Gifts and Curses

by flamevulture17

5. Progress

[Chapter 5]

Progress

---

“Aw yuck! Did you put too much salt on this?”

“I didn't put any salt in it.”

Andrew looked at his ham sandwich with cheese, lettuce, and tomato. His first bite was bitter, but his second was unbearable. He didn't understand why it tasted so different than ever before. It wasn't until he was reminded of his pony form by having to eat straight off the plate that was sitting on Dale's bed.

Minutes earlier, Dale quietly prepared a quick lunch in the kitchen for the both of them. His mother was occasionally in the kitchen, more often on the weekends while taking care of chores. Fortunately, she was busy with worrying about her complexion in the bathroom. He continued using caution, taking the necessary steps to act like everything was normal. He did not want risk exposing his unicorn friend to anyone else as it might get out of control with the spread of rumors. Dale made his favorite, microwavable chicken strips with ranch dressing, and put together a ham sandwich for Andrew as always. He brought it back to his room where Andrew was sitting on the bed, having trouble using his MP3 player and his small camera. He was going to give up when relief of food took him away from it. The only problem was the taste.

“Is it just me?”

“Here, let me try.”

Dale took a piece off an untouched corner and put it in his mouth.

“Tastes fine to me.”

Andrew was confused whether it was his taste buds or the sandwich, or that Dale was just lying. He went with taste buds. Thinking about it for a moment, Andrew didn't know much about a horse's diet. It was impossible to say if it also applied to unicorns which, as of an hour ago, now exist.

“Now that I am no longer me, physically speaking, my mouth is probably different too. What do horses eat?”

“I think anything that is not meat. You know, vegetarians.”

“Okay, so if I take the meat out of the equation, it should be fine right?”

“Try it.”

“Do you mind?” Andrew pointed at his plate with his hoof, directing him to do it. Dale grunted, looked at him with an annoyed expression, then sighed.

“Only because you're impaired.”

“I'm not impaired. I'm just... imprisoned. In this...” Andrew said looking at himself, still cringing with displeasure at the very sight.

Dale removed the ham from the sandwich, trying not to touch any other part. He slid it out with perfection and ate the whole piece is one bite. Andrew looked at his friend, partially disgusted at how he fast he chewed.

“Are you teasing me?”

“Maybe,” replied Dale, rolling his eyes to the left. “That's some good meat. Told ya nothing's wrong with it.”

“I think it was just me. It's like you said, horses don't eat meat. Even if I wanted to eat it, it still doesn't taste good.”

“What did it taste like?”

“Plain cold butter.”

“Eww! Now that is gross.”

“Uh huh, what I tell ya.”

Andrew proceeded with eating this sandwich. A sandwich without meat, now that is just unheard of. He was starting to think what other meats his pony body could not consume. Chicken, pork, steak, bacon... BACON! No more bacon! Now that sucks. Nobody can live without bacon. At least nobody with good taste. Once that came to mind, he slumped over a little, feeling like this is the unluckiest thing to ever happen. Although the sandwich had no meat, it tasted better than when it did, compelling Andrew to hate the diet he must live with for now.

*Zzzt... zzzt... zzzt*

…

*Zzzt... zzzt... zzzt*

Dale looked at Andrew.

“Are you gonna answer it?”

Andrew hesitated to answer it right away. He glanced at the bright screen which displayed his mother's name in large text. He eyed his friend for a second and slid the phone over to him as it vibrated one more time.

“Maybe you should, I have no fingers.”

“Fine.”

*beep*

…

“Hello?”

“Hel- Dale?”

“Yes, that's me.”

“How come you have Andrew's number?”

“I'm just using his phone for now.”

“Oh, okay. Is Andrew there with you perhaps? Is he alright? Can I talk to him?”

“He's busy with something, but he's fine. Has he done something wrong?”

“Not that I know of, I'm just making sure. Alex was worried that his older brother was acting strange this morning.”

“Well, Mrs. Fera, thanks for checking up on him, we're just chillin'.”

“Oh you kids and you're hanging out. Well, nice talking to you Dale.”

“You too, bye.”

Dale hung up and looked at Andrew, who was trying his best to stay calm.

“You're mom is so nice, she's scary.”

“I know. You and me both.”

Merely three seconds later, they heard thuds coming from the front door.

---

Princess Celestia was curious to fathom her own sister's motivation for staying up so long. On her way to Luna's private chamber, a bunch of thoughts ran through her mind on the causes of Luna's different personality. It puzzled her to no end, thinking whether or not Luna is hiding anything.

