When Lightning Strikes- Meet the Family
Power Pony HQ
Twilight was growing restless. Lance was suppose to have arrived with Lumen over two hours ago from Sun Fransokyo. Now, he was not only late, but hasn’t been seen anywhere in the timeframe he was suppose to be here. Of course, she was optimistic. The Alicorn kept in mind that he might have been summoned by a Displaced, especially after meeting Lee and his version of herself when they ran into each other earlier in the month. Now, she was waiting with both Zap and Solaria inside the command center. The pegasus was bored out of her mind while the Unicorn was calmly biding her time.
“Come on!! When will Lance be back!?!” Zap groaned. “It can’t seriously take him this long just for a small flight. Hay, I can get to there and back in HALF that time!”
“Zap, unlike you, he doesn’t have a set of wings.” Solaria reminded her. “Plus, there could be air traffic back in Cloudsdale.”
“Highly doubt it-.”
Suddenly though, a bright flash went off in the room and a few new figures entered. One of them being Lance. But another one… was different. There was a young… girl along with three fillies and two other strange individuals that the ponies couldn’t recognize.
The girl was dressed in a beautiful long gown that looked like a designer outfit that Radiance would craft in her spare time. An elegant sapphire dress that stretched from the upper chest downward and looked as smooth as silk from the trades mares that lived in Shang-hay. She took a thermos out from the bag that was at her waist and took a drink. “Ah, nothing like homemade, deadly caffeine to keep you awake,” she said.
“What the buck-!?” Was Zap’s first reaction before she looked at the ponies that were with her… and one of them that looked like her when she was a young filly. “I-is that… ME!?”
“Yep. I’m not going to go into the details that led to me adopting you for the sake of keeping this PG enough for the story.”
“How about you do some introductions first?” Lance suggested. “That way, you girls can know about Max?”
“Max? But I don’t see a guy with you.” Twilight said, confused.
The girl raised her hand and said, “Max can be a girl’s name as well. For me it’s short for Maxine.” Max turned to indicate the ponies behind her. “This is Zenith Sol and Zenith Mun. The fillies are Golden Spark, Light Sweet, and Rainbow Dash.”
“Pleased to meet you again,” the two thestrals said at the same time.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle. This is our Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer. Plus, you probably already met Lance… Speaking of which, what brings you here to Maretropolis Max? I don’t think you and your fillies are here to be on a vacation.”
“I did more than just meet him.” Max held up her right hand, showing them the ring that was on the finger next to her pinkie. “We’re actually engaged.”
Twilight flinched at the sign of that. “Woah woah woah…… How did THAT happen!? Last time we saw you, you were going to Sun Fransokyo and now you’re getting married!!? Goddess, this is surprising me more than when I found out about my brother’s wedding.”
“Well, two months ago I summoned him and we went to a party, then we slept together. Then I found out a few hours ago that I was pregnant,” Max said, wrapping both arms around Lance’s left arm.
Now, that caused Rainbow’s jaw to drop along with Sunset trying to fight the verge to pass out on the floor. Lance sighed to himself as he closed the rift behind him. “I know, I was just as surprised as you guys when I was told the news as well. And I think that also leads to the reason why Max and her family came here.”
“Yep. We’re going to see if it’s possible to make a permanent portal between my universe and this one.”
“A… permanent portal you say?” Twilight said, thinking to herself. “That does sound intriguing… In that case, I would be glad to help you Max.”
“Oh Max,” Lance interjected. “I was just wondering…” The Azure Striker bent a little closer and whispered in her ear ‘Since I consider Twilight and her friends like family, do you think that Twilight could be… Auntie Twilight?’
“Only if Sparks there,” Max pointed to Zap, “is considered my fillies’ cousin.”
“Deal.”
“Wait wha-!?” Zap was about to ask, but that was when a small Rainbow Maned filly was flying up to her shoulder.
“Who’s Dis-?”
“That’s your new cousin, Sparks,” Max said with a smile.
“Sparx!” the filly exclaimed as she hugged her older self.
