Chapter 1: Just Another Day In the Draper Household

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A mountain of snow drifted slowly down on the house, taking its time covering each and every inch of the land and house with a thick blanket of snow. It was currently August, a strange month for snow, but to the inhabitants of this land, such absurdities were not so uncommon. Piece by piece, the house’s blue shingles became covered in the soft white layers of ice, causing the house to almost disappear into the land surrounding it. The house had two dormer windows on the front of the second story, and an insulated attic that had been converted into a bedroom. Despite the location, and small space the attic provided, someone still found enough comfort in there to sleep like a bear hibernating in the frozen wastes. Simply biding his time to reawaken in the spring...or at least he would have if it ever stopped snowing, that is. However, this is not the story of the person in the attic, but of the one in a room beneath him, on the second floor, in a room to himself. He was having a wonderful dream, but it was not to last, as a shrill sound began emitting from the small machine beside the bed, blasting in his ears.

The beeping of the alarm clock pulled one Kenderick “Kenny” Noah Draper out of his dream with a cruelty only a machine could be capable of, causing the nine-year-old boy to reach for the snooze button. Missing, he tried again, flailing his arms madly, just to buy an extra ten minutes of sleep, only to instead shift his weight too far, causing him to tumble out of bed. The still-beeping alarm clock soon followed, beaning him on the head before sliding out of his brown hair and landing in the lap of his ocean-themed pajamas that matched the theme of his bedroom.

With a sigh, Kenny flipped the switch to turn off the alarm. He then started to run one hand over his headboard, squinting his blue-gray eyes, trying to find something while the other hand rubbed the spot where the clock had hit his head.

Stopping, he called over his shoulder, “Kris? I can’t find my bucking glasses again!”

His eldest brother, the fifteen-year-old Khristopher “Kris” Nathaniel, burst into the room. His green eyes, framed by matching green glasses, sparkled with mirth. Kris was already dressed, wearing a green and lime plaid shirt and a pair of blue jeans. While he stood almost a good head and a half taller than him, Kenny felt more protected than intimidated by his older brother’s height.

Kris chuckled as he got onto his hands and knees to assist in the search that happened on so many mornings.

“So Kenny, you’ve been wearing glasses for four years, and you still misplace them almost every morning?” After letting out a light-hearted chuckle, he continued. “Why are you swearing like a pony? We don’t swear anyway, and last time I checked, Equestria’s still across the flipping ocean. This is still Hominia, little bro.”

“Well, I want to go there someday,” Kenny said in his defence. “And besides, since I’m human, it doesn’t count as a swear word when I say it, so those ponies can just suck it when I get there!”

Kris sat up and sighed. “You know, your human friends may think it’s a riot, but the fillies and colts at your school likely hate it.”

“They’d tell me if they did,” Kenny scoffed. “Besides, it’s summer break.”

“Whatever,” Kris sighed again before handing over a pair of blue-framed glasses. “By the way, here’s your glasses. Now you won’t be blind as a bat again until tomorrow morning.”

Snickering, Kris left the room with Kenny sticking his tongue out at him until he left. It was hard to stay mad at Kris. For as long as he could remember Kris had been his protector at school. He had been able to intimidate his bullies and the fear of the kid six years older than them slowly turned most enemies into allies. Even after Kris moved on to Middle School, the alliances that formed held, and the scrawny nerd who couldn’t even do any magic well unless it was Water-based (not even Ice came well to him at all!) had a faction form around him, who protected each other, one for all and all for one.

After getting his glasses on, Kenny took a look around the room. Like every room in houses in the Frozen North, there was an atmospheric filter, a device built of human magitek. They needed such things because they didn’t have such luxuries as the Crystal Empire’s Crystal Heart.

There were two things in the room that the rest of his siblings envied: his personal door to the bathroom and the double-wide side window behind his headboard that granted him a direct look into the temperate wonderland of the greenhouse that took up as much space as a house lot. The personal door to the bathroom was something that irritated his sister to no end. Oh, he’d respect her privacy on the toilet, but while she showered behind a curtain? If he needed to go, he’d take advantage of how the lock for that door was on his side of the room and just barge in. His paternal Grandfather, a genius at magic, chemistry, and the combined field of alchemy, had grown rich off of alchemical journals sold by the family business he headed, making him worth over ten million Hominian Dollars (the Dollar and the Bit had proven too hard to merge, so they left the racial regions’ currencies apart.), so when he bought the family a house, he threw in a second lot with a greenhouse so his five grandkids would learn the kind of hard work he’d learned growing up on a farm in Archipellaga, the land that had long ago been the Kingdom of Water. Because of the view he had from his room, Kenny worked twice as hard as the others on Tuesdays, his day of the week to tend to the greenhouse, so that its beauty would last year-round.

His crocheting kit was on his nightstand, along with a few books. He’d started to crochet a few years back. He had started with a blanket but in spite of all the books he read, it had turned out awful. Not even their pet rabbit at the time wanted it, it was so bad. With his mother’s help though, he had became a natural in days, and now adored the activity. His bookshelf between the door to the Family Room and the door to the bathroom was full of books, even the latest edition of the Byetkul World Encyclopedia, the complete set, from A to Z, named for the world they all lived on. It was one of his favorite reads. He especially loved cracking open a volume and start crocheting while reading. Hours could fly by in what felt like mere minutes!

His Complete Guide to Human Magical Arts Volume 1 was propped open on his desk again. He’d tried and failed to control a simple Fire-based lightsource spell, and the scorch marks on the desk were the proof of his failure. He sighed when he saw that. He knew all the basics backwards and forwards, even a few higher level techniques, too, but in spite of that, he was still only good with Water magic. The other twenty-one categories were beyond his ability to control, making him seem like a failure at magic. Luckily, magic wasn’t a required course for school.

His room was painted to look like the ocean floor, with a beige carpet to resemble sand, images of kelp painted on the walls, and even a real forever-coral trident hanging from the wall. It was willed to him by his great uncle, who he’d never met. It was apparently a family heirloom. A magical anti-theft aura was projected over it from the hooks it hung from, and a sign beneath it read, “Priceless family heirloom–NOT A TOY–DO NOT SELL–Great Uncle Ralph Lawrence”

The letter he kept framed next to it was the only words he’d had from his late Great Uncle from his mother’s side:

Dear Kenderick,
I know you won’t remember me, as I’m dying before you would be old enough to remember me, but when I saw you as a baby, I could sense that you should be the one to inherit this. You may need it someday, and if you want to know more, ask someone at the Museum of Pre-Union Human History to explain more. It’s supposed to be from the Age of Elemental Kingdoms.”

Good luck,
Ralph A. Lawrence

Kenny did want to know more, but the museum was in Prismara, the human capital set up after the human nations formed the Human Confederation, but before the High Council of the Byetkul Confederation was established to bring the nations into a cooperative system. His family couldn’t just take a day off from his father’s work to go there, and Saturdays were too busy with people going everywhere for the weekend, and Sundays were out of the question. Their holy day? That’d be as insane as a pony asking to be thrown in Tartarus!

Thinking Some other day, For what felt like the billionth time, Kenny put on a bubble-patterned long-sleeve T-shirt and some blue jeans, then slipped on his blue slippers. Deciding to deal with his hair later, Kenny left his room, ran across the family room to the staircase landing, passing right by the ladder to Keith’s attic bedroom, slid down the banister only for his Mom to yell at him as she headed out the door. He then ran through the foyer, passing the living room on his left and the under stairs closet on his right to enter the dining room.

After walking to the pantry that straddled the point where the dining room and kitchen met at the end of the counter, Kenny reached to the shelf above and pulled out his favorite cereal: “Captain Nemo’s Nautilus Crunch” (Will stay crunchy, even 20,000 leagues under the sea!). He grabbed a bowl from a cupboard above the counter and a gallon of milk from the fridge. Smirking for a second, he considered pranking everyone else by ripping out the Ice-elemented Refrigeration crystal. If he did that it would cause the Freezing Crystal in the freezer on the left side of the unit to take over cooling for the whole unit, freezing the refrigeration side. With a sigh, he decided against it and made his way to the table, his eleven-year-old sister Kimberley Nancy was sitting in her purple nightgown and black slippers in the exact spot at the table that he used for every meal while at home, especially dinner. He couldn’t stand it when another person was eating there when he was planning to eat. He and his siblings had agreed to the official assigned seating at the table when they had first moved here, as their parents wanted to make things orderly. While anyone could sit anywhere when it wasn’t dinner time, it was generally frowned upon to not sit in your seat, so much so that all anyone had to do was ask and they would get their seat from anyone that had taken it.

Tapping his foot impatiently, he cleared his throat.

“A-hem!”

She paused and looked up, blinking as if acknowledging him for the first time. After pausing to swallow, she said, “Oh, hi Kenny. You look like you’re about to eat.”

“Yes,” Kenny huffed. “I am,” starting to scowl at Kim. He knew she knew what he wanted. He’d gone over this with others a few times before.

“Well, why haven’t you picked a chair already?” She inquired, still playing dumb. Holding up a hand which glowed purple, she started levitating one chair at a time with Mind magic, utilizing the psychic spells that were one of many sets Kenny stunk at.

“I’ve already chosen one,” Kenny growled. “I chose it years in advance for every breakfast, lunch, and dinner until I move out, but it’s occupied.”

“Kenny, just pick another seat,” she scoffed. “You won’t die.”

“No one ever treated me like this five years ago…” Kenny sulked.

“You were the youngest then,” Kim chuckled, pushing down painfully hard on Kenny’s head and ruffling his hair until he struggled free. “You’re not that any more. You’re invisible like me now, get over it already.”

“One, you’re not invisible because you’re the only girl,” Kenny huffed, “And two, unlike you three, I actually remember being youngest! It’s a lot easier getting over what ended when you were two or three years old, so you have no memory of it! Now, Kimmy—”

Kim froze, turned her head slowly to face her brother, and whispered, “What did you just call me?”

Kenny stood his ground however. “I called you Kimmy, Kimmy.”

Kim stopped again, stunned that Kenny was being so bold. But she got ahold of herself shortly, her eyes beginning to glow red while her hands radiated heat and were engulfed in an identical aura.

“Kenderick, if I were you, I’d take that back right now,” Kim told him coldly. “I’m way better at magic than you are, you droplet squirter. I could give you major burns, and you’d finally learn to respect your older sister. Now! Take it back! Apologise!”

Kenny still didn’t budge, although the insult really stung. “You won’t, sis. ‘No combat magic in the house’, remember?”

“But Mom’s outside right now, and Dad’s asleep,” Kim chuckled darkly. “Now, do as I say—”

“Not on your life, Kimmy!” Kenny yelled.

In seconds, Kim stood up; a whole head taller than her little brother thanks to puberty, raised her hands, and just as fire began to form, Kenny screamed at the top of his lungs, “Mom! Dad! Kim’s using combat magic!”

Before Kim had a chance to realize what was going on, a net of purple energy ensnared her, cancelling the spell. The door leading to the master bedroom on the right was flung open, revealing their father, Dean Edward Draper, his face red, his brown-framed glasses doing a poor job of obscuring his bloodshot eyes, his teeth clenched, and panting like a man insane, still in his black and gray plaid pajamas.

“Kimberly Nancy Draper,” he said levelly, “Why were you about to cast Firestorm on your little brother?”

“I-I-I-I…” She stammered, “He was trying to get my chair!”

“We have assigned seating, young lady,” Dean told her. “It’s his chair first, and If the assigned wants their seat, you are supposed to give it up without a fight!” He then turned to his son who was also present. “Kenny, did you try to force her out? Did you attempt to use combat magic yourself?”

“No Dad,” Kenny replied. “I admit, I got upset too, but it only occurred to me that she wasn’t bluffing at the last second. I considered casting Hydro Curtain—”

“Which is a shielding spell,” his father finished for him with a shake of his head. “Even though you lost your temper and possibly goaded her, the fact remains that although you may have done something punishable, she did something worse. Kenderick, thirty seconds in the corner for every year you are old after you eat your breakfast. You know the drill by now, no talking or leaving the corner until the timer goes off, or the the time resets. Kimberly, while I’m giving him half the normal sentence of one minute per year, as he committed a minor infraction, you may have been too young to remember the last time someone challenged the no combat magic rule. Triple sentence. As your food is almost finished, finish it in the corner, then stay standing nose into the corner and silent for thirty-three minutes.”

Kenny nodded somberly and got to eating, but his sister freaked out.

“It may be snowy outside like every day, but it’s summer, Dad!” she pleaded. “My friends and I were headed to Frostfell! The Big City inside the mountain! We were gonna see the latest movie from Feather Ballpoint Studios! Jenna’s Mom was going to pick each of us up! They’ll be here any minute, and we can’t be late! I was gonna get ready to go!”

“Well, then you shouldn’t have threatened to seriously injure your brother,” their father said cooly. “Now, to the corner, young lady.”

As Kimberly finished her food and sulked in the corner, Kris entered the room from the same path Kenny took, holding a small, portable television, complete with the Farnsworth Television and Radio logo above the screen.

“Kenny, something awesome is happening!” Kris said excitedly, turning the device on.

“But you know the rule: no TV at the table!” Kenny hissed.

“Just humor me,” Kris pleaded. “I’m sure an Equestrophile like you is gonna love this!”

That got Kenny’s attention, and he watched as the TV caught the signal, with a news desk bearing the letters: “PWN” (Prismara World News).

“And now for the story we promised you for the last half hour,” the man at the desk chuckled. “Coming at you live from Canterlot, Equestria, is our anchorpony, Perfect Scoop! How’s it looking out there, Perfect?”

“Well, Frank,” the red unicorn in a blue suit replied, levitating a microphone, ”It’s a lot less hectic than it was five hours ago, at ten-thirty AM here. Amazingly, a nine-year old filly by the name of Twilight Sparkle has managed to do the unthinkable for one her age and hatched a dragon egg! Her magic went further and ended up turning it into an adult and her parents into potted plants, but luckily, Princess Celestia was here to fix those problems. The filly declined an interview herself, but Celestia has remarked that she may consider taking the prodigy on as an apprentice to replace the one who vanished, spurring a global ponyhunt that never did find her.”

“Well, I heard Luna’s trying to get an apprentice of her own, too,” Frank remarked, “Do you think they may end up having a short struggle over who gets to train her?”

“Nah,” Perfect said with a wave of his hoof, “Luna is well-known to prefer the rarer sorcery method to the standard wizardry. The filly’s always got her nose in a book, and would likely never be caught dead trying to go the self-taught, experimentation route. Sure, that’s how most spells are made, but not everypony is cut out for sorcery. Hay, most everybody prefers wizardry, too! Back to you in the studio, Frank.”

As it switched back to the studio, Kris clicked the tiny TV off and asked, a huge grin on his face, “So, what didja think?”

“She sounds amazing!” Kenny gushed. “I’d love to meet her, just once!”

Kris chuckled. “You’d have a better chance of fixing your magic issues by trying sorcery, and that’s still crazy.”

“Didn’t all the Consumed get where they are through sorcery?” Kenny pointed out as he took his dishes to the sink, now done eating.

