70 - Family Ties
They were bad influences, my sister and overweight cousin. I meant Starlight and Trixie, of course. It was still something to think about once in a while, remembering that they had used my appearance as the template for their own. Regardless, they wanted to know what was happening with the unicorns, and they wouldn’t let up the pressure on me to find out. It didn’t help that, ultimately, they weren’t wrong. I was about the only person who could both ask and relay that answer onwards.
If Kevin put out the question, he might be told, but would then be expected to keep it a secret. I wouldn’t even dream of trying to twist his arm about it. Getting him into severe legal trouble was not on my itinerary. Especially under the then current administration, I doubted any known ‘leakers’ would fare well.
I reached for my phone to make a call about it when it started to ring. I hated when that happened, made me jump every time. The caller ID on the phone said it had nothing to do with the government. It was my mother. “Hello?”
“Linda!” came an excited voice. “I heard through the grape-vine things are calming down at your office. Can you make it?”
“To...?” I had forgotten about it completely.
“To? Your cousin’s anniversary party, of course.”
“Who is that?” asked Trixie.
“Who’s that?” echoed my mother. “Did you really run away and find a girl? I don’t care, bring them along.”
Ugh... “I’m not sure who told you things were calming down...”
“Don’t you worry about it even a little bit. Just come over and say hello to the family, and bring your girlfriend with you.”
Even if I wanted to do that... I was pacing thinking about it, hand clutching the phone too tightly. I couldn’t leave Starlight or Trixie behind in good conscience. “I’d have to come with at least two.”
“Two?” Her voice managed to drip with curiosity in just one syllable, a talent. “If they’re friends of yours, they’re already family, so bring them both if it means you’ll be there. Look, stop searching for reasons to say no. I don’t make demands very often, but be there, Linda. It’ll mean a lot. He’s not expecting you to break away from work for him. Prove him wrong and show you care.”
I wanted to scream, but adults did not scream because their family made requests that one be... familial. “I’ll ask if I can take some time off...”
“Fantastic!” She had won the argument and she knew it. She knew I would be coming. She knew it as surely as the sun would rise.
I hung up after a round of good-byes and slumped into the nearest chair.
Trixie hadn’t left. She followed after me, watching me quietly a moment before she waved at the phone that hung limply from one of my hands. “You have not told her who that was.”
Right. “That was my mother.” I sat up. “She was reminding me that I’m expected at a family function, and you’re invited.”
Trixie’s expression brightened to a smile. “Do you need entertainment? She can bedazzle your family with a little demonstration of her skills.”
Starlight’s head poked right out of the hallway into the back. “Who’s showing off what skills now?”
She had learned the keywords of her friend, good. “Starlight, this involves you too. I’m being dragged back home to a family party, and you two are invited along.”
Starlight rolled a hand. “Well, we’ll go with you, of course, but you aren’t using this as an excuse to not find out what’s happening with those unicorns, are you?”
“I was just about to do that...” I lifted the phone back up from its limp position. “But we aren’t going to drive this time.”
“If we aren’t taking a car, how are we traveling?”
Trixie waved out in the general direction of the car. “It is fairly fast. Are we going somewhere it can’t fit?”
“We’ll fly,” I cut to the chase. “On a plane.”
Trixie looked baffled, but Starlight was the one that spoke first, “You want us to fly with a straight line?”
I had walked right into that. I quickly pulled up an image of a passenger craft and flipped the phone around so they could see it. “We’ll be inside one of these. We’ll wait patiently for a few hours, then be where we want to be.”
Trixie put her hands on her hips. “Starlight said it took days to make your trip with the car, and it’s not slow. How fast are one of these ‘planes’?”
How to put that. “Well, about ten times faster, give or take?”
Starlight let out a low whistle. “If you had that as an option, why drive a car at all? Why not fly to work? Hay, why drive so far instead of flying when you were moving here?” She crossed her arms with sudden suspicion. “Is it safe?”
Trixie waved it off. “Don’t be a coward.”
Starlight simply raised a brow.
Trixie gave a nervous laugh. “She is trusting in Linda. If she thought it was a bad idea, we wouldn’t be going, right?”
That surprised me. Trixie had faith in me? That was... kind of nice actually. “It’s as safe as anything can be. I didn’t fly since Kevin offered to drive instead, so we drove together. Flying isn’t free, and he couldn’t just shrug it off on his budget.”
“My ears are burning.” Kevin emerged from his room. “What’s going on?”
Starlight waved towards me. “We’re going to a family function, apparently.”
My hands went up. “Hold on. I said I’d see if I could even get time off.”
Kevin rolled a hand upwards as he walked past. “You can. You basically never take vacations. Go ahead, I can keep things going.”
“I don’t plan to drop it cold.” I waved my phone at him. “That reminds me, I was about to make a call before this all came up. One way or the other, I’ll still be on the case. I can’t just put this down, family obligations or not.”
Trixie followed after Kevin, both heading into the kitchen. Starlight stayed with me. “Go ahead. I mean, it is about the unicorns, right?”
I rang up Director Swanson, deciding not to argue the fact that Starlight had predicted what the call would be about. She picked up on the second ring. “Good evening, Miss Frohein. Do you have news?”
“Yes, and a question.” I walked for the sake of walking, moving towards the television while ignoring what was on it. “I’ll be heading back home for a few days for a family event, but I’ll be available through telepresence and continuing the project.”
“I appreciate your work ethic. What was the question?”
“Unicorns. Namely--”
“We can’t discuss that over this line. I’ll visit. Before I do, I can tell you that you’re asking about something I am not authorized to speak on.”