“Hey-! That tickles!!” Zap exclaimed, nudging the filly a little as she set herself down on all four hooves. “Kid, if you’re trying to kill me with cuteness, then you’re doing it perfectly!”
“Oh, that reminds me. I took a picture of her after she got into the cookie jar back at the palace,” Max said as she pulled out a bundle of pictures and looked through them, finding the right one in a few seconds. “She was eating a cookie as big as her head.” Max handed the picture to Zap.
“Heehee… Little Rascal. I think I’m going to get along with you just fine!”
“Okay then. If Lance or I can’t watch them I’ll let you personally take care of Rainbow for a few hours,” Max said.
“Are you sure that would be wise, Commander?” Mun asked.
“She is the biggest hoof-ful of the three,” Sol said.
Max turned to the two and shushed them. “Don’t ruin the chance for some trolling!”
“So we have Rainbow as cousin and now Twilight as the new Auntie… Would that leave Pinkie as Grandmo-.” At the mentioning of her name, a pink blur zipped into the room, almost knocking Lance onto the floor as the Earth Pony has bouncing on her hooves. “I should’ve expected that.”
“Nope, Pinkie’s the sister-in-law.” Max held out her hand to the pink pony. “I’m Max, Lance’s fiance.”
“OOOOH!!! LANCIE!!! Why didn’t you-?” That’s when her attention was diverted to the filly Rainbow Dash on Zap’s head. “SO CCCUUUTTTEEE!!!!!!!!”
“Pink pony!” Rainbow said, holding her hooves out.
“Silly Dashie, I’m Pinkie Pie!!”
“Pink Pie! Snuggles?”
Max chuckled and said, “Rainbow, you’re being too cute. Turn it down or we’ll be forced to make you the main character.”
Lance chuckled. Surprised to see her so happy that he almost forgot about Light Sweet and Golden Spark. Who were looking at him in confusion. “Oh uh, Max?”
“Hmm?” Max looked over at the other two fillies. “Oh, right. Golden, Light, this is Lance. He’s gonna be your new daddy,” Max said as she picked up both of them and handed them to Lance.
They both looked up at him and tilted their heads in curiosity, then smiled and giggled. Lance smiled as they came closer and he embraced them in a hug, being careful not to hurt Golden and her amputated hoof. “I’m glad to have you girls as family.” He told them as they hugged him back. After the brief hug, he redirected his focus for a moment. “Hey Max? Why don’t Sol and Mun go with the kids, Zap and Filli-Second while we talk to Twilight about the portal?”
“Okay. And don’t think you’ll be getting out of hearing my story for much longer,” she said handing the fillies back to Sol.
“They’re not getting out of it. I just thought that it would be easier to explain if all of the team was around,” Lance pointed to the nearby board. It showed that Radiance, Mistress Marevelous, Humdrum, and Saddle Rager were out on a mission and would return later. “See what I mean?”
“.... Fine, I’ll wait until they’re back to tell my story.”
“Thanks Maxie.” Lance replied with a smile.
Max turned to Twilight and said, “So, why don’t we get started?”
“Yes…… I was thinking the same thing,” Twilight replied, offering a hoof and pulling up a chair for her. “How should we begin?”
“I honestly have no idea. We could try experimenting on Lance’s ability to make portals with tokens. See what that brings up.”
“That is a good place to start. But from what Lance tells me, using tokens works two ways. It either summons somepony to you or you to that individual. I think the same goes for portals as well.” The Alicorn explained. “Plus, we don’t want a black hole taking everything away from either end of the portal.”
“True, I wouldn’t want to bring about the end of the country I’m ruling. How about we go see if both our Discords could help us?”
“We could. But that’ll mean we need to find him first.” Twilight told the two of them. “He’s quite Elusive at times and sometimes, only shows himself when he wants too.” By the time the Alicorn finished that statement, the three of them could hear the Chaos spirit from the other room and when they saw him; he was letting Golden Spark and Light Sweet climb on top of him and tickle him while the Filly Rainbow Dash was climbing on his head.
“WHEE!!!” The filly squeaked. “Dis fun, mommy!!”
Max turned to Twilight and said, “You were saying?”
