The Epsilon Pegasus

by Sparky Brony

Chapter 15. Feathering The Throttle

Honeysuckle trots happily down the street, a bunch of flowers she had picked up in Equestria held in her magic. She finds herself staring around at the towering buildings around her. This is her first time visiting the Earth, and the twenty-year-old unicorn is taking in the sight of all the humans on the street. She had heard about New York, and she thought that living in Manehattan would be similar, but this was amazing. It’s dusk as she enters an apartment building, though she stops and takes a moment to watch the orange glow of the sun as it finally disappears from the sky, marveling at how the cosmic body moves on its own. She shakes her mane a bit as she trots up three flights of stairs. She knocks on the door.

“Who is it?” comes a masculine voice.

She smiles. She was talking to him online, and to hear his voice just behind the door sends a thrill through her. “It’s Honeysuckle, love.”
She can hear movement inside, and a couple of clicks indicate the sound of the door latches unlocking. The door opens and she looks for the orange unicorn she was supposed to see. Instead, she sees a pair of blue jeans. Confused, she looks up. “You’re not…” She isn’t able to finish as a small spray can sprays her in the face. She gasps reflexively and inhales the drug into her lungs. In moments, her vision goes gray as she finds she can’t stay on her hooves. She weakly tries to kick, or do anything, as the man picks her body up. Everything narrows down to a point as she hears the door slamming closed and everything goes black.

***

Mischief giggles as she leads me into the building for Dust’s first company, Lightning Electric, an electrical contractor that has been servicing the oilfield in the area for over sixty years. The building is enormous. Trucks are lined up outside this morning, and several electricians are working nearby, getting their job orders and getting ready to head out into the field.

“Okay, Loopy, you just need to get your hooves wet. Mum did a lot of work from here; it’s always been the headquarters. As she founded and bought other companies, she kept her main offices here.” She gestures with a wing to a set of stairs. “That leads up to her conference room; safety meetings for all the crews are handled up there.” She steps through a set of doors and down a long hallway. “The shop has been added on to a couple of times, up these stairs.” She says as we get to a stairway off of the hallway, “Mum had her corporate offices put here when I was a filly.” She sighs. “I’ve spent a lot of time here with her. First I was playing, then I was learning. She’s taught me a lot.” She stops for a long moment, her face conflicted. Finally, she brightens, “And now you are going to be in charge.” She looks at me and smirks. “You’ll have to meet the staff, though.”

I frown as she opens the door. She heads through the reception area, waving to the human sitting at the reception area as she heads through while she keeps talking. “There are two entrances to the corporate offices: the main entrance through Lightning Electric, and the side entrance, which brings you here easier.”

“Then why did you bring me through the electrical shop?”

She giggles again. “Because you’re going to be in charge of them.”

I shake my head. “I don’t know the first thing about being an electrician.”

She looks at me and shrugs. “That’s what the manager is for. You’ll be meeting him later; he’s busy with the guys right now. First, but you need to meet Mum’s assistant.”

“Hello, Loop De Loop.” comes a new voice.

I turn and my eyes follow my ears to point at the door. An earth pony mare is standing there—one with a dark tan coat; a blonde mane and tail; and big, blue eyes. She smiles gently at me, ducking her head in respect. “Nice to meet you. I’m…”

“Miss Harshwhinny.” I’m able to breathe.

She chuckles, looking into my eyes. “Yes. Lightning Dust hired me on quite a while ago. I’m good at organizing things, something Miss Dust always had a problem with.”

“Oh.” I say, then look around the office. A large L-shaped desk is against the wall, with a computer and a pony-friendly keyboard on it. There doesn’t seem to be much paperwork here, which I mention to the earth pony.

“When Miss Dust informed me that she was going back to Equestria, I insisted on her getting everything that she’s been working on closed up, so as not to burden her successor with a heap of unfinished projects.” She smiles at me. “It was certainly a challenge, but she was able to persevere. She got everything done, despite her constant flitting about.”

I’m able to smile, Dust had her wings back, so she was certainly distracted by the desire to fly. I find myself shifting my wings a bit as I look around, soaking in the responsibility hanging in the air. My ears fall flat against my head as I rub my hoof over the edge of the desk, where Dust once sat.

