Fullmetal Pony

by Leoshi

3.1: A Choice to be Told

Twilight Sparkle sat in her room for a long time, staring at her gathered materials, wondering where the line was that divided 'cluttered' from 'messy' and how her mother could spot the difference. A mess was a mess, but surely clutter was just a means to an end. Tools and objects that one would need to work on something greater. Yeah, okay, the crumpled wads of discarded paper near the door were as far from useful as anything could get, and maybe her mother was on to something when she had trod over them first.

Still.

There was more to her setup than where she had missed her wastebin.

Her preparations had improved since her first attempt at alchemy. She now had a small tabletop on which to work as opposed to her carpet, at the insistence of her mother. The table wasn't very high off the floor of course, but it was enough. It even had a small space for a cup of water, though they both knew that was more for emergencies than actual drinking. Besides, Twilight was using that space to store a magnifying glass. If all went as planned, today wouldn't involve sparks.

Her work space was not messy, but it was definitely cluttered. Three heavy books stood open before her, one resting atop the other two like some mockery of a pyramid, with each of them decorated with little strips of colored paper that extended past the edges of their pages. Beneath the texts were small piles of loose paper and two curling parchments. Her personal notebook (third edition!) helped keep those open to her gaze. The contents of the notebook were reaching the margins, and indeed some parts drew smaller and closer when Twilight wrote them - thus, the magnifying glass - but they all were connected. She was sure of that.

Dare she think it? She was on the verge of a breakthrough.

Twilight shook her head. No distracting thoughts today! She wasn't going to spend time on anything practical anyway. For now, she spent her free time comparing her own theories against what her books claimed. For all she knew, a 'breakthrough' for her could simply be 'step three' for everypony else. Besides, she'll get to enjoy a break period soon. For now, there was a small puzzle to solve.

Committing one part of her notes to memory, she moved her gaze to the pyramid of open books and gently pulled the top one down toward her. All six pages instantly became revealed to her. She swept her eyes across them all, looking for what had started her tireless search in the first place.

"Ley...lines..." she muttered. "Ley...ley lines...come on..."

The words had come up before, of course, but what caused Twilight to focus on them was where she had seen them. Though she didn't understand all about them, she knew that ley lines were largely concerned with magic. The gift of telekinesis, seen in practically all unicorns, was thought to draw its power from these lines of energy. It was the prevailing theory, she knew, but it was odd to see a mention of them in her alchemy books. For the longest time, she had thought that alchemy with magic was possible because the alchemy used the magic as a spark. Something to get its own arrays started. Her latest reading, however, seemed to suggest that alchemy as a whole could tap into these ley lines on their own.

On the surface, it made sense. How else could one explain how pegasi and earth ponies performed alchemy so effectively? If access to ley lines were only through magic, and magic was only accessed by unicorns, then only unicorns could be alchemists. But if the alchemy itself were connected? Why, that stood ready to answer two of her most burning questions.

However, her information didn't go much further than that. That wasn't the discouraging thing, though - the puzzle she was trying to solve was why she couldn't remember reading anything that did tell her more. At first, she thought she was simply missing pieces. But she had been on this hunt for the last hour, and now it seemed as though the pieces simply didn't exist.

The six pages turned to twelve, then to eighteen. Her eyes glazed over as she reached the end. Drained and frustrated, she plopped her chin down on all of them without so much as worrying about bending the sheets. She stayed like that for a few minutes before magically lifting her notebook down and staring tiredly at the part she was trying to solve.

LEY LINES = ALCHEMY ?? RELATE TO TEL.KEN. ??

She had even circled LEY LINES twice. It was the latest burning question that, for once, she had not been able to soothe with an answer. These latest three books were the last of her study materials, and while it was true that she had mostly skimmed through them today, she was confident that she had found nothing.

Ugh. That was a depressing thought. Nothing aggravated her more than a broken puzzle.

She glanced at a nearby hourglass, just in time to watch the final few seconds of sand fall. It was mildly amusing. The sight told her that it was time for a break. Resigned to her results, she lifted her head from the books and proceeded to return them to their spots on her shelf. Thinking twice, she also properly picked up and disposed the wads of paper near her door. No reason to have an untidy workspace when there was no work being done.

In hindsight, Twilight should have expected a surprise. Her mother had been more insistent than usual about keeping a tidy room, and she only got like that when she expected company. Unfortunately, Twilight had been so engrossed in her broken puzzle that she had completely missed the sound of the front door, the soft tones of chatter downstairs, or the fact that her mother had stopped checking in on her some time ago.

Naturally, then, it was a pleasant shock to see both her mother and brother sitting in the living room, watching her enter with mischievous glints in their eyes. Twilight instantly snapped out of her stupor and leapt up to her brother.

It was quite a vocal leap. "Whaaaaaat??"

Twilight was lifted and crushed beneath the forelegs of her brother. "H-hey, Twily! Decided to finally poke your head out, you bookworm?"

"What is this? When did you get here? Why are you here? How did you get more leave time so soon? What are you wearing?"

"Slow down, kiddo!" Shining laughed. "Let's get you back to earth before I answer you, okay?"

Their hug was a little more insulated than other ones. Shining Armor had on what seemed to be the world's worst raincoat. A thin, gray, form-fitting material covered his body from chin to dock, stopping short of his tail and fetlocks. A hood was hanging behind his head almost pitifully, and the entire thing was held in place by a series of metal clasps lining his chest. It all looked very strange, but what made it a little more normal was a permanent mark at his shoulder: a grayscale version of his shield-and-star cutie mark.

This hardly made sense, Twilight realized. It had been only five months since Shining Armor's last visit, when Twilight had made a brutal experiment out of their mother's favorite pillow. None of them had expected another visit so soon. Twilight certainly wasn't complaining, though she did kick her legs in protest when she was magically lifted and held in midair for a moment while Shining looked and chuckled.

