Two Weeks Later.
Ever since Beebee’s frailty had been discovered, Eventide had made doubly sure that the tiny creature didn’t overexert himself. Playtime, be it with Buddha or anything else, was carefully monitored and was swiftly brought to a gentle close at the first sign of overexertion. It had taken a little bit of math and a lot of careful observation, but by now Eventide was confident that Beebee should avoid having any more than thirty minutes of physical activity outside of flying or walking around.
And on the note of flying and walking, Beebee had gotten rather proficient at navigating his home with all of his limbs in the last two weeks. He would often walk all around the house, exploring the corners and darker recesses all on his own, sometimes peeking out at Eventide and Buddha from the shadows so that only his two glowing blue eyes were visible. Other times, he would take to the air on buzzing wings to observe whatever it was Eventide was doing at the time, or pester Buddha by flitting around her head. She would typically retaliate by gently and playfully chomping at him in response. All in all, Beebee was just being the strangest little adventurer that Eventide had ever had the pleasure of observing.
Although, his low stamina, while something he had become keenly aware of, did not stop Beebee from frequently winding up where he was not supposed to, or causing trouble with those errant sparks that would periodically go flying out of his horn if he got excited. Although he seemed to be getting better at controlling those sparks, which Fluttershy had convinced Eventide to call ‘magic.’ To be fair, given all that had happened in recent months, magic was not at all an unbelievable term to describe this guy’s mere existence, much less the crazy things he was able to do.
He had started vocalizing even more in the last few days, too, something which Eventide found rather fun and fascinating to listen to. He would make noises whenever he wanted affection, often sounding like he was saying ‘kiwi.’ He would pick up his favorite ant, and either wrestle with it or hug it, all while making odd babbles that reminded Eventide of a human infant. Even similar to the noises of a human were Beebee’s cries, which were still heard on an almost nightly basis. He would still break out into uncontrollable sobbing fits in the night, only ever going quiet when he tired himself out and fell back into a peaceful sleep. Usually, this would happen in Eventide’s arms, the man sitting on the edge of his bed with Buddha by his side to offer comforting licks or nuzzles wherever possible.
Sadly, Fluttershy had not been able to come by as frequently as she would normally have hoped, as the high school was now repaired enough for class to resume. She would still drop by immediately after school to check in and see if her help was needed for anything before heading home to take care of homework. Thankfully, her help was not as essential now as it had been before. Eventide had a hold of the ropes now, he liked to think. At least well enough that he could take care of Beebee on his own for the most part.
It was approximately noon, now, and Eventide came back into his home from a trip to a small, local grocery store with bags full of produce in his arms. The moment he closed the door behind him, he braced against it in preparation of the inevitable. Sure enough, in came Beebee from the bedroom, zooming through the air while chittering excitedly. Eventide smiled warmly and allowed the small chitinous missile to plow into his chest hard enough to knock the air out of him.
“OOF! Ow… hey, Bee!” was his slightly strained greeting, setting the bags of food down and wrapping his arms around Beebee in a warm embrace. He chuckled slightly when he noticed something. “Ooh, you’ve gotten bigger, haven’t you?” he asked in a cheery voice, reaching his knuckles up to playfully noogie Beebee.
Beebee flinched back from the knuckles, voicing his protest to the action. “Ka! Saa!” came the wordless babble before he swatted at Eventide’s hand with a hoof. A loud smack filled the air, and Eventide withdrew his hand with a chuckle before letting Beebee return to hovering in the air with his wings.
After that, Eventide spent a few seconds just studying Beebee, a small smirk spread on his face. “Yes, you are growing. Nice. Gonna have to start measuring you, huh?” he asked before reaching down and lifting back up the grocery bags. “Well, it can wait for a little while. I gotta put away the groceries.”
Beebee followed closely by his sides, eyeing the bags as they subtly swayed back and forth. His muzzle scrunched up, and his forked tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth. “Ka… Carn… Gars…” he mumbled, lightly poking Eventide’s hand until they set the groceries down on the kitchen counter. It was at about this time that Eventide’s index finger and thumb snatched Beebee’s hoof when he went in for another poke.
“Are my hands really that interesting?” Eventide asked with a cheeky grin, playfully shaking Beebee’s hoof up and down. The bug eventually managed to pry his hoof back before narrowing his eyes at Eventide’s hand. It was either a look of offense at being held or scrutiny, like a scientist carefully watching his latest experiment.
“Ha… Aaa… Ahn…” he muttered under his breath before poking it again. And again, Eventide caught his hoof with his fingers, chuckling as he did so.
“Wow, should I get you a stick?”
