Sherbert - 4th of Solar Dusk, 26 AESherbert - 4th of Solar Dusk, 26 AE
Uneigh Ward, Neighdo - Neighpone
I’d been in Neighpone for a whole year as of today.
This time last year, I’d been so eager to be here that I never thought about how I might miss home. I realized I would start missing Equestria a few weeks into summer. Oddly enough, I wasn’t missing home as much as I thought I would, though I did a little bit.
But not enough to be sad. Not enough to regret coming here. Just enough to really miss walking into Sugarcube Corner and getting a Superduper Ultra Cherry-Choco Shake.
I heard that a zebra died from eating one of those once. Poor non-ponies. Unable to process a kilogram of sugar easily.
No, I didn’t miss home too much. Because I could see what I had gained. I understood the purpose simple training I’d been given this whole time. My body was rock solid! I never knew that a unicorn could have muscles this toned. You could see some of my muscles outlines even with my extra thick fur.
I still looked feminine, but I could probably win the ponyville bodybuilding competition for the unicorn bracket if I cared to enter. The stallion’s, not the mares. I guess we ancient unicorns are just built different.
But more than that, I had the proof I needed that I had been right to come here. I was stronger, yeah. I had some okay self defense skills. Nothing big. But my mind was way sharper than it was before. I’d only spent one year here and I already noticed I was more perceptive. I was also more willing to learn things I had once found useless.
Because it wasn’t about learning that thing. It was about learning everything around that thing, and finding out how you could use the information. Rojā’s history lessons had shown me that.
Of course, the most AWESOME thing, hooves down, was Master Yoshi’s gift! Right now I was walking down the street disguised as an unassuming looking peach and yellow pegasus stallion. I LOVED playing around with my new ‘spell’. Turns out I was more adept at this particular spell than most, the ‘vague sense of touch’ most ponies got? Not me.
I got full feeling in any illusory body parts I added, or extended away from my own natural body. I could make myself decimeter taller by standing atop the illusion’s projection like stilts, and still be able to feel with my hooves just as well as if they were my own.
I could also do a very obvious thing which Rin liked. Though occasionally eating meals with me as a stallion was messing with his head a bit… I never thought a Changeling would be weirded out by shapeshifting. Heh!
Irony.
Of course it was super practical too. Mai had it out for me and was out of the hospital now.
Apparently Kazumi’s ‘non-lethal’ shots did major internal damage to that psycho, and her family was… Weirdly anti-magic. She’d spent the whole time since the duel in a hospital getting mundane treatment. Then the whole summer recuperating from two organ transplants, then getting back into shape, and then practicing countermeasures for ranged attacks.
So, yeah. Yikes!
According to a tip I’d gotten from Master Mitsu, her grandfather was angry. And Mai was sort of using her position as a teacher’s assistant at Flying Horse to get people looking for me.
Double yikes!
I was tempted to ask my family for help, but as Master Rojā had put it…
”This is a good opportunity to hone your stealth skills. You now have a reason to be unseen outside of these walls. We will watch out for you, of course, but you should take a few days to gain real world practice at avoiding the enemy,” Rojā said with a sage nod. “Yes, that’s the best silver lining you can take form this. Don’t worry. Before things get violent, we will protect you. But for now, learn from this.”
Offense not meant to my Masters, but I was still going to call my family in on this one. If only because if I didn’t, and they found out later, I’d be in deep trouble.
For the moment, I was safe. I’d left the dojo disguised as a little filly following closely behind a family, then changed into an old mare behind some trash cans, and then I’d become this stallion while in a dense crowd. Nopony could know who I was under this disguise even if they had followed me the whole way through each change.
They wouldn’t dare jump one of the Masters, and they definitely wouldn’t know I had this ‘spell’ at my disposal. They would assume I was a fourth year student or a master. I was safe.
I could plan while walking across town to visit the primary reason I was happy to still be in Neighpone. Kazumi!
She invited me over to her house today. It’s where I was headed now. I’d never been inside her place before. But I’d been to it a few times while walking her home.
No, Sherb! Focus. You need to work out who to call for help with getting Mai to leave you alone. You can work out a way to check out Kaz’s cute little plot later.
Let’s see… Mom and dad are right out. They would freak out and probably demand I come home. No! Nothing doing. I’ve made real progress.
I could call Uncle Sky. Then again, he’d probably use a mech to do it. Or deploy a bunch of robots. Or something else really cool but also WAAAAY out of proportion so as to ensure victory. There’d be collateral. And this was a heritage site and cultural district. Sooo um, no. Even though it would be totally badflank to watch
Aunt Trixie? She was the one who sent me here. She was definitely a ninja on top of being a supersoldier. She could protect me easily… But would probably just straight up kill Mai in the inevitable fight. Mai may be a psychopath but she didn’t deserve that.
