Chapter 17
I struggled against the overwhelming strength of Bulwark as she pushed me across the ring. I looked for any opening to knock her off balance, but after three matches with me she had learned most of my tricks. Attempting a throw, I wrapped my hooves around her left foreleg and stood on my hind legs. However she just steadied herself on her other three hooves, shook me back and forth like a rattle, and tossed me out of the ring. The armor absorbed all of the impact of my landing, but my world was spinning and my ego bruised.
“What’s wrong?” Bulwark asked. “That can’t be all you’ve got.”
Far from mocking me, her words were ones of concern.
“I’ve told you before: I’m just not that strong,” I said. It stung to say those words, but I couldn’t let her know my earth pony identity was a sham.
She shook her head, not believing a word of it. “You can’t be that weak; I won’t stand for it. Get up. We’re going again.”
“No I’m done,” I said, taking off my helmet and starting to walk off. But the vermillion filly was persistent.
“Do you not know how to use earth magic?” she asked accusingly.
I made a quick judgment call and decided that since unicorns could use magic at this age, and pegasi could fly, it would follow that earth ponies should have their abilities at my age.
“It’s not that,” I said. “I’m just not that good at it is all.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not,” I squeaked.
“Really? Then what are the three major principles?”
I paused to think. I understood my geomancy was somewhat analogous, but three principles would be oversimplifying it.
“See I knew it!” Bulwark said, taking my silence as a confession. “You don’t know earth magic.”
“You got me,” I said nonchalantly, walking towards a water station, but the hefty filly blocked my path.
“I can teach you,” she said, briefly blushing.
“No thanks,” I said walking the other way.
“This isn’t fair to me!” the filly cried, running a hoof through her yellow mane. “My future husband can’t be this weak.”
I ignored her and was accosted by my acquaintance.
“Lose again?” Thaumaturgical asked, offering me a water bottle. I gratefully accepted and took a big gulp.
“I can’t overcome the power gap—she’s just so strong! The first win must have been a fluke,” I lied.
“Well you do fine in your matches against the other earth ponies,” he said to reassure me.
“Occasionally…” I added.
“Well, yes, but then again I have below a .500 record against our unicorn peers. I guess battle magic isn’t what my cutie mark is telling me...”
I didn’t respond, merely slumping, I hated how weak I was—weak as a unicorn, but without magic to compensate.
The gray colt thought for a moment.
“Did you do any farm work?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“I know your parents are police ponies, but did you have a family farm?”
“No,” I answered, failing to see the relevance.
“Not to stereotype, but even Canterlot earth ponies often have relatives in farming. I hear Bulwark’s parents sent her to work on her gift brother’s farm for a year to build muscle.”
“Wow, that’s pretty impressive,” I said. “I have to admire her dedication.”
“So, you wouldn’t mind marrying her then?” Spectacle teased.
“Did you check up on her so-called family tradition?” I asked, ignoring the prodding.
“Yes, I learned that all Amarezonian traditions died out five hundred years ago. She doesn’t have to marry the first stallion to best her in combat.”
“Then that means…”
“Somepony has a crush on you,” the dorky colt sang.
“Oh stop it,” I said. “Like you don’t secretly like Pestle.”
Thaumaturgical blushed red, hiding behind his dark green bangs. “How did you know?”
I laughed hard at this. It was a high-pitched, girlish laugh, which I quickly stifled.
Other ponies looked at us, so I straightened my neck and faked a loud cough. Once the stares had ceased, I answered him with a smug grin. “I didn’t have any clues, nor did I think it was true. I just wanted to see how you would react to that accusation. Thank you for admitting it, though.”
“Don’t tell anypony please,” he pleaded.
I waved a hoof dismissively. “I couldn’t care less.”
He seemed a little offended at that, but accepted my reassurance nonetheless. Saying goodbye to him, I took a circuitous route back to the castle in order to avoid Bulwark.
