Chapter 1 [edited]
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How to Train Your Batpony, chapter 1
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“Could you run that by me just one more time, Lumpy?” Shadow Dash, a hard-bitten Nocturne ‘retired’ drill instructor stood a few inches away from Optio Pumpernickel's nose while scratching absently at one stumpy ear with the tip of a wing. “I must have wax in my ear. I could have sworn you said that Princess Luna intends to establish a vacation residence in the back of beyond, in a tent." The semi-retired Drill Instructor twitched an interrogatory ear toward the pony he was talking to. Well, most of an ear. The rest of it had disappeared down the gullet of a griffon years before. The rest of his body showed visible evidence of that, and similar encounters, each scar and cross-grained patch of hair telling a story of unflinching fortitude in the face of adversity, as well as one brief encounter with the Equestrian Revenue Service.
Despite being less than half of the D.I.'s age, the bulky Nocturne pony that Shadow Dash was at present haranguing looked no less hard-bitten, and considerably more hard-clawed than his elder. In fact, more than one foal -- and several gullible recent recruits -- had fully bought into the barrack’s tale that Princess Luna herself had sewn his body together from the remnants of several slain Night Guards in some bizarre recycling project. The story was, of course, nonsense. But, the raw recruits could perhaps be forgiven for buying into the tall-tale, considering the patchwork of thin white scars that covered nearly all of Pumpernickel’s body like some demented jigsaw puzzle with more than a few pieces roughly encouraged into places they did not really belong. All mementos of his recent foray into the Diplomatic Service, and a posting to a Griffon kingdom.
Despite what an outside witness might assume, Shadow Dash’s use of the nickname, Lumpy, did not, in fact, indicate a lack of sensitivity, or that the D.I. was a colossal jerk. In truth, 'Lumpy' had acquired his distasteful nickname years before his encounter with Griffon politics, and had given up on any attempt to change it afterward.
“Tent might be a bit of a misnomer--” Pumpernickel Rye took a quick look at Shadow Dash to make absolutely certain he was not wearing his Drill Instructor hat, and therefore was entitled to the title he hated so much "--sir." Trying not to grin at the resulting twitch from his former trainer, Pumpernickel continued, “Comparing the Princess’ new vacation domicile to a common tent is a bit like comparing Canterlot Castle to a fourth story walk-up flat. It would be more appropriate to call it a cloth castle, or even a palace. This ‘tent’ has been lost in the castle’s sub-basement since before Nightmare Moon, and now that Princess Luna has it set up, she wants to play with it for a while. Give her a year or two and she'll tire of it, and we can put it back into storage.
“Still, a tent,” Shadow Dash said with a shudder and the sour tone of a pony who had spent far too many winters huddled inside one of the insidious torture devices, along with a dozen other ponies huddled together in order to share body heat.
It was actually only one winter, but that was one winter too many as anypony who had been there would agree.
Pumpernickel shook his head, and said, "Personally, I think the theater is a bit much, particularly with an orchestra pit of that size, but it was built for the richest sultan in Saddle Arabia. And you have to see the grand ballroom to believe it.
Shadow Dash gave his former trainee a derisive look, and growled, “Horse apples. It's a tent. It's over a thousand years old and probably has ten thousand holes.
“Just the planetarium.”
“I'm bringing a sleeping bag and a cot. I thought you learned in basic that you can’t pull the wool over my eyes.”
“You’ll just have to wait and see.” The younger stallion grinned, wishing he could be there to see Shadow Dash’s face when he walked into the tent’s grand reception hall or the pool-sized bath.
Letting off on teasing the irascible middle-aged pony, Pumpernickel said, “You’ll be joining your little sister in the next day or so, depending on how quickly Princess Luna can get Princess Celestia to accept her decision.” Pumpernickel didn’t bother to mention that Princess Luna’s sister was likely to milk the maximum teasing potential out of the situation before giving in.
“You don’t think that Princess Celestia might put her hoof down on the whole idea?” Shadow Dash asked with a degree of hope that Pumpernickel was only too happy to quash.
“I’m sure she will, if only for the fun of arguing with her sister. I’m also sure it won’t make a speck of difference. In any battle of alicorn willpower, I know who I’d put my bits on. You’ve never really seen Princess Luna when she latches onto an idea with all four hooves, and for some reason, she is more determined than usual on this course of action.”
“When will you be moving the guard detail?”
Pumpernickel’s expression shifted from the mischievous one he had worn while bantering with his old D.I. Looking both annoyed and, very happy at the same time, he said, “I won’t be. Princess Luna has ordered Laiminia to take medical leave due to her delicate condition and put me back on conditional leave until the foal is born.
“Princess Luna’s little sanctuary from the stress and strife of big city living -- Her Highness’ words, not mine -- is to have an absolute minimum of staff, including security. I was lucky to get you in, and that was only because you're Goose's brother, and even then I had to remind her that it would be more than a little difficult for you to train Goose while several hours flight away.
“The princess tends to forget at times that the trip is not as easy for us mere mortals as it is for her.”
The older Nocturne settled deeper into his habitual scowl, looking more like a bulldog than ever. “So, who is there with Goose now?”
“No one at the moment.”
Shadow Dash went very still, and in a carefully controlled voice that sent shivers down Pumpernickel’s back, asked, “Goose is all alone? In a tent? By herself?”
“No, no, and no,” Pumpernickel hastily added in rapid succession. “She is not staying at the Summer Palace at the moment. She is boarding at the Apple’s house till you arrive.”
Shadow Dash let out a sigh of relief and seemed to deflate about two sizes. “That’s good.” A second later, his eyes widened while his pupils shrank. “Apple? You mean Princess Luna has set up this dog and cat show in Ponyville? That Ponyville? Is she cra--" Shadow bit off the next word with a sharp snap and swallowed while looking at Pumpernickel nod his head slowly.
“Well, yes. Where else? There isn’t a problem, is there, sir?”
“No! I mean, no.” Taking a deep breath, Shadow continued in a horribly unconvincing tone of calm and tranquility. "Of course not. I'm sure there won’t be any problem at all."
Pumpernickel frowned and considered pushing the issue, but decided that if whatever was bothering Shadow affected the old D.I.’s ability to perform his duty, he would not conceal it from his superior officer.
Even if just two years previously the D.I. had Pumpernickel flying laps till he puked.
The patchwork guard gave Shadow Dash a reassuring smile and said, "In any case, you don’t have to worry about your sister. Her only problem will be keeping her weight under control. The Apples tend to stick food and hospitality in the same category. She’s likely having a nice peaceful time of it on the Apples’ farm. Just lazing around, relaxing and being waited on mouth and hoof.”
***
The sun was just rising when there arose a terrible clatter in the Apples' kitchen. “Yeah! It’s finally here. My first day of school.” Jake yelled out as he galloped into the kitchen, his wings just barely avoiding sweeping the nearby shelves clean of knickknacks and dry-goods.
“Now, you all settle down, young Jake. No running in the house. Sun ain’t even properly risen yet,” Granny Smith chided him in her creaky voice. She lifted a large mug of tea between her hooves and took a long slurp.
“Would you like a refill, Mrs. Granny? Can I get you something, Prince Jake?” Goose Down mumbled in a soft quiet voice as she eased into the kitchen carrying a bucket full of cleaning supplies. She kept her head lowered and avoided looking anywhere near Jake.
“Listen here, young filly, my girl. I’ve told you to call me Granny. No need to be sticking Missus on the front of it. Might make a mare think you didn’t like her or something. And don’t you go princeing young Jake either. He’s an Apple now, and that’s a sight more important than being a prince. Ain’t that right, young Jake?”
“Yep. I’m an Apple,” Jake said proudly. “Can I have some extra apples in my oatmeal, Miss Goose?”
“Hehehe,” Granny Smith chuckled. “Don’t you mean less oatmeal in your apples, youngster?”
“Right away, Your Highness,” Goose said to Jake, her voice clearer as she set down her bucket.
“Jake! Shame on you,” Applejack chided her new nephew as she and Big Mac wandered into the kitchen. She stifled a yawn behind an upraised hoof. “Goose Down is a guest. You can just wait till I cook up a---” Applejack cut off as she got a good look at the kitchen. “What the hay,” she exclaimed as she swiveled her head from side to side, taking in the entire room from the freshly pressed curtains hanging over the window in the door to the large steaming pot of oatmeal on the stove.
The Apple homestead was not a dump, no matter what certain ponies might happen to say. But it had never been a candidate for Better Homes and Stables either. There was just too much work on the farm, and too few ponies to do it, to give the interior of the house much more than a lick and a promise now and then. Applejack tried for clean but usually settled for it being a little bit shabby during the busy season, which was pretty much always. About the only time she could give the interior of the house the treatment it deserved were the one or two weeks during the year when they got snowed in.