I cant use Aunt Twilight, or well, any of the Elements for that matter. Their last letter from two days ago said they were busy with a thing… Something about a fallen star in the north.
I guess that left Ayna? Yeah that’s it basically. What did she do besides design the magical components for Sky’s tech? Write books. And also Trixie. Heh!
No but seriously, she was a Library Wizard. She helped during the Tartarian Invasion. She had to have some moves. Besides, martial artist vs wizard doesn't end well without a LOT of prep time for the martial artist.
Yeah, I’d give her a call tomorrow. She was the best option.
Now then, that settles that! Onwards to Kaz’s place. It wasn’t much further I’d just passed the old shrine surrounded by laundromats. All I had to do was look for the hedge fence with the little iron gate and buzz the number.
I loved her little community. The way Uneigh did their residential zones was to give them foliage fences, and then make the homes in the trees like every other building, but in a more organic park-like pattern instead of the grid-like pattern the city itself was in.
As I reached the gate I always dropped Kazumi off at, I could see into the park-suburb a good ways. Her’s had a fairly nice grove of cherry trees right behind the gate, one dense enough to block the view inside even during winter. Right now, at the tail end of summer they had lost their flowers, but the leaves had turned a super dark green color which I could have sworn should only exist on plasma screens and magical projections.
The Academy was a beautiful place to live, I had no complaints, but I wouldn’t mind living here. Not if this was the privacy wall. After all, you make that the least nice part of your home. At least, you know, the outwards facing side.
Trotting up to the gate I inspected the lefthoof brick pillar for the blue glowing list of names and pressed the Kanji for Kazumi’s name. I always wondered why there were only seventy names on the list. A housing district this size should have fit maybe five hundred ponies. Still, nothing said every district has to be full. Could just be a lot of homes for sale here.
Yeah, that had to be it. Not everypony wants to live in the historical district. Heck, if I were moving here I’d live in one of the more modern sections instead.
I waited a few seconds for the glowing kanji to shift from blue to purple, signifying that the intercom was working.
“Hello?” Kaz’s voice asked curiously.
I quickly adjusted my disguise spell to stop distorting my voice. “Hey! I’m here. Can you buzz me in?”
“Nope! I’ll be walking down to let you in. Because, you’d get lost, Bakka,” Kazumi said happily
“What?” I asked. “Are there that many empty houses?”
“Um, no,” Kaz replied with a sigh. “I’ll be there in a minute, okay?”
“Okay,” I replied as her name faded back to blue.
Around a minute later I heard the quite little tak of her tiny hooves landing on cobblestone. Within a few seconds the tiny mare trotted out from the cherry trees and to the gate, immediately pushing it open.
“Thanks,” I said as I walked inside.
Kazumi shook her head incredulously. “You’re WAY too good with that disguise spell.”
“What do you mean?” I asked looking down at her with a frown.
“Well, for starters, I’m at dick height to most stallions,” she explained. “So I’ve seen a LOT of them. And even though I know that’s all illusion magic, it looks too real for me to care. Which is why I’m saying you're way too good. Normally when I know something’s an illusion I see through it.”
“Well maybe you want me to be a guy,” I teased as she walked up ahead of me to lead me down the path.
“Why would I care about that?” Kazumi asked, looking over her shoulder to give me a weird look.
“Some mares prefer stallions over mares outside of estrus season,” I said raising an eyebrow. “You’re a doctor. How do you not know stuff like that?”
“Um, I do,” Kaz countered. “I’m just wondering why I should care about your sex organs.”
“Well you’re the one who brought them up!” I said waving a hoof in irritation. “You don’t just go ‘you have a nice dick’ and then NOT follow up with ‘Can I ride it?’ or something!”
Kazumi facehooved and groaned. “Bakka, it’s illusion. I can’t touch it. Why would I-”
“It’s a tactile illusion,” I said, leaning to my left side to give her a light swat on her side with my left wing. “See? And I feel it too, so like, I basically AM a stallion right now.”
Kazumi blinked once, then blushed a bright red, and then winced and laughed. “Okay! Uh, I actually didn’t know illusion spells could be solid like that. That actually felt like feathers… Point made. I could ride that.
“I shouldn’t have talked about it in terms of a ‘wow you’re skilled at that art’ way, because it’s effectively real and you clearly have that same weird stallion pride thing going on. I’m sorry.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not that I have ‘stallion pride’. I just- Um, well… I like you,” I admitted shyly.
