Ch14 Snipe Hunt, part one [edited]
Jake and the Kid
Chapter 14
Snipe Hunt, part one
***
Apple Bloom added another stick of wood to the campfire as she sat across from Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Twist, waiting for the remains of the previous night’s fire to grow large enough to cook breakfast over. While that was going on, she slipped into the traditional Apple storytelling mode and regaled her friends with an Apple family tale.
‟Sweet Apple Acres is ah workin’ farm. Every pony on it and every part of it is expected to be pro-duc-tive. That ain’t nearly so bad as it sounds. My great-great grandparents were pretty smart ponies. They all knew that ponies who worked all day long would soon be plum wore out and not able to do a lick of work. They also knew if their foals, and their foal’s foals, were going to love Sweet Apple Acres as much as they all did, they’d need to grow right good memories along with good crops.
‟When they first settled here, Granny Smith’s parents sectioned off this here area that had just about everything a pony could ever want. A beautiful natural field. A stream and small pond that had water year round, just perfect for swimming when it was hot and ice-skating when it was cold.
‟They up and left a border of trees around this here location when the other fields were cleared. Then, one weekend, after months of backbreaking work getting themselves homesteaded, Granny Smith, who was just a young filly at the time, and her sisters and brothers were taken to this very clearing by her parents. They showed it to her and told her. This here is your place. Look after it. Grow yourself some right good memories. And when your grown, you bring your young’uns, and tell them the same thing, and tell them to tell their young-uns, and she did, and they did, and then one day, Applejack brought us Cutie Mark Crusaders here, cause you all are like sisters to me, and she said, this here is your place, look after it and make lots of good memories.”
Scootaloo scratched her head and said, ‟I don’t remember her saying it like that.”
‟It’s what you call artistic license. Rarity says it’s the pre-og-ative, of ponies with an artistic soul,” Sweetie Belle said.
‟Sounds like a fancy way of saying they’re lying,” Scootaloo said, taking the high moral ground. ‟Rainbow Dash would never do that.”
Apple Bloom, who had just taken a drink of apple juice to lubricate her throat, did a spit take. Sweetie Belle stifled a sudden laugh, and even Twist giggled.
‟Now that’s taken art-is-tic license all the way to the trash heap. Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash is just the spirit of loyalty, not honesty, as my big sis. So it ain’t rightly her fault. But, there ain’t nothing she says that ain’t blown up twice as big as life, if not bigger.”
‟You take that back!” Scootaloo shouted, using her wings to jump over the fire-pit and onto Apple Bloom. The two small ponies rolled down the slope toward the duck pond, too busy tussling to notice where they were headed.
While her friends were releasing their excess energy, Sweetie Belle pulled out a bag of marshmallows from her saddlebags and picked up her toasting skewer from the night before.
‟Thould we thtop them?” Twist asked looking down the slope at the squabbling fillies with concern.
Sweetie Belle was pretty much ignoring her best friends as she screwed her face up in concentration, making sure that the marshmallow she was currently holding in one hoof was placed perfectly on her wooden toasting stick, all ready for roasting. While she focused on this important task she told Twist, ‟Don’t worry. They’re just getting the morning kinks out. They do it most days. They’ll cool off once they hit--"The sound of a loud splash echoed in the clear morning air-- "the water,” Sweetie Belle finished.
Twist looked a bit doubtful, but that didn’t stop her from pulling several thin bars of chocolate and some graham crackers out of her nearby saddlebags.
‟Who wants S’mores?” Sweetie Belle called out, in a musical tone of voice that carried from one side of the clearing to the other, without looking up from her exacting endeavor. A moment later her two friends, a lot soggier but with no other evidence present of their tiff, practically teleported back to their former position around the fire. The two damp fillies snagged a marshmallow each from the bag Twist held out to them and were soon roasting them over the fire. Twist blinked behind her large red glasses and decided not to mention the small green frog that was perched inside Apple Bloom’s hair ribbon.
Twist added her own marshmallow to the roast. She carefully rotated the plump bit of sugary goodness at the perfect distance from the fire, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth as she concentrated on holding the marshmallow as steady as possible. It turned a soft brown as the outer shell was caramelized and turned firm and crispy, holding the molten interior in place till she crushed it between two crackers and a bar of chocolate.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were not nearly as particular, they were too impatient and ended up with marshmallows that were charred black on one side, and barely cooked on the other. That didn’t take away from their enjoyment in the least as they manufactured their own gooey breakfast sandwiches.
In the time it had taken the three fillies to create their S’mores, Sweetie Belle had added three more marshmallows to the first one she had spitted, lining all four of them up perfectly. Satisfied, the light grey unicorn extended her spit and thrust the tip right into the heart of the fire. There was a sudden whoosh as a ball of fire expanded out from the campfire and incinerated Sweetie Belle’s marshmallows, as well as shortening her long eyelashes slightly. She let out a little cough and breathed out smoke from the soot-blackened face.
Seemingly oblivious to what had just happened, Sweetie Belle crushed the charcoal on the end of her toasting stick between her own crackers and chocolate, and to the fascinated disgust of her friends, bit into the resulting mess with every indication of delight.
The most important meal of the day taken care of, the four little ponies got down to serious matters. The first rule of order had the three blank flanks standing up and checking to make sure that one of them hadn’t gained a S’more cooking cutie mark. That taken care of, they set about discussing their plans for the day.
‟I don’t know, guyths,” Twist said. ‟I don’t think itths pothibile to make Apple thrup. You need gallonths and gallonths of thap to boil down for maple thrup, and we only got a half cup all day yethderday from that apple tree.”
‟That’s because we only tapped one small tree, yesterday,” Apple Bloom protested. ‟It didn’t have no sap to spare. I know where there are some humongous old apple trees. They don’t grow hardly no apples no more, so I bet they have a lot of sap to spare.”
‟Oh, man, I do not want to spend another day waiting for a drop of sap to fall into a bucket,” Scootaloo moaned. ‟We need to do something with a bit of action.” The little pegasus emphasized this by revving up her wings till they created a loud roar of displaced air, and scattered ashes and sparks downwind from the campfire. Fortunately for Apple Bloom, her still damp hide extinguished any sparks that landed on her with a soft hiss. That didn’t stop her from madly batting at them while directing a dirty look at a suddenly contrite Scootaloo.
‟At least we didn’t get any sap on our hides,” Sweetie Belle said, looking for the positive. ‟Rarity said if I come home one more time with a hide full of pine sap she’d shave me.”
After making sure she wasn’t on fire anywhere, Apple Bloom protested the other girls’ remarks. ‟But I’m positive if we can make some apple syrup candy, we’ll get our cutie marks in candy inventing for sure. If y’all can get something as good as maple candy from plain boring old maple trees, apple candy would be the most awesome candy ever invented! Come on, who’s with me?” Apple Bloom finished in her best pep talk manner, holding up a hoof to high-hoof her friends.
