"Speech"
'Thought'
Spell
Gaitlend, Edge of Everfree Forest
12 Days before Crystal Mirror Opens
Celestia listened attentively to the Mayor, matching his slower pace as they headed towards the fields outside the village. He was recounting recent attacks on several farmers by strange new monsters. Normally that wasn’t something to bat an eye at as dangerous creatures were a fact of life living in and around Everfree, but she had believed all the beasts had been cataloged by now. So even if it hadn’t been a safety risk, she would have been positively giddy to study a new type of creature.
Trailing behind her was Shadow Haze, her earth pony guard in full armor while high overhead a young pegasus named Snow Drift was keeping an eye on Ranma as she played among the clouds. Occasionally the little alicorn appeared as a red blur bouncing through the openings in the overcast sky. Magic might still make the newest alicorn leery after the accident but she had no qualms about flight.
‘I’m so happy that she’s having fun again, moping about the castle alone is no way for a pony to live,’ Celestia caught herself before she smiled, realized what an inopportune time it was to do so seeing the ruined field before her.
“They really seemed ta like the rutabaga,” Toffee Leaf sadly summarized.
“Or they were very angry with them,” she joked, impressed by the scale of damage that this new species had accomplished in a day.
“Not much else fared any better. Nothings going ta grow before Cloudsdale starts throwin’ snow at us,” Toffee added suggestively.
‘And now we reach the heart of the matter,’ she mentally sighed, wishing that he would have been more direct in asking for assistance. “We are happy to lend you aid.”
“With no whay ta pay ya back? We can’t accept,” he answered.
‘Just take the offer you bullheaded stallion,’ she thought in annoyance, hiding it with a regal smile. “Your village has done so much for us in the past, we insist.”
“I guess if ya insist, then we’ll have ta accept. Thank ya, Steward,” Toffee inclined his head towards her with a polite bow.
“If that is settled, then would you please point me in the direction that the creatures were last seen? I would like to investigate this further on my own,” she inquired, hearing the metallic clinking of her lone guards armor as he stiffened, realizing that she wanted to actively go towards the danger.
A strong gust of wind ruffled her feathers as Ranma flew past just overhead at high speed back towards the town. Snow Drift trailed behind at a more reasonable height and speed, following as Ranma bounced excitedly between the shops in the center of the village, quickly moving out of sight. Celestia demurely laughed to herself as the mayor muttered complaints about irresponsible children.
Coming in for a landing atop a light grey cloud with a happy sigh, Ranma decided to relax for a few minutes, and enjoy the warmth of the direct sunlight. Usually if she lounged on a lone cloud looking down, it tended to give her a bad case of vertigo from what should have been an impossible viewpoint. With the cloud cover being so thick today, she could forget the great height and imagine the sky to be an entire landscape made out of bouncy cotton balls.
In twelve days she would be going home and nobody would believe her if she told them she had been walking on clouds. ‘I guess if I’m still a pony I could show them. Would the magic work the same or would I just fall through?’ she idly mused, failing to ignore the voice in the back of her head reminding her of how daunting it would be as a lone pony among the crazies back in Japan searching for a way to become a human again.
‘Well if I’m stuck on all fours, I’ll just need to use every advantage,’ she smirked, gathering up a head sized ball of cloud fluff between her hooves she pulled it up and away to let hover in front of her. “Now this is what I’m talking about, magic that’s tactile.”
Using her hooves she squeezed and compressed the tiny cloud until it was half the size, its color darkening, and she began to sense just how close it was to releasing the water contained in it. ‘Oh! So it’s like a sponge. Squeeze and it takes in even more water from the air around it.’
Casting a mischievous glance sideways at the guard who had been tailing her, she bounced the small rain cloud in one hoof testing its weight.
‘Come on Snow Drift, keep your breathing steady. Don’t let her see how out of shape you are.’
Fluffing up his white wings tipped with sky blue primary feathers and settling them against his armored sides, he took the opportunity to catch his breath while Ranma seemed to be doing the same. He had never been the strongest flier and he was still getting used to the weight of his armor so keeping up with the youngest alicorn was a struggle.
‘Maybe I should have listened to mom and stayed in the Crystal Empire,’ he sighed, missing the crystal city and all its gleaming splendor over the dark and rustic castle hidden in the Everfree Woods. ‘And that hall of hooves thing always creeps me out,’ he shivered, remembering his first time he had seen the sisters oddly morbid sense of humor on display.
Captain Lockheed himself had given him this assignment and what had felt like a great honor now hinted at being a little more than another round of hazing.
‘Bet they’re all having a great big laugh, ha ha let’s all laugh at the BNP. Stick him with the duty of flying nonstop all day to keep track of the hyperactive cute new alicorn.’ (1)
“YEOWCH!” he cried out, feeling a sharp crack of electricity and wetness hit him in his flank. Launching himself up into the air, he spun around searching for his attacker, ready to defend his charge if needed.