Such was not the case anymore. The scent of beeswax and lemon perfumed the air, and every bit of visible wood gleamed golden in the light of the rising sun. The stove top had been freshly blacked and the copper pots shone from where they hung neatly organized from hooks screwed into the overhead beams. It had been so many years since Applejack had seen the room so spit and polished that she half expected her ma and pa to come walking in the door.
Goose clearly took Applejack’s stunned reaction as disapproval of her actions. She ducked her head and said, “I couldn’t fall asleep last night. I thought that I might as well do something useful instead of just tossing and turning. I’m sorry if I touched things I wasn't supposed to.”
“Enope,” Big Mac drawled as he wandered over to the big steaming pot on the stove and took an appreciative sniff. “Smells mighty fine.”
Jake moved up beside his new Pa and checked out the pot as well. “Apples and cinnamon,” he sighed in pleasure.
“I just followed Mrs… Granny’s instructions,” Goose said, darting a glance at the old pony as if afraid she’d be called to task for taking credit she didn’t deserve.
Meanwhile, Applejack craned her neck and looked down the back hallway. The old wood floor and paneled walls gleamed just as brightly as the kitchen and even the ceiling light fixtures that only Big Mac could reach without a ladder shone free of their normal thin coat of dust. “There weren’t no need of you to do all this,” she said, her voice rather vague due to an avalanche of childhood memories cascading through her mind. She looked up at the top of the cupboards and idly wondered if they were now dust free for the first time since the family was snowed in last winter.
The choice had come down to cleaning, or board games. As the aftermath of family board games usually entailed extensive cleaning, not to mention repairs, they had decided to cut out the middle stage.
Amazing as the transformation was, what really baked Applejack’s biscuits was the fact that the small pony had done all this without waking the household. Applejack wasn’t a light sleeper, but she wasn’t Rainbow Dash either, who could sleep through a thunderstorm, or more properly stated, sleep on top of one. Despite that, she hadn’t heard a thing.
“I’m sorry. I won’t do it again,” Goose Down whispered, and Applejack realized her expression might have been a bit severe.
“Now, now. You don’t have nothing, no how, to be sorry about, sugarplum. You did a plumb good job. For a city girl,” Applejack quickly qualified.
The farm pony’s attention was drawn to where Big Mac was ladling oatmeal into Jake’s bowl. The wonderful smell of warm cereal mixed with her favorite fruit and spice floated across the room, and without even thinking about it, she drifted forward with her nose leading the way. It wasn’t till Jake set his bowl on the table with a clatter that she snapped out her daze, and she said, “Jake, you run upstairs and tell Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara that breakfast is ready.”
The black colt laid his ears back, and at the same time hunched his shoulders defensively. “She threw the clock at me last time,” he protested. With the possible exception of Goose Down, no one in the kitchen had any question as to who ‘she’ was.
“That might have been on account of you trying to wake the girls up at four in the morning,” Applejack said firmly, no give in her expression.
“Apple Bloom promised to show me around the town so she could try for her Tour Guide cutie mark. She said she wanted to get an early start,” Jake said defensively. Applejack just made a shooing motion in the direction of the stairs.
With extreme reluctance, Jake left his bowl on the table and headed for the girl’s room.
“Just be sure to duck if she does it again,” Granny called after Jake.
***
It is the best of times. It is the worst of times. So went Diamond Tiara’s thoughts as she did her best to delicately eat a bowl of hot cereal without burning her nose. She was handicapped by a lack of proper hoof utensils and the ravenous beast who had taken up residence in her belly and demanded constant subsistence. Near constant exercise of one sort or another had left her with an aching hollow in the pit of her stomach and the rumbling demands it was prone to let loose were not at all in keeping with her status as a gentle filly. Waiting till her cereal cooled was not an option. She could barely stop herself from emulating Prince Jake and burying her entire muzzle in the deep bowl.
Blowing on her cereal to cool the top layer a bit, Diamond Tiara considered the day ahead of her. It would be the first time in a few weeks where she would have some control over her actions. If only a little. In just a little while she was going to be walking into the schoolyard in the company of Prince Jake Apple, the first male alicorn in the history of Equestria.
At least Diamond Tiara thought he was the first. She hadn’t spent a lot of time paying attention to all that dry dusty history Miss Cheerilee was constantly droning on about.
Unfortunately, she would be sharing that distinction with Apple Bloom. Even worse, thanks to Princess Celestia totally losing her mind, Apple Bloom was, on paper anyway, Prince Jake’s aunt. Like, really. If he needed to be adopted, her daddy would have been a far superior choice. For just a moment she lost herself in the daydream of having the oversized colt as her own baby brother. That idiot Apple Bloom hadn’t even realized that if her nephew was a prince, she must be a princess. That was not a mistake Diamond Tiara would have made.
If only her Daddy hadn’t lost his own mind. Abandoning her here among the yokels, Diamond Tiara thought. Well, yes, it had allowed her to meet a magic Snipe, and become Princess Moonlight’s new magical project. Unfortunately, up till now all that involved had been a lot of running and jumping and not nearly enough magic wishes being fulfilled. And yes, she had gotten to go to Canterlot Castle as part of Prince Jake and Princess Moonlight's entourage, but she’d been so tired she’d fallen asleep before the ball had started and she missed her chance to dance with and impress, the elite ponies that would have been in attendance.
She had learned to her horror, thanks to a gleeful Scootaloo, that Big McIntosh had ended up carrying her up to bed like she was a little foal.
“Hey, Jake,” Apple Bloom called out, and Diamond Tiara glanced over as Jake swung his head around to look at the bane of her existence.
“What?” the big colt asked, cereal dribbling out of the sides of his mouth. His thick tongue darted out and sucked it back in. Diamond Tiara gave a little shudder.
“Got your horn,” Apple Bloom laughed as with a quick movement she impaled an apple on Jake’s jet-black unicorn horn, leaving the colt looking cross-eyed at the tempting fruit just inches in front of his face.
Diamond Tiara fought the urge to scream in outrage as Prince Jake flipped his head, trying to fling the apple into the air so he could catch it in his mouth. She just couldn’t let Apple Bloom introduce Jake to the fillies and colts at school. She’d have him doing stupid tricks like he was some sort of trained pet. She had to keep that from happening. Prince Jake was the most important pony in Ponyville. Somepony had to protect his consequences. A memory of an overheard snippet of conversation floated up in the spoiled pony’s mind.
Putting on her best fake sympathetic expression, Diamond Tiara said, “I do hope you’re, like, feeling better, Apple Bloom. You were coughing and sneezing so badly last night.”
Apple Bloom had taken pity on Jake, and removed the apple from his horn, taking a bite out of it at the same time. Diamond Tiara’s blatant falsehood caught her with her mouth full. Her gasp of outrage caused fragments of apple to go down the wrong way and she had a violent coughing fit, spraying half-chewed bits all over the table.
Goose hastily interposed a plate between Granny Smith and the shower of spit and fruit, sacrificing her own pristine coat in the process.
Before the small farm filly could catch her breath her big sister was right in front of her, pressing her forehead up against that of her little sister. “Dang, you do feel a bit feverish. Come along, I’ll take your temperature right quick and make sure. Granny, I’d surely appreciate it if you would fetch some tonic.”
“What? No!” Apple Bloom protested, flushing deeply in embarrassment. Her protests were to no avail as Applejack dragged her out of the room. Diamond Tiara visibly stifled a smile while clearly, she was internally dancing in glee. The task of concealing her true feelings grew even more obviously difficult for the conniving pony when Applejack’s exasperated voice floated into the kitchen, “Dang it, Apple Bloom. Lift your tail so I can check to see if you’re running a fever.”
Granny Smith tottered back into the room, a dusty dark, rather evil looking, bottle clutched between her false teeth. She set it on the table and popped her teeth back in her mouth, after rinsing them in her water glass, just as Applejack returned to get the tonic. Applejack slipped a pair of heavy gloves over her hooves before picking up the bottle, and then looked across at Diamond Tiara, an uncertain expression on her face, which resolved into determination. “I promised your Pa I’d look out for you. You’d better come along and let me check your temperature and tonic you as well, just to be safe.”
“What? No way! Like, I’m not sick!”
“You’re sharing a room with Apple Bloom. Younguns tend to share colds and whatnot at the best of times. Sticking two of them in a room together makes it pretty darn a sure thing. Better safe than sorry. Come along no. No fussing,” Applejack said firmly, as she herded the protesting filly out of the room. “Was that one drop or two in a large glass of water?” she asked Granny over her shoulder.
