//------------------------------// // Day at the Jewelers // Story: From Under the Love Seat // by Lightstruck //------------------------------// A lavender pony works feverishly in a special room of their abode. It’s rare nowadays for them to receive time for themselves, and they’re spending it doing the most enjoyable activity they know: Research. The crystal room was abuzz with motion and action. Everything from the books to the various purpose built machines moved in a nonstop flurry. Six books all with several bookmarks apiece orbited the occupant’s cranium all wrapped in a magenta aura. The same glow seemed to encompass half of the room keeping objects from moving while making sure others couldn’t stop. To an outside observer, it was a complete madhouse. To the user it was all a gloriously harmonic dance. They swayed to an unknown beat as everything seemed to be part of some ridiculously complicated ballet. This had been going on for hours, that was until a vial of purple solution missed the slot of its stand. It bounced to the crystalline surface of the floor where an impact trigger caused it to explode. A small explosion to be sure but nonetheless an explosion. All activities ceased and everything that was not already down, dropped. The one responsible drooped their head and let out a disappointed sigh. “I was so close making a breakthrough too…” Twilight Sparkle, Princess, teacher, scientist, medic, and all around friendly pony, had blown up yet another experiment. The door slams open as a pudgy little purple drake rushes in, “Twilight! Are you ok?” The Princess just sighs exasperatedly, “I’m fine Spike. Just had a bit of an accident.” Quickly changing the subject she asks, “Well you certainly got here quick, what were you up to?” “Who me? I was just coming to get you because Chitter is here like you wanted.” “Hi Aunt Twilight! I came over as fast as I could.” Chitter greets as he walks into the now messy room. “What happened?” “Oh, hi Chit. Wasn’t expecting you quite so quickly.” She faces him while beginning to tidy up, “So Princess Celestia won’t be here for another hour or so.” The books floated into an alphabetically sorted stack on her workstation. “Are your parents going to be here?” A rag moved to mop up the mess of the spilled vial of which itself was repaired and placed onto its holder. “Yeeaah,” He answers while scuffing his hoof on the floor, “but Mom’s at work and Dad’s still a little weird after last week. He’s at home cleaning; Again.” “They need to be here for this Chit.” His Aunt added seriously. He sits as he raises his charcoal black, hole filled forelegs defensively, “They said they would.” She takes a calming breath, “I know, I know. I didn’t mean to put it on you, a colt isn’t responsible for his parents.” “Yep!” “Spike, can y- Where’d he go?” “Spike left.” Twilight just raises an eyebrow, “And?” Chitter just hums “I dunno" as he shrugs his shoulders. The Princess of Friendship just stared into his mismatched eyes. She just mumbles to herself as she looks away. “Little ponies…” Chit smiles to himself exposing yet more of the fangs already hanging out of his mouth. ‘Aunt Twi can be weird.’ He had had that thought before whenever his cousin Spike would talk about her or their adventures. He grows bored of sitting and waiting and starts looking over the various bits and bobs of machinery. His limited sight leads him to a variety of vials that spanned the spectrum in color. A vial filled with a thick, bubbling, lime green sludge caught his attention. To him, it looked like the solution the Maneiac used in The Power Ponies comics. He picks it up using a hoof-turned-claw and looks it over more thoroughly. He feels the bubbles gently nudge the bottle around as they pop at the surface. A sharp and worried voice yells out, “Hey, you put that down!” He flinches harshly dropping the vial as his talon changed back to a hoof. The vial shatters on the floor releasing a forceful burst of purple vapor flipping Chitter onto his back. Twilight gasps as she magically throws the windows open and ejecting the hazardous cloud. She rushes over to check on her nephew. “Chitter! Are you ok?!” She looks into his eyes, watching them roll around, dazed. “Ugh, what was that?” He asks as he shuts his eyes tightly. Twilight scrunched her snout in frustration, “Chit, I have told you a hundred times not to play with things in here. They can be very dangerous.” “I'm sorry Aunt Twi.” He rolls over to get up. At first glance he sees his Aunt looking at him weird. Twilight is trying her best to not burst out laughing. She can’t control herself and the shell of composure is not only cracking but is shattering. “BAHAHAHA!” She almost sounded uncannily like Rainbow Dash. “SPOTS, THE SPOTS!” She is stomping hard on the crystal floor, tears flowing from her eyes. Chitter feels embarrassed but isn’t sure why she is laughing so hard. He looks over his hooves and sees a mess of purple over them. He needs to find a mirror! Rushing to a nearby reflector array