“Why hello,” Discord said, now noticing the three of them. “I didn’t expect this.” Looking at Max specifically, he grinned a little. “You seem… new here. What is your name, miss?”
“Maxine, but everyone calls me Max.” She held out a hand for him to shake. “Nice to meet you again, Dissy.”
The Chaos spirit raised one of his eyebrows in response to the last statement as he shook her outstretched hand. “Again? But this is only the first time we-... Hold on a minute,” with that, he placed one of the fingers of his Lion Paw on her forehead for a brief second before retreating it. “Well, that is quite surprising. You seem to not be from here, but from another Equestria?”
Lance could only look at him, surprised. “How-?”
“Mind reading. It’s a gift and-. Oh my…” The spirit said in a George Takei like voice. “Now that is just kinky.”
“If you weren’t already a friend, I’d take offence at you looking at more than what I want you to see,” Max said.
“Some gifts have side effects.” Discord shrugged. “Now, judging from what else I saw, you were going to ask me something?”
“Yeah, we were going to ask you if you’d work with my Discord and help us make a portal between the two universes.”
“Hmm… Interesting… Where is he?”
Max shrugged. “Probably in Ponyville still. Had to send him there for PR so he could wander wherever he wanted.”
“PR? Like Personal Reformation?” The spirit asked. “That’s a new one. For me, I had to show my trust by putting the lives of the girls before mine during an attack on the city. I defended Saddle Rager, or what you call Fluttershy, with my life and now I’m here.” To show what he meant, he used his chaos magic to create his personal medal of honor to show his heroism.
“More like Public Relations. I’m not actually reforming him, just trying to convince everyone to let him stay free since he’s apparently the only one able to keep universes-.... That’s it!” Max dug in her bag and pulled out a folder. “Knew there was a reason I didn’t give this to him when I freed him.”
“Oh, what do you have there, Max?” Lance asked before Discord tried to sneak over her shoulder to have a peak.
“Something from someone called Auric Fulcrum. It’s supposed to be instructions from his Discord on how to seal away a universe, but it can be used to find our way back to our original universe. Maybe. I just skimmed the letter that was attached to it. What I got out of the letter said that only a Discord can understand it,” Max said, holding it out to Discord.
“Well, let me take a look at it.” Discord offered, forming a pair of reading glasses with his talon. He looked at the document with careful precision and took his time in scanning the letter. “This is quite fascinating if I do say so myself.”
“I guess it’ll take a little for you to read that?”
“Possibly… if these glasses didn’t allow me to speed read.” He pointed out. “In fact, this actually seems kind of simple given if you can read ancient equish.”
“Well?”
“Ever heard of the saying ‘From point A to point B?’ Well, for this gateway of yours to work, I need to create a gate to use as point A and then travel to where point B would take me. Once I meet that Discord, the two of us could make a second gate and create the link. However, the best way for me to travel there is have what you would call a ‘token’ of the person that lives there.”
Max handed him a picture and said, “This is my token, though I gave Lance a more personal one.”
Discord grinned and asked for it, for the time being of course. The Azure Striker nodded, handing him the ornament he named Testament. “Okay, now then. Let’s get to work.” With a quick stretch and cracking the knuckles in his paw and talon, he began to channel chaos magic through his outstretched hands. The magic swirled to life as it worked it’s magic, creating what resembled a mirror that one would hang up in a mansion. “Okay, there’s point A.”
“Can you tell Discord that I would like the other side to be in the room under the throne? I don’t want someone stumbling from here to there and getting lost or causing havoc or vice versa.”
“Will do,” Discord smiled, returning the token to the Azure Striker. “Oh and be ready, you got some company coming.” With that, Twilight looked at the board to see that the girls were back and on her way to the command center along with Humdrum. “Well, Max. You ready to share that story?” As she asked that question, Filly Rainbow landed on top of Lance’s head with Lumen inside her mane.
“Oh, the other three are back?” Max asked.
“Four. Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Spike.” Lance pointed out. “Oh and there they are.”
“Twilight, we’re ba- WHAT IN TARNATION!?!”
