Hybridization

by Pleiades

Capitulum II: The Rebel and the Servant

Thick clouds hung over the quiet town of Ponyville, blocking out Celestia’s sun. The overcast had hung for two days now, and had not moved an inch, even after a furious assault from a very annoyed Rainbow Dash. In fact, at the current moment she was flying in a wide circle, faster and faster, in an attempt to budge the clouds through sheer wind speed alone, but making sure to be careful. The last thing the ponies needed was a tornado in the middle of town to make their day worse. “Agh, I give up!” Dash declared to nopony in particular as she glided down from the overcast, her brow sweating and her white tank top almost soaked through.

Dash came to a soft landing on the town library’s balcony, which also served as Princess Celestia’s top student’s home, fittingly enough. Said student, Twilight Sparkle, came out of the library, with her assistant, Spike, by her side. What immediately caught Rainbow Dash’s eye was that she had a harness on, connected to a wagon filled with Celestia knows what kind of equipment. It looked odd against her purple uniform. Curious, she leapt down. “First time I’ve seen you do physical work, egghead,” Dash playfully jabbed. “What’s the occasion?”

Twilight turned to meet the sweat-soaked athlete’s eye. “I’m going to study the overcast, Rainbow Dash,” she replied, ignoring Dash’s comment. “If a whole army of pegasi can’t move it, maybe it’s due to something else.”

“And how are you going to get up there?” Dash asked with a grin. “It’s not like you want to ride me.”

Twilight squinted in annoyance. “No,” she confirmed. “Not unless you take a shower. I’m going to send up weather balloons instead.”

“I still wish I could ride them,” Spike admitted.

“You popped three of them already,” Twilight reminded him.

Spike’s face betrayed no amusement whatsoever, matching the same squint Twilight had. “Let’s just go,” he tried to shift the conversation.

Suddenly, there was a loud roar from the sky… not the roar of a beast, but the roar of an intense fire. The two ponies and one dragon looked up, surprised, to see four large arrows of flame burst out of the overcast. All of them were headed straight at the trio. “Inside! NOW!” Twilight shouted.

A quick spell, and she unhooked herself from the wagon, dragging Spike with her as she dashed into the library with Rainbow Dash. None too soon, either, as the first arrow smashed right into the wagon, completely destroying the wagon and equipment. “No!” Twilight shouted from inside the library, her priorities a little skewed. “I spent nearly twenty thousand bits on those!”

The arrow quickly bounced off the wreckage as the others followed it, and then began to circle the library, as if it was trying to lose them. As if it was alive. They began to spin, faster and faster, around the library, causing Twilight to panic a little. “They’re going to set the library on fire!” she cried.

“I got this!” Rainbow Dash called, about to burst through the window, when suddenly, a portal of fire opened in the library, making her, Twilight, and Spike jump.

From it emerged… a pony? A pegasus, by the looks of it, but save for one thing. Her wings were on fire. She quickly pressed herself up against a bookshelf as she spotted the other arrows of flame stop outside, peering around the corner. The fires vanished to reveal three more pegasi with wings on fire. One of them barked a command to the others, and they split up, flying in different directions. The mare watched as they flew off. She quickly turned to meet the trio’s eyes, and bounded towards them. “Hide me!” she hissed.

Rainbow Dash quickly noticed something. This mare was obese. Yet, somehow, she was capable of outflying three athletic pegasi. She even had two tails! If there were a pony stranger than Pinkie Pie, this was it. Spike, on the other hand, noticed something else. One of the pegasi were peering through the window. It was fortunate that this fugitive was hidden under an overhang. “Watch out!” Spike hissed, grabbing the mare by her apron and trying to throw her in a nearby closet.

“Oomph!” she heaved as she got caught in the sides of the door.

Twilight also spotted the pegasus, and tried to help Spike, pushing the large pegasus with as much magic power as she could. Eventually, she went in with a small “pop”, and Spike slammed the door. The pegasus in the window spotted them. Twilight and Spike quickly pressed themselves against the door, with large, innocent grins. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, rooted herself against the ground, ready to spring at him. The pegasus gave Rainbow Dash a glare before dashing off, turning back into an arrow of fire as he and his compatriots went back into the overcast. The trio waited for a few tense seconds. “... They’re not coming back, right?” Spike broke the silence.

A knocking came from inside the closet. Spike opened the door to see the large pegasus tumble out, gasping for air. “Phew...” she sighed.

