Over an hour passed, as much as time could pass in the Realm of Chaos, and Ann’s silent cries had long since been reduced to little more than choked sobs, then shaking hiccups, and finally, true silence. She sat motionless beneath her shifting plaid blanket, spent completely of her sorrow and her…
No. Not her anger. Never her anger. Even now, as she stared blearily into her sheets with red-raw eyes, a kernel of fire burned within her.
The room, like its occupant, was dour. With Ann’s sad state, her room’s colors had faded quite considerably. The coral reef at the bottom of her waterbed, an undulating mass of crystal-clear water, had lost much of its color and vibrancy. The fish, in particular, just sat about, sighing instead of swimming. The Hearth’s Warming tree hanging from the ceiling, once Ann’s favorite perch and whose Flame of Friendship provided an adequate night-light, lay bare of all its needles, and its Fire lay coiled on the floor, whimpering.
Only two objects maintained their color. First was a few of Grogar’s Glowers sitting in their little windowsill box. And the second was Ann’s window itself. It appeared to be a stain glass depiction of Ann, Cheese, Pearl, Goldie, Shade, and Moon blasting Discord with magical light.
That last one was new. Very new.
As Ann watched her wallpaper spiral in grey-on-gray, she heard a sound coming from her floor. It was a knocking sound.
“Ann?” the soft, patient voice of her mom caught Ann’s attention, “Can I come in?”
In a silence so deafening that Ann’s eyes could be heard rolling, Fluttershy seemed to suddenly think better of her words.
“Oh… um… clap your hooves once for yes, twice for no.”
Ann nestled herself deeper into her bed. But only for a moment. The two competing emotions within her were anger and a deep-felt need for her mother’s embrace.
As soon as she heard a clap, Fluttershy had opened the door laying on Ann’s floor, and dropped through to the ceiling with a frightened squeak. It was a good thing that the ceiling here was made of pink clouds, in that case. As she reoriented herself, Fluttershy allowed the dimension’s natural chaotic field to draw her closer to Ann’s bed.
Little ripples danced across the bed’s watery surface as Fluttershy touched down, startling the fish. A few seemed genuinely thrilled to see her, but they were also quite conscientious, and held off pestering her for the moment.
“Ann?” Fluttershy lay down on her belly, staying just far enough away so that her daughter had all the room she needed, “Ann? I… I brought something for you.”
The little Ponequus slowly turned her head to look over her shoulder. She watched her mother’s hopeful smile for several second before she sighed, and then dove down into her waterbed. Ann did a few flips and spins, used the coral reef’s spinier bits to scratch an itch on her withers, and then breached nearby her mother, her mane and coat perfectly dry.
That was a feature. The bed would shrink down to nothing if she took water away from it all the time, after all.
Fluttershy grinned at her little one’s antics. Even upset or heartbroken, little Anarchy could always be counted on for adding a little whimsy to her life. She reached under one wing, and withdrew what looked like a stick of bright pink chewing gum in between her teeth.
Pink… with a single streak of black running through it. Ann’s eyes widened considerably the instant she saw it, looking so much like her own mane. As she gaped, every single thing in her room seemed to tick up a degree in color saturation. Even the Fire of Friendship looked up, hopefully, from its resting place on her floor.
As soon as her mom offered it, Ann snapped up the stick and began to chew ferociously. She worked the left, and then the right side of her jaw. She blew a bubble that curiously avoided popping in favor of the banging toll of a gong.
Then, once she’d swallowed the whole mess, Ann began to laugh again.
“My voice!” she cried, “My voice is back!!!”
And with a yipp, Ann leapt into the air and stretched out her tail to grip a branch of the rapidly re-greening Hearth’s Warming tree. She laughed, dangling upside down from the branch to Fluttershy’s endless amusement, when a heavy microphone on a long cord dropped up from the floor towards the ceiling.
Anarchy snatched up the mic, took a deep breath, and said with an entirely different, slightly unsettlingly deep voice:
“L-l-l-l-let’s get weady to WUMBL-L-L-L-L-LE!!!!!”
Fluttershy’s whole body clenched at the absurdly loud, feedback-filled noise. Her teeth grit, her eyes closed tight, and her ears flattened against her head. She was used to loud music, even loved it. But this was just loud noise!
Yet, all it took to pull her back was the feeling of two tiny hooves and legs wrapping around her body.
“Thank you, Mama!” Ann delivered a kiss to her mother’s cheek, “Thank you! Thank you!” She nuzzled deep into the hug, laughing softly as her mother squeezed back.
The feeling didn’t last, however. Two yellow, feathery wings gently picked Ann up, carried her up into the air, and even more gently set her back down onto the bed, just far enough so that Fluttershy could face her directly.
“M-mom?” she asked, uncertain as to what was going on with her mother’s face.
Fluttershy’s eyes were still utterly calm pools, and her voice still a delicate melody, but Ann could see now an implacable, iron will was rising to the fore as her mother spoke.
“You shouldn’t thank me, Anarchy,” she invoked her little one’s full name, “I wouldn’t have given your voice back until tomorrow, if it were up to me.”
“W-what?” Ann’s ears flattened.
Fluttershy nodded solemnly, “You heard me. Your father decided he… might have overreacted himself.”
“But… why?” Ann’s eyes narrowed in confusion, baffled as to where this was all coming from.
“Because,” Fluttershy frowned, “What you said to your father was unacceptable. It was very rude, to him and to me, and worse! It was lying.” She nearly hissed that last word, it coming out dripping with the same venom with which she might say the word ‘bacon’.
Fluttershy lowered herself on the bed, just enough so that she was eye level with her little foal. “Your father does understand. You know that.”
