//------------------------------// // Mom and Son: Part 2 // Story: Dragon Bro Z // by MrWriterWriter //------------------------------// " A Grave-whatsit...?" Luna asked once she got over the surprise and was back on the ground. "Technically it's called an Artificial Gravity Training Chamber." Spike said, getting up from his laughing fit. "But 'Gravitron' sounds cooler." He made his way to where a computer screen and keyboard was, tapping on a couple. Both Luna and Celestia quickly stepped back when an opening appeared with a loud 'hiss'. "Come on. Just be careful where you stand." The inside proved to be as plain as the outside; except for a control panel situated in a small alcove it was completely bare inside. "There doesn't seem to be much to it." Celestia commented, lightly tapping a hoof on the metal floor. "Yeah, the older versions were a bit more cluttered. Bulma figured out how to streamline it a bit more before I left. You'll meet her before long" He added, seeing what they were about to ask. "You wanna give it a shot?" He asked, hitting the power. "I'm game." Luna fluttered her wings a bit to limber up. "Be interesting to see what I can take." "If anything, this should be a good workout." Celestia added, bouncing in place. "Ok. Let's start easy; five times Earth's gravity." He adjusted a dial on the panel and the lights turned a faint red as the princesses suddenly felt a little heavier." "Woo, that was an interesting sensation." Celestia commented, quickly shaking it off as Luna trotted around some. "All right." Spike moved the dial again. "Ten Gs, same as King Kai's planet." This time, they both grunted a little. Celestia tried to flap her wings to get a bit of lift, but no luck. "Oof! I need to do more wing-ups!" "I've been grounded as a filly, but this is silly!" Luna huffed. "You still feel up for more?" Spike asked, seeing they were a little winded from flapping. "We're good...!" They said in unison. The dial hit fifteen and they were forced to use their telekinesis just to let them take steps. At twenty, they lost the ability to focus enough to cast, straining just to stay standing. Twenty-five had them buckling, the muscles in their legs flexing intensely against the weight they were feeling. Once it reached thirty, however, the two alicorns had lost the battle and were forced to the ground, yelping a little from the somewhat rough impact. "Mom, Luna! You all right!?" Spike quickly shut the machine off, letting Celestia slowly, albeit shakily, get up. "I'm ok, Spike." She replied, "Wow...how long did we last?" "You were still standing at 25Gs. That's not too shabby! Took me and Goku a few days just to walk normally at ten." "Marvelous." Luna spoke up, her voice somewhat muffled from the floor. All six mares shuddered a little after Starlight Glimmer's song. While it sounded like they were all happy, there was still something...unnatural about it all. "I'm not the only one creeped out by these ponies, am I?" Pinkie grimaced a little as she looked around. "Those smiles are NOT right!" "Maybe we're reading too much into this...?" Fluttershy offered, but even she was looking at the equal sign cutie marks uneasily. "I mean it...it's not as, well, comfortable as Ponyville, but every town is different." "Different, yeah, but look at this place, Fluttershy!" Rainbow responded. "You heard that song. Give up my cutie mark!? Buck that noise!" "Ok, let's just cool it." Twilight said. "The map had us come here for a reason. Maybe we'll find out if we look around. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that might look off." Applejack glanced at one of the townsfolk staring at her mark in shock. "This whole darn place is off if ya ask me" "I'll second that." Rarity cringing at the sight of what looked like burlap capes in the window of the clothing store. "Gah..! No wonder nopony wears anything." After a brief walk through the town (which wasn't hard given the whole place could be seen from the only road there) they decided to grab something to eat. The mare inside the cafe introduced herself as Sugar Belle. "What can I get you? We have muffins." They waited for her to say what else she had, but after a moment of silence they realized that was it. "Um, ok..I guess we'll take six muffins, then." "Make it twelve!" Pinkie piped up, getting looks from them. "What? Mystery solving gives me an appetite!" "What doesn't?" Rainbow added. "Sleeping and parasprites, mainly." "I still don't understand why somepony would willingly give up their cutie mark!" Twilight muttered. "Once you get it, it becomes an intrinsic part....it's like giving up an ear. o-or your tail!" "They don't seem to mind..." Fluttershy looked over at Double Diamond, the stallion Starlight had escorting them around. "That's all well and good for them, darling, but I'll keeping my parts where they are, thank you very much." Rarity responded as Sugar Belle came back with a platter of muffins. "Can we please hurry and find out what the problem is here and fix it!?" Pinkie half-pleaded. "This place is starting to make the skin on my flanks crawl!!" "Don't ya think yer overreacting a lil, Pinkie?" asked Applejack. "It's bizaare, but.." "Tell that to my booty!" Pinkie pointed her rear end at the farmmare. "I..I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but overhear your disagreement...and notice