Lunala respectively. As the ones responsible for day and night, I can think of no better candidates, and you seemed to get along with them quite nicely.
"Well....I suppose we did, didn't we?" Celestia said. "I just hope they don't feel confined to the sun and moon."
"They do not. Call for them, and they will surely come to you. I'm sure even they get lonely." Arceus said.
"Oh, good!" Celestia said. "Fitting them into the castle should they want to come in might be a bit of a task, but I'm sure we'll find a way."
"You simply came in here via a portal, so perhaps it won't be quite that aggravating for those two." Luna said.
"Hmm..." Arceus thought for a moment. "Allow a minute, please." He rose back up into the air and enveloped himself in a cocoon of light that was so bright, that everypony had to cover their eyes. This lasted for a quite a little while before the light dissipated, and they were met with a shocking sight.
Before them was Arceus, but.....he had transformed himself into an alicorn! His white and black mane still had the same color scheme, but it flowed more gracefully just like the Royal Sisters'. His eyes were the same deep emerald that normally would surround red ones, and he was wearing golden braces around his ankles just above his black hooves. His pinwheel had become his Cutie Mark, and the golden notch on his forehead became a small crown. He was only a few inches taller than Celestia. "Perhaps I can be more relatable to the populace as I appear now?" His mouth actually moved and was smiling with mellow happiness.
Everypony was too awestruck to speak for a few moments until Airheart broke the silence. "What else can you do!?"
Arceus laughed out loud heartily. "I'll take that a 'yes'."
"Indeed. The Equestrians will certainly feel less....imposed upon by the presence of another alicorn rather than a ten-foot celestial entity, right sister?" Luna asked. However, when she looked up at her sister, she could see that the solar sovereign was just blankly staring at the ponyfied Arceus with her eyes open wider that she'd seen before, and her mouth just barely hanging open. "Sister?"
"Huh!? Wh-What!? O-Oh!! Y-Yes, of course! Th-this is a spectacular look for you, Arceus. Eh, pardon me. I-I just wasn't expecting you to do that. I mean, you spontaneously decided to up and turn yourself into an alicorn, and well....hehehe....." The others could blatantly see Celestia blushing as her eyes went everywhere during her nervous rant in which her voice could be heard shaking. They all held back giggling, namely Luna. "Wh-What? Do I have something on my face?" Celestia started randomly searching her face.
"Regardless. I can't wait for the future, Arceus. I'm so glad I was able to meet you and start such a wonderful friendship." Flurry said
"Ab! Absol!!" Flurry giggled upon seeing her friend share her joy.
"Then let us stop waiting for the future and see it through." Arceus said. They all happily agreed and began arranging a political meeting with the other royals from around the world, one led by a very proud and able Princess of Balance to discuss their new relationship.
As they did, Flurry Heart held back tears of joy as she looked around the room and down at her Absol. Even if it took the reawakening and help of a primal god to truly realize herself, she couldn't have felt more proud and joyful that the future she and everyone hoped for whether they knew it or not was starting to come into fruition... |
Excerpts from a Filthy Diary | pre | "You overpaid for the pocket watch so that Mr. Wheatwagon would have some money to give to Sugarbeet Turniptruck for law school?"
Grandpa smiled at me.
"And to think Miss Cirrus told me ya couldn't be taught," he said.
I flushed angrily. "But if you wanted to help pay for Sugarbeet's college, why didn't you just go give her some money? Why put on a big act and take Mr. Wheatwagon's worthless old watch?"
Grandpa frowned and deflated a bit.
"Maybe Miss Cirrus was right after all," he said.
I stomped a hoof and snorted.
"Oh come on, Grandpa! I got the answer, so now you have to tell me! That's the rule!"
Grandpa sighed.
"Okay, Filthybilly. Fair's fair. Weezer Wheatwagon ain't married, but he always wanted a foal. So when his brother married and his brother's wife had a filly, Weezer absolutely, positively doted on 'er. She's the daughter he ain't never had nor is likely ever gonna have. So when she got her letter from the Canterlot Academy two weeks ago... well, clearly he wanted to do something special for her. That old broken pocket watch may look like a piece of junk to you and me, but to Weezer it's an heirloom. Ya might have noticed how the chain left a mark in the hair at the nape of his neck, or, I dunno, how every time ya'd see him round town prior to the time he walked into our shop today, it was with that pocket watch round his neck."
I flushed again, looking down at my hooves.
Grandpa said, "Ain't nopony gonna give up his family's special treasures unless he's got a good enough reason." He beamed in mock pride. "So, seein' as how I am a clever and observant pony who saw all of this the moment he trotted into our shop..."--Grandpa actually paused to buff his left hoof on his chest before stretching it out before him admiringly--"I figured 'What the hay, why not?' and made him a very happy pony today."
"You still haven't told me..."
"Pride, Filthy," Grandpa interrupted. "Sure, I coulda gave Sugarbeet money for school. But then that woulda come from me. And I coulda gave Weezer some money to give to Sugarbeet. But then it still woulda come from me. But since he was willin' to part with a precious family heirloom to make a heart-felt gift to his niece--Ah! That was my chance. And now, when Weezer gives Sugarbeet that money, it'll come from him."
"Oh," I said.
Grandpa paused, looking at me expectantly. I just stood there, passively looking at my hooves.
"Oh?" he said. "That's it? Jest 'Oh?' No 'Yer so stupid, Grandpa'? No 'Quit spending my inheritance, Grandpa'?"
I ground my teeth together.
"No," I said. "It was a good lesson."
"Huh," Grandpa said.
I forced a smile and walked into the stockroom to retrieve a broom. Bringing it back out onto the store floor, I began to sweep. Grandpa was watching me with narrow eyes. He began to tap his teeth with a hoof absentmindedly.
"Ya feelin' all right, Filthy?" he asked.
I smiled at him and said, "I'm fine, thanks."
"Hmmm," he said. "You know I was just pullin' yer leg about Miss Cirrus, right? She actually says yer a humdinger of a student."
"Yeah, I know." I smiled at him again, somewhat sheepishly. "What're you gonna do with Mr. Wheatwagon's pocket watch now?"
He waved a hoof dismissively. "Hadn't thought that far yet. But I suppose it'd make a good graduation gift for Sugarbeet if I get it fixed and polished up real nice. Hmmm..." He was still watching me out of the corner of his eye.
I continued to sweep, and Grandpa eventually turned to walk into the stockroom.
"Actually..." I began.
Grandpa stopped and walked backward, looking at me sidelong and smiling smugly.
"Yes, Filthy?"
"Um, I was wondering if I could leave the shop a few hours early today."
Grandpa frowned. "Well, o'course, Filthy. Ya spend so much time here anyways. It'll do ya good to get outta the shop. Ain't no customers here right now anyways."
"Thanks, Grandpa."
My sweeping eventually led me around one of the taller shelves. I could hear Grandpa tapping his teeth again.
"But, ah... Bein' the parental figure in our happy relationship, some might say I'm obligated--duty bound even--to ask you where you're gonna go."
I poked my head around the shelf.
"Oh, you know, out," I said.
"Out?"
"With friends."
"With... friends? Ah-huh."
Tap, tap, tap.
I sighed. Might as well get it over with, I thought. There's no getting around this part.
"There was one other thing I wanted to ask you," I said.
"Well then, ask," Grandpa said. He was frowning and peering at me, one elbow on the countertop and one hoof tapping his teeth.
"I was... I was wondering if I could make you an offer on the diamond tiara."
Grandpa seemed to freeze. His eyes darted to the display case containing the jewelry we had for sale. Among the sparkling and glittering items there was a bejeweled tiara, sized right for a filly. Grandpa's eyes darted to me again, then back to the tiara, then back to me. His face went slack and his eyes widened.
"Oh, Filthy, I didn't know. I mean, I guess I've never seen ya walkin' or talkin' with any of the fillies in town, so I guess I shoulda known..."
"Grandpa--"
"And it ain't all that unusual in this modern age, though I hear it's more common in big cities like Manehattan and Las Pegasus..."
"Grandpa--"
"But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. I mean, y'ain't never been able to fit in with the other foals in school..."
"Grandpa!" I shouted.
"Er... yes, Filthy?"
"It ain't fer me!"
"Oh! O'course it ain't, thank god! Er... not that it woulda been a problem if it were fer ya, o'course." Grandpa tittered.
We both stood there in awkward silence, the only sound being the tick-tock of the cuckoo clocks. I hadn't expected that kind of reaction, so it mostly destroyed the series of arguments I had been piecing together all morning. I tried to pull my thoughts together again.
"Um, so," I began. I cleared my throat. "Ah know the list price on it is four hundred bits. And Ah know Ah've only got one hundred and seventy-eight bits saved up. But that tiara's been there for years, and Ah don't think y'all will ever sell it. So, um, if ya sell it to me for one hundred and seventy-eight bits, ya could at least realize some income from it, and ya'd free up valuable display space for inventory that'll sell quicker."
As I laid out my perfectly reasonable arguments to Grandpa, he watched me in silence, his embarrassment giving way to a look of concern. He let my talking die down to the relative silence of the ticking cuckoo clocks before he spoke.
"I dunno, Filthy. One hundred seventy-eight bits is a lot of money. It took ya over a year to save up that much," he said.
"Ah know it is," I said. "And Ah've done a lot of thinking about it. And Ah think it's worth it." I swallowed nervously.
Grandpa was looking at me now with brow furrowed, ears drooped, and lips turned down in a sad frown.
"It's fer that Apple filly, ain't it?"
How did you know? I thought, shocked. I hadn't said a word about this to anypony. It was so frustrating that Grandpa was so good at reading me!
I swallowed again. "Um, her name is Honeycrisp. Ah'm s'posed to meet her at the gazebo at four-thirty."
Grandpa nodded.
"I'm sorry Filthy, but no deal."
I had been somewhat prepared for this. After all, paying one hundred seventy-eight bits for a four hundred bit item was a pretty raw deal for Grandpa.
"Ah know it ain't enough. But, Ah dunno, maybe you could lend me the difference and Ah can pay ya back? Or Ah could work the late shift for the next three months? C'mon, Grandpa, ya gotta cut me a deal!"
Grandpa was just shaking his head.
I didn't want to have to do this, but I did have a plan B.
"Well, how 'bout the ruby anklet then? List on that is one hundred seventy-five."
"Sorry, Filthy," Grandpa said, "But the price on that just went up."
I was beginning to panic.
"Well, how much then? Surely we can make a deal here!"
"You cain't afford it, Filthy."
I stood there for a few moments with my mouth agape. When I tried to say anything, I ended up just stuttering.
Eventually, I was able to form words again. "But... but, how can ya say that?" I exclaimed. I was starting to get angry now, "You jest... you jest gave some stallion seven hundred ninety-five bits for a worthless piece of junk! And now ya won't cut a deal with me, yer own kin? How can ya be so heartless?"
Grandpa, predictably, was starting to react in kind.
"What I do with my money is my own business," he said angrily. "And in my shop I get to decide who I'm gonna do business with, too. And today, that ain't you."
"Well, fine then!" I shouted. "Give me my money and Ah'll go get something from somepony else's shop!"
"No."
"But... it's my money!"
"My shop, my rules. I said no."
"But that's... that's jest not fair!"
"No it ain't," Grandpa agreed.
I was starting to cry now. "But that's jest... horseapples! Yer such a hypocrite, Grandpa! You jest..."
Grandpa's eyes flashed. "Ye'll watch yer language in my shop, Filthy!"
"Yer jest... yer jest a mean old goat, Grandpa! A mean old goat who never wants me to be happy! Ain't ya ever been in love?"
"Confound it, Filthy!" Grandpa slammed a hoof down on the countertop. "Land sakes, I'm tryin' to do ya a favor! Ya want to win the heart of Honeycrisp Apple? Believe me she is not gonna be impressed by how rich ya are!"
"But... but what am Ah s'posed to do with no money?" I could taste salt and snot as the tears ran down my face.
"Bake her a cake. Take her on a picnic. Take a walk with her. Tell her how beautiful her eyes are. Write her a confounded sonnet! You know, do anything that any normal colt would do!"
"But... Ah... Ah..."
"Fine!" Grandpa shouted, throwing open the register and taking out a couple coins. "Ya want to buy yer way into Honeycrisp's heart? Here's two bits. Buy her with that!" He slammed the bits onto the countertop.
"But Ah... Ah jest don't know what to do!"
"Well, " he said, looking pointedly at one of the cuckoo clocks, "ya got two hours and twenty-three minutes. Better think of something quick." ---
The winter sun was a hoof-span over the western horizon, and in the crisp wintery air, the evening sunlight was glittering pink and blue and yellow in the crystalline crust of the snow drifts and branches around the gazebo. In the far distance I could see several pegasus ponies pushing gray clouds about, gathering them into one corner of the sky in preparation for tomorrow's snow shower. I had heard it was going to be a wet mix of snow and rain which would turn this picturesque landscape into slush. But today things looked just perfect.
"If Ah could offer a suggestion," Honeycrisp began.
I turned to look at her, laying down next to me on top of the checkered blanket I had placed under the gazebo. I gingerly spat a cherry stone into my hoof before surreptitiously placing it in the small heap of cherry stones in the snow beside me.
"Mmmm-hmmm?" I said, my tongue searching around in my mouth for more stones.
"Cherries are fine and sweet all on their own, but when ya cook 'em like this, it wouldn't hurt to add a little bit of sugar to the mix to sweeten things up a bit," she said.
I nodded.
"Or maybe ya could make a sweet glaze to pour over these, er... what do ya call 'em?"
"I hadn't really thought of a name yet," I said.
"Well, these deep-fried, cherry... burrito thingies." She took another bite of hers. "Pretty good idea, anyway," she said, smacking her lips.
The truth was that by the time I had cleaned myself up a little and made it to the market with my two bits, all but two of the vendors had already packed up and left for the day. One of them was selling the early crop of Dodge Junction cherries. The other had a stack of tortillas. This close to the end of the market, it wasn't hard to talk them down a bit on price.
"Yeah," I said. "I'm afraid I don't know much about baking. This was just sort of an idea I came up with, last minute and all."
"Well, Ah'd be happy to show ya a thing or two," Honeycrisp said, smiling. "My ma makes the best apple pie you'll ever taste this side of the Maresouri. She's been teaching me how to make apple fritters, and apple cobbler, and all manner of dee-licious apple desserts."
"If you don't mind, I think I'd like that," I said.
"Of course, Filthy! It'd be my pleasure. Why don't ya come home with me tomorrow after school, and I can show ya how to make cupcakes? If, er... yer grandpa is okay with that."
"Oh, I think he'll be just fine running the store by himself for a while," I said with just a hint of bitterness.
"Well, all right, then." Honeycrisp smiled.
We fell silent then, quietly chewing as we watched the sun slowly descend in the sky. Several pegasus ponies were pushing a huge heap of a cloud together in the distance. As it came together with the other mass of clouds, it blocked the sun from our view, dulling the landscape in muted gray. I heard a soft crunch as Honeycrisp bit down on a cherry stone.
"Erm," she said. "Might wanna take the pits out next time, too."
I must have looked crestfallen.
Honeycrisp looked at me sympathetically and quickly added, "Of course, if ya had, then I wouldn'ta been able to show ya this."
She stood up and fixed her gaze on a snow-laden branch about twenty yards away. Then she reared back slightly before throwing her head forward and spitting a cherry stone with a great "ptooie."
The stone shot through the air and hit the branch with a loud crack. A moment later all the snow on the branch plopped softly to the ground.
I laughed. "That's pretty good, Honeycrisp!"
"My pa holds the record for long-distance precision apple seed spittin' in the county fair," she said, beaming. "He's been teachin' me how to do that."
All at once the sun descended into the gap between the horizon and the cloud bank the pegasi were constructing. The underside of the clouds lit up in streaks of red, pink and orange while the crusty snow drifts once again burst with glittering color all around us.
"Ah gotta give it to ya," Honeycrisp whispered, gazing at the brilliant sunset. "Ya sure did pick a nice spot for this picnic."
Now would have been the perfect moment to unveil the diamond tiara. The twilight rays of the sun would have been caught in the gemstones' facets just right. But since I'd been robbed of that option...
I cleared my throat and said, "Your eyes are like the blue, blue sky. Your voice as sweet as an apple pie."
"Why thank ya kindly," Honeycrisp interrupted, turning to look at me. "That's a real nice thing for ya to say, Filthy! Ah like yer eyes, too. And the way ya groom yer mane."
I blushed, releasing the breath I had taken to say the next line. I was actually somewhat glad for the interruption. I'd only been able to think of three lines for the sonnet so far, and one of them didn't even rhyme.
"Yer jest," I said, "um, really, really pretty Honeycrisp."
"Shucks, Filthy."
Now she was blushing, rubbing one hoof with another absentmindedly. I tried to think of something else to say, but was coming up blank. So we simply stood there for a while, both of us blushing at each other as the twilight began to fade.
"Listen, Filthy," Honeycrisp said, breaking the silence. "It's startin' to get late, and my ma's gonna be all kinds of upset if Ah don't get back home soon."
"Wait, Honeycrisp!" I hoped I didn't sound too desperate. "Before ya go. There's, er... there's something Ah wanted to ask ya."
"Yes." It was a statement, not a question.
"Er, pardon?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "You wanna know whether Ah'll be yer very special somepony for Hearts and Hooves Day, right?"
"Ah, yes. Yes! Er... really? Y'all will be my very special somepony?" My smile must have been a mile wide.
"Jest fer Hearts and Hooves day," she said, blushing again. "Then Ah guess we'll see what happens after that."
"But how did ya know?" I asked.
Honeycrisp made a sweeping gesture at the blanket, the gazebo and the sun just as the last sliver of light peeked over the horizon.
"Well, ya ain't exactly been subtle about it," she said, grinning. ---
As we crunched our way back up through the snow on the road toward Sweet Apple Acres, Honeycrisp bumped her flank into mine conspiratorially.
"Ya know," she said, "for a while there Ah was afraid ya'd do something silly, like tryin' to give me a gold necklace or something."
"Haha!" I tittered, my cheeks burning. "Imagine that!"
"But Ah really liked those deep-fried cherry burrito thingies ya made."
"Really?"
"Yer all right, Filthy Rich." |
Excerpts from a Filthy Diary | Chapter 4: The Rich Debt | Excerpts from a Filthy Diary
Chapter 4: The Rich Debt
by SR Foxey
(With thanks to the pre-reading / proofreading abilities of Letedwend)
=============
December 24, 968
It's Hearth's Warming Eve! A couple weeks ago Honeycrisp got picked to play Smart Cookie in the pageant tonight, and I'm helping out backstage. I can hardly wait, I'm so excited!
Also, the old goat, a.k.a. Grandpa Stinking, is finally letting me go and buy something expensive for Honeycrisp for the holiday. I'm gonna knock her shoes off!
And that's not even the best part. I got my acceptance letter from Manehattan U today! College, here I come!
Could this day be any more awesome? ---
I was standing behind the curtain, stage right, doing my best not to slip or let go of the rope I was holding in my mouth as the cast of the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant finished singing the closing hymn with the audience. It had been a good show. Nearly three hundred Ponyville residents had shown up and judging by the enthusiastic way the audience was singing along, most of them had been moved by the performance.
I had managed to weasel my way into the production as the "prop pony"--a role for which I was totally unqualified, but one they'd reluctantly agreed to give me after my insistent begging, and after nopony else volunteered. Of course many of the town residents were enthusiastic enough about putting on the production, but as small a town as Ponyville was back then, it could sometimes be difficult to pull together enough ponies to put on the show properly. Also, being a town founded by earth ponies, we non-magical and flightless folk still made up the majority of the population. In the past the show organizers have had to use earth ponies in roles which should have been filled by unicorns or pegasi.
In a big Canterlot production of the pageant, the talented unicorn they were able to get to play the role of Clover the Clever would reproduce the Windigo banishment spell during the final climactic scene. This would light up a beacon over the whole city that could be seen all night as far away as Ponyville. Here in Ponyville, however, we were lucky enough this year that Prissy Pants had just enough magical levitation ability to lift a big, wooden heart while making it glow with her pinkish magical aura--with help, anyway.
The problem was that in the excitement of the closing hymn and final curtain call, Prissy had forgotten to continue assisting me in keeping the prop aloft. It also didn't help that I had forgotten to tie off the rope securing the prop. Weeks before, I had constructed it with the help of Big Green Apple out of some old wooden beams left over from a recent minor remodel of the Apples' old barn. It was a simple thing for him to carry it to the Ponyville amphitheater on his back, but it actually weighed almost as much as I did.
I could feel myself starting to slide forward as the applause of the audience finally began to die down, which was my cue to lower the curtain. I kicked at the knot holding the curtain in place, and in the blink of an eye, the rope securing the curtain wrapped itself around my right hind hoof. I had just enough time to think, Oh, ponyfeathers! before I was thrown off my hooves and into the air.
The curtain came down and I went up, striking the massive heart-shaped prop halfway. This knocked the rope out of my mouth and the curtain rope off my hind hoof, and suddenly I was heading downward again. The curtain had just closed when the prop struck the stage with a loud crash and splintering of wood. A split second later I landed in a heap on top of the prop. I gasped for breath as the world seemed to spin around me.
"Are y'all okay, sugar cube?" It was Honeycrisp's voice, though I was having trouble focusing on her at present.
I shook my head and tried blinking my eyes a few times to clear the double vision. I could vaguely see Honeycrisp standing before me dressed up to look like Smart Cookie, whose part she had just finished performing in the play.
"Yeah, I think so," I said.
"Gosh Filthy!" said Prissy. "What happened?"
I blinked once more and was able to finally focus. Judging from where I was lying on top of the broken prop, I had missed the row of actresses by mere hoof-spans. I could also see Prissy's father--who also happened to to be the caretaker of this amphitheater--glaring at me from offstage.
"I... just don't know what went wrong!" I lied.
"Hey!" Mr. Pants quietly insisted. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Daddy!" exclaimed Prissy, a harsh tone in her voice.
"Sorry, sir," I said.
"Don't worry, Mr. Pants," said Honeycrisp. "My pa'll get it fixed up right proper this time next week."
"See that he does," he muttered before pushing his way through the curtain. I could hear him tell the audience that the noise they had heard was nothing to be concerned about.
Honeycrisp and Prissy helped me to my hooves.
"Are ya sure yer okay?" asked Honeycrisp.
I was giggling, suddenly giddy that I had narrowly avoided causing serious injury to myself or anypony else this evening. It wasn't that I was especially clumsy, per se--after all, I routinely cleaned and restocked the delicate items for sale at Grandpa's shop--it was more that I was especially clumsy around her.
"Yeah," I said, laughing. "Better to break the stage than a leg, I guess. Didn't Mr. Pants say the stage could really use a trap door? I guess it'll have to be heart-shaped, but I'm sure we'll figure it out."
Honeycrisp snorted, smiling.
Prissy huffed. "I don't think that was very funny, Filthy Rich," she said before turning to stalk off the stage.
Honeycrisp slapped me with her tail. "That tongue of yers is gonna get ya into some serious hot water someday," she said, still smiling.
Of course, she was the only reason I had had any interest in participating in the production in the first place. Constructing props and following cues during a performance required a level of skill, coordination, physical strength and resourcefulness that seemed to be incompatible with my very essence--as I had proved on numerous occasions at Sweet Apple Acres over the last year.
Things had gone well after Hearts and Hooves Day between Honeycrisp and me, at least on the level of very special someponies. We were as different as two ponies could be, but maybe that's why we were so attracted to each other. Or at least that's what I told myself. In truth, I was so enamored with Honeycrisp that I wanted to be a part of her life in any way I could, and she seemed to enjoy the attention in her own cutely demure way.
In my efforts to ingratiate myself with the Apple family, I had tried learning baking from Granny Smith, but except for one successful batch of cinnamon apple toast, I could tell all the fritters, pies, and even caramel apples I had made were eaten slowly and graciously in my presence and then thrown away discreetly after I left. I had tried helping Big Green harvest apples, but when I ended up in the river after trying to pull one particularly laden cart, nearly drowning and losing both apples and cart in the process, I felt it was best for me to just stay out of his way. However, I persisted, and eventually I arrived at a mutual, unspoken understanding with Honeycrisp's parents: I would be allowed to sweep and clean and perform other smaller tasks unlikely to result in a bigger mess than I had started with, and they would tolerate me being around and occasionally going on walks with and spouting horribly hackneyed poetry at their daughter. After several months of this, they almost seemed to enjoy my presence and clumsy attempts at being useful.
I never did admit to Grandpa that he'd been right to prevent me from spending all my money in a vain attempt to impress Honeycrisp. It took me weeks to realize this myself, even, so by the time I did understand that showing off my wealth was probably the one certain way to attract the ire of a filly and her family who did struggle with money and valued honest hard work and perseverance above all, I was so invested in the idea that Grandpa was a miserly old goat that I couldn't bring myself to admit my mistake to him, let alone thank him for looking out for my best interests in spite of myself. But tensions between us had relaxed over the last several months and we were once again as agreeable around each other as we ever were. More so than before, even--having a love interest in my life probably made me a lot more tolerable to be around.
He was still wary about how I spent money, though. When things weren't going well between Honeycrisp and me, I was sorely tempted to try to make up for it with an expensive gift. Grandpa was frustratingly often the voice of reason, in his cantankerous way.
That holiday season though, a gamble Grandpa had made in funding a clock-maker friend of his to develop his new toy train idea and bring it to market had paid off in spades when he got the exclusive right to sell them in his store that year, and the clockwork toy trains ended up being so popular that we could hardly keep them on the shelves. We even had rich ponies coming from as far as Canterlot to pick up a set! We made so much money in so little time that, in my begging and pleading, I was finally able to convince Grandpa to let me splurge a little.
After all, I had argued. It's Hearth's Warming, and we've made so much this year--it'd be selfish not to share some of our good fortune!
I could see Grandpa hesitate, about to tell me "no" once again. But instead he stopped and looked at me with a strange expression I didn't recognize.
He chuckled and said, Well I'll be, Filthy. It ain't every day ya say something that shows ya can use yer brain fer something other than stopping the wind whistlin' between yer ears. Yer right. Why don't ya go buy Honeycrisp something nice? He frowned and added quickly, But not too nice. No jewelry.
Presently the cast and I were just finishing cleaning up the stage, putting away the props and stowing the costumes. The cracked floorboards were a mess, and I wasn't relishing the idea of asking Big Green to come and help me fix the stage. Though he had been rather antsy since the harvest had ended, and there was little to do but wait for Winter Wrap Up at the start of spring.
Looking around, I spotted Honeycrisp standing with the rest of her family as she and some of the other cast members prepared to head over to Sugar Cube Corner for the after-show party. I could see her scanning the dwindling audience as I trotted up with my saddle bag.
"Where's yer grandpa, Filthy?" she asked. "Is he plannin' on comin' to the party tonight, too?"
"He stayed home sick," I said. Then when she looked at me worriedly, I added, "Oh, but he didn't look that sick. I think it must have been those fermented oats he sometimes has for lunch. He was fine all day until a few minutes before we were going to leave, then he told me last minute he'd have to miss the show."
"Aw, shucks! Ain't that a shame! Ya think we oughtta stop by and see how he's doing?"
"I'm sure he'll be fine," I said. "It'd probably be better to let him get some bed rest anyway. Besides, we wouldn't want to be late for the party, right?"
"If ya say so."
I smiled at her and said, "But before we head over there, I have a little surprise for you." I set my saddle bag down and pulled out the fresh bouquet of flowers I'd purchased earlier that afternoon.
"Oh, Filthy!" Honeycrisp said. "Hibiscus, this time of year? Where on earth did ya find them?"
I set the flowers down, beaming. "You know Sweet Blossom?"
Honeycrisp nodded.
"Well," I said. "You know how she's been experimenting growing flowers out of season in glass houses using unicorn magic?"
She looked shocked. "Ya didn't just go and take 'em, did ya?"
"Yes! Er... No!" I frowned. "Of course not, Honey! She sold some to me." I was a little offended at the assumption and was starting to worry about how this could be going sideways. Wasn't she supposed to swoon or something?
She looked back at the flowers, brow furrowed. "They musta been expensive," she said.
I sighed. "Well, yes they were a little expensive, but you did so well in the pageant, and it is Hearth's Warming Eve, after all. And... I mean, this is an okay gift, right?" I scratched at the back of my neck with one hoof.
Honeycrisp looked up at me, smiling gently. She threw her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek.
"Ah think it's a real nice present, Filthy," she said.
I blushed and nearly swooned.
"Girls!" Honeycrisp practically shouted in my ear, snapping me out of it. "Look what Silly Filthybilly brought us!" She picked up the bouquet and trotted over to where the other cast members were standing.
I rolled my eyes, smiling. ---
As we walked toward Sugar Cube Corner, I stopped to look at the heart-shaped magical beacon that had appeared over Canterlot. Honeycrisp stopped next to me. We stood there for a while, letting the others go on ahead while we gazed at the pink and purple twinkling glow over that city in the distance.
"You know," I said.
"Hmmm?" Honeycrisp mumbled. Her breath still smelled like the sweet hibiscus bloom she'd shared with me.
"There was one other surprise I had for you tonight," I said.
"What's that?"
"Well," I said, looking down and shuffling my hooves, trying to make the moment last longer, "I got a letter today."
Honeycrisp waited for me to say something else. When I didn't, she turned away from the distant twinkling beacon to look at me.
"And?" she said.
"And it was from Manehattan," I said, smiling at her.
A brief hesitation and look of confusion, then her eyes went wide.
"From the University? Ya got in?" Honeycrisp said.
