Sometimes They Call Me Super

by KorenCZ11

Harmony Stories IV: Mother (part 1)

Applejack

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“Well... I guess all that's left is me. I'll go get the documents, and once it's all signed... we can start,” Twilight said. She got up off her seat and made her way down the dark hallway toward the back side of the room. Ah decided that it would be best if Ah sat back down, since Ah had the naggin' feelin' that 'documents' referred ta a couple hundred pages or so. Ah sighed. Ah guess the others could read minds or Ah just wasn't hard ta read with the mask off.

“Oh, don't be t-too worried... it's just one page...” Fluttershy said.

“Well, I wouldn't exactly call that scroll 'one' page, but you only have to sign it once if that's any consolation,” Rarity added. Ah relaxed and crossed my hooves.

“Sure. Ah'll believe it when Ah see it. But the word scroll has me interested though. Is it like... a magic contract, or somethin'?” Ah asked. The three looked to each other, then back ta me. They all had thoughtful faces on, like they were tryin' ta find a way ta describe what Ah was askin' about.

“Well...” Rarity began.

“Um... y-yes, uh... t-there's definitely magic involved...” Fluttershy followed.

“But uh... it's not the regular kind. It's more of the... uh, well, you know, the 'kill you' kind. The black stuff. I think one of the princesses called it a curse once?” Pinkie said. The other two gave her a look. Ah just rolled my eyes.

“Figures. Whatever. At this point, Ah'm too far in ta back out now anyways,” Ah remarked. Twilight countered.

“I wouldn't say that. I know a good memory wipe spell that will take about a week out of your mind. If you really don't want to go through with this Applejack, then I can arrange it so-” Ah cut her off.

“Nuh-uh. Ah don't want no damn magic messin' with my brain. Ah've seen the nastier side of that stuff doin' hero work enough as it is.” Takin' a look at her now, she had refilled or reheated her coffee and was now carryin' a thin scroll with a real fancy lookin' gold scroll rod with the brightest violet gems Ah've ever seen on it. Somethin' about those gems were botherin' me though. They were... attractive some how. Ah wanted ta touch them. Ah guess she noticed.

“Oh, very well then. Uh, it's best not to stare at the gems. Ponies with low tolerance to magic tend to, um, have an... interesting reaction to them. W-well, long story short, they tend to end up 'inside' ponies, and that turns them into out of control magical beasts, and it's just best not have that happen... again. M-moving on, all you have to do is place your tongue on the seal at the very bottom of this scroll and everything else will happen on it's own.” She was blushin', so Ah suppose somepony here has a low tolerance ta magic.

“My... tongue?” Ah asked, more confused about that than whatever crazy thin' happens with those gems.

“Yes. It's very ancient magic, but very efficient all the same. The contract reads, in today's Equestrian, 'The Creature that swears fealty to this oath will here by have their tongue inscribed to the royal family and their kin. If this creature breaks their oath, all memories involving the royal family and their kin shall be expunged along with this creature's ability to speak.' I know the consequences sound steep, but that compared to what she would do, if she found out you broke the contract, at least this will let you keep your life intact.” Twilight gave me a weak smile, like she was tryin' her best ta make this not look like Ah was joinin' a cult. Ah frowned and shook my head.

“Whatever. Let's just get this over with. Whoever 'she' is better be damn important fer this level of security.” Ah said, leanin' ta the table ta put my tongue on the contract. Lookin' it over, Ah'd have ta say Ah was just in between Rarity and Fluttershy on whether or not this counted as one page. Whatever language it was written in had real big characters compared ta the standard Equestrian alphabet, but this also had a whole lot of text on it too. At the very bottom of the scroll was a large red seal that looked like a combination of flames and wings spread inside a circle.

Ah put my tongue on the page, and the seal started ta glow. The image in the seal began ta float and dance on my tongue, almost burnin' me like fire and carvin' a strange taste of warm metal and cinnamon as it did. When the sensation finished, Ah had that same image almost in black all over my tongue, like it was burned in, but Ah didn't feel anythin' other than normal. Well, that and the taste of cotton or whatever this 'paper' was made out of.

“That... was weird. Ah've seen some crazy magic before, but Ah ain't never seen anythin' like this.” Ah really wanted ta see what the whole shape looked like on my tongue, but Ah just couldn't stick it out far enough.

“This is pretty ancient stuff. It's been around just about as long as the continent has, as far as we know.” When Ah paid attention ta her, Ah noticed that her own tongue was just as black and marked up as mine was.

“Has... has yer tongue always been like that?” Ah felt my head tilt while Ah was tryin' ta get a look at her 'tattoo' or whatever this thin' is.

“... Since I was eight years old actually... I signed... something similar, back then...” Well, Ah bet there's a fun story behind that. Ah ain't never seen somepony with such a pained look on their face. She rolled the scroll back up with her wings and started ta walk back toward that hallway. Then Rarity took up explainin' thin's.

