It didn’t take Prism long to find a good place to settle down on the sandy beach. A single large cloud had drifted in from the sea, and gave her the perfect spot of shade and cooler sand. Prism unceremoniously flopped onto the sand, letting the granules start to worm their way into her left side’s fur. She let her gaze rest lazily upon the small crashing waves. The gentle sounds of the ocean help clear her mind of unrelated thoughts.
With a deep breath, her mind wandered years back to when she had still been a blank flank. Prism recalled one of her earliest memories of her staring in a mirror with a cardboard cone crudely taped her to forehead and flared her little wings. I was so sure I’d just grow up to be like momma back then. At least for a little while.
Unbidden as always, flashes of Night Wind pounced over the cute memory. News snippets, documentaries of her sister, food riots, the fear of a renewed war, and every little spec of Flare’s legacy came crashing around her. All of it was far too old for alicorn meditation to diminish, not that Prism would have wanted to.
She did it all, just to become an alicorn, and then doomed the world to spite momma.
A dark cloud started sinking over her thoughts as those very same headlines and historians one by one, replaced Night Wind’s name with Prism Flash. Instead of Night Wind’s cruel maddened face, Prism saw her own take it’s place. Only, it wasn’t really her, but a macabre demented parody.
“You are not your sister, Prism.” Twilight’s stern words sounded so very faint, like it was echoing off a far wall compared to the series of eye witnesses, news broadcasters, and the common pony saying the same thing.
“Prism Flash just proves the Sparkle bloodline should have ended with Twilight herself.”
The imaginary voices grew louder, angrier, and all the more biting each time they repeated it.
“Hey, Sea Pony!” yelled a mildly angry stallion from behind her. Prism snapped out of her turmoil and jumped up to find Firefly fuming at her. He was wearing a helmet akin to a full head gas mask, but surprisingly no suit to be found. “I hate to say it, but you got me good.”
It took Prism a moment or two to get her mind on the present and chase away the haunting fears. “Did I now?” Prism sauntered over to look at Firefly’s cutie mark to find it covered in paint in the form of a pink shlong. “Ha! Now the world knows you for what you are.”
Firefly let off an unamused snort, but let a side-grin show through. “I gotta hoof it to ya, blackmailing Silver into helping you boobytrap my rover with a paint gun to spray me down. That’s cold.”
“That wasn’t blackmail, just gentle persuasion to balance the books.” Prism stuck her tongue out at him before refocusing on her handiwork. The longer Prism looked at Firefly’s new cutie mark, the harder it was getting to not fall on the ground and howl with laughter. For now, she compromised with chuckling so hard it was making her ribs hurt. “Oh wow, I can’t believe you walked out here without a suit just to show me!”
“Yeah well,” he waggled his new cutie mark at her, and hopped a step closer with each shake, making Prism jump away. “I wouldn't be able to chase you down, and rub it on you with a suit on now could I?”
Prism hovered well above the unicorn’s head. “I think I’m going to pass on that one thanks.”
“And here I was, thinking it’d make up for having to go through decon.” Knowing Prism could weasel out of almost any unicorn’s telekinetic grip, he opted to just go to the sea and use some water to wash off the offending mark. “Of course you realize, this means war!”
“As if we weren’t already at defcon one,” Prism shot back with heavy snark as Firefly splashed away the water-paint. Another playful barb was at the tip of her tongue when a different thought struck her, making her tone shift jarringly to a sober one. “Hey, Firefly. Can you put the war on hold for a bit and let me ask you something serious? You, just pony to pony.”
He paused in his cleaning to give her a quizzical eye. “Depends on what you’re asking.”
“Fair enough.” Prism landed in front him, letting the surf soak her legs. “Momma says I have a chance to become a full alicorn, and I don’t really know if I should take it.”
Firefly gave her an incredulous stare boarding on insulting. “Why in blazes are you asking me? Why not, you know, your family?”
It was hardly an unexpected question, and one Prism was ready for. “Because I already know mom wants me to be one, and Praxia would just parrot whatever mom says. There is no point in asking Spike about it, because he would just say something clichéd crap like ‘do what your heart tells you to do’, or something stupid like that. And Silver would try to say some romantic junk to get under my tail one day.”
“And what makes you think I wouldn’t either?” Firefly teased with some ‘come hither’ half lidded eyes. When Prism’s only reaction was to look at him with a derisive frown, he tossed out his joking tone for a defensive one. “You gotta give Silver more credit than that.”
“Which is why I say ‘one day’. Silver's a lotta things, but he’s no master of romance, and he’s terrible at making a move.”
“Guess I have much to teach him still. Either that or you’ll have to make it for him.”
The idea rolled around Prism’s mind a bit along with Silver’s toned flank and handsome fang-filled smile. The mental image of Silver wearing his grease stained engineering uniform threatened to get Prism too heated around Firefly. You know what, he has a point. Silver did a bangup job on that paint-gun. But I’ll have to coordinate with Praxia first. It took Prism a moment for her train of thought to correct itself. “Stop distracting me, I’m being serious about this alicorn thing.”
