Violet Spark and Aurora Sky are alicorns. Worshiped by an entire religion alongside their mother. Beings of vast power. They are also teenagers trying to figure out what they're going to do. These are glimpses into their lives.
It is 2030 AD, according to the old calendar anyway. The twins Aurora Sky and Violet Spark are worshiped, they have incredible powers, and live at the crossroads between worlds. They're also teen aged girls whose biggest problems concern boys and getting out of being grounded. These are some of the things that happen in their lives and their family's.
Possible future for CToH, which can be found here. Thanks go to Law Abiding Pony and ABitterPill for prereading, consulting and editing. And now Gambit Prawn has joined my editing cabal!
Two Alicorns stood side by side toward the center of the room. Their mother’s lab was the perfect place for their experiment. Power channels, focus crystals, experimental Magitech apparatuses, and fire extinguishers, all vital to complete their magical venture.
Aurora Sky turned to her sister. “We’re not even supposed to be in this room, let alone tearing reality a new one.”
Violet Spark scoffed confidently. “If mom didn't want us in here she shouldn’t have made it so easy to get in.”
“It took you thirteen tries.”
“Shut up and start already. Ancient peoples from long dead eras aren’t going to just bring themselves here.”
“Fine, whatever, but if we create a paradox I’m telling mom it was all you.”
“The book said this spell doesn’t create paradoxes, it’s all self-inclusive and junk. Now less yappin’ more zappin’!”
Both sisters charged their horns, one less eagerly then the other. Arcane forces blitzed through their mother’s equipment, and just as predicted, tore reality a new orifice.
Dumping a long-haired young man dressed in flowing white robes on the floor.
He wasn’t moving.
Aurora was less than pleased, “Great! He’s dead. Nice, this is totally how I wanted to spend my night.”
“Shut up! Look he’s not dead, he’s breathing, so just calm down. Oh! This is so great! Judging by the toga he must be from ancient greece!”
The floor bound fellow vomited.
Aurora took a sniff, “Smells like someone who had too much at uncle Qubert’s.”
“..Obviously the ride was a little bumpy, we’ll have to fix that when we do this again. This is great though! We must inspire him to create stories of pegasi! And unicorns too… are unicorns in greek mythology?
“Ohhh. my head…”
“...He’s speaking english Violet.”
“No, that is obviously ancient Greek and we’re just translating it somehow”
“Then why do his sandals have ‘Birkenstock’ printed on them? Also I’m pretty sure this is a bedsheet.”
It was around this time that the semi-incapacitated man on the ground began hearing the pair of sixteen year old girls talk about him. Looking up he decided that their age was not the most interesting thing about them.
“I think someone slipped me some acid… Why does that keep happening?”
“Umm no, We are the Alicorn sisters of Terra!” Violet took the lead, “We have used our vast magical powers to pull you from your time to the far off year of 2030!…AD!”
“Far off? But it’s 2010, isn’t it? I mean we just had the party for the New Year, and everybody was wearing those stupid glasses where it says the year and you look through the zeros…”
Violet deflated, a look of profound disappointment dominating her face. “Twenty years? That’s all? All that work and we couldn’t even get someone from the last century?”
“I told you to just read the history book for your historical figure essay, but nooo! You just had to go all Bill and Ted.”
“Umm, excuse me, miss uh talking horse who are you? Did I break in here during the drug fueled trip I’m obviously coming down from?”
Aurora took the reins of the conversation ignoring the horse remark. “No you didn’t break in, we brought you here. I’m Aurora Sky, and the sulking one is my sister Violet Spark.”
“I’m not sulking! I’m contemplating.”
The Toga wearing time traveler stumbled to his feet, “Heh, groovy names. Hey got any water? My head’s killing me.”
A bottle of water floated out of a fridge in the corner to the stunned human. Carefully he grabbed the water out of the air, cracked it open, and proceeded to suck down it’s contents.
“Oh thanks, that’s going to help a lot.” He looked up to his hosts, a small smile planted on his face, “Are those your real names?”
Violet overcame her disappointment, coming to the defence of her prized name. “What’s wrong with our names, huh?!”
Sensing her totally obvious hostility concerning the subject, he tried to placate her. “Nothing, not a thing! It just caught me by surprise is all. Suits you, like, really well… Actually they fit you both pretty perfect, what with the colors and all. Oh! Uh sorry, I guess I’m being a bit rude, not introducing myself. I’m James Tune, pleased to meet you.”
James was pretty sure he heard glass breaking as the sisters eyes bugged out. They looked at each other.
“She knows.” “She knows.” “She knows.” Three voices spoke at once.
The sister’s eyes bugged even more, to the point James thought they would pop. They looked over their shoulders at the only door to the room, where a very large silver and azure Alicorn watched the goings on. She had that look that parents get, you know, when they’re calm, but wrath filled, ready to dish out apocalyptic parenting. That one.
“So… uh what’s the future like?” James tried to break the ice.
“Busy,” The irate alicorn stated, “and punishing.” She added with extra emphasis to the two teens, “More than that you don’t need to know.” Her horn began to glow. “You’re dreaming James, when you wake up this’ll just be that wisp of fantasy that you couldn’t hold onto, you will forget. Also get a haircut, the long hair look doesn’t suit you yet.” Her horn flashed, and James slid back into unconsciousness again. Also through time if the huge flare of magic, and unparadoxed present meant anything.
The two sisters held a silent conference. Three seconds of eye twitches and subtle head gestures and they settled on a course of action.
“Mom you did drugs?! What? I just don’t even.. I mean wha-”
“Nice try, but no. You’re both grounded. Messing with Space-Time, that’s two weeks for both of you. That means curfew, no desserts, no teleporting or flying outside your studies, and No car privileges.”
“But moOom!.”
“How will we get around town!?”
“You’ve got legs, use’em.”
“Even to get to school?!”
“Hey! In my day I had to walk to school both ways, all year, with only two legs! No more complaining, it’s dinner time, then homework. And no more summonings! Just use your imaginations for your essays.”
“Ugh, not that old joke again. You’ve been cracking that one since fourth grade.”
Aurora Sky walked down the sidewalk beside her best friend Frieda Duncan, a human girl whose parents worked at Trinity General Hospital.. Not as doctors, but still, they worked there. Frieda brushed some of her black hair out of her face and blew Aurora a raspberry. “So touchy now that you can’t teleport, and it must be driving you crazy not to fly huh?”
“Teleporting is a hassle, and flying? Please, I’ve seen this little town a million times from the air, I’m not missing much. I can scratch the itch to spread my wings when I practice maneuvers with dad. It’s the car I’m missing.”
“You can warp space and fly under your own power and you complain about the car?”
“You wouldn’t get it, but driving is so easy. You get to sit and look cool in your car, taking it easy while all your stuff is in the back seat ‘cause you don’t have to carry it!”
“Oh wah. Look at me, I’m so sad because I have to carry things with my reality twisting powers. Boo hoo hoo! For a magical princess you complain way too much.”
“I’m not a princess, not really anyway.” She countered dismissively.
Frieda gave her an unconvinced look. “Uhuh, Your mom’s a princess, most cases I know that title’s hereditary, but then you’re also an alicorn. Are there any alicorns that aren’t princesses? Didn’t think so. How’s that worshipper thing going by the way?” The grimace on her friends face said it all. “Face it, you’re a princess by birth, nature and ponies’ will. Should probably get used to it Miss Magic.”
Aurora was going to put on her ‘annoyed’ face, but she thought of a way to change the subject. Quickly an ‘interested’ look grew across her face as she embraced the tangent. “You know… There is this spell I’ve been looking at that could give you a carbuncle...”
“And explain to my parents why I’m suddenly short and furry? No thanks, that’s right up there with getting pregnant and tattoos, trouble wise. Remember the tail?”
“Come on! You wouldn’t become a pony, uh well not completely anyway. Besides you said you liked the tail.”
“It was sweet.. but no.”
The two friends continued discussing the pros and cons concerning tails as they came to a small park. A group of guys were playing basketball, and some people were playing various games at the tables dotting the park. One table in particular had Aurora’s attention.
“There he is! Okay, it’s time, let’s do this.” Aurora turned to Frieda, “Did you bring the stuff?”
“I told you, Sky, this is a bad idea.”
“Did you bring them or not?”
“Yes I did, but come on! This isn’t like you, Sky, this is more Violet’s thing.”
“Hey I’m allowed to do stupid things too.. which this totally isn’t.” Frieda raised an eyebrow, “It isn’t! Shut up.” Frieda smirked, “I don’t sound like her. Don’t you dare laugh! Just.. come on.”
With that stunning rebuttal, Aurora led her friend into the ladies bathroom. Checking all the stalls making sure that they were alone, Aurora sealed the door with her magic. Their privacy secured, Frieda brought out her backpack and dumped the goods on the countertop. The two friends sorted out the pile: make up, scissors, and clothes arranged in an easy order. Aurora could have gotten them herself but it might have raised some questions around the house. Especially the bra.
“This seems like a lot to just impress a boy, is all I’m saying.” Frieda once more tried to warn her friend, “My mom says all the time ‘If you have to change who you are to get someones attention then they’re just not worth it’. Which always seemed kinda shallow to me, but I don’t think she was talking about this kind of change.”
“If I don’t do this I’m not going to be able to get Greg’s attention.”
“You’re a freaking Alicorn, trust me he notices.”
“But not the way I want! He’s human so he doesn’t think of me like that, just as a curiosity. Look, I’m doing this.” With that final proclamation Aurora Sky lit up her horn.
The bathroom lit up in Aurora’s magic, blinding Frieda. The young Alicorn had intended to cast the spell focused on just herself, but if the itch in Frieda’s ears and tail were any indication, she had failed.
“What did I just say about tails!?” The irate teen rubbed her, thankfully, still present fingers in her eyes to clear the spots away.
“Sorry, I thought I had it more contained, but never mind that, how do I look? Woah!.. Oww.”
Frieda finally pulled her hands from her eyes to see Aurora flat on her back. The young Alicorn’s alabaster fur was gone, but her skin had kept the color. She still had her horn and wings, which were spread out behind her. Brand new fingers graced her freshly formed hands, but her legs still ended in hooves, in fact the legs themselves had only changed a little. Frieda looked down at her own feet, only to find her shoes shredded around her new hooves.
I just bought these, dad is going to have a fit. Wait how am I still standing if my legs bend that way? No, don’t think about it, just go with it. Ohh but it feels like I’m standing on my toes.
The teen turned her attention back to her floor bound friend. “You kinda look a little naked. Come on, let’s get you decent.” She reached down to help Aurora, who responded in kind, only to find a new complication. “Sky, you have to close the fingers.”
“Um, how do I do that exactly?”
Frieda stared at her for a moment in exasperation. Then she got an idea, and pinched Aurora’s fingers, who reflexively closed her hand.
“Ahh! What the heck!”
“See? Those muscles, use those.”
It took eighteen minutes and four failed attempts before Aurora could stand on her own. It would have taken less time, but the youthful, strong, and independent princess suddenly became determined to stand on her own after her compatriot tried to pinch her some more. Frieda spent this time making a hole in her underwear and pants for her tail, then inspected the horn she had missed in her initial look over.
“I think my eyes are bigger, nose too.”
“That’s great, now, please help me with the clothes?”
Frieda faced her friend and bowed deeply. “Yes your majesty, right away your majesty, would you like some tea with that majesty?”
Taking on a bad British accent Aurora replied. “No, I think the clothes will do for now Jeeves, however I would like some of those delightful cucumber sandwiches of yours.” The skirt impacting her face stopped her from continuing.
Despite Aurora’s inexperience with human clothing, and getting dressed therein, she managed to get them on without incident.
Almost.
“Frieda, do you have anything bigger? The bra you brought is too tight.”
“Seriously?! You don’t even have breasts normally! How is it you’re bigger than me?!”
“Hey I’ve just got what genetics and magic blessed me with.”
“Cheater.” Frieda grumbled.
After a few minutes for Aurora to get walking down (she didn’t want to trip after all), they were finally ready.
So it was incredibly disappointing to find the table Greg and his friends had been occupying empty. Fortunately the basketball players were still there. Granted they were staring at the two of them in slack jawed disbelief, and the pegasus stallion playing was... locked up. Still, maybe they knew where they went.
An hour later Aurora and Frieda had finally tracked Greg and co. down to Starbucks. Just not the one on Fifth that they checked first, no the one across town on Pine. Oh and not Tommy’s house like the ball players thought, or the hobby shop, or at the Fuel & Food.
There he was, talking about a game or something; her prey was finally cornered, so she moved in for the strike. Greg saw her coming, she was soon the focus of all the boys’ attention, actually make that the whole building. Despite Trinity being magic capital of Earth, anthropomorphic pony people just weren’t seen, well, ever really.
“Hi Greg, um, so I was wondering-”
And that is when Aurora’s spell ended. The sudden shift in form filled the store with a bright light, and left the pony proto-princess in suddenly ill fitted clothes. Right in front of her crush. She was pretty sure she could have just died right there.
“...Want to go on a date? Or, you know whatever…” She squeaked.
Greg just kinda blinked for a moment, made sure that, yes this was evidently a thing that was happening, and made his reply. “...Sure, when?”
Aurora had no one word to describe exactly what she felt, there were simply too many things galloping through her head. Ecstasy was probably the closest, though panic and frustration were pretty close. Sadly Aurora realized she didn't have a plan for this, honestly she kinda focused on the spell and forgot to actually think about the date part. Well that and HE SAID YES!!!
Frieda strode up beside her frozen friend “Great, now I gotta walk home barefoot, with a hole in my pants. Hint hint. Sky? Hello? Great, she’s broken. This has just been a super afternoon.”