The response was not encouraging. The other three fillies traded looks and then looked back at Apple Bloom, who wilted slightly under their apologetic expressions. ‟Sorry Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said, speaking for the other two as well as herself. ‟We only got one more day left on our camp-out. We don’t want to spend it watching a tree trying to drip.”
Apple Bloom was ready to protest, but she could see her three friends were determined. She let her head droop and said in a rather petulant tone as she kicked at the ground, ‟Fine. So what do we do instead?”
‟Well, we did promithe Aunt Lyra we’d keep an eye out for humanth. We could go hunting for one?” Twist suggested in a questioning tone, looking a bit sheepish at the suggestion.
It was Apple Bloom’s turn to exchange looks with her friends, and it was Sweetie Belle who got elected by eye-contact vote to speak.
‟We all like Lyra, Twist. She did bring us a nice big bag of candy last night, and we’re grateful and all, it’s just that, well, she’s, ah...”
‟Short a few flight feathers!” Scootaloo blurted out.
‟A few bales short of a pile!” Apple Bloom said at the same time.
‟Miththing a few thprinkleth on her donut!” Twist added and then blushed a bit when everyone looked at her. ‟Jutht becauth I love Aunt Lyra, doethn’t mean I think thes not a little thilly, thomtimeth,” Twist said in a defensive tone.
At that moment any further discussion on the topic came to an end when a rainbow-hued blur flashed by overhead, causing the campfire to flare slightly in the back-draft and scatter sparks. Fortunately this time they didn’t land on anypony.
‟It’s Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo shouted out rather redundantly. She jumped as high in the air as her young wings could push her and extended a hoof. Rainbow Dash looped over in her flight and swooped down on the frantically hovering Scootaloo. The cyan pegasus extended her own hoof and did a fast flyby high-hoof with her number one fan-pony. The impact sent the small pegasus into a spin, and she fluttered uncontrollably toward the ground, only to be caught at the last minute by her idol.
Rainbow Dash carried her honorary little sister upward in a series of twisting barrel rolls and loop the loops while the other three fillies craned their necks keeping them in sight, ooohing and ahhhing at each progressively more complicated aerial maneuver.
Rainbow Dash glowed with pleasure as Scootaloo screamed in excitement as she took the little filly on a roller coaster of a ride above the campsite. The prideful pegasus’ ego had suffered a severe bruising from Bon Bon last night, and the honest adoration of her number one fan, and honorary little sister was just what she needed to soothe that hurt pride. Plus, she’d promised Applejack that she’d drop by this morning to check up on the little monsters.
That last thought was one of affection rather than derision on her part. Rainbow Dash got a serious kick out of how Scootaloo and her little friends stirred things up.
With one last tumble through the air Rainbow Dash came to a stop and slowly lowered herself and Scootaloo to the ground. The small pegasus wobbled slightly on rubbery legs, her eyes a bit out of focus as she slowly regained her equilibrium. She staggered one way, and then the other, before finally sitting down with a plop on the ground.
Rainbow felt a brief touch of concern. ‟Hey, squirt. Did I overdo it?” she asked in a worried tone.
‟That, that, that . . . Was the most awesome thing ever!” Scootaloo yelled out, pumping her foreleg in the air. ‟Let's do it again!”
The multicolored Pegasus pony gave a sigh of relief. ‟Maybe later, half-pint,” she said, ruffling the smaller pegasus’ feathery mane with her hoof in affection. ‟What are you fillies up to?”
‟Oh, not much. Just talking about how Lyra asked us to hunt down a human,” Scootaloo said in a joking tone, expecting Rainbow Dash to get a good laugh out of the idea.
Twist was opening her mouth to say that all Lyra had really asked, was for them to keep an eye out for the human she was sure was about to appear. Before she could get a word out, Rainbow Dash reared back in surprise, her eyes going wide and her wings flaring out as if she was about to spring into the air.
‟Oh, my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Rainbow Dash shouted inside her own head. ‟Lyra has found out about Curry! What am I going to do? Got to warn Twilight! But I can’t just let the girls run around looking for Curry! Got to distract them! First, be cool, don’t let the girls know, you know, that Lyra knows. Yeah, that’s the ticket.”
‟Hunt down a human. Ha. Ha. Ha!” Rainbow Dash laughed in a loudly contrived manner. ‟You don’t want to waste your time on something crazy like that. I’m sure there’s something a whole lot cooler you could do than that.”
While Rainbow Dash talked, her eyes wouldn’t meet those of any of the fillies. They roamed the sky and the surrounding trees hoping for inspiration. She needed something, and quick. Something fun, that would keep them too busy to think about Lyra’s request. A half-remembered snippet of a conversation on the care and feeding of little sisters popped into her head.
While Rainbow Dash would never confess it to anyone, she had felt a touch inadequate in regards to being a good honorary big sister to Scootaloo. She had therefore gone out of her way to ‘casually’ bring up the topic of how to be a good big sister with all those mares, and friends, she was acquainted with who had little sisters, including Rarity and Applejack. One of those ponies, she couldn’t remember just who at the moment, only that there was no way it was Rarity, had filled her in on the long tradition of sending little sisters on snipe hunts.
‟A snipe hunt!” Rainbow Dash shouted out.
Scootaloo was instantly on board. ‟That sounds totally cool! Can’t wait to do . . . Wait? What’s a snipe?”
It was Apple Bloom’s turn to look startled. ‟A Snipe hunt!” she said in a tone of voice that indicated amazed incredulity. She quickly suppressed her reaction as her gaze switched rapidly back and forth between her friend Scootaloo, and Rainbow Dash. A happy, rather smug, smile appeared on her face.
Not that Dash noticed. She was too busy fielding questions from her number one fanfilly.
The general gist of the barrage of questions could be summed up simply as a repeated demand to be informed of just what’s a Snipe was, how big, how fast, how dangerous, etc.
Rainbow, who had been grasping at straws when she came up with this idea, was at a bit of a loss. ‟Ah, well, a Snipe is this really incredible, rare, critter. Not even Fluttershy has ever seen one close up, but she’d sure want to. All the zoos and rich people in Equestria would give just about any amount of bits to own one. And it just so happens, I spotted Snipe sign on my way over here. Yeah, that’s what I did.”
Twist and Sweetie Belle, who were standing slightly back from the two Pegasus ponies exchanged looks of uncertainty and puzzlement.
‟Why didn’t you catch it yourself?” Scootaloo asked, implying in her tone of voice that this would have been the easiest of tasks for her idol.
‟Why didn’t I catch it?”
‟That’s what Scootaloo asked,” Apple Bloom said, with a small smile.
Rainbow Dash’s eyes twisted away from Apple Bloom as she struggled for an answer. ‟Well, I didn’t actually see the Snipe, only some signs it had been there. Besides, Snipes live in the deep tight brush. Someone with wings like mine could never fit. But little fillies like you four would have no trouble at all.” The multi-chromatic pony gave a sigh of relief at dodging that question.
‟Where did you thee it,” Twist asked, her tone dripping skepticism. Apple Bloom directed a worried look her way and edged closer to her candy-making friend.
