I sat, stubby legs dangling, in a dark blue chair. Luna’s office was fairly spartan, with just enough decor to make its owner’s identity unmistakable. I kicked my hind legs back-and-forth like a metronome, already bored.
“Are you sure you should be keeping me this long?” I asked, eyes glazed. “I mean school starts in twenty minutes.” Not that I was eager to go to school, but punctuality was one virtue this saccharine land permitted me to keep.
“It is no matter,” Luna said serenely. “If needed, I can fly you.”
I shivered. “Don’t I get a say in this? I mean, flying with no restraints doesn’t sound like something I should think to acquiesce quietly to.”
“Are you afraid?” Luna asked playfully as she flipped through a thick, musty spellbook.
“No,” I denied vehemently. “Fear is something completely irrational that kills the mind’s rationality. What I have is an empirically founded concern of falling from a height that no flying horse should be able to reach but for this world’s utter disregard for aerodynamics.”
“It’s okay to be afraid,” Luna said, not looking up from her book.
Remembering, how “cute” my natural expressions were, I threw my face into an exaggerated facade of outrage and shouted, “I am not afraid!”
Luna looked up and smiled. “I was only teasing. Are such idle jests unknown to your people?”
Embarrassed, I let myself sink further into the cushy chair. “It’s not that,” I said, defending myself. “You ponies are already confusing enough to me that when you throw sarcasm or humor on top of it, I quickly get overwhelmed.”
“My apologies,” Luna said gracefully. “I’ll have to keep that in mind. However, if flight is a concern of yours, you need only give it a try to see there’s no need to fret. Foals of pegasus ponies find flight very soothing. Why it’s not unusual for parents to gently glide their young to sleep.”
I had multiple objections to that, but I settled on just one: “But I’m a unicorn right now. That shouldn’t apply to me.”
Luna smiled. “It applies to all foals actually. Pegasi ponies can have unicorns as offspring just as they themselves can be born of any tribe.”
The Lunar Princess was still only giving me about a third of her attention, so it behooved me to ask, “I’m not disturbing you am I?”
“Nay,” she answered. “I think I’ve nearly found my answer.”
I straightened up in my chair. “Really? So do you think you can banish that blasted stallion from my dreams?”
Luna put a hoof to her chin and sighed. “It is a complicated matter. There is a highly diverse bestiary of creatures that walk the realm of the dreams. As only I can regularly traverse the dreams of others, they can be difficult to study. In some of the rarer cases, wanting firsthand experience, I must turn to the centuries of observation by astute dreamers. At any rate, the short answer is that only you can cause this unknown creature to dissipate?”
“Why’s that?” I blurted out.
“Keep in mind, child, barring further research, I am confined to the realm of conjecture, and here I reason by analogy. Based on the wisps of dream essence I have collected, the creature it resembles most is that of the tantabus.” Luna paused as if expecting some sort of reaction from me.
“Uh-huh, go on.”
“The tantabus is a parasitic creatures that feeds off the dreamer. It revels in fear, anxiety, and—and… remorse. If left unchecked it can escape into the real world and make it into its own paradise—a waking nightmare.”
“So that monster is a parasite then? Darn! I knew I should have destroyed him when I had the chance!.”
“Perhaps that was for the best,” Luna said. “We shouldn’t be too strongly prejudiced against it, for its resemblance to the wicked tantabus is less than four parts in ten. The remaining six parts could give it an entirely different character.”
I scowled, annoyed at the inconclusiveness of this inquiry. “Then why do you think only I can banish it?”
Luna closed her book, focusing all her attention on me. “I—I’m not worthy to speak on this matter.”
The change in the atmosphere chilled me. I could do nothing but listen to her, as if receiving a confession. “Such creatures are created out of strong emotions. They exist as long as their creator gives them purpose.” Her eyes started tearing up. “Until the lesson they deign to teach is learned, they will persist.”
Her tears unnerved me. While I had become gradually accustomed to nearly every other person being a princess around here, Luna’s regal mask crumbling left me at a crossroads between etiquette and decency. I wanted to comfort her, but was it within my station to do so?
“You’re saying, I created this annoying brown stallion?”
Luna nodded, wiping the tears out of her eyes. “I think so.” She checked the clock. “It is nearly the hour; come, I will take you.”
“But…”
“I’m sure you have many questions--far more than I can answer right now. We can only hope they will resolve themselves in time.”
