Hello. My name's Obsidian, and before you ask, no. I'm not an alicorn.
Most ponies are clearly one race, but occasionally, a pony is born into two at a time.
Obsidian Crystal, the horned pegasus, is one such pony.
It probably doesn't help that there happens to be another pony species that looks just like him.
It probably also doesn't help that the only known members of said species happen to be the rulers of Equestria.
...
Well...
This is gonna be awkward...
For anyone wondering, I read a story a while back in which a minor side character had a medical condition that caused him to superficially resemble an alicorn and was curious what it would look like if the main character of a story had a similar condition.
This is the result. I hope y'all enjoy it.
The images of Obsidian and Feldspar were created here and combined via vector graphics.
Laughter erupted around him, but Obsidian Crystal didn't care. He couldn't. He couldn't care because if he did, they would win.
He trudged through the streets of Manehatten, steadily away from the schoolyard and towards his home.
He couldn't let the other kids know that they had won.
Gneiss Crystal finished stirring the soup and set down the spoon.
"They should be home any...."
Right on cue, there were some steps just outside. The door handle turned slowly, and the door opened with a slight groan.
"Oh, there you are. How was school today?"
Obsidian didn't answer. Instead, he continued up the stairs towards his room.
Evidently, it was one of those days again. She sighed and returned to the soup. Perhaps his father's news would cheer him up.
Right on cue, the door opened again, and a white unicorn stallion walked in with a gray pegasus filly on his back.
"Mommy!"
The two adults chuckled as the stallion levitated his daughter off his back.
"There you go, sweetheart."
As soon as the filly touched the ground, she jumped up to her mother's leg and hugged it, flapping her wings to try to gain a little extra height. They laughed again.
"So Quartz, how was your day?"
He turned to the dark pegasus with light streaks in her wings. "It went well. In fact, I think the days coming up are going to be even better."
"You don't mean..."
"I do. They said yes."
Later, around the dinner table, Quartz Stone made an announcement.
"I think I have some good news. The paper's opened up a branch office in another community, and they needed a new manager there. We're finally leaving the city."
Everypony stopped eating. Gneiss, who knew what he was about to say next, smiled. Feldspar looked up expectantly, with curiosity filling her bright eyes. Obsidian was also curious, but he was far more deflated. Quartz Stone turned specifically to him.
"It's a small rural town called Ponyville. I've been there a few times before on business. The ponies there are a lot nicer than the ones here, so I don't think they'll give you any trouble."
He turned to Feldspar. "And you are finally going to have room to stretch your wings properly."
Her eyes brightened. "Really?"
He chuckled a little. "Yes, really. There is even an all-pegasus cloud city that spends a lot of time near there. If that doesn't say 'plenty of room to fly,' I don't know what does."
He went back to addressing the whole family. "I know it will be a change, but I believe it will be a good one."
Moving?
Obsidian didn't know what to think.
How would that help?
Now, instead of just being the freak, he would be the new kid and the freak.
Granted, he at least had about a few days to get ready, but that also meant he had a few more days of dealing with the school here.
Uggggh!
He needed air.
He opened the window to his bedroom and climbed out. From the edge of the second story window, he jumped and spread his silver wings. Flapping as quietly as he could, he ascended up to the roof, where he then lay on his back and looked up at the stars.
"Please, please don't let that town be like this one..."
He sighed.
"Why do I have to be different?"
All in all, he wasn't too different from any other pegasi kids. Never mind the dark fur that made him look like a wannabe lunar guard... or his telescope cutie mark that automatically branded him as a nerd... or his mismatched eyes... or his...
He was disturbed by the furious beating of a tiny pair of wings. Slowly, a pair of light gray hooves clasped the edge of the roof and tried to pull a filly up over the top.
Obsidian lit up his horn, giving her a bit of a boost the rest of the way up.
"What are you doing up here?"
"Just thinking. What are you doing here?"
"I came to see what you were doing."
He smiled. "Thanks for checking up on me, sis."
They laid back on the roof a while, looking up at the stars. They were beautiful tonight. Near the outskirts of the city, the light and smog didn't block the stars nearly as much as they did in the center of the city. Maybe that would at least be something nice about the new town. He had always heard that small towns had the best stars.
After a few minutes, Obsidian turned to his little sister.
"Do you think the new town's gonna be better?"
"Yep! Don't you?"
He looked away. "I don't know. What if... what if it's just like this one?"
She thought a moment. "What if it's not?"
He looked at her. She looked back with a grin.
"You don't know if it's gonna be as bad as this one, so why are you acting like it already is?"
As much as he hated to admit it, she had a point. His dad did say they were nice there, and he had been to that town before. Maybe he should give it a ch...
"FELDSPAR!!!... OBSIDIAN!!!"
They looked at each other.
"FELDSPAR STONE, ARE YOU UP ON THE ROOF AGAIN?"
Obsidian leaned over and whispered to his sister. "You didn't tell mom you came up here, did you?" She shook her head. "Let's get you back inside before she flies up here then."
Carefully, she glided back down through the open window, her brother's horn lit up and ready to catch her, just in case. He then followed in a glide, careful not to make any sudden noises. He carefully closed the window with his hoof before they stepped out into the hallway.
"She was just in my room. She wanted to talk about the move."
Gneiss Crystal looked up the stairs, relieved to see that they were still safe.
"Please don't scare me like that. You know your wings aren't fully developed yet."
The two siblings looked at each other, still trying to figure out how she knew they were up there. By this point, they had started calling it her "mom sense," although not while she was in earshot.
"You two need to get some rest. Moving soon or not, it's still a school day tomorrow."
Obsidian half-ran half-flew to school, silently wishing a slow and painful death to his alarm clock for failing to ring. He made it just in time for his first class to start.
"Ah, Obsidian. Punctual as usual, I see."
He really needed to get a new alarm clock.
"Hello, Mr. Grade. Sorry I'm late."
As Obsidian took his seat, Mr. Grade began discussing the importance of punctuality and professionalism. Once he was done with that, he switched over to the class's intended topic, physics. As usual, the bell rang just before he could finish the topic he had introduced for today.
"Well, I guess we'll have to pick up where we left off tomorrow."
The next class was history with Time Traveler. She was a good one. She knew how to make the subject come alive, as if the class were going there themselves. The only thing that could make it better was if he could actually remember all those dates and names.
His first real problem showed up as he was leaving the class.
"Hey look, it's the prince."
Wrath Bone and his stupid posse had showed up right on schedule.
