//------------------------------//
// Meetings 
// Story: Defective Family 
// by Lupus 
//------------------------------//

								CHAPTER 2

"You seem troubled," the horse said as I rejoined him in the pod room.
I chuckled and rubbed the back of my neck, "That obvious, huh?"
"If you're worried about the ponies, don't be. Their magic will return to them eventually."
I tilted my head in confusion, "How do you know that?" I asked.
The horse tuned away from the pod to look at me, "Haven't you noticed?" he asked. When I gave him no response he gestured to the unconscious ponies around my pod. I moved closer to them, noticing that their bodies would twitch every now and then. Then I felt it. It was the tiniest little sliver, but it was there and slowly  growing. Magic was reforming inside each of the ponies.
"Feel better?"
I smiled, "A little."
"Good, cause I just finished here," The pod near the horse let out a faint hissing sound before the door opened. I returned  to the horse's side as he backed away from the pod, and the door swung outward of its own accord. I had expected to see another creature like myself or the horse. What fell out of the pod instead was a large spherical glass container. Inside, all coiled up, was a large black snake.
"Open it," the horse said pointing to a cork embedded into the side of the container.
"And you can't do it because...?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
The horse stared at me flatly before raising one of his hooves.
"That didn't seem to stop you from typing up a storm back there," I mumbled before gripping the cork. The snake, who had opened his eyes at the sound of our voices, watched me with yellow eyes. The cork popped free after a few tugs and after hesitating for a moment, the snake slithered free from his glass prison. Uncoiled, the snake was about two feet bigger than the horse lengthwise, and it's body was thicker than my arms together. Like myself and the horse,I could sense no magic in him.
The snake analyzed the horse before fixing its gaze on me, "Hi!" I greeted it cheerfully.
It remained silent and tasted the air before turning his head to the ceiling. The horse and I followed his example, and I knew that we were all sensing it. The ponies were scrambling around, and moving to a single point. That didn't sit to well with me or my companions. 
The horse spoke without taking his eyes away from the ceiling, "Monkey," that wasn't my name but at the time I was too distracted to tell him so, "go and open the pod next to yours, and I'll take the last one," he looked to the snake, "And you," the snake returned the horse's gaze, "go keep watch outside. We don't want to be trapped in here with our backs to the wall." The snake nodded and slithered out of the pod room and into the hall.
"You think he's staying quiet on purpose?" I asked before running to the console next to the closed pod. My hands flew across the keys, and images began to appear on the screen above. How am I doing this?, I thought to myself. I paused briefly to study the images that appeared. They showed a front and side view of a creature with a similar body type to mine. Except its arms to the shoulders, and torso down to the legs were covered in feathers. It's face was flat, save for a longer beak-like nose, and its feet were three digit claws.
"I have a question," the horse said from the other side of the room.
"Shoot," I replied.
"Why were you so concerned about the ponies?" Aside from the sounds of out typing, there was silence in the room. The horse continued, "They were the ones who put us in the dark, who preformed the 'tests'..."
"I KNOW! I know, but...the way that mare looked at me,"  I paused again as the memory returned to me. I shook my head in an attempt to purge the memory, and resumed typing. "I should want revenge for what they did. I should want to make them suffer for what they put us all through. Could anyone really blame us if we did? But..."  I shook my head, "I'm not a monster," I smiled, "I'm a monkey!"
I heard the horse chuckle, and smoke hissed out of the pod next to me. I moved in front of the pod, intending to catch the bird creature as it fell out. Instead what I saw when the door fully opened was two very normal looking, albeit very large birds. They looked identical except one's feather's were red while the other's were blue. 
I was only able to take in their details for a second before they both fell on top of me. For birds, they were surprisingly heavy, and I collapsed under their weight. I struggled underneath them for a few moments before turning to the horse. Either he didn't hear the sounds of my bones being crushed,or he didn't care (the jerk) but he was still typing away. "H-help," I struggled to say.
"Busy," was the only response I got.
"Can't...breathe..."