With a glow of her horn, Luna transformed herself into a petite orange pegasus mare. Her mane and tail were a tricolor, tropical mix of red, yellow and lime green. She picked me up by the neck and we flew out the room’s only window.
I hated to admit it, but Luna was absolutely right. The flight was soothing. Perhaps if I was facing less trying matters, my worries would have melted away. As it stood, however, I occupied myself pondering the issue of the brown stallion.
Why didn’t I attack him? He’s messing with my dreams after all! He has no right to do that.
Then again, so does Luna, I countered.
At least she doesn’t abuse her power to try and make me into a smiling, happy filly. This clown thinks I want to wear a crown and frilly dress and call myself a pretty pony princess. So why didn’t I slug him?
I was stumped by this point for a long time, eventually stumbling onto some semblance of an answer.
The moment wasn’t right. Something about that scene made me loath to destroy it, but what could it be? We were alone on the hill. I was in a dress...perhaps I felt psychologically weaker because he had already had that power over me. Did he have actual power over me? Was he affecting my thoughts?
I retraced my thoughts to earlier that night. Something about the moment wasn’t right? What could it be.
With that “Luna” alighted and released me from her mouth. This gave rise to another question I wanted answered.
“Celestia grabbed me by the neck too. Is that a custom?”
Luna had a puzzled look. “Where else would I grab you? The neck has the strongest bones in the body, so it can support your full weight. That’s rudimentary foal care.”
“I see…”
At least that makes sense. I should have known horses have stronger necks.
“Anyway, have a good day, “River,” Luna said with a smile before taking off.
On my second day of school, I was fortunately much less a novelty. Some fillies and colts made a point of greeting me as I entered the noisy classroom, though, and I returned their greetings nonchalantly. I took to my usual desk, and when I sat down Beakington III made a point of huffing and looking away before sneaking a glance at my reaction. If he expected this to somehow offend me, he was mistaken, it had the opposite effect. The less time I spent socializing with my non-peers the better.
I arrived only slightly earlier than the teacher, which meant much less waiting before the lesson began in earnest.Fizzle started with a review of the basic primer on algebra. She made a few comments on its Saddle Arabian origin, which I found curious. To us, algebra was so old an art, that nobody had any idea as to its origin. Surely it must have been an obvious innovation. As I knew the basics, I instead focused the bulk of my attention on their strange number system.
She then starting asking questions to her students, writing on the board. With low numbers, I was able to follow along effortlessly as the answers were identical. A few times, though, I had to try and convert the numbers in my head.
“Jill,” the teacher called, “can you solve this: X + 9 = 12?”
The question was pronounced as X + 9 = 25, so I was able to solve it effortlessly. For practice, though I counted ahead to make the conversion. Twenty-three…. Twenty-four…. Twenty-five.
“Is it…. 1B?” Iron Jill asked, tentatively.
Fizzle shook her head in understanding. No, but you have the right idea. Remember: the nine is the bad guy. What do you do to scare the nine away?”
“Bring out it’s evil twin,” Iron Jill recited.
“And the opposite of plus nine is?”
“Minus nine”
“Good! Now make sure you do that to both sides. Now what do you come up with?”
Jill scribbled the math down on her notepad and after a few long seconds she answered, “X equals sixteen.”
“Very good!”
So I wouldn’t be entirely idle, I made a point to perform the problem in its slightly more difficult written form, coming up with X=G. Peering at Beakington’s paper, I was relieved to say I was right.
I can do this. I just have to think about it for a moment.
It was with pride that I was able to instantly answer when it was my turn to be called upon. It was an oral answer and nothing more than addition and subtraction, but it soured Annuity’s predatory sneer.
After math, we moved onto government. I had the good fortune—or perhaps the help of Fizzle’s sympathy— to avoid being called upon to read out loud. Nevertheless I followed along the best I could, trying to associate the sounds I heard to the letters on the page. I had to say, whatever Twilight did with her teaching really helped, as I was able to start predicting some of the sounds before long. Granted, it was somewhat of a strain to keep up, and some of the distinctions in pronunciation still threw me for a loop, but I soon realized something good. My spelling might be inept for a while, but I already intuitively made the phoneme distinctions. This meant that I wouldn’t sound like a complete dolt when I eventually would have to read out loud.