Velvet raised her eyebrows in gentle praise. "Oh, look at you! You're able to lift whole bodies now?"

"Yep!" Shining said. "It's my new unit. Our training has a greater focus on magic than my last one. Check this out!"

He proceeded to gently rotate Twilight's body until her mane fell toward the floor. She couldn't contain her own giggles at the sensation.

"Broad control," he went on, "with an emphasis on restraining all of their limbs at once. This one is specialized for pegasi! How do you like flying, Twily?"

"I feel dizzy!"

Laughing again, Shining Armor carefully righted her and set her on the floor. Twilight swayed on her hooves for a moment, shook her head, then jumped to join him on the couch. She playfully tugged at the smooth material of his strange clothing.

"So?" she asked as the material snapped back in place. "What's all this about?"

"I've got quite a bit of news for you both. Cadie though it would be better if I told it face-to-face instead of in a letter."

Twilight tilted her head. "Cadie?"

"That's part of the news. Comfy? It might take a while to get through it all..."

And it did. Shining Armor began by explaining his new unit, what they were doing, and how he was moved, with a reassurance every now and then that the change was not altering his goal of leading his own group one day. He went into detail about Pappy and his methods (though he summarized their first meeting). His unit, smaller than his previous one, was apparently a new outfit that sought candidates for more exhaustive training, headed by the brigadier general himself. Despite how he was recruited, he was not the last one brought in.

Velvet and Twilight interrupted with questions every so often. What was the brigadier general like? What was the deal with his name? Was Shining aware that Pappy had relatives in Ponyville? He answered what he could while trying to keep pace with his story, until finally Twilight broached the subject he was going to bring up next anyway.

"You look so silly in this!" she declared. For good measure, she poked and prodded the garment some more. "What is it? What's it for?"

Shining winced. "Hey, ow! Watch what you're pinching, you!" He put a few more inches between himself and his sister for security. All she did was giggle. "This is a special polyester undergarment for a set of standard armor. Part of my training has me go in full combat dress during some exercises. The armor comes in pieces—" he waved a hoof outward, which confused Twilight, "—so it's simple enough to put together, but the suit is much harder to put on than it is to take off, so I usually just wear it until the end of the day."

Twilight hesitated, then put a few inches between them on her own. "Ew."

"Hey! Rude."

Velvet couldn't hide what could only be described as a cautious grin. "You, um...you did wash that thing before boarding the train, right?"

He scoffed. "Nope. Maybe I didn't tell you. The only way to properly clean these suits is through spontaneous combustion." He shot a look at Twilight. "I was hoping for some help with that."

Twilight promptly hefted a nearby pillow and socked him in the face.

"Anyway," Shining Armor continued after setting the pillow aside, "today just happened to be different. I wanted to show you two the armor and how it was put on, so...well, like I said, this undersuit is a real chore to crawl into. I usually have somepony helping with the fitting. I figured it would make more sense just to wear it on the ride over rather than ask my sister or mother to help me out."

"Fair enough," Velvet said.

"That's for armor? Like the royal guard's armor?" Twilight asked from her end of the couch.

"Yep! Strictly speaking, it's a training set, so it's an older model. But it—"

"Where is it, huh? I wanna see!"

Shining gestured outward again. "I left it on the front porch for the time being."

"What? Why?"

"Here's a life tip, Twily...don't wear cold iron. Especially if it's meant to go around your entire body."

Twilight made a silent "oh" and glanced at her mother. Velvet shrugged, accepting the answer just as well.

A moment later, Shining Armor cleared his throat. "There are, uh, a couple more big things to tell you."

"Yes?" Velvet prompted. She and Twilight looked on.

To their surprise, Shining Armor blushed. He looked at the floor instead of them and absentmindedly scratched at the hem of his undersuit. "There's...this girl..."

Some time later, Velvet excused herself to the kitchen. Twilight was a little relieved at that; she had felt the air shift from happy to tense again, as she sometimes did when her mother and brother were in the same room. But unlike those times, Twilight could understand the change. She was just as shocked at the news as her mother had been. And what news it was.

Her brother had told them of his new marefriend, a pegasus noble named Cadance. He explained that they had met over a year ago, but he had been working up the nerve to tell his family about her. It was apparently a source of teasing within his units, both old and new, because Cadance was the adopted niece to the Princess. Such a relationship afforded him special privileges. Or rather, it was expected that he got them.

Of course he didn't act on them, he said. He was set on earning his commission the right way, not the fast way - which was ironic since Brigadier General Poppy Seed was effectively including more advanced training techniques with his drills, techniques he would normally not reach for another year. Yet in spite of all that, the largest bombshell Shining had to drop was what caused Velvet to leave the room.

He was going to be a father.

Author's Note:

Hey, welcome back! This segment is the first of four, all of which will be released through New Year's Eve. So I'll see you all in a few days!

Comments

[ValNitak Choas]

an up date wow

[Skaltrox Defiance Knight]

Looks very interesting, haven't really seen Full metal alchemist (I intend to though) but know the gist of its plot so I'll be checking this out.

[Leoshi]

7802056 Ah, my apologies. I admit that this story is being written with fans of both shows in mind, so it will be difficult for readers who aren't familiar with the anime. I can give you a summary of what I'm adapting if you'd like, but I'll understand if this fic simply isn't for you.

[AyeNowWai]

So I guess Canance will die. Based on the fact that he never mentioned her while he was a suit of armor (that I remember) and it would add to the story and I don't recall a child existing.

The only way to properly clean these suits is through spontaneous combustion

Spontaneous... Is he being sarcastic?

[Animatorsnake]

DAAAAAAAAMN SHINY... already Flurry Heart is going to be born early