‟I Thaw, I mean, saw it . . . Let me think for a minute,” Rainbow Dash thought frantically. Jake was at Sweet Apple Acres, and Curry at Fluttershy’s cottage. She needed to send the girls as far away from those places as possible, but someplace that would be safe. ‟Ah, yeah, I remember now. It was near the Rich Mansion, that’s where it was. The snipe was likely looking for some of the fancy food that rich ponies just scatter all over the place.”
No one heard the hastily stifled gasp that came from the bushes that separated the clearing from the closest lane-way.
By now even Scootaloo was starting to look a touch puzzled by Rainbow Dash’s strange behavior and manner of talking, which was not at all like her usual ultra-cool and comfortable manner of speaking. ‟How do we catch it?” the little Pegasus asked as she ruthlessly shoved her doubts aside. This was Rainbow Dash after all. She wouldn’t lie to her honorary little sister. Would she?
‟Well... Let's see,” the thoroughly flustered adult Pegasus said as she looked around for inspiration. Her eyes fell on Twist’s overflowing saddlebags, just chock full of various sweets and treats. ‟Candy! Snipes just love Candy! And they’re curious and lonely. Oh yeah, they are sooooo lonely. On account of there hardly being any Snipes at all."
‟Oh, the poor thing,” Sweetie Belle said, her voice laced with sarcasm. She gave a slight, ‘oof’ when Apple Bloom gave her a sharp nudge in the side. She twisted her head around in surprise and Apple Bloom made a ‘zip it gesture’ with one hoof while shaking her head from side to side.
The small farm-pony mouthed the words, ‘explain later’ to her friend before turning a worried frown toward Scootaloo who was looking more and more distressed.
‟Yeah, so what you do, is find a good thick hedge, with a narrow hole through it. You set yourself in front of that, and you say, ‘Sniiipe, Sniiiipe, real low and quiet. And you eat some candy so the Snipe can smell it on your breath when you do that. If there is a Snipe anywhere nearby, she’s going to come running, thinking there is another Snipe. And when she smells that candy, she’s going to be so curious, hungry, and lonely, she’s not going to even look around before rushing into that opening. That’s when you grab her. Got that?”
Apple Bloom shoved past Scootaloo, who looked like she had no idea of how to respond, and said with every indication of the usual CMC enthusiasm. ‟You bet! We’ll go get that Snipe right now! This is going to be so great! I bet we get Cutie marks for being great Snipe hunters for sure!”
Rainbow Dash wiped the sweat from her brow, feeling relief at having sold the idea so well. But, at the same time, she was feeling a more than a bit uncool. Not a feeling she enjoyed in the least.
The truth was, Rainbow had the awful feeling she had let herself get flustered over nothing. It wasn’t like Lyra hadn’t been going on about humans ages before Curry showed up. There was no reason to suppose she knew anything at all about the small filly’s appearance. Besides, that big stud Bon Bon took home the night before was likely going to put other thoughts in Lyra’s mind. It was general knowledge around town that the two mares were on the lookout for a good colt friend. According to Derpy, they got regular packages from some sort of matchmaker. Still, it was better to have been safe than sorry, and she felt she’d earned a good afternoon nap for distracting the girls from a problematic course.
Rainbow Dash gave Apple Bloom an approving look and said, ‟Good going. I know I can trust you girls. Go get that Snipe. I’ll see you later.” With that last remark, Rainbow took off straight up and made a right-angle turn in the direction of Ponyville where a cloud with her name on it was hovering over Sugarcube Corner. Within seconds she was out of sight.
Scootaloo watched her go, her expression distressed. Once her hero was out of sight she turned so she was facing away from her friends. She kicked at the dirt and said in a despondent tone of voice. ‟Go ahead, say it, you were right, and I was wrong. Rainbow Dash is a terrible liar.”
Before any of her friends could react, a familiar and very much unwelcome voice called out from the bushes that lined the clearing. ‟Don’t even think about it, blank flanks.” There was a thrashing in the bushes, accompanied by comments about ‟stupid un-groomed plants,” and a moment later Diamond Tiara, her trademark headpiece hanging from one ear, stumbled into the club-house clearing. A moment later, Silver Spoon, taking a bit more care, moved through the break in the bushes that her friend had made.
Diamond Tiara carefully re-arranged her tiara so it was once again perfectly in place, and took what she imagined was a superior pose. One that showed off her cutie mark to the best advantage. The general consensus of those ponies facing her was that she looked slightly constipated.
The little pony princess, in her own mind, smirked at the stupid blank flanks and their dweebish friend. Oh, how she waited for this moment. Ever since they had convinced Silver Spoon that a grey painted watermelon was a Nocturne Pegasus’ egg. The memory of spending two days with that thing swaddled in her personal bedding caused her animosity to boil over. She and Silver Spoon had alternated between terror that it would hatch out a blood-sucking monster any minute, and terror that they had harmed it in some way and it would never hatch, leading the parents to seek them out for bloody and terrible vengeance.
‟Don’t even think about trespassing on my property. That Snipe belongs to my family.”
‟How do you all reckon that?” Apple Bloom protested, stepping out in front of her three friends.
Diamond Tiara appeared baffled by her question. Surely the answer was obvious. ‟Because! It’s! On! Our! Property!” she said, slowly and distinctly.
‟Don’t mean you’re going to be able to catch it. You ain’t got the patience. A couple of minutes of waiting and you all will need to go get a hoof-ie-cure or something.”
‟Humph, we’ll see about that. Come, Silver Spoon. We have a Snipe to catch,” the two high-class fillies turned in place to march away. This put Silver Spoon in the lead for a moment, before Diamond Tiara shoved her friend aside so she could properly take her rightful position, through the narrow opening in the brush. Unfortunately for her, Diamond Tiara was too busy looking over her shoulder to enjoy the dismay of her rivals to pay much attention to where she was going. She didn’t quite hit the break in the hedge dead on. There was the sound of twigs breaking and muffled curses from the small filly and then the two formerly well-groomed ponies vanished from sight, only their voices remaining.
When Sweetie Belle would have spoken up, Apple Bloom held up a hoof to keep her quiet. Diamond Tiara’s gloating monologue on showing those blank flanks who the better ponies were floated clearly into the clearing, drawing an angry snort from Scootaloo. The sound of the spoiled pony’s voice grew fainter and fainter as she drew away from them until it faded completely away.
Apple Bloom heaved a sigh and then turned toward Scootaloo with a determined expression on her face. ‟You was right. And, I was wrong,” she said firmly.
Twist and Sweetie Belle looked at Apple Bloom with disappointment, and Scootaloo looked genuinely hurt, and then the three fillies’ face’s twisted in puzzlement as they parsed Apple Bloom’s words.
‟Wait? Say what,” Scootaloo said, looking at her friend with a baffled expression.
Apple Bloom gave her head a slow shake to go along with the rueful expression on her face. ‟Anypony who is that terrible of a liar, can’t have much practice at it, at all. Rainbow Dash was almost as flustered as mah sister when she told me all about Snipe hunting on our first camping trip.”
