Clark lifted the last piece of wood in place, and Tia levitated the nails to the correct marks before tapping them in with her hoof. It had taken a couple of days -he preferred not to rush the farm work- to get everything cleaned up. But the house was finally repaired, and all the trash was picked up and ready to be dumped. The robot had been taken to S.T.A.R.R. Labs.
“All that's left is the paint, b-
“I can do it!”
Celestia stared at the wall they had just repaired. She stuck her tongue out in concentration and lit up the wall with her magic. After the golden glow faded she looked to see what he thought.
“It's...nice.” Clark barely stopped himself from laughing. She had interrupted him before he could tell her that Ma would want to pick the new paint herself. “It's very pink...and blue, and yellow. Looks like a rainbow.”
“Will she like it?”
“I'm sure she will.”
“Oh, good.” a relieved expression crossed Celestia’s face, “Because I accidentally did the whole house, and I'm not sure how soon I will be able to reverse it.”
Clark studied her face...but he simply could not tell if she was telling the truth or playing a prank.
Before they could continue, they both heard a car turn into the driveway. A rather too expensive car for anyone who lived in Smallville; red convertible, European model, and an engine that barely made any noise.
“Do they need directions?” Celestia wondered aloud.
“No, she doesn't need directions.”
“She?”
Parking her car the woman got out and walked towards them. She was an auburn haired beauty, with expensive everything, jewelry and clothes and shoes, on her trim body. Celestia did not like her.
“Long time no see, Clark.”
“Good to see you too, Lana.” he greeted her.
“And who's this?” Lana asked as she got a good look at the winged unicorn. “Is this that kid that Ma told me about?”
“Yes. Her name's Celestia.” Clark introduced them both, “Celestia this is my old school friend Lana. Lana this is my daughter Celestia.”
“Nice to meet you.” they said simultaneously; Lana cheerily, Celestia not so much.
“Someone's in a grumpy mood.” Lana announced. She eyed her friend, “Clark, don't tell me you haven't taken her to the Malt Shop yet.”
“What is a malt shop?” Celestia asked her father.
Celestia loved the vanilla caramel swirl malt she had ordered. She had no idea that a milkshake could be so thick. It almost required a spoon! And dipping her fries in it was even better than Lana had told her.
Celestia was still suspicious of Lana, and absolutely refused to leave the woman alone with her father. But she was nice enough to not be considered a threat to her plans for Lois to be her mom, yet. So Celestia could tolerate her, especially if there were more milkshakes.
“So what else has she not done in Smallville?” Lana asked.
“Well...there's fishing and swimming in the lake,” Clark began to list a few ideas, “hiking, going on a picnic, and riding- actually riding the neighbor’s horses is probably a no, since, you know, pony.”
Celestia thought about that for a minute, with her face getting even more scrunched up as time went by. “Yeah, no riding horses for me. Sounds...odd.”
“I got it!” Lana told them.
Clark, Lana, Tia, the old barber and his assistant, and the lady hair stylist all looked stumped. How could they do anything to her hair? It was made of light.
Tia sighed and hovered out of the chair and towards the door. “Thank you anyway…” she politely told them.
The old barber was frantic for a moment. No-one had left his shop dissatisfied in over forty years, and he refused to let that happen just because he (literally) couldn't cut her hair. He looked around for something, anything, to cheer her up...but the only possible solution was her adoptive father Clark Kent -also adopted, he remembered….he remembered that Clark Kent had never once gotten his hair cut in his shop!
“Are you sure about this?” Lana asked a few minutes later as Clark sat down in the barber’s chair.
“I'll replace his scissors and combs.” he whispered.
“Who's ready for a haircut?” Celestia -dressed in a miniature barber’s uniform that she had altered with her magic to fit her pony body- asked them.
Clark raised his hand, and his little flying unicorn squeed.
Tia climbed up on the stool they had given her to be able to reach his hair without flying, which would move his hair while she worked on it. With her magic she levitated the items she needed to work with. She held the scissors up to his hair and snipped.
Clark was a bit startled to feel the cut hairs fall past his ear. “Hehe, be careful, Tia.”
Ten minutes later Clark had a freshly trimmed head to hair. The barber was satisfied that the child had left with a smile. Lana was enjoying Clark's new look. Tia was happily fluttering beside them with a sucker in her mouth.