The last two weeks had flown right by. It was a surreal experience, and it unnerved me how routine this pony stuff had all become, hugs and the sugar included. As a sign of progress, I could now read their script at approximately half the reading speed I had for my native language. But what amazed me more was how well my knowledge of Lucens as a second language had held up. It had been drilled into our heads with stringent military discipline, and it heartened me to see our methods pay such rich dividends.
On the other hand, Lucens, or rather Equish, had become the language I thought in, and I feared I would start to forget my native tongue. To remedy this, I occasionally talked to myself in Rhodish to try and keep it fresh, but I had kicked the habit when around Twilight as she insisted on trying to map the points of articulation of our vowels. I had learned my lesson after a three hour session of me uttering monosyllables while Twilight stared at my tongue.
Despite my newfound reading comprehension, I was about average academically. To protect my ego, I had to reassure myself that my test results were inaccurate due to my unique circumstances. As an adult, I should not have had any trouble with school exams. With the school curriculum occasionally getting the best of me, a strange reversal occurred. Instead of dreading recess and taking solace in the structured classroom, I had started to tolerate the interactions with my classmates during recess. Even if some of the games were childish, they were great exercise. What I lacked in stamina I made up for with enthusiasm—though Zephyr Zap probably had me beat in the latter department as well as the former. Celestia obviously liked my increased sociability, and I respected her for not voicing her approval of it.
Unfortunately, two weeks elapsed meant two weeks closer to being a pony princess. The incidents of my voice shooting up in pitch had increased in frequency, and Dr. Withers had confirmed it meant what I thought it did. She told me stray magic would likely start coming my way again, albeit with less ferocity than from before. As a solution I retrieved my emerald focus crystal from Twilight and strapped it around my hidden horn. This meant the magic-absorbing crystal would effectively shield me from the front. What’s more, I would be able to deflect offensive spells used against me. Otherwise, I continued on with school and explained my occasionally high voice with an ailment I had caught.
Every other day had music class and each session brought me closer to the day I dreaded: the time when I would have to sing the lead role. Cycling through volunteers, Annuity once more got to sing in the foreground. When she pointed out that I hadn’t gone yet, Ms. Fizzle smiled and deflected the inquiry. She did, however put me in as a supporting player for the first time, as opposed to in the chorus. It wasn’t too big of a step. I had to sing one or two lines improvised in addition to the refrain. I failed to make them rhyme, but Ms. Fizzle praised me nonetheless.
One day after school, I met up with Squirt. As agreed I would accompany him home in order to work on our group music project. Star’s eyes lit up when I told her I was going to a friend’s house, but I just wanted the stupid project done with.
“So, ready to go?” I asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Squirt grumbled.
“I hear you. Music sucks.”
“All projects suck.”
I weighed whether to make a comment about his work ethic when we walked into the middle of an interesting scene that was developing.
“I heard you making fun of others for not keeping up during fitness class. You have no right to do so when you can barely beat me,” Pestle shouted at Annuity.
That’s what I said, and that was weeks ago. Why is she bringing that up now, I thought. She’s usually not this confrontational.
Annuity took the bait, responding, “I could beat you any time if I wanted to. I just pace myself.”
“Care to prove it?” Pestle asked.
“Any time, four-eyes.”
“These aren’t glasses; they’re eye protection,” Pestle responded. “I can see just fine without them.”
“Whatever. What do you have in mind? A race?”
“No, that’s something you would think of—no creativity at all. What I have in mind is an interesting game of team tag that will only end when one of us tags the other.”
“That sounds simple,” Annuity chided.
“Oh, it’s more complicated than that. I’ll give you a run-down of the rules: First we split into two teams...”
“Let’s go,” Squirt said. “Those two never got along. I’ve seen this all before.”
“Hang on,” I said “I want to get a drink of water.
I trotted up to the fountain at the side of the schoolhouse and put my muzzle to the faucet head.
“Wait!” Thaumaturgical shouted, running towards me with a panicked look on his face. “You shouldn’t drink that water.”
