Chapter 4
PORT HAVEN, NEW EVERFREE – 16:29 Local Time
[Seven hours after Incident]
The clip-clop of Ebony’s hooves echoed through the corridor of the detention block as she trotted to Kiln Bread’s cell, wearing only a saddlebag slung under her right wing and her omni-tool on her left foreleg. Tickles was tucked snugly under her left wing.
A lone Kirin buck in dressed up to his neck in ceramic plate armour stood guard at the door, idly watching something on the screen of his magic-held tablet.
She waved her free wing at him. “Hi, Long Drought!”
“Here to see the core-worlder, eh?” he asked without even looking at Ebony.
“Ya.” She raised her foreleg and swiped a data package from her omni-tool, sending it to his tablet. “Here’s my clearance.”
Drought nodded, then finally turned to look at her. His eyes briskly scanned her nude body from hoof to ear, pausing only on her saddlebag.
“What’s in there?” he asked.
Using her wing, she flipped the cover up from her saddlebag and allowed him to peer at its contents. “Late lunch for me and him. Files are my medical records and an NDA for the detainee.”
“Okay, you’re clear.”
Ebony raised a hoof. “One more thing—can you turn off the anti-magic field? We wanna be more comfortable eating.”
Drought raised an eyebrow. “You want to die fast, is it?”
She snorted. “He’s my old school friend, not a hardened criminal. I’ll be fine.”
“Your skin, not mine.” He tapped a few buttons on the control panel, and the red warning light above the door went out. Then, he beckoned her in as the door slid open. “Shout if anything, and I fry him.”
“Ya, ya,” she said, waving him off as she trotted into the cell.
Inside, she found Kiln lying belly-up on the bed, with his head turned towards the door. He blinked, then yelped when he accidentally jostled his swollen right foreleg in his hasty scramble to sit upright.
Despite the assortment of bruises he’d acquired and the slight odour of a day’s missed shower, Ebony’s heart still fluttered at the sight of his well-proportioned limbs and musculature. He’d shed pretty much all of his foal fat over the years, and she wouldn’t have taken him for a desk jockey if at first glance—he probably exercised. She’d bet that his tan coat and purplish mane would be silky-smooth after a nice shower, and wouldn’t it be great if she could be there with hi—
Tickles interrupted her train of thought with a sharp prick at the back of her mind.
Killjoy. He was never like this in school…
He poked her brain again.
Fine, fine!
She shook her head and gave Kiln a polite smile. “It’s probably obvious, but I think I should ask anyway—how are you feeling?”
Kiln snorted. “Starving, but aside from that, surprisingly okay. What about you?”
“I’m fine. No lasting damage from getting zapped.”
He winced. “Sorry.”
Ebony got a little itch at the back of her mind, which was Tickles’ mental equivalent of a scoff.
She ignored it and began transferring the contents of her saddlebag onto the table—a few small pies wrapped in foil, two cartons of orange juice and some fresh apples. “Well, good thing you’re hungry, otherwise I won’t be able to finish these by myself!”
They sat on opposite sides of the table, whilst Tickles levitated himself onto the edge perpendicular to either of them, with his back to the adjacent wall.
Kiln blinked at the sight of Tickles’ magic, and after meeting her eyes for permission, he ignited his own horn to peel the foil off his pie.
“No fancy spells, by the way,” said Tickles. “We’re being watched. If you try anything…”
“Yeah, I get it. I’m not stupid.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
Ebony scowled at Tickles. “Could you not? We’re trying to smooth things out, here.”
Kiln gulped down a mouthful of pie and sighed. “I… look, I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to stick my muzzle where it doesn’t belong, but I was worried after all the things I heard from your dad. And I didn’t mean to freak out and accidentally stun you or scramble your ship. And—are you wearing contacts?”
She tilted her head. “What?”
He gestured at his eyes. “Your eyes are green. Like, changeling-green. I am absolutely sure that they used to be amber or golden…”
“My eyes are—oh, crud, I’d forgotten about that.” Ebony groaned and rubbed her forehead. “Yeah, my eyes changed colour when I was around twenty—it’s one of the, uh, side effects of my condition. I had partial heterochromia for about a year before they fully switched over. Frag it, no wonder you panicked when I got all up in your face.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry—”
She shook her head. “No, don’t be. I… wasn’t being fair to you. You touched a sore spot for me, and I kind of forgot that it’s not your fault you were getting sketchy info from my father. I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions.”