She reached the double doors of her sister's room on the east side of the castle. She was about to place her hoof on the door for a formal knock, but she found that the latch had been left open. No candle light or other artificial lighting came from the other side of the room, only very dim streaks of ambient light slid through the cracks of the open door. Celestia pushed the door inward with a hoof, creaking the entire way before stopping halfway, just enough to let herself in.

It was dark with both a creepy atmosphere and wondrous hue to it. Luna's room was ironically well organized, as spotless as you can get. The only light around emanated into the room was the tall balcony window. The black curtains hanging from the top helped suppress most of the daylight's glare. Make sense if you're the Princess of the Night.

“Luna?”

Celestia illuminated her surroundings sufficiently with her horn and looked around for any sign of her sister. The room was lifeless. Her bed slightly used, giving the impression she was here not too long ago. She walked further in. There were several scrolls spread across the edges of Luna's desk. One in particular was placed alone in the center rolled up informally. It simply read 'Tia' on the side facing up. She unfolded the tan-colored parchment and began to read.

“Sweet Apple Acres?” Celestia whispered to herself, not like anypony was listening.

Now she was confused. The Apple family wouldn't have anything to do with her responsibilities, unless it was for a monthly visit to Ponyville, but that job was already fulfilled earlier this month. Celestia was close to understanding the reasons for Luna to visit Ponyville more often than needed, yet far from acting too bossy around her sister. After all, she is her other half.

But how would any other pony know about this event?

Princess Celestia felt guilty for snooping around in Luna's room without her prior knowledge, but was also annoyed that this so-called 'source' only contacted her sister. Whatever the details offered to Luna, she wished it would lead them to the answer on this ongoing case. She turned around and headed toward the door.

A moment later, a faint memory came to her mind. It was a very long time ago since something slightly similar occurred in Equestria, but has been too long and forgotten in the deep history of the land. She remembered it having a confound impact on the society back then for some odd reason. That event, if she could remember, bore the name of... well she didn't recall anypony giving it a name, it was probably too insignificant to most ponies that it really didn't matter. She only wondered if-

*BAM!*

Princess Celestia was almost knocked off her hooves when a sudden jolt of noise hit her ears.

“Whoa!”

Her heart pounded. This sound, however, did not sound like a physical object coming in contact with some other object. It sounded like a thunder, a roar, sort of what you hear in a bad storm. She scanned the surrounding environment, the stone walls, the tall decorative ceiling, the polished marble floor, and the smell of the air, just to make sure whatever the sudden shock was did not originate from an explosion of some kind. Everything seemed to be normal. So normal, in fact, it appears nothing had happened to the ordinary traveler, but Celestia could help but be helplessly confused and concerned.

- - -

Back at the tower

“Here it says that no record of an investigation of the event was ever officially conducted. Proving that, to this very day, it is unknown to magic, and possibly science, that can explain the nature of such random anomaly of intense energy. Many believed it to be completely harmless and not worth worrying about,” Lyra explained.

“Does it say anything about Starswirl the Bearded?”

“It only mentions his name and that she was involved with it for a while.”

“Nothing else?”

“Nope.”

Twilight's amusement grew. She had known everything about Starswirl's career until now. It seemed like she missed this part about his life and she was eager to not let that slide. Maybe, for some odd reason, the answer lies in the wing named after him. However, she'd been in there over a dozen times and read every single scroll on the shelves, top to bottom. What else is there?

“Do you think we should check the Starswirl the Breaded wing?”

“Are you sure? Don't you know everything there is to know about him?”

“Well yes, but I have a feeling I might have missed something.”

“But we should really wait for the Princess to get back.”

“Okay. I'm gonna tell her about you theory it could be hum-”

“No no no no no no, please don't!” Lyra pleaded. “She mustn’t know.”

“Why? It's not like she'll believe you like I did.”

“Can we just keep it between us?” Lyra looked more doubtful than ever, having reminded Twilight about her unusual studies.

Twilight sighed, “Sure.”

“Thanks Twi.” Once again Lyra was unsure if her friend can keep in confidential, then pointed her hoof toward Twilight. “Shake on it?”

“Shake on what?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot. Never mind.”

“No really, what was that supposed to mean?” Twilight asked with curiosity rather than mockery.

“No no, just forget I said anything.” Lyra was now starting to feel betrayed.

“I'm curious, does it have something to do with your human theory?”

“Yes,” answered Lyra raising and eyebrow at her. “Why are you suddenly so interested now?”

“I am a scientist, relatively speaking, and I would like to know more about them.”

“Do you believe me?”