“Why not?”
“It—uhhh—it uhhh tastes bad. I drank from it earlier.”
I shrugged and took a drink anyway. It did taste strange, but it wasn't anything I couldn't tolerate. Thaumaturgical looked at the ground, ears down.
I thought nothing of it, and we walked around Annuity and Pestle’s game of tag and left the schoolyard. With a few inches of snow underneath our hooves, Squirt’s house thankfully wasn’t far from the school. We arrived in about five minutes to a modest stone building that looked like it had been molded from red clay. It jutted out on the second story and was generally angular in its construction. Like Twilight’s home, there were flowers lining the entryway. I had to wonder if they were just for decoration, or if they were there to offer guests a snack.
Squirt fished a key out of a flowerpot and unlocked the door. We trotted inside.
I was greeted by a foyer with a polished wood staircase that went straight up. A red persian carpet was underneath our feet and the jutted window sills were decorated with flower vases.
“I’m home,” he announced.
“Hello, Squirt, welcome home!”
A familiar white, brown-maned mare came into view. I immediately recognized her.
“Hi, Coffee Swirl,” I said, surprised.
“Hello, River,” she said.
“You two know each other?” Squirt asked
“Yes, from the Junior Royal Guard,” the mare said.
Squirt tapped a hoof to his forehead. “Duh, I should have been able to figure that one out.
The mare giggled. “By the way, I’m actually Latte Swirl.”
“Sorry.”
“Happens all the time,” she said dismissively.
“Still, Squirt, I didn’t expect your mother to be royal guardsmare.”
The mare blushed, shaking her head. “No I’m not his mother.”
“Though you’re old enough to be,” Squirt snarked.
“Hey!”
Squirt blew a raspberry.
“Me and Coffee were our mother’s first pregnancy before she met Squirt’s father. When my sister and I left Manehattan to join the guard here in Canterlot, our mother let us move back in here.”
“Wish you’d get your own place, so you two would stop nagging me. One mother is enough—now I’ve got three.”
“Stop it. You know you love us.”
She got another raspberry in response.
“Do you want any juice or cupcakes?” Latte asked as Squirt started climbing the stairs.
“No thanks,” Squirt said. “This shouldn’t take too long.”
I motioned to follow, but she held me up.
“Hey, River,” she whispered “can I ask you a favor?”
“What is it?”
“Could you try and maybe suggest Squirt join the Junior Royal Guard? I’ve asked him several times, but he won’t listen. Maybe he would take it better from one of his friends.”
“Hmm.”
She clapped her front hooves together in supplication. “Can you please try? It would be good for him; otherwise he just lazes about the house.”
I relented. “All right.”
“Thank you.”
I trotted up the stairs and easily found Squirt’s bedroom. The carpet was similar to that in the foyer, while the walls were painted white. No posters adorned the room, but it was nonetheless cluttered with school supplies, toys and even a colt-sized suit. I cringed at the messiness as I found Squirt lounging in a desk chair.
“So what did she talk to you about?” Squirt asked.
I suspected he already knew the answer.
“She wanted me to recommend you join the Junior Royal Guards,” I said plainly. Considering Squirt was expecting it, I didn’t feel like I was crossing Latte’s intentions.
“Okay.” He shrugged “Let’s hear your best sales pitch.”
“Well you get to learn essential outdoors skills.”
“I hate the outdoors,” Squirt said.
“You get to fight other ponies. That’s fun,” I said.
“I would lose every time,” Squirt said. “I don’t have my cutie mark. Besides, I hate exercise.”
I knew he wasn’t going to be convinced, but I figured I owed Latte one last try, so I explained to him about how we honed our observation skills.
Squirt laughed at my story. “Really!? That’s it? You practice standing around stone-faced watching other ponies rake leaves?”
“Thank you,” Squirt said. “You’ve convinced me I never want anything to do with the Junior Royal Guard.”
