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// 57 - Look Out 
// Story: Fading Suns: A New World 
// by David Silver 
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Zecora raised a hoof, pointing at each of the newlyweds, coming back to Twilight with a slow blink. "How is it you have gone from nothing to too many in such a short time, it is stunning." Her awkward rhyme matched how off-center she appeared. Her eyes lifted to take in Laud. "You are one of the humans. What has become of my student?"

Lyra shook her head quickly. "Nothing bad's happening, --"

Laud put a hand down in her field of view, cutting her off. "It is a pleasure to meet a friend of Twilight. Perhaps introductions should be the first thing handled?"

Twilight's ears went up. "You didn't call me princess, oh, right." It clicked just then that they were married, so he had less reason to use honorifics on her. She didn't expect most people to call her princess, but he had, and its absence was noticeable. "My husband is correct. This is Zecora, a resident of the Everfree Forest and a very wise zebra at that. She's saved things around here a few times."

Zecora tipped her head. "It is a pleasure to have such friends. But how did we arrive at this end?"

Bon Bon gently nudged Zecora before leading her away. "It's a long story, let's go over it and not interrupt the reception."

The party proceeded smoothly from there, winding up without further drama. Laud even allowed himself to assume that all would be calm and relatively peaceful for the remainder of the day. At least until Zecora moved to accompany them as they retreated for Twilight's castle, their castle.

"There is a little matter of progeny and whether there is sufficient homogeny. A quick test is all that I require to see if you can have what you desire."

Twilight cleared her throat softly. "You can... know that?"

"All we need is a little seed to know if you can breed." She nodded, her eyes on Laud. "If you will give me some, we will know what will come." She curled back on herself and pulled a small vial from her saddlebag. "I need not witness this event, only what you present."

Lyra was giggling with a hoof over her mouth. "Do you... need any--"

"--I can handle this," cut in Laud, taking the vial perhaps a little harder than he should have. "Do you trust her?" He was looking towards Twilight.

Who quickly bobbed her head. "Completely. If it helps, zebras are not unicorns and do not perform magic, at least not of the direct variety."

Zecora tilted her head faintly. "Is the arcane something of a concern? My magic is of the nature of a fern, or other plants and ingredients, mixed to create curatives most expedient."

Laud put together that she was an herbalist, or perhaps a chemist that specialized in plants. Neither sounded horrifying. It even sounded charmingly harmless in comparison to unicorns. "I will return." He strode off to do as he needed to do with that vial.

Bon Bon hiked a brow at Zecora. "You really have a test for this, just laying around?"

Zecora sat on her haunches to free up her forehooves for gesturing. "This is not a new question to know the result of a love session. Many species dot this world, not knowing if their lines can be whirled. Sometimes yes and sometimes no, there is only one way that we can know."

Twilight coughed into a hoof softly. "I'm honestly surprised he went along with it as readily as he did. I expected a lot more resistance to the very idea of it. As caring as he can be, he is very prideful, and this isn't... a proud moment, to fill specimen vials."

Lyra waved a hoof wildly. "I mean, yeah, but he sees this as his job. If he can make an heir, then he will get to it. And if this proves he can't, then he'll toss that aside and stop thinking about it. This is a chance to get rid of a mystery."

Bon Bon smirked at her musical companion. "And if it comes up positive, you two will be spending a sudden honeymoon?"

Lyra began to color swiftly along her snout. "W-well, I guess? I'm sure he'd be... gentle and treat a mare right."

Twilight lowered her hoof back to the ground as she shook her head. "If it comes back positive, we will all take a little vacation. We don't want to create the impression that only one of us is 'that' close to him in an uneven social dynamic."

Bon Bon's nose wrinkled quickly. "You want to... with him?"

Twilight's ears folded back quickly. "As he likes to say, 'This is my duty'. Besides, as the head mare, it really is my job to make sure everything goes smoothly, even if I decide not to participate. She--" She pointed at Lyra. "--is your wife. Will you let your wife go off to create our foal without you? Nonsense. We'll all go, as a family."

"What are those things around your neck?" Zecora pointed to the translators the others wore. "They look curiously high-tech. They speak in words I do not know. What language is it they bestow?"

Bon Bon reached up for hers, undoing its latch and getting it off of herself. "I forgot I was wearing that thing. It echoes everything we say into the human language."

"He seemed to understand me," noted Zecora with some curiosity. "He did not require this to guarantee."

Twilight nodded as she glanced back to her castle where Laud had vanished. "He learned our language properly, but many of the others have not." With a glowing horn, she took off her own collar. "He can understand both languages."





Elsewhere, Paul strode through the town purposefully towards the space dock. He raised a hand to his ear. "Status report?"

