Luna paced anxiously around her room, as her sister, more calmly, but still anxious, watched her.
As she walked around the room, going in circles, Luna said nervously: “What if the experiment doesn’t work out? What will happen if something goes wrong? What wi-”
Her sister gently covered her mouth with her hoof: “It’ll be fine, it will work out, and if it doesn’t there always the next attempt, right?”
Luna answered: “I guess so, we should better make this as soon as possible, we practiced for months, we can do this.”
Celestia comforted her sister as much as she could, but it was clear that Luna was very nervous, the clear drops of crystalline sweat dripping from her face.
Celestia said: “We can do this; we can create a new filly or colt from just magic, we can begin.”
They both headed out to a room, the temperature there is very cold, the room seemed empty, the walls, floor, and even the roof were white, there was absolutely no furniture in the room.
Luna nervously said: “You know how to do this right?”
Her sister chuckled: “Of course I know how; we just join horns and use our magic to create it”
Luna, embarrassed, said: “Oh yeah… I just am nervous”
Celestia gave her sister a hug while saying: “It’ll be fine.”
So, the procedure began, they both join horns and they fired up their magic. The light produced from their horns was so intense that it could have gone on for miles if it were not for them being in the room.
A big explosion of smoke appeared after they both joined the magic of their horns, they were coughing frantically from the amount of smoke there was, but also there, was the end result.
There was a small, green colt sleeping on the floor when the smoke dissipated and they saw what they had created, they were overflowing with joy!
Luna, in excitement, said: “We… did it? WE DID IT!” She started hugging her sister really tightly, and so did her sister.
Celestia, gleeful, said: “Yes, we did, we did what was thought to be impossible by our ancestors.”
Luna said, joking a bit: “Who will be the main mom?” They both chuckled. Celestia responds with: “Let’s just both take care of him at the same time.”
Luna, a few moments after, hits a blunt: “Wait, how we will tell the rest of the Mane 6 about this? I mean, they don’t know a single thing about this.”
Celestia suddenly becomes nervous: “Do you think we should do a formal introduction, or let them find out themselves, after all this is the legendary 7th element.”
Luna says after: “We don’t even know what element this is, this is only in the hidden section of the library, if somebody knows about the 7th element, it’s Twilight, so I think we should keep him for a bit, and then we should introduce him to them.”
Celestia: “I say we enroll him in Twilight’s School, he’ll learn a lot there, I don’t know if he even knows how to speak, but I hope he does.”
Luna picked up the sleepy colt and put him on her back and went to her room where she tucked him under the silk sheets of her bed.
Then, Celestia went back to her room to sleep, as Luna did her nightly routine on checking on everypony’s dreams.
Naturally, Luna first checked his creation’s dream, and there was… nothing, it was pitch dark, so Luna decided to hop by on his dream.
When she did, everything was completely dark, so she just decided to say: “You are destined for great things, your name shall be… Hardwired.” she decided on that before going onto others ponies dreams.
One day I suddenly woke up in the middle of nowhere, I didn’t know where I was, but I felt some sort of warmth, I realized I was tucked in a bed, but which bed, I didn’t know anything, all these thoughts were swirling around my head, suddenly, 2 figures approached me, they were all blurry, I didn’t know if it was me or if they were like that.
One of the figures was dark blue with a seemingly glowing and flowing galaxy on her.
The other one was mostly white and had a palette of pastel colors also shining and moving for some reason, anyways, they were kind of far so I couldn’t see them very well.
Suddenly, one of them spoke, I didn’t know who because for some reason I saw all blurry, I wish I could fix that.
They said: “Ah I see you have woken up Hardwired.”
Hardwired… where have I heard that before, suddenly it clicked on my mind, I remembered in my dream something telling me that I was destined for great things and that my name was… Hardwired! That was it!
To be honest, I was afraid of saying anything to these mysterious creatures, for everything I know they could be trying to kidnap me!
When that thought swirled around my mind, other bad possibilities started popping up, and it was like I couldn’t control them, they started overtaking my mind, I couldn’t think, and without realizing it I shed a tear.
One of the figures said: “Don’t be sad, it’s ok.”, for some reason her voice made me feel calmer, there was something in the way she spoke.
The other figure said: “He probably doesn’t understand us, Luna, he hasn’t spoken a word, if he did, he would have talked to us already”, they had a bit of a rougher voice, it didn’t have the same charm as the other.
I decided to nod, to say in some way that I did understand them, again, I didn’t really want to speak, all these questions I had in my mind I just kept them to myself, I didn’t know how to express them really.
Then, the melodious voice spoke again: “See! He does understand us!” She seemed excited, but about what? What was I missing?
The other voice started speaking: “Well, wow, that’s a pleasant surprise, can you speak for us young one?”
I didn’t know how to answer that, so I just shook my head.
That same voice talked again: “Why won’t he speak, he can understand us, so why would he not speak?”
I started identifying where the voices came from, the closer they got to me, the less blurry it was, it still was blurry for some reason, but at least I saw some other facial features.
Then, the dark blue mare started speaking again: “Maybe he just needs some time sister, hey little guy!” I felt nice after she said that. “My name is Luna, and her name is Celestia.
Luna and Celestia, Luna and Celestia, I kept repeating those words to myself, are these going to be my caretakers?
Luna handed me a piece of paper and a pencil. “If you don’t feel confident enough to tell us anything it’s fine, just write it down on this paper, it’ll make you feel better.”
I was starving, so instinctively I wrote: “Food.” I didn’t know where I learned how to write but damn do I have some good writing.
Celestia said: “Oh ok! I’ll go make some pancakes right away, stay here with Luna, Hardwired.”
I wanted to tell her so much, I just didn’t know how to express myself, so many questions, so I wrote the first thing that came to my mind on that paper.
I wrote “You’re blurry.”, that’s the first thing that came to my mind, I pointed at the words to show Luna.
Luna said: “Oh, you must need glasses, I’ll make some appear and you can try them on!”
I gave a small nod, what were glasses? According to me, glass is the one on the windows, so windows maybe? Why the hell would I need windows?
Anyways, for the first time I saw how magic worked, I saw an aura of the color of her mane around her horn and all of a sudden, poof, some “glasses” appeared.