“Hello to you too, Applejack.” Max waved at the ponies who just entered the room.
“Auntie Wolf here?” Rainbow said as she looked around.
“Alright, just what the hay is goin’ on and why am ah seein’ a Filly Rainbow Dash?”
“Isn’t it awesome!?” Pinkie exclaimed.
“It’s darn confusing!!!!” The Earth pony retorted as she took off her mask and looked at Max. “Twilight, I need some explanations right now or ah’m tempted to use my Lasso to hogtie her and start asking questions.”
“Oh, I like that idea! Your room or Lance’s?” Max asked.
“Can’t you just ask Max?” Lance suggested, personally facepalming at where his fiancee was going with this.
“Who?” Applejack asked. “You mean tha girl?”
“Max is a girl’s name as well. Oh, Rarity, thank you for cutting that gem for Lance.” Max said as she showed them the ring.
“Why thank you darling-? Wait… why are you wearing it though?” Rarity asked.
“We’re getting married, Rares.” Lance sighed.
“Yep. Kinda tired of saying this, but I’m pregnant as well with his son,” Max said, pointing to Lance.
“So since Max is a Displaced, I brought her here to think of a way to connect both of our worlds together.” Lance said. “In addition, since I consider all of you as family, I wanted to see how you can be part of ours? Right Max?”
“Yeah. You know me and Rainbow already, the ones you don’t know are Light Sweet, Golden Spark, Zenith Sol, and Zenith Mun. The tanks are Sol and Mun as well,” Max explained.
During that moment, Rainbow pretended to be flying on top of Lance’s head, saying “WHEEE!!!” for a few moments with outstretched wings.
Max ruffled Rainbow’s mane a little and continued, “You should probably get comfortable because I’m about to talk about my past. Lance wanted me to wait until you all were here before I began, and I’m not going to answer any questions until the end.”
With that said, Pinkie Pie decided to “relocate” everypony into the break room and have them take a seat on the sofas and couches inside. With everypony here and a quick and simple explanation on who Cody was when Pinkie asked if he was coming, Max soon was able to have the room to herself to explain her story without any interruptions.
Especially, not right now.
“Back on Earth, I was a guy. I’m not going to go into that right now since it’s obviously not who I am anymore, but I went to a convention as Maxine Caulfield and saw someone buy something from a vendor and then disappear. Being as I wanted an adventure, I went over and bought my camera from that same vendor.
“When I woke up I was outside the Tree of Harmony’s cave and had control over time. After a few minutes, Celestia and Luna came into the clearing and I basically told them that they would fight and one of them would fall.”
“Nightmare moon?” Twilight said to herself, remembering her encounter with the Nightmare Spirit.
Max shook her head and said, “Daymare Flare. Celestia was the one to fall and Luna almost-....” She shook herself and continued. “Fast forward about two months and I wander into their baths and, uh... use all twenty bottles of Celestia’s shampoo. She comes out just as I’m getting dressed and turns me to stone. I spent the next thousand odd years training my powers and when Discord was defeated for the second time he released me.
“While I was looking for Celestia’s room I ran into the Merchant and bought stuff from him. Once I was done, I turned around and found what I was looking for. I... kinda got pissed when Celly went for coffee instead of talking with me and put lots of spices in her cup.
“Kat -- another Displaced -- helped me clear that up and.... Well, I revealed that I gave her one of those magazines and kissed her. Then she ran off to her room and I followed since Luna didn’t want to try to get a room ready for me. Celly and I talked and decided to see where our relationship would go.”
“So, what happened?” Lance asked, interested to see what was going to happen next.
“I get summoned by three dungeons divers before I can eat my breakfast the following dusk. I was gone for less than three hours, but when I got back it’d been a week and.... Let’s just say I gave Celestia a little cheering up.”
“Question?” Spike said, raising a claw. “Would you care to explain cheering up? Because the princesses are right outside the-.”
SHOVE!!
“-door.”
Max flinched, closing her eyes and clenching her jaw.