I nodded. I had to struggle with the physical activities and training exercises due to my own lack of a cutie mark, but I was motivated by pride. Squirt, on the other hoof, didn’t seem motivated by anything, so it was probably a bad fit anyway.
“So are you ready to start the assignment?” Squirt asked as if the last word pained him.
“I guess. We have to write a song is all it is, right?”
“Yeah.”
“If you don’t mind,” I started, “I would rather you write it because my hoofwriting is still shaky.”
“Still?”
I flinched at my slip-up.
“I mean, I’ve been trying to improve it, but it’s still not good.” Squirt looked like he had lost interest halfway through my short explanation.
“Where do we even begin?” Squirt groaned.
“We could start by coming up with a theme,” I suggested.
We briefly tossed around ideas until Squirt came up with something odd.
“How about how everypony is special?”
I did a double-take.
“Didn’t we already sing a song about that in class?”
“So? Teachers love that kind of talk of how everypony is a special snowflake.”
“I still don’t—”
“Got any other ideas?”
“No”
“Then I say we stick with it. I don’t want to work all day on this.”
From there we came up with the idea of pointing out something special about everypony in our class. At first we tried to adhere to a rhyme scheme, but Squirt stopped caring about a stanza in. Not wanting to rack my brain for rhymes, I acquiesced.
“What about Gilded Acres?” I asked.
“Her cutie mark is a checkerboard of cornfields. She doesn’t want to work on a farm, so I guess her cutie mark means she wants to manage multiple farms?”
“How about ‘Gilded Acres she wants more, guiding produce to the store.’”
With a shrug Squirt started writing.
“That was just me thinking aloud,” I protested. “I didn’t mean for you to write it down.”
“So? It’s good enough.”
“Good enough?” I echoed.
The concept was almost completely foreign to me. My upbringing had instilled in me a desire to do my best for the cause, and usually nothing less than perfection was required.
“You and I don’t like this sort of thing, so we should just finish it by using whatever we come up with.”
“What about our grade?” I asked.
“Trust me: Ms. Fizzle loves every foal’s creativity. We’ll just say it’s a free verse song and she’ll eat it up.”
I hesitated to give up my standards, but then a realization struck me that filled me with euphoria. Squirt was wonderful! He was a pony, yet he was different from the other colts and fillies. He hated music, he didn’t like sweets that much and to top it off, he wasn’t hyperactive at all.
Such a pony exists! And he’s sitting beside me. I… I have a choice. I can choose not to be a happy-go-lucky singing pony. Maybe I can be whatever pony I want to be!
It was a simple realization, but it had a profound effect on me. My good mood was infectious and pretty soon Squirt and I were spitballing whatever lame or silly verses we could come up with.
Then we reached me.
“How about River Glade wants to be a guard, protecting Equestria from harm? It even sort of rhymes.”
I regarded the false cutie mark adorning my flank and slunk. It was a lie. I was not to be a guardspony, I was no longer a fighter of Rhod, and I was certainly not an alicorn princess. What was I?
I gave my assent.
“Final line?” “It’s for me. I could say that I’m lazy, but then I might get sent to the guidance counselor again.”
“What about. ‘Squirt’s destiny has yet to stick, endless possibilities.’”
Squirt laughed. “That sounds like something a parent would say to their foal that hasn’t found their cutie mark yet. But the teacher will love it. Yeah let’s go with that. There! All done!”
Squirt and I high-fived and enjoyed our triumph for a glorious three seconds.
Then it hit me.
“You do realize we have to perform this, right?”
Squirt buried his head in his hooves.
After minimal rewriting I left Squirt’s house, but not without having snacks forced on me. The juice was tart and the cupcake was still too sweet for me. Latte turned out to be a very pushy pony.
Star Chart swooped down to meet me once I was around the block. I chalked up a mental point for not letting her sneak up on me. This was of course with the caveat that it was still only late afternoon. She would have doubtlessly been undetectable at night. She was wearing invisible armor—an additional precaution as to not arouse suspicion. As it was, I had already been seen too often with Celestia’s guards.