“Ok, I brought them, you try them on and tell me how they are.” She told me, it felt nice to have somepony understand me.
I started trying them all out, even when I tried them, I still saw blurry, I just shook my head if it wasn’t helping.
Luna’s voice tone seemed a little concerned: “Oh wow, you must really have seen us very blurry for none of these glasses to be working, here’s the last and most powerful pair, they are a bit oversized, but I’m sure you’ll get used to them.” She sounded more confident that these would work.
She handed them to me, indeed they were big, but I could handle. I put them on and it was like. Wow, I could see everything perfectly now, I couldn’t believe it! I saw Luna’s smile for the first time, I saw her detailed mane, I saw all the details around her room, it was amazing! I excitedly gave a nod, and she giggled.
“I knew these would work on you.” She said, I still didn’t know how to put into words what I wanted to say, it was all these thoughts and feelings of emotion.
Suddenly, without any hesitation, Celestia barged into the room saying in a loud voice: “Pancakes are ready!”.
Loud noises hurt but really hurt my ears so I covered them as soon as I heard the first thing that could be considered a shout.
Luna went over to my bed to comfort me: “I think he doesn’t like loud noises…” It was almost like she could read my mind!
Celestia looked a bit ashamed: “Oh… I-I didn’t realize that, sorry Hardwired.”
She noticed my glasses and said: “Look how handsome our little boy is with his new glasses.” She gave me a faint smile, that gave me a confidence boost, anyways, I got up and left the room, Celestia and Luna were talking to each other, but I was just amazed at the magnitude of this castle, there was door after door after door! It was endless!
I decided to go check out one of the already open doors, when I went to check it out, I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was filled with books, books on top of books, shelves full of them, I feasted my eyes on the glorious sight, but I couldn’t do that all the time, I had to check out other parts of the room.
I saw a huge window on the second floor of what seems to be the library, books laying on the floor, a small table and some chairs to read, I decided to go check out the second floor, and saw a view of the whole town! I didn’t know what town it was, but it was quite big, well for me, it had tons of houses, shops, and I saw an apple farm in the distance!
Out of nowhere, a pony came in the room! I decided to quickly find shelter next to a stand full of books in the second room.
This mare looked a bit different than Luna and Celestia though.
For one she was way shorter than them, secondly, she had no glowing and flowing galaxy mane, she just seemed like a regular pony like me.
She was this lavender, dare I say a bit purple fur color and a dark purple mane with some strands of pink hair, and same goes for her tail.
Beside her I saw something that I hadn’t seen before, it was this sort of creature, it was standing on its hind legs, he was really short, actually shorter than me which I find surprising! He was purple, but had green spread around his body, for some reason he had wings, but not normal wings, like bat wings or something, and some scales on his back! It had to be…
“A dragon!” I thought to myself out loud, and apparently loud enough for the mare to hear.
The mare exclaimed: “Huh? Who’s there?” She seemed worried.
I decided to hide behind a shelf on the second floor, not very good cover, but it was the best I had.
The dragon, on the other hand, he didn’t really hear me say anything. “Twilight, I’m sure you’re just imagining things like always, I mean, it’s stressful and all to have to organize this next semester of school, but you should get some sleep like really get some sleep.”
The mare seemed to agree with him… or her, I didn’t know, he sounded like a girl but looked like a boy. “You’re right, ok, I’m going to get some sleep.” Then, she and her assistant exited the room.
And a couple of seconds later, Celestia enters the room, she seems very desperate, I went over to her and she spotted me and came running towards me, and before I knew it.
She started hugging me and teared up a little.
“I-I thought I lost you, d-don’t run off again.”
What do you mean runoff? I was just exploring the castle.
“I recommend you cover your ears now,” Celestia said and I did as told, then she shouted. “HE’S SAFE! I FOUND HIM!” It still startled me a little bit, but without the warning, I would’ve had a breakdown.
Luna came running into the room, she seemed worried, but all those worries seemed to dissipate when she saw me.
Luna said: “We were really worried for you, why did you do that? You scared the crap out of us.”
I didn’t know what I did wrong, but I still felt really bad, so I decided to write on my sheet of paper. “What’s wrong?”
Luna seemed shocked at the question: “What’s wrong, well you ran off that’s what’s wrong!” She said that a little too loud for my liking, so I hid behind Celestia.
Luna immediately regretted saying that. “I’m sorry sweetie, it’s just that.” She tried to give me a hug, but I backed away, why would she give me a hug after she shouted at me, that makes no sense. “Oh…” Luna seemed a little hurt. “Ok then, I guess you don’t want a hug."
Celestia then told me something I won’t forget anytime soon: “Look, honey, we make mistakes even though we are princesses, we are also learning, we don’t know what you like or don’t so that’s why you need to tell us… We’ll try to not shout or talk loudly anymore, now, why don’t you go give Auntie Luna a hug?”
I immediately went and gave her a big hug, hugs from what I’ve seen make you feel better, and it definitely made me feel better, and Luna seemed happy.
Celestia said: “So, what do we say we go get some pancakes before they are cold?” I grinned a little and gave a nod and we were on our way to get breakfast.
Chapter 3: Not what he seems (Celestia's Perspective)
The experiment was successful, but there was always this thing that bothered me since he was created, he doesn’t act like the other ponies, he definitely isn’t shy because he seems very outgoing, but doesn’t talk, I think he’s not mute because, well, he would have already written that he can’t speak.
“Hmph..” I slumped in my throne, resting my head on my hoof, I thought about all of this with a blank expression on my face
I’m afraid Luna is getting too attached to him, but if I’m being completely honest with myself, I’m getting attached too, I’ve done something I haven’t done in a while, shed a tear, if I acted like that if I lost him for like 10 minutes, imagine how I’ll feel if I lose him forever.
Twilight Sparkle came up to me, likely to visit me or tell me something, she usually does that, it always cheers my mood up, but I couldn’t talk to her about how I was feeling, this is something we kind of had to keep a secret.
But then again, she was the queen of friendship.
“Ugh…” I mumbled to myself, “Why do I have to make the hard choices” I said quietly enough for Twilight not to hear as she walked up to the stairs with the gold and ruby carpet.
