Operation: Ponies

by Sammy LeDerp

Mother Twowa

“I’m not coming out!”

“But, Quatre…your food is going to get cold…”

“Trowa, please…just go.”

Like a puppy looking for its owner, Trowa sat outside Quatre’s closed door the following morning, speaking to him through the wood. He had been relentlessly at this for the past hour, just sitting there on the carpeted floor. Quatre’s door was locked, and it seemed that he wasn’t going to be opening it anytime soon. His tail whished every now and then with his ears folded down at the back of his head. Trowa was listening intently to try and catch any sounds from the inside; whenever he did hear something, his ears perked up, only to be dropped again when the door didn’t open. The sun was twinkling through the house from its windows, inviting warmth into the surrounding, though Trowa feared that none of it was reaching Quatre.

The smell of burnt toast trickled its way up the stairs as breakfast was made. Trowa scratched at the door with the tip of his hoof, but received no response. He heard movement on the carpet behind him and looked over his shoulder to see that Duo had just landed there. He walked up to Trowa and nudged him in the side.

“Hey buddy, breakfast is done,” said Duo. He glanced over at the door. “He’s still in there?”

“Yes, and he won’t come out at all,” replied Trowa. He looked down at the ground and sighed. “I feel so bad. And to think that this was all our fault.”

After Luna had left the night before, the whole group was devastated. The black rock was sealed away in an enchanted box Quatre charmed up in his room. This pony was depressed for the rest of the time being. When Heero and Wufei were cleaning up the remains of the washroom, Duo and Trowa had tried to get him to eat some of the cupcakes that were still in the living room. It was in effort to try and cheer him up. Quatre wouldn’t even dare, as he sat on one of the couches with a lifeless look in his eye. He had bluntly told them that he just didn’t want to eat or do anything anymore. After multiple failed attempts, something had made Quatre snap and he picked up the tray of cupcakes and threw them at the fireplace. The treats were destroyed and smeared against the brick contraption, and Quatre went and locked himself in his room, staying there since.

Duo shook his head. “I wouldn’t put so much pressure on yourself about it. You and I weren’t the ones being asses the entire time we’ve been here.”

“I still feel like we could have done something,” mumbled Trowa. “I still feel like our entire team should share the fault.”

“Guys, come downstairs!”

Heero was calling, and Duo and Trowa had no reason not to follow his orders. Leaving Quatre finally alone to be, they flew downstairs to the living room, where plates of burnt toast waited for them on the coffee table. Heero and Wufei were sitting on their own couch, already eating. The newcomers decided to sit on the other couch together, and both grabbed their own pieces of toast. There was no butter, no type of jam. There weren’t even cups or a jug of juice. The disgusting breakfast without its lovely charm reflected how each pilot felt on the inside.

To them, it was forever until someone actually said anything, though it really only was a few minutes. Heero was the brave one to strike up a conversation first, after he wiped the black crumbs from his mouth.

“So how’s he doing?” he asked, looking straight at Trowa.

“Not good at all,” answered Trowa. He was slowly chewing on his piece of burnt toast. “He’s refusing to leave.”

Heero nodded his head for his reply. More minutes passed until words were spoken again.

“He’s going to waste away in there if he doesn’t come out to at least eat,” said Wufei. He looked up at the staircase. “Has anyone tried to fly up to Quatre’s balcony to get in?”

Trowa nodded. “That’s locked too, and the curtains aren’t open.”

“I guess it’s best to just leave him be then,” said Duo. He looked at Heero, who had just finished his third slice of toast. “Did you get someone to come in and fix the washroom?”

“Yeah, I went to one of the shops early this morning,” replied Heero. “They said they’d send someone down here today to replace the mirror and sink.”

As soon as Heero had finished his sentence, someone began knocking at the door. Before anyone could even do anything, Heero sprang up to answer the door with his authoritative figure. Everyone turned their attention to the door as the green pegasus went to get it.

“That must be the repair pony,” said Trowa.

“Heero, if it’s Pinkie Pie, don’t punch her in the face!” yelled Duo, as he popped another piece of toast into his mouth.

The door opened, and it wasn’t Pinkie Pie, nor was it some repair pony. It was a grey pegasus in a blue suit, with a matching blue hat that had a package stitched into it. She had yellow hair and what looked like bubbles on her hip as her cutie mark. In her mouth, she was holding a golden envelope. It was quickly whipped out as the pony handed it right to Heero, who was still trying to analyze the pony as to whether or not she was a threat.

