Brony Recon: Ascension

by Freescript the Bard


Song of Hearts Part 2: Meet the Parents

Shift's POV

"Twily, are you sure you want to do this?" Shining Armor asked his sister.

"Well, we have to get it over with, anyway, right?"

"Yeah, but do we really have to--?"

"Oh for Luna's sake just ring the bucking doorbell!" shouted Sky. "I don't get why everypony has to be so dramatic!"

Cadence and I shared a worried glance. Twilight and Shining Armor stood on the porch to their parents' house in Canterlot. For the moderate-upper-class district, it was a modest house, with two stories and about half as large as the first-class mansions. Twilight had said their family had a high standing, but didn't exactly like to be showy about it.

"You know, suddenly it's not the parents I'm worried about," I told Cadence admittedly.

The pink alicorn gave a weak smile. "Oh I'm sure it won't be that bad…" she paused as she saw my deadpan. "Okay, yeah. This will definitely end in disaster."

"Oh for buck's sake!" cried Skyblaze in a frustrated tone. Rising to his hooves, he stormed past Twilight and Shining, who had hesitated once more at the door. Much to our horror, he pressed on the doorbell with nonchalance. "There," he stated, trotting away. "Have at it, you four." Skyblaze had insisted upon coming, saying he could be emotional support. How he managed to haul a lawn chair and an filled extra-large bucket of popcorn halfway across Canterlot was beyond me.

"Well, here goes nothing…" Twilight voiced nervously, her wings twitching slightly. Hoofsteps sounded behind the door, each one causing Cadence and I to tense up. Being there for our respective lovers was a minuscule investment at this point.

Barring Skyblaze, who was lounging in his chair with popcorn at his side, we were all holding our breaths when a white mare with opened the door. "Why, hello, Twilight and Shining Armor, what a pleasant--" She must have been levitating a teacup out of view, as the sound of shattering glass was heard just as Velvet Sparkle noticed her two children's new extremities. A few moments of silence passed

"Huh, I expected her to at least--" Sky's review was cut off by the 'thump!' of Twilight's mother falling to the floor. "There we go."

>><<>><<

"So," Night Light began nervously, his teacup rattling on the levitating platter. "May I ask who you are?"

"Oh, please, pardon my manners," I apologized. "I'm Shift, Twilight's coltfriend."

He shook my offered hoof. "Nice to meet you, Shift," he replied. "And how are you helping Twilight with her… change?"

"Well, she freaked out at first," I said admittedly, ignoring Twi's glare. "But she came around eventually, with the help of Applejack, of course. As for the last few days, it's been a bit of a hassle to hide them. Luckily I'm good with illusory magic, so I can just turn them invisible."

Velvet Sparkle smiled at me. She had astoundingly recovered from both unconsciousness and the fact that both her children were alicorns. "So how did you and Twilight meet?" she asked.

"I, uh…" I stuttered, shifting my hooves around. "She took me in after I gashed myself in a teleportation accident."

"One that placed me in Canterlot with second-degree burns and Discord's statue on top of me, thank you very much!" Skyblaze pouted from his lawn chair, which he insisted upon using. This was the story we concocted for me and Sky's initial injuries. It was reasonable and didn't stress the truth.

Shining, Cadence, and Twilight had been silent most of the conversation, based on the awkward position the three alicorns were in. "Oh dear, I hope you were all alright," said Velvet in a worried tone.

"All things considered, I'm glad it happened," I stated cheerfully. "If it didn't, I wouldn't have met your daughter. Skyblaze also met Luna when she saved him from being crushed by Discord."

Shining Armor and Night Light's brows raised in amusement. Cadence simply took to giggling. Sky looked at me and shook his head, then motioned for me to do something.

"So Shift," Night Light asked, slightly less unnerved. "What exactly is your talent?"

"Oh, I… um…" I was hesitant on revealing my abilities, however Skyblaze gave me an assuring nod. "I'm an artist, of sorts. I create magical displays based on emotions that I sense around me. For example, I can taste the approval you're giving off. Thanks for that."

"You're… welcome?" voiced Velvet.