“Is there anything wrong Princess?” She asked as she bowed down.
I chuckled a bit, “I already told you, you don’t need to bow down whenever you talk to me.” She was about to say what I thought she was going to say so I said. “No need to say sorry too.”
She asked, with a slightly shocked expression. “Am I that predictable?”
“Maybe,” I replied with a smug look on my face, it always felt nice playing a little with Twilight.
“Anyways,” she asked, I knew what was coming. “You seem a little down, is something wrong with the kingdom in trouble?”
I felt she would be the only that could know right now, but I needed to tell Luna too.
“No, actually quite the opposite, it’s flourishing thanks to the new wave of students that are entering the school”
Twilight gave a sheepish smile. “Well, it’s my job after all.” She gave a small giggle after.
“I need to talk to Luna, give me some time Twilight, I will be back,” I said, I didn’t notice at the time, but I had a worried look on my face.
“Wait, Princess Celestia! I’m coming with you!” She said before starting to follow me, I turned back. “You can’t come with me.” She felt a little betrayed, and I felt bad, but I knew I had to consult Luna before introducing him.
So, I walked over to Luna’s room, where they were both hanging out, it seemed like they were playing a little game between the two of them, so I decided to ask if I could join in.
Luna said sure but Hardwired still didn’t say a word.
“Any reason you think he might not be talking? Hardwired, are you mute?” I asked, I was desperate for him to say his first word, but he wrote “No.”
Luna seemed a bit miffed at me. “I already told you, give him time.” She calmed down, “Anyways, want to join our little game?” I decided to give it a try, and to be honest, it was fun, it reminded me of when I and Luna would play together before.
Is this how it feels to be a mom? This is not the same as Twilight, it feels different, special, all my attention and care is going to this colt who won’t even talk to us back, but we still love him.
Anyways, we were playing together with our games, but I had forgotten what I came in for.
“Luna, can I talk to you in private for a bit?” I said.
“But we can’t leave Hardwired here alone, he doesn’t really understand running off without our permission isn’t allowed, someone has to always take care of him.”
That sort of threw me off guard. “W-Well, we can do it here, I mean, Hardwired can hear it, it’s nothing bad.”
“Well then, let’s hear it, you wanna hear it, right Hardwired?” Luna said enthusiastically, and Hardwired nodded with a small smile on his face.
“Well, I was thinking, why don’t we introduce him to Twilight?” I said, and I was hoping for a happy answer, but oh boy was I wrong.
“YOU WANT TO WHAT!?” Luna said in an enraged tone. “NO ONE CAN KNOW ABOUT THIS UNTIL WE KNOW MORE ABOUT HIM!”
Geez, she really is protective. “Calm down Luna, it’s just Twilight, and plus, he can begin Twilight’s school program once we’ve introduced her to him”
“BUT!? But…” Luna found no good excuse. “Well, I guess you are right, there is no reason why we shouldn’t introduce him to Twilight.”
“But how do we introduce him?” She asked, and to be honest, I don’t really have a plan for introducing him, so I decided to make one as I was speaking.
“Well… we could like… make dinner! With Twilight! And introduce him there.” Luna seemed to be fine with the idea, but as always, being the natural mom she is, she asked Hardwired.
“What do you think Hardwired, you like the idea? We’re meeting a new friend!”
Hardwired got straight to writing with his mouth like always, and wrote: “How do they look like?”
And well, I decided to start explaining how Twilight was: “Well, her name is Twilight, she is a purple mare with dark purple hair and she has this dragon nam-” He tried to catch my attention by shaking the paper in front me, I took a look at the paper and to my surprise, it said: “I know her”
Luna was shocked too. “D-Did she sees you?” She mumbled to herself: “Please sa… write no, please”.
He wrote “No.” Luna said relieved. “Thank Celestia” I chuckled a bit, it still felt weird people using my name in normal everyday phrases.
“Well, I guess I need to tell Twilight to come tomorrow to dinner,” I said.
“Tia, please tell me this is a good idea,” Luna said, worried for Hardwired.
I sighed. “No need to be so protective of him, he’s a normal po-” She stopped me dead on my tracks.
“HE’S NOT NORMAL!” Luna screamed. Hardwired started crying. “Oh! I-I-I…” Luna just kept stuttering, it’s like her mind just froze in time, so I decided to jump into action.
I gave Hardwired a tight hug and said: “It was an accident Hardwired, we didn’t mean to hurt your ears” His tears slowly fell on the paper he was writing on, and he wrote one more thing: “Are you mad because of me?”
I suddenly felt this rush of emotion, we weren’t mad because of him, it-it was just a misunderstanding… “N-No! We would never be mad because of you.” I hugged him tighter to my chest, I started getting a bit teary-eyed. “You are special in your own way, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.”
Luna was still having a small mental breakdown. “I-I-I’m sorry, I-I-I didn’t m-mean it…”
I pulled Luna into the hug and told her. “Don’t beat yourself up about it, it was a small mistake, we all make them, we’re barely learning to understand him.”
She gave a nod and buried her face on my chest.
“Well, I need to tell Twilight about the dinner, so why don’t you two hug it out?”
I got out of the embrace and headed off to Twilight, even though I was covered in some tears and snot from the cryfest from before, and to be honest, I still looked a bit teary-eyed.
“Twilight can’t see me like this,” I said to myself, so I decided to get my serious personality on, it was hard, but I managed to not look so emotional.
I arrived at the throne room and sure enough, Twilight was still waiting for me there.
“P-Princess! You finally arrived” Spike exclaimed, “We were getting worried your highness.”
“Twilight,” I said in a serious voice tone.
“Yes, Celestia?” She answered she was all ears.
“You are invited to dinner, tomorrow, at 7 pm,” I said.
“Yes, of course!” She said.
“Let me write that do-” Spike said before I cut him out.
“Only Twilight can come, sorry, Spike.” I seemed to have caught Twilight off guard.
“B-But why?” She asked, soon followed by Spike asking the same question.
“There are some things that we need to leave clear, just Luna, you, me, and a special guest.” Those last two words seemed to have caught her attention.
“Special… guest?” She asked.
