//------------------------------// // Sunday Sundae // Story: Iron Mountain // by computerneek //------------------------------// Unfortunately, Princess Luna has more nightmares to eliminate, so she must go at some point.  Bonbon is fairly confident in her ability to fly by now, on these wooden wings, in this dream.  Once Luna disappears into the beyond, however, things start to go awry almost immediately. Something pulls down on her left wing.  When she looks, she finds a large jar of tree sap has been upended on the wing- just in time for something to knock her out of the air. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Carpenters!” Her eyes widen in shock, but she’s too late.  She’s already landed flat on her back, on some workbench- and the Crusaders have already clamped her wings down, quickly running screws through the wooden planks into the workbench.  They then saw them off and kick her off the workbench without her wings. The workbench, located on a cloud two kilometers in the sky.  She plummets like a missile, and the world disappears into blackness before she hits the road.  At least they were still unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony. It was not the last dream of the night. Bonbon awakens suddenly, in a cold sweat, to something hard prodding her shoulder. “You okay?” her partner asks. Bonbon twists under the covers, latching onto her minty unicorn friend with all four limbs.  “Please tell me I don’t have wooden wings full of screws or metal wings that can’t fly or regular wings with no feathers and that I haven’t become a unicorn just for my sisters to become alicorns and that…” It takes Bonbon three more breaths to finish her very, very long sentence. Lyra listens to the whole thing, wrapping her own hooves around her friend, before contemplating her response.  “Nightmares?” she asks. Bonbon nods silently.  “I think.” Lyra smiles, gently flicking off the blankets and floating the two into the air above the bed with her magic, before wrapping Bonbon in the protective cocoon of her wings.  Her dear friend, having lived as the earth pony runt from a family of unicorns for all her life, is often far more sensitive than the finest instrument and as fragile as a six-meter stack of unsupported glass test tubes during an earthquake on a windy day.  Thus, the reason she’s a secret agent for the Royal Intelligence Service.  When she hides her fragility behind that secret identity, she is able to ignore most of her problems and live on.  However, certain angles penetrate that defense with no difficulty- and her dreams don’t even have to dodge those barriers.  As such, more often than not, she has a crying Bonbon to handle in the morning. Today is worse than normal, she decides, as she watches her friend’s tears float upwards away from them, in her null-grav field- a trick Zeus had taught her.  “It’s all right,” she speaks.  “They’re still only unicorns, and they’ll stay that way.”  She smiles into Bonbon’s mane, smoothing it with one hoof.  “Besides- we’ve now got something they don’t.” Bonbon huddles into her, her own wings sliding out underneath Lyra’s, completing the mint-cream cocoon.  “What if they take it away?” Lyra’s expression hardens, looking past Bonbon to the ceiling as they rotate slowly in midair.  “I won’t let them,” she states protectively- and looks back down at her friend.  “Even if they do, Zeus can fix it just as easily as he turned you into a pegasus in the first place.”  Her face takes on an evil smile during a short delay; as it turns out, she’d never turned her com off last night.  “He’ll even take away their power if they try.” “Who’s Zeus?” “He’s…  A friend.  Very powerful, but…  He wants to stay under the RIS’ radar.” “Is he…?” “The one that turned me into an alicorn by accident?  Yep.  If you want to be a unicorn instead, he gave me an appropriate…  Well, it’s not a gem, but it serves the same purpose, I suppose.  Even a dozen alicorns would lack the power to cast any of his breed-change spells.”  She rotates them gently in midair, looking over towards her bedside cabinet, with the cube rising out of it.  “All it needs is a touch to start and an hour of sleep to work.” Bonbon also looks at it, tempted.  “Does it matter how long…?” “Between touching and sleeping?  Uh…  No more than twenty-four hours, but it still works easily with no delay.” So tempting…  But then, she’d lose her wings.  True, she wants unicorn magic, but with wings…  “I think I’ll decide tonight,” Bonbon states- and the cube returns to its place in the dresser.  She returns her attention to her friend- her alicorn friend.  “How did he…?”  Her wings twitch, to indicate Lyra’s. “The same thing, actually.  It takes more power, and a slightly different spell.  That surge I thought was a security system in Rarity’s house…  That was it.”  She smiles gently.  “It was an extra.” Bonbon nods.  “Are there any more?” “That was the last one,” Lyra mutters.  “He says he doesn’t have the power to spare for more right now, but he’s got plenty of unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony ones already prepared.” Bonbon chuckles gently.  “I won’t be needing any of those earth pony ones, unless the wrong brother or sister stops by.  Speaking of which…  If I get zapped by one I don’t want to finish…?” Lyra blinks, and the silence holds for about eight seconds.  “Ahh…  There’s a simple spell any pony, even pegasi and earth ponies, should be able to perform, that will cancel a pending transformation.” Bonbon loosens her grip, withdrawing her wings gently as she tilts her head.  “So, who are you talking to?” “I’m talking to Zeus…  Uh, we haven’t gotten you a communicator yet, have we?” “Is it…?”  She gestures towards the bedside table as they land gently back on the bed, Lyra’s wings retracting also as they finally separate. “Uh, no, it’s not a spell.  It’s something he built.”  She points out her own to Bonbon. “How many of those does he have?” “He custom builds them,” Lyra smiles.  “He’s ready anytime.” Silence holds for a few seconds while they clamber out of bed.  Verbal silence, at least. “I don’t suppose he wants them kept secret too?” Her answer is a nod. “Everypony’s staring at me,” Bonbon mutters to her minty friend as they walk through town, towards the market square.  They need to resupply on ingredients. “They’re used to an earth pony,” Lyra replies.  “Even if Zeus had never shown and your research had proven successful, you’d still be getting these stares- the only difference being which body part…  Wait.” They pause.  “What?” Bonbon asks. Lyra doesn’t answer- rather, she turns ninety degrees and enters Sugarcube Corner, her cream friend following her closely.  Lyra picks an empty corner booth, seating herself, and Bonbon follows suit.  The unicorn- alicorn, actually- clearly has something she intends for Bonbon to notice. “Oh hey,” Pinkie begins, suddenly present in her normal manner.  “Fancy seeing you two here- would you like a menu or…?” “Yes please,” Lyra answers.  Two seconds later, two menus lie folded on the table while Pinkie whistles around the kitchen, baking somepony else’s cake. Bonbon blinks, turning towards Lyra.  “Did I just see…?” Lyra only nods. “Think she noticed?” A pegasus stallion slides into the booth, on Bonbon’s side.  “Not at all.”  He lifts one hoof to pull a small box out of his mane, setting it on the table in front of Bonbon.  “A communicator, for you.” Bonbon doesn’t take the strange gift from the even stranger pony.  “Who are you?” she demands. Lyra chuckles gently, and turns towards him.  “How’d the growing go?” she asks. “Better than I expected.  I was even able to replace the processors without disrupting the magic.” “Ahh.” The cream earth pony-turned-pegasus tries to make some sense of what she’d just heard.  “You know each other?” she asks. “Of course,” Lyra and Zeus answer together. “Though only for the last twenty-three point nine seven hours,” Zeus appends. Lyra raises her eyebrow at him.  “Oh?  What point is that?” “Neural link,” he answers simply. The unicorn gives a nod, as if that answers everything.  “Ahh.”  She turns to her utterly confused friend, motioning towards the unaccepted gift with a smile.  “You did want one of those,” she states. At this, Bonbon looks at the box once again.  If Lyra knows this stallion that well, surely she knows enough about the box to be certain of its safety…  Or lack thereof.  She takes it gingerly, popping it open with a hoof. Fifteen seconds later, when Pinkie shows up to ask for their orders, the box has already disappeared, the contents now being worn on Bonbon’s ear and ankle. “Soo, have you decided yet?  Oooh!  Do you need a third…?”  Pinkie fades off in the middle of her question. Zeus smiles gently at her for a second or two before he answers.  “I would like an apple sundae,” he begins.  “Lyra will want a chocolate one, and Bonbon will want vanilla- unless you’re feeling like cherry today?”  He directs this question towards Bonbon. Lyra had simply nodded at his deduction, but Bonbon stares at him for a second too long.  “Oh, um, no, I’m on vanilla today.” Zeus nods decidedly as Pinkie starts producing the required treats from behind her back somewhere.  He lifts a large hoofful of bits onto the table, placing them on Pinkie’s end.  “And this should cover the bill, plus a twenty percent tip.” Pinkie finishes dishing out the treats and counts them into a bag she pulled out of her mane.  “That’s…  a lot more than twenty percent…” At this, Zeus nods calmly, his comfortable smile wide, as if this is perfectly normal.  “I’ve included Discord’s daisy and anvil sundae, with an extra piano on top and either drums or clarinets drizzled on top.  Not sure which he’ll want just yet.” Lyra, Bonbon, and Pinkie all blink simultaneously, twice. “...  