Vinyl's nose wrinkled in disgust as she sniffed her morning cup of hot chocolate. It wasn't the chocolate. No, that was fine. Mezzo made it for her, and even if it wasn't the ceramzelachian layered stuff she liked so much, she knew his food and drinks were always top notch.
No, the problem laid squarely on her, and the foolish decision she made to brush her teeth immediately upon waking. Honestly, she had planned on skipping breakfast in favor of trying the new Donut Joe's in the commissary a little later. It hadn't occurred to her that Mezzo might have made breakfast while she slept in.
He went all out too. The last of the carrots from the other day had been baked into a cake, complete with frosting. He beat her to the punch. She was going to do that later today. Reconstituted potato hash had been fried up and the skillet sat on a trivet in the middle of the table. The heavy cast iron skillet, an antique that Mezzo had spent several days restoring, would keep the food warm for a while, even though more than half of it was already gone. There was also a bowl of oatmeal set out, under the tent of a folded napkin. It was sitting there, waiting for her, alongside a plate and appropriate silverware for the meal.
She set her hot chocolate down, and started spooning hashbrowns onto her plate. If she ate something first, it might kill the overwhelming taste of mint enough for her to enjoy the chocolate.
She quickly realized that there would be enough potatoes left for at least one more pony. Two servings, almost exactly so. This brought her attention back to the carrot cake. Half the cake was already sliced. There were exactly two slices remaining. And there was another napkin across the table, folded the way hers was, like a little cone, covering something.
She picked it up in her magic, delicately, preserving its shape. Underneath was another bowl of oatmeal.
"Interesting," she muttered to herself.
A knock on the door kept her from thinking too deeply into it. She let herself up, and stretched out. "Who's there?" She called out.
"Oh, um, Mrs. Scratch?" Came the nervous answer. "It's me, Ribbon."
Vinyl smiled as the extra table setting suddenly made sense. She trotted to the door, and opened it wide. "How ya doin', Colors? I was just about to have breakfast, care to join me?"
Ribbon peeked in the doorway, eyes skimming the living room, before answering. "I guess. Is Mezzo here?"
"He brought Mini-Tavi to school, since big Tavi had some other stuff to take care of. He should be back any minute." Vinyl nodded back towards the table. "Come on, Mezzo already set a place for you."
Ribbon blushed. "He did? I'll need to apologize for being late."
"Don't sweat it," Vinyl said with a chuckle, leading the guest to the table, "he hasn't been able to take Minuette to school since they got that new boss in the prototyping bay. The pay was good, and he socked away a whole bunch of savings, but the hours got a bit weird there for a while."
Ribbon followed her, and sat at the seat the older mare pointed to. The white unicorn had her mental defenses up, and an odd smirk on her face. Even without her powers, Ribbon could tell she was probably in for an interrogation. "So, is today a day off, or something? Mezzo said he wanted to meet me here."
The smirk fell away, replaced by confusion, and a slight weakening of the older mare's mental barrier. "He didn't tell you?" Her hoof went straight to her face. "But I just did," she sighed, "let Mezzo explain it, OK? He may deny it, but I overheard him practicing his little speech last night."
"Ok," Ribbon agreed meekly, trying to distract herself with the oatmeal under the napkin. She wasn't going to let herself worry. If Mezzo wanted to tell her, and it sounded like he did, he would do it on his own time. Or, if it was troubling him, she would probably know immediately next time they meet. "Did Mezzo fold this napkin like this? It's pretty complicated. And kind of fancy for an everyday breakfast."
Vinyl smiled and dug into her oatmeal. "Glad I'm not the only one that thinks so," she said between mouthfuls, "we get fancy napkins with every meal. And he goes all out for Minuette's snack time, usually little animals." The mare stared into her oatmeal as if it had suddenly gone sour. "He took up origami to help him with his magic. Practices it all the time, every spare chance he gets." Deciding it was just the toothpaste, she tried another bite. "But, I think it stopped helping."
She gave up on her oatmeal and pushes the bowl away. "Colors, I probably shouldn't burden you with this, but I'm worried about Mezzo. He stopped going to his magic tutor, he tires himself out everyday practicing, and he still can't master basic spells."
