Wherein There's Another Birthday
I have to admit nothing removes the edge and bite from the evil plot of invading aliens quite like hearing it in the form of a completely spontaneous rap number. As serious as our situation is I find it pretty difficult to avoid snickering. The fact that Surprise is intent on providing backup vocals does little to salvage the dire atmosphere that an announcement like this should probably invoke. The Chaos Spirits' plan is relatively simple; they had been in the process of breaking loose from Tartaurus years ago ever since Cerberus left his post and the seal on the gate began to decay. It was a slow process, one that Equestria had been dealing with for some time. First with the changeling invasion, then the escape of the boogies on Nightmare Night, and finally culminating in Queen Erinys herself shattering her bonds. That last event had proven to be the most catastrophic, of course. It had taken the combined effort of Queen Celestia and Discord to banish Erinys back to Tartaurus, though not before Queen Celestia had been gravely injured. We already knew that was the moment Discord decided to spring his plan and ki-
God, I still have trouble even thinking it. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and re-order my thoughts.
Alright, we knew about Discord's betrayal. What we didn't know until now was that he had also moved the gates of Tartaurus. With the world being thrown into a state of absolute disarray nopony had bothered to go make sure the gates of Tartaurus were still intact. And where did Discord send the gates? Why here to Earth, of course. Where else?
And now that magic is becoming possible in earnest here on Earth the Chaos Spirits are beginning to get the wheels turning on their master plan. This is the awful fate they had originally intended for Equestria only to be thwarted by Discord's fickle nature. I should have realized it sooner, honestly. It should have been obvious as soon as I saw the changes to the land itself. The foul magic hanging in the very air and seeping up through fissures like pus from a sore.
Tartaurus itself is sequestered away in its own pocket universe. Or at least it was.
The Chaos Spirits are trying to drag that vile place out of its fetid pit and into our world. They are, quite literally, seeking to create Hell on Earth.
It makes sense, honestly. When a Chaos Spirit is destroyed they don't die, not really. They're banished back to Tartaurus. In the ancient days before Tartaurus was sealed it was just a matter of them crawling back out of the loathsome fissures between their world and ours. But if they could merge Tartaurus into the Earth, either of the Earths, then putting them down would be nearly impossible. They would ravage the world virtually unopposed. And that disgusting looking black gate is the key. The link between Tartaurus and Earth. The festering wound spreading corruption to everything around it. And the more vice the gates are surrounded by the faster they spread their taint. This little town had been a test. A proof of concept to make sure everything is in working order. A small area the Chaos Spirits could crush under their heel and allow the corruption to spread in a relatively controlled environment.
I guess they hadn't counted on the humans fighting back or the ponies escaping. A small smile tugs at the corner of my beak. What had those monsters been thinking? That ponies would be utterly terrified of humans? That Equestrians would try hiding away and refuse to help? That we would fight amongst each other and hand the world over to them on a silver platter? No. Oh no, certainly not. Not when so much is at stake. And not when friendship is forged.
Once the expositional rap number is done it takes everyone, human and pony alike, some time to digest what we've learned. Eyes turn to the black gate. To the source of the town's misery and misfortune. The look in everyone's gaze speaks volumes. That vile thing won't be long for this world.
“It shouldn't be difficult to destroy,” I speak up as I step closer to the infernal device. “Any complex machine will be fragile, thaumatic or otherwise. We can probably just-”
Have you ever seen what it looks like when several angry unicorns all unleash their fury on something? It's a pretty spectacular sight. Even a relatively simple telekinetic bolt spell can cause some real damage when there are enough of them flying around. To say nothing of Star Field's absolutely monstrous telekinetic abilities. In a cacophony of shimmery magical sounds and cracking stone the black gate is beset upon by a fusillade of magic. As the damage mounts there comes a low groaning noise not terribly different from a tree creaking in the wind and then all at once the machine implodes into a twisted, mangled mass of material. There's a pop like the cork being pulled from a champagne bottle and the whole mess of debris collapses into a heap.
The rift is gone.
“Alright everyone, look alive,” Star Field says. “We don't know if the rest of the Chaos Spirits are going to try hitting us here or turning tail and hoofing it. So we're going to have to be ready for anything.”
Murmurs of agreement filter through the ponies and humans in our little assault party. Next step? Fortifying the airport terminal. Whatever furniture can be found is heaped against windows and doors to provide cover against the venomous weapons of the changelings. I help hauling rows of seats around while Surprise begins decorating the walls and ceiling with garishly colored garlands and streamers. As is oft the case I carefully shove the oddness to the back of my mind and try my best not to think about it. Surprise is just being Surprise and that's that.