Beebee scrutinized Eventide’s hand for a few seconds before again pulling his hoof away and hovering over to sit down on the other end of the counter, plonking down onto his rump and observing with great childish interest. Eventide just smiled and rolled his eyes before getting back to work putting things away. All the while, Beebee watched him like a hawk, his eyes trained mostly on his hands. For several minutes this went on before, finally, Beebee’s face contorted with discomfort at the same moment as a very audible grumble came from his stomach. He placed his hooves over his belly and pouted before looking up at Eventide again. “Kii! Kiiwii!” he chirped out, his discomfort clear.
Eventide looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “Huh? What is it, Bee?” he asked before moving closer to Beebee to get a better look. “You doing your fake hungry thing again?”
“Kwii!” Beebee piped up again, reaching his hooves out to Eventide in the now recognized ‘hug me’ gesture. A gesture that Eventide did not waste time in answering. He reached down and lifted Beebee up with his hands, holding him close to his chest and petting the growing bug on the back of the head.
“There… that better?” Eventide asked after a few seconds of the quiet, listening to Beebee’s pleased murmurs and coos.
“Dada… Queen.”
Eventide suddenly went stiff, his eyes bulging in his head. Slowly, very very slowly, he pulled Beebee back from his chest to look into his eyes. Beebee looked back at him with confusion and concern, looking like he was afraid he had done something wrong. Already an apology could be seen in his eyes, and he began to frantically babble as if to put it into words.
“Queen? Aa… Sao, sowo, ah… Queen? Queen dada?”
Eventide’s eyes only bulged even more, and his jaw fell uselessly open. He stared at Beebee, completely incredulous for several moments, before gently setting him back down on the counter and taking a step back. A hand flew up to his mouth to cover it while he tried to wrap his brain around what just happened.
“Queen...?” Beebee asked again, stepping up to the edge of the counter with his ears folding back against his head. “Ah zo wo… hug?” He then sat down on his haunches and held out his hooves again, but this time his desire for an embrace was not immediately fulfilled.
“Are… are you…” Eventide tried to voice his question but found himself unable to find his words for the question. He blinked, shook himself and slapped his own face a few times before staring at Beebee in abject bewilderment. “Did you just… talk?”
“Ah… aya?” Beebee tried, his face twisting as he thought back on all of the interactions he had observed between Eventide and Fluttershy ever since he had hatched. He then pointed at Eventide again. “Dada queen? Kee?”
Eventide blinked again. “Oh my God, you can talk…” he whispered in awe and disbelief, his voice shaking. He then shuddered with horror as he thought back on how he had been taking care of Beebee so far. He had been treating him a lot like Buddha… like a lovable but non-sapient creature. An animal. But if Beebee was capable of speech, then... “I’m not raising a wild animal, am I?”
“Aa… Anama…?” Beebee tried to mimic the sounds he heard Eventide making, his face scrunching. After a few moments without any more responses, Beebee looked at Eventide and then very gingerly lifted off from the edge of the counter, his wings buzzing pensively in the air. “Dada queen?”
That finally seemed to draw a more vibrant reaction from Eventide. His heart rate suddenly accelerated, and his eyes and face lit up with a look of absolute shock of the most pleasant of varieties. Slowly, with a new understanding of the creature before him, Eventide reached out with his hands. Beebee let himself be taken, and took note of how gentle Eventide’s touch was, now. He looked into Eventide’s eyes and tilted his head in confusion. “Dada?”
At that, Eventide’s world froze for the third time in two minutes. Dada… Daddy. Beebee just called him his dad. In retrospect, he supposed, it was only appropriate. He had found Beebee as an egg, and had gone out of his way to take good care of him ever since. Granted, that had been with the idea that he was a wild animal, to be released into the wild as soon as he was ready.
But now… Eventide couldn’t help but think back on the words Fluttershy had said to him the day Beebee had hatched.
“...I don’t know what he is, but I think that…” she slowly knelt down to a get a closer look at it, and it, in turn, shrank away from her, clinging even tighter to Eventide’s pant leg. Slowly, a smile grew on Fluttershy’s face as it occurred to her. “I think it sees you as its dad.”
“Dada…” Eventide parroted in barely even a whisper before a weak chuckle slipped out of his throat. “I… I guess I am, huh? I’m your daddy, little guy…”
Eventides heart swelled as he said those words. At the same time, Beebee’s eyes widened, and his forked tongue reflexively licked his lips. His jaw clenched and relaxed many times, a subtle movement that Eventide was used to seeing whenever they were hugging, or whenever Buddha went into mama wolf mode and cleaned him off with a bath of dog licks. After a few seconds, Beebee’s face similarly lit up before he launched himself to tightly hug Eventide around the neck, albeit while being sure not to choke him.
What he said next was almost enough to make Eventide fall to the floor.