“Just come tomorrow to see who they are, you can leave,” I said, shooting a little wink at Twilight, she smiled back at me and left.
I went back to Luna and Hardwired to see that they had resumed playing without me.
“Oh, I see that you don’t want to play with me,” I said jokingly. “Well, I’m joining in whether you like it or not!” I pounced on Luna, hugging her and we all started hugging it out.
I was walking around in circles, baffled about what happened, Celestia seemed very serious about having that dinner, normally she gives me a date a couple of weeks ahead… but tomorrow!?
Celestia was also acting a bit off that afternoon, she seemed a bit… teary-eyed and well, I don’t recall the last time I saw her cry, but it’s just, I know it has to do with that special guest! I JUST KNOW IT!
I paced around the room trying to find an answer as to why Celestia told me to meet up with her tomorrow, it was around 1:00 am, but I was not tired at all, I wouldn’t be until I found some answers.
“Uh… Twilight?” Spike’s voice rang through my head and caught me a bit off guard.
“Yes?” I asked him, normally he would ask for something if it was this late at night, for example, I don’t know, some gems to eat as a snack, but this question wasn’t the question I was expecting.
“Why are you so worried, I-I mean, it’s just a dinner,” Spike said clearly concerned about my lack of sleep. “I say you stop worrying and just sleep, it’ll make you feel better, well, at least it always makes ME feel better”
I was a bit flustered when he told me that. “It’s just… I-I need answers! Celestia was acting way too weird earlier today” It struck me.
“Oh no… IS IT SOMETHING BAD?! WHAT IF SHE DOESN’T LET ME RUN THE SCHOOL ANYMORE, AM I GETTING REPLACED?! WHAT’S GOI-”
All these thoughts were swirling around my head, I couldn’t keep them contained, I faintly heard Spike’s voice saying: “Twilight… Twilight calm down”
He started snapping his fingers in front of me and suddenly I snapped back to reality.
Spike said: “You kind of got lost in your own thoughts Twilight.”
I did… “Yeah… You’re right” I said in an embarrassed voice. “I’m sure I’m just worrying too much about this, I should get some sleep as you said.”
I tucked myself under the silky sheets of my bed and waved goodnight at Spike like we always did every night and tried to sleep
Emphasis on “tried to”.
I slept but suddenly woke up in Celestia’s castle having dinner with her and Luna! And the special guest was… nopony.
Celestia said: “Twilight, you haven’t been fulfilling your job as the Princess of Friendship and Principal of your school, and for that, you are no longer awarded the role of Princess of Friendship.”
That took me by surprise, and not a good one, I immediately started crying my heart out.
“W-What did I do? D-D-Did I-” I was interrupted by them picking me up with their magic and then… My wings disappeared!
I screamed as loud as I could and then… I woke up.
I was covered in sweat, all my bed was wet, Spike went over running to me.
“Twilight are you good?” He said very worriedly.
“Yes,” I said relieved. “It was just a nightmare.”
I looked next to me at the clock on the wall, it read. “3:57 am”
“Spike?” I asked him.
“Yes?” He said with a curious tone.
“Who do you think that special guest will be?” I was still worried about that.
“Do I look like I have an idea? I’m not even going!” He said kind of hurt, I had forgotten about him not going, it was going to be hard traveling without him.
“Well, night Twilight, you got a long trip on train ahead of ya.” Spike said before heading off to a peaceful sleep.
I laid on my wet bed before succumbing to sleep, I wake up the next day and immediately start packing my things for the trip.
Spike asked: “You need any help?”
I answered cheerfully: “Surprisingly, no! I got everything planned out, I’ll see you tomorrow, if you ever get hungry there’s plenty of food in the fridge!”
I headed off running to the train station and managed to catch the train on time, I got on, went to my assigned seat, sat down and look out into the horizon.
I always liked seeing the world go by, it was a small distraction over the big event that was happening tonight.
I started dozing off on the train since I barely got any sleep, and before I knew it, we were there! I looked over at the small pocket watch I had brought which said: “6:20 pm” I was on time!
I flew over to the Royal Castle and tried to knock on the door before the bad thoughts and emotions started flowing in again, it’s like I couldn’t keep them controlled, but after having a mini argument with myself I gained the courage to knock on the door.
After some seconds I heard hoofsteps getting louder and suddenly Celestia opens the door.
“I knew you’d come early” She smiled, normally she doesn’t smile when something bad is happening so that must be a good sign! “Come in please.”
I went in, I already knew every nook and cranny of this place, so I went over to a small room with a table and some chairs, Luna was already sitting there.
“Take a seat.” She said, she seemed like she didn’t have anything to worry about, actually quite the opposite, she seemed happy, so did Luna.
“Is there a reason for why you decided to set up this dinner?” I asked, I knew if THEY asked for a dinner, there had to be a reason.
Luna said: “Actually yes, we wanted you to introduce you to a new member of the family!”
New… WHAT?! What are they talking about?
Celestia said: “Yes, that means you’re an aunt of not one, but 2 ponies!”
EVEN MORE WHAT!? OK I’M CONFUSED WHAT’S GOING ON?!
“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?” This is a mixture of happiness, confusion, anxiousness, and other emotions I don’t know the name of.
“Shhhh, don’t shout… he doesn’t like it.” Luna said… stroking something with her hoof?
He? What are we talking about?
Celestia said with a big grin on her face: “Welcome Hardwired to the family!”
Luna came over to me and handed me a small… I don’t really know, I mean, they called it a "he", but they had a long mane, was small and didn’t really talk, it had all the characteristics of a filly.
I asked: “Is this a filly or a mare?” They all seemed kind of offended.
Luna said unhappily: “It doesn’t look like a colt? Oh…”
Celestia said a bit miffed: “It’s a colt, not a filly.”
Hardwired looked at me a bit… I don’t know the word, but it wasn’t a nice look.
“Oh…” I said, I was a bit sad that I got them confused, I mean, it looked like a filly, I swear! “I’m sorry Hardwired.”
He gave me a little nod and a smile. Was he mute or something? Ponies normally are very talkative.
Luna said with a grin: “He isn’t mad at you; he just doesn’t speak to anypony.”
