The Ugly Consequences
Rainbow grumbled and shut off her phone. “Fluttershy and Rarity can’t make it. Guess we’ll have to get started without them.” She took a seat next to me, then looked around the barn, waiting for someone to provide some answers. I know I wanted some.
Applejack was busy field-stripping the rifle I’d used, half-searching for answers as she went over every single piece of it to make sure I hadn’t done any damage. Twilight and Sunset were having a hushed conversation in the corner, probably trying to come up with a working theory for what was going on. That left Pinkie Pie, who started slowly circling around me, occasionally poking, prodding, and breaking out a measuring tape.
Rainbow lost patience with her before I did. “Pinkie, what're you doing?”
Pinkie stopped her examination, coming to a halt in front of us. “Soooo ... did you find some weird magic gems in a cave in the forest, and now you're using their magical powers to try and save your summer camp from a land developer who’s randomly evil now despite always having been a pretty nice guy before?”
Well, I couldn’t fault her for ruling out what happened the last time they ran into something like this, though she was probably being a bit too specific. “No, nothing like that.”
“Huh.” She leaned in closer, then tugged aside my hair so she could stare into one of my ears. “You didn’t build some sort of weird machine to take away everyone’s magic, and now you’re unleashing it to give yourself powers? Possibly because of an evil principal singing a pretty cool musical number?”
Twilight flinched when she heard that. Guess it was still a bit of a sore spot for her. I shook my head. “No, I didn’t do that either. And before you ask, I’m also not a siren or a unicorn from Equestria, and I didn’t come here through a magic portal.”
Pinkie frowned, then pulled a clipboard out of her hair and crossed several things out. “Hmm ... there go most of my theories. Oh! Were you bitten by a spider? Or maybe you accidently touched some radioactive waste?”
Rainbow groaned and slammed her head down on the table, a sentiment I privately agreed with. However, past experience and advice from Rainbow said that the best way to deal with Pinkie was to just roll with her randomness. Fighting it was like trying to hold back an avalanche. “Do you have any radioactive waste on the farm, Applejack?”
She chuckled and shook her head. “Not unless you're countin’ laundry day.”
“Huh.” Pinkie frowned and crossed that out. “I guess you didn’t fall into a big open vat of weird chemicals either.” I shook my head. “Oh! Oh! Maybe you're an alien who was abandoned here as a baby and your parents are actually your adoptive parents and now your super freaky alien powers are awakening for the first time!”
“It might explain a few things,” I joked, “but I'm pretty sure that's not it. After all, I can’t fly or shoot lasers out of my eyes.”
Rainbow got up from her seat and shot an annoyed glower Pinkie’s way. “Pinkie, can we stop dealing with your randomness and come up with an actual answer? You know, something realistic, like maybe she soaked up some Equestrian Magic from somewhere?”
Applejack snorted. “Says something about our lives when magic’s a realistic explanation.” She leaned back in her chair, frowning. “It’d figure she’s getting her magic from there, but how would it happen? The cave at Camp Everfree didn’t exactly have any spare gemstones.”
Sunset shrugged helplessly. “I can only really guess at this point.” She shifted her attention to me. “Did you pick up anything from the camp, Cloud? Anything new or unusual?”
I thought it over, then shook my head. “Not that I can think of.”
Applejack smirked. “Not even an inherent hatred for impromptu fashion shows? Ah know Ah got a bad case of that from Camp Everfree.”
“Pretty sure we all caught that,” Rainbow deadpanned. “So unless everyone starts popping up weird anti-fashion powers, we can rule that out.”
Pinkie smirked and nudged Rainbow Dash. “I know one thing she picked up...”
Sunset sighed, and with utmost reluctance asked, “What are you talking about, Pinkie?”
Pinkie looked between myself and Rainbow grinning smugly. “Oh I proooobably shouldn't say but, they know what I’m talking about...”
It wasn’t hard to guess what she meant. Pinkie had been hanging out in Rainbow’s tent one of the times I’d come by to visit, and it had taken quite a while for Rainbow to not-so-subtly clue her in that we wanted some alone time.
Rainbow must have come to the same conclusion, because she was glaring daggers at Pinkie even as her cheeks lit up. “Shut up, Pinkie...”
Sunset crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at all three of us. “What are you talking about? If there’s even the slightest chance it has anything to do with how Cloud got these new powers, I need to know.”
“Pretty sure it’s unrelated,” I assured her.
“Yeah!” Rainbow agreed, her eyes nervously darting from side to side. “It’s really not important. Pinkie’s just being weird and random like she always is.”
“Maybe you oughta let Sunset and Twilight decide what is an’ ain’t important,” Applejack shot back. “They’re the ones who actually study all this magic stuff. Ah don’t reckon y’all would both be gettin’ so twitchy unless Pinkie was onto somethin’.”
Sunset’s frown deepened. “Need I remind you how bad things got every other time we’ve had someone suddenly get magical powers? Me, Twilight, Gloriosa ... it’s looking like a pretty consistent trend at this point.” She shot a quick apologetic smile Twilight’s way. “If there’s another problem brewing, I’d rather nip it in the bud.”
“I’m fine with not getting blasted by a huge magical rainbow,” I agreed wholeheartedly. I let that sink in for a moment, then shrugged. “For what it’s worth, I don't feel an irresistible urge to take over the world while laughing maniacally.”
“Neither did any of the others, until they did,” Applejack countered. “And considering ya blew a big chunk outta a tree with a little plinker rifle, Ah’d rather not find out what happens if ya go crazy and start using your magic to boost up some serious hardware.”
“Shut up, Applejack!” Rainbow snapped, protectively wrapping her arms around me. “Cloud’s not gonna do something like that! I knew you were pretty stupid, but that takes the prize!”
Sunset sighed and massaged her forehead. “Calm down, Rainbow. Nobody thinks Cloud is going to turn evil. It’s just ... well considering the track record we’ve had so far with other people getting magic, can you blame us for wanting a little reassurance that nothing bad’s going to happen this time?”
Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “You want reassurance? Fine. Cloud’s not gonna go crazy and hurt anyone, because she wouldn’t do that.”
Twilight bit her lip, then murmured, “Pretty sure nobody thought I would start ripping holes in reality as soon as I got magical powers, but...”
Rainbow flinched, then shook her head and tightened her hold on me. “Guys, I’m telling you, Cloud wouldn’t do something like that. I just ... she just wouldn’t.”
Twilight shook her head. “Rainbow, that’s begging the question.”
“I’ll beg your question!” Rainbow snapped.
“That doesn’t even make sense!”
I took a deep breath, then very gently removed Rainbow’s arms. “It’s okay, Dash.” I faced Sunset and nodded. “Go ahead and do your magic thing, if that’s what it’ll take to get some answers and let everyone know I’m not about to go crazy.”
Sunset started to reach out towards me, then hesitated. “You sure about that? I can’t exactly control what I see, so...”
“Anything in my head is potentially up for grabs,” I finished for her. “Trust me, I’m not wild about it, but if it’ll clear all this up and get us some answers I can live with it. It’s not like I have any deep, dark secrets I’m desperate to hide.”
“Your call.” She took a deep breath, then put a hand on my shoulder.