Obsidian turned around and walked the other way. He was stopped by an unlocked locker door slamming into his face. Turning back around, he saw Wrath Bone, who simply smiled, horn still glowing.
"I was talking to you."
"So it would appear. I'm not listening. Goodbye."
He turned to leave again, only to find himself facing a couple members of Bone's gang.
"What's the matter, prince? You don't want to talk?"
He gritted his teeth. "You never just want to talk."
"Come on now." He leaned in closer. "If you don't want to listen to me, you could always make me back off. Unless you can't. Too scared to make me back off? Too weak?"
Unfortunately, the correct answer was the latter, albeit with a hefty dose of the former.
Half of Obsidian's magic went into his horn, and the other half went to his wings. If he overused either, he'd run out twice as quickly as any other pony.
He also had to make sure there was some in reserve in case his sister tried to follow him out the window again, so wasting it on a fight was a bad idea in general.
Naturally, he wasn't about to tell any of this to Wrath Bone. Of course, the regular taunts about his "great power" reminded him of something else. Wrath Bone already knew the answer.
"What are you doing outside of class?"
Thank you, overly strict hall monitor.
"Just getting threatened by Wrath Bone here again."
Judging by Wrath Bone's glare, Obsidian would probably pay for that statement later, but for now, any chance at getting the bullies in trouble was worth it.
Unfortunately, the monitor evidently did not consider his comment worth noting.
"Go on, get to class or I'll have to report all of you."
"We're going." Obsidian rolled his eyes.
I could tell him we were about to rob a bank, and he wouldn't care.
The rest of the classes went about as expected.
As Obsidian got out of school for the day, Wrath Bone was waiting for him.
"Thought you could rat me out, huh prince?"
"Is it really ratting if it's to somepony who ignores everything you say anyway?"
He turned to leave again, only to feel a sharp sting on his backside. Looking back, he saw Wrath Bone levitating a number of stones.
He ran.
The good thing about wings is that they come in handy for finding shortcuts nopony else could use. It certainly came in handy against the unicorn and earth pony minions of Wrath Bone. The only ones left in the pursuit now were a couple pegasi.
Naturally, they were full-blooded pegasi and decent fliers, and Obsidian was a half-pegasus who could, at best, hover a few seconds or fly in a straight line. Fortunately, he had a trick for avoiding pegasi, ignoring his instincts.
Pegasi, being natural fliers, have an instinct for avoiding danger by traveling upwards. Given the number of threats that can't fly, it usually works quite well. This instinct carries over into pursuit as well, where they can keep track of their opponent from the air and outpace them at their leisure.
Therefore, to avoid a pegasus, one must head down.
Obsidian found an alley filled with garbage and dove behind a dumpster. From there, he slipped around some cans and carefully maneuvered his way to the opposite side of the alley.
Sure enough, the bullies searched above the cans, occasionally pulling off a lid, but otherwise not thinking to check underneath anything. After several minutes of searching, they finally took off.
Obsidian waited another minute before leaving his hiding place and heading home.
By the time he made it back home, the rest of his family was already there.
"Oh there you are," Gneiss hugged him. "Where have you been?"
"I had to take a different route this time."
Catching the subtle scent of old banana peels and other assorted refuse, Quartz could easily guess where his alternate route had led.
"It wasn't that Wrath Bone kid again, was it?"
"Don't worry. He didn't do anything this time."
They both looked at him, unfortunately knowing he wouldn't give any information more specific than that. They then turned to address the two.
Quartz explained what was going on, "Well, I need to meet with the movers so we can get things scheduled, and your mom has errands to run. We should both be back by dinner, so you two stay here. Okay?"
They both nodded.
"No wild parties while we're gone," Gneiss joked.
They both replied with mock disappointment, "okaaaaaay."
"Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
Feldspar looked at her brother, then took off up the stairs. A door opened and closed, and moments later, she returned with a record in her mouth. She lifted it up to him with a grin.
Obsidian looked down to see the label:
Panheads < • > Awakening
He smiled, then walked over to the closet and pulled out a broom, while Feldspar began stacking boxes and books in the middle of the living room.
Quartz Stone and Gneiss Crystal met back up on the way back home.
"The movers say they should be ready to go around when we are, so that's good. How did it go for you?"
"I've got all the transfer forms here, so all that's left is to enroll them in the new school when we get there."
"Good. I guess this means just about everything ready to go then."
"Pretty much. The only thing left I can think of is finishing the packing."
They continued discussing the excitement and worries of moving for the rest of the way home.
The first thing that greeted them when they opened the door to their house was an out-of-nowhere growl emanating from the record player.
The second thing that greeted them was their son power sliding across the floor with his eyes closed, holding a broom like a guitar and flaring his wings behind him.
The third was their daughter behind an assortment of boxes, stacked books, and pot lids doing a surprisingly impressive rendition of the band's drum section with a pair of wooden spoons.
The two kids both looked up at the same time and froze.
"And so, if we take the square root of both sides..."
Obsidian stared at the clock.
Move faster.
Leave it to Square Root to take the one class he had any decent skill in and make it duller than a plastic knife dipped blade-first in rubber. Most of the other students were already twirling pencils, doodling, or asleep.
"Perhaps you would like to demonstrate the problem?"
His attention returned to the class.
Square Root was staring straight at him. Looking at the board, he saw the beginnings of a problem similar to the one they had been discussing.
He rose from his seat and made his way to the front of the class. As he was going up, one of the kids jabbed him in the back with a pencil. He ignored it.
Just ignore them, and they go away. That's what the adults tell me, at least.
Upon reaching the board, he realized that he had completely zoned out during the lecture.
It looked like he was gonna have to improvise again. He began rearranging the numbers, shuffling them here and there until a pattern formed.
"That's not the way you're supposed to be doing it."
He continued. The pattern was too strong to ignore. The numbers all fit together too easily to just brush it aside and start over. He finished rearranging the numbers, then calculated up their values, tallying the result at the end. He then turned to Square Root.
"Well, that is the correct number, but you were supposed to complete the square. We're not learning the quadratic formula until tomorrow. I'm afraid you don't get any credit for that."
Obsidian returned to his seat.
Figures.
He then watched a couple other students attempt to do it the "right" way. The second at least got the right number, but he took up most of the remaining class time. Square Root dismissed them, and they were back out in the halls once more.
When the last bell finally rang, Obsidian flew through the doors, the delicious taste of freedom on his lips.
Wrath Bone put a sudden stop to his motion.