I grinned. "Uh-huh."
She looked ecstatic. Rearing, she shouted, "Yee-haw, Filthy! That's jest, er..." Her expression darkened for a moment as her forehooves came back down to the earth. She looked up at me, smiling again as if nothing had changed. "That's jest wonderful, Filthy! Ah'm so happy for you!"
Of course I barreled on. I was too excited not to.
"Isn't it just awesome? I mean, I sent in the papers by the early admission deadline, but I hadn't expected to hear back until after the new year. I'm in, Honey! Next fall I'll be a brand new undergraduate student at Manehatten U! There was even a note in there from the dean of the school of business saying how he's looking forward to my arrival on campus. Can you imagine that? The dean! And I'm not even a student there yet! And Manehattan--just wow! It's the business center of all of Equestria! It's where all the big players are and where all the big deals happen!"
"Sounds like yer gonna fit right in there," Honeycrisp said.
I began to pace back and forth in front of Honeycrisp. "I just can't wait! Don't you see? This is my chance to finally prove myself! And maybe even start over. I mean,"--I stopped, shuddering at the thought--"I mean, if I introduced myself as 'Rich' to them, that's what they'd call me, right? I could be 'Mr. Rich' or just 'Rich.' Lots of ponies go by just their last name, right?"
"Ah... er," Honeycrisp said. "Ah didn't know callin' ya 'Filthy' bothered ya so much. Ah could call ya 'Rich' if ya want, too."
I could hear a tremor in her voice. Looking up, I finally saw the expression on her face. She was trying so hard to look happy.
Oops, I thought, Filthy, you're such an idiot.
"N-no," I stammered. "No, I don't mind when you call me 'Filthy,' Honey. I mean, with you, I know you don't mean anything bad with it." I smiled sheepishly.
"Yer jest sayin' that to be nice," she said. "O'course ya don't like a name like 'Filthy'--"
"No!" I interrupted. I sat and picked up her hoof in mine. "I mean, I really like it when you call me 'Filthy.' Or 'Silly Filthybilly.'" I smiled, scrunching up my lips. "Or 'Filthybilly-Wiggle-Bottom.'"
She looked up at me, smiling tentatively. "Ya really mean that?"
"Of course I do, Honeycrispy-Biscuits-And-Gravy-Lips,"
Honeycrispy-Biscuits-And-Gravy-Lips laughed and playfully slapped me with her tail.
"Stop it, Filthy! My ma might hear ya!" Honeycrisp was genuinely smiling again.
I raised my eyebrows. "'Stop it'...?"
She blushed. "Silly Filthybilly-McLong-Willy," she whispered.
I smiled and gave her a peck on the nose. Mmmm... hibiscus.
"Look," I said. "I'm really going to miss Ponyville."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, maybe not Ponyville. But I'm really going to miss you, Honey. It's... well, it's really the only downside to this whole deal."
"Yeah, Ah know," she said. "Ah'm really gonna miss ya too. So will my folks."
I chuckled. "Well, maybe they'll miss cleaning up after me," I said.
"Ah jest... Well, Ah almost hoped ya wouldn't get in, jest so ya'd still be here," she admitted.
I smiled sheepishly. "It's not gonna be so bad," I said. "Manehattan is only a day's train ride away, and I'll come home as often as I can. And it's just four years. Maybe I can do it in three if I work real hard. Then I promise I'll come back."
She sighed, looking down at her hooves, still trying to maintain a smile of sorts.
"Besides," I said, "we've still got about eight months of seeing each other almost every day before I head out. I'm sure that'll be enough time for us to get sick of each other and never want to see each other again."
She smiled at me, a little more genuine this time. "Ah could always push ya into a mud puddle again, if that'd help."
"I'll make you a deal," I said. "I'll promise to send you a letter every week I'm away, if you'll promise to send me one every week as well."
"Ya sure about that? I ain't that keen on writin', and it ain't like much changes here on the farm anyhow. Ya'd be readin' about feedin' the hogs, fixin' the barn, and apple buckin' nearly every week."
I made a mock frown and tapped my teeth with a hoof. "Hmmm... ya drive a hard bargain, sillyfilly," I said in my best 'Grandpa.' "How's about I throw in a telegram every other Tuesday to sweeten the deal a bit, hmmm? What do ya say to that, ya young whippersnapper?"
Honeycrisp laughed. "All right then, deal!" She spat in her hoof and held it out to me.
I gave her a big hug.
"You know I really love you, right Honeycrisp?"
"Ah love ya too, Silly Filthybilly."
We stayed that way for nearly a minute. I could see the heart-shaped beacon over Canterlot still twinkling. Honeycrisp's neck felt warm against mine and I could feel her trembling slightly in the winter chill. It felt so good to be this close to her.
"Er... we'd better catch up with the others," Honeycrisp said, "or else they might think we're makin' out."
"What, again?" I looked in the direction the others had headed. "We've probably only got about five minutes before they notice we're gone. But since you insist, I guess we'd better get started if we really want to give them something to talk about."
Honeycrisp laughed. "C'mon, Filthy!" she called as she trotted out in front of me. ---
I was happily humming the tune of the Heart Carol to myself as I made my way home from the after-show party. I wasn't exactly traveling in a straight line--not that I was completely drunk, but I certainly had a nice warm buzz going on and didn't really feel the need to rush, despite my breath making little clouds in the wintry air. Big Green had brought a pony keg of his Apple Family Special Reserve Aged Cider along to share with the cast members and their families. While most of the ponies there were adults, it couldn't be helped if somepony accidentally spilled three and a half mugs plus the last bit of sputtering foam from the keg into the community punch bowl. I have no idea who had done that anyway. Besides, it was irresponsible of them to have put both beverage dispensers so close to each other; and most ponies know I can be a little accident-prone at times.
As I approached our store, I was surprised to see light coming from Grandpa's bedroom window upstairs. The old codger usually went to be early on most nights and tonight he was supposed to have been sick. When I entered our upstairs apartment, I was even more surprised to hear him singing. Grandpa had never sounded this happy!
"...We are a circle of pony friends, A circle of friends we'll be to the very end," I sang in unison with Grandpa as I entered his room. I laughed and Grandpa smiled.
"Well, you sure seem to be feeling better," I said.
"Yeah," he replied. "Musta been a one hour flu."
"Or maybe you should stop eating those horrid fermented oats for lunch."
I watched him for a few moments as he straightened the vest he'd just taken off and practically bounced into his closet to hang it up.
"So, you went out then?" I asked.
"Jest fer a... er... quick stroll 'round town."
"And you didn't stop by the party? Granny Smith was asking after you."
"No, I had some things I needed to take care of," he said.
I thought about saying goodnight and leaving. But given that he was in such a good mood, and I was feeling adventurous anyway...
"Ok, Grandpa," I said, "I'll bite. What in Equestria has gotten into you this evening? And what was so important that you had to miss the pageant and the party afterward?"
Grandpa stopped fiddling with one of the buttons on his spats to look up at me. Was he... blushing?
"Oh, it's... er... nothin'," he said, avoiding eye-contact.
Despite the buzz I was feeling, my mind raced through the options. Then it occurred to me.
"All right," I said. "Who is she?"
Momentary confusion passed across Grandpa's features.
"What? Er... no, Filthy. It ain't a mare."
"Well, then what's got you acting like a school filly on her first Hearts and Hooves Day?"
"Well," he said, "I guess ya could say I went out to go pay a debt."
I laughed. "Don't be silly, Grandpa. Everypony knows you don't owe any money to anypony. It's the other way around! And even if you were paying a debt, why would that make you so happy?"
He sighed. "Well, I guess I was gonna have to tell ya sometime soon anyhow," he said.
I looked sidelong at Grandpa, cocking my head to one side. He looked at me with a sheepish half smile, coming down from his boisterousness a bit.
"Filthybilly," he said. "I jest gave away most of our profits from the sales of Tinker's new toy trains."
I froze for a moment and then started smiling.
"Good one, Grandpa!" I said, laughing. "You almost got me with that one!"
He continued to stand there, now staring at me soberly.
"Wait, you aren't kidding, are you?" I said.
"Well, we didn't need it," he said. "We've always gotten along jest fine with our normal sales this time of year. And this year we ended up making a lot more than ever."
This couldn't be happening. Ever since coming to Ponyville, I'd only ever had one really big desire--to go to a prestigious college so that I could get out of this two-pony town and start living my life as it was meant to be. When the sales started rolling in early this holiday season, I'd dared to hope that we might have enough to put me through one of the best universities in all of Equestria. I'd discussed it with Grandpa and he agreed that I ought to apply. I'd just gotten the acceptance letter that afternoon... and now Grandpa had thrown it all away. There was just no way we'd be able to pay the tuition now, let alone room and board! Manehattan was a very expensive city to live in. I'd have to write them back and decline the admission offer. I'd have to go back to the drawing board and see if there was another school we could actually afford to send me to. But nothing was going to compare to Manehattan U! Nothing! I'd had my dream and now I was watching it splinter and break in front of me. And it was all Grandpa's fault! Everything had been going my way until he just had to pull one of his idiotic shenanigans again. I was going to be stuck here forever! I was forever going to be known as--
"Filthy!" Grandpa was standing over me with a hoof on my head. "Ya got to breathe, son!"
I gasped and looked up at him. I could feel the anger rising in my belly. I slapped his hoof away.
"Of all the hare brained, completely moronic, idiotic... Augh! Grandpa, what were ya thinkin'? Ya've done some really stupid things, but nothing, and Ah mean nothing compares to this!"
"Ya might be surprised," he muttered.
"Ah... Ah needed that money, Grandpa!" I shouted. "Ah mean, how'm Ah gonna pay for college now?"
"Part time job, maybe?" Grandpa said.
"Part time...? Is this a joke to ya? Y'all think this is funny? Ah jest... how could... who did..."
"It's all right," Grandpa said. "Get it out of yer system."
"It's all horseapples, Grandpa!" I shouted. "The way ya always give money to ponies ya think need it, and then don't let me spend my own how Ah want to. A pony ought to be able to enjoy his hard earned bits however he pleases! And y'all should be lookin' out for yer kin! How could ya not know that Ah'd need that money for school? Ah cain't wait until Ah'm out of this house and livin' far, far away from horseapples Ponyville and horseapples you!"
Grandpa winced, but said nothing. After a few moments of this, I huffed and turned to leave his room.
"Would it help..." Grandpa began.
I stopped.
"Would it help if I told ya that ya still get to go to college, to Manehattan Univerisity?" he said.
I turned to look at him.
"We cain't afford it, Grandpa. Not now, anyway," I said.
"Well, what if I told ya we can?"
"Then Ah'd say yer a liar," I said, and started to turn toward the door again.
"I'll make a solemn promise to ya," said Grandpa, rubbing one eye with a hoof, "that I will pay for yer college education, and the room and board, too."
I sighed and turned around to face him again. "Yer serious? Ya'd really make that promise to me?" I said.
Grandpa smiled, and spread his arms wide. "Come on, Filthy! Ya know me! Ya know I'd sooner have my heart cut out or be flung from the tallest tower in Canterlot a'fore I'd break that kind of promise to ya!"
I was beginning to feel a hint of guilt at the back of my mind. But still... "Look, wantin' to do somethin' ain't the same as bein' able to do it. Y'all just gave away most of our money. How can ya afford it, now?"
"Ya think that money is the same thing as wealth," he said sadly. "I've got friends, Filthy. And nearly everypony this side of the Maresouri--not to mention a fair number on the other side--owes me a favor. If I had to, I could get enough money to buy all of Ponyville."
I could feel my cheeks burning as I sat down and stared at my hooves. I wanted to crawl under a rock.
"B'sides," he continued. "I said I gave away most of the profits. Not all of them."
"Oh," I said.
We sat there for a few moments in silence, then something else occurred to me.
"But wait, if ya knew ya could afford it, why did ya let me go on thinkin' Ah wasn't going to college anymore?" I said. Then, as I remembered some of the things I had shouted, I winced. "And... er... why ain't ya yellin' at me right now?"
Grandpa sighed and looked out the window. "Well, I ain't rightly clear on that myself," he said. "I guess, what with yer acceptance letter coming in today, I started thinking and realized that real soon I ain't gonna be a part of yer life no more. Not the way it's been since yer pa died, anyhow. And I needed to see something." He sighed and glanced in my direction, frowning. "Not about you, per se... but more about me."
As I watched Grandpa, I could see tears welling up in his eyes.
"I'm so sorry, Filthy. There's so much ya don't know, and I ain't taught ya yet. I jest..." He turned away from me to wipe his eyes. "Well, I guess it always felt like there'd be more time. A'fore today, anyhow. And as fer not yellin' at ya..." He frowned at me and sniffed. "Not that ya don't deserve it, but I guess I figured that I never seemed to get through to ya by yellin' at ya, so I thought I'd try listenin' for a change."
I didn't know what to say to that. This was a side of Grandpa that I'd never seen before. So I just kept my mouth shut and continued to watch and listen.
He sighed and continued, "That's a lesson I was reminded of today, actually. Y'see, there's this little filly at the Ponyville Hospital. She's real sick, though ya'd not guess it by lookin' at her. She's five years old, and might not live long enough to see her sixth birthday. But what really got me--she knows it! Nopony has told her, o'course. But she said to me, 'You can learn a lot if you listen real good.' No five year old pony ought to think she's gonna die."
I cleared my throat. "That's where ya went, then? To go visit this little filly?"
"It's one of the places I went. The other two..." He looked out the window again. "Well, those families have probably found the buckets of bits I left them by now."
I blinked. "You... left them literal buckets filled with bits?"
"On their doorsteps."
I shook my head, confused. "But why go to the trouble to wait until they're away? Why not just give them money like Ah've seen ya do for other folks?"
Grandpa turned to look at me, eyebrow raised. I could almost hear him say, Gee, Filthy, what is it ya keep inside yer head where the rest of us have our brains? But apparently he wasn't in the mood for snide comments. It was good to see a little of the old Grandpa again, though.
"Well, ya've got to at least try to do it anonymously," he said, "or they might try to give it back. And if ya want to talk about the second most uncomfortable conversation ya can ever have, try giving charity to some proud pony who don't think he needs it."
"They're gonna know who done it," I said.
"Maybe so," Grandpa conceded smiling. "But at least this way I can deny it up and down if they do try to give it back. Plus, they don't usually guess who done it, or at least have the good graces to act like they don't."
It made sense, in the inescapable and unabashed way my grandpa felt justified in manipulating ponies. He'd do them good whether or not they wanted him to. I wasn't sure whether Grandpa enjoyed did this sort of thing so he could be smug about it when nopony was watching, or whether there was something else there I just didn't understand. In any case, whenever he did anything like this he always seemed very happy. Speaking of which...
"Ya seemed awfully chipper when Ah got home, for having spent the evening with a dying little filly," I said.
Grandpa actually chuckled a little. "That's jest it, Filthy. She might not die!"
I cocked my head to one side. "But y'all said..."
"I know what I said," said Grandpa. "But ya ain't rightly listenin'. She's in the hospital because she's real sick. But there's a treatment for her disease. There're unicorns in Fillydelphia at the Foals' Medical Center there that have been doin' some amazing work, things that jest weren't possible when I was a colt. It's risky, and might not work, but there's a chance. It's just that... the treatment takes months, and her ma and pa would need to be there with her the whole time. They wouldn't rightly be able to work, and bein' in a new city like that, they'd just not be able to afford it."
"...until now," I said.
Grandpa smiled, pleased that I now understood and that he'd been able to teach me yet another lesson. "It was so easy, Filthy! There's hope now. Real, honest and true hope. And all it took was a little money."
I looked down at my hooves again. "Well, not a little money," I said.
Grandpa just shook his head and rolled his eyes, smiling.
It was a lot to take in. My concerns seemed so petty in comparison to what I'd just been told. Get out of Ponyville? Go to college? I'd have found a way even if we hadn't made all that money this holiday season, and even if Grandpa wasn't willing to pay for it. I'd been so caught up in my own manufactured misery, my own frustrations that I'd forgotten there are ponies right in our own neighborhood with real problems. Grandpa may have helped save a life today, and there I had been, shouting at him.
"Listen, Grandpa, Ah... Ah'm sorry--" I began, my voice quavering.
"It's all right," interrupted Grandpa. "Ya didn't know. Ya couldn't've known. And although I know I just said giving money like that was so easy... well, it ain't. Not at first, anyway. I wasn't always the pony ya've known for the last few years, and it ain't fair of me to expect ya to understand all of this, especially at yer age."
I looked down at my hooves again, not sure what to say.
"But that don't excuse the fact that I've been remiss in my duties," he said. "Ya don't know enough, Filthy, and yer about to go and face a big world with lots of ideas about right and wrong and who ya ought to be. So... I need to start makin' up for that. And I'm gonna start by teachin' ya another lesson tonight. It's the one I've been tryin' to show ya for years. It's one of the greatest and hardest lessons ya might ever learn. And although I can teach it to ya, ya won't really understand it tonight."
I sniffed. "What's that?"
Grandpa walked up next to me and pointed a hoof at my flank.
"Ya see this here?" he said.
"My cutie mark?"
"We don't get these jest because we want 'em. And we don't always understand their true meaning at first. Yer cutie mark says somethin' about ya, Filthy--about who ya are and what ya can be. I don't rightly know exactly what yers means, and I don't think ya do neither. But I think I could wager a guess or two.
"Yer gonna be rich, Filthy. Way, way richer than I've ever been. But wealth comes with a price.
"Ya see," he said, "our family owes a debt. It ain't a debt to anypony. It's a debt to everypony. And it ain't because we borrowed money, or hurt anypony. It's because we were lucky enough to be who we are, to live where we live, and to get given what we got.
"We live in Ponyville. But Ponyville ain't just a town, it's a community. And community means we care about each other and help each other, and do our darndest to make sure nopony gets left behind. We're Rich, Filthy. Not because we deserved it or because we worked harder or smarter than anypony else. It's because we're lucky, plain and simple. And that means our job in this community is to give a few bits to whoever needs it whenever we can.
"It ain't easy. And sometimes someponies will see just how much money we've got and become envious and hate us for it. They might even try to steal from us or hurt us. But ya've got to learn to look past all that and keep paying our family debt.
"Now, when ya start to get rich, yer gonna have a choice. Ya can either choose to pay this debt, in which case ye'll start to understand what true wealth is and what true friendship is. Or ya can choose not to, and in the end, ye'll learn that money... is jest money.
"I'm proud of ya, Filthy. I know I don't always show it. But I can see ya got a good heart in ya. And that's why I believe ye'll do jest fine."
I was silent for a long time, thinking about what Grandpa had just said. I sank to the floor. It was all so overwhelming.
"Ah... Ah don't know if Ah can do this," I said.
Grandpa smiled and put his hoof back on my head, ruffling my mane. "Well, of course ya cain't!" he said. "Not right now, anyway. I just put the yoke of the world around yer neck, Filthy. It's gonna take time before ya learn how to pull. Jest remember this: Yer jest one little earth pony, and no one pony can pull the whole world. Nopony is expectin' ya to do more than yer able."
He smiled and stepped over to his dresser, fiddling with one of the buttons on his spats again. "And there's somethin' else I ain't told ya: Sometimes I cain't do it neither. This ain't easy, but it is always worth it." He paused and sighed, looking at me sidelong. "Anyway, if ya want to choose to pay our family debt," he said, "then the first step is to learn to love ponies more than money."
I was still reeling on the floor. There was something about the elderly pony standing before me. He was something... different than what he appeared to be. I saw simultaneously my grandpa and some stranger, wearing my grandpa's skin, looking back at me.
And what he had said... He was right: I didn't understand. A family debt? And just because we were rich? It didn't make much sense to me, but I could tell these were his most precious words of wisdom, so I was reluctant to question him. But there was something missing, wasn't there? I could feel it but not quite put my hoof on it; something he wasn't telling me about all this.
"Now," he said, returning to the dresser. "I think that's jest about enough of that kind of talk for this evening, don't ya? How did Honeycrisp like the flowers ya bought her?"
I looked at him from where I lay on the floor--that silly old goat that was my grandpa and the stranger. I cleared my throat. "She liked them fine," I said. They were actually her favorite, and I knew it. "We ended up sharing them with the whole cast."
"That's good. I'm sure she was right pretty in the play, too?"
I murmured in agreement. The only sound was the slight whisper of cloth as he finished taking off his spats.
He said, "There's a pot of cider on the stove. Should still be warm. Why don't ya go and pour me a mug?"
I got up and walked slowly to the door.
"Grandpa, does this change things?" I said. "Between y'all and me, Ah mean."
"Well, I hope it does," he said.
"Oh."
There was a pause, then Grandpa said, "But if ya think this means I'm gonna let ya off easy, now that yer all high and mighty and full of respectable ideals, or not point out each and every time yer using yer head like a big bowl of pudding, ya got another thing comin'!"
There was the Grandpa I knew! A wave of relief washed over me.
I smiled and said, "Ah'll go get that cider now."
As I opened the door he said, "Filthy?"
"Hmmm?"
"Happy Hearth's Warming Eve."
"Happy Hearth's Warming Eve to you, too, Grandpa." |
Aslumber (Sanquil Version) | pre | "Twilight," Luna called as Twilight Sparkle retreated back downstairs, "I have an idea that might cut the time it takes to defeat the King by half, if you're willing."
"What is your idea, Princess Luna?" Twilight responded a few seconds later, obviously interested. "If it is within my capability, I will do most anything to help the ponies from Equestria from this menace."
Looking a little saddened at how Dream Weaver was described, she elaborated on her plan. "It would require me to teach you how to cast two spells, both of which only two ponies in the world are capable of casting: Myself, and the Dream King. Are you up to it?"
Stirring, Dream Weaver finally got around to opening his eyes, drinking in the sight of his bedroom, relieved to have visible things within sight after his link dream. Never in his life would ever thought he would be happy to see barriers that restricted where he could go. Leaving the bed, Weaver focused and floated his armor from where it rest and slowly put it on. He couldn't shake the feeling that something game changing was about to happen, but he wasn't sure what exactly it was. It had something to do with his dreams last night, that much he knew for sure.
"Celestia!" He called out, ready to finally start the day and figure a plan out for stopping Luna and the six Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.
This task won't be easy. He thought to himself. Stopping this band of ponies has never been done, but I believe I have a chance. As he thought this, a piece of his linked dream with the Princess of Night resurfaced. She had a proposition to offer me. Maybe it will change everything.
Celestia almost blew the door down when she ran straight into it. Sighing, Weaver pulled the door open, unlocking it in the process. Celestia bound in, clearly just up from bed, her mane disheveled and her uniform lopsided.
"My lord." She bowed awkwardly.
Weaver smiled, returning the bow, but stopping himself. "I wanted to know if you wanted to grab a bite."
The request took Celestia completely off guard, making her legs fall out from beneath her, face planting on the polished marble. Scrambling, she regained her hoofing and answered.
"I'd love to." She replied, feeling awkward. Weaver was as well. "May I ask why, though?"
Weaver turned from Celestia. "I just wanted to treat you out, considering all you do around here to help me." Under his breath, he added, "Also, I'll never get another chance to do something like this."
It took several hours, but eventually, Twilight got the hang of the two spells. The first one was to enter other ponies' dreams, and the second was to remove ponies from dreams, namely the ponies of Equestria from the Dream King.
The plan was to split up. Fluttershy and Luna was to go find Rarity and Rainbow Dash, and Twilight was to find Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
Strolling through the streets, Weaver and Celestia browsed the diverse restaurants that littered the city. Dream Weaver didn't care where he went, so he left it to Celestia to choose. She was holding out, not wanting to impose, and Weaver could tell.
"Go ahead," He spoke up, laughing a little, "choose any place you'd like. I'm the king, remember? Bits are of no value to me."
Squeeing a bit, Celestia trot over to a fancy restaurant. Normally, she would never be able to afford such a place to dine, but it was his word, and his word was law. This was the best day in her life.
Weaver stopped, sensing two things. Inside the restaurant, Rarity, one of the Bearers, was dining with her husband, Fancy Pants. The second was a strange anomaly. He, of course, knew it could be only Luna and her entourage, but this time, they were separate.
Nothing I can do to stop them. He thought to himself, knowing this to be truth. If I were to go confront them, nothing would be gained from it. Anyways, I have Celestia here that I need to entertain.
He entered the eatery after her.
The lack of counteraction towards them was unnerving. The King should have struck out to stop them by now, but everything was going smoothly. Luna didn't know what to expect. Either way, she should focus on getting Rainbow Dash. She could feel that Twilight had already entered and was searching out Applejack.
Fluttershy squeaked, and Luna trot over to see what was wrong. Sighing, she turned away. Leave it to Fluttershy to be spooked by her own shadow.
As suspected, Rainbow Dash was up in the cloud district of the city. The only thing that will be difficult will be trying to convince her that they meant no harm. That and convincing Fluttershy to fly up there. With her luck, Luna will be lucky to get Fluttershy in the sky at all. A bird might fly by, frightening her out of the clouds.
After a couple hours in the real world, the three of them were able to rescue Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. The only pony left to retrieve from The King's domain was Rarity. It should be easy, everypony knew the location she was at The only problem was she was at the same restaurant as The Dream King.
"Alright everypony," Luna spoke to the five of them. Spike had left before the start of all this to watch all the pets at the request of Twilight and Fluttershy. "I have really appreciated all your help, but I'd like to get Rarity alone. I believe that Dream Wea... The Dream King is planning a trap, so I need somepony with the ability to get in the Dream Realm to get Rarity if I don't return."
No pony liked this plan, but Luna wouldn't take no for an answer. The Princess of the Night had to do this. The sun was setting in the distance while Luna prepared and rested for what was going to happen. The sky was crepuscular, the moon peaking it's face up over the horizon as Luna Flashed into the Dream Realm.
While Rarity wasn't looking, Luna sent her back, staying behind, having some business to settle with The Dream King. Trotting out of the fillies' room, she scanned the diner for Dream Weaver, spotting him with... her sister.
Luna trot up to him, fully expecting some trap to set off. Nothing happened. Celestia saw her before Dream Weaver turned to face her.
"I've been expecting you," He spoke, not facing Luna, his intruder. "and now you've come."
"Hello Dream Weaver, we meet again." Luna bowed respectfully, rising back up to see he had done the same.
"Celestia," He spoke, addressing his date while maintaining eye contact with Luna. "why don't you head back to the castle. Be read to report for work tomorrow. you have the rest of today off." After she had left their presence, Weaver spoke again. "Shall we continue this outside?"
The two ponies sat at the bank of one of the rivers that ran down the middle of the city, draining into a lake in the center. The silence dragged for some time, neither pony knowing not what to say. Finally, Luna broke it.
"The proposition." She spoke.
He turned to face her. "What was it?"
"I was going to offer you," Luna continued where she left off from their dream. "the chance of reform."
"I don't understand." He wrapped a stone in his dark blue magic, similar Luna's, and tossed it into the river.
"Celestia told me about you when I came back. For some time, We discussed releasing you at a chance to reform you like Twilight Sparkle and her friends did to me." Luna explained.
"It would never work. My heart is too dark, and my magic is unpredictable. I still never figured out how to revive ponies from those comas. This is the only way, and now you must leave, otherwise I will be forced to stop you." Weaver gazed deeply into Luna's eyes, tears brimming in both of their eyes. Dream Weaver fixed her with a fierce stare, one to challenge Fluttershy's. It was apparent that there was no way she could convince him like this.
"I didn't want to do this." She sighed, focusing. A magical veil covered Dream Weaver. "You've forced me to use this. Don't worry, we'll fix you."
A flash of light removed Dream Weaver from the riverbank. A single tear escaped before he was evicted. Luna followed suit, but left the realm completely.
Dream Weaver awoke in a dark room. Studying his surroundings, he panicked. The room had no windows, doors, or other means of escape. It was like his dream. He sat, calming himself down.
This isn't so bad. He thought to himself. Luna and the main six ponies will be here soon and then... what? They banish me and release Equestria? No. Luna said she... they'll "fix" me. I don't believe it.
Suddenly, a bright light flashed in the room, and the seven ponies stood in the room with him. Turning, he faced them.
"So," He said, smiling because it all played out like his dream. He locked eyes with Luna. "this is how it ends? you and your friends strike me down, and re-banish me into the Dream Realm?" |
Aslumber (Sanquil Version) | The End of the Dream King's Tyranny | "So, this is how it all ends? You and your friends strike me down and re-banish me to the Dream Realm?" The King locked eyes with the Princess of the Night, Luna. A smile played on his face, despite the coming turmoil of failing in his plan and the fact he will be alone once more. There was nothing for him to be smiling about, but he still did.
"Dream Weaver," Luna spoke regally, her face stern. "I have come to take Equestria back from your hooves. I hope you've thought about my proposal."
Dipping his head, Weaver's smile faded. He had thought about it. Quite a lot, actually. The chance at a new start. Who could pass that up? The only thing holding him back was himself.
"As I've told you," He replied, "The darkness in my heart is too great for something as trivial as friendship to banish. It would never work."
"You are like me, then." Twilight spoke up, stepping forward. "When I first arrived in Ponyville, friendship wasn't on my agenda of things I considered imperative to do to stop Nightmare Moon."
Luna nodded, agreeing. "Correct. If it wasn't for friendship, I wouldn't be here. I would still be Nightmare Moon. With the power of friendship, these six ponies conquered, trapped, and reformed Discord, the God of Chaos. Friendship is a powerful force."
"I don't think..."
"Give it a chance." Luna cut him off. "Please Dream Weaver, you deserve better than this."