“One should do for Apple Bloom jes fine, but best make it two for our guest. Don’t reckon her constitution is any too strong. It needs all the help it kin git,” Granny Smith said, a sly look in her old eyes.
Jake blinked his eyes, looking concerned. “Who’s going to show me the way to school? Will you take me, Pa?” he asked Big Mac.
Big Mac looked visibly torn. One could almost see him tallying up the chores he’d fall behind escorting Jake to school. On the other hoof, it was equally clear that he would like nothing more than to escort his new son to his first day of school.
“I can walk with Prince Jake,” Goose Down offered, ducking her head slightly as she did. “I explored the area while you and your friends accompanied the prince and princesses to the presentation ceremony.”
“Yeah! Let's go,” Jake shouted out while heading for the door.
“Whoa,” Big Mac said in a firm voice. The big stallion started to stack dirty dishes. “Clear the table and lend a hoof. You got a bit of time,” he flicked an ear toward the bathroom where Diamond Tiara had just let out a shrill squeal of total outrage, he gave a sympathetic wince. “Going to take Applejack a bit to convince herself the fillies are healthy.”
“I can do that,” Goose said hastily, moving forward to start clearing the table. “Whoa!” Big Mac said emphatically, he moderated his tone when the small Nocturne shied back from him. “Help is appreciated. Colt needs to do his chores as well. You can wash. Jake can rinse. I’ll dry.”
***
As she examined her current outfit in the living room mirror, Princess Moonlight Dancing on the Water knew she was seriously compromising her kid credentials, but she couldn't help it. She was going to a pony school. How cool was that?
It was disgusting how much she was actually looking forward to learning all about her new world. At the very least she should be faking reluctance, just for form’s sake. She twisted a bit to the side, twitching her hips to make her semi-skirt swirl around her legs. She had been tempted to wear her Rainbow Dash skirt, as a form of silent rebellion, but in the end, she had pulled her never before worn Twilight Sparkle outfit from the wardrobe. She liked that it wasn’t overly girly, but wasn’t so happy at what it represented: her commitment to getting a good education.
“Are you ready to go, Curry?” her mom asked from where she was standing by the door, a packed lunch basket held between her teeth.
“I guess,” Curry Comb answered Fluttershy, trying her best to project a sense of resigned resignation, but the smile that was causing her cheeks to ache ruined the effect. She took her lunch bucket and received a nuzzle in return. Setting her load down on the floor she gave her mom a big hug.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? I could give you a ride?” Fluttershy suggested in a questioning tone, her sweet breath ruffling the hair on the nap of Curry’s neck.
As riding Fluttershy was way near the top of her favorite things to do, Curry demurred with some reluctance. “I don’t want all the foals and colts to think I’m a little kid who needs her mom to give her a lift to school. Besides, don’t you have a massage appointment with Mr. Hairy this morning? You said he wanted to be all loose and limber before he went into hibernation this year so his neck wouldn’t be so stiff when he wakes up next spring.”
“That is true,” Fluttershy replied thoughtfully. She wrapped Curry in a big wing hug and held her close. “You be good and listen to Miss Cheerilee.”
“You bet,” Curry replied, taking a deep breath in order to draw in enough of her mom’s scent to tide her over till school was over. “I’ll come right home and help you draw the migration maps for the birds, I promise.”
***
Was there anything in the world harder than saying you were sorry to a pair of dweebs?
Princess Gilded Clouds Raising Gloriously Into The Dawn Sky Signifying Upcoming Storms, really, really, really, didn’t want to do it. But recent events had caused her to re-evaluate her attitude toward ponies who were not Rainbow Dash, and on the top of that rather long list of ponies were Dashie’s friends, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. She’d have rather avoided it. She was going to lose some serious cool points doing it. She’d have happily put it off forever. But, she had to personally deliver a report to her new Wingmaster, and her flight path from her home to Canterlot was right overtop of Ponyville. There simply was no good excuse that she could think of that her personal sense of pride and honor would find acceptable for putting off the apology she owed the dweebs.
Not that she wouldn’t be just as happy if it turned out both of them were out of town for the week.
***
Fluttershy hadn’t been able to go back into the house after Curry had left for school. Her eyes kept turning toward the curve in the path her daughter had disappeared around, and her hooves nearly itched with the urge to trot down that path after Curry. So, even though she was not expecting Hairy Bear for a little while, she occupied herself by using her wings to rake clean the patch of grass where she intended to realigned his spine. She didn’t want any twigs or rocks bruising his sensitive skin.
The shy pony was fully focussing on the ground when an ominous winged shadow passed across the grass in front of her.
Not even for an instant did Fluttershy think that the shadow was cast by an overflying pegasus. Inherited instincts from generations of ponies who had run away to run away another day kicked in, her adrenaline spiked and she sprinted for her cottage door.
***
Gilda had been disappointed but resigned when she had spotted the dweebiest dweeb of them all sweeping the grass outside her house. She circled around and then scowled in annoyance when she saw the coward running toward shelter. But that wasn’t her only reaction, her heart hammered in her chest and her crop instinctively grumbled in hunger at the sight of running prey, even though Griffons had not actually hunted ponies for generations. A smirk twisted her bill as she began her sharp descent. She might be here to apologize, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t accidentally scare the horse apples out of the scaredy-pony while trying to do it.
***
“Stop right there!” a horribly familiar figure shouted, coming in for an almost crash landing between Fluttershy and safety.
Fluttershy planted all four hooves and flapped her wings wildly, blowing dust into the griffon’s face before, coming to a skidding stop, her nose inches from Gilda’s beak. “Um, no,’ she squeaked as she whirled and bolted in the opposite direction.
“Stop acting like prey, you dweeb!” Gilda’s exasperated, and slightly excited voice ordered from just behind her. Fluttershy just tucked her head down and ran even harder. A stiff wind ruffled her feathers and fur as Gilda passed overhead close enough to run her claws through Fluttershy’s mane before performing a wing-over and coming to rest hovering just over the ground, directly in front of the terrified pony. The frightened pony’s eyes opened even wider when a huge hairy shadow suddenly loomed behind the griffon. Fluttershy’s heart leaped in her chest as she bolted forward, much to the obvious shock of Gilda.
In the end, Fluttershy was too slow. Just before her outthrust hooves could push the startled griffon out of the way, a huge meat-hook of a paw contacted the side of Gilda’s head.
When Fluttershy realized she was going to be too late she squeezed her eyes shut tightly to avoid seeing what was about to happen. It was really too bad that could not close her ears as easily, though she did flatten them down as much as possible. A terrifying sound of a paw on head impact coincided with a very brief squawk of outrage, that became scrambled as it combined with the sound of a body skidding and bouncing across the yard.
Then there was a crash.
The sound of nails pulling out of wood.
A few rocks rolling away.
The stentorian cracking and tearing of a structure falling to the ground.
Fluttershy carefully lowered her hooves from her eyes. The first thing she saw was Hairy Bear looking very satisfied with himself as he stared at something behind her. Afraid of what she was going to see, the timid pony slowly turned her head and gave a dismayed gasp as she saw the terrifying monster she had been fleeing from just moments before lying in a tangled bundle of wings and bloody feathers with a section of shattered fence laying on top of her.
As so often happened to her in the presence of a badly wounded critter, Fluttershy’s fear fled to the back of her mind and cowered as she placed it firmly, but gently, under lock and key. The mental exercise was made much easier by the current situation. Gilda no longer looked like a terrifying pony-eating monster, but a poor shattered wreck who was in desperate need of help.
It wouldn’t last. Fluttershy could put off the shakes and shivers for only so long. Eventually, she would have to pay for her present calm, likely by hiding under the bed for a day and hugging Angel Bunny until her heartbeat slowed from its current hummingbird rate. But, for now, she could deal.
It only took her a moment of thought to discard the idea of running for the doctor. That would leave Gilda bleeding, helpless and alone, and suffering from who knew what invisible wounds. The griffon needed to be treated ‘now’. It was imperative that she be stabilized before Fluttershy sought medical help.
Besides, Fluttershy was worried that the doctor might not know any more about treating a griffon than he had a dragon. She likely knew more about treating trauma to large felines and predatory birds than the doctor.
“First, make sure the area is safe,” Fluttershy muttered to herself. Turning to Hairy Bear, Fluttershy considered him for a moment. He was no danger to her, but she wasn’t sure how he’d react if Gilda thrashed while Fluttershy was treating her.