“Oh, I thought he was mute. It’s just that it’s weird to see that he doesn’t speak since ponies are very talkative.” I said.
Celestia said understandingly: “We thought the same, but we are taking care of him and learning more about him every day.”
I was a bit baffled, taking care of him? Are they like his moms? Huh. That’s what they meant. And I was his aunt, I needed to visit him and Flurry Heart now instead of just her.
I was so excited I just, I didn’t really know how I feel, but I wanted to tell my friends I was the aunt of not 1 but 2 ponies! It felt amazing!
“I’ve got to tell my friends about this!” I exclaimed, but Celestia immediately stopped me in my tracks.
“You can’t tell ANYPONY about this until we decide so you can’t tell your friends.” She said angrily, I was heartbroken… I was so excited, for my dreams to be crushed like that… it felt like…
Luna said recomforting me: “It’ll be soon I swear, we just need to get to know Hardwired better, but we’ll enroll him in your school when the semester starts.”
That made me feel a little better, the school was starting in around a week or so, it would be soon.
Celestia said jokingly: “Can I have Hardwired back? It feels like you’ve had him forever.” We both chuckled and I handed him back, and we started eating dinner with him.
I noticed he was really quiet, well, I know he can’t talk, but he didn’t do any gestures, he just ate.
“Is he normally that quiet when eating? I mean he isn’t doing any gestures.” I asked and they nodded.
We just ate, I asked questions about him and they answered.
After we finished having dinner Luna told me. “Please, don’t tell anyone, the consequences are going to be serious if you tell them.”
I nodded, waved goodbye, and went over to the train station, the rest of the night was a blur.
“Well, that was unexpected.” I thought to myself out-loud.
Chapter 5: A new Friend (Fluttershy's Perspective)
Twilight had been really distant from us, not talking much, it just didn’t seem right, she was usually the one making reunions, but it had been 3 days, 3 days we haven’t heard of her.
I was just hanging out with my other friends, but Twilight was nowhere to be seen!
Rainbow Dash exclaimed: “A-GAIN!? Why isn’t she coming!”
Applejack tried to calm her down: “Calm your horses Rainbow, I’m sure she’ll tell us something anytime soon now.”
Rainbow was still pretty worried: “But..! She hasn’t told us anything in 3 days, not even a letter or something, something’s wrong! I’m saying we should storm the castle.”
Rarity had enough: “Calm down darling, we AREN’T storming the castle, I’m sure she’s been going through some stuff and just needs some time.”
Pinkie Pie was surprisingly also getting worried, something that normally never happens: “But… I mean, she was just fine a couple of days ago, what could she be going through that she’s excluding herself from us, normally she would tell us when something is wrong.”
I decide to propose an idea, but I was too scared to say it, what if they told me that was a horrible idea, I just sit there motionless, until I finally gained enough courage in my mind to say it.
“Um… Then why don’t we just visit her?” I said. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind some guests.”
Applejack said excitedly: “Well why didn’t we think of tha’? We’re silly mares”
Rarity said a bit concerned still: “Are you sure this is such a splendorous idea? I mean… what if she doesn’t want guests, darling?”
My heart shrunk, I-I never thought of that, how could I have been so foolish, how could I-
“I-I, uhm… well, you see…” I kept stuttering endlessly before Rainbow jumped in.
“We’re going, there’s no ifs or buts about it, we’re going!” She exclaimed before starting to rush to her castle, we all started following behind her.
We saw all the landscape starting to get blurry from how fast we were going, it’s like we could barely see the road ahead of us, but then after just a few minutes, we arrived.
“Who’s gonna knock on the door?” Pinkie asked.
“I’ll do it, I mean, what do I have to lose?” Applejack said, knocking loud on the door, and there was no response.
“Maybe knock louder?” Rarity said, and Applejack did as she was told, suddenly you could hear some hoofsteps.
“Oh, good she’s home! We wouldn’t have gone all this way if we knew she wasn’t going to be home!” Rainbow exclaimed.
She opened slowly the door and spoke very quietly.
“Hey, guys…” She said, I could barely hear what she was saying, I guess this is what she felt when I did my “introduction” to her if you could even call it that.
Rainbow’s voice boomed through the castle: “Why are you speaking so quietly?
Twilight was quick to tell Rainbow Dash off. “I said be quiet!” She screamed somehow managing to say it quietly.
Rainbow’s ears drooped. “I-I’m sorry,” She said in a quieter tone. “What’s the problem Twilight? Why haven’t you come to any of our reunions? Why are we speaking so quietly? I think I’m speaking for everypony here when I say that we’ve been worried for you.”
“I’m glad you asked,” She said in a cheerful tone. “I’ve been so excited to tell you this for the past few days, but I wasn’t really allowed to say anything about him.”
“Him? What are you talking about?” I said with curious intent.
“And who didn’t allow you to say anything?” Applejack replied.
“I’ll answer one question at a time please be patient.” She answered with a grin from ear to ear, she usually was so worried, I wondered why she was so happy right now, was it because of that “him” she mentioned earlier. “I’ll show you about him in a minute, and, well, Celestia and Luna told me it would be CATASTROPHIC if I told you before the time was right.”
“Catastrophic you say?” Rarity asked with curiosity.
“Well, I don’t really know why, but Celestia and Luna were really against it,” Twilight said sheepishly.
“And since you love Celestia soooooo much, you decided to listen to her and not talk to us at all, like we already said, WE WERE WORRIED!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“N-Noo…” Twilight answered flustered. “And I already told you, quiet!”
“Sorry…” Rainbow answered rubbing her neck with her hoof. “Anyways, weren’t we here to see that him you mentioned?”
“Oh yeah! Just follow me, quietly, he doesn’t like noise.” Twilight answered as she headed inside her castle.
We all followed carefully, I started analyzing all the options that there were, maybe it could be some type of small animal, those are normally very scared of noise, or I don’t know, MAYBE A CUTE BUNNY, I didn’t really know… but before we knew it we arrived at a room which had the door closed.
“So… um, I think you might be bonkers again because this is a door.” Pinkie said. “What’s your name door? Aww, you’re so cute.” We all looked sort of confused, no, sort of is an understatement.
“Well, that’s just Pinkie for ya’, anyways, I’m guessing that “him” is behind this door, righ’?” Applejack asked.