“Would somepony care to explain why I feel mine and my sisters magic within this… being? We felt it all the way from Canterlot.” The darkened pony was first to speak. Upon seeing Lance though, her eyes widened. This boy was the one who disappeared right in front of her eyes.
A quick explanation was required from Twilight in order for the princesses to understand who both Lance and Max were before she could continue. And also told Spike by cheering up, she meant spending some quality time with her.
Through all this, Max stood, looking down at the floor. Lost in thought until Lance said something to bring her attention back. “Are you okay, Max?”
“Hmm?” Max looked around, sparing the princesses a painful glance before she said, “W-where was I?”
“You were talking about you supporting your Celestia?” Rarity reminded her.
“R-right. The next week, Nono -- the vendor I bought my camera from -- appeared and I bought Mun and Sol from her. The next few m-months... were calm and-... and.” Max drew in a shaky breath and continued, “Celestia and I... spent them together. The next big thing that happened was when I found Rainbow in- in a cave tied to a stalagmite with both her rear legs broken.
“Next was Cadence and Shining Armor’s wedding and I managed to get Chrysalis into negotiations with Luna. Right before I was going to throw Cadence a private bachelorette party I got summoned again and when I went back, Medulla -- the one who had summoned me -- told me I was pregnant. I rushed to the medical wing to confirm it and then Celestia and I investigated something that crashed into the maze.
“It was Handsome Jack’s token and I decided to take Rainbow over to his universe so she wouldn’t take weeks to fully heal. The trip somehow took long enough that I went into labor as soon as I got there and I gave birth to Light and Sweet.
“Once I was able to walk, I went back and....” Max gave Celestia and Luna a long, painful look. “I arrived just in time to be there for their final moments.”
Shock ran across everypony in the room and filly Rainbow looked like she was going to shed some tears. “M-mommy?”
Max turned and picked her up, holding her close as she whispered, “Shhh, Mommy’s okay.”
After a minute or two, Max continued, “They knew about my rewinding time and told me to not save them. T-they gave me everything; Equestria, their connection to the sun and moon, and all of their magic.
“Kat and Typhon helped me turn five tons of coal into statues of the sisters after we interred them in their family tomb. Then I changed the government around, got rid of all -- well, all but Fancy Pants -- all of the nobles by using private detectives to look into their business. Tore down Parliament and basically turned my crown into a queen’s.
“Cadence is running the Crystal Empire and asked for that job from Twilight. I have no problem with that as long as she doesn’t turn evil or something. Last I heard from her was her asking if the Empire could become its own country again. I gave her the go ahead and she took up the title Empress.
“Then... then I found out Commander Hurricane was going to crash the opening of a museum I was going to in Manehattan. I proceeded like nothing was amiss and when Hurricane showed himself, I told the Pegasi following him that they could live in peace if they turned on him. Unfortunately Hurricane was betrayed and killed by his ally, a cat named Scourge. Yes I said cat.
“Not your average housecat, no. These cats are as big as ponies, and have an appetite to match. Anyways, I met Lance the night before that took place and had some quality time together. Fast forward two months and I find I’m pregnant, and you know the rest.”
Lance put his arm around Max, trying to comfort her. He knew that it was hard for her to talk about this, so he wanted to show his support in whatever way he could.
“Any questions?” Several hooves were raised. “Any that aren’t directed at how Celly managed to get me pregnant with twins?” Most of the raised hooves fell.
Twilight now had her hoof up. “At one point, you said the following dusk. Is night and day somehow reversed in your Equestria or am I just thinking too much on this?” Around then, Light Sweet decided to nuzzle herself at Twilight’s hooves, taking a nap as Golden Spark went to Celestia. Around now though was when she saw the Fillies amputated hoof.
“My goodness! What happened to this poor filly?”
“I skipped that part? The guard captain after Shining Armor had a messed up family and he took offence at me sentencing his parents to twenty years of labor, so he decided to try to kill my fillies. He ended up killing himself on his own sword after I caught him,” Max explained. “His sword was cursed with an unnamed curse that used healing magic as an accelerant while it necrotized the one that got cut by the blade. He had sliced her hoof open by the time I had seen the guard dead outside my rooms and rushed in. It had to be amputated, or it might’ve spread.
