• Published 24th Mar 2019
  • 856 Views, 24 Comments

Kinbound: Greater Than Friendship - Dolphy Blue Drake



In a world where ponies and humans live on two halves of the same planet, a young human boy is about to meet and befriend somepony who will change his life forever. Lives intertwined, with bonds as strong as family, they face their futures together.

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Chapter 4: A Tour Gone Wrong

The next day, Kenny was back home playing a virtual tank simulator called “Spectre Ultimate” on his private bedroom computer when the sound of the doorbell ringing distracted him. A smile engulfed the lower half of his face, only for him to hear an explosion and a voice say “Cybernet overload” from his computer. The words “GAME OVER” filled the screen.

“Aw, no! I was a hundred points away from an extra life and one flag away from beating level eighty seven!” he whined. “Stupid Hunter Killer!”

The doorbell rang again, and his smile came back in full force.

“I’ll get it!” he screamed, bursting through the door to his room, running to the stairs and tromping down them two at a time.

Wrenching open the door, Kenny’s smile grew even wider as he found himself face-to-face with Twilight, with a certain pink dragon/human standing next to her in what appeared to be five layers of coats, but still shivering badly.

“Hey, Kenny!” the filly chirped. “May I come in?”

“Sure!” Kenny replied. “Good thing you bundled up like I told you, huh?”

“No kidding!” The filly exclaimed as she trotted into the house, “That makes winter in Canterlot seem like summer!”

“N-n-now, I-I’ll b-b-be b-b-back t-tomorrow,” Wyvern forced out, her sawlike teeth chattering. “W-why is it s-so c-c-cold? I hate ice and snow!”

“You’re bundled tighter than a baked potato,” Kenny deadpanned. “You should be roasting in that!”

“W-well I’m n-not!” she huffed. “I-I’m w-weak to the c-cold!”

“Well, at least the flight should warm you up some,” Twilight remarked. “Bye, Lady Wyvern!”

Grumbling, Wyvern spread both her wing-arms and her back wings, using the four limbs to take back to the air. Once she was out of sight, they closed the door, and Kenny sat on the bottom stair while Twilight started peeling off the winter clothing.

“So, if it gets down to sixteen in the fall,” the filly paused as she carefully stepped out of the pair of snow pants, “how cold do the winters get?”

“Minus eight,” Kenny replied flatly, nodding when Twilight paused to stare in disbelief. “The coldest day here on record was minus forty, but that was decades ago. The daily snowstorm actually turned into an ice storm. They still talk about it today. They had to evacuate to the caverns because homes were buried under sheets of ice over ten feet thick in some places.”

“Wow,” Twilight breathed in amazement. “The temperature where both scales meet?”

“Yep,” Kenny said with a nod. “The only time scientists actually can use a metric thermometer outside the lab and not look stupid doing it.”

“Metric isn’t stupid!” Twilight huffed. “So what if the common folk all use Imperial everywhere! Metric is the system of science! For the intelligent!”

“And that’s fine,” Kenny sighed. “As long as it stays in the lab and doesn’t leave it. How often can a kid like me find the speed of light in a vacuum without lab equipment? If I don’t have a meter stick, how am I supposed to measure it? If I want to measure a yard without a stick, I can just grab one of my Dad’s belts! Standard human male belts are all exactly thirty-six inches! And inches? Most families have grain stores just in case! Three barley grains is one inch! Easy!”

“But…” Twilight paused, apparently trying to salvage her argument. “But what about the huge jump from yard to mile?”

Kenny chuckled.

“Silly filly,” he said with a shake of his head. “There’s no huge jump! One chain is twenty-two yards. We have a standard chain cable out back in case we ever need it. One furlong is ten chains, an acre is a chain by a furlong, an acre-foot is a chain by a furlong by a foot, and a mile is eight furlongs. No problem! I learned that last year in third grade! What are they teaching you ponies over there?”

“Oh…” Was all she could say in reply. By the look in her eyes, her head had to be spinning. “I studied magic more than other subjects. Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns pushes a bit more on Metric. The headmistress is kind of obsessed with Napoleon and his failed attempt to Metricify the world. I wondered why she freaked out when I brought a barley bread sandwich from home on the first day. Why detention over a sandwich?”