“Yes, although, don’t call him a him” She said, making a quotation mark gesture when she said “him”, “His name is Hardwired.”
“That’s a nice name, did you pick it yourself darling?” Rarity asked intrigued.
“No, this is actually Celestia’s and Luna’s colt… well, sort of.”
Oh, it’s not a cute animal, it’s just a colt, anyways, colts are still cute.
“Wait wait wait… does this mean that Celestia and Luna had a kid?” Rainbow asked, very clearly confused. “Did they lik-”
Twilight cut her off blushing. “Nononono- it’s an experiment they made.”
“Ohhhh.” Rainbow said.
Twilight slowly opened the door to reveal a small pony lying facing upwards towards the ceiling.
“Uh… Hardwired, I brought some friends that want to meet you” Twilight said quietly as to not disturb him.
“Are you sure that isn’t a mare, she seems 110% like a mare.” Pinkie exclaimed, loud enough for him to snap out of looking at the ceiling endlessly and look at us, he certainly did look like a mare.
“Yeah… that isn’t a colt.” Rarity said.
“I thought the same thing, but I swear he’s a colt, he’s just short… and has a long mane… and doesn’t talk much, well, he looks and acts like one, but he’s a colt.
“Well isn’t he a cutie!” I exclaimed unconsciously, running over towards him, he seemed really scared.
“Wait, he doesn’t like that you approach him like that, he isn’t used to you yet, just give it time, also one more thing, he doesn’t talk even though he is fully capable of talking.” Twilight said slowing me down, Hardwired seemed a bit scared.
“Then why does he not speak? I mean, everypony talks, why doesn’t he?” Rainbow asked.
“As I already said he needs time, just, give him some space, please,” Twilight said a bit fed up. “He’s not like us, he’s special, and I don’t mean “everypony’s special in their own way” type of special, he acts way different than everypony.”
“I just want to pinch his cheeks he’s so adorable!” It slipped out of my mouth and I once again tried to run over to him, but Twilight yanked my tail, she turned me around and looked at me dead in the eyes and said:
“Give, him, SPACE!” She shouted at me, I shed a tear because I thought I did something wrong, but what I didn’t expect was for Hardwired to also start crying, Twilight immediately realized and said embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I’m just not used to taking care of him, he doesn’t like loud noises so sometimes I forget.” She rushed over to him and started trying to calm him down to no avail.
“Geez, does she even know how to stop a crying baby?” Applejack said, she didn’t need to scream since he cried quietly.
“I’ll try to help her.” I said, slowly walking over to her and the silently sobbing Hardwired.
“Look Hardwired,” I said. “Everything is going to be fine ok?” I stroked his mane slowly and he started to calm down.
“How are you so good at this?” Twilight asked, “You calmed him down in seconds!”
“Let’s just say I’ve had plenty of practice with animals,” I said, carrying him in my hooves.
“Hey, girls, one more thing,” Twilight told all of us, “You know how next Monday school starts? Well, I’ve enrolled him in my school, so you better teach him well.” She gave a small chuckle before going back to take care of Hardwired.
Chapter 6: Well... this is new. (Hardwired's Perspective)
“Well Hardwired, it’s the first day of school,” Celestia said as she was packing my lunch, I was helping her packing my backpack. “You ready little guy?” I gave a nod with a big grin, I didn’t know what to expect, I don’t know what a school is, I just know that Luna and Celestia are going to be there with me… right?
“Look how much you’ve grown, I’m so happy you could gain the courage to go to school today,” Luna said getting a bit teary-eyed, Celestia stepped in. “No need to get so emotional sister, it’s just his first day of school.” She gave a small chuckle as she gave me my lunch. “I know you’re proud of him,” Celestia told Luna giving her a hug, naturally, I decided to hug them too.
Luna smiled and said. “We’ll walk you to school, don’t worry,” Celestia told her. “Or we could you know… teleport? I don’t want to have to WALK all the way over there.” Luna responded. “You have a point, anyway, shall we get going?” Celestia nodded and she suddenly covered us in a magical aura, then, POOF, we appeared in front of a giant building, and it wasn’t the castle.
“This is school Hardwired, we won’t be here, but don’t worry, the friends you met a couple of days ago will be with you almost always.”
T-T-They won’t be with me? W-W-What? I tightly hugged Luna’s hoof. Celestia started speaking. “I know it may seem bad, but you’ll like school, you’ll see.” She shot me a smile, “Look, there’s Twilight!” I looked over to see the purple alicorn walking over to me. “Hey, Hardwired, are you excited for your first day of school?”
I got scared, Luna and Celestia wouldn’t be with me? But I’d always been with them, I shook my head. Celestia responded “He’s just scared of leaving us,” Twilight said gleefully. “Don’t worry Hardwired, we will always be there for you, if you ever need to tell us something in class, just raise your hoof and we’ll go over to you, come on, let’s go, grab my hoof.” I hold on to her hoof and we walked inside the building.
There were endless corridors, I saw other ponies walking around, they all seemed really thrilled to be there. “Hardwired, this is the school of friendship, as the name says, you’ll be learning how to make friends here, I’m sure you’ll fit in just fine.” But I already had them as friends, why would I need more?
She led me into a classroom where there other ponies, and there was this… thing, I don’t know, I mean, it looked like a pony, but only the tip of the tail had hair, also she a giant antler of some sort in its forehead… I don’t know, it’s just hard to explain in general.
Twilight answered. “I see you’re looking at Spring Seed, she’s a kirin, she’s not one of us, I’ve heard she’s talkative, so I don’t know if you want to hang out with her, but it’s your choice, after all, your first class is about to start, Applejack will be teaching if you need help with anything” I gave a small nod and sat down, I decided to sit in the front, I wanted to hear everything that she had to say.
As I was listening intently, I felt something hit me in the back, I heard a couple of chuckles, I turned around to see a ball of paper, I grabbed it and opened it, it read.
“Hey Lil’ guy.”
I was dumbfounded, who would send me such a message, I decided to ignore it, but a couple of minutes later I felt another ball of crumpled up paper hit my back, I heard a chuckle, I quickly turned around and caught the pony who was laughing, but it wasn’t a pony, it was the kirin, I yet again grabbed it and opened it and it read.
