Whipped
Swarm glumly lifted another mouthful of cereal into her mouth, pursing her lips and rubbing at her ear with a free hoof.
“What’s the matter with you?” Kuno asked, perking an ear at her daughter.
Swarm mumbled something incoherently around her mouthful.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Warden said, pursing his lips and flicking her ear with a hoof as he passed on the way towards the kettle, which was whistling happily on the stove.
Swarm gave an indignant huff, staring at her mother. “Daddy hit me!”
“I saw,” Kuno said airily, waving a hoof. “You shouldn’t have been talking with your mouth full. Now, why are you being so gloomy?”
“I don’t want to go to school,” Swarm admitted, frowning down at her cereal. “They make me do things I don’t want to do.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to get used to it,” Kuno said with a thin smile.
“I bet you didn’t even go to school,” Swarm said flatly.
Kuno blinked once, her brow furrowing. “How do you figure?”
“Because you’re a changeling,” Swarm said coolly.
“That I am,” Kuno said fearlessly. “But how do you know I didn’t go to school?”
“Because changelings are different,” Swarm said, picking at her bowl with the spoon. “Mommy... why don’t I have a queen?”
Kuno stiffened slightly at that, her eyes narrowing slowly. Warden paused as well, peering back over his shoulder with interest.
“You are not part of a hive. You are... more pony than changeling,” Kuno explained, pursing her lips.
“I can hear them sometimes,” Swarm said, with an almost eerie note in her voice. “It’s like... whispering. But it’s always really hard to understand.”
Kuno pursed her lips, and then nodded gently. “Yes, that is the hive. You’ll learn to block it out.”
“What if I don’t want to block it out?” Swarm asked challengingly, staring up at her mother.
“Swarm, I am your mother, and I am the closest thing you will ever have to a ‘queen’. I know what is best for you, and you will obey me, understood?” Kuno asked, her eyes narrowing slowly.
Swarm huffed faintly, her ears splaying back. “Fine.”
“Look, Swarm... The hive is not something you want to be part of. It... controls you. It makes you do things you don’t want to do. It imposes the will of the queen on your consciousness, and I know you’re too young to understand... but it’s not... well, it’s not something you want,” Kuno tried to explain, frowning deeply.
Swarm nodded once. “I understand.”
Kuno pursed her lips. “You really don’t. Imagine being asleep. Or sleepwalking. You don’t really... know anything, about what you’re doing or what’s going on. But you’re still doing things.”
Swarm wrinkled her nose. “That sounds like school.”
“It’s a lot worse than school,” Kuno said with a single curt nod.
Swarm shrugged her shoulders, little wings giving a flutter. “Can I get my horn removed?”
Kuno recoiled slightly at that. “Why would you even want such a thing?”
“Because I’m different,” Swarm said, chewing on her tongue slightly. “Everyone looks at me differently at school. They sort of... stare. I don’t like it.”
Kuno pursed her lips again. “Well you’re just going to have to learn to deal with it.”
“Do I have to go to school?” Swarm asked, giving a faint whine. “I don’t want them to stare.”
Kuno gave a long sigh, shaking her head slowly. “Not good enough.”
Swarm’s bottom lip quivered, and her eyes began to well up with tears.
“Stay strong, hun,” Warden said conversationally, pouring a measure of hot water into a cup.
Kuno pursed her lips, biting her tongue, the length of blue flesh clenched between her teeth as she bounced slightly on her hooves. “But... but..”
Swarm gave a faint whine, bottom lip quivering further, her eyes growing large and naive. “B-but mommy, I don’t want to g-go...”
Kuno gave a huff, flailing a forehoof. “Fine! But just for today!”
Swarm broke into a bright smile instantly. “Yay! So what are we doing?!”
“Taking a trip to visit your father’s parents,” Kuno said immediately.
Warden stiffened, his ears splaying back. “We... are?”
Kuno raised a brow. “Do you have anything better to do?”
“Breathing? I was planning on scratching myself, a bit later on,” Warden said with a firm nod. “So uh... I’m a bit busy to go to Cloudsdale.”
Kuno pursed her lips at that, her eyes narrowing at her husband. “We both know I’m going to convince you,” she said bluntly. “So shut up and accept it before I impose ‘no touching’ rules for an arbitrary length of time.”
“You really underestimate the depths of my hate for my father,” Warden said bluntly.
Swarm stared back and forth between them like a spectator at an airshow.
“More than you like touching?” Kuno asked coyly.
Warden bit his tongue, and then looked back and forth between Swarm and Kuno. “Will the puppy-dog-eyes work?”
“No,” Kuno said flatly. “And if you don’t go, I will go. As you. And I reconcile so perfectly they will come to dinner tonight.”