“Daddy…”
After another few seconds of processing, Eventide finally found the brainpower to react. He returned the hug as well as he could, holding Beebee close and starting to rock them both back and forth.
A few hours later, out amid the taller buildings of the city, Fluttershy walked along with her friends with a big smile on her face. The group was currently in transit from the mall to a nearby arcade, by request of Rainbow Dash. Next to Fluttershy was the cyan-colored teenager in question, her hands shoved into the pockets of her blue jeans and her long, rainbow-colored hair bound into a ponytail. Not far ahead of them, Applejack and Rarity were jabbering among themselves about something or another, presumably arguing about function over form in clothing and vice versa. Bringing up the rear was Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie, the former wearing a strained smile while the other reached into her backpack to fish for something.
Rainbow eventually broke the silence when she glanced over at Fluttershy curiously. “So, uh, Fluttershy? I've been meaning to ask; how come you keep being late to our after-school hangouts?” she asked bluntly, drawing a surprised squeak from the teenager in question.
Fluttershy was quick to compose herself, however. “Oh, I’m sorry. I, uh… have a project that I have to check up on regularly after school,” she said with a slightly crooked smile. She wasn’t technically lying, after all.
Pinkie Pie shot forwards with a questioning grin. “A project, huh? What is it? Can we know? Is it exciting? Is it boring? Is it red? Does it taste like strawberries? Is it wrapped in a tortilla?! Is it cherry flavored?! Is it covered in cheese?! IS IT A CHERRYCHANGA?!” She asked in a rapid-fire flow of words that barely any functionally sane human being could keep up with, making Fluttershy side-step a few times to re-establish the existence of her personal space.
“Um… it can be exciting, yes,” She replied hesitantly, one of her hands reaching up to grab her opposite shoulder in a display of nervous energy. She turned her eyes away from Pinkie’s prying gaze to look at something, anything else.
Sunset Shimmer’s brow furrowed somewhat with thought. “Does it have something to do with all of those questions about Equestria I keep getting from you?” she asked while stepping forward to be by Fluttershy’s side.
Fluttershy stiffened, a strangled, panicking squeak bubbling up from her throat. “Uh… um…” Thankfully, before she could give an answer that she really did not want to give right now, she was saved by the ringing of her cell phone in her pocket. She capitalized on the distraction to pull the device out and answer it without even looking at the caller I.D. “Hello?”
Eventide’s voice answered her. “Fluttershy, I’m a father.”
All at once, Fluttershy’s walking came to a total stop, her eyes widening and her jaw hanging open. For a moment, she was utterly still, her friends walking ahead a few paces before coming to a stop to look back at her with concern. When she noticed that all of the others were staring expectantly at her and that she had yet to vocalize a reply, she cleared her throat. Bracing herself, she took long, a deep breath, and gave the most dignified and well-thought-out-response she could.
“WHAT?! WHO’S THE MOTHER?!"
Smooth flutters, very smooth
OK, I am loving this concept, so please continue this story. I don't normally start incomplete tales, but this sounds too good to pass up.
That is, of course, if you don't mind. I am not trying to order you around, but if you write it, I (an I am sure many others) will read and enjoy it.
P.S. I found you due to a April fools chapter in Change: Queen of The Hive , so, also thanks for the collaboration in that!
If he says.......
"That would be you Fluttershy"
I'll laugh my ass off, I can't wait to see how Sunset will react to seeing a baby changeling here in Human Equestria.
Well, "Dada Queen" still gave it away.
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It is significantly less obvious, though.
sorry I had to...
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I smell a reference that went right over my head.
So Beebee found Eventide's drag outfit, huh?
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I... don't get it. What?
O my a grate chapter and now the fun really starts BeeBee is starting to communicate.
Two weeks of experiential days, now beginning to coalesce in BB's mind to create.... Communication!
It's interesting Eventide still considers BB's hunger as take. Wonder if that's a side effect?
Keep going! ;)
I think you are, Fluttershy... I really hope it isn't Buddha. Cause that would be AWK-WARD~!
So, what role will Sunset play in this bug-tastic story?
Is she, at this point, in her outcast state with the rest of the students?
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Yeah. Rainbow Rocks has not happened yet.
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As in "drag queen" instead of "dada queen"
Not sure where he's learned the (english/any) word for "queen" from, but a very cute scene nonetheless!
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Oh, 'Queen' is just genetic and instinctual for him. :P
I really hope the next chapter starts off with the reactions of Sunset and the rest of the girls after Fluttershy shouted this to Eventide. Especially if her response to his answer is along the lines of "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M PROBABLY THE MOTHER?!"
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Queen, as in drag queen
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I understand, now.
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Would Sunset even know what a changeling is? She left well before the invasion and it seemed like nopony knew what changelings were.