Ribbon stirred her own oatmeal, watching the memories in the swirling grain. Images that she never should have seen folded in with bits and pieces of diced fruit. "Because of the injuries he sustained on Tankra?"
Vinyl nodded. Then, she swapped the oatmeal for the hashbrowns. "I've patched him up enough to know that he's lucky to still have any magic. He cracked his horn once, chipped it deep at least twice. Combine that with those damned limiters, and he might have been better off with a broken horn. He might have been able to adjust the flow of his magic easier."
"He's strong though," Ribbon offered. "He doesn't have fine control, or elemental affinity, but he has incredible strength, and an endless well to draw from."
Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "And how would you know that?"
Ribbon went bright red. "Oh, um, well, you see..." The nurse chewed her lip for a moment. "The other day, in the cargo bay, while we were fighting those monsters, Mezzo was able to use high power telekinetic blasts one after the other. He didn't get tired, and his accuracy didn't drop, even after about twenty to thirty blasts. I'm talking steel-bending, monster-rending offensive power, and I don't think he even started to feel worn out."
The older mare folded her hooves. "I heard a bit about that, from him, and some of the security team. Man, that was just a crazy day, wasn't it? Still doesn't explain how you know he doesn't have an elemental affinity. He doesn't even know if he does or not, how would you?"
Ribbon nervously tapped her hooves together. "We, um, may have performed a flawless resonance link while fighting monsters. We turned roughly a ton and a half of water into ice, in like, a few seconds, and dropped it on them. Even when it was over, it took me a few minutes to come down from all the residual magic."
Vinyl looked confused. "You two are resonance compatible? And you were the one stuck with the magic high? Growl told me you were genetically engineered to have some sort of amazing magic."
Ribbon shook her head. "Mezzo is still stronger, by a lot. My magic is actually kind of average as far as strength, but it's a little different than most unicorn's in other ways. Especially when it comes to elemental affinity."
"In what way?"
Ribbon focused her magic on the pan in front of them. After a few seconds, the hash browns started to sizzle and pop. Steam difted up from the heated pan, and her magic drifted up with it. Moisture condensed into droplets, coalesced into a ball of water, and froze solid with a flash of light.
A breeze blew through the quarters, and with it, a blade of air sliced through the chunk of ice, leaving two clean halves. One fell towards the table, only to blink from existence and reappear above the other. They smashed into each other above a bowl shaped forcefield of golden light, breaking into pieces.
The golden bowl drifted down towards the pan on the table, and the ice started to melt from the residual heat. As the pieces grew smaller in their puddle, Ribbon used her hoof to add a dash of salt from the shaker that sat nearby.
The edges of the field grew taller, forming into a sphere with a pinhole near the top. electricity crackled around the sphere, and a stray spark near the pinhole lit a flame that rose like a Bunsen burner. Ribbon dropped her napkin onto the flame, and it roared into an inferno, turned to ash and smoke in an instant.
That smoke rose, then fell, then spun together with larger bits of ash and char, making another dish shape. This one hung suspended over the still burning torch rising from the golden vessel. After a few seconds, it turned over, and Ribbon picked it out of the air with her hoof.
The nurse sighed, and poured the bowl over the flame, extinguishing it with nothing. The golden vessel dissolved into glittering light, like fairy dust evaporating into thin air. The black dish, formed from the immolated napkin, was set down on the table, very much real and solid and permanent. "Furian scientists called it a lack of elemental affinity. My Luna Academy instructors called it an excess of elemental affinity. I'm not sure who's right. Magic is magic to me, there isn't much difference between starting a flame, guiding a lightning bolt, or putting up a shield."
Vinyl let out a low whistle. "That's impressive, Colors, but any unicorn can learn a little of any element. You don't have to have any great affinity to do that." The mare thought a moment. "Let's see if I've got this. Fire, you heated up the pan. Water, you condensed the steam. Ice, you froze it. Wind, you cut it. Spatial magic, teleportation. Barrier magic, the forcefield. Electricity, you sent a current through the melted ice after adding an electrolyte, the salt, to split it into hydrogen and oxygen, which you forced through the pinhole to make that jet of flame. Then, you add a little extra flame, or maybe some wind to add oxygen, so the napking goes out in a blaze of glory. And the ashes, well, that's probably the most impressive part, considering the bowl is still intact, but I'm going to guess alchemical guidance? Knit the carbon back together as graphite? Again, that was impressive. And you trapped carbon dioxide in the bowl to put out the flame with." The older mare leaned in, clearly unimpressed. "I used to do that same trick at parties."