Weaver stood there, gazing at the seven ponies in front of him. They were his enemies, but they weren't. They were working to stop him, but at the same time, help him. He contemplated their proposal. He made his decision.
"Okay." He said finally, meeting all of their eyes. "I'll give friendship a shot.
Several hours later, Dream Weaver stood in the royal throne room inside the Canterlot Castle. Stained glass windows lined the walls, depicting scenes of great accomplishment through friendship. A new one had already made it's debut, showing Princess Luna and the Mane Six talking to the Dream King, convincing him to leave and release Equestria from his spell. As Dream Weaver gazed around the room, his eyes lingered on that particular one.
To work around the fact that Dream Weaver's original body had withered, Twilight used a spell constructed by Weaver himself to bring the mental image of a pony into the real world. The reason Dream Weaver himself could not cast it is because it has to be used from outside the Dream Realm. His attention was redirected when the Princess of the Sun, Celestia, addressed him for the second time in his prolonged lifetime.
"Dream Weaver." Her voice matched that of Luna's. "Your crimes against ponykind are unforgettable. Even after your previous banishment for the deaths of many innocent ponies, you didn't stop. You manipulated several ponies and used your dream magic to trap all of Equestria inside the very land that you were banished to."
After hearing all this, Weaver shank back, the reality of it all crushing him. He knew what he had done over five hundred years ago, and recently, but hearing it spoke in such a way hurt more than eternal lone banishment.
"Even after all that, though," Luna spoke up, "We have entertained the notion of releasing you, hence why you stand here now."
"Yes." Celestia concurred. "Even though we will never forget what you've done, you shall be forgiven. You shall be released from your previous punishment..."
"And your recent misdeed shall go unpunished." Luna interjected.
He nearly collapsed. The thought that he would be allowed to live again lifted his spirits, but only for a second. A shattering realization came to him. He confronted the Princesses with it.
"My ladies," He spoke, bowing. "as much as I would like to accept your gifts, I cannot." This took them as much as himself by surprise.
"Why not, Dream Weaver?" Luna spoke, worried.
"Darkness still remains in my heart, and I can feel it festering inside, biding it's time." He elaborated, sadness showing through. "I don't want this darkness reaching into the hearts of other ponies. Even after I was blasted by the power of friendship from the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, it remains. There is no stopping it."
Celestia looked concerned, but smiled. "My little pony," She said to Dream Weaver, flying down to put a hoof on his shoulder, "you act as if there isn't darkness inside all of us. Even I have my evil. It doesn't stop me from being a good pony."
"It is true, Dream Weaver." Luna concluded. "Though Nightmare Moon was banished and I was able to regain control, it doesn't mean that evil is forever gone."
Something clicked in Weaver's head, setting off a spark. He realized what they were saying, knowing to be truth. "Okay. I understand now. I thank you for all you two have done."
"We aren't done yet," Celestia spoke, locking eyes with Dream Weaver. "We want to offer you a job here in Canterlot."
"Why me?" He asked, perplexed.
"Because you are quite a powerful unicorn, and the only one besides Twilight Sparkle and myself able to use dream magic." Luna explained.
"I think you could teach my Twilight quite a few things that neither Luna nor myself could teach her. Not to mention, there are no records of your dream magic in the Canterlot library, and only you know your spells."
"I thank you," Dream Weaver replied, "but I don't think I can do what you expect of me."
"Would you stop trying to sell yourself short of your true potential? You managed all of Equestria while constantly maintaining a spell to hold them, myself included." Celestia plead to Dream Weaver. "You'll make a fine scribe and mentor."
"Thank you." Dream Weaver looked to both of them, crying. He had finally proven his father wrong. He was more than a failure and a murderer and a kidnapper. He lived up to his mother's expectations of him doing something great. For once, he was happy.
Dream Weaver left the castle an hour later, after discussing housing with the Princesses. He went to go find Twilight Sparkle. He still had them to thank.
"Remind me why we're waitin' here in the rain?" Applejack asked Twilight as she floated umbrellas over all of them.
"I told Dream Weaver to come meet us here after he spoke with Princess Celestia." She replied. "Ah, there he is."
"What's he doing?" Rarity questioned as she watched Dream Weaver just stand out in the rain, letting himself get soaked. Finally, he trotted over.
"Hey," He said as he approached the six ponies. "thank you for staying, even though it's raining."
"I told you to meet us..." Twilight was cut off.
"Why were you standing out in the rain?" Rarity interjected, obviously missing the joy Dream Weaver felt from getting wet for no reason.
"You wouldn't understand, Rarity." He responded. "I was imprisoned in the Dream Realm for over five hundred years. I never got to feel anything, let alone the rain. It felt nice to feel it hit my face. To know that I'm finally free."
"So," Twilight said, returning to what she was saying originally, "how'd it go? Hopefully the punishment isn't too harsh."
"Oh, it's just TERRIBLE!" He responded, pulling a luxurious lounging chair out of nowhere and falling on it, dramatically. Everypony snickered except Rarity, obviously annoyed by his impersonation of her.
"I'm just kidding," He said, removing the chair, "I'm not being punished. In fact, Princess Celestia offered me a job as a Canterlot scribe and your part time mentor."
"My... mentor?" She stared at him in disbelief.
"Yes." He answered her, smiling. "Apparently, you have the capability of learning pretty much every spell thrown your way, so Celestia wants me to teach you my dream spells before, after, or while I transcribe them."
"Well, you were let off easy." Twilight smiled. "I'm looking forward to your lessons."
Later that night, Dream Weaver was sitting in his house, sipping hot cocoa while he wrote down his spells. He yawned, stretching.
"Huh?" He said, confused. He looked to his back. "Oh." He smiled, shaking his head. "I forgot, I don't have wings anymore. Oh well. Maybe Twilight can teach me to teleport."
He returned to his transcribing, happy to finally have friends and a life. He may not be immortal, but at least now he's loved and not despised. |
Power Ponies Secret Origins | pre | After some long thinking she came to a conclusion. "I have no home in Equestria anymore." She then turn and face the rest of the badlands. "This is my home now. Better to be out here then back in Equestria, where this beast will do no harm."
And with that, Serene trotting forward. Wandering further into the badlands.
THE END |
Power Ponies Secret Origins | Masked Matter-Horn | UNCANNY COMICS NO.19
Presents
MASKED MATTER-HORN
It was mid-afternoon in the bustling city of Maretropolis. A lone yellow stallion with blue hair and eyes was standing near the entrance of a public library. The stallion wore a light brown trench coat with a plain white shirt and black tie underneath.
Checking his watch, the stallion could see that it was way pass four. Grumbling, the stallion was getting tired of waiting for this pony to come and pick him up, so he decided to pass the time by going inside the library and look for something to read.
Upon entering the building, the first thing he noticed was the lighting. The lights in here did little to illuminate the entire place, as there were still pockets of dark spots around this library. As he went further in, he also noticed the lack of anypony here.
At first he though there was nopony around, that was until he trotted to the receptionist desk. There was a lone pink mare, sitting on a wooden stool. She had long purple hair and her cutie mark was a bunch of little silver stars. Getting a better view, he saw just how beautiful the earth mare was, her nicely smooth skin, her lovely lavender eyes.
"Can I help you?" And her heavenly voice.
At that moment, the stallion realized that he was staring at the mare and she was staring back. Breaking his gaze, he resume his usual self. "No, that's alright ma'am. Just looking around." He explained to what he assume is the librarian.
"Anything particular you're looking for?" She asked.
"No no, just looking around." He waved his hoof at the pink mare. The yellow stallion then went in a aisle and vanish from the mare.
He scoured the shelves until he found an interesting book. He took it out and brought it to the nearest table. He sat down and began flipping through the pages of the book. As he read, he was unaware of the pink mare trotting up to him.
"Equestrian Knights, eh?" The mare said, surprising the stallion.
"Jeez Ms, barely heard you coming over."
"What can I say, I have been known to have very quiet steps." She replied, then look back at the book with a picture of stallion in armor. "You don't seem to be the library type."
"Well I use to go to the library a lot back in highschool." He explained.
"Oh so you were a pony interested in Equestrian History?" She assumed.
"Well not exactly, I only went there to read the comics they put up." He answered, getting a deadpan stare from the mare. What? I was a teenager, what did you expect from me?"
The pink mare smiled. "Fair enough." She said.
The stallion couldn't help but feel his heart warming up from her friendly smile. She then extend her right hoof out. "Name's Silver Sparkle." Saying her name.
The stallion then took Silver's hoof and shook it. "Name's Century, Detective Flass Century."
"Detective? Are you a private eye or are you with the police?"
"I'm with the police." Flass answered. "Just recently been transferred here."
"Oh really, from where?"
The two then started to converse with each other. They both share their stories, their likes and dislikes and became fast friends. As much as they both enjoyed each others company, the stallion's escort entered the library.
"Detective Century, are you in here?" A fat green earth stallion with a beard questioned, calling out for the detective.
"Yeah I'm here!" Century answered and looked to the mare. "Sorry Silver, duty calls." The pink mare nodded in understanding and watch the stallion leave the library with the green stallion.
"You're late." Century said, scolding the other stallion.
"Sorry Detective, I was busy with something." The green stallion explained. "By the way, name's Thumper."
"Alright Officer Thumper, why were you late?" Century asked.
"Have to deal with something private, took longer then I thought."
"What did you had to deal with?"
"None of your business, pal." Thumper harshly responded.
Flass Century remain silent, taking note of his escort's sudden hostility towards him. "Where are we going anyways?" He questioned.
"Got a tip of a possible theft attempt at the history museum. The target: the infamous blood diamond."
"The blood diamond?" Flass repeated, remembering the old tale. According to legend, the blood diamond was the cause of many bloodshed in the olden days. Countries wage war for this piece of gem, not caring for the lives they taken. "Thought it was just a myth."
"Well some myth have some truth to them." Thumper pointed. "The Glister & Shimmer company found the diamond in the badlands and brought it here." He pointed to the large museum across from from them.
After crossing the street, the two stallion went through the front door and headed towards the room with the blood diamond. Flass looked around and notice many other police officers here as well. He spot a stallion talking a griffon woman. He didn't what they were talking about, but seeing them talk remind him of that pretty mare, Silver Sparkle.
"We're here." Thumper announce, bringing the detective out of his thoughts.
Sitting in the middle of the room, on a stand, is a crimson diamond. Flass trotted up to gemstone and looked at it through the glass case. He finds it hard to believe that this little thing could cause so much trouble.
"So this is the infamous blood diamond?" Flass commented. "Thought it would be much bigger."
"Don't let it looks fool you, ponies killed and died for this diamond." Thumper stated. "Whatever magic this thing has, must be incredibly dangerous."
"Oh you have no idea." A dark menacing voice spoke from behind.
Both stallions turn and saw a stallion in red and black full body armor. He had spikes on each of his hooves, two horns on his helmet, and wielded a large menacing battleaxe.
"Warlord Strife!" Thumper shouted his name.
"So you have heard of me." The heavily armored stallion said. "Then you know what will happened if you stand in my way."
"What do you want with the blood diamond?" Flass questioned, getting into a combat stance.
"Isn't it obvious? I need the diamond so I can bring back conflict to this country."
"Why would you do that?"
"I am the embodiment of war. I was born from the bloodshed you ponies did in the past. Back then your struggles kept me fed for years. But, now you're all too peaceful now and I am starving." Strife then tighten his grip on his weapon. Flass stood his ground, not even thinking about running away.
"I got to give you credit, you're much more braver then that buddy of yours." Flass then notice the absence of Thumper. His partner has ditched him, he was on his own now.
Strife raised his weapon up and brought it down upon the yellow stallion. Flass was about to move, but a beam came in and knock the axe out of the warlord's hoof.
"Who dares-"
"I dare!" Answered a feminine voice.
Both stallions looked up and saw a pink mare wearing a magenta suit. She also wore a mask with the same color as her suit and yellow goggles. The mare also has two pieces of cobalt armor: one on her back, the second on her horn.
"Masked Matter-Horn!" Warlord Strife shouted her name.
The costume mare then shot out another beam from her horn. The warlord barely dodge the attack, as her beam grazed his armor. The stallion tried reaching for his weapon, but Matter-Horn shot a freeze beam at his axe, encasing it in ice. Then warlord let out a battle cry and charges at the mare.
As the two battle it out with each other, Detective Flass Century dumbstruck at what he is seeing. This was something he never saw when he was in the previous city. He continue staring until he saw the mare about to get hit.
Quickly taking his coat off, he unfold his wings and flew in, tackling the armored stallion. Matter-Horn notices this and confronted the pegasus stallion. "Sir, please let me handle this stallion."
"Listen ma'am, I don't who you are, but I'm sure as hay not letting you do my job!" He said as he punched the warlord in his face. His hoof reel back from pain of hitting the guys hard helmet. Strife took a swipe at him, but Matter-Horn jumped in and pushed him out of the way.
"Listen detective, you can't just use brute force on this guy. His armor is way too tough for that." The mare explained.
"Alright what do you suggest?' Flass questioned.
"Something shocking." She answered and shot out a beam of electricity at the armored stallion. The result was not what she expected. Instead of shocking the warlord, the electricity didn't seem to faze him.
"Ha! Not this time!" He shouted. "My armor has been enchanted, no longer will your electrical attack work on me!"
Flass watch as Matter-Horn charge in and resume her battle with the villain. The stallion stood there thinking of a way to defeat the heavily armored warlord. He then looked at warlord's axe in the ice and though of a solution.
He cracked the ice and broke the handle part of the axe off. Flass then sneak up on the warlord as he battle with the costume mare. The stallion then shove the metal handle in the open space between the warlord's armor plates and backed off.
"Quick! Use your electrical beam on this handle!" Flass pointed the metal rod stuck in the warlord's armor.
Seeing this, the mare charged up her horn and stream of electricity at the pole. The resulting attack, shocked the stallion, causing him to twitch around and blackening his skin. Matter-Horn kept up the attack until Strife was finally out. The large armor stallion then fell down hard, cracking the marble floor beneath him.
"Good work, detective." The mare compliment the stallion, causing him to smile. He knew that the since Strife's armor block all outside attack, the only to hurt him is from the inside. So by sticking that metal handle into his armor, it will allow Matter-Horn's electrical attack an entry beyond his armor protection.
The sound the of many hooves steps came outside the room as the rest of the police force came in. "What's going on? What happened here?" They questioned.
"Don't worry, me and Matter-Horn took care of the this guy." Flass answered.
"Detective, you're here by yourself." One officer corrected. The yellow stallion then turn and saw the mare missing from his side.
For the next hour, the detective had to write up a report of today's event. Including the whole battle between the warlord and heroine. After that he decided to take a break from his hard work and wanted to end the day by going back to the library.
When he entered the building, he spots the pink sitting behind the counter. He made himself known, causing the mare to look up from her book and look at the stallion.
"What happened to you?" She asked, taking note of how much of a mess the stallion was.
"Rough first day, Silver." He explained. "Very rough first day."
"Well then tell me all about it then."
Taking a seat next to her, Flass went on to telling her his day. As he told his story, he was not aware of the mares's back pack behind the counter. If he did, then he'll would've seen the Masked Matter-Horn outfit. The stallion is unknowingly sitting next the super heroine: Masked Matter-Horn!
THE END
UNCANNY COMICS NO.24
MASKED MATTER-HORN
Featuring: Her secret origin story.
The Masked Matter-Horn, a well known hero known for her arsenal of various beam type weapons. She has type for every situation. Whether it be a freeze beam, incendiary beam, or even a concussive beam, the mare knows them.
However, where did this mare came from? We all know her as Silver Sparkle, but other then that nothing else. Well dear readers it is your lucky day for the Masked Matter-Horn Origin's will be told right here!
Silver Sparkle was born from noble unicorn family. However, upon being born, her parents were disappointed that the child was a earth pony and not a unicorn. They later abandoned her at a orphanage without a second though.
While at the orphanage, Silver Sparkle learned to appreciate the things she had. While the more privilege foals have toys for entertainment, all the pink filly had were old books. She read everyone of them and re-read them again as well. From this her love for literature developed.
Upon becoming an adult, Silver got a job at the library. She started off as clerk, simply organizing and cleaning up the place. During her breaks, she would take out a book and read it.
She read many books there, but the one that she read more times then she could count was the book about the Equestrian Knights. The book detailed all the different variation of the knights and have illustrated pictures of their outfits.
Silver was simply astound at all the different armor and uniform they wore in those days. Out of all of them, there was one outfit she loved the most. It was from the time just after the formation of the E.U.P. (Earth, Unicorn and Pegasus.) Guards. The knight's outfit consist of a magenta uniform with cobalt colored armor. While the earth and pegasus used traditional weapons, the unicorns however, were various degrees of combat magic. Most prominently, the beam magic.
Fascinated, Silver Sparkle used several engineering books to help her construct a metal horn shape device that allows her to fire different beams from it. After many testing, the mare finally tinker with it enough to reach perfection.
Silver eventually put the device to good use when while watching TV, the news report of a robbery at the national bank. Several armed ponies have barricaded the building and have taken hostages.
Believing that she was needed, Silver created an outfit based on the Knights she liked, using books about tailoring for aid. Donning the outfit, Silver made her way to the national bank.
Outside the building, the police had the place surrounded. Stallions and mares covered every corner, making sure that these crooks won't sneak pass them.
Silver knew that she needed to freed the hostages, so that the police can storm the building. The problem was those robbers completely closed off everything.
"Well almost everything."
The mare spotted a small broken hole in a window. Silver though about using a teleportation beam to get inside the building. Concentrating hard, Silver aimed her metal horn at the hole and fired a beam. In a second, the mare found herself transported inside the building.
After this success, the mare quietly sneaked around. She eavesdrop on two guys talking about the hostages, revealing their location to her. She found the room where they were located and unlocked the door.
Silver then ordered them all to follow her towards the exit. As they all headed for the emergency exit, a couple of crooks saw them escaping and tried to get them. Silver, spotted them and test out a few offensive spells her horn can do.
She froze one in their place, blast another one to a wall, and made another one lose his gravity and float away.
The emergency door burst opened and a horde of ponies came pouring out. The police saw this and knew that they were the hostages. With them secured, the rest of the police force storm the building, apprehending the robbers.
Outside, Silver was congratulated for saving the hostages by the police commissioner. When he asked for her name, Silver had only one thing in mind.
"You may call me, The Masked Matter-Horn!"
From that, Masked Matter-Horn would later becoming the greatest hero of her time. Her origin will live on through the ages, becoming an iconic story.
THE END |
Power Ponies Secret Origins | Fili-Second | HIGHLIGHT COMICS NO.4
Presents
FILI-SECOND
Whirlwind actions with the
fastest mare alive!
It was field trip day for a group of students of Greystone Highschool.
Their destination: the Evergreen Forest.
A long line of teenage colts and fillies trotted through the woods, their guide, Ranger Pathfinder, talked about all the interesting things about the forest. The ranger talked about the history of this place, what kind plants grows here and what species live in these woods.
While the students and teachers were listening to the ranger, at the far back of the line, a blue teenage colt with yellow hair and a couch for a cutie mark, was slowly following after the group.
"Jeez this place is boring." The teenage colt said. "Don't know why I agree to come here."
"Because of me silly." Answered a very feminine and energetic voice.
The colt turn his head and saw his fillyfriend, Rapid Dash trotting along side with him. The teenage filly had a pale green coat with a orange mane and pink eyes. Her cutie mare display yellow lightning bolt with vibration over it.
"Right, why did convince me to come along?" He asked.
"Because Cozy, you need to go out more." The filly explained. "Besides you could sure use the exercise. A hiking is a perfect to burn off all that fat." She poked his large belly.
"Jeez, your not my mom, Rapid." Cozy responded.
"Of course I'm not your mom, I'm your fillyfriend and soon to be wife."
Cozy gave the filly a perplex look before talking. "Soon to be wife? Um Rapid we only been dating for a month now, I think it too soon to think about marriage."
Suddenly, the filly turned around and the colt saw that her once cheerful face has turn to sadness. "So what? Are you saying that we're not meant to be and you're breaking up with me?" She said, with tears starting to come down her eyes.
"What! No Rapid, that's not-"
"No, I get it, our love was not to last." She then turned around and started weeping. "Guess I'll spend the rest of my life alone, without anypony to be with."
"Jeez, Rapid look I'm sorry." Cozy apologizes and went up to face the mare. When he did, he saw that the filly's face didn't match her expression. Instead of sad, Rapid had a smirk on her face. Realizing that his fillyfriend was messing with him, he gave her a unamused look.
Laughing, the filly slapped him on his back. "Relax Cozy, I'm just messing with you." He teased. The filly trotted along ahead, with her coltfriend following behind.
The two ponies hiked through the woods, finding no sign of the rest of the group. "Man, we must have been way far behind if we haven't catch up with the group yet." Cozy pointed out.
"Oh we're not following the group, we're actually hiking through the woods." Rapid explained, nonchalantly.
Cozy stopped in his track and looked at the mare with disbelief. "What! Why would you do that?" He demanded.
"Well like you said, the trip was boring, so I though it would be more fun if we go through the woods by ourselves." She answered.
"Yeah, getting lost in the woods will be so much fun." Cozy said sarcastically.
"Don't worry Cozy, I been to these woods before, I'll find us a way out if you're scared." Rapid assured him before turning around and explore the woods some more.
Cozy sighs and follow after the filly. 'Might as well make the most of it' he thought in his head. The blue pony then spotted his fillyfriend, standing near a cliff, looking down at something.
"Rapid, what are you-" He was quickly silence by the green filly. She had her hoof covering his mouth, preventing him from saying a word. She shush the colt and pointed to something at the bottom of the cliff.
Looking down, Cozy's eyes widen in shock. Down at the bottom, were three aliens and their spaceship. Their ship was large, metallic, circular in shape. The aliens were the most bizarre. They resemble pony in shape, but are made entirely of rocks.
Two of these stony aliens stood near the entrance of their spaceship. They watched as the third rock alien trot up to a yellow flower and plucked it from the ground. It then turn and showed its prize to the two other rock aliens. Their stony features made it hard to know what these guys are feeling, until the one of the left spoke.
"Are you telling me, we travel across the cosmos just to get a flower!" The rocky alien yelled angrily.
"This is no ordinary flower, brother Granite." The alien with the flower responded. "This is a rare Celestial Flower, a flower grows faster then any other plants on this planet. What would take weeks for a single plant to grow, the Celestial Flower can be fully grown in a matter of seconds."
"Brother Rubble, how is a flower going to help us take over this planet?" The rock alien on the right asked.
"Simple brother Ashlar." The one called Rubble said. He then took out a mortar and pestle and began grinding the flower. "It is the final ingredient I needed to perfect my speed formula."
Rubble then took out a tube of strange liquid and added the grinded up bits of the flower into it. Mixing it all together, the rock alien took a small sip from it and felt incredibly energized.
"Brother Rubble, does your formula work?" Ashlar questioned.
Rubble then looked at Ashlar and within a blink of an eye, he appeared right in front of him. "Yes, brother Ashlar, my formula worked!" He exclaimed, zipping around the place as he talked. "No longer are my movements slow and sluggish, I move faster then a split second, the world around slows down before my very eyes!"
The two other rock alien watch in amazement as their brother move with super speed right before them. "Incredible brother Rubble!" Granite praised. "With this formula, we will take over the entire planet within a matter of hours!"
"So what's next brother Rubble?" Ashlar asked.
"Next." Rubble said, before disappearing and reappearing back in a second with two ponies in his hooves. "Next we got to deal with these two." Holding up the two surprised/scared ponies in front of his two companions.
"Spies!" Granite yelled angrily. "I crushed them!"
"No, brother Granite, these two can be useful." Rubble stopped his aggressive friend. "They know this planet more then we do, we'll to interrogate as much information from them as possible. For now take these two to the brig."
Both Granite and Ashlar took the ponies into their ship and locked up behind some cage walls. When they left, Cozy started panicking. "Oh no oh no they got us and they're going to do horrible things to us!" He shouted, remembering hearing stories about prisoners being tortured for information.
Suddenly he felt a warm embrace from behind. It Rapid Dash, hugging the colt. She was attempting to comfort the colt and while it seem to work, he was still worried.
"Don't worry Cozy I got this covered." She then took out the tube with the strange liquid in it.
"Where did you get that?"
"I snatched it off that rock guy when he displayed us to his two buddies."
"What are you going to do with?" He questioned.
"Well obviously I'm going to drink it."
"But Rapid, you don't what's inside of that thing. It could kill you!" Cozy warn the filly.
"That rock guy drank it and didn't die, so I'm sure this thing is safe." She pointed out. "Besides would you rather sit here and wait for them to come to us?" She then proceed to chug down the entire content of the tube and dropped it on the ground.
"Rapid, are you alright?" He asked, concern for his fillyfriend.
Then all of sudden, Rapid zipped around the room. Going in the exact speed that rock alien was going. "ThatstuffisamazingIneverfeltsoenergizeinmyentirelifewellexceptthatonetimeyoutookmeoutforcoffeeandItookasipandfeltsoenergizethat-"
"Rapid! Please slow down, I can't hear what your saying!"
The green filly slowed down, but was a bit twitchy. "Like I said that stuff was great! I never felt so energize in my life."
"That's great and all, but can you use that power to free us from this jail cell?"
"Let's find out!" She zipped to the door and repeatedly punch the lock. Like a jackhammer, the lock gave way inch by inch until the lock was completely broken. With the door open, Rapid picked up Cozy and carried him out the spaceship, passed the rock aliens and back on the cliff edge.
Cozy blinked his eyes and looked at his surroundings. "Wow, that was fast." He then got off the filly and stood on his own. "Rapid, we need to alert somepony about this."
"No Cozy you need to alert somepony, I need to stopped these guys before they can enact their evil plans." Rapid said to him.
"But, Rapid those guys are made of stones, there's no way for you to stop them." Cozy pointed this fact to her.
"Obviously, you never heard of momentum." Rapid said before she zipped right back down the cliff.
What the filly meant was that she was going to use this mechanic to defeat these rock aliens. Momentum is basically about the mass and velocity of the object. The larger the and faster the object is, the higher the momentum. However, the smaller and slower the object is, the momentum is lower.
What this filly was attempting to do was increasing her own momentum, so that she has enough force to break through these guys. Despite her being smaller then them, a small object with enough velocity can be deadly as any bullet.
Once she got enough velocity, she galloped straight towards Granite. She pierced right through him, shattering him into a million pieces.
Ashlar looked in shocked to see his companion breaking into a many pieces. Before he could say anything, Rapid pierced right through him, shattering him into pieces.
With the second one taken care off, she looked around for the third one, but found no trace of him. Suddenly something tackled the filly and she fell on the ground. Looking up, she sees the rock alien glaring down on her.
"So you're the one who took my speed juice!" Rubble angrily stated.
Rapid tried the same trick on him, but he quickly evaded it. "Ha, you think you can beat me at my own game! Foolish creature, I have studied the way of the speed, I know how to use better then you!"
"You're all talk, let's see you put your money where your mouth is!" Rapid challenged.
"So a speed duel, very well, prepare to be bested!" Rubble accepeted.
Their duel starts with both combatants charging right at each other. They clashed and broke off, they repeated this process all around the spaceship. Both fighters didn't deterred and continue clashing.
Finally Rubble saw an opening and knocked her down. "Ha! You were good, but Rubble is better!" He was abut to finish her off, but something hit him in the back of his head. Turning around he spots a blue teenage colt throwing rocks at him.
"Leave her alone1" He yelled.
"You must either be really brave or really stupid, to come and attack me." Rubble said menacingly. "Now you'll suffer my wrath!"
Rubble trotted towards the colt, but stopped when the filly began galloping in circle around him. Suddenly he felt himself being lifted off the ground. "What is this? What's going on?" The rock alien questioned, panicking at this point.
"Let's see you try you gallop with no ground to gallop on!" Rapid answered as she creates a small tornado that sucked him up high in the air. When she stopped, the tornado disappeared and Rubble fell down, shattering upon meeting the ground.
Rapid took then moment to take a breather. As she did this, she felt the warm embrace of her coltfriend hugging her. "That was amazing Rapid! You totally destroyed those guys!"
"Yeah I sure did." She said and hugged him back. "C'mon lets head home." She carried Cozy and zipped out of there.
The second those two left, two pony forest rangers arrived on scene. "Look Ranger Bark, this was the cause of all that commotion." The green ranger pointed to the alien spaceship.
"Well holy smoke, it's an UFO." The brown stallion name Bark stated. "This is the discovery of the century!"
"What with all these rocks?" The green stallion questioned as he examine all the bits of rocks surrounding the ship.
"Who cares about that, their is a actual spaceship right in front of us! We got to tell somepony about this!"
Somewhere far away from the place, near the edge of the forest. A teacher was counting all her students at they entered the bus. "Cutter, Scarlet, Tinker, Coz- wait a sec, where Cozy and Rapid?" She asked out loud.
"Here we are!" Answered Rapid from behind.
The teacher yelped in surprise. "Rapid, how many times I keep telling you, don't surprise me like that."
"Can't help it, Miss Applebee, it's just so much fun!" She exclaimed.
The mare sighs. "Just get on the bus." She ordered.
Rapid and Cozy did as they were told and entered the bus, they took the back seat. When the teacher climb aboard the bus started moving, leaving the forest and heading back to school.
"Well that was a eventful day." Rapid said. "Encountered aliens, got captured, got superpowers, broke out and defeated them. I should become a superhero!"
"What?" Cozy said, sounding surprise.
"I said I should be a superhero. Going around fighting criminals all the while wearing a skin tight outfit."
"That sounds like a terrible idea." Cozy commented.