Firefly shook his head and dropped the subject to return to restoring his other side’s cutie mark. “Fine whatever. So you want to give me this monumental piece of advice that could alter the future for millennia to come, if not for all time? Thanks for the pressure.”
Prism couldn’t help but to get a bit of satisfaction out of irritating him. “Essentially,” she replied sheepishly now that she heard it being so bluntly put from someone else. Well, that and it was a good excuse to hide her infatuation with his friend.
Firefly was silent for a while, long enough to finish cleaning himself, step out of the water, and begin casting a drying spell. “At the end of the day, there’s only one stake I really have in your choice: the success of the colony.
“So I’m telling you straight up to go full goddess, if not for you or your mother, then do it for the rest of us.”
Firefly started cantering back to where he had parked the passenger rover, only to discover the thing had already been recalled back to the hub. You gotta be kidding me! Well, I’m contaminated anyway, I guess.
With no other alternative, he started making his way to the nearest airlock, all the way to the houses a kilometer away. “Hold up a bit!” Prism caught up with him and flew alongside. “Why do you think me going alicorn would help the colony? I could end up like another Night Wind for all you know.”
Firefly scoffed with quite the flourishing wave of a hoof. “Pah! That mare was damaged goods from day one. No offense to the princess, but Fire Shrine was probably riddled with so many issues she’d make the funny farm look sane. I mean, by Elysia, she was killing mice and birds at age five! I’m sure you know a lot more than the documentaries told everypony.”
“Are you saying momma screwed up raising her?” Prism barked back with more defensiveness than she intended.
If Firefly was put off by the acidic words being thrown at him, he made no show if it. “Did I say that? No. I’m just saying there’s only so much nurture can do to shine up a rotten turd of a pony. I don’t know, maybe some cult or secret society messed with Shrine's mind or maybe she just got the worst genetic lottery winnings in the world, but one way or another, she’s nothing like you.
“You at least think like a rational mare.” Prism was rendered speechless, having no way to respond, at least until Firefly spoke again. “At least as rational as a mare can be. I mean, damn girl, picking a fight with Ruby over getting a water assignment? You know you’re lucky she didn’t break a bone right?”
A solid smack to his shoulder made Firefly misstep to the right, but he cackled at Prism’s ire. “You’re lucky you’re wearing that helmet or I’d give you a black eye. She knows damn well I hate water assignments.”
“Thanks for proving my point.” He leered at her growling visage before continuing as if the exchange had never happened. “So with that insanity not being an issue, in general,” Prism growled at him, “the only thing left is reassuring the rest of the colonists.”
“How does me being an alicorn do that? I’m barely in my twenties for Luna’s sake.”
Firefly let his gaze wander up to the sky in some vain hope of spying the dying light of his homestar. “You paid attention in history class right?”
“I don’t think any of us would be here if we didn’t ace those classes,” Prism answered with confusion as to his direction. “What of it?”
“I had a really smart professor back home, Green Mile he called himself. He read in between the lines a lot and you know what he taught me?” He let the silence hang just long enough to see if Prism would answer his rhetorical question. “We ponies thrive under the rule of alicorns. Not because we can’t rule ourselves, they weren’t always around after all. But because they are the force multiplier that made Equestria the superpower it was. As my professor used to say ‘they are the rock that the rest of us can look to, as the ideal to model ourselves after.’
“He was one of those ponies that campaigned feverishly to make the Seeds take at least two princesses at a time, just in case something happened to one of them.”
“Oh I get it,” Prism interrupted with a tired groan. “You just want me to be plan B.”
“Is that a bad thing? I mean, if you discount the wars, Equestria was having a golden age until the sun started dying. We had five alicorns and ponies were never happier. With them at the head, there was nothing we couldn’t do.”
Prism shot him a death glare. “How can you just discount the wars since the first one happened right after that freak Grogar killed Discord, and then the last one that saw my damned sister killing Princess Flurry Heart! I wouldn’t call that a golden age.”
Firefly groaned in exasperation and pinched his brow. “Because I was making a point that flew right over your head, featherbrain. Take a minute to actually think about it. We had five princesses. The average pony knew our future was secure, and our enemies were scared to death of us. You take it down to brass tacks, our princesses could guide us through anything. And wouldn’t you know it, they guided us right through what shoulda been the extinction of our entire friggin species by dragging us out of the Apocalypse Depression and motivating us to build the Seed ships.”
Prism’s ears fell along with her ire. Firefly allowed a small grin after seeing the gears were starting to turn in her head. “But now that you mention it, I’m glad you brought up Flurry Heart cause I forgot something. Her death told the world that alicorns can die. Or at least a lot easier than anypony suspected.”
