First Base
Being six years old and surrounded by older ponies all of whom had somepony they loved… it was grating. Don’t try to defend the feeling of love, I’m well aware of how important it is… now, but back then I was at the age where fillies were either annoying or scary… with a couple exceptions (I‘ll go into details later). I was starting to get a headache from how much lovey talk you could hear (or at least I interpreted) from Soarin and Rainbow Dash, and all the girl talk that Ironsparks somehow put up with every day between Princesses Twilight and Cadance, when all of a sudden I heard a knock at the door. I opened it up to see a colt, an earthling so high in politics that I could tell just standing here that he was important.
“Can I help you Mr.…?”
“Gateway, Councilor Inferno Gateway,” he studied me for a moment. “So this… Base… as a foal,” he said something in a whisper, but I couldn’t hear a lot of it.
“What was that, Mr. Gateway?”
“Inferno, please,” He corrected. “And it’s nothing important. May I come in?” he was being very polite and kind… but I could swear I heard him say “Uncle Base” in that whisper to himself. I let him in because he was obviously very important. The robes and rope belt gave that much away.
“So… what’s a Councilor?” I asked. Inferno looked at me with a smile.
“The Council of Seven is in charge of managing Religion and offering ideas for political actions to Princess Celestia,” he explained. “Any of the seven ponies on the Council is called a Councilor, with the Exception of High Councilor Mary Mjiolnir. Basically, I make up the laws and take care of Equestria’s religion.”
“Doesn't Princess Celestia make the Laws?” I asked. Inferno laughed.
“No, the Council does, whether or not they become actual laws, that’s up to Princess Celestia,” six year old me was having trouble understanding this. “You’ll learn about it in school soon enough. May I ask where Princess Twilight is?”
“I can take you to her if you want,” I said. He looked shocked for a moment, then smiled like he had a happy memory of someone he lost.
“I’d like that, thank you.” It took me that long to realize I hadn’t introduced myself.
“I’m, uh-”
“First Base… I am aware.” That was strange, he didn’t-couldn’t-even use magic. Along the trip through the hallway to Twilight’s room, I just thought about how convenient it was that he knew me. We reached Twilight’s room, where Ironsparks was just about to leave, but he looked back just to tell them that they had company. Cadance looked at Inferno and stood up.
“Councilor Gateway! I’m sorry, I forgot-“
“Princess Cadance, I forgot you were here,” he said.
“-To inform the council that I was here,” Cadance finished. Okay this was getting scary.
“Where are Flash Sentry and Shining Armor?” Inferno asked. “There’s something I need to tell you... five.” He said that last word looking at me.
“I’m afraid they aren’t in at the moment. Can you just tell the two of us and wait ‘til Flash and my brother get back to tell them, Councilor?” Twilight asked.
“Inferno, please,” he said. “And I’m afraid the only pony I trust with this kind of knowledge is… Base.” Trust? Did he just say he trusts me?
“But he’s six!” Cadance said. “No offense.”
“No, I’m with you,” I said, though I felt like I shouldn’t have said anything.
“I am well aware of his age,” Inferno said. “But my experience has taught me that if I can’t trust him, I can’t even trust my own father.” Without another word, he wrapped his hoof around my shoulder and guided me out of the room, asking to be taken somewhere we won’t be interrupted.
Inferno Gateway
I couldn’t believe I was doing this. I spent nine years to get where I am, six of which was spent just getting to Shining Armor’s current position, and nopony but Councilor Penblade knew where I came from nine years ago, and that’s because she came with me.
“Alright,” Base said. “Unless Pinkie pie decides to be… well, Pinkie Pie, I think we’ll be fine here.”
“You sure?”
“Positive, now what do you want me to know?” I let out a sigh that did little to help my stress.
“If you asked anypony about where I came from or what history has on me, they’ll only be able to tell you nine years’ worth, from the time I was eighteen to now when I’m twenty seven,” I started. “In those nine years I was able to accomplish more than Shining Armor.” Base’s look was priceless; no doubt he knew how much Shining did for the country. “I’m not lying. But what I have to tell you is… all the stuff that nopony knows about me. My parents didn’t expect to have me when they did, but they went along with it, and loved me like… your aunt and uncle do for you,” I almost forgot that he never knew his real parents. “But there were other ponies who loved me just as much among them was my Uncle… First Base.” realization dawned on Base’s eyes.
“Wait… you!?” he said. “You’re Twilight and my big brother’s baby!?”
“One of two,” I said. I remembered my sister Medica, she was Dad’s favorite for a lot of my life, and I didn’t mind, maybe because he already knew how I was gonna turn out now that I think about it. “There’s more to this story, but if you tell anypony what I just told you, all that trust I had in you for the first eighteen years of my life, you’ll have betrayed it. And we wouldn’t want that would we?”
“No sir,” He said. “Of course I wouldn’t want that for anypony.”