Kazumi stumbled, almost driving her face into a very low branch. “Yeah, you’re a great friend. I like you too,” she said very unconvincingly, her wings twitching nervously.
I summoned my courage and trotted around to her front, dropping my illusion spell and laying down at the same time so we’d be on eye level.
“No, Kaz. I mean I like you, as in ‘I want to be your special somepony’,” I clarified. “I think you are very pretty, and while you insult me all the time, I think you care for me a lot. You got me that potion, and you helped correct my dosage for the sleep therapy potions. You come over all the time, you got jelly when you thought Rin and I were a couple instead of just FWBs, and we chat so much in homeroom that none of us even know the other people in it as anything other than names and faces… I mean come on! You love me too, right?”
Kazumi’s face flashed between fear and delight. Rapidly. Like somepony was flipping a switch back and forth.
“I- I, um!” She stammered her four hooves shuffling against the ground nervously. “I- I- I can’t be your marefriend!”
I frowned in surprise, then sadness.
“But… Why?” I asked, blinking the first few tears out of my eyes.
“Because I’ll get hurt,” Kazumi whimpered sadly, her ears laying back in fear. “My first coltfriend had me for three days. One weekend. He only dated me on a dare. He showed up to take me to dinner with another mare, spat on me, and left.
“My second mate was a mare. She openly admitted to only dating me so she would look prettier by comparison and seem to be nicer to disabled people. She was shocked I didn’t assume that was why she asked me out from the get go.
“After that was another mare. She was a pedophile. This was pre-implants, so I still looked like a little filly. It’s why she wanted me… Someone who fit her definition of attractive who she couldn’t be arrested for bucking.
“If that had been it I wouldn’t have cared much. Everyone has a reason for liking a certain person initially. But I’m not into being tortured, and she was also a sadist. She didn’t care that I disliked it and ignored the safe word.
“I left her after she notched my ear to mark me as property. Th- then I woke up chained to some playground equipment in the park… Weeks later... And not like, just chained up. I’d been used. By at least a few ponies…
“I don't remember any of it. I don’t want to. Had memory erasure therapy. She’s in prison still. Not gonna get out.
“Then I dated a stallion again. I was really really nervous about it. Almost didn’t. But still felt the need for somepony in my life… Because-”
Nothing about the situation I had just been informed of was okay! Deep down in my heart, something primal snapped. My brain detected this, agreed with my heart’s reasoning, and also snaped.
I grabbed Kazumi and pulled her against my barrel in a tight hug. “She’s dead. Name her prison and cell,” I said as seriously as I could.
I needed her to know that I wasn't joking. That bitch was going to die. Painfully! I’d use a spoon, so it would hurt more.
“She’s in prison. A psychiatric prison. That’s enough,” Kaz whimpered, making me regret confronting her like this.
The poor thing…
“I don’t want to know what that stallion did to hurt you,” I said still holding her close. “I… I can’t imagine what that sort of love life has done to you but I can promise you that I’ll never do anything to hurt you.”
“He said that,” Kazumi mumbled. “The last one. The next day he stabbed me in the back.”
“He cheated on you?” I asked with an upset glare. “What a jerk!”
“No. He stabbed me. In the back. Move your left hoof down a bit,” she corrected with a sob.
I recoiled slightly in horror as my hoof traced across a long, rough, poorly healed scar. “Discord’s blood!” I yelped. “What the buck was wrong with that psycho!?”
“He was a junkie… Got high, thought I had cocaine in me, he wanted it. Tried to cut me open like a bag,” she sniffled. “S-so I can’t date you. B-because if I do. I’ll get hurt. And-”
“If you get hurt and we’re together, I will kill whatever hurt you. This includes myself. If I ever do anything like those last two monsters did to you, I will personally take your gun, put it to my head and pull the trigger because I am no longer someone who should be alive!” I swore, giving the poor girl a tight squeeze.
Kazumi nodded. “I- I believe you. You would do that, wouldn’t you?” She asked, her face buried into my chest.
“I would. And if I didn’t, my entire family would likely hunt me down if I didn’t turn myself in. You’re safe with me, Kazumi. Even from me,” I whispered to her.
Kazumi sniffed and sat still for a few moments. “I… I’ve known you for longer than I knew any of them. I know you wouldn’t hurt me. But there’s that little voice in the back of my mind, and it’s screaming at me. I… I need this. I need the hug, and someone to listen, but it’s screaming at me to run before you break my neck!”