Ribbon smiled, and Vinyl returned it. It was a playful challenge, but still a challenge. Ribbon held up her oatmeal spoon, and a fork from elsewhere on the table. Suspended in magic, the utility ends of each started to discolor. Pale yellow, fading to purple, then blue, until finally they started glowing red. The air above them rippled with heat distortion.
The tines of the fork spread out, eventually joining together to make a solid scoop. The bowl of the spoon endured the opposite metamorphosis. It was split to form tines. The heat started fading, and the glow eventually disappeared, leaving two slightly mishapen, and horribly discolored utensils behind. "Heat and complex telekinesis at the same time on two objects, four separate spells," Ribbon said with a grin, "I can do up to sixteen."
Vinyl appraised this a little more carefully, offering a nod. "That is some ugly ass silverware." Ribbon frowned, and Vinyl started laughing. "Lighten up, Colors, I'm just messing with you. I know it isn't easy to switch magic around like that. Believe me, I know. I still haven't relearned dual casting, unless you count simple telekinesis as one of the spells."
"Oh, right." Ribbon shook her head. For a moment there, she had forgotten that Vinyl had worn a limiter for much longer than Mezzo had. "I guess all the unicorn's from Tankra had to relearn magic from the ground up, huh?"
"Yeah." Vinyl grabbed her hot chocolate and took a swig. Thankfully, the taste of toothpaste was almost completely gone. "We all had to start over, but the kids had it the worst. Anypony who came out of a pod had the memory of using magic. Everypony born in captivity didn't even know what it felt like to control magic." She stared into her mug, gripping it tight to keep her hooves from shaking. "Mezzo got his first limiter forced on him when he was seven months old. It was put on hot, just like the rest of ours." Vinyl downed the rest of her drink. "I don't think I ever wanted to kill somepony more than that soulless bitch who made my foal scream like that. Not even that bastard king. She didn't even bat an eye, holding him down on the table so he wouldn't knock it loose while it cooled."
The younger mare kept quiet.
"Sorry," Vinyl huffed, "Only thing I killed was the mood there. I... get worked up when I remember certain things." She got up and walked towards the kitchen. "We were talking about magic, right?" She grabbed a clear red plastic tumbler, like you would find in a restaurant, from the sink and filled it with water. "I've got a spell you might like."
She came back and set it on the table, leaving it wrapped in magic. Then, she dumped Ribbon's torched silverware into it. "Little bit of water, shatterproof container, and dirty things, three out of four ingredients. And last..." She knocked her hoof against the table's surface. "Is a little sound."
The sound of her hoof clicking against the table echoed, something such a quiet noise shouldn't have able to do so clearly. The water in the cup rippled and danced with increasing violence, until the silverware started to shake and clatter together. It built in frequency until the clatter was a buzz, and both spoon and fork were vibrating in place.
"Ultrasonic cleaning," Vinyl explained, "You catch the sound waves inside the cup. Sustain them, and increase the frequency with magic, until it vibrates the contents at around forty thousand Hertz, minimum. Higher is better, but then it's harder to maintain the spell long enough to actually clean anything."
Ribbon watched carefully, leaning the table with on hoof. Vinyl could tell she was picking the spell apart. Dissecting it in her mind so she could put it back together. Given the demonstrated versatility of her magic, she would probably have the spell mastered by the end of the day.
With a smirk, Vinyl decided that she didn't want the nurse concentrating on it so easily. "You know, back where I'm from, resonance compatibility was considered a good way to test romantic compatibility."
Ribbon's hoof slipped out from under her, kicking the water off the table as the door to the quarters slid open. Ribbon landed in her oatmeal and jumped back quickly, proclaiming her disgust with having the lumpy breakfast caked to her chest.