Warden splayed his ears back, giving a long sigh, his wings drooping. “Well... fine.”
“Good boy, now show me that you’re whipped,” Kuno said, holding out her hoof.
Warden sighed heavily, and then leaned down to kiss her hoof gently. “There, happy?”
“Immensely,” Kuno said with a smile.
“Will I at least get something for enduring this torturous day?” Warden asked plaintively.
“I’ll give you a goodnight kiss?” Kuno offered with a grin.
“Deal!” Warden said, leaning in to peck her on the nose.
Kuno in her pegasus form, Warden and Swarm all sat in a train compartment, watching out the window as the floating city of Cloudsdale loomed larger and larger on the horizon.
“How does it all stay up in the air?” Swarm asked, staring. “Does it have wings?”
Kuno giggled at the thought. “No hun, it floats on clouds.”
“Like pegasus can float on clouds?” Swarm asked.
Kuno nodded. “Exactly like that.”
“Will I be able to float on the clouds?” Swarm asked excitedly.
Warden gave a worried frown. “That’s a very good question, actually.”
Kuno gave a soft hum. “Well, I can float on the clouds. And she’s half me and half you, so she should be able to, right?”
“I can’t even fly yet,” Swarm whined, lifting a hoof to tug her wing until it was outstretched. “How can I float on clouds? They’re all fluffy and soft like cotton candy.”
A soft whine left Kuno. “Now I want cotton candy.”
“And I want not to be the only adult in this family,” Warden said dryly.
Kuno’s eyes narrowed and she cuffed him with an outstretched wing. “Liar. You’re just as much of a child as I am.”
Warden rubbed at the back of his head, chagrined. “At least I can hide it.”
Kuno raised her wing threateningly.
Warden huffed, holding up his good hoof to fend her off. “Fine, fine. We’re all children.”
“How are we getting to Cloudsdale?” Swarm asked after a few moments. “It’s so high up and I can’t fly.”
Warden nodded once. “I can’t fly, either,” he pointed out. “We’re taking the sky staircase.”
“What’s that?” Swarm asked.
“It’s a straircase into the sky?” Warden offered with a faint shrug. “I’ve never used it before.”
“Why would they even make a staircase into the sky?” Swarm asked blankly. “It’s stupid.”
“Because not everypony can fly,” Warden said with a shrug. “There’re floating platforms up there that can support an earth pony or a unicorn, but with no way to get up there, they’re pointless.”
Swarm shrugged. “Still. Silly. Everypony that lives in Cloudsdale can fly. They’re all pegasus.”
Kuno raised a brow slowly. “No they’re not. There’s a unicorn healer and an earth pony who likes to grow really high-altitude flowers that I know off the top of my head.”
“But why would they live where pegasus are supposed to live?” Swarm asked blankly. “That’s silly.”
“Well your father lives in a cottage, doesn’t he? Even wondered why he doesn’t live in the clouds?” Kuno asked.
Swarm wrinkled her nose, looking back and forth helplessly. “Because... because... Daddy grows things. And things don’t grow in clouds. They grow in dirt.”
“So why wouldn’t unicorn be able to do something in the clouds, hmm?” Kuno asked simply.
Swarm huffed faintly, rubbing at an ear with a hoof. “I... I guess you’re right. But... wouldn’t it be all scary if you can just step wrong and fall?”
“Very scary,” Kuno said with a single nod. “That’s why not many ponies do it.”
“Pegasus have it easy,” Swarm said with a smug smile. “Because they can fly. And I’m gonna be able to fly too, and sit on a cloud and watch everyone else who can’t fly.”
Kuno gave a faint giggle. “That’s one of the joys of being a winged creature.”
“I’m not a creature, I’m a pony!” Swarm protested with a huff.
“We’re all creatures,” Kuno said with a shrug. “Just some of us can talk.”
Swarm wrinkled her nose. “I’m not interested in... in... uhm.. what’s that word, mommy?”
“Semantics?” Warden offered.
“Those! Semmythings!” Swarm said with a huff. “No semmythings.”
The carriage jolted as the train started to slow down, and the brakes squealed from the strain of slowing the inertia. Another jolt happened as the train came to a halt, causing all three ponies to sway in tandem.
“Can we get drinks?!” Swarm asked, jumping to her hooves. “I want drinks!”
“Yes, we can get drinks,” Kuno said with a shake of her head.
“Uhm, Kuno?” Warden asked, pausing at the doorway.
“Yeeees?” Kuno asked sweetly.
Warden leaned closer, his ears splaying back. “I don’t want to sound mean or anything but... can you forgo the collar? Just this once?”