“But you’re still here,” I pointed out with a hopefully flick of my tail.
She nodded once. “I am… I’m tired of being afraid. By some miracle, I- I don’t… I still need love in my life. I’ve wanted to sleep with you since I first saw you. You’re pretty, and you showed genuine concern for the health of a stranger.
“I’ve spent the whole year trying to make me hate you, but I just can’t do it! No matter how much I emphasise your negative traits, or insult you to make dislike a force of habit, I can’t do it!”
“So that’s why you only call me Bakka,” I sighed sadly, my ears falling.
“At first, yeah… But now I have gods damned dreams where I’m cuddled up with you doing that stupid cutsy couples talk and it's all insults, but I’m genuinely expressing love so hard that we’re totally surrounded by changelings. You changed the meaning of a word for me,” Kaz laughed almost manically.
I smirked, “I kinda already knew that. You call me an idiot the same way my mom called my dad a derp.”
Kazumi nodded. “Yeah… Heh… I um, yesterday my dad called me a bakka, and was weirded out when I smiled back happily and said ‘I love you too’.”
I blushed and held back a laugh. “Wait, you mean the ENTIRE word changed meaning for you?” I asked with a giggle.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up…” Kazumi muttered into my chest fluff.
“I notice you still haven’t let go,” I pointed out, gently stroking her mane with my left hoof.
“I’m seeing if holding you will drown the voice,” Kaz replied quietly.
“Is it?” I asked hopefully.
Kazumi shook her head no and sighed. I gently picked her up and looked her dead in the eyes. “I will never hurt her,” I said as firmly and lovingly as I could to her subconscious. “You have every right to be worried. But I will never hurt her. I will help you keep her safe, and hold down anything that does and punch it while you beat it to death. I promise.”
Kazumi blinked and gave me a concerned look. “Um, Bakka? I don’t have dissociative identity disorder,” she pointed out, her cheeks burning red with embarrassment.
“I know. I just wanted your brain to get the memo. Because I love you, and you love me, and it needs to calm it's teats and understand that an Equestrian, who grew up playing with Princess Twilight, surrounded by ponies who have saved the world multiple times each, and who comes from a family so full of Paragons she felt she was drowning under their expectations because it felt like there was no room for normal ponies in it, would never, under any circumstance, EVER hurt you,” I said as clearly as I could.
Kazumi giggled and shook her head in amusement. “How did you do that in one breath?”
“I’m related to Pinkie Pie,” I pointed out with a smile. “Long babbling rants are a bloodline superpower.”
Kazumi laughed, a genuine happy laugh, which cut out halfway through as a confused, but happy look filled her face. “Huh…” She mused.
“What?” I asked as I pulled her back down to cradle her against me again.
“Does the Pinkie Promise actually work?” Kaz asked seriously.
“Yes,” I answered instantly and honestly. “As long as you mean it, the promises does make it nigh impossible to break that promise, baring it being physically impossible. Like promising to bring the moon to earth, or making a square circle. Twilight studied it. It’s a thing. And if you somehow DO break it, Pinkie knows...”
Kazumi nodded and let go of me, wiping a foreleg across her tearstained, red eyes. “Wait, here, I’ll be right back,” she instructed, her wings snapping open as she took to the air, vanishing into the trees almost instantly.
I sat and waited, doing my best not to think about the hell that Kaz had been through with her previous ‘lovers’. What kind of bullshit luck did she have? This really explained everything about her. Her aggression. Her attitude towards me… She needed help healing the rest of the way. She’d get it. She’d get it, and more.
Kazumi dropped from the sky a moment later, landing in front of me. Her implants rippled slightly under the impact, sending a very small visible wave up through her ultra soft body. I had loved her before she got those improvements, and now.. Well, I still did, but she had a huge dose of sexy dropped atop that heap of love.
I blushed and pushed the image out of my mind. She needed love right now, not lust.
She trotted up to me and held out a small test tube filled with a silvery, prismatic liquid. I reached out with my telekinesis and took it. “What’s this?” I asked.
“Truth potion. A real one,” Kazumi answered. “It’s as effective as a police grade anti-deception spell. Once you drink that, for the next half hour, you won't be able to say anything that isn’t absolutely true, and can only answer questions directly. I want you to drink it, and then Pinkie Promise you won't ever hurt me.”
“Done,” I agreed in a heartbeat, popping the top off the tube and sending it down my throat like a shot. “How long till it kicks in?”
“Say the sky is red,” Kazumi instructed after a few seconds.
“Okay. The sky is blue,” I said then blinked in concern.
