//------------------------------// // Ch 2- Meeting the Princess // Story: Equestrian Skies // by RomeoDKat //------------------------------// It was early the next morning when Storm Chaser and Blue Typhoon were awoken by both the crying of the unknown creature that appeared in their backyard last night and Cloudchaser calling out to them. Storm Chaser sighed and said, “Blue, I need you to remind me of something. Why did we decide that we wanted to have another foal?” “Probably because we forgot how much of the pain in the flank Cloudchaser was.” Blue Typhoon joked as she got out of bed to go take care of the baby. “Heh, you’re probably right.” Storm chuckled as he also started to get out of bed. “So, when are we going to bring it to the princess?” “I think we should do it after breakfast, the sooner we have the princess take care of it, the better.” She said as she trotted out of the bedroom. “Alright, I’ll get Cloudchaser’s old stroller out from the attic real quickly” “Okay, see you down stairs.” Blue said as she made her way downstairs to the cries of the two children in the living room. “Mommy! Mommy!” Cloudchaser continuously yelled as Blue Typhoon made her way down the stairs. “I’m coming, sweetie!” Blue said when she reached the bottom step and made her way to the living room where the crib was. When she reached the living room, she saw Cloudchaser flying around the crib and the baby crying and squirming around in distress. She made her way to the crib with Cloudchaser settling down beside her, looked into the crib, and said, “Now what seems to be the problem little one.” Although a certain smell coming from the crib was starting to answer that question for her. “Mommy, it keeps crying and stinks really bad!” Cloudchaser said matter-of-factly. “It sure does, and you were keeping an eye on it, weren’t you?” “Yes mommy.” Cloudchaser said proudly. “That’s my girl, now then,” Blue said as she began hovering in the air to pick up the baby, “Let’s get him all cleaned up then.” Thankfully for her, Cloudchaser had only been recently trained to use the toilet, so they still had plenty of spare diapers in the bathroom. Unfortunately for her, the baby was squirming around in her forelegs when she picked it up, and would most likely continue to do so when she cleaned and changed it. Thankfully for her, she had a plan for this. “Honey,” she said turning to Cloudchaser, “Would you like to help mommy out real quickly?” “Yes mommy!” Cloudchaser said in excitement. “Good, do you mind grabbing that stuffed bunny from the crib and following me to the bathroom?” She asked, pointing at the baby’s stuffed bunny still resting in the crib. “Okay!” Cloudchaser said as she flew up into the crib and grabbed the toy Blue was pointing at. “Alright now come on.” Blue said as she flew to the bathroom with Cloudchaser following close behind her. When they entered the bathroom, Blue put the baby on the counter and began taking of the yellow onesie. Right before taking off the baby’s diaper, she turned to her daughter and said, “Now, I need you to take the bunny and make it dance.” “You mean like this?” Cloudchaser asked as she started to have the stuffed bunny bounce around in some sort of dance. The sudden motion had an almost instant effect on the baby, as it gradually began to calm down, stopped squirming around, and started watching Cloudchaser play around with it out of curiosity. “Perfect!” Blue encouraged as she began to take off the diaper. “Just keep doing that for awhi-.“ She immediately stopped talking, had an intense blush appear on her face, and just stared down at the baby, who she now confirmed was a young colt. “H-he…doesn’t have… a sh-sheath.” Blue stuttered in shock. Cloudchaser also noticed the offending object between the colt legs and started to stop playing around with the toy and began to stare at it out of curiosity. Blue saw that Cloudchaser noticed and silently begged, “Please don’t ask what it is! Please don’t ask what it is! Please don’t ask what it is!” Cloudchaser pointed a hoof at it and innocently asked, “Mommy, what’s that?” “Cloudchaser, don’t you still have toys in the living room you still have to pick up?!?” Blue Typhoon blurted out almost immediately. “Oh, okay mommy. I’ll go deal with.” Cloudchaser said as she flew off out the counter and out of the bathroom. When she left, Blue Typhoon immediately got to work disposing the old diaper, cleaning the colt, and putting a clean diaper on him before Cloudchaser had a chance to come back in. Once she got the diaper and the colt’s onesie on him, she picked him up and brought him to the kitchen. “Now, I’ll bet you’re real hungry right now, aren’t you?” She asked in a motherly tone. When she reached the kitchen, she made her way to the refrigerator, and looked for something that she could feed the colt she was still currently holding. However, there was a certain dilemma. She had no idea what she should feed the baby, or if he was even ready to have solid foods right now. Eventually, her eyes settle on one of