Aurora was coming back a bit, but it was slow going. He said yes! She was so beyond happy right now. “Uhhh, how about Friday?”
“Sounds cool.” Greg replied.
“Umm, Sky aren’t you grounded? How are you going to-”
“What?” Aurora checked a clock on the wall, and immediately began to panic. “Oh I am soo late! Gotta go! We’ll talk later ok? Figure this all out.” She yelled over her shoulder as she galloped out the front door.
Frieda headed toward the door too, picking up all of Aurora’s discarded clothes along the way. “Yep, just the best afternoon ever.”
Violet Spark watched her aunt Beth work, moving about her office/lab, continuously ignoring her best pouting face.
“She just doesn’t understand! Why doesn’t remember what it’s like to be a teenager?!”
Beth looked up from some papers to give her furry niece a deadpan glance. “Really? That’s going to be your argument? Cause I can see a couple problems with it right off the bat. Alex having never been a teenaged alicorn, or a mare for that matter, is just the start.”
“She was still a teenager at some point right? She should understand how cutthroat school popularity is!”
“It’s different for guys, and she never was popular or unpopular or had a cause. She just went through school with Q. The fewer friends, the fewer battles. Besides, it’s not like you’re being punished for something you didn’t do. You ripped open time if I understand properly, doesn’t sound like the safest activity to me.”
“...You’re doing a horrible job of taking my side aunty.” Violet glowered.
“I sure am.” Beth smirked to the young pony, her smile turned a bit concerned when she noticed the time though, “Don’t you have a curfew? It’s getting pretty late.”
Violet had a smirk of her own, “Actually I found an out. I have no curfew if I have a job that needs me at night.”
That got Beth’s attention. “You got a job? You, Miss I-wanna-be-a-Princess?”
“What is so unbelievable about it?! You are, like, the twelfth person today to say that.”
“Soooo. Where is it? What do you do?”
Violet flicked her hair back, and proudly proclaimed her new career with a confident smile. “I am one of a few select, chosen to be Customer Service Liaison Officer at one of this fine city’s up and coming trendy night spots.”
Beth took a moment to translate in her head. “...You’re waitressing at a restaurant?”
“How do you always know what I’m talking about?!... It took me all day on figuring out how to make that sound good too.”
“So where? Where exactly is my dear, fuzzy little niece selling food? Ooh! Wait I know! the Burger King, right? No, nonono, close but wrong…Hmmm.” Beth brought her hand to her chin and regarded Violet. “Ahhh! It’s Dairy Queen isn’t it? Violet, are you… The Dairy Princess?” Beth broke into a giggling fit and had to support herself against a counter.
Violet gave her aunt a flat frown as she tried to salvage her composure. “I’m working at Cluckin Bell, actually. I was going to try to get some modeling work, but any job I get has to be from a list approved by Tune family parents. This was the best I could get, apparently I didn’t read the fine print on the job clause of my ‘Grounding Article’ in my contract.”
Once more Beth started giggling, her sister’s herd had come up with quite the novel way to keep their kids in line. The whole thing had started as Loki’s idea, she had argued that all the children of The Royal Herd would be public figures in one way or another. Whether they wanted it to or not, things would soon get tricky trying to keep the kids in line. Having four parents needing to be united in their stance on punishment was another major factor. And so The Contract was formed. In exchange for allowances and certain other privileges, the foals would sign documents entailing grounds for, and the execution of punishments. The Contract was tailored for each child and also contained many other facets, but the ‘Grounding Article’ was the part that was important at the moment. Twice a year The Contract would come up for renegotiation, Beth had stayed for the day once just to hang out while this occurred. The sheer amount of favors, bribery, attempted blackmail, and weaponized puppy eyes that were flung around that house in attempts to gain better deals would make hardened lawyers run for the hills.
That’s not to say that The Contract dictated everything. Love, kindness and forgiveness were the driving forces in the herd, it just helped to have something to fall back on, and possibly train the kids in negotiation.
Beth was pretty sure it had turned into some kind of game for them all. Finally she managed to get her giggles down. “So you picked the Cluckin Bell huh? Any particular reason?”
“Actually Mom hoof picked it practically. None of the other jobs seemed to be available when I went looking.”
Alexia the rising Chessmaster strikes again. Beth mused. “Well, here’s hoping for a nice night for you.”
Violet began perking up, “Yeah... I figure I just gotta stay positive right? Keep a good attitude and be pleasant, that’s all right? I can totally do this.”
She couldn’t do this.
Oh sure, the evening started out fine, but when do things ever stay that way? Violet had been careful about who she told about her job, the wrong people could make it a nightmare after all. Her first few customers had been fine, but word travels quickly, and when you have the chance to be served by The Violet Spark you apparently storm en masse.
Her whole plan was to do something easy to ride out her sentence, and make some extra money for when she wasn’t grounded. Maybe if it was a good job she’d keep at it, but honestly she’d rather keep her extracurricular activities instead.
This job she couldn’t leave fast enough. Of course her mother had thought of that too, she was signed on at the Cluckin Bell, at least until her grounding was over. Oh, and apparently the manager/owner, Mr.Cluckin, was in agreement with Alexia about not going easy on her.
“Violet! Break’s over.” Mr.Cluckin leaned into the backroom where Violet had been seeking refuge. “Table nine needs assistance please.”
Violet sighed, lamenting her expired break, she hadn’t been able to even take one until late because of how busy they had been. “I’m on my way Mr.Cluckin.” Gathering up some menus in her magic Violet made her way to table nine.
What kind of name is Cluckin anyway? Especially for a human. Wonder where he got it from, no way it’s his actual family name, he must have changed it, right?
Distracted as she was by her inner musings, Violet didn’t notice who was at table nine until she was there.
“Check it out girls. Seems the rumors are true, miss princess is waiting tables.”
Violet could swear she felt her blood freeze. Her eyes focused on the table’s four occupants: Vanessa Jennings and her friends. Exactly who she didn’t want to see. Well, actually as a group they rated number three on her list, but honestly they were the most likely to show in her top five.
Vanessa was the living image of the blonde white alpha bit-...teen. "Well are you going to take our orders or what?" She smirked, you could actually hear it in her voice.
Violet plastered a broad smile to her face and got to work passing the menus. "Hello and welcome to Cluckin Bell! I'm Violet Spark and I'll be your server tonight, we have a special on our Pizza Poppers all week long, would you like an order for the table?"
“Yes please!” Everybody looked with either looks of confusion or exasperation at Peach Pit, the ever happy Earth mare beamed at Violet. “We’d also like some Nigerian Nachos and an order of Shanghai shrimp.” She didn’t even need to look at the menu.
“Uhh, anything to drink?”
Vanessa clearly had a snappy remark at the ready, it was just a shame that her friends were thirsty and a bit quicker than her.
“Water for me.” The exceptionally tall redhead Brianna Harrison replied instantly.
Sitting beside Vanessa was Jet Stream, a pegasus mare, staring at her menu intensely. She could be heard muttering, trying to decide on a drink. “But what about? No.. No maybe.. But!..Yes! Yes!I will take a Coke!” Everyone’s blank stare told her all she needed to know. “I did it again huh? Well they give you the menu and immediately ask for your order! I don’t get why the rest of you don’t feel the pressure.”
“Maybe because it’s just drinks Jet.” Vanessa said blandly. With all her friends orders out of the way she finally had an opening. “So what kind of princess has to work at Cluckin Bell? Aren’t you still living with your mommy’s herd, or are things just not as good as they seem in the royal manor?”
“I’m just trying something new is all, you might want to try it. As for things at home, well I’ll admit we don’t have quite as much as you probably do, what with all those fat alimony checks your dad pulls in. Anyway, what can I get for you ma’am?” Violet strained to keep a small smile.
“... I’ll have an iced triple mocha cappuccino with whipped cream and caramel.”
Violet took a moment to write down the order. What doesn’t Mr.Cluckin serve here? “Now, pardon me, but are you sure I can’t interest you in something more slimming? You look like someone who’d appreciate something more diet.”
“I’ll be fine thanks.”
Violet started on her way back to get their order, but couldn’t help but overhear bits of a conversation.
“- sucking up to her cause you worship her, or her mom?” Vanessa hissed.
“But I’m a Buddhist.” Was Peach Pit’s reply.
“You’re such a liar! You go to the Triad church every Sunday!”
“Yeah, cause my parents are Trinitists, I’m Buddhist.”
“Uh huh, and last week you were Methodist.” Brianna dropped in.
Safely in the back Violet groaned, finally let her face relax.
“Know those girls?”
Mr.Cluckin had been standing beside the door silently, so it was a little startling when he spoke up. Fortunately Violet was too tired to jump in surprise and only managed a short squawk. “Don’t do that!” she swatted him with her wing. “Uhh yeah I do, was kinda hoping not to run into them.” She admitted then moved on to fill the order.
Mr.Cluckin stood there contemplating the worn out teen, it really hadn’t been the best first day for her. Finally he seemed to come to a decision. “Violet… I promised your mom I wouldn’t go easy on you, but how about I take over that table for you? The Gleesons are at table three, why don’t you help them out, they’re always easy to please.”
It was a tempting offer, she seriously considered it for a moment. “Thank you Mr.Cluckin, but no. I’ll finish table nine, can’t run away, not this close to my shift’s end. Really though, thank you for offering.”
Mr.Cluckin gave her a smile and left. Violet almost regretted her decision. Drinks ready and the appetizer orders placed Violet headed back out. If there’s a bright side, it’s that I’ve only got the one table. Looking around, it was almost jarring how empty the restaurant had become in such a short time, the dinner rush having all left.
“Here are your drinks: water, iced peach tea, a coke, and an iced triple mocha cappuccino with whipped cream. The appetizers will just be a moment.” Violet turned to walk away.
“Oh My Gawd!” She knew it was too easy. Vanessa looked at Violet with disdain, her drink shoved away from her back toward the purple pony waitress. “Are you, like, the princess of getting my order wrong? I said I wanted caramel, who drinks iced triple mocha cappuccinos without smooth caramel to balance it out?”
Violet held on desperately to her bland smile. “Maybe someone who likes chocolate coffee and doesn’t need a bigger belly. But nevermind me and my theories, please allow me to fix that for you.”
“Well excuuuuuse me princess for wanting to actually get what I ordered!”
Ugh, got to watch the comebacks, that one was too much and not all that clever either. Come on Vi, almost there. Just hold on a little longer.
The next forty minutes were a herculean feat of control for the teenage alicorn. Her only reaction was the occasional potshot counters to Vanessa’s snotty quips. Forty minutes, as they slowly picked at Peach Pit’s appetizers (Her treat!), it felt like hours. Finally though they were gone, and fifteen minutes of clean up later, Violet was on her way too.
Only to meet the quartet in the parking lot. Vanessa was at the head of the group. Her face held a superior smirk… for all of five seconds and then it dissolved into worried concern.
“Violet… So how did I do!? Was it too much? It felt like it was too much. I told you I would be terrible at this!”
“Vanessa! Relax, you did fine, I was mostly trying not to laugh the whole time. I wasn’t expecting you guys at work is all. Kinda went a little ‘Valley girl’ there huh? ‘Like, Oh My Gawd!’” Violet said with her first genuine smile of the night, her friends all chuckled at her impression . Despite what an outside observer would have seen in the restaurant, Vanessa Jennings was in fact one of Violet’s closest friends. “I hope I didn’t go too far with the crack about the, uhh, alimony thing.”
“Nah, it’s fine, she’s a... jerk.” She finished lamely. “After all she did… You won’t be hearing me defend her… Thanks though.” She gave a weak smile, the pain from betrayal was still painful, no matter what she said.
“Jerk?! That’s the best you got? After all she put you and your dad through, just calling her a jerk practically is defending her!” Jet burst into the conversation. “She was a total bitch! Com’on say it with me now.”
The whole charade of catty remarks was actually a game the girls came up with. Violet wanted to get used to people slinging insults at her in case she ever did manage to get into a position of authority. The ability to absorb, deflect, or counter such barbs was one she wanted to have at the ready. Vanessa meanwhile had dreams of becoming an actress, but she had issues with standing up for herself as well. To put on such a nasty malicious personality, so opposite of her actual self, was fantastic practice.
“So how come you didn’t tell us that you had a job?” Brianna bluntly entered the conversation.
“It… It was embarrassing alright? I kept bragging about how I’d outsmart my mom and get such a great job. Then it turned out that I’d walked right into her own little trap, and ended up working at Cluckin Bell. I figured that maybe I’d at least get some better practice at the job before you guys showed up, then I could show off how great I was at it. Instead you show up on my first day working solo. I’m pretty sure I’d get in trouble with most of my comebacks that I shot at you.”
Peach Pit hopped up to Violet, throwing a hoof over her shoulder. “That’s just silly Vi! This way we get to see how good you’re going to get at the job and spend some time together. Hey, do you think Mr.Cluckin has anymore openings? Then we could all work together! Though you might want to watch what you say to customers, some of those things you said could hurt someone’s feelings and then you’d get in trouble and have to clean up everything on your own or even get fired! And then your parents would be all disappointed and then they’d increase your punishment and then we’d never see you for years and then-.”
“I get it Peachy! I’ll watch what I say in the future alright?”
Everyone grouped together as they started to walk back toward the streets their houses were on. They didn’t get very far before a car pulled up beside them, the driver window rolling down to reveal Violet’s mom, Alexia. “Hey girls. Would you like a ride home?”
The friends debated the ride for a moment, some wanting to walk together to spend more time with one another, until someone mentioned that they could avoid getting in trouble for being so late if Princess Alexia gave them a ride home. That just looks good for your argument if a responsible adult was there, and what could convey more responsibility than the Alicorn of Life?
