The Epsilon Pegasus

by Sparky Brony


Chapter 13.5 A Wing and a Prayer

Henry sits in the bar in New Beginnings, nursing his Applebucks whisky. The stuff isn’t too bad. Local ponies had actually started making it a few years back. It is based on Equestrian recipes and the stuff can easily knock some earth ponies flat.

“Rough day at the office?” Dust asks as she eases herself beside the pink unicorn.

Henry blinks and looks at Dust, she is certainly the last pony he expected to see, “Umm, what brings you here?”

“Well when I hear about a friend of mine hitting the salt licks and whisky.” Dust says as she takes a drink of her Whisky. Coughing a few times, she looks at it. “Single malt this isn’t.” She coughs a few more times, using a hoof to pound her chest a few times.

“Oh I’m fine, just fine, everything’s perfect.” Henry says and knocks back his drink.

“Well that means something’s horribly wrong. Are people pestering you again for healing?” Dust asks. Over the years, she’s filtered a lot of the requests. So has Mindy. Especially the worst of the requests that involved threats or trying to buy him, Dust knows Henry doesn’t need that kind of stress.

“No Dust, I’m fine.” Henry says softly, propping up his muzzle.

Dust tilts her head, looking concerned, the old stubborn streak kicking in, “Problems with Sugarberry?”

“She’s a little stressed but…she’s fine. We’re having no trouble.”

“Foal trouble?” Dust asks with a smile, “Cutie Mark Crusader New Beginnings edition?”

“The city couldn’t survive that, and nope.” Henry gestures, and another drink is slid before him, he gulps it down.

“Nightmares? PTSD?” Dust asks, growing more concerned at his tone.

“If I did, I’d talk to Moon Shadow. Dust, I already send business her way for that.” Henry says with a sigh.

Rolling her eyes, Dust is running out of things she could think of, “Flying problems?” She asks jokingly.

“I haven’t even tried the wings since I…” Henry starts, then he stumbles to a stop, looking at Dust, panic in his eyes.

Dust drops her glass, staring at Henry for a long moment.

“Umm… Joke? Ha ha?” Henry says quickly…

“Henry… my office… Now…” Dust says, grabbing Henry’s foreleg and dragging him out of the bar.

A couple of patrons laugh and cat call… Seeing a mare dragging a stallion out of a bar isn’t all that unusual in New Beginnings.

Seeing Lightning Dust, though, drag a poor stallion half way across town, is an unusual sight around New Beginnings. Most times the stallion is going willingly. Not that Dust has a regular habit of dragging stallions around, other than those in her herd. She has dragged them around a couple of times, though. Usually getting laughs from the ponies around town.

“Umm Dust?” Loopy says as Dust and Henry burst through the front door, startling everypony inside. Then she notices the look on Dust’s face, and thinks better of what she was going to say, she mutters, “Never mind.” She turns quickly and heads downstairs to find Kendra.

Henry retains the presence of mind to keep his muzzle shut as she gets into her office. She slams her office door and whirls to face him.

“Wings?” She very nearly screams at him, causing his ears to fold back.

“I…” Henry starts and tries to look anywhere but the mare.

“How long!” Dust says firmly, tapping a hoof on the floor.

“But I…” Henry starts and fidgets with his forelegs.

“Henry, this is me you are talking to, Star Crossed! Let’s see it.” Dust says, slamming her hoof down on the floor.

Henry gulps and shifts to princess form and spreads her wings. “Princess Star Crossed?”

Dust covers her face with a foreleg and groaned. “How long?”

“It sort of happened three weeks ago… After that train accident…”

“The one with that school bus and all those foals?!? That was you?” Dust shouts, fluttering her wings.

Star Crossed shifts back to stallion form quickly. He looks down and rubs his foreleg with his other foreleg, “I just couldn’t let them all… and they all needed attention, some of them were already… so I just did them all at once…”

“Sugarberry knows?” Dust says, looking at Henry.