Mezzo sighed from the doorway as his mother laughed. "Mom, what did you do?"
Both mares looked up.
"Nothing," Vinyl quickly defended, "we were just talking."
Ribbon, red faced with embarrassment, nodded meekly. "Yeah, just talking." She glanced over at Vinyl and quickly added, "about magic. She was showing me a really neat spell. Then I kinda slipped."
Mezzo raised an eyebrow.
"We were too talking about magic," Ribbon protested.
He tilted his head with a smug look that asked, "oh, really?" without the need for words.
"Maybe we were talking about other stuff too," she sheepishly admitted. "But we were mostly talking about magic."
Mezzo tilted his head the other way.
"Maybe I don't want to say."
"Well that's not fair," Mezzo complained, "if I don't want to say something, I have to avoid even thinking about it."
"Oh, right..." Ribbon sighed, then crossed her hooves. "Too bad." She stuck out her tongue. "I'm still not telling."
"Oh yeah?" Mezzo sat down, flustered, before crossing his hooves as well. "Then, maybe I won't tell you about the special dessert I packed for lunch later." The colt tapped his hoof as he furiously thought of all manner of salty and unpleasant tasting things. Oversalted popcorn, burnt carrots, even dry, moldy bread with the coal dust brushed off. "I'll just leave it here, and you'll never know what it is, or how good it tasted." For insurance against any stray thoughts skipping out, Mezzo built up the clearest, brightest mental picture he could of himself and Ribbon animatedly munching on grass. "That's what lunch is gonna taste like now."
"Pfft!" Ribbon clamped her hooves over her mouth, trying not to laugh at the bubble headed cartoons of them stuffing their faces. "Mezzo! Stop, please, that's ridiculous!"
"Nope! Not gonna!" Mezzo closed his eyes, and concentrated on the scenery. Pretty soon, animated Ribbon and Mezzo were eating grass out of a planter box in the commissary, while similarly bubble-like ponies pointed and whispered. Bubblehead-Growl, steam coming out of her ears, and teeth sharper than James' beak, shouted something about vandalism as the two dining ponies ran off to get a drink from the department store fountain.
Ribbon snorted, but managed to stifle her laughter.
"I'm not done yet," Mezzo said with a huff. The two ponies made it to the fountain, and as Bubblehead Ribbon leaned down to take a drink, Bubblehead Mezzo hip bumped her in. "Splash."
Ribbon lost it. "Pwah-haha! I wouldn't go down alone," she threatened through her laughter. "I would drag you down like the kraken dragged down the Nautilus!"
"As if I'd let you." Mezzo stuck his tongue out, payback for her doing the same earlier. Bubblehead-Ribbon reached for him, but bubblehead-Mezzo stepped back just in time. And when she, with much flailing and splashing, dragged herself back on dry land, he shoved her right back into the fountain. "Step in and strike, fade from view. Let them search where you are not. Strike once more as they seek you."
Ribbon blinked. "You know Kala Ma's War Poems?"
Mezzo scratched his mane, suddenly bashful. "Well, yeah. Growl gave me a copy for my birthday one year. Three volume set, they're pretty good."
"One of my favorite's for sure," Ribbon happily agreed, "and not just because they were required reading on Furia. I have the annotated three volume set put out by Luna Academy, as well as the standard issue Furian Military Softcover. I want the limited edition Calligraphic hand binding, but the wait list is something like four years long now."
Mezzo shrugged. "I'll show you the one Growl gave me. It's not the official one, but you'd like it. It's a claw-made gryphon version from her planet, done on an ancient printing press. The lettering is kind of embossed into the pages, and there's painted illuminated lettering as an accent on a lot of the pages."
Vinyl smiled and looked back and forth between the two younger ponies. They were so cute, sharing a bonding moment over such trivial common ground. So cute, that she was now required, by the universal rules of motherhood, to embarrass them. "You two do know that the entire station has seen the video of you two making out in the cargo bay, right?"
Both of them went red, conversation dropping like a rock off a cliff as they looked away from each other. "Lilybelle may have mentioned it during yesterday's shift," Ribbon admitted.
"Minuette showed me on Aunt Tavi's pad," Mezzo confessed.