Ranma’s riotous laughter was the only thing he found, the alicorn rolling around on her cloud, legs kicking in the air.
“Bwa— what?” he rubbed at the spot, initially unsure of what had hit him as he slowly floated back down to land on the cloud.
The mare shot back up into a sitting position and started to gather up a wad of cloud between her forehooves, pushing and prodding at it until it became a miniature thundercloud.
“Are you five?” he asked, rolling his lavender eyes and giving a disgusted snort. ”Not that you understand me, but I’ll have you know that I was on the Crystal Empire’s Tempest Ball team, and we went undefeated, even against Cloudsdale.”
With a light flap of his wings, he sidestepped Ranma’s next amateurish throw, deftly catching the small storm cloud in the frog of his hoof before redirecting it right back at her. A disturbingly wide grin spread across the alicorns face as she attempted to copy his feat and ended up catching only a zap of electricity as the impact jostled the cloud enough to release its energy.
‘Oh no! What did I do?!’ he panicked and leapt over to Ranma’s side to find the mare giggling uncontrollably. “Are you alright? I didn’t hurt you did I?” he asked quickly.
Blue eyes locked onto his lavender and Ranma stopped giggling. “Again,” she demanded with deadly seriousness.
“Industrious little diggers,” Celestia calmly noted, inspecting the sizable mound of dirt displaced by the creatures to make a tunnel. A young filly might be able to traverse the tunnel but she was far too large to even fit into the hole. “Hello?!” she called down into it. “Any creature in there?”
Other than some angry chittering echoing from deep in the tunnel, she received no response.
“How unacceptably rude,” she huffed and an aura sprung up around her horn. Finishing her spell, a pulse of golden light shot out into the hole. Waiting patiently, yellow lines began to wind and weave over the fields surface, tracing the network of tunnels. She didn’t need to wait long before the ground ripped upwards like she had pulled up the roots of a giant tree, exposing the entirety of the burrow, along with a trio of angry brightly colored creatures.
“Luna would just love you,” she gushed upon seeing them roll up into spine covered balls and bounce towards her and her guard.
They came to a stop with a loud snarl and unrolled themselves to screech at her. Tiny beady eyes buried in a squished in face set above a giant mouth filled with triangular teeth. Its body shape vaguely reminded her of porcupine with thick quills covering its back and stubby tail. Waving stubby little arms tipped with sharp digging claws, they slowly began to advance on her. (2)
“Now I don’t know what you are but you have not been very nice. You’ve torn up these poor farmers land and now they won’t have any food for winter,” she chastised. They grew even more agitated when she didn’t show any fear at their display and turned around to advanced towards her back first.
Celestia’s eyes narrowed as some of the spines on their backs quivered out of sync with the rest. Summoning up a large shield to cover herself and her guard, dozens of sharp quills shot out from their backs to bounce harmlessly off of it. She didn’t need to give a command, Shadow Haze immediately launching himself forward to crash down on the nearest with both front hooves. Having dispatched it, he lashed out with a powerful buck that sent the other two bouncing across the ground unconscious.
“Have you heard of any creature like these before?” She asked her guard.
“No, Steward,” Shadow answered, grinding his hooves vindictively into the creature trapped beneath him. No doubt upset that he had not acted faster to the threat.
“Mayor Leaf said there were twelve of them,” she frowned, her ears swiveling backwards, hearing a soft rumble come from the skies above. Turning back towards the village, she gave the increasingly dark patch of clouds directly overhead a cross look. Her horn glowed and all three of the animals were levitated up to squish together, and then become enveloped in a stasis spell bubble. “Shadow, would you mind rolling these creatures back to Gaitlend? It seems I am needed elsewhere.”
“Of course, Steward.”
“Thank you,” she responded graciously and opened up her wings to launch up into the air.
Rising up through a cloud that was still a light grey and benign, she settled on top of it, and the cause of the disturbance immediately became obvious. Ranma and Snow Drift were having an exciting impromptu bout of Tempest Ball, happily forming and tossing small storm clouds at each other. Every time they missed and hit the clouds beneath them they imparted that energy into them, rapidly creating the conditions for a dangerous thunderstorm beneath their hooves.
“Ahem,” she coughed into the back of a hoof. Neither noticed as her voice was swallowed up by the repeated cracks of tiny bursts of thunder.
“Ahem!” she repeated more forcefully.
Snow Drift realized her presence finally and stopped what he was doing long enough to get caught and zapped by Ranma’s last throw. He grit his teeth as the electrical shock passed through him before addressing her sheepishly. “I’m sorry Steward, did you need anything?”
Celestia casually gestured downward with a hoof. “First, would you kindly stop bouncing on those clouds before you are both electrocuted.”
Snow Drift drew in a sharp breath, the cloud beneath his hooves was a pitch black and so charged up that his metal armor made the situation quite dangerous. “Right away, Steward,” he carefully took to the air.
