//------------------------------// // Chapter 10. // Story: Pony of a Different Color // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// Early the next morning, Moonshine and I are standing at the door to Twilight's library. I knock firmly on the door with my hoof. Twilight answers the door. “Good morning Twilight, did you get enough sleep?” She smiles. “Yes, I slept the rest of the day, and all night. I'm fully rested.” A big grin from me, “Well, good, because I brought you reference materials for learning Saidar, and a teacher.” “A teacher?” A quizzical frown from Twilight. “Yes.” I move aside, revealing my daughter. “Twilight Sparkle, I want to introduce you to my daughter, Moonshine. She can channel, and she has agreed to teach you what she knows of Saidar.” Moonshine comes forward and bows before Twilight. “Pleased to meet you Princess Twilight Sparkle.” The shocked look on Twilight's face is priceless to me. I know that Twilight has been trying to keep her new status somewhat low key, but watching my daughter bow to her is very amusing. We discussed this before we showed up. My daughter has been watching the show while I was in their world, and she told me how little Twilight has been acting like a Princess. It looks like my daughter is going to try to fix that. Twilight looks supremely embarrassed. “You don't need to do that, especially since you are Sparky's daughter.” “No Princess. I do have to do that. You have gained the status of Princess. I will speak truth to you, even when it's uncomfortable for you. But I am, while I am here, your humble subject. Do you remember what Principle Celestia said to you when she handed you your crown in the human world you visited?” “uhhhh” “She said that a true princess inspires others to stand with you. And Princess, you have certainly inspired me. I am with you one hundred percent.” Twilight looks completely embarrassed. “Well, Moonshine, come on in.” We enter the library, Moonshine floats the reference books I had grabbed out of her saddlebags and sets them on the table. While she's arranging the books, Twilight lowers her voice as she sidles up next to me. “I thought you said your daughter was in college getting her doctorate in engineering, and she was nearly fifty years old, this is a filly standing there.” I whisper back. “Twilight, what I said was true, and I told you about the slowing, where an adepts aging slows down, a lot when they start working with the power. Well, she was twelve when she started to channel, and she slowed at fourteen. She hasn't aged very much, if at all in that time, in fact, among women, I would guess that she will end up being one of the most powerful adepts in the history of channeling. She is the perfect one to teach you.” “Do all adepts have children that are adept as well?” “No, actually, according to my teacher, and according to some of the reference materials, it's slightly more common for a adept's child to be adept themselves, but still exceedingly rare. I was lucky with her. My daughter can channel very strongly, and I suspected that my wife had some low level abilities of her own. For example, whenever she got mad, anything electronic was at risk.” A chuckle from Twilight. “Well, if she wants to teach me, I'm ready to learn.” My daughter swung around, “Princess, would you come here. We are going to start with some early exercises. You already are able to use your magic as a unicorn, and you probably found it very hard to embrace Saidar, but I'm going to teach you to embrace it as fast as you can think you want it. Ready?” A big smile from Twilight as she trotted over to my daughter. I bade them good day as I headed out. Now that I have my power back, I have some plans. I step out of the library, I am assaulted again. Not just the CMC, but Rainbow Dash got me as well. I tumbled a good twenty feet with all four of them on me. Rainbow kisses me thoroughly before taking off with a quick. “I'll be free later, gotta take care of the weather.” and leaves me in the hooves of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I have to suppress a laugh at them, they know how to be absolutely cute and each has perfected the poor little puppy dog look. “Sparky, can you show us what you can do with your magic?” Scootaloo says, slower than she usually talks to me. Usually she sounds like a record that's been sped up. I don't know where this is going. “Sure squirt, what do you want to see?” Three throats chorus different things off the tops of their heads. I answer as best as I can. “No, I can't change a bird into a frog, Sweetie Belle, No Apple Bloom, I can't do that, it would be too dangerous. No, Scootaloo I can't teleport the way Twilight does.” This goes on until I finally hear something that I can do. “Yes, Apple Bloom, I can make fire. But first...” I seize Saidin. I use flows of Earth to shift the ground around their hooves. I make the flows of the earth build three