She truly did not blame the big bear for his actions. He had only been acting in her defense. If anypony was to blame, it was her for being such a scairdypony and making him think she needed his help. That said, it might be best if he were to make himself scarce for a while. There were already a lot of ponies who were nervous about him being so close to Ponyville, and their foals. “Thank you ever so much for your help, Hairy,” she said while rubbing his tubby tummy, thick with stored fat for the coming winter. “But, I’m afraid some ponies might not understand. I think it would be best if you headed back to your den. I’ll come and work on your back as soon as I can. I promise.”
Not even waiting to see the bear retreat, Fluttershy turned back to Gilda. Moving closer to the downed flyer, she used her eyes carefully, not attempting to touch or move the downed flyer. The broken wing was obvious. She thought Gilda’s left front leg might be broken as well. She wouldn’t know until she could get a better look. The griffon’s head was twisted badly, but Fluttershy didn’t think it was broken. Birds had very flexible necks. But, she wouldn’t be surprised if the ligaments had been badly strained. She was going to need a good sized rolled blanket to act as a collar. Later she could borrow Rainbow Dash’s cervical collar. Fluttershy grimaced slightly. She was going to have to tell her friend about Gilda, and while she wasn’t sure how Rainbow would react, it was bound to be extreme.
Mentally making a list of the supplies she would need, Fluttershy knelt and ran her wings lightly over Gilda’s body, checking for injuries she might have missed during her visual inspection.
***
“Jake! Apple Bloom, Di,” Curry yelled out while waving her arm in the air as her friends came into sight from where she was waiting at the crossroads.
Jake galloped at full speed toward her, while Apple Bloom broke into a canter. Curry’s expression grew concerned when she noticed that Diamond Tiara seemed to be holding back. She wondered if the pony was sulking over Curry using a diminutive when calling her. Not that Curry was going to stop. Diamond Tiara was too big a mouthful to be using every time she wanted to talk to the pony. Curry’s annoyance faded quickly when she noticed that there was a slight hitch in the pale pink pony’s stride as if her rear legs were not moving properly.
In addition, Di’s tail was tucked tightly between her hind-quarters and she was looking everywhere but directly toward Curry. As she got closer, the small girl made out a slightly green tinge to the plump pony’s complexion. Checking more closely, Curry noticed that Apple Bloom also seemed to be carrying her tail tighter than normal, though her stride was not as compromised as Diamond Tiara’s. She also seemed to be in a much more cheerful mood as she kept glancing toward her roommate with a huge grin on her face.
“What’s wrong with them?” Curry questioned Jake as he caracoled next to her, too excited to stand still.
“I don’t know. They’ve been like that ever since Applejack took their temperature this morning.”
Curry swallowed nervously, suddenly glad she had not given into expectations and faked a cold this morning. She’d seen the thing the vet used on Jake, and the memory was enough to send a hand sliding protectively backward before she caught herself. She made a silent vow that she was never going to get sick again in her life.
***
As it turned out, Curry’s enthusiasm for her new school waned in direct proportion to her proximity to it. By the time she could make out the little red schoolhouse on the top of its small hill she was even rethinking her aversion to pony medicine.
Unfortunately, there was no known treatment in existence for new-kid-at-schoolites.
The small girl paused, her feet frozen in place, a cold sweat dampening her forehead. What if the ponies at the school thought she was a freak? What if they laughed at her? What if they wouldn’t let her play any pony games?
“Jake, you’re here!” a shrill piping voice called out as a brown and white blur dashed past Curry and resolved into the form of Pipsqueak as he tried to dart between Jake’s legs. An effort that ended with an “oof” from Jake and Pipsqueak bouncing back onto his haunches where he shook his head to get rid of the stars he was seeing. “Sorry, forgot,” he said as he got to his feet and took a few wobbly steps that ended with him leaning up against one of Jake’s front legs while the big colt nuzzled him in concern. “Don’t worry about me. It will take more than a bump to lay low the Dread Pirate Pipsqueak,” the pinto colt assured his friend.
Laughter filled the air, and Curry was surprised to find it was coming from her.
A bright flash caught her by surprise and she blinked to clear the tears from her eyes as a voice a few feet above her head said, “Welcome to our school, Princess Moonlight.”
“Featherweight, you idiot. Like, you were supposed to wait till Diamond Tiara was in the shot!” Silver Spoon castigated the scrawny pegasus who was fluttering in front of Curry, an old fashioned camera nearly as big as his head clutched between his front hooves. He was wearing a hat on his head with a large ‘press’ tag stuck in the brim.
“Get into the frame, Diamond Tiara,” the light gray pony urged her friend. “Featherweight wants the first issue of the school paper to pop. And nothing will have more pop than pictures of you with royalty.”
“I do?” the skinny Pegasus asked, but was ignored by the two, would be, high society equines.
“Oh no. I wouldn’t want to intrude on their first day at school. This is all about them, not me,” Diamond Tiara protested, even as she moved forward and nestled herself snugly up against Curry.
“Then why did you send a message saying I’d better be here to take your picture with them, or else?” Featherweight asked, looking up from his viewfinder.
Before either Diamond or Silver could reply, Curry joined the conversation.“Oh, you’ve got to get a picture of Di, all by herself,” she said firmly, with only a hint of a giggle in her voice. She chivied the protesting pony into the middle of the laneway and shooed everypony else out of the way while Featherweight took Di’s picture.
All of Diamond Tiara’s protests vanished instants before the snap of the shutter, as she adopted what she obviously thought was a glamor pose, but looked a lot more like she’d pulled a muscle in a sensitive place. The fact that Apple Bloom yelled out, “Thermometer," causing Diamond’s tail to tuck itself firmly back between her hindquarters, didn’t help the composition much either.
“Perfect ‘before’ picture,” Curry enthused. “You print me up a nice big one of those,” she demanded, as was her habit when dealing with schoolboys. She figured it would work just as well on schoolcolts.
“We’ll hang it in the barn and you can look at it for inspiration while we train,” the small girl told Diamond Tiara. “Before you know it, all those bulges of fat around your belly will melt right away, along with your oversized plot.”
“Diamond Tiara’s plot is not oversized. It’s pure perfection!” Silver Spoon told Curry in a loud emphatic voice that brought a rosy blush to Diamond Tiara’s cheeks -- the ones on her face -- and a loud “Woooooo,” from a pair of funny looking colts who had ambled over to see what the fuss was about.
“Shut up!” Diamond Tiara hissed at her friend while everypony was distracted by the new arrivals.
Silver Spoon stared dumbfounded for a moment, or, at least as long as it took her to replay her words in her mind, at which point she blushed even brighter than her friend.
“Hey. What’s the weird looking thing?” the colt with the long neck and the snail for a cutie mark, asked in a voice that cracked halfway through his sentence.
“Sure is a funny looking thing,” added his tubby companion with the pair of snips on his flank.
“You’re calling me weird and funny looking?” Curry asked, putting as much incredulity into her voice as possible as she raked the two unicorn colts with a scathing look. “You’re a fine pair to talk.”
“Wow. It can talk, Snips.”
“Cool. Does it do other tricks?” The overweight colt asked Diamond Tiara, totally ignoring the content of Curry’s words, and her look of disdain.
Snails suddenly noticed Jake, and yelled out in his cracking voice, “Hey, wait a second. I recognize you. You’re that new pony from the fairgrounds. You’re an Alicorn. That is so cool. Does the weird thing belong to you?”
“I belong to my own self, thank you very much,” Curry said firmly.
Snails got right up into Curry’s face and tried to stare up into her mouth, “So cool. Are you using magic to throw your voice?” he asked a puzzled Jake.
“How about I throw you?” Curry asked as she made a production of pretending to roll up her sleeves. The small girl was not about to let any boy treat her like this, even if he was a colt and not technically a boy. Although, both colts and boys shared certain things in common, and she knew right where to kick a boy if they got too big for their britches. Unfortunately, she had more than a sneaking suspicion that starting her first day of school by sending Snails to the nurse, or vet, or whatever, would be a bad idea.
In honesty, she also tended to preserve the nuclear option for males who had really, really, pissed her off, say by tying tin cans to a dog or cat’s tail. Annoying twerps usually only warranted a sock in the snoot, but this was a golden opportunity to practice her calf-tying. All she needed was a calf, or a colt would do, and a short hunk of rope, which she conveniently had in a back pocket.
“Children, children. Class will be starting soon. Please get to the schoolyard as quickly as you can,” a cheerful, but authoritative voice said from behind them.
“Yes, Miss Cheerilee,” all the ponies but Jake chorused together. Jake caught on and added his own “Yes, Miss Cheerilee,” a second or two after the others had finished.
Curry was still fuming and declined to join the chorus.
“Curry Comb?” Mrs. Cheerilee asked tentatively and smiled in relief when Curry turned her head toward her. “Or do you prefer, Princess Moonlight.”