It was pretty quick, much more so than Violet would have liked. All too soon Vanessa was walking into her own home, and Violet was on her way to the Royal Manor.
Alone.
With her mother.
The silence didn’t last very long. “Soooo, how was work?” Alexia nudged her purple pubescent progeny.
“Eh, okay.”
“Oh don’t give me that, you couldn’t stop talking when your friends were here. Come on, spill. Tell me all about it.”
Alexia soon found herself glad that the ride was a short one.
“-and then I replaced the syrup in the soda machine, which decided to spray me down with soda water somehow. And that’s how my second hour went, now the third...”
“I got it. It was a rough day, still you seem to have handled it just fine. Particularly that one guy that wanted Pepsi for whatever reason.”
“Yeah! Right?! Who wants Pepsi when there”s Coke? It just tastes… That was in hour four, I only told you the first two… You were spying on me!?”
“Spying is such an... inelegant word.”
“But accurate.”
“I wanted to make sure you were doing alright! You’re the first of all our kids to get a job, and I was worried.”
“Dusty has a job, you don’t tail him do you?”
“Dusty’s self employed so it doesn’t count, besides I didn’t have to, Crimson and Loki took turns shadowing him for a week when he started his little ‘company’.” They sat there in the driveway for a moment in silence, “So, what are you going to do? You going to stick with it?”
“I thought I was committed?”
“Please. I can’t force you to keep doing any job, and I certainly can’t force you to do it well. So…”
Violet thought a moment. It had easily been one of the toughest days she could think of. Her whole body was sore and aching, as if she just went through sparring practice with her parents three times in a row. She felt frazzled, sticky and just plain tired. Also the tips were terribly lacking. Still…
“Yeah, I think I’ll keep at it, at least until I serve my time.”
Alexia smiled, proud of her daughter’s conviction. It had been a rough day, monstrously so, and she honestly wouldn’t have blamed her if she wanted to rethink her plan. Then again, Violet was a tough and stubborn mare.
“Come on let’s go get some ice cream and relax a bit, I can tell you about my first day of work.”
Violet smiled at that, though she couldn’t resist teasing her mom just a little. “Oh great. Another ‘In my day’ story.”
She smiled even as Alex swatted her face with her wing. Oh it feels good to be home.
The entirety of the board of Dusty Tinker’s company were present for this meeting to discuss how to acquire assets that had been lawfully purchased by the company, but were still being held by members of the other party. So far negotiations with the intransigent employee had been unsuccessful and the board were considering their options regarding seizing the property themselves.
Dusty squared off against their obstinate opponent. He squared his shoulders and locked eyes with him. “Look, we paid for it, so we’re going to take it. Your boss accepted our terms, and so should you.”
A silent focused stare was the only response Dusty got out of his adversary.
“Alright, I’m coming in.” Dusty said moving to the gate. The sudden movement and loud racket from their opponent made Dusty reconsider. “Gah! How does Old Roger do this so easy?!”
Translation: Dusty and his two friends, Joey Kwon and Ball Lightning, were trying to figure out how to get a broken riding mower out of Mr.Roger’s fenced off lot while the angry guard dog; Bozo, kept them out.
“...A small shock is all I’m saying.” Ball said, again. The blue coated, magenta-maned pegasus seemed to be stuck on the idea of expressing his cutie mark of a plasma ball.
“We are not electrocuting Bozo! I want Mr. Roger and Bozo to like us so that we can keep buying parts from him. Blasting his dog with lightning is not going to help with that.” Dusty explained.
“I could get sleeping pills from my house and some hamburger.” Joey offered.
Dusty turned to face the short haired, Korean-descended teen. “We are also not drugging him! Jeez guys! Come on, there has got to be a way for us to get that mower, without abusing the dog.”
The boys sat on the bed of their trailer, watching Bozo pace in front of the fence to the unofficial junkyard of Trinity. The trailer was a small flatbed they had welded and nailed together. Dusty mused to himself that they should sand the boards down a little if they were going to sit on it in the future.
The motor cart it was attached to was homemade as well. The skeleton was a dune buggy frame with the floorboards made from random wood they’d found. Bits and pieces of the vehicle were held together by welding spots, bungee cords and nails. The engine itself was a chimera of designs the three boys had cobbled together. Somehow the thing passed inspection and was street legal, even managing to be energy efficient. Painted on the side board was their advertisement: Tinker’s Repair Restoration and Salvage.
Ball ruffled his wings. “I could fly over and distract him.” Dusty glanced at his pegasus friend. He probably could distract Bozo, but Ball wasn’t the most athletic of ponies.
“I don’t think you’d be able to keep him distracted well enough or long enough.” Dusty said, shooting him down.
“Could you fly it over the fence?” Joey asked Ball.
“What? That’s like, what, nearly four hundred pounds? Flying nearly three hundred feet and over an eight foot fence with an uneven load? No, I don’t think so.” Ball declined.
“If Hrufhthy Loki was here she’d know exactly how to do this.” Dusty looked left and right. “Nuts, I was sure that would get her to show up.”
Joey stared at Dusty. “What the heck’s a harufmthy?”
The two ponies both looked at their lanky human friend, they shared a confused look. Suddenly understanding came over them. Dusty took the lead explaining himself. “Sorry Joey, I forgot you’re pretty new to ponies. Hrufhthy is Equish. Since we got so many moms we got words for each kind. There isn’t really an accurate English translation, but umm, Ball want to help me out?”
“He’s basically trying to say ‘silly fun aunt mom’ but literally it means ‘non alpha non birth mother’.”
“Something like that. English is too clunky when it comes to ‘mom’ titles ‘cause it gets confusing and it doesn’t mean the same to everyone.”
Joey continued to give Dusty a blank expression.
“Look I’ll just get you a book out of our library with a tuning crystal, it could teach you the whole language in, like a week. Meanwhile we still don’t have a plan for getting the mower.” Dusty said.
“We could armor plate the cart.” Joey suggested.
“We don’t have the material, and that doesn’t solve the long term problem. Besides, how would we get it on the trailer then?” Dusty took a breath and decided to think out loud a bit. “We can’t get the mower to us, and Bozo is preventing us from getting to the mower. We can’t incapacitate him. We can’t get him out of the lot, then he’d just come after us. Mr.Roger is away so he can’t help us… We may be able to bribe him into liking us. You guys got any money?”
Joey smirked, but still checked his pockets. “I don’t think he takes cash Dusty.”
“I’ve got three ten.” Ball pulled said money out of his saddle bags.
“Seven fifty here.” Joey patted his pocket.
“Alright, that should be enough. Joey give yours to Ball; then he can go down to the gas station and get stuff that the dog might like.”
“You want me to go to the ‘Fuel & Food’ or the ‘Gas, Gulp n Go’?”
“Whichever you think has the right stuff.” Dusty said shoving some of his own money in the pegasus’ bags.
Waving back at them, Ball took off in the direction of the Fuel & Food. Bozo gave a couple warning barks at the passing pegasus before focusing his attention back on the remaining two boys.
Dusty laid down on his back, gazing up at the sky. No pegasus traffic, and just a few clouds wandering across the azure canvas. With the bulk of the city being far away, the world around them felt quiet. He just basked in it for a moment, shrugging off the desire to nap.
Joey meanwhile felt his good mood evaporating. The same thought that had been haunting him since he started hanging out with Dusty refused to let him rest easy. Their friendship was still pretty fresh and he was afraid he might mess it up beyond saving. It didn’t hurt that he knew Dusty was a forgiving kind of guy though. I guess the big question is how forgiving. Joey screwed up his courage and decided to get it over with.
“Dust, I… I’ve got something I got to tell you. Umm, man this is harder than I thought… Gah! Screw it! Dusty, my dad works for Aether Electronics, and he’s using me to spy on your family ‘cause your, uh, cause Princess Alexia consults with B&M Enchantments. I… I’m sorry.”
Dusty looked over at the Chief Tech Officer of his ‘company’. He shifted his forelegs and moved them behind his head. “...Yeah I already knew that.”
“...W-what?!” Joey blurted out, confused again.
“I knew that already,” Dusty repeated, “well I didn’t know about you ‘spying’, but I knew about your dad’s job. I thought you were a pretty neat guy though so I wanted to get to know you. Remember? I was the one that made the first move, not you. Thanks for saying something though. Kinda clears the awkwardness out of hanging with you. And, hey, if nothing else, now I know you’re the kind who comes clean.” Dusty said smiling. “Also no, I’m not trying to use you to pump out AE’s secrets. Overall they’re a bit behind, though they do have some interesting ideas and come at it from a different direction…”
The boys both fell into a bit of silence for a moment. The world filled the quiet—bird song, the gentle breeze through the tall grass, Bozo licking himself. It really was quite relaxing.
Dusty decided to speak up before things got awkward. “I’d like to keep hanging out, you are my friend, Joe. Can what our parents do, ya’know just be what they do? And we do our own thing?”
“...Sounds good to me.” Joey felt himself return a smile much more easily now, like a huge load was taken off his shoulders. Actually, in retrospect it really didn’t seem like that big a deal. What would he have been able to find out anyway? After some silence between the two, an idea came to the teen. “Hey, you know we’re Cultural Preservationists right?”
“Heh, who isn’t?”
“Well, we’re having a full Korean feast thing friday, want to come for dinner?”
The Mion War had left a massive mark on humanity, not the least being the sudden-near or even total loss of many cultures. Some people high up in the world seemed to decide that these bits of humanity’s identity needed to be saved, and so the Cultural Preservation Movement began. In exchange for various incentives provided by the remaining governments, people studied and lived in the style of various civilizations from around the world. Incentives ranged from special licenses, observed holidays and scholarships to straight-up money. Joey’s family were taking full advantage of their heritage from his grandparents.
Dusty seemed to consider it for a moment. “Eh, why not? As long as it’s okay that I only eat vegetarian.”
“You seriously think I’d invite an Earth Pony without that in mind? Just be prepared for the Kimchi, we’ve made a pretty strong batch this time.”
The furry entrepreneur prepared a snappy response only to notice Ball coming back over the roofs of the nearby buildings. Dusty rolled off his back to greet their feathered friend. “So what did you get us?”
“Well I wasn’t to sure what to get, the only thing I could really think of was jerky, but I figured we might need more options than that, so I got beef sticks, a Hot Meal of ‘ribs’, and chocolate.” Ball listed off, dumping his haul on the trailer.
“Chocolate is poisonous to dogs.”
“But he might like it!”
“NO!”
“Hey what’s this?” Joey picked up something Ball didn’t mention.
“I got myself some gum, okay? I wanted something to chew on. Sorry I didn’t think about how it wasn’t just my money. Uh, that alright?”
“Depends, can I have some?”
Dusty picked up the beef stick and ‘ribs’ and brought them to the fence. He tried one and then the other, but the dog wasn’t going for either. That was the only plan we had, now what?
Something flew through the air, over his shoulder and right at the dog, who caught it in his mouth and began to chew furiously on his catch. Dusty whirled around to his two friends.
“What did you do? I said no chocolate!”
Neither of them paid him any attention. “Huh, look at that, he likes bubblegum.” Joey said.
Dusty blinked and whirled again. There Bozo sat chewing, and chewing. The trio just watched the dog go at his pink treat for a few minutes until, finally, he just spat it out. Looking up at the boys, he began to wag his tail, his regular growling face replaced with an easy dog smile.
Ten minutes later, the coveted mower was loaded up and the boys were on their way back to the Royal Mansion garage. With Ball behind the wheel, Joey and Dusty were left in the back seat and passenger seat respectively.
Ever since they gave Bozo the gum, Dusty had been pretty quiet. Finally Joey had enough of his friends pouting. “Dude what’s wrong? Or are you still hung up on Bozo? So he likes gum instead of fake meat, so what?”
Dusty looked over to his friend, and took a moment to try to collect his thoughts. “I don’t know. It’s just that… You ever feel like the world’s just silly? Like some of this stuff that happens to us in our everyday lives would be so much rarer or nonexistent before magic?”
“Hey yeah!” Ball cut into the conversation, “I was out with my parents the other day and we got swept up in a song with, like twenty other ponies, and after they were saying how that would never ‘just happen’ before ponies came along. I just kept thinking how weird that’d be, to live in a world with no sudden musical numbers.”
“Maybe it feels weird cause the world’s kinda, like halfway?” Joey said. “Like magic is new and it’s changing the world bit by bit, but you can still see shadows of how it used to be here and there, or in the way people act because they expect things to happen a certain way that maybe died with the old world?”
“Huh, is it me, or did this just get deep?” Ball said. At that moment they pulled onto a street where all the light poles had banners hanging from them. “Oh yeah! I forgot all about this! It’s the Cultural Preservation Festival this weekend! Oh I can’t wait to go crazy on the food stands! Y’know, it’s times like these when I can’t decide whether it’s the flying or being an omnivore that’s the best part of being a pegasus.”
Dusty looked over the banners proudly declaring the festival, the date catching his eye in particular. “Aw nuts! Joey, I’m sorry but I won’t be able to come over this friday. I forgot, but our whole family is going to some event down south for the weekend. I can’t remember what all we’re doing, something about a World Heritage Cultural site being restored or something. I’m sorry man.”
“It’s ok, hey I’ll save you some kimche, alright?”
Now Ball was interested. “What are you guys talking about?”
Joey paused a moment, then remembered he hadn’t told Ball. “I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you. My family is having a whole Korean feast to kick off the festival on friday. Want to come over?”
“Umm, I don’t know, let me think about it a bit and YES!”
A few more minutes of chatting and driving later, the trio pulled up to the garage of Trinity’s Royal Manor. With the mower unloaded, they prepared to open it up and and bring it back to life.
