//------------------------------// // Wild Bat Chase (Mercy) // Story: Echoes of Family // by I Thought I Was Toast //------------------------------// Buck all those stories that begin on a bright and sunny day in the park. If this was idyllic, I’d rather be inside and licking Mettle’s old Night Guard armor clean. I was hot as balls, and it was the freaking middle of autumn. Maybe it was the cloak…. If it was the cloak, though, I’d rather burn. This was the cloak Checkmate gave me. It smelled like him—smelled like us—and I’d be damned if I was just gonna leave it in the house. At least Pushing was enjoying herself. She was off some… ten trots away? She was never far as she poked about for bugs and frogs and birds. She was mostly good about staying close—maybe she did that for me, though. Foals are smarter than you’d think. With a squeaky, victorious cry, my little star brought her hoof up in triumph as she caught something. From the sluggish wriggling and the croaks, it was definitely not a bug, and she wobbled back over from the side of the pond to show off her catch to me. “Mmmmmpfffft!” She gave a happy hum that turned into a raspberry as she held out the wet and slimy amphibian to me. The poor thing shivered miserably in the autumn air, staring up at me with big, sad eyes as it gave another slow and feeble croak. I graciously took it from her with a smile and leaned down to nuzzle her, and that was all the encouragement she needed to burble and give me kisses every bit as sloppy as her father. Then it was back to the pond for more treasures and goodies. One of my ears swiveled to keep track of her as always even as I laid back in the shade of my tree and closed my eyes. Each trip back had gotten progressively splashier, but their echoes were enough to tell me the pond was little more than a big puddle. The frog gave another croak—this one even slower than the last—and so I gave it the only mercy I could and ended things quickly as I tossed it down my gullet. Letting it go would only lead it to Pushing dragging it back to me. Cold, slimey, and nowhere near wriggly enough. Most would have probably put it at a flat one out of ten; I gave it a five, if only because my mouth had sucked on at least three types of slime that tasted way worse than frog sweat. Such was the curse of being a bold and intrepid adventurer. The splashing had stopped by this point, though a few well placed clicks pinpointed Pushing as she headed towards a small flock of birds that had landed to pick for worms. She happily tried to chase them as they flew away, only to stop and try and light her horn with a few errant sparks. The inhibitor ring put a stop to that right quick, and she frowned up at it with big weapons grade eyes. “Mmnna! Mmnnaa!” Bringing a hoof up to pick at it, her futile struggles resulted in her circling in place and rolling in the grass, staining the pristine white coat she’d gotten from her father. “Mmnammammma!” Huffing in frustration, she finally stopped flailing about and pouted up the tree where the birds had retreated to. It just tore at my heartstrings to see her hold out a hoof and jump as if that would be enough. Surely a little break wouldn’t be that bad, would it? Peeking around, I fired a rapid series of clicks just to make sure no other witnesses were currently looking, and then I rose to go over to my frustrated little filly and hug her. “Hey, squirt. Come here. Let momma Mercy pop that ring right off for you. Just don’t go nuts, okay?” “Mmmmmmna!” With a shrill cry, Pushing hugged me back tight before looking straight back at the tree and furrowing her brow in concentration. “Babbna mahmna!” With a burbling battlecry, her horn sputtered to life, and with a pop it was a bird that was next to me and my daughter in the tree. I stared at the dazed little bird for a moment, then looked up to make sure that yes, that was in fact my daughter hanging on a now empty branch and gamely swinging her hooves at the birds that had scattered to the next tree over. Pop. Then she was in the next tree and the birds scattered again. “Mmmmna!” Pop. Pop. Pop. “Well, shit.” I sighed as it became clear she was lost in her little game. She kept popping farther and farther away and I had to move fast to keep up. “Pushing! Pushing, stop! You’re really pushing your luck right now, you hear me?” “Mmnaaaaaaaa!” She clearly didn’t as she belted her shrill little battle cry at the top of her lungs, a chain of things left in her wake as she kept using her father’s spell to chase after the birds. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t really run; she had magic on her side. Left, right, over, and under, the amount of aerial tricks I did to keep up with her and her prey was absurd. She didn’t fall—because she was my girl, and she was damn good to boot—but she could fall, and that thought left my stomach in all kinds of knots. Damn ring, this was all its fault. It had to be. She was all pent up with magic now. There’s no way she could swap this many times if I’d just left her ringless like I wanted. Annoying as the surges were, they were all she had to defend herself, and— And she just swapped with a bird mid-air! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! I zooped down and caught her—because I’m me, and I’m just that good—but the sheer audacity of my daughter knew no bounds as she giggled and nuzzled me the instant she was in my grip. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear she was cocking my own patent pending grin at me, but no, she was just burbling as innocent as always. “Haminamammina!” She purred and squeezed my neck before holding up a manically flapping bird in her telekinesis. “Yes, dear, that’s very cute.” My smile might have had a bit too much fang to it after that little heart attack, but inside I was more than hot and gooey with pride. “You should let it go now before you hurt it.” And before we got any more stares—not that I gave a rat’s ass what they thought, I just didn’t want word of this getting back to Mettle or Morning. “Mmnaa!” My progeny was less than pleased as I tried to nudge her terrified trophy out of her grip, pulling it closer and hugging it like a teddy bear. Rookie mistake, really, though I couldn’t blame her with her being less than a year old and all. As soon as it was in range, the bird gave her a good scratch and peck, and Pushing cried out, all but shoving the thing away. I snapped at it as it booked it and hissed, because now it deserved more than a good scare, but it nimbly dodged me and was on its way. My blood boiled at that, but Pushing was more important. She was sniffing and wailing and flailing with a passion, so I flew her back to our tree where my saddlebags were and got to work patching her up nice and good. She screamed bloody murder as I sprayed her cuts and washed them, but even as my ears splayed back I smiled. That smile grew as she suddenly stopped and stared at her cuts, probably shocked at how the spray made the pain just disappear. That, of course, merited her trying to lick it up, and I had to nudge her away from doing that, ’cause I knew just how nasty that stuff tasted from a similar first experience. “Probably won’t scar.” I hummed as I wound the bandage up. “But I’m counting this as a battle wound, and you know what that means!” From within the bag, I brandished my camera. “Bllrptffff— Hic!” Pushing threw up her hooves to mimic me as she blew a raspberry in response. It was interrupted mid blast by a hiccup, and she toppled backward from the force. “That’s right, kiddo! A photo!” I righted her and wrapped my foreleg around her, leaning in to take a shot of us both. “Saaaaaaaay ‘Hot dam!’” “Hiccup!” The camera flashed, Pushing’s horn flashed, and I was left with a very confused colt in my arms that was definitely not my daughter. “Mom!” Even as the poor colt opened his mouth to start crying for his parents, my ears had already locked onto the shrill screams of Pushing some fifty trots away. She was being held by an earth pony mare who was looking at her in bemusement, and then with another hiccup said mare was holding a half-eaten hoagie from somepony’s picnic. Off in a flash, I flew to her and shoved her own bundle of joy back into her arms, ignoring the beehive mane as it angrily loomed over me to threaten talking to my manager. Cocking my ears, I tracked Pushing’s cries, soon finding the picnic in question where she was bawling up a storm as she looked in just about every direction but mine. “Maminmi— Hic!” Just as she saw me and looked like she might settle down, she was gone again in a flash of light and replaced with a very confused squirrel staring up at the picnickers. “Hey! Hey, are you even listening?!” Nightmother above, the mare next to me just would not shut up. She even had the gall to grab me as I moved to go keep after Pushing. “Ma’am.” I stopped ever so briefly to bare my fangs at the high snooter next to me. “You don’t let me go and I will bite your hoof off. You got yours back already, so fuck off.” That got her to let go, if only for a moment, and I was off and past the picnic to follow the sound of hiccups and crying as it hopped about the park. “Thanks a lot!” The father of the family having the picnic angrily shook a hoof at me as I passed. “It took us three days to make that potato salad! Three days!” I barely paid him any heed as Pushing’s hiccups were already carrying my sweet, little girl away and into town. Booking it after her, I slowed down only to smile and wave at a very bemused pair of local guards as they stared after the trail of swapped items and disoriented ponies Pushing was leaving in her wake. They weren’t Dawn Guard, thankfully; it would be annoying to tangle with any purple fuzz. When the pair turned to start rapidly discussing how to catch my runaway baby, I was free to fly full speed again with them distracted. It was a bit strange that other than the Guard, the townsponies were shockingly blasé about the whole affair as I zoomed past them. There was the occasional sourpuss much like I’d run into in the park, but most ponies just kept going about their business or even laughed at the situation. One time I’d almost caught up with Pushing, only to crash into the table she’d been crying on a moment before. The waiter of the restaurant was nice enough to help me to my hooves, and only one patron was complaining about the new fly in their soup. The others just kept eating their swapped dishes like this was just another Tuesday—and to be fair, I’d seen some wacky shit and heard wackier stories