“Yeah, me too.”
After pausing for a beat, Ebony turned to Tickles and gave him a pointed look. He remained stubbornly inert for several seconds, but she could already feel him squirming in a corner of her mind under her mental gaze.
Eventually, he shook his stuffed head and looked at Kiln, miming a heavy sigh as he did so. “I’m also sorry for assuming the worst about you. I could sense that you were hiding things from her, but I can’t actually read your mind. I didn’t know that you were being kept in the dark and that you were honestly just trying to help.”
“And I’m sorry for still thinking that you weren’t real.”
“You’ve finally come around, huh?”
“After what happened today? It’s probably the least crazy explanation. How’d you even do all of that stuff in the cockpit?”
“Separate somatic nervous system. Knocking Ebby out doesn’t affect me, and I can remain conscious without oxygen for a long time. I've also learnt to sense my surroundings with magic when I can't rely on Ebby's senses.”
“Cool.” Kiln smiled and held his hoof out to both of them. “Friends?”
Ebony grinned, and the three of them bumped hooves.
They then spent several minutes eating in companionable silence. For a moment, she could close her eyes and imagine that they were all back in school during recess, just spending time together without a care in the world other than homework.
She couldn’t put off the inevitable, though.
Kiln was working up the courage to get back to the matter of her health, judging by the way he kept giving the table a thousand-yard stare whilst he chewed.
“So,” he eventually said, “are you sure that you’re going to be okay? Long term, I mean.”
“I can’t say for sure.” Ebony sighed and showed him the underneath of her hoof, where she had a patch of chitinous fibres growing out of her frog. “I seem to be accumulating changeling characteristics over time. But we have no idea if that’s because I’m slowly turning into a changeling, or if a changeling is growing inside me.”
“The latter is technically true already,” said Tickles.
“Yeah, but we just don’t know how far it’ll go. Will I turn into a full changeling, a hybrid, or a nasty mishmash like a draconequus? Or is Tickles going to become the dominant body whilst I get to live rent-free in his brain?”
Kiln winced. “None of those sound particularly good. Aren’t you guys doing anything about it?
Ebony reached into her saddlebag and slid her scans over to him. “We’re monitoring it. As you can see, they’re more advanced that what my father’s shown you, but I haven’t actually suffered any negative symptoms, yet.”
“But there have been medical advancements since you were last in Equestria.” Kiln brushed aside the photos and shook his head. “Surely there must be some new drugs or therapies which can do something—”
“Doctor Axle is familiar with the latest med tech in the Core Worlds. Most of them would probably stop whatever’s happening to me, but Tickles didn’t react well to the samples we tried, which is expected, since they’re functioning like he’s the cancer. The full course might kill him or turn him into a vegetable. We can’t risk that.”
Kiln glanced at Tickles.
“And please don’t guilt-trip him into making that sacrifice for me,” she growled, a little more harshly than she’d intended.
“It might not be your choice to make when the time comes,” said Tickles, radiating mixture of warm concern and cold pragmatism.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
“But…” Kiln touched her hoof and swallowed. “Aren’t you afraid of what might happen if you don’t try anything?”
“Kiln, I was supposed to die before reaching two. I’m only here today because of Tickles.”
“What about getting another artificial heart?”
“Papa’s choice, huh?” She snorted. “Tickles can’t survive in a jar if we cut him out, and that’s if we can even get all of him out safely in once piece. He gets nutrients from all my organs, and more importantly, he’s piggybacked into my nervous system. If we put him in a jar, it’s going to be total sensory deprivation on top of having no organic body to love and be loved by. That’s a nightmare I wouldn’t wish on anypony.”
He sagged in his chair. “I—I get it. But have you checked with the changelings? The Hive may know something we don’t.”
“Doctor Axle is a former Hive scientist,” said Tickles. “Why else do you think we trust him so much?”
“Huh. Guess you really do meet all sorts out here,” Kiln murmured.
“Besides, remember what I said about my transplant being an unsanctioned experiment?”
He nodded.