Mischief steps up to me. “It’s both easier than you think, and way harder. You’ll do fine.”

I turn and look at her. “But… what do I do?” I wail.

Mischief grins. “Your job. You will be organizing, is what you’ll be doing. Mum hired good managers for the various interests; you just have to get their input and decide what needs to be done.”

We are interrupted by a knock on the door. I turn and look at the human standing there; he looks native American from what I can see. Then it dawns on me: he was at the spirit fire.

“Looks like you’ve got something you’ll be able to do, Loopy. Have a good day.” Mischief says as she nods to the human and walks out the door. Ms. Harshwhinny gestures to the desk, and I go over and hop into the chair.

The human comes in, looking around nervously. I gesture to the guest seat as Ms. Harshwhinny leaves, closing the door behind her.
I decide to break the awkward silence with, “Hi! Is there something I can do for you?”

He lifts his eyes from the surface of the desk, meeting mine. “You were there when Running Thorn passed, weren’t you?”

I nod solemly, doing my best to put on a kind smile. “I was part of the spirit fire, yes.”

He smiles back at me. “Well, in the last several weeks… we have been getting everything ready, but our calls have been ignored… and we need to bring our new spiritual leader home.”

I furrow my brow as my ears perk forward. “Spiritual leader?”

He nods, gesturing across the desk in front of me. “Grandfather was our leader; he guided and directed us. Without him, we can’t communicate with the spirits. He has named his successor, but we have been unable to find her. Her family refused to talk to us. Since you are connected to the spirits of the Everfree yourself, I’m here to ask you to find her and bring her to her home, to join us in her role as spiritual leader of our people.”

I tilt my head at his question, asking, “What if she doesn’t want to?”

He sighs, folding his hands in his lap. “Then we have no hope. She carries his abilities in her blood… she is his great granddaughter. She is more important than she knows.”

I look at him, reading his face for a long moment. He looks uncertain, but hopeful. “I won’t force her to join you. If she’s happy in her life, she won’t be happy with you.”

His eyes open wider and he clasps his hands in front of himself. “Please, at least help her understand her heritage. An entire people need her.”

I look down at the desk, and then up at him. “I’ll do what I can.”

He smiles, exhaling the breath he had been holding as he fishes a small flash drive out of his pocket and places it on the desk in front of me. “This has all the information that we have on her.” He stands up. “Thank you.”

I look at the computer, then reach out a wing to pick up the flash drive. I boggle it a bit trying to get the cap off, but I get it into its plug in the monitor, which springs to glowing life. I’m greeted with a list of baby pictures—from the background, they were taken at the house. The first one in the list shows me a cute baby with dark hair and piercing brown eyes in the preview, but I quickly close that window and pull up a text file to take notes on.

“Hmmm, Maria Castillo,” I murmur as I type… I’ve gotten pretty good with the pony type keyboards already. I continue typing for a few moments, then I hit print and grab the sheet of paper as it emerges from the printer. Exiting the office, I see Ms. Harshwhinny at her desk.

She looks at me curiously. “Going somewhere?”

I nod back at her. “To Texas, apparently.”

She tilts her head as her brow furrows. “All by yourself?”

I stop for a moment to think on that. “No.” My realization puts a smile on my face, and I head down the stairs, taking to the air as I exit the building. Very soon I’m at my home. “Kendra!” I call out.

After a few moments, I hear her responding, though my ears don’t make understanding her through several walls any easier. Huffing softly to myself, I trot into her bedroom, finding her sitting at her desk with a tablet in front of her. She looks a little frazzled, and seeing my concern, explains, “Sunset Shimmer and Moon Shadow have both given me a lot of homework.”

I move up and nuzzle her. “We have some other work to do.”

She drops her tablet onto to the table and pushes at my head with her hands. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no! I can’t! I have too much to do!”

I decide to bring out the big guns: my ears drop, my eyes are wide, I sit down and curl my tail around my rear, and I engage the pouty lip. “Please?” I murmur, letting tears leak from my eyes.

She looks at me for a long time, then rolls her eyes and sighs. “You don’t have to do those eyes on me.”