“It's not just her though, we all have the brand. Only those with the brand can see it, this one being specific to our group. Every royal guard, which includes us now that you've joined, has to sign a similar contract to this one in order to complete their training and formally join the military. As of now, you're approximately a captain in terms of rank, but have the freedom to do just about whatever, save for talking about this.

It's unfortunate, but speaking about the brand, the reasons behind it's creation, or secrets of the royal family is also forbidden by the contract to anyone without it. If you ever happen to get close to talking about something that would break the contract by accident, the brand will start to burn as a sort of warning. Mine has been burning ever since I explained to you all that I did actually.” She stuck out her tongue ta show that the brand was glowin' with that same violet that the gems were, and it looked like it was almost smokin'. Ah had ta blink ta make sure Ah was seein' right.

“Oh... wow. Ain't that a bit much though? Wait a minute. Royal guard? Captain? What?” Ah asked. Ah could feel my own gears turnin', and suddenly thin's were startin' ta fall inta place.

“Yes... In the event you hadn't pieced this together yet, me being a 'government secret' is just about the understatement of the century... quite literally,” Twilight said, casually takin' her seat again.

“So... you're... not just some weird cross breed Power Pony, but... related ta one of em'? Like, the princesses?” Ah asked. She nodded. Then she looked down. It was almost like she was ashamed of it.

“You see... Princess Celestia is 'she,' and 'she' happens to be my... biological mother.” She said, runnin' one of her hooves along her foreleg. Ah shook my head, and all the pieces had fallen inta place.

“Huh.” Ah was just about dumbstruck at this point. Ah swallowed. “So uh... how, exactly did that happen? Ah mean, Ah know 'how' that happens, but uh... how did 'that' happen ta her? Ah thought she and Princess Luna were like some kinda celibates.” Twilight sighed.

“Luna is. Especially after learning that they, sorry, we, are in fact, fertile. And she was supposed to be. But... that isn't the case. I suppose I should start from the beginning. I'm just one of the things that came out of her poor decisions. This is the story of a Princess, a King, and all the problems that come with dimension hopping.”

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Twilight Sparkle

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“About two thousand years ago, Celestia and Luna were asked to lead Equestria after the three tribes were founded in this land. What they can remember of their own parents is very little, but a few iron rules were beaten into their minds.

One: they are not to manipulate the will of their fellow ponies. This is why almost every form of mind control has been eradicated and outright outlawed. What little that remains is due to Power Ponies, but we'll get there.

Two: they are never to mate outside of their own race. Alicorns were meant to only breed with Alicorns because Alicorn mares can only birth, big surprise, more Alicorns. Due to the rarity and longevity of our race, if there are too many of us, the chances of eternal wars breaking out increases exponentially. But once again, we'll get there.

Three: magic is never to be used to explore other realms. It wasn't until after the initial mistake had been made that they understood why this was a rule, but she found out anyways.

So, with that said, Celestia ended up breaking two of the three rules, at the same time. For almost two thousand years, they abided by these rules. Time went by, and while Luna kept to the rules, Mother started to become addicted to technological progress. With her partner in crime, Starswirl the bearded, the father of modern magic, they pioneered magic and science together.

Now, not everything about mother breaking her own rules ended up as disastrous as... well, me. We only have electricity and combustion engines because of her influence, so most of your modern conveniences wouldn't be here without her. But things started to spiral out of hoof after she and Starswirl had a falling out toward the end of his life. He had postulated a way to travel between dimensions. Ripping apart the very fabric of space time to open doors to other universes, similar to this one, but where the world diverged at one point and moved in a completely different direction.

At first he was ecstatic about his idea, and after a little musing with her, Celestia eventually became just as obsessed as he was about it, ignoring the warning her parents gave her. After doing some testing in secret, Starswirl argued that it was too dangerous to experiment with this kind of magic. Celestia was a little more than upset with him for taking such a sudden and harsh opposition to her new dream, but all the same, he would never cooperate with her.

Starswirl approached Luna and with her help, hid his findings where Celestia could never reach... or so they thought. Fast forward to thirty years ago, and science and magic have evolved to the point of being able to break ancient magic seals that were never meant to be broken. With an advanced magic alloy forged into a drill and powered by the combustion engine, Celestia broke into Starswirl's vault without Luna's knowledge. After realizing just what she'd found, since Luna had apparently forgotten it was there, she immediately began construction of the interdimensional portal Starswirl had drawn up plans for.

Combining the old magic with the science of the slowly beginning digital age, she created an easily used, and easily controlled portal that could transport one to any dimension they wished. In the very first run of the experiment, something went wrong though. An unknown malfunction within the operating magic caused the portal to open as one of the researchers was inside doing maintenance on it. It created a spatial distortion within his body, mutating all of the atoms it didn't outright destroy. He survived the incident as if nothing had happened and was sent home to recover.