"Woah, woah, woah... hold it right there. You still owe me for ratting me out yesterday."
A rock floated up behind him. Without thinking, Obsidian picked up a rock of his own and flipped it up, hitting Wrath Bone's rock and breaking both. Another rock launched, another blocked. Wrath Bone threw a can, Obsidian countered with a stick.
Eventually, some of Wrath Bone's projectiles found their mark.
This wasn't good. Obsidian could feel his own projectiles getting heavier.
He was running out of magic.
As much as he hated going on the offensive, he had to end the fight before Wrath Bone could seriously hurt him. Before he could launch his stone, a green aura surrounded him and lifted him off his hooves.
"Now what do we have here? Two more troublemakers again?" Stern Lecturer scowled at Obsidian while Boilerhead did the same with Wrath Bone. "You are both going to have to show up for detention tomorrow, and there will be no excuses."
Tomorrow? Did he just say tomorrow?
Obsidian couldn't be happier that the teachers couldn't be bothered to read the paperwork pertaining to their students. Tomorrow, he would be in a new school.
As soon as they were both released from the teachers' magic, Obsidian ran through the alleys, taking twisting paths that he knew Wrath Bone wouldn't be able to follow. He included some short flights over low fences to be sure none of the gang could catch him, and soon, he was back at his home.
"What happened to you?"
"Don't worry, it's just Wrath Bone getting in his last bit of fun. I'm just glad I'll never have to see him again."
Everything in the house was now in boxes that the movers would be taking away later. The few items that weren't in boxes were packed into saddlebags and suitcases.
Soon enough, they were all on the train, leaving Manehatten behind.
They all stepped out of the train station and looked across the town before them. It was smaller than the city, and the surrounding fields made it seem smaller still.
Both of the girls wore pegasus-style saddlebags that were designed to be tucked under their wings, each filled with some items that would help them get started in the house while they waited for the furniture to arrive. Quartz Stone wore regular saddlebags, as he didn't have any wings anyway, and he carried a couple sleeping bags and a suitcase on his back. Obsidian, meanwhile, wore his own pegasus-style bags, but he kept his wings tucked under them.
It was a little uncomfortable, but except for a few feathers, his wings were hidden. His parents had, of course, insisted that he didn't need to do that, but he really didn't want the town to find out about his condition just yet.
They were probably right though. He was carrying the other sleeping bags and another suitcase on his back, and those probably would have helped conceal them on their own.
The house was empty, as one would expect, and the family soon unloaded their bags and began making the place home as much as they could with what they had. Tomorrow, the movers would be here with the furniture, and they would finally be able to set the place up properly. For now, they would be "camping out" inside.
"Does that mean we can build a campfire?"
"No, not in the middle of the living room."
The way Feldspar grinned anyway, Obsidian guessed that she must have been joking. Either that, or she planned on making one anyway.
In a few minutes there was a "roaring" construction paper campfire illuminated by a flashlight and sitting on top of a fan on the floor.
That night, Obsidian snuck out of the house. It was his first night in the small town, and he had to see for himself if the things he'd heard were true.
He flew up to the roof, laid down on his back, and looked up to the night sky.
Apparently, the town was too small to have multiple schools for different grade levels, so Obsidian and his sister would both be attending the same one. This was going to take some getting used to.
From what he'd heard, teachers in those situations just have different sets of assignments for each grade. He briefly wondered how much work the teacher had to go through because of that.
Instead of wearing his pegasus-style saddlebags, Obsidian wore his father's old bags. After all, wings were much easier to hide than a horn, and if he played his cards right, he could pass for a regular unicorn. There was his parents' repeated suggestion of not hiding anything, but he still wasn't quite ready for that yet.
As they approached, they saw several other kids playing around in the schoolyard. The bell rang out, and all the kids stopped playing and made their way inside. Obsidian and Feldspar joined in from the back.
An earth pony stood in front of the class. She must have been Miss Cheerilee.
"I see we have some new students here. Would you mind coming up and introducing yourselves?"
Slowly, they walked up to the front of the class. Obsidian could feel them looking at him.
Okay, just go up and introduce yourself, then sit back down.
As he went up, the left half of the class stared into his green eye, and the other half stared into his blue one. He could hide his wings, but he couldn't hide his eyes. Maybe if he just went up quickly, they wouldn't notice.
Feldspar went first. "Hi everyone! I'm Feldspar Stone from Manehatten. We just moved here. Dad works for the new newspaper office...".
She continued describing her entire life story until Cheerilee reminded her that they had lessons to get to and another newcomer to introduce.
"Hi... I'm... I'm Obsidian Crystal... also from Manehatten... ... I'm her older brother."
"What happened to your eyes?"
Mentally, Obsidian facehooved at his own failed optimism.
I knew it. I knew they were going to ask.
"It's... it's a genetic condition. I was born with them."
He looked expectantly at Cheerilee, hoping she would allow him to sit back down. At her nod, he moved over to an empty seat and began taking out his school supplies.
"You know, you don't have to leave your saddlebags on all day. That must be uncomfortable."
He looked up at Cheerilee. "That's okay ma'am, I've gotten used to it. It makes it easier to keep everything organized."
She gave him an odd look. "Well, if that's what helps you learn..." With that, she started the day's lesson.
The class was actually going really well. He was understanding the material, nopony had teased him for being new, this was great! Of course, then came math class, when Obsidian heard the words no new kid ever wants to hear after their name is called.
"Would you mind demonstrating this problem in front of the class?"
Of course, like all the rest of the students, he knew it wasn't really a question. It was really a kindly worded order. So, with no other choice, he got up to demonstrate a math problem on the board. At least it was one he already knew.
As he was walking to the front, somepony stuck a hoof out, causing him to trip and land on his face. Some of the other kids laughed.
Obsidian, meanwhile, slowly stood back up, rubbing his nose.
Involuntarily, his ears pricked up and his breathing quickened. The room had suddenly gone dead quiet.
Looking forward, he saw his saddlebags lying on the ground in front of him.
In front? But that could only mean...
He slowly turned around. Everypony was staring at him.
"You have WINGS?"
"Can you fly?"
"You're an alicorn?"
"Are you related to the princesses?"
Not again!
It was the start of his old school all over again. Fortunately, before he could hide under the desk, Cheerilee was able to calm the class down.
"Please, please, if everypony would be quiet, I'm sure that there's an explanation."
Everyone stared at him, begging him with their eyes to explain. He sighed in defeat as he began, "Hi, everyone. My name is Obsidian Crystal,... and I'm a chimera."