"Yeah well I wasn't exactly asking you for permission." She pouted.
And thus the day was saved, thanks to the filly that would later become: Fili-Second!
THE END
Zapp & Mare-Velous in Island Vacation.
It was summer time and both Zapp and her friend/teammate plan to head out and relax on some island resort. Upon getting there, the so called resort was a trap set up by the native inhabitants.
At the top of active volcano, both power ponies were tied and placed near the edge of the volcano, facing the lava pits below. Surrounding them were the natives of the island. Each wore the stereotypical get up you see in most fiction. Such as leaves for skirts/kilts, flower necklaces, leaf headdress and face paint.
"You know we wouldn't be in this situation, if we have went to Applewood." Mare-Velous nag to her pegasus friend.
"Shut up." Zapp responded.
Suddenly the native leader approach the two. He was the leader because he had more leaves on his headdress then anyone else. "We apologize for this, but we needed sacrifices to appease the volcano. Otherwise it destroy our home." He then motion for his ponies to begin pushing them over the ledge.
"Hope you got something other then nagging, Mare-Velous." Zapp said.
"It just so happens I do." The earth mare then pulled something out and toss itinto the volcano. Suddenly the volcano rumble a bit before stopping, the lava retreating back underground.
"What did you do?" The native leader questioned. "You somehow appease the volcano, but how?"
"Simple my native friends." Mare-Velous explained and showed him a Hostess Fruit Pie. "These delicious snacks serves a much better sacrifice then any ponies."
"We thank you Mare-Velous, for appeasing the volcano. For that we'll treat you like royalty."
Half an hour later, the two mares were relaxing by the beach, with the natives providing food, drinks and the occasional fanning.
You Get A Big Delight In Every Bite Of Hostess Fruit Pies
Radiance in To Steal a Hostess
At the Canterlot castle, our heroine Radiance has been summon to the castle for an emergency. She arrive on location and was met with the pony ambassador, who was panicking.
"What seems to be the problem?" Radiance asked the ambassador.
"Oh it is awful Radiance, somepony has stolen all the hostess snacks! They were meant for the griffons who are going to arrive soon. We promised them hostess snacks, but if they find that we don't have it, they'll take offence to it and declare war!"
After the ambassador's expositions, Radiance thought of the one thief who would dare steal from royalty. "There is only one pony who could've done this, Shadowmane!" Indeed Shadowmane, a well known thief across the world.
"Don't you worry Mr. Ambassador, I'll find those Hostess Snacks!" She said, putting a hoof on his shoulder, assuring him.
Now the question is how? How will the mare go about doing this?
Suddenly an idea popped in her head. "Since Shadwmane will no doubt place all the stolen snacks together, all I have to do is use my scanners and find the largest concentration of deliciousness in this castle." With her plan made, she uses the power of the gem and scan the castle for the highest concentration of deliciousness.
Her scanner lead the mare to the castle's main kitchen room. "No gem, not here, Shadowmane will never hide it in someplace so obvious." Then it hits her. "Unless." Using her powers, she x-rayed the place and found the Hostess Snacks hidden in the walls, floor and ceiling.
Radiance quickly grab all the Hostess Snacks and brought them all back to the ambassador. "Sir, I have found all the stolen Hostess Snacks, but I couldn't find Shadowmane."
"That alright, what's important is that the snacks are secured and just in time too, the griffons are here. Would you like join us?" The stallion asked.
"I will be my pleasure sir."
You Get A Big Delight In Every Bite Of Hostess Fruit Snacks |
Power Ponies Secret Origins | Zapp | ADVENTURES INTO THE
UNKNOWN
Introducing
The Mighty
ZAPP
It was a silent night for the barren road on a equally barren landscape. There was nothing out here except dust and dry land. The only vegetation out here are the ones on the verge of dying of dehydration.
Suddenly, the scene was interrupted by the arrival of a very pale blue pegasus staggering through the land. The mare looked like a total mess. Her coat was smudge with dirt, her purple mane was all messy and there was a bit of red in her blue eyes.
And this wasn't the worse of it, the mare has no memories of who she is and why she is out here. The only possession she had was the golden lighting shape pendent she wears around her neck. She has no idea what this thing was, but for reasons unknown she felt that the pendant was really important to her.
She glanced at it quickly and resume her stare ahead, continuing her trot through this barren land. She then spots a sign in the distance and checked it out. On this sign it shows a list of all the nearest towns.
"Wellsprings." The mare read out loud, seeing that it was the closes by a few miles. She trot pass the sign, heading in the direction where the town of Wellspring is.
By the time she reached the town, the sun was already rising. The bright yellow orb rise above the horizon, shining its rays and casting the darkness away. Ponies were up and early, opening up shops and going to work. All of them unaware of the haggard mare entering the town.
The mare spots what looks like a diner and trots towards it. Inside the diner, a young green earth stallion was busy setting the place when he heard the bell at the top the door ringing, signalling that a customer has entered the building.
"Sorry, but we're not open until another hour if you jus-OH MY GOODNESS!" The stallion yelped in in shock upon seeing the weakly looking mare.
"Help me." Was all she said before collapsing on the floor.
After that, the young stallion took the unconscious mare to the town's doctor, Dr. Soft Touch. After he was done explaining everything to her, the stallion then had to leave so that he can get back to work, leaving the doctor with the unknown mare.
Dr. Soft Touch tended to the mysterious mare and fixed her up. Now all she had to was wait for her to wake up.
Time passes and the Doctor sat by her desk, waiting for any signs of movement. While reading the newspaper, she heard soft groans and put the paper down. She spots the mystery mare moving on her bed.
As the doctor approached her, the mare sat straight up and looked around. "Where am I?" The pale blue mare questioned.
"You're in a town called Wellsprings, I'm Dr Soft Touch and you're currently in my clinic." She answered.
"How did I get here?"
"Snack Cake said you barge into the diner and collapse right in front of him. He then took you to my clinic where I fixed you up."
"No, what I meant to say is what is this place." The mare questioned. "Not this town, but this whole area."
"Do you mean Equestria?"
"Is that the name of this land?" She asked and the doctor nodded. "I see."
"If I may be blunt, but shouldn't you already know this?"
"My apologies doctor, but I seem to have no memories of who I am." She explained. "The only memories I have are the one of today. Found myself in the barren land and trotted all the way here."
"You trotted all the way here!" Dr. Soft Touch repeated what she said. "No wonder you were such a mess, why didn't you flew here?"
"Flew?" The mystery mare said, looking confused.
"You're a pegasus pony, you have wings on your back." The doctor explained and pointed to the pair of feathery wings on her back.
The pale blue mare twist her head around and eyed the pair of wings. "So that's what these things are." She commented as she lift one up with her hoof. "How do they work?"
Dr. Soft Touch was baffled by this. Sure there some pegasus who had problems flying, but they at least knew to how to use them. After all a pegasus's wings is a part of them, it should come natural. "Just uh..imagine the wings to be an extra appendage, just move them like you did with your arms."
The mare did what the doctor said and concentrated on the pair of wings on her back. She struggled for a bit, but managed to make one of her wings, twitch a bit.
"Well that's good enough I guess." Dr. Soft Touch then softly push the mare back down on her bed. "Just lie there and relax, I'll be out for a bit."
"Where are you going?" The mare curiously asked.
"Got to inform the local police, they'll help find out who you are." Dr. Soft Touch answered. Just as she was about to leave, she remembered she forgot something. "By the why what should I call you? Can keep calling the mystery mare."
The pale blue pegasus tried to think of a name, but all she drew was blanks. Suddenly the image of the lightning shaped pendant appeared in her mind. "Lightning." She answered. "Call me Lightning."
"Very well Lightning, I'll be back, so don't go anywhere." The doctor ordered and left the clinic. Lightning laid down on the bed, closed her eyes and relaxed.
Meanwhile, Dr. Soft Touch trotted across town. She passed some many friendly faces and greeted most of them. She spots the police station and made a beeline there. Upon entering the station, the doctor saw all the officer rushing around. Papers were flying, ponies were shouting, it was absolute chaos.
Trotting to the front desk, Dr. Soft Touch spoke to the stallion on the other side. "Excuse what's going on here?"
"Sorry ma'am, but I don't know." He answered. "One moment everything was fine, then all of sudden everypony went crazy."
"Can I see to Captain Pinewood?"
"Sorry, but Capt Pinewood is extremely business and is not to be dist-"
"Doc, is that you?" Said a masculine voice from behind.
Both ponies turn and saw a tall grey stallion with black mane standing before them. The stallion was wearing his basic blue officer uniform.
"Dr. Soft Touch, it's good to see you." He then turn his to the stallion behind the desk. "I'll be taking her off your hoof, officer. Resume your work." The stallion nodded to his captain and went back to his work.
Meanwhile, both Soft Touch and Pinewood were making their way to his office. He opened the door for her and she trotted in, Pinewood followed afterwards, shutting the door behind.
"Aright, what's going on, Pinewood?" Soft questioned. "I never seen this place so chaotic since that Great Fire Incident a decade ago."
"It's terrible news, Doc." The stallion face dropped upon saying it. "It's Longhorn, he's coming."
The mare felt a sense of dread crawling down her spine upon hearing that name. "Impossible." She said in disbelief. "I though he was busy fighting a war with the Griffon, Sharp to come to us."
"That was before Longhorn confronted Sharp and broke his back. He then assimilated Sharp's gang into his own and is now out to establish his dominance over this land."
"Oh no." The mare said as she the end has come for their town.
The story behind Longhorn can be considered a tragic story, depending on your point of view. Longhorn was a minotaur who served in his Kingdom's army. A promising soldier, he rose through the ranks and became an amazing commander.
As good as he had it, his ambition got the better of him and wanted more. He attempted to assassinate his superior, hoping to rise up and take his place. However, he was caught and arrested.
After his trial, Longhorn was disgraced and banish from his homeland. It is unknown why he came here, but when he did, he changed everything.
His first act was defeating a gang leader and taking over his gang. With the small band of criminals, Longhorn lead a spree of victory against other rival gangs. He defeated their leader and assimilate the rest of them into his own gang.
With each victory, his army grow in sizes. The remaining gangs either fled for their lives or joined his gang. With the griffon gone, Longhorn now stand unopposed. His army stand behind him, ready to obey their next order.
It was afternoon when a police scout spotted something in the distance. It was large and was heading in their direction. Everypony of Wellspring stood outside, waiting for the arrival of Longhorn and his gang.
Dr. Soft Touch, Capt Pinewood and the Mayor stood outside the town hall, anxiously awaiting for the gang to arrive. They knew that they can't defeat Longhorn and his army, so it was better to just submit to his will.
Longhorn's gang entered the town, the citizen looked in sheer terror at the gallery of menacing looking creatures. The gang was made up of ponies with a few griffons and even diamond dogs in the mix. Standing in the middle of this large army was tall, muscular brown minotaur. He stood on a chariot as his ponies pulled him to the town hall.
When they got there, Longhorn got off his ride and walk towards the three ponies. His large size dwarf these three, giving him a very intimidating appearance/
"You know why I am here?" Longhorn asked in very menacing tone.
"Yes." The mayor nodded.
"Then I can take it that you all surrendered and will not put up a fight?" The minotaur asked again.
"Yes."
Longhorn smirked. "Smart decision." He then turn to his gaze on the rest of the ponies of Wellspring. "Listen up everypony! You will give us all your valuable possessions! Do it and nopony will get hurt!"
Longhorn's gang then took out a bunch of large bags and opened it up for the ponies to drop in the stuff. The ponies gave their bits, watches, gems, rings, necklaces and many more precious jeweleries.
While this was happening, Lightning woke up from all the commotion outside. She went out to investigate and saw a bunch ponies dropping valuables down a bag. The mare was so confused by this that she did not see a gang member approaching her.
"That's a pretty pendant you got there." He complimented. "Hoofed it over."
Lightning glared at the stallion and back up a bit. "No."
"No? Lady do you not know who we are?"
"Why? Should I know?" She mocked.
"Tch, gonna be like that eh?" The stallion then forcefully grab the pendent with his hoof and tried to pull it off.
The mare quickly held onto her pendent and tried to fight off the thug. The two struggled, both unaware of the dark cloud forming above them. Then all of a sudden the cloud shout down a thunder and struck the two. While the stallion was electrocuted, the mare came out unscathed, but is now wearing a strange dark blue outfit with headgear.
The citizens and gang stared in complete shock at what transpired. Lightning checked herself out and then look at her pendent. As she stare at the pendent, she tore her eyes off it and glared daggers at the group of thugs before her, she knows what she gotta do.
Back at the town hall, Soft Touch watched Longhorn and his gang stealing everything from the ponies of this town. Suddenly the sound of lightning interrupted the scene, getting the attention of the large minotaur. He saw the dark clouds forming above this town, shooting down thunder at his army.
Longhorn turned and glared angrily at the frighten mayor. "What is the meaning of this?" He pointed the dark clouds, demanding an answer.
Before the mayor could answered. One of Longhorn's minion shouted something to him. "Boss, look out!"
The minotaur turn and saw a large wooden carriage flying towards him. Instead of dodging it, he stood his ground and punch the carriage into a thousand pieces.
"Most impressive, thou is stronger then I though." Said a mare voice from above.
All looking up, they spot the a pale blue pegasus mare in a dark blue suit, wielding her lightning shape pendent in her hoof. "Haply next time I shouldst throw a more heavier objects at thou."
The mayor and Pinewood mouths drop upon seeing the costume mare. Soft Touch however, was even more shocked cause she knows who she is.
"Who do you think you are?" Longhorn questioned, furiously staring at the flying mare.
"Who I am is not important, I'm just here to put a end to thy's reign of terror!" Lightning answered.
"Ha! You know nothing of my terror!" Longhorn responded mockingly.
"And thou don't know about my wrath!" Lightning retorted and used her pendent to cast down a thunder come down upon him. Her attack hits the minotaur, but it did not put him down.
"Is that all you got!" Longhorn shouted and charged at the mare.
Lightning flick her pendent again and summon a gust of powerful wind to blow him to the ground. "Foolish beast! Thou think thy brute force is enough to challenge me? I control the most powerful forces of nature itself! Thy strength means nothing to me!" To prove he point, she summons a small whirlwind that sucked the minotaur up and flung him away in the distance, to parts unknown.
With him dealt with, Lightning focuses her attention to the rest of Longhorn's gang. Seeing their boss so easily defeated, the gang immediately dropped everything and galloped out there with their tails behind their backs.
Once they were all gone, everypony cheered. The day was saved, all thanks to the mysterious mare. They all gathered around her, showering her with their cheers and praises.
"Ma'am I don't who you are, but thank you for saving our town!" Pinewood said.
"Yes, as mayor you have our total gratitude!"
The three talked some more and when they were done, Dr. Soft Touch went up to the pale blue mare. "Guess your memories have returned huh?"
"Nay Dr. Soft Touch, my memories have not returned. Only bits and pieces of it came back." Lightning answered. The mare then begin trotting away.
"Where are you going?"
"I need to find answers, answers to who I am and what this pendent is. I need to go out there and find myself." She then lifted her wings and took flight, just as she was about to leave, Soft Touch stopped her.
"Wait! Before you go, did you at least remembered your name?" The doctor asked.
"The name's Zapp." Was all the pegasus said before she flew off, disappearing into the sunset.
THE END
Masked Matter-Horn VS The Expirer
At the local Twinkie eating contest hosted by renown bakery company Hostess, Masked Matter-Horn stood on guard, staying ever vigilant. Apparently somepony has called in a possible, there is pony that is going to ruin this eating contest.
As the costume mare scanned the crowd, her eyes passed a pony wearing some heavy light brown trench coat with hat and thick sunglasses. When the pony the announcement of the contest starting soon, the strange pony moved in closer.
With the staff preparing for the table for the contest, they brought out a lot of Twinkies of storage and place on the stage for everypony to see. Once they unloaded the last batch of twinkies out, the strange pony took off the coat, revealing himself to be a costumed villain.
"It the Expirer!" One pony shouted his name.
"Yes, it is I the Expirer!" He said his name. "Now prepare as expire these twinkies before your very eyes!" Using his magic, he shot out a expiring ray at the mountain of twinkies.
However, instead of rotting away, the twinkies remain where they are, unchanged by his rays.
"What! How can this be?" The stallion questioned before being blasted by Matter-Horn's beam.
"Haven't you heard? Twinkies don't go bad, they can last for a very long time." The mare answered and watched as the defeated villain being dragged away by the police.
You Get Big Delight in Every Bite Of Hostess Twinkies |
Power Ponies Secret Origins | Hum Drum | INVESTIGATOR COMICS NO.38
Presents the sensational
HUMDRUM
Colt Wonder
At the Crimson Coast Elementary School, it was recess and a bunch of colts and fillies were preparing to play a game.
"Alright everypony split into two groups." A red colt ordered. "One group is with me, the other one is with Waterfall." He pointed to the blue colt.
After they all split and picked a side, they were about to start the game when suddenly one colt spoke out. "Hey guys can I play?" Asked a greyish green colt with brown hair and eyes.
"Pffft no way Hum Drum." The red colt mockingly responded. "You can join Waterfall's team."
"What? No way we're taking clumsy Hum Drum there!" The blue colt replied.
"Never mind then!" Hum Drum angrily said and left. As soon he was far away from them, Hum Drum's expression changed from anger to sadness as he sat sombrely on a bench.
The little colt was known around the school as the most clumsy pony ever. When ever he participate in something, he somehow mess everything up, ruining it for everypony. Because of his infamy, all the colts and fillies treated him like an outcast.
Hum Drum hates being the outcast, he tried to stop being such a clumsy pony, but this always backfires and messes things up even more.
As he sat there on the bench, a newspaper came flying by and smack him on his face. Hum Drum was startled by this, but immediately calmed down upon realizing it was just a newspaper. On the front cover of the paper, it displayed the Power Ponies triumphantly apprehending a group of train robbers. The six heroines stood together in the middle of the photo, with the robbers on the left side.
"It must be amazing to be a super hero." Hum Drum said. "Having awesome powers, having everypony loving you and praising you for your good deed, I wish I had that, a chance to prove myself and become a hero."
Suddenly the school bell ranged, signalling the end of recess. Hum Drum then hopped off the bench and toss the newspaper into the garbage bin. As he trots back to the school, the little colt didn't realize that his wish was about to come true.
Outside on the school ground, a tall thin unicorn stallion wearing a purple and black suit with mask was panting heavily. The stallion has just recently escape from the Power Ponies, but knew that they'll catch up. He spot the school and though of a ingenious idea.
Back to Hum Drum, the colt was in his class, sitting quietly as the rest of the class talked. The colt was position in the back left corner of the room, on the side with the windows. He waited patiently for his teacher to arrive so they can start the class.
Suddenly the door opened and in came a brown unicorn stallion. The stallion's red eyes scanned the room, looking at each of the young foals faces. Clearing his throat, the stallion spoke.
"Greetings my little ponies, I'll be your substitute teacher for the day."
"What happened to Miss. Sweet Honey?" One white filly asked.
"Miss. Honey was sick, so I was called in to take over her place." The stallion answered, while inside his head he remembered knocking that mare out and stuffing her into a locker.
"That's strange, she was fine before recess." A yellow colt commented.
"Um well she ate something bad and had to call in sick." The stallion lied.
Everypony accepted this and remained quiet. "Alright then." He trots up to the black board and picked up a white chalk with his magic. "The name is Mr. Cutter." He wrote his name on the board in big capitalized bold letters.
"Turn to page ten of your math books and we'll do some math problems." Cutter ordered and every foal took out their math books and papers.
While they all focused on their work, Hum Drum couldn't help but stare at the stallion. "Hmm I think I recognize him." He said to himself. He then pulled a out a Power Ponies Guide book from his desk and flip to the pages with all the villains. He flipped through a couple more and found what he was looking for.
The page features a tall, thin unicorn stallion, wearing a purple and black suit with mask. The stallion is called Charade. Hum Drum compared the picture to the stallion and can see the similarities, while not wearing his costume he does have the same build. Not only that, but the red eyes and white hair were the same.
He read more of Charade's profile and discovered that the name 'Cutter' is one of many aliases Charade uses in his criminal career.
The evidence was substantial, but what really sealed the deal is what happened next. "Hey look! Is that Zapp out there?" One foal shouted and pointed out the window. The entire class got up from their desk and rushed over to the window.
Outside, the super hero Zapp was flying around looking for somepony. While everypony stared at the mare, Hum Drum stared at Mr. Cutter and noticed the nervous look he had on his face.
"No doubt about it, Mr. Cutter is Charade." The little green colt said to himself. "I must find a way to inform Power Ponies about this without letting Charade know I'm onto him." Hum Drum then raised his hoof up. "Excuse me, Mr. Cutter, may I use the washroom?"
"Yeah sure, Kid, go ahead." Cutter allowed.
As soon Hum Drum left the room, he quickly galloped to the nearest exit. The little colt was attempting to get Zapp's attention so that she could apprehend the villain. However, upon opening the door and looking to the sky, the little colt was too late. Zapp has already left.
"Darn it Hum Drum, that was your only chance." He scolded himself. The colt sighs and though of something else. "Guess I have to go to plan B then." The colt then headed for the principle's office.
After telling him of the whole story, Hum Drum was kicked out of his office. "Seriously boy, a villain pretending be a teacher. You read too many comic books." The elderly stallion slammed the door.
"Guess it's up to me now." Hum Drum worryingly said before heading back to class.
Upon returning, he learned that his class is going to the gym next. He smiled, knowing exactly what to do.
At the gym, the class was split up into two teams. The game they're playing is dodge ball, throw the ball, hit a pony, the first to get rid of all the players on the opposing team wins.
Hum Drum chose a side and watch closely where Mr. Cutter was positioned. When the game start, all his team mates rushed in to get a ball. The only one who didn't go for the ball is Hum Drum. In order for his plan to work, all o his team mates has to be eliminated so that he's the only one of the field.
For now, he'll continue to dodge balls and wait as his team mates gets taken down one by one. After a couple of minutes passed by, Hum Drum was the only pony left on his team.
As the opposing team smiled at their almost victory, the little colt himself was smiling that his plan was working. Now that he is alone, the other team will focus all their attack on him. All he had to do now was get into position in front of Mr. Cutter.
Once the opposing locked in on him, they all raise their ball and toss it at him. Hum Drum saw the storm of balls flying at him. He instinctively dropped down, evading the balls as they flew overhead and went for the stallion behind him.
The barrage of balls struck the teacher, each one hitting its mark. It wasn't until a ball smash him in the face, is what finally knocked him out.
As the students looked at their fallen teacher with worries, Hum Drum silently congratulated himself.
Times passes and Cutter started waking up from his unconsciousness. He found himself comfortably laying on a bed, but he also found himself with a pair of hoofcuff.
"Nice to see awake Mr. Cutter." Said Mare-Velous from the side. "Or should I say Charade?"
"What? But, how can this be? How did you know who I was?" Charade questioned.
"It wasn't me Charade." The mare explained. "The credit goes to this kid." She points her hoof at the little green colt. "He saw through your disguise and cleverly put you out of commission long enough for us to me to track you here." She then turn to the two police officers. "Take him away boys." The two officers nodded and drag the villain away, leaving the mare and the colt in the room.
"You did a great job kid." Mare-Velous complimented the colt. "You knew who he was, didn't alert him of your knowing and impressively took him down."
"Well shucks ma'am, I would do anything to protect everypony from that villain." Hum Drum responded.
"That's really a admirable trait." She then got an idea in her head. "Say kid are interested in being a sidekick?"
The little colt gasped. "A sidekick? You mean I can get fight along side with you and the five other Power Ponies?"
"That's right kid, we can use somepony with your smarts on the field. So are you in?"
Hum Drum didn't hesitated and answered immediately. "Sign me up!"
And thus Hum Drum, a little colt would become the most amazing sidekick to help out the Power Ponies in their never ending battle against villainy.
THE END
Masked Matter-Horn in The Hunger Games
In the outskirts of the town, Red Sun. Masked Matter-Horn laid on flat on the ground with a binocular in her hoof. She heard rumors that this town has been taken over by a bandit lord and is forcing the inhabitants to play some kind of death game against each other.
Looking through her binocular, the mare can see the bandit lord sitting on his throne. He was currently watching two starving ponies battling each other. The prize, a delicious chocolatey hostess cupcake.
"Those poor ponies, starved to the point that they'll kill each other for that sugary treat. That fiend will pay!" She angrily declared. "But, first lets help these poor hungry ponies."
Using her unicorn magic she conjured up some more cupcakes and let it rain down on the starving ponies below.
"Look guys!" One stallion pointed to the sky.
"Cupcakes falling from the sky!" Another stallion shouted.
The bandit lord watch as his slaves dropped their weapons and began eating the cupcakes. He was a about to stop them, but was blasted away by a powerful magical beam.
"Take that evil doer! No longer shall you force these ponies in your hunger games." She said to the defeated bandit lord.
You Get A Big Delight In Every Bite Of Hostess Cupcakes |
Power Ponies Secret Origins | Power Ponies | THE
POWER PONIES
EQUESTRIA'S GREASTEST SUPERHEROES
CAN THE COMBINED POWERS OF MISTRESS MARE-VELOUS,
FII-SECOND, MASKED MATTER-HORN, RADIENCE,
SADDLE RAGER AND ZAPP
DEFEAT THE WARMONGERING
STRIFE, THE GOD OF WAR?
On this day, six unique individuals with super powers will meet to confront a powerful common foe. The fate of Maretropolis and its citizens are in the hooves of these six heroes who are up against a terrifying deity. Strife, the God of War.
The time, very early in the morning.
The place, in the outskirts of Maretropolis.
The pony, Strife, the God of War.
Strife stood alone on the small hill facing the large city in the distance. The large stallion wore his heavy black and red armour that covered his entire body. Two large red horns stood out on his black helmet, giving him a almost devil like appearance.
Sitting on his back, was Strife's most trusty weapon, his battleaxe. The axe's handle was pitch black and the blade part was a brightly vibrant scarlet colour.
The large earth stallion turn his head around and saw his massive army arming themselves. They were a mix of all known sentient beings across the world. They are also his followers who worship him and offer their service t the God of War. With so many eager to join, Strife has already amass an army that can rival any other nation.
Suddenly a griffon wearing a black and red armour landed next to the large stallion and bowed his head. "M y lord, your troops are getting excited. Shouldn't we start the invasion?"
"Not yet Lieutenant Havoc." Strife answered. "We'll attack by sunrise, I want to look at the surprise faces those weak ponies make when they see my army crush their pathetic lives."
The large stallion then return his gaze to the city in the distance. "For too long these ponies have live a peaceful life, long forgotten of the chaotic war from the era before Equestria. I am going to remind these ponies of those days and will bring an end to their peaceful era." He declared, gazing harder at the distance city. "Soon Equestria will be back to what it once was, a land of carnage and death."
The sun rose above the city of Maretropolis. Already ponies were out of their homes and ready to start the day. However, all of sudden the morning skies were raining with large fiery rocks. They came down crashing down on the streets below, penetrating through some buildings along the way.
Ponies everywhere scream and galloped to safety. Finding whatever cover they can find and hope they aren't hit. Eventually the rain of flaming rocks ended and the ponies came out of hiding. When they did they bear witness to a sight even more terrifying then the fiery rocks.
A horde of black and red armoured invaders charged in to attack. The invaders consist of the three pony types, griffons, minotaurs, buffaloes, zebras and diamond dogs. All the fliers swarmed the skies, while the ground forces swoop the streets, causing as much destruction and mayhem as they can.
All over the cities there are attacks everywhere and the Maretropolis Police are stretched thin trying to fend off these attackers. With the police unable to help, ponies fell victim to the invaders.
One small group was cornered by five invaders, each one wielding a very sharp and menacing weapon. As they drew closer, the group of became more frightened. Then all of a sudden a lone mare trotted out and glared at the five attackers.
"Well well, look what we got here boys." The unicorn invader mocked the grey pegasus mare with brown hair. "Look likes we got a brave little lady here." He continue to taunt the mare.
"I advise not to taunt me any further sir." The mare warned him. "I tend to lose control when I get angry."
"Oh is that so?" The unicorn said before taking a swipe at her.
Amazingly she quickly block the attack with her hoof. It wasn't the fact that this mare blocked his attack, it's the fact that she done so with ease. She barely flinched when his weapon hit her hoof.
"You shouldn't have done that." The mare said, her voice suddenly getting deeper. "You wouldn't like it when I get angry." Her body then begins to change. The five invaders watch in stun shock as the small mare grew in size, becoming a large hulking figure.
The large mare let out a roar and smashed the unicorn to the ground. The other four reacted quickly and all attacked the giant monster. The mare however, swatted them away like flies. She grabbed one griffon and threw him at a building.
The griffon broke through the glass window and broke through another one in the back. He crashed landed on the street where another battle was taking place.
Mistress Mare-Velous was in a middle of battling a bunch of guys. Despite having numbers on their side, this mare was a one pony army as she took them all on with little problem. She punched, she bucked, and occasionally use her lasso to throw these armoured guys around.
Up in the sky, a storm was brewing. At the centre of this storm was another costume heroine, Zapp. Using the magic in her pendent, the pale blue pegasus mare called upon the awesome power of lightning to strike down any fliers that came for her.
"Come at me villainous and face my wrath!" Zapp shouted, goading them to try and attack her.
While she was dealing with the airborne invaders. Down below, the police force were dealing with the ground forces. At the Purple Heart Hospital, a large group of police officers were outside, fighting off the invaders. They were assign here to protect the hospital from these attackers.