since moving in—but it said a lot about Ponyville that they thought this was normal. They were my kind of ponies. Still, I tossed the waiter some bits as an apology, ate the offending soup fly, and was back on my way, following the trail of hiccups as they carved their way through town. My ears perked as the trail took a turn to the right ahead of me, and I took a risk trying to cut it off at the pass. A slight right had me coasting over storefronts to meet the stormfront that was pushing forward, and I finally managed to get ahead of my little darling just in time for her to pop into view atop a windowsill planter. She flailed about, half planted in dirt, and wailed loud enough for all of Canterlot to hear. “Pushing! Down here! Look down, now. Momma’s here!” I quickly rose to meet her. For a split-second, I didn’t think she’d heard, and then her sniffles settled slightly as she looked down. “Mamina?” Her eyes widened as she saw me, all snot and tears forgotten as she held out her hoof. “Momm— Hic!” And she was gone again. Just as I’d gotten ahold of her hoof… At least I knew where she ended up. As Pushing’s wail of despair ramped back up, it was matched by the shrill, panicked shriek of a fashionista who had just lost her designer saddlebags and was now wearing a filthy, dirt-covered unicorn on her back. “Rarity, quick! Her horn! Accessorize it!” I acted on instinct, turning to toss the magic suppression ring in their direction. I had a glimpse of Pushing lighting her horn for a panicked swap, and Rarity—Nightmother bless her soul—had the presence of mind to short out Pushing’s spell mid-freakout. She lit her horn for a quick, little dispel, and she caught the ring in her telekinesis to fit it snugly in place before another hiccup could carry Pushing away. All of this, of course, happened as the fashionista wailed like a banshee over the dirt, tears, and snot smudging up her coat, because prissy noble-wannabe or not, that mare was a hero, an Element, and far more deserving of a title than upstarts like me or ‘daddy dead-to-me.’ She had instincts, and damn good ones, too.  “Thanks for that, Rarity.” I panted and stumbled a bit as I landed, moving to take Pushing as quickly as possible so the mare could start casting every conceivable cleanliness charm she knew as a quick fix until she could get to a shower. “No problem at all, dear.” Without a little ball of filth clinging to her, she was remarkably quick to regain composure, tossing her mane back and giving a giggle that was only partly forced. “Don’t tell me.” She fluttered her lashes. “You snuck off the ring again and something unexpected happened.” “Hiccups.” I briefly glowered as the offending noise made its presence known once more. Poor Pushing was so tuckered out now that she was back in my hooves that she could barely sniffle as I rubbed her back and burped her to rid us of the menace. “Ah.” Rarity nodded and gestured for us to walk with her. “I remember a similar issue with Elusive, though his surges were always more… flashy than dangerous. Come along, then. Let’s get you two cleaned up.” I hesitated a moment before following. “Are you going to tell on me?” “Moi? Do you really think so little of me, darling?” Rarity looked over and tilted her head. “I know why you prefer her ringless. Plenty of unicorns, including myself, feel the same.” She stopped and leaned in for a brief hug. “She might be more of a hoofful than most, but as long as you can handle it… Most of the time, any trouble her surges get her into those same surges will get her out of. The rings are mostly made for non-unicorn families that don’t wish to deal with the headaches.” “So you get it, then?” I blinked. “But this is your ring.” “There are always exceptions.” Rarity backed up and shrugged before returning to slowly sauntering home. “My parents tried a lot before they got the ring, but well… I may not be the strongest unicorn, but I’m sure you’ve noticed just how many things I can levitate?” “I may have. Yeah.” I was actually surprised there wasn’t a block long parade of shopping bags following us right now, knowing her. She only had seven— no, eight bags floating around. Rarity giggled as she saw me eye her haul, briefly twirling and making the bags bob and weave. “Well, telekinesis is good at a lot of things. I could pick locks, I could pry nails out of boards, really, there wasn’t much they could do to stop me other than magical castration; my horn kept dragging me out of bed in the middle of the night to find geodes.” “You can pick locks?” I arched a brow at her. “Damn, girl.” “My horn could pick locks, not me.” With a titter, Rarity stepped forward as we arrived at Carousel Boutique and pulled out her keys from her saddle bag. “Surges let unicorns do a lot.” “Mmmm… so the swapping might only be temporary?” I turned back to look at Pushing, curled up and asleep on my back. “Indeed.” Walking us inside, Rarity was quick to put her bags down. “You have it worse than most with her swapping about, but you would be amazed at the chaos even unicorns with more ordinary parents get up to. My mother comes from a long line of homebodies, and, well, my grandmother used to tell me all sorts of stories about her. Gingerbread revolutions, multiplying brussel sprouts, I could go on and