“The doctor whom my father paid for the procedure was jailed because of some other shady stuff he did later on. But before that happened, he was working for Glimmerlife.” She gave him a thin smile. “You work for a megacorp. Tell me, what’s the likelihood of the suits claiming that Glimmerlife owns a biological miracle like Tickles because he was made using their technology and resources? What’s the likelihood of me owing them every bit I earn for the rest of eternity if they save my life?”
Kiln averted his eyes. “Stars above…”
“Yeah.” Ebony sighed and rubbed her temples. “That’s another reason why we’re not keen on going back. Or talking to my father.”
“Out here, we’ve found people who don’t treat Ebby like she’s insane.” Tickles trotted across the table and draped a wing over her foreleg. “Heck, there are even a few people here who treat me like an actual person—one of them oversaw my exams and granted my flight license. That’s more than we could’ve hoped for anywhere else.”
“We’ve found a family here,” she said.
Kiln remained silent for a long moment, distracting himself with an apple. After downing the last bite, he said, “If there’s a chance of reconnecting with your mom and dad, would you do it? I think they do miss you—your dad seems to, at least. When he’s not talking about your condition. I actually have his contact info.”
“I don’t know. If it were on my own terms, maybe. But not for some time yet. I… a lot of things are still raw for me.” She reached over and hugged Tickles close to her chest. “And I don’t know if Papa will ever see past his obsession with ‘fixing’ me and getting rid of Tickles. Mama might never stop blaming him for starting this in the first place.”
“Can’t you just show them something like what happened on your ship today?”
“If you strapped them down and forced them to shut up and stop walking over me for a minute, maybe.” Her chuckle sounded bitter as she shook her head. “To them, I’m still their little airheaded filly who can’t tell her butt from her brain. I don’t know if a functional horn is going to change that.”
“I’ll help any way I can,” he murmured, “Maybe I could talk to them.”
“Good luck with that.”
“We appreciate it, at any rate,” Ebony added with a rueful grin. “Anyway, as for the legal matters of what happened today…”
Kiln shifted uneasily in his seat. “I’m not staying in jail, am I?”
“So long as you don’t mention anything to the Equestrian embassy, the Director is quite happy to let you out without pressing charges,” said Tickles as he levitated the NDA form and pen out of her saddlebag and into Kiln’s hooves. “The freighter apparently suffered an unfortunate engine failure during re-entry. Normal wear and tear.”
He stared at the form for several seconds. “Just like that?”
“Yep. Everything will be returned to you, and you’re even free to continue your ‘business’ here, or just take a vacation if you feel like it.”
The corners of Kiln’s mouth slowly curled upwards, and Ebony felt her heart rate spike when she realised how much she wanted him to keep doing that. Tickles’ horn sputtered for a moment, and then she felt him giving off waves of mock-disgust mixed with ravenous hunger.
“A vacation sounds nice. Any recommendations? Someplace where I can just relax and catch up with long-lost friends?”
She giggled and traced a wing finger along his foreleg. “You know, I’ve got a couple of ideas…”
Tickles looked down at his plush belly and patted it gingerly. “Great... between the two of you, I'm going to get so fat once this is all over.”
Ebony shared a look with Kiln for a moment, and then they both chuckled at Tickles' expense.
“Think you have enough leave to spend that much time with us?” she asked with a grin.
“Well, captain...” Kiln matched her grin as he signed the NDA. “A friend once told me that it’s less a question of who’s going to let us, and more a question of who’s going to stop us.”
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I really liked this! Any chance we get to read more of Ebony and Tickles? They've really grown on me
This was intriguing, I love the world and all of this. I need more. XD great job!
This is a certified gooder.
I loved how you did the concept for this story. It was really touching
Nice work!
Just curious: is this story related to or inspired by the world of Changeling Space Program?
So this was a fun concept. I do get wondering about the long term consequences--if you really want to phrase it that way--will be for Ebony and Tickles as time goes on. They are essentially two different entities--heck, two separate creatures arguably--sharing one body after all. I don't doubt they can work out a happy life for the both of them with this arrangement, but I'm sure there will be many complexities they're not going to know how to best work out at first as they come to them. For example, I'd imagine Ebony exploring any sort of love life is probably more than a little awkward at times for Tickles (since clearly his tastes on that front won't necessarily align with hers, as heavily implied here in the story).
