Seeds of Trouble
Fluttershy smiled happily as she tended to all her animals, Sapphire hovering around her like an adorable electron, making meaningless happy noises that expressed general pleasure and contentment. The little jelly's blue glow showed how loved and loving she felt. Fluttershy couldn't help but giggle at some of Sapphire's antics...especially when she wound up in the flour accidentally, coated white and making constant "Skre-chu!" noises.
After wiping the flour off her, Fluttershy was surprised to hear a knock at the door. Confused, she went to the door and opened it a crack. "W-who is-?" She gasped as she recognized the pony at the door, even though she hadn't spoken to him much before. "Oh, Mr. Rich. Umm...was there something you needed?"
"Yes," Filthy Rich replied. "I'm here to discuss some business with you. May I come in?"
"Oh...alright," Fluttershy replied, opening the door to let him in. "W-would you like some tea?"
"That would be lovely," he replied, taking the second most comfy chair in the room, having carefully determined which was which and arranging himself to face the most comfy.
Fluttershy quickly raced to her kitchen, preparing some tea. "Oh my goodness..." she whispered worriedly. "Business? What sort of business does he have? Should I be worried? Should I be scared? Should I be-"
"Mama," Sapphire skreed comfortingly, nuzzling her cheek, tickling her chin with a tendril.
Fluttershy couldn't help but giggle. When Sapphire made an effort to be adorable and loving, it was hard to feel worried about anything. "Thank you," she whispered, cuddling Sapphire to her. She then brought the tea out to Filthy Rich, setting the tray down and taking her favorite chair, which he'd left for her. "So, what sort of business did you want to discuss?" she asked.
Filthy Rich took his time, sipping his tea. "Quite delicious," he commented idly. "You are quite the multi-talented mare."
Fluttershy let out a soft 'meep', hiding half behind her mane, not used to such compliments.
Rich chuckled indulgently. Noticing Sapphire floating over to investigate him, he gasped. "Is this the creature my daughter's mentioned seeing?" he asked rhetorically. "I see what she means. Quite adorable and unique."
Fluttershy managed a smile. She always felt more sure of herself talking about her animals. "This is Sapphire," Fluttershy replied. "I'm...not entirely sure what she is, yet. All I know for sure is that she's alien."
"Indeed," Filthy Rich replied. "Diamond Tiara's expressed quite the interest in this creature, and I can see why." He tore his eyes away from Sapphire to glance off into the middle distance, feigning a disinterested expression. "I understand that many of your animals here are up for adoption to become pets-"
"No," Fluttershy interrupted. "Sapphire's not up for adoption." Her voice was shockingly firm, and with a hint of steel in it.
Filthy Rich stared at Fluttershy in shock...not so much in the firmness of her voice, but in the fact that she had just interrupted him. Fluttershy...interrupted somepony. He rallied gamely. "Well, I do understand that some animals are...a bit more high maintenance than others. From what I hear, caring for this one left you...somewhat exhausted?"
"My friends and I have addressed that issue," Fluttershy said, beckoning Sapphire to her.
"Mama!" Sapphire skreed happily, floating over to burrow in her mane.
Fluttershy giggled at the nuzzle. "And we do anything for our babies, after all."
Filthy Rich sighed. "Indeed we do," he agreed. "Which is why I promised Diamond I would try. That's all I can do."
"I understand," Fluttershy replied. "I won't hold it against you."
"My thanks," Filthy Rich replied. He took another sip of his tea. "This really is quite good."
"It's a new herbal blend," Fluttershy replied. "I get it from Zecora."
Sapphire floated happily around The Home after The Queen retired for a midday rest. While she had mostly recovered from the initial over feeding of Sapphire, The Queen had said that the-Queen-says-Twilight-Sparkle insisted The Queen take it easy, taking midday rests whenever she could.
The Queen had explained that the not-Food that had come the other day had come about acquiring not-Food for not-Food-but-somehow-Food purposes. That was the best Sapphire could translate at this point for 'pet adoption'. Most of the concepts involved were beyond her current comprehension.
Beyond that, Sapphire had something else to think about. The-Queen-says-Applejack was going to feed Sapphire today, but was currently busy involving part of her Us...part of her family coming for a visit. Sapphire had recently grasped the concept of family, one who was as close as the Us that Sapphire was supposed to have but for some reason did not. Without the voices of others like her in her mind, she had bonded to the Queen and others, like the Pinkie Pie, the Rarity, and the Rainbow Dash. The Queen had said they were 'like family' to her. Sapphire had interpreted that as best she could...but the Queen also referred to them as 'Friends', another term Sapphire had not yet grasped.
Sapphire had also gotten a bit bigger. When she had hatched, she had been smaller than the Queen's optic. Now, she was about the same size. She was also stronger now.