"Uh-huh." Vinyl nodded slowly. "We're you planning to tell me at any point?"
Mezzo nodded sheepishly, looking at Ribbon, confirming that he was about to explain things in a way she was comfortable with. The nurse's answering nod told him to go ahead.
"We were going to," he said, looking over at his mother, "when we were a little more sure of things. What happened in the cargo bay was heat of the moment. Adrenaline, magic, fear for lives, and all that. We talked it over a few hours later, and we decided we were going to take it slow, let things cool down a little, and see how we want to do this."
"How you want to do this?" Vinyl repeated in disbelief. "What do you mean how? You two like each other, right? So, you kiss, you date, you have fun. You're kids, that's the extent of how hard you should have to think about things. Either things don't work out, and you cry during the break up, or things do work out, and I cry at the wedding." She shrugged. "It's worked that way since the beginning of time."
Ribbon giggled. Mezzo was bright red now, and there were bubbleheads standing at the altar in his thoughts. If his face got any warmer, steam would start pouring from his ears. "Quit it with the bubbleheads," Ribbon whispered to him before clearing her throat. "He meant that we both want to be careful. Given our pasts, and my telepathy, we decided that we needed separate time to think before making any decisions."
"Um, yeah," Mezzo stammered, "I mean, no need to rush, right?"
"That's right." Ribbon nodded, and leaned over in her chair until she could grab Mezzo from behind, hugging his neck. "But, it's been three days, and I still want him. So, can I have your son as a colt friend?"
Ribbon could feel the colt's body temperature rise as Vinyl laughed. "Sure, Colors, sure. But, you better treat him right, you hear me? And if he ever gives you a hard time, just let me know. I'll sic his little sister on him."
Mezzo stayed quiet, making himself as small as possible. As embarrassed as he was, things seemed to be going well, and he was glad for it. His mom seemed to like Ribbon more than she liked most ponies.
Vinyl's laughter slowly faded, and she pushed her chair away from the table. "Well, if I ask you kids every question I've got in my head right now, I'll be late for my post-mission physical. I've already had to reschedule it twice." She got up, and headed for the door, dragging a slice of carrot cake, along behind her. "You two have fun today, and be ready to tell me all about it."
Once she left, and the door slid shut behind her, Mezzo let out a heavy sigh of relief. His whole body slumped several centimeters, shifting the weight of the mare hanging around him. "That went well," he told her, "I was expecting a lot more teasing."
"Yeah, you missed that part," she twisted her hoof into his fur, "lucky you."
"What can I say?" Mezzo tried to ward off the grinding hoof with his own. "I have good timing."
"Ah! Mezzo!" Ribbon's hooves suddenly clamped down. She almost fell off his back, and her rear hooves had slipped on the chair. "Um, if you move, I'm going to hit the floor."
The colt carefully looked back. "Oh, here."
He turned slowly, hooking his hoof around her as a support. With him there, ready to catch her, she slid her backside off the chair. She fell. He caught her with his other hoof before she landed.
When she touched the floor, after being gently lowered, she looked up.
"You OK?" Mezzo asked, looking down, hooves low on her sides.
She nodded her reply. Her hooves were still wrapped around him, high on the back of his neck, forcing him to hunch over her. She stared up at him with a blush on her face, snouts almost touching. "Mezzo?"
The colt swallowed dryly. He tried to fight back the memory of the cargo bay, but he could feel her breath on him, just like then. "Y-yeah?"
Ribbon looked away quickly, reliving her own memories of that brief moment, while seeing his played alongside. "I, um, I missed you, these last few days." She smiled as the rough edges of his hooves scratched over her ribs, seeking to engulf her, and pull her tight to the colt's large frame. "I guess you did too?"
"Yeah," the colt gave in answer. A short answer, but he knew he didn't have to waste time with words. Yes, he had missed her. More than he expected to. So much more.
She looked up. It was nice, knowing she wasn't alone in that. She took a moment to look Mezzo in the eye. She knew what he was thinking, and right now, it went both ways. Only, he did it by watching her, his eyes open for any twitch, any movement. He did it by feeling her rapid heartbeat against his chest. And he expressed it by pulling that heartbeat closer to his. "You could do something about that," she said smile.