I give a grunt as I hoist a rack of chairs off the floor, rising up onto my hooves and spreading my wings to help keep myself upright. This probably would have been a lot easier to lug around as a human but that ship sailed a long time ago. With my body on auto-pilot doing menial manual labor my mind begins to wander. What do we know about this demon plot? First of all this place was a test run. Somewhere they could control relatively easily. So then what's the next logical step? That seems obvious enough. Set up gates in a large city. The more humans you pack into a smaller area the more the crime rate tends to rise. That's just a fact of human nature, sadly. And that means more vice to feed the black gates.
That would be bad.
“Hey! Geneva, right?” someone yells at me. I turn toward them and blink a few times. “You're standing right in the way. Move it.”
Oops. Got a little lost in thought again. I give an apologetic laugh and hop aside.
“I'm still not totally clear on exactly where we are,” I admit. “Where's the nearest large city from here?”
The female human who had shooed me out of the path of construction replies simply. “That would be LA to the south west.”
Oh feather dust.
“Hey Surprise! We need to get moving,” I yell to the pegasus hanging a brand new disco ball from the ceiling.
She grins down at me impishly. “Oh I know! Once we've got the dance floor ready we'll all be moving a whole lot!”
I do my best to hide the snerk with a cough, though Surprise clearly isn't fooled. “Not getting our move on. Getting moving. Bits to biscuits the Chaos Spirits are busy setting up more of those black gates in Los Angeles. Somepony needs to get word out about the invasion.”
“Ooh, good idea,” Surprise replies. “But wouldn't a phone call be easier? Or are those still not working?”
One of the humans nearby reaches into his pocket to pull out his phone. After a few moments of fiddling he shakes his head. “Sorry, no signal.”
Blast. So much for the easy way then. “Alright that decides it. Surprise? We're flying to LA, low and fast. As close to the ground as we can manage. We need to find someone that we can warn about what's going one.”
Surprise snaps a hoof-salute and whacks the disco-ball in the process causing innumerable little spots of light to begin dancing around the room. The swirling lights and silly pegasus manage to attract Star Field's attention.
“So this is where we part ways?” she asks. “For the best. You Wonderbolts aren't the sort to stay in one place very long, are you?”
As if to support that assertion Surprise has already gone zipping though a relatively unobstructed window.
“Thanks for the help, Wonderbolts. Harmony willing we'll meet each other again back in Equestria after this mess is cleaned up.”
I wince slightly at Star's farewell. I'm still not sure if I want to go back to Equestria. It's my home, sure. But so is the United States. Just one more reason to hope and pray that the Elements will manage to find some way to make traversing the divide between universes a possibility. If anypony can figure that out it would be the Alicorn of Magic.
“As always I'm glad to help. Keep looking around the terminal for any more thaumatic constructs like that black gate. I'd bet my primaries that there's a spell matrix hidden around here somewhere casting a disrupting spell over the area to mess with communications. I know there's magic that can ruin sending spells. These demons must have figured out how to modify it to attack phone and Internet connections,” I say.
Star Field gives a nod and I take off after Surprise. We both veer toward the school on our way out of town to pick up some supplies for the journey. After all, there's nothing worse than getting yourself dehydrated in flight. The air out here is so arid that gathering some cloud for water really isn't an option. Thankfully the school isn't that far and the skies are clear. I was a bit worried that we might run into some changelings, or something worse, on the way but it seems increasingly likely that the rest of the Chaos Spirits simply pulled out when they discovered that the airport had fallen.
I drop out of the sky and shove the front doors of the school open. The immediate feeling of air conditioned coolness is heavenly and washes a not altogether inconsiderable portion of my weariness away. I've been eating through quite a bit of magic today, certainly a taxing exercise. I'm sure I would have collapsed from exhaustion if I had tried to do this yesterday. I simply didn't have the expertise at the time. That thought is enough to cause me to pause mid-stride.
Yesterday I didn't know how to properly use my pegasus and griffin magic aside from some of the simplest tricks that I had stumbled upon when I was still a filly. I didn't know that a knew, but now I do. It's such a strange feeling. Like flying to the market and suddenly remembering that you already have enough cabbage. The only difference is that I hadn't forgotten about produce, I had forgotten about my life. I know it was all because of Discord's darn curse, but prodding at the memories of lacking memories is still really strange.
“Come one Geneva, you're here for a reason,” I mutter with a shake of my head.