She didn't realize how soon she would be proving that.
"Wait..." Babs Seed asked as she stared at Fluttershy's cottage. "We're doin' what?"
"You heard me!" DIamond Tiara snapped. "I want that little flying jelly thingy! It's an alien creature! What right does Fluttershy have to keep it to herself?"
"Uhh...ain't she the animal expert?" Babs questioned.
"Well, sure," Silver sneered. "For Equestrian animals. But that's not Equestrian."
"Yeah!" Diamond gloated. "I'd be much better suited to taking care of it. I can buy anything it could need, after all. All we've got to do is snag it in the bag as it comes by and get home while Fluttershy's still napping. She'll never know what happened!"
"You've got the bag, right Babs?" Silver asked.
Babs stared at them for a time, then threw the burlap sack on the ground between them. "Have fun with this," she snapped. "Ah'm out!"
"What?" Diamond demanded. "You can't!"
"I done a lotta things I ain't proud of," Babs countered, "but I ain't about to lower myself ta stealing. This is just plain wrong and ya know it!"
Diamond huffed. "Well if you're going to be a coward about it, why not go play with those Blank Flank losers instead?"
Babs upper lip pulled back in a snarl. "Think I will," she growled. "They never hurt anyone for fun!" With that, she turned and raced off to Sweet Apple Acres.
Diamond rolled her eyes. "I thought a Manehattenite would be tougher than that. Guess she was just a Blank Flank weenie after all." She turned to Silver. "On the count of three..."
Sapphire was caught off guard as two not-Foods she had floated over to investigate suddenly threw something over her before pulling on it. They had snatched her! They were bad! Sapphire skreed her angry defiance before flying off. The not-Food that left had been the-Queen-says-Applejack's family, so Sapphire would go to where the-Queen-says-Applejack lived.
As Ponyville prepared for the float parade, they were caught off guard as an angrily skreeing burlap sack went flying through town, dragging a screaming Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon behind it in a manner not unlike a reverse windsock. However, no one seemed to be getting hurt, and nothing was getting broken, so the citizenry quickly shrugged it off...save Featherweight, who snapped a picture of it for the new Foal Free Press.
Babs finished her recitation of events - from the start of her visit, her reasons for her actions, and why she cut ties with Diamond and Silver - to Applejack, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. "And that's all of it," she concluded. "I...I'm sorry about how I've been behaving. I just...wanted to be on the winning side for once."
Applejack rubbed the little filly's head with one hoof. "I knew about most o' that from your folks," she replied. "About what it's been like for ya back in Manehatten. It's why I suggested ya come here for a visit. Figured you could use the break, and spending time with Apple Bloom and her friends would help ya cheer up." She then turned to Apple Bloom and the others. "But how come ya never told me things were goin' so bad?"
Apple Bloom looked away. Sweetie Belle lowered her eyes. Scootaloo whistled innocently.
"Ah know why," Babs piped up. "Cause tellin' grown ups never helps when dealing with bullies. They just say they didn't, nothing gets done, and then ya get teased for bein' a tattle tale, too." She shook her head. "But what about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon? And that little jelly thing? And Fluttershy?"
Applejack frowned over what Babs said about bullies, tabling the thoughts for later. She chuckled reassurance. "Don't worry none about Sapphire," Applejack replied. "Those two don't know what they've gotten themselves into-"
Diamond and Silver's screams echoed, accompanied by a drawn out, angry "Skreeeee!" A burlap sack slammed into a tree branch, and in a tussle of fabric, rope, and leaves, Diamond and Silver somehow wound up in the sack heads down, hanging from the tree branch, with Sapphire skreeing overhead.
"See what I mean?" Applejack offered, pointing.
"Skree!" Sapphire floated down towards Applejack, the red glow fading to the normal blue, but a streak of red/orange shot back and forth across her.
"Hungry?" Applejack asked. She lifted her hoof. "Eat up."
Sapphire skreed happily, latching onto the bottom of Applejack's hoof.
"Whoo," Applejack gasped as her body flashed in rainbow colors, but predominantly her normal orange. "Tingly."
Babs, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo watched in wide eyed fascination. Apple Bloom, however, had quickly thrown something together. "Hey girls! How about having our parade float actually float?"
The others turned towards her, and were surprised to see what looked like a pony-sized mobile with four straps. "A bit of decoration, and it'd be good!" she stated happily, strapping herself in. She then held up the top of the mobile towards Sapphire.
Sapphrie skreed in confusion, unsure what she was being asked to do.
Fluttershy woke from her midday nap only to find Sapphire nowhere in sight. "Sapphire?" she called out. Her attention was called to the window by Angel.
"Whee!" Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Babs Seed called as they were towed through the air at a rapid pace.
"Wheee!" Sapphire skreed as she towed them.