Dusty gathered his friends together into a circle. “Alright, we fix this mower up, put a sign on it saying how our repair company fixed it up, and we ride it around town to advertise. This thing will practically sell itself when we finish! Alright let’s start with some before pictures and then—”
Knock-Knock was the only forewarning the group had before the door opened. Stepping partly into the garage was Precise Order. Dusty’s half sister by Alexia. The red unicorn adjusted her glasses and black mane smoothly before turning her attention to her brother.
Dusty beat her to the punch however. “What do you want Prissy?”
Precise’s eyes narrowed, and her muzzle threatened to break into a scowl. “My name is Precise thank you. I just came to remind you that tomorrow is Contract Day, so you should get your things together. If you make me deal with a mess like last time, you’ll regret it.”
“You know it’s only as complicated as it is because our parents are humoring you and your obsessive need to follow your namesake, right?”
“Just because I like things to be clearly defined and orderly doesn’t mean that you can just slack off on your responsibilities.” She said, using her magic to adjust an errant wrench on the workbench. She turned to leave but stopped. “By the way, hrufhthy Crimson wanted to see you.” With that she exited the garage, closing the door with a bit more force than necessary.
Dusty sighed. “Alright guys, get the pictures, and I’ll be back soon. Grab a soda or something from the fridge if you like.” He moved to go into the house through the same door Precise used only to find it was locked magicly. “Ugh, you know for someone who tries to seem so grown up Prissy sure can be foalish.”
“Well it doesn’t help you keep calling her something she hates.” Ball spoke up.
“Whatever, I’ll be right back.” With that, Dusty headed out the garage door.
Joey looked to Ball. “He’s not coming back is he?”
“With how mad Precise was? Nooope.”
Dusty trotted up to the front door, but he quickly found that it too wouldn’t open. He was about to head to the backdoor when he heard giggling on the other side of the insubordinate ingress. “Aw nuts.” He muttered to himself, “Hey come on open up.”
More giggling ensued. “Nobody’s home.” A small girl’s voice called out.
“Shhhh! Now he knows we’re here!”
“No he doesn’t ‘cause I said ‘Nobody’s here’. Oww! Typhoon I’m telling!”
Dusty shook his head unable to keep from smiling just a bit. “Typhoon, you shouldn’t hurt others. Foam, nopony likes a tattler. Bloom, please open the door.”
A small gasp came from behind the door. “How’d he know it was us!? Bloom didn’t say anything!” Foam said. “Oww! Typhoon stop it!”
“What do we get for letting you in?” Bloom chipped in breaking her silence.
“I won’t tell our parents you locked me out.”
Some whispering could be made out on the girl’s side. “What else?”
Dusty groaned, was this happening? Bribing three pint sized pegasi into opening the door so he wouldn’t have to walk around the house?
Yes, apparently it was.
“I’ll give you all a ride on the wagon while I pull.” He finally offered.
“The Dune Buggy!” Typhoon countered.
“It’s the wagon or nothing.”
More whispers. “Okay.” The lock clicked and door swung open, the three small foals surrounding him in no time. “Wagon ride, wagon ride, wagon ride!” They all chanted.
The three pegasi fillies were Alexia’s youngest. Bloom Gale was pink with a light orange mane; she was, so far, the smartest of them and generally the one who led them around. Foam Breeze was light blue with a yellow mane, a very sweet little filly. And then there was Typhoon; green with a black mane, she definitely was the surliest of the three. Dusty would often refer to them as such: smart, sweet and surly, like some offshoot of Snow White’s dwarves.. Watching them grow up was going to be interesting.
“Alright, I’ll give you a wagon ride, but first I got to see momma Crimson about something ok? Do any of you know where she is?”
Foam smiled up at him. “Uh huh! Um she was in the kitchen! And when you come back you’ll give us a wagon ride?”
“Yep, I will.”
“Yaaaaay!” All three girls ran off to get their wagon out of the garage.
Coming through the door Dusty looked into the living room. There surrounded by toys was Loki and her youngest, Ash. He was a tiny thing with a grey coat and a slightly darker grey mane. He was also such a stoic little thing, hardly ever making a sound. He was the herd’s youngest and Dusty didn’t think foals talked that early, but still they babbled or something, right? At the moment neither the loving mother nor the infant were very interested in the toys surrounding them though. No, both were currently engaged in an Epic Staring Contest!
Or at least it would be a staring contest if it were between normal people, Dusty thought it was more likely they were using their eyes in some kind of telepathy. Either way he moved along toward the kitchen; one did not simply interrupt whatever it was those two were doing.
In the kitchen Dusty found his Grandma Bella, Aunt Beth, and his Mom working on dinner. Helping them out was Grani, Loki’s eldest, and Sunflower, Crimson’s youngest. Grani was huge. Despite their age difference he was thicker than Dusty and just as tall. His steel-colored coat enforced the impression he was as solid as metal, and his red mane implied that he may just be fire driven as well.
Sunflower on the other hoof was normal, which when placed next to Grani, just made her seem small. Her colorings were, to the unfamiliar, similar to Foam’s, though Dusty couldn’t ever understand why people would mix them up. Sunflower was Cyan while Foam clearly a Deep Sky Blue. Sunflower’s mane was golden; Foam’s was yellow. Of course the fact that both were pegasi didn’t help things, but still, Sunflower was older by a few years, so it shouldn’t be that difficult to tell them apart.
“Hey Momma, you wanted to see me?” Dusty said, stopping just out of the kitchen.
Crimson looked up from her project, a look of thought crossing her features. “No, don’t think so.” A bad feeling grew in Dusty’s stomach. “So how’d getting the mower go?”
Bella perked up from the greens she was chopping. “Mower? What’s my grandson need with a mower? Did you get a job cutting yards? Cause I don’t think you can maintain a business like that around here, not with everyone or their neighbor looking at their lawn as ah-ah-a food supplement!”
Crimson smiled at her mother’s grandmothering. “He’s not cutting lawns Ma. He’s going to fix it up and sell it.”
Bella would not be deterred. “It isn’t right you know, a boy that young working! He should be out playing around with his friends and getting into trouble!”
Crimson laughed at that. “That is what he’s doing.” Bella just went back to her chopping. Muttering to herself about how she knew things were with this young pony generation. Dusty was pretty sure he heard the phrase “itchy frogs” in there too. Crimson turned more toward her son, smiling even broader. “So, how did it go?”
“All things considered, pretty well. Ball and Joey are waiting for me in the garage actually so I’ll just-”
“Oh hey, that reminds me! Are they staying for dinner?”
The pit in Dusty’s gut grew, this was leading somewhere… “Yeah mom, they are, they’re actually spending the night.”
“Oh that’s nice, can’t believe I forgot! Shows what I keep track of. That does remind me though-” Here it comes! “I think Frieda is upstairs with Aurora, can you go see if she’s sticking around for dinner too? I’d ask Violet but I already sent her out on an errand and she hasn’t made it back yet.” And there it was. The trap was sprung, and in that moment Dusty saw the intricate web that led him there, and knew he was doomed.
In all the Royal Herd, there was no one who understood certain intricacies of the family, and how to manipulate them better than Precise Order. She would know who was in the house and when, she would know what they generally wanted and when. She would know what words to say to lay out traps that would devour an entire afternoon that would otherwise be spent with friends working on a project.
“By the way, hrufhthy Crimson wanted to see you.” He should have known there and then something was up. With Precise there were no afterthoughts, no ‘By The Ways’, everything was ordered and accounted for in advance: the magic lock on the garage door to buy a little time; the pegasus triplets so he’d either go to the back door, exposing himself to probably more traps, or bribing them as he had done, with something time consuming later on, all leading him to his Mother, stuck working on dinner in the kitchen. She’d ask for help, either with making dinner or going around the house to do things she couldn’t. Because he knew it wouldn’t end with Frieda, there would be another thing and another thing.
There were most certainly more facets to the trap that he had already bypassed—no, had yet to spring. He could either cut and run now, leaving his mother in the lurch and spring some backup trap, or run the gauntlet and hope to catch a lucky break.
All because he called her Prissy.
Maybe he’d rethink that nickname.
Nah, if she was going to retaliate this much, then it was just too worth it. Didn’t mean it wouldn’t be a pain though.
“Uh, can’t Sunflower do it? I mean, I’ve got company over and she’s probably just texting on her phone.” Dusty said trying to maneuver his way out of his sister’s fiendish snare.
Sunflower looked up from her smart phone and gave Dusty an unamused stare. “I'm not just texting here. Stacy Burner is trying to get her grubby little hands on Bradley, who is obviously crushing on Jennifer. And Janet just posted pics of this gaudy dress. If I don't tell her how embarrassing it looks, she might end up wearing it on Monday, and that would be a, total, disaster! Like oh MY Glob! Oh and I have all the recipes on here, and have been keeping tabs with dad telling him what to get at the store. So there!” She punctuated her statement by sticking her tongue at him.
Crimson looked from her daughter back to her son. “See, impossible.”
Dusty slumped in defeat. “Alright, I’ll go check with Frieda for ya Mom.”
As he started trotting away, the glass door to the back patio opened up and Alexia came inside.., seemingly ending a frustrating phone call. “For the last time, Yakim: NO! I’m not going to be here so I can’t give the commencement speech at the Cultural Festival, so please stop starting petitions for me to do it! Mmhm. Hm. Mhuh. NO! Say the whole thing! I don’t care if it doesn’t roll off your damned tongue. Now say it with me: Demi-Goddess. Yes it is important. Goodbye Yakim.” She groaned with supreme exasperation. “Squirrelly little worshippers, there’s just no satisfying them is there? Hey Beth, where’s Rodney and the kids?”
“On their way, they’ll be here for dinner.” Beth called out from one of the fridges.
“Alrighty. So… I hope you guys didn’t cook the lasagna without me.” Alexia said.
Up the stairs to Aurora’s room—simple. Aw Nuts! I thought that so now something’s going to happen… Dusty stood at the base of the stairs, every step suddenly promising to suck his day with his friends away. Honestly, stairs had never made him feel this nervous before. Yet he climbed.
One hoof moved in front of the other, slowly, automatically. All of Dusty’s focus was firmly on the landing at the top, and what he was positive would be waiting for him. Another trap, some fiendish machination of his younger half-sister. Finally it came; the last step.
Nothing.
The hall was clear. Both ways even.
He let out a breath. He was giving her too much credit, turning her talent into a straight up superpower in his mind. He turned down the hall and made his way to Aurora’s room, opening the door.
There in front of a tall mirror was Aurora, apparently posing. Not too unusual. Her being some kinda half pony half human thing? That… was different.
“Hmm, maybe this much?” She said to herself. “But maybe the nose is too pony? I mean he said it was cute but when w-we finally k-kiss,” She blushed furiously. “Maybe it would be too awkward? Heh, at least he likes my ears like they are. Oh! And clothes! I’ll get to go clothes shopping with Frieda and actually buy something! Well besides a dress, and I guess I’ll have to make wing and tail holes…”
“Uh, hey sis. Frieda here? Momma Crimson wanted to know if she’s staying for dinner. And then there was something else, now what was it? Oh yeah! What the heck are you doing?” Dusty said mildly bemused.
Aurora turned to face Dusty with an indignant scowl. “Hey, how about some courtesy huh? Maybe try knocking? Yeah Frieda was going to have dinner here, and what I’m doing is none of your business!” She said heatedly.
She wasn’t going to say, so Dusty decided to make his own judgements and examined her briefly. She stood on two legs ending in hooves, but she had hands. Her face was mostly pony, though that wasn’t as long. Her horn, wings, and tail were also still present so he guessed magic, flight, and modesty were still in her power. The weird part was the fur. It started at her legs short but there, though it seemed to disappear at some point around her navel. At that point it became apparent that her skin was the same color, continuing on her fur’s snow-white pigment. Thanks to the mirror, Dust saw her mane remained largely unchanged. Since Aurora had her hair draped over her left shoulder, Dusty saw the roots went all the way down to just below her neck.
And then of course there was…
“Why would you go with human breasts too?” he asked with profound confusion. “Becky always says her rack causes her back pain.”
Aurora’s confused look lasted until she looked down and finally seemed to realize this may not be something her brother should see. Then her expression seemed to have trouble deciding between embarrassment, outrage and shock. With one arm she reflexively covered herself, and the other she pointed out the door.
“OUT! GET OUT!” She yelled. Her horn lit up to cancel the spell, returning her to her quadrupedally natural state. Unfortunately her body positioning was not four legged friendly and her recently restored longer equine nose quickly met with the thankfully soft carpet of her floor.
Dusty decided he should take her demands as good advice and proceeded to get the heck out of there, nearly bowling Frieda over on his way. He nearly made it to the stairs.
“Dusty! Oh this is perfect timing!” Oh no, give me Prissy so I can beg for her help just please don’t make me have to deal with- Too late. She was already there.
Wish Well, Precises twin and the biggest time suck that could possibly come his way. And for bonus points she had Pearl and Burning Comet with her.
Ok maybe I will reconsider calling her Prissy.
Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of her. Precise Order! She could save him and she could name her price! This was more than time on the line at this point, no, so much more was now in danger.
He locked eyes with her. He silently begged, he pleaded, he offered her anything he had (within reason) to save him from this.
She smirked. The bottom gave out in his stomach.
He then suddenly realized that he either blacked out for a moment there, or his sisters moved faster than, apparently, light, because he now found himself in their shared room. Wish well stood in front of him, with that impossibly oblivious smile. Oh and apparently she had been talking the whole time.
“- and that’s why you’re just perfect for this!” Wish ended her explanation. The blue unicorn brought herself right up to his face, almost shoving her eyes into his, yet somehow leaving just enough space to fit her smile into his field of view. Her cornflower blue mane blocked out the rest.
