“Hey, Rarity! Guess what?” Pinkie exclaimed. “Something—”
Pinkie stopped and slowly turned her head.
Lyra held her son protectively, as if to shield him from Pinkie’s view, but it was too late. The party pony had noticed the child she’d been trying to hide for a little over five months, now.
“Guuuuuhhh?” Pinkie gasped before approaching Lyra and her son. “Lyra! Who’s this? He must be new to Ponyville, so that means…”
“Pinkie! Please, stop!” Lyra pleaded, but Pinkie couldn’t hear her anymore.
“…A party!” Pinkie finished. “How long has he been here, huh?”
“Jonnathan! Use that spell to make her forget! Now!” Lyra cried in a sudden burst of panic.
Okay, Mommy! the young but determined voice echoed in Lyra’s head. We’ll get away, right?
“Yes, just hurry!” Lyra pleaded as Pinkie waited for the answer to her question. “It only makes her forget the last few seconds, so hurry!”
Lyra could feel her son charging up his magic and channeling it to the surface. His hands and eyes glowed with a purple aura, and she could feel him rapidly constructing the “mental static” spell he’d used so many times on this very mare.
Suddenly, the invisible wave shot towards the pink mare, but just at that moment, Pinkie tried to take another step forward, only to trip over Rarity’s cat, Opal, falling comically to the ground, causing the cat to screech in surprise and also causing the spell to sail right over her head.
Tears welled up in her son’s eyes as he telepathically cried, I’m sorry, Mommy!
“It’s okay, my son,” Lyra tried to assure him as Pinkie got back to her hooves. “I guess we have no other choice but to finally admit defeat.”
Jonnathan whimpered and let go of his magic, the glow fading from his eyes and hands.
Lyra gulped as the mare who was about to decide her son’s fate approached. It was too late for Jonnathan to try the spell again. Too much time had passed. Pinkie wouldn’t forget enough, now.
“Anyway, how long has the little guy been here?” Pinkie asked as if nothing had happened. “Not too long, I hope, or I’ll have to make up for missing his arrival!”
“Pinkie, he’s been here for five months and a week,” Lyra explained, tears in her eyes as she held her son close. “But he was only three weeks old when I found him! And he’s from another world! Had you found out and thrown a party for him right then, he would’ve been terrified! And I wasn’t ready for too many ponies to find out about his existence, either. I told a few ponies, but all of them promised to not talk about it to anypony who didn’t already know. Furthermore, had you thrown that party and terrified him, he would’ve used his magic in fear, and even I don’t know all of what he can do, and I agreed to be his mother! He’s my son, Pinkie! I just wanted to protect him from being discovered too early! Is that wrong? Is a party really more important than a mother protecting her son?”
Lyra chanced a look back at her son and gasped. His eyes and hands were glowing red, and heat was starting to generate from his right hand. He’d shown her the color of each Element once, and she recognized this one right away: he was preparing a Fire spell!
“Jonnathan! NO!” Lyra gasped. “Don’t do it! Don’t use Fire, please!”
The infant blinked in surprise before switching to the familiar purple glow of the Mind Element.
You were crying, Mommy! he replied. The pink pony was making you cry! Lyra felt the telepathic field extend to add Pinkie to his link before he telepathically screamed, NO ONE HURTS MY MOMMY!
At that moment, Lyra realized that the entire exchange had been in perfect Equestrian. Somehow, his drive to protect his mother had broken down the language barrier, and he’d suddenly gained a much better grasp of the language!
“I—I wasn’t trying to hurt your mommy, little guy,” Pinkie insisted, her frizzy mane deflating and going flat. “I didn’t realize that maybe you two didn’t want a party. I’m sorry.” Pinkie’s eyes welled up with tears and she sniffled after her last statement.
If you really didn’t mean to hurt Mommy, I can forgive you. But only if Mommy does, too. Jonnathan turned to look at Lyra before telepathically asking, Do you forgive her, Mommy?
“Of course, Jonnathan,” Lyra said after drying her own tears. “We forgive you, Pinkie Pie.”
Jonnathan nodded before telling Pinkie his name. I’m Jonnathan Thaddamaeus Gheelia-Heartstrings, Miss Pinkie Pie. And I forgive you, just like Mommy did. If you really want to throw me a party, go ahead. He opened his mouth to reveal that he only had a small handful of teeth before adding, But I don’t have all my chompers yet, so I won’t be able to eat almost anything you put out. I haven’t even been weaned off of baby formula yet.
“Okie Dokie Lokie!” Pinkie said cheerfully as her mane returned to its normal frizzy state. “I’ll invite everypony in Ponyville, and I’ll make sure there’s some games even you can play.”
Well, I may not be able to walk yet, but I can still do this, the baby’s telepathic voice said as the purple glow of his right hand intensified. LEVITATE! Suddenly, the glow intensified further as he raised his hand and pointed at Rarity’s cat, who had taken to sleeping on top of Rarity’s sketchbook.