“So glad my twisted freak of a sister could give you more ammunition.” Prism kicked a rock against the side of the airlock.
“Look, all I’m trying to say about it is that means Princess Twilight is vulnerable. If something happened to her without you as a replacement, I guarantee you this colony will go down in flames.” He stepped up to the airlock and pressed the cycling button. “So if you want my answer, Prism, if you can’t go alicorn for yourself, or for you family, then do it for the rest of us. For better or worse, we need you.”
The door hissed open and he took a step inside when she finally answered. “You really think it would be for the better?”
He stepped inside, but didn’t close the door yet. “Prism, you are a wise ass. That means you’re an ass that is at least wise enough to know you’re not ready for this. But then again, I’d be telling you a whole different answer if you were arrogant enough to think otherwise. So stop bitching and get on with it already.” He slapped the button and let the door close with Prism left outside. He left her to do what the Sparkle bloodline did best: think. Only now, she had the outside perspective she wanted.
By the time Twilight returned to the alien enclosure, the heavy fog of dread permeated the room. Twilight saw the biologists were in a tizzy. Some were arguing over a collection of screens with Twilight catching something about better food. Card Shark was near the front with Praxia in a heated debate. Beyond them, the alien was completely ignoring the language hologram. He was in the middle of ripping the floor apart with hands and arms glowing orange with magic. The discarded pile of thin tubes and nutrient paste told Twilight he wasn’t going anywhere soon except through more machinery.
“Card Shark, mind telling me why our guest is trashing the food dispenser?” Twilight cantered slowly forward as the scientist started sweating bullets. “I mean, I can probably guess, but I’d rather hear it from you.”
“Sensei, our guest took one taste of the, I hesitate to call it food, but as soon as he did he started yelling at our translator. When he didn’t get a good answer, he started ripping up the dispenser and I’m guessing some choice vulgarity along with it.”
Card Shark tactfully interposed himself between Praxia and Twilight right as the princess stepped in close. “Your highness, I assure you this is just a minor setback. I’m sure our guest must be used to finer cuisine, but until we can get some scans on his biology during digestion it’s all we can do.”
Twilight gave him an unimpressed lifted eyebrow and looked up at the growing collection of ruined panels, tubes, and machinery. The holographic mare was attempting to verbally dissuade him, but the alien completely ignored her.
Taking it all in, Twilight swiped a hoof in front of her, silencing Card Shark’s excuses. “Praxia. It looks like I’m going to have to take a more personal approach. Somepony fetch me a rebreather. If words won’t help, maybe we need to try something else.”
With her rebreather in place, Twilight Sparkle teleported several meters behind the alien. The noise of her spell brought the alien’s attention towards her. His eyes lingered on her for a few moments before shifting to her long mane that waved slowly upon an ethereal wind. With her wings folded against her sides, she had an otherwise thin profile.
Without so much as a dismissive grunt, he ignored her and continued his work in expanding the hole in the ground.
Probably thinks I’m just another hologram. “Hey, stop that!” Twilight stomped her hoof hard enough to rattle the debris around the alien.
Without even turning to face her, the alien grabbed a roughly flat plastic panel and threw it at Twilight. She grabbed the thing before it even left his hand and slammed it down in front of him.
The alien turned back towards her, and cocked his head. There was none of the dismissiveness in his eyes now. He dropped the latest piece of ripped tubing, but the orange glow over his arms remained. Twilight in turn, kept her horn wreathed in lavender mana.
With cat like grace, the alien’s two lower hand steepled his fingers to create a strange hand sign. With the spiking pain of mana build up at her forehead, Twilight’s mana was being cut off from her horn at the base, causing her readied spell to fall apart.
She recoiled from the headache, which faded after she stopped trying to power her horn. She grumbled and rubbed the base of her horn with a foreleg, and squinted her eyes. Combat training from the wars kicked in at the familiar pain. Damn, I left myself open! With a single powerful flap of her wings, she pushed herself away from the expected physical blow, and landed in a low stance with her wings quickly folded back against her body.
However, the alien had not attacked. Instead he side stepped away from the hole, keeping his lower hands in the same gesture. Once he was clear of the debris, he used his upper right hand to gesture her forward. He quickly assumed a combat stance with his legs apart and his two upper arms already forming a new gesture.
Twilight grumbled to herself and at the blockage of her horn. What is this, ritual combat? Let's hope he doesn't expect me to know his rules.
Standing her ground, Twilight flared her wings and bent her head down so her primaries could touch her horn. “You think I’m going to play your game?” Channeling her magic through her wings and into her horn, Twilight cast a scalding hot cone of mana across the entire other half of the room. It left the alien no room to escape as Twilight narrowed the edges towards him, increasing the heat with every inch. This should get him to surrender mostly unharmed.