And ... nothing happened. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but it was a bit more than that. Most of the movies and comics I’d seen with Rainbow said you could feel someone rooting around in your head and try to fight back against them. Not that I wanted to fight her, but I’d still expected a bit more awareness of what she was doing. A feeling of her poking around in my head, maybe getting flashes of whatever memories she was digging through...
Everyone else just silently watched us, Applejack and Twilight with mild interest, while Rainbow was tapping her foot with enough super speed to kick up a small dust cloud. She really was a total sweetheart underneath the cool tough girl exterior. Loving, caring, giving ... and she had the cutest little butt.
A moment later it occurred to me that I probably shouldn’t be thinking about my girlfriend’s butt while someone was poking around in my head. I immediately tried not to think about her, which backfired about as spectacularly as one would expect. Everyone knows that trying not to think of something just guarantees that you’ll think about it.
About a second later Sunset pulled her hand away as if she’d been burned, her cheeks lighting up. Her eyes flicked between me and Rainbow, and the blush got even worse. It wasn’t hard to guess what she must have seen, and pretty soon I was blushing even more than she was.
As soon as it was clear Sunset was done mind-reading, Rainbow barged in. “Alright, so what’d you find out?”
Sunset groaned and rubbed her face. “Too much. Way too much.”
Rainbow was thankfully oblivious to what that meant, though I wasn’t optimistic about that remaining the case for long. “What’s that supposed to mean? Did you find out how Cloud got her magic or not? Hurry up and tell Applebutt that Cloud’s not gonna go crazy or evil!”
Applejack shot a brief frown Rainbow’s way, but let the insult slide. “Ah’d sure like some answers too.”
“Yeah, spill the beans!” Pinkie demanded. “Except don’t spill literal beans, because that’s wasting perfectly good food.”
Sunset sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Well, I do have a bit of a working theory, at least. Cloud and Rainbow were ... involved with one another at Camp Everfree. Rainbow’s magic field was almost certainly unstable due to recently getting new powers, so some of that might have leaked to Cloud.”
Rainbow finally got it, and her jaw dropped. I groaned and buried my face in my hands.
Thankfully, the others hadn’t quite caught on yet. Applejack took off her hat to scratch her head. “So havin’ feelin’s for someone else spreads the magic? That's it? Seems awful thin.”
“If that was all it took, you’d think there would be more people than just Cloud with magic,” Twilight chimed in. Her cheeks lit up a bit as she added, “I had a bit of a crush on Gloriosa’s brother, so why hasn’t he gotten powers? Or my brother? Or—”
Whatever she was about to say next got swallowed up by Pinkie’s massive gasp. “What?! I thought that night in the tent you were just sneaking and eating marshmallows together. Omigosh omigosh OMIGOSH! You guys were actually eating—”
“Pinkie!” Rainbow yelped.
“Whaaat?!” Pinkie demanded. “I was just gonna say you guys were actually eating donuts. Sheesh, Dashie, you’re acting like you and Cloud were having sex or something.”
Rainbow groaned and slapped her head on her forehead, flopping spread-eagled onto her back. I opted for something slightly less melodramatic, but still getting the point across. “Someone just kill me now.”
Pinkie’s next gasp somehow managed to be even louder and more dramatic than the last one. “Omigosh, you two were doing it?! Wow, congrats! I’m gonna have to hold a big party for this one! With lots of cupcakes with cherries on top, and cherry punch, and cherry juice, and a big pinata cherry that one lucky person is gonna pop, and tons of cherry candies will fly out! It’s gonna be a total blast!”
Rainbow moaned and covered her face with her hands. “Cloud, would you kindly do me a favor and shoot me now?”
“So…” Pinkie leaned in conspiratorially, grinning and waggling her eyebrows. “How was it?”
“PINKIE!”
Sunset gently tugged Pinkie back before things could get even more out of hand. “Trust me, none of us need a play-by-play.” Any end to my embarrassment she might have offered was cut short when I heard her grumble under her breath, “I already got that myself.”
Rainbow glowered at her. “Dammit Sunset—did you have to blab about me and Cloud?!”
Sunset sighed patiently. “Magic has always been strongly influenced by emotions, and love’s one of the strongest emotions out there. That’s actually part of my theory for why so many people are badly influenced by Equestrian magic. Twilight, Gloriosa and I were all in a bad place emotionally when we got infused with Equestrian magic, and that’s why things went wrong. It’d also explain why there aren’t any problems with our new powers.” She hesitated, straightening out her hair. “As for the ... physical side of things, um ... well, at least back in Equestria that act can forge a sort of thaumaturgical bond between two individuals, just like friendship does. So if the two of you did—er, that right as Rainbow’s own powers were manifesting, the power would flow down the pathway the two of you were opening up.” She shrugged. “Or at least, that’s one possibility. Magic here has never worked like Equestrian magic, so there’s no guarantee that any of the rules that I’m used to apply. Though since friendship still seems to work that way...”
I frowned, trying to follow along with what she was saying. CHS might not offer any classes in magical theory, but I had enough familiarity with fantasy fiction to know at least some of the terms and ideas she was using. “So wait, does this mean magic is like an STD?”
Applejack and Pinkie snorted, while Twilight blushed and Sunset answered me with a flat look. Rainbow opted for a more direct approach to showing her displeasure by slugging me in the arm. “Why would you even say that, Kicker?”
Sunset sighed and shook her head. “For the record, I don’t think it’ll work that way unless our magical fields get destabilized again. Our powers seem to have settled down, so that sort of leakage shouldn’t be a problem in the future.”
Well, I’m sure they’d all be glad to know that getting magic hadn’t doomed them to a life of celibacy. Now that we’d sorted out where my magic came from it was time to move on to the next step. “So ... how do we fix this?”
Pinkie stared at me as though ... well, as if I was someone else dealing with the kind of things she did on a regular basis. “Wait, are you saying you don’t want super cool powers?!”
I thought it over, trying to figure out how I felt. “I dunno. Like you guys said, anyone other than you having magic has a bad track record. You have to admit my power looks pretty dangerous, and if I mess up and hurt someone with it...”
Sunset frowned and shook her head. “I don't think there is a way to ‘fix’ this. As far as I can tell, once someone gets magic powers they’ve got them for keeps. Even that machine Twilight built couldn’t do anything more than suppress our magic for a bit, and I don’t think anyone wants to try messing with something like that again.” She took a seat next to me. “Don’t worry though, having magic is a good thing.”
“At least you’ll have a pretty easy time not usin’ your magic if you don’t want to,” Applejack chimed in. “Weren’t so easy for the rest of us—kinda hard to go through daily life never using our muscles or pickin’ anything up. Long as you ain’t using a gun, you’re fine.”
“Yeah, but she’s gonna have a hard time avoiding that when she’s training for the military,” Rainbow countered. “She practices with her family once a week, so covering this up is gonna be pretty hard.” Her eyes widened, and she pulled me a bit closer. “Oh crap, her mom is gonna kill her when she finds out about this.”
Rainbow wasn’t wrong. Maybe if I managed to get this magic thing under control I could at least contain the damage. Then again, I’m pretty sure that even if I could pull off some incredible magical shooting thing, Mom would still find a way to disapprove.
