//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: An Early Start // Story: Anything For His Children // by Dolphy Blue Drake //------------------------------// The next morning, Carson sat up in bed while the sky was still dark, feeling fully-rested.  He checked his watch, which read six AM.  He reached out to Alissa to gently wake her up because their children would need both of their parents to keep preparations organized.  However, Alissa stirred before his hand reached her, and she sat up in bed. “Good morning, Carson,” Alissa said with a yawn.  “How did you sleep last night?” “Wonderfully,” Carson replied before drawing his wife into an embrace.  “Did you sleep well, too?” “Indeed I did,” Alissa said with a nod.  “Knowing the servants, they’ll probably have tried to make breakfast as fancy as possible with the little we’ve got.  Our children try so hard to spoil us,” she finished with a giggle. “Well, you remember what happened when I tried to stop them from doing that,” Carson chuckled before doing his best ‘fancy butler’ impression:  “‘Oh, no, sir!  How could we possibly treat you like anything less than royalty?  You fathered our entire race!’  Geez,” he remarked, dropping the fake attitude and accent, “I don’t want to go through that again.” Alissa kissed Carson lightly before pulling back and giggling again.  “We’d better not keep them waiting.  We’ll need to eat, and we have a big day ahead of us.” “Right,” Carson said with a nod.  “Today, we’ll be getting ready to attack the nearest town.  If we can prepare fast enough, we might be able to get moving before nightfall.” “Knowing how industrious our people are, I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Alissa responded with a smile.  “Now, let’s have our first breakfast as a nuclear family, shall we?” “Agreed,” Carson said with a nod.  “Having breakfast with my own personal child is something I’ve waited years for.” About fifteen minutes later, Carson and Alissa entered the palace’s private dining room to find their new personal daughter already waiting for them. “Mom!  Dad!” Emily exclaimed as she got up from the table to hug the two of them.  “I’m so happy to see you!” The Prime Parents hugged their daughter close as the three embraced in a group hug. “I like the dress you chose, Emily,” Alissa complimented.  “I must say, you pull off green rather well.  It matches your eyes.” “Thanks, Mom!” Emily chirped as the three separated and took up positions at the table.  Carson sat at the head, his wife sat to his right and Emily sat on his left.  “What’s for breakfast?” “Last night, I told the staff to have pancakes ready for us,” Carson replied.  “We don’t know what you like eating yet, but we should find out soon.” Without even being called for, two serving boys and a kitchen maid walked into the dining room from the door to the kitchens, pushing a cart trolley piled high with pancakes.  The servants wordlessly set three plates on the table, two full of pancakes for the parents, but Emily’s was empty.  They put the other fixings on the table, then looked to Emily, as if expecting her to say something. “Um, can I help you?” Emily asked one of the servers, causing the young man to stare at her as if she’d grown a second head (without the aid of superpowers, of course.  That wouldn’t actually be that strange.  Just unnerving).  Turning to her parents, Emily asked, “why is he staring at me?  Does he have a crush or something?” The server’s face turned pale, but Carson and Alissa just started laughing, Carson patting Emily on the back, causing her to crack a smile. “No, Emily,” Alissa giggled.  “They were expecting you to tell them how many pancakes you wanted.  They already know our preferences by heart, but not yours.  You’re new, of course.” “Why didn’t they just ask, then?” Emily queried.  The servants’ eyes widened in shock, and the Prime Parents started laughing harder. “You see,” Carson managed between chuckles, “they seem to think they can only speak to the Prime Family if their task absolutely requires it, which your mother and I find silly.” “Well, I have a task for every servant in this building, then,” Emily announced.  “Don’t act like mutes around me.  I don’t want to feel like I’m surrounded by mimes.” Her parents laughed even harder, and the three servants in the room stared in shock. “Well, you have your task, and it requires you to speak,” Emily said with a cheeky grin.  “So, what are you going to say?” “Prime Daughter Emily, we can’t do that!” the other serving boy blurted out.  “It goes against—” “I’m not some sort of goddess, you moron!” Emily shot back.  “If you need orders to treat me like a person instead of a living ‘quiet zone’, then you have those orders, and they’re permanent.  Physically, I’m the same age as the three of you!  I want friends, not walking statues!” “But the Housekeeper and Palace Steward both said—” the maid tried to protest. “I don’t care what they said!” Emily huffed.  “I think I outrank them!  So, I’m ordering everyone to not think their status means they have to be mute around me!  If I ask you a question, you answer it.  If I try to strike up conversation with you, you talk to me like any other person.  It’s not above your station to speak to me, and don’t ever forget that.  Understand?” “Yes, Ma’am,” the three sighed in unison. “Much better,” Emily said, nodding in approval.  “Now, just give me one pancake at a time.  When I want more, I’ll let you know.  I’m not going to throw out a random number.  We’re going to figure this out my way.” The servants sighed in defeat, and the server who first stared at her served one pancake onto her plate. “Thank you,” Emily said as she reached for the powdered sugar and maple syrup.  When she received no verbal reply, she paused and looked the boy in the eye and waited. “Y-You’re welcome, Ma’am,” the boy stuttered, eliciting a giggle from Emily. “That’s better,” Emily said with another nod.  “I think I’ll order the Head Chef to give you some time off this afternoon.  I’d like to get to know you more.  Tell me, what’s your name?” The boy’s face paled again and his eyes widened even more than before as he waved his hands frantically.  “M-ma’am, th-that’s—” “I just asked for your name,” Emily said with the sweetest smile the boy had ever seen.  “Just tell me, okay?  I’m giving you the afternoon off, and that’s final.  If you don’t want to spend it with me, fine.  But I still need to tell the Head Chef, and for that, I need your name.  Or do you want me to start calling you ‘Dreamboat’ every time I mention you?” The boy’s face turned red as a brick as he shook his head so fast it looked like he’d break his neck.  “No Ma’am!  Please don’t call me that!  My name’s Matthew Brown!” “I think I’ll call you ‘Matt’, then,” Emily mused before finally biting into her food. “And from now on, you are to just call me ‘Emily’. No titles or any of that garbage. Just ‘Emily’ will do from now on, Matt.” The boy gulped, and breakfast continued with a lot less excitement after that. In the end, Emily ate seven pancakes, and Carson reminded the servants to not throw the leftover food away, saying that it would save resources and energy to just store it for the next day’s breakfast. After breakfast, Carson left his wife and daughter to spend more time in his study to think about all the events that led up to what brought them to this world. After locking the door, Carson pulled out his journal again and went over some more entries from his youth. One day near the end of Carson’s fifth grade school year, he was suddenly grabbed and dragged behind a hedge on his way home from school.  The meanest bully in the class was leering at him, looking down at him from almost two feet above Carson’s own head. “Hey, freak,” the bully sneered, slamming Carson into a fence with immense force.  “You’re toast now.  I just got my blue belt in karate.  That’s Fifth Kyu.  You’re so dead!  I’ll beat you to a pulp!” The bully started to deliver a series of martial arts techniques Carson didn’t know the names of, tossing him around like a rag doll.  For a few minutes that felt like an eternity, all he knew was the mounting pain.  It grew worse and worse until— Carson blinked when he realized he had twisted his assailant’s wrist and used his own weight against him. “How’d you do that?” his attacker gasped. “The only thing you’ve got is those stupid light shows, and I made sure to be too close for you to do that!” Carson didn’t answer as he suddenly felt a lot smarter in how to fight.  