As the edges of the spell closed in around him, the alien first started to charge Twilight, only for her to mold the shape of the spell to build a wall flush with the ceiling and floor between them. He skidded to a halt, sweat already starting to drip down. A few beats later he let go of the first magic gesture to start forming a new one with all four hands.
Good luck, buddy, I’ve already accounted for mana blocking this time. A satisfied smirk crossed Twilight’s face as she felt his blocking spell attempt to surround her wings, but her alicorn magic easily rebuffed his efforts.
With the walls closing around him, He formed a new gesture. His hands and fingers formed what Twilight could have sworn was akin to a child’s drawing of a house. Orange light blasted out from him in a sphere, shattering Twilight spell as if the threads had been cut.
Red warning lights and klaxons started resounding throughout the lab and in Twilight’s personal display. The warnings were only there for a few moments before the orange force permeated her and flew past.
Dozens of the still intact panels of the room opened up with emitters telescoping forward. A moment later, every inch of the walls and floor came alive with a deep blue energy field, cutting off the alien spell’s effect from leaving the area.
Twilight patted herself down, looking for any sign of a wound, but found nothing amiss aside the fact that her personal display was offline. Her horn-circlet was completely unresponsive, radio included. Great. I hope Praxia doesn’t let Spike crash in here with a squad. If this is important to the alien, then I need to do this alone.
Keeping an eye on the alien, who was walking towards her at a careful pace, she tried to get a feel for her magic. Strange. I can channel it through my horn again, but I can’t form a spell, or even cast through my wings. She turned her attention fully back to the alien, and stood up to her full height, noticing that her mane and tail were still flowing in ethereal wind.
“So, your kind have an analogy to the Steel Field, eh? Execution and method of dampening might take me an hour to figure out, but the effect is the same I see.”
“Vel, seva tolura dera!” As quick as a flash, the alien took away his right upper arm and reformed his gesture into an oval symbol, but the field he was emitting wavered for only a second. “Nulrea da!” he cried before charging forward at a speed Twilight was unprepared for.
The distance however, allowed her to recover and she built up a chunk of earth magic in her left foreleg and blocked his punch, knuckle to hoof. You think you’ve beaten me because I can’t project magic outside of myself? she mused with a challenging grin, throwing the alien off balance. Twilight threw his arm back, and with the grace of hundreds of years’ practice, flipped him around and wrapped her other hoof around his neck into a chokehold. With a few flaps of her wings, she went bipedal long enough to wrap her left hind leg around both of his legs and dropped him to his stomach with her on top of him. The landing had enough force to break his oval hand-sign. He tried to grab at her, but she forced his arms to the floor with her wing-arms.
“You know, you are a lot like a skinny minotaur with your magic out of the way.” Twilight relished the thrill of adrenaline, and tightened her holds just enough to keep him from squirming too much. I wonder if I can get you to be a sparring partner later. “Now I can sit here speaking what amounts to gibberish to you, or you can calm down.”
Her soft yet steady tone was all the alien needed to know about his current situation. “Ja, vul tin.” He went limp, with his orange magic going out. Keeping her telekinesis at the ready, Twilight released her holds on him and climbed off.
After she moved away, he was able to deftly spring back up to two feet. Twilight stepped sideways, but kept her eyes on the alien to put some distance between them.
The alien steepled his hands, but the orange glow did not return. Twilight's gaze remained steady until she felt comfortable with the distance.
Lighting her horn, Twilight took a page out of the first alien artifact’s playbook. She created a hologram of herself eating many different kinds of food, then the alien eating the same food. Sometimes the small alien was fine, other times he turned green, choked and died.
The alien remained motionless for a bit before pointing at the ground with three hands with deliberate slowness. The outstretched hands glowed orange, recreating the nutrient paste and one of the poisonous entrees.
He recreated himself discarding the paste and eating the poisonous food. His double discolored, but only for a moment before recovering and standing erect again.
“Fascinating. You really think you can handle any kind of food, do you?”
Apparently, the alien understood the concept of a rhetorical question, and remained insistent on the better food by moving it front and center while clearing away the rest of the hologram.
Sometimes I really hate making risks like this. Twilight banished her projection, and made a show of touching her ear and slightly looking away and tried to access the radio. She didn’t get very far when her personal display failed to respond. Duh, he knocked it offline. With the correct sequence of mana jolts, the horn-wrapping circlet started its rapid boot sequence, allowing her personal display to materialize with dozens of alerts that she squelched in an instant.
~“Praxia, how’s everything outside?”~
Praxia tried to keep her voice professional, but Twilight easily picked up on the changeling’s relief. ~“The mana field disrupter forced life support into self-diagnostics mode, but we’ve got everything back under control on our end. I’m afraid Commander Spike wants to have some choice words with you later.”~
~“Oh he’s just doing his job. A backrub and a ruby will cool his heels.”~ Twilight glanced at the alien who had also banished his hologram and waited calmly, hands at his side.