“Alright!” Rainbow Dash barked, flying over and getting a little... too close to her face. “Who are you, what are you, and what are you doing here?!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight scolded her. “Give her a break! She just got away from those... whatever they were!”

“Haizum.”

By now, the pegasus on the floor had regained her breath. “We’re known as the haizum,” she repeated.

She got back up on her hooves. “My name’s Cream Puff,” she introduced herself. “I’m sorry for scaring you like that. I had to get away with them as fast as I could.”

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Rainbow Dash had to ask.

“Doesn’t what hurt?”

“Your wings.”

“Oh, no,” Cream shook her head. “They’re spiritual flame. They don’t consume my wings, and they burn cold.”

Cream did a quick flap of her wings, and almost immediately, they went from aflame to smoldering. “Anyway, I need your help,” she shifted the conversation, her voice a little tense. “I had to get this away from the other haizum.”

Cream reached into her apron, pulling out a file that had ‘SECURITY LEVEL 20’ stamped onto it. On the tab, it read ‘PROJECT APOTHEOSIS’. “I stole this from a city far to the north,” Cream explained. “They were after it. Our queen felt a strong magical disturbance a few years ago, and this is the source of it.”

She handed it to Twilight. “What is it?” Twilight asked, afraid to open the file. Twilight knew her security level very well; it was three. Princess Celestia had to bail her out when she once accidentally got her hooves on some knowledge classified as level four. It was dark magic.

“A fourth alicorn.”

Everything stopped for a moment. “WHAT?!” Dash and Spike both shouted in disbelief.

Twilight wasted no time. She didn’t care if she would be banished to the moon for it; she opened the file. Inside was a personnel file, among other things, but this one was for a filly named Twinkling Star. The file included a photograph of her face. She had a tightly-curled mane, which reminded Twilight of Pinkie Pie, all tied up by a bowtie like Apple Bloom’s, and a goofy grin on her face. She quickly began reading the Notes section.

SUBJECT, CODENAMED APOTHEOSIS, IS UNAWARE OF HER TRUE SPECIES AND THINKS OF HERSELF AS A NEW TYPE OF PEGACORN. SUBJECT IS TO BE CLOSELY MONITORED AND HER GROWTH DOCUMENTED; AS THE ONLY REMAINING ALICORNS ARE PRINCESS CELESTIA, HER MAJESTY LUNA, AND PRINCESS CADENCE, NOT ONLY IS SUBJECT A PRIME SPECIMEN FOR ALICORN STUDIES, BUT ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN DURING HER GROWTH. SUBJECT HAS ALREADY EXHIBITED EXTREME MANE AND TAIL GROWTH CONSISTENT WITH THAT OF PRINCESS CELESTIA AND HER MAJESTY LUNA, BUT INCONSISTENT WITH PRINCESS CADENCE, LIKELY BECAUSE THE DONOR FOR HER ALICORN DNA IS PRINCESS CELESTIA. SUBJECT’S OLDER BROTHER HAS VOLUNTEERED TO TEACH HER LUNAR MAGIC, THE ONLY MAGIC SHE IS PERMITTED TO LEARN; SUBJECT MAY BECOME SUSPICIOUS IF SHE DISCOVERS SHE IS CAPABLE OF SOLAR MAGIC. IF SUBJECT DISCOVERS HER TRUE SPECIES, SUBJECT MUST BE ISOLATED FOR HER OWN PROTECTION, REGARDLESS IF SHE IS CAPABLE OF KEEPING SILENT. IT IS ALSO WORTH NOTING THAT SHE IS INCAPABLE OF EARNING A LUNAR CUTIE MARK; STEPS MUST BE TAKEN TO ENSURE THAT SHE EARNS HER MARK WITH NOPONY PRESENT. ONLY FOUR CITIZENS ARE AWARE OF HER STATUS AT THE TIME OF WRITING; NONE HAVE CLEARANCE NECESSARY. THEY ARE GRANTED SPECIAL ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION.

Twilight looked back up. “Is this… for real?” she asked.

Cream nodded. “I didn’t believe it at first either,” she admitted. “I was making a large delivery to the palace when I overheard a conversation. We were going to kidnap her.”

“What for?” Spike had to ask. “She doesn’t even know she’s an alicorn.”

“… There’s more than just the haizum that the Holy Races don’t know about,” Cream began to explain. “There’s also the sleipnir and the kelpies, and… we’re at a cold war with them.”

She then tapped the file with her hoof. “We wanted her as an asset in the war. If we had her, and she unleashed her power against them…”

Cream shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about it. Not to mention a little filly shouldn’t be exposed to that stuff, let alone take part.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. This was serious. “Spike, take a letter.”