Unfortunately, my concentration on following along meant that quite a bit of the content was lost in translation. From what I could gather, though, the ponies were organized into four branches of government. There were activists who proposed ideas for legislation, a House of Ponies in Canterlot that wrote the specifics of the law, militia forces to protect the law, and judges who were in charge of sentencing rulebreakers. I wasn’t sure where their plurality of monarchs fit in, but based on what I had seen it would appear to be the final branch. Then again, the royal guard reported to them as well…
“The four hooves of government ensure that everypony is involved in the running of society and that everypony’s voice can be heard.”
“Very good, Bubble,” Fizzle said “Now let’s move onto our literature reading for today!”
This got nearly as jovial of a reception music class had gotten, most notably from the minotaur girl.
Starting from the front row, paperback books were passed towards the back. After playing my part in the relay, I examined the book in my hooves.
It was titled The Making of a Queen and the cover portrayed a silver-furred minotaur covered from horn to hoof in fine silks and gorgeous jewelry. However, she had a bittersweet expression on her face.
Celestia better not be trying to send me a message with this. I’m not going to be her royal whelp.
Once more, Fizzle asked for volunteers and several hands shot up. This time she decided to be unkind and picked on Beakington, who was trying his best to hide under his desk. Clearing his throat, the griffin chick read aloud:
Xel Nar Kai Nhing pushed herself out of bed. Her enhanced strength made this an easy feat, but she still nearly stumbled for reliance on extra arms that were no longer there. It had been months since she had been in Equestria now, and her body had taken on an entirely new shape. Where her exoskeleton once ensconced her, there was now nothing but fur. Her six powerful forearms were not reduced to a mere third of what she once had. Where her lower membrane had once made due with pseudopods, she now had a pair of clumsy hooves instead. These changes brought with them a whole host of challenges.
For one, she now had to be selective in choosing what to carry. Previously, she could pick something up and have enough extra arms that she would sometimes even forget what she was carrying. Now, however, she had to constantly decide what to carry, how to balance it and when to put it down. Having tangible legs was nothing but trouble as well: whenever she habitually tried to glide along the ground, she would nearly always stumble. And the taste! After going her entire life tasting the ground she walked on, this sense was now limited exclusively to feeding purposes.
Nobody understood what a loss this was to her. Princess Celestia didn’t get it, Roccour just said some platitudes, Gildeus assured her it was better this way, and Quarrel just laughed at her. At this remembered indignance she righted herself and through sheer willpower traversed the room to the mirror. Combing her bangs out of the way, she fixated on her snout. This was the one part of her anatomy that largely went unchanged.
And yet, somehow, she… she was beautiful. King Gildeus certainly had thought so. Blushing, she turned her back on the mirror.
That can’t be! She thought to herself. I don’t even have an external mucus membrane.
“Very good, Beakington,” Fizzle praised. “That finishes the chapter, and that means…”
The class groaned.
I scowled myself. I was hoping for some more clues. After all, it appeared the strange being in the book was the minotaur queen Celestia had mentioned. Anything pertaining to her could be a valuable clue for my situation.
“Yes, it’s time for a review assignment!” Fizzle announced, oblivious to the class’s disappointment.
From here we split into groups of three, and each group was given a question to answer. I ended up by default with the pair of Iron Jill and a blue and white unicorn colt named Squirt.
After the other two had taken a look, they passed the paper to me.
How does Xelning feel about her new body and why. Explain your answer using specific evidence from the text.
“I give up,” said Squirt quickly. “I don’t get it at all. She should be happy not to be a slug creature anymore, but she seems upset.”
“Iron Jill agrees. She turned into a beautiful queen. Why is she sad?”
“See?” Squirt said. “It makes no sense. Even the book’s number one fan doesn’t know. And no offense, but you’re new and probably don’t have anything.”
I scowled at him.
He threw his hooves up on the desk and kicked his rear hooves out. “Nothing to do about it; we just got the brain buster.”
I huffed. This colt’s attitude was really getting to me. I didn’t have any stock in this farce of having me go through school, but I wasn’t about to give up that easily.
“Can you tell me about what happened in the rest of the chapter?” I asked patiently.
“No point. It’s way too long,” Squirt say, not even looking at me.
“Sure!” Jill shouted. “There was a festival, and King Gildeus asked Xelning to dance! But then the king’s nasty brother Roccour tripped her, and she was really embarrassed.”
