Snickers: The Royal Colt

by Mocha Star

Egg Bearer

Cress led the herd, and Kiwe, down several halls and to a squad of guards. Snapping to attention, the guards formed two ranks, flanked the group, and nodded to the thestral filly as she passed. Ponies of noble and lower birth moved to make a path for the guards and their charges.

Silver and Diamond began talking, wondering about where they were being led, while the colts focused on taking in the sights of Canterlot they hadn’t before. The building’s architecture, the colors, the brightness all seemed to wow both colts into utter silence as they appreciated the city beyond the shopping district.

Finally, they came to a halt, both columns of guards stopping behind Cress when she did, as though she were their commanding officer. Cress turned to face her fellows and gestured to a statue of Celestia, lying with three foals by her side, reading a book. The book was in a text none could read; none except Snickers.

The text shifted when he looked at it, as though it were trying to stay in Ponish, but it was in ancient Terran; clear as any other word he’d ever read on a monitor or display in his previous life. He chose to stay quiet, though, as the title simply read 'A Story'.

“This is a statue of Celestia. Isn’t it cool?” Cress asked. “The three foals represent the three tribes in their youth as Celestia guides them into the future.”

Diamond stepped between Kiwe and Snickers. “So, is that it? You just wanted to show us a statue?”

Cress shook her head. “No, I wanted to take Snickers there,” she pointed to a store that made Snickers’s ears stand at full attention.

He grinned and hopped in place. “Awesome!” He shouted and galloped through the guards and shopping ponies. He ran into the technology shop and noticed the steampunk design of what could count as a miniature version of a car. He stared at it as he passed and then he noticed a very scaled down model of the computer Twilight had in her basement.

“That’s a 1:150 scale model of what’s called a Turning Test Machine. A device created by Turning Test a few years ago that can run calculations on its own.” Snickers looked up to the unicorn salesmare that had just informed him of the device and smiled. “It’s nice to see such a young colt interested in technology. You are interested, right?”

Snickers nodded fervently. “Oh, yes, ma’am, I am. What’s the future look like for this computer technology?”

“Computer? Hm, I like the way that sounds… however, it does detract from the creator’s design. Oh, I’m Tele Vision, owner of Future Tech Museum, and you are?”

Snickers giggled into his forehoof. “Snickers, ma’am. And I’m all about technology. This isn’t much of a museum, though.”

Tele nodded. “We all have to start small. This is just a shop I’m renting on investor’s funds. Soon, I hope to have a warehouse in a major city that I can turn into a real museum, where I can show off technology from the recent past and potential far future. Did you know that in one-hundred years, everypony will have a flying cart that won’t need pegasi?”

While totally in agreement, Snickers didn’t want to change the future of Equestria too much, or alter this hopeful mare’s views on what could be. The introduction of alternating current was enough, for now, he believed. He had a brief thought of telling her how right she could be, but instead chose to distract himself. “What’s that?” He moved past Tele to a box with a screen on it. He held back another giggle when he saw what it was from the other side.

“That, young stallion, is my gift to the scientific community. I’ve named it after myself and it’s going to change the way we enjoy going to the theaters! It’s a portable movie theater, in a box. It's called the Tele Vision Portable Display Theater and Remote Viewer. You see, the movie is stored on these crystals and goes in here,” she demonstrated by placing a crystal shaped like a small rectangle into a small receptacle on top, then used her hoof to press a large button on the front.

The television screen glowed and seconds passed before Tele sighed and took the gem back with her magic. “It still needs some work, but when I get it working, it’ll be amazing.”

Snickers bit his lip, resisting the urge to offer to fix it, knowing he didn’t want to cause any damage to technology he didn’t understand, yet. “I bet it will change the world, Miss Vision. What about that?”

“That’s a camera that takes a picture and develops it right away. They are already out there, but this one is a prototype that can print the pictures in photorealistic, oil, and acrylic styles of paint, as well as traditional stillframe. The only thing stopping mass production is that, well,” she giggled shortly, “there aren’t any ponies interested in the technology, and it’s a bit cost prohibitive when it does go into market.

“Do you understand what that means, Snickers?”

Snickers nodded and moved around the stand displaying the camera. “What about portable communication devices? Do you have any of those?”

Tele’s eyes sparkled and she rushed away without Snickers, calling to him when she was out of sight. “Snickers, come over here, I’ll show you what’s on the horizon, past the simple telegraph using mares-code. This, future inventor, is the Long Range Telephonic Intrapony Communication Device.

