Chapter 15
The announcement that they were all going out was met with mixed reactions. Twilight had decided that it was absolutely necessary to get out of the castle and go out somewhere, anywhere, and that anywhere would be Dundee Donkey’s Botanical Gardens, a place she had been meaning to visit for quite a time—before becoming one with the Ink—and now was the perfect opportunity.
“I don’t want to go out,” Nuance whined, and the colt let out a petulant whimper to make his feelings known to anypony that might listen and take pity.
For a moment, Twilight thought that Radiance was going to say something, but then she watched the earth pony colt’s mouth snap shut. Good, that was one less thing to worry about. She glanced at Spike, then looked around at her friends, and realised that Nuance was the only real objection. Rarity looked excited, as was Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack seemed indifferent, and as for Rainbow Dash, the pegasus mare had a curious look of excitement about her.
Since when did Rainbow Dash take up an interest in flowers, other than eating them?
How curious. How curious indeed. Twilight found herself intrigued by this behaviour. An investigation into Rainbow Dash’s curiousity was in order, and she made a mental note to give it a thorough researching later, perhaps when she had some free time. If she ever had some free time. If anything, it would give her some time to spend with Rainbow, who was becoming increasingly difficult to catch.
It would be nice to have a perfectly normal outing. Yep, perfectly normal. Just a perfectly normal group of friends foalsitting a few perfectly normal foals, along with a few perfectly normal helpers, and surrounded by an entire legion of perfectly normal guards. Gnawing on her lip, Twilight wondered if Radiance, Corbie, and Nuance had ever had a ‘normal’ day. A creeping feeling of doubt suggested they hadn’t.
She would have to deal with it somehow, and Twilight was determined to have a somewhat normal day. See the botanical gardens. Maybe get some ice cream. Burgers and fries? The first twinge of guilt set in—all of the trailing guards would become an inconvenience to others—and Twilight knew that she would be affecting the sort of day that other ponies had.
“No,” Pinkie Pie said, startling Twilight, “no, you don’t get to call this off. We’re going.”
Mouth hanging open, Twilight wondered how Pinkie knew.
“I am onto you, Miss Sparkle… I am your best friend… I know your secrets. Well, most of them, anyhow.” Pinkie smiled, a broad, beaming grin of unabashed affection. “Just let everything happen and it’ll all be fine, just fine.”
“But all the bad things that could happen—”
“Here we go,” Rarity murmured while she rolled her eyes. “We can face down ancient evils together, but a little trip to the botanical gardens becomes a cause for alarm.” Rarity’s lips puckered into a fine moue, and she shook her head. “You know Twilight, when we do our lunch, we should do it in Canterlot. I think a day in Canterlot would be good to jog your senses.”
“I wanna go!” Corbie’s shrill whine made every ear stand up. “I wanna be outside! Outside! OUTSIDE GO OUTSIDE NOW BEFORE I GO KOOKY IN MY COCONUT!”
“Sis,” Radiance said, speaking in a definite ‘indoor’ voice, “too late.”
With a roar, Corbie glomped her brother, trying to knock him over, but it did no good. After getting him in a headlock, she chomped down on his ear, gave it a tug, and then said something about ‘mercy’ around a mouthful of fuzz. Radiance, a stoic, just stood there, not reacting, not saying anything, and he allowed his sister to have her fun at his expense.
“Pegasus ponies,” Rarity murmured, shaking her head in disapproval. “Such brutes.”
Corbie’s assault on her sibling came to an abrupt halt when her glasses almost fell off. With her forelegs still around Radiance’s neck, she began bobbing her head around, looking quite birdlike, and tried to get her glasses to slide back into place. When she couldn’t Rarity helped, sliding them back into the right spot, and then giving them a final nudge to make certain they were level.
“Thank you, Rarity.” Corbie smiled, hugged her brother a little tighter, and then asked, “So, are we going?”
“Yeah,” Twilight replied with a nod, “we’re going. Let’s get ready already.”
In a moment of copacetic understanding, Twilight understood why her mentor, Celestia, didn’t get out much as a family. This was more like leading a parade than a family outing, what with her entourage of friends, her assistant, her helpers, and a troupe of guards, a group of Immortal Solars who had no idea of the meaning of the words ‘a good time.’ The worst part? She could not dismiss the Immortal Solars; they had been given explicit orders to ignore her orders to depart, and Immortal Solars were only loyal to one pony.
Twilight made a mental correction: two ponies. Now they were loyal to two.