“Yeah,” Squirt said, still looking away. “The whole chapter is basically like that. Things go wrong, she cries about her new body and so on and so on. There was this one part where she spat on her food as a sign of respect and everyone went crazy; it’s a weird book.”
“Don’t forget that Xelning totally has a secret crush on Gildeus!” Jill said giddily.
“Oh, yes, how could I forget,” Squirt gagged.
“Wait, I think we’ve got something here. Squirt, can you tell me some of the things that go wrong?”
“Sure, I guess…”
“Group 1, can you explain to us how Xel Nar Kai Nhing feels about her new body.”
I stepped up to speak and Ms. Fizzle smiled in approval. “Yes, River?”
“Xelning is frustrated with the differences between her old body and her new body. There are advantages and disadvantages to the change. On one hand, she can’t hold as many things at once and she can no longer see behind herself and her sense of taste, which she had relied on is much weakened. On the other hand, the king whom she secretly loves dotes on her and this brings her happiness. There are also the cultural differences, which stress her as shown by the spitting incident. Most of all, she is torn away from that which she had known her entire life---her very body. She is uneasy about this and very anxious. At the same time, she is afraid of coming to like her new form and losing herself in the process.”
“Very good, River. Great teamwork!”
I genuinely smiled at this. It was a small accomplishment of sorts.
It was a bright and sunny day as we exited the classroom for recess. The foals occupied themselves with their usual activities while I, annoyed by the weird reactions I’d gotten from running, decided to just wander aimlessly around the playground.
“My dad and I are going camping together,” Annuity boasted to a small crowd. “He bought one of those expansion tents that are bigger on the inside than the outside. It looks like a normal tent, but once you get in, it’s like another house. It’s got a kitchen, a large tea room, and it’s even got an extra large bedroom just for me on the second floor. We’re going to the Candy Cane Forest to pick out a sprout for Hearth’s Warming Eve!”
The Citrus siblings looked at one another and frowned. Annuity, seeing this pounced, asking, “What about you two?”
“Well…” Blueberry stammered.
“Our dad can’t make it this year…” Raspberry said, finishing the thought.
“I knew it!” Annuity gloated. “Your dad has probably completely forgotten about you and moved on!”
“That’s not true!” Blueberry protested, rearing his hind legs as if ready to pounce on the mean filly.
“He’s just busy,” Raspberry supplied, not particularly believing her own excuse.
“As if!” Annuity mocked. “Face it: he doesn’t care about you two half-foals at all!”
Zephyr Zap frowned and took a step in. “I don’t know, Annuity, my real dad has missed the past three Father’s Days too, and I still really like him. And I know he loves me.”
Annuity stopped to ponder for a second. “Well at least you have a herd dad,” she said backpedaling. “He knows he doesn’t need to replace your herd dad. These half-foals just have two moms, probably because no stallion wants to adopt their loser kids.”
“Why… YOU!!!!”
Raspberry tried her best to hold back her brother, but her grip quickly faltered and her brother ran full steam ahead at Annuity. However, one of her posse, an earth filly named Granite interposed herself and took the charge before pinning Blueberry to the ground.
“What’s all this!” Ms. Fizzle asked, furious as she cantered towards the scene.
“It’s not his fault, Ms. Fizzle,” Raspberry pleaded. “Annuity was making fun of our family.
Surprisingly, the teacher was skeptical. “Annuity is this true?”
The guilty filly shook her head in disbelief at the accusation. “They’re completely misunderstanding. I only said that some stallions don’t like mares with children—like Granite’s dad for instance. I wasn’t insulting their moms in particular.” With a sour-sweet note she added, “I’m sure they love each other very much.”
“Liar!” Blueberry shouted.
“Honest!” Annuity pleaded with puppy dog eyes.
Fizzle took a moment to consider before reprimanding Blueberry, “You should think more carefully about what other ponies are saying. Sometimes ponies don’t say what they mean, or what you think they might mean. Annuity’s a sweet filly; you should give her the benefit of the doubt.”
Blueberry looked heartbroken as he nodded. His sister was beside him rubbing his back.
As the teacher trotted away, a heavy silence fell on the playground. It didn’t last for long, however, as Zephyr Zap took notice of me.
“Hey, River! Good job on the reading questions. It’s cool that you were able to use such teamwork. And you haven’t even been here that long!”
“Uhhh… thanks?” I replied. What I had done was nothing special at all--Jill and Squirt had different strengths and weaknesses with the material, and I had happened to have some firsthand experience.