Ann, feeling her breath coming a little faster, looked away. Her cheeks reddened, though she couldn’t say whether it was shame, or that last ember of anger still in her heart.
“I… I guess.”
A hoof touched just under her chin, and it gently guided her face back to her mother’s commanding, but no less gentle gaze.
“You don’t hate your father.”
Ann was silent. She sniffed, and looked down to her hooves again, whispering, “… no.”
But the ember surged, briefly, back to life.
“He was going to stop me seeing my friends…”
“And that wasn’t right either,” Fluttershy said with a calming tone. She waited for Ann to compose herself just a bit and look back up. When she did, Fluttershy said, “But you must understand. Your father was so, so scared today.”
Ann’s yellow and crimson eyes bulged, slightly, and she gasped, “S-scared!? Weally?”
“Oh my! Terrified! We both were.” Ann’s mother paused to wipe away a tear with a wingtip, “We almost lost you today, and there hadn’t even been a chance for us to help…”
“But…” Ann could feel something, something not right about the way her mother spoke. It was like there was something that the grownups knew that… that she and the other kids didn’t. Ann didn’t know if this was related to all that ‘meta’ stuff her dad went on about, but it left a black, greasy feeling in her belly to see her mom struggle with this.
Fluttershy, from the way her eyes glinted, seemed to realize this too.
“Ann… what do you think happened when you almost… disappeared?”
Now that was the million-bit question. Ann briefly thought back to those… those moments when her hoof disappeared. When her hearing cut out, her vision failed. She thought back, briefly to the moment she realized she wouldn’t…
“I… I was… dying.” The final word seemed to click into place, like the last piece of a puzzle.
Fluttershy nodded, “When Grogar found you, you were little more than a shadow. If he hadn’t been there… I would have never seen you again.”
“N… nevew?”
“Never,” Fluttershy’s voice cracked, but she pressed on. She held out her wing, inviting Ann closer. Once the little filly had snuggled in tight, Fluttershy continued.
“When most creatures get to a certain age, or… have bad things happen to them… we die,” she explained. “Our spirits leave our bodies, and we go someplace else.”
“Where do you go?”
Fluttershy didn’t fail to notice Ann hadn’t asked where ‘she’ would go. “Nopony knows, not even the Princesses. But a lot of us believe that, if we’ve been good, we go someplace where we can see all our family and friends again.”
“Can…” Ann hesitated, “Can I go there? To see you?”
“I don’t know,” Fluttershy rested her head atop Ann’s, “Discord knows something about it, but he never told me. All I, or anyone else, knows is that the living and the dead can never see each other again.
“That’s why your father was so scared,” she tightened her wing’s grip, “He was afraid he could never see you again. Do you understand?”
Ann sat silently, nestled under her mother’s wing for what felt like an age. Her eyes darted to and fro as she thought, and as she felt through what she had heard.
“Do… do you have to die?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Fluttershy smiled, and nuzzled her little one again, “Because that’s how life is. Life is… Chaos. Chaos is Change. Change is… oh what word did Discord use…?”
“Entropy?” Ann offered.
“Yes, that!” Fluttershy said, proud of her yet again, “And Entropy is just Time. It’s natural. It’s the way things are meant to be. We can, and should, be sad when life ends…”
Ann felt herself lurch as Fluttershy hefted her up in the older pegasus’ wings. And with a shriek of laughter, she was up in the air, her mother playfully tossing her back and forth between her wings.
With a final swing, Fluttershy brought a giggling Ann back down onto the bed with her, and said, “But there’s always more life out there! Nothing last forever, but nothing truly ends, either!”
Ann smiled through the tears, “It’s… it’s just like Chaos then?”
“Yes,” Fluttershy kissed Ann right on her nose, eliciting another giggle, “But I think for creatures like you and your Dad, that can be hard, to see so much change. He hasn’t had to deal with… death. Not like a pony.”
Ann tilted her head to one side, and asked, “How do you know so much about Chaos?”
Here a small blush broke out on Fluttershy’s face. “Oh… um, your father and I… might have swapped species one Hearth’s Warming.”
“Why?”
“One of the best things about knowing your father,” she sighed, “is that he always encouraged me to branch out and try new things. Like being a Draconequus. Or a tree that once…”
“Can…” Ann wiped at her eyes, “Can I go see him? I… I want to apologize.”
“You can later,” Fluttershy smiled, genuinely, “But he’s off running an errand for me.”
“An ewwand?” Ann frowned at her lisp when it came.
Fluttershy tittered, “You know? You do sound cute when you do that. Don’t worry, he’ll be back tomorrow afternoon. He’s just bringing some… old friends by.”
Ann’s eyes sparkled, “Fwiends? More fwiends?”
Fluttershy nodded, “More friends. Friends that helped me with something that I think you need as well.”
“Oh?” Ann raised a bushy white eyebrow, “what?”
“That little temper you have,” Fluttershy teased.
Ann gaped, “What!? I thought I got that from Dad!”
“Nope,” Fluttershy shook her head, “while Discord… I mean, your father can get mad enough when he’s riled up… There were more than a few times I… lost my ‘cool’, as Dashie always called it.”
“Huh… you think you know somepony…” Ann frowned, “But… how did they help? I… I don’t like feeling this way.”
Fluttershy hopped off the bed, and made her way towards the door in the floor. “I can show you tomorrow. For now…”
She gave the door a hard kick, which caused the whole door and frame to jump up and slap itself against the far wall. “You said you and your friends were learning to play Buckball?”
Ann was by her side instantly. “Awe… awe you gonna teach me?” stars burned in her eyes, “Peawl said you wewe a famous buckball playew!”