“Not entirely. It just seems unlikely for them to to be real, but if you give me all you know, I might not be as skeptical.”

Lyra lightened up and ears unfolded after lowering them moments ago. Twilight showed eagerness in her promise.

“Okay, what do you want to know?”

---

5 minutes earlier

“Did you invite anyone over?”

“No,” Dale replied.

The unicorn and the teen looked at each other. Dale then left the room and headed toward the front door. As he turned the corner of the hall, he saw that his mother had already beat him to it. He retreated back behind the wall and peeked ever so slightly around the corner to let his mom let deal with the visitor. She opened the large wooden door.

“Hello there Alex.”

“Alex?” Dale whispered with his eyes shooting all over the place. His heart raced a little bit more at the thought of it being Andrew's younger brother.

“Is Dale home?”

He could barely hear Alex's voice, but enough to make out the words.

“He sure is.”

“Can I talk to him?”

“Of course. He should be in his room.”

“Thank you.”

“When you find him, tell him I'm off to the mall.”

“Sure, Mrs. Larsen.”

“Okay great, see you later.”

“Bye.”

Dale saw his mother step outside. He watched with careful, ninja-like spy tactics. Then Alex stepped inside the house closing the door behind him. The sneaking teen snapped back from peering around the wall, waited for a second to panic, and ran back it his room, slamming the door behind him. He sat with his back against the white door, panting out of fear instead of exhaustion. Andrew stared at him.

“What is it?” he asked.

Dale was breathing heavily, trying to think.

“It- it's your brother.”

Andrew, although frightened of being discovered by another person, was less worried for it was only Alex. However, this was probably the right place, but definitely not the right time to tell Alex.

“How does he know I'm here?”

“He doesn't. He wants to talk to me.”

Andrew sighed in relief. “Then chill out, alright, I'll just hide. When he comes, lie to him. He's very naïve and gullible.”

Dale was feeling like an idiot after not thinking of how simple that sounded. He also wished he had a brother for which he can fool just as easily for fun.

“Oh- oh yeah, why don't you do that,” he nodded. “I'll say you're not here, that you're in the basement, you are-”

“Why can't you just say that I'm not here at all?”

“Well I-”

“Never mind, just stall him.”

Andrew jumped back in the closet with his baggy clothes still on him and his duffel bag in his mouth and closed the door halfway, that way the room wouldn't look as conspicuous. Dale remained at the foot of the door, waiting anxiously for Alex to knock on the door and thinking of what to say to him.

…

*Knock knock*

Dale flinched. He did not anticipate the timing because he could not hear footsteps on the other side due to the carpeted floor suppressing any noise.

The highly nervous teen stood up, sighed, and creaked his bedroom door inward, just enough to poke his head through.

“Sup.”

“Hi Dale. Can I talk to you?”

“Right now? Ugh...” Dale said, faking his annoyance.

“It's about my brother.”

“Okaaay?”

“I think something is wrong with him.”

“He seems pretty fine to me.”

“You've seen him today?!” said Alex surprised.

Dale paused at where this was going. He had been thinking seconds ago on lying that Andrew was not here, but now that was out the window. He inadvertently implied that he'd made contact with his best friend to Alex. Now he had to try and improvise.

“Well... yeah. He's... uh... uh.... he's down in the basement.”

“Now why would he be in the-”

“Do you want to know where he is or not?”

“Okay fine. Geez.” Alex turned around towards the basement entrance.

Dale kept watching the boy as he was ostensibly convinced that his brother was under the house. One second at a time, the ambient sound from various household appliances became more audible as the air became more still and the tension rose between both humans. As soon as he heard the basement door open, it slammed shut and he heard Alex rushing back down the hall to his room.

“Ahh!” Dale immediately shut his door, preventing Alex from reaching his goal of fishing out information.

There was banging from behind and Dale stared at Andrew peeking his large head from inside the closet. He didn't understand how such a small kid can be really scary.

“Come on guys, what's really going on?! I know Andrew's in there with you!”

“Nobody's home,” said the panicking teen, holding the door closed.

“I not too sure, I think there is seriously wrong with Andrew.”

Apparently all three of them knew that was true, but the two inside the room knew the real story. With a surprised look on his face, Dale was showing confusion in his voice when he shouted to Andrew. The banging and ruffling of the doorknob continued.

“Why did you tell me your bro knew about your problem!?”

“He hasn't seen me at all. He thinks I've been acting super strange around him,” replied Andrew, also panicking.

“What do we do now then?”

“I don't know. We could bail outta here.”