‟Wait! Your big sister told you about Snipes?”
‟Yep. Afterward, she said it was an old Apple Family Tradition for a big sister to prank her little sister with the story.”
A look of wonder appeared on the small orange Pegasus’ face, ‟Wait! Hold on! In that case--”
‟Rainbow Dash was thinking of you as a sister,” Sweetie Belle said, coming up and giving Scootaloo a hug.
‟Yeth, but why now?” Twist asked.
‟Yeah, I was sort of wondering that my own self,” Apple Bloom said.
‟It did seem like she was trying to distract us from something,” Sweetie Belle said with a thoughtful look.
‟It was right after I said we were going to hunt a human for Lyra,” Scootaloo said. All four fillies exchanged looks.
‟You don’t thupose,” Twist said, her eyes opening wide.
‟That there really is a human!” Scootaloo said in excitement.
‟If a human did show up, mah sister and her friends would be the ones asked to look into it. Just look at all the other things they’ve all done. So Rainbow Dash would know all about it!” Apple Bloom said, getting as excited as Scoot.
‟Oh man, this will be so freaking cool!” Scootaloo said, her tiny wings buzzing so fast from the excitement that she was hovering a couple of inches off the ground.
‟Lyra said that if you can catch a human, she has to grant your wish. You know what this means, right?” Sweetie Belle said as she and her two blank flank friends moved into a huddle.
Twist put her hooves over her ears.
‟Cutie Mark Crusaders Human Hunters, Go!”
***
The wail of a tortured harmonica sent an eerie thread of music weaving across the sun-blasted ground of the corral, mingling with the gusting wind that stirred the dust into short-lived swirls. The early morning sun sent its rays slanting across the dusty ground, causing the small whirling dust-devils to sparkle with reflected light and rendering the entire scene into sepia tones.
Sheriff Curry lifted a hand and tugged the brim of her over-sized Stetson down over her eyes to shade out the dazzling sun. She squinted across the sun-baked ground at the varmints staring back at her from the other side of the corral. They’d tasted her blood once before she showed them who was boss. It looked like the lesson hadn’t taken, or someone had been whispering in their ear, getting them riled up. It was clear from the looks in their beady little eyes that they’d like nothing better than to have another go at her. She lowered the hand she’d used to adjust her headgear and left it hovering over her right hip, the fingers flexing and curling as she waited for her opponents to make their move.
Such a waste, the hard-bitten trail rider thought as she turned her head and spit into the dust, narrowly missing a scuttling bug, all the while not taking her eyes off her opponents. They’d pushed her, she’d pushed back harder. The pecking order had been settled. It had been a private confrontation. Just between them. Until ‘he’ had interfered. The troublemaking, ornery, polecat who’d gone and told the Mayor. Sheriff Curry wouldn’t have put it past him being the one that had been whispering in the varmints ears either, getting them all worked up and thinking they had a chance against her. He was the polecat that should have been under her sights, but instead, he was all snuggled up against the mayor, gloating over the trouble he’d caused.
‟Now, Curry you go ahead and say you’re sorry,” The Mayor said in her soft gentle voice.
Curry curled up her fingers into fists. She wanted to protest, but all it took was one look from those large luminous eyes and her shoulders slumped. ‟Yes ma’am,” she said in resignation. Her imagination took a step back as she looked across the chicken coop at the group of hens huddled in the corner staring at her warily.
The wailing of the harmonica increased in intensity, and Curry winced while wishing she had the ability to fold her ears down flat like Fluttershy was currently doing. The yellow Pegasus looked across the fence that surrounded the chicken coop with a chiding expression.
‟Oops, sorry,” Pinkie Pie said. She wiped her harmonica clean of spit and stowed it away in her, anything fits, saddle bags. ‟Go ahead, make nice, Curry.”
Curry once again turned toward the group of chickens, feeling really, really, glad that there were no other kids from her school to see this. Clenching her hands hard enough to dig her short nails into the palms while closing her eyes, she said as quickly as possible. ‟I’msorryIsaidI’droastyou!” Strangely, she felt rather refreshed at getting the confession out. Her lips twitched as the total absurdity of the situation hit home.
‟There now, was that so bad,” Fluttershy said. She then turned her attention to the chickens, who were looking about as smug as it was possible for a creature without lips to look. ‟And now Elisabeak, you and your sisters tell Curry you’re sorry for pecking her paws.”
Curry’s amusement fled. She really hated when someone was forced to apologize to her. Especially when she didn’t think she was properly owed an apology. She’d taken them for granted when she knew better. ‟That’s alright, Miss Fluttershy. They didn’t do anything wrong.”
The hens, who had been huddling together, making every effort to pretend that there was no one else in the yard with them, looked up in surprise. That turned out to be a mistake as this let Fluttershy gaze meet theirs. They quailed and directed a rapid sequence of clucks and bwaks toward Curry.
‟They say they are very sorry and they won’t do it again,” Fluttershy told Curry, seemingly oblivious to how uncomfortable this whole thing was making the young girl.
Unable to think anything bad about the greatest pony in the world, Curry directed her ire, and gaze, toward the small fluffy rabbit who even now was nuzzling up against Fluttershy’s foreleg, earning himself a soft nuzzle as she bent over and rubbed him with her nose.
Curry wasn’t sure how, or when, but she knew she would get the little tattle-tale back.
Fortunately for both Curry, and the hen’s, egos, the current tableau was disrupted by a called greeting from the lane-way in front of Fluttershy’s cottage.
‟Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie. Hello,” Twilight called out.
Twilight looked away from her friends and let her gaze be drawn to the strange looking creature sharing the yard with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. The creature’s coloring was almost as chaotic as Discord’s body. Just about every shade she could imagine was represented. Even standing in plain view it seemed to fade slightly into the background. In fact, its appearance was so jarring that it took her a minute to take notice of the familiar hat and to put that together with the bipedal locomotion. ‟Curry, Is that you?” she asked in surprise.
‟Curry?” Spike inquired as he leaned around Twilight’s head to look in the same direction she was gazing. ‟Curry?” He repeated again, this time in a strangled tone as he struggled to restrain his laughter. ‟What, ha, are, ha, you wearing?” he choked out.
Curry had tensed up a bit when she’d heard Twilight speak. She still found the unicorn a bit scary. She tried to relax, remembering the easy camaraderie between Twilight and the other ponies who had found her and Jake in the forest. The fondness they had displayed toward the crazy unicorn along with the way they had snapped Twilight out of her weird behavior went a long way toward easing Curry’s worries about her, if not dismissing them altogether. On the other hand, Curry felt a touch of happiness at the sight of Spike.
The small dragon was the closest thing she’d found to a peer in this strange new world. Sure he was weird, but if you didn’t think too much about the scales and tail, the slitted eyes and the fire-breathing, and well, just about everything, he was a kid just like her. His current behavior as he slipped off Twilight’s back, in what was pretty much a controlled fall to the ground, laughing all the way, only drove the point home.