"Yeah?"
It was her turn to feel his heart beat faster. She watched him for the things he watched her for. His denim blue eyes were wide, and focused on her. They flicked away several times as he was distracted by his brain's attempt to formulate a better response, but they always returned to her. He opened his mouth, closed it, licked his dry lips, then bit them before he could say anything. He took a deep breath.
His hooves sliding across her fur told her he had chosen action over words. Moving against the fur, travelling up her sides, but only one continued up her chest, up to her face. She closed her eyes as that hoof rested against her cheek.
Mezzo leaned in and gave her a little peck on the other cheek.
Ribbon opened her eyes. She blinked. Mezzo's bright red face hovered over her. "That's it?" She asked. "Really?"
"What? No?" He shook his head, then said a little more firmly, "No." He pressed his lips to hers again, hard, and both ponies blinked. Ribbon tried to press into it, but Mezzo pulled back, bringing his hoof to his mouth. "Um, wait, I don't think it's supposed to feel like that."
"Sweet buttered crab buckets, we're bad at this." Ribbon blinked in surprise, then brought her hoof to her own mouth. "I think my teeth left an imprint on the inside of my lips."
"Butter what buckets?" Mezzo asked in confusion, swiping his foreleg across his mouth. He glanced down at it afterwards. "Are my lips bleeding?" He looked up at Ribbon, who was staring at him in horror. "I- I don't understand," he stammered, "what did I do wrong? We kissed just fine in the cargo bay."
"Don't ask me!" Ribbon held her hooves up. "You're the only pony I've ever kissed." She waited a moment, then corrected his previous statement. "And the cargo bay was more than fine. Way more."
"I know!" Mezzo grabbed his mane, wracking his brain for answers. "It was amazing, not just the kiss, but the magic, and the holding you, and the way you looked at me after. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it." He swallowed heavily. "Thinking about... you. But, I guess you already knew that."
"I had my suspicions," Ribbon confessed, "I know you saw me in the corridor the other day, and I thought you were going to give yourself an aneurysm trying to decide between saying hi, and keeping our agreement to wait."
"Really? Heh." Mezzo groaned. "I didn't think I was, well, in range, so to say."
Ribbon shrugged. "If it was anypony else, I wouldn't have been able to pick them out of the crowd. My telepathy reacts differently to you than to anypony else."
With a sigh, Mezzo shrugged. "That's kind of why I asked you to come over."
"Is it also why you asked if it was my day off?" Ribbon's eyes went wide as she remembered. "Oh, yeah! Your mom wouldn't tell me anything about what happened with your job, I was supposed to-" Ribbon saw him wince before he unwittingly spilled the beans. It was a strong memory, so much yelling. "They fired you? Why?"
That video, projected on the wall in the project manager's office, played in Mezzo's mind before he could stop it. Him, attacking Ribbon in the middle of the crowded commissary.
"It wasn't that," Mezzo said before Ribbon could respond, "Tight Schedule's been looking for a reason to fire me since he was promoted. This just gave him an excuse. He likes to threaten, 'disciplinary action,' to get his way. The first time he tried that on me, I laughed in his face. I thought he was a fellow Tankrit making a morbid joke. I didn't know he was serious, and when I found that out, I laughed harder." The colt chuckled just thinking about it. "I mean, what was he going to do? You know what I've been through. I've been beaten and starved by taskmasters before. Nothing he could do would ever scare me."
Ribbon nodded. "I know how that feels. A pilot got in my face after MP's broke up a fight between him and Radio. I remember trying to ignore him while I patched up my brother at the base hospital, but he shoved the chief medic out of the way and started yelling at me. I don't remember most of what he said. But, right at the end, he said, 'You think you can take me, huh?" She shook her head. "I look up, and this guy had a busted lip, a black eye, his sunglasses were missing a lens, and his shoulder was still dislocated. I said, 'um, yeah,' answering him like it was a serious question. When I walked away after that, Radio was laughing his head off, and they ended up getting in another fight. Come on, even if we're only twelve, we were genetically engineered, and painstakingly trained to be able to fight alongside standard military personnel."
