To Move The Heavens Themselves (Twilight) Part 2
We were to meet partway into the Everfree. Third Eye had stopped by several times to give me an increasingly lengthy series of steps to follow. The appropriate checklist was made, and I had had Rainbow reschedule the weather to fog upon his request.
It should have been a simple trek to the meeting spot, but Mayor Phi’s Law exists for a reason. What can go wrong will go wrong, although it was a thankfully small hiccup.
I gasped as the mini-sun around my horn burned out. The earth resonated with the retreating steps of a crisis narrowly averted, and I had scarcely ever been as happy for two things to have gone simultaneously wrong. Thankfully—or not, as the case may be—I could now claim to have stopped not one, not two, but three star beasts in one fell swoop. Granted, Aquariai were about as dangerous as a sea cucumber when not hosting Pisces, but this one was, and I was very happy that the Ursa Major had left with the offered tribute of an ever-flowing urn of astral fish.
“You can come out now!” I called into the trees.
“Are you sure?” whimpered an understandably terrified colt.
“Yeah, bucko, she’s sure.” Rainbow all but pushed the pink pegasus from the tree she’d been watching him from. “You just had to pick a spot too high for the others to help, though, didn’t you? Do you have any idea how cool it would have been to take on an Ursa Major and live?” She glared at Morpheus in his Wicked Smooth guise. “But, no, I got guard duty.”
“Would you have rather taken it on alone while the alicorn stood back to watch the foal?” Morpheus retorted as he and Rarity emerged from the brush. “Neither me nor Rarity are pegasai.”
Rarity tittered. “Quite right. Although, I admit I do have a few dress designs just in case the rest of us start sprouting wings and horns. Twilight did, after all.”
“Actually, I was kind of alright with just watching.” With nothing to fear, all the adrenaline coursing through his body just had to mean he was excited. He had this big dopey grin on his face that seemed all too familiar
“You’re Snails’ little brother aren’t you?” Hoof met face.
“Yeah, I’m Wormtail! How’d you know?!” He squeaked.
“You have similar tastes,” I deadpanned. “What were you doing out here?”
He scuffed the ground. “Fishing and stuff.”
I stared into his soul with Celestia’s Disapproving Dione. I wasn’t letting him get away with such vagueness, and my countenance held all the sternness of a giant glaring at one of it’s many children. For Saturn was a busy planet and gave discipline accordingly.
He wilted accordingly, and I soared internally at my success. That was the first time I had managed not to trigger emergency puppy dog eyes. He started looking at anywhere other than me and spilled. “Applebloom said it might get me my cutie mark, since I like it so much.”
“And you took that to the extreme, of course.” I sighed. My beautifully organized checklist had been thoroughly soaked and trampled. “Okay…. I hate to say it, but one of us has to take him back to town, and it can’t be me. Rarity, would you—”
“Hello!” A cry filtered down from above. “Wormtail, honey?! Are you there?!”
“Mom!” Wormtail tried and failed to flitter upwards, only to land with an exhausted thump. A green pegasus came down through the canopy and enveloped him in a hug.
“I’m so sorry, Princess!” The mare turned to me. “I didn’t think he was serious when I overheard him talk about going to the Everfree.”
“It’s okay.” I soothed the panicked pegasus. “Just get him back to Ponyville.”
The mare continued to babble apology after apology as she flew into the distance, circling back once or twice for good measure. We stood in silence for a few seconds to make sure she was gone. Finally, Morpheus broke it. “A little too coincidental to be believable: there’s an excellent chance our host sent someling to run interference. Any pony want to bet that was Lyra?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Sure. I got ten bits to spare, and there’s no way Lyra left Bon Bon with that Ursa stomping through. It was probably some random underling.”
“Underling?” Morpheus chuckled in a deep, dark buzz. “Third Eye didn’t strike me as that kind of Lord. If he was, ve’d have bet that was a test of skill and adaptability.” He tilted his head so fast it caused an alarming clacking noise, and he tapped a hoof to his chin. “Then again, our data on him is limited. Maybe it was an expendable.”
“Dude, there’s joking, and there’s just plain morbid.” Rainbow lightly thwapped the prince with a wing. I smiled at the exchange. It seemed Rainbow was acclimating to him quite quickly now that they’d settled things between them.