The city of Canterlot was bustling now. Although nopony could tell, thanks to that hated overcast, it was midday. A group of colts were playing by the largest fountain in the city, which was adorned with a grand statue of Princess Celestia. One of them was bouncing a small rubber ball, when it bounced off a broken cobblestone. It fell into the water. “Oh shoot!” the colt cursed. “Mom’s going to bite my head off!”

He leaped onto the edge of the fountain when, suddenly, the ball began to levitate, rising out of the water, much to the colt’s surprise. It wasn’t glowing, either. Then, slowly, a tidy, leaf-green mane began to stick out of the water… then a horn… then finally, another colt’s head. The two stared at each other for a couple of seconds, and then the colt in the water asked, “Is this your ball?”

“Y-yeah…” the dry colt responded. “Isn’t it a bit cold for a swim?”

“It’s never too cold for a swim,” the wet colt responded. “Anyway, did you see any haizum around here?”

“Haizum? What are those?” the dry colt asked.

“Nevermind,” the wet colt dismissed.

He then ducked his head back underwater, and came leaping out. The colt and his friends’ jaws dropped; the wet colt was no average pony. He had fins. In fact, he was half-fish. What was even stranger was that the water leapt out with him, as if sticking to his body.

Naturally, he caused a panic. The ponies around him dropped everything and ran from this beast, screaming. He seemed to just float in the air, the water floating with him, as if he was floating in the water. He simply watched as everypony around him ran, seemingly unaccustomed to this reaction. Shrugging, he began to swim off towards the Canterlot Palace.

He didn’t get very far. Seemingly out of nowhere, at least twenty Royal Guards pounced on him. It looked like a scene from a hoofball game, and the only thing visible of the poor colt at that point was his limp tail fin.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I bring you grave news. Four ponies arrived in Ponyville today. Well… more like charged in screaming. One of them was on the run from the other three. I gave her shelter after she managed to lose them. She had recently betrayed her own race, a species we know nothing of. They call themselves the haizum. The haizum were after something she stole, which would help them in a cold war they are embroiled in, against two other species we know nothing of, who she calls the sleipnir and kelpies. She had stolen a level 20 file from a city far to the north. I’m sorry, but I had to see what was inside, and needless to say, I was very shocked, and I can see why my… guest had to betray her own species. I haven’t included the file for safekeeping purposes, but I’d like to know more in the event that there’s more that I can do to help. I’d like to request a royal audience at your earliest convenience.

Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle

P.S.: Spike and Rainbow Dash read the file as well. I couldn’t stop them.

Celestia stared blankly at the letter for a couple of seconds. It wasn’t often that you hear something like this from one of your students. What bothered her even more was that there was no way she could have dreamed up those details; a level 20 file from a city deep in the frozen north. That sounded too familiar.

Her thoughts were interrupted when there was a loud thump as the throne room doors opened. Celestia’s eyes widened slightly as she saw what the guards were bringing in; a half-fish, half-pony, chained by his fins. “Princess Celestia!” the lead guard reported. “This beast was rampaging around the Canterlot Fountain.”

“Beast?” the fish-pony asked, rather innocently. “I’m not a beast.”

Princess Celestia raised her eyebrows in skepticism. Her guards had a tendency to overinflate their reports; she always thought it was the testosterone. “You are all dismissed. Leave this… beast with me, and unchain him,” she commanded.

With a bow, the guards unchained the young colt and trotted off. He flopped to the floor. “Wait!” he called, seemingly desperate.

The guards stopped. “I need water!” he pleaded. “I can’t move without water!”

The guards looked at each other. “Go get him a tank,” Celestia ordered.

“Actually, I just need a bucket,” the colt corrected, unaware of who he was talking to.

“Whelp!” the lead guard shouted, stomping the colt’s head into the ground. “You will refer to Princess Celestia with the proper respect!”

Princess Celestia had other thoughts. “Get off him!” Celestia ordered. “It is clear this young colt is foreign to our knowledge, and we foreign to his. I will forgive his insolence. Bring our guest a bucket of water immediately.”

The guard lifted his hoof off of the young colt, and with a bow, trotted off. “What is your name?” Celestia questioned.

“P-Parhelion…” the colt replied, his head still ringing from being stomped on. “My name is Parhelion.”

“What brings you to Canterlot, Refraction?” Celestia continued, lowering her tone to a less authoritative one.