“How did you get my hair so perfect in one try?” Clark asked her.
“Didn't.” Tia shook her head, “Had to regrow it by shining sunlight on it and recut it till I got it right.”
After stopping by the coffee shop, Talon, for some caffeine, they picked up Ma Kent from the doctor’s office and drove out for a trip around town. Tia found herself enjoying the simple little town of Smallville quite a bit. It felt nice and slow and stress free; something she felt unfamiliar with but happy with.
They showed her the schools where Clark and Lana had gone to from kindergarten through high school. She saw, but didn't go down, the trail that led to the caves where some of those meteors had landed.
Their truck stopped next to an old iron gate. Tia knew what the place was, though, she could not understand why they were here. She followed them, respectively silent as they chatted about the person they were here to visit. Finally they found him.
“It's your family, Jonathan.” Martha Kent said to the tombstone. She held her injured arm to her body as she hugged herself. “You're a grandfather now. Clark adopted. Her name's Tia. And you thought he would be lonely.”
“How did Grandpa die?”
Clark looked down at Celestia, sitting almost in his lap with her head snuggled up under his arm as he drove them all back to town. He had not expected her to be sad about his father being dead.
“Cancer.” Ma told her. “In his heart. Nothing the doctors could do. He left us in his sleep, darling, nothing to be sad about now.”
The little pony returned her grandmother’s smile. There was nothing to be sad about, nothing to be fearful of, so long as she had her little family.
Then she looked out the window.
Clark stopped the truck as it could go no further on the now crowded street. Beside him, Celestia whimpered and her eyes widened at the thing in the sky. Everyone saw it; it's hard to miss a giant skull shaped spacecraft with three green dots on the forehead in a V pattern; the same symbol that had been on the robot that attacked Tia.
“Lana, hold my glasses.” Clark asked as he handed them to her, and got out of the truck. “I need to have a talk with someone.”
In the middle of the street Clark stripped of his disguise, and Superman flew up to the ship.
Nearby, two old men were playing checkers, both completely unfazed. One said to the other, “Told ya he was him. You owe me a sarsaparilla.”
I cannot wait til Celestia finds out Lana is going to be her honorly aunt. If I remember correctly Lana and Lois get along pretty well. Now she just needs to help kick Brainac's tin oil pan.
Featured again!
Celestia vs Brainiac? This should be good! I can already see Brainiac surrender (or explode) when Tia asks him to not attack earth.
7125763 yeahhhh.... I may be a fan, but I'm still not Tatsurou. Brainiac is a computer through and through, with no concept of 'humanity'. He may get compared to Ultron, but Ultron was built to emulate humans. Brainiac wasn't.
7125794 Unless you use the version of Braniac that was in the comics until the early 1980's...
As much fun as the upcoming Braniac conflict is going to be, just how unimpressed Smallville is that Clark is Superman is what cracks me up.
Nice job. Another reason why this is inspiring xD
7125945 I don't know that one, so...
7126002 Exactly why I did it. :) I went with the idea that Superboy was Smallville's big secret that everyone knows about but nobody talks about. Most of them would have zero proof of his identity, but they all sorta knew it anyway.
7126060 Thank you! :D
7126002 Same here.
Love how the old men are just like.
Yup. We're superman's hometown. You owe me food.
7126098 Basically, until the mid-80's (right before the original 'Crisis on Infinite Earths'), Brainiac was a green-skinned, purple-wearing android with three red dots on his head that pretty much acted like the typical Silver Age DC villain - lots of "Mwuahahaha!" and "You fool!" and utterly ignoring the Evil Overlord List. His schtick was he "collected" cities, and shrunk them down and put them in bottles. He also had a force field on his ship that was impervious even to Superman, so he usually had to trick him into letting him onboard. That's how Superman got the Bottled City of Kandor back in the Silver Age.
7126259 Ah. Looks like my plans are a bit of a blend. You'll see what I mean.
7126002 I'm already at 300 words for the next chapter. :P
Hey there. Thanks greatly for getting the next chapter up. I really appreciate you going to the effort. Once again, excellent job on the exchanges, emotional content, humor and future chapter set-up in all the right places. I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this as soon as time and inspiration will allow.
Good idea