“Why so quiet? Cat got your tongue?”
I was flustered, to say the least, why would she be saying this type of stuff even though I never told them anything? Anyways, I decided to turn back and give them a death stare for the rest of the class, my attention wasn’t on Applejack, it was on Spring Seed.
She seemed concerned to say the least, I didn’t know why she looked scared, well that’s good, that means my death stare worked! Now she won’t throw papers at me again.
The first class ended and we had this thing after class called lunch, apparently, you can eat here and not in class, which I find very odd, why can’t you just eat in class, anyways, I went to sit, across the room I saw the kirin sitting with her other friends, I just sat by myself, only having my thoughts to comfort me.
I decided to take out my notebook and start studying what we saw in the class, I didn’t have much to go off since I decided to pay more attention to that kirin then the class itself, but still, it was good to study.
Celestia and Luna had prepared for me what they called a “lunch bag”, something has written on the bag, and it read: “Love from your moms – Celestia and Luna” I smiled a little, but then the thought came back to me, they weren’t here… I wouldn’t see them until… THEY DIDN’T EVEN TELL ME! WHAT IF I’M STUCK HERE FOREVER!
I started having a panic attack right in the middle of the lunch room, everypony turned around to see me just bawling my eyes out, but I didn’t care, Celestia and Luna had abandoned me in this horrible place called school, and they weren’t coming back!
Twilight quickly pulled me to a room with some chairs, and there was this big main chair, like a king’s throne, anyways, she tried to calm me down.
“Hey, hey!” Twilight said concerned… “Celestia and Luna are coming back, don’t worry, they’ll be here as fast as they can.”
They were coming back? They aren’t going to leave me here?
“Would you like to tell me how you’re feeling, Hardwired?” She said this while handing me a piece of paper and a pen, and I wrote:
“I’m lonely” Then she came over and hugged me. “Don’t worry, it’ll get better, no first day at school is perfect, you know, mine wasn’t!”
I was surprised, so I wrote down on my paper: “Can you tell me?”
“Oh! Gladly!” She told me with a smile. “I remember my first day in Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. Like I said, it wasn’t a good day, you know, I sort of made a mess in the magic lab.” She chuckled at the thought. “Oh, the purple smoke coming from everywhere.” She giggled more; I can’t imagine exploding something on your first day.
Suddenly, Luna and Celestia arrived, really worried but understanding, Twilight explained a little bit the situation. “Well, Hardwired sort of burst into tears in the middle of the cafeteria because he missed you both.” She let out a nervous chuckle before Luna and Celestia ran up to me.
Luna said a bit embarrassed: “Yeah, we should’ve probably told you that we were coming back, you know that we would never leave you here forever, use that big mind of yours, tomorrow will be a better day for you I swear.”
I wrote down a little on the paper. “Luna, Celestia, Twilight told me about her first day of school!” Celestia laughed while Twilight looked embarrassed. “Oh, about the gas explosion, oh that was great, I remember seeing her little face so worried when in reality it was nothing too bad.”
Luna quickly remarked: “Weren’t we here to pick up Hardwired?” Twilight sheepishly said: “Yup, just take him home, tomorrow I’ll be sure to keep a special eye on him.”
All 3 of us teleported back home, today had been an interesting day, I decided to cuddle up to Tia’s chest, I started feeling a bit sleepy, my eyelids could barely be kept open.
“Hardwired, are you tired already?” Luna asked. “You sure are one sleepy pony because it’s barely around 2 pm! You want to sleep?” I nodded slowly as I tried to keep myself awake, she chuckled before saying. “Maybe you’re nocturnal like me!” Celestia chuckled, saying. “Or maybe he just likes sleeping.”
Luna and Celestia both carried me with their magic to Celestia’s bed, as they laid me down, and tucked me into the slik sheets, they both each gave me a goodnight kiss.
“Good night sweetheart, love you.” They said with a soft smile on their face, I had finally gained the courage, I could do it, I opened my mouth to say a couple of words:
“Good night, love you too.”
Chapter 7: Teamwork? With him!? (Spring Seed's perspective)
I started getting ready for school, packed my things, said goodbye to my parents and went on my way, it was a pretty long walk, around half an hour, but eventually, I got there, there was my bestie, Whipping Cream, we met in school the first day and we clicked, she ran over to me and gave me a hug.
“Heyyyyy, how you doin’?” She asked. “I’m doing pretty good, you know, it’s not the same excitement as the first day, but it’s still good,” I responded with a slight grin on my face, the bell rang so we both started heading to class, it was Twilight’s class, which in my opinion, is the most boring one.
“So, are you going to throw paper balls at that filly again?” She asked with a slight smirk on her face. “No, I only did that to get his attention, and he’s a colt,” I responded back, it seemed like the perfect way to get his attention… at the time.
We arrived and sat down, I scooted a little closer to Whipping Cream, then, the little guy arrived, I never actually asked his name, not like it mattered much. “Hi, colts and fillies!” Twilight exclaimed enthusiastically; I wonder if she was always like that. “Today, we’re doing a special activity in pairs.”
That seems to have caught everypony’s attention, even mine, except little dude, he seemed to be staring off into the window, Whipping Cream immediately says. “I put bids on Spring Seed!” I gave a small chuckle, but Twilight shook her head. “Nope, I'm picking the pairs.”
Wait… so, I couldn’t be with Whipping Cream? She was the only pony I really knew here, I can’t just be with somepony else, I’m not confident enough.”
She started assigning pairs. “Silver Song, you go with Sugar Cube, Shooting Star, pair up with Shadow Beat, and… Hardwired!” The little guy looked up. “You can go with Spring Seed.” My heart sank… with him?! B-But! I would’ve been fine with anypony else! And he didn’t seem happy either as he walked then sat down next to me, doing that weird stare thing.
Twilight finished pairing us up. “So, the task for today is to get to know each other, I picked ponies that didn’t really seem to know each other much, so now you can know all your classmates!” Hardwired took his stare off me and started moving his hoof across the floor. “Uh… what are you doing?” No answer. “Uhm, hello?” He suddenly snapped out of wherever he was and looked at me.
