5 - Renaissance
Sherbert - 12th of Solar Dusk, 25 AE
Horsiekoshi High School, Neighdo - Neighpone
I hadn’t expected Horsiekoshi High School to be, well, massive. Ponyville High was fairly large, sure. Big enough for a few thousand students, a Hoofball field, and a pool, but all of that fit into a block. Horsiekoshi High School had an actual campus!
There were five ultra-modern glass and steel office type buildings with large signs designating them as various Halls. Each one with its own name, each named after an animal. Lion, Tiger, Koi, Phoenix, and Snake.
There were other buildings too. Everything was built in a style which matched the office buildings. There was an apartment building, making me wonder if normally exchange students lived at school or if that was for teachers and other staff’s convenience. There was a large hanger, which I thought was for aircraft until Kazumi told me that A.L.I.C.O.R.N. Mechanics start training in Highschool. Meaning the hanger had a few retired mechs in it donated to the school for teaching purposes.
She also finally told me why they named their mechs in such a way as to make an Acronym out of Alicorn. Because all that tech is what’s needed to get an exceptional unicorn even close to the bottom tier of an Alicorn’s power. It’s a shame the acronym only worked in Neighponese. If you translated it, it would be something like ‘Magic and Physical Capacity Augmenting Piloted Golem’.
I had to sneak a peek inside there someday. I’d got to see Uncle Sky designing and testing some of the systems he sold the Neighponese military, but I’d heard that once Neighpone got them they made them look AWESOME with each pilot having a unique custom design, much like how Samurai decorated their armor back in the day.
But even the mech hanger wasn’t the end of the school’s buildings, and even those odd unlabeled buildings scattered here and there weren't the end of it. There were TWO hoofball fields, a tennis court, a pool, a firing range…
Horsiekoshi High School felt more like a college than a Highschool. Which is something I’d said aloud as we followed the guides and signs to the main building for orientation.
”Having gone to Highschool for three years before, and knowing what I know about Equestrian education, the only difference between this and your University is subject matters taught,” Kazumi said bitterly. “I am not looking forward to having to do those three years over again… Don’t drop out. They make you start over.”
That’s why I’d spent the entire orientation with my tail tucked between my legs, ears perked, and eyes unfocused, not really understanding a word as I just sort of sat there. Processing that.
I snapped out of my horror-trance just in time to leave the main school hall with everypony else. That’s when I could first take in the interior decor. It reminded me of the first time I’d been inside Canterlot Palace. Everything had that distinct air of trying too hard to impress everyone.
Nothing felt genuine, or homey. Everything was there to wow and inspire. Honestly, it made me a bit sick. Schools did not need big hall-length glass cases with crystal shelves to display endless trophies and awards. I mean, sure school pride is one thing, but this school made it look like the only way they avoided war was by puffing up like a peacock and screaming ‘BEHOLD MY POWER!’
I really, really wanted to go home… So I could get Rarity, and bring her here, and watch her redecorate everything out of sheer need for it to not look ‘trashy-fancy’.
“Hey, Blondie, are you still petrified?” Kazumi asked as we walked away from the main hall towards the rows on rows of tables set up for new students to get paperwork from.
“I-I’m better now…” I mumbled in response, kicking my hoof slightly against the floor. “I- I mean, I didn’t expect that school would be like college here.”
Kazumi flashed me an oddly sympathetic smile. Just the with the corners of her mouth, and only for a moment. Then her smile vanished back into her normal irritated frown.
“You should have read more about Neighponese education before coming here, bakka,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
I paused for a moment. What the heck was her deal?! Was she poison joked into acting rudely instead of friendly or something? Anypony could have seen that! She was actually sympathetic towards me but then poof, insult.
Wut?
“We should go check the tables over there for our Home Room assignments,” Rina said, one hoof extended towards a packed table covered in stacks of papers, and a pile of first-year students.
I nodded in agreement, shaking the hurt Kazumi had tossed my way out of my mind.
“Yeah, we should. We just look up our full names, right?” I asked hoping I understood the process here.
Nahrina nodded and zipped over towards the table. I moved to follow, but Kazumi grabbed my right foreleg gently.
“Hey… Sherbert,” she said looking up at me with a sad look. “The odds of the three of us being in a homeroom are incredibly low. You don’t move from class to class here. Teachers move between classes. You will always be with the same people.
“By always, I mean your homeroom is the same for your whole stay in school. Your homeroom teacher will progress through all five years of basic material with you. School activities are done in a way which keep you with your homeroom at all times while at school.
“You’ll only be able to socialize with the people in your homeroom for those reasons. Unless you can hang out with Nahrina at Bat’s Academy, you won't have time to be friends. I’m sorry…”
I frowned. That definitely threw a wrench in my plans. “So… I guess we won't be able to be friends then?” I asked her with a sad drop of my ears.
That threw a huge wrench in my plans… I mean, I hadn’t ever gotten on friendly terms with anypony else before. Frankly, even though Kazumi had her dickish impulses, she was nicer than most had been to me, and then there were moments like this…
She cared about me. But hid it for some reason. Unless it was important.
Why?
Wait! If friendship is magic, then it follows that magic is friendship. Which means since I suck at magic, maybe I just suck at friendship so much that other ponies have a hard time being my friend?
But then that would mean she liked me a lot, but some magic bullshit was making her less able to be friendly to me.
Ah HA! Well, I could fix that! Rina was a changeling sorcerer. Instinctive knowledge of basic magic. He could teach me how to magic better, which would teach me how to friendship better, and remove the weird barrier thingie. Yes! Another win for logic.
I felt my heart fall as I realized we wouldn’t be in the same homeroom… Only for it to rise back up as I decided that I would sneak into her homeroom when possible. Just like I’d planned earlier, and-
Rina trotted up to the two of us, grinning ear to ear. “Hey guys, why didn’t you come with me?” He asked, holding a piece of paper out to us in his telekinetic grip. “Check it out! We're all in the same homeroom, what a lucky break, huh?”
“YAY!” I cheered, my mood soaring.