This, Curry, knew how to deal with. ‟So, naked dragon boy thinks my clothes make me look funny. At least I can take them off. How are you going to fix how you look?” she asked with a broad grin. She held out a hand to help Spike up.
Spike responded with a smile of his own as he took Curry’s hand. ‟I’ll have you know that scales are all the rage these days. They go simply divinely with everything,” he said in a faux high-society voice. Once on his feet, he examined Curry’s outfit a bit more closely. ‟This is the outfit that Rarity made for you?” he asked.
‟Yeah. It might look a bit funny, but it’s pretty comfortable,” Curry replied truthfully. ‟Don’t tell Mrs. Rarity I said that. The funny looking part,” She hurriedly added.
‟Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Spike chanted. At Curry’s befuddled look, he said, ‟That’s a Pinkie promise. And you never break a promise to a friend, because that’s the quickest way to lose one--”
‟Forever,” Pinkie Pie called out over her shoulder from where she was chatting with Twilight.
‟Twilight says she has a big surprise for you, Curry,” The pink pony added a second later.
‟Well, I would not call it a ‘big’ surprise,” Twilight said self-consciously.
Despite still feeling a bit uneasy around Twilight, Curry’s curiosity was tickled. Fluttershy had given Jake a party, Fluttershy and Applejack had given them each a place to stay. Rarity had magically produced her funny looking, but comfortable and durable outfit. Twilight was supposed to be a really strong magic user. Maybe she had something to unlock Curry’s special talent? ‟What is it?” she asked, walking briskly toward the three adult ponies.
‟Well, the situation is like this,” Twilight said. ‟Once Princess Celestia arranges matters, Jake and you will need to attend school. I thought I would save everypony a bit of trouble and evaluate you so the Princess will know where you stand, education wise.”
Curry’s first reaction was to shy like a frightened pony at the mere thought of school. She was having way too much fun to want to be stuck in a stuffy room for most of the day. Her second reaction was a lot more positive. This was a magic kingdom, filled with magic ponies. It stood to reason that the school would be the sort where they taught magic. Just like Hogwarts. She was already seeing a huge looming castle, even bigger than the ruin in the forest, devoted to teaching eager magic users how to become powerful wizards. She was all for that.
‟When can we start?” Curry said enthusiastically, drawing a beaming look of approval from Twilight, who also directed a distinct, I told you so, look toward Spike, a moment after.
‟Fluttershy, may I borrow your kitchen table for the morning?” Twilight asked.
‟Oh my, of course. I have to remove Mrs. Lynx’s cast. She’s really healed remarkably quickly. But, I don’t need the table to do that. I’ll be spending a few hours looking after my friends out here after I’m finished with that. Will that be long enough?”
Twilight’s expression indicated that she’d have preferred a lot more than a few hours, but all she said was, ‟Certainly. That should be plenty of time,” while trotting toward Fluttershy’s cottage with Curry half-running to keep up.
Inside Curry sat down at the table on the booster seat Fluttershy had produced for her the night before. She watched with anticipation as Twilight unsnapped her saddlebags. She’d seen Pinkie Pie produce the most unexpected things from her bags, she couldn’t wait to see what a great wizard would draw forth.
To her disappointment, the only thing Twilight pulled out of her bag was a bunch of old books. No skulls, no wands, not even a stuffed alligator. How boring. Still, they must be magic books she told herself, drawing the closest one to her and flipping open the heavy cover. She stared the contents with puzzlement at first, which turned to dismay. It was totally incomprehensible. Line after line of symbols that she could not make heads or tails of. A feeling of dismay filled her. Why had she assumed she’d be able to read the ponies’ books? This was an entirely new world. Whatever magic let her understand their speech clearly didn’t include the written word.
Curry wasn’t a big reader, but suddenly finding herself illiterate caused her to blush in embarrassment. She didn’t want to be one of those kids the teachers had to spoon feed information to. The ones who had to attend the ‘special’ class.
‟Oh, I’m sorry, Curry,” Twilight said, levitating the book from in front of Curry and replacing it with a much slimmer volume. That book is for me. I thought I’d do a little light reading while you browsed the books I brought for you. I just got this new updated version of Magicus Mathematicus and was eager to review some of the new equations for power transference and sharing.”
Curry gingerly flipped open the book with one finger, almost afraid to look at the contents. She let out a sigh of relief when the contents proved to be understandable. Her relief was quickly tempered by the realization that she was looking at a basic math book. Very similar in some ways to her textbook from grade two. The biggest difference was that the word questions were in general pony related in some way. Like the one asking how long it would take a pegasus to fly fifty kilotrots if she were flying at sixty kilotrots an hour into a fifteen kilotrot headwind. Though the one about sharing apples among three friends could have come out of any of her old school books.
‟Is that too advanced for you?” Twilight asked worriedly as she tried to decipher Curry’s expression. The human’s face was very expressive for something so flat, but she didn’t want to make the mistake of assuming a direct correlation with normal pony expressions that looked similar. ‟It was the most basic primer I could find in the library.”
‟No, no,” Curry hastily assured Twilight. ‟I done covered this a few years ago in school.”
‟Oh, good. I was hoping that was the case,” Twilight said with pleasure. ‟How about this one?” she asked, swapping the book in front of Curry with another one.
Again, Curry checked the book and found that it was talking about concepts that she had just started to study back home. ‟This here is where I was at, at home,” she said. She looked up at Twilight with an expression of dismay. ‟Ain’t we going to study any magic?”
Twilight looked a bit uncomfortable. ‟Most pony magic is instinctive and learned from experience like walking and talking. At your age, most of the training is show and do, with the teacher walking the student through the concepts. The more advanced magic that requires study from books would not do you any good till we have evaluated just what sort of magic if any, you have. I was planning--”
‟But I must have magic!” Curry cut Twilight off. ‟I just have to!”
‟Well of course you do. Everypony has some sort of magic. As I was trying to say, I was planning on working with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna on the best way to evaluate your magic potential,” Twilight said hastily, and a bit evasively.
Twilight was telling the truth, but not the whole truth. Part of her plans for this morning along with evaluating Curry’s educational level was to do a scan of the small human to once and for all determine what her natural magic aura was like under the contamination caused by Jake’s Alicorn magic. But she didn’t want Curry to know that. The scan would be much easier if she was relaxed and unaware of what Twilight was doing.
There was a sound of scraping wood as Spike dragged a spare chair over next to Curry and clambered up onto it. ‟Don’t worry, I’ll help you with the big words,” he assured the small girl with a smirk.
‟You sure you’re big enough to handle them?” Curry retorted, giving him a nudge with her elbow. She froze for a moment as she realized she’d just jostled a fire-breathing dragon.
Spike just gave her an elbow nudge in return, and then reached for another of the books Twilight was pulling out of her saddlebags.
‟That’s likely too young, Spike,” Twilight said in a distracted tone as a seemingly endless stream of books continued to float up and out of her bags.