“Remember the safe word, Dash.” Morpheus cackled, dodging several more wing slaps. It was comments like that, however, that made me wonder exactly how they settled things. It had to have been incredibly embarrassing given Rainbow’s blush, but I figured if anything too bad had happened Rainbow would have told me.
“Did you have to say it like that?” Dash pulled back into the air, darting about like she was looking for an opening.
“Of course.” Morpheus bowed of all things, and Rainbow snorted in what looked to be an odd mix of exasperation and amusement. “The rules our little game all but demand it.”
Rarity tittered, watching the the exchange with sparkling eyes. I groaned inwardly, knowing that look all too well. I sighed, and she saw me doing so, and the titter became outright giggling.
“You wanna go then, flyboy?” Rainbow landed, flaring her wings and blowing leaves and sticks everywhere.
“Only if we skirmish on the go.” Morpheus’ head was tilted at the most arrogant angle imaginable. “We are on a mission, after all. I’d expect loyalty to remember that.”
“Oh, it is on!” Rainbow leapt forward. “The safe word is pineapple! One! Two! Three! Go!”
Morpheus, thankfully, fled the direction we were supposed to be going. Rainbow charged after him, blowing sticks, leaves, and other debris everywhere. The sounds of Morpheus playfully taunting the speedster could be heard amongst reckless crashing.
Really, they were going to attract more predators if they kept it up, though.
That or scare them all away.
I sighed again, turning to Rarity. Her eyes just glittered with mirth, eyelashes fluttering as she stared at me expectantly. “Not one word on some sort of forbidden love triangle.”
Rarity giggled again as we moved onwards at our own pace. “Technically, it’d be a quadrilateral with Applejack, but we both know Rainbow would rather die than break her heart.”
“What a happily ever after that would be.” I flinched at the venom in my voice, and Rarity gave me a comforting nudge. “Sorry…. You’re just romanticizing, I know. Just please don’t phrase it like that.”
“Darling, you aren’t still sore about Flash are you?” Rarity levitated most of the debris from Rainbow and Morpheus’ roughhousing to the side as we started onwards at a much more leisurely pace. I could hear them scuffling on ahead. The sound of wood cracking on chitin was common.
My tail flicked involuntarily. “This isn’t the time or place for this, Rarity.”
“I would think with lives such as ours any time and place would work.” The fashionista shrugged. “We go adventuring so much, I have prepacked saddlebags for any number of climates, countries, and even times—complete with proper clothes for the occasion and a number of sketchbooks to pass the time.”
I blinked.
“Don’t look so surprised, darling. It made for a marvelous side project when I needed to drum up inspiration.” Rarity flashed a smile, and her eyes gleamed with excitement. “I call it ‘Around the World in Eighty Dresses’ – although there’s so much more to it by now. Regardless, my point stands. Trouble’s the norm for us. Why isn’t this the time and place for small talk?”
“Prying into my love life isn’t small talk, Rarity.” I huffed.
She shrugged again, making a face at a wad of wood stuck together in a goopy green mess. “I’m just a concerned friend right now. Pinkie Promise.” She made the sacred motions, and I swore I heard an echo of pink laughter. “I really need to know you’re not still hung up on Flash, though. I never would have tried to play matchmaker if I thought you weren’t ready.”
I sighed, smiling wistfully. “No, Rarity. I understood really. He was a guard: I should have expected him to think like that. I mean, Shining sometimes jokes he’d die once for the nation and twice for Cadance, crawling back from the grave to croak again if needed.” I slumped from a trot to more of a shuffle. “I got used to the idea a long time ago, but that doesn’t mean I want ponies dying for me—neither friend, nor random guard, and especially not a special somepony.”
I shook my head. “No, if true love means being ready to die for your special somepony, I’d rather stick with friends.”
Rarity tutted, even as she pulled me in for a quick hug. “Darling, if you’d ever bother to read those so-called ‘trashy’ romance novels—the ones I recommend to you because they aren’t trash. You’d know there’s all kinds of romances. Goodness gracious, our love-eating friend could probably give you pages on it.”