“Hello there!” she said. “I’ve got a letter to a Quatre from Canterlot!”

Duo nearly dropped his toast. “Hey, you’re the crappy mail pony that kept on flying into buildings yesterday!”

The mailmare bent her head to the side to get a better look at Duo, as her golden eyes became crossed over with a big smile on her face. Without a word, Heero took the envelope from her and shut the door. He examined the object very carefully. The front of it said nothing but Quatre’s name in curly letters. He flipped the envelope multiple times to see if it was see-through, but to his dismay, the paper was too thick.

“There’s no return address on it,” said Heero as he gave it one more look.

“That must be from the princesses,” said Wufei. “Hopefully it’s them telling us we can go home.”

Trowa jumped off the couch and walked up to Heero. He held out his hoof in the direction of the envelope.

“Please, let me take this to him.” he said.

Heero looked at the hoof that was placed before him and nodded. Trowa took it with his two hooves and began his flight up the stairs. Small inaudible conversations were heard from the top, when suddenly there was the sound of a creaking door, and then nothingness. Heero returned to his spot next to Wufei and closed his eyes. He dug his body into the back of the couch with his arms crossed, as if in some attempt to make himself comfortable to fall asleep.

Duo turned himself around so that he could face the other pilots. “Wow, I can’t believe he finally opened the door. We should have had Trowa go up with some toast too.” After looking at the small pile of black bread that looked like it could have been cooked by a dragon, he laughed. “Actually, we probably saved his life.”

A door opened again somewhere upstairs and everyone’s eyes were turned in that direction. Someone was coming down the stairs, and by the look of the legs, it was Trowa. Though what was on top of his head almost put everyone there into cardiac arrest.

Nestled at the top of his head, but somehow not ruining his hairstyle, was a foal. And it wasn’t just any other foal. This foal in particular had beady blue eyes and ruffled blonde hair. He was also a white alicorn, and to Trowa’s good luck, was thankfully diapered. As he walked up to his fellow pilots, without losing balance because of the extra weight on his head, the little foal squealed. Trowa had a letter in his mouth and spat it out to speak. It gently flew through the air and landed on the coffee table, against the pile of the burnt breakfast.

“Everyone, I would like to introduce someone special,” Trowa began. He cleared his throat and with his eyes, looked up at the young one. “This is Quatre, our new baby.”

“What?!”

It was a cry in unison that made the foal squeal once more. Duo and Wufei jumped out of their seats and stood on either side of Trowa. The foal looked at the both of them and clapped his tiny hooves together, sticking his tongue out. Their mouths gaped as they tried to comprehend what they were seeing.

Without removing his gaze from Trowa, Heero briefly removed himself from the couch so that he could grab the letter that was on the table. Changing the direction of his eyes to something slightly more important, he shook the letter and began to read it aloud for the others to hear:

“To my precious warriors,
I have been told of the events that occurred last night and I’m deeply disappointed. My younger sister feels that I should send you all back and look for replacements---however, that won’t be necessary. My sister has been on the moon for over a thousand years, and out of all the people in this land, should not give up on those who have trouble making friends.

For this, I have a test. Within this letter, I have sealed away an Age Spell that is to make Quatre much younger. He is the one true thing holding you all together as friends. Without him, you are nothing because no cooperation can be met on friendly terms. Thus, my test is to see if you can begin treating others nicely without Quatre’s help. For this, you will have to care for him in this state. If you have passed, he will return to his normal pony form. If you have failed, he will not transform back until you have reached my objective.

I have faith in you all. Be well.”

As Heero had finished reading the letter, Quatre was busy away making bubbles with his spit. Duo shook his head and nearly collapsed to the ground.

“This is…Quatre?” he said. “And we have to…take care of him?”

“Apparently, yes,” said Trowa. “This shouldn’t be too hard.”

Wufei forced out a laugh. “You think this shouldn’t be too hard? Never in my life have I ever had to care for a child!”

Suddenly, Quatre’s wings started buzzing away and his body was lifted off of his resting spot. He bobbed up and down in the air as he flew around without a cause. His tiny wings just weren’t enough to keep his heavy body going. As he flew around in circles, he finally found a new spot to stay in, and decided that Heero’s lap was a good place. Heero quickly threw the paper back on to the table as the foal dropped on to him. He looked up into Heero’s great, big eyes and smiled.

“Heewo!” said Quatre.

Duo got on to his hind legs and pressed an arm against his chest, simulating a heart attack. With this, he fell to the ground, chuckling, as Trowa moved his body as to not get hit. Wufei just stood there, shaking his head. Finally, he stomped a hoof against the floorboards.