With a clip-clop on linoleum I head toward one of the classrooms all the mares had been snoozing in. The backpack my mother had lent me should still be in there and it'll be invaluable for filling up with water bottles to carry with me on the flight to LA. Unfortunately both my ham and cookies were gone by the time I had recovered the backpack during our rescue. The changelings had probably eaten them. Stupid changelings. The cosmos seems bent on yanking meat out from between my teeth every time I get some and it's growing as aggravating as it is expected.
I pick up my pack and hold it up to my beak for a deep whiff. I can still smell the ham and cookies on it. Of course it stinks of the monsters that had fiddled with it and my own sweat as well. But most importantly I can pick out the lingering trace of my mother's aroma. Remembering people by scent had seemed bizarre to me over the past few days. But with the coming of my old memories recognizing someone's scent has become as second nature as associating a voice with a face. My mom... This was all for her. For her and everyone else. We'll put down those demons and show them what happens when nasties come crawling up out of the abyss around here.
Pack secured and fire in my heart I trot into the cafeteria. There's excited chatter surrounding none other than Surprise as she provides a rather animated rendition of everything that had gone down at the airport. I can't help but grin at the rising spirits and the rekindling hope. Children, elderly, and a few guards had stayed behind the hold down the fort so to speak and the knowledge that the day was won was proving to be a soothing balm to their worry. I left Surprise to recite the evil plot rap from memory while I began filling up my pack with provisions.
That's when I spotted Bobby Pin sitting off by himself with another pony looking cross, agitated, and generally negative. He wasn't seriously still upset, was he? Between the nature of Windegos being explained to me and my memory of the spirits returning I had assumed that the monsters had just blown some negative feelings he had about humanity wildly out of proportion. But from the way he kept glowering at any non-pony that got close I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't a more deeply ingrained resentment. I consider trotting over to say hello, but we're on a time table here and I don't think I want to waste too much time on a racist grump.
Speciesist? Geeze I hope that doesn't become too wide spread. Both ponies and humans alike have a tendency to close ranks against creatures that they consider to be 'other'. If we're going to stay here on Earth that might become another hardship we'll have to deal with. Of course, we have the ever-present tool of heart-stopping adorablity. That should help to soften the impact.
“Alright Surprise, let's get going.”
Into the skies again. There are few feelings quite like flying under your own power at well over a hundred miles an hour. Few feelings like the rush of the wind through your feathers and the scent of the air in your nostrils. It's all coming back to me, the feeling of flying. Almost funny, really. All at once it's no huge deal and the most amazing thing ever. Learning to fly for a second time had been glorious. There's a sense of wonder there that's difficult to recapture any other way. Another unintentional blessing in Discord's curse, I suppose.
The desert races by less than twenty feet below us, a blur of dusty grit and pungent smelling sage brush. There isn't much in the way of obstacles or barriers out here aside from the odd power line but the massive steel transmission towers are easy to spot from afar and even easier to avoid. Flying this low has always been a favorite of mine. When you're a mile or two above the ground you don't get the same feel of speed that you do when the ground is zooming by so close that one wrong turn will leave you kissing the Earth and plowing furrows with your face. I highly discourage that, too. The face-based furrow plowing. I crashed like that once and it wasn't too much fun. Sure magic can take the edge off, but skidding through the ground like that still isn't pleasant.
It's necessary for me to slow my pace a bit so Surprise can keep up. She's not sluggish by any means, far from it. But Surprise hasn't ever been the fastest pegasus on the team. The Wonder bolts have their speedsters, their stunt fliers, and their wielder of weather-based spectacles. When she puts her mind to it Surprise can put on quite a visually stunning show, but a visually stunning show doesn't usually lend much in the way of blinding speed. That's okay, though. We should still be to our destination in no time and the slower pace makes it easier to talk.
“What do you think, Surprise?” I call out to Surprise. Not over the howl of the wind, though. After all one of the first tricks a Wonderbolt is taught is how to create a nice little bubble of calm air around themselves. It would be pretty hard to yell out orders with the wind screeching by at four hundred miles an hour.
Surprise doesn't look at me, her eyes are on the terrain. Taking your eyes off the prize at this speed and altitude is dangerous after all. But I can tell by the way her ear just swiveled my way that she heard me.
“About the invasion by these demons. Discord's curse. All of this nonsense,” I say. “You've kept a great attitude about everything regardless of what's happened. I know you're pretty unflappable and you don't always make it clear what you're thinking to everypony else, but I'm curious.”
My friend considers that. She flaps her ears around, no doubt in a display of exactly how unflappable she is. That's Surprise for you. Finding some kind of silly gag to play regardless of the gravity of the situation without even saying a word.
