Different

by Hardwired

Chapter 3: Not what he seems (Celestia's Perspective)

Author's Note:

Welp, this was fun.
Every chapter is going to take 2-5 days to write, just keep that in mind so you don't get all like: "WHEN'S THE NEXT CHAPTER!? "

Anyways, like always, hope you enjoy this chapter.

The experiment was successful, but there was always this thing that bothered me since he was created, he doesn’t act like the other ponies, he definitely isn’t shy because he seems very outgoing, but doesn’t talk, I think he’s not mute because, well, he would have already written that he can’t speak.

“Hmph..” I slumped in my throne, resting my head on my hoof, I thought about all of this with a blank expression on my face

I’m afraid Luna is getting too attached to him, but if I’m being completely honest with myself, I’m getting attached too, I’ve done something I haven’t done in a while, shed a tear, if I acted like that if I lost him for like 10 minutes, imagine how I’ll feel if I lose him forever.

Twilight Sparkle came up to me, likely to visit me or tell me something, she usually does that, it always cheers my mood up, but I couldn’t talk to her about how I was feeling, this is something we kind of had to keep a secret.

But then again, she was the queen of friendship.

“Ugh…” I mumbled to myself, “Why do I have to make the hard choices” I said quietly enough for Twilight not to hear as she walked up to the stairs with the gold and ruby carpet.

“Is there anything wrong Princess?” She asked as she bowed down.

I chuckled a bit, “I already told you, you don’t need to bow down whenever you talk to me.” She was about to say what I thought she was going to say so I said. “No need to say sorry too.”

She asked, with a slightly shocked expression. “Am I that predictable?”

“Maybe,” I replied with a smug look on my face, it always felt nice playing a little with Twilight.

“Anyways,” she asked, I knew what was coming. “You seem a little down, is something wrong with the kingdom in trouble?”

I felt she would be the only that could know right now, but I needed to tell Luna too.

“No, actually quite the opposite, it’s flourishing thanks to the new wave of students that are entering the school”

Twilight gave a sheepish smile. “Well, it’s my job after all.” She gave a small giggle after.

“I need to talk to Luna, give me some time Twilight, I will be back,” I said, I didn’t notice at the time, but I had a worried look on my face.

“Wait, Princess Celestia! I’m coming with you!” She said before starting to follow me, I turned back. “You can’t come with me.” She felt a little betrayed, and I felt bad, but I knew I had to consult Luna before introducing him.

So, I walked over to Luna’s room, where they were both hanging out, it seemed like they were playing a little game between the two of them, so I decided to ask if I could join in.

Luna said sure but Hardwired still didn’t say a word.

“Any reason you think he might not be talking? Hardwired, are you mute?” I asked, I was desperate for him to say his first word, but he wrote “No.”

Luna seemed a bit miffed at me. “I already told you, give him time.” She calmed down, “Anyways, want to join our little game?” I decided to give it a try, and to be honest, it was fun, it reminded me of when I and Luna would play together before.

Is this how it feels to be a mom? This is not the same as Twilight, it feels different, special, all my attention and care is going to this colt who won’t even talk to us back, but we still love him.

Anyways, we were playing together with our games, but I had forgotten what I came in for.

“Luna, can I talk to you in private for a bit?” I said.

“But we can’t leave Hardwired here alone, he doesn’t really understand running off without our permission isn’t allowed, someone has to always take care of him.”

That sort of threw me off guard. “W-Well, we can do it here, I mean, Hardwired can hear it, it’s nothing bad.”

“Well then, let’s hear it, you wanna hear it, right Hardwired?” Luna said enthusiastically, and Hardwired nodded with a small smile on his face.

“Well, I was thinking, why don’t we introduce him to Twilight?” I said, and I was hoping for a happy answer, but oh boy was I wrong.

“YOU WANT TO WHAT!?” Luna said in an enraged tone. “NO ONE CAN KNOW ABOUT THIS UNTIL WE KNOW MORE ABOUT HIM!”