Of course, that wasn't enough to deter Mother from continuing with her experiments, she simply let it go as 'a sacrifice for progress,' which isn't really a comforting set of words when you're talking about one of the rulers of your nation. She began hopping dimensions, exploring and bringing back new technology, and surprisingly quickly, her injured researcher healed and came back to work.

What she didn't know then was that her researcher was 'infected' with a new form of virus that came out of the mutated cells in his body. The powers he received from it were useful within the lab, and with the consent of willing ponies, they decided to spread the virus. Each pony who obtained the virus gained a power of some sort, typically relating to their cutiemark, but sometimes not at all. It only became a problem when the virus showed just what all it could change.

One of the volunteers who contracted the virus didn't react to it at first. There was nothing detectable, or even different about him. But, on his way home that night, it was a full moon out. Upon being exposed to moonlight, his body changed rapidly, disfiguring into a wolf like creature. This event would later be known as the Bloody Night of Canterlot, and what caused the outbreak of the virus to begin with.”

Ah was tryin' ta pay attention ta Twilight as she was talkin', but when she started talkin' about the wolf-pony, Fluttershy started fidgetin' with her hooves. Ah didn't like it. Bloody Night, what the wolf-pony she was referrin' ta was called in the super world, was practically the predecessor ta the beast.

“Every third survivor of his attack came back infected, and since his blood was drawn during a fight near the Canterlot aquifer, the virus was now in the water systems and spread like a torrent. Luckily, the virus could only infect ponies with a specific recessive gene that is present in about a third of the total population, but there are also about seven million residents in Equestria, and that number is ninety eight percent ponies. That means there are about two million Power Ponies out there now, give or take a few hundred thousand.

The virus was now a problem, and so the princesses put out the VBTA as a stop-gap while looking for a way to cure it. Luna decided to take the standard route, and have her own teams research a cure looking at this earth, but Celestia thought that her new machine was the answer to their problems. After ten years and one hundred and nineteen dimensions later, she finally found one that had a similar time line to ours, where some jackass made the same mistake she did, and unleashed the same virus on his own ponies. That Jackass just so happens to be my biological father.

A unicorn stallion with a dark gray coat and a black mane, or so I'm told. He was looking for the same cure Celestia was, but didn't have the longevity and experience that she did, but he did have unique technology and magic. Together they tried to find a cure and... ended up falling in love. Celestia would disappear for weeks at a time, and eventually Luna got suspicious. She started to sense something strange from Celestia when she did see her, and that lead to Luna discovering Celestia's secret lab.

Learning that she had broken one of their three sacred rules, Luna was outraged. It took several weeks to repair any part of that relationship, but then things only became more complicated. Celestia figured out she was pregnant about two months in to her argument with Luna, and suddenly there were bigger concerns than the dimension hopping. It would have been this world's biggest media scandal to date, and more than that, it would expose that the princesses could conceive.

If that knowledge alone got out, the very 'eternal wars' their parents warned of could come about from anypony with enough power to capture either of the princesses. With no other options than to hide it, contracts like the one I had you sign were forged and Celestia was hidden away in my Father's dimension for the remainder of the pregnancy.

From there though, things only got worse. Mother was discovered in that dimension, and every fear that the princess had just about came true on the other side. The King had a rightful heir now, he'd had a child out of wedlock, any and every political arrangement he had previously was dissolved. All trust in the king had been lost.

Within months, he was overthrown, and a new regime was instated with a goal to have him and his little sweetheart executed as an example for those that would come to betray the ponies' trust. With his castle on the verge of being sacked, and an angry mob of regicide happy ponies at the door, he and Celestia chose to try and escape back here. Of course, this all just so happened to be at the end of her pregnancy, and just as they were heading for the door, she went into labor.

With no choice but to have the baby, the King and those that remained loyal to him fought to defend the castle until the baby was born. Nine hours of intense battle raged at the castle gates until finally, they fell. I was born a few minutes before the raid started, but that wouldn't stop a weak and bloody Celestia from trying to make it home with me alive. Because everything that could go wrong eventually did, the portal shorted and failed before they could escape.

With everything he had, my father sacrificed himself to help us escape by reactivating the portal and using his own life force to support it. Celestia made it back with me intact, and upon seeing the state she was in, a raging Luna destroyed the lab. Celestia swore she would never travel dimensions again, and the two found a trusted pair of foster parents to raise me in Celestia's stead, separating me from my mother.

So, things reached a stable status for a while. Shortly after making it to this dimension, Luna cast a spell on me that would hide my wings from existence until she specified otherwise, and I grew up as just an unusually powerful unicorn with foster unicorn parents and a foster unicorn brother. However, this is just where my story starts.

Comments

[Comickook]

Not much I can say other than great job on this chapter. The exchanges, emotional content and future chapter set-up were all well done in all the right places. I particularly liked the little Shout Out to the IDW comics. Well, on to the next chapter.