There was silence in the classroom until one filly raised a hoof. "But you don't look like a chimera at all."
He shook his head. "No, I'm not a chimera like the monster. I'm a genetic chimera. It means I have two completely different sets of DNA instead of one set."
A pegasus raised his hoof. "So you're not an alicorn then?"
"No, I'm not an alicorn. Look, basically, before I was born, I had a twin brother, and we kinda fused together into a single pony. At least, that's how dad explained it. That's also why my eyes look like this. One of them is mine, and the other one is his."
The whole class was silent. Not quite sure what else to do, Obsidian turned to the board, completed the problem, and sat back down, picking up his saddlebags along the way. He dropped them under his seat. There was no more point in wearing them.
Fortunately, the bell rang shortly afterwards, signaling the start of lunch. Obsidian stepped outside and looked around for an empty space. Finding one near the swings, he sat down and pulled a sandwich out of his saddlebags.
"Is anypony else sitting here?"
He looked up to see a red filly standing next to him.
"No, it's open." The filly sat down and pulled out her own lunch.
"I'm Kind Face," she said, holding out a hoof.
"Obsidian." He shook the hoof smiling.
"So... why did you hide your wings?"
Obsidian's ears dropped a little. "I got picked on a lot at my old school for having both traits. It's..."
How am I supposed to word this?
"It's complicated."
Kind Face nodded. "I came in from Canterlot. It's a nice place, but when it seems like you're just about the only one of your kind around..."
Obsidian nodded back. He knew the feeling, although he was surprised to hear that there would be so few earth ponies there. Then again, he had heard that the residents of Canterlot were mostly unicorns.
After a few moments of silence, Kind Face spoke up again. "So, how much of you is you, and how much of you is your brother?"
Obsidian picked his head up and looked at her. After a minute of trying to find the answer, he finally admitted, "I have no idea."
Apple Bloom arrived back on the farm.
"Hey little sis, how was school today?"
"It was fun! We got some new classmates. One's a pegasus, and the other's a chimera."
"That's nice."
Applejack continued three steps before she stopped dead in her tracks, eyes wide...
"No, no, not that. I heard that one of them is a chimera."
Twilight simply rolled her eyes. "Have they started printing Gabby Gums again?"
Rarity produced a particularly shocked face at the insinuation. "Are you saying I'm gossiping?"
"Well you do tend to be rather generous with information about other ponies."
She snorted. "Well, it isn't that. I heard from Sweetie Belle, and she saw him announce who he was in front of the class. I just wanted you to come check it out, okay?"
"Fine."
Twilight stepped out with her. The sooner this mess gets cleared up, the better.
They approached the schoolyard and waited for class to come out for recess. It would be rude, after all, to ask Cheerilee about odd rumors concerning her students in front of said students.
The bell rang, and the students burst out the doors and into the open. As they all came out, Twilight looked for any newcomers. Clearing this up might be easier than she had thought.
The last few students came out, and she was about to point out the distinct lack of monsters to her friend, when they both noticed a few kids sitting by a tree.
Rarity spoke first.
"The new family in town has an ALICORN COLT?!?!?"
As all the other kids stared at the dressmaker, said colt immediately gripped the tree and began slamming his face repeatedly against the trunk.
Twilight, while quite shocked herself, could already tell something else was going on. Ordinarily, she would have guessed it was a prank, perhaps using a stick-on horn or a pair of strap-on wings, but the colt's reaction to Rarity's outburst made her doubt that.
"Come on. We won't find out from over here."
They approached, Twilight wearing a fake smile as if nothing had happened and Rarity maintaining wide eyes and a gaping mouth.
"Hi. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this is Rarity. Sorry about that outburst, she gets a bit overdramatic at times."
Obsidian, whose face was now pressed firmly against the tree trunk, mumbled, "nice to meet you." He pulled his head away from the tree and looked at the two strangers.
As soon as she saw his eyes, the ever-turning gears in Twilight's head processed Rarity's rumor.
"You wouldn't happen to have heard of a chimera in town, would you?"
Obsidian nodded, "Yeah, that would be me."
As Rarity gasped again, Twilight nodded.
"I think I remember reading about that condition in one of my books." She turned to her friend. "Come on, I think I can clear this up." She then looked back at the colt. "It was nice to meet you."
She walked away, then paused and turned back. Rarity was still frozen in place.
Rolling her eyes, Twilight picked up the seamstress in a levitation field and muttered to herself.
"At least she didn't faint this time..."
As one mare walked and the other floated away, Kind Face turned to Obsidian. "Are you okay?"
"Sure. Ponies were bound to start spreading that rumor at some point."
"Actually, I was referring to your head."
Feldspar was bouncing along, almost leaping over Obsidian's back. She had definitely enjoyed school that day.
Normally, Obsidian would have been upset by how his condition had made him the center of attention again, but watching his sister's excitement made it a little harder to focus on his worries. He chuckled a little, enjoying seeing her enthusiasm.
Out of nowhere, a head popped out of a bucket on the ground.
"HIYEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"
They both greeted the head with matching volume.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"No sillies, that's the greeting for Nightmare Night." The head rose from the bucket, followed by a body, which was then followed by four legs that stepped out as if absolutely nothing was out of the ordinary. "You're new here, and you haven't been welcomed yet, so I'm here to give you these." She dug around in her tail, pulling out a pair of envelopes with her teeth.
The two siblings cautiously accepted the envelopes. Opening them, they found invitations to a place called Sugarcube Corner.
You're Invited to a Welcome Party for the Stone Family!
The pony suddenly appeared right next to Obsidian and examined his wings, followed by his face. She then took off in a cloud of dust that, for some reason, remained roughly shaped like her for a few seconds.
They looked at each other as the pink... whatever she was... disappeared.
Later that day, the Stone family arrived at Sugarcube Corner, not quite sure what to expect. Apparently, the same pink mare had given invitations to the parents as well, appearing out of Quartz's copier at work and dropping upside-down from a tree in front of Gneiss.
Inside, they found what appeared to be most of the town waiting for them. How they were not crammed together to the point that nopony could move was yet another mystery, the first mystery, of course being...
"HIYEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"
the mare that had invited them, who was now smiling right in their faces.
Fortunately, some slightly more recognizable ponies approached.
Twilight stood next to the bouncing mare and introduced herself, "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I see you've met Pinkie Pie."