"Sir. We're detecting three ships, one big enough to not be capable of landing," came the reply that only he could hear.

Paul released the button to speak a colorful human phrase that would require one to be very flexible to imitate. "I'm on the way already. Get everyone else moving."

"Roger."





Zecora tucked the vial of her specimen into her saddlebag. "I will inform you of the result. I am glad to be one to consult. Let us learn more of each other in the coming days. We can learn much of our different ways." She tipped her head and trotted away to perform whatever test she had in mind.

Twilight let out a little breath. "Well, now that that's over with, shall we?" She gestured for her castle. "I suppose we didn't need to wait out here, but it felt like you wanted your privacy."

Laud had not required an entire castle of privacy, still... "Thank you." As they resumed their walk to get inside, he looked over them. "Are you hoping it is positive, or negative?"

Bon Bon quickly raised a hoof. "Pass. Positive or negative doesn't change things for me. I'll be your wife, but I don't swing that way." She pointed the same hoof at Lyra. "She, on the other hoof, seems to like innies and outies with equal zeal."

Lyra colored at the accusation, but the evidence was stacked against her. "If they're the right kind of pony, then I don't... care. Oh, wow, if it's positive..." She put a hoof on her belly, considering motherhood for the first real time. "That would be something, wouldn't it?"

Twilight raised both her brows at once as her horn magic opened the door. "It would be proof that Laud is correct. Ponies are, or were, humans, before something set them down a different path." She stepped inside, hooves clopping on the crystal floor. "It makes me wonder who, or what, that would have been. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. It could come back negative, though that wouldn't... assuredly... destroy the idea, it would remove the most obvious means of confirming it."

Laud sank into a chair facing the others in the entry hall of the castle. "That is not what I am asking. What does it mean to you? Do you want it to be positive, or negative, if it were your choice?"

Twilight mused over that with a soft little muttering. "I think... positive is the more interesting answer with deeper implications. I would want to know more. I will accept negative, as the truth is more important than what is more 'interesting', but if we get the interesting answer, all the better."

Bon Bon huffed softly. "Positive means I get to deal with a pregnant Lyra." She smirked softly. "As adorable as she may become, I know that will be a trying time, at best."

Lyra colored as the image of life swelling in her was put forward. "I... won't run..." She clopped a hoof down firmly. "Enough running. If it comes back yes, then we are going to... get to know each other really well, and then you'll all get to know our adorable little foal."

Bon Bon burst into laughter at that. "Phrasing! You just used get to know to mean... that, then tell us we'll 'get to know' a foal? I know that's not what you meant, but still..."

Laud allowed a little smile to escape. It was good that his new family, curious as they were, seemed to be in good spirits about things, whichever way it went. "I promise, Lyra, that I will do my best to live up to the dream you've built. However, we are all hu--" Were they all human? "We make mistakes." He hoped that would serve as a save. "When I make one, I want you to assume I will listen. Do not accept it 'for me'. I will not be wed to someone who looks up at me."

Twilight hiked a brow. "We all look up to you."

Bon Bon flopped over, her laughter only growing. "My wives are trying to kill me with comedy!"

Lyra smiled a little awkwardly. "I think he means in terms of standing, not height. Just like... as your wife, we should think of you as Twilight, our wife, not Twilight, princess. Though we can also think of you as Twilight, our head mare, which is a little up, but not as high up as princess." She frowned a little. "How does that work anyway? They didn't go over herd dynamics in school."

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "How negligent of them." She rolled up to  her haunches. "How could they forget to go over antiquated only technically-legal wedding practices? What are they teaching foals these days?" She wiped a fetlock over her eyes to clear the tears. "Laud, what do you hope for? You don't get to ask us without the question being turned."

"For the sake of this country that I have sworn to defend, I hope for a positive result." He crossed his fingers in his lap as he leaned forward. "If we are compatible, that is yet more proof that ponies and humans are too close alike. That will place you in an awkward position in the greater society, but it is a place, rather than an animal."

Twilight frowned a little at Laud. "That's a fine answer as 'Laud Mountbatten, of the Hawkwoods', but you aren't answering as you. Laud, are you... hoping for this, or dreading it?" She gestured at Lyra, then Bon Bon, and finally herself. "We are your wives, and I apologize for springing that on you without consulting with you first, but..."

"We were in this state before today. Only the particulars have changed." He stood up, his hands slapping the armrests in the motion. "We were all ready to be married. The only surprise is who it is we're bonded to, and not even who those people are, just the number. I will do what I said I would do before. In time, I hope and pray, we will find something closer to true affection rather than this awkward start. Let's not force it, or fear it."