“No, it was great!” Zap insisted.
I didn’t get much of a chance to argue, though, as Annuity’s group turned to leave the wounded siblings. Zap looked back hesitantly before taking wing and following the pack.
The schoolday was shortened due to the holiday, which meant that recess was optional. Even better, that meant no music class. I traveled the short distance to my usual meeting place, and to my surprise Twilight and Spike were waiting for me instead of Star Chart.
“Hello, Aron,” she greeted. “Surprisingly, I don’t think you’ve met Spike yet. Spike this is Aron, and Aron, this is Spike.”
We had met once before, though not in this form, so I declined to correct her on that technicality. Spike, for some reason was enthused.
“Hi, Aron, I heard a lot about you. They say you’re from another world. That’s really cool. It’s like something out of a comic book.”
“Yeah… nice to meet you,” I replied.
“Is it true that you are going to turn into a filly, though?”
‘Spike!” Twilight rebuked. “I’m sorry, Aron, he was really looking forward to making friends with a colt his own age, and that disappointed him.”
“Imagine how I feel,” I sighed.
“Oh well, you’re a colt now aren’t you? That means we can have some quality guy time with Shining.”
Shining? Where had I heard that name before?
“So, Aron” Spike asked, “What are some of your favorite things to do?”
What’s with this question? I seem to get it a lot.
“I don’t know. I’ve never had time for fun before. Everything was to better myself for the cause. Any less, and I would let my people down.”
“Wow, that sounds like a real bummer. Me, I like comic books most of all. I’ve got a big collection. I also like to watch hoofball when it comes around to Ponyville. But I guess what I like most of all is being Twilight’s number-one assistant. So I guess I’m kind of like you in a way, huh?”
I nodded in response. I didn’t have much to say on the subject of similarity between the two of us. I couldn’t see it at all. This young dragon seemed like a true child, whereas I was not.
“Aron, I’ve been wondering, before the war what sorts of traditions did your people partake in? Surely if you are warlike now out of necessity, before the conflict you must have been different. I guess what I’m digging for is any sort of cultural expression?” Twilight seemed almost shy in asking.
“Before the war, we were slaves. We weren’t allowed much in the form of expression and I suppose that shaped us. In the time in between then and now our driving force was progress; everything was for the sake of reclaiming our place among the stars. We were an industrious people like that.”
“Were.” I sunk at the implication of that. We were truly a piece of history now.
“There has to be something,” Twilight insisted. “No culture is without its own form of expression. Even lack of expression has to reveal something hidden underneath—the thoughts, the vitality of the ponies underneath..”
I thought about it for some time as we walked. I knew not our destination, but apparently Twilight was taking me on a trip, so I assumed we were going to a transportation depot. I didn’t like Twilight’s pushiness, but I equally despised the idea that we had no culture.
I fell behind them somewhat when I came to a realization. “Actually,” I started, “we played some sorts of games of the mind.”
“Games!?” Twilight exclaimed, retracing her steps back towards me. “What kinds of games?”
“Is it something we can play together?” Spike asked.
I chose to answer Twilight. “Nothing special really. Mainly games of chance and skill. When we were enslaved we used to gamble for anything and everything of value we were allowed to have. Though gambling has been cracked down on, the games themselves continue.” I could have elaborated further, but I cut myself off. “It’s a shameful part of our history really. We don’t like to speak of it,” I fibbed. Truthfully, I didn’t want to explain to Twilight the rules of every game I could think of, much less play them.
“I understand,” Twilight said, disappointed. “If there’s anything else you can share, I would love to hear it.”
Still challenged to defend the worth of my civilization, I provided, “Well there’s drinking songs.”
“Aha! So you do sing!” Twilight teased. “I don’t suppose you’d sing them for me.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know them well.” Then I smirked. “But get me a drink or two and I might remember a couple verses.”
Twilight laughed and stroked me gently with one of her wings. “That’s okay, I can think of some other ways of getting the music out of you.”
I was simultaneously soothed by her gesture and tormented by her phantom threat.
Before I could begin to imagine what this entailed, Twilight declared, “We’re here!”
We stood in front of a homely two-story house. It seemed to be made from some sort of glittering brick; perhaps it was magical in nature. The front lawn was impeccably well-kept and flower beds framed the cobblestone path to the house. I could smell the sweet fragrance wafting all the way to the street. Most interesting about the house, though, were its two tower-like pillars containing what appeared to be bedrooms.