I stared at her like she’d grown a second head. “But that makes it sound like there’s no such thing as true love.”
Rarity tittered. “Darling, true love is what you make of it. Plenty of romance novels have age old friends fall in love for a reason. Sometimes simply having a friend beyond all others is enough—no gallant knights nor passionate nights, only somepony who never leaves your side. Why do you think I only try to matchmake you with friends?”
“You tried to matchmake me with Morpheus not even a week after I met him.” I deadpanned.
“Sometimes I get a little overenthusiatic.” She held a hoof up to hide her grin.
“Maybe you’re right then, Rarity.” I smiled slightly in return. “I’ll give it some thought, but that just means you shouldn’t try to set me up any more. Friendships happen naturally, right?”
She pouted heavily, lifting a hoof to her chest. “You wound me deeply, darling.” She practically purred the word ‘darling.’ “Suggesting my actions are so tactless as to be unnatural? I assure you that I am a professional. You’ll never even see my actual move.”
I chuckled. “Sure, keep saying that.”
“Victory is mine!” cackled a voice from ahead, as the sound of crashing was punctuated by a loud crunch. Muffled silence followed. I could make out that they were talking ahead, but it was too quiet to hear.
“He slips quite well into the roll of a cliché villain….” Rarity mused. “A natural thespian, although I suppose that’s to be expected.”
I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. “Honestly, I’m not so sure. The others got suspicious of that Snow Flurry disguise really quickly, remember?”
“Ah, but he wasn’t born to play that role.” Rarity declared, gesturing to herself. “I can act like a Canterlot noble without a hitch, but we both know how trying to act the rustic farmer with Trenderhoof turned out.”
“He wasn’t born to be a villain.” My face scrunched.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” Rarity carefully pulled some brush to the side. “I mean, he’s grown on me, and he’s certainly not a bad egg by any means, but who knows what plans Chrysalis had for him.”
I grumbled unintelligibly in response.
Stepping into the clearing where we were to meet our hosts, we found Rainbow pinned under a pile of branches that were coated heavily in green goo. She glared at us, pouting. The unspoken dare to comment was almost palpable. Morpheus, meanwhile, was lounging in the tree above her. His disguise was down, and he looked into the distance with glassy eyes—probably looking through the Hivemind as he waited for us.
I had so many questions.
“He cheated.” Rainbow sulked.
“Ve did no such thing.” The prince idly kicked the air as he stared into space. “You were expecting me to fight directly, like a warrior, so ve fought indirectly, like an infiltrator, instead.”
Rarity and I took to freeing Rainbow as she bemoaned her loss with a raspy whine. “He ran away, threw dirt in my face, and somehow found time to set traps.”
“Simple levitation on the move Rainbow,” the prince interjected. “They also weren’t really traps. I just used the existing surroundings to my advantage.”
“I’m pretty sure this is a trap,” I said, lifting a particularly sticky branch. It certainly looked like one. While the Everfree was a very mysterious place, I could not imagine that it randomly conjured the oddly stringy yet gooey strands pulsating between the branches. It was clearly the same substance his web was made of.
Granted, we were here because of changelings living in the Everfree, but that was an entirely different matter.
Morpheus shrugged, briefly looking at his work. “That one was a trap. Ve ran us both in circles, coming back here repeatedly to gain time to prepare.”
Rainbow grumbled as Rarity pulled another branch with a squelching pop. The fashionista’s face turned green, and she quickly chucked it into the undergrowth. “At least this ghastly stuff isn’t sticking to you, darling.” We pulled the last few branches off in one go to find Rainbow was in fact spotless if smelly underneath everything.
The prince finally hopped down, holding a hoof out to Rainbow to help her up. “I figured if ve were going to go through all the trouble of trapping you in my web the least we could do is keep it feather-friendly. With a little digging, ve found how to make it dissolve with salt water.” He bared his fangs in a grin. “Ve just wanted you to sweat it out—figuratively and literally.”
“Jerk.” Rainbow knocked his hoof away with a wing. Standing up, she held her hoof out. “Thanks for not messing with the wings, though.”
They hoof bumped as Morpheus chuckled. “Wouldn’t dream of it after the other day.”