Kuno’s hooves flew to her neck, and she frowned deeply. “But... but... it’s my collar.”
“My parents might get the wrong idea,” Warden said with a slight wince.
“Well I’ll correct them. It’s a fashion statement about the commercialisation of the personalisation of a pony and how we’re all trapped by the existential nature of capitalism,” Kuno said smugly.
Warden frowned for a long moment and then gave a helpless shrug. “That’s just confusing enough that no one will bother asking you anything about it.”
“That’s the point,” Kuno said with a wink and a grin, kissing his nose lightly. “Now, to the staircase! You have many, many thousands of steps to climb while I fly along side you, teasing all the way.”
“But you gotta walk up ahead of me so I can stare at your butt and have a target to reach,” Warden whined.
“Well tough,” Kuno said with a giggle. “I don’t feel like a workout.”
Warden gave a long-suffering sigh. “Well I want to catch a glider down, at least.”
“You’ll have to take Swarm with you,” Kuno cautioned. “No way am I letting her into one of those contraptions alone.”
“Very well,” Warden said with a wrinkled nose. “But if you scream, Swarm, then no ice cream after dinner.”
“Not even a little screaming?” Swarm asked, starting with the sad eyes.
Warden bit his bottom lip and then gave a long sigh. “It’s terrifying how like your mother you are.”
Swarm giggled and poked out her tongue, prancing away.
The ‘stairway to Cloudsdale’ was really more of a highway than a staircase. A staircase at least ten ponies wide had been erected, made of a kind of glowing magical material that shimmered and shifted in colour from clear, to every colour of the rainbow. Along either side of the staircase were conveyor belts, carrying large mine-cart like containers shipping necessities up to Cloudsdale.
Thankfully, only a strip in the centre of the staircase was stationary. There was a conveyor on either side of the ‘staircase’ built specifically for pony transport. Warden just assumed that the ‘staircase’ portion of the highway was for masochists.
“This isn’t nearly as fun as I had hoped,” Kuno admitted, sitting down on the conveyor belt and watching the clouds approaching.
“You mean you don’t get to watch me sweat?” Warden asked bluntly.
“I like watching you sweat,” Kuno said with a slow smile, leaning in to nibble at the base of his ears and then cooing softly. “I like licking it clean, too.”
Warden gave a faint shiver, his wings rustling. “So... I’ll walk then?” he offered with a faint grin.
“Maybe on the way down,” Kuno suggested, humming thoughtfully. “We could get Swarm her own private compartment...”
“My own whole compartment?” Swarm asked, bouncing slightly in place.
Warden automatically reached a hoof out to grasp his daughter’s shoulder. “No bouncing. You’ll fall off.”
Swarm huffed and pursed her lips. “Never allowed to have any fun.”
“‘Fun’ does not involve bodily harm,” Warden cautioned.
“You’re so cute when you’re serious,” Kuno said with a grin, licking Warden’s ear. “You should be more serious with me.”
“Then you hit me!” Warden complained.
“Oh grow up, foal,” Kuno said, cuffing him with her wing.
After fifteen long minutes of sitting on their butts, the conveyor belt ended and they could all step off onto the clouds of Cloudsdale.
Swarm paused at the very edge of the platform, placing a hoof down against the cloud, testing it. Both Warden and Kuno held one of her wings each.
A faint hum left the little hybrid, and then she bounded forwards, rolling about in the cloud happily. “It’s so soft!”
Warden just shook his head, and Kuno giggled.
Another ten minutes of walking brought them to the Wonderbolt’s personal training ground.
A huge structure made entirely of clouds dominated one end of Cloudsdale. It was oblong in shape, like a bread-roll, with a flat structure sticking out from the front of it that housed the Wonderbolts themselves. Warden knew already that the structure was almost entirely hollow. The entirety of the inside of the cylindrical shape was devoted to a wind tunnel: the personal training room of the Wonderbolts. At one end of the wind tunnel was a giant fan, propelled by magic and spinning too slowly to cause much harm, but powerful enough to cause a wind that had strength enough to send the unprepared tumbling right out of the tunnel and into the cloud-bank behind.
“This is where your mommy and daddy live, daddy?” Swarm asked, amazed.
“Where they work,” Warden said, rubbing a hoof against his ear nervously. “S-sure about the collar, hun?”
Kuno gave a nod. “I’m certain.”
Warden took a deep breath, and then gave a long, shaky exhalation. “Well... sure we can’t just go and drink some alcohol and forget this whole business?”
Kuno gave a low growl, and then pushed him with her hooves. “No. Now you walk in there and face your parents like a good little whipped foal.”
Warden whined faintly, his ears splaying back. “Fine. But you’re paying me back for this.”