Before I could say anything else about this momentous occasion where I got to keep my first friends for the next five years, Kazumi hopped into the air, wings buzzing as she hovered at Rina’s eye level to glare at him.
“What did you do!?” She demanded angrily but also urgently.
Rina frowned innocently. “Me? I didn’t do a thing,” he protested defensively. “All I did was tell my mom that I was sad and I probably wouldn’t get to keep the friends I’d made over the summer.”
I got a quarter of the way through a head tilt before it clicked.
Master Cho. She snuck in and changed paperwork! Ha!
Kazumi glared at Nahrina for a full minute before shaking her head slowly. “Right… Well, fine. If I’m stuck with you two. We’ll hang out. We’d be grouped up anyways. The dwarf, the changeling, and the gaijin. We’re going to be the least popular people here.”
████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE
███████████ - ████████, Neighpone
“Stop,” the obscured mare ordered from her seat deep within the room’s omnipresent shadows. “Why are you making me watch a Shounen anime? I understand you want to let me see what happened through her eyes, but this is tedious. Make your point and move on.”
Master Rojā raised a hoof to his mouth and cleared his throat, immediately paying the Messenger gem’s diary playback. “My apologies. I felt it was critical to show you who she is.”
“By showing me embellished recordings she made with her messenger gem?” The mare asked with a sigh. “I understand you want to protect her, but your talent at editing is… Well, if you quit this profession I am certain any studio making entertainment for teenage fillies will have a place for you.”
Rojā smiled faintly and dipped his head in a low respectful bow. “I edited nothing save for removing redundant moments and irrelevant moments for the sake of making this segment last a mere two hours. I wished to show you her first month at my dojo so you could learn who she was as I did.
“Would you like to examine the enchantment for yourself? Or the raw footage? All I did is activate her gem’s diary function and make it record her surface level stream of consciousness, and edit it into this abridged film.”
The six candles lighting the worn down room were placed in such a way as to hide any facial expression the mare may have had to her agent’s eyes. But the way her shoulders turned slightly, and the way her head tipped forward slightly caught Rojā’s full attention.
She was intrigued.
“I trust you at your word, Captain,” the mare said, her voice holding nothing but trust in her subordinate’s word. “However, if you didn’t edit this surveillance footage, and we are in fact seeing this mare’s thought laid bare for us… Then she’s genuinely seeing her own life in this manner.”
“Yes, she was,” Rojā agreed. “Wretched, isn’t it? She constantly thought of herself as scum, simply because she couldn’t see what was special about her. Sherbert is not yet an adult in her home country, but she already formed a plan to get what she wanted out of life, and managed to execute that plan.”
The mare nodded once. “But she spent her first week feeling like a loser still. That’s not the typical twenties slump. She has real mental issues… But at the same time, I can see why you accepted her. If I ignored everything I knew before, I would say she has the makings of a hero.
“I would also say that she needs a kick in the pants because she’s literally living her life by all of the Shounen tropes, except her story isn’t exactly… Well, entertaining. It’s like Kenichi, but without the action.”
Rojā metaphorically bit his tongue, not wanting to comment on his superior’s more nerdy tendencies. Instead, he chose to view her remark as a professional’s critique. After all, the mare did write manga in her spare time.
“Yes well, that’s all changed now. Hasn’t it?” He pressed with a sad sigh.
Sherbert had grown up a lot over the last few years. But the event which had gotten her to recognize her own usefulness and skill was why he was here...
The mare nodded. “It has. Let us continue after one last question. I want to know when you began recording her activities, and why,” she requested, stepping her hooves.
Rojā snorted. “I put surveillance on all of the dojo’s newcomers. Save for Nahrina. He grew up there after all, he knows. It’s standard counter espionage procedure, Ma’am. In this case, I had even greater reason to follow protocol because she is after all a foreign national.
“This is despite a former Disciple of mine requesting I take Sherbert as my next disciple. Well, begged really. She recommended Master Xii’s Flying Horse Gym to Sherbert during a drunken conversation about learning martial arts.
“I agreed to see if she was someone I felt I could teach, and had my former Disciple steal Sherbert’s mage gem, enchant it for me, and mail me the pared gem. I tested everything to ensure there was no third party listeners or speakers, and when it checked out I began recording.
“I have footage from as far back as eighteen hundred hours on the tenth of Plantation, of twenty-five. The first bit of intel I have is her writing a history report.”
The mare hummed. “I see. And the reason you kept recording for four years?” She asked.
“I’m a Shinobi. This is a part of training. The first six months were to ensure she could be fully trusted,” Rojā explained. “Again, standard procedure. The rest was simply a combination of acquiring information to properly instruct her, and waiting for her to discover she was being watched as a test.
“The idea being she either looks through her gem’s settings and discovers the tap by accident and learns to start checking to be sure locations are secure or after I taught her information gathering skills she would think to check her own room since she knew we were listening in, just not how. The first way she learns a valuable skill, the second way she comes to understand the importance of bug sweeps and security checks. Either way, she learns something valuable, and I get the information I need to best teach her till she learns that lesson.”
The mare hummed thoughtfully. “I see your point. I would object to that sort of invasion of privacy, but Sherbert was being trained in clandestine activities. Not only that, but she was being trained traditionally, and traditionally all aspects of a ninja disciple's life become part of their training.
“But did you really need intelligence on her to teach her? She doesn't seem to be that complicated of a young mare. Quite normal, really.”
Rojā snorted dismissively. “Need? No. Please, Ma’am. Don’t insult my art. You know full well I can learn what I need to learn without any toys.”
“Then the gem tap was nothing but a time saver,” the mare said to herself.
“Correct. After all, as one of Bat’s senior instructors I had many other duties to perform,” Rojā said with a nod, despite the mare’s statement having been rhetorical. “Conduct museum tours, maintain some of the exhibits, a few live shows a week. That takes a significant chunk of time.
“Once you add in train a disciple and managing the cell attached to the Academy for you, well… There’s not much time left. Some shortcuts are required. Besides, it’s not like I recorded this maliciously. I deleted everything obscene and without having intelligence, she would have been difficult to teach.