“I can definitely see how they can confuse you with a filly.” I gave a small chuckle, he wasn’t very fond of it, but still, silence… Twilight came over to us. “Oh, I see you’ve met Hardwired, he doesn’t really speak,” That explains a lot. “Hardwired, write down on your notebook the questions you have for her and you can answer on your notebook.” He gave a small nod before writing. “You can start.”
“Oh! Well, I guess… Uhm, where do your parents work?” He wrote a little before showing me the notebook. “My parents are Princesses!” I laughed a little. “You can’t be serious, where do your parents really work?” He wrote down. “My moms are Luna and Celestia.” No, that can’t be true, I chuckled a little before asking Twilight. “Twilight! Is lying allowed! Because I think he is!”
He seemed a bit offended, but Twilight walked over to us and said. “What did you ask Spring?” I told her. “I asked where his parents worked at and he said they were Luna and Celestia, that’s ridiculous!” Twilight chuckled. “Hardwired would never lie, they actually are.” I was flabbergasted, to say the least, his parents were the princesses? I had so many more questions, but I told him. “Your turn!”
He wrote down a small sentence. “Why do you look like that?” I told him gleefully. “I’m a kirin! I’m not a pony, it’s like a special type of pony.” He wrote down. “My moms said I’m special too!” “Yeah, but I have this antler which kind of has its own magic, it’s like a horn.” He just poked it a little, I giggled saying. “You like it?” He nodded, now my turn.
“What’s it like living in their huge castle?” He wrote a small paragraph, perfect, I wanted to know a lot about their castle, I always wanted to live in one! He finished writing “Well, it’s big, it has a lot of doors, every door is a mystery, one time there were shelves of books, another time there was a lot of food, you never know what’s behind a door, and everything is so fancy, the beds are so comfortable, the guards are nice, everything’s amazing!” He smiled, it sure did seem amazing living there.
Now it was his turn to ask. “Why did you throw paper at me?” “Oh, I just thought it was the best way to get your attention, I thought you know, I could make a new friend or something… heh.” He wrote a little. “That was rude.” Now that I think about it, it kinda was. “I guess, but now we’re good right?” He nodded.
“So… is there anything you like to do?” I asked, he wrote down on his notebook. “Well, I don’t know, I haven’t really found anything enjoyable, and I don’t really have any friends here…” Ouch, and after that cafeteria meltdown, I don’t think anypony would want to be his friends. “But the teachers are my friends!” He puts down the pen with a smile on his face. I’m pretty sure they don’t count as friends but ok.
It was Hardwired’s turn. “Do you want to be friends? I can invite you over and we can you know, have fun, and do stuff we both like.” “Yeah! I’ll be your friend.” We both looked at each other and smiled, he went over and hugged me tightly, I just smiled and patted his back.
Twilight clapped her hooves together. “Alright everypony, time’s up, now pairs will come here and explain to everypony else what they learned about their partners.” Oh, well… I was never good with talking to a crowd, I normally get really nervous, I’ll try, for Hardwired.
Pairs started coming and going, explaining all they had learned about their partners, Hardwired was just playing with his hooves, obviously distracted, but at the same time, it seemed like he was paying close attention, I guess they do say everypony has their way of learning.
“Hardwired, Spring Seed!” We both look up to Twilight. “It’s your turn!” I suddenly start getting worried, I felt a knot in my throat and butterflies in my stomach. “C-C-Could we w-wait a little?” Twilight responded. “You’re the last pair left, you can do it, come on.”
We slowly started walking up to the middle of the classroom, all other ponies sitting around in a semicircle around us, Hardwired looked at me reassuringly, and to be completely honest, it sort of made me feel better. Twilight remarked. “Since Hardwired doesn’t really want to speak, you’ll read what Hardwired wrote.”
Welp here went nothing. “Well, I-I learned Hardwired’s parents a-are actually the p-princesses…” My voice was a bit shaky but still understandable, there were murmurs in the classroom, it felt like everypony was about to burst out laughing at me, but I had to stay strong.
“They live in this g-giant castle!” I started getting a little more confident. “He said every door is a mystery, there’s a lot of rooms! And everyone has a different purpose!” All the ponies in the crowd start smiling, that’s good I guess?
“That’s great!” Twilight said with a soft, warm, smile on her face. “And what did Hardwired learn about you?” “Well, he learned what a Kirin was.” I chuckled a little bit. “Which is what I am, and well, yeah, we became friends!”
“That’s great!” Twilight exclaimed really excited for some reason. “It’s great to see that Hardwired’s making some friends.
The bell rang, so we started heading to lunch. “Remember, your homework is getting to know your pair better!” Twilight exclaimed. “Yes, ma’am!” We all responded Hardwired and I sat down on a chair.
“So, Hardwired,” I asked, he looked up to me as he took out his bag, it read. “Hopefully you have a better day today! Love – Tia and Luna.” I gave a small giggle. “Do you think you’ve had a good day?” He nodded, taking out the food in the bad, it was a small milk carton, an apple, and some pancakes.
“You know, there is some honey and maple syrup over there!” I pointed over to where they were with the rest of the condiments. He walked over there and brought both of them. He pushed the apple closer to me, he wrote down on his notebook. “Want it?” “Nah, it’s fine, I already ate at home.” Soon Whipping Cream came over to our seats. “Heyo! How you doing Spring?”
“I’m doing fine,” I responded. “Hey, why don’t you come to sit over with us?” She asked. “Oh, sure! Hardwired let-” “Nuh-uh-uh.” She quickly interrupted, “Just you and me.” “Oh, but it’s homework, plus he’s pretty chill!” I said, wondering why she didn’t want him?
“Well, he can’t come, because he doesn’t give out a good vibe.” I was starting to get miffed. “What do you mean? He’s a really nice guy! You know, if you don’t let him go, I’m staying.” Whipping Cream felt betrayed, she said. “Fine!” Before turning and walking away.
Hardwired looked at me surprised, then hugged me. “Woah, I was just doing what a friend does, she was kind of toxic from the beginning, but she was my only friend, you know, the only one that made me feel special.”
We ate lunch together, you know, he wasn’t as bad as I thought.