he adjusts an unused mirror to view himself. The sight before him makes him want to hide forever. In the mirror he looks like a cow like changeling with purple splotches covering his entire body. They wrap around his head, back, belly, rump, and hooves. Spike rushes back in to see what the commotion is about and his eyes befall the cow-ling. He however has no qualms with immediately busting out laughing. “He looks like he’s going to give milk!” Chitter starts getting upset from the embarrassment “Stop!” He waits but they are now in pain from how hard they are laughing. “STOOOOP IT!” He stamps his hoof. Twilight is no longer laughing, but she is heaving silently as her eyes are clouded with tears. Spike is much quicker to recover and wipes his eyes clear as he stands up. “It’s not funny!” Twilight perks up while a notepad and quill appear next to her. The quill is furiously scrawling on the page the moment it come in contact with the paper. ‘Changelings can emit emotions of own volition without need for others to imitate.’ She already knows this but if she’s going to document him might as well include everything. “I'm sorry Chit, but it’s not often I get to see something just so adorable.” With a frustrated huff he mutters, “Not adorable.” “Oh but you really are just like Spike and his pudgy belly!” She knew Spike had come back in and wanted to him share in the embarrassment. “Hey!” “See Chit everyone gets embarrassed sometimes.” Twilight tries to smile disarmingly. Spike has other ideas, “Like you’re one to talk! How about when you hypnotized the entire town because you were almost late for a report?” He leans back with his arms behind his head, using his tail for balance. ‘Check, Twilight.’ The Princess sits there sputtering and stammering nonsense, her face now visibly rosy. Chitter feels better now but still is a tiny bit self conscious. “I’ll be back in a bit.” He heads out the door leaving the siblings to argue amongst themselves. His route includes a trip to the kitchen with a bit of a layover in the shower. That is, if Spike left any hot water in the town of course. As he trots along the many familiar hallways a random thought enters his mind and decides to linger. ‘How have I gotten bigger but Spike hasn’t really changed?’ It bothers him enough to take note to ask his Aunt later. He let’s the thought simmer for now while he enters the spacious bathroom. Looking around it occurs to him that spacious is a huge understatement. Chitter doesn’t put much thought past that as his destination is a shower large enough to fit the environmental protest that would occur from using it. Like most things in the castle, this was also made of an eggplant colored crystal. He turns the hot faucet on with the hope there is hot water. Water dribbles out the spout before the pressure backs it up into a steady stream. He shoves a hoof into it hopefully. He scrunches his face into a scowl, the water is cold. “Oh come on Spike!” ...... Willow Breeze moves from room to room collecting trays and requests from various patients. “Mr. Shine, for the last time I cannot move you to another room because your roommate talks too much.” The light orange earth pony stallion raises his hoof with an open mouth, “Nor can I bind his mouth shut. If you have a problem with him you need to talk to him about it. We are simply too popular after the latest weekly city ending disaster.” The stallion looks away while huffing with forelegs crossed, never having said a word. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience but now is not the time.” She grabs his tray and returns it to the cart then does the same with the other pony's. Grabbing the cart handle in her teeth she pushes it down to the kitchen’s. Once they were returned she makes her way to the time clock where Nurse Redheart is waiting. “Hey Will!” The pink maned pony looks her over. She looks beat and a bit fat. She smiled internally at finally having the upper hoof but it immediately dies when she remembers that she’s just got a bun in the oven. ‘I can dream.’ Redheart doesn’t look at her friend the way she used too. Gone was the romantic interest since she herself had gotten married to a nice mare. Now she just admired her perhaps more than she should but wasn’t in love. “Oh, hey Red.” Willow replies lethargically. “Everything alright?” “Yeah, just been worried about my colt, oh and watch out for that rude pony in 224. He’s going on again about his shared room.” “Yeah, I’ll keep up with that. What’s eating you about Chit?” “It’s that stupid gem-spell. I don’t understand why he would still need it.” Red just listens as she prepares to clock in. “Who exactly would or could do such a thing and why? Especially after all these years.” “What has happened to you mare? Why would you even for a second endanger him?” Willow was tearing up, “Stop yelling at me!” “I’m not.” “Not your volume, but your tone is yelling at me!” Red looked at her for a few moments with an expectant expression, “Hormones huh?” “I don’t