Of Stones and Roots

by Ignimbrite

Family Drama

“Oh, you're looking for Kind Face and Masquerade? They just left. Headed out on the train just this morning.”

“What?!?”

“Yep. They said they got a letter in the mail from some theater in Fillydelphia. It's kinda weird though, ‘cause I don't remember delivering any letters from there.”

Casting and Curtain looked at each other.

“You don't suppose Rising Star or Lime Light got the same idea as us, do you?”

After an uncertain pause, they both turned back to the mailmare. “Thank you ma'am.”

---

As Masquerade and Rising Star were leaving the theater, a unicorn mare showed up.

“Oh good, you're back. Would you mind watching the building? Something came up. It's…”

“Rising”- she held up a hoof- “calm down. What's going on? Who is this?”

“Sorry, sorry. This is Masquerade. She and her niece came to audition, but her niece just disappeared. Red Fur, green mane… unless she changed those before she left. Oh dear, the girl's a costume artist; practically a changeling. She could look like any filly her age.”

The unicorn held up a hoof again.

“Masquerade, was it? It's nice to meet you. I'm Lime Light, one of the other regular actors here. Were there any signs that she was taken by force?” As Masquerade shook her head, she continued, “Is there any place you think she would have gone, then?”

Masquerade thought for a moment, then nodded.

“I have an idea.”

---

“Excuse me, excuse me…”

Casting Call and Curtain Call both panted as they made it to the station.

“Sir, when is the next train to Fillydelphia?”

The pony at the ticket window raised an eyebrow and pointed to a train pulling away.

“That one?”

---

After having practically run clear across the park and back more times than anypony cared to count, several of the kids sat in a circle with glasses of lemonade in their hooves, laughing.

“Did he really did say that?” Gold switched to a voice that sounded absolutely nothing like Obsidian's. “‘Princess, watch out! The toaster has spaghetti in it’?”

Obsidian glared at Feldspar, who was nodding enthusiastically.

“I don't know. I was burned out and barely conscious. I think I remember seeing the Princesses at some point, but I’m pretty sure that was just a couple of the police officers.”

Everypony else laughed again. When that died down, Silver raised her glass towards Emerald.

“Welcome to the Hooves Club, by the way.”

“Welcome to what?”

Everypony else responded by raising their glasses, all using their hooves.

“We started out as just us three,” she gestured to Gold and Feldspar, “‘cause we can't use magic to hold things up like the rest of the family.”

Obsidian nodded and pointed to Silver. “She let me in because I use my hooves for everything too.” He tapped the tip of his horn. “Weak magic.”

Rose Quartz took a drink of lemonade and looked up again.

“And I'm in ‘cause I'm just not that good at teleskitesis.”

“That's telekinesis.” Gold looked up at Emerald. “So, why aren't you using magic?”

“Oh…uhhh…”

It's a unicorn family, Kind! How'd you forget they can do magic?

“It's weak…” She tapped her own horn. “Like his.”

Needing a way to redirect the topic away from herself, she looked over at Rose Quartz.

“Wait a second. You can make shields around yourself, but you can't levitate things?”

“Yeah.” She looked down for a moment. “Shields are sorta the only thing I know.”

Emerald thought a moment, looking at the glass, the filly, and occasionally the other family members telekinetically holding things.

“Have you tried using shields to hold stuff up?”

She thought about it, then her face brightened as she finally understood what Emerald meant.

“Hey, I didn't think of that!”

She quickly scrunched her eyes closed, causing a hexagonal plate to appear before her. She opened them one at a time, then picked up her glass and carefully set it on the plate.

Her eyes immediately widened almost as much as her grin.

“It works! It works!”

Well, it did work for about two, maybe three seconds. However, in her excitement, she allowed the plate to disappear. Fortunately, Obsidian managed to catch the glass in a levitation field.

“Oh, so you do have magic.”

“Yeah.” He glanced to Emerald while waiting for Rose to pick up the glass again. “A little.”

“Why don't you try using pegasus magic to make stuff fly?” Rose Quartz finally picked up the glass out of his levitation field and took a sip again before looking at him. “I mean, if I can use shields to pick stuff up, maybe you can use pegasus magic.”

“I don't think that's how it works. I mean, maybe if I had a bit of cloud on hoof, I could make a cupholder, but I'm not sure how well it would work.”

“What about earth pony magic?”

He closed his eyes and rubbed his head with a hoof. “I don't have any earth pony magic.”

“But I thought you were an…”

“I'm not…” He closed his eyes for a moment and paused before opening them again to continue. “I'm not an alicorn, and I never was. You'll understand when you're older.”

“What's there to understand when I'm older? You've got a horn, you've got wings, that makes you an alicorn.”

“No it doesn't.”

“Yes it does.”

“No, it doesn't…”

Emerald and the others watched them argue back and forth. She didn't want to get involved, but her friend was starting to look like a water heater with all the safety valves removed. She was really hoping it wouldn't turn out like it did in that Mythbuckers book.

“For the last time, I am not an alicorn! I don't even like alicorns. I'll never be one. If Celestia herself offered the chance to become one, Tartarus, if Faust herself came down and offered that chance, I'd reject it!

“Alicorns are stupid, and so is anypony who actually wants to be one!”

He stomped off, leaving the others behind.

Everypony who remained watched him leave, completely silent.

The silence was broken by the broken voice of a young filly.

“G… Gold? Am I stupid?”