Sunset shook her head. “We can’t assume that Cloud’s power is limited to guns just because that’s how it first showed up. Figuring out exactly what she can and can’t do is just part of the process though. We’ve all been experimenting with our magic and seeing what it can do, there’s no reason Cloud shouldn’t do the same thing. Understanding her powers is the first step to gaining control of them.”
“As long as they don’t gain control of her,” Twilight’s eyes fell as she hugged herself. “I think we’ve all had enough of that.”
Sunset frowned and shook her head. “Honestly, I really don’t think magic works that way. Magic just is. It can’t control you, it just gives you another way of being yourself. When I used the Element of Magic it didn’t ... look, everyone knows I was pretty awful back then. Magic just meant that instead of lying and manipulating people into doing what I wanted, I could outright mind control them. Gloriosa was already desperate and a little crazy about losing her camp, magic just gave her another way to try and make that happen. Without magic, she probably would’ve just tried something else.”
Twilight shrank down. “So what does that say about me?”
Applejack put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “That you ain’t perfect, just like the rest of us.”
Sunset nodded. “Celestia—my Celestia—always said that power doesn’t change who you are, it just makes you more of what you already were. It can bring out the worst in you, or the best, but how we use it is still our choice. There wasn’t some evil demon that took over my body and made me do terrible things; there was just me.” She sighed and shook her head. “Everyone makes mistakes, but I like to think I learned from mine.”
“The fact that you went from trying to enslave the school to repeatedly saving it is a pretty good sign,” I agreed. “So ... as long as I don’t go crazy and start using my magic for the wrong reasons, it won’t turn me into some sort of monster?”
“Sounds like what she was saying,” Rainbow agreed. She turned to me, then declared in an admirably perfect deadpan, “Don't turn into a demon, Cloud. I like to think I’m pretty cool and tolerant as far as girlfriends go, but if you ever do that I’d have to dump you. At least until you went back to being a human.”
“I think that’s fair.” If nothing else, there was the fact that turning into a demon would ruin my looks. Sunset, Twilight, and Gloriosa had all looked way too freaky when they transformed. I turned back to Sunset. “So, I need to start practicing and experimenting? I guess we can just stick with where you’ve been doing all the other magic experiments, right?”
Applejack nodded. “Eeyup, ain’t like having one more gal practicin’ is any extra trouble, especially when you were already here half the time Rainbow did her stuff. Jes’ make sure ya don’t make too much noise; ‘tween Cloud’s shootin’ and Pinkie’s explosions, Ah don’t want mah farm soudin’ like a warzone.”
Pinkie rolled her eyes and started digging around in her backpack. “Oh come on, Applejack. It can’t be that bad. I’ve totally got my powers totally under—” Something exploded inside her bag, sending everyone diving for cover. After several seconds Pinkie pulled a frosting-covered hand out. “Aw poopie, I blew up my cupcake.” For a second she looked like she was on the verge of tears, then she shrugged and started licking the frosting off her fingers.
Applejack cleared her throat and tried to steer the conversation back to sane territory. “Granny’s pretty easygoin’ most of the time, but she’s got her limits—not to mention what the neighbors might start thinkin’ if they hear us constantly shootin’ and blowin’ stuff up.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” I’d been planning to stick with low-caliber ammunition anyway, since it was cheaper and less destructive. If my magic made guns do more damage, then a bigger gun would presumably do even more damage. Keeping noise levels down was just an added bonus.
“See? Told you everything would be fine.” Rainbow grinned and messed up my hair. “I mean, you got me and I got the gang with me. No way this isn’t gonna work out fine, I’m too awesome to let anything happen to you.”
“Thanks, Dash.” I chuckled and leaned against her, smiling softly. “Dunno what I’d do without you keeping an eye on me.”
“You’d be fine,” Rainbow assured me. “Not quite as cool without me propping you up, but you’d manage. Don’t worry about the whole magic thing, Sunset’s an expert. Comes from being born a unicorn in magical pony land.”
Sunset chuckled and shook her head. “That did give me an advantage, but Twilight and the rest of you have been catching up pretty fast.” She grinned at Rainbow. “You’re actually doing really well with your powers, even if Twilight grumbles about your methods.”
Twilight stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not grumbling, it’s perfectly reasonable to point out that trying to perform scientific experiments inspired by comic books and movies is a terrible idea.”
“If it’s so terrible, why does it work?” Rainbow shot back.
Sunset cut them off before things could get any further. “There isn’t any scientific analysis of magic or superpowers in this world aside from what we’re coming up with ourselves, unless you start looking at speculative fiction. It’s a decent place to look for inspiration, and then we can apply science to the ideas to see if they hold up.”
Rainbow smirked at her seeming victory over Twilight, then turned her attention back to me. “So ... what now?”
Pinkie pulled a frosting-caked headband out of her bag. “Now ... we train.” Her eyes lit up. “Ooh, that means we need a good training montage song! I’ll hurry up and write one while the rest of you figure out how you wanna do the montage!” She zipped out of the barn without another word, and a couple seconds later I heard her messing around on the drums.
Rainbow sighed and shook her head. “So random...” She got up, then helped me to my feet. “But she’s not wrong—we’ve gotta get this magic thing figured out. Your folks’ll freak out a lot less if you’ve got your powers under control and can tell them how they work.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I got home after dark, so I knew I was going to be in trouble. Granted, I knew I’d be in trouble when I went out to Applejack’s farm instead of coming straight home from school. Once you hit a certain point of breaking the rules, there’s really no point in trying to do damage control. It’s not like Mom and Dad would be less pissed that I only broke most of their rules instead of all of them.
Despite that, I made a token effort to try and sneak into the house after Applejack dropped me off. I was probably doomed from the start considering how loud her farm’s old diesel pickup was, but I’m an eternal optimist.
That lasted until I got through the front door. Mom and Dad were parked on the couch, with a perfect view of the entrance. I should’ve asked Applejack to bring a ladder that could reach my bedroom window. And had the foresight to leave that window unlocked. And had a window that I could actually comfortably climb through.
Dad cleared his throat, just to make sure I knew I was utterly busted. “Cloud. Could you come to the living room please?”
I was briefly tempted to make a run for my bedroom, but at that point I would just be delaying the inevitable. Plus that would mean I’d have nowhere left to retreat to if this went as badly as I was expecting it to. I reluctantly trudged into the room, bracing myself for the oncoming storm.
Mom levelled a finger at the chair opposite the couch, which they’d apparently put in front of the TV specifically for this conversation. Always a bad sign when your parents rearrange the furniture specifically for the conversation about how pissed they are. “Sit, Cloud.”
I was halfway to the chair before I even stopped to think about it. Once my brain caught up to my body, I froze on the spot. ‘Sit.’ Like I was a dog who had to obey her commands. What, did she think that she could treat me like a slave just because she was my mother? I stayed standing exactly where I was, then pointedly folded my arms over my chest, meeting her eyes and daring her to say something about it.
Mom met my gaze, and her eyes hardened. “Did I stutter, Cloud? Was I mumbling? Did you not hear what I said? Sit. Down.”
“Nim...” Dad put a hand on her shoulder, his voice gentle and calming. However, when he shifted his attention back to me it was all parental authority. “It’s almost eleven. Sparkler and Alula have already gone to bed. Where've you been?”