“Now that’s just plain stupid,” Kenny grunted. “Imperial has held up this world for over fifteen hundred years. Why change now?”

Twilight giggled, then levitated a suitcase in front of her. “Can you show me to your room? Mom and Dad gave me a sleeping bag for tonight, and I’d like to get everything set up first.”

“Oh!” Kenny was slightly startled by the sudden change in subject, but quickly recovered. “Sure! My room’s upstairs! Right this way!”

Kenny slowly walked up the stairs, the filly following behind. Upon arriving at the landing on the second floor, he turned right, following the railing that kept people from falling from the second floor to the stairs to his bedroom, holding the door open for his new friend.

“Right over there,” he said, pointing to where Keith’s bed used to be. “You can set your stuff up right there. After that, I’d like to show you our treehouse in the woods! You saw the trees right behind the house, right?”

Twilight nodded as she opened her suitcase and started floating things out of it.

“We built a pretty nice treehouse back there,” Kenny explained. “Only this family uses it anymore, but Silver Shot, Fire Heart and Blizzard used to hang out with us before their families moved away.”

“Who were they?” the filly asked.

“Unicorn twins—a colt and a filly,” he explained, “And a hybrid dragon. His mom’s from the Dragon Lands on your side of the world, while his dad’s a Frost Fang. Native to the Frozen Wastes. The colt and filly also had mixed parents, though. Their dad’s human. They had a human sister, too, but she was a real stick in the mud.”

“Mixed race families do sometimes have rifts like that,” Twilight noted with a nod. “One of my classmates is way too obsessed with your kind. She’s fallen head over hooves for this human boy from the other side of Canterlot who attends the Merlin Magic Academy for Human Spellshapers, and I can’t see why. If they do mix, it could result in a broken family where their children divide on race lines.”

“It’s her choice,” Kenny admitted with a grimace. “And his. What’s her name, by the way?”

“Lyra,” Twilight huffed. “As soon as she ran into that Spencer Jackson boy, her entire bedroom was converted into a shrine to him! It’s ridiculous!”

“That’s not healthy for a filly of nine years old,” Kenny noted with heavy concern. “Maybe her parents should check to make sure she doesn’t have Hyper Anthrophillia Disorder.”

“It’s mainly just him,” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “I don’t think she’s that bad. Anyway, how about that treehouse?”

“I don’t want to get bundled up just for that,” Kenny muttered, looking around. “Now, where is it? Silver made one for each of us…”

Kenny walked past Twilight to the front window and the toy box on the floor in front of it, opening it, he started rifling through the contents.

A LEGO set. “No.” A box of army men. “No.” A 3d chess set. “No.” His chemistry set. “No.” Then his hand closed around a crystal sphere filled with sparkling silver magic. “Bingo.”

“Kenny? What’s that?” The filly asked, her eyes wide.

“This?” Kenny chuckled. “A pocket teleport spell. Silver Shot placed the matrix for it into this spell capture ball. It’s two-way, so we can get back easily, too. So, wanna see what’s inside?”

“Won’t it be cold?” the filly demanded.

“Nah,” Kenny laughed. “It’s magically heated! Now, you coming?”

“Sure!” Twilight exclaimed, galloping over to him to touch a hoof to his back. “Will this be enough for me to come along?”

Kenny nodded before focusing his mind, reaching for magic through the ball instead of through himself, activating it. In an instant, they were engulfed in silver magic, and were in another place: a quaint little room with felt in warm colors nailed to the walls, a window overlooking a few shorter trees and the ground about forty feet below, as well as a view of the back of Kenny’s house, and a few others in his neighborhood stretching three blocks away before everything blended together. A door led to another room, but the door was currently closed.

“This is amazing!” Twilight gushed, looking around. “You and your friends built this?”

“Kris and Dad helped, too,” Kenny admitted. “There’s only so much a human boy, two foals and a dragon kid can do on their own. This place is a mini-house. Over the summers, we’d spend weeks in here! It has electricity, plumbing, and a few other bells and whistles! All magic-based, of course. To do it the magicless way would be far too expensive.”