Her mother blushed, “W-well, I guess I was okay at it. Only Snails went professional… but I can teach you some of my old tricks while we wait for dinner to cook itself.”
She took a deep breath, “And… I’ve been meaning to spend more time with you. With you spending so much time with your friends, and with Dad… I was starting to think that you didn’t need…”
Fluttershy looked down at her side, where a tiny Ponequus had latched itself in a hug with both its forelegs and wings holding tight.
“I’ll always need you, Mom,” Ann nuzzled close, “always.”
Mother and daughter trotted through the winding, nebulous corridors that made up their home in the Realm of Chaos, briefly passing by the kitchen where soup ingredients were eagerly throwing themselves into a boiling pot.
But before they reached the front door, Ann had one last question to ask.
“Why does Dad… hate Gwampa so much?”
“Because he was weak,” Grogar said with a pitiless snarl as he marched down the muddy road to Ponyville Schoolhouse, “And he needed to be strong.”
Ann lay atop her Grandfather’s withers as he walked, she enjoying the ride and he enjoying the fact that she didn’t weigh anything. She’d been pondering how to bring up the subject of her Dad’s foalhood (or, since Grampa was a goat, was it a kidhood?) all morning. With her father off gathering her parents’ mysterious other friends, she’d had little to do while waiting on her Grampa to finish his glowering.
Well, that, and devour a stack of Auntie Celestia’s pancakes.
“So,” she ventured, slowly, “You wewe mean to Dad… on puwpose?”
“I was trying to conquer the world, young one.” Grogar deliberately stamped on a budding flower by the roadside as he continued, “There was no room for kindness or love in the Court of Chimes! No room for mercy when I had all-consuming darkness to spread across the world!”
Ann levered herself into a position where she could lean in between Grogar’s horns and meet him, eye-to-eye, albeit upside down as well. It was a wonder her long, pink-black mane didn’t fall down enough to catch under his hooves.
“But why?”
“Because I could. And because I wanted to,” Grogar shrugged. Then, as his eyes narrowed in thought, he asked, “Is this about your fight last night?”
She shrank back, “You… heawd about that?”
The Ram chuckled sinisterly, “My child, I could hear that argument from my quarters in this dimension! Twas a mighty row, I think.”
“I know,” Ann crawled back up to Grogar’s withers and began to stroke her tail in agitation, “I feel awful about it…”
“A pity,” Grogar grumbled, “I thought you made a fine showing. Did you know it took Discord two centuries before he talked back to me like that? I’m very impressed.”
“But I huwt his feelings!” Ann whined, “I’m… I’m a bad pony…”
Grogar sighed, which seemed to cause the grass nearby to shrivel in despair, “You are not a bad pony.”
She sniffed, “Yeah?”
“You’re not even a pony,” he stated, authoritatively, “I’d say you were a chimera, or perhaps some variety of mutant. Your father came up with that insipid word, Ponequus, so I suppose that will have… to…”
His voice paused. Grogar could hear nearly-silent sobs on top of his back.
Kids these days, he grumbled internally. A thousand years ago, every colt and filly wanted to be a monster. Maybe it is I who is out of touch…?
“No,” he concluded, “The children today are in error.”
But hearing his own grandfoal cry wasn’t exactly what he enjoyed listening to in the morning.
“Harken to me!” Grogar ordered with a grumbling, gritty growl. He waited until he heard no more from Ann, then said, “You are yet half pony due to your mother. So, if it pleases you, act more like Fluttershy than my good-for-nothing son. She’s far too good for him, in any case…”
In a flash, she was back up on his horns, face hanging down to meet his gaze.
He could see fire.
“Do you mean that?” she asked.
He nodded, “Indeed. Fluttershy is… adequate, as far as ponies…”
“Not that,” she scolded.
Grogar could never flinch. Never. Even up against Gusty herself, he never felt a twinge of true fear in his ancient life. And Ann, for all she could muster her annoyance, just couldn’t be scary to him.
But… Grogar could acknowledge strength.
“Discord wove your essence from his own Chaotic nature, and that of your mother,” he said after a few moments, “The Princesses and I possess an ancient power, a sort of sight-beyond-sight. And to me… you and she share a bond that cannot be easily undone. She is your mother, in every way that counts. You are a pony, inasmuch as you want to be one.”
Ann tried, valiantly, to hold onto that same iron-will she’d seen her mother make use of the night before… but hearing that had set a small, silly smile back onto her face.
“Thank you, Gwampa,” she said, and then planted a kiss right between the ancient Ram’s eyes.
That time, he flinched.
“But,” Ann’s eyes flashed, “No mowe huwting Dad. Nevew again!”
It was adorable, at least to Grogar, to hear her squeaky little voice try to make such a bold demand. He smiled, and said, “And… how will you enforce such a demand?”
Her eyes narrowed, and for an instant… for a split second in the endless stream of time… Grogar saw his own eyes staring back.
“I’m half pony,” Ann said, never breaking eye contact, “But also half Dwaconequus. Dad says we can be… vewy unpwedictable…”
She slowly raised herself back up her grandfather’s head and settled back into her spot in the middle of his back. He hadn’t broken pace the entire time. And for the next several minutes, all that Grogar did was work his jaw this way, and that way, as though he were literally chewing on his thoughts.
“Shame,” he said, eventually, “You’d be a natural at Evil.”
“Thank you,” Ann said, happily content to smile and wait for her ride to reach school.