He moved his head to the right. Gotta escape! Burning Comet was there. The energetic orange pegasus also shoved her face into his, her wild red mane flowing with her. “Oh brother! It’s so nice of you to help us with this!” How does she always sound so formal while she’s that peppy?
He twisted once more, only for his last clear path out to be once again blocked. Pearl sat stoically, an utterly unamused look on the aptly named unicorn with the purple mane. “Sit down.”
Wish Well squealed. “Oh Dusty we’re going to have so much fun!”
With one last longing look at the door, Dusty saw Precise again, still smirking.
Until the day I die I am sooo going to call you Prissy.
Twenty minutes later Dusty found himself very grateful for the large mound of soft, loose potting soil outside the girls window.
“Ow, that hurt.” He gasped out when he could finally breathe again.
“Okay Dusty we’ll see you at dinner then! Thanks for your help!” Wish Well called out merrily from the window.
“Whoa! Bro, you ok? Righteous face plant!” Dusty turned to see his younger full brother, who flinched on seeing him, “Wish get you with ‘needing help’ again huh?” Effervescent Zephyr asked. “Was it really so bad you had to jump out the window?”
Dusty spit out a bit of dirt. “No, Pearl was practicing her fine magic control again. She was doing fine with the make-up, then Burning got excited while Pearl was concentrating real hard.’ Dusty sat upright again, shaking his head. “Is it all as bad as I think it is EZ?” He asked the light orange, purple maned pegasus sitting on a tuft of cloud.
“Ch’yeah! Here, I’ll hit chya with a blast from my cloud here, but um, maybe you should roll around in that dirt a bit first, y’know kinda scrape it off a bit? I mean I’ve been pumping this thing full of my mana for a bitc-uhh awesome experiment, but I don’t think it’d be enough dude.”
Dusty stared up at his brother. “Why do keep talking like that? Like some stoner surfer dude?”
Ez put on a lop sided grin. “You wanna hassle me ‘bout the way I talk brah, or ya want me to wash that make up and junk off ya?”
“...Blast me.”
Dusty’s choice of words was more accurate than he would have liked. He found himself on the receiving end of what he imagined being hosed by a fire hydrant to be like. Fortunately it didn’t last too long.
EZ glided down gently beside his brother, who was currently gasping for air. “Pretty sweet yeah? Good thing I got three more of those, see I’m compressing them as much as I can and then I’m going to try sky boarding with them!”
“Why? What could that possibly do for flying?” Dusty managed to to say, weakly albeit.
“...I dunno. But it’s gonna be frickin’ sweet finding out! Anyway, looks like we got it all. See ya at dinner bro!” EZ took off once again, flying upside down. Or maybe that was Dusty.
After a moment or two of rest Dusty got up and shook himself off. He was still covered in bits of wet soil and mud, but that’s what the hose was for.
“Wagon Ride, wagon ride, wagon ride!” The enthusiastic cheers of three petit pegasi could be heard.
Aw Nuts.
“Again again!” “Yeah! But go faster this time!” “I wanna feel the wind!”
This was Dusty’s ninth circuit around the house, and Earth pony stamina or not, it was science fact that being in close proximity to kids of a certain age of either species drained one of all energy they may have. Also he’d already been through a full day, and then Prissy’s Gauntlet, and then a freaking window! Dusty was at this point, pretty sure he was going to just collapse.
“I *Gasp!* think that’s *Pant* all I got.”
“Awww com’mon! One more ride pretty please?” Foam begged with what he was sure would be puppy eyes. Don’t look don’t look don’t look.
“Hey Dusty!” He couldn’t help but flinch at the sound of his name, yet still he turned and saw his Dad Conrad along with his brothers Noble Cause and Ward. They were Loki’s twins, both brown furred with golden manes though Ward was a pegasus and Noble an Earth Pony. “Wanna give us a hand with this food?” Conrad said shifting his saddle bags for emphasis.
“Ugh, yeah I’m coming.” Dusty called back, untying himself from the wagon. “Sorry girls, Dad’s a callin’.”
“Awwwww” They all whined. Then they remembered they were hungry and their disappointment disappeared as quickly as their little wings could take them. “Dinner, dinner, dinner!”
“You ok Dust? Ya look kinda dirty. And beat up.” Noble Cause asked passing a bag onto Dusty’s back.
“I’ve had a long, eventful afternoon.”
“Heh, I bet you called Precise ‘Prissy’ in front of Ball again didn’t you?” Ward snickered.
Conrad turned to look at his eldest son. “Again? When are you going to learn not to tease a girl in front of a guy she likes?”
The bags and boxes of food were eventually brought in, and set on the table to supplement the food prepared in the kitchen. After what felt like hours, Dusty finally hobbled into the garage.
“Dinner’s ready you guys. Look, sorry I wasn’t here so we could start on tearing down the mower but… uh.” Dusty stopped, when he saw the mower had been mostly disassembled already.
“What? You thought we couldn’t take it apart without you?” Ball said.
Dusty felt his face begin to fall just a bit at the disappointment of not getting to do any of the work. Joey didn’t let it stay that way. “Don’t worry man, we just did the small stuff and kept things organized and catalogued. All the best bits are still waiting for you.”
“Thanks guys, that… That kinda means a lot right now.” Dusty said fondly.
“Woah, Precise musta got you good.” Ball teased.
“You have no idea. Come on let’s eat up.”
A quick brush down for Dusty and some washed hands and hooves later, the three boys were on their way to the dinner table. Technically it was a banquet table, but for the Royal Herd nothing else would fit everyone. Ponies scrambled trying to get their seats next to their favorite dinner partners, those who had similar likes, continuing a conversation, maybe they didn’t like to eat their delicious peas, etc.
The layout of the table was always different, but one thing remained constant: Alexia sitting at the head of the table. Even when she couldn’t make it, which was rare, they left it empty. It was her seat, no matter how she may argue.
Most everyone was settled into their places, the roar of conversation brought down to a murmur as most eyes turned to the head of the table. Alexia, unsurprisingly, occupying the seat of honor. Conrad sat beside her. Loki sat next to the ever stoic Ash, both ready to devour all in their path. Bella sat with Crimson and Sunflower. Beth sat with her husband Rodney and her baby boy johnny, while her daughter Maddie sat with Violet, playing with the teen’s mane. Dusty and his friends sat together on one side of the table, Dusty couldn’t help but notice that Precise was sitting across from Ball. Maybe she does have a crush on him. Next to Precise were two open seats; a quick scan of the table told Dusty the only two missing were Aurora and Frieda.
What could be holding them up? No sooner had he thought it than Dusty heard a hushed conversation from the stairs.
“This is a bad idea! I barely made it down the stairs!”
“Oh come on! Don’t chicken out now. You ran through town like this just last week! This is your totally understanding family. If there is a time and place to test this, it’s here and now! You’d rather do the test run on your date? Trial by friendly fire! Or something like that… Anyway you’re doing this!”
“This is because I accidentally ruined your shoes last time isn’t it?!”
Finally Aurora and Frieda rounded the corner from the foyer and into the dining room. Absolute silence filled the air.
Standing on two hooves was Aurora, back in the same form Dusty had walked in on, fortunately wearing clothes this time; A short skirt and billowy shirt made up her simple outfit. Her face seemed just a few shades short of ‘boiled lobster’ she was blushing so hard.
“Uhm, uh… Hi everyone…” Aurora said meekly.
Alexia blinked a few times. “So that’s what you’ve been up to!” she said with an intrigued grin while tapping her chin. “Well don’t just stand there Aurora! Come on, give us a spin! Let’s see what you managed!”
The tension that seemed to be building in the room disappeared at that, Aurora gave a slow spin and fidgeted with her skirt, smiling the whole time. Then she made her way to her seat next to Precise before her legs had a chance to betray her and give out from the excitement of her success. Frieda sat on her other side. “Told ya.” She said with a victorious smirk.
“Ok, everyone’s here.” Alexia said, fluffing her wings a bit and positioning herself more regally. She had the rooms attention. “Our thanks go out to those who put this food on our table.” She nodded to those that prepared the food. “To those who grew it, who tended to it and nurtured it. To our loved ones for joining us in this meal.” The house’s guests all got a nod from someone. “To those who did so much for us to see that we could enjoy it together. Everyone, be thankful to each other, because we don’t know what the future brings.” A moment of silence filled the air as everyone thought of something they were thankful for. “Alright, eat up!”
The quiet grace that had filled the room was very suddenly and brutally destroyed. Magic fields competed over dishes, mini food fights broke out, and the roar of people trying to be heard over the racket filled everyones ears.
Dusty himself was rather fortunate this evening to be able to grab his food almost immediately, and get to relax right from the start. As he made steady progress on his plate, he couldn’t help but watch as Aurora tried to eat with hands. She had decided to try the fingers themselves at first, because ‘why not’ apparently, but quickly decided hot lasagna was not the best dish to do that with. She now was gripping her fork with her whole fist, and was doing pretty well, if not as graceful as the other hand users, baby Johnny aside. Frieda noticed and started trying to show her transmogrified friend how best to hold the utensils.
Huh, hands… nothing seems to hold her attention for too long though. Wonder how long till she gets bored of this.
Of course I would be chosen to be part of the clean up crew, after all I was just ‘goofing off’ all afternoon.
Joey and Ball had gone on ahead once again, but they were just going to watch something on the tv in the garage, so that made it easier for Dusty to bite down on his impatience. They were finally done clearing the table and washing the dishes. He was just about to head to the garage, when he found himself stopped once more.
By Precise.
“I know I already told you this but since you’ve historically shown yourself unable to remember; Don’t forget! Tomorrow’s Contract Day, so get all your little complaints and requests together so we can actually do something this time? Hmm?”
Dusty could practically feel his eye twitch. Taking a deep breath, he tried to settle himself. “Do you have any paper?”
“Momma Alexia has some in her study.” She supplied helpfully, she turned to walk away. a few steps however she stopped. and sighed. “Remember to knock this time.” And with that cryptic remark she left.
… Aww what kinda trap is there now?!
He sat in front of the door to the study and stared at the handle. There’s paper somewhere else in this house. A hundred places!... So why can’t I think of any? He let out a breath, he was beat, all he could do was hope to get it over with.
He knocked. And then immediately entered.
There in the room were Alexia, Aurora and Frieda. All on two legs. Somehow, in spite of his terrible streak of rotten luck, Dusty had been saved from a sight he’d probably rather not see.
After a moment of silence Alexia started things up again. “Good job remembering to teleport me something to wear Aurora, It slipped my mind entirely. Dusty almost had to learn to wait until he hears it’s okay to enter the hard way.”
“He really should learn a thing or two about door etiquette Mom.” Aurora said, giving Dusty a weird look.
Alexia stood head and shoulders above the two teen girls. She was pretty much a larger version all around of her transformed daughter. She was covered by a billowy White dress—that or a bed sheet; Dusty couldn’t really tell.
She kept flexing her fingers and playing with them. “Wow, I had forgotten what these were like. Heh, takes me back.” She then patted her breasts. “These on the other hand are a bit new. Hahaha!” Alexia laughed wistfully. She twirled in front of the mirror, nearly tripping over herself. After a few nostalgic moments Alexia smirked and shook her head. “Well this was an interesting trip down memory lane, Aurora, but… this isn’t for me, hasn’t been for a long time now. Standard spell cancel?”
“Yeah, but make sure your hands are where you want them, otherwise you’ll probably face plant.”
In a burst of light Alexia returned herself to her normal pony state, and teleported her temporary clothing back to where it came. “Alright, thank you for showing me. So that was the spell I’d been hearing rumors about all week. It’s a bit unrefined, but I’d be more than happy to help with that later.” With that Aurora and her friend left and Alexia focused on Dusty. “You really should learn better door manners.” She said with a grin. “Anyway, how can I help you Dusty?”
“Paper, I just need paper. Also for this day to just end.” Dusty replied almost mournfully.
Alexia pulled a notebook out of a drawer in her desk and passed it to him. “Rough day huh? Heard you called Precise ‘Prissy’ in front of Ball again.” She smiled knowingly.
“And I’ll never see the end of it cause I’m not done yet.” He said gaining some of his determination back.
“Hehehe, good luck.”
With that, Dusty headed back to the garage. After such an event filled day, it was a bit surprising nothing stopped him on the way. He collapsed between his friends watching some Pre-War show on one of the channels dedicated to that stuff. He spent a few minutes listening in and coming up with his proposals for the next day.
“Guys.” He finally broke the silence between them. “Are your families all this crazy?”
“Yep.” Joey replied instantly.
“Different kinds of crazy, but yeah.” Ball added.
“Yours is just bigger.” Joey continued.
Dusty thought on that for a moment. “Good, as long as I’m not the only one. Pass me a soda?”
Joey got up to get the soda, and coming back found Dusty had passed out on them. Exhausted from the busy day, flanked by his friends and full of good food, he never stood a chance.
“Whose boneheaded idea was this ‘Contract’ anyway?” Loki grumbled as she tried to smooth out the uncomfortable dress she was wearing. She hated it. It was too tight, it rubbed her fur the wrong way and it didn’t go with her colors. Well to be fair nothing she had found had lived up to that mark.
“You. It was you, Loki.” Crimson said as she poured herself some water from the sink in the kitchen, her simple sundress fitting her well. “You ask that every time these renegotiations come up; twice a year like clockwork you forget that you were the one that did this to us.”
Conrad sat conspicuously quiet, reading from a tablet set in front of him. He carefully ate to avoid getting any breakfast on his shirt and tie. Having been tailored for pegasi it had the appropriate holes for his wings. This was the only reason he tolerated it.