Fluttershy chuckled, happy to see that they were having fun together.
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Thats what you get for touching her
That ending...
Excellent chapter! Sapphire is definitely growing, that's for sure.
Oh by the way... tendril is not the proper word for her fangs/teeth/latchers. A tendril is much more like a tentacle, it's more thread-like though.
6179591
She's still an infant. It hasn't developed into a full tooth yet.
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/metroid/images/6/6c/Infant_Tallon_Metroid.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20101009174546
6179594 ahhh yes, but that's an infant Tallon metroid. It's a little different from the Equis batch that derives directly from the SR388 genome. There, the infant is actually almost a miniature Metroid, though a bit more delicate and compulsive. See pictures from super metroid and what not, I believe.
And now, it make me think if Tiara learned something, or if Filthy is going to punish her.
6179606
Ah.
Since this takes place during the Prime sequence, I was assuming the infant was from the Tallon branch, since that's what all the Metroids of the Prime Sequence derive from.
6179704 no, because if it derived from the prime batches, the original evolutionary process would be invalidated. For example, the Tallon metroid scan evolve into the Hunter Metroids, which do not exist in the base genome
Excellent change to Babs' visit, especially DT and SS getting what they deserved! I also love the image of the CMC and Babs dangling from Sapphire and her enjoying giving them rides.
6179694 I think he might consider her humiliation being a good punishment, though since she obviously tried to steal Sapphire she should be grounded.
6179711
Woo, science!
...Yeah, sorry, that's about all I have to contribute.
science :D
6179711
Metroid evolution is effected by environment. The Tallon Metroids are the branch that grew in Phazon rich places, going from base form, to fission, to Hunter, then Hatcher, and finally, prime.
We've seen the growth of Metroid in a magic rich environment in the previous Fic, so we already know how Sapphire should evolve. With no Phazon left on Equips, it wouldn't make sense for her to grow into a Talon-branch Metroid as there is no Phazon to use in growing a Phazite armored shell, same reason why a Queen Metroid needs the exact climate of the Metroid's homeworld to form.
In other news:
My favorite part of this fic is the fact that this sort of behavior in a Metroid is Cannon for the games (see-Super Metroid)
Yes, they are a dangerous superpreadator, but the younger stages are very childlike in their behavior. Basic instinct for infants of every species when they find something unusual is to inspect it by putting it in their mouth, in order to see if it is food. Unfortunately for Metroid, they can feed off of any living thing. Just like with any animal, if you don't teach them the difference between a friend and food, you would have problems down the road.
6180052 Quite so! But at this stage we're establishing how her evolution will take place as a result of the Equis environment. There's a couple of differences though:
The Metroids from Equis I were a Tallon Metroid batch exposed to tons of magic as well as eventually, Phazon. We discovered the Arcane and the Chi variants, analogous to a Hunter Metroid and its subsequent evolutions.
Sapphire, as we'll come to find out, is an EQUIS Metroid, taken from what would have been the Equis batch, which is almost identical to the SR388 batch save for a few things. Her evolution will be influenced to a certain point by genetic coding, but also be influenced, naturally, by her environment, as we'll come to see.
Though after talking things through, my previous comments below don't really apply, because we worked out something where this can all fit.
samus is in for one hell of a surprise when she gets back that's for sure and it is going to either be good, bad, hilarious or some combination of the three but we wont know until the sequel.
Okay two things...
One: What are the CMC doing with Sapphire at the end?
Two: Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are going to get busted for attempted kidnapping right?
6181902
One: Sapphire is towing a four pronged harness through the air that they're all strapped into.
Two: It's not important to the story...but the end result was technically Sapphire kidnapping them.
6182126 I was thinking about how they were going to make their parade float well, float. Also I don't think it's kidnapping if you are just trying to get back home, those two could have let go anytime they wanted to, so technically they were still trying to kidnap her and yes, I know I am arguing crime definitions about a fanmade story about ponies with it's author.
6183506 Well. If you want to get super technical, Sapphire lacks the mens rea (the concept of a guilty mind) necessary for any sort of charge to stick.
And depending on how old the fillies are, it's generally held as a conclusive presumption that children under a certain age cannot be held legally responsible for their actions, and also cannot be charged with a crime.
They should have let Sapphire eat Diamond. Who'd have missed her, really?
6179540 [youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXtMZeEewf8]
Sapphire is now one of my top favorite adopted characters, Tatsurou. Thanks.
6267516 NOPONY WOULD HAVE MISSED THAT SPOILED ************************
6267516
Her parents would.
Dia, you have no idea how big of a mistake you are about to make.
I would think the situation would go south, but I am appeased by the outcome and treatment of DT and Silver in this chapter.
I wish I had Metroid sound effects for you.
But I don’t.