“Aww,” Ranma whined, not understanding what was going on, and swatted at the cloud beneath her in frustration.
Celestia was blinded by an immediate flash of lightning arcing through the clouds that hung in her vision, a thunderous crack deafening her. When her vision cleared, she saw Ranma still in her position, body covered in a sparse covering of black singe marks, her wings were disheveled with many of her feathers visibly destroyed. The only other sign of damage was Ranma’s mane and tail that were sticking out at odd angles and missing significant chunks of hair.
Ranma rose to a standing position, muzzle scrunched up in some unreadable expression of pain. She let out a groan and coughed, a small puff of black smoke billowing from her mouth.
Next Day, Castle of the Two Sisters
With a skip in her step, Ranma meandered through the courtyard, feeling none the worse for wear after striking herself with a bolt of lightning the day before. Keeping out of the way of all the ponies streaming into the castle grounds, she was lost in the hectic activity of the caravan that had arrived late in the morning as they began setting up a market that filled the entire courtyard. (3)
Nothing was being placed out for display yet, but she could guess some of them by the crude billboard drawings. Food items were the most obvious but the ones that were more abstract kept her interest as she tried to figure out what the images represented. She lingered for an especially long time near carts that carried the strong scent of familiar and unfamiliar spices. The thought of exotic foods making her mouth water and stomach growl.
Hearing yet another pony laugh in her direction, she stopped to narrow her eyes dangerously in his direction. He was a dark grey earth pony who was hauling in a long cart along with another stallion. Seeing her dark look made him elbow his counterpart and say something, the other stallion quickly joining in to laugh even harder.
She wanted to go over and demand to know exactly what it was that they found so funny but she didn’t know the words for that and worried she’d look like some air headed moron if she did with her limited vocabulary.
Of course she knew what the visiting ponies found so amusing. The lightning bolt she had created hadn’t actually hurt her, all the voltage had arced around her body and not through it as though her fur coat was a built in faraday cage. But it had still burnt off much of her mane and tail along with destroying more than a few feathers. Better than being a cooked equine but she still looked ridiculous.
She had expected some comments but not how much it would bother her. Her vanity and ego, which had gotten her into so much trouble in the past was not happy to be mocked by a bunch of barnyard animals. With only a small amount of time left before the portal to her world would open up, she wasn’t going to make a scene like an idiot over a couple of ponies laughing at her. They were just a temporary distraction and didn’t matter to her in the slightest.
And she totally wasn’t memorizing which stand she would be knocking down tonight when they were asleep.
Exploring some more didn’t yield anything further to hold her interest. She would need to come back when the market was finally going to see if she could find anything to bring home. Kasumi would definitely need to have some of those spices to work with, those smelt too good.
Realization dawned her on. ‘Recipes! No way can I go back finding out how to make Mint Drop’s food.’ As the date crept closer to going back to Earth she kept figuring out things that she should probably bring along if she wanted to be as prepared as possible. ‘I should make a list.’
Flying up up to Celestia’s balcony to avoid the long walk and any distractions, she gave the pegasus guard keeping watch at a post above the courtyard a quick wave as she passed. With all the new visitors to the castle there came an increased visible presence of the armored ponies.
Leaving the doors open, she settled down in the warm sunlight, and opened her notebook to a fresh page. First she started by listing off all the foods that must be safe. It took up more space than she had wanted as her characters were still three times the size she normally would write with hands. But with practice they all turned out legible. Unlike the previous pages filled with childish scrawl that made her father’s writing look good.
Moving onto a completely new page and leaving the backside empty on the previous, she started to list thing that were probably not safe to eat. Meat sat right at the top of that list and she didn’t feel much need to be specific. Almost felt redundant to even include it. But she didn’t really have much to put down. It wasn’t like anyone was going to keep food around they couldn’t eat. She’d need to somehow find out more.
Which brought her to a new page. She might get sick eating the wrong kind of food, but there were also more normal illnesses and she really didn’t know what ones ponies needed to worry about. Would a doctor be able to figure out what’s going on if something came up? Or did she have to think about the indignity of seeing a vet? Did she need to worry about carrying over some super disease? This was a different reality and she might have only been spared a slow agonizing death by the change of body. Or maybe something from Earth that would only cause a human to get a runny nose might instead make her drop dead without any warning.
‘Nope! Not going to think about that,’ Healthcare was probably a bit beyond what she would be able to figure out with the language barrier. She’d need to just hope for the best. All the ponies she had ran across were quite healthy so she took that as a good sign.
Yawning, she moved on to less extreme things. She would need to figure out some sort of clothing to wear. Her sense of modesty had always been lacking and being without clothing while she lived with other naked creatures never struck her as something to be concerned about. But no sense showing off her gross pony parts around Nerima and encouraging the locals to treat her like an animal. An image of her wearing an ill fitting Furinkan High School uniform almost made her drop the quill.