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but paused when they heard a high-pitched squeak from outside.

“Was that the floor?” The filly asked nervously.

“No, that’s not possible,” Kenny breathed, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Kenny?” Twilight said, “What’s wrong?”

“Deep in this forest, there’s a colony of flying pests,” Kenny said slowly as the squeaking happened again. “Ice Bats. They never come this close to the edge, though. They fear heat, and our homes emanate heat. They shouldn’t be here, but nothing else around here sounds like that.”

Suddenly, the heat in the treehouse vanished, and the two started shivering.

“A-are you s-sure they don’t c-come out here?” Twilight demanded, her muscles tensing.

“I th-thought they d-didn’t,” Kenny insisted. “Get ready to—”

The door to the room burst open, and squeaking filled the air.

“Run!” Kenny screamed, grabbing the filly by the hoof and dragging her along, ducking to try to avoid the ice shards falling from the wings of the icy creatures that were filling the room.

Twilight screamed, too, trying her best to keep up, but a sudden blast of cold energy from a screeching bat knocked her backwards, her hooves stuck in a sheet of ice as she fell on her back.

“Kenny!” she screamed, grabbing his attention. “Help!”

Panicking, Kenny screamed the first spell that came to mind: “Hydro Curtain!”

His body glowed blue, and a wall of water sprang from the ground, surrounding the two of them as Kenny pulled his scout knife from his pocket and flipped out the largest blade.

“Hold still, Twilight!” he exclaimed as he plunged the knife into the sheet of ice, grimacing when he looked back to see his barrier beginning to solidify in places, turning into ice.

Pieces of ice broke off as Kenny stabbed the sheet repeatedly, eventually shattering so he could pull the filly back to all fours.

“Look out!” Twilight shouted as a bat managed to smash through a piece of frozen water and flew right at Kenny. Ensnaring it in her magic, she flung it back through, knocking it into its fellows.

“Thanks,” Kenny breathed, trying to think of something. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as an idea occurred to him.

“Twilight, can you pull the swarm closer?”

“Are you nuts?” she screamed, “They’ll turn us into popsicles!”

“Trust me! There’s no time!” he yelled. “Put as much trust in me as I am in you! How much would you trust your family?”

“More than anyone else in the world,” she answered in an instant.

“That’s how much I’m trusting you!” Kenny shouted. “Now, can you?”

“Okay, I’ll trust you,” Twilight muttered. “Here goes nothing!”

Her horn lit up like a purple sun, the same aura engulfing the entire swarm. As she pulled them closer, she closed her eyes, bracing herself for the worst.

“Hydro Curtain!” Kenny screamed, and once more, a wall of water erupted from the floor, this time engulfing the bats.

Groaning from the strain, Kenny focused even harder, the blue glow from his form washing out all other colors from the immense output. With a scream, he collapsed to the ground, passing out just as the squeaks and screeches stopped.


“Kenny! Wake up!” he heard Twilight urging, followed by a worried, “Oh no, did he use all his magic at once? This is bad!”

Kenny tried to talk, but he felt drained. So much so, he was too weak to even open his eyes, as each lid felt like it weighed a whole ton. He couldn’t even groan. He was weaker than a rag doll.

“Please let there be something here,” Twilight said from behind him, and he heard what sounded like rummaging through glass and plastic bottles. “Why would they have Ether here?” she wondered. “Well, as the humans say, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth! Please let this work!”

He felt something tingly engulf his jaw, forcing his mouth open, then something vile entered it, and he reflexively started coughing, as if his body was trying to reject it.

“No!” she snapped. “You need this!” Her magic next engulfed his nose, pinching it shut. Left with no other option, his body swallowed instead, each gulp restoring some of his strength.

This went on for several minutes, until he finally was able to open his eyes, finding himself staring at the ceiling, Twilight smiling down at him.

“Good, you’re awake,” She sighed with relief. “Why’d you overchannel?”

After finishing off the foul liquid, Kenny coughed once and sat up. “I don’t have the reserves,” he admitted. “To do that without passing out, I’d need to have at least three times what I’ve got. And I don’t have the practice or the diet to keep it up. I started taking Thaumium supplements a month ago, but that’ll take a while.”