“Free advice from an old hoof? If anycreature is prophesized to defeat you, don’t burn down their village. It only encourages them…”
The school day passed in a pleasant blur for Anarchy. Since Miss Silver Spoon was still… recovering from her fainting spell, she’d called in backup in the form of Mrs. Diamond Tiara, and all the students were cycled through learning stations. Ann loved the new pace, not knowing what would happen next.
She spent much of the morning working with Shady, who had brought his favorite book in the world to help her learn to read.
“Dawing Do n-nodded to A… Ahw…”
“Ah-Wee-Zot-El,” Shady said slowly, over-pronouncing every syllable with exacting precision.
“A-wee-zotal,” Ann worked the name over a few times before continuing, “and pwomised to nevew steal from his t-tem-temp-less again. Fluttershy… hey!” She pointed at the page with her hoof, and then turned wide, shocked eyes up to her tutor’s face, “That’s my Mom’s name!”
Shady blinked. “That… that is your mom.”
“Whoa!” Ann whispered, incredulous. “So… did your mom give you this book because her fwiend was in it?”
“N-no…” Shady’s considerably flappy ears turned down. “My dad got me the books. Mom thinks they,” he slipped back into his ‘groovy’ voice, “Encourage a matriarchal worldview that inhibits the stimulation of adult stallion role models,” he ended with a tone normally reserved for asking a question.
“… What the heck does that mean?”
“I have no idea…”
Recess couldn’t have arrived sooner. In order to prevent ‘snooping’, as Beauregard called it, in what Shady considered a sudden, surprising burst of mental energy, the two teams took up their practices on opposite sides of the playground, which conveniently wrapped enough around the schoolhouse to block the view between both parties.
And Ann was eager to get practice going.
“Come on!” Ann cried out, “Buck me the ball!”
Little Cheese frowned, “Are… are you sure? Yesterday…”
“Yestewday,” said Ann, as though already bored of explaining, “I was all dis-comb-o-bo-feted because I wasn’t using my magic. I can feel my legs again, so buck the ball alweady!”
Cheese continued to frown, especially as he tried to disentangle whatever word that was Ann tried to use, but after a few moments of pensive thought, he slapped the ball once to get it bouncing, and then sent it racing off with a sharp hind-kick.
Pearl flinched and looked away as the ball seemed to hone in directly on Ann’s face. She couldn’t bear to watch again…
But the ball missed. At the last instant, Ann ducked below it, and let the ball fall straight into the cupped-curve of her long, pink-and-black tail. The ball strained for but a moment, until Ann suddenly whipped her tail around her head like Cheese had seen the Apples do with their lassos, which sent the buckball hurtling back from whence it came.
Cheese, jaw hanging open, barely had time to lower his head, using the poof of his mane to block the ball’s momentum and pop it back up in the air. Then, with a laugh, he sent it back towards her with a flank-check.
“Ann! You can play!” he said.
She caught the ball with one of her bat-wings, holding on like it were a huge hand growing out of her back, and yelled, “I know!”
“My dear, that’s amazing!” Pearl Rose had zipped straight from the edge of the chalked-up buckball ring to within inches of Ann’s nose, sending the Ponequus squeaking back several paces, “You did the Shytail Rebound! Your Mama invented that move!
Ann nodded, “She taught me last night. I never knew she could do all that stuff!”
Pearl pumped one hoof into the air, “Oh yes! We are going to show that smug Flawless how real Buckball is played! Crusaders!”
All three clapped their hooves together, with a cry of “Cutie Mark Crusaders Forever!” ringing out over the playground just as three other creatures made their way over.
Shady chuckled as he, Moon, and Goldie approached, “Well, looks like everycreature’s in a better mood today.”
“You think you guys are ready for a practice match?” Goldie asked, one paw (no claw could be that fluffy, right?) snatching up the ball with ease. Her eyes narrowed to cat-like slits, and she began passing the ball back and forth between her paws like Ann had only seen actual cats do before.
Then, as if realizing what she just did, the puffy griffon dropped the ball and backed away, “Um… if that’s okay with you?”
Everyone nodded in unison, and quickly began to take up their positions. Cheese stood in the inner circle, shivering slightly with excitement, facing off against Goldie, who just shivered.
“You know it’s okay, right?” Cheese stared up at the much, much taller griffon, “Just to have fun?”
She sighed, “Sorry, I’m just… anxious around other creatures. If you were a math-book or a sums ledger I’d have no problem.”
He shrugged, then did a cartwheel in place to work out his own nervous energy. “Aw, that’s no problem!” he laughed at the concerned, confused face Goldie made, “My Auntie Twilight is the same way. I can show you her breathing exercises later!”
“Auntie… Twilight?” Goldie’s eyes widened.
“Ladies!” Pearl shouted from behind Goldie, bucket held up in her green magical aura. Her voice took on a low, gruff quality that would make any coach in Equestria weep with pride, saying, “Are we gonna play Buckball? Or are we gonna chit-chat!?”
She tittered daintily as soon as she finished.
Swiftly, they all took up their positions. Miss Cheerilee, freed from having to watch every student at recess by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, arrived at that moment to be the referee, smiling the whole while at seeing her student’s students take an interest in sports. Shady would be the ‘Unicorn’ for one team with Goldie as their ‘Earth Pony’, and Moon would be their ‘Pegasus’. Pearl and Cheese would take up their natural positions, while Ann…
Ann sat at the edge of the outer ring, wings outstretched and ready to come down hard once the game began.
Cheerilee bounced the ball well, proving the hardiness of earth ponies despite her age, and the game began. With the ball served, Cheese leapt up and launched it hard towards their bucket, clearing the startled Goldie’s head easily.
Moon was quick in the air, frighteningly so as Pearl was completely caught off guard by how he zipped around the outer ring with ease and sent the ball back toward Goldie with a jab of his forehooves.