you still have your cutie marks." She commented. "Is...is your friendship ending?" "What? Oh, heavens no!" Rarity chuckled lightly "It'd take something FAR more devastating for us to take that route." "But you were showing different opinions...and your cutie marks are so different from each other... yet you're acting like friends." "Of course we're friends." Twilight added "A simple disagreement or two won't change that." Sugar Belle looked confused at this, telling them that different opinions and talents only made ponies bitter and miserable. She apologized for the somewhat low quality of the muffins when Pinkie gagged on hers, but expressed relief that she wasn't better than other ponies in town. Except they could all tell she didn't fully believe it. "Ok, that's it. We know there's something off about this place, right?" Twilight choked down the bite she'd taken. "Ugh...anyway, it looks like there's only one way we're gonna get to the bottom of this. Starlight Glimmer herself!" "Dear Faust, Spike!" Luna stretched once she was standing back up. "How were you able to handle that!? I felt like an Ursa Minor was sitting on me!" "Yeah, it's pretty intense at first, but once your body gets accustomed, you barely notice." "Barely...?" Just hot much CAN you handle, Spike??" "Lately I've been putting it to four hundred for a warm-up, but I have to turn the safety off to let it go past five" "F-Four hun..." POMF! Luna's wings snapped out so fast the end feathers cracked like a whip. "Luna! He's your nephew!" Celestia hissed, giving her sibling the 'overprotective mother' look. Luna simply grinned goofily. "Not by blood..." Hearing them whispering, Spike looked over. "You ok, Luna?" He asked, spotting her stiff wings. "Looks like you got a cramp or something from the strain. I can try and work some of it out if you want." "NO! N-no, hehe. I'm good" Luna squawked, her face reddening heavily. "Just need to stretch a bit." "Wait, if you work out in that kind of environment, what's to keep someone from coming in while it's on?" Celestia asked, deciding to change the subject. "Luckily Bulma thought about that." He answered as they exited the building. "The door automatically locks while the gravitron's active, and the outside screen acts as an audio/video comm system in case someone needs to talk. There's an emergency cutoff out there, but it only works when my vitals register outside an acceptable range." "Well, that's good to know." Celestia quickly stepped back when he hit a large button on the chamber's side, changeing it back to its capsule form with another loud 'POM!' "Don't think I'm ever going to get used to that." Luna shook her head. "Lot better than the first versions." He said, doing the same to the storage box. "Had to put them in boiling water and wait." Before either princess could comment, a loud commotion came up from the crater rim. "What in the world?" Luna asked, looking up to where one of the guards looked like he was trying to calm someone down. "We better go see." Celestia trotted after her. "Look, I'm sorry, but we have orders to keep civilians out of the crater, and you three qualify as 'civilians'!" The guard said, slightly exasperated with the three (in his opinion) pushy fillies in front of him. "Come on, the princesses know us!" Scootaloo blustered, her wings buzzing wildly. "Can we jus' take a lil peek? Please?" Apple Bloom gave him her best puppy dog eyes. The guard just smirked. "Not a bad try, but I have two daughters who try and hit me with the same thing almost daily. Thankfully, I've gotten immune." "Girls, what are you doing here?" Spike asked, spying the CMC once he arrived at the rim. "SPIKE!" They yelled in unison, scurrying under the guard without warning. "When we heard you were gonna spend time with Princess Celestia, so we followed you." Sweetie Belle piped up. "Mainly 'cause there's a lot we wanna ask!" "Like how'd ya get so dang big? Last Ah saw ya, you were our size!" "And how the heck did you learn to fly without wings!?" Scootaloo nearly screamed, latching onto his leg. "How!? Howhowhowhow!?" "Dagnabit, Scootaloo! Ya said ya'd be calm 'bout this!" Bloom grumbled, grabbing hold of the irate filly's tail to pull her off. "Compared to earlier, this IS calm!" "Still trying to wrap my head around that." Luna threw in. "It's not really that hard. I mean, I didn't really learn it I was a little older, but that was 'cause I didn't know there was a technique for it." He replied, picking his leg up to look Scootaloo in the face. "Scoot, you want me to teach you to fly my way?" Her eyes widened until they almost glittered. "You...you can??" Celestia looked a him. "Can you really do that?" "Sure. Heck, all three can learn it if they want." He stumbled when Scoot almost blurred from his shin to his neck in a surprisingly tight hug. "Heh, I think that's a yes from her. Sweetie, Bloom, how about you two?" "Applejack? Is..is something wrong?" Fluttershy asked when her friend froze suddenly while they were heading to see Starlight. "Anyone else suddenly get an uneasy feelin' in their gut?" She asked, looking a tad pale. "Now that you mention it...." Rarity gulped. "I believe we should solve this and get back promptly." "Yeah. Personally, I got this feeling I'm about to miss something really cool!" Rainbow added, looking back in the direction of Ponyville.