Lowering his head, he nods, “I went back to her the first night and she was the one that suggested using magic to be male again. Hiding that way, it’s no big deal.”

“No big deal? No big deal! Henry you’re an alicorn princess, that’s the definition of big deals.” Dust says, walking back and forth before him.

“It’s not like I’m going to advertise it or tell anypony.” Henry says, “And it’s not like I want to be one.”

“Henry, you’re buckin royalty… you’re like THE princess of earth, right now…” Dust says, turning face to face with him.

Whining, Henry shakes his head. “Come on, I didn’t even want to be a unicorn stallion. A Pretty Pink Princess Pony is just right out there.”

Mindy opened the door looking into Dusts office. “Oh, hi Henry.”

“Bad time Mindy.” Dust says as she continues to pace, a wing over her face as she mutters to herself.

“Oh come on, it’s never a bad time. I’m actually looking for some paperwork though.” Mindy says as she pogo bounds across the office.

“This is private though.” Dust says, “Between Henry and I.”

“Really, you’re going to keep secrets from your herd.” Mindy says, digging through Dusts in-box. “So he told you about the wings?”

Dust blinks looking at Mindy in shock, “Yes but…”

“And you freaked out?” Mindy says, pulling out some papers. She glances at them, then discards them onto Dust’s desk.

“I didn’t…” Dust started to protest.

She stops and looks at Dust, “He showed you his, you need to show him yours Dustie. It’s only fair!”

Dust looks at Mindy as she continues to ruffle through the papers, she huffs and moves to a storage tote marked ‘to storage’ and starts going through the paperwork there. After a moment, Mindy looks up at Dust, “So…”

Dust sighs and looks at Mindy, “How long have you known?”

Mindy giggles, “Since the day it happened, silly. I didn’t tell anypony else, so show Henry.”

Dust sighs and looks down, her body starts to glow and she gains nearly a foot in height and a horn grows from her forehead, Henry gasps in surprise as his control disappears, he ends up letting his wings come out too.

Dust scuffs a hoof on the floor, “I guess you aren’t the only one that wanted to hide this.” She reaches up and touches her horn, “I have enough responsibilities, I don’t need any more” She smiles at Star Crossed, “And I can see why you don’t want to show off.”

Henry feels a hoof on her chin, then notices Mindy moving away, she had closed his mouth, which had dropped open, seeing Dust as an Alicorn, “So…you couldn’t fly?”

Dust looks up, “If I fly, flying uses magic. And I could lose control, and then everypony would see this. So, I have to stay on the ground, it’s better than ponies knowing I’m a buckin princess myself.”

Henry laughs, “So, nopony but us knows?”

Dust looks at the magenta pony, yet only the tip of her white tail is showing from inside the storage tote, papers are flying all over the place. Dust lights her horn and the papers stack into neat piles as she looks at Henry, “Yeah. Except for Mindy.”

“Don’t worry about me, I’ve Pinkie Promised to not tell anypony.” Mindy chirps.

Henry shakes her head, “Wait a moment, how long have you been like this?”

Dust blushes heavily, “When I died, and Discord brought me back. I had to conceal it when I noticed the horn after I was brought back.” She sighs, “I shouldn’t have bitten your head off. I’m sorry, Henry.” She moves forward and nuzzles him softly, “Only Mindy knows…” She glances at the tote, which now looks empty but papers are still flying from it.

Both alicorns startle at the sound of a muffled shout, they both watch Mindy climb out of the tote, Dust looks into the tote, its about a foot deep, just like all the other totes she has, she looks at Mindy quizzically, who giggles, Mindy waves a few sheets of paper, shouting, “Found it!”

Blinking Dust walks over to look at the paper floating in Mindy’s magic, “Should I ask?”

“Oh I hacked Sparky’s Skype account, let me see all his posts. Found this one logged in under April Fools jokes.”