Kuno gave a wry grin at that. “If you’re a good boy, I’ll let you wear the collar tonight.”
“That’s more of a punishment,” Warden pointed out, his cheeks flushing faintly.
“Okay then, go in there or I’ll put the collar on you tonight,” Kuno said with a sweet smile.
“Fine.” Warden huffed, stalking towards the door. “But when this goes south, I get to say ‘I told you so’.”
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Yay!
Dammit, I was hoping for the meeting in this one!!!
But you sure made up for it with Swarm's adorableness.
Great. Now I want cotton candy too!
Awesome.
Kuno is scary with those threats
It is about, to go down.
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Oh joy. Now I want Chocolate Milk...
im having real trouble on whose the dominating one in this relationship
2957695 24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_medab9gbCE1qkr08no1_400.gif
Or more appropriately.
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Hehehe semmythings! I got a kick out of that
2957713
not entirely sure how to take that.
Ah, the kids and their never ending questions... maybe you could have gone further with it, like here:
2957733
Take it with a sense of pride, my friend.
What a delightfully dysfunctional family.
2957709 that would be both...and neither...
You know, the one complaint I have about you and this story is that all other PonyXChangling fics I read end up being disappointments. Heck, I'm afraid to write my own for fear of being an utter disappointment.
Also adorable, adorable Swarm. Your cuteness will not save you from the storm that is about to commence.
Swarm is so adorable it should be a crime.
Also...
>get popcorn
>wait for shitstorm
Swarm knows what semantics are?
Hell, I'm still not sure what they are.
2957693 I find Kuno's threats HOT!
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!
Now Kuno's got Swarm doing it too? So, let me get this straight, now there are two of them giving us puppy-dog eyes...?
They lied to me, they told me I only had one heart...I can feel both heart-attacks at once!
tomandlorenzo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/heart.jpg
The only thing I have to say about this fic is
.
It's unbelievable how cute they are together.
Come to think of it, that's what attracted me to MLP:FiM in the first place. So good job.
2957882 READ LOVE MINE! IT'S AWESOME!!!
2957994
Odd, no stories on your page.
soooo does kuno plan on showing wardens folks that shes a changeling? that would be amazing!
I always swear out loud when I get to the bottom of your chapters, because I want them to keep going and now I have to wait and I don't wanna and this is the longest run on sentence I have ever written in my life and im 31 years old and freaking love this story!
2957994
That's the ultimate disappointment
When I read The ‘stairway to Cloudsdale’ Part of the story.
In my mind I was thinking "Stairway to Heaven?" and/or "Highway to Hell?"
I thought it was funny
(don't ask me why plezz 
)
I imagined the rainbow to fairyworld as the staircase to cloudsdale
2958004 No silly, It's not my story! It's called "Love Mine"!!
2958024 What is?!
2958160
The complete lack of a link
.
Hectic will arise.
The last sentence...
American Dad reference?
The stairway (or rather, escalator) to heaven is a bit of an odd idea...
And yuuup. He's so whipped.
Welp. I really shouldn't have left the doc so soon... I didn't know you were actually going to publish this right away, after that "it's 4 AM here" remark
So yeah, one tiny nitpick:
> the Wonderbolt’s personal training ground.
Should be <Wonderbolts’>
2958176 HERE YA GO!! HAPPY?
Now I wanna see sexytimes with Warden in the collar... ha!
2958618
NO! Now I have more stuff in my Read Later list! How will I ever find time to read so many stories while working on my own fics? HOW?
2958080
Why is is funny?
2959327
If you read the story 1. Warden didn't what to see his Parents to begin with and he didn't like his dad for some reason. ("Dad" in his mind is the Devil) = "Highway to hell".
(Highway and Stairway are both ways to get anywhere)
2. the part of the story said "Stairway to Cloudsdale" brings "Stairway to Heaven" to mind.
2958466
"Stairway to Heaven" or escalator is an old concept on how people/pones got to Heaven's Gate (It's also a Led Zeppelin song)
lol wow that was funny as hell XD
warden is whipped!
“Like pegasus can float on clouds?”
*pegasi
“Pegasus have it easy,”
*pegasi
etc.
2959740
I'll save nony P the effort and tell you right now those instances were intentional. Notice the quotes signifying the fact someone said those lines? and that that someone was Swarm?
2958080 I tried to get nony P to put a direct stairway to heaven reference in there but then something happened and I lost focus.
2959327
because its got that bit that makes it funny because of the piteous qualming between the family members :3
imageshack.us/a/img33/5764/likethischapter.jpg
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lo02btBB5y1qm45nyo1_400.gif
2959596
I was only asking why it was funny because he (she?) said not to ask. Hence the trollestia face.