“Sherbert acts like any other mare on the surface, but she has several emotional and psychological issues which make things… Tricky. She would fail to learn a lesson one day, and I would wait for her to be upset about it and recall her failings. Then I would learn in what ways I had failed her, and use that information to better teach her on the next day so she could learn the skill I was passing on.
“I did this with all of my previous Disciples. Save for the one who helped me enchant Sherbert’s messenger gem.”
“Why not her?” the mare asked skeptically.
“Heh! She found the enchantment within three hours. She had a talent in the School of Illusion, I didn’t have a prayer of hiding the enchantment from her for long,” Rojā explained, smiling at the old memory.
“Ah yes, that would make tapping a messenger quite difficult,” the mare agreed. “Let’s move on. I want to know two more things before we get into the real meat of this problem. First, Sherbert is not a unicorn. Not a normal one at least.
“Her tail, her heart rate, her odd inability to cast complex spells despite seemingly perfect horn construction, a vast arcane reserve, and adept skill at controlling her aura and augmenting her own physical prowess… Show me what she is.
“This information is naturally extremely important. After all, if she’s fundamentally different from a normal unicorn, that will need to be taken into account before all else.
“Then, after that, show me what she can do. If I grant you this favor, I need to know what possible consequences could arise, and that includes anything she may choose to do.”
Rojā raised an eyebrow. “I did prepare a film of the major techniques I taught her leading up to this unpleasantness. It’s a little long… And I included some parts in there which popped up as the years went on, mostly to show you how she developed as a proper adult through the years. Do you have time or should I skip around?”
The mare paused, tapping the arm of her chair with her left hoof in thought, then sighed. “You are one of my best agents, Rojā. I can’t dismiss your thoughts on the matter or tell you that they are unimportant. But at the same time, I can’t grant your request without due cause and a solid reason. There are consequences for everything, you know this.”
Rojā nodded once. “I fully understand, Ma’am. Thank you for your time,” he said as he began to manipulate his messenger gem to resume playback.
“You have my time, but I don’t have much time to give you,” the mare warned. “There are other matters I must attend to today. You must contain this to four more hours. Show all you can, but if you do know what she is, tell me now. Skip to her talking about her oddities with her doctor friend, if that ever happened.”
“Oh, it did!” Rojā confirmed with a firm nod. “We’ll skip to that part because right after going over the information, Sherbert called her father to ask some… Questions. That phone call will answer everything you need to know. This happened about three months after Sherbert arrived at the Academy.”
Sherbert - 18th of Harvestide, 25 AoE
Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone
I’ve always liked the color pink. It’s not quite my favorite color, but it’s definitely my go-to color for accents and highlights. But, seeing my whole room illuminated by pink light made me wish I’d picked kelly green instead. My actual favorite color would have made everything look a lot less... Wierd.
I focused on the light ball at the tip of my horn, doing my best to keep the color exact, no change, no shifting. Better than my normal light spell so far. I’d intentionally picked the color, and no random hue changes.
Progress!
“Good!” Rina said with a smile as he tapped a button on his stopwatch. “That was five minutes. Now go ahead and shift it back to that green you like.”
“Okay,” I acknowledged, my forehead aching in concentration simply from holding the current color for so long.
I pulled at my magic, directing the flow through my horn to just ever so slightly change, slowly tinting the light a bright green.
Progress had been super slow, Rina rarely had time to help tutor me at magic, but he could do something that no pony could. Unicorns can see magical energy even if it’s not shining visible light. Any unicorn could see how my magic was moving. Changeling Sourcers can make that stuff dance like pegasi playing with clouds.
Rina shook his head quickly. “No, no, not like that,” he said with a frown, reaching out and brushing my horn slightly with one hoof. “Like this.”
I felt my magic’s pattern and flow change as he nudged the thaumaturgic current. The difference was slight but noticeable. I held the energy there, focusing for a few more seconds, then smiled happily as the ball of light transitioned to the green I’d intended in a pleasant gradient.
“Alright! I’ve never gotten it to work like that before!” I said with a grin, my concentration lapsing, making the light ball vanish. “Awww! Ponyfeathers.”
Rina gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s just like getting into shape to do basic hoof to hoof training; only we don't have tech to speed things up. In a month or so you’ll have this just fine,” he said with a proud smile.
I nodded. His ability to show me HOW to channel the energy was key here. He could make it into physical exercise, which I understood. I’d never really gotten better at stuff I’d already learned before.
“I know, I’m making good progress here. Real change comes slowly,” I said with a bit of a snicker at my older self.
All that pain and what did it do? Not much. Still had to go through a whole ordeal afterward to learn how to get all of my new flexibility to work together. There wasn’t any equipment to help with that. But hey, at least I was FINALLY starting to learn how to punch!
I turned my head to look at the broken pine board I’d hung over my desk. Sure there was a trick to breaking boards, but that was the point. Learning how to hit the same way every single time. I wonder if there was any spell equivalent to how awesome it felt to punch a plank of wood in half for the first time?
Rina followed my gaze, and hummed. “Thinking about using a telekinesis drill next? We could do that.”
Three gentle knocks from the doorway made my ears swivel.
“Not if you want me to look at your file, you can’t,” Kazumi said from the doorway, her tiny wings flapping extra furiously to keep her aloft thanks to a pair of overfilled saddlebags at her sides. “How’s things here, Bugbutt? Blondie finally at primary school spells?”
“I like how you put all of your attribute points into snark instead of height,” I shot back with a playful grin.
I was trying out my theory that Kazumi was just a big fan of sarcastic catty humor.
She blinked, ears drooping flat against her head. “Okay, that one was good!” She said, seemingly proud of me. “But fair warning, insult my height again and I’ll force feed you a random potion in your sleep.”
“That could be really cool, or really bad,” I mused as I recalled the one time she’d shown me her brewing recipes.
I would basically have a fifty fifty shot of winding up with some cool temporary ‘just for show’ wings, or losing all motor control for several hours.
Rina shook his head. “Girls, seriously, learn to get along will you?” He teased as he stood up and trotted out the door. “I’ll be back later, Sherb.”
“Bye!” I called, waving a hoof as he vanished out into the hall.