“Most,” Kris corrected. “Not all. I used to know all their original names, but ‘Chimpanzee the Purple Squirrel’ used books a bit more than the others, so she didn’t count really as a Mind sorceress, and ‘Cobra the Violet Jellyfish’—”

“Cobra is in fact a Death sorcerer,” Kenny said as he started to make his way to a different corner than his sister for his short punishment. “He read up on Neighponese martial arts and created a human counterpart for Nieghjutsu: Ninjutsu. I know my history. When it came to Death spells, he took the sorcery approach.”

Kris opened his mouth to say more, but Kenny planted his face in the corner, and began waiting, prompting Kris to be quiet.

Unfortunately, the one member of the family who was almost always a royal pain entered the kitchen, saw Kenny in the corner, and giggled. It was Kelvin Nigel, his four-year-old little brother who loved to take advantage of how almost everyone went easy on him. That is, except Kenny. This was the brat who took away his status as the youngest child. Kenny had hoped that his parents would have another child so he could see Kelvin going through what he was going through, but when their mother had her tubes tied, that chance went out the window.

“Aww, did Big Brother do a bad?” Kelvin snickered. “Too bad ya hafta hold still. Ya can’t ta save yer life!”

To prove him wrong, Kenny stiffened like a board, reminding himself it was only four and a half minutes. He could do it.

Kenny could hear the sound of feet, a chair being pushed and climbed on, the same footsteps coming over to him, and finally a bottle of… something being shaken.

“Don’t sneeze!” Kelvin laughed, shaking a pepper shaker under Kenny’s nose.

Kenny’s eyes watered, but still he held still, breathing out through his mouth over and over, desperate to do something to stop himself from sneezing, which Kelvin would report as him moving, and because their parents thought him too innocent to not believe, they’d just reset the time on the brat’s word alone.

As if by a miracle sent by Heaven itself, at that moment, their blonde, short and stocky mother, Helen Michelle Draper took one step into the dining room, saw Kenny’s plight, and gasped.

“Kelvin Nigel Draper!” she exclaimed, causing Kelvin to freeze, “What are you doing, young man?”

Kelvin hid the shaker behind him and tried to play innocent.

“I was… Um… trying to make him feel better!” He exclaimed, but their mother thankfully wasn’t going to go that easy on him. Interfering with how the parents ran the house was crossing the line, even for Kelvin.

“Then what’s the pepper shaker for?” Helen inquired with a smirk.

Kelvin gulped, but still tried to play innocent.

“W-what pepper shaker, Mom?” he laughed nervously. “I don’t see any pepper shaker!”

“This pepper shaker, young man,” Helen replied, reaching over her youngest son and removing the shaker from his grasp. “Do you want to take his place with double his time? Do you?”

“No, Mom!” Kelvin wailed, trying to use crying. Helen wasn’t buying his crocodile tears, but drawn by the cries, Dean reentered the room.

“Helen, what—”

“Dean, he’s trying to garner sympathy,” Helen said sternly. “He was trying to use this pepper shaker to make Kenny sneeze while in the corner, but I’ve got it under control.”

Dean nodded, but added, “If he proves too difficult, bring him to me, and I’ll use the belt.”

“Not the belt! Not the belt!” Kelvin screamed, “Anything but the belt!”

“Your father has various healing spells to remove the lasting effects,” Helen said sternly, “But if nothing else works, a sting to your bottom may get the point through your thick skull. Now, apologize to Kenny.”

“I’m sorry, Kenny.” Kelvin muttered before turning to leave, only for his mother to grab his shoulder and turn him back around.

“Sorry for what?” Helen said in a no-nonsense tone, her expression brooking no argument.

“I’m sorry for trying to make you sneeze so I could get you extra time!” Kelvin admitted, breaking down and crying the tears of a child who was only sorry for getting caught.

“Now, what you were going to do wasn’t nice,” Helen scolded, “So stop crying about getting caught. You’re lucky we don’t send you to the corner yourself.”

Before Kelvin could reply, another voice asked, “It was mean?”

Kenny’s timer went off right at that moment, so he called back to the voice, “Could you stop rephrasing everything, Keith?”

“You want me to stop?” the voice asked again as the last child of the family rounded the corner of the kitchen: Keith Neil, dressed in a red sweater and black jeans. Kenny and his siblings all had some degree of mental disorder, but Keith was the worst off. Careful coaching had helped him learn to ride a bicycle and even to talk when the doctors said neither would ever happen, but now they were having trouble getting him to speak properly.

Before Kenny could reply, Keith started speaking for himself, pretending to be both sides of the conversation: “YES, KEITH,” he said in a gravelly voice. “Why?” he asked in his normal voice. “BECAUSE I SAY TALKING IS FORBIDDEN. HAHAHA!” he finished in the gravelly voice and threw back his head, laughing evilly.

Tears welled up in Kenny’s eyes. Keith seemed to see himself as the main protagonist of the universe, and saw anyone who denied him something he wanted, even if it was bad, as a villain. Males would be given gravelly voices, and females would be given shrilly ones. If the person could get out the true reason before he could do it, he’d keep asking more and more questions to try to be able to do it, and if he either was asked “you tell me why” or he ran out of questions, unless he was dealing with Mom or Dad, he’d get violent, although mostly with his fists and teeth, not his magic.

“Mom? He hurt my feelings!” Kenny blubbered. “I’m not a villain! It was a simple request!”

As soon as Helen nodded, Kenny ran to his bedroom, shut the door behind him, then locked both of the doors in the room. He stared at the empty spot on the floor that had previously been where a bed had been only a few weeks prior. Since Kris and Kelvin shared a bedroom, their parents had tried to pair up the other two boys as well. Kenny knew that he was supposed to be patient with people like Keith, but It had been so difficult. People similar to Keith were easier to accommodate when he didn’t live with them. Keith could get violent. He had showed such promise when they raised his functionality level from low to high, and they thought they could help him learn more. Not enough to become normal, but enough where observing his actions would no longer make it obvious he had a problem. For Kenny’s birthday late last month in late July, his parents revealed that the attic had been remodeled and reinforced, and that from then on, the attic would be Keith’s bedroom. He had been so happy to finally get a room to himself. While he knew that he shouldn’t treat his brother poorly for his actions, especially when he looked normal by comparison, the years of frustration his brother had caused him just made the development all the sweeter. He had spent the last five years holding his complaints and grievances back that now any little thing his brother did seemed to set him off. It seemed the pain would take time to drain away. There was no instant cure, but with the source gone, he had time to heal.

Now it was mid August, and after looking over to his bed, Kenny picked up the frame of a color photo of a man and a woman off of his headboard, paying more attention to the elderly man in glasses on the left while drying his tears.

“I hope you’re doing great out in Canterlot, Grandpa,” he whispered, “I can’t wait for the stories you’ll bring to the next family reunion. I love your little quirks. You fill your life so much with chemistry and magic, you actually dream it. Although you’re always calling everything at the table the ‘whatchit’, and you call all five of us ‘Wooden-Head Puddin-Head Jones’.” Kenny chuckled, then looked to the elderly woman on the right. “Grandpa’s showing his age faster than you, Grandma. Please, look after him. Keep him safe.”

With a warm smile, Kenny returned the photo to his headboard, switched to white socks and blue sneakers, then left the room. On his way downstairs, he heard the phone ring with an extra sparkle, meaning long distance magic was in effect on the call. Grandma or Grandpa, perhaps?

He could hear his father pick up.

“Hello? You’ve reached the Draper residence, may I ask who’s calling? Princess Celestia? To what do I owe the honor? Wait, what about my father?” In spite of the atmospheric filters, Kenny could feel the air grow colder as his father grew more worried. “He’s where? Where’s my Mother? With him? Okay, so, he collapsed you say? Not the first time he’s—He’s suffered a WHAT? Yes, let him know we’ll be there. Have you contacted my brothers and sisters? Good, thank you.”

With the sparkling click of hanging up a magic call, Dean stepped into the foyer to tell Kenny:

“Son, I need you and everyone to pack quickly. Magic is allowed for this. Your Grandfather just suffered a stroke, and he’s at Canterlot Palace’s medical ward. An express flight will be arriving to take us to Canterlot shortly.”

Author's Notes:

Hey, thanks for reading! I know I have a bad track record with completing fics, but this one had a full outline from beginning to end already, so it will reach completion.

This fic is based on a dream I once had, with me in Kenny's place. I've made many adaptations to get this to work, and I hope you'll forgive any remaining cheesiness or weirdness, as, well… It's still based off a dream.

Anyway, I welcome comments, actually, please comment! If you must leave criticism, please make it constructive. If you're leaving a positive comment, please at least leave the reasons you think that way, so I can learn what to do more of in the future so I can improve.

Like it? Great! How about an up vote? Love it? How about an up vote anyway, and a fave? Didn't like it? That's fine, jut please let me know why so I'll know if there's something I can do to get you to reconsider down the road.

Okay, I think that's everything out of the way. So, hope you enjoyed, and see you in the next chapter!

EDIT: Please, in the early stages of a fic's time on FiMFic, it's very important to get 10 votes before hitting 100 views, as some will refuse to read a fic with 100+ views but still no visible votes, presuming it must be really dull if even out of 100 people, not even 10% could be bothered to vote on it. Until it reaches 10 votes and votes become visible, I beg you to vote on this fic so that such people won't form such a bias. I know this may come off as annoying, needy or both, but please, it would mean so much to me to reach those 10 votes before the 100 view mark.

EDIT: Thank you all so much for helping me reach the 10 vote mark in the first day everyone who left votes! Yes, even you, First-Downvoter-Who-Left-No-Comment. Now everyone can see the vote ratio, which should help get more people to read. Now, even though I reached the milestone needed, I'd appreciate it if new readers continued to leave votes (especially upvotes) so that it becomes more likely for people to run across this fic, so more can read it. Still, thank you all so much!

Chapter 2: Farewell and A Chance Meeting

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The next several minutes were like a blur: grabbing suitcases, packing clothes, hygiene kits, and various other items into them. Entertainment devices, books, anything they could think of to help them cope with the fact that their Grandpa might not make it.

Once they were outside, waiting for their ride, Kelvin, who was still quite young, looked up to his mother and asked, “Mommy? What’s a stroke?”

His mother shuffled her feet nervously.

“Well… You see…”

Luckily, she was cut short by a small army of unicorns and purple-cloaked humans arriving in a flash of brilliant purple light, bearing a platform filled with rotating rings, like one of those huge gyroscopes.

Standing in the middle was a being who didn’t appear all that human, although they all knew who she was. Being in her presence was an honor. She was covered in purple fur, had squirrel paws jointed like hands under short leather gloves, was wearing short leather boots with separated toes, one per foot was opposable. She wore a purple dress with a mystic eye pattern, a massive book on her back acted almost like it were a cape for her. She had a squirrel’s tail and a chimpanzee’s head topped with long purple hair. She was Chimpanzee the Purple Squirrel: the Mind Consumed.

“Lady Chimp, It’s an honor—” Dean began, only for her to cut him off.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it all the time.” She said in a no-nonsense tone. “Now is not the time for formalities. All of us combined can use this to send you to Canterlot. Luna personally asked me to help. And what can I say? I also love the old coot, so even if Lulu hadn’t asked, I’d be here.”

Dean watched in stunned shock as she spoke to him in such a coarse, informal manner. One of the Consumed, talking like a commoner? She almost sounded… approachable!

“Now, hurry up! No time to lose!” Chimp barked, startling the whole family. “He’s being kept alive on an Elixir of Life prototype. I know none of them really work as intended and have repercussions, but when you’re dying, repercussions don't matter.”

That got everyone moving, and in half a minute, everyone had made it to the platform, not caring about positions besides staying on the platform.

“I’d say happy trails, but that’d kinda be a lie,” Chimp sighed. “Well, give him a hello and a fond goodbye for me, will you?”

Dean nodded, and the small army of spellcasters focused their magic into the device, the rings spinning faster and faster. After a few seconds, Chimp pulled the book off her back, opened it, and turned it so the pages were facing the machine. Her entire body was engulfed in a blinding purple aura, and she cried: “Dimension Gate!” before an ocean of purple Mind magic erupted from the book, into the machine, and in the blink of an eye, they were in Canterlot.

Kenny looked around, getting his first view into the city he’d wanted to visit for years. Unfortunately, he had never planned to do so under such dire circumstances, so the mood was more or less ruined, all he really cared about at the moment was getting to see his grandfather before it was too late.

Some Royal Guards showed up to escort them to the palace medical ward. Apparently, he’d been having a dinner with the Royal Sisters when he collapsed from a stroke. Were it not for Princess Luna’s quick thinking, he’d have died on the spot.

Kenny paid little attention to the palace’s interior as they were led through it, still too concerned for his grandfather to care about anything else.

Eventually, they stopped at a gathering of over fifty other humans, both adults and children. He recognized his two aunts and five uncles and their spouses, but he never could keep track of the army of first and second cousins he had.

The eldest, Stuart Oliver Draper, who everyone just called Oliver, turned to embrace his brother, taking Kenny’s father into a hug.

“So, you’re here,” he said. “Dean, we've just heard, Dad’s not going to make it. Mom’s already said her goodbyes to him, and he’s calling out for each of us in some order that only makes sense to him, it seems. Not by age, not by generation, not even alphabetical, like you might expect from his highly scientific mind. It’s all random. A filly showed up earlier, asking to see him, and I’d just been called. He demanded I let her talk to him first! She’s not even family! What the heck is going through his head? Did the stroke scramble his last vestiges of non-alchemical thought?”

“Trust Dad’s reasoning,” Kenny’s father replied back. “You have to remember he’s also a man of holy duty. He was a bishop for twelve years, you know. Maybe this is God’s doing.”

“I hope you’re right, bro,” Oliver sighed. “Well, might as well talk to everyone else. I didn’t expect to see the Draper army back together until the next reunion in April. Then again, I expected Dad to live until then so I could hear his stories from this conference. Somehow, they always made us laugh. Hearing Mom tell these last ones instead just won’t be the same.”

Kenny found a chair and sat down glumly, head in his hands. He hadn’t wanted to believe it, but now, he’d heard it from a source he couldn’t dispute: his grandfather was dying. His role model, his hero, the man he wanted to be like more than anyone else from both sides of the world. He’d seemed larger than life: a man of science, magic, and great faith. But now, that man was lying in a hospital bed, having surrendered in the fight to stay alive, just bargaining for enough time to talk to all of them one last time.

Kenny started crying, his eyes burning from his own tears. It felt like he was crying acid, but still, he couldn’t stop crying. Members of his family, both immediate and extended, tried to approach him, often putting a hand on his shoulder, but he’d grunt, shake them off, and get back to crying.

This went on for over half an hour, before he felt something else on his shoulder. A… wing?

“What’s troubling you, young human?” The voice sounded kind, caring, but still, he didn’t want to be comforted, so he grunted and shook even her away. But she just put the wing right back.

Since she wasn’t going to give up so easily, Kenny took his face out of his hands and looked up to see the Solar Princess herself smiling sadly down at him.