Geez, she really is protective. “Calm down Luna, it’s just Twilight, and plus, he can begin Twilight’s school program once we’ve introduced her to him”

“BUT!? But…” Luna found no good excuse. “Well, I guess you are right, there is no reason why we shouldn’t introduce him to Twilight.”

“But how do we introduce him?” She asked, and to be honest, I don’t really have a plan for introducing him, so I decided to make one as I was speaking.

“Well… we could like… make dinner! With Twilight! And introduce him there.” Luna seemed to be fine with the idea, but as always, being the natural mom she is, she asked Hardwired.

“What do you think Hardwired, you like the idea? We’re meeting a new friend!”

Hardwired got straight to writing with his mouth like always, and wrote: “How do they look like?”

And well, I decided to start explaining how Twilight was: “Well, her name is Twilight, she is a purple mare with dark purple hair and she has this dragon nam-” He tried to catch my attention by shaking the paper in front me, I took a look at the paper and to my surprise, it said: “I know her”

Luna was shocked too. “D-Did she sees you?” She mumbled to herself: “Please sa… write no, please”.

He wrote “No.” Luna said relieved. “Thank Celestia” I chuckled a bit, it still felt weird people using my name in normal everyday phrases.

“Well, I guess I need to tell Twilight to come tomorrow to dinner,” I said.

“Tia, please tell me this is a good idea,” Luna said, worried for Hardwired.

I sighed. “No need to be so protective of him, he’s a normal po-” She stopped me dead on my tracks.

“HE’S NOT NORMAL!” Luna screamed. Hardwired started crying. “Oh! I-I-I…” Luna just kept stuttering, it’s like her mind just froze in time, so I decided to jump into action.

I gave Hardwired a tight hug and said: “It was an accident Hardwired, we didn’t mean to hurt your ears” His tears slowly fell on the paper he was writing on, and he wrote one more thing: “Are you mad because of me?”

I suddenly felt this rush of emotion, we weren’t mad because of him, it-it was just a misunderstanding… “N-No! We would never be mad because of you.” I hugged him tighter to my chest, I started getting a bit teary-eyed. “You are special in your own way, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.”

Luna was still having a small mental breakdown. “I-I-I’m sorry, I-I-I didn’t m-mean it…”

I pulled Luna into the hug and told her. “Don’t beat yourself up about it, it was a small mistake, we all make them, we’re barely learning to understand him.”

She gave a nod and buried her face on my chest.

“Well, I need to tell Twilight about the dinner, so why don’t you two hug it out?”

I got out of the embrace and headed off to Twilight, even though I was covered in some tears and snot from the cryfest from before, and to be honest, I still looked a bit teary-eyed.

“Twilight can’t see me like this,” I said to myself, so I decided to get my serious personality on, it was hard, but I managed to not look so emotional.

I arrived at the throne room and sure enough, Twilight was still waiting for me there.

“P-Princess! You finally arrived” Spike exclaimed, “We were getting worried your highness.”

“Twilight,” I said in a serious voice tone.

“Yes, Celestia?” She answered she was all ears.

“You are invited to dinner, tomorrow, at 7 pm,” I said.

“Yes, of course!” She said.

“Let me write that do-” Spike said before I cut him out.

“Only Twilight can come, sorry, Spike.” I seemed to have caught Twilight off guard.

“B-But why?” She asked, soon followed by Spike asking the same question.

“There are some things that we need to leave clear, just Luna, you, me, and a special guest.” Those last two words seemed to have caught her attention.

“Special… guest?” She asked.

“Just come tomorrow to see who they are, you can leave,” I said, shooting a little wink at Twilight, she smiled back at me and left.

I went back to Luna and Hardwired to see that they had resumed playing without me.

“Oh, I see that you don’t want to play with me,” I said jokingly. “Well, I’m joining in whether you like it or not!” I pounced on Luna, hugging her and we all started hugging it out.

Comments

[Tintop18]

I'm enjoying this fic keep up the good work.