Billions of different hand-to-hand techniques flooded his mind, as well as the knowledge of how to apply them to this conflict. The bully jumped into the air to perform a dive-kick, but Carson caught him by the ankle and applied a small upwards shove to ruin his opponent’s trajectory before following up with an uppercut to the jaw. “You FREAK!” the bully screamed as he started throwing punches at Carson, who simply sidestepped every single one with ease before grabbing his assailant’s wrist and pulling down to change his trajectory to a downwards arc, causing him to punch the ground. Not missing a beat, Carson kept up the momentum and stepped on the bully’s head, using him as a means to jump higher before twisting in the air to fall and slam his right shoulder into the bully’s skull.  HARD.  The blow hurt both of them, but the bully was knocked out while Carson only got a sore shoulder from it. Panting from the exertion, Carson doubled over to catch his breath before hurrying the rest of the way home to study for the test his teacher had said to prepare for. With a sigh, Carson checked his watch.  It read eight forty-five AM, and by looking out his window, he saw that the sun was up and Neuanfänge was already bustling with activity.  Dawn had broken, so it was time to get to work overseeing preparations.  They were either going to set out by nightfall that day or sunrise the next, so they’d need to prepare quickly. Carson left his study after putting his journal away, took the five minute walk to the palace gates, and stepped outside.  It was time to set everything in motion.  This world would belong to his children, even if it cost him his life. In Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle was packing her saddlebags with notebooks and writing implements, as well as anything else she could think of for studying a new creature.  Celestia had said that they were going to capture one to study it, so anything she could think of that would fit, she packed. Just as Twilight was going over her checklist for the fifth time to make sure she hadn’t missed a single detail, a knock came to the door to the library. “Spike?  Could you get that?” Twilight called over her shoulder before returning to her preparations. “Sure thing, Twilight!” Spike called back.  Half a minute later, he called back, “they’re all here, Twilight!” “Great!  I’ll be right there!” Twilight called back, and after focusing magic into her horn, she teleported both herself and her saddlebags to the main room to greet her friends. “Glad you all could make it, girls,” Twilight said as the five mares filed into the library.  “Even though this trip will involve a new species, I want to get this done quickly.” “I think we all do, darling,” Rarity said with a nod.  “Whatever those things are, they sound like complete brutes, and I’d rather be away from them as soon as possible.” The others nodded in agreement, and the six started to discuss strategies for dealing with those creatures.  Before they knew it, the clock struck nine, and the Princess of the Sun herself teleported into the library. “I wish we could exchange pleasantries, but we really must get going,” Celestia said firmly before anypony could say anything.  “I trust you are all prepared?” After all six mares nodded, Celestia teleported them to Appaloosa in a flash. In Appaloosa, they could already see the damage:  there were four large holes in the ground where apple trees had been.  Off in the distance, they could barely make out what appeared to be tall spires in the wasteland that glinted in the sunlight, piercing the cloud level and rising to a height that resembled mountains. “Princess, what’s that?” Twilight asked, pointing to the collection of spires. “I don’t know,” Celestia replied grimly.  “That shouldn’t be there.  But I felt a very strong energy coming from that direction yesterday morning, and I think those creatures may be associated with it.  Be careful.” The sky seemed to be shifting in the distance, but all of them wrote it off as a trick of the eye.  All but Rainbow Dash, that is. “Everypony, look!” she exclaimed, seemingly pointing at nothing.  “Something’s blended into the sky and it’s headed this way!” The others squinted to get a better look, and, sure enough, twelve dots the same color as the sky flew past a cloud, rendering them temporarily visible before they blended into the sky again. “Everypony, keep your guard up,” Celestia commanded.  “I think those are the creatures you told me about, Twilight.  They might have something akin to chameleon abilities.  Stay on your hooves, everypony!” After a couple minutes, they heard what sounded like whispering voices coming from behind a house, and before anypony could put a strategy into motion, Rainbow decided for the head-on approach and just flew around the house in a prismatic blur. “Shoot!  