understand what’s happening.” She utters in defeat. “Pony feathers.” Red gestures over Willow, “You’re a foalcare nurse with quite a few medical degrees. There is no conceivable way you wouldn’t know what to expect.” “Stop yelling at me!” Redheart grabs her friend by the shoulders, “Go home. Get some rest. Take care of your family.” Each task simply and firmly ordered. Willow gasps as she recalls that her colt needs her. “Oh no! I’m late!” She gives Redheart a quick hug and rushes out of the building. Redheart herself just watches, “Whew, is she a busy mare.” ..... Shield Polish trots back and forth through their home cleaning for the third time this week. Chitter doesn’t even make many messes anymore, but he can’t help himself. Ever since he became the house husband a sort of OCD set in about it being clean. He wasn’t neurotic about it, but a clean home was much better suited to a family. He moves back and forth across the home with broom in hooves, cleaning the dirt dragged in by his family. Glancing at the large wall clock he sees that there is an hour left till he is supposed to meet up at castle. The dustpan glides over in a light blue aura coming to rest in front of the pile of dirt. Pushing all the detritus into the dustpan, he then empties it into the trashcan. With the basic chores done Shield wanders upstairs to tidy up Chitter’s room. He climbs the stairs to the carpeted upper floor where a hanging photo caught his eye. An 8x12 hung perfectly level and centered to be in sight of anyone who climbs the stairs. The framed picture shows Chitter in the center with wings widespread as his face is scrunched up in concentration. That was his first time playing a carnival game, in this case the ring toss. Behind him stood his parents, Mom was holding a purple balloon with her left wing while leaning against Dad with her head pressed into the nape of his neck. Dad was holding the tub of cotton candy with a hoof as he watched their son throwing the rings. The image was taken without their knowledge but it is one they’ll treasure as long as they live. He won the stuffed bird he still had to this day on that very throw. The image next to it showed Willow pushing Chitter on the swing at the park. The beautiful burnt orange pegasus had the purest of gleeful smiles as she propelled the squealing changeling to heights he couldn’t get to himself. Chitter’s mouth was open showing off the fangs that had laid within at one point. His eyes were shut, not out of fear but out of thrill. One by one he went down the photographs. Willow teaching him to glide, Shield teaching him basic levitation, their first beach trip, and his favorite; a hoof drawn picture of the family during Hearthswarming eve waiting for Santa. Shield never even made it to Chitter’s bedroom before the sound of clock told him it was time to leave. “These were fun, we should definitely make more. Especially when our newest member gets here.” He smirks to himself. ...... Shield is about to wall down the path to the Castle of Friendship when a voice stops him. “Fancy meeting you here.” “Well hello to you too, sweet thing.” Willow playfully bats her eyelashes at him, “Aren’t you just the sweet talker.” He just smirks at her remark. “So?” “So…what?” “When do they want us?” “I’d assume immediately. After all, why keep two Princesses waiting?” A look of dread washes over Willow’s face. “What if the Princess deems we aren’t fit to be parents anymore?” She begins to hyperventilate, “What if she doesn’t think we can handle two foals?” Her eyes darted back and forth rapidly. Shield was quite unprepared for this breakdown and was thoroughly caught off guard. “What? Why would they suddenly do that?” “Shield what i-” He covers her muzzle with his hoof, “Willow, stop. None of that is going to happen. There is no possibility for us to lose him. He is and forever will be our colt.” He tries his best to quell this outburst. “I will march straight into the depths of Tartarus to get him if I must. For now how about we go get that gem fixed?” He gently nudges his wife towards the crystal palace. The two trot to the entrance where they seek entry. Spike rushes to the door knowing full well who is on the other side. Pulling the large doors open he greets them, “Hey guys!” He waves them inside, “Princess Celestia just arrived herself.” He leads them down a few corridors to their destination. Once they are standing in front of a nondescript door Spike knocks a claw against it. “Mom? Dad?” “Come in.” The door is surrounded in a golden glow. “It’s good to see both of you again.” Both parents bow to the Princess with Willow not quite making the motion. “Good afternoon Princess.” She waved them up, “Please don’t bow Willow. A pregnant mare has certain, exclusions, we'll call them.” Celestia grins knowingly. “Thank you Princess.” “You’re very welcome Willow Breeze. I have been around for a very long time and I have seen many a pregnant mare.” Twilight interrupts their small conversation, “Can we take care of this first? I