You are, Fluttershy. Congratulations, it’s a changeling.
This might be the most adorable chapter yet. Though, something tells me Sunset won’t be thrilled when she learns it’s a changeling.
9158396 Depends on what Skijarama decides on. Did they know what changelings are? Or were they seen as creatures of myth and legend? If Sunset does recognize what BB as a changeling, how much does she know?
Fluttershy! I'm pregnant with your child!
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Backward something have you methinks.
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Or an exclamation point where a colon should be.
I still haven't give up hope for a romance between them.
The only thing I remember is them not being that far appart with their age and maybe you making him younger till it looked questionable enough, but I could be wrong about that. I just remember till now you didn't wanted to do the romance.
edit: I don't want to say anything with that, I just said it how it went trough my head right now.
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HHhmmm I guess you won't change any details from the movies huh? I always found it odd how suddenly Music and later if I remember it right other stuff where the cause for their transformations. That and it still slightly bugs me how they continued using magic that wasn't there before without Twilight.
I don't know how this could be possible or how the mother would understand him (maybe some nice language barriere stuff?), but that is another option for a romance I suppose.
However I admit if the mother would come back for some reason, then I don't want the characters to allow it, that she acts as if she owns the child.
Yes it is her child and she only tried to save it, but she didn't/couldn't raise him.
I want her to....humbly earn her place in the familly.
I would like it if we just get a truly nice creature/partner again.
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You would get it if you watched the8bitdrummer on twitch, Brainpower is a song that he plays sometimes and it is a bit of a meme on his channel.
Example:
The8bitdrummer: There might be a power cut soon...
someone in chat: could we run off of Brainpower?
also whenever someone cheers 1000 bits a snippet of a chorus plays and if he isn’t already playing something he has to play along.
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That and it's shorter than The Glorious Supreme Overlord Of All They Survey...
Beebee's night terrors still have me wondering what the heck is going on. Has it something to do with Equestria, possibly Luna's doing in harassing the "bad" changelings on the other side in a sort-of collateral damage way. Or closer to home, is it Chrysalis herself reaching out to seize control of her scattered hive, and again not specifically targeting Beebee, but still threatening the 'ling who does not want to leave Eventide.
I have a sinking feeling that Beebee's going to get a very Pinkie Pie [belated] Birthday and First Words party very soon. Poor Fluttershy's gonna crumble like a sandcastle and tell them everything when the rest of the girls start in on her following that loud question into her phone.
(Picturing Beebee diving for the safest place when they crash his house, becoming a large lump under Eventide's shirt and protectively crossed arms)
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The mother, Clypeus, cannot come back, not until Princess Twilight figures out how to open the portal mirror at will with the paired notebook that Celestia currently has. As it stands now, they have to wait 30 moons (about 2.5 years) for it to reopen on it's own although it stays open for 3 days when it does. That time has passed thus locking out anyone getting through. Also, we have no idea what happened to an injured Clypeus when she reentered the portal to "lead the ponies away". She was most likely captured and resides in a dungeon cell at Canterlot. I'd further speculate that she would not admit to being the mother of Beebee, not without some compelling reason, even if somepony there had the idea to ask. That said, Clypeus would still want to use the portal when the opportunity presented itself, if only to answer the burning question, does her child still live? That compultion would become overwhelming if she learned of Beebee's [thriving] existence.
Canterlot is still picking up the pieces from that invasion so I doubt much of anything good will be said about Beebee from that part of Equestria. Princess Twilight's more scientific mind may disregard the prejudice and realize that it is not nature that makes somepony (or 'ling) "evil" but how they are nurtured-- further study of Eventide and Beebee is demanded posthaste! (She has already roped Fluttershy into this project and SciTwi would be next)
Is that Fluttershy catching on to where he comes from?
Eventide:
media.giphy.com/media/BmmfETghGOPrW/giphy.gif
Dada queen. Two words that are kinda contradictory, but little Beebee does not know better. This was oh so adorable! And the reaction was priceless.
... And Fluttershy's reaction was even better
Dang, time flies.
Eeeeeeeeeeee
Pfff
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This seems to imply that 2.5 years passed between the wedding and EQG, which doesn't sit right with me. I'm assuming 30 moons is much shorter in this fic.
Dada queen
Where the heck did he hear the word Queen.
Great Job flutter shy great job...
Seriously, Eventide, that's how you tell Fluttershy? Though her reaction was just as smooth.
XD in the middle of the street
WHAT! WHOS THE MOTHER!?
Cute and hilarious! Always a good combo.
NOT the best way to open up the conversation my guy...
That was so cute! If I did not already have diabetes, I would now.
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Imagining the looks of the others when THAT came out.
*faceplants* most improbable dialogue
- Who is the mother?
- I don't know