on. Trust me, it’s not just your dear, little Daisy. You just happen to be in the unfortunate spot of having to consider whether or not your daughter needs a ring whether you want it or not.” “Mom?” Little Elusive meekly poked his head in as we started down the hall. His foalsitter followed, and I hissed on seeing the Pink one. She giggled and waved manically at me, exchanging a few words with Rarity and mentioning something about an ‘eye flutter, knee twitch, frog hop combo’ before she pronked on out the door. “Why, hello, darling~” Bending down to hug her son as he crept forward, Rarity bent down to be at eye level with him. “I know I promised to have fun with you when I got back, but I ran into my friend Mercy here on the way home and she needs a bit of help. Do you mind if I help her first then come play with you?” Elusive’s ears drooped, but he nodded and ran off to his room. So well-behaved just like Night had been, I didn’t know whether to be jealous or worried for the lad. I guess as long as he wasn’t guarding the cookies instead of stealing them…. “There. That gives us some time.” Rarity smiled as she stood up. “I must say, though, hissing at Pinkie, really?~ I thought you liked her.” “It’s a mixed bag,” I grumbled as we stepped into the kitchen. “She has no off button when it comes to her mouth, and I don’t mean that in a good way.” “You’re far too paranoid. I’m sure as far as she knows, you both just played to your heart’s content in the park.” There was a squeak from off in the kitchen as Rarity lit her horn, and the sound of running water drifted in from further in the house. A wet towel and soap soon followed, and I gingerly lifted Pushing so we could gently sponge her down as she slept. And yes, Pushing was that tired. She did try to grab at me with a sleepy yawn as we pulled her off, but as soon as she saw I wasn’t going anywhere, she was back to sleep as Rarity and I both dabbed her. “So…” Rarity hummed. “Tea? Coffee? A shot of whiskey as usual?” “You know me so well.” I sighed and shook my head. “Just one shot and a pinch of salt if you got it. I’m going home soon enough.” “Mmmm… fair enough. You are welcome to stay a bit, you know.” Narrowing her gaze upon Pushing, she scrutinized the filly’s foreleg for any more signs of dirt before moving on. The shot was poured and the salt was gathered without her even looking, and I downed both lightning fast. Barely resisting the urge to slam the glass down on the table, I sighed in satisfaction at the burn. “No, I know you’re busy, and I don’t want to get in the way of your time with Elusive. Thanks for the offer, though.” I brooded a bit in silence as we kept cleaning Pushing. Rarity didn’t needle me, but she did pour me another shot, which I took despite my earlier insistence on only one. The company was nice; the lack of judgment was nicer. “Do you…” I bit my lip. “…think I should tell them what happened?” “Things will certainly be more dramatic if you don’t and they find out.” The sink turned off as we finished and Rarity levitated the towels out. “Everypony appreciates honesty, dear.” Ears drooping, I looked away. “But… if I tell them, I just know I’m gonna get that look from Night. Tempered and Morning aren’t so bad, but sweet milk of Luna, Night has a whole, bucking sycamore trunk up her ass. She makes me feel worse than my own parents ever did about breaking the rules.” “They are the rules, darling.” “Yeah, and Pushing is my foal.” With a growl, I bared my fangs. “I came to Ponyville because I wanted help from Mettle and Morning, not Night. Don’t get me wrong, I love the pipsqueak to death, but she’s just so…” Head falling slowly, I sighed. “She used to look up to me just like she did her Dad, Rarity. I miss that.” Patting me on the back, Rarity’s smile fell. “Well, things aren’t likely to get any better with that as long as you’re chasing after her parents.” “So what? I’m not allowed to be happy, then? For Luna’s sake, Rarity, Morning is more understanding than she is—you’re more understanding!” As Pushing stirred in her sleep, I tried to cut my hissing even further down. “It just… hurts. It’s like she doesn’t love me any more.” I sighed and sank to my haunches. Rarity tutted at that and snapped her tail like a whip against my rump. “Now, now. I shan’t be having any of that in my house. She is merely having a hard time adapting to the situation—just like you. I’m sure if you give it enough time, you’ll both find your peace.” “You really think so?” I frowned and half heartedly scowled up. She tittered back and fluttered her eyes like mad. “I know so. Your life is a trashy romance novel, Mercy, and those don’t have unhappy endings~ Even if things with Mettle and Morning don’t work out, I just know your bonds with them and the foals are too strong to break.” “You and your romance novels. Fine, I’ll tell everypony at dinner.” I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Life isn’t one of your books, though, Rarity. Not everypony gets a happy ending.” “You’d be surprised~” With a laugh as bright and blinding as the sun, Rarity beamed with all the intensity of the cursed orb itself. “I’ll hook you up with Princess Cadance sometime. We can all have tea and coffee as she tells you a few of her more interesting ‘stories,’ my own included.”