“You just let your magic stagnate?” Twilight gasped in disbelief. “Why? That’s not healthy!”

“I know,” Kenny admitted. “But what’s the point? I just… I don’t know. All I can do is Water. I suck at everything else. And Water cools. Not as much as Ice, but it does. And in a place where everything is always cold, what good is it?”

“By what you just did, I’d say you’re wrong,” the filly countered. “That wall of water helped! And besides, from the equine point of view, Water magic is highly envied by us. I can’t conjure that! It’s matter!”

Kenny opened his mouth to object, but the filly held up a hoof to ask him to wait.

“Besides,” she added, “You’re my friend! I want you to take care of yourself! If it gets too weak, you could end up with Magic Outburst Syndrome! Random discharges would get you hospitalized! Do you want that?”

“No,” Kenny sighed. “You’re right.”

“Good,” Twilight said with a satisfied nod. “Now, while you were out cold, I threw the block of ice you made out the window. Hopefully, they won’t come back any time soon.”

“They spook easily,” Kenny said with a nod of his own. “They likely flew back home after they were freed.”

“Well, now that that’s out of the way,” Twilight said with a huge grin, “How about that tour?”

“Heh, you’re really gonna like this place,” Kenny chuckled as he walked over to the door to the rest of the treehouse, “Follow me!”

Giggling, Twilight did just that, stopping to gasp and look around in amazement at the room on the other side.

Kenny knew what she was looking at: two levels of an eight-spoked wheel-like room, a curved balcony hugging the level above, each spoke leading to another room, with the mighty tree itself punching through the floor and ceiling.

“This took us an entire year to build,” Kenny sighed happily. “I was six at the time, but I helped just as much as the rest. You likely saw my books from my bedroom, but we have our own library here, too. There’s about a few hundred books there. I’ve read about a quarter of them, myself.”

“I love books, too, but how did you have the time for that many?” Twilight exclaimed, disbelief painted clearly on her face.

“Kris helped,” Kenny admitted as he took the filly by the hoof and lead her three rooms counterclockwise before throwing open a door. “He knows a Time spell for speed reading. He uses it for cramming, but I got him to cast it whenever I wanted to read ten books in the time it’d take to read one.”

“Wow,” the filly breathed in absolute awe as she took in the room. It was only a single level, but shelves lined the walls, every single one filled with books. “How much did these cost you?”

“Not a cent,” Kenny chuckled. “Grandpa paid for them.”

“I wish I had somepony who’d do that for me,” Twilight grumbled. “It’s not fair.”

Before Kenny could inquire about this, his stomach began to rumble, provoking a sheepish grin from him followed by nervous chuckling.

“Uh, I think that overchanneling took a lot more out of me than I expected,” he groaned as his stomach started to ache, screaming at him to supply it with sustenance. “There’s a kitchenette on the other side. If it’s not too much to ask, could you help out?”

Twilight's head tilted to the side like a curious puppy, confused.

“But that’s not how magic works,” She pointed out. “It’s just thought energy being consumed to affect the laws of reality. Why would that make the caster hungry?”

Kenny’s stomach growled again, voicing how little it agreed with that statement.

“It’s different for humans,” Kenny explained, clutching his stomach and groaning. “It uses my body’s energy, too. If I overchannel and recover with Ether, that physical energy has to come from somewhere.”

Hearing this revelation, Twilight set off towards the kitchen in a frantic and hasty display of concern for her new friend. While following the filly, Kenny took notice of her rooting through the tiny kitchen’s shelves and cupboards. Taking a seat on a stool, he looked down and waited, trying to ignore the pain in his empty stomach.

After waiting for a few minutes that felt like forever, it suddenly occurred to Kenny that Twilight was in fact not making any progress despite her frantic search through the minimalistic kitchen. After getting up, he walked over to Twilight, standing behind her as objects began flying in and out of the cupboards in her magical grasp as she inspected a few items.