“Ya, that’ll be the day,” she scoffed, losing her train of thought to stare unfocused at the page, idly correcting a missed stroke. “What am I so worried about? Half the people in my life turn into normal non-magical, non-talking animals, and they get along fine,” she yawned again, deciding to rest her eyes. “Not a big deal at all.”
Ranma sat down on her haunches next to the low table, a big smile on her muzzle, her life back on Earth finally seemed to be getting back on track. Neither of her parents and none of the Tendos were happy about her being stuck as an alicorn but Jusenkyo was still flooded so she was stuck without an opportunity to fix that.
The familiar traditional family home of the Tendos hadn’t changed at all in her brief absence. She wallowed in the familiarity of being once again in the living room, seated at a table with her parents and the Tendo family.
Only her fiance, Akane forcefully slamming a plate of something that smelled utterly repulsive on the table in front of her could put a dent in her good mood.
“Eat up, I made it just for you,” Akane beamed brightly.
“Uh— well— oh no!” Ranma gasped dramatically, leaning back to pose with her front hooves going to her forehead as though she might faint. Horn glowing faintly as she filled up a bowl of edible food behind Akane’s back. “I’m sorry Akane, but the smell of all this meat has stolen my appetite, I guess I’ll see you at school,” she gracefully bounded around the table, pulling the meal she had secretly taken with her as she took off out outside towards the koi pond.
“Ranma! Don’t you dare fly off! Get back here and eat the food I made!” Akane chased after her, carrying her toxic sludge with her.
She looked up long enough from shoving her mouth full of sustenance to reply. “Why would I want to be sick for the rest of the day?”
Akane skidded to a stop, face turning a bright shade of red. “I followed the recipe,” she snarled. “It’s perfect, I just added in some beef broth for extra flavor,” she explained in a voice that grew higher in pitch with every word.
“How’d you follow it when you can’t even read the recipe?” she asked curiously.
“They put pictures next to all the ingredients, you stupid horse!” Akane’s temper snapped as she charged forward clearly intending to force feed her the concoction.
“And you still couldn’t follow it?” She gave up any pretense of looking majestic, flapping her wings in a panic to take off.
Making her way to school, she landed some distance from the door hidden behind a tree. Peeking just her head out, she carefully scanned the grounds, and the few students arriving early. No crazy principal with a palm tree growing out of his head waiting to ambush her and neither of his equally insane children so that was good. Stepping out from behind the tree, she flared her wings, and pawed at the ground preparing to go the entire distance in one momentous leap.
‘If I can make it in the door, I’m safe,’ she thought, feeling like today was the day.
And then she felt a sharp tug on her tail and realized it was over before it even began. Relaxing her stance, she turned to face her homeroom teacher, Hinako Ninomiya. Having the form of a eight year old child due to learning a ki draining technique at a young age to restore her health, she still acted very childish even though she was really in her twenties.
“You got me,” she announced with a nervous chuckle.
“I did!” Hinako beamed childishly, dark brown pony ears peeking up from the girl’s hair. She then switched to a tone that was more mature than her young form should have had. “And as per the conditions of our agreement, I get my pony time.”
‘Why did I have to come back to Earth through her mirror?,’ she grimaced.
Hinako under normal conditions, pulled out a ten yen coin, and drained a person’s ki to grow to her full adult human body until she bled off the extra ki. The age changing teacher had used this technique on her after being spooked when she and Celestia had suddenly appeared through the mirror in her room. So now a different reaction happened, and some of the repeated changes appeared to now be permanent.
‘I guess if she likes being a unicorn that much,’ she sighed and felt the ki draining technique hit her. ‘Would be nice to have another pony around.’
“Ranma, wake up,” Pine Berry’s expectant voice urged.
“Hi, Pine,” Ranma blearily responded in Ponish, blinking her eyes, and smacking her lips together. Rolling to her side, she stretched out her legs. “Stupid weird daydreams,” she mumbled, checking Celestia’s ornamental clock revealed that she had been napping for an hour.
The baby blue unicorn took a moment to inspect the damage to her mane like it was a big deal, looking like she clearly had something to say before giving up and motioning towards the doorway with her head. “Come,” she instructed softly.
Having nothing better to do, she nodded and rose up to her hooves, and gave a quick stretch of her back and wings. It was a little early for a call for dinner and Pine Berry had bigger responsibilities than to chase her down for that so something must have been up.
Following Pine Berry back down into the castle and lamenting that she couldn’t just fly to wherever they were heading in a fraction of the time. It also took longer than needed because her guide was stopping regularly to respond to ponies Ranma had seen baby blue pony socializing with before. Mostly casual greetings as they went about their business, others shared a brief conversation even a few jokes.
‘I don’t think I ever found out what her actual job is,’ Ranma realized, trying to think of what the pushy pony could have been hired to do at the castle. It certainly wasn’t being a glorified alarm clock and mane brusher.
‘Why is she taking me to the baths?’ Ranma wondered, having already taken a bath this morning before visiting the grounds.