Curry blanched a little as the books started to form a wall between her and the purple unicorn.
‟Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it looks,” Spike murmured out of the side of his mouth, as he pretended great interest in the primary school level Equestrish book in front of him. He was currently reading with apparent interest that ‘P’ stands for plowing and pulling.
‟There, now let us see,” Twilight said as she levitated the entire mass of books, including the one in Spike’s hands. They formed a large ring around her. She started rotating them around her head while she scanned the title. The books started to separate, every third or fourth was returned to the table, while the rest were packed back into her saddlebags.
Curry was so enthralled watching the magic show that it wasn’t till Twilight finished that she noticed that while the pile of books was much reduced, it was still high enough that she had to hitch herself up slightly in her seat to look over them and give Twilight a look of incredulity. ‟You want me to read all of these?” she asked in dismay.
‟Don’t worry. I don’t expect you to read them all this morning. You can finish browsing them after lunch,” Twilight said with a perfectly straight face. ‟Just skim through them for now. I’m sure Spike will be happy to answer any of your questions.” The purple unicorn then levitated her own book in front of her while plucking an apple out of the bowl of fruit Fluttershy kept filled on the table.
Curry gave the stack of books a look that might have more appropriately been reserved for inspecting a gallows that had been inscribed with her own name.
‟Don’t worry,” Spike once again interjected. ‟Twilight just tends to forget other ponies don’t regard reading as a full-contact sport.”
‟She can hear you,” Twilight said in a sing-along voice from behind her book. Spike just grinned and pulled a book off the stack in front of them. ‟Here, you might like this. The history of Hearth Warming Eve. A big holiday that’s coming up soon.”
Curry gave a resigned sigh and took the book from Spike. Silence fell over the room as almost against her will Curry found herself becoming immersed in the story of the creation of Equestria.
As she read about fantastic things like Windigoes, Curry found herself pausing every now and then as she realized that what she was reading had actually happened. It certainly made for less boring reading than a lot of the history she had been spoon-fed back home. This was about magic disasters, caused by magical creatures, solved by magic, sort of.
While Curry read, with the occasional clarification from Spike, Twilight was far from idle. She’d told a small untruth when she’d informed Curry that she’d brought her own book along to review some of the updated equations and new discoveries. The truth was that there was one particular equation that she was particularly interested in, and it was by no means a new one. It was a diagnostic spell designed to separate and analyze magical auras. A less complicated version was used forensically to determine the identity of a magical caster from the residue left behind at a crime scene or accident. This one was used in high-energy magic work and was able to scan down to ten thaums, the most basic element of magic.
Under the camouflage of the magic, she was using to hold the book in front of her face Twilight wove the highly complex and subtle spell. Tendrils of invisible magical energy insinuated themselves into the Alicorn aura that surrounded Curry. On a blank page she held beside her book, a stylized figure of Curry appeared, surrounded and infused by the magic Twilight was analyzing. As the spell cataloged the magic it found, it erased it from the image leaving the other influences more visible. Bit by bit that magic disappeared from the picture. First to go was the tiny traces of Fluttershy’s magic that clung to Curry. Next was the fairly strong magical aura that Rarity had infused into Curry’s outfit as she worked on it. Twilight frowned slightly. Intermingled with Rarity’s magic was some of Zecora’s. How had that happened? Twilight set that question aside for a later time and continued to winnow through all the magical traces surrounding Curry.
Every pony who had been in contact with the small girl over the last couple of days had left a trace, even Twilight. All those traces were analyzed and then suppressed until only the pure aura of Jake’s magic was left.
Twilight frowned to herself. Curry natural magic must be nearly nonexistent. She could not detect even a trace of it due to the interference from the large amount of magic Jake had infused into the little filly during the transfer to Equestria. Carefully, not wanting to burn out her spell by hastily interacting with too much of Jake’s magic, Twilight continued to tease at the aura surrounding Curry as the image in the book grew less and less distinct.
‟Not possible!” Twilight suddenly gasped. She shut the book with a snap, discontinuing the spell.
‟What was that, Twilight?” Spike asked, looking up from where he was nestled against Curry, reading about the importance of Winter Wrap Up along with her.
‟I just remembered something important, Spike. We need to get back to the library!”
‟But, I thought we were going to stay all day,” Spike protested.
‟Can’t be helped. I totally forgot . . .” Twilight paused, drawing a blank.
‟Yeah, I can see where you’re having trouble with your memory,” Spike said, shooting her a suspicious glare. He gave a sigh in response to the desperate look she sent his way.
By this time Curry had pulled her nose out of the book she was reading and was looking between Spike and Twilight with eyes that were a touch out of focus from all the close up reading she’d been doing. ‟What’s the matter?” she asked.
‟We need to get back to the Library. Twilight forgot to leave a window open for Owloysius, her pet owl. He’ll make an awful mess if we don’t get back in time.”
Twilight directed a scathing look at Spike, but it was too late to do anything about his chosen excuse. ‟Yes, I am so very sorry, Curry. I promise that I will be back as soon as possible. You can keep these books to look over until then.”
‟Aw, that’s too bad,” Curry said, sticking a hand behind her back and crossing all her fingers.
The small girl watched as Twilight hastily packed up and lifted Spike onto her back. Only when the unicorn pony had left did she get up from the table. She started to close the book she’d been reading and then paused. She took a napkin from the table and used it to bookmark her place.
Curry was playing with the baby otters when Fluttershy trotted back into the room. ‟Oh, did Twilight have to leave?”
‟Yeah, something about her pet owl being locked in the library.”
‟Oh, how terrible. Poor Owloysius,” Fluttershy said sympathetically. Then she frowned. ‟That’s strange, I thought Applejack put in an Owl door for Twilight.”
‟But what am I going to do now?” Fluttershy said in a worried tone. ‟I was going to escort Mrs. Lynx back to her home on the other side of Ponyville. But I can’t leave you here all alone. Oh, dear, I hope no pony sees her and makes a fuss. She’s such a sweet kitty, and she’d never hurt a foal, but someponies just don’t understand.”
‟I could go with her,” Curry volunteered, suddenly eager at the idea of seeing a lot more of this new world.
‟Oh, that would be very nice of you. But, I’d have to come along to show you the way. I’m afraid it simply isn’t possible for both of us to leave right now. I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said in a guilt-ridden voice at being so stern with the little filly. The shy pony didn’t add that Curry would likely upset any pony they encountered even more than Mrs. Lynx. The last thing she wanted was to make Curry self-conscious about her appearance.
‟I need to do some chores inside, but there is no reason you can’t go out and play with some of our friends,” Fluttershy added, hoping to distract Curry from the disappointment.
***
Curry felt a bit guilty as she looked over her shoulder at Fluttershy’s cottage in the distance. She could just barely see the small dot that was her Stetson, which she had left hanging on a fence post. She had laboriously, and with much blotting, used a quill to write a short letter which she had stuck in the brim of her hat. When Fluttershy found it she would be informed that Curry would be back in a little while, she was just taking a short walk with Mrs. Lynx.