“Using proprietary refracting gem technology, these devices will allow ponies across Equestria to communicate with one another instantly, doing away with middle-ponies that can read, intercept, miswrite, or read aloud personal telegraph letters,” she frowned for a second, then returned to a hopeful smile.

“Wow, if there’s two, can we try them?” Snickers asked. Tele squealed and placed a headset on Snickers while she turned away, swishing her tail in excitement. “Wait right here. When you hear a ringing, flip this switch,” she said and tapped on a single switch where a dial should have been. Snickers noted he’d have to suggest a way to specify callers, regardless of his own feelings on the matter of changing the future of telephony technology.

Snickers was pulled from his thoughts when the phone made a sound like a dinner chime being rung. He flipped the switch and, in near perfect clarity, heard Tele’s voice. “Hi, Snickers. I’m telephonically communicating with you from three yards away. Can you believe it?!” She shouted and was loud enough to be heard outside the headset.

Snickers grinned and nodded. “Yeah, it’s like you’re right next to me, but you’re actually far away. How much will this cost?”

“Hold on, I’ll be right back.” There was a clack and Snickers waited for Tele to return and use her magic to take the headset off of him. He flipped his ears once they were free of the confining device. “This will, hopefully, only cost about 500 bits per household. I see you’re surprised at the cost, but in the long run, the device will pay for itself.”

“Excuse me,” an earth pony mare asked from the site of another display, “what is this confounding device?”

Snickers met eyes with the excited mare and rushed to her side. “Yeah,” he asked, wondering what it was, too.

“Oh, that’s actually a portable memory recollection device. It’s fully functional, but testing has been a bit, well, testy. I don’t have it powered, for safety, but it fits on the back of a pony and can be used to help ponies with debilitating ailments recall certain events. However,” she raised a forehoof, “if used on a healthy pony, or other creature, it can cause events to be re-lived.

“That can be unnerving and, possibly, fatal, in one case. I don’t know the details, before you ask, but because of that, the device has been rendered unusable without the missing parts, which I don’t have. This is a loaned device from the Ministry of Equine Safety and isn’t available for sale, test, or even description, besides what I’ve already told you.

“I have a brochure here, if you’re interested in funding future research, though,” she gestured to several brochures and forms.

Snickers hummed and then shook his head. “No, I don’t think Mom or Mommy will let me invest in anything, yet. Besides, I could make everything in here on my… own,” he trailed off and looked at the kindly disbelieving mares. “Just kidding, I know this is way too advanced for me. I just… hope to be an inventor, someday.”

Tele comfortingly rubbed her forehoof through his mane. “And you can be, as long as you look to the future with bright eyes, and don’t let neighsayers hold you back or bring you down.”

Tele grinned as a new patron entered her museum and rushed to her. “Is this a camera shop?” The mare asked.

Tele sighed and stopped by her potential customer. “No, but I sell simple technology such as that in the back. The front here is actually a look into the future, our future,” she gestured nebulously into space, “and it’s brighter than the day’s sky.”

Snickers looked at the mare beside him and they shared a look. Snickers could see something wise in her eyes that he couldn’t place. “Son, this room is full of potential, but don’t expect a lot. This place hasn’t seen a technological revolution, ever. It’s like the whole world is stuck in time, never improving or advancing for some reason.

“Hope for the best, little guy, but don’t expect much that you don’t do yourself. Equestria is three-thousand years old and still uses stone-age technology.”

Snickers stepped back from the mare and looked her over. She was a slate red with auburn mane and tail. What she said was curious, but her mark was what caught his eye. “Your mark, is that a circuit?”

The mare smirked and nodded. “You’ve been reading in the Canterlot Library Electronics section, it seems. Stay there and read more, maybe you can be the one to bring change to this stagnant world.”

Snickers inhaled to say something else, but stopped when Tele ran past with the customer following. “This way to modern technology... and sales!”

Snickers watched the mares rush past, but when he looked at the mare he was talking to, he saw her walking to the exit. He was willing to give chase, ready to ask her more on her mark and what it meant, as well as what she was talking about, but he hesitated.

“Whatever, she was probably some inventor that got shot down a few times too many,” Snickers reasoned. “Well, what else does this place have?”

“Snickers?” Silver called from the doorway. “There you are. We were wondering if you were gonna be in here a while, or wanted some shaved ice with us?”

Snickers looked around and realized that he really could make everything in the museum; better than what he’d seen, in fact. He nodded to Silver, choosing to follow her out and resume his day.

“So, was that the big thing you had to show us?” Snickers asked Cress.