I had fully intended to say it was red.
“Wow, okay, fast acting.” I mumbled.
“The active ingredients are absorbed by the tongue and get right into the bloodstream,” Kazumi admitted. “I um… I don't like long activation times.”
I nodded twice. “Okay. Now,” I said before clearing my throat and getting ready to do the motions to accompany the promise. “I promise that I will never do anything to hurt you, and will always do my best to protect you, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Ow.”
Kazumi flinched. “Um, I don’t think you’re supposed to poke your own eye…”
“You are,” I said as I blinked the pain out of my left eye. “Did it work? Because if not-”
Kazumi gently put a hoof to my lips, then stood up on her rear legs to give me a loving kiss. She pulled a way, paused for a few moments then hugged me tightly.
“It did. For whatever reason, that did it. The voice stopped,” Kazumi said, squeezing me tightly.
“That’s because it’s a Pinkie Promise,” I said completely seriously. “She knows, you know… Frankly Pinkie’s a bit creepy.”
Kazumi raised an eyebrow skeptical. “There’s no way she really knows…”
“I can’t lie right now,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but if you believe something to be completely true that does foil all truth telling methods,” Kazumi said with a worried frown.
I rolled my eyes, flipped the cover off my watch with my magic, and hit the button sequence to call Pinkie. She picked up immediately.
“You made the promise, you can’t back out of it!” Pinkie said the instant the connection clicked open.
“AAA! She actually knows! How does she know!?” Kazumi yelped.
“I told you she did,” I laughed. “It’s basically a spell.”
“How can you know!?” Kazumi pleaded, staring fearfully at my watch.
“Because breaking a promise is the best way to lose a friend… Forever!” Pinkie answered with her usual non-answer. “Sorry for only doing it over the watch. Next time you’re in Ponyville bring it up again and I’ll do the usual twice to make up for this. Gotta go! Chip and I are in a bake off! Bye!”
The watch clicked as Pinkie hung up connection.
“See? It’s magic. That promise is super hard to break, and if I somehow do I’ll have a very scary angry Pinkie after me.”
“I believe you,” Kazumi agreed with a nod.
I cleared my throat and stood up, gently setting Kazumi on all fours with a quick telekinetic flip.
“Soooo, we’re together now, right?” I asked hopefully.
She nodded once. “Yeah… At least, for a bit. Few weeks. Trial run, see if I can handle it,” she said with a nervous grimace. “S-sooo uh, what do you want to do today? I um, I had a plan but we can do something else first.”
“I want to put you on my back and carry you around like a teddy bear,” I said honestly before blushing deeply. “AHH! BUCK YOU AND YOUR TRUTH POTION!”
Kaz laughed, shaking her head slowly. “I have an antidote in my house,” she giggled.
Kaz wiggled her hips shyly, then opened her wings, flapping them just enough to hop up onto my back. “There you go,” she said as her rear legs tightened around my waist.
YAY! It’s exactly as nice as I imagined like, almost literally a full year ago!
“Um, let’s go get you an antidote before you like, tell me your favorite sex position. You know, before you’re ready,” Kaz said apologetically.
“Pfff! I’d casually talk about that kind of thing with friends. Honestly the only stuff I’d be afraid to talk about are like, personal feelings about myself… DAMNIT!” I moaned, sliding a hoof down my face. “Lets get that antidote before I stop thinking drinking that was worth it.”
Kazumi nodded and pointed to a spot in the treeline. “Go that way… And why do I really feel like I should have a lance?”
My eyes widened in delight as I began to move through the trees. “Oh my Luna! We should TOTALLY go to Equestria next summer and enter a jousting tournament! You’re so small that they won't be able to easily get you off my back, and if we get a saddle that straps you in you won't fall off if I free run!” I said excitedly.
“Woah, woah, wait!” Kazumi asked in honest shock. “You guys use saddles for things other than bondage!?”
“Yeah! It’s sport equipment. Also old military equipment. The Guard used to have mounted archers back before vehicles were cheap. That way ranged fighters could be more maneuverable and still use a weapon that took two hooves,” I explained. “There’s also jousting, but that’s just a sport. Nopony would ever use that for real combat. We played it in gym a few times. Gotta say, I’d be up for it professionally if I didn’t have a full sized teammate. I could carry you all day, easily!”
Then we stepped through the treeline. Onto a perfectly manicured lawn. Surrounded by a dozen small houses. Byond which lay a massive swimming pool appropriate for a god damn palace. Said goddamn palace was built just past the pool atop a pony-made hill. And roofed with what looked like silver tiles.