She was covered in an almost radiant white coat of fur and she wore a concerned yet cold look on her face. While her expression was soft her eyes were tired and weary, as if they had seen tragedy before in many shapes and sizes. Her mane seemed to be almost alive as it moved like a wave of rippling colors. A gilded crown that normally sat atop her head was held to her side in a sign of respect.

Faced with this, Kenny’s heart leaped for one last possible hope. She was a semi-divine! Surely she could give him a more favorable outcome!

After sniffling and wiping his tears, Kenny timidly locked eyes with Celestia and asked, “Is Grandpa gonna be okay?”

Celestia sighed, taking a few seconds to think before answering the desperate human child.

“Young one,” she began gently, “There comes a time for everyone, where he or she must meet the end of his or her journey. Some are short, some are long, some seemingly have no end, yet even my sister and I will one day run out of thread in our place on the grand tapestry of the universe. Faust, the first mare and my mother, died of old age, taking with her the knowledge of pony origin. Concordia, the spirit of Harmony, fell in battle against the Great Nothing. The Consumed shall all one day cross to the other side, to meet the Maker of you humans, although their aging is halted until they have a complete set, and even then, once complete they shall age slower than any other, but still, even they shall one day perish, to make way for a new generation of Consumed to take their place. We cannot stop it, but we can at the very least enjoy life for what it is, make the most of it and celebrate what it gives us before—”

“NO!” Kenny screamed, startling the Solar Diarch. “You’re an Alicorn! Why can’t you do something? I just want you to save him! Use your pony magic to undo whatever is killing him!” He started to cry again. “H-he m-m-means everything to me! I l-l-look up to him! H-h-he’s the k-kind of m-man I w-want to become! I’m n-not ready to lose him! I… I’m too young to be ready to go on without him!” Unable to control his sobs, Kenny wailed, "I STILL NEED HIM!"

Celestia enveloped him in a new embrace, using one wing to wipe his tears. “I know. When my father died, I was almost as heartbroken as you. He was an Alicorn! I thought we were supposed to be immortal! Father tried to console us before he passed on, but one of us would not be comforted so easily: Atlas, our brother, who isn’t mentioned often. He spent all of Father’s remaining time with him, trying to find some comfort, as he was terrified of being the only male Alicorn in the world. But Father spent every last second he had to console our brother, and your grandfather has already informed me he’s going to call you last. Maybe he has the same idea as Father did. But be strong. I’m sure it’s what your grandfather would want.”

Kenny nodded, and smiled through his tears.

“Okay, I’ll try to be strong. For Grandpa.”

Just then, a voice called:

“Kenderick Noah Draper?”

Celestia released Kenny and smiled. “That’s you, isn’t it? I have a feeling he has more to say to you than the rest.”

Nodding, Kenny stood up, took a deep breath, and walked into the medical ward, passing rooms until he found his grandfather in a hospital bed. As Kenny entered the room he slowly approached the withering man once full of youth now drained and dried up. It was as if Kenny was looking at someone completely different from the lively gentlemen he had come to love. Kenny shuddered as he got closer to his grandfather. His face showed many wrinkles that were absent the last time Kenny had visited him. To Kenny’s surprise, a strange machine was feeding a glowing green liquid into his grandfather’s veins.

This was Stuart Oswald Draper: the family patriarch, who lay dying before Kenny’s eyes.

“Hello, Kenny,” Stuart whispered, holding out his right hand, the one on the arm without the IV in it. “Please, come closer so I can tell you some things before I pass on to the paradise that awaits us.”

At these words, Kenny’s newfound resolve shattered. “Grandpa, please, you can’t die yet!” he sniveled, taking his grandfather’s feeble hand in both his own right and left. “I need you! I look up to you! You’re practically a human Starswirl! You can’t just go out like this! W-what about revival spells? I-I recently learned Current of Rebirth! I could just cast it now and—”

“And nothing would change,” Stuart cut in, wheezing. “Those only work on those whose time has not yet come and are not yet fifteen hours postmortem. I may fit the second, but I can tell, my most favorite grandson, my time is almost up. I requested you to be last so I’ll spend my last moments with you and my darling Beth.”

Then Kenny looked up to find his grandmother, Beth, seated on the other side, holding her dying husband’s other hand, a sad smile on her face, as if she had already come to terms with the inevitable hours ago, and was just trying to cherish every last second she had with him as she could.

“Listen to him, please,” she urged her grandson. “He’s said goodbye to everyone else, even me. But he had more to say to you.”

After taking a moment to recover from the shock that his grandfather viewed him as his favorite, Kenny nodded, wiping his tears.

“And what’s that, Grandpa?” he asked quietly.

“Three years ago, I told you you were special,” Stuart wheezed. “Now, I see more. With the veil so thin, and Azrael himself waiting to guide me through, I can see everything the heavens have for you in the grand design. But, my time is short. You’re far more special. Heed my old advice about not everything being in books, and you will do great things. Be remembered long after even I’m forgotten! You are the key to a great many things, and yes, books will help you along your way, but if you put your trust in them to hold your hand the whole way, they will betray you in the end, leaving you high and dry, with the many great things you could accomplish just out of reach forever.”

“Y-you mean… Sorcery?” Kenny gasped. He’d never considered trying that method! Sorcery required setting the books aside and relying on experimentation and trial and error. Sure, all spells could only be created by dabbling in a bit of sorcery, but he’d never considered that it might be what he needed!

“A bit of it, yes,” his grandfather chuckled before erupting into a coughing fit. “Because, although most would call me an Alchemy wizard, at some point, the books ran out of answers. The number of pages in the world is finite. There will never be an infinite amount. A book with every work of writing in it would have a final chapter, and still not tell you everything. I found the limit of what the texts could tell me, and then I turned to the methods of sorcerers. But you, you must turn there sooner! There will be a point where you will have to choose. If you choose books at that point, you doom yourself to obscurity. But if you choose sorcery, at that point, you’ll climb to greater heights.”

“But when you’re gone, I won’t have you for a role model anymore!” Kenny exclaimed, still not ready to let his grandfather go.

“Who says a role model has to be alive?” Stuart chuckled, biting off a cough before it could start. “Explorers still wish to be like Columbus, who made first contact with ponies on the high seas! He’s been dead for centuries! The people of Audruce still hold their Presidents to the standards of Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan! And those three are all dead! Use my life and legacy, my boy! That’s what I want you to use as a role model after I’m gone! But I’ll never be completely gone.”

“Right, we’ll all be reunited on the other side, a family again,” Kenny began, but Stuart shook his head.

“Not then. Sooner,” his grandfather whispered. “I will be your guardian angel, and if something goes bad enough, I’ll contact you. Sometimes, your gut feeling will be me, not yourself or the Comforter. But if things get even worse, I’ll talk to you. Now, farewell for now. Until we meet again in joy on the other side.”

“Until we meet again in joy on the other side,” Kenny repeated, his Grandmother also repeating the words of the way their particular sect said goodbye to the departing.

And then Stuart’s eyes closed, and the monitor flatlined.

In spite of trying to be strong the whole time, when his grandfather died in front of him, the dam burst, and Kenny buried his face in his dead grandfather’s chest, sobbing and wailing as the pain all hit him at once.

“No! Come back!” he blubbered. “Just a few more minutes, Grandpa! How about seconds?” Turning to the being who was now escorting his grandfather to the afterlife, he begged for the angel to give them more time. “Please! Azrael, angel of death, bring him back! Just a little more time! That’s all I ask! He can go with you after, but I wasn’t ready for it to hurt this much! Grandpa, come back! Just let me say goodbye once more!”

Anguish turned to anger, as the young boy felt fury building towards his creator for the first time in his life.

“Father in Heaven, father of the entire human race, why?” He screamed. “They say You love us because You’re our literal Father! How can any Father allow this to happen to His children and call it fair? How is this loving? His time to die determined by a stroke? How could You allow this? And Moth—”

Suddenly, he was stopped by his Grandmother’s hand on his shoulder, still smiling sadly, but shaking her head at him.

“He’d finished his mission, Kenny,” she explained, “everybody dies someday, when their mortal quest is complete. This is how it has been since the beginning, when the first death brought mortality into the world in truth.” Suddenly, her frown turned stern. “I heard who you were about to start screaming at. We do not invoke Her name for a reason, didn’t your parents tell you that? The Wife of the Father, the Mother of us all is never to be addressed so those without knowledge of Her existence won’t come to know of Her and abuse her name like they do our Father’s. It’s the same reason why the Royal Sisters rarely bring up their father. The ponies don’t even know his name, so that they can’t abuse it.”

Kenny sniffled and wiped his tears. “I… I’m sorry Grandma.”

The sternness faded, and a visage of peace overtook her earlier frown.

“Well, Kenny, make sure They know you’re sorry,” his grandmother said gently. “Both of Them. Pray to the Father tonight to ask Him to tell Her that you’re sorry.”

Kenny nodded and together, the two of them left, heading back to the massive family that had just lost half of the parental duo that held them together.

Oliver was the first to ask.

“So, is Dad…?”

Kenny nodded sadly.

“Yes Uncle Oliver. Grandpa’s gone. He’s waiting for us on the other side, now, where we can all rebuild our family there.”

Kenny’s mother took him and hugged him tight. “I heard you crying in there, but not what you said. But here you come out sounding all mature? What happened in there, Kenny?”

Kenny wasn’t quite certain himself, but he thought for a moment, and after ninety seconds, he came to a realization:

“Grandpa was teaching me a few things, Mom, and Grandma and Princess Celestia all said some things to me, too. I think they just finally clicked.”

Kenny’s mother simply stared for a few seconds before hugging him again. “Looks like you’ll one day make a fine young man. But you’ll always still be my little boy!”

“Mom! You’re embarrassing me!” Kenny hissed.

“Look around you!” his mother chuckled. “All family, everywhere you look! They won’t mind!”

Kenny did look around, but he saw two non-humans a ways off: Celestia, who had helped him quite a bit, and a lavender unicorn filly with a starburst cutie mark crying her eyes out. It seemed the Princess was trying to comfort her, but was failing, somehow.

Breaking free of his mother’s embrace, Kenny started to walk over towards the pair. As he approached the two he could make out some finer details on the small filly as she bawled her large eyes out. Her mane and tail were a deeper purple than her fur and contained a solid streak of pink shooting through her hair and her tail as well. The fur near her muzzle was disheveled and unkempt. A few strands of hair apart from her mane were sticking out in a crazed fashion. Her eyes held a tinge of red likely due to the crying, however they also contained a deep purple similar to her fur in her eyes. Now close to them Kenny could hear what they were saying:

“I’m trying to tell you: for humans, the goodbye is not forever, and—”

“Not what I meant!” the filly wailed, cutting off the Princess. “Their books do say that, but what about me? Will I ever see him again? He was the only human I could connect with! Like a human version of Starswirl the Bearded, but alive! And now he’s not!”

Celestia took a deep breath, as if she’d been trying this same lecture for the past half hour or so, and it still had yet to leave a dent in this filly who apparently was grieving the death of his grandfather.

Clearing his throat, he got both ponies’ attention. Celestia smiled at him, but the filly just stiffened for a few seconds before resuming her crying.

“May I try please, your Highness?” Kenny requested, head bowed.

The Diarch simply smiled and nodded before adding, “He’s your grandfather. It’s within your right. My permission isn’t needed.”

“Excuse me,” Kenny said gently, trying to imitate how his grandmother had spoken after he’d apologized. “Why are you mourning my grandpa’s death? Did you know him? Were you a fan of him or his work?”

The filly finally responded to him by nodding after the final question, but she didn’t stop crying.

“Y-yes,” she sniffled. “H-he was th-the closest thing t-to St-Starswirl in living f-form! B-but now he’s dead, too!”

The filly started bawling again, until Kenny placed a hand gently on her shoulder.

“Hey, I know it hurts,” Kenny said, gently turning the filly’s head to look him in the eyes. “He passed away right in front of me, and even with what I know, the pain hit me hard. He’s my role model. He told me role models don’t need to be alive, and I guess that means heroes, too. Lives may come and go, but their deeds are immortal. Who knows? Maybe someday, the world will remember one or both of us like they do him!”

Instead of being comforted and encouraged like Kenny expected, the filly actually stiffened again, backing up and pulling herself free, staring at him like he’d grown a second head.

“Are you insane?” the filly demanded. “He’s your grandfather! How could you be so casual about his legacy and be so disrespectful?”

“How am I being disrespectful?” Kenny looked back at Twilight, utterly confounded by what she was trying to say. “I have no doubts what he did will be talked about for years to come, just like Starswirl.”

“That wasn't what I was saying. How can you be so calm after watching him die?“

Kenny stared back, himself confused. He knew ponies for the most part didn’t understand his point of view. Most who believed as he did were themselves human. But, even so, she had mentioned books. Likely she meant the scriptures his family believed in. So, how could she not understand even an inkling, to the point where she’d react in that way? So, he voiced his confusion to her.

“Wait, didn’t you read our standard works?” he inquired, tilting his head to express how he felt. “You sound like you have, so why would you accuse me of such a thing?”

Unfortunately, the filly seemed even more upset at that one.

“Yes, I read them,” she huffed. “Reading your confusing books was part of my early studies! But I still don’t get it! How can you say what you’re saying when he’s gone and not feel ashamed about it?”

At this, Kenny faltered. He had the feelings, but not the vocabulary. He was after all, only nine years old, and only had a standard human education for a boy his age. He didn’t know such big words yet, so he stumbled in his attempt to explain.

“Um… Well,” he searched his brain, trying to find the words. He had a very formidable reading level for his age, but that didn’t mean he knew how to express himself in words he usually kept a pocket dictionary on hand for. A pocket dictionary he’d left home by accident. “You see, how do I put this… In what we believe, the next life is… um… uh… not that simple? There’s far better words for that, but I don’t know them. It’s… a place where families are reunited. Grandpa is going to be there… looking down and watching. I… want to make him proud. He’s dead, but everything here he did didn’t go with him. I want him to tell me how proud of me he is when I see him again, and—”

“You already said you wanted to make him proud,” the filly cut in, tapping her hoof impatiently.

“Right,” Kenny admitted, beginning to sweat. “Well, every living thing has his or her time to pass on? I offered to save Grandpa with my magic, with a spell I only recently learned, so I didn’t know the limitations. Grandpa told me that it wouldn’t make a difference. His time had come. Even the Princess couldn’t do anythi—”

“What?” the filly shrieked, now staring at Celestia in horror, who grimaced in response. “But you’re the Princess! How can’t you help?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” the Princess sighed, gazing at the filly patiently. “When one’s time is up, no matter how small or vast that period may be, all we can do is immortalize what we have left: memories and achievements. Even I don’t know about the spiritual aspects of ponies. Mother took that with her to her grave. In time, that may be revealed, but until then, we should do all we can to celebrate that which we do understand: life.”

“But, I still don’t understand!” the filly insisted before running off. Kenny stretched out a hand, but the Princess held up a hoof and shook her head.