“And yes, ponies sleep during the day and work during the night mostly. The exceptions are the farmers, they try to keep a crepuscular sleep schedule.”
“Interesting…” Twilight said. “So, do you two have any plans on the wedding as of right now?”
“Not that I’m aware of. I know I don’t have a drawerful of plans.” Max glances at Radiance. “But I do know someone who does.”
“Oh?” Lance said. “Would that happen to be the pony you mentioned earlier… The one named Fancy Pants?”
“No, she has them left over from when she was fawning over Blueblood.” Max shook her head. “How she couldn’t see the corruption oozing off of him, I don’t know.”
“Well, professionals have standards, darling.” Rarity replied. “I just wished that Blueblood would have better standards over how he treats other ponies. So… Max, if I may ask, is your worlds version of myself exactly the same as me?”
“Aside from creating gems from thin air and using them as weapons... maybe? I only met her at the funeral and later briefly when she picked up her sister from the library in Ponyville.”
“My word…” She replied. “Max, could it be possible for her and I to meet. I believe the two of us can be able to help you make your wedding be unforgettable… In the free time I have of course.”
“Yeah, I’ll have to send a letter through Spike once I get back but I’ll let Rarity know about this.”
“Well, maybe we can both work some things out.” Lance commented. “After all, there are many pieces to a wedding. Maybe we can have both your Twilight and mine help organize it?”
“I would be delighted by the opportunity, Max.” The Alicorn replied, bowing like she was in front of a princess.
Max raised an eyebrow and said, “Aren’t you a princess here? I know I’m basically a queen, but still, you don’t have to bow to me.”
Twilight realized that and returned to her standard position. “Despite being a princess, I prefer to treat everypony with respect. Especially for you since you’re the ruler of your Equestria.”
“And I’d prefer to be in a small cabin on the side of an unexplored cabin with only one other person. I would like you to work with Twilight, though.”
“Perfect! When can we meet?” She asked, eyes lighting up at the opportunity.
“Dunno, I’d like it to be in three or four months, though. That good, Lance?”
“Works for me.” Lance replied back. He saw Twilight summoning a calendar and watched her go through the dates. When she found one, the Alicorn looked back at Max and took a deep breath. “Would this thursday work possibly? Or would you need to check with your me?” Before max could answer though, they heard a loud noise go off similar to magic and found Discord by the other end of the doorway he was working on.
“Alright, I’m back! And I brought a companion with me!!”
Turns out, by Discord’s side… was the Twilight Max knew.
“Oh, hey Twilight, meet Twilight.” However, her attention was focused instead on this world’s version of Luna. She was surprised to the point where some tears began to form.
“P-princess? I thought you… were dead,” Twi said.
“Uh, Max?” The Adept said. “I think you need to clear things up.”
Max tapped Twi on the shoulder and said, “You’re in a different universe, Twilight. The Luna you know is dead, but this universe’s isn’t.”
“Is that why there were two Discords at Fluttershy’s when I went over to check how things were going?” Twilight asked, the Unicorn trying to think things through.
“Yes. I was going to send a few letters by way of Spike when I got back, but since you’re here I can just ask you to pass the messages along.”
“Okay! What’s the occasion?” She asked. “Normally, you don’t have many ponies here unless something BIG is coming up.”
“I’m engaged to Lance and want you and Alicorn Twilight to plan the wedding with Rarity and Radiance,” Max said.
“Who’s Lance, Grandmother?”
Max pointed at the Azure suited Adept. “Him.”
“Oh… Well, congratulations! I believe we have some organization to get started.”
“Don’t forget the baby shower as well,” Max said, turning to Discord soon after. “Is the portal ready?”
Discord’s only reply was a nod. However, for Twilight… “Okay, wedding, Baby sho- WAIT, WHAT!?!?!”
Max giggled a bit. “Yep, I’m pregnant.”
Twilight looked stunned. But then had a look at Lance. She narrowed her eyes. “Let me guess. Lance is the father?” He nodded his head, answering her question. “Well, that explains a lot. Max, we should probably go back to the castle so we can send the letters out as soon as possible.”