We didn’t get a chance to scout at all!” a voice cried out from behind the house.  The rest of the group galloped after Rainbow, turned the corner… …And saw some of the strangest creatures they’d ever seen.  They sort of resembled the beings Twilight had encountered on the other side of the mirror a week ago, but they were all a sky blue color.  Their clothes, hair, skin…  Everything was sky blue except for their eyes.  That, and they all possessed massive bat-like wings. “What do we do, Patrick?” a very young female voice asked.    “Do we fight like last time?” “We were sent as scouts, but looks like the war starts early,” a male voice replied as the creatures’ wings seemed to just evaporate into the air. “Everybody, take fighting positions!” The twelve creatures of varying sizes all took fighting stances as color bled into their appearances.  Six wore shirts and pants, marking them as males, while the other six wore dresses, marking them as females.  One male and one female were each less than three feet tall, marking them as very young. “How did humans get here?” Twilight gasped.  “And why didn’t you turn into ponies?” “For your second question, I have no effing idea what you’re talking about,” the male who had been addressed as ‘Patrick’ answered.  “And as for your first, we’re not humans.  We’re neo humans!  Everyone!  Let’s make Father and Mother proud!  For Neuanfänge!” The other “neo humans” cheered and raised their hands, which started to glow white. “Eat magic, jerks!” the young male squeaked before magic attacks of all kinds started erupting from their hands. Celestia conjured a shield, and the attacks were all absorbed harmlessly. “Everyone!  Wave-motion bursts on one point!” Patrick commanded.  “Follow my lead!” He launched a massive burst of energy at the center of the shield, which was absorbed, but the others followed his lead and attacked the same point with more beams of destruction.  They kept up the assault for several minutes, but neither side made any progress.  Blast after blast hit the shield, but the only thing the neo humans got for their efforts were a few beads of sweat on Celestia’s brow.  As for the neo humans themselves, the more matured ones seemed to be holding up just fine, but the two very young ones were starting to pant for breath. “Sofie!  Edgar!  Stand down!” The leader ordered.  “There’s a graveyard three blocks away!  Sneak over there and recharge!” “Yes, Pat!” the two children replied before suddenly blending in with the shadows and disappearing. “Drop the shield!” the leader barked.  “Drop it and go home!” “Surrender!” Celestia countered, starting to sweat more.  “You have committed crimes against Equestrian law by stealing from this town!” “That’s your problem, not ours!” the young man shot back.  “Had we obeyed your precious laws, our people would’ve starved!  What’s four apple trees more or less?  For us, that’s enough to feed thousands in a day!  For you, that’s a slight loss of income!  Life or money?  Which one’s really more important?” “You could’ve just asked—” Celestia began before one of the females cut her off. “And be treated like freaks and monsters again? Fat chance! We’re done begging people to let us live when all they want is for us to die because we’re ‘creepy, scary freaks’! We won’t risk it again! By the orders of Esteemed Patriarch Carson Stewart, we will conquer this planet to ensure fair treatment! Father wants us to be treated fairly, and he’ll do anything to make sure he gets that for us!” Before Celestia could reply, she gasped as her knees buckled under the strain to keep the shield up as the enemy redoubled their efforts.  They’d been holding back! “Everyone! Exercise dark lighting control!” Patrick barked. “Striking with full magic power and black lighting should crack that shield like an egg! Fuse the black lighting into the wave-motion blasts!” The others nodded, and the blasts changed from white to a mixture of black and yellow, crackling with electricity and emitting a sinister aura. The enhanced blasts started to put crack after crack in Celestia’s shield, until it suddenly shattered, sending the Solar Princess to her knees.  However, as soon as Celestia fell, Rainbow zipped up to the leader and slammed into him before throwing him into the air to fall flat on his back with a resounding “CRACK”. The other neo humans looked on in horror at their fallen leader, and Applejack readied her lasso in case any of them tried to fight back further.  