“Let her go,” Celestia told him, her voice caring but bordering on distant, “she’s confused. Give her time, and maybe you’ll get another chance soon. You have a funeral to plan for and a will to carry out, after all.”

With a nod, Kenny simply looked down at his feet, walking over to his family, not saying another word, but his thoughts still lingered on the filly for hours. What more could he have said? The leaders of his faith would probably have words of wisdom in spades, but him? He was a boy of nine. He had knowledge far beyond most his age, but wisdom? Definitely not.

Author's Notes:

Hope you enjoyed the second chapter! Yes, I know, some can't stand religion showing up in fics, but it was in the dream it was based off of, and plays a kinda important role as things move forward, so I had to keep it. If you really can't stomach religion bad enough that you have to stop reading, that's fine. I wish you luck in finding a new, engaging fic to read instead.

Anyway, so, Kenny's grandpa dies (cue the feels!), and we meet the other main character of this story! Kenny doesn't get her name, but let's be honest, we all know who she is.

Just so you know, the way Kenny's Grandfather dies is actually a form of wish fulfillment for me: My Grandpa also suffered a stroke, at a huge chemistry conference. The impact with the ground killed him, so I never got to say goodbye. He was my hero, and I never got to even tell him goodbye. For all these years, that's what I've wished I could have done the most: bid him goodbye before he passed on.

Okay, from now on, my upload schedule will be either every Monday, or every other Monday. not quite sure which yet. Please leave an honest comment, and please let me know what you think of the story so far in the comments below! (Just be constructive with criticism. That's all I ask.)

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and see you in the next chapter!

EDIT: Sorry about the unpublish and republish of this chapter. There were enough issues to merit an unpublishing so I could work on fixing the multiple issues before publishing it again.

Chapter 3: Kenny, Meet Twilight

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Weeks passed, until, in late September, Kenny’s extended family gathered again, along with friends and fans of the deceased, filling a small chapel in Portston, Archipellaga to near-bursting. Kenny was seated in the front row, in a pew on the right-hand side. A quick glance to his left told him that filly from a few weeks ago had come as well. Then again, he didn’t have to look, as she had been crying loudly when she had first entered, but all the eyes on her had quickly silenced her. Apparently, she was somewhat shy, like himself.

The talks from friends and family dragged on for almost an hour, and though Kenny tried to pay attention to all of them, he couldn’t really. Not with that strange filly still in the back of his head. Besides, he’d heard quite a few of these stories before, from his own grandfather, no less.

He’d asked if he could speak, but apparently, his grandfather had asked in his will that he not, because their relationship was far too personal to share with so many. Kenny felt that others might benefit, but he was not about to dishonor the wishes of the departed.

Many talked about the high moments of Stuart Draper’s life, including how he had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the computer age by Kenny’s father and his aunt Francine. His grandfather had been convinced that he could always do everything with a typewriter.

This was how his faith differed from others: make the occasion happy. Sure, they’d lost a person they loved, but it wasn’t forever, so why should they weep and wail at what was merely a point of reflection to tide them over until meeting again?

Eventually, the service in the chapel ended, and they filed outside to follow the casket to the gravesite. Kenny tried to talk to the filly again, but she just ignored him. This was getting beyond frustrating.

Upon reaching the site, as the pallbearers approached, Kenny heard the filly sniffle from right next to him and decided he had to get to the bottom of this. His curiosity was burning with the desire to find out what was making her so resistant to what he was trying to tell her, so he turned to face her so he could ask her some things.

“Hey, why are you sobbing so much?” He asked as he turned to face her, speaking as gently as he could. “Didn’t you hear that this is only temporary? They were saying it at the funeral over and over.”

The filly shook her head. Apparently, she still remembered him from a few weeks back, and his failure to explain things to her well was still fresh in her mind.

Sighing, Kenny thought hard, choosing his words carefully. Something told him he had to get through to her. It was very important, although he didn’t know exactly why, he knew who was telling him that, and he wasn’t about to ignore divine promptings.

“Look,” he whispered, taking a step closer, “I understand how it must feel, losing someone you care about, even idolize. I idolized him too. He’s not just family, but one of my greatest role models. I look up to him more than my own parents. Seeing him so weak when he’d always been so strong despite his age was crushing to me. But you know? I know this isn’t the end. I’ll see him again. I know I will. And that gives me comfort.”

“But will that apply to me?” she sobbed even harder. “The books have nothing about what happens to ponies!”

So, that was the issue. There were no records of the secrets of pony spirituality because Faust took that knowledge to her grave. The filly was rightly confused. But, Kenny wasn’t going to give up on that.

Chuckling slightly, he helped her dry her eyes and explained gently, “Not all books are equal. These are special books called scriptures. Not all books of scripture can be right, because they conflict. But, because of how human magic works, based on spirit and divine energy, we know someone put us here. But the question isn’t did someone put us here, but instead, who is that someone?”

“I know something did that,” the filly huffed. “You’d have to be stupid to think it all just happened with all that evidence. But…” The filly swallowed hard, as if the next part was difficult, tears welling up in her eyes again. “So many versions, how can anything alive know one above the other? Why didn’t whoever put us here just tell us? And how can you prove you’re more correct? It makes no sense!”

Smiling, he hugged her gently to comfort her, like a friend would, then recited what he’d been taught in children’s’ religious classes every Sunday since he was four. “Many take a dark and wrathful approach, to scare others into doing good,” he told her, shaking his head at the foolish notion. “But ours? It was only recently founded, a couple hundred years ago, in fact. So, when we first heard our founder declare our doctrines to us, they sounded friendlier, almost fatherly in nature. Parental, like the semi-divine figures on your side of the world. So, we felt it made no sense for your semi-divines to be kinder individuals than a full-divine. A perfect being would be perfectly kind, like the perfect parent. So, with that and my personal feelings I get after prayer in mind, I’m pretty sure we’re correct.”

“But even your books don’t say much about us,” she sniffled.

“The scriptures aren’t the entirety of the doctrine,” he explained. “And even then, faith is a huge factor. But, I know it isn’t a truly happy occasion, as I won’t see him again for a long time. Oh, Grandpa, I hope I don’t mess things up.”

The filly was suddenly very interested. “He was, er… is your grandfather? You said that before, right?”

“Yeah,” Kenny replied, smiling sadly. “At his passing, he wanted to see me last. Told me a lot of things, including how I’m his favorite grandson, and that after passing, he’d be my guardian angel.”

“His favorite?” the filly exclaimed, leaping up and down. “Can we talk after the funeral? My name’s Twilight Sparkle!”

“The filly from that news report?” now it was his turn to get overexcited. “When I saw it, I wanted to meet you so bad! I bet you’d love my encyclopedia collection!”

Her eyes sparkled with excitement. “You love books, too?”

Kenny grinned. “Of course I do! And yes, we should most definitely talk after this. My name’s Kenderick Noah Draper, but I prefer Kenny.”

Nodding, Twilight smiled. “Thanks, Kenny. I think I feel a bit better now.”

Kenny nodded as well, but said nothing, as it was time to watch the coffin be lowered into the grave.

A half hour later, they’d returned to the chapel, where a dinner had been set up in the cultural hall. Kenny’s family were all eating in silence. Even Kris was more subdued than usual, and the lack of conversation was starting to get to the nine-year-old boy.

Just as he was about to take a bite of his funeral potatoes, he heard a feminine clearing of a throat behind him.

Turning around, he found himself face-to-face with Twilight, who was looking at the ground, shuffling her hooves.

“Um… Kenny, right?” She mumbled. “Can I sit with you? My family’s kind of…” Trailing off, she looked back at a table where three unicorns were sitting, the white teenaged colt was slumped in his chair, looking at his food as several families, both human and pony glared at him. “Shining cracked a joke at your grandfather’s expense, so…”

“Say no more,” Kenny chuckled, taking his suit coat off the empty eighth chair next to him. “Here. have a seat.”

“Thanks,” the filly said before taking the offered chair. “So, I know we were going to talk more after, but do you think we could talk now?”

“With how silent everyone is here?” Kenny sighed and nodded. “I welcome it. So, Twilight? What’s it like being Celestia’s student?”

“Hard,” the filly grumbled. “Sure, it’s great and all, but she’s very demanding right now. I want to study magic! Not perform mundane tasks and take tests!”

“Grandpa spoke highly of her at family reunions,” Kenny offered, trying to lighten her mood. “He always managed to bring back ten or more funny stories from each conference, and since she always attended, what with being on the High Council and all, he somehow managed to always get a new story involving her, too. Hey, did you know that she actually forgot his name in front of the whole Council?”

The filly’s eyes went wide. “You’re kidding!”

“Nope,” Kenny chuckled. “She actually called him ‘Stupid Oswald Draper’ when she was awarding him the Alchemical Medal of Prosperity for his findings on how to improve the search for the Elixir of Life. Chrysalis actually passed out from laughing too hard. It made Discord chuckle, too.”

“How did he react?” Twilight inquired, leaning in to hear every word.

“He took it in stride,” Kenny said with a huge smile. “In his own quirky way, of course.” Clearing his throat, Kenny did his best impression of an elderly gentleman’s voice. “‘Yes, only the most stupid can excel in Alchemy! That’s why I’m announcing that I’m taking Her Majesty as my student! She’ll be better than me in a week!’”

Twilight burst out laughing herself, hiding her face in her hooves as she tried to stop giggling.

“So, Twilight, what happened with that dragon?” Kenny asked after she calmed down. “I heard Celestia took him after she fixed everything. Do you know anything about him?”

“Not much,” the filly admitted. “The Princess took custody of him, and that’s the last I saw of him. At least for now. She said she’s considering adding him to my studies, but what good would raising a baby dragon do me?”

“You’d be surprised,” Kris suddenly cut in. “Grandpa had a pet dragon from Joyrland. The little bundle of energy really helped him understand Power magic and its dual emotional and draconic origins. The fellow was clever, too. He actually made that stuffed dragon Kenny studies with and sleeps with every night.”

Kenny went red in the face. “Kris! We don’t talk about Memo outside the house!”

“Correction: you don’t talk about Memo,” Kim snickered. “My friends find it a riot that my nine-year-old brother still sleeps with a stuffed animal!”

Kenny buried his face in his hands, but a tap on his shoulder brought his eyes to meet his sister’s. As she sneered at him, she reached into her backpack, pulling out a felt stuffed blue quadrupedal dragon with glasses and a notebook attached to one foreclaw and a pencil attached to the other.

“‘Kenny doesn’t like talking about me…’” she said in a very fake ‘bouncy’ male voice, “‘I just wanna meet all of Kenny’s friends!’”

“Sis…” Kenny said between clenched teeth, “Hand him over. Give Memo back, now.”

“Or what?” Kim snickered. “Mom and Dad aren’t doing anything! So why should I care?”

Kenny turned to his parents. His mother was turned around, chatting with one of his aunts, while his father was watching, but was merely looking concerned, but more interested.

Before Kenny could ask his father to step in, a purple field engulfed his sister’s hand, forcing it open. A look to his left confirmed it: Twilight was intervening, and she looked none too happy.

As Memo was floated over to him, the filly spoke.

“That’s not funny. How would you like it if something important was taken from you?”

“I’d hate it,” Kim said simply. “But the important thing is I keep my wolf collection under lock and key. Why’d you have to come along and ruin the fun?”

“I may not know what you do,” Twilight replied, “But wouldn’t your grandfather not like seeing you fight?”

That caused Kimberly to flinch, and after huffing in frustration, she suddenly became very interested in her food.

“Thanks,” Kenny chuckled. “So, why’d you get all defensive over Memo? I appreciate it, after all, Bouncy put a lot of effort into him—Bouncy was Grandpa’s dragon pet—but that’s only why I care about him so much.”

“Because I’d hate it if Shining did something like that with Smarty Pants,” the filly explained. “You see—”

“You have a Smarty Pants doll?” Kenny cut in. “That’s what Bouncy based Memo off of! He had one, too! Well, until he burned it by accident as a teen. I’m actually shocked Bouncy’s not here. He’s getting up there, and Grandpa released him last year, but you’d think a Mesmrowyrm would’ve—”

“Bouncy couldn’t make it,” Kris sighed. “I’m the one who answered the phone call. He’s entertaining a ‘guest’ this week.”

Twilight was stunned. “A Mesmrowyrm? You mean those Hominian dragons with hypnosis powers? Why raise one of them?”

“They’re smart,” Kenny said as simply as if he were saying the sky was blue. “I mean, raising one from an egg ensures its loyalty to you and your family. Not for your life, but for its life. They hypnotize those who want knowledge to humiliate them before teaching them, but you can get around that if they see you as family. Friends of family count, too.”

“Wait, they use it for that?” Twilight exclaimed, “I mean, sure, mind control is a negative power no matter how you slice it, but that’s just cruel, even by mind control standards!”

“Well, that’s how Mesmrowyrms do things,” Kenny replied with a shrug. “Acquiring a servant for them is a survival mechanism: they don’t have to hunt to acquire their own food, and when you’re at least sixteen feet tall as an adult, hunting becomes hard because most animals are a lot smaller, will see or even hear you coming, and run away, even with your hypnosis powers. That, and they use it to entertain themselves because it can get boring living in a cave alone for long periods of time.”

“That’s… Interesting, I guess,” Twilight said, sounding a bit disturbed, before changing the subject. “So, do you like computer games? I know most computers only are designed for humans or ponies, but the Hybrid X6 my family has carries that new Mergenet game. Have you heard of Cave Game?”

“No,” Kenny said with a shake of his head. “It it any good?”

“It’s amazing!” Twilight gushed. “Sure, the graphics are a bit backwards, but it’s a world of blocks where you can play as a human or pony. There’s supposed to be updates for more races later. You start out with nothing, and you work to survive to basically become master of that world! You can play with friends, but,” her ears drooped. “Nopony wants to play with me.”

“Could you teach me?” Kenny asked excitedly. “Please! It sounds like it’d be a lot of fun!”

“I don’t know if I’d have time,” the filly muttered. “I mean, Celestia gave me five days for this, and I’d have to come with you, and the trip—”

“Would take no time at all, if you ask,” a female voice said from behind them.

Looking back, they saw a pink figure with a dragon pattern dress smirking down at them.

“Hiya!” The newcomer gushed, waving a wing-arm in greeting. “New friends? That’s always great! Allow me to—”

“Hey, Lady Wyvern,” Kenny said with a wave, cutting the heraldic dragon/wyvern hybrid off.

“Oh, come on!” she huffed, stomping a foot, her talons clicking against the hardwood floor. “You robbed me of the best part! Don’t you know it’s a bad idea to tick off a Consumed?”

“I’ve met a few, and they all seemed nice,” Twilight countered. “Why do you say that?”

“Fine,” she growled. “It’s a bad idea to tick me off. Wyvern the Pink Herald? My Element’s Power? Dragons and emotions? Get the picture?”

“What do you want?” Twilight grumbled, “We were in the middle of a conversation.”