Deciding to be nice I gently unbuckled Kazumi’s saddlebags and set them gently on the floor beside the door. To my shock they had be weigh at least twenty kilos!
“Huh, what are you-” Kazumi exclaimed as I set her bags aside. “Oh. Thanks. I have to cart equipment to club meetings and then back home.”
“Alchemy club makes you take your own stuff!?” I exclaimed in shock. “So that’s full of potions, glass, and Bunsen burners? No wonder it’s so heavy!”
Kazumi shook her head. “No, they’re full of crushed Kalasandrite crystal. We were brewing mane dye potions and I wanted to show off a bit and teach everyone how to make glowing hair. So I brought enough for all fifty of us to make a few bottles worth of glowing dye pots each. The fun part is I'm not telling them the dye is permanent. Heh heh.
“I have to be at the club meeting in an hour and fifteen minutes. We have thirty minutes to look at your medical file. If we find anything super weird, we’ll put a pin in it and come back to it on another of my days off work, okay?” Kazumi asked, giving me a professional look as she trotted up to my desk and jump-flew up into the tall stool I’d bought for her so she could reach my desktop easily.
I nodded. “That's perfectly fine. I super appreciate you doing medical work on a day off,” I thanked as I sat down next to her and removed the file I’d had mailed from home.
I knew how much she hated working at that clinic…
She sighed a regretful sigh and turned to give me a small smile that said ‘it’s okay’. “Hey, well, someone’s gotta do it,” she said as she plucked the file from my telekinetic grip and opened it, setting the papers down on the desk. “Okay, let me take a look…”
I waited patiently as she flipped through the pages, scanning everything rapidly once, then coming back to small sections seemingly at random, eyes flicking around much more rapidly than in her initial pass. She read through the whole folder’s worth of content three or four times, her flipping back and forth made it a little hard to tell just how much she reread each time.
Then, finally, she turned to look at me with a confused frown. “You make no, gods, damned, sense,” Kazumi exclaimed in exasperation.
I nodded slowly. “Right… That’s why I had mom email this over so you could read it,” I said slowly, raising one eyebrow.
“No, no, no,” Kazumi said, shaking her head rapidly. “According to this, your normal heart rate is the same as the average pony’s strenuously active heart rate. We know that already, but there’s more. According to this, you also have Karnazies’ Syndrome. Which is not just benign, it’s highly beneficial.
“Normally while under physical exertion your body breaks down glucose for energy, resulting in lactate as a byproduct. This lactate can also be converted back to energy, slowly. Very slowly. After a person reaches a certain threshold of the lactate clearance capacity, their muscles start to tense up. That’s where muscle fatigue comes in.
“Karnazies’ lets you convert lactate into energy just as fast as glucose is converted into lactate. Which means you don't get muscle fatigue. Not without doing some of the most intense work your body can do before physically breaking.”
I raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I was basically paralyzed for a week while working out my hind legs.”
“That’s muscle tearing. It’s caused by a completely different mechanism, physical damage,” Kazumi corrected. “This doesn't protect your muscles from becoming physically damaged, which is what lets you bulk up and develop muscles, by the way. This just prevents them from seizing up. You can keep doing physical activities for well, until you get bored, or sleepy.
“Which actually means you’re more likely to rip and tear muscles than other people. Because you can just keep going.”
“Huh,” I mused while sitting back in my chair. “So that’s why I never get tired while free running.”
“Yeah, most pegasi would get exhausted after your normal run. What is it, fifteen kilometers?” Kazumi asked.
“Sure, if you just count the horizontal distance. It’s more like twenty or so all told,” I said with a proud smile.
I was so happy there were skyscrapers here. And more happy that I’d found a way to climb up the side of one on the edge of the district.
“Yeeeeahhh… A unicorn simply should NOT be capable of that sort of sustained physical activity,” Kazumi said with a thoughtful pursing of her lips. “And really… There’s more stuff like this. Sherbert, while you have a good amount of magical potential, from what I can see here, your magic is… Not a unicorns. I mean it is, but at the same time, It’s not.
“The way you can just channel it to boost your speed, or your grip, and do that instinctively? That’s not normal either. Looking at this file is like looking at the pieces of a puzzle where you can’t see the picture they are supposed to make. Something about you is very, very abnormal… But in a good way. As in, we can make a medical discovery and get it named after you. If I can figure out exactly why everything about you and your magic seems optimized for well, running.”
“Maybe it’s because I’m related to Rainbow Dash?” I asked curiously, turning back to the files stored on my desk shelf.
“No, because your magic would be more… Well, maybe? Your magic is sort of like Pegasus flight field magic but, also not. I don’t know what to make of this,” she sighed closing her eyes for a moment.
I grabbed the file I was holding and handed it to her. “Here, this is my genome. Dad had it sequenced every four months. This is the most recent. I got my godmother to send me a copy… I um, dad’s never let me see it. I think he’s paranoid that I’ll wind up with a common Germane genetic defect. He had to fix himself every few months while growing up.”
Kazumi flinched. “That sounds like he’s a Germane native, is he-”
I nodded once.
She flinched more. “That… That must be one of the worst experiences imaginable… So little genetic diversity that everyone has something horrible… It’s a shame nopony stopped those idiots before they ruined the next dozen generation’s lives before they were born…” Kazumi mumbled in that shellshocked way every doctor I’d ever known and when discussing the Germane ‘I will force everyone to become an Alicorn’ plan that had failed so long ago.
“Anyways, this could be the key to this whole thing,” Kazumi said, flipping the folder open and taking a look. “Let me just check for any of the genetic markers I’m aware of which indicate trans-tribal magic or tribal magic fusion. I’m no geneticist, but I do read DNA tests for basic conditions and- What?”
I frowned and glanced over the page at the list of medical jargon and number sequences. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Just a really uncommon set of genes expressions… I think I’m onto something. But where's the- Ah! Next page. Has to be,” Kazumi said as she flipped the page, reading it quickly.
Then the next. And the next. Her face growing more and more incredulously with each passing page.
“What is it?” I asked again, a worried frown starting to completely take over my face.