So. Many. Questions.
I opened my mouth to inquire, but Dash suddenly hissed—ears clamping down. “Sweet Luna, that stings! Mo, tell them to shut up!”
I blinked as Morpheus’s ear twitched, and he cocked his head to the side. His wings flicked, muttering something, and a small breeze met my ear. I whinnied in surprise as his voice filled my ears like he was right behind me. “First, if you want Twilight to give the signal, ask her yourself.”
“But that defeats the point!” Lyra’s voice hit me like a symphony of anvils and blacksmiths. Rainbow groaned in response.
Rarity—ever the lady—gave a similar if less extreme reaction as the prince flicked his wings again. “Second, it’s impolite not to include everypony. It’s still breaking protocol to ask just me to prompt her. I’m not a member of your Hive.”
“But—” My own ears splayed back at the volume.
“Third,” Morpheus interrupted, “please stop yelling. The wind sense is meant to carry whispers. You’re going to give us all migraines.” He looked to Rainbow who was messaging her head. “Also, Rainbow seems to be rather… sensitive to it – much more than any other wind whisperer ve’ve seen.”
“I’ll show you sensitive,” Rainbow grumbled.
“Sorry...” The reply was tentative and much more bearable. “...I’m not used to the more subtle stuff.”
More questions. All the questions. Two changelings who could answer—maybe more in the shadows. Giggling, I pulled one of several notebooks and quills from my saddle bags.
“Twilight.” Morpheus snapped me from my reverie. “The signal?”
Oh, right. There was a signal. It had been the last thing on the checklist—the checklist which was stuck to an Ursa’s foot like wet toilet paper.
“Discord, damn it all.” I sighed.
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Brilliant as always
There is no shame in having a character come to life. If anything, it helps.
I just wish that it happened with every character so easily.
Discord won't be to happy with that swear Twi.
"Messaging her head" should be "massaging" :)
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Francisco_de_Goya%2C_Saturno_devorando_a_su_hijo_%281819-1823%29.jpg
Yeah, I'd back down from that, too.
For once, he's actually not to blame.
I like the way Morpheus' and Rainbow's relationship is developing. It might be a bit fast, given that they only just made up a single chapter ago, but I suppose on the other hand, going into it full tilt like that is exactly what Rainbow would do.
7556504
More of an it really, but that sounds insulting so they sort of automatically genderize him. Admittedly, he being the default makes less sense in what we've as a mostly mare society, but it is also slightly easier to say than she, so it kinda comes down to practicality vs. society. I just happened to pick he because of culture bleed. Pretty sure here in the U.S. It'd be he from a practical or society view point. Only time I've seen a generic she is in dnd rule books of all things. They use it to describe a generic player.
7556624 Why do people call ships "she?"
7556712
Ancient sailor's joke about ships being a lot like women, not because they're actually female in any meaningful sense. Grammatically, they're properly speaking an "it."
Eh, shipping is what you make of it. I'm perfectly fine with it, usually, when it flows naturally. It's unnatural stuff like Alien Shipping Syndrome that you have to watch out for.
7558427
The naturalness of a relationship in a story can be broken into certain factors though. While not exactly translatable to exact numbers, there's certainly a sort of individualized system each reader uses to evaluate said naturalness, and those systems -- while unique to the reader -- tend to share some characteristics across readers. When it comes to fanfiction, I've found one such trend is a kind of penalty for OCs. It's like building a better boyfriend rather than letting nature run it's course between existing characters. That doesn't mean it's impossible, simply that it's harder to make the ship seem natural. Planning such a relationship from the start is risky since an author can't guarantee they'll spin things right, and so I went in expecting nothing.
Then I reread what I had, and shipped them in my head as a reader, and that just felt weird. Not bad, but it wasn't what I was expecting.
7556624 What about they? It's usually an acceptable gender neutral pronoun.
In could actually see this. Rarity is the kind who'd be so busy setting you up with all the wrong ponies, you'd never notice that you have somehow spent all your time hanging with another one to get away from her. One that she probably said was not for you. After introducing them to you in an offhand manner.
Yeah, that's the fun part of writing! Weird, but fun. And you never have to deal with shouts of OOC.