Alex was making some progress trying to force his way through the door while Dale kept resisting with his back pressed up against it.

“How we gonna do that?”

“Through the window.” Andrew was still keeping to the shadows of the closet.

“Alright then, open it!”

“I can't. You locked it. I don't have hands!”

The door stopped shaking. Everything went silent. They both thought Alex got tired using all his effort trying to move what was essentially a wall with Dale blocking the way. Instead, they heard a loud voice from right on the other side of the door.

“What!?”

The turquoise unicorn realized his mistake.

“What do you mean you don't hav-”

“Nothing!” Andrew shouted.

“Then why did you say-”

“It's none of your business!” he shouted one more time.

Andrew then signaled his friend sitting in front of the door to switch places one at a time. The window was directly across the room from the door, but the closet was on opposite corners. They continued to do sloppy hand/hoof gestures that confused them both. Then Dale placed his palm in the air to stop and shook his head. He then raised three fingers and started counting with them. Two fingers, one finger, then...

“Go!”

Andrew ran toward Dale. Halfway to the door, he tripped on lack of balance.

“WHOA...”

He stumbled forward with great speed and was about to run into his friend when Andrew's horn glowed gradually brighter, engulfing the room with a blinding mint green light.

*ZAP*

---

Present

So many thought were going through Princess Celestia's mind as she headed to her own room instead of the tower to take a short intervention. That encounter with one of the strangest feelings in a long time was uncalled for and was getting more anxious to find why these things are happening. She was now taking more caution with her surroundings, anticipating anything that might jump at her at any second.

She met some of the royal guards of the way and took more care of surprises from them as if being paranoid wasn't enough. Almost every thought made no sense in simply explaining the sudden roar or the burst of energy last night. Maybe Luna was up to something, maybe she was making it up, maybe she was just scared, maybe she knew something that Celestia didn't. The white alicorn tried answering those possibilities. Luna would never play a prank on her sister of this magnitude. She is not very good at lying, she is never afraid of the dark, and she would think twice before keeping something a secret from Celestia that would involve a case as mysterious as this. It might be nothing, or it might be a significant step to understanding the nature of mysterious magic.

Celestia was both excited and agitated that something interesting finally happens in Equestria and she is prepared to look into it more, unlike the previous instance over a century ago. Once she got to her door, the time it took to get there was enough to finish thinking. That convinced her to stop, turn around, and stride back all the way to the tower on the other side of the castle. She did not want to wait any longer.

- - -

“No magic!? You can't be serious?”

“I'm very serious. They don't need the convenience of magic, they have their hands and intelligence at their disposal, and they are more effective,” said Lyra.

“No wonder Spike has the best writing around, his claws make it easier and less of a hassle. I still can't believe that with such intelligence, magic is not needed.”

“They aren't that different from us though, I think most of the basics are there, but the culture is far from the same as ours.”

“It's unbelievable, but-”

“It's true!” Lyra interrupted.

“-but, I don't think you alone could make this up and no pony else would care to jump in on this theory of yours. I don't know what to think anymore. I respect your studies, but I'm not sure it should be taken as a practical science,” continued Twilight. “I just curious though, what is it about them that motivates you to research them?”

“Um... everything I guess.”

“I'm gonna need a more specific reason than just everything.”

Lyra rubbed her head with her hoof, stroking her light blue and white mane. The purple unicorn next to her had finally stumped her with logic. She had never been asked that question before, except from Bon-bon, but she didn't really want an answer. She thought of the most interesting things about humans, but she had already told Twilight about them in the previous conversation and she didn't really seem too sweet on each, except for the no magic part, that got Twilight thinking. She didn't know what else to say other than all of it at once by the word 'everything'.

“I don't know, just everything really. It's really hard to narrow it down to one thing,” Lyra said.

“Hm.” Twilight hummed. She was disappointed in her companion's indecision.

“Can you I ask you something Twilight?”

“Of course.”

“What do you like to study the most?”

“Well, I'm trying to learn all there is to know about magic and friendship, but mostly magic.”

“And what motivates you to do it.”

This time, Lyra flipped the question around on her friend, but felt deeply sorry in the process. Now she thought Twilight was at the end of the rope.

“The overall joy and experience with my friends, and the love and fascination of magic.”

“That's kinda how I feel about human civilization, you know fascination and stuff.”

“Was it that hard to say it yourself?”

“Yes.” Lyra laughed.

The two unicorns giggled. They soon realized that disliking each others hobbies and professions was getting them nowhere. The books and scrolls in front of them were the only things keeping the conversation going until there was nothing left to talk about.