“What’s with that attitude?” Wyvern sighed. “I was going to offer my help is all! I’m the only one who could make it to the funeral. Also, I’m the youngest, what with only being eighty myself, although I look eighteen, so I wanted to represent us for once, and Bear, our leader, finally said yes. I just wanted to be friendly, and although I’m not Chimp with her Miss ‘I-Can-Teleport-Everyone-On-The-Whole-Planet-At-Once-With-My-Pinky’ powers, I can still help you out. One filly should be easy enough for little old me, all you have to say is please!”

“Okay, seriously, what do you want?” Kenny sighed. “We’re kind of in the middle of something.”

Wyvern’s eye twitched.

“Kid, I’m trying to be nice. Don’t make me Draco Rampage your face!” Suddenly, she was all sunshine once more. “Of course, it’s a very cute face, don’t take that the wrong way! I’m old enough to be your grandma!”

“If I say please, will you go away?” Twilight snickered.

“Ugh!” Wyvern groaned, throwing up her hands in frustration. “Yes, little filly, if that’s what you want, then fine.” Once again, she was back to her bubbly self in seconds. “But, if you change your mind, just ask. I can carry one filly across the ocean on my back no problem!”

With a wink, she spread out the wings on her back and flew out of the room, leaving the group alone once more.

“What’s her problem?” Twilight wondered out loud.

“Beats me,” Kenny shrugged. “She seems more like an embodiment than the other twenty. I feel sorry for whoever ends up getting the Water seat, having to put up with her for thousands of years. I thought Power required control of emotions, not being controlled by them.”

“Can you imagine if that somehow ended up being you?” Twilight giggled.

“For the love of all that is holy, please no.” Kenny shuddered. “Not with someone like her in the group.”

“Well, can you tell me more about your grandfather?” Twilight inquired. “I mean, I know quite a bit about him already, what with being a fan and all, but for you, he’s family! Was there anything that went on behind the scenes, so to speak, that helped him get so good?”

Kenny chuckled. “Well, he practically absorbed his profession into his every thought. Studied it to insane levels until he basically dreamed alchemy. Always on his brain, making him forget the names of everyday things just to make room for more alchemy. Family reunion dinners had him constantly saying ‘pass the whatchit’, even when he wanted something as simple as salt, pepper, or a glass of water!”

Twilight erupted into a small fit of giggles at that, taking a few seconds before waving him on with a hoof.

“He kept forgetting the names of all of us grandchildren, too,” Kenny sighed. “‘Wooden-head Puddin’-head Jones’. All of us. Too many of us, and far too much alchemy in that head of his. He even went so far, the books ran out of answers!”

At that, Twilight stopped giggling, staring in disbelief. “But, everything’s in books!”

“I thought books were everything myself,” Kenny said with a shake of his head. “But before he passed on, Grandpa told me he had to delve into sorcery at that point. He went from a man who studied the books, to a man who wrote them. His search for the path to the Elixir of Life actually encountered the ‘Absolute Nothing’ phenomenon, but he advised against using it. He said there’s something… off… about it.”

“What did he mean by that?” the filly asked next, leaning closer to not miss a word.

“I don’t really know,” Kenny admitted. “Just that using it would be a huge mistake, a mistake far greater than just how it would impact alchemy.”

“You know?” Twilight said next, placing a hoof over Kenny’s shoulder, “I think I actually would like to see where you live. I’ll have to ask my parents first, but I think I’ll take You-Know-Who up on her offer.”

“It’s really cold where we live,” Kenny warned. “We live in the Frozen North.”

“I’ll be fine,” she giggled. “I’ve wanted to see the Frozen North of Hominia for quite a while, you know. I’ll bring my scarf, a hat, maybe a jacket, too. That should do it, right?”

“If you want to come home a popsicle,” Kenny snickered. “I’ve lived there for years, and even I still need to bundle up like an Eskimo before setting foot outside. If you want to see everything the outdoors has in the Frozen North, you’ll need a lot more than that.”

“How could it possibly get that cold?” the filly demanded, sounding quite confused.

“In the summer, it rarely gets hotter than forty degrees,” Kenny said simply. “And that’s not for very long. This time of year? It’s often around sixteen degrees. We’re talking about the site of the former Ice Kingdom. Their magic thrived in the bitter cold, and they had the power to reshape the air patterns to push away heat and maximize the cold. Only Tundaria near the South Pole is colder, but few live there because even the Ice Kingdom’s colonies gave up and returned home. Still, I’d recommend a parka, snow pants, fur boots, one of those Ruffsian hats for cold the Diamond Dogs wear might not be a bad idea, either. Otherwise, you’ll spend the whole trip indoors!”

Twilight’s eyes were huge after taking this all in.

“Oh,” the filly said quietly. “Well, I can get all of that! No problem! Shining’s training for the Royal Guard, and I could probably get him to lend me his cold assault uniform!”

“Are you sure you want to use a military uniform?” Kenny cautioned. “It may be a bit big, not to mention heavy.”

“I’ll think of something!” Twilight insisted as she got out of the chair. “See you later, Kenny!” With a smile and a wave, she trotted back to her family, and the rest of the day carried on without incident.

Author's Notes:

Hello! Welcome back again! What do you mean, it's April Fools' Day? I'm supposed to put up a prank chapter for a day? No thanks.

So, things are starting to get somewhere! Our female lead has introduced herself, and plans for a future meetup have been set!

Anyway, the usual crap: if you like, please upvote, loved it, please still upvote in addition to your fave, didn't like it? Fine, but please leave me a comment on what I did wrong so I can learn from my mistakes before you just downvote and leave forever, If you had any other opinions please also put them in comments, as it turns out comments help popularity, too. If you find a group this would fit I that I haven't put it in, please just add it to it for more exposure.

Well, hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

See you next chapter!

Chapter 4: A Tour Gone Wrong

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The next day, Kenny was back home playing a virtual tank simulator called “Spectre Ultimate” on his private bedroom computer when the sound of the doorbell ringing distracted him. A smile engulfed the lower half of his face, only for him to hear an explosion and a voice say “Cybernet overload” from his computer. The words “GAME OVER” filled the screen.

“Aw, no! I was a hundred points away from an extra life and one flag away from beating level eighty seven!” he whined. “Stupid Hunter Killer!”

The doorbell rang again, and his smile came back in full force.

“I’ll get it!” he screamed, bursting through the door to his room, running to the stairs and tromping down them two at a time.

Wrenching open the door, Kenny’s smile grew even wider as he found himself face-to-face with Twilight, with a certain pink dragon/human standing next to her in what appeared to be five layers of coats, but still shivering badly.

“Hey, Kenny!” the filly chirped. “May I come in?”

“Sure!” Kenny replied. “Good thing you bundled up like I told you, huh?”

“No kidding!” The filly exclaimed as she trotted into the house, “That makes winter in Canterlot seem like summer!”

“N-n-now, I-I’ll b-b-be b-b-back t-tomorrow,” Wyvern forced out, her sawlike teeth chattering. “W-why is it s-so c-c-cold? I hate ice and snow!”

“You’re bundled tighter than a baked potato,” Kenny deadpanned. “You should be roasting in that!”

“W-well I’m n-not!” she huffed. “I-I’m w-weak to the c-cold!”

“Well, at least the flight should warm you up some,” Twilight remarked. “Bye, Lady Wyvern!”

Grumbling, Wyvern spread both her wing-arms and her back wings, using the four limbs to take back to the air. Once she was out of sight, they closed the door, and Kenny sat on the bottom stair while Twilight started peeling off the winter clothing.

“So, if it gets down to sixteen in the fall,” the filly paused as she carefully stepped out of the pair of snow pants, “how cold do the winters get?”

“Minus eight,” Kenny replied flatly, nodding when Twilight paused to stare in disbelief. “The coldest day here on record was minus forty, but that was decades ago. The daily snowstorm actually turned into an ice storm. They still talk about it today. They had to evacuate to the caverns because homes were buried under sheets of ice over ten feet thick in some places.”

“Wow,” Twilight breathed in amazement. “The temperature where both scales meet?”

“Yep,” Kenny said with a nod. “The only time scientists actually can use a metric thermometer outside the lab and not look stupid doing it.”

“Metric isn’t stupid!” Twilight huffed. “So what if the common folk all use Imperial everywhere! Metric is the system of science! For the intelligent!”

“And that’s fine,” Kenny sighed. “As long as it stays in the lab and doesn’t leave it. How often can a kid like me find the speed of light in a vacuum without lab equipment? If I don’t have a meter stick, how am I supposed to measure it? If I want to measure a yard without a stick, I can just grab one of my Dad’s belts! Standard human male belts are all exactly thirty-six inches! And inches? Most families have grain stores just in case! Three barley grains is one inch! Easy!”

“But…” Twilight paused, apparently trying to salvage her argument. “But what about the huge jump from yard to mile?”

Kenny chuckled.

“Silly filly,” he said with a shake of his head. “There’s no huge jump! One chain is twenty-two yards. We have a standard chain cable out back in case we ever need it. One furlong is ten chains, an acre is a chain by a furlong, an acre-foot is a chain by a furlong by a foot, and a mile is eight furlongs. No problem! I learned that last year in third grade! What are they teaching you ponies over there?”

“Oh…” Was all she could say in reply. By the look in her eyes, her head had to be spinning. “I studied magic more than other subjects. Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns pushes a bit more on Metric. The headmistress is kind of obsessed with Napoleon and his failed attempt to Metricify the world. I wondered why she freaked out when I brought a barley bread sandwich from home on the first day. Why detention over a sandwich?”

“Now that’s just plain stupid,” Kenny grunted. “Imperial has held up this world for over fifteen hundred years. Why change now?”

Twilight giggled, then levitated a suitcase in front of her. “Can you show me to your room? Mom and Dad gave me a sleeping bag for tonight, and I’d like to get everything set up first.”

“Oh!” Kenny was slightly startled by the sudden change in subject, but quickly recovered. “Sure! My room’s upstairs! Right this way!”

Kenny slowly walked up the stairs, the filly following behind. Upon arriving at the landing on the second floor, he turned right, following the railing that kept people from falling from the second floor to the stairs to his bedroom, holding the door open for his new friend.

“Right over there,” he said, pointing to where Keith’s bed used to be. “You can set your stuff up right there. After that, I’d like to show you our treehouse in the woods! You saw the trees right behind the house, right?”

Twilight nodded as she opened her suitcase and started floating things out of it.

“We built a pretty nice treehouse back there,” Kenny explained. “Only this family uses it anymore, but Silver Shot, Fire Heart and Blizzard used to hang out with us before their families moved away.”

“Who were they?” the filly asked.

“Unicorn twins—a colt and a filly,” he explained, “And a hybrid dragon. His mom’s from the Dragon Lands on your side of the world, while his dad’s a Frost Fang. Native to the Frozen Wastes. The colt and filly also had mixed parents, though. Their dad’s human. They had a human sister, too, but she was a real stick in the mud.”

“Mixed race families do sometimes have rifts like that,” Twilight noted with a nod. “One of my classmates is way too obsessed with your kind. She’s fallen head over hooves for this human boy from the other side of Canterlot who attends the Merlin Magic Academy for Human Spellshapers, and I can’t see why. If they do mix, it could result in a broken family where their children divide on race lines.”

“It’s her choice,” Kenny admitted with a grimace. “And his. What’s her name, by the way?”

“Lyra,” Twilight huffed. “As soon as she ran into that Spencer Jackson boy, her entire bedroom was converted into a shrine to him! It’s ridiculous!”

“That’s not healthy for a filly of nine years old,” Kenny noted with heavy concern. “Maybe her parents should check to make sure she doesn’t have Hyper Anthrophillia Disorder.”

“It’s mainly just him,” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “I don’t think she’s that bad. Anyway, how about that treehouse?”

“I don’t want to get bundled up just for that,” Kenny muttered, looking around. “Now, where is it? Silver made one for each of us…”

Kenny walked past Twilight to the front window and the toy box on the floor in front of it, opening it, he started rifling through the contents.

A LEGO set. “No.” A box of army men. “No.” A 3d chess set. “No.” His chemistry set. “No.” Then his hand closed around a crystal sphere filled with sparkling silver magic. “Bingo.”

“Kenny? What’s that?” The filly asked, her eyes wide.

“This?” Kenny chuckled. “A pocket teleport spell. Silver Shot placed the matrix for it into this spell capture ball. It’s two-way, so we can get back easily, too. So, wanna see what’s inside?”

“Won’t it be cold?” the filly demanded.

“Nah,” Kenny laughed. “It’s magically heated! Now, you coming?”

“Sure!” Twilight exclaimed, galloping over to him to touch a hoof to his back. “Will this be enough for me to come along?”

Kenny nodded before focusing his mind, reaching for magic through the ball instead of through himself, activating it. In an instant, they were engulfed in silver magic, and were in another place: a quaint little room with felt in warm colors nailed to the walls, a window overlooking a few shorter trees and the ground about forty feet below, as well as a view of the back of Kenny’s house, and a few others in his neighborhood stretching three blocks away before everything blended together. A door led to another room, but the door was currently closed.

“This is amazing!” Twilight gushed, looking around. “You and your friends built this?”

“Kris and Dad helped, too,” Kenny admitted. “There’s only so much a human boy, two foals and a dragon kid can do on their own. This place is a mini-house. Over the summers, we’d spend weeks in here! It has electricity, plumbing, and a few other bells and whistles! All magic-based, of course. To do it the magicless way would be far too expensive.”

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but paused when they heard a high-pitched squeak from outside.

“Was that the floor?” The filly asked nervously.

“No, that’s not possible,” Kenny breathed, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Kenny?” Twilight said, “What’s wrong?”

“Deep in this forest, there’s a colony of flying pests,” Kenny said slowly as the squeaking happened again. “Ice Bats. They never come this close to the edge, though. They fear heat, and our homes emanate heat. They shouldn’t be here, but nothing else around here sounds like that.”

Suddenly, the heat in the treehouse vanished, and the two started shivering.

“A-are you s-sure they don’t c-come out here?” Twilight demanded, her muscles tensing.

“I th-thought they d-didn’t,” Kenny insisted. “Get ready to—”

The door to the room burst open, and squeaking filled the air.

“Run!” Kenny screamed, grabbing the filly by the hoof and dragging her along, ducking to try to avoid the ice shards falling from the wings of the icy creatures that were filling the room.

Twilight screamed, too, trying her best to keep up, but a sudden blast of cold energy from a screeching bat knocked her backwards, her hooves stuck in a sheet of ice as she fell on her back.

“Kenny!” she screamed, grabbing his attention. “Help!”

Panicking, Kenny screamed the first spell that came to mind: “Hydro Curtain!”

His body glowed blue, and a wall of water sprang from the ground, surrounding the two of them as Kenny pulled his scout knife from his pocket and flipped out the largest blade.

“Hold still, Twilight!” he exclaimed as he plunged the knife into the sheet of ice, grimacing when he looked back to see his barrier beginning to solidify in places, turning into ice.

Pieces of ice broke off as Kenny stabbed the sheet repeatedly, eventually shattering so he could pull the filly back to all fours.