“Curry!” she snapped, her face twisting into a reflexive grimace. “Just Curry is fine. Miss Cheerilee,” she added a beat later when she realized it might not be smart being so curt with a teacher who was about to have Curry in her total power, and with access to the dreaded permanent record.
“Curry it is then. Would you like to come have a little talk with me before school starts?”
Curry knew this one. It might have sounded like a question, but it wasn’t. On the other hand, the mare was not grinding her teeth together or shredding a notebook between her hooves. Those were good signs. “Sure, I guess. Where?”
“The classroom will be fine. The children tend to avoid it till the bell rings.”
Curry followed after her new teacher, taking a bit of comfort in the three smiling daisies decorating Cheerilee’s flank. Curry was starting to get the hang of reading cutie marks, and the teacher’s seemed like a good indication that she’d be one of the good ones.
***
“Please, have a seat, Curry,” Cheerilee said, gesturing toward a small desk that stood out from the other ones in the room. Smaller than those used by the fillies and colts, it was shaped to accommodate her newest student’s strange body.
Princess Celestia, according to Twilight Sparkle, had arranged for it personally. Cheerilee, who was a bit of a royalphile had only barely resisted the urge to take it home and put it in protective custody before her darling students got their grubby little hooves all over it.
She watched with a certain amount of fascination as the small mare folded herself into the convoluted device while trying not to be too obvious about her interest, or to check and make sure that Curry’s ‘paws?’ were clean.
“Now, Curry, I’ve gone over your results with Twilight Sparkle. Naturally, you have very little knowledge of our world, but your math and reading comprehension is more than acceptable for your age group. Fortunately, we are a very small school, and all ages attend class together, so I don’t need to have you alternating between classrooms. I’m sure the other students will be delighted to help you catch up to the rest in those subjects you are weak in. However, there was one thing I really wanted to ask you in private before we started.”
Cheerilee paused for a moment, and checked that there were no little pony ears nearby, and then leaned in close while whispering, “You see, I have this bet with my sister, Berry Punch, and I just have to ask. Is Twilight Sparkle really dating Princess Luna?”
***
“Huh? Watsis? Who’s all there?” Granny Smith sputtered as she woke up in her favorite over-stuffed lounger. Blinking sleep crusted eyes she looked around, taking note of where she was, and the angle of the sun on the floor. “Bout mid-morning. Best get up before I sleep the whole darn dang gum day away.” Getting out of her chair, she stretched out her body, filling the air with a veritable snap-crackle-and-pop of joints.
Idly scratching her side she wandered into the brightly lit and gleaming kitchen. “Born farm girl that mare,” she commented as her eyes wandered over to the small closed door that led to her ground-floor bedroom. A few years previously, she moved downstairs from the bedroom she had slept in for almost all her life. The stairs were just too much for her bad hip when it wasn’t really necessary. Applejack and Big Mac had modified the large pantry to make her a bedroom. With only four ponies in the house, they really hadn’t needed it to store supplies.
Being careful to keep the noise down, Granny cracked opened the door and peered inside. A small dresser and a neatly made bed that filled almost all the available space greeted her eyes. A closer look revealed just the hint of the tip of a bat-wing projecting out from under the bed. Listening closely Granny made out slow and even breathing. She nodded in satisfaction and carefully closed the door.
Granny Smith had experienced mixed feelings when she’d learned that a Nocturne was going to be staying with them for a few days. Nocturne Stallions had a reputation of being the sort of ponies your mother warned you about while giving you the feeling that mother knew much more about them than she was saying. The part of her that loved trashy romance novels was intrigued at the idea of actually meeting one of the bad-ponies that so often had a starring role in those books. On the other hoof, the part of her that was fiercely protective of her kinfolks had not been happy at the thought of one of them sharing the same house as Applejack and Apple Bloom.
The surprising revelation that their new guest was a mare was therefore both a bit comforting, and disappointing. She would have liked to have learned more about their new guest at the time but Applejack had hustled the very tired pony up to the guest room they had aired out for her as soon as she had arrived.
One of Granny’s many nieces had been a pegasus. Back in the day they had built a room for her in the attic, with a large gable on the back of the roof and a small deck framed in door-width shutters so she would be able to fly in and out without the need to come into the house and up three flights of stairs every time she came home.
They had already decided that Jake would have the room once he mastered his wings, but for now, it was vacant and seemed a perfect place to house their guest.
Granny had shared that opinion until she walked into the kitchen in the middle of the day to find the small pony cowering under the kitchen table, barely visible behind the table cloth. She didn’t really understand the how or why of the situations, but she had eased enough foals through night-terrors to recognize what she was seeing. Even though the filly was a teenager and not a foal, Granny invited Goose to sleep in her bed while she took her afternoon nap. She’d woken to find the small mare had crawled out from under the covers sometime during the day and taken refuge ‘under’ Granny’s bed, slumbering away with no sign of the terrors that had driven her away from the upstairs bedroom.
Granny saw no reason to inform Applejack of the situation. So far she was the only one who knew that Goose didn’t spend her days sleeping in her large airy room, but rather stuffed under Granny’s bed in the former pantry. If that was what it took to make the little mare comfortable, she wasn’t going to argue, and if the young’uns gave her any lip, she had more than enough embarrassing stories of their own youthful nighttime activities to shut 'em up good.
***
“Did you know that there are stars in the rock, Goose Down?” asked Luna, as she knelt in the low ceilinged cave, her horn just barely below the roof.
“No Princess Luna,” Goose answered, looking up at the comforting solid rock just inches above her head. “I can’t see any.”
“You just have to look in the right light,” Luna said as her horn began to glow softly. Little flecks of gold and silver in the granite ceiling sparkled as they reflected the light from Luna’s horn.
“Oh, I see them now,” Goose said in wonder as the little flecks grew more and more distinct, while the darker substrate around them seemed to fade into the shadows. “They’re beautiful.”
“If you look closely, and use your imagination, you can make out shapes. Sometimes I like to make up stories about them. Can you see anything?”
Goose stared intently at the little glimmers of light, fascinated with how some seemed to be deep inside the rock, while others floated above the surface. Her eyes picked out patterns, places where the little sparkly bits seemed to line up. She relaxed her mind and let it wander the way she used to while staring at the grain in the wood walls of her little closet of a bedroom back home.
There! Those bright spots that seemed to zig-zag looked like the back edge of a pony’s wings when she spread them out wide. And that straight line would be her back. A faint cloud of very tiny little sparkles would be her mane and tail. “I see you, flying in the sky,” Goose said with the excitement of discovery. “It looks so real," she said dreamily. "Like real stars. They seem to go on and on forever,” her voice became a bit uncertain, and a furrow grew between her eyes as she shifted restlessly on the cavern floor.
“Ah, how disappointing,” Princess Luna said suddenly, breaking Goose out of her reverie as the light from Luna’s horn dimmed. “I am sorry, Goose Down. I must leave you for now. Duty calls to me.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me, Princess. I’m only a---” Goose protested. Her words were cut off as Luna leaned forward and nuzzled her forehead affectionately.
“No pony is ‘only’ anything, dear Goose Down. Each is special and unique. I must go now, but you may stay and look at the stars in the rock as long as you like,” Luna said as she faded from sight leaving Goose alone in the small cavern.
Goose gave a sigh of happiness, her forehead tingling slightly from where the princess had touched her. She lifted a hoof and gently rubbed the area, a contented expression on her face. She settled back down and tried to pick out the little gleams of light, not so clear now that the light the princess had brought had gone, but if she looked really, really, closely, she could still see some of them glittering away here and there in the solid rock ceiling.
***
A thunderous wave of screaming foals crested in the doorway of the schoolhouse, the small opening catching them up and causing them to hang up slightly before the tidal wave of ponies came crashing into the yard.
The individual colts and fillies dashed off, filled with the exuberance of prisoners set free from their chains, at least until lunch was over. The young ponies headed for their favorite pieces of playground equipment in a headlong rush. Those that were a little slow formed into groups and started impromptu games of tag, four-square, or simply continued to dash around while working off excessive energy.
The last figure to emerge from the class was Curry, a decided change of pace for a girl who had in times past not been beyond bribery or threats to gain the desk closest to the exit. Her eyes swept over the chaos of the schoolyard wistfully, suddenly realizing how the kids with a limb in a cast back home had felt about not being able to join in.
Stepping down into that maelstrom of equine forms was just begging to get kicked and stomped, Curry decided. Just because it would be accidental, with no malice intended, wouldn’t make it hurt any less. She was pretty sure that Rarity’s bodystocking would protect her, but there didn’t seem any point in taking chances.