“Uhhhh…” I said unintelligently.
HOW COULD A WEALTHY MARE NOT AFFORD GOOD IMPLANTS!? OR LUNCH THAT CONSISTED OF MORE THAN RICE!?
“I’m not loaded,” Kazumi said with a sigh. “I just live on the grounds. Third house from our left, in the servant's lot.”
“Oh! So your family works here?” I asked.
“No they own it,” she corrected.
“But you said you’re not wealthy!” I protested, ears flicking back. “Maybe YOU should have drunk the truth potion.”
“I’m not wealthy,” Kaz sighed, slipping into an impression of an older stallion’s voice. “Kazumi, you are not worthy of my fortune if you can’t make your own fortune. If you can make your own fortune, you do not need mine.”
I frowned slowly. “I… Oh… So, they don’t care for you at all?”
How much more sad could Kaz’s life get? None. None more sad! Cuz now I was a part of it. And BUCK her life being this depressingly sad!
“Nope,” Kaz sighed. “Not since I turned thirty. I told you I pay my parents rent. Why would you assume they gave me money?”
I shook my head slowly and trotted up to her smallish house. “So what did you want to do with me today?” I asked to change the topic to a happier one.
“Oh, um… I need to find an apartment. They’re kicking me out. Hired a new buttler, need the house for him,” Kazumi mutered bitterly.
What. The. Actual. Buck!?
I need mom to make these assholes a Parents of the Year award! Just so it’s extra sarcastic coming from her.
“Buck that, you’re living with me!” I insisted firmly.
“That’s not a good idea,” Kazumi said with a wince.
“Why not?” I asked with a skeptical snort. “We’re a couple now, you and I both know you’ll still like me after the next few weeks. We’ve had feelings for each other for an entire year! Come on, be honest with yourself, Kaz. Besides, non-members can live at the dojo. Rin lived there before he was a student at it.
“And I meant like, there’s probably a spare room you can have there. But if there isn’t you can use my bed, I don’t anymore, I haven't actually slept in a month and a half now.”
Kazumi hummed. “W-well, I’m being thrown out tomorrow. So I’ll take that offer. But only until I can find my own place. So I have time to find something that isn’t a rathole.”
“Good!” I said with a happy smile as I pushed her house's door open, ears instantly falling back as I noticed there was NO decoration at all. Everything was simplistic, function only, bare minimum, more spartain than a military barracks, flatpacked furniture and repurposed junk.
That table was totally an old water damaged wood shipping crate with a sheet over it….
Oh. My. Bucking. LUNA!
ENOUGH! WITH! THE! SAD!
“What the buck, Kazumi!?” I snapped angrily. “Why didn’t you tell me you were living like this? I would have bought you curtains and some paintings, and other things.”
“Cuz dad’s right. If I can’t make my own fortune, I’m not really much of a mare, now am I?” She sighed dejectedly.
I winced, understanding those feelings very well. But now I could also see why they were stupid!
“Well… Pack your stuff. If you don't have stuff, meh. Part of having a special somepony is getting gifts from them. We’re moving you over right now,” I said decisively as I lowered her off my back with my magic. “I just have to call my aunt Ayna really quick to take care of some business, then I’ll help!”
Bucking tartarus! Even if she DIDN’T love me I’d still have to help her out of this crap hole...
████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE
███████████ - ████████, Neighpone
“Ancestors…” The mysterious mare sighed, staring out into the abyss. “Poor mare was Life’s toilet.”
Rojā nodded. “I thought the same thing when I saw this footage the first time. It’s little wonder she’s so aggressive. That dangerous front she puts up may be all that’s keeping her from a horrible death,” he sighed. “Still! She’s very happy with Sherbert. You may have noticed she’s filed notice for a possible travel visa. A long term one.”
“She’s thinking about going back with Sherbert once this is all over,” the mare said slowly, nodding once. “If that’s not love, what is?”
“Knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticle, and together, achieving a singular purpose against statistically long odds,” Rojā said with a jovial wink.
“How did a psycho like you get married?” The mare asked incredulously.
“He likes my dark humor,” Rojā replied with a playful grin. “And ninja jokes.”
“Whatever…” The mare muttered. “Ah, yes. You did remind me. That mare who had Kaz gang raped. Do we know her name?”
Rojā nodded. “Yes, Ma’am. Kirai Yakunan.”
“Is the crime on record? Did this really happen?” The mare asked again with a grim scowl.
Rojā nodded. “Yes. It did. I don’t want to discuss the details. They are… Well, the most apt description is that chapter of her life was taken right out of a goro hentai.”