On that subject, I suppose I might as well ask...how did Ebony and Tickles come to the conclusion that Tickles is male? Was that something Ebony just decided in her youth and Tickles never objected? Was that just how Tickles himself decided to identify himself? Or, dare I ask it, is there some physiological part to Tickles's parts of the body that, biologically speaking, would be male, assuming he had a full body of his own for it to fully manifest with?
Or did you never think it through that far and don't really know how to answer? Because that'd be okay too--obviously Ebony and Tickles don't know all the answers themselves either, so no harm in the author not knowing at this point too. I'm really just asking for curiosity's sake anyway, given I've been cursed with an overanalyzing brain that can't stop itself from thinking about these sort of things.
In any case, I could see another story coming out of this if the chance to write it ever arises. I'd imagine Ebony's dad isn't going to give up having his way on this so easily after all.
11110132
It's possible, though I don't really have plans right now.
11110216 11110241 11110306 11110332
Thanks for reading!
11110372
I haven't actually read Changeling Space Program, so that would be a no. It's generally inspired by other sci-fi media I've enjoyed, such as Mass Effect and The Expanse.
11110478
Could be awkward for her partner as well, since there's always a third party watching, or that they're technically servicing two at once.
yourself" might mean for her.)
(I decided against squeezing in a joke about what self-servicing or "Go f
The idea is that Ebony picked a male persona for him, and he just kinda grew into it. By the time he was developed enough to understand the concept, he was already comfortable with being identified as male. I just didn't have a way to fit that nicely into the story.
Hey, it's cool. Gives me an opportunity to lore-dump!
Anyway, these characters have been in my head for years now. In fact, Ebony and Tickles were originally conceived as the main characters in a spinoff for That Changeling's a Bad OC!; they just needed a bit of tweaking to fit into a sci-fi setting for the contest. It was a challenge condensing years of character milestones into a short story, though.
11110625
I actually did wonder if the idea might have evolved out of "That Changeling's a Bad OC!"--I can see how the two respective lores could've interwoven at least.
Would they not be a self sustaining system? I would imagine that the changeling could survive off of Ebony's emotions entirely, but I'm not sure if there's limitations. Which also makes me think that emotions are just optional or required specifically or magic. If Tickles is entirely grafted through Ebony and gets nutrients from her, then I think it might be entirely possible to have Tickles not require emotion. It would probably be uncomfortable if that did occur though.
Waiting for the finally accurate half bat half pony half changeling jokes.
You've manage to justify baplicorns as feasible, unironic entities -- truly a dangerous author
adds to long list of changeling related raugos stories I hope will one day get follow ups
This was a delight to read, and i wouldn't say no to more of it.
The worst thing about great one-shots like these is that after you're done reading them, you just can't help but want more.
Some of that patented Raugos weirdness. Always a welcome thing.
It's a very well executed interesting concept - great story.
11110691
My headcanon is that changelings need regular food to live, and love is instead necessary for reproduction, advanced magic and higher mental function. It may be possible for Tickles to subsist without emotions, but they probably would not consider that a life worth living.
You know, it didn't even occur to me that she was a pseudo-alicorn until you pointed it out.
How's this for an out-of-context statement from Ebony: "I became a princess after my closest friend grew a horn inside me!"
I’m just imagining Tickles with the Moonbase Alpha text to speech voice. Those characters were pretty good. Very nice story, it left me with the ‘oh no, there is no next chapter’ sensation.
You know, the issue of Ebby talking to herself the way she does could've been found out earlier on by just doing brainscans and seeing there were two different brain frequencies in her head
oh wow! this is such a great concept, and amazing in execution. I really want to see what's going to happen later, but leaving the story as is would be just as good.
11111709
Stop poking holes in my plot.They probably could've, yeah.Unfortunately, her parents were not viewing her claims in good faith, and she was not in a position to force them to verify her claims with a proper medical procedure. It's also complicated by the fact that they would want to avoid uncomfortable questions about why their daughter has freaky growths after getting an unsanctioned, experimental transplant.
Admittedly, I'd left that issue vague because I couldn't neatly fit it all into the story. Not with the contest deadline so close, at any rate.
Great story. A very interesting setting (the Hive fleet referance makes me want to know more, for one thing), and the characters are fun too. I can definitely ship it as well, never mind the awkwardness for Tickles.
Nice story, I wrote a short review about it.