~“I’ll have to remember that,”~ Praxia deadpanned. ~“Judging by your game of charades, can I assume we’re getting our guest some better food?”~
~“Correct. Get him something tasty, but keep a stomach pump ready. If he keels over, I can alway wrestle him again to eat the paste until we know more about his physiology.”~
~“I’ll get a collection of vegetarian and meat options, and let him pick.”~
~“Get him some soda and alcohol too. After what he’s been through, maybe a stiff drink is in order.”~
Praxia hesitated in her reply. ~“If you think it wise. I’ll get somepony to fix the floor later after things have calmed down.”~
~“I do.”~ With Praxia giving a short acknowledgement, Twilight mentally summoned the holographic translation hologram. She let go of her ear and pointed at the ethereal mare, and created a magical projection of the mare and a plate of food together.
The alien turned to the hologram and growled dismissively at it, but eventually walked over to it to restart the vocabulary translations. Twilight nodded to herself with a smile. Well that was something. I think I should get started on writing a medical journal about him tonight.
Using the wait time for the food to arrive, Twilight easily smoothed things over with Spike with a few promises of being more careful. Once the food arrived, she left the alien in the moderately capable hooves of Card Shark, and stepped out of the lab to find Prism waiting for her several paces away and lost in thought.
Twilight let the door close silently behind her and stepped forward. The warning lights and klaxons had long since fallen silent, leaving dozens passersby in the hallway recovering from a mild state of panic. The passing scientists brightened considerably upon seeing Twilight was calm and as regal as ever.
Twilight eventually got done reassuring all of the passing staff, and reached her daughter’s little corner just over twenty minutes later. By then, Prism was yawning at the late hour. “Looks like Alf gave you some trouble in there.”
“Alf?” Twilight asked with a questioning half-grin. By now, the majority of the ponies around them were returning to work, giving them a measure of privacy.
“Alien Life Form,” Prism replied with a short chuckle. “Silver came up with it, and I thought it was cute.”
Despite it all, Twilight took the chance to laugh briefly. “I’m sure he won’t mind until we can get his real name.” Twilight’s personal display gave her a pop up, noting that Sawbones wanted to speak to her about the incident. I can get back to that in a bit.
“Say, um, momma,” Prism started with an effort to sound more confident. “I know what I want to do about the whole alicorn offer.”
Twilight’s eyes went wide, and she quickly cast a privacy bubble around them to prevent eavesdropping. “Already? I expected you to take a week at least to think it over.”
Prism jumped into a hover so she could be eye level with Twilight. “Yeah well my training instructor in the Pathfinders taught me the… merit of quick thinking, trusting my gut. Plus I needed some advice from outside the family.”
Twilight’s blood ran cold with goosebumps prickling her skin. This was it. The moment she’d been purposely keeping out of her thoughts in fear of letting them eat away at her. In a way, she was glad for Prism’s quick decision, if only because Twilight would never escape the panic inducing suspense if she tried to get some sleep. Please don’t be another Gleaming Topaz.
Centering herself as if she were back on the throne dealing with another mundane court supplicant, Twilight kept a warm yet reserved face. “A wise action.”
“Thanks. So ahh.” Prism chided herself for hesitating when she had already made her choice. “I’ll do it. I’ll go full alicorn.”
A smile so broad and toothy it threatened to cleave Twilight’s mouth in two, leaving Prism a little disturbed. Twilight cheered and roped her daughter up into a crushing hug. Twilight started spinning around with Prism gasping for air. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yeees!!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw a few flabbergasted staff staring at her with disbelief, but she ignored them all. Nothing else mattered but her gasping daughter. Gasping?
Twilight stopped spinning and let Prism go, allowing the young mare to collapse, and heave for breath on the floor. “S-sorry about that.” Twilight used her magic to get Prism back on her hooves
.
*Cough* “Can’t say, I didn’t expect that,” Prism teased between breaths. “So what do I have to do?”
Sawbones’ request for a call had changed to a text message on her display. That can wait just a bit longer. “First things first, Prizzy. You have to go down to the hydroponics bay. An acquaintance of mine, Apple Kuchen, is a master with earth pony magic. The sooner you unlock that part of yourself, the sooner I can help with your unicorn magic once your horn starts growing.”
“Okay, two things: why are you not teaching me earth magic, and how do you even know I’ll even get a horn naturally?”
Twilight held up a restraining hoof as a beacon appeared in her display. “Hold on tight, dear.”
Prism obeyed, allowing Twilight to teleport both of them into shuttle’s passenger bay. It was a cramped affair, barely large enough for five ponies. She stuck her head into the cockpit to find the pilot. “Take us to the hydroponics bay’s roof access.”
“Aye aye, princess.” Pilot banked the craft to the right, while Twilight claimed a seat next to Prism.