Goldie redirected the ball with her oversized paws, simply sweeping it from one trajectory into another, Cheese unable to leap up with her tremendous frame blocking his lane. Ann, seeing the arc of the ball, threw herself into the air, wings beating as hard and as fast as she could manage.
The ball sailed through her open hooves, straight into Shady’s waiting bucket, and the Ponequus followed suit, crashing into the dirt below like a sack of apples.
She lay on the ground for several seconds, her friends simply watching and waiting. Then, Ann let loose a shriek and hopped up onto her hooves. She started biting at her wings, chewing and shaking her head as hard as a dog with a fresh bone.
“Fly!” she managed through gritted teeth, “Fly! Fly! Why won’t you fly!?”
Cheese was the first to reach her, wrapping his forelegs around her neck and trying to break her own toothy hold on her wings. “Ann! Ann! Stop!”
“I don’t get it!” she nearly sobbed in frustration, “I’m doing evewything my mom and Aunt Dash tell me to do! And nothing wowks! What am I doing wong!?”
While she did stop chewing her own wings, Ann sat down on her haunches, a feeling of defeat slowly sinking in. Cheese sat beside her, and the others slowly crowded around, but for just that moment, she felt utterly alone.
And then, a voice seemed to answer her question. “Everything, actually.”
Pearl and Cheerilee stepped to one side, Shady and Goldie to the other, revealing a completely placid, unmoving Moon Wane.
Ann locked her eyes onto his oversized sunglasses. “What?” she hissed.
“You’re doing it wrong,” he said without any emotion of any sort whatsoever, “With your wings, I mean.”
Her cheeks puffed up, and her eyes narrowed… but Ann remembered what she’d said and done the last time that tight, hot pain in her chest was let loose, so she said nothing. She stood up, and let the batpony approach.
“Open your wings,” he said. When she didn’t, he nodded towards her sides. She finally complied, holding out her blue, leathery wings for all to see.
Moon opened his as well, and it was immediately clear that his were slightly smaller than Ann’s were. “You see these bones in your wing?” he pointed with his muzzle to the long, slender ridges that filled out both their wing-shapes, “They’re like the bones in a centaur’s hand, or a griffon’s claw. Try bending them, moving them.”
He demonstrated, flexing his wings this way and that, doing a very fine impression of a hand as he did so. Ann’s anger faded as she watched, and was quickly replaced by a curiosity she hadn’t known before.
Turning her wing over, she looked at her appendage for what felt like the first time. She started bending the bones in her right wing, the ones she always thought were just like her mother’s, ridged and fixed. They flexed surprisingly easily. She wondered if her mom knew about batpony wings, but Ann supposed her fascination with flying was new enough, and her time talking to her mother about it limited enough, so that they never really had a chance to talk about it.
Moon watched her flex and bend her wings a bit, and then said, “If your wings work like mine, then you should have a lot more control over how you fly than a regular pegasus.”
“Well, that’s nice,” she said, a very faint smile threatening to break out as she watched her wings bend and fold, “But my pwoblem is getting into the air in the fiwst place.”
“Your wings are bigger than mine, so the problem isn’t that they’re not strong enough,” Moon said, walking around Ann as he spoke, “It’s that you’re using them in the wrong way. How do you normally flap them?”
She thought about that for a moment. Thinking about flying was weirdly a lot more difficult than just… flying. Or, trying to fly, anyway. Ann held up her wings, and then began to flap like she’d been doing earlier…
Moon’s pointed ears flicked as he presumably watched her pantomime. After she flapped a few more times, he held out a hoof to stop the demonstration.
“Hm,” he grunted, “You flap like a pegasus.”
“Is… is that bad?” she lowered her head a skosh.
He smiled, revealing his tiny fangs. “No, but you’ve got Batpony wings. You can flap like that to go forward once you’re in the air, but you gotta flap backwards to get up there in the first place.”
“Backwards!?” Cheese frowned, “How the hay does that make sense…?”
“Language, my little pony,” Cheerilee warned, snapped out of her focus on the impromptu-but-fascinating lesson before her.
It really didn’t make sense, at least as far as Ann knew. But flying backwards to go forwards is… it’s completely the opposite of everything anypony has taught me! She thought.
“That’s weally stwange,” Ann said, tapping her chin with a hoof, “It’s diffwent, it’s completely backwawds, it’s… it’s…
“It’s weird,” a little light seemed to flare up behind her eyes. Then, more excited, “It’s weird!”
Ann held her wings out, letting her ‘fingers’ stretch and pull in as many ways as she could. Then, a feeling of excitement building within her chest, she began to flap once more. She rotated her wings backwards this time, like she were rolling her shoulders. When she’d tried rotating them forward, she has always felt like any height she gained was in spite of her effort.
Now, within seconds, her hooves were off the ground. She swiftly rose up and over the heads of her friends, over Miss Cheerilee, and could already see the rooftop of the schoolhouses.
“I can fly,” she said, quietly. Then, louder, “I can fly!”
Her friends were cheering, Ann realized, but she couldn’t hear them. Not over the sound of her own exuberant laughter, in any case.
“I can flyyyyy!” she swept over their heads, nearly needing to bounce off Shady’s horn to keep her altitude. She pulled up at the last moment, and hovered above. “This is amazing!”
Ann’s wings, unused to the mechanics of successfully flying, twitched, and the slight change in her wing’s shape spun the Ponequus around. She tried to tighten her control, only to find herself flying sideways now!
“I am too much in contwol!” she shouted, only to bump into something mid-air.