“Y-you don’t have ANY non-unicorn DNA,” Kazumi babbled in genuine shock. “That’s impossible! Every pony is some kind of mix. The tribes have lived together for twelve thousand years! There CAN’T be any purebloods anymore. Not for actual Eons! It’s not biologically possible!”
I blinked. “E-excuse me?”
“You’re JUST unicorn. Nothing else,” Kazumi said, her eyes still wide in genuine shock. “I… I guess that without other tribes blood unicorns were more… Physical. Because that’s the only explanation. Because you’re JUST unicorn. Which you can’t be because even the most ‘pure’ bloodlines are ninety-seven point six percent at best-”
I took a deep breath and held it for several long seconds. “Kazumi… My dad. He’s a biomancer.”
Her incredulous look melted into a confused look. Then and understanding sympathy filled her eyes. “Ah… Yes. I see. You, um, you should call him. Because there’s no natural way you could be what you are. Not that there's a problem with you being a... Uh… Unicorn Classic?” Kazumi said, obviously too shaken to put on her usual snarky, rude attitude. “I hope that’s not offensive, because frankly, it’s really badflank that- Uh I mean, you’re cool! I mean- I’m making this worse…
“Just, call your dad. You guys need to have a conversation. Like, now.”
Unfortunately, I was too hurt and upset to take any sort of advantage of that.
“Yeah. I’m going to call him now. You should go to your club meeting. I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” I said as I flipped open my watch’s cover and switched on its communicator.
Kazumi nodded and flew out of her chair, moving towards the door, pausing for just long enough to say “Don't be too hard on him. You had to have expected him to well, tweak some things. Make sure you’d be healthy. He probably just went overboard,” before quickly scooting out the door and down the hall with her bags, moving fast enough to leave a slightly purple blur in her wake.
I closed the door behind her with a burst of telekinesis.
I had expected dad to have done some things for me. How could he not have? But… To do something like this?! WHY?!
I flicked through my watches light pink holographic menu, pressing the button for an emergency call, and then the contact for Uncle Sky. Why not dad directly? Because it was work hours for him. I needed a breaching tool…
I waited for two minutes while my watch buzzed, indicating the other party has yet to pick up. Then, finally, the watch clicked and my uncle’s voice came through.
“Hey, Sherbert. Sorry about the delay there. I’m repairing a reactor part, got really in the zone, didn’t notice the incoming call right away. What’s the emergency?” He asked, getting right to the point.
“I need you to patch me into dad’s watch right now. No ringing, no option to hang up, I need to talk to him right now!” I shouted angrily, my tail lashing behind me.
“Woah!” Uncle Sky exclaimed. “What happened? Do you need help from me since I’m already on the line?”
“No! Dad messed with my DNA. I want to know why,” I explained after taking a deep breath to try and calm down.
“Because he’s your father and he didn’t want you to experience liver failure at age four like he did?” Sky suggested. “Sherb, come on. You had to have realized your BIOMANCER dad would make sure you’d be perfectly healthy-”
“It’s more than that,” I interrupted.
“What? Did he make sure you’d grow up to look good?” Sky teased. “This isn’t you being mad about getting ‘help’ from a family member, like how you didn’t ask anypony for help in learning kung-fu or whatever on your own. Is it?”
“Apparently I’m an actual one hundred percent pureblood unicorn!” I shouted into my watch.
Sky was quiet for a few long seconds. “Um… Okay. Hold on one sec. Sai, turn on Azur’s commlink right now and pass Sherbert’s connection to it. Override everything, let her just talk.”
My watch buzzed slightly as the audio changed. I could hear the sound of water from a faucet, the clink of glass and metal, and my dad’s feminine voice humming happily.
“Dad,” I said as calmly as I could.
“Whas?” Dad asked, sounding exceptionally confused. “Sherbert? Did you flunk out of- Oh! Watch. Hallo, schätzchen! I must not have noticed your call and bumped answer by accident. Sorry! How is Neighpone?”
I took one deep breath to try and calm myself as much as I could. Which wasn’t much. Everything wrong with my life boiled down to this. This is why I had NEVER fit in. I wasn’t like them...
“Why did you make me a pureblood?” I demanded angrily.
Dad dropped something, a muffled curse coming over the mic, but lost in the sound of breaking glass. “I… Well, das ist a long story. How did you-”
“I have a friend. She’s a Doctor. She noticed my heart rate is normally in the range that would give a pony a heart attack. But I was still okay,” I explained angrily. “So I got her my medical information, and I thought to have Dusk send me a copy of my genome too.
“Why? Because she’s cute, and was curious, and we’d get to spend time together if I let her look at my records, and I also wanted to know why I was apparently so abnormal myself! Now you explain why you made me somepony who will never fit in anywhere!
“This is the reason I never made any friends, and you know it! Friendship is Magic, and Magic is therefore friendship, and my magic isn’t normal because I’m not normal which means I can’t have a normal friendship!”
“What!?” An extremely confused Twilight asked from somewhere else in the room. “T-that’s not how that works! That’s not even CLOSE to how that works! Wait, Lily, you genetically engineered your own filly!? Get to explaining! Now!”
It wasn’t? CRAP! Well, I’m an idiot… I should keep practicing magic though.
“A-aunt Twilight?” I eeped, eyes widening in alarm. “What are you of all ponies in Dad’s office for!?”
“Twilight chipped her tooth. I fixed it,” Dad explained quickly, making that sound like that was a total cover up.
“No lies today,” Twilight ordered, her voice taking on an iron clad air of command. “I got a teat reduction. I went to a costume party last night and someone spiked the punch with a gag potion. Now, Lily, explain.”
Ah. He was trying to save Aunt Twilight embarrassment. Got it.
“W-well,” dad stammered. “I- I didn’t intend to tell you without us being face to face, Sherbert but… I didn’t mean to be- Sherbert, I’ve told you the story about what happened in the lab below the clinic, right?”
I nodded. “Yes. An evil cult originally owned the place and tried to make the perfect unicorn, but failed… Oh… I-I’m-”
Dad sighed, pausing for a moment before beginning a lecture. “Do you remember how I was beyond enraged at the waste of life? How I wanted something good to come from their data? Well… Something did. You.