“Does this princess think this is some kind of joke?” he said. “How are we supposed to take care of him? We don’t even have anything that babies need!”

With his hoof, Heero brushed Quatre’s mat of hair. In this form, his friend seemed to be quite at peace with the world---the complete opposite of what he had been for the past couple of hours. This Quatre seemed to be quite content with having his hair played with. Smiling, Heero took both of his hooves and gentle twisted them against Quatre’s head, making the foal give off a high-pitched laugh.

This scene had definitely attracted the attention of everyone else, as Duo got back on to his legs. He got close to Trowa’s ear and put his hoof in front of his mouth, so that no one else could hear him.

“Since when did Heero start liking people?” he asked. “And did someone spike his toast?”

“I heard all of that, Duo,” said Heero, as he continued playing with Quatre. Duo jumped in fear and became as stiff as a statue. “I have a plan.”

“Oh really?” asked Wufei. “And what is this plan of yours?”

Heero stopped playing with Quatre’s hair for just a moment to look at the three of them. “We’re going to have to get supplies. Diapers and toys will do. Also, we’re going to need food that he can eat for today.”

“For just today?” asked Wufei, completely bewildered. He walked over to Heero’s couch and put his front legs on the armrest. “Do you seriously think that Quatre will only be a foal for just today?”

Duo laughed and walked up behind Wufei, giving him a good whack on the shoulders. “It’s called ‘having faith’, which is something I wasn’t really expecting coming from Mr. Destructo here myself.”

“Duo, I’m trying to be nice here, don’t push it.” said Heero, shooting him a quick glare. He then turned to Trowa. “Why don’t you and Wufei go out and get the supplies? Duo and I will stay here with Quatre, waiting for the repair pony.”

“Got it,” said Trowa.

Wufei removed his body from the furniture and started for the door. Just as Trowa began walking away, Quatre stopped giggling. As Wufei opened the door to step outside into the hustle and bustle, the foal began whimpering when Trowa placed a single hoof out of the house. He was stopped by Wufei’s outreached arm across the opening and was forced to turn around to see silent globs of tears streaming down Quatre’s face.

“Twowa,” Quatre said in a squeaky voice. The tears seemed to become larger when Trowa didn’t answer, and Heero picked the foal up and moved him into the air, away from himself. “Twowa!”

Lost without words, Trowa could do nothing but point to himself for a confirmation. Little Quatre started sobbing and nodding his head, swinging his arms in the air. As fast as he could, Trowa called to his summons and ran right up to the young one. Ecstatic, Quatre stopped crying and began the climb up to the top of Trowa’s head, stretching every facial muscle of his carrier as he pushed his hind legs up the way. He sat atop his mountain and sighed with relief, going back to sticking his tongue out for his own amusement.

“Dude, it’s like you’re his mother,” said Duo in astonishment.

“Then it’s settled then,” said Heero. He got himself off the couch and stretched out his legs. “Trowa and Duo will wait here for the repair pony, and Wufei and I will go out shopping.”

Duo spun his head around as Heero walked passed him to join his comrade at the door. “Wait, what?”

He received no response to his inquiry as the two others left the house, closing the door behind them. He walked up to the door and just stood there, motionless. Gurgling was heard behind him, and he turned to see that Quatre was drooling all over his chin. Based on the disgusted look Duo was giving him, Trowa lay down on the ground and forced the little pony off his head by picking him up and putting him down. It was just in the nick of time, as the first drop of saliva hit the floor instead of the previous target.

Quatre’s wings fluttered as he blinked his tiny eyes, making Trowa chuckle. He got down as low as he could on the ground so that his chin was touching the floor. With that, he scooted his body up to the foal. With a quick puff of air, he blew right into his face. Quatre giggled so loud and ferociously that he almost knocked himself flat on his back.

Duo shook his head and stuck his tongue out. It was just too adorable for him. A knocking came to the door and was answered by the convenient pegasus that was there. It was a strong, big, brown stallion, with a yellow worker's helmet and a tool belt around his stomach. Looking around the large pony, Duo could see that behind him were other stallions with similar get-ups right by the porch, along with a mirror, a new sink, and pipes.

“Mornin’,” said the stallion, nodding his head to Duo. “Uh, we were called here to fix your washroom. Is this a good time?”

Duo smiled. “This is an excellent time. Trowa, how about we take Quatre out?”