Moon held her in place with his outstretched forehooves, letting her pause a moment before she spun around to face him.
“Not bad for a first timer,” he laughed. His smile lost its toothyness, slowly morphing from a snark or a smirk into something far more genuine. If she could see his eyes, Ann might even have suspected as much.
“And I’m not even tiwed!” she laughed back, “It’s like I’m cheating compawed to befow! I can fly!”
Ann threw herself into a backflip, forelegs stretched out to her sides, laughing as hard as she’d ever done before…
Which made it hurt all the more as she landed straight down on her back in the dirt once again. The wind thoroughly knocked out of her, Ann gasped for breath and felt hot tears form in her eyes from the pain.
But even with that, and all her friends now fretting over her with Goldie’s cries of ‘We trained for this!’ in her ears, all Ann could think was that she’d flown. She’d actually flown!
Miss Silver Spoon rang the bell only minutes later, calling all the little colts, fillies, and othercreatures back to class. Ann had mostly recovered, and slowly walked back, not willing to challenge the watchful Miss Cheerilee, who had warned her about flying again, just now. But she did hang back slightly, letting Cheese and Pearl walk together with Shady and Goldie.
Ann fell into step with Moon. She reached out and tapped his side with her wonderful, marvelous, able-to-fly wing.
“Hey,” she said.
“Uh, hey?” he tilted one ear towards her, “What’s up?”
“I just wanted to say, thank you,” she leaned forward a little to see more of his face, not entirely content to talk at an ear.
“Not a problem,” Moon smiled, then smirked and added, “Can’t have Batponies look bad, even if just because a Ponequus is using our wings.”
Ann decided that was funny, and giggled just a little bit as they walked. Almost to the door, she also decided that she rather liked Moon. So, like with any good friend, she wanted to know more.
“Can I ask you a question?”
He half-turned his head to… she guessed he could see out of his sunglasses at that angle, and said, “Yeah. Of course.”
“Why do you weaw sunglasses?”
He barked a laugh at that. Then, when he heard nothing else, Moon turned his head completely to see Ann. She looked almost hurt…
“Oh, you were serious,” he hoped his dark-blue coat hid his embarrassed blush, “Sorry… um, I’m a Batpony. We normally sleep during the day, and our eyes are better at night. If there was a Night School here, I’d probably not be up during the daylight at all.”
Her bushy eyebrows raised up a notch, “But you still weaw them in school. And it’s not that bwight in class.”
Moon shrugged, “I… I guess… I’m used to it.” He turned his face away from her, as the door was fast approaching. Miss Cheerilee had broken off towards her own classroom just then, and the last of their other classmates were only just shuffling in themselves.
He stopped, and Ann had to turn back around to look at him. He worked his jaw for another second, thinking. “I’m a Batpony,” he said, finally.
Ann said nothing.
“I know someponies stare at my wings,” he said, slowly, “But that’s alright. I like my wings. They’re pretty cool.”
“Vewy cool,” Ann nodded, smiling again.
Moon smiled back, briefly. “It’s just that… I’ve got Batpony eyes. And other ponies I’ve met before have all said they’re… weird.”
Whatever response he’d expected, Moon hadn’t expected Ann to just stare.
“And?” she asked.
“And?” he repeated back, “And my eyes are weird.”
She scrunched her mouth and nose up a little, like she’d heard someone say fresh food was bad for you. “But…” she said, “They’re youw eyes. Why should you cawe what othew ponies or creatuwes think?”
He opened his mouth… and then closed it. Just at that moment, he couldn’t quite put into words what he meant.
“Because I want to fit in?” he didn’t mean to sound like he was asking a question, but Moon’s voice just sort of… did it for him.
“So?” Ann chuckled, “My Dad says you can make anything fit into anything else if you twy hawd enough.
“Besides,” she tried to give Moon as good a view of her own eyes as she could, “I like weird.”
For some reason, Moon stood perfect still when she did that. Not that this was unusual for him at this point, in her opinion… but it was almost like he’d seen a cockatrice. The only thing that showed he hadn’t, in fact, been frozen was the dim red blush that seemed to creep up his hooves, his legs, his cheeks, and up into his ears.
He finally took a breath, and slowly removed his sunglasses with one of his wings. He held his eyes shut for a moment longer, before looking back at her. Two large, golden orbs stared into Ann’s eyes, a black slash across each giving Moon a striking look, like that of a cat, or a dragon.
Moon wondered if she could hear that same rhythmic pounding that his ears were picking up just now.
Ann smiled. “Wow,” she whispered, “Those awe cool.”
“R-really?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said, “They’re like Cheese’s!”
“… Cheese’s?”
She nodded, “Oh yeah, Cheese had weal big, pwetty eyes too!”
Moon blinked. He blinked again. Three times.
Ann started towards the open door, beckoning her new friend to follow with her newly flight-certified wings, “Come on! I can’t wait to see Goldie cowwect Miss Tiawa’s math again!”
The Batpony stood in front of the door for several seconds. He just kept blinking. Finally, he shook his head, and stared at his sunglasses before deciding to just stuff them in his saddlebags once he was inside. He couldn’t imagine what he thought he’d been doing wearing them all the time.
As he followed Ann to class, he also couldn’t help but think how much he did not like Cheese right now…
Fluttershy had quite enjoyed her afternoon. It was a lovely, warm day in Equestria. She’d gotten to chat with Starlight Glimmer, Pinkie Pie, and even got in a few moments with her dear sweetheart, Angel, bunnies apparently having extended lifespans as compared to her own world.
And now, she was enjoying a warm cup of tea, as an adorable pony sitting on a soft couch in an adorable tree-house cottage.