“No,” she said with a shake of her head, returning a jar to its shelf. “That’s not food.” Pulling out a large sealed can, she looked at the label, tilting her head and even going cross-eyed while trying to read it. “Freeze-dried fi… fill… fill-ettes? What’s a ‘fill-ette’? Is that edible? Never heard of it, so I’m going to say ‘no’ to be safe.”

Putting the can back, the filly picked up speed, becoming more and more frantic.

A glass jar. “No.” A sealed plastic bag. “No.” Another can. “No.” A paberboard box. “No.” Another box. “NO!”

The next thing to come off a shelf was another sealed bag. She once again had trouble reading it. “Ve… ven… ven-ih-suhn jer… kee? What is this? It looks like leather! Who would put leather in a kitchen?”

Unable to bear watching any further, Kenny placed a hand on the filly’s shoulder, startling her. A second later, she whirled around, and Kenny found himself face-to-face with a very wide-eyed, nearly crazed looking Twilight.

“Oh! Uh… Sorry, I can’t find anything edible…” She chuckled nervously. “Maybe we should get back to the house?”

“Twilight,” Kenny sighed. “Venison is deer meat. Jerky is just dried meat.” Seeing the look of horror in her eyes, Kenny quickly held up a hand. “Hominian deer meat. They’re as dumb as rocks.”

“Right, humans are omnivores,” Twilight chuckled sheepishly. “Do you have bread? I remember something about humans preferring meat in sandwiches or something.”

“That’s a stereotype,” Kenny chuckled with a shake of his head. “But every stereotype has some truth to it. Humans used to do that on your side of the world to avoid being portrayed as barbarians for eating meat. Jerky is finger food.”

“Well, here, then,” Twilight sighed, floating the bag over to Kenny. “This should help, right?”

“There should be some manticore jerky here somewhere,” Kenny said with a nod as he took the bag. “I don’t like it much, but it contains a lot more Thaumium, and Mom and Dad are pestering me to eat more of that stuff.” After ripping the bag open and taking a bite, he sighed as the flavor of teriyaki jerky hit his tongue. A few more chews, savoring the flavor, and finally swallowing, he held off to say a little more. “I really love venison. Good thing it’s so cheap here. Deer are common up here.”

As Kenny began wolfing them down faster, Twilight giggled. “You sure you should be eating that fast?”

“No,” Kenny chuckled between bites. “But it’s so good, and I’m starving!”

Twilight sat down next to Kenny and watched as he continued eating. Paying little attention to the purple filly for the moment, Kenny tore through piece after piece, feeling his hunger abate bit by bit until…

His hand found nothing left. He’d emptied the bag.

Sighing, Kenny set down the bag, then turned to face Twilight with a smile.

“Thanks Twilight. So, how about we finish the tour?”

Twilight opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by a burst of purple light from behind Kenny.

“There you are!” Kris exclaimed, his voice heavy with panic. “Kenny! We’ve got a problem! Snakey’s sick!” His hands shaking, Kenny’s eldest brother pulled a white snake with a blue diamond pattern on its back out of his pocket.

“‘Snakey?’” Twilight asked, tilting her head in confusion with a small tinge of fear present in her voice. “I-I hate snakes!”

“He’s Kris’ latest pet Ice Garter,” Kenny explained quickly. “Kris usually catches three or four in the nearby canal every year, but this one has stayed alive for almost a year. Ice Garters are non-venomous. He’s harmless.”

“Yeah, but he won’t eat!” Kris blubbered. “I tried putting some snow hoppers in the terrarium, but he’s not eating! The others all died in months, and I don’t know any healing magic!”

“But you study Life spells all the time!” Kenny snapped. “How can you not heal when you’re nearly twice my age?”

“I prefer the other plant-based spells, okay?” Kris sighed. “Now’s not the time! You’ve got to help me, little bro!”

Sighing, Kenny put out his hands and waited as Kris deposited the snake in his waiting palms. He was breathing hard, but his tongue wasn’t flickering out at regular intervals like it normally did. In fact, the snake’s mouth seemed to be sealed shut by a disgusting black film, the ‘lips’ partially dissolved into each other.