“We take what comes,” Surprise finally says. “And we don't worry so much about what happened since we can't change it. Except of course if we find some kind of crazy time machine that can send us back in time to warn ourselves in the past to avoid the trouble in the first place but then that would create a temporal pair ah socks-”
“Paradox,” I correct.
“One of those, too,” Surprise agrees. “But I guess we just have to learn from what happened and keep going! There are always going to be surprises. Some of them will be good and some of them will be bad and we enjoy the nice ones and find something useful to take away from the bad ones. It's just like the letters Princess Twilight always used to send to Queen Celestia.”
“I suppose so. If I hadn't been born here on Earth I wouldn't have ever met my mom or dad. Or Lewis or any of my other human friends,” I reply.
“See? Exactly. I'll bet something good will even come from all these nasty Chaos Spirits running around and causing trouble,” she says.
“I've got to admit I have some trouble imagining how that would work out,” I say with a sigh.
“Think about it!” Surprise giggles. “If all the ponies started popping up all of a sudden how do you think all the humans would react? They would focus just on the ponies and all the worry would have been aimed right at us like a giant gloomy party-popper! But since the bad guys showed up at the same time that means we get to help the humans buck 'em to the curb and they'll see that Equestrians are their friends!”
Huh. I effortlessly juke to the side to avoid getting splattered against an incoming transmission tower. “I hadn't ever thought of it that way,” I admit. “That actually does make some sense. Though it's still pretty awful for anyone that the demons catch or hurt.”
“Yeah...” Surprise sighs. “Just because some good comes out of something bad doesn't make the bad any less bad.”
“Hey Surprise? I don't think I've asked you yet but... how are you feeling about the mental changes? I've got all my memories back by now and the whole process has been really strange. And a little bit enlightening, too. If I had to describe myself now I think my mom's summery works best. I'm like a soul smoothie between the old Geneva Pressure Front and Lance Hopkins. Like the two of me have been blended together until there's something completely new,” I say.
“What flavor are you?” Surprise asks.
“If I had to guess I'll go with chocolate and strawberry. That's my favorite,” I reply with a smirk. “Really though, how would you describe yourself now?”
“I was Surprise Party the pegasus. Then I was Ivory Liggett the human. Now I'm Surprise Party the pegasus again. All the human stuff was something I did and remember but it's kinda different. It was me, but not. Not really,” Surprise says. She scrunches up her face and tries to find a better way to explain it. “I guess if you're a smoothie them I'm a Surprise Party cupcake with Ivory Liggett frosting. The frosting is part of my delicious sugary goodness, but it's still different from the rest of me.”
I meet her reply with silence. So... what does that even mean? Thinking back I've got to admit that the way that Ivory acted and the way Surprise acts are really pretty different. They have some similarities, sure. But they are still pretty distinct. I hadn't really said anything about it since Surprise never complained or seemed worried in the least. But that's generally how Surprise is. If she's ever really worried about anything she tries to cover it up with jokes and laughter. Ivory was generally a bit more up front about things.
Was... Does this mean Ivory is gone? Surprise still has her memories, obviously. But Surprise and Ivory are just so different. Is that zany girl I grew up with another casualty of Discord's curse? Or is the retention of her memories enough? Now I'm starting to get an idea of how mom felt about me. Is my friend really still who she was? Well obviously not. She's Surprise now. In the same fashion I'm not who I was anymore, either. Not really. But I still feel like me, as far as I'm concerned. And I still consider myself to be Lance. Sort of. Partly. Close enough, anyway.
“Genevaaaaaa~!” Surprise sing-songs. “You're thinking too hard about it!”
I blink back at my friend and she supplies me with a silly grin.
“What happened happened, right? Right! Maybe we can change it and maybe not, but I'm still your friend and you're still my friend so what are we worrying about?” Surprise reasons. “I haven't forgotten about anything we did here on Earth together. I'm just leaning more toward the oooooooold me and you're right in the middle!”
Huh. I guess that's one way to look at it. Though... “I guess I'm just thinking about ponies like Star Field and Bobby Pin. Ponies who lost a big chunk of who they were.”
“Last time Discord got friendship beamed it fixed up all his silly shenanigans. Even all the chocolate milk that had seeped all over my rug! Maybe when the Elements finally give him the old one-two everypony will get their memories back. Maybe that'll even cure the ponies that got all long-faced,” Surprise reasons.
Ugh.
I wish she hadn't reminded me of Tough Luck. We have no idea how many ponies have fallen into non-sapience, but as far as I'm concerned one is too many. Hope for restoration, though? That I can get behind. It would just be nice if we had some clue regarding the whereabouts of the Elements and what they were doing to confront Discord.