“So, how was it?” Star asked.
“About what you would expect,” I replied “writing music is such a worthless endeavor.”
“I’ll have to take you to a concert some time. Composed music is an entirely different experience than spontaneous music. Still I’m pleased that you got your project done early. If you started to shirk your homework, I would have had to start micromanaging you, and neither of us would be happy with that.”
“I don’t see why Princess Celestia cares so much. I’m an adult, so it shouldn’t matter if I don’t do my homework on occasion. Not that I would.”
Star shook her head.
“These experiences may not seem like much now, but it’s part of the whole package. Even if you don’t realize it, every new experience will teach you something.”
I thought back to my revelation earlier that day.
“Yeah, I guess.”
Our conversation came to a halt as a throng of ponies up ahead were blocking the road. This sort of thing was normal as hoof traffic sometimes slowed down during the day, but it rarely outright stopped. This was strange in that the ponies in front of us were milling about in every direction, seemingly aimlessly. Some of them were standing around and talking while others were doing business at the stalls lining the roadway. We looked for an alternative route, but strangely the adjacent streets were blocked in a similar manner.
“That is bizarre,” Star muttered. “Do you mind if I fly us back?”
Remembering the intimate experience of being carried by Luna I declined her offer.
With another detour we finally found an uncluttered street with ponies lined up to be served at a hay dog stand. We started to make our way down this cobblestone way when we heard shrieking laughter. A green laser beam zapped the ponies waiting in line and soon the straight line instead became a tangled mess of ponies.
I scanned the nearby rooftops, and my eyes were immediately drawn to a poofy orange-maned unicorn mare wearing a skintight costume. It was purple and green and embroidered with bells.
“MWHAHAHAHAHAHA. With my nefarious Chaotic Queue™ ponies will be unable to form an orderly line. I’ll target grocery stores, trot-thrus, amusement parks! With one zap of my Chaotic Queue™ waiting ponies will take up double—no, TRIPLE the space, making getting around anywhere a claustrophobic nightmare. And then... somehow... I will rule the world! And there’s nopony who can stop me!”
“Oh really?” Star challenged.
She kicked off the ground and flew towards the costumed mare at an incredible speed. With surprising agility, her foe danced aside and tossed something that looked like a gumball at Star’s wings. A sticky rubber tied up her wings, causing her to fall to the ground. I started to panic as my retainer plummeted. However, four armored stallions flew above me, catching Star before charging the villain themselves. Unfortunately, they ended up on the ground with gummed up wings as well.
The ponies below screamed and tried to flee the scene, but they were unable to do so in an orderly fashion and ended up tripping each other up. I had to duck under ponies and dance around hooves in order to avoid being trampled. Methodically, I made it to the steps of a storefront to achieve safety and get a better view.
I didn’t know what to think. This supervillain’s scheme seemed fairly benign, yet she had dispatched five royal guards effortlessly. I wanted to do something, but I felt completely powerless. It wasn’t likely I would be able to get the mare with the sorts of throws that had once bested Bulwark. She was an adult.
Suddenly an orange glimmer appeared on the horizon. A blur flew towards us and straight at the villain, who blocked with the thick barreled contraption she was holding. She staggered back slightly but quickly recovered, a smile on her face.
“Ah, Rising Sun, we meet again. You may have bested me the last sixteen times, but you know what they say: the seventeenth time’s the charm!”
Somehow the combatants exchanged a flurry of punches. I was baffled by the bird’s ability to throw punches, but considering the oddity of the situation, this was a minor detail. I would have stayed in place and hidden, but the crowd started to encroach on my vantage point and forced me down to the street. I felt the pushing and prodding, yet strangely, there was another sensation. It was centered around my horn and it felt like water trickling into a glass, drop by drop.