This was one of the first places she had visited in the castle to be cleaned of blood from her fight with Saffron. Oddly enough it had set her mind at ease, seeing that ponies were just as interested in hygiene as most civilized humans. A more sensitive nose was both a gift and a curse after all. Being more practiced with it, she could only imagine how awful she must have smelt covered in all that blood and sweat.
Like bathhouses back on Earth, they were organized with small semi-private areas for washing and a large tub for soaking. Instead of using water from the faucets to rinse off after cleaning, ponies stood underneath a small rain cloud held in place by magic. The rain constantly filled a hanging bucket tied to a draw cord for helping with the more difficult task of purging manes and tails of shampoo. Fresh, impossibly clean water right from a cloud was something she didn’t know how she had lived without. The baths themselves were communal and rectangle in shape, sunk into the floor that could easily seat ten and were filled with comfortably hot water.
Most of the castle had cold running water but only a few rooms had their own bath facilities. There were three of these bath areas in rooms next to each other. Intended to only be used by the denizens of the castle, they were quite crowded after a shift change, or later in the day when families wanted to relax together.
Following Pine Berry to a room across the hall that was normally not used, she was curious to see a few unfamiliar ponies from the traveling market in the area. Celestia and Luna were both already inside being tended to by more of the travelers.
Celestia was laying on her side atop a flat bench covered in a red velvet cushion, her golden shoes removed, and placed to the side. Tending to her was a unicorn mare using magic to deftly control a flat file as she refined the shape of the alicorns hooves. Luna laid in a wooden tub barely big enough for her to fit with her legs folded up, her mane and tail no longer floating magically. An earth pony mare stood on a two-step stool gently used a long handled ladle pour cloudy water, smelling strongly of lavender over her head and neck.
‘Oh, it’s like a little spa,’ she noted clinically, feeling a gentle pressure surround her before she was magically lifted into the room. “Hey!” she protested, surrounded in an unfamiliar purple cloud that gently but forcefully deposited her on a cushion in front of a middle-aged magenta unicorn with pale green eyes. Pine Berry gave her a small wave and cheerful smile before trotting off back the way she had came.
“Don’t you have any manners?” she asked the mare irritably in Japanese and was completely ignored.
The unicorn summoning a brush, manual shears with long thing handles for easy manipulation with magic, and scissors that snapped shut several times with a crisp metallic snap. Tsking repeatedly as she surveyed the state of Ranma’s mane before patting her reassuringly with a hoof.
“I guess I could use a trim,” she gulped, leery of all the sharp cutting tools floating around her by themselves.
Not that she had a choice as two brushes rushed towards her head and began to swiftly brush her mane so it all went forward. She sat completely still when the shears began trimming the sides, narrowing her mane down to a uniform width. Scissors then worked to deal with the length. In less than twenty seconds the unicorn had finished cutting and quickly brushed any clippings off with a long bristled brush, leaving her bewildered at the speed of it all.
“Up please,” the stylist instructed, tapping her on the flank. Ranma did as asked, intending to find a mirror before magic gripped her tail firmly.
“No, no, no, no,” she quickly pulled herself free to turn and face the mare before realizing that the stylist was just going to clean up her tail as well. Giggling nervously, she reluctantly turned back around so her frazzled tail could be cleaned up. Watching as the whirlwind of brushes and scissors quickly shortened and evened out the hair of her tail, she was very impressed by the control exhibited by the stylist.
Celestia had said that most unicorns only had limited magic related to their special talent, and usually struggled with controlling more than two objects independently. Checking out the mare’s cutie mark revealed a pair of scissors over top a yellow comb. ‘So this must be her talent,’ she realized, having watched the stylist control more than three objects at a speed even she found difficult to follow.
‘Little less coverage than I’m comfortable with,’ she thought as she inspected the results of her tail cut. The hair was barely longer than the actual appendage and without the added weight made the hair stand up like a brush. A mirror rose up in front of her face, revealing her new narrow short spiky hairdo, bangs now falling to the right side of her horn rather than covering her entire forehead. ‘Never had a mohawk before.’
“Thank you,” she told the stylist, happy to no longer look like she had stuck a fork in a wall outlet using her mouth.
“You’re very welcome,” the unicorn, crossed one of her forelegs in front of the other and bowed her head. She then started to ramble on in a friendly tone but Ranma couldn’t understand the rapid fire Ponish.
Luna listened as Superior Cuts tried to good naturedly tease Ranma for having joined the long standing pegasi tradition of finding out the hard way that lightning was not a toy. Believing without question the rumor Celestia had created that Ranma had been born an earth pony to explain her awkwardness with wings and unicorn magic. Not that the red alicorn understood the joke but seemed to be nodding along trying to respond to the stylists tone.
Rising from her special lavender salt bath to step into a waiting towel, she enjoyed the gentle ministrations. Only dimly paying attention as they moved to different areas of her form, instead she kept her eyes on Ranma.