“How much of that is exaggeration?” The mare asked, sounding a bit ill.
“Absolutely none. Look at Kazumi’s medical record some time. It’s a horror show,” Rojā sighed, knowing his superior was about to become just a little bit, absolutely livid. “For example, when she said chained she really meant dismembered and chained to things via threaded eye bolts attached to her exposed bo-”
“Stop!” The mare demanded with a guttural growl that would have sent lions running in terror. “And they put this monster into an asylum!? What judge decided that execution wasn’t warranted?”
Rojā frowned. “I’m sorry, Ma’am. I can’t recall at the moment.”
“Find out and have him removed from his position. He’s forfeit it,” the mare ordered. “Kill him, disbar him, dump him a thousand kilometers out to sea in a barrel. I don’t care! Vanish him or disbar him. Pick one. Where is the monster being held?”
“I don’t think that’s wise, Ma’am. You’re speaking from a place of extreme anger. I will speak to you about this matter after you have calmed down. A talk with the judge is all this will take,” Rojā advised.
The mare closed her eyes for a long moment, let out a deep breath, and then nodded. “Yes, of course. You’re right. I just can’t believe that happened… It’s honestly the worst crime I’ve heard of in the last five years.”
Rojā nodded. “I agree with you there, Ma’am. As for Kirai, she’s being held within the Trotkyo Public Asylum.”
Rojā hadn’t just ignored the monster imprisoned there. He had kept tabs, not just on her but on Kazumi’s subsequent ex as well. After all, everyone who slept under his roof was under his protection. Though without authorization from a superior, there was little Rojā could do to preempt future emergencies.
Despite that hinderance, it would have been very unwise for a certain escapee to seek out her old victim, if she ever had escaped.
The mare nodded and leaned away from her chair to her left, her head and shoulder vanishing as it went over the edge of the seat. “Yukiko? There’s a mare held in the Trotkyo Public Asylum by the name of Kirai Yakunan. She’s there for a brutal rape of a disabled mare. … No. Her victim is a rather small mare, small enough to require foal sized restraints, as bondage was used.
“I want you to make Kirai vanish. Take her to Site Thirty Nine and make her talk. No torture, just rip the information directly from her mind. Use any spell necessary to prevent her from being able to deceive you in any way shape or form. Find out who supplied her with the equipment. Find out who else hurt that mare with her that night.
“Make them vanish, and find out who they knew. Continue with this until you know everyone involved in the manufacture, distribution, and usage of foal sized bondage gear. Gather the entire web of monsters, and slay them. No mercy is to be shown to them. If you or anyone on your team feels the need to inflict justice upon them before execution, I will look the other way. They deserve to reap what they sow. Understood?
“Good! … Tonight, if possible. ... No, I’m still busy. I wanted to issue the hit so it’s done before some idiot says she’s cured and lets her walk free. Dismissed.”
The mare leaned back into the projection’s area, her head and shoulders reappearing. “‘It’s little wonder she’s so aggressive,’ you say! What the actual BUCK Rojā? More like it’s a miracle the girl can even function in society and isn’t a traumatized piece of jelly unable to leave a single secure room!”
“Oh! Well, not really. I’ve read her medical history, Ma’am. She’s had extensive psychological and arcane therapy to help her get over it. This is her post hypnotherapy and memory erasure, which she consented to. Her parents were able to afford an excellent mage. She’s basically completely cured, aside from that phobia for relationships and the need to be dominant and aggressive…
“And also that medically issued concealed carry permit she’s been issued certainly helps her,” Rojā explained with a sympathetic shrug. “What I am saying is, she’s been repaired as best as science and magic allow.”
“We need to finish this hearing, Rojā,” the mare said, disgust and rage still clinging to every syllable. “Continue. Though I am starting to get the picture you wanted me to see. ‘I’d use a spoon, so it would hurt more.’ Her self preservation instincts extend to her family. It may not have been official, but she thought of Kazumi as her mate then.
“It’s fairly clear that her breed of unicorns are naturally, extremely protective of themselves and others, far more so than modern ponies. To the point of feeling a need to kill any true threat to themselves or their herd. Is that what you wanted me to see?”
Rojā nodded. “Yes, Ma’am. It was. Do you need to know more about her, or-”
“No. Show me the incident in question, and the events directly leading up to it to it. It’s time I decided. The way she saw everything is what matters most now,” the mare said adamantly.