In the distance little blocky blots of color begin to bloom. Signs of civilization are picking up in earnest now. Roads, billboards, fences, and even the occasional home. We pick up a little altitude since people tend to get somewhat antsy when magical mythical animals fly scarcely overhead at a few hundred miles an hour. Though special consideration is made to be certain that we don't fly too high. Wouldn't want another repeat of the missile incident, after all. The number and density of houses is picking up steadily and before long the area is beginning to look downright suburban. Pools, palm trees, and plenty of drought resistant plants seem to be the order of the day. The neighborhoods have a character wholly unlike the temperate rainforest I call home up north. My attention is caught by a few silvery balloons drifting skyward above what could only be a birthday party in full swing in one family's back yard.
My attention is caught again when I realize that Surprise isn't flying next to me anymore. Oh good lord have mercy. I can just imagine what Surprise is about to do. Pop out of the cake or a gift and startle everyone. The last thing we need right now is to sow any unneeded fear in the population with unpredictable antics. We need to get people to trust Equestrians and first impressions are really important! Doesn't she know better than to-
Oh. Wait. There she is knocking politely on their fence's gate. Huh. False alarm, I guess. That pegasus, I swear. I give a sigh, shake my head at her party-preoccupation, and dip a wing to join her. I overshot the house by quite a bit and have to circle back around. By the time I'm coming in for a landing Surprise is already in the middle of a conversation with one of the responsible adults presiding over the festivities.
“Yupper duppers! I'm a certified party pony guaranteed to bring happiness, cheer, and smiles to any social event I'm attending!” Surprise says.
The man on the other side of the gate is giving her a look that's hovering in the emotional no-mare's-land between bemusement and amusement. “Is, eerr... is she with you?” he asks, jerking a finger toward me. Surprise nods without even looking. “And what does she do?”
“I make magical fireworks,” I speak up without hesitation. This is far from the first time that Surprise has pulled me along to a party unannounced without any prior knowledge of it. She zeroes in on festivities like a fruit bat on fresh water melon. And that meant any time we were working together and had an hour or two to spare between missions she would find a party to crash.
Ponies appreciated it the vast majority of the time. What colt or filly wouldn't want a couple of Wonderbolts to come stumbling into their party with tricks to show off and a few gifts to throw around?
Apparently Surprise doesn't think things are moving quickly enough and so she trots out the big guns. She makes her best soulful filly face at the human. He manages to last about eight seconds before his resolve cracks. “Alright, you two can both come in. But only because my wife used to be a fan of you people when she was younger.”
A wise choice on his part, I would say. No one wants to rouse the ire of their special somepony.
Surprise and I both come trotting in and we're instantly in the middle of a storm of attention. There's nothing in either of the worlds I call home that can quite match the enthusiasm of children faced with something new and interesting. We introduce ourselves and in a matter of moments Surprise and I are both surrounded by a gaggle of six and seven year olds eager to pet us, climb on us, and ask us an increasingly silly landslide of questions.
I'm met with an odd case of cognitive dissonance here. Not quite as bad as my spiritual breakdown that I'm still struggling to sequester to back of my mind lest my shoddily constructed compromise crumble under too much scrutinize, but it's still jarring. Back in Equestria I really didn't like being around the little ones. I found them... annoying. Here on Earth though? I enjoyed working with them quite a bit. I actually volunteered to help with Sunday school for goodness sake! So now I'm sitting here smiling awkwardly and grappling with how I feel about the situation while several of the children are busy playing with my wings.
I eventually settle on shoving down my old anti-youngster feelings as best I can. Being able to have fun with kids is a good trait, right? One I should embrace. There's nothing wrong with kids aside from them being loud and annoying and smelly and having a propensity to make huge messes everywhere. Especially messes with carefully organized notes and stringently tuned equipment.
Huh.
That's probably why I had issues with kids back in Equestria. My cousin would stop by and bring his foals with him and they would without fail wreak havoc on my work with a thoroughness that would make Discord proud. But these children aren't those foals. And this party isn't near any easily-destroyed, sensitive equipment. This is just a party. Where everypony is having fun. And I like having fun with foals at parties or religious gatherings or anything else that allows me to spend some time with the adorable little mischievous miscreants.
I do. I really do. I don't need to stress over this. I don't need to dislike these kids for a slight from another lifetime. You can have fun here, Geneva. Just relax. I take a deep breath and then whoof it out when a child leaps onto my back. I give a bit of a startled squawk when I feel her clamp her little arms around my neck.