I tremble my lower lip for a moment, earning a giggle from her. She pats me on the head and says, “Okay, okay, I’ll do it,” getting an immediate smile from me.

“I’ll preflight the Widgeon.”

***

The silence surrounding her is deafening.

Honeysuckle opens her eyes, immediately trying to lift her head, only to discover that she’s been strapped down. She tries to shift a hoof, but that’s no good, either. All four are tied tightly, and she can’t move them. Her heart races.

“What’s happening?” She moans, blinking the haze out of her eyes and seeing a human man sitting across the room from her. “What are you doing?”

The only answer is the soft rustling of cloth as the man stands up. His tread is light as he walks over to her. Her eyes flick wildly around at the metal walls of the room as her situation sinks in.

“Please, let me go,” she murmurs softly. She tries to use her magic to open one of the straps restraining her—she’s never been really good with magic, other than using it to grow pretty flowers. Another moan is all she can manage as she discovers some kind of block preventing her from lighting her horn.

The man’s hand grabs her horn. She looks up at the grasping, alien appendage as panic swells in her. “Oh, please! Let me go!” she cries, “I won’t do anything! Just let me go!” Her eyes widen at the metal tool that moves into her vision. “What are you going to do with that?!” she finds herself shrieking. The hand shifts a little and the serrated blade touches her horn, right at the base, eliciting a loud scream. “Please! Don’t!” she howls as the blade starts to move. Her screams turn to loud howls of pain, and blood starts to run freely as the blade does its work. One final scream echoes into the room as the pain reaches beyond what she had ever believed possible. “Dear Celestia, noooooo!”

***

I adjust my headset. It’s been a long flight, with a fuel stopover in El Dorado and a quick visit with my grandmother. My heads up display is displaying my glide path at the moment—I may not have a fully modern cockpit, but I put in the HUD to make getting necessary information while flying a lot easier, and the new system synchs with my PonyPod and my tablet. I flick a wing over to my tablet, pulling up its gesture based input. I twitch a wingtip, bringing up the information on the airport I’m about to land at, and key my mic. “This is N1M6Y on final approach. I am two five miles from outer marker.”

The controller responds, “Roger N1M6Y, you are cleared to land on runway three-one left. Wind is two-three-zero at eight.”

“Roger.” I respond, then reach back and crank down my flaps halfway as I let my airspeed drop off. I hit the switch for my landing gear and keep my eyes peeled. This airport is in the city, so it can sometimes be pretty hard to see if you don’t know what you are looking for, but these pegasus eyes make spotting details like that much easier than it used to be. Finally I can see the runway, and I smile as I glance over at Kendra, who is snoozing in her seat. I waggle the wings a bit but don’t get any reaction from her. My grin widens as we float over the outer fence for the airport. In moments, my front wheels screech on the pavement, jerking her awake. A few hundred feet later, my rear wheel touches ground and I bring back the throttles. I’ve used less than a quarter of the length of the runway for my rollout and I turn left towards the general aviation area. Keeping at the taxi speeds is sometimes difficult, but finally, I am able to power down the engines at my parking space. Kendra levers herself out of her seat and steps back. I trip the breaker for the main power and hang my headset on its hook, then grab my saddle bags and shrug them onto my back as I get to the back door. Kendra is waiting for me, looking at the bike hooked there.
“We are going to rent a car, Kendra; we don’t need the bikes. If all goes well, we’ll be driving back here.” Kendra hops out of the door and I flutter to the ground myself. A quick walk has us at the rental office, where I pull out a credit card and my ID. The employee looks at my ID, then at me, then back at my ID. I smile at his befuddlement. “Don’t get many ponies here?” He shakes his head and I continue, “I don’t suppose you have very many cars that are modified for pony use?”

Again, he shakes his head, and I look over at Kendra. “Looks like you’re driving!” gets a giggle from my friend. He silently hands the key to the little SUV to Kendra and soon we are loading up. I pull up my phone and am greeted by a blank screen.

“Did you forget to charge your phone?”