Figuring I would be safest inside a store, I fought through the crowd to reach another colorful establishment. I ducked into it with a sigh of relief, as a heavy stallion walked where I had been just a second earlier. Closing the door on the scene, I exhaled.
I then noted my surroundings were completely dark. I then heard a pop; the lights flicked on; and confetti, streamers and balloons dropped from above.
A mustached teal stallion approached me with outstretched hooves. His cutie mark was a black masquerade mask and his mane was a tangled black.
Please don’t tell me he’s going to hug me...
“Congratulations! You are our twelve-thousandth one hundred and sixty seventh customer. And do we have a special gift for you! You win your very own superhero costume!!”
I felt like my brain had hit the ground with a plunk. The oddity of the last two minutes had caused me to completely freeze up. I was debating whether to brave the outdoors once more to escape this weirdo.
Finally I said, “You do realize that there’s an incident going on outside, right?”
“Hmm?”
“You know? The stampede?”
The stallion paused, and I could almost visualize my message going in one ear and out the other.
Ignoring what I had said completely, he said with pep, “Let’s get you into your new costume. You’ll be looking heroic in no time!”
I struggled and writhed but the stallion was too strong. One-by-one he forced my limbs through the holes. Sliding the material against my fur, he caused a static charge to accumulate on my coat as he pulled it over me. When he was done I found myself in black spandex with a white stripe down my barrel. The sun was emblazoned on one side, while a moon crest adorned the other side. From what I had seen, the mask was much the same.
The oblivious stallion wheeled out a mirror, and I just turned away in disgust. I now was certain I would prefer chaos over staying inside with a loon. I opened the door, and outside the ponies were still pushing and shoving to get down the crowded street. Hatching an idea I hopped on top of a short mare and started walking over the crowd and back towards the scene of the duel. Even if I couldn’t do anything, I at least wanted to see how it played out. As I hopped from pony to pony, I felt the trickling sensation near my horn again.
My horn? But my magic’s been sealed.
Wait... it’s not coming from within the horn, but what’s—the crystal!
Although the crystal was not exposed to a direct attack, I could see the residual magic emanating from the stampeding ponies and flowing into the crystal. Bit by bit, the crystal was charging..
Maybe there’s something I can do. But I’ll only have one shot at this.
Continuing my crowd-surfing, I reached the haydog stand and hopped on the sunshade covering it. Using it as a trampoline I barely cleared a nearby roof. Rising Sun and the villain were still exchanging blows on the next roof over. Their movements were blurry, but the villainess was clearly the bigger target. I trained my eye on her.
Diane, let my aim be as true as yours.
Intuitively I directed my magic into my horn. The mana felt viscous and slippery, but after some effort I managed to direct it to the tip of my horn. The barrier was there, preventing me from expelling any magic, but I didn’t need to break it. If my theory was correct, magic in close proximity—in this case inside my horn—could serve as a trigger mechanism for the crystal.
I scrunched up my face behind the mask.
Come on…
The mana ebbed inside my horn.
Come on…
I focused the mana into a cylindrical column and used all of my focus to keep it there.
And it snapped.
With a whoosh, green energy streamed out of the focus crystal, pelting the orange-maned villainess. My attack only singed her costume and caused her to stumble somewhat, but that was enough. Rising Sun seized the opening and knocked her adversary to the ground. She broke the Chaotic Queue tool and instantly the effects faded, turning the mad stampede into an orderly one.
The mare got to her feet, but Star and the four pegasus guards from before had all recovered. Taking her from behind, they tackled her and cuffed her hooves. The villainess seemed unfazed, however.
“You may have bested me today, Rising Sun, but you haven’t seen the last of me! Next time will be different! I’ll come back with a newer, eviler scheme that not even you will be able to stop. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”
Star just shook her head, while the stallion guards didn’t react at all as they carried her away. Was such an odd event that mundane for them?
“Rising Sun saved the day!”
“You can say that again, Exposition Sayer.”
“Rising Sun defeated Maniacal Laughter! Again! And she has a new sidekick!”