“Look out!” Twilight shouted as a bat managed to smash through a piece of frozen water and flew right at Kenny. Ensnaring it in her magic, she flung it back through, knocking it into its fellows.

“Thanks,” Kenny breathed, trying to think of something. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as an idea occurred to him.

“Twilight, can you pull the swarm closer?”

“Are you nuts?” she screamed, “They’ll turn us into popsicles!”

“Trust me! There’s no time!” he yelled. “Put as much trust in me as I am in you! How much would you trust your family?”

“More than anyone else in the world,” she answered in an instant.

“That’s how much I’m trusting you!” Kenny shouted. “Now, can you?”

“Okay, I’ll trust you,” Twilight muttered. “Here goes nothing!”

Her horn lit up like a purple sun, the same aura engulfing the entire swarm. As she pulled them closer, she closed her eyes, bracing herself for the worst.

“Hydro Curtain!” Kenny screamed, and once more, a wall of water erupted from the floor, this time engulfing the bats.

Groaning from the strain, Kenny focused even harder, the blue glow from his form washing out all other colors from the immense output. With a scream, he collapsed to the ground, passing out just as the squeaks and screeches stopped.

“Kenny! Wake up!” he heard Twilight urging, followed by a worried, “Oh no, did he use all his magic at once? This is bad!”

Kenny tried to talk, but he felt drained. So much so, he was too weak to even open his eyes, as each lid felt like it weighed a whole ton. He couldn’t even groan. He was weaker than a rag doll.

“Please let there be something here,” Twilight said from behind him, and he heard what sounded like rummaging through glass and plastic bottles. “Why would they have Ether here?” she wondered. “Well, as the humans say, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth! Please let this work!”

He felt something tingly engulf his jaw, forcing his mouth open, then something vile entered it, and he reflexively started coughing, as if his body was trying to reject it.

“No!” she snapped. “You need this!” Her magic next engulfed his nose, pinching it shut. Left with no other option, his body swallowed instead, each gulp restoring some of his strength.

This went on for several minutes, until he finally was able to open his eyes, finding himself staring at the ceiling, Twilight smiling down at him.

“Good, you’re awake,” She sighed with relief. “Why’d you overchannel?”

After finishing off the foul liquid, Kenny coughed once and sat up. “I don’t have the reserves,” he admitted. “To do that without passing out, I’d need to have at least three times what I’ve got. And I don’t have the practice or the diet to keep it up. I started taking Thaumium supplements a month ago, but that’ll take a while.”

“You just let your magic stagnate?” Twilight gasped in disbelief. “Why? That’s not healthy!”

“I know,” Kenny admitted. “But what’s the point? I just… I don’t know. All I can do is Water. I suck at everything else. And Water cools. Not as much as Ice, but it does. And in a place where everything is always cold, what good is it?”

“By what you just did, I’d say you’re wrong,” the filly countered. “That wall of water helped! And besides, from the equine point of view, Water magic is highly envied by us. I can’t conjure that! It’s matter!”

Kenny opened his mouth to object, but the filly held up a hoof to ask him to wait.

“Besides,” she added, “You’re my friend! I want you to take care of yourself! If it gets too weak, you could end up with Magic Outburst Syndrome! Random discharges would get you hospitalized! Do you want that?”

“No,” Kenny sighed. “You’re right.”

“Good,” Twilight said with a satisfied nod. “Now, while you were out cold, I threw the block of ice you made out the window. Hopefully, they won’t come back any time soon.”

“They spook easily,” Kenny said with a nod of his own. “They likely flew back home after they were freed.”

“Well, now that that’s out of the way,” Twilight said with a huge grin, “How about that tour?”

“Heh, you’re really gonna like this place,” Kenny chuckled as he walked over to the door to the rest of the treehouse, “Follow me!”

Giggling, Twilight did just that, stopping to gasp and look around in amazement at the room on the other side.

Kenny knew what she was looking at: two levels of an eight-spoked wheel-like room, a curved balcony hugging the level above, each spoke leading to another room, with the mighty tree itself punching through the floor and ceiling.

“This took us an entire year to build,” Kenny sighed happily. “I was six at the time, but I helped just as much as the rest. You likely saw my books from my bedroom, but we have our own library here, too. There’s about a few hundred books there. I’ve read about a quarter of them, myself.”

“I love books, too, but how did you have the time for that many?” Twilight exclaimed, disbelief painted clearly on her face.

“Kris helped,” Kenny admitted as he took the filly by the hoof and lead her three rooms counterclockwise before throwing open a door. “He knows a Time spell for speed reading. He uses it for cramming, but I got him to cast it whenever I wanted to read ten books in the time it’d take to read one.”

“Wow,” the filly breathed in absolute awe as she took in the room. It was only a single level, but shelves lined the walls, every single one filled with books. “How much did these cost you?”

“Not a cent,” Kenny chuckled. “Grandpa paid for them.”

“I wish I had somepony who’d do that for me,” Twilight grumbled. “It’s not fair.”

Before Kenny could inquire about this, his stomach began to rumble, provoking a sheepish grin from him followed by nervous chuckling.

“Uh, I think that overchanneling took a lot more out of me than I expected,” he groaned as his stomach started to ache, screaming at him to supply it with sustenance. “There’s a kitchenette on the other side. If it’s not too much to ask, could you help out?”

Twilight's head tilted to the side like a curious puppy, confused.

“But that’s not how magic works,” She pointed out. “It’s just thought energy being consumed to affect the laws of reality. Why would that make the caster hungry?”

Kenny’s stomach growled again, voicing how little it agreed with that statement.

“It’s different for humans,” Kenny explained, clutching his stomach and groaning. “It uses my body’s energy, too. If I overchannel and recover with Ether, that physical energy has to come from somewhere.”

Hearing this revelation, Twilight set off towards the kitchen in a frantic and hasty display of concern for her new friend. While following the filly, Kenny took notice of her rooting through the tiny kitchen’s shelves and cupboards. Taking a seat on a stool, he looked down and waited, trying to ignore the pain in his empty stomach.

After waiting for a few minutes that felt like forever, it suddenly occurred to Kenny that Twilight was in fact not making any progress despite her frantic search through the minimalistic kitchen. After getting up, he walked over to Twilight, standing behind her as objects began flying in and out of the cupboards in her magical grasp as she inspected a few items.

“No,” she said with a shake of her head, returning a jar to its shelf. “That’s not food.” Pulling out a large sealed can, she looked at the label, tilting her head and even going cross-eyed while trying to read it. “Freeze-dried fi… fill… fill-ettes? What’s a ‘fill-ette’? Is that edible? Never heard of it, so I’m going to say ‘no’ to be safe.”

Putting the can back, the filly picked up speed, becoming more and more frantic.

A glass jar. “No.” A sealed plastic bag. “No.” Another can. “No.” A paberboard box. “No.” Another box. “NO!”

The next thing to come off a shelf was another sealed bag. She once again had trouble reading it. “Ve… ven… ven-ih-suhn jer… kee? What is this? It looks like leather! Who would put leather in a kitchen?”

Unable to bear watching any further, Kenny placed a hand on the filly’s shoulder, startling her. A second later, she whirled around, and Kenny found himself face-to-face with a very wide-eyed, nearly crazed looking Twilight.

“Oh! Uh… Sorry, I can’t find anything edible…” She chuckled nervously. “Maybe we should get back to the house?”

“Twilight,” Kenny sighed. “Venison is deer meat. Jerky is just dried meat.” Seeing the look of horror in her eyes, Kenny quickly held up a hand. “Hominian deer meat. They’re as dumb as rocks.”

“Right, humans are omnivores,” Twilight chuckled sheepishly. “Do you have bread? I remember something about humans preferring meat in sandwiches or something.”

“That’s a stereotype,” Kenny chuckled with a shake of his head. “But every stereotype has some truth to it. Humans used to do that on your side of the world to avoid being portrayed as barbarians for eating meat. Jerky is finger food.”

“Well, here, then,” Twilight sighed, floating the bag over to Kenny. “This should help, right?”

“There should be some manticore jerky here somewhere,” Kenny said with a nod as he took the bag. “I don’t like it much, but it contains a lot more Thaumium, and Mom and Dad are pestering me to eat more of that stuff.” After ripping the bag open and taking a bite, he sighed as the flavor of teriyaki jerky hit his tongue. A few more chews, savoring the flavor, and finally swallowing, he held off to say a little more. “I really love venison. Good thing it’s so cheap here. Deer are common up here.”

As Kenny began wolfing them down faster, Twilight giggled. “You sure you should be eating that fast?”

“No,” Kenny chuckled between bites. “But it’s so good, and I’m starving!”

Twilight sat down next to Kenny and watched as he continued eating. Paying little attention to the purple filly for the moment, Kenny tore through piece after piece, feeling his hunger abate bit by bit until…

His hand found nothing left. He’d emptied the bag.

Sighing, Kenny set down the bag, then turned to face Twilight with a smile.

“Thanks Twilight. So, how about we finish the tour?”

Twilight opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by a burst of purple light from behind Kenny.

“There you are!” Kris exclaimed, his voice heavy with panic. “Kenny! We’ve got a problem! Snakey’s sick!” His hands shaking, Kenny’s eldest brother pulled a white snake with a blue diamond pattern on its back out of his pocket.

“‘Snakey?’” Twilight asked, tilting her head in confusion with a small tinge of fear present in her voice. “I-I hate snakes!”

“He’s Kris’ latest pet Ice Garter,” Kenny explained quickly. “Kris usually catches three or four in the nearby canal every year, but this one has stayed alive for almost a year. Ice Garters are non-venomous. He’s harmless.”

“Yeah, but he won’t eat!” Kris blubbered. “I tried putting some snow hoppers in the terrarium, but he’s not eating! The others all died in months, and I don’t know any healing magic!”

“But you study Life spells all the time!” Kenny snapped. “How can you not heal when you’re nearly twice my age?”

“I prefer the other plant-based spells, okay?” Kris sighed. “Now’s not the time! You’ve got to help me, little bro!”

Sighing, Kenny put out his hands and waited as Kris deposited the snake in his waiting palms. He was breathing hard, but his tongue wasn’t flickering out at regular intervals like it normally did. In fact, the snake’s mouth seemed to be sealed shut by a disgusting black film, the ‘lips’ partially dissolved into each other.

“Rotten mouth disease,” Kenny said with a shudder. “That’s why he’s not eating. He can’t eat.” Turning to Twilight, he put on the most pleading look he could muster and said, “You just said you hate snakes. But this is my brother’s pet. I can’t just let him die. But for this, I’ll need both hands. Can you… Could you please hold him for me?”

Twilight was shuddering violently at the mere thought of the harmless snake.

“P-Please d-don’t.” Twilight managed to stutter out. “I-I can’t do it.”

“Twilight, Kris is too distraught right now,” Kenny pointed out, motioning to the panicked expression on his brother’s face. “He can’t do it, I need both hands for this, and you’re the only other one here.” Smiling gently, he put a hand on the filly’s shoulder. “Besides, he has no fangs. Ice Garters are completely harmless unless you’re an insect. You’re more of a threat to him than he could ever be to you.” Putting on another pleading expression, he drove it home. “Please? Kris is my brother. If not for him, then for me?”

Twilight sighed and nodded hesitantly.

“I… ok. I-I’ll do it,” She stuttered out with great difficulty.

Kris slowly moved closer to Twilight with shaking hands. Twilight attempted to focus on picking up the scaly creature and after summoning all her courage she inhaled quickly and grabbed the snake in her magical grasp.

Nodding with a smile to the nervous filly, Kenny closed his eyes and concentrated. Feeling the inner well of magic in his body, he pulled the one portion he was good with—Water—to the surface, feeling the energy flow through him. He didn’t have to look to know his hands were now glowing blue, but he’d need to see to cast, anyway, so after snapping his now-glowing blue eyes open, he started visualizing the liquid force bending to his will. Blue light started forming into a crystal-like structure in front of him, rippling like water, then engulfing the snake.

The snake began shaking slightly in Twilight’s magic as she struggled to carry the snake not because it was flailing about, but because she was shivering madly like as if she had been caught outside at night without any coats to keep her warm.

Noticing the filly’s condition, the snake’s teenaged owner knelt down and put a shaking hand of his own on her shoulder, forcing a smile to try to reassure her, although he was himself still quite concerned for his pet’s condition.

Twilight held a fearful expression towards “Snakey” as she was trying with every ounce of her will not to throw the poor creature with all of her might through a window. Twilight turned towards Kris as he stood there with a small reassuring smile.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “He can’t hurt you. You’re going to be fine. I’ve been handling snakes for years, and I’m still fine.”

Twilight gave a weary smile and attempted to refocus on the snake as to not drop it. She felt a tad safer compared to moments earlier where she was fully prepared to run out into the snow kicking and screaming all the while. She doubled her efforts and waited for Kenny to continue the spell.

Noting that everything had calmed down, Kenny resumed focus, concentrating on the words he was about to say to give the magic form and power. For the strength needed to save the snake’s life, the spell wouldn’t be enough without words, and it needed the strength from speaking the name.

After focusing for half a minute, Kenny forced the magic into the snake, and spoke the name:

“Crystal Cure.”

The light turned into an aura of sparkling water, almost like a liquid sapphire, the reptile’s body absorbing all the power of the spell. The black film vanished, the snake’s mouth reformed, and strength returned to it.

Sighing, Kenny released the power, and felt the energy fade as the spell finished healing his brother’s pet. With everything finished, he turned to Twilight and smiled.

His good mood seemed infectious, as she broke into a huge smile, herself.

“I… I did it!” The filly exclaimed happily. “We did it!” With a blink, she realized she was still holding the snake, and let out a scream. “Snake!” With a flash of magenta light, she teleported away.

Kris gave his brother a look that asked “what’s her problem?” while grabbing his pet snake before it could hit the ground, and all Kenny did was shrug.

Chapter 5: Something More

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“Twilight?” Kenny called for what felt like the hundredth time as he stuck his head into the treehouse’s library, “It’s okay! You can come out!”

“Bro, I don’t think she’s here,” Kris huffed. “Let’s check back at the house. She’s not responding.”

“When I’m terrified, I go silent,” Kenny countered. “We can’t just assume she’s like you. After all, you know what they say about assuming. It—”

Kris glared at his brother as he covered his mouth. “I don’t care where you heard that, but we don’t use that kind of language,” he growled. “I’m your big brother, and when Mom and Dad aren’t around, I’m the boss, you know that! They said so. You’re not breaking that rule.”

Kenny nodded, and sighed as his brother removed his hand. “Fine. Sorry,” he muttered. “Anyway, I’m starting to think you’re right.” Throwing open another door, he was met with the room he and Twilight arrived in. “Twilight?”

No response.

“That’s the last room,” Kenny grumbled. “You were right, she’s not here.”

“Well, you were also right,” Kris admitted. “It never hurts to be thorough.”

Nodding, Kenny pulled out the teleport crystal and reached through it with his magic, activating it again. In a flash of silver light, they were back in his bedroom.

“Twilight?” Kenny called out before taking note of an extremely fresh indentation in the sleeping bag the filly had brought along. “She was here, and extremely recently, at that.”