Trowa looked up at Duo, who had moved away to let the workers in. As they came trotting in with their big hooves and equipment, shaking the whole house, Quatre huddled close to him. The little foal was shaking at the sight of the stallions. Trowa nodded and got himself back up. In a single sweep, he picked Quatre up gently with some skin behind his head and flung him into the air. He skillfully caught him on his head. With that, the two of them were out the door, leaving the repair ponies to do their work.
__________________________________________________________________

A walk around the town seemed to do Quatre some good. As he continued bobbing along on Trowa’s head, he waved at ponies that they passed by. His absolute sweetness about him seemed to draw the attention of the young mares that happened to see him. Many of them bolted for Trowa to try and get him to stop and talk to them. It was out of jealously that Duo kept on dragging him away from the mobs of mares. They didn’t even receive any peace from them when they stopped at the ice cream shop to eat.

It wasn’t until later on that afternoon when they had discovered the park that the groups seemed to lessen. With such a widespread amount of land, between the fountains and the trees, the ponies could go anywhere. With the sun beating down on them, Trowa and Duo had found a shady spot underneath a great big oak tree on a hill to settle down under. It was a decently deserted area. Quatre flew off Trowa’s head towards a patch of dandelions, only a few feet in front of them.

Duo leaned himself against the tree’s trunk and looked at Trowa’s back. It wasn’t like he had a choice of how to view his friend, because he wasn’t anywhere near him. He was just at the edge of the tree’s shade because Quatre had now found other patches of flowers to fly to within the sun’s rays.

“Yo, Trowa,” said Duo. Trowa looked over his shoulder at the call. “You don’t have to watch him like that. You can come back here and just relax.”

Trowa looked at him for a second longer, and then turned his head to face frontwards. “You know, I don’t believe he had a mother.” As he watched Quatre try to tap a butterfly he had just discovered, he smiled. “For this very moment, he deserves some love.”

Like a screw in a hole, Trowa turned his body halfway around to now face Duo, for Quatre decided that he was bored with the flowers and was headed to the tree. As he flew, he suddenly stopped and hovered in the air right between the pilots. His horn then started glowing a bright blue and his body started shaking like crazy, almost like he was vibrating. Out of nowhere, a small enclosed sandbox appeared below him, and Quatre dropped right down into it to play with the sand.

Duo and Trowa exchanged the same type of look of amazement to see that Quatre, even at this age, had the power to summon something like that. The tiny alicorn was now trying to make a pile of sand by pushing it all together with his hooves. When he felt satisfied, he used his magic to levitate a nearby rock and bring it over to him. It then dropped right on top of his sand pile.

“Sandwock!” cried Quatre, clapping his hooves together. He looked at Trowa, who was now walking up to him, for approval. “Sandwock!”

“Good Lord, he thinks it’s his Gundam,” muttered Duo, as he shook his head with a smirk.

Quatre threw himself upon his sand pile and started squirming around, making beeping noises one would hear from a robot. Trowa sat right outside the sandbox to look at his dear friend. Quacking was heard somewhere nearby, and a group of ducks emerged to their area. They were walking towards the sandbox, marching to their quacks. Out of fear of him getting trampled on, Trowa grabbed Quatre and removed him from his play area. He placed him right in front of him and held him in a hug. Just before the animals had the chance to get in there, a yellow pegasus with long pink hair swooped down from above. Her silent descent made Duo yelp in surprise.

The pony hovered just above Quatre’s sand pile. She had pink butterflies as her cutie mark. The ducks instantly stopped in their tracks upon seeing her.

“Now ducks, it isn’t very nice to invade someone’s space when they’re playing,” the pony said. She was so quiet, both Trowa and Duo had to listen very hard to hear her. “The foal was trying to play, so please watch where you’re going next time, ok?” The ducks didn’t make a sound to her. “Thank you very, very much!”

The pony looked over at Trowa, who was the closest to her, and mumbled something of an apology. It was hard to hear her because she had covered up her mouth and seemed too shy to even look right at him. Trowa stared at her and didn’t say a word. Little Quatre lifted up his arms and started giggling at the ducks, who had now started parading alongside Trowa’s body. This seemed to help motivate the yellow pegasus, because now she had gotten all up in Trowa’s face to see Quatre.

“Oh my goodness, he is such a cute foal!” she cried. She petted Quatre’s head, who smiled right at her. “Oh my, oh my, he’s so nice and adorable! So very, very adorable! And he seems to really like you!”

“Thank you,” said Trowa. He held out a hoof for her to shake. “My name is Trowa.”