She nodded and shrugged her leathery wings. “I really thought that you’d all be interested in it, because of how you seemed so into science and technology.”

Snickers nodded. “I am, but I guess the others aren’t,” he sighed. “I wish you could know what I know, you’d appreciate the little things all the more if you did.”

Diamond nuzzled Snickers and moved to side with him. “If you want, I’ll go in with you and you can show me all about that… techno-stuff.”

Snickers shook his head. “If you sounded any more bored, I think you’d yawn as soon as we walked in.”

“Well, are there any parks around here we could play in?” Diamond asked, looking to Cress.

Cress nodded. “Sure, let’s get that ice and I’ll show you to a park I know about.”

The guards snapped to attention and followed Cress to a shaved ice stall where, once the foals were with their treats, they all got to climb onto a guard’s back to enjoy their desserts while Cress flew just ahead and guided them to the park.

Snickers smiled as he thought of playing and realized he couldn’t blame anypony for not sharing his interest in the future, because everypony with him was either younger than he was mentally, or on guard duty. His concerns, adult concerns, weren’t theirs; nor should they be his. He licked his shaved ice and looked at the ponies they passed, knowing they really were happy just as things were.

Blissful in their ignorance.

It was one of the few times Snickers had looked at ponies in a new light, and the light wasn’t very exciting. Nobles walked with their snouts up, foals were dressed primly and properly, and there was an air of refinement about everypony that just said what the mare in the shop had; they were happy being stagnant.

Taking solace with that, Snickers focused on the moment he was in and enjoyed his treat while beginning to talk with Silver Spoon about shops and stores they passed, market stalls that reminded them of being back home, in Ponyville, and they eventually included the others with plans of what to play when they got to the park.

---

Hours later, after returning to the castle and taking a short nap, the group split with the fillies heading into Kiwe's room, leaving the colts to themselves. Now, Snickers and Kiwe sat facing one another, Kiwe looking ashamed while Snickers smiled gently. “So,” Snickers started, “you’re gonna be a dad… how’s it feel?”

Kiwe shrugged and rubbed one of the few scars on his foreleg he’d had left that was blended into his stripe. “I… am scared. I was not prepared.”

Snickers snerked. “You came in her, like, a hundred times… what’d you think would happen?”

“Not this!” Kiwe shouted in reply, his face twisting to anger. “Had I known she was in heat, I would have spent time in the bathroom and…” he blushed brightly and looked away.

Snickers laughed. “Beat your meat? Naughty colt, you’re not supposed to say such things… can I,” he stopped mid-sentence, “help you in any way?” Snickers felt the struggle pass and appreciation flow through him, having narrowly avoided hitting on his close friend again.

“No, soon I will be meeting her again and we’ll talk about what to do. I long to hear her call me her Kiki again, as it makes me have such wonderful feelings. I do not wish to leave you or the girls… You’re my friends and you’re my brother from another mother.” He smiled again and met Snickers’s eyes. “You are a very important pony, and I look forward to experiencing your travels and trials with you and your herd.”

Snickers sighed and relaxed. “I can’t believe how I’m treated here, ya know? I mean, shit, I’m treated like a diamond egg worth a million bits. Every mare wants me, but is afraid of breaking me in any way.”

Kiwe quietly snorted. “I forgot you use such language and sound so crass… perhaps I should remove the stick from my ass,” Kiwe rhymed and joined Snickers in a good-natured laugh. “Yes, I can use such words, brother. While with Gul…” he went quiet for a moment, “...we spoke in such a way.”

Snickers began to grin. “Dirty talk? Do tell me more, I’m all ears,” he stated and focused his attention, and ears, on Kiwe. Kiwe waved him off, though. “Aww, I was hoping for some good, juicy, details.”

“I have no plans to share everything we did, but perhaps a little bit wouldn’t hurt,” Kiwe admitted and inhaled to speak, when the door to the apartment thudded from heavy knocks.

There was a clang from outside the door and the guards stiffened, tightening their grips on their weapons. “Open up, Kiki, or I’ll get the lawyers involved!”

Kiwe squeaked and crouched low, beginning to shake and tremble. “N-no, not again.”

A guard opened the door with another at the ready. The door had two heavy dents from where a stone bust of an earth pony he didn’t know had hit it, a golden-feathered, panther-backed gryphon tom standing at the threshold, glaring into the room as he searched for Kiwe.

“Get over here, you unicorn-zebra bastard!” the young male gryphon shouted, his and Snickers’s eyes meeting as the colt approached. “Who are you?”