Cadence gave me a curious stare from the other side of the living room. "You can… taste emotions?" she said as she narrowed her eyes. I could sense hatred in the room, but it wasn't directed toward any one thing. Somehow, I realized it wasn't Shining Armor I needed to worry about.

Twilight put a hoof behind her head. "Uh… yeah. That's the other thing I wanted to tell you all," she half-mumbled. Skyblaze sat on the edge of his seat in anticipation "You see, Shift isn't actually a pony… per se."

Night Light chuckled. "Really? He looks like a normal unicorn to me," his chuckles grew in intensity. "If this is your idea of a joke, honey, I must admit it is not a very good one."

I smiled nervously. "See, the reason I can taste emotions is--"

"Changeling." The word was spoken with such a vibe of hatred, I thought Shining Armor had said it. Cadence was glaring at me, her horn alight with a light-blue glow. She looked even more pissed than Twilight did when she found out Shining Armor was an alicorn. This does not bode well for me.

"Hey Shift?" Skyblaze looked genuinely worried.

"Yeah, Sky?"

"You're bucked."

BOOM!!!

>><<>><<

Aegis' POV

"So this is where you found me?"

Summer had taken me back to the avalanche site, just for something to do. We had finished the day's chores especially early, so I wondered if we could go back to the place we met. It seemed like nothing had changed, albeit a cover of new snow on the pile of boulders.

"Yep. You were laying right there next to that rock, except the snow was all red."

I chuckled a bit. "That tends to happen when you have a serious head injury," I joked. "It looks a little different than last time we were here."

"Well, you WERE suffering from blood loss and a concussion," she replied with a giggle. "You were probably delirious, not to mention the shock of having all your memories erased." The pearl mare saw my frown and immediately put a hoof to her mouth. "I'm sorry I didn't mean…"

"It's alright, Summer," I assured. "I mean, we can't just pretend it didn't happen."

She nodded and didn't say anything else, moving toward the pile of rocks. Summer cast her light-blue gaze over the collection of small boulders. Her brow furrowed occasionally, as if she was missing some important detail.

"What are you looking for?" I asked. Summer sometimes did things without thinking, occasionally acting on some instinct or random urge. She spun from her observing and blushed, confirming my suspicion. "You're really random sometimes, you know?"

She shuffled her hooves in the fetlock-deep snow. "I try not to be," she said, dipping her head in embarrassment.

"Hey, none of that, now." I trod up to her and put a foreleg around her shoulders. "You're perfect just the way you are. Don't ever change, Summer, because I love you for being you," I consoled, giving her a peck on the nose. She smiled up at me with her azure eyes, leaning her head on the side of my thick neck. It was almost ironic how much her coat blended with the snowfall, despite her name.

Something glinted in my peripheral vision. I glanced away from the mare to see a piece of metal, reflecting the pre-noon sun into my eyes. "What the hay is…" I trailed off, moving for the metal. Gripping it in my teeth, I pulled it from the snow. Attached to it, a brown saddlebag with an aegis shield on it. The metal piece was actually the buckle. "My saddlebags?" I shot Summer a questioning look.

"They must have been buried when I got here."

I glanced back at the one link to my past. Who knows what could be in there? Only one way to find out I guess. Using my teeth, I unfastened the flap and unceremoniously dumped the contents in the snow.

Utter disappointment. That's what I felt when I looked upon the various rations of food and bottles of water. "To be honest, I expected a photo or something," I admitted to Summer. "Oh well, I guess."

Summer looked down at the assortment of items that had fallen into the snow. "What about this?" She picked up a metallic object with her hooves. It looked like a small bracer, with no adornments or carvings on its silver surface. There was, however, a round maroon gem embedded into the center.

Summer hoofed it to me. Curious, I slipped the minuscule piece of armor over my right foreleg. It was a perfect fit, as if designed to fit my wrist only. The gem began to give off a slight glow when I put it on, making the two of us glance at each other.

I turned it over, letting Summer get a closer look at the gem. "What do you think it does?" she wondered.

"I don't know, but the gem is--"

KSSHINK!

We both jumped as the gem's red light sparked intensity, fading to reveal a round metal buckler, a perfect match to my cutie mark.