Among the many officers stationed here, Detective Flass Century was currently battling one of these invaders. The black and red armoured stallion swung his sword down, but the detective dodge it the attack and struck him in the expose gaps in his armour.
After taking him down, Flass went and assist another officer who being pinned by a large minotaur. Flass jumped on the guys back and tried to headlock him. He managed to get the minotaur off his buddy, but now the minotaur is focused on him now.
The minotaur pulled Flass off his back and threw him hard onto the ground. Reeling from the pain, the detective was left vulnerable to the large bipedal bull creature. Just before the Minotaur could do anything, he was suddenly blasted away by a magical beam.
That beam came from Masked Matter-Horn, who came onto the scene. Using her magic, the costumed mare shot out a rapid stream of beams at the invaders, knocking them all out. When the dust settled, Flass stood up and saw the mare approaching him.
"Good thing you showed up Matter-Horn." Flass said, nursing his bruise. "If you haven't come, we'll all been overrrun."
"Glad to be any assistance, detective" She smiled. Suddenly her smile dropped and her face got serious. "Detective, do you know whats going on?" She asked. "Who are these guys? And why are they attacking?"
"We don't know Matter-Horn. They just suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started attacking us, caught all of us in complete surprise." He explained.
"I see." Matter-Horn said as she turn her head away and saw another group of armoured attackers approaching. "Sorry, detective, looks we'll have to continue our conversation later. Now prepare for combat!"
As the two opposing side battled outside the hospital, a small group of invaders climb on top of a nearby building. Armed with their bows, the invaders aimed their arrows at the police below. Before they could let go of the arrow, something came flashing in and knocked all them out.
The cause of this was another costume heroine, Fili-Second. The young teenage filly used her super fast speed power and move all over the city, taking down any invaders she came across. This method has already saved the lives of numerous ponies who needed help.
On one of her runs, Fili-Second passed under an road overhead, where Radiance was single-hoofedly taking on three armour wearing manticores. The mare conjured up some shields to block off the invader's warbeast. Behind her there was a turned over bus with ponies she is protecting. Once they all safely evacuated, she dropped the shield and went on the offensive.
Radiance creates a large pink battering ram and charge through the three beast and into the small army behind them. She cuts through like a hot knife through butter as her weapon battered all the unlucky foes caught in her attack.
As the battle rages on across the city of Maretropolis, the War God, Strife, stood on the roof of the tallest building and watched the battlefield below. First army perform well at the beginning of the attack, but are now halted by these six unique mares.
"These mares are quite formidable." Strife complimented them. "I wasn't aware that Equestria still has champions." He then gripped his battleaxe and moved to the edge of the building. "No matter, they will all fall and I shall be the one to do so, personally!" Strife jumped down to face the first of the six champions, Saddle Rager.
The large hulking mare swung her fist upwards, upper cutting a minotaur. Saddle Rager punching the invaders, left and right with ease. It also helps when you have some large metallic boxing gloves created from crushed metal chariots and carriages.
As she continue bashing her foes, she heard a loud thump behind her, as if somepony just crash landed. Turning around, Rager saw a large armoured stallion wielding terrifying battleaxe. She assume him to be just another soldier and charged in, both fist raised up, totally unaware that she was up against the God of War.
She swung her left right hoof at the stallion, but to her surprise he blocked with only one hoof. This had never happened before. So surprised by this, Strife took the opportunity to swing his battleaxe, intending to chop her arm off. Luckily she pulled back and the axe only chop her metal boxing glove off.
Saddle Rager, swung her other hoof at him, but he punched back. Their hooves collided, creating a loud sonic boom that shattered all glass in the area. Then all of a sudden, her metal boxing glove shattered into pieces.
"You are strong beast." Strife praised the hulking mare. He then proceed to punch her hard in the stomach. "But, I am stronger." The stallion then grab the large mare and threw her at a building. She breaks through the front of the building, pass some walls, and exiting through the back wall.
Strife was about to go after her, but was stopped when several lightning struck the ground around him. He looked up and saw a pegasus mare in a blue outfit, staring down at him.
"You look like the leader of this army." Zapp stated. "If I defeat you, your forces will fall apart."
"You're welcome to try mare." Strife challenged.
"I accept thee challenge!" Zapp responded and conjure up some more storm clouds. Strife then leap at the flying mare, aiming his battleaxe at her.
On the other side of the street, Saddle Rager was slowly recovering from being thrown through a building. Beneath her were some invaders that were crushed when she broke through the wall and landed on them. Apparently the mare interrupted a fight between these armoured goons and Mistress Mare-Velous.
"Whoa, thanks for the assist my large friend." Mare-Velous said to Saddle Rager. "Hey wait aren't you that big monster thing everypony keeps talking about, Saddle Rager?"
"Yeah, what if I am?" Rager asked in very angry and threatening tone in her voice.
"No need to be a angry, Rager, I know you're not a monster."
This surprises the grey pegasus mare. "How do you know that?"
"Simple, my large friend. I know that the military fabricate all their stories about you. You never destroyed that town, that town was destroyed because the military were trying to capture you. You only wanted to live in peace."
The large mare was speechless. Never before has she encountered anther pony that wasn't scared of her.
"So are hurt or can you still move?"
"Yeah I'm fine." Rager assured her and got up. She flicked a armoured pony off her back and looked at the red costumed mare.
"So what brought you to my neighbourhood?" Mare-Velous asked.
The large mare pointed to the sky where both Zapp and Strife were in a middle of fight with one another. "See that one in the black and red armour?"
"You mean the guy with those two big red devil horns?"
"Yeah." Rager verified."That one blocked my attack and through me through the building."
"Holy smokes! That stallion must be crazy strong." Mare-Velous stated. "Who is this guy?"
"His name is Strife, the God of War." Answered a young mare's voice, next to the two mares.
The two heroines yelp in surprise by the sudden appearance of the young teenage filly in her white suit with a purple line arrow detail.
"Who are you?"
Fili-Second smiled and introduced herself. "Name's Fili-Second, the fastest mare alive!" She said with a lot of energy.
"The speedster?" Mare-Velous commented. "How do you know this guy's name?"
"I overheard it from some of his minions." Fili-Second explained. "He is the pony that lead the invasion and is apparently the God of War."
"God of War, eh?" Saddle Rager repeated. "Well god or no god, nopony messes with our city!" She was about to go after the War God, but was stopped by Mistress Mare-Velous.
"Hold on there partner, no offence but that guy totally whooped you." She pointed out.
"So what?"
"So, seeing how this Strife guy managed to throw you through a building so easily and is taking on Zapp with little difficulty, then I suggest we get some back up."
"Back up, huh?" Fili-Second spoke up. "On my numerous runs across this city, I saw both the Masked Matter-Horn and Radiance."
"Well just our luck, Fili-Seconfd go get those two and bring them here." Mare-Velous told the teenage filly. "If we're going to beat this guy, then we're gonna need the combine power of all six of us."
The speedster nodded her head and in a blink of an eye, she was gone. Both Mistress Mare-Velous and Saddle Rager turned their attention to Strife, who had his metal hoof on top the fallen pegasus.
"You fought well champion." Strife said the mare beneath his boot. "It will be such a shame to end your life." He raises his battleaxe up high and was about to bring it down.
Suddenly he heard the loud thumping sound that grew louder from the side. He turn his head and saw the rampaging, hulking mare charging at him. Before he could even defend himself, Saddle Rager tackled the War God off the pegasus and slammed onto the hard ground. The large mare then got up, picked him up and threw him through a building.
When Strife landed on the other side, he recovered quickly and went to pick up his weapon. Just as his hoof was about to touch the weapon, a lasso flew in and pulled his battleaxe away. The War God saw Mare-Velous, mockingly holding his weapon.
Before he could anything, Saddle Rager charged in and ram the stallion into a wall. She then went to him and started pummelling him with her fist. She got in a couple of good hits, before he grabs her head and headbutted her.
Reeling back, the War God saw an opportunity and began striking against her chest. Due to her large size, the mare was not able to shield herself from his assault.
As he continued doing this, a felt a lasso around his arm. He smiled under his helmet, fully expecting the other mare to do this. He grip the rope and swung the mare over to her friend, slamming into her.
Strife then picked up his battleaxe and turned to face the two champions. However, he is instead met with the mare from before, Zapp.
"I'm not done yet, villain!" Zapp use her pendent to call down a powerful thunder strike and struck the War God. The attack was brutal, but wasn't enough to take him down. He still stood up, scorched from the thunder strike.
Zapp however, was not deterred by this and glare at the large stallion. She was then met with the two other heroines that stood by her side. They gave each other a glance and nod, acknowledging that they were on the same team.
With that settled, the three mares charged in, ready to face the War God.
Mare-Velous attacked first, she launched a dozen hoofarangs at him. Strife deflected them away with his battleaxe, but one of them exploded in a very bright light, blinding him.
With his vision temporary gone, Saddle Rager picked up a carriage and smack him up in the air. Zapp then shocked him with more thunder strikes, which is then followed by Mare-Velous bringing him down hard with her lasso.
Strife, crashed onto the concrete road, where Rager then starts punching him. Each hit, pushes the War God down deeper into the ground, until he was fully buried.
Saddle Rager halted her attack and took a long, deep breath. When she thought it was over, the ground beneath her burst and the War God came out and upper cutted the large grey mare. He sent her flying to another building.
Once he was out of the ground he targeted the two shocked mares. Zapp used her pendent to summon a hail storm to stop him. In response Strife threw his battleaxe. The pale blue mare barely dodge the weapon, almost crazing her. She was then sucker punched by the large stallion, sending her to a wall.
Mistress Mare-Velous threw a explosive hoofarang, but the War God grabbed it and crushed with his hoof, exploding the little device in the process. The sand colored mare gulped and readied herself for combat.
Luckily for her she won't be fighting him alone.
Out of nowhere a magical beam came pass her and struck the large armour stallion. He stammered back a bit, but still hold his ground. Mare-Velous turn and saw Masked Matter-Horn trotting up her."
"Fili-Second got you?"
"Yeah, explained everything to me a long the way." The pink mare answered. Matter-Horn shot out another beam at the War God, this time sending him flying back against a wall.
Strife tried to get up, but Mistress Mare-Velous threw a smoke hoofarang into his helmet. The device activated and soon the stallion was coughing from the smoke. Matter-Horn shot a freeze beam at his hooves, trapping him in place. Mare-Velous then planted several explosive devices in the gaps between his armour plating. Once she and her partner were in a safe distance, the mare set off the bomb, blowing the War God up.
Once the smoke cleared, both mare were in shock to see the stallion still standing. Most of his armour has been blown off, revealing the dark grey coat beneath. The only piece that stayed were his metal boots, gauntlet, and helmet.
The War God's eyes glowed brightly underneath his helmet. "Foolish champion, you think your little toys can harm me!" As soon as he finished saying that a large pink anvil dropped on him.
"Now just because something is little doesn't it mean can give you big results." Said a very elegant voice from above.
Up in the air, Radiance had a pink around her, allowing the yellow mare to float. She got rid of the anvil and the War God got up. He was then immediately assaulted by something that was moving fast and hard.
"Try and attack me sucker!" Fili-Second said in between smacking the stallion.
"Lets see run with no flat ground for you to run on!" Strife stab his battleaxe in the ground, shattering everything around him.
With the ground no longer smooth, the young speedster trip and fell face first on the ground. Strife then threw his battleaxe at Radiance, swinging in a circular motion. Thankfully, the mare had her shield on, otherwise that axe would of sliced her in half. Instead the impact knocked the mare out of the sky and down onto the ground.
When his battleaxe came back, he was soon blasted by yet another magic beam from the pink mare. Mistress Mare-Velous toss in a glue hoofarang that covered his face. While he was attempting to get the sticky substance off the front of his helmet, the Saddle Rager came up from behind and smash him to the ground.
Strife took a swipe to the back with his weapon and the large mare jumped back to evade it. He was then electrocuted when Zapp called down the thunder on him.
As he stood back up, Mare-Velous that he was more weaker now. No longer did his legs stood straight and firm, the stallion could barely stand up. Seeing that he is almost beaten, she shared this news with everypony else.
"Girls, this guy is weakening, we need to keep up the assault!" She shouted. "Everypony attack at once!"
All the mares did as she said and readied their attack. Matter-Horn charged up her horn, increasing its power. While she was doing that, Rager grab a large chunk from the ground and smash it on the stallion. Zapp once again used her thunder attack and struck him. Mare-Velous threw in a few explosive hoofarangs and blew him up. Fili-Second used her super speed and momentum to to dish out some heavy damage. Radiance created a pink train and have dropped on the War God. Finally it was Matter-Horn left and her horn was sparkling. She aimed it the stallion and unleashed her charged up beam. It was so bright and large that it blinded everypony in the vicinity.
After all their combined attacks, they were met with the sight of Strife, on his knees, struggling to get up. The six heroine surrounded him as he vainly tried to make his hooves get up.
"Stand down Strife, you're defeated." Mare-Velou told the War God. "We beaten enough, don't make us harm you anymore."
To this the dark grey stallion chuckled. "You're I am defeated." He then lifted his head and stared at them. "But, I would rather die then to surrender to you!" He swung his axe on himself and the result action created a huge explosion.
Mask Matter-Horn shield Mare-Velous and herself in a dome shield. Radiance, used the power of her diamond to generate a forcefield around herself. Saddle Rager grab both Zapp and Fili-Second, using herself as shield to protect the two.
After the explosion, the heroine came out of it unscathed. They inspect the spot where Strife was, but only found a blacken crater where he was.
"Can't believe that guy did that himself." Matter-Horn said, commenting about the War God's fate.
"Prideful god, rather do that himself instead of yielding." Zapp said, looking down at the crater.
In the aftermath of what is later called, the Battle of Maretropolis. The fighting was over and the now rebuilding process can begin. After the defeat of their God, all the invaders immediately bolted, scattering into the unknown.
While everypony were busy rebuilding, six certain heroines met up in a semi destroyed tower. Five mares entered a room, all the while greeting one another. Standing in the alone was Mistress Mare-Velous.
"Girls, I'm so glad you all came to this meeting."
"OK, we're here, so what do you want?" Matter-Horn questioned.
"Yeah, we need to help the ponies rebuild the city." Fili-Second added.
"Don't worry this won't take long." Mare-Velous's face then drop the smile and got all serious. "Do you girls remembered the battle with Strife a few days?"
"Of course we do dear." Radiance answered. "Some of us still have the bruises from that battle."
"Yeah that battle was tough on all of us, but that battle with Strife got me thinking. Can it happened again? Will we be able to stop this time? Or will we even be their when it happens?" She then turn to face each of the mares in the room. "What I'm suggesting we do is to form a team, a team that is organized and ever ready to fight against evil."
"That's not a bad idea, Mare-Velous." Radiance responded.
"Sure, I'm down with that." Said Matter-Horn.
"I agree, we are some of the most powerful ponies around, nopony will dare strike against us." Zapp stated.
"Sure why not, I'm in." Said Saddle Rager.
"Cool, we're going to be best team ever!" Fili-Second excitingly said. "Whoa hold on a second, what do we call ourselves?"
A small smile appeared on Mare-Velous's face. "I think Zapp had the right idea for a name." She answered. "From this day forth, we are the Power Ponies!"
On that day the legendary team is born. Six unique individuals joined together against a common foe, each one offering a unique ability to the team. Saddle Rager with her strength, Fili-Second with her speed, Radiance with magic constructs, Zapp with weather control, Masked Matter-Horn with her magical beam, and last Mare-Velous with her lasso and various gadgets. Together, the six have formed a unstoppable team that will never lose against the forces of evil.
THE END |
Twilight of the Idols | pre | "Luna, please, I need to know."
"If you insist..."
The scene of the happily rebuilding ponies faded away. It was night now, and the young Luna was sitting on a balcony in the old castle in the middle of the Everfree Forest of present day. The thousand plus year old structure was new in the vision, and surrounded by rolling green fields, interspersed with small well groomed forests. The young Luna sat, looking out across the sleeping ponies. She seemed sad and lonely, yet too proud to admit it to anyone except herself.
"At first, I threw myself into my duties. I told myself that the loneliness and isolation that came with being the lady of the night were duties that only I had the strength to bear. But it still ate at me. At first, the job was simple benign neglect, and I watched over the night unseen by any of them. We had banned the worshipping of us as gods back when we took over. But it proved to be resilient, and soon I found out that the others were quietly encouraging it after we had lifted the ban as 'unnecessary'. It felt like a betrayal of everything we stood for. I still stood with them, because they still were my friends, and had the best interests of everyone at heart.
"But as time went by, that became harder. The ponies came to know and fear me. Rather than respecting me for watching over them while they slept, they blamed me for what went bump in the night. Slowly, I became bitter, not just towards them, but towards my sister and our friends. I was enraged that they coddled their superstitions, and even drew nourishment from it. They kept them ignorant and weak, while I did their dirty work to keep their precious little pets safe."
Luna spoke with shame. She was on the verge of tears, reliving her mistakes again. Even though Twilight knew it was just a shadow, she still hugged Luna out of instinct, watching the tragedy unfold before her eyes.
"I let my experiences make me hard and unkind, and I was too proud to do anything constructive about my grievances. Instead, I let them fester. I simultaneously despised the lesser ponies, yet considered myself their champion, and the one who would free them from the despicable condition that they had been placed in.
"The worst part was that I was right about so much, yet oh so wrong about others. The bitterness turned to hate, and it poisoned my soul. I became convinced that overthrowing my friends would be the lesser ponies' only salvation. I longed to purge the world of vice and sin, and I saw corruption everywhere...except within myself. The others were opening the door to the return of chaos, and the same cataclysm that had befallen our own people. Because my self-righteousness was unassailable, I could not see that I had become the doom that I had been struggling against."
The amulet of loyalty around the younger Luna's neck soon turned gray, and fell off her neck. Luna stared down at the world hate and vengeance in her eyes. With a flash of black magic, she donned her nightmare battle form. She roared at the top of her lungs into the night sky, "If all you can see is a monster, then I'll show you a monster!"
The moon stopped in the sky as Nightmare Moon took flight.
"I flew off to gather forces, both among ponies as well as the other magical creatures of Equestria. There is one thing you must understand, Twilight: I am responsible for everything you are about to see. What you're going to see is going to shock you. I can make no excuses for my actions. I let myself be consumed by Nightmare Moon."
Twilight could only nod. As Nightmare Moon gathered her armies in the opening days of the Long Night, the rest of Equestria descended into panic. The five rulers were paralyzed by indecision about how to face Luna's gathering force. No one could have ever imagined that element of loyalty and prelate of truth could fall so far.
"Lillith decided to take matters into her own hands," Luna said mournfully. "She tried to confront me, to talk some sense into me. But I could not hear it. Your histories of this event only record that I was a cackling, cartoonishly evil tyrant, driven mad by jealousy. As though I were the type of villain who tied maidens to railroad tracks for the jollies. But the truth is far worse, and it's why honesty from a friend could not stop me."
A feeling of dread filled Twilight as she watched the orange alicorn met with Nightmare Moon alone; trying to convince her that it wasn't too late to turn back as passionately as she could.
"I remained 'righteous', but self-righteous. I continued to rule and order things for 'good', and the benefit of my subjects according to my wisdom. This is why I was the worst tyrant imaginable. I wasn't a robber baron or a mad queen; my justice had simply lost its compassion. A mad queen's cruelty may sometimes sleep, her cupidity may at some point be sated, and since she dimly knows at least that she is doing wrong she may someday repent. But someone who mistakes her own cruelty, lust for power, and fear for the mandate of justice will torment others indefinitely because she does so with the approval of her own conscience. I thought myself a dark messiah to right the wrongs done to me and others."
Lillith's sobs fell on deaf ears: their argument soon came to blows, and as the two goddesses clashed, the whole world shook beneath them. But she as great as she was, Lillith was simply no match for Nightmare Moon, empowered by rage and the taint of discord. Nightmare Moon struck down the pale alicorn, leaving her lying broken and bleeding in a crater. Nightmare casually cantered over to her, ready to deliver the finishing blow.
"I...I still love you, my friend," Lillith cried, "And I forgive you."
Nightmare Moon thrust her magical blade through the fallen pony's heart. She seemed confused at the tears that were in her eyes. It was as though she couldn't even acknowledge her own emotions anymore. In spite of everything, Lillith had a look of peace on her face as she closed her eyes forever. Soon, her body glowed with brilliant light, transforming into pure magic, and then disappeared in a flurry of white feathers.
"I betrayed and murdered my best friend..."
Scenes from the ensuing war flashed before them. The world was ravaged yet again by battle as ponies were once again forced to take up arms. One by one, the other alicorns fell to Nightmare Moon. The plants and crops began to die as the night wore on for weeks, until finally Nightmare Moon's armies were laying siege to Canterlot. Celestia sat alone upon her golden throne, clad in her golden battle armor.
She contemplated her next move, wondering what had caused her sister to fall so far. As the sound of the siege engines grew closer, and the castle's magical defense crumpled, Celestia summoned up all her courage. She strode out of the throne room, dismissing her guards. They would tend to the walls elsewhere. She would face her sister alone.
The loyalists cheered in the streets upon seeing their mighty sovereign gallop towards the battlements. She ordered the gate open, and trotted out in front of the battlements alone, ordering it closed behind her. She was wearing the element of magic proudly, and its golden halo forced all but the strongest of Nightmare Moon's champions to shrink back.
"We would face Nightmare Moon alone!" she called out in the deafening official voice now known as the Royal Canterlot voice. "This battle is between us. Ye shall cease all attacks upon Canterlot lest we destroy you."
Nightmare Moon soon stepped to the fore, staring down her elder sister dispassionately. "It is good of thee to come, sister. Thou might spare thy subjects a terrible slaughter if thou would abdicate and welcome the new order."
Celestia's anger only burned brighter. Her flaming mane whipped in the wind as she scowled at her sister. "Of all my friends, why thee? Thou wast stronger than this!"
"I am stronger than thou could ever imagine. I can feel the universe tremble at my approach; even the Lords of Chaos cower at my name!"
"No one will remember thee, traitor!" cursed Celestia. She launched her attack, charging headlong at Nightmare Moon, brandishing her magic as a burning greatsword. Nightmare Moon met her charge with her own shadowy blade, and the two alicorns clashed through the air, each trying to get the upper hand.
The two opposing armies each cheered on their champion while the world shook from their battle. After a few minutes of dead heat, Celestia missed a crucial parry. Nightmare Moon's duskblade cut deep into Celestia's golden armor, and the magical force of the attack sent her careening down to the ground, creating a decent crater with her impact.
Nightmare Moon hovered down over Celestia while she cradled the wound, struggling to stand. "Pathetic!" Nightmare shouted, "Thou wast great once, before guilt and doubt addled thy will; before they rendered judgment upon these mortals, before thou murdered the innocent and the guilty all in one stroke! Thou weak, sorry fool! How must it feel to have slain millions, to have betrayed thy own blood!?"
Celestia staggered to her hooves, raising her blade to defend. "Thou art right, sister. I did betray them, just as I betrayed thee." With her admission catching Nightmare off guard, she pressed her attack, pushing the black alicorn back, stunning her followers to silence.
"Then why dost thou persist?"
"Because I have failed thee. I will not let thee make a greater error, sister, because I love thee, and I am truly sorry."
The duel continued unabated in between their verbal jabs. Celestia seemed to have taken the advantage now. Nightmare could only look back in stunned silence.
Tears were streaming down Celestia's cheeks as she fought on. "I once thought myself just, Luna. I told myself that the innocents who we purged along with the guilty died so that equidae could live, and that I had ended their suffering. But I was wrong, Luna, so wrong! Thou art committing the same sins as I. It is my fault, because thou counseled me against my vanity, yet I ignored thee. I was angry, and I shut thee out of my life. I wanted not to hear what thou said. So I let my sister sulk alone in the night. I wronged thee greatly, sister. But I also cannot allow you to magnify my mistakes."
"Thou art trying to trick me!" accused Nightmare Moon.
"No, dear sister, I am not. Can't thou see the damage that thy night is bringing? The air is chilled, the trees and grass are dying. Soon, the ponies will be too. I beg thee, stop this madness! Let us resolve this with words, like two loving sisters ought?"
Celestia was tiring. Even before the wound she received, Nightmare Moon was considerably stronger than her. The gash sapped her strength and stamina, and soon her attacks faltered. Nightmare Moon regained the upperhoof, and soon she sent Celestia careening through the brown trees, scattering their leaves upon the ground.
"It is too late for words, dear sister," said Nightmare Moon as she approached the dazed champion of ponykind.
Celestia shook off her confusion, and slowly rose to her feet. "I'm sorry sister," she said, "but thou leavest me with no choice. I hope that we can meet again one day, whether this works for not. I will not yield to thee, nor can I permit this night to continue. Know this, sister: I would have died to spare thee this agony."
Her halo began to glow as bright as the dawn, as she summoned up all of her magic. Nightmare Moon continued to advance undeterred by her sister's last minute gambit. The element of magic glowed as Celestia slowly levitated off the ground. She didn't know if this desperate act would work, if she could activate an Element of Harmony now that they were marred by betrayal and death, but she had to try, even if the magic drain killed her. After what seemed like a short eternity, the Element of Magic fired, sending a stream of golden magic straight at Nightmare Moon.
It over whelmed her defenses, sending her hurtling into the night sky. The ray of magic continued until it struck the moon, imprisoning Nightmare in it. As the spell ended, Celestia's halo dimmed and failed. Her armor faded to gray, as did the Element of Magic, and the fell to the ground. The fire wet out in her mane and tail. She slumped to the ground in exhaustion, though she allowed herself a small sigh of contentment upon seeing the moon begin to move across the sky again, along with Nightmare Moon's forces scattering in a total rout.
"I have lost the magic of friendship because I have lost my best friend," she said to herself as she fell unconscious with exhaustion."
Twilight Sparkle found herself waking up as the vision finished. Luna's voice echoed in her head as she woke, telling her to stay strong. Her eyes slowly cracked open as she started to stir, feeling the luxuriously soft pillows of Luna's room. She got up quickly, almost in a panic.
It was nightfall by now. The crystal ball was set on the pillows next to her, broken in two. Inside the hollow crystal there was a note. It was a list of authors and book titles, and where they might be found, so that Twilight could fill in the details. She didn't recognize a single title or author among the list; it was knowledge not meant to be seen.
She pocketed the list quickly, setting it in her saddlebag along with the book that Celestia had prepared for her. She cantered out of the palace, heading towards Old Rook's residence to inform him of the news.
The city seemed different than before as she ran through the streets. While clean up wasn't done, there were a whole lot more guards out on the streets, along with armed unicorns wearing a strange uniform she didn't recognize. They looked like brown business shirts with ties, but they had strange armbands and what looked like rank badges on them. As she cantered by them nervously, they stared back at her somewhat menacingly before invariably muttering something like "It's another unicorn, let her pass."
This was most odd. She decided to quicken her pace towards Rook's house. When she arrived, she found the door left ajar. Worried, she let herself in, calling out to see if anyone was home. She heard a friendly voice from upstairs and went up to investigate.
She found Old Rook upstairs, packing his bags. "Um... what's going on?" she asked.
"Well, my dear, it appears that I've been sacked! Well, that's what they'll call it. It's actually more like a sort of coup d'etat"
Author's Notes
That turned out to be a bit longer than I expected. I thought I'd give a few notes about some artistic liberties I took. This fanfic will deal with a bit of political intrigue as well, so I figured I'd explain some choices I made about the Equestrian government. It impresses me to be less of a benevolent autocracy, and more like a mother knows best kind of constitutional monarchy, where Celestia delegates powers to a mix of appointed and elected advisers. I modeled the system off the British constitutional system post-Glorious Revolution, but before the rise of parliamentary democracy. The Privy Council is basically like a cabinet, and consists of appointed individuals, usually nobles, who run various government functions in lieu of Celestia directly running it.
Old Rook, I figured would have a name a bit like Granny Smith; he's called Old Rook now because he's old, just like Granny Smith is called that because of her age and the fact that she's the family matriarch. I see him as sort of the best of 19th century British gentlemen put in pony form :P
The book titles that Twilight are some references to anime, science, and philosophy respectively. Don't worry if you don't get them.
I think I've also set a new record for creating the most posthumous characters in a single chapter. I hope you enjoyed my reinterpretation of what little has actually been revealed about Equestria's past and mythology. Anyway, see you around! :) |
Twilight of the Idols | III. Here There Be Monsters | Twilight of the Idols
III. Here There Be Monsters
"But even if the most laudatory of motivations be assumed, the fact remains that the coup d'etat is a deliberately illegal act of the gravest kind and strikes at the highest level of law and order in society..."
~John Newbold Harzard
A silent stillness befell the room. Both Twilight and Rook had dropped everything for the moment. Rook waited patiently to give his junior counterpart time to process what was going on. Twilight, on the other hand, really couldn't believe what she was hearing. It might as well have gone in one ear and out the other. Coups were just things that didn't happen in Equestria, at least not since Nightmare Moon's attempt over a thousand years ago. Sure they occasionally happened in some far away land not under Celestia's direct control; but here in Canterlot? That was literally unthinkable. "Could you run that by me again?" was about all she could manage.
"A coup d'etat: French, meaning 'strike of state'. The sudden, illegal deposition of a government. Also called a putsch or an overthrow--"
"I know what a coup is, Rook. I'm not a filly. You mean to tell me that someponies have overthrown the government?"
"I'm afraid I do, dear. They've been planning this a while now, at least since the crisis began, perhaps even longer. There's always been a faction in parliament, particularly in the Commons, who have never been satisfied with the status quo. They've had allies in the military, the guard and the civil service. While I don't know if they were actually plotting against Celestia herself, or if they were just preparing to take advantage of her eventual absence, I never imagined they'd be so bold."