A pool of stillness in the general chaos of the recess yard caught Curry’s eyes. A pair of ponies were kneeling in companionable comfort on a grass slope that rose slightly above the hard packed earth of the schoolyard. The two familiar fillies were delicately eating sandwiches from an oversized, ornate lunchbox, while a plain paper bag lay discarded off to the side.
Even from where she was, Curry could see Di casting quick wistful eyes toward that bag.
Skirting the localized stampede that was the playground, Curry made her way around to the reclining ponies. “So, your hindquarters still giving you trouble?” she said in a derisive tone and smirked when Di hastily scrambled to her feet, leaving Silver Spoon still kneeling, a sandwich dangling from her mouth as she looked up at her friend in consternation.
Curry could see that Di looked a bit nonplussed herself, and more than a little annoyed at her reaction. So she wasn’t surprised to see the pony’s shoulder stiffen, or to hear her complain, “Wait, Like, this is school. I’m not training right now.”
“You are if you want to be all that you can be,” Curry snapped back, using words she had stolen from a commercial, and which she found seemed to work well when it came to motivating the rather lazy pony.
“You’ve been at your desk all morning. You need to stretch those muscles and work them a bit before going back into class.”
Stepping up beside Diamond Tiara, and ignoring the filly’s obvious embarrassment, Curry kneaded the pony’s major muscle groups. “Yep, tight as can be. Come on, you know the drill. Front legs one step forward, back legs one step back, and, arch that back, I want to see your belly brush the grass, and your eyes on the sky.
Curry was not idle as she shouted at her trainee. She sat down on the grass and spread her own legs into as wide an angle as possible before reaching forward and grabbing her left foot with both hands. “I’m waiting,” she said in a strained voice as she pulled hard on her foot.
Exercise for the sake of exercise had never been part of Curry’s day. She was an eleven-year-old girl with a pet Percheron stallion and a guardian who believed in responsibility and self-reliance. Her normal daily list of chores would have left most of the so-called-athletes at her junior high begging for relief. The last thing she had ever needed was extra exercise.
That was then, this was now.
The only ponies Curry could compete against in purely physical terms here were mostly still wearing diapers, and one evening helping Pinkie Pie with the Cake twins had put even that qualifier into question. There were times when she told herself that she should simply let Rarity’s magic clothing make up the difference… in the same way that they already offered her protection against scrapes and scratches and general bumps and bruises. Tempting as the idea was, and at times it was very tempting, she didn’t want to become reliant on her magical clothing. Everyone knew that if you relied too much on a magic object, it would let you down when you most needed it… so you could learn that all you ever needed all along was your own ability.
The obstinate girl meant to be more than ready for when that happened.
Curry switched her hold to her other foot and snapped at Diamond Tiara who was barely exerting herself. Instead, she was using the opportunity to pose for several colts who were admiring her figure.
“You ain’t doing this to give them a show. This is for you. You want me to bring the lunge line to school to encourage you?” Curry asked. To her satisfaction, a blushing Diamond Tiara started to put more of an effort into her warm-up stretches.
Curry had been really surprised to discover a lunge line in the Apples’ barn. Until Applejack had told her that it was actually a foal harness that she’d used on Apple Bloom back when she’d needed to take her baby sister out into the orchard with her, while she and Big Mac worked.
Not really thinking about the implications, Curry had added a few bits of strapping to the harness so it would fit Diamond Tiara. She’d only used it once, and upon noticing how horribly embarrassed Di had been over the whole thing, had felt guilty as heck about it. She’d been so desperate to do a good job training Di, that she’d totally forgotten that all she had to do was tell the pony what she wanted her to do, unlike the ponies at home who needed firm direction in the form of a lunge whip to go along with the lunge line when they were just starting out or had picked up bad habits.
Still, even though it was very bad of her, but Curry couldn’t help but feel a certain satisfaction with how things had worked out. Di had shown a decided lack of motivation up till the time Curry had strapped the lunge line to her. The young girl hadn’t had any problems with Di in that regard since then.
She soothed her guilty conscience by telling herself that if she was prepared to run till she puked in order to improve herself, the pony could at the very least be diligent about her stretches and exercises. It wasn’t like Curry was demanding more of the spoiled pony than she could give. Even Sweetie Bell and Twist were in better shape than the spoiled rotten pony, and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo made Di look like she was ready for the nursing home. If Di couldn’t stick to the basics, how was she going to handle things when the real training began? Of course, Curry was going to have to figure out what real training consisted of. She hadn’t been allowed to do much more than exercise the ponies back home while following the orders given to her by the actual trainers.
Curry had quizzed Applejack and Big Mac on the topic. That was where she’d gotten the basic stretches she had Di doing right now. She was looking forward to the day she could start using some of Applejack’s rodeo training methods with Di and had already decided that she’d be adding a saddle, for weight training. Purely for Diamond Tiara’s benefit, of course, and not because she really wanted to give barrel racing a try, and some of the other events she’d never been able to try because Jake wasn’t built for them.
The young girl crossed her fingers that come the spring she’d be able to talk Applejack into allowing her to provide a little resistance training to go along with the farm pony’s workout as she prepared for the rodeo competitions they had here.
As interesting as doing some real riding and roping was, what had really intrigued her were some remarks Applejack had made about how Big Mac had almost signed up for the Royal Guard when he was a teenager. She’d watched enough war movies with Old Ben to have picked up pretty good ideas about how army basic training worked for people. She wasn’t sure how that would apply to ponies. Maybe she’d get a chance to talk to an actual guard sometime. Rainbow Dash said they came to Ponyville whenever the Princesses visited and were always ready to chat with the locals.
Fortunately for Diamond Tiara, the older grooms back home had really pounded home the point to Curry about not over exercising a pony, especially a young one. They could easily strain ligaments if their muscles got overworked, and there was a risk of joint damage which could ruin a horse for life. Curry was going to have to slowly build Di up over the next couple of years before hitting her with the really hard stuff, but when Curry was finished with her, the overweight, comfort-loving, downright lazy, pony was going to be a champion. It was just too bad Curry would never be able to show her in a real competition.
Keeping an eye on Di to make sure she didn’t slack off, Curry finished her own stretches and got to her feet. “Now we can eat,” she told the blushing pony who had attracted quite an audience over the last few minutes as she contorted her body in ways that a lot of the older colts found very interesting.
Diamond Tiara gave Curry a wary look as if expecting some sort of trick, “Like, that’s it? You’re not going to make me jog around the yard for the rest of lunch?”
“Course not. You need proper fuel if you’re going to build up that flabby body,” Curry said. She cast a derisive look at the fancy lunch box Silver Spoon had brought, filled with dainty little old lady sandwiches that looked like they had all the nutrition of a chunk of cloud. “What’s wrong with the lunch the Apples packed for you?”
“Like, you must be joking,” Silver Spoon interjected. “It’s bad enough that poor, poor, Diamond Tiara has to eat that slop at all. At least I can give her some decent food when she’s away from that mud hole.”
Poor, poor, Diamond Tiara looked an awful lot like she would have liked to buck her best friend upside the head, thought Curry as she saw the pony cast a hungry look toward the plain brown paper bag that was laying on the ground a couple of feet away from Silver Spoon’s fancy lunch box.
“It would be, like, rude of me to throw it in the garbage,” Diamond Tiara said in a tentative voice.
“Sure would,” Curry said in a distracted tone as she opened up her own lunch bucket with an anticipatory expression. It was filled with sweet carrot sticks, whole field mushrooms dipped into spiced batter and deep-fried, along with the main course, several sandwiches made from big thick slabs of buttered honey-oatmeal bread filled with sliced portabella mushrooms and cheese.
“It is only right to encourage the lower classes when they make an attempt at proper behavior,” Diamond Tiara suggested.
“But, you might destroy your taste buds,” Silver Spoon protested, interposing herself between her friend and the no doubt toxic contents of the dirty old paper bag. When Diamond Tiara looked like she might move around her, Silver Spoon took a step backward and ‘accidentally’ stepped on the bag. “Oh. How sad. All of the Apples' hard work, destroyed,” she said insincerely.
Getting a good look at Diamond Tiara’s expression, Curry decided she’d better do something before Silver Spoon ended up being black and blue. Or, with a bite taken out of her. Looking over at where Jake was attempting, without a lot of success, but a great deal of enthusiasm, to play tetherball, she let out a yell. “Soup’s on, Jake. Git your lunch and git over here. Di, do you want one of my sandwiches?” Curry asked, holding the object in question up. It took both her hands to grip enough of it to keep the contents from spilling out. “Mom packed a bit more than I can eat. If you don’t want it, I’m sure Jake will take it.”