I didn’t see any point in lying to them. “Over at Applejack’s farm with Rainbow.” I decided to jump straight to the magic business—maybe it would distract them enough that they’d forget about everything else. “Some ... some stuff happened that we need to talk about.”
“We have quite a bit to talk about already, young lady,” Mom announced ominously.
I decided to dive into the magic thing before Mom had a chance to build up any momentum. I’d be lucky to get a word in edgewise once she got going. “There's ... you know all the weird stuff that’s been going on around Rainbow and her friends?”
“I remember you, Rainbow, Blossom, and the incident in the sewers, yes,” Dad answered levelly. “Are you saying there was another incident of some sort?”
“Kinda.” I wasn’t sure how much my parents knew about all the weird magic around school. Mom had seen Rainbow use her super-speed once or twice, but I’d never exactly sat them down to talk about how my girlfriend had magic powers. Well, no time like the present to get into that. “Well, Rainbow and her friends got magical powers back at summer camp, and today we found out I have them too. That’s why I was over there for so long—trying to figure out what mine were and how they worked.”
My parents met that declaration with the exact level of skepticism you’d expect. Dad finally broke the silence after a long pause. “I’ll give you points for originality and audacity. I don’t think I’ve ever heard ‘I was out late because I gained magical powers’ as an excuse.”
I suppose I should’ve known this would be a hard sell, even after the whole thing in the sewers. Apparently the police reports had called the whole thing some sort of wild animal attack. Thankfully, I had proof. “Well, I managed to make a .22 plinking rifle tear a huge chunk off a tree. Sunset didn’t get that, but she recorded some test shots that were still a bit nuts.”
Dad frowned and nodded. “Alright then,, let’s see this video.”
I shot Sunset a quick text. She’d recorded everything so she could analyze the footage once she got home—presumably going over it all frame-by-frame to see if there was anything useful. At least, I assume that was what she and Twilight were doing with it. I wasn’t an expert in trying to apply science to magic.
A couple minutes later I got the video back and promptly played it for my parents. The quality was about what you’d expect from a video recorded on someone’s smartphone, but I was pretty clearly shooting a tiny little .22 and doing the sort of damage you’d expect from a fifty cal anti-materiel rifle.
Mom and Dad silently watched it all play out. Neither of them said anything for a while, then Dad played the video a couple more times. After the fourth viewing he frowned, tapping at my phone. “If this is edited, it’s good. You can even see the shell casing.” He scowled at me. “ Or were you just setting up a bunch of trick shots? You know people have gotten hurt playing around with explosives and bullets just to try and make a cool video.”
I groaned and fell into the unoccupied chair. I should’ve known they wouldn’t buy it. Not just because they never listen to me, but because the same thing happened anytime someone got some of the weird magic going around CHS on tape. When someone put the entire fight between the Rainbooms and the Sirens upon the ‘net, the comments sections was instantly flooded with people talking about how obviously fake the whole thing was, until it got buried under all the other ‘totally real magic superpowers OMG!!1!’ videos posted online.
Thankfully, I had better options than relying on grainy cell phone video. “Fine, then let’s just go out shooting and I’ll show you. We can do it right now.”
Dad frowned. “If you think we’re going out this late at night just to try and confirm some crazy story you’ve come up with...” He sighed and shook his head. “Did Rainbow come up with this idea? It sounds like the sort of plan she’d make: lie so massively and outrageously that we’ll be completely distracted and focus more on the claims of magic than what you actually did. If you think we’ll have forgotten all about how late you were out by the time we get to the range and let you fire off a few rounds...”
“Tor,” Mom cut in. “After what happened in the sewers, maybe we shouldn’t dismiss this out of hand. I know what the police report said, but what attacked Cloud was no wild animal.”
“Nim...” Dad sighed patiently. “You were in the middle of a dark tunnel, probably scared half to death worrying about Cloud, and only saw whatever it was for a couple seconds. We’ve both seen enough action to know how crazy things can get in the heat of battle. Remember when Rain Cloud got jumped by that scared civvie, and swore the guy was a hundred pounds heavier and a foot taller than he really was?”
“I know what I saw, Tor,” Mom countered. “It wasn’t a wild dog, a bear that wandered into the sewers, or whatever wound up in the official report. If Cloud says something like that is happening again, I’ll give her a chance to prove it.” Just when I was about to thank her for such unusually nice and understanding behavior, she added, “Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that she shouldn’t have been out there in the first place. If something that serious was going on you should have called us right away, not turned off your phone and left us worrying about you for hours before trying to sneak back after dark.”
“Well excuse me for not doing everything exactly the way you wanted me to while I was still in shock from finding out I could do magic.” I probably should’ve left it at that, but I couldn’t resist continuing. “Besides, do you think I wanted to talk to you after the way you treated Rainbow yesterday?”
Mom scowled at me. “What you wanted to do is beside the point. This is about what you should have done.”
I scoffed. “Story of my life. What I want doesn’t matter, I should just do what you tell me to.”
Mom gripped the armrest hard enough to leave marks. “Cloud, we have rules in this family, just because you don’t think those rules apply to you doesn’t mean—”
Dad cut her off by pointedly clearing his throat. “Cloud, Nim, let’s not get into this again. I don’t want Alula and Sparkler waking up to a shouting match between you two.”
I swallowed what I’d been planning to say and took a deep breath. Dad was right—however much I was pissed at Mom, I could at least keep the volume down. I didn’t want them getting dragged into this mess.
Mom didn’t do anything quite so dramatic, but when resumed speaking her tone was a lot quieter. “Cloud, we have these rules to keep you safe. We’re not coming up with arbitrary laws about being home at a certain hour just because our goal in life is to aggravate you—it’s because being out late at night can be dangerous for a girl your age.”
I sighed and shook my head. “I get that. It’s not like I hate having rules and think I should just be allowed to do whatever I want. It’s just ... c’mon, you have to admit you go completely overboard on them sometimes. You brought the hammer down on me and Rainbow for stuff we weren't even doing.”
“I’ll grant that I might have misread the situation.” She barely gave me a moment to process that small victory before barreling onwards. “But judging by the way the rest of our conversation went, the problem wasn’t so much that you and Rainbow have never done that sort of thing so much as I never caught you at it.”
Despite his best efforts to keep his parental poker face up, Dad groaned. “Nim...”
I didn’t see any point in trying to deny it, so I stood my ground. “Yeah, we have.” I crossed my arms and defiantly met her eyes. “Maybe you haven’t heard, but it’s what people who’re in love with each other do.”
Mom took a deep breath and slowly rubbed the sides of her head. “Cloud... That is not something you do lightly. Once you cross that line, you can’t ever go back. It’s not a decision you should make lightly.”
“Lightly?!” My teeth clenched as I bolted up out of my chair. Dad shot a sharp look my way, and I dropped the volume back down. “You think what Rainbow and I have is light? She’s been one of my best friends for years, since middle school. She threw herself at a freaky bug monster to save me. Pretty sure Dad never did that for you.”
Mom and Dad traded a look. “Not exactly that,” she conceded. “However, that isn’t what we’re discussing. I know you and Rainbow are very close, but sex isn’t ... having sex can very easily have major ramifications for your life. Even if pregnancy isn’t an issue for the two of you, I hope you had a serious discussion of the consequences before you ... indulged.”