I find myself blushing as I nose my way into my saddlebags and pull out the charger, I get everything plugged in and watch the screen start to light up to show it’s charging. The large battery in this thing means it lasts forever, unless the transponder is in use, which takes a little more than a day to kill it. I hit the button once it’s got enough juice to start up and I watch the OS logo pop into the middle of the screen before fading away. In a few seconds, it has connected to the phone network and is chiming away with messages. I pull up the first one and smile. “Ms. Harshwhinny is apologizing that she wasn’t able to reserve a pony friendly car, the rental company said they needed 24 hours notice to get a car moved to where we needed it.” The next message chimes in. “Mischief wishes us luck on our first mission.”

Kendra quirks an eye. “Mission?”

“Well, it kinda is a mission… we are going to find this girl and hopefully get her to her people.”

She turns off the airport road onto the highway. I pull up the map on my PonyPod and direct her to the address. We arrive at a middle class home, a little older, but well maintained. Kendra follows me as I get onto the porch, then knock on the door.

After a few moments, the door cracks open. “Can I help you?” comes a female voice.

I put on my best friendly smile and reply, “I’m looking for Mary Castillo.”

The reply is a curt, but confused, “Who?”

I look at Kendra, then back at the crack in the door, smiling brightly. “I’m sorry if the information I have is old, but is this the Castillo residence?”

The door opens and a dark human face pokes out. “The Castillos? Sorry, not anymore.”

I find myself sighing and my ears fall flat. “Would you happen to have any information on where they moved.”

“Oh, they didn’t move… they died. Car wreck, I think. Their little girl was sent away to live with relatives.”

I find myself sitting down heavily. “Her parents were killed in a wreck?”

She nods. “I’m sorry, but that’s what I was told when I bought this place.”

Kendra comes up and kneels down next to me, resting her hand between my wings. “Like your parents, Loopy,” she murmurs. I sniffle a few times. I don’t usually think about what happened, but there are times I find my thoughts returning to them. I finally shake my head and smile at the woman. Kendra speaks up again, “Thank you for your help.”

“Don’t mention it,” she says and closes the door.

“What are we going to do?” I murmur.

“We just have to track down the wreck and what happened.” Kendra says.

I sigh. “Library?”

She nods.

***

“Rocky Road is the best! It’s got chocolate and marshmallows. And don’t forget the almonds!”

Zap sticks out her tongue at the sole unicorn of the CMC:NB. “Caramel Apple Swirl is the best. It’s so sweet, and it has apples in it.”

“You two are crazy! Black Raspberry Chip rocks. It’s by far the best. Tart and sweet, along with those chocolate chips.” Berry Breeze snarls at her friends.

“Ewww, raspberries? Ugh. That’s nasty.” Dizzy says, “If I wanted something sour, I’d suck on a lemon.”

Zap nods at Dizzy in agreement. “Yuk! Dizzy’s right! Sweet and sweet, that’s the best thing for ice cream.”

“What’s going on in here?” comes a new voice.

All three stop arguing and look at the newcomer. A carnation-colored pegasus mare is standing there, a befuddled smile on her face.

“Oh, hi, Feather!” Zap says, “We’re just trying to get our arguing cutie marks.”

All three fillies look at their flanks in unison, then droop upon seeing the usual blank coats. Feather Pinch suppresses a laugh, but is unable to stop smiling at the three. “Okay girls, I think every generation of Cutie Mark Crusaders goes through an attempt to get a cutie mark with arguing, but you have to think, do you really want a cutie mark about arguing with one another?”

All three foals look at their hooves in silence. Finally, Dizzy scuffs her hoof on the floor and grumbles, “I guess not.”

Feather turns to leave,.“Besides, everypony knows strawberry is the best.”

Comments

[harts fire]

wow this chapter has several surprises in it.
a possible grand daughter to running thorn.
but more important will Honeysuckle survive and how will she do with her horn removed in such a way.
this is a really good chapter love it.

[Alkarasu]

Huh... how thin is Grandfather's bloodline if they have only one option? Wasn't there any other grandchildren, except this one and Blaze?

[Sparky Brony]

7010577 it not specifically the paternity or maternity, she has to be the right one, not all progeny are qualified.

[Alkarasu]

7010757 Ah, so she's the Chosen One. Well... poor girl, there's no cure from that.

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

That poor unicorn.

[tsaukpaetra]

The worst kind of catfish. And for what?