Ignoring the look Silver Spoon shot toward her, Diamond Tiara said, “Well, it would be rude to refuse.” She leaned forward and took a huge bite. She gave a little shudder of delight and closed her eyes in bliss as she chewed.
Curry took a bite from the other side of the sandwich and happily masticated in time with Di. When the pony finished her mouthful and looked hungrily at the rest of the sandwich, Curry handed it to her, snatching her fingers back quickly.
Old habits died hard, but, given how quickly Di snatched and then scarfed down the remains, they were not totally out of line.
Reaching into the bucket, Curry took one of the remaining half-dozen sandwiches out, just as Jake trotted up, his own lunch bucket swinging from his mouth. Pipsqueak trotting beside him with his own cute little paper-bag lunch.
Apple Bloom and the rest of their friends soon joined them, and they brought friends, who brought friends, until the entire student body were clustered around the small group in the central, all chattering happily away while trading food. Curry leaned back on the grass, her belly full, and her heart soothed. The school was pretty cool, she decided.
***
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” Curry said as she walked down the lane beside Jake. Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara were dawdling behind while engaged in some sort of quiet argument that seemed to focus on who’s fault it was an alarm clock was broken.
“I had fun. I learned how to spell my name. Miss Cheerilee posted it on our side of the room,” Jake said.
“I saw. Pretty impressive,” Curry said honestly, remembering the old joke about the dancing bear. It didn’t matter that Jake’s scrawl was impossible to read, the amazing thing was that he’d managed it at all, and had only bitten three pencils in half in the attempt. Pretty impressive, considering that his previous scholastic achievement had been conning her out of extra apples at Old Ben's with nothing but a soulful look.
They came to the crossroads where they had to part ways and Curry gave Jake a big hug.
“Can’t you come to the farm for a bit?” Jake asked.
“Yes. I, like, hardly got any training at all today,” Diamond Tiara said as she came and pushed herself between Jake and Curry.
“Oh, I can take care of that,” Apple Bloom said. “Applejack wants us to sweep out the barn this evening. That should give you a really good workout.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Curry said quickly before the storm clouds brewing up in Diamond Tiara’s eyes burst. She turned to Jake and said, “I’d love to come and visit for a bit, but I promised mom I’d help her draw some migration maps.” She held up her hands and wiggled her fingers. “These things are pretty useful for stuff like that.”
Leaning down a bit, Curry gave a surprised Diamond Tiara a big hug. “You did really good today,” she whispered in the pony’s ear. “I know that was hard for you to do that in front of everypony at school. It will be worth it in the end, you just wait and see.”
“Well. Like. Of course,” the flustered pony babbled, and Curry gave herself high marks for remembering that well-timed rewards were a very important part of training.
“Well, see you all tomorrow,” Curry told the three ponies as she started to walk toward home.
“Oh, no. You don’t get off that easy,” Apple Bloom said. Before Curry could react, the farm filly stood up on her hind legs and gave the small girl a hug and a nuzzle. Curry flushed slightly, as a warm feeling grew in her chest.
“Well, okay then,” Curry said with a cough, as she tugged affectionately on one of Apple Bloom’s ears to encourage the filly to let her go.
***
“Mom. I’m home,” Curry called out as she banged through the front door. It was cheesy, but she’d been looking forward to yelling out those words for the last five minutes of her walk home. She imagined Fluttershy giving her a big hug, and all the critters, except for ‘him’ welcoming her home after an exhausting day at school.
The reception she did get was a ‘little’ bit different. For one thing, all the furniture on the left side of the room had been shoved over to the right side and piled up against the wall. The only thing in the clear space was Fluttershy’s largest pet bed, and sleeping in that bed was a creature out of legend.
“Oh, wow. A hippogriff,” Curry whispered in awe.
“Griffon,” a faint, familiar voice said from behind the pile of furniture, rugs, and pillows.
“Mom? Is that you?” Curry asked, staring closely at the pile of belongings. Several upside-down pots that Curry had thought were sitting on top of the overturned sofa lifted up slightly, revealing the faces of Angel Bunny, and several of the other critters who frequented the house. They were all brandishing various kitchen implements. The largest pot of all lifted just a little, and Curry could see Fluttershy’s eyes peeking out from under the rim.
“Mom?” Curry repeated.
“Mommy has had a rather stressful day,” Fluttershy whispered.
Curry looked over at the heavily bandaged creature in the big pet bed. “I can see. Are there lots of Hippogriffs in Equestria?
“She’s a Griffon, and no, not a lot. They live up in the mountains.”
“Griffon,” Curry said, tasting the name on her voice. Looking closer she could see that while there was a certain resemblance, the Griffon didn’t look anything like Buckbeak. Made sense. That was only a movie, this was real life.
“Curry. Could you do me a very big favor?” Fluttershy whispered.
“Of course. What do you need?”
“There are two letters on the stove. Could you run them over to Twilight’s house, please? One of them is for Twilight, asking if she could please have Spike send the other to Princess Celestia.”
“No problem,” Curry said, with perhaps not as much enthusiasm as before. She really wanted to stick around and learn a lot more about her mom’s newest patient. She stared hard at the ‘griffon’ as she made her way around its bedding, noticing the thick collar made out of a large towel around its neck, the intricate splint around one wing, and a thick cast on the left front leg. “She sure got messed up good,” Curry commented to herself as she located the letters Fluttershy had mentioned. “Wonder what could be nasty enough to do that to something like her?”
Curry retraced her steps to the door, but before she exited she turned and gave the griffon another look before turning to face the pot her mom was wearing on her head, the rest of her being out of sight. “Mom, you remember how you said I could have a pet?” she asked, anticipation in her voice.
“No, Curry.”
“But, Mom.”
“Very, very, no, Curry.”
“Well, darn,” the disappointed girl pouted, kicking at the floor with the toe of her moccasin. With one last look at the marvelous griffon, she left the cottage on her mission to Twilight’s library.
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So... is this the direct continuation as in the sequel or do I still need to be keeping an eye out for that? Because I'm going to be readin' the spin-off continuations aswell while I wait for updates but I want to make sure my main focus is on the main storyline.
Yay Gilda! I hope you keep up light slice of life tone. Not all stories need to be epics
4402257
This is the direct continuation. I could have just kept rolling with it as Jake and the Kid, but wanted to break it into story arcs. The last one was getting them settled in Equestria. This one will feature Goose Down getting her dream, sort of.
4402298
Curry and Jake will be bystanders for some of the big plots from the show, Like Twilight Getting her wings, but I have no plans to have them involved in Equestria changing events.
Imagine the look on Gilda's face if/when she's informed that Curry wanted to keep her as a *pet*... :D
Glad you decided to continue Jake and the Kid. I enjoyed this chapter.
Glorious
And Gilda's full name is great.
Curry: Why do all the best critters have to be talkers? I'm never gonna have a cool pet at this rate.
4405300
I borrowed Georg's version of Gilda's full name. She plays a role in his latest Nocturne story. Diplomacy by Other Means. If you want to find out why Lumpy lives up to his name even more than before, check it out.
yay more of this :D
Excellent start, looking forward to more.
I feel kinda bad for Gilda now. I mean, sure, she's kind of a bi- er, jerk, but I'd chalk that up to her upbringing as a griffon. Almost like a bunch of Klingons, all that chest beating (before really beating your opponent), posturing and [literal] pecking order in every part of their society. I'm gonna guess she'll be a fixture in Fluttershy's place till she gets shipped off to the hospital?
And when is somepony gonna inform Curry how inappropriate it is to "gussy up" DT in a saddle and harness? Good grief, Twilight and Rarity would collapse from an aneurysm... although AJ might get a laugh out of it and tell Curry to put the "reserved for adults" stuff away. (Besides, Twilight might actually get some ideas the next time Luna and her have a free night)
Hope to see more of Goose Down though, seeing as how this is really her story even if the other cast members tend to steal the spotlight occasionally. I'm still trying to wrap my head around Nocturne society but I can sorta understand her desire to sleep in a nearly claustrophobic space while close to the house monarch (Granny Smith). Given the freedom, I'd bet she would sleep under Luna's bed if there was an actual crawl space under it, heh.
4416744
Check out Diplomacy by Other Means by Georg. There is a link if you push the more link at the bottom of the story description. Lots about the Griffon culture, and where I'm coming from with Gilda in this. Gilda's cousin Sunny is about Pipsqueak and Jake's age, maybe a bit older and is Heir to the throne. She is about the cutest thing going.
Good idea about the age appropriate nature of saddles and bridles. On the other hoof the ponies might be a bit shocked to learn that Curry regards them as work equipment.
This is indeed about Goose. She was supposed to be a major factor in the first story arc, but I could not fit her in the way I liked. I'm lousy at getting to the point quickly in a story so the situation with Goose will be a bit slow developing.