Loki apparently gave up trying to fix her dress and grabbed an apple instead. Biting into it she continued to talk. “S’well, ah cahn’t be te h’only one who’sh come to hate it right? So why do we keep doing it?”
Alexia, who had been meditating silently to the side opened her eyes and joined the conversation. “Because despite the hassle we have to deal with twice a year, it keeps things easy to manage. If mostly because it keeps Precise happy. Remember when we decided to try things without ‘The Contract’? The summer of ‘28?”
Loki’s eyes bugged, apple spewed from her mouth explosively. “Wait! That’s what happened?! I thought we disturbed an ancient Indian Burial Ground or something when we expanded The Manor that year!” Loki began to rub her chin thoughtfully. “Huh. Then whose spirits did I appease with my offerings then?”
A chill passed through the other parents. The events occurring from May 3rd to the emergency meeting of August 1st 2028 were never to be relived. Keeping the Contract going, and subsequently keeping Precise Order happy, were the only relevant things they needed to remember.
Alexia shook the chill of those dark times away. With a quick flick of magic, her necklace transformed into its crown form. She wore no clothes as a point of pony pride, temporary anthropomorphisms aside. The crown offered a suitable air of formality to her presence, another thing Precise was rather insistent on. Through testing, Alexia had found her week following Contract Day always went noticeably smoother when she wore the crown rather than the regular necklace. She doubted Precise purposely made her week more difficult; more likely she just didn’t try as hard at… whatever it was she normally did.
“Well, shall we get this circus started?”
All sixteen children of the royal herd were gathered between the living room and dining room dressed in their best. Milling about, some were anxiously awaiting their turn while others couldn’t wait to get out of their clothes and get on with their day.
In one corner of the room Bella sat watching Ash play with some toys. She would occasionally glance up to deliver words of warning to the other children, keeping them in line.
The tv played in the background, filling the space between the small conversations the children muttered between themselves.
”-and that’s how the kitten found its way.”
“Ha ha! Dark stuff there, Amber. In other news, the reclamation of South America continues to hit bumps. The Warlord and self-proclaimed ‘President for Life’ Miguel Tomás Fransisco Rodrigo Julio César, or ‘Cesarinho’, continues to lay personal claim to vast territories. His forces currently lay claim to the remains of Fortaleza as their capital. In response to requests from Sol to give over control of the city, the aspiring potentate denounced the unified world government and proclaimed his intent to ‘retaliate against all attacks against the rightful future of the peoples of Brazil’. Meanwhile, in that part of the world, three more remote tribes of people were found in the Amazon just two weeks ago.
“Around the world meanwhile this coming weekend marks the beginning of ‘Culture Week’. Cities and towns putting on fairs and festivals to show off those differences that give our world such flavor.
“Meanwhile here on the North American west coast lucky contest winners from across the globe and celebrities including, according to rumor, the royal herd will be in attendance for the grand re-opening of-”
Joey and Ball sat along the wall near Bella, observing the goings on. Dusty sat next to them furiously writing, crossing out, erasing and then rewriting in his notebook.
“So, Dusty, what do you want to start with on the mower?” Joey asked.
“Dude not now! I’ve got to get this done in time or I’m not going to be able to get another advance on my allowance and then we won’t be able to afford the equipment we’ll need.” Dusty said, without even looking up from his apparently vital work.
Joey decided that was the most he was going to get out of Dusty so he switched targets. “Uhh so Ball, can you explain all this to me? What’s happening here? Why’s Dusty freaking out exactly? Is this a pony thing or just this family?” Joey said, confused by the family’s odd change in behavior.
“Umm, well, that gets a bit… convoluted. It’s not an Equestrian thing. I can tell you that straight out. It’s mostly this family, but being who they are, it’s become a bit popular with alot of terran pony families. Especially ones with more kids since it gets a bit tricky trying to keep a united front for the parents, with discipline and all that. The way I hear it, Loki started this ‘Contract’ so that they’d have a single unified reference to deal with punishments and allowances and stuff. So a kid can’t just avoid one punishment or whatever in exchange for one they’d prefer.” Ball said, trying his best to explain.
“Ahh, like when I want to do something so I ask my dad cause he’ll probably say yes but my mom’ll say no..” Joey related.
“Kinda, yeah. Anyway, if I understand it right, that’s how it started, but as it went on, each kid was different. They wanted different things or certain punishments worked with one kid but not the other. So they made individual Contracts that each parent would have to basically memorize or have to carry on them.”
“And they do that?! That works?”
“Pfft no.” Ball rolled his eyes. “It only works ‘cause of Precise. She lives this stuff. She got really dedicated to the idea a while after she got her Mark, and has been enforcing it ever since. Man, you should have seen it two years ago when they tried to stop doing this, it-” Ball froze as a mysterious chill passed through him. “Umm no, nevermind, forget I said that, In fact never mention the year 2028 here ever. Nothing good can come of it.”
Joey stared curiously at his friend. “Ooookay, I won’t. So uh, why are we here instead of starting on the mower?”
“Because Dusty will get all annoyed and mopey if we do. Look, they’ll renegotiate and allowances will get bumped up, and some will go down. Curfews will get moved around. The possibility of new privileges will come up, the punishments for wrongdoing will become more severe. They’ll sort that all out while we watch the show. Last year hehehe… That would be hard to beat. This time shouldn’t be too crazy, but I still expect a bit of a show.”
Joey was about to ask what happened last time when he noticed Ball freeze, his mouth gaping as he looked past Joey. Joey turned, and quickly joined his friend in the slackjawed department.
Aurora had come around the corner sporting her new ‘Anthro’ look. She immediately made straight for Violet on the other side of the room to make last minute preparations. What caught the boys’ attention however was Frieda, clip-clopping across the floor over to the boys on her four hooves, her arms folded across her chest. The centauress laid down opposite the boys and at an angle to Bella, finishing a triangular barrier around the baby Ash.
Frieda Duncan had a classic centaur body, a human torso attached where a pony’s neck would be. Her ears sat furry and tall on top of her head, her eyes and nose slightly more pony proportioned than usual. A small horn spiraled out of her forehead. Her pony body was standard as far as such things went, her fur light pink and tail the same black as her hair. She wore a black t-shirt on her human half, and a long skirt hung from the joint of her torso and pony body.
“Girl, what happened to you?” Bella asked flabbergasted.
“Aurora had another spell she wanted to try. She said I owed her from last night, and well… I like the tail okay?” Frieda rubbed her pony back where her buttocks would normally be. “You cannot imagine how weird this feels.”
“The walking on four hooves must be pretty weird, huh?” Joey asked unable to stop examining her.
“No not that, you just don’t think about it and move. No the weird part is my organs, cause normally-” Frieda poked her human navel. “this is where my stomach and various other bits would be. Those are now back there somewhere.” She gestured to her longer lower half. “I’m pretty sure Aurora filled my chest with a bigger set of lungs and heart too, but I’m not sure. And the more I think about it, how does my spine work now?”
“Wow, you must pretty used to all of... that if all you’re worried about is your organs.” Ball couldn’t help but give Frieda’s blank flank a long look.
“All this transformation magic! It ain’t right! You should be glad for the body you got. There shouldn’t need to be all this shape shifting!” Bella exclaimed excitedly.
Frieda tried to placate her elderly friend. “Miss Bella, it’s not permanent or anything. You’re acting like this is something ‘all the kids are doing’.”
“Oh you just watch, Frieda Duncan! I was a teen once too, and a parent to a teen so I know. Either you or Aurora is going to be clopping along out in the park or something, or go to school in your furry little half forms, and the next thing you know all the kids will want to show off their pony ears, or their fuzzy fingers or whatever! And with the world as strange as it is, I bet it won’t stop there! Oh no!” Bella said wagging a finger at the transmogrified teen. “Just you wait, this will lead to something bigger than you imagine.”
“Umm uh, so Frieda, uh wha-what’s the skirt covering?” Joey asked practically coughing on his words.
Frieda just stared at him, seemingly not quite sure that she heard him right. “You little pervert!”
Joey started to panic. “Ah-I, I just i-its just I’m no-not really sure what its for cause if you're built like a like a, uhuh centaur then it’s just kinda like y’know ‘why’?”
“Oh! So you want to see is that it?! Well take a good look!” Frieda hissed angrily. She lifted her skirt to reveal… nothing, just a plain pony chest. She started to snort and cracked up laughing. “Oh! I got you good! Heheehehe! Nah, Joey it’s not covering anything important, well not yet at least. We don’t know how long this spell’s going to last and I didn’t want to be naked when I suddenly switch back.”
“Oh Frieda! Be nice, don’t tease the poor boy like that. Teenaged guys just can’t handle that,” Bella admonished, trying to hide her snickering smile. She turned to Joey. “Though seriously, kiddo, what were you thinking asking such a thing? Especially in front of a little old lady like me?”
“I was curious! Besides, Ball’s the one checking out your butt.”
Ball snapped his head up. “Not! I am not!” He said a bit too loudly.
A knocking sound rang through the room, all eyes immediately focusing on Precise as she finished knocking on the hardwood floor of the dining room. “All parties are present and accounted for, so we’ll now begin.”
The parents came out from the kitchen, Alexia leading a single file line. They took their seats along one side of the dining room table. The raised dining room with parents looking down with judging eyes, the sunken living room with begging and bargaining supplicants, a long wood table in between both parties—For the children this was the highest court in the world; Forget the government’s Supreme Courts..
“Alright everyone, in light of last time’s… difficulties, we will be trying a few things a bit differently this time. We’re going simpler, you come up, we go over grades, your recent obedience of House Rules,” Alexia glared at the alicorn teens at that. “and how you’ve been doing holding up your side of the Contract. You tells us your concerns and what you want. Then we move on to the next, agreed?” A chorus of voices indicated their agreement. To the side Precise ‘hmphed’ in annoyance, her carefully meticulously created documents the victims of ‘simplifying’.
“Alright, we’ll start with the youngest first. If you want to switch places with someone talk it over between yourselves. As soon as your Contract is finalized you are free to go about your day. Should you like to discuss anything during this process with us privately, that will come last after everyone’s Contract has been dealt with. Alright? Okay, Ward, Noble Cause who would like to go first?”
“Wait!” The pegasus triplets Bloom, Foam and Typhoon shouted together, pushing their way through their siblings. Bloom took the lead, “You said youngest first and that’s us!” She gestured to to herself and her sisters. All of them were wearing dresses, obviously put on without help. Typhoon in particular seemed to enjoy her dress as much as Loki did hers.
Alexia brought a wing up to massage her temple. Today was going to be a long one. “Girls, you don’t have Contracts, you’re too young. We’ll start one for you when you get to first grade, Okay?”
Foam sat on her haunches and started to toy with her mane nervously. “But-but you said that we do this so we can say what we want and ‘camooniakate’ with each other and and we have things we want to say.”
“Alright girls, want would you like to talk about?”
“Ummm, I forgot,” Foam apologized.
“One sec, Mama.” Typhoon grabbed Foam and Bloom, pulling them into a group huddle. With hushed whispers and quick glances back at the parents, the girls seemed to work their demands out in fairly short order.
“We want less naps and more cookies.” Bloom said for the group.
“That sounds reasonable, and what chores will you do in return?”
This seemed to catch the girls flat-hoofed. “Umm, chores?”
“Yes, in exchange for less naps and more cookies from us you have to do chores. That’s how the Contract works. So what chores would you like?”
The triplets just stared at the parents.
Blink.
They looked at each other.
Blink.
“We’ll have to get back to you in a bit.”
“Take your time girls. Ward, Noble who’s next?”
The twins glanced between themselves, Noble Cause apparently deciding to go first. Loki beamed at her son. “Alrighty! Noble, let’s see what we’ve got here!” She started flipping through some papers arranged in front of her. “Well Mrs.Hinkle says you’re doing pretty well in class, your school work is good and you’re not getting in trouble. So what’s it going to be? Raise?”
Noble snapped into a salute. “Ma’am no ma’am! I’d like training as a spy ma’am!”
“Spy training?”
“Well, I wanted soldier training, but you guys were like secret agents so spy training please!” Noble said with a sweet innocent smile.
“I can do some exercises with you kiddo.” Loki smiled. For the next few minutes they discussed Noble’s overall behavior, which was good, and worked out a small raise for him. It was a straightforward and productive negotiation. It brought hope to the parents that this time they’d finally, after all the previous debacles, have a decent day working on the Contracts.
Loki turned her attention to her only pegasus son. “Alrighty! Ward, you’re up! Now let’s see… Mrs. Hinkle says-”
“Ugh, let’s get this over with,” Ward interrupted. “Yes, I admit it, I was the one that released the class hamster! But it wasn’t my fault, really! Larry was the one who put the lit matches in the cage! I was just trying to save the little guy, honest!”
The parents just blinked for a moment at that. “...I was just going to say she says you need some more work on your spelling.” Loki finished her earlier statement.
“...Soooo I guess you guys didn’t know about that, huh? Well it’s okay though. Mr.Pickles is still at school! He lives in the walls of the cafeteria now.”
“... Ward, maybe we should start from the top…”
“Pearl, you’re doing ok in school, but Mr.Jones has been telling us you’re having trouble getting along with others.”
The little unicorn had her face in her standard ‘unamused’ look. “They’re stupid.”
“Ugh, yes they can be, but please try to do better with them, will you?” Alexia smiled as genuinely as she could, though it was strained.
“I’ll try, but no promises.” Pearl said.
Alexia sighed. It was as good as they could get from her. “Well anyway, you’ve lived up to your end of the bargain, so how does a ten percent raise sound?”
“I’d rather have my own room. Burning’s too energetic.”
“Dear, we don’t have an extra room. Everyone’s sharing as is, and we can’t extend the manor without major landscape changes.” Alexia tried to explain.