"Hi Quartz Stone! Hi Gneiss Crystal! Although quartz isn't really a stone and gneiss isn't really a crystal. Come to think of it, obsidian isn't a crystal either, and feldspar is. Did you switch names? That's funny! I know about stones and crystals 'cause I grew up on a rock farm..."
As Pinkie soon continued on to her third, fourth, and fifth tangents, Feldspar sat there, mesmerized by her uncanny ability to weave almost entirely unrelated topics together, while the rest of the family snuck off to see the rest of the party.
Quartz Stone turned to Twilight, "is she always like that?"
"Yes. Yes she is. Don't worry though. You get used to it after a while, and she really just wants to make sure everypony's happy."
The night was quite enjoyable for the most part. The only thing Obsidian wished for was fewer questions. Some of them, he was accustomed to answering,
"...No, I don't have any earth pony traits..."
Others were a bit newer...
"I've never flown high enough to find out if I can walk on clouds."
And others...
"... so what do you think about putting marshmallows in a piñata? 'Cause Rainbow said it'll probably be fine, and Rarity says they'll get icky dirt all over them, and..."
At least she wasn't asking about his appearance. Of course, she had taped wings onto some of the paper unicorns decorating the walls. Apparently, he was odd enough to have the decorations adjusted, but not odd enough to comment on.
Granted, the town seemed rather accustomed to odd ponies and other assorted creatures. Among other things, he saw a walleyed pegasus, a zebra, and a even young dragon.
This place was weird. Some parts were even weirder than he was.
He smiled. Weirder than him sounded like a perfect place to be.
"How'd ya get stuck in that well in the first place?"
Applejack strained to listen for a response, but couldn't hear anything. She folded her ears back and sighed.
She was missing Pinkie's party for the new family.
Applejack had to find out about the chimera. Apparently, the creature was schoolmates with her sister, and she couldn't stand the thought that her sister might be at any more risk than usual.
Granted, the fact that a chimera was allowed into school in the first place meant it was probably not as big a threat as usual anyway. That said, the thoughts kept gnawing at her.
It was a Saturday, so none of the ponies were in school. That wouldn't exactly make finding them any easier, so she wandered around the town, looking around for unfamiliar faces. While she was at it, maybe she'd get to meet that new family too.
"FOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRE!"
The two teams charged at each other, clubs in mouth. On one side, several colts including Obsidian bolted at full gallop. On the other side, a team led by Snips and Snails thundered forward.
Between them lay the target, a tiny white ball. Snails got there first and swung, whacking it a good thirty yards. Obsidian turned to chase it, using his wings as airbrakes. He got there just before the others, knocking the ball back in the direction from which it came.
A couple others fielded the ball, flanking the team Obsidian was on and launching the ball into a high arch over them. Before it could land, Pipsqueak swatted it out of the air and back towards the center of the field.
This continued back and forth for some time, until all of them were covered with dirt and the ball was nowhere near either of the holes.
Applejack made her way through the town, keeping her eyes out for any ponies or other creatures she didn't recognize. She didn't see anypony like that, but she did see somepony who might know where to look.
"Hey Pinkie, I was wonderin' somethin'."
"No way, miss Rudey McRudepants. You said you were coming to my party, but you didn't show up at all!"
"I'm sorry. Somethin' came up that night. Part of my comin' out here was that I was goin' to say hi to the new family just now, and I wanted to know where they are."
Pinkie's face immediately brightened.
"Oh, okay! One of them's right over there!"
She pointed towards some kids charging around a field, hitting something with sticks.
"Uh, okay... thanks."
She walked over to the group, then had to duck as a small white object flew past her head. The kids came chasing it, only to stop short on seeing her.
Snips spoke up first.
"Oh, sorry about that. We didn't see you there."
"Oh that's alright. What were y'all doin' anyway?"
Snails gave his answer as if their new sport was perfectly normal.
"Full contact golf."
Unsure where to go from a response like that, Applejack looked at the colts, suddenly noticing that one of them had wings and a horn. Her mind spun through the various possibilities on what it might mean.
She ruled out the possibility that he was an alicorn. If he was, she was sure everypony would have already heard of him. Then again, the horn looked petty real, and she could tell at a glance that the wings were his own.
He noticed her staring and gave a nervous wave. That broke her out of her line of thought.
"Oh, hi, I don't think I've seen you around town before. What's your name?"
"I'm... I'm Obsidian ma'am."
One of the other colts jumped in. "He's the town's new chimera."
Applejack stared again. This was now making even less sense than before. Once again, her mind ran through every possible explanation she could find.
Of course, if this kid had been a chimera yesterday and was an alicorn today...
She excused herself and headed over to the library.
"Hi Twilight. Ya got any information on changelings?"
Later that day...
"You did WHAT?!?"
Twilight looked in shock at the pair before her. In front of her stood Applejack with a confused expression.
To Applejack's right was Obsidian, stumbling around and singing about monsters hiding in bushes made of love.
Off to the side sat Spike, who casually munched on a bowl of popcorn while watching the unfolding situation.
"The book said they lose their disguise when surprised, shocked, or otherwise disoriented. It also said that they lose their disguise when asleep."
"So you decided to invite him to your farm, pretend to show him how to harvest apples, and then 'accidentally' drop a bucket on his head from the barn hoist."
"Seemed like the most straightforward way to make him drop his disguise." She looked at Obsidian. "I still don't know why it didn't work."
"Maybe because he's not a changeling."
"What?!?"
Twilight facehooved. "He's not a changeling; he's a tetragametic chimera."
Applejack looked at him for a moment, then back at Twilight. "A what?"
Twilight shook her head. "It's a medical term. I was looking up the condition last night. Come on, I've still got the book out."
"Huh." Applejack scratched her head. "Sure makes me glad I didn't try my other idea."
Twilight squinted at the farmpony. "And what idea could possibly be worse than what you actually did do?"
"Well, that book did say that them changelings tend to also lose their disguises when their mind is weakened, and I had a bit of cider left over from last year..."
She was interrupted by Twilight hitting her head against the wall and groaning.
"Please don't tell me you actually planned on taking a colt who's family just moved into town and getting him drunk..."
Applejack looked away rather sheepishly. "Well, when ya word it like that..."
Twilight groaned again while Spike continued to munch on his bowl of popcorn.
"So... what do we do with him?"
"Take him into the back. I think I know a few spells that should help."
"...My head..."
Applejack leaned over to Twilight and whispered.
"I thought ya said the spell would help."
Twilight whispered back. "That doesn't mean it works instantly."
She applied a couple more spells to erase any other lingering effects of Applejack's impromptu changeling test.