Curry told herself it wasn’t like Fluttershy had explicitly told her she could not leave the yard. She looked in the direction she knew the apple farm was. Somehow she knew that Jake was having a lot of fun. That left her free to have a little of her own. She headed off after Mrs. Lynx, who was just vanishing over the hill. She wasn’t too worried about running into a strange pony or walking into the town. Mrs. Lynx would avoid those. She was relying on her own ears as well to tell her when she was getting to close to anything civilized before she walked right out into someone’s yard.
A feeling of anticipation filled Curry. What would a town of ponies look like? She wondered to herself. Maybe something she would see on the way, or find, would reveal her special talent. Just then Mrs. Lynx let out a low, purt, of inquiry, and Curry picked up her pace. ‟Yep, I’m coming, just let me catch up,” she called out to the wild lynx who was waiting patiently for her.
***
As Curry turned her back on Fluttershy’s cabin, the hat she had left draped over the top of the fence pole suddenly popped into the air and fell into the weeds on the other side of the fence. From the topmost fence rail, Angel Bunny looked down on the discarded headgear with great satisfaction, before turning his back on it and with a twitch of his tail hopping off the fence and toward the cottage.
****
‟I need you to send a message, Spike!” Twilight said.
Spike was sitting in the middle of the library, more than a bit exhausted. They had run all the way home from Fluttershy’s cottage. Or, rather, Twilight had run. Spike had bounced, a lot. As soon as they had arrived Twilight had turned into a whirlwind of research and had sent Spike running from one side of the library to the other gathering all the books that even touched on foalhood psychology, especially as it pertained to young unicorns. Unlike some of her more recent manic moments, Twilight was coldly focused and in her element, as her years of experience at researching stood her in good stead. The scholarly unicorn had grown more and more focused as book after book passed through her hooves.
Having exhausted the meager selection offered by the Golden Oak Library, she was clearly about to request a larger selection from Canterlot. With a groan, Spike got to his feet and pulled out a quill and scroll.
‟Okay, hit me,” the young dragon said.
‟Dear Princess Celestia. I have discovered something very troubling. It may change the entire situation here in Ponyville. I desperately need to talk to you in person. I can be on the next train to Canterlot in . . .” Twilight paused and levitated a train schedule from its nook in her desk, ‟A Half an Hour!” she said in a voice just shy of a scream.
‟Did you want me to write that last bit down?” Spike asked.
‟Yes, yes, but you can leave out the exclamation marks. Send it right away, with my name added, of course.”
While Spike did his thing, Twilight raced up the stairs and grabbed her emergency have-to-leave-right-this-instant bag.
‟Come on, Spike,” she called out, levitating him onto her back as she, carefully exited the library, looking both ways as she did so.
She was halfway to the Train Station when Spike gave out a little choke and spewed a plume of green flame. A scroll materialized in the fire and without breaking stride Twilight rolled it open in front of her and started to read.
Spike gave a frantic cry of alarm and reached forward to cup Twilight’s head with both his hands, twisting her head right and left to steer her around the various ponies out for an afternoon stroll. He was feeling pretty satisfied with his quick thinking when Twilight planted all four hooves hard into the road and skidded to a stop. Spike gave a yell as he was catapulted over Twilight’s head and toward the road. He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around his head, screwing up his face in anticipation of the bad case of road rash he was heading for. When there was no impact after a few seconds he opened his eyes and found himself hovering a couple of inches above the street and upside-down.
The small dragon twisted his head around till he was looking back at Twilight who was perusing the scroll in front of her. She was biting her lip in indecision while shuffling her hooves nervously. At last, she let out a sigh and turned around while levitating Spike back up onto her back. ‟Come on, Spike. Back to the library,” she said.
‟What is this all about?” Spike demanded.
‟I needed to discuss something I discovered with Princess Celestia, or I guess, Princess Luna. I didn’t want to alarm anyone prematurely till I did.”
‟A little late for that, I think,” Spike replied, gesturing at the numerous ponies who were giving Twilight worried looks as she trotted back to the library.
‟Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Twilight called out as she passed each pony. ‟False alarm.”
***
With a relieved sigh Twilight reached the library and closed the door, giving an evaluating glance at the scattered books and papers that covered the floor that Luna would tread upon in just a few short hours. Discarding the idea of just shoving everything into the closet (again), she began to pick up books and stack them where she and Princess Luna could reference them. It would be just like a study session with Princess Celestia, she thought with a sudden smile. They could sit around the table and discuss the situation logically while sipping tea and nibbling biscuits. Luna would lean in close as Twilight pointed out the pertinent references, her warm breath tickling Twilight’s ear.
The Princess of the Night would be so impressed with her work that she certainly would mention it to Celestia, maybe so impressed she would return on a regular basis.
Twilight sighed, her eyes glazing slightly. We could sit out on the balcony and talk about the stars and drink tea, just the two of us, talking about magic. I could show her the ways that magic has changed over the centuries, the theories, the newly discovered spells, and she could tell me about all the great unicorns of the past. She would be so impressed with my knowledge that she would make our visits a regular occurrence, not nightly, of course. Maybe twice a week, or even three times. Maybe she could even stay over occasionally if she is too tired to fly home. It would be just like when I used to curl up and fall asleep in Princess Celestia’s lap all those years ago when our private late night study sessions went on too long. Not that I want to curl up in Luna’s lap. Of course not. I’m a grown mare now. It would hardly be proper.
Spike paused by Twilight and waved a claw in front of her face. "Hello? Anypony home?"
Twilight snapped out of her daydream, a light flush decorating her cheeks. Quickly putting on a serious expression, she said, ‟Okay, we have a few hours till Princess Luna gets here. Let's get everything cleaned and ready for her.”
‟Princess Luna is coming here?” Spike questioned in a worried tone. While it was true that the town had grown a lot more comfortable with the Princess of the Night after the last Nightmare Night, that did not mean they’d react well to an unexpected visit.
‟Yes, the letter from Princess Celestia said that Princess Luna will get here as soon as possible. Apparently, she was already planning on coming tomorrow morning, so she is moving her schedule ahead and can be here earlier than I could get to Canterlot on the train. If Princess Luna thinks Princess Celestia is needed, she will inform her sister and the Princess will teleport here.”
With a resigned sigh, Spike picked up a broom and started to clean, while Twilight started neatly stacking the books she had pulled out for her most recent bout of research. He knew from past experience that there was no way he could convince Twilight that scrubbing the library from top to bottom wasn’t needed in a case like this. He just wished he knew what the whole fuss was about. What had Twilight seen when she scanned Curry?
***
‟What had Twilight Sparkle in such a fuss?” Sneak Peek muttered to himself as he sat in his seat waiting for the train to start its journey to Canterlot.