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has views on Gilda in the Shipping department. I have not made up my mind yet if what is between her and Rainbow is merely a very strong friendship, or if it is something more. and giving my liking of Polyamourous relationships with the Ponies, it could be even more complicated than that.
4416896
Culture clash has never been so delightfully hilarious.
I hope Goose can finally regain her courage about the sky and fly. I love Curry and Jake's first day of school.
The only thing I dislike is DT and SS using "like" so much, it makes them sound really stupid. I may not like them, but I can't see Filthy Rich allowing his daughter to talk like a bimbo. Plus, they're smart enough to cause trouble and know which buttons to push for the crusaders, so going Valley Filly or Bimbo is just jarring to me.
4417669
I'm trying to cut it down. Di is getting away from it when she's not with SS, except when surprise makes her fall back into the habit. But it is canon on the show that they speak like that.
I have been thinking about bringing in a pair of Canterlot fillies who are City Girl versions of the two, to give them a good look at themselves, as if it were.
One of the ideas that is floating around in the back of my mind is that a lot of powerful families might be inclined to expose Jake to their little princesses,in the hope of landing a powerful political lever. They missed out on Cadence and it really eats at them.
It is to Filthy Rich's credit that the idea never occurred to him. He might spoil his daughter, but he would never consider 'selling her', so to speak for monetary gain or influence.
4419270 Filthy is definitely a better father... but then he is a self made stallion and manages his business, he didn't inherit all of it and sit around doing nothing like nobles do.
I'm so sorry I only discovered this now! I forgot to put you on author alert after "Jake and the Kid" ended and so didn't get notified of the sequel until I thought about it today! >.<
In any case, this chapter was filled with sweet goodness! From Goose Down being her demure self (I feel a bit bad about liking that so much, but she's just so adorable), to Jake and Curry simply being children and having a good time growing up! That's what I liked so much about the prequel, you know. There was no ancient evil that followed them, no big prophecy they had to fulfill or any days that needed saving by the special alicorn prince and his human companion; it was just a heartwarming story about two lost souls finding a home, and it was wonderful. I can only hope that the sequel will follow that formula, and judging from the first chapter, that seems to be the case!
Eagerly looking forward to more!
PS: In a way, it's a bit of a pity this takes place before Twilight became a Princess and Discord was reformed. Can you imagine Discord as Curry's adoptive pa?
4445204
Glad you liked Jake and the Kid, and for thinking it was exactly what I was trying to do.
I'm going to try and insert a few antagonists into the new story arc, but nothing really serious. I'm going to keep the Kids, kids.
Discord is a bit of a problem for me. I really liked his first appearance. and enjoyed the heck out of his last one, but the two in-between I found annoying as heck and they made me really dislike his character. Even knowing that they served as a useful set up for the ending of season four, I still can't see using the in-between Discord in my story. I just don't think that Discord was at all fun.
As for Twilight and her Wings, I do want that to take place. I think it will provide fertile ground for some fun.
Princess Gilded Clouds Raising Gloriously Into The Dawn Sky Signifying Upcoming Storms...that's one hell of a name.
4463874
All credit, and blames, goes to Georg.
4465436 all I have to say is I hope something good comes her way because I like Hilda.
4467201
The more I work with her in my mind the more I grow to like her as well. Don't fear, she might have to eat a bit of crow, figuratively, but I hope to give her a chance to lighten up.
That said, anyone with strong feelings about Gilda really need to speak up, or be prepared to forever hold your piece if you don't like what I do with her.
Gahhhhh. Forgot to put you on author alert. Feel so silly.
Did, did Gilda just get her self beaten up by a bear because she tried to scare Fluttershy?
.
..
...
....
.....
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, oh thats gold!!!!!
Curry is, as always, an adorable kid.
Just finished "Jake and the Kid" a few days ago (loved it!) and started reading this promising sequel. I'll try to be a helpful reader and post comments and what-not. I'm really enjoying the story so far.
More savage than any griffon, I assure you
Poor Optio Frankennickelstein.
Hah!
Lemme guess... Monopoly?
Hah!
Oh, that's right! DT is staying here too
It... probably doesn't work that way
I can't believe that worked
Hah. He totally realizes there's nothing wrong with them.
Are they seriously gonna call her that from now on?
Aaaahahahahahaaa!
Hee, she's all acclimatized
Then again, she might just react the same for a pegasus anyway, because, Fluttershy
Uh-oh. The bear.
Ooh, yikes.
Apple Bloom, die”? That's not a nice thing to say
Use "DeeTee"
...before... what?
Oh, that. Hah!
Awwright. That's settled
Haaaahahahaha! Dammit, Cheerilee.
Hah!
"bad-ponies"... that's not a typo, is it?
Ahheh. Those two
Oh no. Shadow Dash is coming there, isn't he?
They're getting a real drill instructor at the farm.
Poor DT
Fluttershy made enough to feed half the school
I thought this story was called "how to train your batpony", not "how to train your spoiled earth pony"?
And Buckbeak's a hippogriff. Which this isn't
Hah! No sapients, Curry.
Remarks and corrections:
> The semi-retired Drill Instructor twitched an interrogatory ear
There's a closing quote missing before this.
> while looking at Pumpernickel nod his head slowly
Missing period at the end.
> Of course not. I'm sure there won’t be any problem at all.
Missing closing quote.
> and said,” In any case
That's a closing quote on the first part instead of an opening quote on the second.
> just moments before laying in a tangled bundle of wings and bloody feathers
"lying", not "laying". Laying is putting something down. Lying is just being down.
> how he’d react if Glinda thrashed
"Gilda".
> the ligaments had been badly strained .
There's an errant space before that period.
> Apple Bloom yelled out, “Thermometer,
Missing end quote. You got quite a few of these, it seems...
> wanted to ask you in private before we started”
Missing period at the end.
> “It looks so real she said dreamily. Like real stars. They seem to go on and on forever,”
Missing quotes again; "she said dreamily" shouldn't be part of the quote.
There's an ungodly amount of empty lines at the end of the chapter... you might want to remove those.
7956323
It only took me two years to get back to you, but thank you ever so much for your comments, and error checks. I'm in the process of editing the finished chapters, and reminding myself of the characters and plot, before trying to restart this story. Any help in pointing out typos is greatly appreciated.
I did fix the huge blank spot at the end of the chapter. Most of the missing quotes are editing remains where I modified a part and forgot the proper punctuation.
9435856
Hee, nice! Good to see you on this. I should probably read on, then... I never got around to it.
Can't promise anything, though; so little time these days
9435864
Heh. Not like you have any obligation. If you can, great, if you can't, cool. "Realizing how many typos are in my chapters is depressing. No matter how hard I try I can't catch all of them. Lots of people make comments about how I'm missing quotation marks, or not using the proper punctuation, but don't take the time to point out any of those instances. It's why I treasure those people who like the story enough to take an active role in improving it.
9435875
I'm always glad I can help. Yeah, it's a bit depressing to realize the amount of errors in your own work, but it's a phase all writers need to go through. Been there too.
The main thing you can do is always pay attention to write things as correctly as possible, even if it's not in storywriting; replies to comments here, forum posts, Facebook replies, post-it notes... really, anything, ever. Just double-check them all, and if you're unsure about something, look it up. It will help you get a habit of writing with less errors.
As for my listings... I consider them a free service. I got a habit of noticing these things from prereading for people, and if I notice them, hey, might as well note them down, right?
[Whoops, posted this from the main page, which made it show up in the last chapter. Fixed
]
Add
You mean "bat" right?
"shut'em both up good" me think's? I don't know that "but" has me.
Add
"asking if she could please have"
This is what I found for chapter 1
9440366
Thanks, and I did mean 'bad' not 'bat' in this context.
Two things in this chapter: Diamond is light pink, and piebald is black and white. Pip has brown, which makes him a pinto.
https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/4/13/297139.png Here's DT compared to Sweetie, who is a VERY light grey, apparently.
9651665
Thanks. The Pinto is easy to fix, search and replace does that. Finding Diamond's color in the story is a bit harder but I'll look.
Corrections are welcome if you see anything glaring.
Curry seems all over the place
Buckbeak doesn't look like a proper hippogryph either since he's just a pegasus with an eagle's head. I really hope Goose won't have to suffer from her phobia for much longer.
I seem to recall her name being Laminia in the last story.
plum?
Missing a word?
Scaredy
schoolitis?
There are several paragraphs of dialogue here missing close-quotes, despite changes in speaker afterwards.
"subsistence" should probably be "sustenance." Or subservience? Not sure what you intended there.
Pony who has a phobia of tents VS sentient luxury tent thing.