11112015
Yeah, it was unsanctioned but the guy should've won a medical award for his work. But yeah, using Changling stem cells to create a heart needs more work to prevent things like tickles from being created.
11112384
You generally don't get any kind of award when the experimental transplant you're conducting is illegal. And even if you did, I don't know how eager you'd be to tell people that you won the Victor von Frankenstein Award for Experimental Medicine.
11112357
Thanks for the review!
11112384
Unfortunately, as 11112984 has pointed out, he's not really in a position to gain positive recognition for it unless he can somehow scrub his record of unethical practices.
He might be willing to settle for plain old money, though, if he can find an unscrupulous benefactor to fund and refine his techniques. He'll also need to get out of jail first.
11113063
You should make a story about how that heart was developed though.
Wow, how have I never seen your stories before?! I'm looking forward to going through your (sizable) story backlog.
This story was very well-executed and thought-provoking; I found myself thinking about the characters for a long while after reading it, and here again the day after reading it. You do a great job of establishing setting and character with a very small word count--a difficult feat. I'd love to see more of these characters.
As an aside, I'd be very interested to see how a romantic relationship would develop between Kiln, Ebony, and Tickles. Mandatory consensual non-monogamy?
Well, that was interesting.
I've gotta feel sorry for Tickles, being trapped in someone's head your whole life must suck.
I want more of this universe and these characters, The concept is wonderful
More please
Catching up with my read later list. Nice work Raugos.
A little bit of implied worldbuilding caught my curiosity.
This:
Implies that Equestria still has alicorns in it in some capacity.
But this:
Implies that those alicorns, whoever they are, either have very little effective power in practice, or aren't following the legacy of Twilight Sparkle/Sunny Starscout all that closely. Because allowing slavery on a technicality isn't very harmonious. I know that is just speculation on the part of the characters and not necessarily fact. But that two pony citizens/former citizens of Equestria consider such a thing plausible is telling in its own right.
11141713
The idea is that alicorns still wield tremendous influence when they choose to exercise it, but they aren't omniscient, and Equestria as a spacefaring civilisation has grown too large for them to easily monitor and control. No king rules alone, especially for alicorns presiding over democratic societies, so they unfortunately have to be careful about how they spend their political capital in order to keep things running smoothly.
A couple of citizens being abused by a corporation is probably going to fly under their radar, unless the case makes enough of a splash in the media to attract their attention.
Excellent! Words fail.
11142049
Not even assention into demigodhood makes you know more than everyone else. Seriously you should make a story about the alicorns of a spacefairing Equestria and at least how one assended
haha, loved Tickles poking Ebony as she was about to get horny on main, yet another issue raised by two distinct personalities sharing the same body! and the implication that in the long term, Ebony and Tickles' positions could switch is a fascinating one, and i really like just how accepting Ebony is of this possibility. that a very non-normative (in multiple ways!) pony like Ebony could find a home and sense of belonging in the loose and practical periphery that she could not in the tightly regulated metropole is a great staple of the space opera setting, and a very nice thing to end the story on. Ebony is a great pony, and i love her. thank you so much for it!
11221469
Thank you for reading, and for organising the contest in the first place! Ebony was a joy to write, and I'm so glad you love her too!
Actually, based on the information so far, hybrid would be the end and current state until old age. All conversion demonstrated thus far indicates complete synchronicity, and even if Ebony biologically degrades enough to become equestrian RoboCop, Tickles would have adapted to host her mind anyways (if ever it came to that). The fact that they've remained two distinct entities despite the high level of neurological integration is very telling in this regard.
A cute vignette to be sure. 👍
11385689
Thanks so much for reading!
I would love to see more of Ebony and Tickles! Are they any art of them?
11403902
There's no art of them, unfortunately.
Thanks for reading!
11404460
Aw, that's too bad. I hope you get to do another story with them sometime in the future.
This was wonderful. There was a lot of world building without a lot of effort, which I always love. The characters were interesting and tension that held the plot together was just right for this kind of story; just enough that you could see what was coming, but not too much to drown out the character growth.
While I would love to see more of these characters, I'm not going to ask for a sequel. If one shows up, sure I'll enjoy it, but I'm really happy with this.
Yeah, you met the expectations you set for me back in Chapter 1.
11599035
Happy to have met expectations. Thanks for reading!
Great story!