Mezzo laughed. "Do you have more than one brother? The one I met doesn't seem like the kind to start fights."
"I know, it surprised me," Ribbon admitted, "but, I think he's calmed down a little. He used get in fights all the time. Though, honestly, he ended far more than he ever started. He always took the blame for instigating though, even when it wasn't his fault. Took the blame for a lot of other things too. I've spent every spare second with him these last few days, and he's happier than I've ever seen. I think he's a bit nervous, but he's also very determined to overcome that. I'm glad." She refocused on Mezzo. "So, what exactly was this threat you were talking about?"
"That?" Mezzo rolled his eyes. "Except for the one time he actually used the words, 'whip me into shape,' he always kept it vague. Oh, you should have heard how quiet it got when he said that. Fifteen Tankrit were working that day, and they all heard him. Later, once he was promoted, I called his bluff. He told me I would regret it, then wrote a strongly worded letter for me to take home and show mom." The colt pointed to the kitchen. "I think it's still hanging on the fridge, with a, 'best son ever,' magnet."
Ribbon glanced over, but couldn't see much of the kitchen past the white colt. "So, Mezzo, I don't want to pry, but what have you been doing since you got fired? I came by yesterday, and you weren't here. I played with Minuette for an hour or two, but you never came back."
"That's why she was so worn out yesterday." Mezzo smiled. "She fell straight asleep when I put her to bed, and woke up happier than usual this morning. I didn't even have to argue with her about her brushing her teeth."
"She talked about you a lot," Ribbon added with a nod. "You really care for her, don't you?"
"Well, with dad always being gone, I guess I feel like I need to take his place. Do the things that he can't be here to do." Mezzo noticed that Ribbon suddenly seemed uncomfortable. "I'm going to say this now because I want you to know, not because you'll find out anyway. Mom hates him, Minuette barely remembers him, and Aunt Tavi misses him, but I know there has to be a reason he's out travelling through the galaxy instead of being here with us. He willingly dipped his own hoof in molten glass to keep the guards from hurting me. He wouldn't just abandon us after that."
Ribbon nodded slowly. "You have a lot of faith in him." With a sigh, she added, "I hope you find out the reason."
"What's bothering you about this?"
She glanced up , and quickly shook her head. "It's nothing, just... Mezzo, I'm sorry. The more I think about it, the more I hate that you can't keep anything from me. You've done more for me, more to try and understand me than anypony has in years. I don't know if can tell you how much that means to me. And it feels like I'm being unfair to you. You said before, that I can do more than take, but I'm too good at it. I can't keep myself from taking any more than a moth can keep from flying into a flame."
"I know." Mezzo shrugged. "I know you can't help it. And I'm starting to see how many problems it causes for you. So, if it's ok with you, I want to try and help you, and keep trying to understand you. That's... That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about."
"What do you mean?"
"You know that tall grey guy from medical? The one who was some sort of teacher?"
Ribbon nodded. Clak wasn't the forgettable sort. Wether it was his unusual appearance, or stone-like composure despite his mangled arm, he made an impression on a lot of folks that day.
"Well," Mezzo continued, "I've been speaking with him. Remember how he pointed to me during the conversation? He's not a teacher for telepaths, he's a teacher for their companions. He said he could train me to understand you, and to understand myself better as well. I would be able to control myself, control my mind and thoughts, I guess like my mom can. She can block you out, right?"
Ribbon nodded again. "She likes to flaunt it."
The colt rolled his eyes. "I bet. Anyway, he told me there were two ways I can go about this, and he could train me, whichever way I decide. The first way we could have started right away, it's a solitary training. The human translating for him had some trouble with the specific terms, but described it as training to be a telepathic handler. I would be able to block you out, or be more open, sense telepathic intrusion, and a lot more, at my choice.
"Would you want to do that? It would make things easier for you, right?"
"I don't think so, that's why I waited to talk to you. He told me that I wouldn't be able to be close to you. The skills I would learn are extremely impersonal, and I would have to avoid emotional attachment to anypony with telepathic abilities because it could eventually break everything I learned." He shrugged. "So, that isn't really an option here."