Alarmed by the advance to her, she put her hooves up to her mouth again in fear. “My name is F-Fluttershy.”

Duo flew up right next to her, which freaked her out even more.

“And I’m Duo!” he shouted.

Poor Fluttershy was quivering in midair now, not knowing what to do. It was then that Trowa noticed that the quacking was becoming much quieter, and he looked to see that the group of ducks was now at the bottom of the hill, heading in the direction of town. Just then, he also saw something else. As the group of ducks walked along, they passed Wufei and Heero, who were carrying saddle bags filled with things. Fluttershy noticed this as well, and darted away to follow her ducks just as Wufei and Heero approached the small group.

“Where have you guys been?” asked Heero, as he and Wufei started releasing their bags from their bodies. “And who was that?”

“Quatre was scared of the workers, so we left the house,” explained Trowa.

Duo landed right back on the ground, watching as the little yellow dot with the ducks went closer and closer to the town. “And that was the strangest pony I’ve seen here. She’s just as strange as the mailing one.”

From his bag, Heero took out a jar of orange baby food. Placing it on the ground and holding it in his hooves, he twisted the cap off with his teeth. He spat it out and pushed the jar close to Quatre with his nose.

“Here you go,” he said, as Quatre took the jar from him. “I bet you’re hungry.”

The foal nodded and dug his little snout into the mushy goodness that was inside the jar. From within Wufei’s bag, he pulled out a blue rattle. Quatre stopped eating and looked up at the toy, his face covered with orange pureed food. Wufei walked up to Quatre with the toy in his teeth and dropped it on the ground right next to him.

“I hope you like it,” said Wufei. He looked away with a smile on his face. “I bought you blue because I felt weird if I bought you a pink one.”

Quatre giggled and using his magic, he started shaking the rattle. Duo moved himself closer to the group as well. Everyone was now surrounding both Trowa and Quatre, as the foal continued to laugh at his brand new toy. Duo used his hoof to mess up Quatre’s hair.

“You know what, I’ve got to say, this wasn’t as bad as I thought,” he said. He smiled and chuckled. “I thought watching this guy all day was going to be a problem, but the real problem was all the mares coming up to us, trying to steal this little guy!”

“I told you all this wasn’t going to be a problem,” said Trowa. He gave Quatre another quick hug. “If you just show compassion for something, and you truly mean it, you won’t get any problems at all.”

It was at that moment where everything went from calm to hectic. In a puff of purple smoke, little Quatre disappeared, and Trowa suddenly felt a large weight against his front. It was so unexpected that he had to push the weight to keep himself balanced. Heero and Wufei, who were right in front of the foal, were kicked in the face with rather large white hooves. Duo was smacked in the face with a hoof of his own and fell right to the ground.

Once the smoke cleared, Quatre was there, in his normal form. He was lying on his back, completely disoriented, blinking his eyes rapidly and still covered with baby food. As his friends around him were rubbing sore areas of their bodies, he hoisted himself up into a sitting position. Trowa rubbed Quatre’s head as the alicorn stared at his creation in the sandbox.

“Is that supposed to be…Sandrock?”

Comments

[animorph11]

huuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggggggg *heart attack* SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this chaper

[Sammy LeDerp]

1978830 Hahaha, thank you! I'm kind of glad I used my idea this morning then! XD The thought of a Quatre foal had popped into my brain after watching other foal Youtube vids (like the Derpy one) where they asked for stuff...and I pictured him saying "Hi, I'm Quatre! Sandwock pwease?"

So yeah, I'm mega glad you liked it!

[Dragovalon12]

LOL! now that is a "twist"! turning Quatre into a foal was both totally unexpected and amazingly brilliant.

Also, I never would have thought that Trowa could be so "parental".

[Sammy LeDerp]

1978878 You know what, for the whole Trowa thing, I didn't really see it either at first until I had to work with my notion of turning Quatre into a foal. I knew what my lesson was going to be, and I chose Trowa for two reasons. One, he's like, Quatre's best friend. And two, I felt that he was the best one in the group to teach the lesson of kindness. I'm not sure if memory is serving me correctly, but this kind of reflects on one of the earlier episodes of Wing when Trowa first finds himself at the circus and is seen petting the caged lion. I think he had explained to whoever was there (Either his manager or Katherine) that a truly kind person can tame any animal.

But overall, thanks a whole bunch!

[M-Tails-P]

Trollestia, attacks!
[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5xfIcR4-tA]