the packets of applesauce. “How does applesauce sound?” She asked as she grabbed the applesauce and closed the fridge. She then flew to the table to put the applesauce on it and flew back over to the drawers to get a spoon. When she got a spoon, she flew back to the table, took a seat, placed the baby on her lap, and opened the applesauce packet to feed him. She put a fair amount of applesauce on the spoon and put the spoon in front of the baby’s face. “Say ‘Aww’” She said as she started to slowly bring the spoon over to the baby’s mouth. The colt at first didn’t know what to think. He was confused as to why this strange thing had brought him to this room and put him on her lap when she sat down. But soon, he recognized that object approaching him and recognized it as a possible food source and accepted that this unknown creature was trying to feed him. He opened his mouth and put the spoon in his mouth. He immediately liked the taste of the applesauce and began to swallow his breakfast when Blue Typhoon pulled the spoon out of his mouth. ‘Thank Celestia, he can eat fruit!’ Blue Typhoon thought to herself in relief as she got ready to feed him another spoonful of applesauce. “Who wants more applesauce?” She happily said as she started to feed him again. It was around this time that Storm Chaser came in with the stroller. He set it over by the wall where it was out of the way, and turned around to find Blue feeding the infant. “Are you feeding it applesauce?” He asked. “Yep, turns out he likes it!” She said excitingly. “That’s good to know.” Storm said as we went over to the kitchen to make some breakfast, only to stop when he realized something she said. He turned back around to face her and asked, “Wait, did you say ‘he’?” “Yeah, he needed a clean diaper and well,” Blue Typhoon said as a blush started to form on her face. “He doesn’t exactly have a…sheath.” “…What?” Storm asked dumbfounded. “Yeah, I think that there are multiple reasons for him to be wearing clothes.” “Okay. Did anything else happen while I was in the attic trying to get the stroller down?” Storm asked. “Cloudchaser…might have helped me to calm him down before I took off the old diaper.” Blue reluctantly admitted. “Please tell me she didn’t ask what it was.” Storm begged, hoping that her response was ‘no.’ Before Blue could respond, Cloudchaser flew in and proudly exclaimed, “I picked up all of my toys in the living room, mommy.” “That’s good, dear.” Blue said as Cloudchaser took a seat next to her to watch her feed the baby. After a few moments, Cloudchaser decided to say the one thing that Blue Typhoon was hoping she wouldn’t say at the moment. “You still didn’t answer the question I asked earlier, mommy.” She said innocently. Storm Chaser sighed in frustration before responding, “She asked about it, didn’t she?” “Unfortunately.” Blue reluctantly admitted. After an awkward breakfast and answering Cloudchaser’s question with a response that could be summed up as a complex version of ‘we’ll tell you when you’re older,’ they got the baby situated in the stroller and made their way to the train station, with Blue pushing the stroller and Storm walking with a wing wrapped around Cloudchaser. The walk to the train station had been incredibly awkward. Many of the townsfolk had looked at the stroller out of curiosity when they saw they couple walking around with Cloudchaser and a stroller, only for them to be met with confusion when they saw the stroller’s occupant. Needless to say, they didn’t know how to respond when the passing pony asked what was in the stroller. Eventually, they made their way to the train station and got on the earliest train to Canterlot. The train ride had been mostly silent. Most of the noise made by the family was from Cloudchaser either trying to entertain herself or to get her parents to pay attention to what she was doing. After about thirty minutes of mostly silence, Blue Typhoon decided to break the silence by asking the question that was eating away at the couple. “So, how do you think the princess will react to him?” “I don’t know, honey. Hopefully she’ll just find a way to bring him back where he came from. Who knows what his parents are thinking right now with him gone.” Storm sincerely responded. “I know, I don’t think I could imagine having Cloudchaser suddenly disappear from us like that.” Blue said giving her daughter a small hug. They spent the rest of the train ride going over what they would tell the princess when they arrive to the castle. About an hour later, the train reached Canterlot Station and the family made their way to the castle. On the way there, many of the Canterlot residents took notice of the strange infant being pushed around by the couple. However, the baby was met with more looks of disgust than when they were in Ponyville. Blue Typhoon couldn’t help but respond by glaring back at them. Eventually, she turned to her husband and angrily whispered, “Can you believe these stuck up jerks?!? Not accepting somepony just because he isn’t a pony.” “Just