I could have sworn that as I was blacking out that I saw a bright light. The birds both opened their eyes and, seeing me turning blue, they gasped and jumped off me allowing me to once again take in sweet sweet oxygen.
"Oh no," one said.
"Are you okay?" asked the other. Their voices were higher pitched than mine or the horse's, so I assumed that the were female.
Coughing, I shakily stood and said, "I'm...I'm fine." The birds stood at my height.
The birds gasped, "Your voice!" the red bird exclaimed.
"We know it!" said the blue bird.
"We heard you."
"In the dark, we heard you."
"Heard you screaming."
"We heard others, too"
"You were in so much pain."
"They were in so much pain."
"And...us too."
They looked at each other, "There was nothing we could do."
"We were helpless."
"Weak."
"Vulnerable."
The birds looked to be on the verge of tears, and for some reason the sight nearly tore my heart in two. I raised my hands in a comforting gesture, "Whoa, whoa calm down you two," they looked to me and I placed my hands on their backs. "It's alright, WE'RE alright. No more darkness and no more pain, I promise." They both smiled at me and nodded.  
The snake chose that moment to slither back into the room. He raised his head to look at each of us and said, "They're here. A lot of them."
I suppressed a sigh and turned back to the birds, "Well,maybe a little more pain but  you won't be helpless. Hey horse,"
The horse stamped his hooves against the ground, "This one is being stubborn! Sorry, but I'm going to need more time with this. Can you four handle it?"
The birds flared their wings, "We can do it!"
"We'll protect you!"
The snake nodded in agreement and I said, "Fine, just don't take too long. I think the snake might drain all the ponies before the new guy gets a chance,"  The snake hissed at me indignantly, but then he tried his best at what I assumed was a shrug. It was hard to tell considering he had no shoulders. I smiled and led the three out of the pod room.
The pod room was the last at the end of a long hallway. The unicorn I had drained earlier was still unconscious, but as we ran by I could sense her magic returning to her. We ran past many doors, most were broken or bent, and one had rubble pouring out of it as if the room had collapsed in on itself. Eventually we came upon a set of large doors. Why ponies would need doors this large was beyond me.
I could sense a large group of ponies just behind the doors, but it was hard to tell exactly how many there were. With so many grouped together, it just felt like one inconsistent mass of magic. I turned to my companions and asked, "You three know what to do, right?"
"Ssstall," the snake said. 
"Drain them," said the red bird.
"Drain them all," said the blue bird.
I nodded and said, "Right, we need to give the horse time to wake up the last one. Then we can all get out of wherever this place is. With so many ponies around you shouldn't waste any time draining a single one dry. Keep on the move, and don't worry about the ponies with horns. They can't harm us."
"Directly," the snake added.
"Well, yeah, if they're carrying weapons or something then obviously..."
The birds chirped impatiently, "Can we go please?"
"We are getting really anxious!"
I raised my hands in defense, "Okay, okay," taking a deep breath, I laid my hands on the doors. "Get ready," The birds jumped and began hovering, and the snake looked like he was ready to pounce. I pushed the doors open with all my might, and we jumped in.  We found ourselves in a large room with a very high ceiling. Doors lined the walls, other than that the room was empty. Except for the hundreds (at least that's what it seemed to me) of ponies in armor who seemed as surprised by our entrance as we were by their numbers.
I leaned in to the snake and said, "I thought you just said there were a lot of them. Now, when I think 'a lot' I'm thinking of maybe twenty or thirty, not an entire freakin' ARMY!" the snake did his weird shoulderless shrug thing. "Okay revised plan. Don't die, agreed?"
They didn't have time to respond as a voice cried out form among the ponies, "KILL THEM!" the army charged.
And so did we.

Princess Celestia was finally returning to Canterlot after an exhausting diplomatic visit to the griffon kingdom of Asgard. Now,she loved the gryphon king Volstagg dearly. It was, after all, thanks to their collaborative efforts that the ponies and gryphons enjoyed peaceful relations. However being in Volstagg's company for an extended period could really test Celestia's near infinite patience.
She suppressed a sigh before letting her mind wander to her tasks she needed to complete when she reached the castle. But before that, I believe I've earned a nice bath, she thought to herself chuckling slightly. 
"Canterlot castle is in sight, Your Highness," one of her pegasi guards reported. Celestia looked up and smiled at the sight of he home.