Opal meowed in fear as she was suddenly lifted into the air by a purple aura. As Jonnathan moved his still-pointing hand, Opal moved along with it, until he set her down behind the counter and released the spell holding her captive.
Everypony present—and the one human—giggled as the cat scampered upstairs, giving cries of fear the whole way.
“Wait, I thought you didn’t know the names of any of your spells,” Lyra said. “Have you been lying to me? You’re just a baby! How could you be telling lies already?”
Mommy, I only mentioned that if I knew the name of a spell and thought it upon casting it, it’d make it stronger, Jonnathan’s mental voice explained. And that I didn’t know the name of the mental static spell. I never mentioned not knowing the names of any of the spells I know.
“Okay, I’ll let that pass, then,” Lyra sighed. “But have you noticed that you’ve been communicating in perfect Equestrian ever since Pinkie showed up? I think you’ve finally got the language down!”
I… Have? Jonnathan’s voice asked in surprise. I didn’t even notice!
“Yes you have, son,” Lyra answered proudly. “I knew from the first moment we communicated that you’re very smart. We’ll probably have to enroll you at Ponyville Elementary as soon as you get speaking down pat, unless you get there before you turn four, since Ponyville Elementary won’t take special cases until they’re at least four years old. The usual age is five, though. Anyway, you’ll probably be enrolled there as soon as you turn four years old.”
“Well, looks like you two have a lot to prepare for,” Rarity said with a chuckle. “And you have that party to plan, Pinkie. You won’t get much done here.”
“Oh! Of course!” Lyra exclaimed, carefully returning her son to her saddlebags. “We’ve got to make sure you’ve got everything down, Jonnathan.”
The baby simply giggled because he’d canceled the telepathy spell, and Lyra began the trek home in peace.
When it was time for dinner, Lyra levitated Jonnathan out of his bed and sat him on her back before saying “I’m going to try to feed you while I eat, this time.” She smiled before continuing. “That way, we can have our first dinner as a family.”
The baby giggled in delight. Lyra didn’t need his telepathy to know that he was happy about the prospect. He understood about seventy percent of Equestrian, now, and he knew almost every common word in the language (she’d taken the time to test his grasp of the language right after they’d gotten home, and that’s how she came to those estimates). With his grasp of the language, he most likely understood everything she said, so if he giggled in response to what she said, she could now be certain that he hadn’t misunderstood her.
“Okay, down the stairs we—” Lyra paused. “Why are all the lights off downstairs? Oh no…”
But before Lyra could call out to Pinkie to remind her that Jonnathan was only half a year old, the lights all turned on and ponies leaped out of their hiding places and shouted, “SURPRISE!”
However, the baby human didn’t cry out in fear, but clapped his hands and squealed in delight, causing Lyra to sigh in relief.
The thing that happened next was something Lyra wasn’t expecting at all: Jonnathan hugged her neck, nuzzled the back of her head and actually tried to speak: “Mmma… mmma…” The baby huffed in exasperation and tried one more time: “Mama…”
Lyra gasped as the ponies in the room all d’awwed at the cute display.
“Did he just…” Lyra couldn’t believe what her ears had told her.
Bonnie trotted over to her and ruffled the small amount of hair on Jonnathan’s head, provoking a giggle from the baby. “Congrats, Lyra! His first word! And he was referring to you!”
Lyra smiled, and then the party got underway. Everything went off without a hitch. Jonnathan made friends with the Cake twins quite easily, and even befriended some of the school age fillies and colts by talking to them with his telepathy. Every once in a while, he’d try to use actual speech, but it almost always came out garbled, so he just kept causing ponies to react to how cute he was.
Though Pinkie thought Jonnathan would be too young for most party games, he proved her wrong in some of them by utilizing his telepathy and levitation spells to make up for only being able to crawl. He won “Pin the Tail on the Pony” twice, for example, and he was able to outsmart the school bullies Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon at a rigged game of their own making, somehow pulling off a win in a game that was meant to be unwinnable. The two fillies were infuriated that their scheme had been foiled by a “half-year old bald ape”. The Cutie Mark Crusaders took a liking to him as soon as he foiled the bullies’ scheme, and Lyra giggled as the two bullies stalked away angrily.
Eventually, everypony went home, and Lyra finally got her time to have dinner with Jonnathan. After he finished his formula and Lyra finished her salad, the baby human hugged her tight and said, “I wuv you, Mama,” which was his first successful attempt at stringing words together, no doubt due to how brilliant he was.
“I love you, too, Jonnathan,” Lyra told her human son. “Now, let’s get to bed.”
The human only nodded tiredly as Lyra picked him up with her magic and sat him on her back again to return to her room. After tucking the little tyke in and giving him a goodnight kiss, Lyra got into bed herself, and the two soon fell asleep.