Celestia had finished her hooficure and was encouraging Ranma to have her hooves cleaned and shaped as well. The little alicorn did not appear to be enthused about the procedure but relented shortly after her sister had shown off the results, and Ranma had compared them to her own which had never been tended to and looked quite rough.
Removing her snowflake obsidian tiara so the attendant could begin to dry her mane, she lost sight of the festivities with her head covered. When it was removed, she struggled to fight back a nicker. Ranma was cooperating but couldn’t stop herself from jerking away from the metal file like she would be hurt by every stroke. Celestia’s amusement at the filly’s skittishness came to an abrupt end and she magically held Ranma’s leg in place so that the unicorn could finally begin the hooficure. As soon as the little alicorn realized that there was no pain, Ranma relaxed with an embarrassed chuckle, and Celestia removed her hold.
“Must you be so— forceful?” Luna asked, stepping back into her silver shoes with a satisfying click as they locked in place. “The poor filly isn’t used to having— such pampering,” she caught herself before letting slip that Ranma had only recently came to have hooves to maintain.
“Sometimes to be kind, we need to put down a firm hoof,” Celestia answered with a pleasant smile. “If our easy means of communication hadn’t been lost this would have been much simpler.”
“Yes it would be, sister,” she winced with a small sigh and her ears laying back. Summoning her tiara, she allowed her mane and tail to resume their ethereal state, and settled it back into place. Her fur was still damp but would dry off soon enough. “I don’t suppose it’s possible you would part with some of your salts?” she asked the matron of the traveling merchants. “My coat despairs over only being able to have thy treatment but once a year.”
“For you, dearest Luna? I think we may be able to part with some of our stock. Not much, it wouldn’t feel as special if it was everyday.”
“Maybe if we had some on hoof I could get my sister to enjoy the experience, Cellie will not admit it but she fears being turned purple.”
“Maintaining a coat of white requires sacrifices, sister,” Celestia retorted. “You would be amazed at how the smallest things show.”
“We have heard,” she rolled her eyes, her sister having used that excuse for a long time. “Thank you for thy generosity, Matron.”
“You are most welcome, Steward,” the matron bowed to her before bowing to Celestia, “And Steward. For your wards wings, do you prefer a pegasus for a more natural result or a unicorn for a more thorough one?”
“Whoever is available, I know you are all very busy setting up for the market, and preparing to service the ponies here at the castle,” Celestia answered. “I’ll remain to assist as she may not understand or cooperate.”
“Nonsense, sister. There’s no need to throw her about the room just to get her to sit still. I’ll see that she’s taken care of,” Luna trotted over to Ranma’s side, the filly testing the new lay of her hooves. “Ranma, let us visit the kitchen, and then we shall make your wings presentable again,” she suggested. The little alicorn’s grasp of Ponish was limited but her ears perked up the moment Luna mentioned kitchen.
Later
“Blech!” Ranma spat out a medium sized feather that had been split right down the middle, trying to hold her wing steady so as not to lose her place. “This is so disgusting.”
Laying on the floor in Luna’s room, the dark blue alicorn was laying perpendicular to her, forelegs folded up with knees grazing her ribcage. Her room was in the opposite tower to Celestia’s and opposite in design of the bright two story room. There was only one floor, the small windows and balcony opening were covered with thick drapes to keep out most of the light. The color scheme of the room was soft blues and silvers mixed with blacks. Luna’s crescent moon symbol was worked into any design in the room, even the floor that was the moon set against a starry sky.
Ducking her head back down to try and grab a smaller one burnt black by electricity. “Come on— there!” her lips finally isolated the offending plumage from the rest so she could grasp it with her teeth. Jerking her head away from the wing it released with only a small pin prick of pain.
Unable to stop herself from instinctively shaking out her wing, the feathers returning to their former position, she stared at the limb as it slowly folded against her side with a defeated frown.
“Flying isn’t worth it, take ‘em, take my wings,” she whined and dropped her head into her folded forelegs. Up until this point she had avoided preening entirely even after being lectured by Lockheed on the finer points and importance of proper feather maintenance.
Luna laughed softly and shuffled forward to be even closer before staring at her folded wing expectantly. Spreading it once again, Luna took over rooting around in her feathers with her mouth. Suppressing a shiver at the utterly alien sensation of the alicorn sifting through her feathers at a rapid pace. It was like someone was braiding her hair but she could feel every movement of the hair at the root. Unlike her, Luna had no trouble keeping her place, barely moving her head as she efficiently sifted through and pulled out dead fathers.
‘Of course she’d be good at this, she’s done it longer than I’ve been alive,’ she thought before feeling intensely embarrassed by Luna’s actions and closeness.
The whole situation was so utterly inhuman. Laying with all four legs tucked up underneath while she spread one of her wings so that it could be preened. Increasingly life as a pony was becoming less unnatural and that made her tail swish in irritation. She was already dealing with the minefield in her mind of odd new urges she had to keep track of, a body appropriate for them only made that harder.