“This is your parents’ house?” I asked.
“Yes,” Twilight replied, magically opening the iron gate. “Come on in.”
Spike looked ecstatic to have arrived.
She stepped inside, while I stood still for a moment, admiring the architecture.
“Is something the matter, Aron?” Twilight asked.
“No, nothing… I just didn’t think your parents would live in Canterlot too. Kind of a strange assumption since you said you were from here, but I thought you were from Ponyville.”
“Oh,” Twilight giggled. “I moved to Ponyville to study friendship at the behest of Princess Celestia. Once I made my friends I never really wanted to leave.”
“I see…”
“Would you two hurry up!” Spike implored. “I can’t wait to try some of Mama’s hoofpicked gemstones!”
Following Spike, who was already at the door, knocking, we made it to the doorway when it opened. A refined-looking unicorn couple was standing in the doorway. The stallion was short and surprisingly bulky for a unicorn. He wore spectacles and had a coiffured dark blue mane contrasted with a light blue coat. The mare was lanky and gray with a mane similar to her daughter’s, but with white streaks through the purple.
“Mama, I’m home!” Spike announced, jumping into the mare’s outstretched forelegs. She petted his head and said sweetly, “Spike, how have you been? You’ve grown so much since I last saw you.”
Really? Because he still looks pretty small to me.
“Mom, Dad,” I’m home, Twilight announced sedately.
“Welcome home, Twilight,” the stallion spoke in a wispy voice. “Princess or no, there will always be a home here for you.”
“You always say that,” Twilight said, blushing.
“Maybe if you’d come home more often, we wouldn’t have to remind you, dear,” the mare replied without taking her attention off the contented Spike.
“I keep planning on it, but there are so many new projects I’ve stumbled upon—almost more than I can keep track of. I’ve had to buy so many extra rolls of parchment to make checklists for it all.”
Twilight’s parents laughed. “Well we’ve never been given reason to expect anything less of you, honey,” the stallion said.
“Welcome home!” the two said in unison.
“So this is, Aron?” Twilight’s mother, Twilight Velvet, confirmed,
“We’ve heard quite a bit about you,” her father, Night Light, added.
Somewhat uncomfortable with being the focus on their attention, I scanned the room: At my side was a glass side-table framed by aged oak. Bookshelves lined the walls and were filled with colorful tomes. Cushy seating arrangements sufficient for a dozen adult ponies circled a long, slender redwood table at the center of the room. Spike was curled up in a cat bed, munching on gemstones. It seemed an absurd waste to me at first, but I remembered Rarity mentioning something about being able to just find gems in the ground, so I supposed it made some sense.
“Excuse me for this weird question,” Velvet said, “but Twilight said you were a unicorn?”
Taking a moment to comprehend, I then swept aside my bangs to reveal my infant-sized horn.
“Oh dear!” Velvet exclaimed, caught off guard.
“Do you hide it on purpose?” Night Light asked.
“More or less,” I said, “I’ve been warned I might be bullied for it, and besides, Celestia had to seal my magic for my own protection, so I decided to pretend to be an earth pony.”
This made the mare leave her seat and close in on my personal space.
“You poor dear,” she said with a hug as I lamented how used to it I had become. “Well, you don’t have to hide who you are here.”
The stallion put a hoof to chin in thought. “On that subject, do you prefer to go by ‘he’ or ‘she’?”
“I’m sorry?” I said, as Velvet finally let me go.
“Your situation is an unusual one, so I just don’t want to assume anything.”
“He is fine,” I said, confused by the question.
Fortunately, the chiming of a doorbell spared me from the momentary silence.
The married couple stood up to answer the door, while I just took a breath and closed my eyes to rest for a moment. Twilight stroked me with a wing once more, and I found myself mostly appreciative of the gesture.
“There’s my favorite son! How are you?”
“Happy Father’s Day, Dad,” came a familiar masculine voice.
“Hello Cadance!” Velvet said.
Curiosity getting the better of me, I opened my eyes to see Twilight’s parents guiding in a familiar royal couple. This time, they were dressed nicely, but not regally.
“You must be Aron,” Shining Armor said. “It’s been awhile since I last saw you. Was caramel not your color?”