But what none of them expected was for the leader himself to get back to his feet like some kind of marionette. “So, you broke my back,” he chuckled.  “Too bad we can still fight while paralyzed.  Everyone!  We’ll fix my back later!  Time for our strength manipulation!  Make them so weak a feather feels like a mountain!  While we’re at it, let’s give them the treatment the blue one gave me!  Power up to have the strength to shatter mountains!” The ponies all suddenly found themselves unable to support their own weights and fell to the ground.  Applejack couldn’t keep her lasso in her mouth, for even it felt too heavy!  Dash couldn’t stay airborne, so she fell to the ground like a rock. “Too bad,” Patrick chuckled as he walked closer to Rainbow Dash.  “What goes around comes around.  Now die!” Patrick raised his fist, but suddenly froze when Fluttershy managed to fix him with The Stare. “My puppetry isn’t enough to counter double paralysis!” Patrick forced out through clenched teeth.  “Guys!  Help!” Unfortunately for the neo humans, Patrick was the one who was keeping Applejack’s strength down, and with him out of commission, his hold over her broke, and she sprang to her hooves and tackled one of the other neo humans, knocking her to the ground, allowing Twilight to get back to her hooves. One by one, the hold on each of the ponies was broken, and the last two remaining neo humans found themselves outnumbered. “Crap!  What do we do now?” the male asked, panic filling his voice. “Umbra-Electroportation!  It’s our only chance!” the female replied, equally panicked. “We’re just going to turn into black lightning and matter-surf home like cowards?” the male demanded. “No,” the female shot back.  “We’re bringing the others with us, so it’s a rescue.  I can’t get a bead on Sofie and Edgar, though.  I hope they get back home safe.” “Fine. Let’s get out of here!” the male grumbled as the two of them suddenly phased out into balls of black-yellow electricity, absorbed their fallen comrades into themselves, and then vanished with a crack of thunder. “What brutes!” Rarity huffed.   “Those creatures were completely unrefined!” “They’re a bunch of meanies!” Pinkie agreed angrily.  “If I wasn’t a nice pony, I’d find a way to turn them into cupcakes!” “Ah don’ think Ah’d go that far, Sugarcube,” Applejack cut in, rolling her eyes.  “But those varmints need to be taught a lesson!” “Wait, didn’t they say that the two young ones were still here?” Fluttershy spoke up timidly.  “Maybe we could try to talk to them and get some answers.  They can’t all be bad.  Especially not those two.  They’re too young.” “I think you have a good point there, Fluttershy,” Twilight acknowledged as Celestia nodded in agreement.  “I think they were told to head for the graveyard for some reason, so we could try to catch them there.” “I’ll scout ahead,” Rainbow offered before zipping towards the graveyard a few blocks away. In seconds, the two children from before came running their way, being chased by Rainbow Dash. “Leave us alone!” the girl cried as the boy looked over his shoulder, raised a hand, and shot a stream of black fire at Rainbow, who dodged the attack, which shot up into the sky until it hit a cloud that somehow burst into flames before being incinerated into nothing, The children stopped short when they found themselves trapped between Rainbow Dash and the other ponies. “Edgar!  Everyone else is gone!” the girl squeaked.  “We gotta escape!  Can you Electroport?” “No Sofie!” the boy answered, his voice laden with fear.  “You’ll have to carry me along!” “Okay!  Let’s go!” the girl said before doing the same thing the older ones had.  But before she could absorb the boy, Celestia caught him in her magical grip and surrounded him with a very sturdy magic bubble. “Edgar!” the girl’s voice cried out from the ball of electricity. “Sofie!  Just go!  Tell the family what happened to me!” the boy shouted.  “If you don’t go, they’ll get you, too!  RUN!” The black-yellow ball pulsed for a second and then disappeared just like the others had. Though all but one had gotten away, the fact that they’d captured one of these incredibly-powerful beings left the ponies at a loss for words.  Turning to Twilight, Applejack asked the question that was burning in everypony’s minds: “What’re we gonna do with him, Sugarcube?”