But there was the strong possibility that she may inhabit this body for far longer than she wanted, so weird and inhuman or not, it was still a good idea to get comfortable with the basics of maintaining it.
And she didn’t want to squash how happy she was that Luna was no longer avoiding her by thinking too hard about what they were doing.
It didn’t take long for Luna to finish and pull away allowing Ranma to shake out the wing so the feathers settled back into their proper place. Her wing was slimmer but only good feathers remained, the dead ones laying on the floor. “Thanks,” she gratefully told the other alicorn, folding her wing back against her body.
Luna beamed as she stretched out a wing to hold in front of her.
“Your wings are perfect, what do you want me to do?” Ranma asked in confusion before remembering the language. “Yes?” she asked in Ponish.
The midnight blue alicorn’s horn glowed and her feathers separated to reveal one that was just barely out of place.
‘Fair is fair,’ she rationalized. Digging at her own body with her mouth was distasteful, doing the same for someone else didn’t feel much better. Leaning forward, she gripped the feather in her teeth, tasting some of the salt from Luna’s earlier bath, and gave a quick tug. Luna let out a shriek of pain and snapped her wing back so fast it slapped across her sensitive nose.
“What was that for?” she demanded angrily, rubbing her nose with a hoof before remembering to spit out the feather.
Luna leveled an annoyed glare back at her and levitated the feather she had just spit out to show that it had blood at the end.
“Sorry,” she apologized in Ponish. ‘I’m new at this, it’s not my fault.’ Lockheed’s crash course on wing care had covered the possibility of ripping out a good feather. Including that it would hurt a lot and if it had an active blood supply would bleed all over the place.
She didn’t seem to have done the latter as Luna ripped out the feather she had wanted gone in the first place herself, and ruffled her wing. The larger alicorn gave her a pat on the back and a nuzzle with her head before glancing at her other wing encouragingly.
‘What? I can’t get you to finish this one too?’ She snickered and began working on her other wing, trying to copy Luna’s more efficient method. Once she got over the inhuman and distasteful nature of pulling out her feathers with her mouth, the simple repetitive nature of it was actually quite relaxing.
When Luna rolled against her and fell asleep, she shifted slightly to push back against her, happy for the closeness. She ignored the ever vigilant part of her that pointed out that cuddling against another pony was probably one of those new urges she should avoid. But Luna was her friend and it clearly made her feel better to spend time together so what would be the harm in indulging the alicorn?
Of course she also used the opportunity to dump as many feather remnants as she could on the sleeping pony.
Later
Snow Drift rolled his shoulders and stretched out his wings, spreading his feathers in different ways to relieve his stiffness. Yawning, he gave Luna’s tower a tired glare before settling back into his post in the guard tower on the exterior wall. Night watch was always the worst, there was little to distract himself from the boredom than staring up at the stars or trying to see some of the nocturnal creatures of Everfree as they went about their nightly activities.
Soon enough he’d rotate to a different post and be partnered with a different guard so they could remain vigilant. It was his turn to keep his position, so he had to wait patiently for somepony to talk to and break up the monotony, then in an hour it would be his turn to be on patrol. At midnight he’d be relieved and Steward Celestia’s special assignment would fall to another lucky pegasus.
“You will maintain eyes on my young ward, no matter what,” he spoke, attempting to imitate her voice.
“Do you have a problem with my orders?” Celestia’s disembodied voice questioned from the walkway up to his post.
“Steward!” he exclaimed in a panic, jumping to his hooves and coming to rigid attention while trying to think up an excuse that would sound good enough to justify his disrespect.
“Gotcha,” Oleander grinned peeking up from the edge of the steep steps.
He stared at the unicorn, left eye twitching, wings fluffing up on their own repeatedly.
“Lighten up, kid,” Oleander laughed to herself, finishing the final few steps up to the post. Two large steaming mugs of hot chocolate levitating obediently beside her. “Celestia is never up at night unless there’s an emergency. Brought you something to help warm you up.”
Dropping roughly back down into his seat, he took the offered mug between his hooves. “Thanks,” he said, failing to hide his irritation.
“I said lighten up,” she elbowed him and took her seat next to him. “It was just a joke.”
“You sounded just like her,” he admitted with a small smirk.
“Thanks, took me three years to get the inflection down,” Oleander boasted.
“And I’m bored not cold. The wind doesn’t bite here like it does off the Crystal Mountains,” he added and took a sip.
“Uh huh,” she laughed and let out a big yawn. “Anything interesting happen yet?”
“Other then you scaring me half to death, not a thing,” he answered slowly.
“Those are the kinds of nights to appreciate,”
“I’d rather have something to do.”
“Don’t jinx yourself, we’ve had enough excitement to last us the next year,” she inclined her head towards the tower that had recently been remodeled by an errant explosion.
“Not that kind of excitement,” he quickly took another sip.