“To answer your first question, when I ascended, I got both my pegasi and earth magic all at once, so I never had to try and learn how to produce it, just use it. I’ve never had success with my previous daughters who were trying to create earth magic, so I’m trying something new by leaving you in the capable hooves of Apple Kuchen, our chief farmer.”
“What? So a more natural approach to teasing it out of me or something?”
Twilight nodded in acknowledgement. “Precisely. Don’t worry though, I’ll be assisting you directly with unicorn magic.”
“You planned this whole thing out months ago didn’t you?” Prism deliberately broadsided Twilight with the accusation. Twilight remained passive to the ‘I got you” sneer Prism was giving her. “With Alf giving you so much trouble today, there’s no way you had time to arrange this.”
Twilight merely leaned against the side of the cabin and shrugged. “Come on, Prizzy, you should know me well enough by now that I always plan ahead. No matter what your decision was going to be.”
Prism was brought up short. “You even had a plan if I said no?”
Twilight’s expression fell, with her ears dropping slightly and and a wafer thin humorless smile crossed her muzzle. “I made the mistake of trying to control my daughters with Topaz, Fire Shrine, and a couple others. I like to think I plan around your choices now, rather than planning your choices for you. If you’re that put off by Apple Kuchen’s instruction, I can tutor you personally, or have somepony else do it.”
Ah crap, she’s got that neurotic face of failure again. Prism waved her forelegs placatingly. “No, no. Apple whoever is fine. I’m sorry, I guess I just buy into the hype about your string pulling and all that.”
That’s a bold faced lie. But I bring it on myself. Twilight acted as if she believed Prism and took a long deep breath. “It’s alright. You’re just too smart to fool, eh?”
“Ha! Darn right!” Prism lept at the chance to bring some jovality into the room. “I got too much of your brains to get tricked that easily.”
“And so you have,” Twilight said with a happy titter. A ping from the pilot and the gentle rock of the shuttle stopping told them both they had arrived. A loud clank heralded the left side of the cabin opening up to reveal an airlock into Hydroponics. “Don’t worry about Miss Apple Kuchen. From what I hear, she’s a kind teacher.”
Prism made her way into the airlock. “That’ll be a nice change of pace from Pathfinder Academy. See ya later, momma.”
“Later, sweetie, have fun!”
Twilight’s last two words sent a spike of purified two hundred proof terror down Prism’s spine. She barely looked at the receiving room to bang on the closed airlock. “Wait, wait a damn second, what did you do!?”
Prism banged on the door and tried to call Twilight on the radio, but her mother only responded with a goofy cartoon smiley face waving at her. “Achtung!” yelled a rough and steely feminine voice behind her.
Prism’s boot camp mindset lept to the forefront at the harsh tone, making her spin on her heels and snap a crisp salute. Her brain caught up before she announced her name, allowing her to remain silent. Standing before her in the cramped receiving room was a weathered earth mare of nothing but muscle, bone, and carried herself like a career drill sergeant. Her name ‘Apple Kuchen’ was stenciled on her crisp green uniform. Her fur was the color of wood were her close cropped pink mane screamed ‘I mean business’ to Prism. “So this is the prodigal daughter of our princess?” She spat on the ground.
Prism couldn’t help but imagine herself back in basic bootcamp with her old instructor baring down on her as Apple Kuchen marched in close to scrutinize Prism like she was a piece of meat. “Ma’am, yes, Ma’am!”
Apple Kuchen narrowed her eyes, searching for even the slightest iota of sass, and finding none. “So you’re capable of showing respect, eh? Let’s see how long that lasts.” Apple Kuchen pulled away a little while still remaining close enough to put the fear of Tartarus in Prism. “You’ve already gone through boot, Pathfinder, so I will be expecting you to hold up to the standards of your company.
“You listen and you listen good. The princess thinks you got the all mighty gift of earth magic swirling untapped within that featherweight body of yours. Personally though,” Apple looked down at Prism’s large alicorn wings and snorted dismissively. “I think that pegasus blood runs a bit too deep in you, so I expect you prove me wrong. Do you understand me, Pathfinder?!”
“Ma’am, yes, Ma’am!” Prism yelled back with returning determination. Unlike her first few months of training, Prism found a certain thrill in Apple Kuchen’s heavy handedness. The same thrill she felt in the later weeks of basic and Pathfinder field training.
“Good, we start immediately!” Apple turned to leave the room, her booming voice remained as stern as a mountain. “With me, Pathfinder. We’re going to try a little earth pony physical therapy. And no flying from here on out until I order otherwise. As far as you’re concerned those feather dusters don’t exist.” Apple led Prism onto a set of sturdy metal catwalks running along the ceiling for sprinkler maintenance. “Congratulations, you’re a bonafide earth pony until I say otherwise, or you quit and go crying home to your momma.”
Prism was so floored by the declaration she misstepped, causing a noticeable break in the normal cadence of her hoof-falls. Apple Kuchen spoke without turning around as she guided them to the elevator. “Speak up, Pathfinder.”