“Just make sure it’s kept a secret until a month before, if you can. You have my permission to hire anyone, no matter what they ask for in return.”
“I will make sure of that. I believe my Rarity knows somepony from Manehattan that can help with the wedding dress. I believe her name was Coco Pommel?” The Mare said as she walked to the mirror like doorway to Max’s world, waiting for her to join her.
“I think I remember hearing about her. Something about getting her away from another designer?” Max asked, gesturing for Sol and Mun to follow. “I’m gonna let you take care of the foals until Twi and I have sent out letters to all the ponies we’ll be hiring, Lance. I’ll let you look them over before their hiring is finalized.”
Lance raised an eyebrow at the sudden statement. Unsure of what was said. “Wait… So I’ll be looking over the kids?”
“You’ll be watching the kids and looking over the ponies I’d like to hire before we actually hire them.”
“Okay, So I follow you or should I stay here?” Lance asked. He was missing a few details that he needed to know, so asking about them to Max would hopefully clear things up.
“I can handle writing letters, you don’t need to follow me. Oh, you might want to keep Light out of the kitchen, she tends to make a mess if she’s left alone. And you might want to make sure the magic books are locked up, Golden seems to like drawing in them more than other books.”
“Alright. Kitchen and books. Got it. When will you be back?” The Adept asked as one last question before she would leave.
“Maybe three days, maybe a week. Depends on how long it takes for the replies to get back.”
Lance nodded his head. For him, this was to be the first test future fatherhood would bring. And he wanted to make sure not to disappoint Max. “Okay. Take as much time as you need. If I need any help, I’ll just cross through the gate and come see you.”
“Okay, see you then,” Max said stepping backwards into the portal.
“Lance,” Mun said, stopping just before he stepped in. “Don’t cave at the first pouty face they give and make sure they eat healthy.”
“I’m going to take a guess that they can be very… persistent?”
Mun chuckled. “They’re as persistent as a spider and as stubborn as a mule when it comes to the things they want. They might not with you since Max has said that you’re going to be their father, but I’d still watch out if I were you.”
“I will. Trust me. Back home, I’ve dealt with pets that acted the same way.”
“Just remember, they aren’t pets,” Mun said, stepping through the portal.
“I will.” Lance assured Mun, waving goodbye along with Golden, Light and Rainbow Dash, who was back on his head again. Princess Celestia giggled at the sight of seeing him with the newfound family members that he now had. She seemed to like seeing him like this. Unaware of the troubles that fillies can bring.
A few moments after Max left, Lance led all three fillies into the Recreation room and got out a stack of paper, crayons, colored pencils, and markers for all three of them. The Adept figure that since Golden liked to draw, maybe they would like to take their creativity out on something else other than Twilight’s library of spellbooks. Other than that though, Lance knew that Pinkie Pie was baking cookies for the youngsters. While he was processing all of this though, he was lost in thought over one thing.
Kaoru. From what the one eyed owl told him, they were giving him a month in order for him to be able to prove to the Power Ponies that Kaoru was not exactly the threat that the public saw her as. He needed to be able to talk to Twilight in his own time to try and explain to her everything without Arima getting on his case. But before he could think this thoroughly though, he felt Rainbow sitting in his lap and holding a drawing with her mouth.
“Oh, that’s a nice drawing Rainbow. What is it?” He asked. Rainbow pointed a hoof at the two doodles that the youngster had done. Two stick figure based characters. But to his surprise, they meant much more to the young filly than he realized as she pointed at the first one that had brown hair with her hoof.
“Mama…”
Now, she pointed at the second one. In which had yellow hair and a blue coat.
“Papa…”
Lance smiled a little as he called over Light Sweet and Golden Spark over to him and gave them a big hug. Rainbow herself used her hooves and wings to hug Lance. “I love you, Papa.”
“I love you too, girls.”
During this moment though, Cody had just returned from his mission to see his best friend being called “Papa” by a filly Rainbow Dash. He could only wonder one thing right now… What the hell happened while Lance was gone?
End Strike 18