Okey dokey lokie!” Pinkie finally announces, whipping off to the kitchen. “Are you…?” Bonbon asks, once the performance is complete. “Yes, I am.  Though I would prefer to avoid being identified as such anywhere a certain Draconequis might overhear.”  He looks towards the kitchen.  “She still hasn’t noticed yet- and nopony has told her, either.” Discord ambles disappointedly into Sugarcube Corner, unsure of exactly what he wants to order.  He’s just been having a bad day back home; his computer won’t stop giving him problems! He takes in his surroundings once the ethereal door closes behind him; he hadn’t felt like coming out in the street, necessitating the passage through two doors, instead of only one.  As usual, the store is fairly empty at this time on a Sunday, so he picks himself a booth, seating himself gently.  No sooner is he seated, paw poised to summon his special menu with a snap, when Pinkie shows up- and places an impressive sundae on the table in front of him. “Hello Discord!” Pinkie vocalizes.  “Here’s your daisy and anvil sundae with an extra piano, drizzled with drums!  Something going on?” Discord blinks, staring at the unexpected offering.  It’s an interesting combination he’d never thought of- but it looks really good.  Pinkie had never been able to predict his orders before, let alone come up with something new that he might like; that’s simply outside the reach of the Pinkie Sense.  “Ahh…  How much?” he asks, producing his bit bag with his snap instead. At this, Pinkie smiles widely.  “Zeus already paid for you,” she cheers. He stares at the pink mare for a couple seconds.  “Ahh…  I’d like to leave a tip, though.” “He already left twenty percent,” Pinke smiles widely. He blinks.  “I’ll make that fifty.” Three hundred eighteen bits later, he lifts his spoon and takes a curious bite before he answers Pinkie’s question.  Ahh…  That sure hits the spot! “I do believe I have a new favorite,” he informs Pinkie, tapping the divine dish in front of him with his spoon before taking a second bite.  “The perfect way to unwind after a night of computer problems.  I always knew ChaOS would be slow and full of ads- that’s what you get with free software.  I most certainly didn’t expect it to put itself behind lock and key the moment I looked for Searchitence!  What is with programmers these days!?”  He takes a third bite. “I simply don’t have the three million bits it wants to unlock, so THAT machine is now space junk.  Good thing I keep backups.  Anyways, with the desktop in orbit, I went for my laptop- but, you see, RUniX is no better.  Another free operating system, it’s full of ads and spyware and takes even longer to do anything.  Pretty sure it’s single-threaded, to boot.  At least it doesn’t freeze itself over whenever I do anything it doesn’t like- though it’s not far.  Stupid thing stole my credit card and maxed it on everything except Searchitence- exactly why I hate using it.”  Bite number four goes down the hatch, and he starts gathering the bits for his fifth byte. “So after I dropped it in orbit as well, it took three hours on the phone with the Disorience Bank to report all the fraudulent charges and replace my card- and now I’m going to have to travel all the way to Exceptional Purchase to get a new computer!”  He lets out a breath, crunches on the 11010010, and sighs. “It doesn’t exactly help that I’m still stuck with a Disharmony Express Internet plan- so any use of the Elements completely destroys my connection.  Then there’s this impossible Zeus pony, and the weird magical surges happening around here…”  He trails off, sixth bite inches from his maw, looking at Pinkie like a particularly confusing paradox. Pinkie blinks, glancing down at herself.  “What?” she asks. “...  When did you become a unicorn…?” he eventually asks.  The room goes very suddenly silent. Pinkie laughs.  “I’m not a unicorn,” she states.  “I’m an earth pony.  See?  No-”  She becomes very still when her waving hoof comes into contact with her horn. Drying paint would be loud in the following silence. A silence that only holds for ten seconds, before everypony in the entire store- save Discord and Pinkie, the latter of whom remains frozen in place while the former's gaze pans slowly and alarmedly across the room- erupts into applause.  A party cannon goes off somewhere, and the rows of meticulously empty tables down the middle of the shop are instantly filled with cakes and other party goodies.  Confetti flies through the air, streamers appear from the rafters, balloons inflate themselves out of display cases.  Banners swing down out of nowhere, and the music starts. Mrs. Cake steps up next to Pinkie, sticking a party hat on the frozen party pony’s head.  “Welcome to your congratulations-on-becoming-a-unicorn party.” Across the store, a cream pegasus looks at the amused stallion next to her.  “You planned this, didn’t you?”