"What... happened?"
"Ya don't remember?"
He slowly shook his head.
Thinking quickly, Applejack offered the most plausible explanation she could think up. "Well y'all were playing a rather rough game out there."
He thought a moment, then nodded. "Did I hit my horn?"
They both looked him over to be sure.
"No, doesn't look like it."
He was still responding slowly, but he at least was coherent. "Well that's good, at least. I guess I'd better go home. It's getting late."
As he slowly stepped out the door, Twilight turned to her friend.
A few days later, a pegasus and an earth pony stood in the newspaper office.
"It's nothing personal, but you haven't been contributing much to the paper at all. I'm sorry, but I don't have much choice in this matter."
The two grumbled as they turned to leave. They didn't like the new manager very much at all.
Just as they were leaving, a pegasus colt ran in.
"Oh, excuse me." He moved around them. "Hi Dad. You forgot your lunch."
He lifted the flap on his saddlebags with a wobbling blue levitation field and pulled out a box with his teeth. Quartz picked it up in his own levitation field and set it on the desk.
"Thanks Obsidian, but shouldn't you be heading to school?"
"I'm heading there right now. Bye"
"Goodbye."
Muck Raker looked up looked up at his former manager. "Interesting kid you've got there."
Quartz smiled. "Yep. One of a kind."
As they stepped out of the office, Muck Raker had a most glorious idea.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That the new manager stinks?"
"Besides that. Think about it, how many creatures like that are out there?"
Mud Slinger thought a moment. "Three, I think."
"And where do they come from?..."
The pegasus's eyes went wide. "You mean...?"
Muck Raker nodded. "I think I can get us our jobs back."
Obsidian was actually glad that more ponies around the town knew about his condition. His dad was right, this place was a lot nicer than Manehatten.
Besides, he could go back to wearing his own saddlebags again, and under his wings instead of over them. They were a lot more comfortable that way.
He caught up with his sister as she was reaching the schoolhouse. Apparently, Twilight was coming to class to talk about how magic worked, and he didn't want to miss that.
"Okay, so the family came from Manehatten, what else do we know?"
"They've got two foals; the other one's a regular pegasus. They moved here due to a sideways promotion... Oh, and I've got this." Mud Slinger pulled out a letter indicating that Obsidian had failed to show up for detention.
Muck Raker looked it over. "The date here is for after they moved."
"Either way, it's still authentic. I checked. If nothing else, it means the kid's a troublemaker."
"That doesn't have anything to do with our investigation. Did you check with any doctors?"
"Yeah, yeah. I've got the reports here. They claim he's a tetraga-something-or-other. Making up words to try to explain it away. I wonder how much they were paid for that."
Muck Raker picked up the report. "Tetragametic chimera. Weird. He's definitely not a chimera; I've seen those before. These doctors can't even lie convincingly."
Twilight had brought some strange apparatus to school, and was demonstrating how it could be used to measure magic. At the moment, Snails was wired to it and was levitating a chalkboard eraser around the room.
Cheerilee held up the gauge for the class to see, while Twilight explained what it meant.
"As you can see, his magic is a bit stronger than that of most around his age. That's why he can levitate things so easily."
As the class nodded, Cheerilee asked if there were any questions. A couple students wanted to know if the machine worked on pegasi and earth ponies, to which Twilight responded that it did, but the tests would be harder to do in a schoolhouse. If anypony wanted to use it outside, she would gladly show them how it works there.
Later, on the playground, Feldspar trotted up to Twilight.
"Could you use your machine on my brother?"
Twilight smiled at her. "Only if he agrees."
She watched as Feldspar ran off, then returned dragging him by the hoof.
"What is this about?"
"I wanna know how much magic you have."
Obsidian looked at Twilight's equipment, then at his sister.
"Well, I guess I am a bit curious too. Why not?"
In a moment, he had electrodes stuck to his horn and head.
"Okay, try picking up that small rock."
He concentrated, lifting the stone about a couple feet off the ground. It quickly went from lightweight as a feather to heavy as a cart.
"Looks like it starts off about normal for somepony your age, but depletes rather quickly."
"But that doesn't make any sense. He lifts me up onto the roof all the time."
Twilight looked at Feldspar with some skepticism. She then turned to Obsidian.
"Do you do that a lot?"
As he nodded, Twilight looked him over. An idea formed in her mind.
"Would you mind lifting her?"
He concentrated, even closing his eyes at one point, and tried to summon as much energy as he could. A stream of magic shot out of his horn, but nothing happened.
He looked down.
"I can't."
She looked him over again, then tried attaching a couple extra electrodes and a different gauge to Feldspar's wings.
"Okay, try again, but this time," she turned to Feldspar, "you try flapping your wings."
They tried again, and this time, the green glow lifted Feldspar off the ground easily.
"Interesting. From these readings, I believe that you're not really lifting her, so much as giving a bit of extra strength to her wings. I can't say for sure without further testing, but I think you're channeling pegasus magic through your horn."
As Feldspar fluttered back down to the ground, they both looked at each other and smiled.
"Cool!"
None of them were aware of a camera lens peeking through some bushes.
As they were heading home, Obsidian and Feldspar felt increasingly uneasy.
They met Pinkie Pie while walking past Sugarcube Corner.
"HIIIIIEEEEEE!"
"Hi Pinkie."
She noticed their expressions. "You don't look happy. Is something going on?"
They looked at each other, then back at her. Feldspar spoke up first.
"Do you ever feel like your being watched?"
Pinkie immediately dismissed the thought with the wave of a hoof. "Oh that? All the time! Don't worry though, it's just the audience. They're just interested in our lives because we're entertaining to them. Well, gotta run. Byeeeee!"
Obsidian and Feldspar were not particularly relieved by that.
As they were about to turn in their article, Mud Slinger turned to his associate.
"Are you sure this is a good idea. I mean, this could be considered slander, couldn't it?"
Muck Raker reassured him, "no, it's a perfectly good idea. We need our jobs back, we can get them back in a way that exposes our old manager as the fraud he is, and our story is guaranteed to get published. Besides, it's technically not really slander anyway..."
Princess Luna was having a very good morning. Calm, peaceful, just perfect overall. The air had a refreshing chill to it as the sun was coming up over the horizon, and the birds in the garden outside were already engaging in their melodies.
Yes, it was most certainly a perfect morning. She smiled as she lifted the cup of coffee with her hoof, and sipped it while telekinetically unfolding the newspaper.