“I...” Parhelion shook his head quickly, as if trying to realign his brain. “I bring a message from my queen. My race needs help in a cold war. We spotted one of our enemies flying here, chased by some of his own. I was sent to make sure that we beat him to it, so that we can preserve ourselves and our way of life.”

Celestia’s eyes brightened at the mention of a “cold war”. “… Against who?” Celestia asked.

“The sleipnir and haizum,” Parhelion replied, “two other races of pony.”

That did it for Celestia. The letter finally made sense. “… There’s somepony I think you should meet,” Princess Celestia said, taking out a new parchment and a quill.

The Ponyville-Canterlot line slowly ground to a halt, the whistle blowing. Out from one of the cars came Spike, looking up. “I swear, there are times I miss living here,” he admitted.

Grunts of effort came from inside the train. Spike turned back around to see Twilight and Dash struggling to pull the unconscious Cream Puff from the train. “She’s… heavy…” Twilight wheezed, all of her magic being used in conjunction with Dash’s strength.

“Tell me about it!” Dash strained, carrying Cream on her back.

Dash, despite only carrying her for half a minute, gave out and dropped her. She ended up falling on her head, which ended up waking her up. She shot upwards, blinking and taking a look around her. “… where are we?” she asked.

“We’re in Canterlot, the capital of Equestria,” Twilight replied. “You fainted as soon as we mentioned an audience with Princess Celestia.”

Cream Puff’s eyes went wide again. “… How long have I been out?” she asked.

“A full hour,” Dash rolled her eyes.

“I know ponies love Princess Celestia, but I’ve never heard of ponies fainting at the mention of her,” Twilight admitted as they made their way through the station.

Cream stopped. “… She’s our goddess,” she explained. “The haizum worship her.”

Twilight, Dash, and Spike stopped, in surprise. “My home… The Holy City, it’s filled with statues of her,” she continued. “Honestly, I didn’t even think she existed in the mortal realm.”

Then, her eyes widened in realization. “I’m not dead, am I?”

The three exchanged glances again. “Um, no,” Dash cocked an eyebrow.

Cream sighed in relief, although her eyes said otherwise. “Come on, the Princess is waiting,” Twilight reminded them all as they began trotting towards the palace.

Twilight quickly noticed something. Normally, when she arrived, most ponies ignored her as they went about their business. This time, though, they gave her scared looks as they avoided her. Twilight gave a quick look to the others, just in time to hear a colt shout, “FIRE!”

That colt grabbed a bucket of water and threw it onto Cream, drenching her. Her wings of fire still remained lit, though, and she was clearly very annoyed. “They don’t hurt,” she growled at the colt.

Cream then inhaled deeply, and with a sharp exhale, she instantly lit up, becoming a tiny little inferno. Everypony around her screamed as they ran away for the second time today, not wanting to be barbecued. Cream emerged from the dying flames, her clothes and coat dry. “We should hurry up,” Twilight stated.

A few minutes later, the three ponies and dragon were standing in front of the majestic throne room door. Twilight and Rainbow took a step towards the door, but Cream shrunk back a little. Rainbow took notice. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I’m… about to meet Her Holiness Celestia… who we worship…” Cream punctuated, a little shaky. “Are you sure I’m not dead?”

Twilight nodded again. “What makes you think that?” she had to ask.

“One of our beliefs is that when we die, we are allowed to live again with Her Holiness in the immortal realm, the Holy Realm,” Cream explained. “But if this isn’t the Holy Realm, then…”

Cream was interrupted by a loud clang. The doors slowly opened, revealing the throne room, and Princess Celestia, clad in her regal white robes. Cream’s jaw fell… not at seeing her goddess, but at who was in front of her.

Parhelion. A kelpie. Her worst enemy.

Cream seemed to switch gears almost instantly. Her face twisted in what looked like anger, and she inhaled, with an open mouth.

In her mouth, a fireball formed, and with a sharp exhale, she launched it at Parhelion.

Fortunately, the colt had gotten his bucket of water earlier. He quickly wrapped the water around himself, and swam out of the way, lightning-quick. He was fortunate; the fireball exploded where he was floating a second ago, leaving a large burn mark and a few errant fires. “Don’t hurt me!” Parhelion pleaded as he dove underneath the throne, his quaking tail fin the only part of him visible.

Cream leapt into the air, but Rainbow Dash didn’t let her. For once in her life, she was the one doing the tail biting, and grabbed one of them. Twilight got the other as they restrained her. Princess Celestia, however, used a skill nopony knew she even had.

“ENOUGH!”