don’t mean to be rude but I would rather have him covered before something else can go wrong.” Celestia nods her head, “That is understandable as you have a vested interest in him.” “He is my nephew and I guess Spike’s cousin.” Chitter finally breaks away from the Princesses and runs to his mother. “Missed you Mom!” A tear trickles down her cheek, “I missed you too Sweetheart.” These emotional surges were slowly grinding her down. “Hi dad!” “Hey buddy. You have a good day at school?” “Yeah, we had a spelling test and I think I did good.” “Well. I did well.” Willow corrects. Chitter rolls his eyes, “Got it mom.” Princess Twilight interrupts them, “Can we get this done please?” “Sure thing Twilight.” Will looks to her colt, “Go on back over, we’ll help with what we can.” Chitter trots back to the Princesses quickly nuzzling his aunts side before he takes a seat in front of them. “This time we aren’t taking chances so to implant the spells with little interpretation we will have to make bodily contact. Chit, we need you to stay as still as you can. It’s very important that you remain still so we don’t mess up.” “Ok Aunt Twi.” “First we need to remove the old malfunctioning enchantment to be able to implant the new one.” Twilight states as she charges her magic. “Here we go!” A ball of light is launched at Chitter’s neck, surprising him. The enchantment wipe takes all of two seconds and was over. “There all done.” “Mom… Dad… I-I…” Chitter is frantically looking around at everypony in confusion. “Why is there no love?!” He looks as though he is about to cry. The rest of the ponies in the room aren’t completely sure what’s going on. “Why do you mean Chit?” He lies down curling into a ball, “Wh-hy don’t yo-ou love me any-more?” “Chitter, Sweetie, what do you mean? We will always love you.” Willow moves to his side before picking him up the best she can. Just from contact alone she can fell something off about him. “What’s wrong Sweetie?” He doesn’t have the same rigidity one normally does. She feels like she’s lifting a lifeless ponyquin. Celestia approaches and scans him over finding something peculiar. “Twilight, the emotional link of the enchantment didn’t unravel. It’s counteracting his emotional sensing ability rendering it null, we’ll need to look into why it didn’t later. For now lets get him fixed up, just give me a moment and I’ll dispel that.” She charges her horn and launches a much bigger charge at him. This actually does the trick and wipes the sapphire gem spotless. Chitter is hit with a wall of emotion and most of it is concern. “Still love me momma?” He can feel things again but it’s a muddled and out of place. He sniffles and holds tightly to her. “Of course we do Sweetie! It was just some magic, we never stopped loving you.” She pats his back in between his wings motherly, “Everything is going to be okay.” Shield stays back while his wife consoled their son. He watches intently as the Princesses finish their discussion and wait for the little ‘ling to piece back together. “Princess, what happened?” Celestia blocks Twilight from answering and instead answers herself, “The whole spell didn’t completely detach from the anchor. The was a piece that stayed which was a perfect fit for his own emotional sensing. The spell remnant and that ability canceled each other out leaving him without emotional response.” “I think I understood most of that but what did the last part mean?” Twilight jumps in, “In short he couldn’t feel others emotions. Since that has always been part of him it was like he went emotionally blind. He couldn’t feel your love for him at the time and he felt abandoned because of it.” “Oh.” He muttered. “Will he be alright now?” Princess Celestia raises a hoof and points with a smile, “Why don’t you see for yourself?” Willow and Chitter were wrestling around as she tried to tickle his belly. He seemed to be recovered as he laughed and tried avoid the tickles. Princess Celestia clears her throat loudly. “It’s great to see you all better.” Chitter leans forward and nods a bunch. “We still have to finish the implant however.” “Well we should get that done shouldn’t we Chit?” Shield asks his son. “I guess, dad.” He seemed put off, even as everypony moved to their designated locations for the final bit of magic. “Everyone ready?” Celestia asks. “Ready Princess.” The room echoes in return. “Twilight, let’s begin.” She and Twilight lie in front of Chitter while he sat motionless. They touched their perfectly manicured horns to the diamond embedded in his chest. Sparks crossed between their horns as gold and violet auras swirled around each other without mixing together. Every few seconds one would race around his neck for a moment, which was then repeated by the other. The two Princesses were starting to sweat from the amount of concentration and timing that had to be performed precisely. Chitter was immobilized by fear of failure should he move. As time advanced he could feel the gems growing warmer. Though he was fearful he