Celestia, on the other hoof, had been tossing and turning all night. Just when she was about to finally get some rest, the time came to raise the sun.
She made a mental note to pick up more replacement alarm clocks.
As Celestia walked into the room, she was greeted by a coffee mug very nearly hitting her in the face and subsequently shattering against the wall behind her.
What did hit her face was the stream of coffee that propelled said mug across the room.
"LUNA!?!"
Luna simply stared at the newspaper with eyes wide, mouth agape, and coffee still dripping off her chin.
Celestia walked over, picking up a napkin along the way to try to dry out her fur. What she saw covered the entire front page of the newspaper, above the fold, in bold print.
LUNAR SCANDAL! LUNA'S SECRET CHILD FOUND IN PONYVILLE
Normally, Celestia would have checked to see if the story was written by Yellow Press again, but something was off this time. Perhaps it was that the style of writing was different. Maybe it was that the article followed actual rules of grammar for once.
Of course, it could have been the giant, colored picture of a silver-winged, dark-furred, unmistakably alicorn colt. That could have been it.
"Luna... Is there something I should know?"
Luna turned to her sister in shock. "Don't tell me thou believes this!"
"I don't know what to believe. He's got about the right fur color, and he is..."
"I DID NOT DO ANYTHING!"
"You're sure there's no possibility at all that..."
Luna gave her sister a look that flat-out dared her to finish that question.
"No. Look at his age in the picture. Nightmare Moon and I were still on the moon at that time."
Celestia looked at the picture again. Sure enough, the colt was clearly old enough that Luna would have still been banished when he had been born. She sighed in relief.
"Well that rules that out at least." She turned back to the paper. "Who would write up something like this?"
"I don't know, but when we find out, I'm banishing them to the moon."
"Luna!"
She rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'm giving them a fair trial first... then banishing them to the moon."
As Obsidian and Feldspar approached the school, all the other kids suddenly became quiet. Everypony stared at the two.
"Uhhh... what's going on?..."
"Are you really a prince?"
"What?" He facehooved. "I'm not a prince, I'm not even an alicorn. It's a medical condition. I already told all of you about that."
"But the papers. They say you're a secret prince. Is it true?"
"WHAT?!?"
One of them held up a paper. The two recognized it as one of their dad's rivals.
There are unconfirmed rumors that Princess Luna, Ruler of the Night, may have been visited by one Quartz Stone, presumably on business, in Canterlot. It is believed by several reliable sources...
Obsidian and Feldspar looked at each other. Obsidian then took the paper and ran off to his dad.
"Dad! Dad!" Obsidian galloped all the way to the newspaper office. When he got there, his dad was in a meeting with the paper's owner.
"Obsidian, I'm in a meeting... And it's a school day..." he noticed his face and the paper... "what's wrong?"
Obsidian held up the paper for him to read. As Quartz picked it up and read it, his face hardened. "Those muckraking mud-slinging..." his telekinesis crushed the paper, only to open it again so he could reread it. "I could sue them for slander."
His boss looked over at the paper.
"Technically, that's libel." He gave an amused glance to Quartz. "So, the Mare in the Moon, huh?"
"Please don't tell me you believe this."
"Nah, this is about him, right?" He gestured to Obsidian. "He must've been born before Nightmare Moon's return, so unless you've been making trips to the moon or something, I doubt he's hers."
"Well, thank you for believing me." Quartz turned to his son. "And thank you for showing me this. Now please go back to school, okay."
"Okay."
The rest of the day was not particularly comfortable. While his boss might have been able to see through it, most of the rest of the town evidently could not.
Letters were already coming in, some asking if the claims were true, some asking what the princess was like, and others landing straight in the paper shredder as soon as they were opened.
Quartz hoped nopony was bothering Gneiss.
Gneiss had already locked all the doors on the home. Upon seeing a camerapony by the window, she pulled a knife from the kitchen drawer and, holding it upside-down by the blade, aimed it towards the window.
The lens disappeared rather quickly.
Rarity ran to the library again.
When Cheerilee had asked if the class had any questions, she was hoping that at least some of them would be for her, or at least about the topic at hand. She tried and failed to restore order as the subject of the questions turned increasingly red.
"FOR THE LAST TIME, I'M NOT AN ALICORN!!!!!"
When the lunar diarch was finished with them, the newspaper very hastily printed a retraction.
LUNAR SCANDAL FOUND FALSE
It was brought to our attention that the claimed scandal could not have occurred, as it would have been during the time of Nightmare Moon's banishment. Thus, we must extend our apologies to Princess Luna for our insinuation against her. We should have taken that into account before printing the story.
Rest assured that we will follow our anonymous sources more closely and investigate their claims before publishing them. We will especially be looking further into the identity of the alicorn colt in the pictures they sent us.
It is quite clear to our reliable sources now that the colt does not have his mother's fur, but rather his mother's wings...
The next day, Sunny Skies and Moonlit Night arrived by train in Ponyville to investigate the issue.
Celestia and Luna would have sent regular undercover investigators, but considering the nature of the rumors, they decided it would be best to check it out themselves. That said, the nature of the rumors also meant that it would be best to remain incognito, hence the disguises.
Moonlit Night went off to the schoolhouse to see if she could find this supposed alicorn colt, while Sunny Skies went to the newspaper office to meet the other subject of the rumor.
Moonlit Night got to the school right as recess was finishing up. She had to hurry to see them before they went in. When she got there, everyone was still running around. Some of them were playing tag, some were on the swings, and a couple were on a seesaw.
She also noticed that several colts had decided to revive Tookball, the ancient game named for the legendary warrior who knocked an enemy king's head into a rabbit hole with his club. She smiled at the memory.
Those were the days.
The bell rang, and all the kids started filtering back inside. As the last few headed in, she smiled, this time at the evidence that the article was simply made up. None of the colts even had the right fur color.
As she turned around, she didn't hear a pair of voices.
"Come on Obsidian, class is starting."
"They're just gonna keep bringing up that stupid paper again."
Feldspar and Kind Face tugged Obsidian's hoof out from behind a tree.
Sunny Skies, meanwhile, was having a bit of trouble getting into the newspaper office.
"If this is about that rumor the other paper put out, then Mr. Stone isn't seeing you."
Time to try the big guns.
"I'm an official investigator from Canterlot. The Princesses don't like the defamation any more than Mr. Stone does, so they sent me to investigate."
"Do you have any proof of that?"
"Of course." It was a good thing she remembered to pack the badges and official papers in her saddlebags. She twisted her head around to pull them out of... nothing?