“See, your mother can’t have foals anymore. Not with what she is now. Sort of hard for an energy lifeform to breed with a silly flesh and blood pony like me. But we wanted a foal, which wasn’t a problem. I had her old DNA on file from when I fixed her wings. So, no matter what, Sherbert, you would always have had to be created via in vitro fertilization using a surrogate.
“And well, you must have realized by now that I would never have allowed you to grow up with any genetic illnesses, or birth defects. I couldn’t allow that, not since it’s within my power to prevent suffering. Well… While I was going over your genome while you were just that one lone starting cell and making the edits to correct what my Germane heritage would have done to you… I realized I could also make you stronger, faster, and just well, better.
“Not super-equine or anything, but I could easily ensure that you had the greatest capacity for everything which your genome allowed for. I could make sure that you were always at your full potential in every physical aspect from the day of your birth onwards.
“It occurred to me that if I didn’t do that, in a way, I’d be harming you. I could ensure that you were not merely healthy, but were the absolute best you could be. I stasised your developing embryo for months as I debated this. Eventually, I talked it over with Scootaloo, and we decided that I should do it. Not just for you, but for medical science as a whole.
“See, if I could ensure that you developed exceptional musculature, using only your DNA, that would provide a base for creating spells to fix muscular dystrophy as we could observe what needs to be done to make sure muscles work not just correctly, but perfectly as they developed through a pony’s entire life.
"That way not only would my child have a better life, but so would others across the world.”
“Oh… Well, that explains why I’m really good at running,” I said with a nod to myself.
Okay. I was this way because dad wanted to learn how to help other ponies better. Okay, fair enough. I can see that. It’s a noble thing to do, and something he did every day too.
“That’s… Maybe a little unethical. But I can see why you’d do it,” Twilight decided.
“Nein, it’s perfectly ethical,” dad disagreed. “It would have been unethical if it were anypony else’s child. But you are mine, Sherbert, and if something bad happened as a result of my experiment, I would have fixed it immediately and ended the entire experiment. Because you are my child, I forced nopony else to take the risk of having to raise a special needs foal, and I could have prevented any such accidents from occurring to ensure that despite this experiment you ended up perfectly healthy.”
But then I remembered something. That didn’t explain why I was a pureblood…
My eyes hardened again. “But then, why did you make me a pureblood!”
Dad coughed once. “Accident…”
“ACCIDENT!?” I bellowed. “How the flying BUCK do you do this accidentally!?”
“I uh, I used your mother’s pre-wing fix DNA by accident. When I did the initial cell creation,” dad said sounding extremely embarrassed. “I caught this at about your twenty fifth week of development. Fairly early in terms of fetal development, but an embarrassingly long time to be a total idiot…
“Now, see, the question of ‘when does life begin’ is a very hot button issue. I refuse to get into that. Suffice to say that at the time, you were exhibiting regular neural activity, and in my book, that makes you a proper living person. I could not kill you and start again. That would be wrong. Because I am I biomancer. I can prevent suffering without extinguishing your life.
“Your mother’s old DNA was created by that cult. As I think you know. It’s not standard pony genetics at all. I wound up having to do the same thing to you in development as I did to her as an adult. Replace your DNA with a different set.
“However, unlike Scootaloo, your Genome contained my own. For some reason, the combination rejected the majority of genetic grafts. Not as in, some worked some didn’t, but your developing body refused to accept the majority of any strands I gave it while happily accepting parts of those strands.
“I examined the segments which took, and determined they were segments which were unique to unicorn genomes. In short, your body would reject any DNA which was not exclusively unicorn in nature.
“That made me panic because there’s about three percent of the unicorn genome which was just well, gone. Completely gone. I thought I wouldn’t be able to heal you and that there’d be some horrible problem you’d suffer through until I could find a cure.
“Luckily, that wasn’t the case because-”
“Because the tiny bit of unicorn DNA Scootaloo originally had was the missing piece!” Twilight exclaimed, sounding like she was grinning ear to ear.
“Ja! Exactly,” Dad confirmed. “Turns out those evil experiments were a success, not a failure. Since that missing three percent was technically your mother’s, well… It gave me an idea. I went to everypony in our extended family, and got a DNA sample from them. I… I didn’t tell them exactly what it was for, only that I wanted it to help shore up your DNA because I made a mistake.
“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you to grow up knowing you weren't normal. Because well… My parents were supremacists und they were only eighty-five percent unicorn. I- I didn’t know what actually being pure blooded would do to somepony. So I would conceal that information. Make sure it wasn’t important.
“Un that’s why you are the way you are. I kept patching every part of your genome with unicorn DNA taken from everypony in our family, regardless of their tribe. Stitching it all together until you had accepted all the grafts, were stable, healthy, and were no longer using a genome which would have well… Your life would have been short and painful.”
I took a long breath. “So let me get this straight,” I insisted, closing my eyes tightly. “I am the way I am because you wanted to perform a medical experiment, messed up, and had to fix me. And the only way you could fix the problem was by making me some kind of living fossil?”
“Yes,” Lily sighed. “I’m sorry but-”
“And you never told me because you were afraid that I would become a tribal supremacist,” I added bitterly.
“That is also correct. But I also didn’t want you to think you were a freak. Because you're not. You’re a pony. Just an older kind of pony than most others… Well, all others,” dad rambled. “I… You have every right to be mad at me. I should have told you sooner. I planned to but then you had this trip planned and I didn’t want you emotionally distressed while trying to live in a new country.
“I did that too, you know. Moved to a foreign country as a young pony. It’s hard… I had emotional damage on top of that. I wanted to spare you that pain…”
“I understand… But I’m still upset,“ I said after giving his apology a few moments to process.
“It’s ironic,” Twilight mused. “Lily didn’t tell you to prevent you from developing a superiority complex, and you developed an inferiority complex.”
“Ja. Heh, what’s more ironic is that instead of being a magical powerhouse, a pureblood unicorn seems to be more physically powerful. It’s a mixed heritage that makes powerful magic possible. I found that funny.”