It really hit Twilight now. She'd been just two preoccupied to see what was going on right in front of her nose. The ponies in the strange uniforms, the absence of the usual nightly hustle in the city: it was all staring her in the face and yet she didn't even think much about it until Rook spelled it out to her.
"Why would anypony do such a thing?"
"They want things to be run their way. Why else? I don't think even you appreciate just how important Princess Celestia was to the administration of the state. All the power we had was delegated to us directly from her office, and she could have taken it back at any moment. She let the nobles and the growing bourgeoisie play at governing, and occasionally gave them what they wanted. Who knows? She might have even been trying to slowly prepare for something like this happening. But the fact remains is that when she disappeared, there was a tremendous power vacuum. So they decided to fill it."
"What do we do about it?" she asked.
Rook snorted a bit, as though he found the question humorous. "Absolutely nothing, my dear! Because they're got the military thoroughly under their control, and given the events of late, they have the perfect opportunity to declare a state of emergency, and do whatever they want. What we are doing is packing our things, and quitting the capital lest Prince Blueblood decides he's feeling less generous towards his political adversaries."
"What? You're just going to let them win?" she shouted. Her anger was making her hair stand on end, and unconsciously stamp her hooves.
"Letting does not have anything to do with it. I'm sorry Twilight Sparkle, but there isn't really anything we can do. It's the 'Golden Rule', my little pony: the pony that has the gold makes the rules. Right now, they've got the money and the soldiers to make sure everyone toes the line."
A sudden chill went down Twilight's spine. She needed to find her friends now. "Omigosh...I've got to go, before they get hurt...or worse!" She charged out his door, into the sooty evening air.
"Before who gets hurt?" he yelled after her.
"My friends!" she shouted back before running off into the night.
Tracking down her herd of friends was somewhat like the exercise of herding cats. But eventually, after considerable begging, pleading, cajoling and threatening, Twilight managed to get them all under the same roof for debriefing.
Rook's flat was a fairly spacious studio apartment in one of the newer quarters of the city. The multi-level building was rather sturdy, built out of burgundy-red brick that seemed to whether the soot and ash blowing around Canterlot quite well. The interior was decorated well, with modern plaster walls painted vibrant colors and adorned with an assortment of antique tapestries and landscape paintings. Rook's flat was on the first floor, rather near the exit. While it was in a bit of a state from the earth quakes and other events, it had been a fairly orderly apartment.
The living room was well furnished, with oversized felt chairs by the fireplace, and spacious bookshelves along the walls. The lacquered wood trim was balanced by the earthy tones of the plaster, which seemed to faintly glow under the light from the ornate brass oil lamps decked around the interior.
Since the details of the recent events were still fuzzy to her, Twilight had Rook explain the situation. Twilight summed up telling the girls about the messages Celestia had left them, and how the princesses were counting on them to be leaders in these dark times. This not only meant hunting down some rare, presumably banned books, but also resisting the new regime.
Applejack was the first to speak up. "So let me get this straight: you're telling me that some fancy-schmancy ponies have taken over now that Princess Celestia is...gone. They sacked this here feller and now that they're in charge, they aim to run things here in Canterlot the way they want. And Twilight here wants us to do something about it."
Twilight nodded, glad that someone seemed to understand how important this was.
Or not. "Well, if that's the case, then I really don't see why it's any of my business. Let 'em do what they want. I didn't sign up to be a rebel, Twilight. If you want to do something, I ain't gonna stop y'all. But I have a life in Ponyville that I need to get back to. Sweet Apple Acres ain't gonna run itself, sugarcube. We're in bad enough straights as it is, and with this calamity I'm gonna need to be home to make sure it doesn't run into the ground. My family's livelihood is at stake here. I'm sorry Twi, I really am."
A uncomfortable silence filled the smoky air. Twilight fidgeted nervously, not sure if she'd been totally out of line for even asking. She felt a little stupid really, not even once thinking about the lives her friends would have to leave behind, or the duties that would be left undone.
Rarity had been nodding in silent agreement while Applejack spoke. After a few uncomfortable glances, reading everyone else's reactions, she spoke up too. "As much as it pains me, dear, I have to agree with Applejack. I would really like to help, but I am really not cut out to be an outlaw. I have a business that I need to run, and a little sister who'd be terribly lost without me. I have a livelihood to think about, and a future career. Plus, what is little old me going to do about this? You know how I hate politics, right dear?"
So that was two gone. Twilight was starting to feel a little bit irritated. This was a big problem, and yet personal lives seemed to be more important to everyone. While she stewed, Rook decided to go about packing his things again. He'd seen this kind of audience many times before, and the looks on their faces and their body language said it all: "I'm sorry, but I can't help you."
Fluttershy was about to speak up, but Twilight cut her off. "It's okay...okay. I'm sorry I asked. I can see you girls have more important things to worry about. I might have asked too much of you, but I can't go back. This is too important. You're going to have to go back to Ponyville without me."
Pinkie Pie seemed unusually level headed. "Twilight, you don't needed to be judgmental about it. I really don't think you realize the kind of danger you're signing yourself up for. If you were to get hurt or jailed, I'd be really upset. I don't want that to happen to you. Maybe you should reconsider. You're like family to us, and you belong in Ponyville."
Twilight felt abandoned, almost betrayed. Everyone was against her, and now she was shivering with frustration as tears began to well up in her eyes. "Just forget I asked!" she cried, "Just, just go back to Ponyville. Go back where it's safe! I'm not going back, I have a job I need to do...the princesses are counting on me." Twilight bolted out of the living room, into the open door of the guest bedroom. She desperately fought back the tears and sobs as she slammed the door behind her.
The rest of the ponies, feeling upset at Twilight's display but still vindicated, began shuffling out of the house. Rook lingered a moment, telling Twilight she was welcome to stay here as long as she needed but that it would be safer to leave. He gathered his luggage, and left. Just like all of the other ponies...her friends...had.
Well, all except one. There was a rapping at the guest room door, followed by a perky voice asking, "Hey, Twi, you alright? Can I come in?"
Not waiting for her answer, Rainbow Dash walked in, stopping for a moment just beyond the threshold. Twilight was laying down on the guest bed, her face buried in her hooves while she silently wept. "Twi...it hurts just to look at you when you're hurting like this," said Rainbow Dash.
Dash flopped down on the bed right beside Twilight, nestling up against her crying friend. She sat their silently for a few moments, just staring a head at the wall while she wrapped her wing around Twilight and gently hugged her with it. Dash's blue feathers blended seamlessly with Twilight's lavender coat in the shadows of the unlit room. "Hey, you gonna be okay, Twi?" Dash whispered.
"Why?" Twilight asked. It was the first question on her mind. "Why did you stay, Dash? Don't you have more important things to be doing?"
"More important than a friend? Never. Especially when she's been hurt. I know this is really important to you, and I think I understand a bit why you're so concerned. That's why I'm going with you."
Twilight unburied her tear-streaked face from her hooves, looking at into her friend's cerise eyes. Dash only smiled back at her, and hugged her tighter. The hug from Dash's wing was surprisingly firm, and she felt quite comforted as Dash stroked her shoulder with the smooth primary feathers. "Ar-are you sure? You heard what they said...it's dangerous, and I don't know how long it will take for us to find what we need. Doesn't the Weather Patrol need you?"
"Bah, the Weather Patrol can go hang. This is more important. This is where I need to be: at my friend's side, saving the world! Besides, I'm not the Element of Loyalty for nothing, am I?"
Twilight chuckled a bit, in spite of herself. Dash's spirit was invigorating. "Dash, don't you remember?" Twilight continued, trying not to make light of the situation, "The Elements of Harmony were destroyed. We're just ordinary ponies now, you and I."
"So? I see no reason to stop being loyal to my friends just because some old piece of junk stopped working. I know you're concerned for me, but you're not gonna be rid of me that easily. Besides, we're far from ordinary ponies.
Twilight laughed again as the sadness started to melt away. "Well, I know you're no ordinary Pegasus. You're the fastest flier in Equestria, and the inventor of the modern Sonic Rainboom. But I'm just an ordinary unicorn. I don't know what I can do at this point."
"Twi, please," Rainbow said, her tone suddenly serious, "You shouldn't sell yourself short. You're an amazing and loyal friend, and you're also the smartest, most talented unicorn I've ever known. If anyone is spectacular here, it's you."
Twilight laughed a bit, feeling uneasy from the praise. Rainbow continued, undaunted. "Don't laugh, girl, I'm being serious. You really are amazing, and it hurts when I see that you can't realize that about yourself." Rainbow nuzzled her affectionately. "I mean it Twi," she whispered, "I love ya, girl. I'd trust you with my life. That's why I'm going with you."
Twilight hugged the cyan mare back, "I love you too, Dash. I'm glad you're coming with me."
The two curled up for the night, hoping to get an early start for tomorrow's journey. They didn't have a clue in the world where they needed to go, and all the leads they had were slim. But it was enough to start, as long as there was a friend along for the ride.
Author's Notes
Shorter chapter this time. But this felt like a natural break, so it's ended right here. Hopefully, I'll get the next one finished quicker to compensate.
A few signposts: the rest of the Mane Six are NOT disappearing from the fic. They still have their own journey ahead of them, and it will, at least for the near term, take many of them on wildly separate routes. Future chapters will focus on the POV of one group of ponies at a time. And pretty soon we're going to start running into some of the listed characters who haven't played a part in the story yet.
I'm sure this chapter will provoke the question, so I'll pre-empt it: I am undecided about any romance/shipping in the story, and I'd like your feedback on it. If I do decide to write it in where it feels appropriate, it won't be the main focus of the plot.
Political intrigue will start to play a role in the plot as well. Prepare for a deluge of historical in-jokes and parallels. :P |
Bounty Hunter Anon II | pre | Did you just say that out loud?
Sunset shoots a cautionary look at you. You know she's thinking that Pinkie would likely steal the ship if you left it alone with her. She doesn't trust her and neither do you.
"No, no! I wanna help! Please?" Pinkie begs. "I wanna make it up to you for kicking your ass earlier!"
You squeeze your knuckles tighter and they pop in a few places as you stare daggers at her.
Her eyes open wide and she gulps before giggling nervously. "Hehe... I mean, I wanna help you guys bring down Discord every step of the way."
You slowly nod at her. "That's what I thought you said."
You were only holding back before because you need her alive.
"Fine." You continue. "You can help. I'm in charge though, and you'll do as you're told. Understand?"
She smiles and gives you a little salute. "Yes sir!"
You need to leave the room. She's too happy and you're too angry at her right now. Tensions will only rise if you stay with her right now.
You growl a little bit as you head back into the cockpit. It's best you go now before you do something you'll regret.
You sit in the pilot's seat and turn on the ship. It whirs to life and you hover off the landing pad after a few moments. You turn the ship around and fly between the skyscrapers and through traffic for a moment before you fly up into space. You enter Naboo into the navicomputer, and take off to lightspeed. |
Bounty Hunter Anon II | Octavia | "Anon, we'll be there in about five minutes." Sunset says.
"Thanks, Sunset." You shut off the intercom in the armory and begin grabbing the weapons you might need for this next job.
Sunset had taken over piloting the ship some time after making the jump to lightspeed and you decided to lay down for a bit. You were so stressed and angry with everyone and everything, that you needed a little breather. Now that you've had a chance to rest, you're feeling much better.
You also had some time to reflect on what all had happened. As angry as you were, you can't deny that Pinkie is a damn good fighter. In hindsight, it was almost fun fighting her. You hadn't had a good fight like that since the time you fought that Sith warrior on Tatooine.
You wish you still had the lightsaber that you took from him, but Sunset said that Jedi Master Maud took it while you were recovering after saving Mandalore from the Rakghouls. Damn Jedi.
That reminds you that you're curious about Pinkie's past. She can use the Force, and her last name is Pie, so maybe she's related to Maud. This job will most likely be pretty boring, so you'll ask her later when you get the chance.
You sit at your workbench and ready your weapons. You'll take your blaster rifle and sidearm, as usual. You stand up to holster your weapons and glance over at your jetpack. You're tempted to just leave it here. If everything goes how you expect it to, you won't even need it. Then again, that's risky, and you're clearly not as lucky as you used to be when it comes to gambling.
You grab the jetpack and place it on your back. Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
You open the door and step out onto the main hold to see Pinkie humming to herself and messing around with a deck of Pazaak cards on the table. She's coming with you and Sunset for this.
"Pinkie, do you want a weapon?" You ask.
She looks over to you. "Sure!"
She gets up and you lead her into the armory. While she looks around, you hear the computer in the main hold start beeping, letting you know that you're coming up on Naboo.
You turn to her. "Can I trust you not to steal anything while I head up to the cockpit?"
She turns to face you and gives you a little smile. "Yeah. I won't steal anything, I promise."
You study her for a moment, trying to detect any indication that she's lying on her face, but you don't see anything out of the ordinary. "Alright."
You don't trust her at all, but there's nothing you can really do about that right now.
You turn around and head into the cockpit. Sunset is sitting in the pilot's seat as usual and as you enter, she flips a few switches above her and pulls back on the throttle. The hyperdrive whirs down and the lush, green-blue planet of Naboo come into view as you exit lightspeed.
You sit down in the co-pilot's seat and contact Shining Armor. He appears on the screen in front of you after a couple rings. "Captain, we've arrived at Naboo and we're making our approach."
He nods. "Excellent. I'll inform Senator Melody now."
"Appreciate it." You shut off the comms and Sunset enters the planet's atmosphere.
You stand up and head back to the armory. Pinkie steps out with only a small sidearm strapped to her hip. "Alright, Anon! I'm ready to go!"
"Good." You walk past her into the armory and double-check that you've grabbed everything you think you'll need.
"Hey, Anon?" Pinkie says.
"What?" You look to see Pinkie standing in the doorway.
She clears her throat. "I just wanted to apologize for everything that happened before. I assumed that you were like all the other bounty hunters that came after me, and I didn't give you a chance to explain. I'm sorry."
An apology? That's certainly unexpected.
You stand to face her. "Pinkie, never apologize for following your instincts. I would've done the same thing if I were in your position."
She blinks. "Really?"
"Of course." You reply. "Tons of bounty hunters from all over the galaxy had come to kill you before. You were just doing what it took to survive instead of running away. It's admirable." She smiles wide as you grab your helmet and hold it under your arm. "Plus, you're a damn good fighter. We should do it again some time."
She giggles a little at that. "Thanks, Anon."
"No problem." You give her a little nod and you both walk toward the cockpit again.
Outside the viewport, you see a few clouds fly past you as the ship descends toward the planet's surface. The sun is shining, the green fields below are lush with grass and trees, and a few bright blue lakes can be seen around the city's edge. Everything about this place looks calm and tranquil in every way.
It's horrifying. You'd get so bored here.
As you approach the city of Theed, you're contacted by some Nabooian Royal security. Sunset informs them who you are, and they give you permission to land.
The spaceport is at the base of a large cliff where Theed Palace is located. A couple streams of water flow from the top of the ridge and into pools directly below, giving the spaceport a more natural look.
You descend toward the uppermost level and slowly land. Once you touch down, a couple of Royal security officers walk up to your ship and wait for you to disembark.
You stand up. "I'll go greet them. You go get ready, Sunset."
She nods and you head back into the ship towards the exit ramp. You press a button on the wall panel beside you and it lowers. With your helmet still under your arm, you walk down and meet the two Naboo Royal guards. Both of them are human males. They're dressed in the standard Naboo security uniform from top to bottom.
The left one speaks. "I assume that you are Anonymous?"
"I am." You reply.
He nods slightly. "Welcome to Naboo. Senator Melody apologizes that she could not be here to meet you in person. She's currently held up with other matters."
"That's fine, I understand." You wave your hand dismissively.
"Her transport is nearly ready to go." He continues. "Our head of security, Captain Spitfire, will give you a brief on your duties and familiarize you with the layout of the ship when you're aboard."
"Sounds good. My team is almost ready to go, so give us a couple minutes." They both nod and stand at ease while you head back aboard your ship. "Sunset. Pinkie. You two ready?"
"Yeah." Sunset puts her helmet on as she comes walking out of the armory. She's armed with her rifle, sidearm, and short vibrosword.
Pinkie is already in the main hold, smiling wide. "Me too!"
You nod at them and put your helmet on. "Let's go." You turn around and head back down the ramp with Sunset and Pinkie following behind. You approach the guards once again. "Alright, we're yours."
The two guards stand at attention and the left one speaks again. "Please follow us."
He ushers you to follow and you all begin walking across the spacious landing pad toward another cluster of ships to your right.
"Captain Shining Armor seems to think highly of your skills, Anonymous." The other one says. "Both yours and Sunset's. From his reports, I thought there would only be two of you though."
"Pinkie's a new addition to our little team." You reply.
"Yep!" Pinkie says from behind. "Brand-spanking new!"
A temporary addition. You hear Sunset groan a little behind you in response.
"Well, I'm sure Senator Melody will be grateful for the extra help." The guard looks forward again as you all continue.
Once you enter the more secure section of the landing pad, you pass by four one-man starfighters. You've seen Naboo starfighters before. They're relatively small, sleek, shiny, and yellow. These ones, however, are light blue. The name "Soarin'" is written on the side of the nearest one.
The guard must have noticed you looking. "Those fighters belong to the Wonderbolts; Naboo's most skilled pilots. They will provide an escort for you as you make your way to Dantooine."
Sunset hums. "This business on Dantooine must be pretty important."
He looks back at Sunset and nods. "I'm sure it is. The Wonderbolts rarely provide an escort for diplomats other than the Queen, but Her Majesty insisted that they go this time."
Once you pass by the starfighters, you make your way toward a green Corellian Consular-class cruiser. A small number of Naboo security officers were speaking with two Republic troopers near the exit ramp. You pass by them as you step aboard the ship. You enter a small forum where you see two Naboo pilots, both dressed in blue jumpsuits, speaking with each other.
The human female on the right has a fierce look in her eye and bright red-orange hair on her head. Her stance alone says that she's in charge.
She glances at you and the guards who guided you here stand at attention before one of them speaks. "Captain Spitfire, here's your extra security."
She salutes back at them. "Thank you. The both of you are dismissed."
The two security officers nod and turn around to exit the ship. Spitfire doesn't take her eyes off you the entire time. You can already tell that she doesn't like you.
Her mouth tilts slightly, showing contempt. "It's unfortunate that we've become so desperate that we've resorted to hiring bounty hunters and mercenaries for security on diplomatic missions."
You're about to be a smartass, but Sunset does it first. "No, what's really unfortunate is that we've been so bored lately that we've actually resorted to accepting contracts for security on diplomatic missions."
Pinkie starts laughing and you chuckle at Spitfire's hateful glare in Sunset's direction. "Don't you dare give me that, Mandalorian! Hired help or not, I'm still in charge here! You answer to me!"
"Oh, so I take it you're footing the bill for our services?" You take a single step toward her and she turns her glare to you.
"Hey, back off!" The pilot next to her moves between you and presses his hands against your chest, shoving you back a step.
That was a bad move...
"Make me, flyboy!" You take an aggressive step toward him and shove him back against the wall.
He growls and lurches forward, latching onto your shoulders and trying to grab your throat. You grab onto his arms as he reaches for your throat and try to push them down before you reach for his neck also. But before you can grab him, you feel Sunset and Pinkie grab you and pull you back away from him.
"Anon, stop!" Sunset commands.
Spitfire gets between you two and pushes him back against the wall as he tries to move past her. "Soarin'! That's enough!"
You both try to get free from the girls preventing you from fighting each other while you all yell and curse at one another. This continues for a few moments.
"ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU!" A sharp voice from behind gets your attention.
You all stop and face the exit ramp to see a human female in a long grey and violet dress. She's followed by two armed Republic troopers, and her arms are crossed as she glares at you.
Senator Octavia Melody of Naboo.
Spitfire and Soarin' straighten themselves out behind you. "Forgive us, Senator Melody."
She glares at Spitfire and walks toward them. "We are about to head to a meeting at a friendly system to negotiate plans for the peace and order that the Republic wishes for the entire galaxy. Therefore, we must all set an example of peace and order. There will be no quarreling or fighting on this ship at any time. You already know better than this, Captain. I'm very disappointed in you both."
Spitfire and Soarin' stand at attention as Octavia stands in front of them.
The senator continues. "Yes, we do have hired help. Yes, we need them at this time. They are not as accustomed to the Republic's standards as you are. You must show the level of professionalism that I know you both are capable of."
They both nod their heads. "Yes, my lady."
Senator Melody turns her attention to you three before looking at Pinkie. "What's your name?"
Pinkie clears her throat. "Uh, I'm Pinkie. Pinkie Pie!"
She doesn't sound as giddy as usual, but she's still smiling. Senator Melody, however, is not.
"Pinkie Pie..." She turns to you, and then to Sunset, respectively. "Anonymous... Sunset Shimmer... As used to violence and chaos as I'm sure you three are, rest assured that you will not find them aboard this ship. We have no need for any of it here, therefore I will not allow you to create or continue any of it as long as you are here." She turns her gaze specifically to you once again. "Your job is to provide additional security for me. You answer to me. You will not create trouble aboard this ship. Should trouble arise, you will end it as quickly and humanely as possible. Do I make myself clear?"
Her voice is calculated and bold, but also calm and firm. She's in charge, and she knows it.
You wait a small moment before nodding at her slowly. "Transparently."
"Excellent." She takes a deep breath and turns back around to face Spitfire. "We will be leaving in a few minutes I presume?"
Spitfire nods. "Yes, my lady. We were just finishing our final sweep when.." She looks over at you for a bit and hesitates, but clears her throat and continues. "...Y-yes. O-our sweep of the ship is complete. We are ready to depart at a moment's notice."
Senator Melody nods again. "Good work, Captain. I will leave it to you to show Pinkie and Sunset to where they will be as we travel. Then get to your ship. Soarin', get to your ship now and prepare for departure."
They both nod at her. "Yes, my lady."
Soarin' walks down the ramp off the ship and Senator Melody turns her attention to you. "I'd like to have a word with you, alone, in the meeting room, Anonymous. Just before the salon pod near the bow of the ship."
Oh boy, scold and reprimand time. You knew that rising to Soarin's bait was a bad idea. Good thing Sunset and Pinkie were there to hold you back before you did any serious damage to him.
"Of course, Senator." You turn around and face Pinkie and Sunset, whispering to them. "Okay, just be cool, you two..."
Sunset nods. "Yeah, make sure you keep yours, Anon..."
You deserve that.
"Bye Anon!" Pinkie waves at you with a smile.
You nod at them both and walk down the hallway toward the bow of the ship. You pass by a couple of technicians in front of an open maintenance floor hatch who give you a curious glance, but you pay them no heed.
The hallway is short and lined with a few doors that lead to storage areas, staterooms and a lounge on either side. This ship is much smaller than it looks outside. At the end of the hallway, you reach a room with a large table in the center.
On the far wall, you see a lift at the end of another short hallway. There's a sign just above that says 'Salon Pod Access.' This is the right place.
You lean up against the wall and cross your arms. Just need to wait for her now. |
Bounty Hunter Anon II | History Lesson | You sigh as you watch Anon head down the hallway. You can certainly understand where he was coming from when he reacted to Soarin' the way he did, but doing it on the job was extremely unprofessional. He should know better. Hopefully, Senator Melody doesn't dock this job's pay as a result.
You and Pinkie look back at her as she looks back and forth between you and Spitfire. "I do not want any more trouble from either of you. You don't have to like each other, but you do have to get along. No snide remarks, no violence, nothing."
Spitfire nods again. "Yes, my lady."
You nod as well. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good." Octavia takes a deep breath and puts her hands behind her back as she walks down the hallway after Anon.
Once she's gone, you and Spitfire glare at each other. The tension in the room is almost tangible.
After a moment of silence, you decide to break it first. "Well... Where do you want us?"
She shifts her eyes between you and Pinkie and sighs. "Follow me..."
She leads you both down the same short hallway that Anon went down. Doors are on either side, and Spitfire points to both of them. "I'm just giving you a short layout of the ship. These rooms here are crew staterooms. There are more on the upper level." She continues walking to the end of the hallway and points at two more doors up ahead on either side. "These doors lead to the cargo hold, as well as access to the escape pod." She points to a single closed door at the end of the hallway. "This is the meeting room. The lift to the upper levels and the salon pod are on the other side."
Anon's in there right now too.
Spitfire turns around to face you both. "I'll be in contact with you during transit. You two patrol the ship. Either together or alone, it's up to you. Investigate anything suspicious, and fix any problems before they become problems, should they arise. Above all, protect the senator."
"Got it." You and Pinkie both nod.
"Good. Both of you wait here for her." Spitfire turns her back and walks away without saying another word.
You and Pinkie take position by the cargo bay doors and wait for Anon and Octavia. ---
After a minute or two, the door opens and Octavia comes inside.
You stand up straight and she looks at you sternly. "Hello, Anonymous."
"Senator." You give a simple nod in response.
She takes a deep breath through the nose. "If you could, please remove your helmet. I wish to speak with you face-to-face." She's speaking calmly, but her firmness never leaves her for a moment as she does.
You hesitate for a moment, but oblige her and take off your helmet.
You set it down on the table and she begins to slowly pace back and forth. "Captain Shining Armor's report on you insists that you are a professional and quite seasoned in this field. I believe him, but I also know that everyone makes mistakes. You understand that the behavior you displayed out there was out of line, correct?"
"Yes ma'am." You reply.
She nods at you as she continues to pace back and forth. "Then I trust you will make sure it does not happen again with anyone else on this mission?"
You nod. "I can guarantee you that it won't happen again, ma'am."
"Excellent. No need to continue this topic then." She stops pacing and faces you with her arms behind her back. "Now, I feel I should brief you a little on our mission to Dantooine. Your companions should be just outside. Bring them in here, please."
You look to the door and head toward it. It opens automatically as you approach, and you see Pinkie and Sunset both waiting out there for you.
They both look at you and Sunset stands up straight. "How'd it go?"
"It's fine." You reply. "She wants to see us all though."
Sunset and Pinkie exchange a glance before walking inside the meeting room with you. Sunset takes off her helmet as she enters.
Octavia faces a large wall monitor that's been turned on displaying Spitfire's face, along with the planet Dantooine. "...Yes, Captain. I'm situated and ready for departure. When my meeting with Anonymous and his team is concluded, I'll leave him in contact with you."
Spitfire nods on the screen. "Of course, my lady."
Oh, great...
Spitfire's image snaps off and Octavia turns around to face Pinkie and Sunset. She gives them a small smile as they enter. The first one you've seen her make. "Welcome. Please sit down, all of you."
All three of you exchange glances before sitting down at the large table to face her. You never paid much attention to Republic politics, but you do remember seeing her for a moment once before and liking her. She's a good politician. Being from Naboo, she's extremely peaceful, but she's oddly intimidating at the same time, which is unexpected.
You feel the ship rumble a little and the engines start to whir. You're taking off.
"Now that we're underway, I feel it's time you all know what exactly we're doing here." She turns to look at the image of the planet behind her. "Since it's planetary bombardment by Darth Malak, in an attempt to destroy all evidence of the Star Forge's existence, and the Jedi Order at the time, Dantooine has been in a relative state of disarray. We have since brought a bit more order to the planet, but the local populace is still having trouble with gangs and criminals attempting to scavenge or raid a few ancient places left behind in the ruins of the old Jedi Order."
Pinkie speaks up. "There are Jedi ruins there?"
Octavia looks at her. "The ruins of an old Jedi Enclave is there, yes."
"Oh... I didn't know that..." Pinkie looks down a little. She looks a bit troubled at hearing that.
Sunset turns to her. "Darth Revan was amnesiac and being retrained as a Jedi at the time. I'm sure that's partly why Malak did it."
You continue her thought. "He wanted to cover up existence of the Star Forge, but he was obviously too late. Revan already knew where it was by then."
Octavia hums. "You two know your history."
You and Sunset look back to her, who looks slightly impressed.
"The Republic, and by extension, Revan and Malak, were our enemies in the Mandalorian Wars." Sunset says. "Revan single-handedly killed Mandalore the Ultimate on Malachor V and his forces nearly destroyed our fleet."
"A new Mand'alor would've risen that same exact day if Revan hadn't denied us of his mask." You continue. "Enemy or not, our people can't help but look at Revan with a high sense of respect for being such a magnificent warrior."
You cant help but smile a little as you briefly recount Revan's history. You and Sunset both. Pinkie doesn't look any happier though. Octavia simply stayed silent while you spoke.
You decide to get on with the 'now' though. "...But, that's a story for another time. Let's not get anymore off-topic."
Octavia nods again. "I agree." She turns back to the monitor and the image of a small settlement appears next to an image of the Jedi Enclave in ruins. "As I said, these settlements have had trouble from gangs and other organizations wishing to scavenge the planet's ancient Jedi ruins and natural crystal caves. It's been getting more frequent and violent as of late, but the locals wish to solve this problem on their own, or with as little assistance from the Republic as possible. They're rather stubborn, so I'm going there to negotiate with the leadership in an attempt to get them to agree to having the Republic build a larger outpost there. We simply don't want to lose Dantooine."
You wonder...
"Have any pirates been seen around here? The Draconequui by any chance?" You ask.
Octavia shakes her head. "I don't know. I'm sure we can ask them for more details."
Sunset speaks up again. "How long will we be there?"
"Only a few days, at the longest." She replies.
You take a deep breath and lean back in your chair a bit. A few days with these Republic pricks. Lovely.