But Twilight didn’t care. This was family time. And this was her family. No arguments. Well, except for the guards, which Twilight viewed as party crashers. Their incessant clanking was getting on her last nerve and she pondered casting a silencing spell to make it go away. That was the advantage to being a Twilight Sparkle, you could make things go away. Of course, Trixie Lulamoon made things go away as well, but she did it with high yield explosives and rockets. Which reminded her…
“Hey Sumac, how is your mother’s new design working out?” Twilight asked.
The colt’s head snapped around and he offered a far more detailed answer than Twilight anticipated: “The last launch made it to the lower ionosphere, if Twinkleshine’s tracking spell can be believed. We hit the lower mesosphere, or about sixty miles straight up. Then we had a terminal failure.”
“What’s a mesosphere?” Corbie asked, looking both bewildered and baffled by the word.
“A level of the atmosphere.” Sumac looked down at the pegasus filly who walked abreast with him. “It is above the stratosphere and below the thermosphere. The temperature begins to drop there, and it gets very, very cold. Which is why the rocket blew up, most likely. Lemon thinks that the contrast between the cold and the heat made the metal brittle and all of the vibration made it shatter.”
Twilight was about to say something to add to the scientific discussion, but she was interrupted by a streaky blur that went, “Meep meep!”
The blur paused for a moment as the startled guards began to react, and Sly Pie waved one hoof at Twilight. “Hiyas! How ya doing?”
“Sly Pie, why must you give your poor mother so much grief?” Twilight asked.
The little colt shrugged and his pink forelock bobbed when he shook with the giggles. “Megara wasn’t at home to look after me.” The colt looked over at his big sister, grinned, waved at her, and then looked back over his shoulder. Now scowling, he returned his gaze to Twilight, looking her in the eye. “I gotta go!” And with that, he was off, leaving such a powerful wake behind him that it tugged on Twilight’s mane.
A few seconds later, an exasperated Tarnished Teapot and a snarling Octavia went tearing past, not even taking the time to say hello, off on their eternal pursuit of the colt known as Sly Pie, the Speedy Terror of Ponyville. Twilight watched them and thought about the fact that having foals was a gamble—a risk—and there was no way of knowing what you were going to get… unless you had the Ink, that is. But that would spoil the surprise. She cast a quick glance at Seville, who was carrying Nuance on his back.
It was just the sort of thing a good father would do.
“I keep wanting to experiment on my brother,” Pebble deadpanned. “I suspect if I were to mummify him in duct tape—”
“Pebble Pie!” Rarity squealed in protest.
“—that he would just be free again in five minutes. He can’t be contained, the little rascal.” After a moment, she added, “I think if he were to be mummified in duct tape, he’d be hairless once he did get free. It is a question that needs answering—”
“Pebble!” Rarity cried again, this time her voice was somehow even more shrill and the marshmelodrama had been doubled. “No matter how annoying our siblings are, we do not make duct tape mummies out of them. How rude!”
“You know…” Pebble drew out the words and the left corner of her mouth turned up into a smarmy smirk. “I need to ask Sweetie Belle how she got out of the duct tape, methinks.”
“Pebble! Stop using your mother’s dry wit that you’ve inherited like a sword!” Rarity sucked in a deep breath to keep going, but Sumac beat her to the punch.
“Too far, Pebs, too far. Now you done did it.” The colt’s drawl was a perfect imitation of Applejack, and everypony had a good laugh, including Applejack herself.
Dundee Donkey was a druid whose life ambition was to bring the beauty of nature to city-dwellers. To this end, he had traveled the entirety of the world, gathered the most beautiful, the most curious, the most peculiar, the most unique, and some of the most outrageous specimens that could be found. Then, with Mister Teapot’s blessing and a generous bit of funding, Dundee had created a fabulous botanical garden here in Ponyville.
For Twilight, it was a sign that the world was progressing, getting better, that things were improving, even with the ominous threat of Grogar ever-looming. While the armies moved southward, inching towards Castle Midnight, the rest of the world made good use of the peace, freedom, and security that the army had paid for with service and sacrifice. On a somewhat more personal level, the botanical gardens validated Twilight’s position and her stance as a princess: Celestia focused on pushing and expanding the borders, offering safety, while Twilight focused on maintaining a high standard of living here in the heartland of Equestria.
Patriotism and nationalism were nurtured by giving a soldier a home worth fighting for.
Just outside of the gate, Twilight felt it: the strange magic of the Druid’s Grove was here, right here in Ponyville. With her skin prickling, she began to suspect that Mister Teapot might have an ulteriour motive for helping Dundee get established here. The tickle-prickle traveled up her neck, made the back of her skull tingle, and her ears began twitching as she began to discern the magic, its intent, its purpose. This was a wellspring of magic that Tarnish and his ilk could draw upon for the town’s defense, should the need arise.
Something about the magic awoke her ink-sense and Twilight’s eyes went vacant.