First off, that's not ironic. That's coincidental. But it was funny, pretty hilarious actually. But at the same time… I was sort of the butt of that joke.
“Dad… I forgive you,” I said sincerely after a while. “But I think I’ll be upset for a long time.”
“Ja. I knew you would be,” he confirmed apologetically. “Just know that I loved you, und that I’m sorry too… Please don’t let this get in the way of your training. I know it’s important to you.”
I nodded. “Actually, I think my training will help. Breaking boards is a good way to get aggression out… Bye dad. I’ll call you later when I’m not mad anymore,” I said as I hung up and picked up my messenger gem.
I gave it a squeeze, activating it. “Master Rojā:” I instructed to direct the call. “Master, I’m very upset right now. I would like to break some boards. Can we do more practice with those pastern strikes?”
I waited for a few moments before Rojā’s voice came from the gem. “I can make time for another half hour of drills. I’ll meet you in the beginner’s hall in five minutes.”
Good. That half hour would probably be enough to calm down. But I still wasn’t going to talk to dad for at least a week. He should have told me.
But at least now I knew something important.
I wasn’t a nobody. I had something special about me. Being a blankflank didn’t matter anymore. My ‘talent’ was inside. I had access to magic unseen for Eons. Sure, it wasn’t anything spectacular. Nothing flashy. But that was fine.
I was a really good athlete whose magic empowered their athleticism. Just like the ancient unicorns of prehistory.
I had to say, that was pretty darn cool! I could live with this.
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Logic just smashed its head against the wall several times...
Muscle Wizard!
Ohhhh. Well now this just got splinter cell ish. Guess it's better she went unicorn and didn't pick up any Windigo DNA.
Interesting so that makes Sherbert more related than she realized to everyone. Ironically depending on the branch of medical science its either a big matter or not worth bothering with.
So what would Sherbie end up with as a super hero? The Incredible Fossilcorn?
Ancient Terror?
Mighty Hulcorn?
That's not how DNA works. Freaking magic.
8303785 Yes it is. See all viruses, genetharapy, and CRISPR. You can plug any DNA into a cell to co-opt it's machinery to preform any other task that machinery is capable of doing. As such, if you could get EVERY cell infused with new DNA, as those cells were replaced, you could make them build new cells with any DNA you wanted, and thus change anything about an organism you liked, within reason. In a fetus as described here, you could preform extreme changes with ease.
Well then, it may have been a bit of a slow start, but now this Persona game can finally get underway. We have a protagonist, a few friends, a school in Japan, unheard of talents, and best of all, no clear villain yet! Now we just need to build up our stats and confidants and challenge the evil of the-WAIT, THIS ISN'T A GAME! WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS ISNT PRRSONA IT HAS TO BE PERSONA WHYYYYYYYY
8303825 I never played those games, so i can't parody them. Sorry, but this is something else...
8303830
If you watched an LP of Persona 4 or 5, even just the first few episodes, you would get it.
A bighuge campus with magic and giant robots. Yep, Negima feelings alright.
Sherbet, that's called a tsundere. You just failed your Gene m genre savvyness test. At least you can still be a nation character.
8303413
Screaming 'WHYYYYY?!?' while Twilight off all people consoled it.
Mysterious dark Ninja superior figure appears. She's a nerd and is watching Sherbet's school anime life. I severely doubt she has anything better to do with her time, now.
Yer' an unicorn, Sherbet
It's funny how she's basically the biggest fuck you to Unicorn supremacists. You want to be pure? Go ahead. All you have to do is throw away almost all magic. You know, the stuff that for you makes all that you are
And that's why this duck is a penguin
Oh thank you, Twilight. Sort that shit out right now...
But that is irony. By one of the three primary definitions. "A state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result." Unicorn supremacists try to make purebloods for super magical awesomeness. Turns out that makes their magic weaker.
Irony. Sweet, sweet, hilarious irony. And more Sherb derps
8303825
That'd be pretty great. Now I wonder what Sherbert's persona would be. What would the other world be...
aaaaaand now I have "Life Will Change" stuck in my head.
Also, she'd probably flip out the first time she helps out her friends and then world just stops while a weird card fades into view for a few seconds.
Pure unicorn?! OH my GOSH! That explains the tail! EEEEEEE! I love the unicorn tail! I wish we'd see those more... I really like earthsong9405's headcanon designs.
And that the magic of puricorns?/origicorns?/primicorns?... that their magic enhances their physical traits more than them being magical powerhouses is a part of the lore I very much like. Makes a lot of sense, too, in prehistoric conditions.
Great chapter!
Ha,i likes where it goes and her boost type of magic reminds me of new anime "Knight's & Magic" where both Silhouette Knights (magical mecha) and demonic beasts use magic to protect themselves (and many time to protect against collapse from their own weight).
8303888
Personally, I think that magic is still there and only it's effect is directed more to inside (boost of strength,durability and all senses,ect) than outside (normal unicorn mumbo jumbo)........ So, when unicorns were closed subspecies/community their magic was more inner/inside and when they opened themselves to other ponies tribes it's turn what is now......well still fun and still "fuck you" to Unicorn supremacists
8303962
"WHAT'S WITH THESE DUCKS!?! SON OF A BITCH!!" ~Jeff the first polar bear
8303888
Amazingly, even as described, that's smaller than popmannn's highschool. That thing is HUGE! Popmannn, google maps Neece your higshcool.
What's even funnier is that any geneticist or paleontologist can clearly demonstrait that the unicorn ability to easily cast complex spells comes from pegasi genes. Unicorns got the genes pegasi use for fine control of their flight magic, and got better at using their own magic. Pegasi got unicorn genes for large magic reserves, and got longer flight times out of it.
While I'm on this subject...