“I’m Snickers, why’re you making a scene at my apartment?”

“I’m Gil, Gul’s brother. This is apartment 9; Kiki’s here, and he has to answer for this,” Gil announced to the apartment and reached to a bag slung under himself. He sat and cradled the bag, moving it to expose an egg as large as Snickers’s head, but golden and spotted with dark dots.

“Fuck me with a fourteen inch dildo,” Snickers groaned as he looked at the egg. “How long until it hatches?”

“Three months; that’s three months I have to carry this if that rutting… wait, what did you say?” Gil asked.

Snickers shrugged. “I have a large vocabulary I choose to ignore in favor of colorful words. Uh, sentence enhancers, if you will. Look, can I just get you to come back tomorrow, or something? It isn’t a good time for us.”

Gil growled like an upset lion. “This is as good a time as any, and if you try to get rid of me, I’ll have lawyers here in no time, with the potential of ending the trade agreements we came here to establish and ratify. Tell Kiki to get over here and father this egg, or I’ll have to--”

“I am here, I hold little fear. Should you try to--”

“Can it, zebra! If you don’t take this egg and keep it warm, I’ll finish what I started earlier.”

Kiwe gulped and looked at the egg held by the gryphon. “I… cannot keep it warm. I have no feathers and my magic is not designed for such a task. Should I sit on it I would shatter it. Should I lay with it, I will lose my ability to walk and may suffocate… I do not even know a pegasi to help with the task.”

Gil’s expression changed from frustrated anger to one of worry and borderline fear. “No, you have to take it! Find a way, use your potions; those can work, right?”

Kiwe shook his head. “No, potions aren’t meant to rush life without significant risk. What else do you have to help care for this little one?”

Gil gulped and stepped back from the door and the guards glaring at him. “No, I can’t and won’t be its guardian! Take it, so I don’t have to stay here with you ponies until it hatches.” Gil began to reach the egg to Kiwe, who shook his head. Snickers shook his head next, followed by a pegasus mare that Gil offered the egg to.

"No," Gil whined pitifully, "I wanna go home! I can't watch some stupid egg for my sister. This is all your fault," he pointed at Kiwe. “I wouldn't be here if you didn’t get so hurt.”

Kiwe shook his head. “No, you are the one who attacked me.”

"Why not just take it with you back to Gryphonia?" A guard nonchalantly asked, leaning on her spear.

Gil snarled. "Because, the egg must be kept with the father while the mother hunts and provides. I refuse to be a guardian to my sister's egg."

Snickers raised a foreleg. "Why not just take it back, like the lady asked? Have some adult watch it till it hatches, then?"

Gil snapped his beak and averted his eyes from the colt. "My sister is a noble, above me, and as such… I must do as she commands while under official orders. If you," he pointed to Kiwe, "won't take your child, I must care for it. At least, until it hatches.”

Diamond startled Kiwe and Snickers by clicking her tongue from just behind them. "So, just carry it back with you, what's the big deal?"

Gil met her eyes. "I am under orders to make sure the egg stays with its father."

There were a couple seconds of silence before all the foals realized what was implied and they all 'ohhh'd. "So, you're with us for the next three months, then?" Snickers asked, like it was expected. "Fuck me; welcome to the club. Not the herd," Snickers winked at Diamond and elbowed her.

Silver Spoon rushed into the group. "Who's trying to get into our herd? Ew, at least try it with a hen, not a cock."

Gil's feathers bristled, but Snickers moved between Silver and him. "Tom, Silver. A male gryphon is a tom. The gryphons with rooster heads can be called that, but it's an insult to call any of the other types of gryphons that word."

Silver bowed her head. "Sorry for that, sir. Like, I didn't mean to insult you."

"Like, oh my gosh, I'm such a dumb little pony, and I smell like hay, and I totally don't matter," Gil snarked and mocked Silver.

"That's it!" Silver shouted and stomped towards the gryphon, stopping only when Diamond bit and tugged her tail. "Let me at him! Guard, take the egg so I can throttle him!"

Snickers rolled his eyes and head. "Gil, c'mon in. Don't piss off the fillies or they may actually hurt you… This is Kiwe, as you know," Snickers said, "and these two are Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Silver Spoon's the one who's trying to beat you up right now, and they're both in my herd."

"Dumb ponies and your herds. See how good having a herd turned out for you, huh, Kiki?" Gul practically spat. "Can you point me to the nearest buffet and can you, Kiki, take this egg in your oh so special magic so I can rest my talons?"