ignore them, honey. Let’s just keep moving.” Storm Chaser replied as he trotted a little faster, lightly pushing Cloudchaser and Blue Typhoon with his wings to get them to speed up as well. The baby, meanwhile, was starting to feel sleepy after the active morning, so he decided to take a nap as Blue Typhoon pushed him to the castle. After about a twenty minute walk, they made it to the front entrance of the castle. A guard stood at attention on either side of the entryway. When the family approached the castle, the guards blocked their approach and the one on the left exclaimed, “Halt, state your business.” Storm Chaser decided to take the initiative and nervously replied, “We need to speak to the princess.” “Why do you need to speak to the princess?” The guard curtly asked. “Well, a foal appeared in our backyard back in Ponyville last night, and we were wondering if the princess could help us determine what he is or where he came from.” Storm Chaser replied. The guards gave each other a confused look before turning back to Storm Chaser. “No offense sir, but wouldn’t this matter be more suited to your town’s mayor or orphanage, and what do you mean by ‘what he is’?” One of the guards sincerely asked. Blue Typhoon decided to step forward and said, “Well, he’s not exactly a pony sir.” The guards were about to ask what she meant, but taking a good look at the stroller’s occupant momentarily stopped their train of thought. Their usually expressionless faces changed to those of surprise and curiosity as they inspected the infant. Eventually, one of the guards turned to the family and asked, “What is it?” Blue Typhoon started to nervously fidget where she stood as she nervously replied, “That’s the thing…we don’t know. All we do know is that it’s a male.” The guards started to inaudibly whisper to each other as the family stood their nervously waiting for a response. Except for Cloudchaser, she stood their glaring at the guards. Eventually, the guards stopped conversing with each other and one of the guards returned to his original post. The other guard turned to the family and said, “Wait here for a few moments, I’ll be right back.” He then turned around and quickly made his way to the castle. As they waited, the couple stood their nervously, wondering why the guard ran into the castle. Cloudchaser was spending the time making various faces at the remaining guard, trying to get him to break. After about five minutes of waiting, the guard returned with a unicorn mare with whitish fur, dark brown mane and tail, both tied in a bun using a red hair tie, a collar and red neck piece around her neck, and ink pen and inkwell as a cutie mark. When the guard returned to his post at the doorway, the mare walked up to the family and introduced herself. “Hello, my name is Raven, aide to Princess Celestia. The guard informed me that you have a foal of an unknown creature. Is that correct?” “Yes ma’am, he’s right here.” Storm Chaser said, pointing a hoof inside the stroller. Raven took a look inside the stroller and immediately flinched in surprise. Even though she knew that the infant in the stroller wasn’t going to be a pony, she still wasn’t prepared for the infant to look like a small hairless ape. After a few moments of inspecting the napping infant, she looked up at the family and said, “Alright, if you could please follow me to the throne room.” “Thank you, Raven.” Blue Typhoon said as she started to push the stroller as Storm Chaser used his wing to make sure that Cloudchaser came along with them. Revan nodded back in response, turned around, and began to lead the family to the throne room. The short walk to the throne room felt like hours to the couple. Every step making them more anxious about how the princess would react to the infant. Cloudchaser, on the other hand, just looked around the castle halls in awe, unaware of her parents’ inner struggles. When they reached the entrance of the throne room, Raven turned around and stopped them. “Please wait here. This will only take a few moments.” She informed before entering the throne room. As they waited, Blue Typhoon and Storm Chaser were mentally preparing themselves for their meeting with the princess and Cloudchaser was hovering over the stroller to watch over the infant. After a few moments, Blue Typhoon decided to break the silence by asking her husband, “So, are you ready, Storm?” Storm Chaser chuckled before responding, “As ready as I’m going to be, honey. You?” “I guess, either way it’s too late to back down now, right?” Blue said with a nervous smile. Cloudchaser noticed that something was bothering her parents, so she landed down on the ground, walked up to Blue Typhoon, and asked, “Mommy, is everything alright?” Blue Typhoon gave her daughter a small smile and a comforting hug. “Don’t worry sweetie, I’m sure everything is going to be okay.” She said comfortingly, even though she had no idea what was actually going to happen. After a few more minutes, Raven came out of the throne room and turned to the family. “The