When he had witnessed her behavior earlier, his journalistic instincts had screamed that something big was going on. It had taken a lot of willpower to continue with his plans, travel to Canterlot, show his editor his pictures, show him his story, get a jump on every other paper in Equestria in announcing the appearance of a male Alicorn, and finally, accept the rewards his story would generate.
He had decided to downplay the entire ‘Son of Nightmare Moon’ angle. That could come out in the follow-up when the public was screaming for more information on the new prince.
That didn’t keep him from second-guessing himself. He wished the train would get going and take the choice out of his hands. To distract himself, he got out of his seat and recovered a discarded paper from where an early rider from Canterlot had left it. It was a rival publication and he knew he could wring a fair bit of entertainment out of it by taking mental shots at his counterparts’ columns. He straightened it out and flipped it over to the front page.
The headline hit him right between the eyes.
‟Male Alicorn Spotted in Downtown Canterlot”
There was even a blurry photo that looked very much like what he had seen out at Sweet Apple Acres.
Eyes bulging, a vein on his forehead throbbing, Sneak Peek scanned the story in disbelief. The discovery that the headline had been a joke, the paper poking fun at all the people who had called in reports, did little to ease his angst. Unlike the editor of this paper, he knew the truth, and how very convenient it was that at the same time he discovered the existence of a giant, black, male Alicorn, some rubbed neck clod of a Pegasus had lost a bar bet and was parading all over town during the previous evening wearing a novelty unicorn horn. A Pegasus that just happened to be of unusual size, and black as soot.
It could be a coincidence, he tried to tell himself.
‟Oh, look, it’s the stallion that’s helping out at Bon Bon’s place,” A voice said from just behind him. He twisted his head to see one of the locals looking over his shoulder at his salvaged paper.
‟Pardon?” He asked, dread causing his stomach to churn.
‟That stallion in the paper? I think he’s the same one who’s working over at Bon Bon’s candy shop. Can’t be very many pegasuses that big, that black, and wearing a stupid horn on their head.”
Just then one of the pony’s companions called out to him, and he trotted away leaving Sneak Peek slumped bonelessly in his seat. Listlessly, he got up and made his way off the train. There was no point in going to Canterlot. There wasn’t an editor in town who would publish either his pictures or story, except as a joke, not now. In a few days he was sure the truth would come out, likely via a controlled press conference, but by then it would be too late for him, his exclusive would be gone.
‟Well played, Celestia,” the broken newspony muttered to himself as he left the train station.
Despite this momentary bout of self-pity, Sneak Peek hadn’t gotten where he was today by being a quitter; although more than a few of his colleagues would have been quick to point out that where he was, was in one-bar town in the back of nowhere.
The hard-living newspony had barely stepped off the train platform when his shoulders came back, his legs stiffened and he decided that if this avenue of the attack had been cut off by his too clever opponent, he just needed to flank her position.
Now if he could just figure out how he was going to do that.
He needed a good stiff drink, or maybe a few. He was way too sober to go head to head against Celestia.
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Either Curry is (A) entirely non-magical or (B) has alicorn grade untapped magic.
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I still think she made Jake an Alicorn accidentally.
"I love it when threads come together!" -H. Smith
3234487 [ORIGINAL COMMENT REDACTED FOR REAL CONTENT]
This story, it has words, I like words. There are also characters, they do stuff. Stuff is fun to do! That is also important for stories. This has all the requirements to be a story. Yay!
[ORIGINAL COMMENT REDACTED FOR REAL CONTENT]
This story, it has words, I like words. There are also characters, they do stuff. Stuff is fun to do! That is also important for stories. This has all the requirements to be a story. Yay!
3239410 Haha! I can't tell if I want this more or just her as a no magic human dealing with those issues. Both sound really interesting!
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Get your votes in.
I know what Curry, and Jake, are, but how that will manifest is still up in the air to a large extent.
But, the fundamental thing about Curry that is important to the story is that she is a little horse loving girl in a land of intelligent, magical, ponies. Lack of those sort of stories is what motivated me to try my hand at writing this after all. That is not going to change.
Hopefully I'll be able to mix in enough fun that a lot of people will find something to like.
A little feedback from readers on what they like and dislike, what they'd like to see more of, and what they'd like to see less of, would be a big help. I've finished posting all the material I created before the first chapter was posted, and have a blank slate in front of me.
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That is a . . . pretty darn good guess. Totally wrong, but a good guess.
3240920 Awesome. I wouldn't want that to change. My curiosity is focused mostly on her, and how she will deal with her situation if she really has no magic. My theory so far is that she has none of her own, but can channel and direct/enhance the magic of others around her;a trait unique to humans within the lore/metaphysics of this story. The myths about humans "granting wishes" leads me to think this. Unless it's just a role reversal joke reference to fairy lore.
Aww, a Snipe hunt. I've been on several of those. This was before the internet, so you couldn't just check to see that a Snipe was fake.
'Oh my, of course. I have to remove Mrs Lynx’s cast. She’s really healed remarkably quickly.'
Very interesting. Curry assumes that her scratches were healed by one of the Unicorns, then the Lynx, who slept next to her magically heals so quickly . . . methinks I see a pattern forming.
I saw the title for this chapter and immediately thought: "Oh please oh please be my prisoner!" and "Here, snipey snipey snipey..." from Up. Gosh, I love that movie.
I saw the title for this chapter and immediately thought: "Oh please oh please be my prisoner!" and "Here, snipey snipey snipey..." from Up. Gosh, I love that movie.
I saw the title for this chapter and immediately thought: "Oh please oh please be my prisoner!" and "Here, snipey snipey snipey..." from Up. Gosh, I love that movie.
I saw the title for this chapter and immediately thought: "Oh please oh please be my prisoner!" and "Here, snipey snipey snipey..." from Up. Gosh, I love that movie.
I saw the title for this chapter and immediately thought: "Oh please oh please be my prisoner!" and "Here, snipey snipey snipey..." from Up. Gosh, I love that movie.
I saw the title for this chapter and immediately thought: "Oh please oh please be my prisoner!" and "Here, snipey snipey snipey..." from Up. Gosh, I love that movie.
Angel Bunny? More like Bastard Bunny.
Where's Discord?! Angel needs to be put in his place!
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Really?
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lyrics+to+big+iron+by+marty+robbins&&view=detail&mid=0B1DF69DD240581AEA210B1DF69DD240581AEA21&&FORM=VDRVRV
Remove
This is what I found in chapter 14
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word question is a thing.
Depressing how long it took me to spot 'say' for 'stay' even with you pointing it out.
Brown?? I know this chapter is old, but.. brown???
Scootaloo is orange.
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See, that's why you should always point out glaring typos, no matter how old the story is.
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She did but her magic was coating jake so all her magic that twilight sensed is being miss read as jakes
Why do I feel like you have this exactly backwards, Twilight?
Of course not, Twilight. It's not like there's a Romance tag on this story or anything. Right?
. . .
I cannot wrap my head around this wording.
CURIOUSER...AND CURIOUSER !!!!!
THAT’S WHAT YOU GET!!!
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Glad you're enjoying the story.