Octavia shuts off the monitor and clears her throat. "That's basically the extent of what you need to know. Your job mainly consists of making sure this ship is not compromised in any way during transit, and on the surface. The Republic has a small number of boots on the ground there and we're working with the local militia, so it shouldn't be too difficult when we arrive. In the meantime though, I'm sure you all have duties to perform, so unless you have any further questions, you're all dismissed."
"We don't" You reply. "Thank you, Senator."
You and Sunset stand up. Pinkie hesitates before standing as well.
What's her deal?
Octavia walks down the hallway and enters the lift before looking back at you. "I'll be in my stateroom on the upper level."
You nod as the lift closes, and you and Sunset grab your helmets and put them back on. Sunset walks toward the lift. "I'll go patrol the upper levels first. Let's all switch shifts every fifteen minutes or so."
"Good idea. Me and Pinkie will be down here." You look at her. "Sound good?"
Pinkie looks at you and nods, still not smiling. "Sure."
You turn around and exit the meeting room with Pinkie following behind you. When you hear the door close, you turn to Pinkie as you head down the hallway together. "So Pinkie. Let's talk for a bit..." |
Bounty Hunter Anon II | Fears and Regrets | Pinkie looks over to you as you slowly begin to patrol the hallway. "What do you wanna talk about?"
You clear your throat. "Well firstly, what was your deal in there? We started talking about the Jedi Enclave and then you looked... troubled. What's going on?"
She looks away from you again and says nothing. She still looks troubled. Almost guilty.
"You aren't a Jedi, are you?" You ask.
She shoots you a defensive look. "No! Of course not!" A second later, she softens and looks down again. "Well, not anymore, anyway..."
Interesting.
"What happened?" You ask.
"Well, basically, I was too rowdy and wild so I was kicked out." She doesn't look at you as she answers. "So, I guess now... 'technically', I'd be considered a Dark Jedi." She raises her hands and makes air quotes with her fingers to emphasize her word choice.
You cock your head slightly. "Technically?"
"Because I was kicked out of the Jedi Order, but I never joined the Sith and I still like to use the Force." She continues talking as you reach the end of the hallway and turn around again. "Me and my three sisters all joined the Jedi at the same time. There was me, Maud, Marble, and Limestone."
So she is related to Maud Pie. Small galaxy.
She continues. "I was there for a little bit. About a year or so. The masters there got after me a lot because I was so crazy. I was always trying to have some fun and make them mad, because they were always super serious and boring all the time." She rubs her arm softly. "It was funny back then. I was just a kid, after all. I kinda feel bad about it now that I'm older though."
She shouldn't feel bad about that at all.
"Well, you were right." You shrug. "The Jedi are too boring. You were doing them a favor by trying to bring them a little personality."
She smiles a little at that, but she still doesn't look up. "Yeah, maybe... Still, I feel bad because my sister Limestone also got kicked out when I did."
"Was she just as rambunctious as you were?" You ask.
She shakes her head. "No... She had a teensy little problem with her anger, even before we joined the Jedi. She may have seemed mean and grouchy to everyone else, but she just really, really cared about me and our other sisters. So once I was kicked out, she got really, really mad. So mad that she hurt her master and destroyed part of one of the rooms in the Jedi Temple before leaving with me."
Damn. Limestone sounds like she has absolutely no love for the Jedi whatsoever. You want to meet her. You'd probably have a lot to talk about.
You pry further. "What happened to her?"
"I don't know where she is now. We took off together and wandered the galaxy for a while. We learned more about the Force together, then we got into theft and stuff, which was pretty fun. I always tried to be more sneaky, but she was always direct and forceful. Kind of like a 'good cop, bad cop' thing, ya know? We would go after chump change and small stuff at first, but she wanted to go bigger and bigger the more we did it. We did things her way a few times, but I didn't really like it after a while. It felt like she was being more and more mean each time we took something from someone. She even started hurting people. I was all for swiping and stealing stuff, but I never wanted to actually hurt anyone for the sake of doing it. She would sometimes try to-"
"Okay, Pinkie?" You cut her off. You'd like her to get to the point.
She looks over at you and blinks. "Oh, was I starting to ramble?"
You nod. "A little bit, yeah."
She blushes a little and smiles softly. "Sorry. I do that sometimes."
Apparently...
Her smile fades and she goes back to talking. "Anyway, we did that together for a few years before we eventually crossed paths Draconequui. I really liked Discord when I met him. He was funny, so I stuck around. Limestone did for a while too, but she thought they were too small-time though. She wanted more loot and more action that she didn't think he could give, so she decided to go her own way. I didn't hear anything else about her for a while until I heard a rumor that she went to Korriban..." Worry washes over her face and she rubs her arm for self-comfort as she continues. "I think about that all the time. I really, really hope that a rumor is all it was..."
Korriban. The ancient homeworld of the Sith.
Pinkie is scared, terrified of the thought of her sister joining the Sith. You don't blame her. The only good thing about the Sith is their money, really.
You can't deny that the Mandalorians and the Sith share a few qualities. You both love to fight, you both have a dislike for the Jedi, and you're not above killing others to get ahead. They're different from you, though. They don't fight for honor or glory. The whole lot of them are power-hungry bastards that kill in cold blood because they like to. You'll kill if it's necessary, but you're no murderer. Not at all.
You think to yourself as you and Pinkie continue walking down the hallway. "That's quite the story..."
She nods slowly, but doesn't look up at you. You should probably say something else.
"Well... It probably is just a rumor." You reassure. "You left the Jedi too, but you didn't join the Sith. She likely didn't either."
More guilt washes over her face. "Yeah, I guess... I still did turn to the Dark Side though..."
"How do you figure that?" You ask.
She finally looks at you. "Were you even listening to my story? Did you even read my bio before coming to find me on Nar Shaddaa? You've seen what I've done."
You shrug. She makes a fair point. You don't understand much of the Force, but her life so far doesn't sound like a product of the Light Side's influence.
"I learned the basics of the Force from the Jedi, but I picked up a few other tricks by practicing in my spare time after me and Limestone were kicked out. How else do you think I'm so good at stealing stuff?" She gives you a small smile and holds up your sidearm in her hand.
"What the-?" You look to your holster. It's empty. "Hey! Give me that!"
When did she swipe that?
You quickly take it back from her and she starts giggling as you put it away. "Heehee! That's always so much fun seeing people freak out like that!"
You grumble under your breath as you holster the blaster.
You both look forward again as you continue to patrol the empty hallway together.
"I just don't like being around Jedi stuff, I guess..." Pinkie laments.
"Why is that?" You ask.
She takes a deep breath. "Because I can feel the Force whisper to me through them. It's kind of a side effect of being Force-sensitive. Anything strong with the Force leaves an echo of some kind. Lightsabers, old ruins, artifacts, whatever. I felt it really strong like that all the time when I was younger." She sighs again and scratches her head. "Every so often, I feel really bad about being such a pest to my masters. I sometimes wonder what would've happened if I had stayed with them and had been a better Padawan. Feeling the Force like that just brings those guilty feelings up again."
You honestly believe that she's much better off without the Jedi tainting her mind and making her waste her potential. She's got a good thing going for her right now. It's taught her to be tough and not afraid to show it. If she were a Jedi, she would have power, but wouldn't use it for the sake of "pacifism".
"Pinkie, I think you made out better that you realize. You're alive, you're happy, and I'm sure you're having fun with this life. I mean, how could you not?" She looks over to you. "Sure, you have regrets, but that's okay. Everyone does. No matter what, you just need to keep on going and do what's best for you. It's okay that you didn't make it as a Jedi. You can't always control what happens, but you do control your own destiny. Also, you shouldn't worry. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having your destiny not be with the Jedi."
Her gaze deepens as you speak. Something is on her mind.
"Why don't you like the Jedi, Anon?" She asks.
You take a deep breath. This is something you're always honest about.
"Because the Jedi are weak and stupid." You say matter-of-factly. "They want peace throughout the galaxy, but they refuse to make an effort to do anything about getting it, even though the Sith have been a huge prick in their side for thousands of years. Whenever it starts hurting, they just try to numb the pain. It only works for a while, but the prick is still there. Eventually, they'll feel it again. The only way to get rid of the pain is to remove what's causing it, which the Jedi will not do. They won't hunt down and destroy the Sith once and for all. That's why the Sith will win in the end. It's inevitable, if the Jedi don't get smart some time soon."
Pinkie glares at you, looking a bit hurt. "The Sith won't win. The Jedi and the Republic will never let that happen. They'll stop them every time they try."
"They will at first. Maybe." You reply. "They're good at keeping the Sith in line for now. The Republic may secretly want to pursue them further, but they won't because they know they'll lose without the Jedi's support. The Jedi will continue to numb and ignore the pain in their side for as long as they can in a vain hope that it will go away on its own. It will only lead to their downfall."
"What do you mean by that?" She asks.
You stop walking and turn to face her directly. "The apparent Sith presence may fade in time, but when that happens, like a virus, it will adapt and begin to destroy the Jedi from the inside. It could maybe even turn the Republic itself against them. I don't know exactly how it will happen, but I do know that if they refuse to act against the Sith, like Revan acted against us, then they will fall, and the Sith will 'rule the galaxy'... All because they were too stubborn to eliminate the problem when they had the chance."
Pinkie breathes through her nose as you stare at each other. The conflict in her head can be seen by the shame and guilt she's showing on her face. She wants to side with the Jedi; the 'good guys', but she can see your point of view as well.
She looks away again, not smiling.
You shrug at her. "Sorry. Just calling things as I see them. If I were a Jedi, then I'd use my Force powers to hunt down and destroy the Sith once and for all. They would never be a problem for me or anyone else in the galaxy ever again."
You look forward again and continue walking.
"You'd make a better Sith than a Jedi..." She says under her breath.
You stay silent for a moment. "Whatever..."
She's probably not totally wrong about that, you'll admit. Sometimes you need to do a little bad if you want to be good. The Sith take things too far, and the Jedi won't go far enough. You'd try to be right there in the middle of the two if you could use the Force.
You and Pinkie reach the end of the hallway again and you prepare to make another round.
"I'm gonna go swap out with Sunset..." She says. "I need some alone time."
You look back at her as she stands there. It doesn't look like she's feeling any better than she did when you started talking. If anything, she looks worse. Hopefully, you've enlightened her on some level and she just needs time to think things over.
"Fine." You reply.
She sighs softly and turns around, opening the door to the meeting room and stepping inside.
Now that you're thinking about it, you are kind of ending this on a bad note, Anon. You don't want any spite or animosity between you two. You still need her help to find Discord. You should probably say something else. At least try to make her feel a little better.
"I actually got to meet Maud, by the way." You say.
Pinkie stops abruptly and stands still.
A moment later, she turns around to face you again. "...No you didn't."
"She's a Jedi Master." You calmly reply. "Grey skin, turquoise eyes, violet hair, a seemingly constant lack of emotional expression?"
Pinkie's eyes begin to widen as you describe Maud to her.
She slowly stammers before replying. "Wh-When... When did you meet her?!"
"A couple weeks ago." You say. "She was on Shining Armor's Republic cruiser. The crew thought Sunset and I were Sith spies, and she convinced them that we weren't." A small smile slowly forms on Pinkie's face as you speak. "She helped us save Mandalore from getting infected with the Rakghoul plague. If it wasn't for her help, would've lost my life instead of just this. "
You lift up your robotic arm and wiggle your fingers a little. She looks at it for a moment before you put it back down. Her hopeful smile stays on her face and you think her eyes start brimming with tears.
"Wow..." She breathes. "How is she?"
"She seems to be fine. She's a bit odd, even for a Jedi, but she's doing okay." You say.
Pinkie giggles a little. "Yeah... Maud always understood the 'There is no emotion' part of the Jedi code really well..." She takes a breath and smiles even wider as she looks at you. "That means so much to me, Anon. I haven't seen or heard anything about her in years." She takes a few steps toward you and surprises you by giving you a hug. You're a bit taken back at first, but you reluctantly return the hug after a moment. "Thank you. I really needed to hear that."
"You're welcome, Pinkie." You stay silent as she holds onto you.
"See? Maud helped you!" She squeezes you tighter. "The Jedi are okay!"
You roll your eyes. "My stance on the Jedi as a whole hasn't changed a bit. However, I am aware that everything has an exception. Even them."
She laughs softly and doesn't let go of you. ...
Any time now, Pinkie. ...
"Uh... Weren't you going to the upper level?" You ask awkwardly.
She giggles and squeezes you tighter. "I can't help it! Hearing about Maud made me so happy! You better get used to this, Anon! I'm a hugger!"
You groan a little through your nose. This is so uncomfortable. It's hard to believe that you were trying to kill each other just a few hours ago.
"Alright, look..." You put your hands on her shoulders and pry her off of you. "I appreciate it, but you're going to have to not do that. Especially for that long." She looks at you with a wide smile as you release her. "Let's just stay focused on the job that we're doing now, okay?"
She giggles again and quickly stands at attention while giving you a salute. "Yes sir, Mr. Boss-man sir! Thanks again!"
She spins around and gleefully walks over to the lift at the opposite end of the meeting room. You exhale and shake your head as you turn around to patrol the hallway again. She's a good girl. Weird as hell, but good nonetheless. |
Bounty Hunter Anon II | Snooping Around | "Captain Spitfire to Anonymous."
Ugh...
You sigh and switch on your comms. "Go ahead."
Spitfire continues. "Inform the Senator that we will be touching down in a few minutes."
"Alright." You switch her off and usher Sunset to follow you. The two of you had made your rounds together for the rest of the trip. Pinkie had spent her time upstairs. She said she wanted to be alone, so you obliged her.
As you both walk back to Octavia's stateroom, you feel the ship rumble slightly as it breaches Dantooine's atmosphere.
You turn the comms on again and contact Pinkie. "Pinkie, get down here."
"Okie dokie lokie!" She replies gleefully.
You shut them off again and come up on Octavia's stateroom. After a knock on the door, she opens it a minute later. "We'll be touching down in a few minutes, Senator."
She nods slightly. "Thank you both."
When she shuts the door again, you and Sunset both turn around and wait for Pinkie.
"We're not planning to keep Pinkie permanently, right?" Sunset asks.
"Oh hell no, are you kidding?" You scoff. "She's crazy. Once we get Discord, we're going to give her a fair share of his bounty then drop her right after."
Sunset chuckles. "Good. Just double checking."
Pinkie's a good girl, and an amazing fighter, but she's annoying as hell. You'd probably end up killing her if you kept her.
Honestly though, you're a bit disappointed. If she wasn't so obnoxious, she would be the perfect partner. Apart from Sunset, of course.
"I've been thinking something though, Anon." You look at Sunset and remain silent. "What if we consistently worked with the Republic for a bit?"
"What?" Where did that come from? You hate the Republic. She knows that. "Why the hell would we want to do that?"
"Think about this for a bit, okay? Hear me out." She begins. "Shining Armor said that they're low on soldiers right now, right?"
You nod. "Yeah."
She nods. "So that means that they have their hands full with trying to keep the whole galaxy under control. They're resorting to hiring mercenaries like us."
That's true. History has shown that the Republic doesn't like doing this.
She continues. "Moreover, they're so low on manpower that they are offering these mercenaries ridiculous amounts of money for finding certain people they don't like... Around the '500,000' area. You know?"
"They're desperate for help." You say, realizing where she's going with this.
She nods. "And they probably will be this desperate for years. Anon, do you realize how long we could milk this for?"
You could be millionaires in a matter of weeks. That is a very good idea.
"I love the way you think, Sunset." She giggles a bit and you hear the lift drop to your level. You don't want Pinkie to hear about this. "Let's talk more about this later. Just us."
"Sounds good." Sunset nods again.
The door opens and Pinkie comes out of the lift with a smile on her face as she waves at you both. "Hey there, Mandos!"
You groan quietly under your breath.
She's too happy, even for a Zeltron. You don't like it. Hopefully, she got to think about your discussion while she was upstairs. Maybe that's why she's so happy. She's realized that she's better off without the Jedi.
She stops walking and stands between you two. "We're in the atmosphere! Is Octavia ready?"
As she speaks, Octavia's door opens and she steps outside. "That's 'Senator Melody' to you, Pinkie, and yes, I am ready."
Pinkie turns to face her and smiles wide. "Okie dokie, senator! We are too!"
Octavia nods slightly and begins walking toward the exit ramp. "Walk with me, please."
The three of you walk behind Octavia as she leads you down the hallway through the ship.
You activate your comms and contact Spitfire. "Captain. The Senator is ready and we are making our way to the ramp. How soon until we touch down?"
"You will arrive in two minutes." She replies. "When you disembark, escort the Senator to where she needs to go."
"Will do." You shut off your comms and continue walking.
You feel the ship twist and turn slightly as it descends toward the surface. There are no windows here, so you can only guess how far you are. Finally, the ship stays still for a few seconds before you feel a thud. You have arrived.
When you reach the exit ramp, you press a button on the wall and it slowly begins to open.
Octavia speaks as the ramp lowers. "This compound should be well-guarded, but I'll need at least one of you to patrol around, just to be safe. Captain Spitfire insisted that you go first, Anonymous."
You don't say anything, but you grumble under your breath, just barely. You really hate Spitfire. Soarin' too.
You all descend down the ramp once it touches the ground.
"And where exactly will Captain Spitfire be?" You ask.
Octavia doesn't look at you. "She and her team have their own duties to attend to. Don't worry about her."
When you walk off the ramp, you look around at the compound. Unsurprisingly, there are a good number of people in Republic uniforms here. There are a few soldiers among them, but they mostly consist of engineers and maintenance workers. They all move back and forth in front of you, attending to whatever duties they are in the middle of.
You look up and see a large Brith flying high above in the clear blue sky. The sun is just behind it and shining brightly, but the planet feels very cool. Much cooler than Naboo. You can barely hear the sound of the wind whistling just outside the walls of the compound.
This is the first time you've ever been to Dantooine. Despite being surrounded by a small number of normal people doing normal things, it's unusually quiet here. Much more so than the hustle and bustle that you're used to.
You look back to Octavia and usher her forward. "Lead on, Senator."
She nods and walks toward the door on the far side of the compound. You walk beside her while Sunset and Pinkie follow behind you.
"I assume that it's going to take a while to gather the delegates together for our meeting, so I suggest you begin patrolling the compound now." She says.
You exhale through your nose before looking back at Pinkie and Sunset. "Alright."
Octavia looks at you all. "Hopefully, these meetings won't last too long. I understand that you have things that you need to do as well, so I will try as hard as I can do get through them quickly."
"What do you want us to do then, Senator?" Sunset asks.
Octavia looks over at her for a second. "I'll leave that up to you."
"Try asking around for any information on the ones responsible for the looting. Maybe we can help somehow." You tell her.
Maybe Discord is connected with the trouble here somehow.
Sunset nods. "Alright."
You reach a set of open double doors and Octavia stops to face you all. "Here we are. Anonymous, come with me."
You nod and turn to Sunset and Pinkie again. "Let me know what you find out."
"Will do." Sunset nods.
You turn around again and follow Octavia a bit more into the building, leaving Sunset and Pinkie behind. ---
You watch Anon walk away with Octavia for a moment before the doors begin to close and you turn around to look around the compound again.
Pinkie perks up behind you. "So where are we going first, Sunset?"
You cross your arms. "Let's ask around for details and do a little investigating. Anon hopes that Discord is involved with these guys giving Dantooine trouble. If he is, great. If not, well... maybe we can earn a few spare credits while we're here."
"Like helping people out?" She asks.
You shrug. "That. Maybe doing a few odd jobs here and there. Anything that can get a little extra money in our pockets."
You both turn around and begin to walk around the compound, looking for the way out of the landing pad area.
You continue. "If all else fails and we can't find anything, we might as well look for some entertainment. We could be here for a while."
"Maybe there's a place to play some Pazaak!" Pinkie says excitedly. "That's always a good way to get money!"
You laugh. "That's a good idea. I hear you're not too shabby at it."
Pinkie giggles at your joke and you both continue onward. You go through a doorway and navigate through the public hallways and corridors, passing soldiers, workers, and farmers all along the way. A few minutes later and you exit through another doorway and step onto an outdoor courtyard.
There are quite a few people out here. Most of them look like farmers. A few shops along the perimeter on either side of you. They mostly look like places to buy tools or droids. The largest store is to your right, and it looks a place to buy large farming equipment. Most of these buildings are one to two stories tall though. This is a very small town.
Pinkie taps your arm and points forward. "Let's try there."
At the opposite end of the courtyard is what looks like a recruiting station at first glance. The Republic emblem is holographically displayed above the door.
You both head toward there, pardoning yourselves as you weave through the small group of people. A minute later, you both head inside and meet a faded blue protocol droid standing behind a desk in the center of the room.
The droid notices you and bows slightly. "Greetings. Welcome to the Dantooine outpost. How may I be of assistance?"
You take off your helmet and walk up to the desk. "We're both on a security detail for Senator Octavia Melody of Naboo. She's here to meet with Dantooine's delegates, but she asked us to help out if we could."
The droid looks to you for a moment and pauses. "Forgive me, I do not understand. You wish to... help out?"
"You've been having trouble with looters and gangs lately, haven't you?" You ask.
The droid nods. "Ah, I see. Yes, we have. They have caused quite a bit of trouble for some time. After the Jedi came and recovered anything they could from the old Enclave's destruction, the locals decided to preserve the site out of respect. Everything beyond the main security homestead is off-limits to anyone without permission."
"People still managed to get in though..." You say.
"Unfortunately." The droid responds. "This one particular group of thugs has been the biggest problem as of late. Not only have they managed to get into a restricted section of land, but they have also been able to stand their ground. A few militia soldiers that were charged with keeping watch died by their hands."
Pinkie speaks up. "How come you guys didn't step in and help?"
The droid looks at her. "The Republic would like to help, but the local government insists that they can handle this situation on their own, despite the obvious evidence against them."
You look over at Pinkie before turning back to the droid. "What if someone convinced them to leave?"
The droid hesitates for a moment. "I am not sure that would be wise. They would be outgunned, and outnumbered ten to one."
Outnumbered? Maybe. Outgunned? Against a pair of Mandalorians? You need to know more.
You set your hands on the counter. "Who are these guys? What kind of gear do they have?"
"We are not sure." The droid replies. "We have not been permitted by the government to perform any actual reconnaissance. From what we have seen, however, they use customized swoop bikes to move around. This is why the militia has trouble with them. They go in fast and get themselves lost in the canyons surrounding the Enclave ruins. The militia follows them, but their vehicles can not match the speed of a swoop bike."
Hit and run tactics. You make a note of that in your head.
"Alright." You say. "What about weapons?"
"Standard blaster pistols and rifles. Nothing out of the ordinary, but their numbers prove to be a challenge for the militia." The droid replies.
That makes sense. If they wanted to be fast, they'd need to be lightly armed.
"What does this local militia consist of?" You ask.
"Volunteers." The droid says. "Most of them are farmers with little to no real military experience."
Well there's the problem. These guys can be just a small-time gang of opportunists, but they're going up against people who barely know how to fight. Of course they're going to win.
You exhale softly. "Has the government ever issued any militia personnel to stand guard by the actual ruins themselves?"
"They have not." The droid says. "They are only watching the one area by the homestead on a consistent basis. They would get near the ruins when they did sweeps, however."
"Wait." You lean in closer. "They guard this one area only?"
The droid nods. "Correct."
"Is this the area where these looters are getting access to the ruins?" You ask.
"Yes." The droid nods again. "They ride in on their swoop bikes within sight of the headquarters."
"So, this is the only way to get to the ruins?" You ask.
"No." The droid shakes its head. "There are many ways to gain access to the ruins. The local militia only covers this one, however."
Pinkie speaks up again. "It sounds like these guys rubbing it in the militia's faces."
You nod. It really does sound like that. These guys are taking advantage of a huge hole in the militia's security, and they're making sure the militia knows about it.
These people, as good-natured as they may seem, are outgunned and untrained, and they're going up against a gang of looters who aren't afraid to kill for what they want. It sounds like whoever is running this government is a stubborn, shortsighted scumbag. Maybe that's why Octavia is here. So she can talk this person into accepting some help. Everyone needs help at some point. You're not sure if this is meant to be bravery, but it's definitely stupidity.
You cross your arms and think for a moment before looking back at the droid. "Let's just say, hypothetically, that someone went in and took care of these looters. What would happen?"
The droid hesitates for a moment. "I am unsure what you mean by, 'what would happen?'."
"Politically, what would happen?" You clear up. "Would Dantooine's government outright disown the Republic's presence forever? Would they not care? Would they thank this individual?"
The droid doesn't respond right away. "Due to the current policies set by the government, the Republic cannot intervene with issues like this. If something were to happen, I can assure you that the Republic would not be involved."
"I see..." You hum.
Political games are so stupid, but unfortunately, that's how it is. If you want something done right, you need to do it yourself.
Technically, you're not with the Republic. Neither is Anon or Pinkie.
She looks over at you, cocking her head slightly. "Sunset?"
She must have seen the gears turning in your head. You're starting to get a few ideas.
You look over at her for a moment before looking back to the droid and straightening up. "Well, thank you for answering my questions, droid. I was just curious if there was anything I could do to help make things easier, but it sounds like it's all about politics now."
The droid bows slightly at you. "My pleasure. Have a good day."
"You too." You nod. "Come on, Pinkie."
You usher her to follow and you both step back outside onto the courtyard.
Once you're outside of the Republic's earshot, she turns to you. "Are you okay Sunset?"
You take a deep breath and look over at her, smirking. "Just peachy." You put your helmet back on. "Feel like getting into trouble?" |
Bounty Hunter Anon II | Against the Rules | You quietly grumble to yourself as you stand still. Octavia is getting ready for this political meeting of hers, and she's left you by the door of the briefing room to stand guard.
You. Are. Bored.
She's speaking with this orange male Twi'lek diplomat about something you can't hear and probably don't care about. Honestly though, the boredom is not the worst thing about this. The Wonderbolts are in this room as well. All four of them. You and Soarin' may be on opposite ends of the room, but you've barely looked away from each other the whole time you've been in this room.
Along with him, Spitfire is standing in front of him. The other two pilots you don't know the names of are on either side of him. They haven't looked away from you either. They are both female. One of them is a human with deep orange-red hair, a bit darker than Spitfire's, while the other is a Pantoran with white hair that almost looks like it's being blasted back off her head. She's the shortest member of the Wonderbolts. Half a head shorter than Spitfire.
The worst part about this is that Soarin' is all the way over there, and he's still alive. If you weren't on the job right now, he'd be dead. He's probably thinking the same thing. Only difference is he wouldn't stand a chance against you. Not even with those other three pilots fighting with him. They wouldn't make a difference. They'd just die with him.
There are two Republic soldiers standing near you, along with a couple of local guards. You're using the term 'guard' here lightly. These guys look like they just rolled out of bed. They're obviously amateurs. One of them wasn't even holding his rifle correctly when you walked in. They all looked at you in fear when they first saw you. They knew they wouldn't last a second in a fight against you, and they showed it very clearly on their faces.
You're surrounded by the weak, and you're in a political building, doing nothing, while someone you hate is still alive, and there's not a damn thing you can do about any of it. This is your hell.
You continue sitting there, watching the politicians have their talking contest and accomplishing nothing, when your comms beep in your ear a moment later. Your HUD indicates that it's on a private channel, which means that it's Sunset. Thank the Force.
You press a button on your gauntlet and turn away slightly, making sure to speak softly. "Hey, Sunset."
"Anon, me and Pinkie got a lead on these looters." She replies. "Think you can meet us?"
You sigh softly. "I don't know. Octavia will want to keep everything political, so I don't think she'll let me go look for looters. She wouldn't approve of something happening under the table."
"Politics are a waste of time. Just make something up, like a security breach or something." She suggests.
Not a bad idea.
"Alright, let me see what I can do. I'll get back to you." You deactivate your comms and look back to the group. Unsurprisingly, nothing seems to have changed.
This is just a briefing meeting, so you see no harm in bringing something to Octavia's attention. You walk toward her.
She notices you, but continues to speak to the Twi'lek. Once you're closer to her, you stop and wait for her to finish.
"...yes, and that is why I am here. Excuse me." She turns back to you. "Yes Anonymous?"
You clear your throat. "Sunset said that she thinks she saw some movement around the perimeter and wants me to check it out with her. It shouldn't take too long, but I'm going to patrol around the compound for a while when I've finished, just to be safe."
She nods at you. "Very well, Anonymous. Thank you."
"Of course, senator." You bow a little and turn around to head toward the door.
You pass by the guards and give one of them a glance just for fun. He's visibly nervous as you pass him and exit the room. Once you've finally left the room, you exhale and walk down the empty hallway.
Once you reach the end of the hallway, you make a left and head back the way you came. You contact Sunset again as you walk.
"Hey. Did you get out?" She asks.
"Yeah. I've got a few hours." You reply. "Where are you?"
"We're in the courtyard in the center of town." She says. "Just in front of the Republic's office building."
You nod. "Alright, I'll be there soon."
You deactivate your comms and continue quickly down the hallway. After making lefts and rights, you enter the entrance hall and head out the door into the courtyard.
It only takes a moment before you spot Pinkie standing on a bench with a wide smile on her face, waving her arm back and forth erratically at you while screaming, "ANOOON!! WE'RE OVER HEEEERE!!"
She's about as subtle as a marching band. It's hard to believe that she's a master thief.
You make your way over to her and Sunset. "What did you guys find out?"
Sunset crosses her arms. "Well, these looters make themselves known to the militia on a regular basis. They are not heavily armed, but they are fast. They have swoop bikes."