“Twilight?”
Blinking, Twilight recovered herself at the sound of Sumac’s voice.
“Twilight, whatever you’re doing, it’s making my magic-sense go crazy.”
“Sorry, Sumac. I don’t know what came over me for a moment there.”
“I feel it too, Twilight.” Sumac lowered his voice. “The Ink… it did something to us.”
“It sure did…” Twilight’s voice trailed off and she gave herself a shake. She could draw off of the magic here as well, the very magic of creation itself. She felt it rippling through her body, like waves coming in from a heavy incoming tide, or bursts from a pulsar. Sucking in a deep breath, Twilight regained her control and gave herself another shake. She was fine now, everything was fine, and she was looking forwards to having a good time.
Every tree, every frond, every blade of grass, it was as if every plant pulsed with its own magic, not the magic of unicorns, but the magic that made the unique flora and fauna of this world possible. Twilight’s earth pony senses awoke with a scream and she realised that for thousands and thousands of years, she had neglected the development of herself as an earth pony. She treated her wings as a convenience, a means to get from one place to another, but her earth pony aspects had been ignored completely.
And with her earth pony aspect waking up, other parts of her woke up as well—parts she tended to avoid thinking about—and after eons of being utterly ignored, those parts demanded some attention. A frightful—but delightful—electric tingle jolted through her loins, making her stomach clench while the muscles along the inside of her thighs went taut.
For the first time in her life, Twilight Sparkle was in desperate need of a cold shower.
Stats
Page generated in 0.03 seconds
Total duration
1,045 users online
1,750,843 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
So clearly unicorns aren’t the only horny ponies.
I’d wager a guess Rainbow wants to go to the botanical garden because of the druid magic.
Yay! New chapter
I think Unicorns have nothing on Earth ponies in being horny.
I think the botanical garden isn’t the only spot of teh druid’s grove in Ponyville. Tarnished’s home is likely one as well surrounded as it is with plants.
From the implications Rarity has no room to protest Pebble’s wanting to turn Sly into a duct tape mummy. I have the feeling that will forever remain a very quiet noodle incident
Hmm not sure that this “at” should be here...
So Castle Midnight phased into Equestria some time in the past?
8219654
Who said it was in Equestria?
8219579
I might be proud of you for that one. I can’t decide.
8219680
To be fair, I’ve seen unicorns referred to as “horny ponies” in more than one story by characters that don’t know the word unicorn, and don’t recognize the double entendre.
8219656
wut?
Hm ok the landmass where Canterlot and Ponyville are located what is called?
From what I remember Castle Midnight was somewhere like on a parallel/different dimension... or I’m just mixing up with something else?
8219774 Are you thinking of Grogar’s interdimensional city of Tambelon?
The Midnight Castle was where Tirek lived and was in the same dimension.
...Tambelon was creepy. They found it because it started snatching unicorns out of the world mid-teleport, and in that version of the show teleporting was the basic use of unicorn magic that even foals could do.
8219830
Winking.
As a side note I am surprised the guard’s armor doesn't already have a spell to if not eliminate at least lessen the noise of thier armor
Ah, the sensation of life, the unending burst of fertility just waiting to jump out and drag some poor unsuspecting stallion into those conveniently well-placed bushes over there.
Did anybody else just hear an egg drop? 🥚
8219579 I giggled.
Ah yes, those mentioned Earth Pony Urges. Poor Twi, so much time with her head in books. She's doomed.
8219957
Egg drop?
Best soup.
Awesome.
A Druids Grove in the middle of Ponyville? That's a powerful asset to have on hand.
And suddenly, after thousands of years, Twilight Sparkle's biological clock started ticking in double time.
Oooooh now Twilight is in for it.
Oh, Twilight. Ink or meat, you can’t beat the heat when alicorn spawn come round to surround.
Why did i read that as ‘spell the surprise’?
Yes I’m goin’ there. Croc Dundee Donkey?
donkeystravels.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/11-may-donkey-crocodile1.jpg
Down to earth instincts for Twilight?
That ending was FANTASTIC! <3
8219842
Maybe they do, but all the clanking is just such a great intimidation factor that they don’t bother.
Also, if they do have a silence spell they can activate, getting ponies used to noisy, clanking guards makes it so much easier to sneak up on them if you need to.
“Ehh, no need to post a lookout. Dem noisy guards, I can hear dose goofs a mile off.”
Neckbreathing intensifies.
Nice to see druidism getting such a hold in Equestria.
Seeing as Twilight now represents all magic in a way, I wonder if she’ll start learning, or at least gained some aptitude for, the more uncommon magical disciplines like druid magic.
8220885
She can sense it, but she can’t cast it.
🌚