Considering our first time had happened without a lick of planning or forethought, and before we’d even realized we were into each other ... it was probably best not to directly answer that. “We took sex ed, Mom. We know how it all works.”
“There’s a big difference between knowing how to do it and having the judgment to know whether you should,” Mom countered. “I’m sure you two are very much in love now, but you’re still children.”
Dad reluctantly jumped back into the conversation. “Your mother and I both had our high school sweethearts when we were your age, but ... well you can see how well that ultimately worked out. You’ve got a lot of life ahead of you.”
I flinched a bit. I knew Rainbow wasn’t going to end up in a fancy military academy. Even if she wanted to go to one, she didn’t have the grades for it. We weren’t really worrying about stuff like college yet, but I’d heard enough to know that long-distance relationships were iffy. That was still a long way off, though. I wasn’t gonna let worrying about the future keep me from being happy now.
That’s when something occurred to me. “So you guys dated other people in high school?” Mom and Dad nodded, and despite the way the question made my skin crawl, I went for the kill. “Did you bang them?”
“Cloud!” Dad coughed on air, his cheeks lighting up. “That’s not—you can’t—”
“What we did or didn’t do is none of your business and has no relevance to your situation, young lady,” Mom answered stiffly.
I looked between the two of them, a smirk slowly growing on my lips. It was kinda fun seeing them both so flustered and uncomfortable. Just like when Mom had put me on the spot earlier, I knew what their failure to answer meant. “You guys are so busted.”
Mom and Dad glowered at me, but didn’t seem quite sure how to get the conversation back on track after I’d knocked them onto their heels. I wasn’t about to cede the initiative now that I’d taken it. “Let’s say your right. Maybe things don’t work out with me and Rainbow. Maybe we drift apart when we go to different colleges. That’d suck, but I wouldn't regret what we had. Rainbow’s ... she’s just awesome. It’s not like this is some random fling, we’ve known each other for years. And if you’re scared she’d hurt me...” I scoffed and shook my head. “Please. She’s so loyal that she literally got magical powers because of how loyal she is.
Mom and Dad sat there for a bit, from the gobsmacked looks on their faces trying to catch up with me. Dad managed to recover first, shaking his head. “I don't care, Cloud. However much you’re sure about Rainbow isn’t relevant right now. What is relevant is what you do and don’t do with whom under this roof.”
Well, now we were getting somewhere. “If you want us keeping our clothes on while she's visiting, we were already sticking to that.”
Dad glowered at me, and wondered if I’d pushed my flippancy a bit too far. “Yes, clothes on and your hands well away from—” He grimaced and cut himself off, evidently not willing to finish the sentence. “Your hands to yourselves,” he concluded. “Even if you’re just roughhousing. If you don’t want us drawing the wrong conclusion, don’t put yourselves in situations where you need to say ‘It’s not what it looks like.’”
“Or you could not jump to conclusions,” I grumbled under my breath. “There was nothing wrong with me and Rainbow goofing around before.”
“You weren’t dating each other before,” Mom answered levelly. “As I’m sure you’re well aware, that changes a lot of things. A year ago I wouldn’t have had the slightest objection to her coming by for a sleepover and you two sharing the bed.”
“Point.” A year ago I just would’ve told Rainbow not to snore or fart. Now ... I wouldn’t be comfortable sharing a bed with her. Camp Everfree was the only time we’d even gone all the way since officially hooking up, and things had still been kinda awesome-yet-awkward once we were done. I think if I actually tried sleeping with Rainbow, we’d spend all night awkwardly shuffling around and trying to figure out if we were doing it wrong instead of actually sleeping.
That matter aside, there was plenty of stuff that still fit inside my comfort zone. “So how much hands-to-ourselves do you mean? We’ve always messed around like that. Keeping our hands in safe zones is one thing, but it sounds like you don’t want me touching her at all. You gotta admit that’s pretty ridiculous. What next, put me in a chastity belt? Carry around a measuring tape to make sure I never get within a meter of her?”
“Don’t tempt me,” Dad muttered.
I felt my cheeks warming up, though I’m not sure if it was because I was embarrassed, or angry. Maybe a bit of both. “It’s not like Rainbow and I were planning on messing around where everyone else could hear us.”
“I should hope not,” Mom deadpanned. “The problem is that when I was your age, just because I didn’t plan on doing it didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen. Teenage hormones are a powerful thing. I really don’t want details, but I’m sure you and Rainbow have had a wrestling matches that ended ... amorously.”
Considering that was pretty much exactly how my first time with Rainbow had gone down, I was in no position to argue with her. Didn’t mean I was going to concede. “Fine. How about if Rainbow and I promise to keep things reasonable, and you promise not jump on us every time we’re within five feet of each other?” Mom met my proposal with a skeptical frown, and I rolled my eyes. “I know the stereotypes, teenagers can’t think five minutes into the future and are ruled by our raging hormones. Believe it or not, Rainbow and I can actually think ahead far enough to not want to get busted by you guys. Or worse, Sparks or Alula.” Mom would just ground me. My sisters would tease me relentlessly for the rest of my natural life.
Mom’s frown didn’t exactly fade, but after a couple seconds she eased off it a bit. “I imagine we can find an acceptable middle ground.” She shot a half-serious scowl my way. “It’s clear that if I try to impose too many rules, you’ll just sneak off and do things behind my back.” I wisely kept my mouth shut about the fact that she was almost certainly right. After a couple seconds she sighed and shook her head. “In any event, we're probably going to need to talk with Rainbow and her parents about this.”
Dad nodded, rubbing his temple. “I’ll call them first thing tomorrow. Probably should have done it sooner, but...”
“Yaaaay,” I groaned. The only thing worse than talking with my parents about Rainbow would be talking to her parents. At least Mom and Dad were semi-obligated to love me.
Mom shot a flat look my way. “Trust us, we’re not having any more fun than you are. Substantially less, in fact. Is there anything else about the two of you we should know?”
There’s a question I would’ve been just fine not answering. I’d almost forgotten about the working theory for how I’d gotten my magical powers, but if I didn’t bring it up now and Mom found out some other way, there would be hell to pay. “Alright, as long as we’re putting all our cards on the table, I might as well let you guys know that Sunset thinks I got magical powers because of Rainbow.”
Mom met that announcement with a raised eyebrow. “How so?”
“It has to do with destabilized magical fields and emotional connections combined with physical affection and...” I tried to remember exactly how she’d explained it, but I was having a hard time getting everything exactly right. With nothing better to go with, I went back to my original metaphor. “Basically, magic’s kinda like an STD, except awesome and terrifying instead of horrible and embarrassing.”
Mom and Dad groaned, and I decided to try and lighten the mood a bit. “You did warn me that sex can have unexpected consequences. I’m pretty sure nobody was expecting this.” That didn’t seem to help the mood, so I tried for something a bit desperate. “Hey, at least I’m not pregnant.”
“Cloud, stop.” Dad clutched his head in his hands. “Every time you try to cheer us up you just make it sound even worse.”
“Right, no more bad jokes.” I looked at my miserable parents, then sighed in exasperation. “Oh come on, you’ve known Rainbow for as long as I have. She’s fine. You guys always liked her before I hooked up with her. Stop freaking out over it.”