“You're really fuzzy!” she announces gleefully.
That's some vital information, right there. I'm not sure whether or not I would have been able to determine my own fuzzy/nonfuzzy state if a six year old girl wearing a frilly pink, water-logged tutu over her one-piece bathing suit hadn't told me so.
“Is that so?” I ask, the slightest bit of mirth creeping into my tone. “You're sure that I'm fuzzy?”
“Yep!” the girl giggles as she starts playing with my mane.
“Are you sure you're sure?” I continue. It's the start of an age-old game that anyone who has ever spent any time around youngsters, human or not, should be quite familiar with.
“I'm sure I'm sure,” the girl replies.
“Are you sure you're sure you're sure?” I suspect it's a sort of vengeance for the never-ending cascade of 'but why?'s that children often feel compelled to ask when faced with what should otherwise be a simple explanation. “Because I think you're all wet.”
“Am not!”
To her credit the girl realized what was happening when we were both in mid air. She gave a whoop of glee right before we hit the surface of the pool with a surprisingly reserved splash. I could have splayed my wings out to make it really spectacular, but I doubt rather strongly the host of the party would have been pleased about me drenching the hot dogs.
I really notice the scent in earnest as soon as my head breaks the water's surface. Oh goodness those smell wonderful. Or at least more wonderful than the chlorinated pool water I got up my nose. Much to my surprise the child is still clinging to my back and giggling like crazy. In such a situation there's only one thing to do, really. Paddle around and give her a ride. In retrospect that might not have been the wisest plan. Giving out rides to one child will inevitably draw the attention of other children and almost immediately I'm beset upon with request after request.
Elite Wonderbolt and defender of Equestria?
Ha!
Today I'm a boat.
From military mare stomping Chaos Spirits to a source of amusement for children in a single day. But then... that's how things went back in Equestria sometimes, too. Fight off some nasty monster causing trouble around one of the towns that boarders on the Everfree and then attend a fun-filled party after wards. That's just how it was with ponies. Crushing our spirits doesn't seem to stick. Though with party ponies like Surprise or even the Element of Laughter making their rounds through Equestria it's hard to stay grim.
I swim to the edge of the pool and swap out one child for another. Who would have imagined that riding around on a hippogriff could be such a source of entertainment, right? Surprise is busy making a variety of balloon animals for the kids. Whether she's using a supply of balloons from the party or her own impossible stash I really have no idea, but so long as she's keeping them entertained we're doing our job. This is perfect, really. Once the party winds down we've probably scored a place to sleep for the night and an opportunity to take advantage of Internet access. We really need to catch up on the state of the current pony-crisis around the world. Not to mention find out if there's any news of the Chaos Spirits moving openly yet.
“Hey Geneena?” the little girl on my back pipes up. To make sure she's given proper attention she prods me in the back of the head with a finger. This particular girl is wearing a cute little plastic tiara, likely marking her as the birthday girl and center of attention. What was her name... Tina? Tasha? I should probably find out. “Mommy said ponies with wings make clouds. Do you know how to do that?”
“Oh I know all about making clouds,” I reply primly. This sounds like a blissful opportunity to get out of boat-duty for the rest of the day. “Want me to show you?”
The child nods enthusiastically.
“Alright then, I'll need you to climb off. And the help of my friend,” I explain.
Tina? Tasha? slips off into the water and paddles away while I give my wings a beat to lift myself out of the pool. “Hey Surprise! We're going on cyclone duty. We get to make some clouds.”
Surprise gives a gleeful little giggle and bounces into the air like a helium-filled jack rustle terrier. The concerned looks from a few of the adults present are impossible to miss, so I speak up to assuage their worry.
“Don't worry, we're trained professionals. Wind and air-pressure magic is a specialty of mine. This is just a quick way to get the water into the air,” I say with a reassuring smile.
“Ready to give it a spin, Geneva?” Surprise asks.
How can I pass up an opportunity like that? “I was born ready.”
Surprise quirks her head to the side and giggles. “Okay? But that was a super long time ago. Are you ready right now?”
“Um...” Well. That one caught me with my tail up. “I guess so?”
“Okie doki! Round and round we go!”
I give my eyes a roll and pull into a tight spin with Surprise. It takes a bit of coaxing, but I manage to direct the wind from the cyclone up and away from the party to prevent any decorations from being blown for a loop. Working with other ponies to create a cyclone to suck up water is a fairly basic maneuver. One of the first maneuvers learned in flight school, in fact. Everypony needs to be able to pitch in when water is being siphoned for cloud generation. Of course we don't have any cloud making machines to feed the water into, so we'll have to just do it by wing. Thankfully the process isn't that difficult or magically taxing. It's simply that automating it happens to be pretty simple compared to more complex tasks like creating snowflakes.