“At least were getting along, wouldn't you agree? Wait, did you say civilization?” asked Twilight.

“Uh, yes. Well I mean, did you think if they weren't civil, they wouldn't be interesting?”

“I suppose your right, you never mentioned that part before.”

Then on the corner her eye, Twilight noticed a notepad inside the same book that contained the information they were looking for.

“Hey, what's this?” she said lifting the notepad.

“What's wa- … No don't-” Lyra hindered.

Twilight began looking through the notes before Lyra could swipe it from her. Judging by her sudden resistance, Twilight became more eager to help her friend out to the best of her abilities. It's wasn't like there wasn't anything more important than to wait an tell the Princess the details they've found.

The first page did not seem like anything out of the ordinary, more like your typical research material. As she flipped through the later pages, she found strange drawings and words Twilight had never seen or heard of before. There was some similar sketches of things around Equestria, but far more intricate, like something you might find in a science fiction novel. After scanning the pages for several seconds, there was no indication of citations, but references to common knowledge.

“Is- is this yours?”

Lyra had her head face down on the desk, belittled by Twilight's intrusion of privacy. She raised her head and nodded at the confused purple pony.

“I mean... wow! This is great stuff,” said Twilight.

Lyra turned away embarrassed because she knew she was going to react in some way that would lead to another unpleasant stroke of disbelief. Up till now, it has been only a matter of keeping the hard working mare from knowing too much about something she did not understand. It only took a keen eye and horrible hiding skills to let her confidential work fall into in the hooves of a solid skeptic.

“You're a really good artist by the way, I'll tell ya that.”

There was a sense of honesty in the tone of Twilight's voice that Lyra noticed.

“Um, thanks. I've been practicing my chords, tuning the lyre in many diff-”

“No no no, I mean you're drawings. They're very nice.”

Lyra looked back at Twilight, hoping this was the conversation she had been waiting for. When she first mentioned her interests, it didn't go as well as she planned. It was not the first time telling somepony about it. The first time had been definitely her least favorite, but that didn't convince her it was a foolish thing to do. She learned from previous reactions to try and make it seem less of an obsession, and more of a hobby. A socially awkward hobby.

“Oh! Um... well... they aren't that good. I mean, they are just rough sketches.”

“Wow these are cool! … I mean, for what it's worth. How did you get this good?”

“I've been practicing,” she said smiling.

Twilight was absorbed by Lyra's notebook, making all kinds of facial expressions while reading page after page of words. It was as if she got a really good book for her birthday and couldn't wait to read it. Lyra there sat next to her wondering what was going through that egghead's brain throughout this whole process. It appeared as if she was too far gone, confined into the amount of material on each sheet that it would be unwise to break that concentration.

“Um... uh... Twilight?”

“Hmm?” said as she continued to sift through the pages.

“Do you- … um, you don't think I'm weird, do you?”

“Weird? Why would I think that?”

“I don't know. I guess I- … I guess I thought you were the kind of mare that doesn't take something like this seriously.”

Twilight stopped what she was doing. She put the pad down and faced her companion. Then sighed as if prepared to deliver bad news. She began to speak in a calm tone,

“Look, I'm truly sorry for acting the way I did. I just have a habit of giving out my opinion based on level of possibility when I don't realize it may hurt another pony's feelings. Your subject still seems, for the most part, quite bizarre, but it's different now.”

“Why is that?”

“You have this,” Twilight said as she lifted the notepad with her magic, moved it in front of Lyra, and placed it back on the table. Lyra looked at it.

“But it's just some stuff.”

“But that stuff is enough evidence for me. The reason I didn't believe you is because you didn't show me anything to support your claims. Even the slightest of evidence would have been good.”

At the realization of such words of rationality, Lyra hated herself, but in return felt so much better. It also surprised her on how far the both of them had gotten for the investigation, and possibly into a more stable friendship than previous expected. Lyra was embarrassed to let Twilight read her entire notepad, but was glad she did because no pony has ever looked through it but herself. There comes a time when occupational secrets are left in the open for a friend to unknowingly find. This, however, by the way the informational savvy pony reacted, was an exception.

“Oh.”

Lyra did not feel that getting all emotional would improve anything but make a mess out of her golden eyes. She went silent for a few moments, looking down at her hooves, before Twilight spoke up one last time.

“Hey Lyra?”

“Yes?”

“Where is Egypt?”

Comments

[SouthernmostDogs]

YAY A NEW CHAPTER!

[theepicartists]

GREAT CHAPTER BRO! it was awesome!!!! can't wait for the next