Earth ponies gave Pegasi the range on their weather control abilities (via the genes which give Earth Ponies their nature improvement aura), and got the ability to manipulate parts of the natural world other than soil, plant,s and minerals from pegasi (Via their passive 'we make natural things better by being near them' power. THough most Earth ponies can only improve soil, plants, or minerals other apsects of nature are rare). Earth ponies gave unicorns their spellcasting stamina for sustained use of magic, and unicorns gave Earth Ponies their strength (Which unicorns lost over time as magical power became more important to have culturally and practically), though even back in the day no unicorn would have been as strong as an Earthpony, they took to physical magic like a fish to water.
8303962
She's her fauther's daughter.
It is if you conciter physical might and magic to be opposites. But if you conciter them to simply be forces which exist, and not a spectrum of possibility, then it's not.
It's also ironic if seen from that angle. But my point is that Sherbert is a derp,and even a smart person could think of this as not being ironic depending on their perspective and train of logic.
8303979
That's actualy pritty close to the inspiration behind this idea :D Neet, I'll check it out. What I got the idea from is a trilogy of books known as the Heir Chronicles. In that univerce, if you're magical, you're one of three things, a Wizard who can cast spells (the most powerful kind of magic user), an enchanter who can make items that cast spells, or a warrior who can sort of cast spells but only in a rather limited way usualy in ways which improve their physical powers, or temporarily imbue a weapon with a simple magic like 'cut better' or 'burn things'.
The first book is called The Warrior Heir and the series is by Cinda Willimas. I highly recommend them.
That's exactly how it is. Though unicorns of that era could still be Wizards, they just dont have the redicilious buff to casting which makes it almost effortless to learn magic. Old School Unicorns had to put in the decades of training to master simple spells, just like any other magically gifted species.
8303807
I meant "rejecting non-unicorn DNA". That's nonsensical, since DNA is just DNA and is undifferentiated by source. It's a biological impossibility, hence "freaking magic".
8305967 Ah! I'm sorry for that miscommunication. But yes, that would be pony's arcanebiology at play there. After all, some of their very being works on arcane rather than mundane physics.
8305048
Thanks for suggestions, when I have some free time, i will check these books,also about that anime: it's a adaptation of light novel with same title (Which i'm very fond of, because they don't only fight with something that is Mecha with a different name but also we see process of their construction and development, which (in my opinion) gives world some extra depth ), fan translations are available on internet and my impressions of both...well, anime has just three episodes for now and looks good so far but some events from novel have been omitted (duel with school bullies,some scenes from fallout after battle and construction of new mecha), well we will see how it will develops,
...coming back to ponies
, I came to conclusion that pure tribes use their abilities more by instinct than learning, which is logical, when you are still primitive or just started build your civilization,then it just not enough time for long-term learning and lack of ability can often mean death, so having them ability "built in" will increases chances of surviving (from downside: it can potentially make harder to teach them new things, especially if it will interferes with instinct...... Maybe that explains why Sherbert have so much difficulty with learning "normal" unicorn magic
)
8303962
Now it's stuck in my head too. GODDAMMIT!!!!
Seems legit.
morbotron.com/meme/S02E04/1024172.jpg?b64lines=WWVzISBXaGljaCBpcyB3aHkgd2UnbGwgCm1hcmtldCBpdCBhcyBOZXcgU2x1cm0uIApUaGVuLCB3aGVuIGV2ZXJ5b25lIApoYXRlcyBpdCwgd2UnbGwgYnJpbmcgYmFjayAKU2x1cm0gQ2xhc3NpYywgCmFuZCBtYWtlIGJpbGxpb25zIQ==
Honestly the concept of a German guy trying to make anyone a pureblood anything is enough to make anyone feel just a little uncomfortable.
8308088 It's even worse if it's not a living thing. "BEHOLD! Pure blood sausage pudding!"
8308115
I don't know what sausage pudding is, but what it sounds like is a sex move that involves unclean anal.
8308119 It would be this:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/steak-and-kidney-pudding/
8308123
IT seems I am very wrong then.
8308126 Well... TO be fair, depending on who cooks it...
8307857
Join me, brother!
Oh my god, I just realized Meep published a new story upon coming back from my trip. Eeeeeee!
8309549 Enjoy
That's actually exactly how internet was, before it was all connected and changed to one system so they would work together. There was a US network, a European network, and probably a few others.
Ai carambe! once again, i have generalized everything.
8312011 It's okay ^^ Lots of people get it wrong and I'm a tomboy so meh. May as well be a guy.
8312083
Yeah. You talk and act like how I expect a man too, not to mention the pic on your paypal looks like a man.
8312088 I never said I was a biological female. Transgender people exist, and not all of us are stereotypical masculine or feminine.
Also do you mean name? Because my paypal photo is the same avatar that I use here. But Paypal refuses to let you change your name without showing them court documents from a legal name change, and I cant find mine ><
Ah school, still hate it.
WHats this? A dark room with a shadow figure secretly watching Sherbert and possibly planning on using her for something? THis is both completely unsurprising [sorry Meep I'm catching on to your trops] and entirely AWESOME!!!!!!!
I was wondering how we were going to cover such a large amount of time quickly, Anime move briefing recap, I whole heartedly approve!
HAHA Sherbert is a classic unicorn, showing that unicorns are actually far less powerful than they think they are, irony!
8314858 It makes sense. If an alicorn is a mix of all ponies, then how can one-third of that whole be amazingly good? The secret to a powerful pony of any tribe must be their tribe's cross-breeding.
Neat high school.
Hah!
Interesting, so Rojā has been scouting Sherbert as a potential student for years.
Oh wow, now that's a nice effect.
Ah hah hah, there's the confirmation, as well as the explanation for how.
FUCKING TSUNDERE!
8314913
Possibly, but then you also have to take into consideration both tribal culture and genetic flaws. Say, a earth pony born of earth and pegasus stock may, for example, be larger and hardier then the original, but be a weaker flyer because of both physical and metaphysical shortcomings, ie a poor mix of mana and the larger wings causing more strain. And of course there must be different types of flyers, differences between the gender might also factor in, and the fact that, say, two earth ponies might have a harder time keeping up with a thestral of pegasus foal.
Thankfully you haven't done what some stories have, saying that both tribes take the foal from their parents and leave one of theirs in its stead.
9727701
WTF? WHo does that? That's beyond monstrous ><