“You'll understand when you're older,” Mom answered, seemingly unaware of how that was the sort of thing parents only said when they wanted to utterly frustrate their children.
Dad nodded. “We’ll deal with that as it comes. Not like we can force you two to stop having feelings for each other.” He frowned down at the table for a bit, then grunted. “As for your abilities, I'd like to evaluate them for myself.”
“Likewise,” Mom instantly agreed.
I wasn’t surprised they wanted to see that in action. Plus it was worth having them around anyway, since they did know a lot about guns. Kinda goes along with being in the army. “That shouldn’t be a problem, Sunset wanted to run some more tests tomorrow anyway. Trying out some more guns would probably give her better results, if you don’t mind breaking out the armory for me.”
“I’m sure we could do that.” Mom paused, then amended, “Low powered weapons only. Tempting as it would be to requisition some heavy ordnance to see what you can do, you’re not touching anything like that until you have total control.”
“No arguments from me.” If there was one subject Mom and I could always agree on, it was gun safety. One of the basic rules of gun safety was to always know what was in the path of your bullets. Considering the power I’d gotten out of .22, shooting something like a .308 would probably require checking for planes.
“Glad that’s settled, then.” Dad paused, looking between Mom and me. “I think there’s only one thing left to do now. Your mother told me quite a bit about how your last conversation went. Is there anything you’d like to say, Cloud?”
Ooof. I knew what he was expecting, but I always hated doing this. I would’ve preferred to just pretend the whole thing never happened. A lot easier than dredging it all back up against just so I could apologize. Still ... after talking with Applejack, I did regret what I’d said. It’s not like I’d really meant it or anything, I’d just been pissed off. I couldn’t quite meet Mom’s eyes as I mumbled, “I ... um ... sorry for the stuff I said last time.”
For a long time Mom didn’t say anything. Finally, Dad gently nudged her, and she spoke up. “I did perhaps jump to a conclusion and react somewhat more harshly than the situation warranted. While that does not excuse your behavior, it may somewhat mitigate it.”
“So does that mean I’m not grounded forever?” I asked hopefully.
“Your father and I discussed it, and don’t believe that would be helpful or instructive under the circumstances,” Mom answered stiffly. “We both made mistakes, and while yours were more extreme I have fewer excuses for mine.” Her eyes narrowed. “Though you will be doing some extra chores to make up for some of the vocabulary you employed. Since you’re going to using the guns tomorrow, you can start by cleaning them in the morning.”
Not a full pardon then, just a reduced sentence. Still better than I’d expected, and something I could live with. Extra chores were a pain, but at least once I was done I could still go hang out with Rainbow and everyone else.
Mom was just sitting on the couch silently, and after a bit dad nudged her again. She took a deep breath, then slowly got up and came over to me. “I hope we can put this argument behind us.” She hesitated a moment longer, then hugged me.
After a moment of shock I slowly wrapped my arms around her. Mom had never been much of a hugger, so Dad must have put her up to this. Still, it was ... nice. “Love you, Mom.”
“You too, Cloud.” She held on for a bit longer, then ended the slightly awkward hug. “So ... I've seen what you can do with a .22. How do you think a .45 would work?”
I smirked. “What do you say we find out tomorrow?”
She thought if over for a moment, then nodded. I could swear I actually saw a ghost of a smile on her lips. “I’d like that.”
I grinned back. “Me too.”
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Yeah, your parents are probably hypocrites, but that comes with the whole being human (or whatever the EQG population are) thing. They have the benefit of hindsight to see that what they did didn't work out all that well and don't want the same for you. Won't work, it didn't work for them either but at least they're trying.
One the other foot Cloud really dodged a bullet, what if her parents had decided to tell her about their previous sex lives?
Well there was this time with the football team, the entire football team.
Huh, sane family shenanigans. That's rather rare
Needs moar though. Much, much moar
This was significantly less painful than I anticipated. I had thought the situation would blow up even more than it already has, but it's nice to see things actually being "resolved" rather than just escalating.
Wow, Clouds family is pretty decent. I really appreciate that.
You can always count on Cloud's mother to apologize every once in a while.
that seemed... lack luster pretty much clouds mom got away with a 'i totaly screwed that one up but my bad' i don't care if she is a parent she still crossed several lines that wheren't even lampshaded in this.
also chastity belts used in that fashion have been ilegal for over a hundred years, there a health hazard and considered endangering human life.
I will say I really like the development of Nimbus as a character that we didn't quite get with Life and Times for obvious reasons. Kinda makes me sad that Equestria Cloud didn't get the chance to have the relationship with her mother that we see here, but that's what happens with alternate world's. All in all I love the different dynamics you have between the characters than what we're used to in Life and Times, and I can't wait for more!
Keep up the fabulous work
That certainly went better than expected. Always nice to see reasonable authority figures, especially when they're parents. The skepticism was handled very well, neither credulous nor Sunnydale Syndromic.
Plus, now the Kickers have a new, if rather unusual form of fanily bonding: Seeing what Cloud can do to/with the arsenal. Should be fun.
EDIT: Whoops, didn't realize it was over. Definitely a nice entry into this series; seeing Dash and company nip what could've been a family-splitting argument in the bud was pleasantly heartwarming. I'm a touch disappointed that we won't be getting more magical students (or so I assume,) but this was a very enjoyable read. Thank you for it.
I like how this story ended up and really hope to see another entry in the Oncoming Storm series. There's just so much awesome potential here that it kinda needs to happen. What else is there for me to say here... I dunno, this is just a very enjoyable series that I can't wait to see continued. It's full of more realistic family drama for high-school kids mixed in with the magical elements of Pony. A captivating combination, if I say so myself. I look forward to the next entry! Keep up the great writing, Chengar!
~SolidFire
A neat little story. A little disappointed there was no real climax (not that kind, dammit Cloud) but I suppose the tradeoff is having characters who are actually reasonable and fair, so that's something. Can't wait to see where this series goes!
I only just got to this and it was a great read!
That begs the question though - how would an anti-materiel (yes, it's materiel, not material, before anyone tries to correct me) rifle sit with her? Something akin to an RPG, just with the speed of a bullet?
Or a a S&W Model 500. For when you really want to hit the enemy on the other side of the universe
Another thing that occurs to me is the fact that with all this magic coming from Equestria, we might see the Magic of Love take effect, and if Cloud and Rainbow's love is strong enough then we might see some surprising consequences very soon.
This story is finished?
That doesn't feel like a open ending, but more like a cliffhanger ending with a huge, unanswered question.
Wait, hang on... Cloud getting a result with an interpersonal conflict situation by having a polite and reasonable conversation, and with the her mother of all people...?!
What fresh spore of madness is this...?!
(What a remarkably refreshing change!)
8660878
To be fair THIS Cloud is a LOT younger and has not had to live on her own for as long. Plus, we know at least PART of the problem was Cloud's Mom in Pony Universe was replaced by a Mean Changeling. So there's that. Not to mention so far, Cloud hasn't done anything quite so irreversible the way that Pony Cloud did in terms of ditching the Academy at the last minute. Plus Cloud has only had one sex partner, rather than a billion.
tl;dr: This Cloud is MUCH younger and as such hasn't had to deal with her mom NEARLY as much. Not only that, but THIS Cloud hasn't fucked up and pissed off her mom NEARLY as bad.