Even the occasional kicks were only encouraging.
“Oh my!” she gasped, “there she goes again!”
The other Fluttershy, the one who actually lived in Equestria and didn’t just visit from time to time, hopped off her chair and quickly walked up to her… incredibly pregnant self from the Mirror World.
“Oh, I bet she’s so snug in there!” she cooed and felt her counterpart’s belly with her hoof. “I’m not complaining,” she added, looking up at the twin Lords of Chaos who sat on their thrones mere feet away, “But I did sort of miss out on this part of the experience.”
“Snug is ideal,” Disqord, the copy of himself that was from the human world, and who seemed to retain that shape even here, noted with a whiff of agitation, “Just this morning, she didn’t have hooves, and only had a few weeks to go. Now’s she’s got a few more months added to her sentence…”
Discord, fully Draconequus, said nothing. He brought up a cup of tea and simply nibbled at it.
“Everything alright, old Bean?” Disqord raised an eyebrow, “Why the long face?”
Human-Fluttershy frowned. “Disqord,” she said warningly.
“What?” he asked, “I’ll have you know I resemble that remark.”
Both Fluttershys couldn’t help but giggle just a little bit at that, with the Pony-Fluttershy smiling softly afterwards and saying, “It’s alright, Disqord. Ann and Discord had an argument last night, and both are feeling a little… bad about it.”
“Oh no!” Human-Fluttershy gasped again, then laid one hoof delicately on her considerable belly, “What happened? Is everybody okay? Does anyone want biscuits?”
Disqord smirked, and then snapped his fingers, summoning a plate full of small cakey-biscuits. He lowered these to his own Fluttershy, who’s eyes shined brightly as she took them with a wing.
“Calm, dear,” he said, “the baby’s already going through a lot right now, what with changing species once or twice before being born and having the Grand and Majestic creature that is myself as a father. She, or he, don’t need a panic attack right now.”
“It’s…” Pony-Fluttershy watched the biscuits disappear before her eyes. She’d seen other mares going through the extreme hunger and cravings of pregnancy, but it was still unnerving seeing herself go through it from the outside.
“It’s just the usual thing, I’m sure. Kids have arguments with their parents all the time.”
Both Spirits of Chaos went blank-eyed and said in stereo, “Really? Even you?”
Fluttershy nodded, both of them, “Of course. I’ve told you, Discord, about my parents’ opinion on me living away from home originally?”
Discord frowned, “I honestly didn’t think you were serious. Patter Shy doesn’t seem capable of that sort of… rage.”
“Well,” she rolled her eyes, “Not since the surgery. Oh,” she looked back to her human-self, “You taught Dad those stress-relief exercises I mentioned last time?”
Human-Fluttershy nodded, “Yes, thank you so much.” Then, to her own Disqord, “And you know what my mother… said… when you met her…?”
The still-human Lord of Chaos flinched at the memory.
Discord hummed to himself, and then finally broke his (inconsistently applied) silence, “It’s my fault, really. I… overreacted.”
“But all we do is overreact,” Disqord frowned.
Discord looked away, “It got rough. I… I was so worried about… about losing her, that I started sounding like Grogar…”
But just before Disqord could say a word to Discord, with either support or savage rebuttal, there was a knock. No, more of a crash. And far from being at the front door, the sound had come from up above the tea party, approximately from where Fluttershy had installed a skylight some years ago.
“Did you invite Rainbow Dash to join us?” Human-Fluttershy asked in between biscuits.
Pony-Fluttershy shook her head, and then looked to Discord. “Could you?”
One talon-snap later, an entire windowpane had popped into existence in the middle of the cottage living room. And plastered up against the glass was a very dazed and confused-looking Ponequus.
“Ann!” her mother shouted, eyes wide in fear, “Is everything alright!? How did you…?”
“I’m okay mama…” she casually waved a hoof at the little… Little Cheese’s who bounced around her head. “I flew all the way hewe on my own.”
She looked up at the assembled creatures.
“Dad? You might need to fix something. Thewe’s two of you, and one’s a lot uglier than usual.”
Disqord glanced over to his own Fluttershy’s belly. “You’re grounded,” he whispered.
“You…” Pony-Fluttershy swallowed, “You flew?”
A second knock, harder, and more in the direction of the front door resounded through the house. It heralded the sudden entrance of none other than Grogar, who seemed… slightly out of breath.
“Indeed,” he sighed, “She would not cease talking about it, nor slow down enough for her beloved Grandfather to keep up.”
He glanced over to his son, “Greetings, Discord. Other… more horrifying Disqord. I shall be Glowering if one needs me.”
“He’s still alive!?” Disqord stared at the retreating ram, not caring that Grogar hadn’t actually left the room yet.
“Yes,” Discord sighed.
The human tapped his chin in thought, “How’s that going?”
Discord sighed, again, “He’s still alive…”
Both Fluttershys, in the meantime, were helping Ann back up to her hooves… though the larger one was more a moral support in that effort.
“W-what!?” Ann nearly hopped a whole foot in the air when she finally seemed to find her balance, “Dad! You taught Mom how to duplicate before me!?”
Human-Fluttershy stared… and somehow, though even Discord wasn’t sure how, her eyes slowly grew to be the most blue, beautiful, star-filled eyes he’d ever seen.
“She’s…” she took a breath, and then squealed, “A-DOR-ABLE!!!!”
Ann raised an eyebrow at this, and then shifted her gaze between all four adults in the room. Her gaze lingered a bit longer on the version of her mother that… really seemed to like those biscuits.
“Um,” she bit her lip, “Awe you the old fwiends Dad was gonna go get?”