“Like getting into pegasus games with the new alicorn?” she asked suggestively causing him to choke and spit out some of his hot chocolate.
Setting his cup down he wiped at his muzzle. “That wasn’t funny,” he glared at the snickering unicorn before licking the liquid from around his mouth then the spots on his legs to avoid leaving brown marks on his white coat.
“But your reaction was,” she teased in a sing song tone before daintily sipping some of her own drink.
They both fell silent as they finished their drinks until he finally broke it by asking the billion bit question. “Where do you think she comes from?” he asked. “She’s— different.”
“A pony who doesn’t speak a word of Ponish appearing in Everfree? I grew up hearing tales of the old world from my grandmother but even there, all the tribes spoke the same language. You’re new around here so you may not have figured it out yet, but Celestia loves games, especially riddles. And she loves it when somepony is able to connect her clues together and figure them out. This though— doesn’t feel like one of her usual games. I don’t think she wants us to know where Ranma is from.”
‘We could always ask,’ he thought. Ranma’s lack of words wouldn’t stop her from pointing to a place on a map.
“Uh oh,”
“What?” he asked turning to his superior.
“Someponies ears must have been burning,” she pointed to Luna’s tower.
‘Ponyfeathers,’ he cursed, his eyes barely able to make out the mare sized form against the dark cloud filled sky, casually leaping over the balcony railing to glide down to the courtyard being prepared for the yearly traveling market.
“I’ll leave this to your capable wings brave pegasus, don’t go having too much fun,” Oleander called after him jokingly.
Ignoring her teasing, he focused on his flying, and doing his job of following Ranma. Circling overhead and keeping his wingbeats to a minimum, he lazily drifted down towards the ground. The traveling ponies had almost all turned in early to get a jump on finishing their setup in the morning before their first customers would arrive from the castle, Gaitlend, and any of the small villages around Everfree. So it was relatively easy to spot Ranma in the process of finishing stretching.
Curious to what she was up to, he landed as silently as he could, following her as she set off purposefully towards one of the empty stands.
The soft earth let him get within a few paces without being noticed. A feat he was quite proud of while wearing his armor that almost always made some sort of noise. Remembering Ranma’s shocking way to get his attention the other day, he considered returning the favor. He could even pass it off as completely innocent. All he had to do was keep silent, speak up loudly enough, and stay far enough away to avoid being bucked through a wall if she panicked.
Opening his mouth and taking in a deep breath, he froze in shock. Ranma had reared up to stand almost vertically on her hind legs, holding the position after a brief wobble, and crossing her forelegs. She didn’t do anything else, just held that pose like she was deep in thought.
‘She’s so weird,’ he closed his mouth and sat down heavily making his armor clank.
Ranma’s ears immediately swiveled to him and her head turned just enough to confirm his presence. She let out a startled shriek, legs all kicking out of sync at once. Succeeding only in doing an awkward little hop before falling flat on her back.
“You alright?” he asked, desperately trying not to laugh but unable to keep himself from devolving into gross snickers and snorts at her upside down glare. They immediately died when Luna landed with complete silence to his right. “Steward,” he quickly stood at attention.
“Thy appear to have only injured her pride,” Luna remarked in amusement.
Ranma angrily flopped around trying to right herself quickly. He would have laughed more if the dark alicorn was not standing so close. As soon as Ranma got her hooves underneath her, she cleared the space between them to get right up muzzle to muzzle with him, her horn dinging against his helmet saving him from being cut. She backed off a tiny amount, eyes crossing to her horn as if she had forgot its existence.
He took a step back, not liking the close proximity to the angry mare. Her horn glowing gave him a tiny warning before something firm took hold of his back legs just above his hooves, and jerked forward with a great deal of force. He flared his wings catching himself in the air before he could be flipped onto his back. Rising up into the air, he leveled himself off before landing with a smirk, and a confident spread of his wings. Ranma’s eyes narrowed in a mix of excitement for a challenge and irritation that her prank had failed.
‘She plays rough, but she’s still just a novice who doesn’t like getting shown up,’ he settled his wings back against his sides and addressed Luna. “Steward, is there anything I can help you with?”
“We were about to explore the night with Ranma, thy presence is not needed,” Luna answered as if he was intruding, spreading her long wings.
“I’m sorry but I have orders from your elder sister,” he interrupted, pausing as Luna’s green eyes bore into him. “At least one guard must follow her at all times,” he explained quickly trying not to look away.
“Then we shall give thee a new, more appropriate order,” Luna’s muzzle split into a large grin.
‘Uh oh,’ he gulped, having no clue how he was supposed to handle this. Celestia and Luna were supposed to be equals but one was clearly the elder. Celestia had given the guards clear and concise orders to monitor the youngest alicorn. If Luna gave him an order that contradicted that, who was he supposed to listen to? None of his training had covered this situation because Luna never went against her sister.
“Attempt to keep up,” Luna commanded.