Huh. Snowflakes... They just form as natural crystals here, don't they? You get a speck of grit and ice begins to crystallize around it without the help of anypony to carve it into a specific shape. But there's still wild snow in Equestria, too. That nasty blizzard sort that we get up in the Crystal Mountains. I wonder if it forms like the snow here on Earth does? If I ever do get the opportunity to travel back and forth between my two homes that might be an interesting point to investigate in more detail.
“Hey Geneva? Is this enough water yet?” Surprise yells over the howl of the wind.
Oops. Got a little zoned out there again. We've lowered the pool by a little less than a foot. Way more water than we actually need. “Yeah, that should be good. Dip a wing and let's scatter it.”
It takes more than a few loving nudges from a pegasus wing to tease a body water apart into soft fluffy cloud. You really have to get it churned up and seeded with magic. Surprise and I begin pulling away as the blob of water expands into a ever growing sheet of white, then tighter again as we shape it into a puffy cumulus cloud. But that isn't quite where we'll end, not if we really want to impress the party. I shove my whole flank up against the cloud and smash it further, causing it to begin turning a rather familiar shade of purple as it shrinks.
With a snap of my wings I pull away from our new mass of loosely consolidated mist stone and grin down at the group of wide-eyed humans about forty feet below us.
“So. Who wants to try riding on a cloud?”
All the hands go up, adults included.
There's nothing quite like a bed of mist stone to really wow a ground-bound party. Human or pony everyone loves getting a chance to fly. Air rides, cake, gifts (including a large Rainbow Dash plush Surprise had on her person for some reason), and a few games later and the party is winding down. Guests leave, messes are cleaned up, and Surprise asks if she can borrow a laptop to check some things out online. We do have a mission after all. I recline on a lawn chair eating hot dogs while while Surprise clacks away at the keyboard with her front hooves.
“Thanks for making my little girl's special day more special,” Tina says. Tina's the mother. Tasha's the daughter. That's kind of confusing, but after several gaffs I finally got it right. Tina has pulled up another chair along side me to sit in and she's watching Surprise and I as if expecting us to vanish if she makes any wrong moves. Not the first time I've seen people acting like that around us. It's a common reaction by bronies who have gotten their first look an an Equestrian in the flesh.
I flash her a beaked smile. “It was our pleasure. We needed somewhere to touch down and figure out exactly where we stand, anyway. So why not bring a little bit of cheer to children's faces while we're at it?”
“Are all the Wonderbolts like this?” Tina asks. “Do you always stop by and surprise kids at their parties?”
“Ha, no. That's just when Surprise is involved. It's like a moth to flame with her,” I laugh. “Most of the Wonderbolts are pretty serious. I think... I was actually quite a bit more serious before this whole human thing happened.” I wrinkle my brow a bit at that thought. “And I think I'm glad that I lightened up, too. It's amazing how much I've changed. But then I guess having an extra twenty five years of life with no memory of who I used to be can really mix things up a bit.”
That? Is a tremendous understatement.
“I could hardly believe it when a few news blogs started talking about pony sightings. All the old pony fan sites I used to visit are just exploding about all this. I must have watched at least half a dozen different videos of ponies announcing their existence to the world,” Tina says. “I'm still not sure if I'll wake up at any moment or not.”
“I know what you mean,” I mutter. “Hey Surprise, have you got anything over there?”
Surprise glances up from the laptop screen and flips the machine around so I can it. “Lots of people are upset and scared about the ponies. And lots of countries are really nervous too! No one is really sure what this means even though we've told them! Some people even think we're a bunch of no-good liary liars!”
The headline is easy enough to read from where I'm reclining. 'US/Canada boarder on high alert, are pastel ponies the problem?' Somepony must have really made a mess up there. “Anything on the Chaos Spirits?”
Surprise shakes her head and turns the computer around again.
Tina gives me an odd look. “Like that monster from the last episode?”
I nod slowly. “We've run into a few. But between humans and Equestrians I think they've bitten off a bit more than they can chew.”
Tina seems relieved by that and I couldn't be more thankful. I really don't want to explain to everyone that our home is being invaded by demons who want to merge their vile prison into our world. I'm pretty sure announcements like that should be saved until the danger is obvious to prevent panic.
“How do you do that, anyway?” Tina asks of Surprise.
The loopy pegasus quirks her head to the side. “Do what?”