Human-Fluttershy nodded, smiled, and said, “Yes. I’m…”
“… Mom, but from another dimension?”
The human-turned-pony gaped. “Um… yes. And…”
“And that’s me?” Ann pointed one hoof at her stomach.
Discord’s eyes focused on Ann. “Perhaps. I made you with magic.”
“And we made you with, well…” Disqord, despite a snicker, also narrowed his eyes on Ann for a moment.
There was something going on with the fourth wall…
“We think she’s a girl,” Human-Fluttershy added, “But besides, uh…” she slowly petered out as she noted Ann’s eyes, and where their gaze was locked.
The little Ponequus trotted up to her Not-Mother, and stared at the large belly which presumably held… something. Or, somepony. She lay her ear on Human-Fluttershy’s side, and reached up with one hoof. Softly, Ann tapped out a tune on her belly.
Tap.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
Discord winced, horns curling, while Disqord nearly retched.
As Ann went to tap out the tune again, she heard a slightly muffled sound from within.
Tap-tap.
She smiled. “Hey! I am in there!”
And then she sang.
“Shave and a manecut…”
Human-Fluttershy let out a warm, loud burp, and a hoof flew instantly to her muzzle, “Ohmygosh! I’m so, sooo sorry! I don’t know what came over me…”
And as Ann opened her mouth to sing again, a grey human hand reached around to snap her muzzle shut, and quickly drag her over to her Dad and Not-Dad, who looked incredibly uncomfortable, nearly haggard in their appearances quite suddenly.
“Young lady,” Discord growled, “Do not utter that… that… showtune again!”
Disqord, worry lacing his every word, said, “If you couldn’t tell, no Draconequus… or Ponequus apparently, can resist the ‘Shave and a Manecut’ gag. If you did that again, my wife over there might have popped.”
“Which,” her father sighed, “you probably would have known had you seen the fourth wall just now. It’s practically falling apart!”
Ann swiveled her head between both her Dad and Not-Dad.
“Oh… oh!” she suddenly realized just what almost happened… and all over the furniture too.
“I’m sorry, Dad. I’m sorry, Not-Dad,” she looked down at her hooves, not wanting to show either of them her burning embarrassment of a blush. She was so absorbed in hiding her face, she hardly noticed her lisp slip just then.
But then, she looked back up. After the excitement of finally flying had worn off, and the shock of seeing these duplicates of her parents from another world had passed, there was still one thing Ann realized she needed to do. To set right.
“I’m sowwy!” she cried, tears brimming in her little eyes. “I’m sowwy, Dad!” She threw herself at her father, and wrapped both her legs and her wings around his serpentine body, pressing her nose into his coat and sobbing.
“I didn’t mean it,” she continued, “I was mad… I was so angwy at you. And I said those things… please fowgive me… you’re weird…”
Discord didn’t move. His eyes flicked up to see his wife’s smile, the confused, yet hopeful look on her human-self, and the curious, calculating stare of his own duplicate. And then, his eyes went back to the one creature in the entire cosmos… yes, the entire cosmos he may very well have loved more than anything.
Even, hard as it might have been to believe, himself.
“It’s alright, my kaleidoscope kiddo,” he smiled, and his words brought out a giggle from Ann in the middle of her soft sobs. “You’re weird too.”
He pulled her into his own hug, and gently stroked her mane with his paw.
After a few moments, Pony-Fluttershy broke the awww’d silence with a quiet cough. “That’s so wonderful,” she said, her eyes beaming out nothing but happiness and contentment towards her family, “But part of the reason I asked the Human-Me and her husband here was to talk about managing your anger, Ann.”
Ann sighed, and let herself be set back down, “Yeah, I know. But… how do you make those feelings go away?”
“You can’t,” Human-Fluttershy shook her head, “you can only manage them, suppress them, or release them. And… with the music I brought, releasing those negative emotions is the healthiest thing you can do for yourself.”
Ann blinked, “Music?”
Human-Fluttershy tried, and failed, to reach to her saddlebags. With a chagrined look, she pointed to them for Pony-Fluttershy to retrieve. Once the bags were in-hoof, she withdrew several large, vinyl records.
“Now,” she began, “do you think she’d like Ram-Stein? Black Stable? Or perhaps she’d like Mare-o-war?”
Fluttershy picked up Ann with her wings and held her daughter close, “I think I’d like to start with War Troggles*, and move on from there.”
“Excellent taste, my dears,” Disqord said, and without an ounce of pomp or circumstance, snapped his fingers.
In a flash, a DJ turntable, complete with huge speakers on either side appeared across the tea table from everycreature there. Complete with a very confused, possibly baffled Vinyl Scratch. She systematically checked her ears, her purple shades, and her equipment, and didn’t seem to terribly concerned at first.
Mostly, she seemed more concerned about the fact that she had hooves.
“If it wouldn’t be much trouble,” Discord said, sliding a record into place on the table, “This is a therapy-session, of sorts. All for a good cause. We’ll have you back in your dimension soon.”
Vinyl stared at the bizarre creature before her, and smiled.
Why not? she seemed to say. I’ve had worse gigs…
While the new pony began adjusting her set-up, Ann glanced over towards her Not-Mom.
“Um… could I please have one of those biscuits? They look yummy…”
Human-Fluttershy threw a worried look over at Disqord, who leaned into his other half.
“She can handle bacon, right?”
“I’ve seen her eat a lead pipe once.”
Ann frowned, “I ate a dweam once. Aunt Luna was so upset…”
In the silence before the Metalocalypse about to proceed, Human-Fluttershy covered her guilty face with her hooves and sighed.
“I hate pregnancy-cravings…”