“If I was a random citizen.” It was time to take a stand. “As a representative of the Equestrian government, it is well within my ‘need to know’ to at least get confirmation that--”
“I’ll visit and we can discuss that more securely. Have a good evening.”
The phone made a little beep as the call disconnected.
Starlight was staring at me. “Well? It didn’t sound like you got to say very much, though I do approve of the direction you were going.” She wriggled a few fingers as she sat on the couch. “Don’t tell me, she didn’t say much.”
“That obvious?” I slipped the phone away and sat beside her. “She said she’d talk in person.”
“Anything to delay it.” Starlight leaned forward, arms on her knees, head on her hands. “But we won’t let her. This isn’t an idle fancy. Twilight would be very disappointed in me if I went and didn’t follow this through. I’m with you on this, a hundred percent.”
“What exactly is your relation.” I made a back and forth motion. “Between you and Twilight, that is. You seem to respect her quite a bit.”
Starlight got a wry smirk, her eyes rolling. “She’s a smart cookie, a little neurotic, but I think that comes with the package. Ultimately, she is my mentor, but I’m not her student, not strictly.”
“Strictly? I figured you were or you were not?”
“I graduated.” She smiled a little with the memory. “But that doesn’t make her suddenly not my mentor. She didn’t throw me out, and I wasn’t hurrying to leave. There’s a lot I still don’t... get, and I’m happy to take my time with someone I can trust.”
“But you’re not with her,” I pointed out. “She’s a world away.”
Starlight’s confident mien cracked. “I do miss her... but we can’t really do anything about... that. You’re a good person too, really, even if you’re not a pony full time, but look at me? Can I claim that?” She waved her fleshy fingers. “We’re home and here I am, still naked. Maybe I’m getting too used to this.” She slumped back in the couch. “Thank you, by the way. I know all this Equestria everything is not what you would have picked to do when this first started.”
Kevin returned, Trixie at his side, talking animatedly about some kind of magic trick she had in mind. He waved at us as he moved to the other couch. “This doesn’t look like your kind of movie.”
I glanced up at the television I had been ignoring. It was not my kind of movie. Some cheap slasher fic. How did it even get on? “I wasn’t watching it.”
Starlight fished out the remote from a breast pocket and had it off in a flash. “My bad.”
“As Trixie was saying, she will drop down from the ceiling on wires as the pyrotechnics flare to brilliant life! The crowd will be stunned as the music hits its climax, and only then can the real show begin!” Her hands were moving quite animatedly, as if trying to paint a picture of her proposed display. “Not a single person there will be able to hold in their gasps of amazement as she turns their world upside down!”
Kevin put one arm around Trixie and squeezed. “That sounds great. You can do all that without magic?”
Trixie wrinkled her nose. “Not all magic needs... magic, and Trixie is trained in stage magic, possibly even more than unicorn magic. She will craft illusions of splendor without a single bit of it, this she promises.” She put a hand over her heart a moment. “So, what do you think?” She was looking at Starlight and me pointedly.
I had one immediate question. “Who are you trying to perform for?”
“Why your family, of course.” Her smile was radiant. “This reminds. You need to tell her what the occasion is exactly so she can tailor the event for it. They will be dazzled by this Great and Powerful performance!”
Starlight caught my glance. “Go with it. Telling her not to will just make it awkward.” A hand rolled. “Go on, tell her what it’s about.”
“It’s an anniversary,” I confessed. That was when I realized I didn’t remember what number exactly. I would want to know that. A text to mother should clear that up.
“Which one?” asked Trixie predictably. “there are so many traditions depending on which number it is. Trixie will not be embarrassed by using the wrong theme.”
Kevin nudged her pudgy side with an elbow. “I doubt human traditions are exactly the same as pony ones.”
“So you would think, but Trixie bets it is not that different.” She leaned back, arms folded under her chest. “Just tell her which number it is and she will consult the Great Oracle to be sure. Have no fear, Trixie does not foul up presentations.”
Starlight’s shoulders lifted. “If there is anything that Trixie does take seriously, magic shows rates pretty high. Just remember that there’s to be no actual magic in it.”
“Not a drop,” agreed Trixie, almost vibrating with eagerness to perform.
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conscience
8219594
Fixed!
Yay more plot development!!
Yay more plot development!!
Yea!! The joys of working with the US government. If they aren't obstructing everything they are lying as easy as breathing about something. If the world only knew how screwed up we always have been. Just look at all of the incompetent celebrities that are either in office or think their opinion matters more then everyone else’s.
I wouldnt leave Trixie and Starlight behind in good couscous either.
Id get the cameras.
Multiple.
3D.
And Kevin can handle them.
This is going to go soo well. Two Equestrian natives first time on human avaiation transport for an extended period of time, depending on the brutalising grind at the gates at each end.
Murphy is ready with the knife, screwdriver, custard pie, and camera also.
Shipping goggles intensifies.
8219701
This reminds me: they need to get the government to give them valid papers so they can actually even use airlines.
8219755
They have passports.
The real question though, is, who's feeding insider information to her mom? We think that's three instances now she's made some odd predictions and statements... Keep going! ;)
8219611
Did someone let Celestia get to the cake supplies again?
Starlight and I - Starlight and me
little with memory - little with the memory
Trixie will not be embarassed - Trixie will not be embarrassed
I wonder if Trixie will be able to resist using her magic, even a little, if it means showing the humans something truly amazing...
8220995
Fixed! And surely Trixie will cause no problems!
Aren't Starlight and Trixie not allowed to leave the state? Or does that no longer apply now that they have IDs?