princess is ready for you. You may enter.” She said as she kept the door opened for them. With all of the courage that they could muster, the family walked into the throne room, with Blue Typhoon pushing the stroller, and made their way to Princess Celestia, who was sitting on her throne, with Raven following close behind them. Along the way, the couple couldn’t help but make special note of how the princess was sitting on the throne. She seemed relaxed and had a small and friendly smile on her face as she watched the family walk up to her. This actually caused the couple to relax a little bit, but they still couldn’t help but feel nervous as they came face to face with the Princess. When they reached the front of the throne, Blue Typhoon rolled the stroller a little bit to the side, walked up to Storm Chaser’s side, and bowed to the princess along with her husband. Cloudchaser, meanwhile, just stared up at awe at Princess Celestia and didn’t really pay attention to what her parents were doing. Raven walked up to the steps of the throne in order to be by the princess’s side. A few seconds after Blue Typhoon and Storm Chaser bowed, Princess Celestia bowed her head slightly in response before saying, “Please rise, my little ponies.” The couple did as she said and stood back up. “Now, I understand that you have a foal with you that isn’t a pony and was wondering if I knew what it was, correct?” She said with a kind voice. “Yes, your highness, he’s right here.” Blue Typhoon said as she immediately flew over the stroller in order to grab the baby. The baby started to stir when her hooves made contact with him and slowly began to wake up and started to whimper as a result of his nap being interrupted. When Blue Typhoon was sure that the infant was secured in her forelegs, she carefully landed next to her husband and tried to calm to calm the baby down. Princess Celestia hid her surprise very well. The only change that occurred in her facial expression was a slight change in the size of her eye pupil. She could see why Raven had described the baby to her as some sort of hairless ape, but at the same time, she could tell that the baby wasn’t any type of ape that was native to Equestria. After determining that she needed to take a closer look at the baby, she asked, “May I take a closer look at it?” “Of course, princess.” Blue said as she flew up to the Princess. As she flew up, Celestia began to lie down in her throne with her forelegs laying out in front of her. She motioned with her head for Blue to put the baby in the space between her legs. “Here he is.” Blue nervously said as she placed the baby. When the baby reached it's destination, he looked up at the princess and stopped the fidgeting he had been doing since he woke up. He stared with wide eyed amazement at the princess smiling down and inspecting him. After a few seconds, the baby started to reach up towards Celestia’s face in an attempt inspect the princess through touch. Celestia gave a chuckle at his actions. “What is it little one?” She said in a motherly tone. “Do you want to know what I am?” She then reached her head down towards the baby, and began to give him a small nuzzle. The baby, in return, began to laugh when the fur on her muzzle began to tickle him. It was when he laughed that Celestia was able to determine one thing about him. He definitely wasn’t some sort of thoughtless creature; he was a very sentient baby that acted more like a pony than an ape. After she was done nuzzling the baby, she looked up at the family and announced to them, “While I can say that this foal is as sentient as a pony foal, I unfortunately can’t determine what species he is. May I ask how you found him?” Storm Chaser stepped up towards the princess and calmly explained, “Well, you see your highness. We were at home last night when a flash of light and a loud noise occurred in our backyard.” “Did you say ‘a flash of light and loud noise.’?” Celestia asked with concern. “Yes ma’am, and when it subsided, I heard crying outside where the flash came from. When I went outside to inspect it and found a crib with the foal crying inside of it.” He continued. Celestia spent of few moments trying to come up with some theories as to how the foal had arrived. One theory had immediately come to mind when Storm Chaser told her about the flash of light and loud noise. She frowned when she thought about that theory and what it meant for the strange infant lying in her grasp. She looked up at the family and noticed that they were waiting patiently for her response, except for their daughter, who was trying to find a way to entertain herself. Knowing that she wouldn’t understand what Celestia was going to tell her parents, she turned to Raven and said, “Raven, why don’t you bring the little filly over there out to the gardens to run around.” Cloudchaser immediately perked up at the prospect of going somewhere fun. “Oh, can I go, mommy? Can I go? Please?” She begged her mother. Blue Typhoon looked to her husband to see what he thought about