No, she just got very close to Rainbow after she got her magic powers.... Wait! Does this mean magic is sexually transmitted?
Wait, so is this the same Sunset as in the Freeport stories? Why is the Archon of Freeport hanging around a highschool?
Sunset stealing the element of magic I can buy, but the rest? What could she hope to gain that she hasn't already in freeport? An army of brainwashed teenagers? Wouldn't it be much simpler and vastly more effective to just hire the Doo clan mercenaries?
I just assumed that Oncoming Storm Sunset was the mirror clone of Freeport Sunset, not the same person.
9057479
Freeport Sunset and Oncoming Storm Sunset are different characters.
9057975
Thanks or clearing that up.
Does that mean that Oncoming Storm and Winningverse are different universes as well?
9058082
Yup.
8674999
Pony Cloud might be older but a billion, that sounds like a bit much, she's not nearly old enough to have had time for that many, She's only in her early thirties, plus she likes to take her time and enjoy herself, and keeps returning to her favourites. It wouldn't surprise me if she is still stuck in triple digits. A few thousand maximum 
Now if she became an alicorn...
9070902
Okay yeah a billion is probably far too strong. That was a gross exageration, but my overall points still stand. Human Cloud can count on only 1 hand how many sex partners she's had it sound like. Compare that to Pony Cloud who has had sex with multiple different SPECIES, in addition to easily having well over 100 different sexual partners....yeaaaah.
9071095
Yeah, sorry if it sounded negative, was just trying to make a joke. I'm a bit damaged due to overexposure to puns and nitpicking.
Yeah your point stands, Pony Clpud is nearly twice as old as her human counterpart. She's had a lot more experience, especially with sex and she did run oit of her graduation ceremony, something HCloud has yet to do.
Maybe Pony Nimbus doesn't get enough credit, she might've not been very happy with Cloud's choices but she and her husband did move to Ponyville to support her, that's pretty huge.
8091243
Yeah that was harsh, can't believe someone would say that to their parent. But Nimbus was pretty out of line as well.
But the dramatic irony is strong.
9072847
The problem with Pony Nimbus is we have no IDEA how long exactly she was a Changeling Infiltrator. We don't know what kind of effect that Chrysalis' changelings had on the relationship between Pony Nimbus & Cloud. Most of what we see is Post Changeling Switch.
9080064
No we don't, at least we can safely assume that it was after Alula's birth.
Though, and this is just a vague memory so I could be wrong, i think Cloud said something in Winning Pony about how her relationship with her mother got even worse 2 years ago. Then her dad got fed up with Nimbus as well and moved back to Canterlot. My guess is that those relationships tanked because at that point, she wasn't Nimbus anymore. The changeling was good but not that good, plus it'not like it was that relecant to completing its mission.
Inassume that all we see of Nimbus from the beginning of Winning Pony is the changeling and we only know the real Nimbus from Cloud's memory. (and maybe some prequel stories.)
So yeah, not that Nimbus and Cloud had a perfect relationship before, but I'm pretty sure the changeling made it worse.
Still, according to Cloud her mother had some good moments as well and Cloud did love her, even if they never got along.
I do get the feeling that the human Kicker family is happier and more functional than the ponies.
Even when Pony Cloud was the same age as human Cloud she had it a lot tougher.
9080977
Yeah I can definitely agree with you there. Then again considering how much earlier this is, and how Human Cloud never did anything so bone headed, it's hard to really say how much more functional they are. It could just be that they just haven't been close to a breaking point just yet.
Also I do agree 110% that the Changeling was probably there from the start, which really further degraded and ruined everything. Changelings haven't been known to be particularly kind OR friendly pre-reformation with the exception of a single changeling. Plus I imagine there were reasons that a changeling may want to break up a military family in order to create and/or exacerbate any sort of weakness. Internal fighting certainly is not going to help those ponies function well when it comes time for an invasion. Plus it would help prevent them from wanting to look too close at any details and other nastyness.
9081063
Yeah, the main reason the changeling pretending to be Nimbus exacerbated the pre-existing issues with Nimbus’ relationships was to avoid giving itself away to Tornado or Cloud. Mind-controlling both of them long-term would be hard, and fooling them without mind control would be a difficult proposition.
9081063
Not sure if "earlier" applies, they are different families. Pony Cloud had some rough experiences when she was even younher than her human counterpart. Human Cloud is what, 16,17?
Human Cloud has a lot less pressure on her. She is not the heir apparent of a military clan with 900 years of history and tradition. She also has two sisters who can help dealing with the parental pressure. Even if HCloud were to really do something like bailing her graduation both HSparkler and HAlula is there to pick up the torch, they aren't much younger than HCloud. In the winningverse Tor and Nimbus had no other children. The clan was in uproar and it was all Cloud's fault.
That's not even factoring in that at 13 years of age Pony Cloud had:
* Fallen madly in love and given up her virginity to a pony she was convinced was the love of her life. Only to have that love thrown back in her face and her heart broken as she was told that all that love had been a lie, at the worst possible moment.
* Was nearly murdered and beaten to within an inch of her life by her best friend for something she didn't do.
* Nearly killed said friend while defending herself.
* Spent days on life support with a collapsed lung, a busted forelimb and a facefull of broken bones.
* Ended up losing all of her friends and was to traumatized to make new ones for years. (Apologetic Letters of RD
It's no wonder that Pony Cloud has some issues, an overbearing hardass of a mother probably didn't help.
And can you really blame Nimbus. Finding your only child in the hospital, on life support, with life threatening injuries, because she did things she was to young to understand. That is enough to make even the best mother a bit overprotective.
I agree with you that the changeling infiltrator(wish we had a name for it) might've intentionally distanced heeself from Cloud and Tor to minimize the risk that they expose it.
On the other hoof, having a direct link to Tor would probably have been very advantageous for Chrysalis invasion.
My guess is that the infiltrator simply didn't have the patience and dedication to act like a loving wife and mother to people it didn't care for day in and day out for years. It probably id its best and it was enough that they never suspected that Nimbus had been replaced. But they sure as hay noticed that Nimbus had grown less likeable, she'd changed enough that she wasn't the pony Tor fell in love with anymore and he left because of that. Would hardly be the first time a marriage broke apart because the spark was lost.
Breaking up the Kicker Clan and by extension much of the top military in Equestria to ease the invasion sounds like a smart strategy if the infiltrator's loyalty to Chrysalis extended past its contract.
9082218
You make for some excellent points that I hadn't even thought of. It's easy to forget some of the finer details with everything that I have read, and the time it has been since I last read a lot of this stuff.
You are right though that there was a lot of stuff from Pony Cloud's past that caused some real difficulties as well.
The Author DID say that the reason Changeling Fake Mom was such a bitch, was that she didn't have the power/ability to mind control the others. Hence the only other thing it could do to avoid detection was to cause the others to distance themselves from her.
Still, that doesn't exclude other motivations the changeling infiltrator had. I am curious to know what other infiltrators were doing, and how their actions over time BEFORE the Invasion. Like did they do things to purposefully sabotage other ponies in non-military areas? I mean we do know that they drew many of the soldiers away from the important areas.