She wanted to hug him for that, but kept her cool. "I'm so glad you feel that way." She smiled at the faint blush her words caused. "Thank you."
"The, um, the second option," Mezzo stammered, "involves training both of us. I would learn almost everything I would in the first training, plus more, and you would be able to learn a lot of new skills too."
"Almost everything? What wouldn't you learn?"
"He said I would never be able to block you out of my mind. I would be able to block other telepaths, but never you. And, I might be able to live with that."
"You would?"
Mezzo nodded.
Ribbon was unable to contain herself this time. She wrapped the larger colt in a hug that felt like an attempted bonecrushing, then looked up with bright, eager eyes. "Then let's do it! I spend most of my free time avoiding crowds, and let's just say it's not the most fulfilling hobby. If we can spend time together, and learn awesome new skills, I say bring it on!"
"Hold on," Mezzo cautioned, "you need to know everything first. We would be the youngest pair he ever trained. He doesn't know if that will affect things at all. And also... the way it was translated, I um, had to ask to clarify. I thought it was a translation mistake at first. It's a, um,"
"Couple's class?" Ribbon finished, hearing the words before he could say them. She also noticed, slightly off-topic, that Mezzo's internal voice was much more accurate than the average pony's. Come to think of it, so were the rest of his family's. Was it a musician thing? More on topic, she also realized that she wasn't even fazed by the concept of taking a couple's class with him. If anything, it was a cute thought.
Mezzo nodded. "He said that most, not quite all, but most,of his students have ended up... well, as couples. The human translated it as companions for life. He's even trained four generations of a single family line, each one descended from the previous pair of students."
At that point Ribbon figured out that she had a pretty naive view of the word, 'couple', and that Mezzo's embarassment stemmed from a more mature understanding. "Four generations? How old is he?"
"Uh, something like a hundred and seventy in Canterlot years? He told me, but I don't remember exactly. I was a bit distracted by the photo album he brought out."
Ribbon was quickly treated to a replay. Mezzo had a good memory and eye for detail, and that translated into nearly complete images for Ribbon to share. She didn't even recognize some of the alien species depicted, but it was quite obvious that each pair of individuals were quite close. More than a few were shown with children.
Ribbon suddenly looked up, unable to keep her mind from running off on several tangents. First, was the feeling of immediate relief that her foals would sired by an absolute chiseled hercules of a stallion, assuming Mezzo still had some growing to do. Second, was the feeling of immediate cringe that it only took a photo of a happy family to turn her thoughts that way. Third, was a gentle self-reminder that Mezzo would probably be an awesome and caring father. Fourth, was internal screaming that it was way too soon to be thinking about this.
"Um, Ribbon, are you ok?" Mezzo brought his hoof to her face, feeling the almost feverish warmth. "Your face is getting a little red."
Ribbon pulled back from the touch, turning away in embarassment. "What do you think?" she asked while staring at the floor.
Mezzo scratched the back of his neck. "Me?"
"Yes." Ribbon glanced up, working really hard to control her thoughts. "I've always been a telepath, I'll probably always be a telepath. That's my fate. You aren't bound by that. You don't have to force yourself into this for me."
"I'm not forcing myself," Mezzo reassured her. "I think I want to do this."
"Even if we-"
"End up a couple for life?" Mezzo finished.
Ribbon chuckled. "I thought I was the telepath."
The colt shrugged. "I don't think I've ever thought that far ahead. There were times when I thought that the rest of my life didn't include tomorrow. Now that I have the chance to look ahead, and make plans, I think this gives me a chance to do something important. Something I would never have dreamed possible a few years ago. If I can help you, I want to, but I think this could help me too."
Ribbon smiled so hard, she thought she was going to cry. To him, she had value. Not as a Telepath, not as a nurse, not as any one thing that she was, but as a pony. She, Ribbon, had value, and was wanted, for no other reason than that she was Ribbon. "Mezzo?" She hugged the colt again, weaving her hooves under his to force him to return the gesture. "Let's try again. But, take it slow this time."
He blinked, gently rocking the young mare back and forth in the embrace. "Try what?"
It took a moment for Ribbon to realize he was only teasing. "What do you think?" She closed her eyes as he leaned down towards her. "Silly colt."