//------------------------------// // Chapter 40 // Story: Responsibilities // by Hiver //------------------------------// “Ah… bua… wah?” Sunset said as she gaped at the little alicorn as Twilight talked to Celestia over the crib. “Eloquent as always there, Sunny,” I said with a grin as I moved up next to her, poking her with my wing. Closing her mouth, she looked at me with a blink, “...Alicorn.” “Yes, alicorn.” “How does that even happen?” I smirked, “Well, when mommy alicorn and daddy uni…” Sunset rolled her eyes and poked my shoulder with her hoof, “You know what I mean!” Grinning, I nodded and then shrugged, “Honestly, none of us have any real idea. Alicorns haven’t been born before. Want my personal take on it?” “…Sure.” “It’s part of Cadence's realm and therefore she doesn’t play by the normal rules,” I answered and stretched my wings, “In short, she cheated.” Sunny sat down and frowned, “Oh. Well, that makes sense. Explains why there hasn’t been an alicorn baby before.” “Of course, that was before there was a male alicorn,” I admitted, “Now I think all bets might be off for the future.” She nodded, “Good to know if Twi and I get far enough to consider foals.” “Wait, wh…” I didn’t even have time to finish the thought before there was a massive boom and we were showered with stone and dust. “Son of a fucking-!” I cursed and stumbled back, throwing up a shield against future attacks, but nothing else happened. Luna and Celestia weren’t covered with dust, they had gotten their shields up in time, but everypony else was covered in what looked to be powdered crystal. That can’t be good for our lungs, “You okay?” I asked Sunset as everypony started to get out of cover. “…I’m fine,” she groaned and cast a spell, managing to get the worst of the debris off of her, “What was that?” “I have no i...dea…” I finished and looked up at the ceiling. From the crib up there was a massive hole up through ceiling after ceiling. The little baby of doom giggled and pawed at the air. I looked at her and then the hole before I turned to Cadence, “…Where did you really get her? Find her in a corn field by any chance?” That earned me a strange look from the pink alicorn before she ignored it and sighed, casting a spell to pull the blanket up over her daughter, “Foals tend to have very powerful magic for the first couple of weeks, stronger than as adults even before it fades. It can cause a bit of trouble.” I just kind of gaped at her. Bit of trouble! She’s not a unicorn, she’s a bloody Alicorn! Even if she turned out like me and didn’t really have a ‘physical’ realm, I was still significantly stronger than the average unicorn. That’s a Baby of Mass Destruction! BMD! I slowly retreated up next to Luna, “…What set her off?” Luna sighed, “A sneeze. We should have seen this coming, it happens to all foals. Especially Unicorn babies are…difficult to handle in the beginning. Pegasus ones are simply difficult to catch.” “And earth ponies?” “Tend to break things, they are fairly strong.” I nodded, “So in this case…” “Very strong, very fast, very chaotic spellcaster,” Luna said with a slight frown. “That’s what I suspected. I assume those magic suppression rings are out of the question?” The look Luna shot me at that confirmed that and I quickly raised a hoof, “Sorry, sorry.” Bloody hell. I had to admit that the BMD was pretty damn cute, but that blast could have killed somepony. Cadence carefully picked her up in her magic, “Come on, somepony needs changing,” she cooed, “Let’s get away from all this dust.” I looked around. Was I the only one that felt like ducking and covering? From the expressions on the girls, no, no I wasn’t. Sunset seemed to have done the smart thing and made sure she had an alicorn between her and the baby at all times. I just wished it was somepony other than me! You’re Twilight's marefriend, go to her! “I can just tell, there will be trouble because of this,” I sighed and ran my magic across myself to try to get the worst of the dust out of my coat. Yeah, that won’t work. I need a bath. “Little fillies usually are,” Luna teased and gave my ear a quick nuzzle before sneezing, “…You need a bath, My Page.” “No kidding.”