pedestals as I spread my wings and hover. I decide to start simple. I bring up three flames in front of each of the girls. All three are fascinated by flames out of nothing in front of them. Then I decide to start getting fancy. I form each flame into a glowing version of each of the CMC. I let the flame version of them scamper around them, keeping an eye for them to reach out a hoof to touch the flames, Sweetie Belle tries and I have her flame twin jump over her, keeping her clear of being hurt by the flames. I expand the flames, the glowing twins melt into a pool of fire around the three girls. I'm adding a lot of Air into the flames and some Earth as well, at that point, the flames look fearsome, but wouldn't singe the fur on anypony. After a few seconds of that I draw all the energy straight up. I pull more Saidin. I'm going to give these ponies a show they will never forget. I'm feeling the wind currents up high as they affect the power I'm sending up there. In moments, I can tell where and how strong the high level winds are, I draw more and more Saidin. I'm floating in pure joy at that moment. I finally make my flows visible with an injection of Fire. And wham, a full showing of sky lights, more intense than anything you would see in a fireworks show. I have hues of every color cascading around the sky. I get bored with just the light show pretty quickly, so I really change it up. I start having balls of multicolored light dropping down towards the ground, only to extinguish before getting close to the thatched roofs of Ponyville. I look down at the Cutie Mark Crusaders, all three are sitting down on the ground. Eyes pasted to the sky, jaws on the ground. After about ten minutes of this, changing up the display about once a minute I finally bring it to a close. I gather all the light in the sky and have it fall fast into a pool around us all. Then, in a moment of whimsy, I bring it all into one point, but it's not simply a point, it's the shape of a pegasus pony. Cyan body, and the mane and tail all the colors of the rainbow with big cerise eyes. I trot the glowing Rainbow Dash in front of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, then let it dissipate. Ten seconds slowly pass as they just look at me. Scootaloo finally breaks through the quiet. “ThatwasthemostawesomethingI'veeverseenSparky” she howled at me as her and her friends launch themselves at me. I see them coming, I could stop them, but I don't. I'm once again bowled over by the CMC. If you don't mind a few bruises, they will be the best of friends. I'm laughing with them when I look up. Rainbow Dash is standing over me. I stand up. “I saw that last bit there Sparky.” She says to me with a warm smile. A little louder she addresses the girls. “Allright, girls. I'm going to take Sparky here away from you. It's my turn with him.” “Awwwwwww Rainbow Dash.” From three little fillies at once. Sweetie Belle continued “you said you had to do weather work for a couple of hours and we could have him.” Rainbow looked at them. “Yes, I did say that, but I was able to get one of the other ponies on the weather team to finish today's work. Because I wanted Sparky to myself. I haven't been seeing much of him. It's my turn girls.” While she's talking to the girls, she moves in front of me, she swishes her tail and hits me in the face with it, she looks over her shoulder and then spreads her wings. I know that look, I spread my wings and smirk. “1, 2, 3, go.” I say as quickly as possible. She tried to get the jump on me, but I was just as quick. I outweigh her by at least fifty pounds, but I'm certainly more muscular than she is. We are about even on takeoff. But she has got something I don't. She is fast. I mean, absurdly fast. I'm struggling to keep up with her, but I notice a mistake she made, I'm a few hundred feet above her. She's flying a straight line to her, no... our house, I've got an advantage in altitude, and I use it. As we are getting close, I fold my wings back and accelerate down at the house. “Dammit, you beat me again.” I say as I fold my wings. I know she's almost always got more speed ready to be called on, but I don't know how she knew I was divebombing and poured on that burst of speed. She always wins our races. I've gotten to be a pretty good flier in my time in Ponyville, but I think I could stay here centuries and still not even be half as good as she is when it comes to flying. She's laughing now, “You will always lose to me, Sparky. Because I'm that awesome.” As she opens the door and leads me in. I follow and barely have time to close the door before she kisses the pure hell out of me. I have no clue how I ended up on my back, my wings spread, with Rainbow on my chest. “Aren't you sure you want to talk first Rainbow?” I ask. Her hoof silences me. No, she doesn't want talking. Yet, that is. She gets a wicked grin. I know what she wants. She leans in to kiss me again.