“Type with your hooves,” Tina replies. “How do you types without any fingers?
“Oh that's easy!” Surprise laughs as she adjusts her position so Tina can watch. “See? I just...” Surprise begins mashing at the keyboard with her hooves, causing the machine to print random gibberish on the screen. My friend scowls at the computer as if it had just plunged a knife into her back in the middle of the senate. “You too, lappy? Why doesn't this ever work when I want to show somepony how it's done!”
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Question: What about Ivory/Surprise's human family? Has she gotten into contact with them yet?
The Equestrian infantry, the wonderbolts, and the human militia beat the hell out of the chaos spirits expeditionary force. Imagine if a country's honest to God military got involved.
This story is amazing.
I think this can actually compete with Five score, divided by four. 
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Your comment on the church scene means a great deal to me, especially given your non-religious background. I wanted to make the scene in such a way that it would seem genuine and emotionally compelling regardless of the reader's beliefs or non-beliefs.
Thanks for the grammar comments. I have a friend who has been thwacking me over the head with comma rules of late. Hopefully I'll manage to start using said rules a little more consistently.
On a more general subject, I'm a little over half way through my next chapter and flailing at it ineffectually. With luck it should be ready to post Soon™.
Man keep up the good work I am absolutely loving this story.
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Thanks for the pointing out of errors. Alas, I have the tenancy to miss some things. Hopefully if I get bludgeoned about the head with my common mistakes often enough I might learn something.
As for religious beliefs in fiction, the premise of 5S/4 really seemed to beg for a person with strong beliefs to get inflicted with the Pony Pox and struggle through resolving it with their view of the world. The trick, I suppose, is to be very real and very respectful. Show how it impacts the way they look at the world rather than trying to show that it's right. Trying to put forward a belief (or non-belief for that matter) as right just gets preachy in a hurry.
"we can warn about what's going one.” - No, what's going on.
"I didn't know that a knew, but now I do." -> "that I knew"
Spotted another "Windegos"; I don't think that's how the show spells it.
"my mom's summery" is "my mom's summary"
"I'm still struggling to sequester to back of my mind" - Place a "the" between "to" and "back".
First, you're missing a closing quotation mark. Secondly, that's "How do you type (?)". (Take an s off "types".)
Well, here I am. All caught up.
WOOT! After a week of reading this on and off, I'M CAUGHT UP! I absolutely love this story, it's really rounded out, and the characters are very well-built. Faved! Keep up the great work!
Will this ever be updated again? I am honestly curious.
4120008 Yes, I know she's half pony at this point, but she's not wearing horseshoes.
will we be getting more of this awesomeness?
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Nothing missed, I've simply diverted from the show in a few places. Do keep in mind the premise of 5S/4 was that the pitch bible was based on chatting with Twilight and writing down her pony adventures. And in the original pitch Celestia was Queen rather than Princess.
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Maybe! I've been kinda stuck for a while trying to decide how to relate this story to how things went down in the original 5S/4. This isn't over by any means! I just need to figure out how to continue.
Oh man, so glad I found this story. I can't wait until you update
Bravest warriors fan?
"I can't not put them on!"
a nether good story that shame to have died. a real shame as it really seamed to be going places.
So who is becoming Fleetfoot (the white maned mare that is usually part of Spitfire and Soarin's team)'.
Are most of these minor Wonderbolts part of the Wonderbolts Reserves? Maybe Lightning Dust can have a redemption story where Rainbow Dash convinces her to take the Wonderbolts Reserves entrance test and asks Twilight to help find out what study method Lightning Dust uses best (or we can just watch the History of the Wonderbolts movie and take notes?)
almost 1 1/2 years since update... hope this is continued soon
Update?
5675300
Almost 2 1/3 years since last update. But yet, the 'no 5s/4 rule' still stands! I'm still bummed that the rule hasn't been outdated yet... OHh the Horror!
But really, can't they just let the authors FINNISH the side fics but keep people from making more side fics? Why must my favorite fimfic series go down in flames?!?!
Third best Five Score fic I've ever read (original and Last Crusade win, sorry) but it's a shame it isn't updated. Hopen this keeps on soon. Where are Dust and Silver?
This deserves more likes than it has
Well, that was anticlimactic.
Amazing story! I honestly enjoyed it a lot more than the original fic. The chapters where the main character meets their parents was especially emotional and well-written. Although I think the dialogue is somewhat awkward at times (still better than most fics), it's easy to tell this author knows what they're doing
The comments are correct: it’s a shame this never finished. Maybe you’ll return someday. Until then, good work.
Such a shame this never got updated- was really hooked on the story!