couldn’t help but squirm a teeny bit as the diamond and sapphire became more and more uncomfortable. He tried to fight it but he’s just a young colt… His parents watched with anxiety as their little one seemed to be wincing in pain. They remained exactly where they were instructed to as even a slight movement from them would also gum things up. It was made obvious why when a string of magic from the diamond fired like a cannon towards the parents in two separate pillars of light. As the light beams pulled backwards it took miniature ghostly versions of themselves with them. The projections retreated all the way back and sank into the diamond shifting half to a dirty orange. The other half was colored a stormy grey, when they twisted and swirled back to the default clear/white of a typical diamond. Once the color had dissipated a half gold/half lavender lock clicked shut over it causing all the magic in the room to halt. Twilight Sparkle fell to her side, the only indication she was okay was the rising and falling of her breath while she slept. Celestia herself stayed conscious but looked ragged and a tad winded. Chitter was fanning his chest with a feathered wing to try and quell the heat in his chest. Willow and Shield were stunned that it was as intense as it had been. Though Willow was overcome with the need to check her colt for injury, which she immediately moved to do. Celestia was a bit weak at the knees but powered through it to check on her faithful student. “Twilight? Twilight are you alright?” Twilight didn’t really respond but did snort/snore in her sleep. “Is she alright Princess Celestia?” Shield asked worriedly. “She appears to be fine but seems to have exhausted her magic and most of her energy.” She smiled warmly, “I knew I could count on you my faithful student.” Celestia gaze returns to the parents of the bug-foal. “You are free to leave whenever you’re ready.” “Thank you soo much Princess! May I ask what changed?” Willows voice full of concern. “Indeed you may. We took an imprint of your minds and embedded them into the diamond in his chest. The mental protection spell in the sapphire will refer to these as its template this time. This time it can’t transmit emotions and is highly more permanent.” “Is everything all better now?” Celestia smiles, “Indeed it is. There shouldn’t be anymore issues with that ever again.” She looks to Chitter, “How do you feel, little one?” “It started to burn, Princess.” “We did have to use a fair amount of power.” The smile never left her face as she has always enjoyed talking with young ones. “Is it alright if we take our leave, Princess?” “You may. It was good seeing the three of you again.” “Bye Princess Celestia!” Chitter waves his goodbye. “Take care Princess.” Shield finishes with a bow. “Take care Princess Celestia and thank Princess Twilight when she wakes up.” “I can and will.” She nods softly. The family excuses themselves and travel through the castle. Not much is said on the trip home though Chitter does start singing to himself. “Winter wrap up, winter wrap up!” ...... They arrive home in a moderate amount of time. One breaks off at the mailbox while the other two move in without him. Shield hadn’t bothered to check the mail before he had left for their appointment. He pulls out a few letters and a small postcard, then heads inside to start preparing dinner. Once inside he tosses the mail on the entryway side table. Just as he is about to leave it there a particular header catches his eye. The envelope is a standard white with standard black scrawl. The giant red cross was a dead giveaway to anyone who saw it that it was some form of correspondence from the Ponyville Hospital. Normally these things would go directly to Willow but this one was addressed to him. He tilts his head in confusion, ‘I never get letters from them.’ Shield lights his horn and expertly splits the envelope open giving him access to the contained paper. Mr. Polish, The results of your test have come back. You are already aware of your condition but we have found the cause of your ailment. You have a condition similar to an allergy called Anti-sperm antibodies. The antibodies protecting your system attack the sperm keeping them from fertilizing the egg. As with most allergies, there is no sure fire cure yet developed. As to the development of your wife becoming pregnant in spite of this infliction; all we can say for sure is that you got lucky. We cannot possibly determine the conditions at time of conception and as such cannot determine the factors that allowed your sperm to fertilize. - Dr. Search. Shield read the document over a couple times before simply shrugging and setting the result down on the table. He’s nonplussed by the reveal as he has known he’s infertile for most of his life. The cure? He’d have been cured if there was one. Wife being pregnant was lucky and he’ll take what he can get. Overall it didn’t really affect him and he just continues on to making dinner, “Winter wrap up, winter wrap up.”