Snickers looked at Kiwe, Kiwe looked at Gil, then the egg, then Kiwe shook his head and stepped away, backing into a guard’s legs before he stopped. “I do not wish to hurt the egg, it was most recently laid.”

“So?” Gil asked. “You helped make it, you can help carry it.”

Kiwe was several feet away now, and began to duck under the stoic, but smirking, guard. “I do not wish any undue stress on the egg, Gil.”

Gil snarled and stepped closer to the mare, who narrowed her eyes and moved her spear slightly. Gil stopped in place, the respect he held for the guards being evident then. He stepped back and moved the egg to his carrier again. “Fine, I’ll carry your kid like the responsible adult I am,” he clacked his beak and turned to Snickers.

Silver Spoon was at Snickers’s left with Diamond beside her. Snickers motioned with his head to a doorway. “Buffet’s through there. Not much meat for you, though.”

“So, just because I’m mostly carnivorous doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy some other foods. Just keep that hay crap away from me. Grass, too, for that matter. You got soda?” Gil asked as he walked ahead of Snickers, into the dining room.

Snickers let him go ahead and waved Kiwe over to the herd. “Look, Kiwe, I don’t know how I feel about a gryphon with an egg joining us. We’re not exactly doing anything dangerous, but it’s not safe for an egg to be taken care of by foals.”

Silver nodded. “Exactly. They’re not like babies. They’re eggs! They crack and can scramble the chick inside.”

“What if it gets hot and it overheats?” Diamond asked. “What if we get teleported across the world and it’s the middle of the desert and we only have the egg to survive?”

Snickers cocked his head to the side. “That’s some crazy what if question. I think we’d manage just fine, if that did happen.”

Diamond glared past Silver to Snickers. “That had better not happen… I like normal days, since they’re so rare around you.” She stuck out her tongue and winked her eye, teasingly.

“Hey, don’t give me naughty ideas,” Snickers teased in reply.

Diamond blushed. “I didn’t mean it like that. It was a tease, you… butt.”

Snickers snickered. “Yeah, you’re a tease, alright.”

Silver nickered and stepped ahead of the other two. “Is anypony gonna ask Kiwe how he’s doing? Sheesh! Kiwe, like, how are you doing? All this drama’s gotta be getting to you, right?”

Huddling by the couch with his head under a sitting cushion, Kiwe lifted himself enough to mumble incomprehensibly.

“Well, he’s cracking…” Snickers looked between his fillies wearing a sly smirk, “...like an egg. Huh, huh?!”

The pun earned him a sharp snap on his hind leg from Diamond and a stern look from Kiwe and Silver Spoon.

“Not funny,” Silver condemned. “This is really tough for him! Can’t you see that, Snickers?”

Snickers nodded. “Yeah, but it isn’t my kid. I’m here for you, Kiwe, but I’m not gonna go crazy over all this. I’ll help however I can, okay?”

Kiwe moved from under the cushion and sat up, slouching and sighing in defeat. “I do not know how to handle this. It is a lot to ponder and… I just don’t know what to say or do.”

Diamond left Snickers’s side to join Silver Spoon. Then, the fillies hugged Kiwe. “We’re here for you, Kiwe,” Silver said, “no matter what you choose, or what happens.”

Kiwe hugged them back with a soft hum. “Maybe this won’t be so bad. With the support of my friends, this feels like I can handle being a dad.”

Snickers’s eyes went between his fillies and the thought of being a dad warmed his heart for a moment, before he shook his head. No, I’m not ready to be a dad. Not then, not now. I’m still young and a foal, I don’t need to worry about that… I just have to keep this puberty in control.

Comments

[Luckyfanisaac]

Snickers met eyes with the excited mare and rushed to her side. “Yeah,” he asked, wondering what it was, too.(——

[Mocha Star]

10611044
I don't know what that means...

[Luckyfanisaac]

10611069
You had unnecessary quotation.

[Mocha Star]

10611078
Ohhhh, thanks! I'll fix soon.
Appreciate it!

[ClosetBrony]

I'm all caught up and I've missed so much! I'm very glad Celly & Rarity are good, better even. I love Laxxie's new look. It's good Snickers can talk to Aquelis almost at will and it's good they've agreed on some boundaries too. Looks like Gil is going to be around for awhile. I'm sure Kiwe will be up to the task especially with Snickers and the girls behind him. Great updates as always!

[Silentwoodfire]

Kiwe and Gul should hopefully stay together

[Mocha Star]

11405287
😔