“Rotten mouth disease,” Kenny said with a shudder. “That’s why he’s not eating. He can’t eat.” Turning to Twilight, he put on the most pleading look he could muster and said, “You just said you hate snakes. But this is my brother’s pet. I can’t just let him die. But for this, I’ll need both hands. Can you… Could you please hold him for me?”

Twilight was shuddering violently at the mere thought of the harmless snake.

“P-Please d-don’t.” Twilight managed to stutter out. “I-I can’t do it.”

“Twilight, Kris is too distraught right now,” Kenny pointed out, motioning to the panicked expression on his brother’s face. “He can’t do it, I need both hands for this, and you’re the only other one here.” Smiling gently, he put a hand on the filly’s shoulder. “Besides, he has no fangs. Ice Garters are completely harmless unless you’re an insect. You’re more of a threat to him than he could ever be to you.” Putting on another pleading expression, he drove it home. “Please? Kris is my brother. If not for him, then for me?”

Twilight sighed and nodded hesitantly.

“I… ok. I-I’ll do it,” She stuttered out with great difficulty.

Kris slowly moved closer to Twilight with shaking hands. Twilight attempted to focus on picking up the scaly creature and after summoning all her courage she inhaled quickly and grabbed the snake in her magical grasp.

Nodding with a smile to the nervous filly, Kenny closed his eyes and concentrated. Feeling the inner well of magic in his body, he pulled the one portion he was good with—Water—to the surface, feeling the energy flow through him. He didn’t have to look to know his hands were now glowing blue, but he’d need to see to cast, anyway, so after snapping his now-glowing blue eyes open, he started visualizing the liquid force bending to his will. Blue light started forming into a crystal-like structure in front of him, rippling like water, then engulfing the snake.

The snake began shaking slightly in Twilight’s magic as she struggled to carry the snake not because it was flailing about, but because she was shivering madly like as if she had been caught outside at night without any coats to keep her warm.

Noticing the filly’s condition, the snake’s teenaged owner knelt down and put a shaking hand of his own on her shoulder, forcing a smile to try to reassure her, although he was himself still quite concerned for his pet’s condition.

Twilight held a fearful expression towards “Snakey” as she was trying with every ounce of her will not to throw the poor creature with all of her might through a window. Twilight turned towards Kris as he stood there with a small reassuring smile.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “He can’t hurt you. You’re going to be fine. I’ve been handling snakes for years, and I’m still fine.”

Twilight gave a weary smile and attempted to refocus on the snake as to not drop it. She felt a tad safer compared to moments earlier where she was fully prepared to run out into the snow kicking and screaming all the while. She doubled her efforts and waited for Kenny to continue the spell.

Noting that everything had calmed down, Kenny resumed focus, concentrating on the words he was about to say to give the magic form and power. For the strength needed to save the snake’s life, the spell wouldn’t be enough without words, and it needed the strength from speaking the name.

After focusing for half a minute, Kenny forced the magic into the snake, and spoke the name:

“Crystal Cure.”

The light turned into an aura of sparkling water, almost like a liquid sapphire, the reptile’s body absorbing all the power of the spell. The black film vanished, the snake’s mouth reformed, and strength returned to it.

Sighing, Kenny released the power, and felt the energy fade as the spell finished healing his brother’s pet. With everything finished, he turned to Twilight and smiled.

His good mood seemed infectious, as she broke into a huge smile, herself.

“I… I did it!” The filly exclaimed happily. “We did it!” With a blink, she realized she was still holding the snake, and let out a scream. “Snake!” With a flash of magenta light, she teleported away.

Kris gave his brother a look that asked “what’s her problem?” while grabbing his pet snake before it could hit the ground, and all Kenny did was shrug.

Author's Note:

Chapter 4 people! Hope you enjoyed!

Now, I may be a little while on the next update, as Chapter 5 is mostly done, but needs a bit more to it. So, it I don't update next week, please don't be mad at me! :fluttercry:

Please give me in-depth feedback if possible, but if you can't be in-depth, I guess it still works.

The like, fave, comment even if you downvote thing I keep stressing has hopefully been done enough by now, so there likely won't be any new mentions of it unless I feel it needs it.

Once again, I hope you all enjoyed, ans I'll see you in chapter 5!