Nodding, Kris walked over to the bag, kneeling down to inspect it with hands that glowed a sunset orange: Void magic.

“She just left,” Kris announced as he stood back up. “Teleported.”

“Ugh,” Kenny groaned. “Let’s split up.”

Kris nodded silently, knocking on the door to the bathroom as Kenny left for the family room.

“Twilight?” he called out again. “Come on! He’s harmless! Remember? He doesn’t even have fangs, and he'll never get big enough to constrict anyone!"

Shaking his head, Kenny walked over to his sister’s room. Knocking on the door, he opened his mouth to ask his sister if she’d seen his new friend, only to get yelled at.

“Go away!” Kim screamed. “She’s not in here!”

“Geez,” Kenny muttered, his ears ringing as he walked over to the stairs slowly. “You didn’t have to yell.”

Just as he was going to place a foot on the top stair, he thought he heard the distinctive clip clop of hooves on tile. At least that narrowed down which room she was in. Preparing himself to chase the filly down should she bolt again, Kenny crept his way down the stairs, listening as the hoofbeats got steadily louder.

In the foyer, he listened closely again, taking note that the sound was coming from the direction of the kitchen.

Walking slowly, he carefully made his way to the dining room, then the kitchen, peeking around the counter to see the filly huddled on the ground, shivering in front of the cupboard under the sink. She seemed to not have noticed him, so he crept over to her at a snail’s pace, not catching her attention until he placed a hand gently on her shoulder.

Gasping, the filly lit up her horn to teleport again, but he stopped her by gently flicking her horn, breaking her concentration.

“Please, just listen,” the boy sighed. “I get it, you’re afraid of snakes. But what you did back there? That was very brave.”

“I’m not brave,” she sniffled. “I’m a coward.”

“No, you’re not,” Kenny insisted. “Grandpa once told me that bravery isn’t the absence of fear, but the mastery of it. The fearless are stupid. That’s not bravery, it’s idiocy. The brave understand their fears but don’t let those fears control them.”

The filly giggled. “Sounds like something he’d say.”

“Feel any better?” he asked hopefully.

“A little,” Twilight admitted with a small smile. “But I still can’t get my silly fear of that snake out of my head.”

Kenny’s eyes lit up as a thought occurred to him. “Hey, remember when you offered to teach me that game at the funeral?” He tried to remember the name, but grimaced as he could only draw up a blank. “What was the name again?”

“It’s called ‘Cave Game’,” the filly replied, grinning excitedly. “Does this mean you still want to learn?”

“You bet!” Kenny affirmed with an excited nod. “How about we go to my room, and you can teach me how?”

“Of course!” the filly chirped happily. “I’ll help you set up your account, go through character creation, and even help you make a skin for yourself! Come on! Follow me!”

Laughing all the while, the pair raced back to Kenny’s room, pausing only long enough to tell Kris everything was fine now when they passed him. After Kenny took a seat at his desk, he hit a key to wake the computer from sleep mode and closed the game from earlier.

“Do you have a preferred browser?” Twilight asked as she stood next to him, looking at the screen.

“Yeah, I like Firefox,” Kenny replied. “Will that work?”

“Any will,” the filly giggled. “Just making sure I didn’t make you mad by naming one you don’t like.”

“I don’t get mad over stupid things like that,” Kenny chuckled with a shake of his head before double-clicking the named program. “So, what’s the site?”

“It’s ‘cave game dot net’,” Twilight replied. “No special characters, cave game is one word.”

Kenny grinned as the page loaded, and clicked the link to create an account. Upon seeing that it required money, his face fell.

“I can’t afford it!” He groaned. “I don’t have twenty dollars!”

“Here,” Twilight said as she floated a gold-plated card over to him. “My allowance card from the Princess. She won’t mind.”

Nodding to show his thanks, Kenny filled out the form to create an account, and used the information from Twilight’s allowance card to make the payment.

“So, how often will they charge?” He asked the filly.

“Just once,” Twilight replied with a huge grin. “One payment is a lifetime membership and all updates are free.”

Kenny just stared.

“It’s true!” the filly insisted. “Anyway, now we have to get you a skin. They recently added a skin maker to the site, so you won’t have to go elsewhere to make one.” Using her magic, she formed an arrow of magenta light pointing at another link. “Click there.”

Nodding, Kenny did as told and gasped as a 3d model of a blocky human figure appeared on the screen, divided into segments for each limb, the head, and the torso.

“Before you paint it as is,” Twilight cut in, “Check the options on the top-right. You can customize your character, whether humanoid or equine, and even add other parts. Depending on what you do, you may have different abilities in game, but some powers will nerf your default abilities.”

Kenny was about to just go with the default human form, but suddenly, something in the back of his mind started pushing, guiding him to do something else.

First, he enabled tails, then he started looking through them: cat… fox… bird… dragon… Nothing really appealed to him. At least, not until he saw the last one in the list: A fish tail. It would increase swimming speed, but walking would become a tad more difficult. That, he decided to keep.

Next, he decided to enhance that build with a dorsal fin. The sail one would certainly not work, so he grabbed the fish one. Once again, better swimming, but the added weight would create a bit more drag on land.

As the shape of the head didn’t really have any impact on abilities, he just picked the one that he liked the most: a dragon’s head. The blocky snout looked a little cute in his opinion, so, with one final tweak, he added amphibious breathing to his abilities, since he was allowed one free one without any drawbacks.

“Abilities were added upon the game getting expanded to my side of the world,” Twilight explained. “To draw in non-human players, the creator decided he needed features that would fit the inhabitants of my side of the planet.”

Many would find such random sharing of minutia annoying, but not Kenny. He loved doing it, too, which drove his family up the wall, sometimes. So, he just smiled and nodded.

“So, how do I load all this?” He asked.

“There should be an ‘upload skin’ button,” Twilight replied. “Some unshown pixels on the skin sheet are used to denote active parts and abilities. Clever, huh?”

“Yeah,” Kenny agreed, nodding vigorously, “Hey, I found the button!”

After clicking the command, he was met with a notice that it would take about fifteen minutes for his skin to process.

“The game should be done downloading by now,” Twilight pointed out. “See that icon with the perfect cube of dirt with grass on it? That’s Cave Game.”

Nodding, Kenny double-clicked the new icon on his desktop, and waited for the game to load. After making some idle chatter, Twilight walked him through the process of joining a local server she set up on the laptop she’d pulled out of her bag. Upon joining, he was met with a skin of… Starswirl the Bearded.

“Of course,” he chuckled. “Only you would be such a diehard fanfilly of a pony who’s long dead.”

“Hey!” the filly snapped, blushing brick red, “He was the greatest known wizard of his time!” She stated with a tinge of embarrassment mixed in with with her defensive tone as she talked about her idol. “He single-hoofedly discovered the genetic compatibility between ponies and most other races was linked to the magical signature hidden inside everyone’s genes!”

Twilight would have continued, but she was cut off by an unsettling groan from the game.

“Twilight?” Kenny asked slowly. “What was that?”

As both youngsters looked at at their respective screens, Kenny realized the sky in the game was suddenly dark.

“I forgot about nighttime!” Twilight groaned as she started madly hitting keys on her pony keyboard. “We were supposed to be getting resources to build a shelter!”

Scrambling to try to assist, Kenny tried to move with the arrow keys, as almost every game he’d ever played used those. But, nothing happened. Remembering that a few games he’d played used the numpad on the side of the keyboard, he tried those keys next, but once again, his character didn’t respond.

“Twilight!” he called over his shoulder, his voice conveying every single ounce of panic he felt, “I can’t move! What do I do?”

“W, A, S, and D for movement, the mouse is for turning!” Twilight told him as she scrambled to gather resources, only to take damage from behind. Whirling her character around, she found herself flanked by a large horde of green-colored humanoids and equines with total blackness where the eyes would be.

“Zombies!” she cried out. “Kenny! Help!”

“But I don’t know how to play!” Kenny whimpered as he finally got his character moving.

“Control to run, left click to attack, right click to use stuff!” The filly said quickly as she tried to escape the horde. “There should be a chest nearby with four torches around it! Since you’re a novice, I enabled it! It might have an axe or two in it, if we’re lucky! Don’t ask me what it looks like! You’ll know it when you see it!”

Nodding, Kenny swiveled his character’s head around, frantically looking for something that would look like a chest. Spotting a brownish-orange cube with four poles with flames on top a short distance away, he started running. Arrows whizzed by, barely missing him as he desperately tried to dodge and weave, having no experience.

Right-clicking to open it, he quickly scanned the contents. There were two stone axes in it, along with some wood, food, and some other tools. Not caring about everything else, he dragged the axes into his inventory right before the chest’s window suddenly disappeared as he took damage and was knocked away from the chest.

Spinning, he found a zombie bearing down on him and panicked, left-clicking over and over, hoping to dispatch the enemy. He took another hit, and another, but he did kill the zombie before sprinting back to Twilight, who was on the verge of being overwhelmed.

“How do I give you stuff?” Kenny demanded.

“Use Q to toss, or just drag it out while in your inventory!” Twilight replied. “Hurry!”

After bringing his own axe down on a zombie from behind four times, killing it, Kenny moved his character next to Twilight’s and dropped a fresh axe at her hooves.

“There,” Kenny panted, “One axe. Can we handle this now?”

instead of responding, Twilight began slaying monsters left and right clearing a path out of the horde of the undead, Kenny simply watched in awe at the display until a stray zombie attacked him and spurred him into action.

Giving a startled squeak, Kenny whirled his character around in time to be struck and thrown back a second time. Panicking, he started spamming his weapon again, letting out a sigh of relief when the monster died.

Glancing over at Twilight’s character, Kenny was impressed at how in the time it took him to beat one, Twilight had managed to eliminate the rest of the horde.

“Okay, we gotta move,” Twilight said quickly. “Just break the chest to get what’s in it, and let’s move!”

Nodding, Kenny ran back to the chest and tried clicking over and over, but it wouldn’t break.

“You have to hold the button!” Twilight huffed.

Nodding, Kenny just held the button, and after a few seconds, the chest broke, spilling its contents in a small area. As the items were picked up automatically, Kenny just ran through them to collect them.

“The torches, too,” Twilight added.

“Right,” Kenny replied, quickly breaking the four torches and running back to Twilight with them.

“Follow me,” She urged before having her character run into a forest.

With a nervous gulp, Kenny nodded and sprinted after her character.

They wove through trees, dodged more monsters, and traveled for a couple minutes before Kenny asked, “Where are we going?”

“No idea,” she replied with a shrug. “Everything’s randomly generated. But we should keep going until morning so we can set up a base during the day, when monsters won’t spawn.”

With a silent nod, Kenny continued to follow the filly’s lead, only stopping when the sun began to rise ingame, and they were on the other side of the forest.

“A plains biome. Perfect,” Twilight said, nodding in satisfaction. “We’ll need plenty of flat space, and this will do nicely.”

For the next several minutes, Kenny followed Twilight’s directions, cutting down trees, learning how to craft, and helping to set up a small house.

Just as Kenny finished setting down two beds in their small one-room house, the ingame sun began to set again.

“Shoot,” Twilight grumbled. “We don’t have time for the base’s surrounding walls right now. Use the bed so we can skip the night.”

“Wait, you can skip the night?” Kenny asked, eyes wide.

“Is that really such a novel concept?” she sighed. “No time for chatting. Just use the bed.”

Nodding, Kenny did as told, and it was suddenly the next morning.

“See?” Twilight giggled. “You really are a total novice at this. Don’t worry. I’ll mold you into a pro with time.”

Smiling back at Twilight, Kenny let her take the lead once more, helping her to gather more resources to construct a wall to encircle the area they were going to use as their base. It was quite a large area, and the wall took several ingame days, but by the time it was set up and the area was all lit, over an hour in real time had just flown by in what felt like minutes.

They were interrupted by a sudden knock on the door, followed immediately by the door opening enough for Kris to poke his head in.

“Kris!” Kenny snapped right as his brother opened his mouth to speak, not noticing Twilight’s startled yelp, “I thought you, of all people would remember that I hate it when anyone opens my door without me agreeing to it! I have a right to privacy, you know! Had you just waited two seconds, I would’ve asked who was there! Geez!”

“Heh, sorry, Bro,” Kris sighed. Taking notice of Twilight slowly backing up, staring wide-eyed at Kenny while shaking like a leaf, shook his head and locked eyes with Kenny.

“Look, I get you’re upset,” Kris said flatly, “But look at your new friend! You scared her with that outburst!”

“Huh?” Kenny looked behind him to see Twilight staring at him as if he’d turned into a werewolf ready to rip her apart. “Oh no!” Panicking, he crawled over to her shaking form, immediately enveloping her in a hug, crying his eyes out at the realization of what he’d done.

“Twilight, I’m sorry!” he blubbered. “Please don’t hate me! I’ve only known you for a short while, but you’re already one of my best friends! Please don’t hate me for this! Please forgive me!”

Having stopped shaking already, Twilight rolled her eyes, pushing Kenny away gently and helped him wipe away his tears.

“I’m not going to hate you, you silly goose!” she huffed. “I may have been frightened, but I can get over it!” Turning to Kris, she adopted the tone and mannerisms of a polite houseguest and asked, “So, what did you come here to tell us?”

As Kenny hiccupped a few times while drying his tears with Twilight’s help, Kris stiffened.

“Oh! Right!” he exclaimed, “Mom just finished making lunch. If you don’t hurry, we’ll just bless it and start without you.”

“J-just a minute!” Twilight stammered. “I have to stop the server!”

With a few clicks and a bit of typing, the world of the game disappeared from Twilight’s screen, while a message informing Kenny he’d been disconnected now covered his.

“So, you coming or not?” Twilight’s voice suddenly said from the direction of the door. Kenny jumped at the sudden change in position he hadn't seen happen, resulting in a giggle from the filly. “Wow, do you get that absorbed often?”

Standing up and chuckling nervously, Kenny nodded sheepishly.

“Me, too,” the filly admitted and Kenny caught up to her. “Don’t worry, it’s not such a big…”

Suddenly, her eyes went as wide as saucers, and she clasped her hooves over her mouth, blushing fiercely.

“Is something the matter Twilight?” Kenny asked as he helped her stand back up, putting her hooves back on the ground and getting her to walk alongside him towards the stairs.

“Eh-heh-heh-heh…” The filly’s nervous chuckling went on for a few seconds before she took a few deep, calming breaths, than smiled.

“N-nothing’s the mat–” She sighed and looked him in the eyes, the trust in them speaking volumes. “Yes, I don’t know why, but I just admitted–eep!”

She quickly bit down on her hoof, her entire face a deep crimson. “Why’th Aihh foo vat?” She squealed around her hoof before spitting it out, beginning to panic. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with—”

“Twilight?”

After a few more seconds of panicking, Kenny grabbed her cheeks with both hands, looked her in the eyes and snapped, “Calm down! It’s not like the Second Coming is here and we’re unprepared or something! Get a grip!”