Upon hearing this, his wife took notice of me, and I could see her actively resisting the urge to coo over me. My respect for her grew immensely for her restraint.
It took me half a minute before I finally pieced together what he was talking about. “Oh, that was an illusion,” I explained, “I never had caramel fur in reality.”
It already felt so long ago—the times when I could merely slip off a ring and be normal.
“You’re Twilight’s brother, then?” I asked, making small talk.
“I’m her proud big brother,” Shining declared, hugging his little sister, eliciting a blush from her.
“I didn’t know that. Usually, I’d expect princesses to be sisters rather than sisters-in-law. I mean what are the chances that your daughter becomes a princess and your son marries a princess?”
Night Light chuckled. “You’re pretty, sharp, Aron. I’ve wondered about that quite a bit myself. I suppose we’re just blessed.”
“Say hi, Spike,” Twilight prompted.
Meanwhile, Spike only had eyes for his small pile of gemstones.
“Hi, Spike…” he said with not a hint of sarcasm.
Gradual laughter spread throughout the room, and I found myself obliged to give a chuckle or two myself. I was grateful that this took the attention off me for the moment.
“How’s the weather up in the Crystal Empire?” Velvet asked. “It’s nearly winter already. Are you warm enough up there?”
“Yes, Mom,” Shining supplied with a good-natured chuckle. “We’re working on rebuilding the crystal guard at the moment. It’s been a lot of work.”
“We have the cutest young mare as one of the new pegasus recruits,” Cadance said. “Wallflower is her name. You know her, don’t you, Twilight?”
“Fluttershy’s sister? Yes. How’d you recruit her anyway?”
The royal couple exchanged a fond look of remembrance. “There’s quite a story behind it.”
“And she just apologized for having the highest wing-power rating out of all the applicants! She apologized for embarrassing the others and tried to assure us it was a mistake,” Shining said.
“When we offered her a position, she gave the cutest little squeak. She really wanted it, even though she tried to deny her interest by saying she wanted any job. We couldn’t let her go after that.”
I sipped some more of the delicious hot cocoa and reflected on the story. I had wondered why that mare was qualified to be a soldier, and I had figured the answer would be similar to why Celestia kept Trusty Stead around. Learning that the mare was an excellent flier and athlete but too modest to admit it had come as an amusing shock.
I suppose she reminds me a bit of Diane—much more capable than you’d think.
The thought left me a bit chilled. In spite of myself, I had to wonder how she was doing—her and Will. I shook my head.
No, that’s in the past now, I told myself. Like it or not, these are my people now. It’s either them, or I’m all alone.
Gazing on the warm smiles around the room, for a moment, I thought that might not be too bad.
Then I grew cold again.
If that type of thinking takes hold I’ll be this land’s filly princess in no time.
“How about a game?” Twilight Velvet offered. Assent spread around the room. Even I was curious how their games differed from ours. I already had a taste of their party games thanks to Pinkie, but when the mare brought out the game board, I knew it had to be something different.
Aside from the basic formula of moving a piece around with dice, the game was far different from anything I had ever seen. The addition of magic ensured that nobody knew what crazy thing the cards would spell out. Within three turns, my pony token had made friends with a Walrus, gone scuba-diving to the lost seapony capital and adopted a pet honey badger. The game mainly consisted of these types of developments as dictated by cards and dice. There was an objective of sorts to the game in the form of collecting bits, but by looking around the table it was apparent that it was more about the experience than determining a winner.
I suppose it fits these ponies.
Though I had hoped for something challenging, I had to admit I laughed as hard as anypony when Cadance and Shining Armor ended up married in game followed by Cadance giving birth to sextuplets.
“Perhaps this is a sign of things to come,” Velvet hinted.
Cadance laughed awkwardly. “We’re still thinking about it. Six at one time, though—I can’t imagine it.”
“Be careful, though. That many foals will eat into your bits if you draw the uppity foalsitter card,” Spike warned, sitting behind the biggest pile of bits.
“I’m sure the regents of the Crystal Empire can afford it,” Night Light joked.
“Bits can’t buy you more time,” Cadance replied sagely. “I don’t know how I could give enough love to so many.”
“You can always start a herd,” Velvet added half-jestingly.
‘Stop,” Shining replied. “I’m committed to Cadance. I could never love someone as much as her anyway, so it wouldn’t be fair.”
This earned him a kiss from his wife.
Sure enough, the next card Shining drew earned him a second wife.