9084601
Thank you, you make some excellent points as well.
True, for me it's the other way around I keep forgetting that this fandom has been around for years. All this is fairly fresh for me, so easy to forget that others may have read the stories like 5 years ago and not last month like me.
Yeah he did (at least I think Chengar is a dude, please correct me if I'm wrong.) The infiltrator did push them away on purpose. Having more family around was indeed a risk, whst if she slipped up with her disguise or they saw her feed? They already noticed that Nimbus had changed personality a bit, and they didn't like it but that doesn't exactly scream changeling, it's pretty normal for people to change as they mature, for better or worse. I mean Celestia and Luna, probably Shining armor and definitely at least part of Cadence's intelligence agents was aware of the existence of changelings, yet no one realized that she had been replaced until it was too late. Shining at least had the excuse of being mind co trolled, but the rest?
I like to think that most free minds are pretty nice people who just want to live their lives and be left alone. At least it's my headcanon that dozens, maybe hundreds of free minds already live secretly and mostly peacefully in Equestria. They might've gone into hiding and infiltrated a pony city on a mission, to escape the threat of the old mind or simply to feed on ponies. Then they got stuck because hay they enjoy the pony life, maybe fall in love, make friends, find a job they like and builds up a complete persona. I dont know if you have read Derplicity but something like that. A changeling sent to spy on Equestria might end up enjoying the calm and safe life as a mailmare with lots of friends more than the dangerous and often short life of a mercenary spy, and defect.
If this is the case then there are probably second generation changelings living in Equestria as well. Some might be tempted to go the criminal path, after all changelings excel at deception and they need to feed. But I imagine that most of the "vampires" get sniffed out and captured by the EIS. The ones who blend in are a lot harder to find, and really not much reason to do so. Especially since many free minds seems to be able to do unicorn magic. (Furthering my theory that free minds are a hybrid species that Chrysalis created by crossbreeding drones with unicorns.)
I think that there are plenty of changelings who don't want to pick spy as their career. Not all earth ponies are farmers after all. Kukri and her father are good examples,a merchant and a magus. They and Knives seems to be a pretty happy family and I imagine that there are many like them living all over the world. Even if they need to be more careful and secretive i areas where changelings are less accepted,like Equestria.
9084855
Hmmmm....it's hard to say if that is true, considering how Freeport allows them to live more openly. The only thing I can think of where such a case would be true, is if they found a Special Somepony. I read a fanfic where Lyra was secretly a changeling and it worked out, because Bon Bon was able to give her all the love she needed. That love given freely and intentionally to THEM specifically, rather than a disguise or by force, was more powerful and filling.
Well I think just because they know that changelings existed, didn't mean they knew exactly what to look for. Plus I think they were probably looking too far for threats coming in from the outside, rather than from within. Keep in mind that Equestria had gone soft, after never seeing much of war for centuries if memory serves correct. I mean shit, they got CADENCE and the only one who understood that something was different was Twilight. Not even Celestia or Luna caught on to the fact that she was an Imposter. Plus when it comes to shape shifters, that knowledge tends to be very hush hush to prevent panic, but also because you don't know who you can trust.
9085379
You make yet another great point. They are allowed to live fairly open in Freeport, but I remember Codex raising his daughter to be good at hiding her true nature. He chides her for speaking like a free mind in public or dropping her disguise and so on. Now he seems like a pretty nice guy so I can only imagine he does it to protect Kukri from people who are prejudiced against changelings. Sure Puzzle lives openly but he is a special case, he is influential and useful enough to get away with eccentricities. Kukri seems to be able to live openly in the present timeline so things might've improved. Then again she is in the same position Puzzle was. Not only is she a close personal friend with the ruler, she is also a magus with golem bodyguards, not the kind of person you want to mess with over bigotry.
You are right that there might not be as much incentive as I thought for a changeling to live in Equestria apart from falling in love, and there'd be plenty of issues to deal with if they did want to settle down there.
Aw how sweet, LyraBon are usually adorable, do you have a link for that story?
Same goes in winningverse, real true love is much more powerful and sustaining than anything a changeling can gain by deception, force or bartering. Which is why Knives Doo can sustain her three changeling family members herself, while Puzzle need an arrangement with several "ponies of negotiable affection" to keep himself fed.
Yeah, the fact that Chrysalis managed to replace Cadence is rather impressive and shows that the Equestrian rulers indeed believed themselves to be safe from such things. Though discovering the infiltrator that replaced one of their Majors ought to have put them on their toes. Even if they believed the risk of another infiltrator to be minimal, it would still have been prudent to test all of the top brass, including the princesses, Tornado Kicker and Shining Armour. My guess is that Chrysalis used her position as head of the Intelligence Service and influence over the others to foil the investigations.
9095290
I wish I still had the link to that story. It was actually pretty interesting and crazy. It had a Changeling fall in love with a butt kicking Thestral Guard, who was the Unofficial Element of Lust, if there was such a thing.
Yeah, let's keep in mind too that Kukri is the equivalent to at least a foreign dignitaries child, if not more so. SO the political backlash ALONE would be seriously bad, doubly so when Freeport is becoming a military power.
I can't wait to see Twilight being all blushy and freaking out on her date though >=)
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And here I thought Cloud was the element of lust.
Sounds fun, I'll see if I can find it then.
Me neither, though I am even more interested to see who Kukri and Ditzy will start dating, not necessarily each other, but It's been a long time coming for poor Derpy to find some romance.
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It starred a Thestral named "Midnight" from what I remember.
Also, changelings came in different colors, to represent things like Bravery or Lust.
Unfortunately the main way I can think of to find it, would be digging through my fav list which would take FOREVER
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But you did say that you've been here a lot longer than me.
Any überfavourites that you recommend?
Thanks... wow, you have 657 favourites?! That's like more than 600 more than me, impressive!
Don't mind if I dig for it, might find more stories that's worth reading.
Hm, I've always been a fan of the black changeling design, but I'm always open to be positively surprised.
Then again, being changelings they can be any colour they like.
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For long epics go for Kudzu's work. He has so many chapters it's not even funny. He is an updating MACHINE. It's rare that a day goes by that we don't get at least 2k word chapter.
Another great Saga is "Ponies After People"
For something less insane, go for Gilded SIster, where a sick girl is reborn as Blueblood's Twin Sister. It's quite good.
Dresden Fillies is good if you like Harry Dresden or Modern Fantasy.
Anyone with Batsy is good for a laugh.
The Iron Horse is really great if you want some good Sci-Fi.
Night Mares and Daydreams is VERY cute
Schadenfreude is HILARIOUS
For 1 Shot Dark Comedy: My Best Friend is A Psychopath
Her Royal Morning Coffee is HILARIOUS.
Any of the Dan VS crossovers on my Fav are great.
Again, I appreciate this story for doing something that the mainline Winningverse couldn't really do, exploring and developing Nimbus as a character and giving Cloud Kicker the chance to repair her relationship with her. It makes for good drama, and good drama is really what I come to these stories for. The continued development of Cloud Kicker and Rainbow's relationship is also nice, and I liked what was done with the magic stuff.