“I need my own space.” Pearl insisted. “Burning keeps interrupting my meditations. Last time I broke our wall.”
“Mother,” Precise injected herself into the conversation, “Maybe Pearl could switch with Wish. I love Wish, but honestly the only reason we share a room is because we’re twins. This way Wish, Burning and Sunflower can share a room, and Pearl and I could share.”
Alexia thought on that a moment. “Hmmm, it’s certainly a solution, but we’ll discuss it with everyone after.”
“No need, mother. Hey Wish!” Pearl yelled into the living room. “Would you like to switch rooms with me?”
“Like oh my Mom yes! BC, SF we’re bunking together!”
“Squuuuueeeeeee!!!”
Precise looked back to Alexia. “See mother, it’s already done. I’ll get the paperwork started.”
Burning pranced excitedly in place, her smile wide and hopeful. She had been like that through her whole evaluation.
“Alright, Burning what would you like?” Alexia smiled down on her.
“Mother! I know something that can make us all much happier! One thing that can bring our whole family closer together and unite us!” Burning said, fluttering her wings and jumping high.
Raising an eyebrow Alexia decided to bite. “And what might that be?”
“A puppy!”
“No.” Alexia said reflexively.
“Whoa whoa whoa!” Loki shot up in her chair. “Why no puppy?! There’s nothing in these contracts that says no pets… I think.”
“We have sixteen kids we don’t need a dog on top of that!” Conrad said, the look on his face saying the idea struck him as insane.
Crimson perked up with a look of dawning realization. “We have sixteen kids. Sixteen children whose allowances depend on doing chores. Sixteen people to take care of a dog.”
A moment of silence fell on the parents as they realized what exactly that meant. Alexia looked at Crimson, then Loki. “Yes, yes we do. Ahem, upon further consideration we have changed our decision. Dog approved!”
“Yeeeaaaay!” Burning cried in joy, sadly not knowing the doom she had brought upon herself and her siblings.
Crimson perked up a bit as her youngest, Sunflower came up. Her smile was tempered a bit by the filly not looking up from her phone the whole while.
“I’ll just take the allowance raise please.” Sunflower said, texting with her feathers.
“Umm honey we should talk about your grades and such first.”
“I’m passing history, math, science, language, and I’m not doing to bad in P.E. Can I have my raise now?”
“Uhh, well there’s still-”
“I haven’t done anything you guys have had to punish me for and I’ve done all my chores. Raise please. Oh! Actually I’ll take my raise in the form of a new phone, mine’s getting a bit outdated.”
Grani walked up to stand before the table. Having not gotten a new shirt since his growth spurt his broad body was barely contained by the confining fabric of his black dress shirt. He looked up at the board of parents, his face stoney and determined. Right until his eyes met Loki’s.
Loki broke into a humongous smile at her eldest, as if it had been days since they last saw each other. “There’s my big handsome colt! Just look at you! So big you’re busting out of your shirt! And hey! Did you tie that tie all by yourself?”
Grani scuffed a hoof across the carpet bashfully. “Aww, Momma you always know what to say.”
“So kiddo.” Conrad interjected, “Mr. Parker was talking to me earlier and he wanted to know if you’d be interested in joining a team.”
Instantly a change came over Grani, he seemed to deflate trying to look anywhere but at his dad. “I d-d-don’t re-really llllike sp-sports dd-dad.” Grani stuttered out.
Conrad couldn’t help the concerned frown that drew across his face. Grani still couldn’t talk to anyone but Loki without stammering. What was odd to Conrad, however, was that was the only thing that needed to change for him to talk just fine. He could be on a stage in front of a crowd, but as long as he was talking to Loki he’d be fine.
Loki mercifully came to her husband and son’s rescue. “How’re your models coming along Grani? Did you finish the Pulsar Blue?”
Grani perked up even more at the mention of his favorite model spaceship. “Not yet mom, I still have the engines and then some painting but I think I’ll finish it this week. Are you going to watch ‘Buck Gordon’ with us tonight?”
“Like I’d miss it! Well let’s get this out of the way, honey, and we can get on with our days, right?” Loki shared her smile with her son as they smoothly made their way together through his negotiations.
“-And that’s why I’m doing so poorly in math!” Wish Well, explained. “Now as for my less than good results in history-”
“Wish, honey, your grades aren’t in question, they’re fine.” Alexia finally stopped her chatty daughter. “Would you like an allowance raise or something else?”
“Oh yes, definately! No wait! Normally I would go with the raise but I have a lot of my money saved up right now and I really need some help getting some more language books, since the language learning spell can only help you learn so many languages before it loses it’s effectiveness I’ve been learning them the old fashioned way and I’ve already gone over the ones I’ve got and the bookstore just got this one that teaches Catalan-”
“Precise, during our preliminary discussions we came to a decision.” Alexia said officially, organizing her notes. “The Contract will no longer be written on paper. Loki’s finally gotten some time and is creating an app for us to keep track of the details of everyone’s Contract.”
Precise was struck by this announcement, her lip quivered and her eyes misted up. “But but why?! I-I like paper! Is this some kind of punishment?! Haven’t I been doing a good job keeping everything up to date? What did I do wrong!?”
“Nothing!” Loki burst in. “You haven’t done anything wrong. Everything you’ve done is fine! It’s just that there’s no reason to keep using up paper when we all have phones. Besides, you’ve seen our paper bills! I actually have already finished writing up the app and you can help me put the final touches on it! Oh! And we’re giving you part of the paper budget for your allowance.”
Precise started to recover at that, though she was still sniffling and trying to stop her tears. “O-Okay, that sounds alright.” She said through a small, tear stained smile.
“Would you like to take a break Precise?” Alexia said, concerned for her little filly.
“N-no momma,” The young unicorn sniffed. “L-let’s talk about my grades.”
“You know, sometimes I forget she’s just eleven.” Crimson muttered to Conrad while filling her glass with water from the pitcher.
“Effervescent, your grades are terrible. Now we know it’s not because you’re not smart. The work you have done shows this should all be well within your abilities. Your teachers say you’re mostly just not doing the homework,” Crimson said. The light at the end of the tunnel could be seen at this point, though EZ slowed their pace to a crawl every time.
“Mom c’mon chill. I mean I know you’re grilling me but just call me EZ. It’s easier on the tongue.” EZ said with an easy smile.
Alexia stepped in, “EZ, answer the question: why haven’t you been doing your homework?”
“Alright Big Momma, so I do my homework. It’s just that a tornado eats it is all.”
Crimson and Loki both facehoofed. Alexia prefered to use her wing. Conrad became less than amused. “A. Tornado.”
“Yeah pop.”
“Everyday?”
“Well I do ride it to school, or at least I will when I figure out how to stabilize it.”
“Dusty you can’t have another forward on your allowance, you’ve already had three.”
“My grades are up to snuff and my business needs the capital! My budget got an added gum bill just yesterday.”
“So that’s how you dealt with Bozo huh?” Loki interrupted. “Sorry I couldn’t make it yesterday by the way. My tail fritzed and my ears spazed, but I was spending time with Ash.”
“Hrufhthy Loki please!” Precise took back the conversation before it could stray any further. “Another advance is out of the question, gum bills aside. You just have to learn to use your money more wisely.”
“Oh please! My costs are necessary! Look at my ledger if you don’t believe me!” Dusty pulled forward the notebook he had been working on all morning and part of last night. Somehow it had become impossibly dog eared in the short amount of time it had been in his possession. Receipts stuffed between pages threatened to fly out the corners.
Precise took the ‘ledger’ in her magic and started scanning through it. “Hmm, mhmm, ah! Okay what’s this expense for?” She said pointing with a pencil.
“Company luncheon to discuss our company’s direction.” Dusty countered.
“And this?”
“Supplies to test the effectiveness of Earth pony magic on various substances.”
“Hmm, wow, you are stretched razor thin here. Well what about… no. I’d say it looks more like you need a fresh investor instead of an advance.”
Dusty perked at that. “Are you offering?”
“What?! No! With the way this is going I’d get no return at all.”
“Well how about if you help us keep the books straight and manage the budget? Then you can have a hoof on how your investment is working.”
“Are you offering me a job?”
“Well why not? You do this kind of thing all the time anyway.”
“... I want you to match my initial investment in three months, and you stop calling me ‘Prissy’.”
“Depends on the investment, it’ll determine what jobs we can take on. We get paid by the job so I’ll cut you in for a full share for each one. If we don’t exceed your investment in three months, I’ll buy a hat and eat it. Oh and uh, I’ll stop calling you ‘Prissy’ in front of Ball, no deal for any other times though.”
Precise stared into Dusty’s face, reading him. “Alright. I agree, for now. We’ll hammer out the details after lunch.”
“Just go take care of it now you two.” Alexia decided to actually say something for this round. “All that’s left to take care of is Violet and Aurora’s Contracts, Precise. We can handle it, I think they want to go together anyway. We’ll consult you as we need to. Alright?”
A conflicted look crossed Precise’s face, but she relented. Walking off with Dusty back toward his friends, discussing her duties and such.
A sudden flash filled the room along with a bizarre *SsshvvvvmmmPOP*! Frieda fell over from the sudden loss of her hind legs. She tried to catch the air that had been knocked out of her, “I’m ok! *Gasp!* Smaller lungs! *Cough!* Man that felt weird! Aurora, you’re gonna need to work on the snap back!”
After checking to see that Frieda was alright, Violet and Aurora came before the table.
“And then there were two.” Loki said dramatically.
Alexia scanned the girls with her Mighty Mother Vision. “So, let’s get right to it. You want something. Your grades have seen marked improvements in very short order. Despite your little temporal escapade, you’ve both been on your best behavior. You’re coming at us together to make it seem like a single issue instead of two, so it’s something big. Gives you better odds. Am I right? Spill it.”
Violet took the lead. “We want our own cars.” Aurora agreed with a nod of her head. “We’ve both been driving now for some time without any incidents, and like you said, we’ve been doing well in school so we’d like our own cars for getting around with our friends.”
“And to run errands and help you guys out.” Aurora added stepped forward, “Also, beyond the initial cost of the cars themselves, we’d need a raise to our allowances to cover gas.”
Alexia tapped her chin with a wing in thought. “We will take a moment to discuss this.” With a flash of her horn, Alexia conjured a sound-proof barrier around the parents as they began their deliberations. Both Alexia and Conrad seemed rather calm, Crimson looked concerned and Loki gestured emphatically.
Aurora fidgeted with her hands and turned to talk into Violet’s ear. “Well , they’re discussing it soooo that’s a good sign right? I mean they didn’t just shoot us down on the spot.”
“Yeeaaah, but I think it also means this isn’t going to be as simple as we hoped.”
At this point Loki was standing on the table gesticulating passionately and looking like she was giving a heartfelt speech.
“What do you think they’re saying?” Aurora asked.
“Oh, gee, well I hadn’t thought to read their lips before, but I guess I will now.” Violet snarked back.
“I was just wondering. You don’t have to get all bent out of shape about it.”
“-And that is why we will never have ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ in this house!” Loki declared with grim finality as Alexia lowered the barrier.
Alexia cleared her throat and gestured at the girls. Loki smoothed out her dress again and got back into her seat.
“We have come to an agreement,” Alexia began. “You may have your own cars; we will buy them for you even. However, there are conditions,” She said pre-empting the girls celebration. “One! Your grades must stay at an ‘A’ average. Should they drop you will lose your privileges until they rise again. Two! Curfew will be enforced more strictly from this point on. Should you fail to abide by it, you will be barred from using the cars. Three: You must keep the cars clean. You can eat in them, go driving through mud or whatever, but they must be cleaned afterwards. Four: Any repairs the cars need you will pay for along with their upkeep. Should major repairs be needed, we may help you out, but we are not obligated to. Is that all agreeable to you?”
The girls had broad grins on their faces as they almost bounced in place from excitement. “Yes! Uh, I mean, those terms are acceptable.” Violet spoke for them both.
“Good. Now there is one more condition. In order to get the cars, you must show us you’ve been taking your other studies seriously.”
Now they became nervous. “Umm, other studies? Umm you don’t mean-” Aurora said uneasily.
“Yep, Training Day. Tommorrow. If you pass you get the cars, if we don’t think you measure up, you don’t. Is it still a deal?”
Violet and Aurora looked at each other holding a silent conference. Finally they came to an agreement. “You’re on.”
“Then we’ll have a nice day tomorrow! Alright now, does anyone have any private business they’d like to discuss?” No one moved to say so. “Okay! I officially declare Contract negotiations complete! Now let’s go get some lunch everybody!”
Walking off, the teens were satisfied. Frieda walked up to meet them both. “So how’d it go?”
“We’re getting cars!” They both squealed.
“Oh please. So you’re getting wheels, who else besides you cares?” Dusty said, walking past with Joey and Ball. “You’re just going to end up picking the younger kids up from school or something.”
“This coming from ‘Mr. Junk Ride himself.” Violet shot back.
“Whatever, just watch, you girls are going to be asking us to tune your cars up all the time. Come on guys, let’s get that mower taken care of.” With that, the three boys walked off to the garage.
Precise followed after them. “Please disregard any disparaging remarks made by my new employees,” she said in passing.
“Employees? Wouldn’t it be better to call them your partners or something?” Aurora asked.
Precise had an amused look at that. “Partners? Please Aurora, I own them.”
“Are you going to the watch them work?” Violet asked as she passed by.
“Of course! I’m their principal investor. Like I said, they work for me now. And as an investor I want keep on top of all projects they may work on. Excuse me but I have some... organizing to do.”
The girls watched the red unicorn walk off to the garage. Frieda decided to get things moving again.“Alrighty then. Oh! So, you gals looking forward to your trip this weekend? I think they were talking about it on the news a little bit ago.”