Wait… sidekick?
I looked down at my costumed body and scanned the large throng of ponies around us. All eyes were on me.
“Ponyfeathers.”
Rising Sun proved to be surprisingly strong, as she was able to single hoofedly carry me back to the castle. We entered through a high window and went down a hidden fireplace entrance into her lair.
Once there, I tore the costume off and threw it in the garbage, never wanting anything to do with such silliness again. Still, I was enormously proud. Me—a magicless unicorn had helped defeat a supervillain. I had to admit that felt pretty good. Philomena led the way as we descended several flights of stairs. She then took a sudden left turn into a side room; I followed.
“Oh, there you are Philomena,” Celestia said.
“Aron!” Celestia shouted upon seeing me, and she rushed up to me and hugged me in her wide white wings.
“We were so worried when you got separated from Star and your security detail. Where were you?”
I opened my mouth, ready to tell the whole story, but Philomena shushed me. Admitting I had run around in a costume was somewhat embarrassing, so I told a half-truth, preserving the phoenix’s secret identity.
“I was swept up in the crowd and I didn’t know what was going on. I knew to stay calm, though, and I took refuge in a store. When the mayhem was over, I found my way back into the castle.”
“I’m just glad you’re safe. Praise Rising Sun! And praise her sidekick Eclipse.”
“Eclipse?” I asked, jaw dropping.
They named me?
“Yes! Exciting news, Aron: Rising Sun has a new filly sidekick.”
Filly? Oh this just keeps getting better and better.
“Still I’m not sure I can approve Rising Sun taking a filly with her to fight crime.”
I knew I could count on her to be reasonable.
“Then again, I trust her judgment, so I’m sure it will be fine.”
I facehoofed.
Philomena winked at me.
I awoke the next morning feeling aches all over. Apparently my acrobatic crowd hopping had taken its toll on me. Still, I intuitively knew something else was wrong with my body. As I approached the mirror, an entirely new pony came into view. This pony had sky-blue fur and a neon-pink mane.
Wait… don’t tell me…
I sighed in relief. I was still a colt, if only for the moment. Twilight had mentioned something about genes for fur and mane color being encoded on sex chromosomes, so I had known to expect this as part of the change.
Still, just because I averted a big change didn’t mean I wasn’t upset about a lesser one. Putting a hoof over the top of my reflection I traced my newly pink mane. I then fluffed it and watched in the mirror, undeniably confirming it was mine.
“Pink! PINK!? Pink? No… no no no no no!” I screeched banging my head against the floor.
“Anything but pink. Anything but pink. It’s one thing if this world has to make me into a pony princess, but a pink one!? NO!”
I closed my eyes. Any other mane color. I’d take any other mane color than this. I took several deep breaths to calm myself and traced a hoof in circles on the carpet. It wasn’t fair; I wasn’t even hit by any stray magic.
What would Celestia think? Would she tell me to accept it? What would Annuity say…
I cringed, and resignedly, I opened my eyes, expecting more pink.
But my mane and tail were now a sharp scarlet.
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That end bit would have been the perfect time for Cadance to walk in.
For now, anyway....
t09.deviantart.net/O4Bs3vuUnrMgKyV6i0o1jZRlyXQ=/fit-in/700x350/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre05/43c3/th/pre/f/2011/264/0/5/according_to_plan_by_muzza299-d4ahimn.png
Wait, then the mane and tail turned scarlet??? What is she, part changeling? Is this the final color? If so, Aron dodged that pink bullet, heh.
...or the mane/tail has one more trick left, waiting to turn shades of red-- like pink.
Cadance will just love the little angsty mini-me trotting around.
Oh i can't wait for the next Chapter.