having Cloudchaser go out to the gardens. After he nodded to her to let her know that he was okay with it, she turned her daughter and said, “Okay, you can go. But only if you behave and do whatever Miss Raven tells you to do. Understand?” “Yay, thanks mommy!” Cloudchaser exclaimed excitingly as she hugged her mother. Raven took that as her queue to lead Cloudchaser out of the throne room. Cloudchaser flew circles around the unicorn as was led out of the room, resulting in all of the adults to laugh at her antics. When the two left the room, the couple turned back around to face the princess, knowing full well that she wanted to speak to them in private. Celestia facial expression had changed to a more serious look as she began to spoke, “I have a theory as to how he arrived in your backyard, but it’s a theory I take likely.” The couple had different thoughts to what the princess had just told them. Blue Typhoon wondering how this affected the infant and was worried about his fate. Storm Chaser, on the other hand, was more worried as to how this could possibly affect his family than how it affected the infant, even though he wanted him to return where he belongs. After a few minutes of thinking, the couple nodded to the princess to let her know to continue and that they were listening. “I theorize that he appeared through a form of portal that was connected to another world.” Celestia said bluntly. The couple didn’t know how to react. They were surprised by the information Celestia gave them, shocked that the baby was an alien, and confused by the idea of a portal appearing in their backyard. After a few moments of silence, Storm Chaser decided to continue the conversation. “Another world, your highness?” He asked curiously. “I’m afraid so.” Celestia continued. “My theory is that a high influx of magic had built up in your backyard to momentarily connect our world with his. During the time of the connection, a portal opened that allowed access between the two worlds and closed when the magic powering the portal had dissipated. The portal that opened in his world must have opened where his crib was as he was resting and sucked him in to our world, meaning his arrival in our world was nothing more than an accident. While having a portal open like this is very rare, it also occurs randomly, making it impossible to predict when another portal can open.” “So there’s a way to bring him back to his home.” Blue said hopefully. Celestia, however, looked down sadly at the infant smiling up at her and spoke, “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t send him back.” Whatever hope the couple had built up slowly began to fade when she told them she couldn’t bring her back. “But…why?” Blue Typhoon asked sadly. “There are a few of reasons.” Celestia sadly informed. “One of them being that I unfortunately don’t know any spells that can allow me to travel to a different world. Even if I did, I don’t know what world he came from and the chances of bringing him to the wrong world are very high. Either way, I’m afraid to say that this foal will be forced to live in Equestria for the rest of his life.” Both Blue Typhoon and Storm Chaser didn’t want to believe what they heard. Of all of the things that they wanted Princess Celestia to tell them, they were hoping that she would say that she knew a way to get him to his home. Instead, all she could tell them that the child would be separated from his actual family for the rest of his life. “So, what will happen to him?” Storm Chaser asked out of curiosity. “Well, I think that the best thing for him would be to be officially adopted into a family. Not only would he be provided with a loving family, but he would be given his Equestrian citizen through the adoption.” She informed as she looked down at the child. “I can only hope that there’s a family out there that’s willing to adopt him.” “Well,” Storm began, “I’m sure whatever family ends up adopting him will be glad to-.” “Princess, could you excuse us for a moment.” Blue Typhoon suddenly interrupted. Storm Chaser turned to his wife to ask her what she was doing, only to stop as soon as his eyes laid eyes on her. Blue Typhoon was giving him the fiercest glare. A glare that screamed ‘we are going to talk and we are going to talk now!’ Not seeing any other way out of an argument with his wife, he turned back to the princess and quickly said, “We’ll be right back.” He then turned towards the exit and quickly trotted towards the door with his wife close behind. We they reached the door; Storm Chaser opened the door and held it open for Blue Typhoon to walk through. As soon as Storm Chaser closed the door behind him, Blue Typhoon almost immediately aggressively asked, “So, you’re just going to get him out of your mane as soon as you could. Is that what you were planning?” “Look, I didn’t think that we’d be coming to Canterlot this morning to learn that we’d be adopting somepony into our family.” Storm said defensively. “Are you saying that you want to adopt him?” “Of course I want to adopt him!” She yelled back. “Weren’t you listening to the princess earlier? She voiced the concerns for him to have a loving family before voicing her concerns about him becoming a citizen. So tell me, which of the two do you think her highest priority right now?” “I’m not saying that he doesn’t need a loving family. I’m just making sure that you really want to go through with this.” Storm said. “Why wouldn’t I be? Why are you having problems with adopting him? Is it because he isn’t a pony?” She yelled accusingly. “It’s not because he isn’t a pony. It’s because…I really don’t know how to think about him.” Storm admitted. “What do you mean?” Blue asked, beginning to calm down. “I just conflicted, Blue. On one hoof, he’s hasn’t shown us any reason to fear him yet, we know that he can at least eat fruit, and Cloudchaser seems to like him so far. But on the other hoof, we don’t know if he needs more than fruit to eat, how he’s going to act when he gets older, and what that means to safety of both Cloudchaser and you. I’m just…scared I guess.” He shamefully admitted as he dropped his head to look at the ground instead of Blue Typhoon. There was silence between them as Blue allowed Storm's words to sink in. She knew that he had a point and had every reason to be scared. But she didn’t want fear of the unknown to be the reason they turn the infant away. Besides, he wasn’t the only one that was scared. Knowing what she needed to tell her husband, she walked up to him, used a hoof to lift his head up to meet his gaze, and said, “You know something, Storm?” “What’s that Blue?” He asked sadly. “…I’m scared too.” She admitted, causing Storm to perk up immediately. “Heck, I’m scared of some of the same things you are. But that foal deserves a chance to be with a family and I’m not going to let my fear of what I don’t know stop him from getting that chance right now. Besides, we both know that most ponies are going to turn him away for not being a pony.” “You think we’re ready to adopt a foal we don’t know about?” Storm sincerely asked. “Were we ready when Cloudchaser was conceived?” She jokingly asked back. Storm chuckled before responding, “No, I don’t think we were.” He paused for a few seconds before asking, “You’re absolutely sure about adopting him, right?” “Oh, I’m pretty sure.” She slyly said. “But what I want to know is, are you willing to give him the same chance I’m giving him?” He thought about it for a few moments, trying to figure out if there was something other than his fears to keep him from accepting the infant into him family. But after a few minutes of thinking, he couldn’t think of anything. So he turned to Blue and said, “Alright, I’ll give him a chance. What’s the worst that could happen?” “Thanks, honey.” Blue said, giving him a small peck on the lips. “Shall we tell the princess what we decided?” “The sooner we tell her, the sooner we get the paper work out of the way.” Storm jokingly replied, causing Blue to chuckle. They entered the throne room again and walked up to Celestia, who was currently playing with the baby by levitating objects in front of him. When she saw them approaching, she set the items to the side and gave the baby a quick nuzzle so that he wouldn’t cry over her ending her magic show early. She then looked up at the couple and asked, “I take it you had a productive talk?” “We did your majesty. And we decided that we’d like to adopt the colt into our family.” Storm Chaser announced proudly. “Is that so?” Celestia asked. The couple nodded back. “Very well,” she said as she carefully levitated the baby over for Blue Typhoon to hold. “I think we should start with the paper work immediately.” She then stood up to lead them to her study to get the forms started. But before she began walking, she suddenly asked, “Oh by the way, did you come up with a name yet?” “A name, princess?” Blue asked curiously. “Of course, we’re going to need put at least something on the adoption and citizenship forms. We can’t exactly put “the infant” under name now can’t we?” Celestia asked in a joking manner. Storm chuckled before responding, “Well, to be honest, we didn’t really come up with one. But I’m pretty sure we can come up with one before we start writing out the forms. After all, it’s not like we were expecting a child to fall down from the sky, right Blue?” When Blue didn’t immediately respond, he turned around to see her looking down at the colt as though she were deep in thought. “Is something the matter, Blue?” He asked with concern. “…Sky.” Blue finally said. “What?” Storm asked in confusion. “Sky Chaser. I think we should name him, Sky Chaser.” Blue said smiling down at the child. “I…kind of like it actually.” Storm admitted. “What do you think, princess?” “I think that it’s a fine name.” Celestia said in agreement “Then it’s settled then!” Blue exclaimed as she place the child back into the stroller. “Welcome to the family, Sky Chaser.” She sweetly said as she gave her now adopted son an affectionate nuzzle, causing him to laugh in response.