“Yeah, actually I’m going to show my anthro spell off there! Check it out! It’s stable whenever I cast it on myself!” Aurora gestured to herself and did a twirl only losing a little balance this time. “It will only go away if I dispel it. A bit more tinkering and I should also be able to keep the Taur spell going longer if you’re interested,” Aurora whispered conspiratorially to her. ”So anyway, what do you have planned for this weekend?”
“Well my folks and I were going to try applying for a cultural license at the festival.” Frieda said as they went off to face the rest of their Saturday.
Sunday morning found the three Alicorns of Terra sitting on comfortable cushions in Alexia’s study. Alexia herself sat in silent meditation blocking out the sound of her worshippers, her eyes closed and breathing measured. Aurora sat reading a book on anatomy. Violet’s eyes glowed white as she used her magic to paint an impression of her itineris system onto canvas.
For the two teens, this had been tradition for as long as they could remember. When they were small they too would try to meditate, but after a short while Alexia told them they could just read quietly or draw as they did now. It slowly dawned on the girls that there was no formality here. Their friends all had some religious practice that was observed with some solemnity and they had just assumed at some point that this was theirs.
Now in their teens, they would sometimes join Alexia in meditation again. Though honestly they didn’t really see the point.
Aurora set her book down and looked at her mother, “Mom, why do you do this every Sunday?” She asked, breaking the silence. “Why does the prayer song bug you so much? I mean you’ve told us before you’re concerned about the addictive nature of worship, but to us it’s just kinda like white noise.”
Violet nodded in agreement. “I totally get that you don’t think we alicorns are gods, but since we hear their prayers…” She sucked her teeth and made a ‘sorta kinda maybe’ face. “Then aren’t we pretty much their goddess?”
Alexia let go of her breath and opened her eyes. “Let me see if I can put this the right way.” She looked between her girls and gathered her thoughts. “I think it boils down to why. Why should they worship us? Because we have the magic of all the pony tribes and our own unique powers as Alicorns? Because we have the ability to live for millennia? Because we’re the tallest ponies?”
“Actually, Mom, Aurora and me are just as tall as normal ponies still.” Violet smirked.
“You know what I mean,” Alexia shot back while sticking her tongue out. “Anyway, there must be something subconscious in ponies that makes them naturally drawn towards alicorn worship, but if they want to worship something then why not whatever created reality? We certainly didn’t. I’m only forty-three. I concede that as an Alicorn, maybe I’m something ‘higher’ or greater or whatever, but many religions have creatures that are greater than humans that still aren’t worthy of worship.”
Aurora perked up,”You mean like the Angels of Christianity and Judaism, the Demigods of the Greeks, or the Devas and Asuras?”
Violet set down her brush.“Hmm maybe we should go with Deva instead Demi-Goddess. I’d love to be a singer!”
Alexia rolled her eyes at her daughters joke. “That’s a Diva dear, with an I. Day-vuhs are from Buddhism.” Alexia got up from her cushion and began to pace the room. “No matter what the truth is, the three of us have just as much of a need to improve our spirituality as anyone else; though maybe it isn’t as straightforward as it is in other religions.”
“Auntie Twilight doesn’t do this. Actually, I don’t think any of the Equus Alicorns do.” Violet pointed out.
“Whether the Alicorns of Equus do this or not isn’t the point. Talking with Sensei Twilight, I found that all the Alicorns of Equus found themselves briefly in another place full of stars during their ascensions. She said it was kinda like a nebulae in an old Star Trek episode. I’ve never seen that place, have either of you?” Both girls shook their heads. “That leads me to believe that Discord did something with us, to us, that made us fundamentally different from them. Maybe they gained some innate unconscious understanding of their nature when they ascended, but we didn’t. That’s part of the reason I do this anyway: to see what I can do about it.”
Alexia came to a stop in front of her bookcase. Dozens of books on various religions covered it. The musings on spirituality and faith from thousands of people from thousands of years from both worlds laid out before her. They were the materials for her pet project of comparative religious studies, and she hadn’t finished a fraction of them. It was going to be a long project.
Alexia turned back to her daughters. “But I think that’s enough meditation for now. Time for business.” She came to a stop in front of both girls, looking down at them she focused inward and unleashed her mana in a swirling tempest centered around her body.
Aurora and Violet had seen this many times, and it always made them shiver. Their mother’s lush blue mane began to writhe like seaweed in a current, it’s color becoming green throughout, almost black in the edges. Her kind eyes became golden and hard, the pupil a vertical slash. Her clean silver coat seemed to become the color of bleached bones. The study was secured against any kind of surveillance, magical or mundane, so they were the only ones that could feel the sense of claustrophobia that seemed to come from Alexia. There were only three ponies alive on Earth beside the alicorns who knew of this terribly secret power the girls kept—a power that scared them horribly.
Alexia looked down on them with seemingly cold eyes, and they couldn’t help but feel like prey. “Don’t stall. Transform,” she said curtly.
Just like hearing the prayers of ponies, this was something they had felt all their lives. A tight ball of mana, deep within their carbuncles. Its presence had always been a gentle thing that felt as natural as their heartbeat. The sisters became truly aware of it after a few years of meditation with Alexia. However, it’s true significance manifested during an incident that had occurred a few years previously. As one might imagine, it was not a pleasant experience. For anyone. Now all they had to do was build up rage within themselves until reaching a tipping point.
With one more glance between themselves, the sisters breathed deep, and focused in on their carbuncles. The act caused that gentle ball to explode in a rush of power, the feel of mana coursing through them, permeating every cell in their bodies. The torrent of practically uncontrollable emotions, as if everything they felt was magnified a hundred times. As much as their mother’s power frightened them, their own was much more terrifying.
Violet’s coat faded to a dark purple, her mane beginning to jump to life, twitching together as a single mass in time to the lightning blitzing through her hair. Aurora’s mane began to flutter like some great fire meeting a powerful wind, the whole thing becoming a solid blue that threatened to engulf one’s soul if you looked too deeply into it. Both teens opened their eyes revealing vertically slit pupils.
Alexia examined them both carefully as she circled them menacingly. Normally they would feel the pressure of her power as suffocating and predatory, but with their own power emanating from them it felt more like their territory was being infringed. They suppressed the urge to charge their mother, the source of the insult against their power and stood patiently, watching her circle them. A sudden shove of magic against their side, a flick on their horn, a pulled feather. It took everything they had to stay seated, to keep control. Finally Alexia came to a stop in front of them and nodded in satisfaction. The sisters let loose the breath they were holding and released their power, reverting back to themselves.
“Alright, now let’s finish this test day huh?” Alexia smiled. Aurora and Violet flinched slightly at her fangs. “Oops!” Alexia too ceased her transformation. “There, much better. Alright let’s go.”
Violet and Aurora stood up fully from their cushions and moved to the door behind their mother. “Hey mom, what do you think would happen if I became a Nightmare while using my anthro spell? I kinda really like it.”
“Hmmm, maybe we’ll try that after we get back from our trip.”
Training Days had come about due in large part to the incident that led to the twins discovering their Nightmare forms. It had been decided by the parents that the girls should be trained in ways to defend themselves and condition their bodies for the rigors that their lives might lead to. Many of the other children would join in sometimes. But not today.
Aurora stumbled slightly, gasping for air. “*Gasp* I’m so glad *Pant* I didn’t use my anthro spell. *Gasp* Need four legs!”
Violet came calmly trotting up behind her. “Really Aurora? You’re winded already? Come on just tap into some of that good old Earth pony magic! Or maybe you should spend a little less time tinkering with your spells and exercise a bit.”
“Oh shut up Vi.”
Crimson came from further up the trail. “Come on girls, get a move on! Oh! Or are you ready for Loki now? I suppose we can finish the run after.”
“No! No I’m up! I’m up! Loki, please don’t come out of nowhere, I’m running!” Aurora bolted up and dug deep, running up the trail. Violet picked her pace up as well.
Loki leaned out from behind a tree. “What’s her deal? It’s not like my part’s going to be any easier later on.”
“Yeeaaahh, but the running part is a lot easier before they get messed up by you.” Crimson said trotting after the girls with a smile.
“She’s everywhere!” Aurora said, sliding into a small ditch alongside her sister.
Violet pressed her wing into Aurora’s face to silence her. “Shhhh! Shut up! Don’t give her anything to find us with!”
“Too late.” Loki said, sitting calmly on Violet’s other side.
“Aaaaahhhh!”
“Yaaaaahhhhh!”
The sisters bolted, neither daring to try to stand and fight with their Earth magic against the master.
“Hahaha! Run little fillies run! Hahaha!” Loki started giggling madly, proinking after them.
The girls collapsed on a fluffy cloud, trying desperately to rest their aching wings.
“I can’t feel my wings Aurora.”
“I know Vi, me neither.”
Conrad plummeted out of nowhere, abruptly coming to a soft landing on the cloud the teens were trying to rest on. “Alright, breather’s over. Now go through the obstacle course backwards,” he said, punctuating his order by popping the cloud they rested on like a balloon. The girls flapped frantically trying to get right-side-up as soon as possible.
“Pulluppulluppullup!”
“What do you think I’m trying to do!?”
The girls stood battered and dirty: their legs felt weak, their wings ached, and yet they faced one more trial still.
Sitting placidly fifty feet away was their mother, doing nothing, just waiting for them.
“Circus maneuver on three.” Aurora muttered.
Violet nodded, they both limbered themselves up as best they could.
“Onetwothree!” They shouted at the same time.
Aurora broke left. Violet crossed behind her going right and disappeared in a flash. Alexia immediately formed three small barriers behind her. The moment Violet reappeared above her she was sent spinning from the barriers striking her like a fly swatter. Aurora, meanwhile, started firing off blasts from her horn only for them to meet their end against micro barriers summoned for each individual one.
Aurora created a shield in front of her to block her mother’s follow-up blast only for the energy bolt to corkscrew erratically and bypass her defenses, knocking her sideways. Suddenly the invisible barrier Alexia had set up behind herself flared to life against a massive blast from where Violet lay prone. Alexia let loose another blast at her ground bound daughter only for the attack to phase through her as the illusory Alicorn dissipated. Suddenly both teens popped into existence on either side of Alexia. Their horns charged for the attack, they let loose their blasts.
Only for the attacks to go straight through their mother and hit each other. Alexia decloaked right behind where her own doppelganger began to fade.
“Hey look at that! You got me to move this time!” She said, pride emanating from every word.
“Uggghh…” “Oooowwww.”
“How is it I’m still this sore? I couldn’t sit right all day long.” Violet said to her sister. The two girls were currently making their way home from their classes, the turmoil of the previous day still wreaking havoc on them.
“Because our parents are thorough. By the way, I found out my anthro spell doesn’t help, somehow the soreness transfers.”
“All that pain and torment and nothing to show for it. Our lives suck so much right now.” Violet said kicking a rock with her hoof. My poor hooves, I have never needed a hooficure as bad as I do right now in all my life.
Chatting as they were, the girls didn’t notice their mother’s car pull up behind them. A quick honk of the horn had them jumping a bit, Alexia giggling at them through the open window. The teens decided that suffering their mothers chuckles was worth letting their bodies have a rest.
“You know, Training day wouldn’t be so rough on you if you’d practice.” She immediately started telling them as they piled into the car. “Remember your seatbelts.”
“Yes mom, we know.” They chanted at the same time, dutifully clicking their buckles in.
“It isn’t a matter of going out of your way to exercise or something. You just gotta find the time in your days to workout a little.”
“Yes mom, we know.”
“Grow some grass, flex your wings while you walk, you can find something.”
“Yes mom, we know.”
“Say something with more brains or I’ll drop you off on the other side of town.”
“Ye-uhh Very well mother we shall strive to do our best to incorporate more exercise in our daily lives.” Violet said, pumping as much vocabulary as she could.
“Umm ditto.” Aurora added.
“Very articulate Aurora.” Alexia said, smirking at her via the rear view mirror.
Pulling up to the house, the girls couldn’t help but be disappointed by the lack of cars. Sure they had it rough Sunday, but still they had hoped there would be some reward for their hard work. They got out of the car, their heads slumping from more than just neck pain.
“Oh hey! Before you go inside, I’ve got something for you.” Both girls turned to see their mother release a cloaking spell over the empty portion of the driveway, revealing two cars.
The wide smiles that broke out instantly across their faces froze and became forced as they saw that the cars were not exactly the new models that they had dreamed of. One was brown, the other was grey and that was the best way they could describe them.
“Aren’t they great?! They’re pre-war even! Don’t worry, we put in some ‘universal form’ seats so you won’t have to sit on anything too uncomfortable. I’ll let you work out between yourselves who gets which one. Soooo… What do you think?”
By some extreme force of will the smiles stayed on. “They’re… great!” Violet said.
“Yeah, just… super!” Aurora added with ‘enthusiasm’.
Alexia watched the stiff smiles on the girls’ faces for a moment. “...You thought we would get you factory new cars didn’t you?”
Violet hemmed and hawed at that. “Uh, we might have um, worked ourselves up a bit on the idea.”
Alexia walked up between the girls facing them. She gently wrapped her wings around them, bringing their faces to look at her. “Girls, You are just starting out. You may not realize it, but these cars are probably going to mean a lot to you. They are yours. Every nick, scratch and ding they have will be a part of their story with you. You’re going to learn how to take care of a car, and it’s going to be hard work. You know how to drive, but now you will truly know cars.”
Aurora and Violet looked at the cars. They looked at each other. They looked at their mom. “These are going to be total money pits aren’t they?” Aurora said.
Alexia gently patted her girl’s cheek. “Ohhhh sweetie… You have no idea.”