Personally I wouldn't have minded that he keep the pink mane and tail, I would have fond it hilarious to see how he would have tried to hide it from his classmates. I feel the the superhero part was a bit out of place seeing that as of then yet unknown villain attacked them for no real apparent reason, still I did like that he was that he was mistaken for a filly. I wander If he can somehow find a way to will himself to stay a guy, as he did for his scarlet mane. I am looking forward to see the next chapter.
that was fantastic
7951298 I'm going with magic has a flare for the dramatic and "the feelz" makes the magic.
7951298
Then Shining can be Mister Bigglesworth, Twilight will be Austin and Celestia Fat Bastard
Hey what was up with the water fountain thing. You going talk about that. And why it taste funny. Was a prank about to go on? Was it something.... naught
or what? This guy needs to chil out. His is a sidekick now, love it. Come Bat girlTM, BatmanTM needs you to fight crime.
Ok so Eclipse is better. I as going for a joke. I will wait for more.
If she ever finds out, she is in for a rude surprise. Also, it's so amusingly naive, it fits in perfectly.
Also, Aron is definitely letting the whimsiness of the setting get to him, and is acting more and more appropriate for the part as time moves onwards.
Plus,
Despite Aron's earlier comments, he isn't as over her as he pretends to be. That relationship may be salvaged yet.
7952099
That should be answered next chapter, but I left plenty of hints.
7953252
Glad to see I didn't completely swing and miss with that part of the story
7951833
7951298
There's at least two things going on here. One should be readily ascertainable, while the other has only the slimmest of evidence.
7952325
Even if the setting isn't directly manipulating his mind, it'd be hard to live in this Equestria and not have it rub off on him at least a little.
7951401
The superhero part was out of left field, but I had been building the Rising Sun bit up for a while. As for staying a colt, I can't do that, as my story description/placement in group folders would be blatantly lying.
7951331
7951548
These little comments make my day.
7952048
I wish I had something clever to add to this, but alas, I don't.
7951016
Wish I had thought of that. Still, Aron has an even pinker problem to worry about
7951061
My thought for keeping Aron a colt for the moment was, "not like this." He didn't have any real chance to avoid the color change.
7953289 I speculate that if he embraced the change then it probably would have happened faster.
7953289
Nothing needs adding, the glory of Austin Powers is there for all to see XD.
I'm guessing that either the water was enchanted, or someone slipped a certain purple flower in there.
Amarezonian Traditions huh, someones channeling their inner Ranma 1/2
7962313
Not what I was trying to evoke consciously, but the more I think on it the more I think you're right!
7982372
That's good feedback to have. I've tried to keep dream sequences short and to the point when they are necessary after hearing similar sentiments.
Whew he almost became a pink pony princess
Cadance is a badass. If I had to be a pretty pink pony princess, I would rock that shit. Though I am also colorblind so.... Maybe pink looks worse than I think.
That was a quick change....
8009298 not at all, pink and scarlet are essentially the same color, the difference being
pink= red+white
scarlet= red
I've been seeing one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to reading fics on this site in your last few chapters so I'm going to bug you with this comment.
When a speaker is continuously talking for multiple paragraphs you do not end the paragraph with a quotation mark. If you do end the paragraph with a quotation mark that implies that a new speaker is talking in the next paragraph.
One speaker:
Two speakers:
This doesn't apply if there is an interruption in the dialog for narration.
Note that the interruption in the third example could be at the end of paragraph one, or the beginning of paragraph 2, and the result would basically be the same. You close quotation marks normally.
I'm only at chapter 17, so if this is correctly for later chapters good on you, feel free to ignore, yada yada, consider coming back when you have time and doing an editing pass of earlier chapters.
*Glares daggers at Aaron* "And whats wrong with Pink?! I am a guy too, and I happen to like the color pink"
This entire Perry the Pla-er, I mean Philomena the Phoenix shtick is hilarious.
8485288
Yeah, he just has to pass it off for light-ish red.
8758557
Donut, go back to the gulch
8902299
Donut pass Go, donut collect $200.
See the good side of it aron, it's only your mane that's pink and not your entire coat.
10317647
It's obvious that his mane is changing with his mood. Red means angry.
You need to show an image for this author