The whole castle rumbled with the sound of her voice. Everypony was so shocked, even Rainbow Dash nearly had a heart attack. Cream coughed out a tiny fireball she was charging up, and Parhelion had stopped trembling; he thought he was dead. “I will not permit violence in my own throne room!” Celestia boomed. “Now, land!”

Cream carefully landed on the floor. “You are a haizum, is this right?” Princess Celestia questioned.

Cream’s jaw fell. “You… didn’t know?” she gasped. “Didn’t you create us?”

This time, it was Princess Celestia’s turn to be confused. “I’m sorry?” she cocked an eyebrow.

“Didn’t you create us to battle the sleipnir and kelpies?” Cream asked. “And… what happened to your wings?”

Princess Celestia spread her regal wings, inspecting them. As far as she could tell, not a single feather was out of place. “Aren’t they supposed to be on fire?” she asked. “Like ours?”

Twilight and Rainbow exchanged another glance. “I’m sorry…” Princess Celestia finally admitted. “In my five thousand years of life, you are the first haizum I have ever seen.”

Cream’s jaw fell again. “You… but…” she stammered, clearly unable to comprehend what she just heard.

Twilight stepped forward and gave Cream a tap on the shoulder. “Why don’t you tell us your side?” she suggested.

“Well… It’s really long. I mean, it would take days for me to recite everything I know…” she admitted.

Then she caught herself. “… everything I knew…” she corrected herself, lowering her head in grief.

It was clear that Cream had gone straight to depression. “It’s okay,” Twilight tried to comfort the haizum, but she didn’t know what to say.

Princess Celestia then got up from the throne, and walked over to Cream. Cream looked up, to meet the eye of her goddess… and quickly bowed back down, but weakly. Princess Celestia then did something nopony expected.

She nuzzled the little haizum gently.

Cream, shocked, nearly fell over. “It’s okay,” Celestia repeated. “Everypony gets something wrong at some point. Plenty of ponies get a lot wrong, too.”

She then looked up at Twilight. “Twilight?” Celestia asked. “Year 2752.”

Twilight instantly let the academic beast out. “Year 2752, commonly referred to as the Year of Stupidity. A scholar named Ditzy Hooves managed to publish a paper just after Celestia’s Birthday which appeared to disprove most common knowledge, replacing it with nonsensical logic such as two plus two equals muffin. Somehow, ponies throughout Equestria took this information to be true, resulting in many failed construction projects, horrible gadget prototypes, and even pharmaceutical issues, with magic being the only thing Professor Hooves could not mess up. Princess Luna had to publish her own paper disproving Professor Hooves’, and it required until her own birthday to repair the whole fiasco.”

Next to her, Dash lay on the floor drooling, smoke gently rising out of her ears. The whole display brought a smile to Cream’s face. “Hee hee hee…” she couldn’t help but giggle.

Behind Princess Celestia, Parhelion slowly floated over, cautiously. Cream, noticing him, quickly took a battle posture again, but a glare from Princess Celestia stopped her. “Why are you so hostile to this young colt?” Princess Celestia asked.

“… The haizum believe that the kelpies are agents of Discord, here along with the sleipnir to conquer and corrupt the mortal realm,” Cream explained. “It is our duty to defeat them and Discord.”

“What are you talking about?” Parhelion asked, with similar confusion. “I don’t know any Discord.”

“You don’t even know your own creator?!” Cream nearly shouted, in surprise.

“I was born like any other colt,” he missed the message. “I know who my parents are.”

“She means do you know who created the kelpies?” Spike clarified.

Parhelion shook his head. “I’ve been to the Seahorse Town Library plenty of times. There’s nothing about us there.”

“Maybe there’s something about them in the Canterlot Library!” Twilight nearly jumped in excitement.

“Twilight?” Princess Celestia stopped her. “I don’t think there are any books about the kelpies.”

Twilight did a face fault. “Ugh…” she sighed.

“Anyway,” Princess Celestia began again. “This is a very serious issue. I will not grant aid to any war, but I will divert all of my efforts to bringing peace between the races.”

Cream’s jaw fell again. “Your Holiness… We’ve been at it for millennia,” she stated.

“I have handled worse,” Princess Celestia assured her. “Tell me about the race not present… what were they again? The sleipnir?”

Far up north, at the very edge of Komodo City, a young mare stood at the rim of the ice crater, wrapped in many cloaks. From underneath those cloaks poked six pink hooves. “I hope Chocolate was right…” she said to herself in a slight accent. “I hope Cream Puff is here."