“What?” The filly stopped as requested, then blinked in confusion. “Were you worried about me?”

“Of course I was worried!” Kenny huffed. “I care about you much more than I should for a filly I just–ack!”

Now it was Kenny’s turn to have so much blood rush to his face, all other color was overshadowed by pure red. Even burying his face in his hands failed to hide all of it, as even the tips of his ears had turned red.

“I-I mean, yeah! I was worried,” he chuckled nervously, “L-like I w-would be for any friend of mine! E-even though I-I’ve never been this attached to a friend I only recently met…” His eyes bugged out as he covered his mouth again.

As they walked down the stairs, the two new friends both looked at each other in confusion, the same thoughts going through both minds.

What was going on? Why were they constantly unable to hide even the slightest thing? If either opened his or her mouth, deeper feelings just started tumbling out. This wasn’t normal, even for friends who’d known each other for a long time, let alone ones who’d just barely met!

But, it was for some other relationship both were familiar with.

As that thought occurred to them, both looked away, faces paling. There was a way to forge such a bond outside of the ones that occurred naturally, but… it was permanent, just like the naturally-occurring ones. And they’d both have to be sure, could they really see this individual they’d only just met, as close as those they’ve grown up with? And to each, another thought occured right as they stepped into the Dining Room: and what if the feeling was only one way? What if they really had those feelings, but the other didn’t reciprocate them? What then?

Luckily, this train of thought was broken by Kenny’s Mom.

“Hello, Twilight,” she said warmly as Kenny sought out his assigned chair, “I made sure to cook something more fit for a pony for you.”

Before Twilight could ask what it was, Mrs. Draper set a plate of steamed broccoli with a cheese sauce in a small, short cup at the one spot at the table that was unassigned: the guest chair right between Kimberly and Keith.

“But I hate broccoli!” Twilight protested.

“Mom! Why’d you only give her that?” Kenny demanded, eyeing the plate jealously, “that actually makes it taste amazing! Not fair!”

“Wait, what?” Twilight asked, looking at Kenny in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Broccoli is nasty on it’s own,” Kenny huffed, “Ranch may make it tolerable, but if it’s steamed and served with cheese sauce?” Kenny started drooling. “It tastes awesome! You trust me, right?”

“O-of course I trust you!” Twilight huffed. “In just a short time, you’re almost like a—eep!” The filly blushed red again, once more placing her hooves over her mouth.

“Hmm?” Kris looked up from his plate in interest. “What was that? You were about to say Kenny was like a what?”

“N-none of your business,” Twilight muttered nervously. “I-it’s nothing.”

“Oh, I know what this is!” Kris chuckled. “You have a crush on him, don’t you?”

Twilight’s eyes widened in shock, as did Kenny’s.

“No! I feel close, but not like that!” the filly protested.

“Kris, she’s my friend!” Kenny snapped. “A very close friend, dare I say my best friend, but it’s all platonic! My crush is Mary from school! You know that!”

“Kenny’s been reading the dictionary as if it were a normal book again, I see,” Kimberley giggled. “Nerd. Platonic isn’t a word some nine-year old should know yet.”

“Hey!” Twilight snapped. “So what if he’s a nerd! He likes books, I like books! It’s almost as if we’re tw—ack!” Once again, she covered her mouth, bushing fiercely.

“Oh…” Kris gave her a knowing look and nodded. “So, it’s like that.”

“Like what, Kris?” Kim inquired, tilting her head in confusion.

“If you didn’t catch it, then too bad for you,” Kris said firmly. “This is something serious, and it’s between the two of them for now. My lips are sealed. Not even you using biting and your fingernails will get me to spill.”

“I’ve outgrown that!” Kim insisted. “I don’t do that anymore!”

Before any arguments could continue, Kenny’s mother had returned to the table, passing out plates of freshly-grilled hamburgers and homemade steak fries. She offered some of the latter to Twilight, who accepted, even if they weren’t hay fries.

Finally, she sat down with her own plate at the north end of the table, opposite Kenny’s father at the south end, who had simply been observing with slight amusement and not interfering. After all, kids will be kids.

Twilight was about to lift up her fork and dig in, but Kim cleared her throat to stop her.

“We don’t eat cursed food in this house,” she said flatly.

“Kim, it’s not ‘cursed’, it’s just not blessed!” Kenny huffed.

“Whatever,” Kim huffed, rolling her eyes. “Point is: there’s seven in this family, seven days in the week, so each day is a different person’s day to bless the food at family meals, and we rotate around the table. I do Saturdays.”

Twilight simply nodded politely, and imitated the motions of her hosts: forelegs folded like their arms, head bowed, eyes closed.

Then Kimberly cleared her throat again, and began blessing the food:

“Father in Heaven,
We come before Thee at this time to thank Thee for this food,
And to ask Thee to please bless it to nourish and strengthen our bodies.
Please help us to us it to do good in Thy service by obeying Thy commandments and reading the scriptures daily,
These things we say and ask,
In the name of Thy Son,
Jesus Christ,
Amen.”

With it over, all said “amen” as well, and all began eating.

Twilight, having never seen a blessing on food from any human religion, was full of questions and wishing she had something to take notes with.

“So, is that how you say it every time?” She asked, looking around for any to answer.

Dean chuckled.

“Goodness, no!” he laughed, shaking his head. “Young filly, prayer by rote is not something we do. For a more personal relationship with our Father, we ask for specific things, editing prayers and blessings as necessary, sort of like how a mortal child would talk to his or her mortal parents. You wouldn’t use a list of scripted sentences to communicate with your mother and father would you?”

After thinking for a second, Twilight shook her head, giggling.

“Of course not, Mr. Draper!” she snickered. “That’d be ridiculous! I mean, that sounds like a robot or computer from a sci-fi movie from decades ago!”

After stopping for a second, her eyes widened as a realization hit her.

“Wait, are you telling me you literally believe your your Creator’s literal offspring?” She inquired, staring in utter shock. “But every Christian sect I’ve read up on considers themselves in an artist/masterpiece relationship at best! But parent/child?”

“That’s right, Twily,” Kenny said, using the more intimate nickname without even thinking. “We see Him as our literal Father, and use the source of human magic as our evidence: it’s but a mere sliver of divine power, as if it’s but a tiny crumb of what we’re truly capable of. Just as we grow up and leave our mortal parents’ nest—the home—so can we grow up spiritually and leave our Father’s nest—this universe— to start a new spirit family of our own.” Noticing his new yet dear friend’s look of shock, he nodded. “Yes, kind of like the Orthodox concept of theosis, but more well defined: literal deification. You know how ponies can ascend into Alicorns? We believe there’s a form of human ascension, and it allows us to ascend into a divine form equal to our Father.”

“I’ll need to write this down when I get back to your room,” Twilight muttered before noticing Keith staring at her, not even eating his food. “Um… Keith, right? Could you stop staring at me? It’s making me uncomfortable.”

“Why, Twilight Sparkle?” Keith replied, still staring, and eliciting a grunt of annoyance from the filly.

“Just Twilight will do fine,” she huffed. “And I just told you! It’s unnerving.”

”It’s not nerving?” Keith said a bit forcefully, acting as if he hadn’t just made up a term on the spot.

“Keith, that’s not even an actual term!” Kenny huffed. “I know you have this obsession with rephrasing everything, but if you must, use real words and terms, please!”

“Why I must use real terms?” Keith asked, his bad grammar evident once more.

“That’s not how you say it, but it’s because—”

Kenny was cut off by Keith doing another one of his villain impersonations. “BECAUSE I SAY SO, THAT’S WHY!” Keith began before Kenny started to cry.

Before Keith could finish, a magenta magic hand slapped him across the face, and all turned to see a fuming, red-faced Twilight glaring right at Keith.

“I get it, you’re the most disabled out of your family,” she growled, “ But no one hurts my broth—uh… My best friend Kenny like that!”

Kenny stared at her in shock, the tears suddenly stopped. Had she been about to say what he though she’d been about to say? Brother? Did she actually feel the same way he did? They’d really need to discuss this when they returned to his bedroom.

“Ow! You hit me!” Keith screeched.

“Yeah, I did!” Twilight huffed. “Because you were torturing Kenny!”

“Thank you, Twilight, but I’ll take it from here,” Dean assured their guest. “Keith!”

“Yes, Dean Draper?” the currently short-tempered boy replied.

“I’m your father! You do not call me by my birth name, is that clear?”

“KEITH?” Keith said to himself in the villain voice again. “What?” He replied to himself as himself. “YOU ARE NOT TO USE MY BIRTH NAME!” he told himself. “Why?” He asked the impersonation of his father, “BECAUSE YOU WILL BE CUT OFF!”

“Keith!” Dean barked.

“Yes?” Keith responded, startled out of his pseudo-tantrum.

“I will speak for myself,” Dean said firmly, “And I would never talk as if I were God or a Prophet! Understand? You’re embarrassing us in front of our guest!”

Keith opened his mouth, but Dean cut him off. “Yes or no only. Do you understand?”

“YES!” Keith screamed in more of a high-pitched shriek, causing all to cover their ears.

“Now, For each infraction, you’ll spend thirteen minutes in the corner, one minute for each year you are old. You made Kenny cry, you unnerved our guest, and you tried to paint me, your father, as a villain. Thirty-nine minutes in the corner. You talk or try to leave it, you’ll get your timer reset. Now get going,”

Keith got up and walked to the corner near the side door to the garage, but only a few minutes after his timer started and peace and quiet had returned at last, he started crying, screeching and wailing.

“I’m resetting your timer, Keith,” Dean announced. You know the rules. If you want out of that corner any time soon, I suggest you say nothing for the next thirty-nine minutes.”

This happened a few more times before Keith calmed down and accepted his punishment, by which time, Kenny and Twilight had both finished eating.

After taking both their dishes to the sink and setting them down next to it for them to be pre-washed for the dishwasher later, Kenny led Twilight upstairs, only for Kimberly to cut them off, appearing friendly and cheerful.

“Hi there, Twily!” she began, only for Twilight to cut her off.

“Only my family get to call me that,” she said coldly.

“But, Kenny—” Kim tried to object, only to get cut off again.

“May I help you?” the filly asked, calming down immediately and returning to the very image of the perfect, polite guest.

“Oh, uh…” Kim stumbled with her words for a few seconds before collecting herself again. “I’m the only girl in this family, and Mom’s over four times my age, so connecting with her is hard. I've always wanted a girl closer to my age in the house to have some girl time with, so… Could we maybe hang out for a bit? An hour or two?”

“I”m Kenny’s friend first,” Twilight insisted. “Sorry, but no thanks.”

“But, if you think it’d be too typically girly, that’s not a problem!” Kim called after the filly as she followed Kenny back to his bedroom. “I’m not a fan of frilly pink bows and fashion dolls! I just want to hang out with a girl around my age! Please! There’s so many guys in this house! I’m drowning in testosterone!”

Ignoring the melodramatics of Kenny’s sister, Twilight followed him through the door, and waited as Kenny closed it behind them. But unlike last time, he pushed the knob in and turned it until there was a light click: he’d locked it.

Watching in confusion, Twilight saw him move to the door to the bathroom and perform the same motion, locking it as well.

“Okay, now we have all the privacy we need,” Kenny told her as he hopped onto his bed and patted a spot next to him with his hand. “Please, have a seat, Twilight.”

Her heart beating faster, trying to swallow her nervousness, the filly slowly trotted over to her human friend and hopped up onto the bed, sitting next to Kenny.

“Twilight, we need to talk,” Kenny said, looking down at his hands and fiddling with them. “I’ve had these feelings towards you ever since a few minutes before lunch, I wanted to tell you, but, I was afraid you wouldn’t feel the same way.”

“Kenny,” Twilight said slowly, “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“At lunch, you started to stay something that sounded like ‘brother’ in referring to me,” the boy continued. “That got my hopes up, for Twilight, I’m starting to feel as close to you as a sister I’ve known all my life, like you’re…” Kenny forced himself to swallow a lump in his throat. “Like you’re family.”

Twilight’s heart began beating even faster at her friend’s confession, and she couldn’t stop herself from hugging him, smiling warmly.

“Yes, I feel the same, Kenny, as if you were my brother all my life!” She exclaimed. “I just… I was afraid, too. Afraid you didn’t consider me that close! I mean, we’ve only known each other for a short time!”

“But we’ve hit it off perfectly, like kindred spirits, like twins, as you were about to put it,” Kenny chuckled, hugging his near-sister close. “There is a way to solidify it, you know. Right Twily?”

Twilight stared for a few seconds before nodding. “You mean the ritual of Kinbinding? To bind our spirits as brother and sister? But, are you sure?”

“Only if you are,” Kenny said gently. “I want to be able to call you my sister, but only if you’re willing to go through with it. We actually have everything we need here today. We used them all for different things but…” Suddenly, he paused. “We each require our favorite thing for it to work. I have Memo here,” he nodded at the dragon plush and figure collection on his computer desk, Memo rising above the others, the largest of his collection, “But do you have whatever yours is?”

“I have Smarty Pants in my bag,” Twilight affirmed with a nod. “I was going to go to bed with her.”

“So, do you want to go through with this?” Kenny asked again. “If you don’t, it’s okay for us to just be brother and sister in name only.”

“No, I want to do this,” Twilight said firmly. “We’ll have to contact my family, as they’ll have to approve and also be here for it, but I think we can do this.”

“There won’t be enough room here for the Feast of Families,” Kenny pointed out. “We’ll need to get a member of the Bishopric to unlock the local church building for us. We could easily use the cultural hall to set it up, as they’ll have tables to spare, tablecloths, and plenty of room.”

“Actually, if we’re going to do this, I think it might be better for you all to come to Canterlot for it, even though it’ll only be for a few hours,” Twilight replied. “I think Princess Celestia would want to be there for this, even though the Feast of Families is strictly for the immediate blood relatives of those bound by the ceremony.”

“We’ll discuss that after we get the approval of both our parents,” Kenny told her, his near-sister nodding in agreement as they got off the bed. “Come on, let’s tell Mom and Dad, first.”

Nodding excitedly, Twilight waited as Kenny unlocked the doors, then followed her near-brother, a new spring in her step as they made their way back downstairs.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for taking one more week than the previous times. I've had problems that I'd rather not get into at the moment.

Anyway, now we're getting into the main premise! What do you guys think? More than friends, but still no romance? A wa to go further without going in that direction? At the very least, I hope it's unique.

Any questions or comments? Feel free to let me know, like if you liked, dislike if you didn't, just be honest with your vote is all I ask. That, and you don't have to wait until the fic is over to vote. It's going to be really long, anyway, so if you change your mind, just switch your vote over. It's that simple.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this Chapter, Chapter 6 may take a while because I'm having trouble figuring out how to start it, but when it's up, I hope to see you in the next chapter! Later all!

Kinbound: Greater Than Friendship

by Dolphy Blue Drake

Chapter 1: Just Another Day In the Draper Household

Chapter 2: Farewell and A Chance Meeting

Chapter 3: Kenny, Meet Twilight

Chapter 4: A Tour Gone Wrong

Chapter 5: Something More