Glad I didn’t have to ask for permission. “Ma’am, wouldn’t it make more sense to let me keep using my pegasus magic? An alicorn is a balance of all three types after all.”
“Can’t exactly balance with something you don’t have now can you?” Apple Kuchen shot back as if it was a stupid question. “You might pull a miracle out of your back address and get that crown. Until then, your ass belongs me.”
“Yes ma’am!” Prism looked down at the dense canopy of multicolored crops below, ranging from predominantly green to various colors of fruits and vegetables. I really hope I’m not going to be stuck doing farmwork all the time though.
A few minutes earlier, Twilight hummed to herself after successfully passing Prism over to her new teacher. Should be old hat for her.. She allowed herself an evil cackle and flared her wings to get into a lighter mood to answer Sawbones’ text message.
“My eternal beauty, in light of your smashing success with our alien guest; I have a surprise waiting for you in your new house at eight tonight.
Love, Bones”
Twilight checked her clock to find it was twenty minutes until eight. She sat back in her seat and hummed with genuine curiosity. “Now what could he have planned so soon?
“Pilot, take me home. I always did prefer being early.”
Twilight’s house was the very first one in the center block of housing that reached ten columns wide and currently fifty rows deep. The next three rows were still under construction in various stages of completion. With dusk approaching, the shuttle came to a halt at one of the pony-sized entry points, just large enough for the craft to dock and allow Twilight to transfer inside the house’s small dome.
The squat two story house still somehow managed to have a warm atmosphere due to the soft purple paint with an egg-shell white tiled roof. Dim flickering light danced behind curtained windows. Twilight’s first thought was to call Sawbones, but she stopped herself just short of doing so.
No. Let’s see what kind of surprise he has for me.
Twilight’s heart started to beat faster with suspense. This was the first time she had lived in a non-castle since her ascendancy to alicorn. He probably rushed together a bouquet and a quick-fix meal. Some bits of romance and maybe a little fun.
Ultimately it was the thought that mattered most to Twilight, not how many times she’d been wooed by the same tactics. The moment you let things go stale, is the moment the joy of love and life fade away.
Twilight checked her clock to find she was ten minutes early. Good enough.
Cantering over with a spring in her step, Twilight opened her front door to find the short entry hall dimly lit by artificial candles and rose petals trailed back towards the dining room. Soft music played while the tantalizing aroma of dinner wafted across her nose. Okay, there is no way he did all this in less than an hour.
Deciding to play her role of surprised mare, Twilight followed the trail of petals, telekinetically picking them up and popping each one in her mouth as she went. She barely ate half a rose’s worth of petals before poking her head into the dining room to find Sawbones hastily trying to put two covered dishes on the cramped dining table. “Hello, Sawbones.”
Twilight saw the jump of surprise in his step, but he smoothly corrected it, and finished telekinetically depositing the two silver covered plates on the candlelit table. He turned and bowed deeply with a flourish of his left foreleg and a spark of teal magic from his horn. “Ah, my lovely princess. You caught me in the act.” He looked up at her and gave a sly wink. “I didn’t have time to get your drink ready.”
“I’ll let it slide,” she replied teasingly as she slipped inside the dining room. Aside from the harsh white kitchen light, everything was decorated by the flickering soft yellow candlelight. The table had a white cloth it didn’t possess this morning, and there was a spread of fine cutlery arrayed before her. Yet what surprised her was the ketchup and mustard bottles that looked more fitting for a grubby diner than a romantic evening.
She took her seat, giving Sawbones time to race back into the kitchen for the drinks. “I’m afraid as much as I could use a celebratory glass of ‘45 La Prance, I’ll have to stick to non-alcohol.”
“I fully agree,” he called out from the kitchen. The rattle of a few crystal glasses and the refrigerator closing heralded Sawbones’ return with two wine glasses filled with dark bubbly drinks and a large plastic soda bottle poorly hidden behind him. “And as such, I had to choose which dish would best celebrate your skillful negotiating skills with our alien friend.”
Twilight’s belly rumbled at the mystery meal behind the silvery dome. The smell was familiar, but it wasn’t distinct enough to identify it. “So tell me, did you really rush all this out in an hour, or were you just expecting me to succeed?”
Sawbones chuckled at himself and rolled the chilled soda around in his glass. “Truth be told, I was planning on this being a complete surprise, but I figured Voyager might have told you I snuck in, so I used your skillful use of foreign policy as a cover story.”
Strange. The AI should have told me since I hadn’t labeled Sawbones as a free access user to my house. She filtered the alerts she had gotten over the day and found that the AI had actually given her the warning, but it had been lost in the warning alarms when the alien shorted out part of the lab. Looks like I got too distracted.
Filing away the issue for later correction, Twilight hummed aloud. “Well, well... either way, I’m impressed so far. So,” Twilight began while looking at her dish cover. It mocked her with the promise of food that she and her unborn child were practically drooling for. “What sort of fine dining are we having this time?”