“Oh well,” Cadance said. “If love is true enough, it can be shared without limit.”
Shaking his head, Shining added another mare token to his family of eight.
So ponies are sometimes polygamous.
It was something that I had had snippets of evidence for but had never quite confirmed. It was a taboo on my world but one I had never really understood. The only justification I could come up with was to ensure everyone could eventually marry. But…
“There are more mares than stallions, correct?” I asked.
“Oh, I forgot this must be unusual for you,” Twilight responded, happy to explain anything and everything. “Yes, at last count it was about a 58-42 split. Some suspect that it’s converging to 50-50. Anything else you want to know?”
I looked around the table and everyone was smiling at me with understanding.
“No, I get it I mean. I suppose if I’m wondering something it’s how common herding is?”
“It’s an option that’s there for the ponies that want it,” Night Light explained. “It’s not rare, and almost everypony knows a herd.”
Twilight was in full researcher mode now. “Is it different on your homeworld, Aron?”
“Yes, men and women are equally common on Rhod,” I said simply. Admittedly I was slightly put off by the minor bit of culture shock, but I didn’t have any justifiable feelings against this pony custom. “Can we continue the game now?” I asked, picking up the dice.
“Sure,” Twilight said, suppressing her curiosity.
I rolled a five and came to a junction. My choices were either a random event or a standard card space. Since I had been robbed by diamond dogs the last time I had landed on a random space, I opted for the latter and picked up a card.
Your daughter comes to visit for Father’s Day. Take ten bits from the pile.
“That’s strange. Usually the cards make sense in context, but my guy is still a bachelor,” I said. “Do you think there’s a problem with the game, or should I draw again?”
“What do you mean?” Spike asked.
“Oh, I get it!” Twilight said. “Does your culture not have gift foals?”
“Gift foals?”
“Well, Aron,” Cadance explained, “sometimes a mare wants to have foals before she finds a special somepony. So she’ll ask a stallion she knows to be the father of her foals.”
I flinched back. “You mean outside of marriage?!”
Twilight nodded patiently.
“But that’s irresponsible,” I declared. “Leaving the mother to take care of the kid on her own is just…”
Night Light gazed at me, fascinated. He looked as if he was deliberating how best to explain this pony custom. Apparently his curiosity about my alien upbringing rivalled his daughter’s.
“Well, Aron, I actually have a gift daughter who’s Twilight’s older half-sister,” he explained.
I nervously looked to the side. Surely I had offended this pony. Where had my tact gone?
“Sorry,” I murmured, dumbstruck.
“It’s okay,” he said good-naturedly. “I can understand the source of your confusion. The truth is it depends on the pony. Some stallions are very involved in their gift children’s lives, while at other times their mothers prefer to raise them on their own. In either case, though, it’s viewed as helping the mother out.”
“What do you mean,” I asked, still uneasy.
Cadance giggled. “It can be hard for a single mare to attract the perfect stallion. Unless she wants to join a herd, there’s a lot of competition. Most stallions find mares with foals more attractive. If the mare is a good mother, it shows, and the stallion knows she would be a good partner and possible mother for his own foals. Oftentimes, such foals end up attracting an adoptive father. That’s why Father’s Day is so important—celebrating all types of fathers.”
I cocked my head, confused but interested.
Twilight Velvet nodded before adding her two cents. “And for a mare whose special somepony is also a mare,” it’s the only way for them to have foals.”
The stallion then uncharacteristically sighed. “It’s a shame that Dawn Treader can’t be with us to celebrate, though.”
Understanding dawned on me regarding earlier that day.
So that’s what that’s all about.
Something visceral in me still objected to this.
“I understand there are cultural differences I’m not grasping, but isn’t it, you know, strange? I mean, this means you ponies are related to each other in all sorts of bizarre ways.”
Twilight laughed. “I never really thought about it that way, but I guess you’re right. We ponies have all sorts of relatives. However, I like to think this shows how we bond with one another. We’re all related in a philosophical sense, and we accept families of all sorts because in a way, we’re all one giant family.”
I looked across the room. It was filled with smiles. Spike, Twilight, Shining, Cadance, Night Light, Velvet—I felt a warmth coming from all of them. It was such a simple act of playing a board game while sipping hot cocoa, but somehow I felt I had known these ponies (and dragon) my entire life.
I slumped, resting my chin on my fetlocks.