You fold your arms as well. Too bad you don't have your swoop bike here.
"What about defense? Does this militia do anything?" You ask.
Sunset shakes her head. "They can't. Most of them are just farmers."
Your eyebrows shoot up under your helmet. "Oh, so those guards I saw in the briefing room just now weren't the disabled people who get stuck standing around all the time? They are it? They are the ones charged with defending the Jedi ruins?"
Sunset nods and exhales. "Yeah, I know. It's... It's embarrassing."
You groan and rest your head in your hand. The thought almost makes you want to side with the looters. This is just sad.
You slump your shoulders. "Okay... So they're fast, lightly armed, and you said they make themselves known?"
Sunset nods again. "Yeah. They always ride in by the militia HQ."
"That makes them arrogant..." You say.
Pinkie speaks up. "That's what I was thinking too, with how close they are to the militia HQ when they go in. There's tons of other ways to get to the ruins, but they only go in that way."
Their overconfidence will be their downfall. If there's one thing you like as much as getting paid, it's putting stupid people in their rightful place. Why? Because you can.
You place your hands on your hips and look at the girls. "Alright, let's go take care of them. Hopefully, we can get a little bonus from doing this."
"Maybe we should take some of the stuff these guys found from the ruins, just in case we don't get anything extra." Sunset suggests.
"Spoils of battle. Good thinking, Sunset." You say. "That stuff has to be valuable."
If you do get a bonus from the Republic though, you'll return anything the looters stole. As a show of gratitude. You have no intentions of leaving this planet empty-handed.
"Speaking of stealing, Pinkie, do you think you can find out where this militia base is?" You ask her.
"Oh, I already did! It's on this datapad I swiped from the Republic while Sunset was talking to the droid!" Pinkie smiles and pulls out a datapad from behind her.
Sunset looks at her. "I didn't see you grab that."
You take it from her and turn it on.
"Well duh!" Pinkie says. "That's the point, Sunny!"
You smirk when you hear Sunset scoff and Pinkie giggle. Despite her quirks, it is pretty cool how easily she can steal stuff.
Once the datapad is on, you press a few buttons on your gauntlet and your HUD brings up a progress bar. A few seconds later, everything on the datapad is downloaded into your helmet's system. You give the datapad back to Pinkie.
"You want me to give this back to them?" She asks.
You shrug. "Give it back, throw it away, I don't care, as long as you get rid of it. We don't need it anymore."
Pinkie shrugs and walks off while you transfer the downloaded info to Sunset. Once she's got it, you bring up a local map and discover that the militia's HQ building is about 700 meters southeast of the compound you're currently in. It looks like this region of the planet mostly consists of rolling hills and plains. Perfect for swoop bikes.
Everything south of the headquarters becomes a labyrinth of tight canyons and ridges. That could be useful. Your jetpack probably wouldn't be able to keep up with a swoop bike out in the open, but in there, they would have to move slower if they didn't want to crash.
You zoom out on the map a bit and discover that the Jedi Enclave ruins are about 3 kilometers from your current position, inside the labyrinth of canyons.
You mark the headquarters' location and close the map. "Alright, I know where we're headed."
Sunset perks up a moment later. "Me too."
Pinkie walks up and stops next to Sunset, looking at you both with a smile. Her hands are empty.
"Alright, let's head out." You turn around and lead the girls toward the compound's nearest exit. |
Bounty Hunter Anon II | Swoop Bikes | The wind whistles through the air above and around you as you all crouch down on a small grassy hilltop, a little ways away from the militia HQ. You use your viewfinder in your helmet's antenna to zoom in and do a bit of recon.
The building looks like it's about two stories high. It's pretty big, compared to the other buildings you saw back at the compound. Sunset is beside you, also observing the building through her helmet, but Pinkie doesn't have a helmet, so she can't see as well as you two.
"What do you guys see?" She asks.
There are two guards by the door on the eastern face of the building. Both of them are armed with simple blaster rifles. There's another door on the northern face, but no one is there. You're going to assume that there are two more on the west side, just to be safe.
"At least two guards. Maybe four." On the second floor balcony, there's a turret. It doesn't look operational though. "An inoperable turret on the balcony. But...." Nothing else noteworthy. These guys are so ill-equipped. "...That's about it. You see anything else Sunset?"
"Not really." She says. "Just like the map showed, there's a bunch of canyons and rocks on the other side of the building."
You pull up your map on your HUD once again to check. Sure enough, the canyons stretch on for a few kilometers in either direction beyond the building. You shut off your viewfinder and your antenna rotates upright again.
"If we want to find these guys, we can't let the militia see us. They'll think we're looters and go after us and probably leave their base defenseless. We can't risk it being destroyed or desecrated until we know the looters are in the canyons, so we have to be stealthy." You turn to look at Sunset and Pinkie. "The easiest way, obviously, would be to fly over the building and land on the other side."
Pinkie turns around and points to her back. "Yeah, if we all had jetpacks."
"I know..." You reply.
You don't want to risk going around on the ground. That would take too long and you could be spotted. There isn't much cover out here in this big, open field.
"What if we carried her between us and flew over?" Sunset suggests.
You look up at Sunset and Pinkie's eyes light up. "That sounds fun!"
"That sounds crazy." You say.
Sunset shrugs at you. "Well, what other options do you have for me? We're on the clock and we don't want these guys to see us, so the three of us going up and over would be the quickest way there."
Pinkie turns to you. "Come on Anon! Pleeeeeease?"
You grumble a bit. That would be the quickest option.
Truth be told, you're reluctant only because Pinkie would probably scream and whoop like an excited child. She's already sticking her bottom lip out and begging you with her hands clasped together.
You sigh and take another look at the building for a moment before turning to her. "I don't want to hear any squeals or laughing while we're up there. We're going for stealth, here. Got it?"
Her smile stretches a mile wide across her face and she jumps into the air. "YESSS! OH MY GOSH, THIS WILL BE SO MUCH FUN! I'M GONNA FLY! I'M GONNA FLY! I'M GONNA FLY!" She squeals and laughs, just like you just told her not to do, in circles around you. After about thirty seconds she looks at you and Sunset and abruptly stops. She then takes a deep breath and composes herself. "Aaaand, it's all out of my system!"
She smiles at you again, blushing a little.
"Good." You grunt.
You really hate that you need her...
Pinkie steps between you and Sunset and you all face the militia HQ.
"Alright, Pinkie, grab our hands." She grabs Sunset's right hand, and your robotic left. She squeezes you tight and Sunset continues talking. "No tricks or fancy maneuvers. We're just going up and over the building, to the ridge on the opposite side."
You take another look around at the field. You can hear and feel the wind around you. It might be a bit turbulent up there.
"Hopefully this wind won't be much of a problem once we're in the air." You say.
"If it is, we'll make adjustments." Sunset replies.
You shrug. "You're the pilot. I'll follow your lead."
Sunset nods. "Pinkie, hold on tight. If you can, also keep an eye out for any movement on the ground. Hopefully, the militia won't see or hear us up there, but if they do, let us know."
Pinkie nods happily. "Okie dokie!"
Sunset takes a deep breath. "Okay, here we go. Three. Two. One."
You and Sunset simultaneously activate your jetpacks and rise into the air. To compensate for the extra weight, you and Sunset lean out and away from Pinkie, and the three of you continue to ascend. Out of the corner of your eye, you see her look down, and she squeezes your hand tighter.
You ascend at a rate of a couple of feet per second for a while before you head toward the building. The roar of your jets is muffled a little as the wind blows at them. You're starting to have a bit of trouble keeping yourself aligned in one constant direction as you move into a stronger air current.
"Keep moving forward, but go slow!" Sunset commands.
As you get higher into the air, you also move closer to the building. From this altitude, you can see the maze of canyons stretch out for miles directly ahead. As you get directly over the building, another strong gust of wind hits from your left and you're knocked off-balance for a split second, but you quickly recover.
"Guys?" Pinkie says.
"We're alright, Pinkie! Don't worry!" You quickly reply.
"No, look! Speeder bikes!" She says.
You and Sunset both look to your left and see four speeders coming over a hilltop toward you. They're closing in fast and you're now directly over the building. If they get much closer, they'll see you. You have to move.
"Descend! Now!" Sunset shouts.
You see a good spot to land on the right hand side of the labyrinth's mouth and point to it. "There!"
The thrust of your jetpacks increase to the maximum and you all dive toward the canyon's wall. Pinkie screams a little at the sudden acceleration, but you don't stop. You keep hold of her hand as tight as your robotic hand is able to without crushing her. The oncoming speeders are dangerously close to you now. At this point, you don't care if the militia sees you.
You move through the air as fast as you can, only slowing down when you're about twenty feet from the surface. Pinkie swings her legs forward and releases you and Sunset. As soon as she lands, she rolls forward once into a crouching position. You and Sunset both deactivate your jetpacks and grunt as you land beside each other.
You look at her. "You alright?"
She nods. "Yeah I'm fine. That was too close though."
The roar of the bikes behind you gets your attention and you turn around to look back at the building. The four speeders slow down as they approach, and the three of you get down and lay on your stomachs. The two militia guards you saw before raise their rifles at them and retreat into the building.
"What do we do?" Sunset asks.
"We can't risk the looters getting away while they're in the open." You say. "Let's wait for when they come into the canyons, then we'll follow them from the air."
She looks at you. "What about Pinkie?"
"I can steal one of the bikes!" Pinkie says. "You guys can ride along and I'll follow right behind them!"
She does have the Force on her side. She could do it.
"That's a good idea." You look back at the speeders again as they rev their engines and alter their direction toward you. "This is it... Pinkie, get into a good position a bit deeper into the canyon. Get to where you know they'll pass you."
"Got it!" She gets up and runs back along the ridge.
You and Sunset wait for another few seconds before you get up and ready your rifles as the bikes close in. You both crouch down, but continue moving along the ridge line as fast as you can. The long grass you're standing on provides a bit of concealment, but not much.
The speeders' engines get much louder as they enter the canyon. You look down as the first bike zooms past you. The second and third ones follow.
"On my signal..." You say, holding your breath. "Now!"
Once the last bike is right beside you, you rise up and sprint along the ridge line, activating your jetpack. Sunset is right behind you. The two of you aim your rifles down at the bike and fire. A few shots hit the front and right side of it, making the Duros driver look around in confusion. A couple seconds later, just as he passes a section of the maze where the rocky wall sticks out a bit into the canyon, Pinkie Pie emerges from behind it, and leaps onto the bike.
The driver looks forward again as she lands in front of him, obviously shocked. In one motion, she pounces, grabs his neck, and throws him from the driver's seat into the canyon wall. You barely hear him scream before he impacts it.
Pinkie gets into the driver's seat and looks up at you two. "Come on!"
You and Sunset descend and land on either of the large frontal fins of the speeder bike and Pinkie revs the engine, accelerating forward after the remaining bikes. You try to stay as balanced in the center of the bike as best you can. This joyride needs to last.
The drivers of the three remaining bikes look back at you for a second before they round a corner to the right. Pinkie hits the brakes and follows behind them around the corner before accelerating once again. The nearest bike's driver looks back at you and fires a single blaster shot at you, which misses.
As the bikes make another left turn, Pinkie is forced to slow down more so she doesn't flip. This bike has too much weight. She can't keep up as easily. You'll need to steal another one.
"Pinkie, get as close as you can to that one!" You command. "Sunset, sit behind her!"
Sunset coordinates her movements with you to avoid rocking the bike as much as possible as you shift positions. She moves to sit behind Pinkie and you move in front of her. You hunker down and spread your arms and legs out to hold yourself face-down between the two frontal fins. Despite the bike's extra weight, the ground is moving extremely quickly directly below you. One slip of the hand and you're history.
She hits the accelerator and closes in on the next bike. The driver turns around and fires another shot, missing you again. You keep yourself as low as you can while Sunset returns fire.
He looks forward again and accelerates away from you. Pinkie stays in hot pursuit as you zigzag left and right down the canyon. She's trying her best, but you just can't get close enough to this guy. Even in this confined space, your jetpack alone won't be fast enough to keep up with him in the air.
Your missile could slow him down...
Once you reach a relatively straight pathway, you look beyond the nearest bike at the other two in front of it. The bike in the middle is a decent distance away. He's staying close behind the leader. He's far enough away that the nearest bike will have time to react and slow down once you blow it up.
Pinkie can not, and must not lose the leader, under any circumstances. You have to get to where they're going. If you get separated from the girls, that's fine. As long as one of you gets to where they're going, then you can all regroup later.
You look back at them for a moment before looking ahead again and turning on your comms. The bike is too loud for them to hear you otherwise. "Sunset, Pinkie, when I give the signal, both of you duck down! I'm going airborne and I don't want to hit you!"
Sunset replies. "What are you doing?!"
"Trust me! I'm going to slow them down!" You reply. "Pinkie, DO NOT lose the lead bike! Stay focused on the lead bike! The lead bike and nothing else! Do you understand?!"
Pinkie nods. "Lead bike! Got it!"
You watch as you quickly approach the end of the narrow canyon path. The front two bikes turn right once they reach a fork. That's your chance!
"GET DOWN!" You activate your jetpack, full power, and push off of the bike.
Your foot narrowly misses Sunset's head as you ascend, but you get clear of her and Pinkie within a second. As you quickly gain altitude, you look ahead and target the center bike as it follows the leader down the canyon. There's still a good bit of distance between him and the bike closest to Sunset and Pinkie.
Once you're locked onto the bike, you press a button on your gauntlet. The missile on your pack blasts off and screams as it flies down to its target.
You don't wait for it. You fly ahead as fast as you can after the missile. ---
"Sunset, what are we waiting for?!" Pinkie asks.
You don't answer her because you don't know, exactly. Anon didn't let you in on his idea.
You look ahead at the line of speeders as Pinkie continues to follow them. Just then, a familiar screeching comes from above. You look up into the air and see a missile flying down toward the second bike.
So that's what he was doing...
A second later, the missile impacts and a large ball of fire consumes the second bike. The nearest bike slows down hard and drifts off to the right a little.
"Pinkie, don't slow down! Move to the left!" You shout.
"Okay!" Pinkie hits the accelerator and moves past the speeder.
She starts to drive up along the steep ridge as she reaches what's left of the second bike. Once you're past the wreck, she evens out onto level ground again and closes in on the last bike. This one needs to stay alive. He's the only one who can take you where you need to go.
"Stay on him!" You say before turning on your comms and contacting Anon. ---
You watch the looter's speeder bike screech to a stop at the other bike's wreck. Pinkie drives hers to the left of it, still chasing the leader. You're only seconds behind them and moving as fast as you can through the air.
The bike starts to curve to its right and turn around. You grab your sidearm as you close in. Once the driver's head is in view, you fire. You're moving so fast that you understandably miss him, so you slow down hard and swing your legs forward to land.
As you reach the bike, you use your robotic arm to grab the lip of the frontal fin, locking yourself in place. Your sudden stop puts significant pressure on your body and you hesitate for a split-second as the g-forces work on you. When you finally recover, you get your first good look at the looter. Another Duros.
You grunt as you swing your right arm forward and smack your blaster across his blue face. "S'cuse me!" He cries out and falls to the side. You release your grip on the bike and grab his throat. "I want to drive!"
He goes flying toward the canyon wall as you throw him into it and you hijack his ride. You rev the engine and turn the speeder around, accelerating as fast as you can after Pinkie and Sunset. They're both out of view now, but you'll find them.
Sunset's voice comes in through your comms. "Anon, did you get the bike?!"
"Yeah, I've got it!" You reply. "Keep following the leader! I'll catch up with you!" ---
"Alright!" You shut off your comms and focus on the last bike. Pinkie stays in hot pursuit as he weaves through the canyon.
After a minute or two of driving, you reach a small field. It's somewhat open with only a couple trees along the bordering canyon walls. A few large boulders are scattered about in the middle of the field. On your left however, you notice a very large crater that has cut into a portion of the canyon wall, leaving only rocks and debris.
There's another large crater just ahead of you too. They look like they've been hit with meteors or large blasterfire or something. Grass and vegetation has grown in them both, so they are very old craters. Curious.
You stay focused on the lead bike as he swerves right and heads into another section of the canyon. Pinkie doesn't slow down and follows right after him. This next bit of canyon isn't as narrow as the one before, but it isn't as open either. You notice another large crater on your right.
Something is off about this place. You don't know what it is, but you're starting to feel uneasy. You feel your chest slowly tighten up as you continue onward. You almost feel nauseous. It's like your instincts are all telling you to be extra alert and cautious. You have a very bad feeling about this place.
"Sunset?" Pinkie's voice snaps you out of your thoughts.
You shake your head. "W-What?"
"I don't like the feel of this place..." She says.
So it's not just you?
"I don't either..." You reply.
Pinkie continues to tail the speeder as he drives around the rocks and through another crevice. That feeling in your gut does not stop. It doesn't deter you from your focus though, so it's not important.
When the bike rounds another bend, the path opens up into a box canyon. Craters and rocks litter the area all over. Directly ahead of you is a large, run down building. You recognize it as the old Jedi Enclave almost immediately. Off to the sides, you notice a few people walking along the perimeter of the building.
"We found them!" Pinkie hits the brakes and your bike drifts to a hard stop.
She turns the bike around and zooms back the way you came. You look back at the Enclave building to see if anyone has noticed you. No one is giving chase yet, but you're positive that they will soon.
Pinkie rounds another corner and loses their line of sight.
"Keep driving, Pinkie! I'll let Anon know!" You say. ---
You drive through the canyons, making various lefts and rights along the way. Sunset's location had showed up on your HUD. So you have an idea of which direction she's in, but this maze is confusing as hell.
Your comms beep in your ear as you make another right. "Where are you?"
"We found the Enclave building, but it's crawling with thugs." Sunset says. "We're doubling back and trying to get ourselves lost in the canyons so they can't find us."
You take another right and enter an open field. You slow to a stop and wait there as you speak to Sunset.
"How many guys are chasing you?" You ask.
"We don't know if anyone is chasing us yet, but Pinkie is trying to get us lost just in case." Sunset replies.
Coming out of another opening on the other side of the field, you see two speeder bikes emerge and turn left, moving away from you. They've got to be looking for Sunset and Pinkie, but they haven't seen you yet. Your HUD indicates that Sunset is still a good distance away, so if you keep chasing her now, you'll never find her.
"You have at least one patrol out looking for you." You inform her. "I just saw it."
"Have you been seen?" She asks.
"No I haven't." You reply. "I'm going to lay low for a minute. You two find a good place to hide and wait it out. I'd prefer to get the jump on them if we can."
"Alright, we'll keep in touch." She replies.
The two bikes drive into another section of the canyon and out of sight. You go into reverse and back into the canyon mouth you just emerged from, staying close to the wall. Once you're as concealed as you can be, you shut off the engine and take out your rifle again.
All you can do now is wait. |
Bounty Hunter Anon II | A Den of Thieves | "See anything?" Pinkie asks.
You look behind you to see if anyone is following. "Not yet. Keep driving around though. Anon said that they are definitely looking for us."
Pinkie curves around another corner, turning left. She drives into another semi-open field. This one also has a large impact crater off to your right.
That bad feeling in your gut still hasn't gone away. What is going on with you, Sunset? Snap out of it. You've got a job to do.
Pinkie drives out of the field and enters another narrow section of the canyon. This section curves right and leads into a small, secluded grove of trees.
Pinkie slows to a stop beneath a large one and looks around. "This seems like a good spot to wait."
She's right. It's out of the way and quiet. It's not bad, but a vantage point would make it better. The canyon wall is too steep for the speeder to drive up, but the both of you alone could get up there easily.
"Let's ditch the bike and head up there." You point to the top of the ridge. "If they find the bike, that's fine. We can move without it."
"Okay!" Pinkie nods.
The two of you disembark and jog over to the wall's base. Pinkie leaps up and grabs a small, rocky ledge and begins climbing up while you activate your jetpack and fly alongside her.
Her use of the Force to make her this agile is impressive. She quickly leaps and jumps from ledge to ledge as you push a few tree branches out of your way and make your way to the top. You land just before Pinkie makes her way up and stands beside you.
She gives you a wide smile before looking at the environment around you. The wind is much stronger up above the canyon wall. It whistles around you both as you examine your surroundings. You open up your HUD and locate the Enclave about 300 meters away. You mark it and send the info to Anon.
"It's this way." You point in the general direction and turn to Pinkie. "Let's get in close and do some recon, but watch yourself on the way. I'll contact Anon when we get there."
You activate your jetpack, propelling yourself into the air and begin to fly over the rifts and canyons toward your destination. Pinkie is on foot below you, easily jumping across the gaps she meets and staying on higher ground. Understandably, she's lagging behind you just a bit, but she's keeping up.
There aren't any speeder bikes below you right now, but you keep your eyes peeled. Hopefully, you don't run into any more. You'd rather not deal with them right now.
Up ahead, you notice an elevated ridge on the perimeter of the Enclave's grounds. There are a couple of trees there that can provide a bit of cover. It seems like a good spot to land. Pinkie is still leaping and jumping over the small canyons. She's a little behind you, but she's still managing to keep up.
When you land on the ridge, you immediately crouch down and stealthily make your way to the cliffside. A couple seconds later, you hear Pinkie right behind you. She's panting. You turn around to see her on her hands and knees, wheezing hard.
It makes you chuckle a bit. "You okay?"
She slowly looks up at you and nods, giving you a shaky thumbs up and smiling weakly. "Y-yeah... I'm o... I'm okay, just... I'm just tired..."
You can't help but laugh at her. "Well, you have a bit of time to rest. I'll let Anon know where we are, and we'll move again when he gets here."
She lets out a small giggle before collapsing onto her side and rolling over to her back, still panting. "Yay..."
You smirk before turning your attention back to the Enclave and activating your comms. ---
Your comms beep and Sunset's voice comes on in your ear. "Anon, come in."
"I'm here. Are you two in position?" You sit up and prepare to start up your speeder bike again.
"Yeah. We're on a ridge overlooking the Enclave, just on its perimeter." She replies.
"Alright, I'm on my way now. Were you spotted?" You ask.
"I don't think so." Sunset says. "We didn't see any patrols in the canyons on our way here."
"I saw one about three minutes ago. They're still looking for you." You say.
"Alright, well, we're pretty secluded and speeders can't make it up here, so I'm not too worried about them finding us now." She replies.
They ditched the bike.
"Good." You say. "Send me your location and watch the Enclave for any movement. I'll be there soon."
Your speeder bike roars to life and you look around to make sure the coast is clear before shifting it into gear. Your HUD blips and a little nav marker comes up in front of you. Sunset is about 750 meters away. Not too far. You rev the engine and speed off toward the marker and head into an opening directly in front of you.
A couple of seconds pass by when your comms activate again and Rarity's voice comes on in your ear. "Yoohoo! Anonymous?"
Fantastic. She has intel on Discord's whereabouts.
You keep your eyes open for anything as you bank left and continue through the canyon. "Hey Rarity. What have you got for me?"
"Well, unfortunately I don't have much, darling." She says. "This Discord covers his tracks pretty well. It's proving to be quite a challenge, even for me."
Damn. Discord must be good if even Rarity can't track him down.
"Is there anything you can tell me about Rancors?" You ask. "Have you heard about any activity involving them?"
You reach a larger open field with one path on either your left or right. Sunset's marker is on your right, so you head that way and continue driving through the canyons.
"Not much, I'm afraid." Rarity replies. "I had heard a rumor that a few places on Dathomir were having problems with poaching a while ago, but there wasn't even a name to go with the accusations, so I didn't think it was worth looking into at the time."
"Look into it again and see what you find." You say. "Pinkie told me that Discord loves Rancors. It's the only lead we've got."
"Be careful, Anonymous." Rarity cautions. "She's a thief, remember? Of all the people you shouldn't trust, she should be at the top of that list."
You shake your head. "I never said I trusted her."
You reach the end of this stretch and come to a dead end, forcing you to stop. Your HUD indicates that you're about 200 meters away from Sunset's position now. That isn't too far. You'll ditch the bike here and fly to her.
"Well, I'll get back to digging then, darling." She says. "There's a few more arenas around the Outer Rim that I've only glanced at, so I'll see what else I can find."
"I appreciate it, Rarity. Thanks for keeping me in the loop." You say.
The smile on her face is present in the sound of her voice. "Anything for you, Anonymous."
You deactivate your comms and look up and around at the closed off canyon that surrounds you. You dismount the bike and activate your jetpack, taking off into the air. A gust of wind hits you as you ascend above the ridge and it pushes you back a bit, but you lean forward and power through the gale.
You continue to rise high above the network of canyons and head toward Sunset's marker on your HUD. As you fly, you get a better look at the Dantooine landscape. These canyons stretch out for miles. Anyone who didn't have a jetpack or the ability to jump high would probably wander around this maze forever, hopelessly lost.
From up here, you can see Sunset's location, right on the outskirts of the Enclave's perimeter. Out of the corner of your eye, you notice a bit of movement from the canyons below. Another speeder bike is navigating its way through the maze. He's likely too focused on not crashing to notice that you're overhead, but you descend at a faster pace, just to be safe. You'd like to keep the element of surprise for as long as you can.
Just ahead, you clearly see Sunset and Pinkie Pie crouching beneath a pair of trees. They both turn to look at you as you land, but Sunset turns her attention back to the Enclave.
You crouch down as well and move between them. "What have you seen?"
Sunset shakes her head slowly. "I'm not sure, but it doesn't look like they're after old Jedi ruins. Only a couple of them have gone inside the Enclave itself."
You use your helmet's viewfinder to zoom in on the Enclave. Just beside the building, on the concrete footpath, are a small group of five looters and thugs. They're standing around and doing nothing, almost like they're waiting for something.
There are a lot more thugs here than you expected there would be. It looks like they've been here for a while. Maybe they've already taken everything they want from inside the Enclave.
Or maybe there is something else going on here.
Sunset taps your shoulder. "Anon, look."
She points to an opening in the perimeter canyon wall on the right side of the Enclave. A flatbed vehicle is emerging and making its way toward the building. It's carrying some cargo crates. The smaller group of thugs notice it and start to approach.
"Did you see that before I got here?" You ask.
She shakes her head. "No I didn't. That's the first time I've seen it."
Of all the cargo crates on the vehicle, one of them catches your attention. You zoom in further on the vehicle to get a better look at its payload.
Your eyebrows raise a little as your viewfinder zooms in. "Oh, wow."
They're not crates that it's hauling, they're metal cages. Inside each one is an angry, four-legged animal.
"Are those Kath Hounds?" Sunset asks.
"I think so." You look at them harder. Orange-white coat of fur, thick, hairless tail, and a very small pair of horns on their heads. They're Kath Hounds alright.
"So that's why they're here." Sunset says. "They're poachers, or trappers, or something."
Pinkie speaks up from behind you. "I thought Kath Hounds were extinct."
"They're not. Not yet, anyway." You reply. "They're endangered, illegal to own, and worth a whole lot of money. Crime lords are usually the ones who buy them."
You've seen a Kath Hound up close only one other time. Way back when, they used to roam all over these plains, according to what you've heard. These days though, they're extremely rare to come by.
You look over to the other side of the Enclave at the larger pile of crates again. It looks like they're waiting for a pickup. These thugs are going to be on high alert now that they know you're all in the area. They just don't know where you are, specifically.
"What are you thinking, Anon?" Sunset asks.
You zoom out and glance over to Sunset for a moment before looking back to the Enclave. "What these people are doing, an operation this big and this organized couldn't have been kept under wraps this long without help."
Sunset nods. "I agree. A politician, maybe."
With all the corruption in the Republic senate, you wouldn't be surprised.
Now that you think about it, it would really make the most sense. This little setup they have here had to have been going on for a very long time. Why is it only now that the Republic has decided to start negotiating with Dantooine on having extra security around here?
The Republic didn't know. A corrupt political influence would have kept them in the dark all this time. The secret finally broke after a while though.
Which means...
"If it was a politician keeping this under wraps, then they likely know about Dantooine's negotiations that are going on right now..." You say quietly.
Sunset perks up. You can't see her face behind her visor, but you know what she's thinking. These negotiations are jeopardizing their sweet deal on making a few extra credits by selling Kath Hounds. They're going to want these negotiations to fail at all costs.
Senator Octavia Melody is at risk.
Sunset whips around and looks to the rough direction of the compound you were all at. She looks back at you after a second and stands up. "Me and Pinkie will head back as fast as we can."
You nod. "I'll try to shut these guys down and find out who's behind all this. Both of you do whatever you can to protect the senator."
Sunset nods and turns around. "Pinkie, come on!"
"W-Wait! Where are we going?" She asks.
"Senator Melody is in trouble!" Sunset says.
Pinkie quickly gets up and follows Sunset. You turn your attention back to the Enclave, hearing the roar of Sunset's jetpack behind you as she flies away.
Her voice comes on in your comms. "Hope you don't mind if we take your bike, Anon. It's closer."
"Take it." You reply. "You need it more than I do right now."
You shut off your comms and stand up. The incoming lift that's carrying the Kath Hounds are almost on the other side of the Enclave. That's likely where the shuttle will pick up the cargo, if there is one. There's about twelve thugs that you can see in this area. You're willing to bet that there are more inside the Enclave. That's probably where you'll find any shipping information.
Taking these guys out will be relatively easy. You have an aerial advantage and they're in a small, boxed in space. They won't be able to go too far.
You take out your blaster rifle and do one last quick glance at the environment before you take a few running steps forward, you leap into the air and activate your jetpack. The roar of the engines echoes in your ears as you ascend into the air and head toward the building. |
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