Sawbones adopted a flowery, haughty tone that tactfully mocked the arrogance of the old Canterlot aristocracy. “Only the absolute finest meal, found only in the most exclusive VIP restaurants known to ponikind.” He wrapped his teal magic around the handles on both of their dish covers. “I had to call in a few favors, make a few concessions, but I got the recipe for the culinary masterpiece of the last age.”
He pulled the covers off, allowing a cloud of steam to obscure the meal for a final second. “I give you, the Burger Princess Hayburger™!”
Twilight gasped in pure delight and gluttony at the sight of six hayburgers arrayed before her. With the cover gone, she could smell the tangy pickles, zesty onions, perfectly crisped hay, all of it fresh off the farm. Even the buns themselves looked like they had been taken straight out of the old commercials it had that perfect golden toast color.
Sawbones grinned in victory at the stunned princess drooling over the greasy, messy burgers before her brain kicked back on. Burger, now! In a flash of movement, the first burger was loaded to the brim with katsup. With a half-manic look in her eyes, Twilight mauled the first hayburger in half, and moaned in culinary delight with katsup already pooling around the corners of her mouth.
Great success! Sawbones cheered to himself as he began eating his meal in a much slower manner.
Twilight Sparkle gorged herself on the helpless burgers like a wild child. Bits of fried hay and pickle threatened to fly away from her voracious eating, only to have it snatched back with her magic, and into her waiting maw. Despite all the historical records and even a few paparazzi video recordings, nothing had prepared a dumbstruck Sawbones by the sight of the culinary assault. His first burger remained barely touched in his magic as he watched wide eyed at a side of Twilight he had up until now, denied could have existed.
All six of her hay burgers were simply gone. No crumbs, not even stray streaks of Katsup remained to tell the tale. “You going to eat those?” The question snapped Sawbones out of his stupor to follow Twilight’s gaze down to his two burgers.
“Ah. No, you go ahead. I have more waiting in the kitchen.”
With the beast mostly sated, Twilight was able to be much more tactful in telekinetically snatching Sawbones’ two grease bombs. Her logic and sense of modesty came screaming back along with her cheeks burning red. “I-I’m so sorry.” She covered her mouth with her hooves, and became painfully aware of the gobs of katsup that now smeared the back of her hooves. “I usually don’t do that over hay burgers, or anything.”
Sawbones started chuckling, softly at first, before progressing into a jovial deep belly laugh. Twilight was caught between pouting at his laughter, and relief that he wasn’t thinking she was going crazy. Or maybe he doesn’t mind a little crazy. L-let’s hope for the latter.
Wiping a tear from his eye, Sawbones’ giggling died down enough for him to speak. “How about we chalk that up to pregnancy hunger getting the better of you.”
Despite it all, Twilight grinned sheepishly behind her hooves, and let them down. “You won’t hear me arguing with that medical diagnosis.” Falling back into culinary delight, Twilight wiped her mouth with one of Sawbones’ burgers and continued to eat with relatively more grace.
“Oh by the by.” Sawbones’ magic lit up and a small rectangular wrapped gift floated over from a nearby table to come to a stop next to Twilight. “I got you something.”
The magical aura around the gift shifted from teal or purple as Twilight cooed in anticipation. It didn’t take a 400+ year old genius to know it was a book. He probably researched my favorite genre too. “Ahh. A science journal, I presume?”
Sawbones simply gestured with a hoof for her to open it. Needing no further prodding, Twilight tore away the wrapping to reveal a book titled ‘The Wandering Changeling’.
“Mmm, not quite. What you have there is the very first novel to be written and published entirely on our new homeworld. I wasn’t sure if you’d prefer digital or paper copies, so I got you both.”
Twilight saw her display pop up with the e-book added to her personal library. That was it. Sawbones had performed the last bit on Twilight’s private checklist. Oh yeah, he’s a keeper. His secret trial period over, Twilight gave a sly grin while using a napkin to finish cleaning her mouth. She took the new book and waved it around a little as she sauntered over to Sawbones.
“You know what I’ve always found fun?”
Sawbones cracked a wry grin and arched an eyebrow at Twilight’s breathy tone. “Many things, I trust.”
Twilight gently pressed the book on Sawbones’ chest. “Me, being the lonely librarian, and a certain special somepony being the naughty patron trying to return an overdue book.”
Sawbones caught on quick as a flash and adopted a worried look. He took the book back into his magic and made a show of patting himself down, checking for saddlebags that weren’t there. “Heavens, I seemed to have forgotten my wallet. I don’t have any bits to pay the late fee.”
Cliche be damned, Twilight knew what she wanted. With a sultry grin, Twilight ran the edge of her hoof along Sawbones’ jawline, and peered longingly into his warm teal eyes. “Well then, I guess some other form of payment will have to do.”