Engineering deck - USS Phoenix
4th of Solar Dusk, 26 AE
Ayna Trigger stepped through the sliding blast doors into the buzzing and bustling engineering deck, a silver sphere the size of a foal held in the changeling’s arcane grip. The second she crossed the threshold, the buzzing stopped. Everyone in the room froze.
Naturally, an entire deck of engineers suddenly going quiet is cause for genuine alarm. Looking up from his workbench to try and see who had just bucked up, Sky Trigger’s eyes found his adoptive sister, and then widened in pure terror as he noticed what she was carrying.
Ayna’s compound eyes scanned the room, found her brother, and then with a quick buzz of her wings the changeling wizard flew across the room, hovering over his workbench.
“Hey, Sky? Can you help me modify a torpedo to take this warhead and also get a torpedo tube ready?” She asked casually. “I just need to link a satellite to relay targeting information based on a biosig-”
“YOU ARE NOT FIRING A GOD DAMNED BLUE RINSE! PUT THAT DOWN, CAREFULLY!” Sky shouted.
“It’s fine, the detonator isn’t even attached yet,” Ayna said, frowning in confusion.
“I don’t care! You never finished testing those! And it’s a magical WMD! I have no idea what could set that thing off! And if that goes off by freak accident, everything organic in god knows how many kilometers just falls over dead! Put it back in stasis, NOW!” Sky insisted.
“It’s set to only have a meter radius and to only detonate if no biosignature other than the target is within the blast range,” Ayna muttered. “It’s also still stasised, I’m maintaining the Time Stop spell on it myself. I’m not an idiot you know!”
“You could have fooled me!” Sky hissed, his ears still lying straight back. “What the hell do you even need to shoot that at!?”
Ayna’s teeth clenched in anger. “Well, you see, that bucking psychopath who was going to punch Sherbert’s teeth out is better now and has apparently decided to kill her in revenge. So I located her via a divination spell, used a scrying mirror to get visual confirmation I had the right pony by showing Sherbert the mirror through my watch, and now I’m going to ensure she’s dead with no possibility of reviv-”
“YOU ARE NOT FIRING A WMD INTO A FRIENDLY CITY!” Sky roared angrily before taking a deep breath. “Wait, Sherb’s in actual lethal danger?”
“Yes. She’s currently under a truth potion, presumably for sexy games with her marefriend. She at the very least fully believes she’s being hunted down to be killed. I will not allow that,” Ayna said with a dangerous glare.
“I’m kinda hurt she didn’t ask me to help…” Sky muttered. “But you are NOT firing an ICBM to stop ONE psychopathic ninja!”
“It’s not a WMD!” Ayna groaned. “I reconfigured it into a mini-bomb.”
“It’s a warhead that is designed to just turn life off like an EMP fucking up electronics!” Sky snapped. “You’re NOT firing that!”
Ayna sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine… I’ll just go wait for nightfall and then launch a R.E.G.I.S. Five into the assassin's bedroom,” she muttered decisively.
“NO NANODRONES!” Sky groaned, rubbing his face with a hoof in distress. “This is why Captain Skritt rarely asks you to do things, Ay! You always go so far over the appropriate level of force...”
“Yes. To ensure victory. If you can make absolutely sure you win, you should! But if you want me to take care of this in a more safe way, I’ll go over there myself,” Ayna sighed, landing on the deck. “I’ll put the PERFECTLY SAFE MINI BOMB WARHEAD away.”
“Good! It would have been less disastrous if I went over there in Big Sai and leveled the whole district! If she specifically wants your help, fine. But do things in person, and small scale so no one else can possibly get hurt!” Sky insisted.
“I was!” Ayna grumbled angrily as she walked out the door. “I just wanted a plan that didn’t involve teleporting halfway across the world so I’m not exhausted tonight. Sheesh!”
Sky nodded once, mentally exhausted. Only for his ears to perk in alarm. “WAIT! What’s your new plan!?” he demanded urgently.
“I’ll go over there, borrow one of her jumpsuits, shapechange my exoskeleton into battle armor, holo disguise as Sherbert, and let the Psycho find me, then take care of it. This is going to take all day. I was going to make Trixie strawberry and white chocolate cookies… Supposed to be our date night, but noooo! Some asshole young mare has to try to kill my niece and my brother wont let me take her out the quick and PERFECTLY SAFE way,” the changeling muttered grumpily as the laboratory's doors hissed shut behind her.
“I think you need to tell Sherbert why Ayna mostly just writes books and manages the Hive’s Arcane division, sir,” a rookie technician said wiping sweat off his forehead.
“Yeah… I’m going to do that,” Sky moaned, rubbing his temples. “After some aspirin.”