She looked around, realizing to her dismay that she had left her saddlebags on the train. "I... don't have my badge with me..."
"So you can't prove it."
"I could call the official royal guard for backup."
"And we'll be happy to comply once they get here, until then..."
Sunny Skies found herself back outside the office. This wasn't going well at all.
Moonlit Night was wandering around the town, keeping an eye out for any foals outside the school.
Checking the time, she realized school was going to be letting out soon, which meant another chance to check for any foals she might have missed.
She trotted back over in that direction. A full gallop might look suspicious, but she had to at least try to hurry if she was going to make it there in time.
By the time she got there, the kids were already scattering off in different directions, making it impossible to tell how many had left the premises already.
Perhaps the best option would be to ask the teacher directly. She walked up to the schoolhouse, still keeping an eye out for that colt, and stuck her head inside.
"Hello?"
Cheerilee looked up from the papers she was grading. "Oh hello. Can I help you?"
Moonlit Night stepped the rest of the way inside. "Perhaps. This might sound a bit odd, but hast th... have you, by any chance, seen an alicorn colt around town?"
Cheerilee's expression immediately hardened. "No, there aren't any alicorn colts around town, and if you're trying to spread rumors about any of my students..."
Moonlit Night held up a hoof. "Do not worry about that. We are simply trying to find the source of the rumor. We have little reason to believe it could possibly be true."
"We?"
"... My... associate and I. She's investigating a different part of town. We were... hired by the princesses."
"Well, unless you can demonstrate proof of that..."
There was a knock at the door, and a dark gray pegasus walked in.
"Oh, excuse me. I was wondering if Obsidian and Feldspar were still here."
Cheerilee's face softened for the newcomer. "They just left."
Moonlit Night looked questioningly at the pegasus. "Is this Obsidian the alicorn colt from the newspaper articles?"
Just outside, the remaining kids on the playground were surprised to see a dark purple unicorn flying out the school's front door with a pair of hoofprints on her flank.
Sunny Skies waited behind some bushes. Close of business was in a couple minutes. All she had to do was remain quie...
"HIYEEEEE!"
"AAAAAGH!" She jumped at least five feet straight up, her wings spasming uncontrollably, and landed back in the bushes. "Pinkie! What are you doing here?"
"I'm restocking my emergency balloon caches. Bye Celestia!"
Sunny Skies froze as Pinkie Pie vanished into the bushes, looking around to see if anyone had overheard their conversation. Fortunately, there was nopony around, so her cover was still intact.
She resumed waiting in the bushes.
After a few minutes, Mr. Stone stepped out. He looked around, then stepped forward. As Sunny Skies was about to follow him, he spoke, seemingly to nopony in particular.
"I've met reporters like you before. Considering what the last two of them did to my kid, you should probably turn back now."
Sunny peeked around, but couldn't see anypony other than him shanding there. She then noticed his horn glowing.
In a matter of seconds, the pegasus was hovering face-down over an open trash can.
"Oh horseapp..."
They met back up in the center of town.
"How did it go?"
"I didn't see any alicorn colts around town, and one of the ponies visiting the teacher bucked me out when I tried asking her." Moonlit Night looked to the still-sore spot on her flank. "You?"
Sunny Skies shook a banana peel off her head. "I couldn't get past the secretary. Apparently the Mr. Stone doesn't like the rumor either."
They were on their way back to the train station when a pegasus filly and unicorn colt walked up. They were followed by a number of the foals from the school.
"Does that make Feldspar a princess too?"
"No."
"Can you move comets?"
"No."
"What if it's just that your alicorn powers haven't grown in yet?"
The unicorn turned around with his eyes blazing, stomped his hoof, and involuntarily raised his wings.
"FOR THE LAST TIME... I. AM. NOT. AN. ALICORN!!!!!"
He stood that way for a moment, just breathing, then his head, ears, and wings all dropped, and he turned around and continued on.
The filly lifted her wing as far as she could over his back. He returned the favor as they walked off, his other wing dragging on the ground.
The rest of the kids slowly and quietly went off on their separate ways.
Sunny Skies and Moonlit Night, meanwhile, stared at the two, eyes wide and jaws on the ground. It is uncertain exactly how long it was that they remained that way before speaking.
"He hath thy wings."
"He has your voice."
They looked at each other.
Princesses never faint. It would be unbecoming, undignified, almost a scandal in and of itself.
It was a very good thing that they were both in disguise at the moment.
As soon as they recovered, Sunny Skies and Moonlit Night ran to the library. If anypony knew what was going on, it would be Twilight. They knocked on the door, only to find a sign on the frame right next to their hooves.
VISITING MY PARENTS WILL BE BACK SOON TWILIGHT SPARKLE
"Well... I guess we're going back to Canterlot then."
"Verily. Dost thou still have the tickets?"
"Yes, they're in my..." she facehooved, "saddlebags, which I left on the train."
Luna returned the facehoof. "Then let us find accommodations for the night so that we can remove our disguises. My back itches without my wings."
They checked into a hotel. Luna paid, of course. She still had her bags.
Soon the enchantment was off and they were back to their normal selves. Celestia wrote out a letter and shot it with her magic, causing it to disappear in a burst of green fire.
"At least we can still find out this way."
A moment later, there was another burst of green flame, and a letter materialized in front of her.
Twilight is not available at the moment and will respond to all letters as soon as she is available. Thank you for your patience.
This is an automatically generated response.
Celestia hit her head against the table. She knew she shouldn't have taught Twilight that "out-of-office" spell.
Luna simply rolled her eyes.
The next day, they were back in their disguises and wandering the streets, trying more secondhand sources for information about the rumors. They started with the surest source they could find for such information.
"Welcome to Rarity's Boutique, where everything is unique, chic, and magnifique. How can I help you?"
"Oh we were just looking around. This is a marvelous place you have here."
"Thank you, darling."
"Come to think of it, isn't this the town where they said there's an alicorn colt?"
"That's what the rumors are, but my friends say he's either a changeling or a chimera. I'm not too sure yet, but that's what I've heard. I was going to talk with Twilight about it, but she wasn't in the library. Why do you ask?"
They looked at each other. It was a possibility they hadn't considered, but it would explain a lot. They ruled out chimeras though. They could tell at a glance that he wasn't one of those.
"Well, it's not every day you hear stories like that."
Moonlit Night joined in, "what do you think he is?"
"Well, personally I think he's an alicorn who just doesn't like being teased because of his lack of magic. Then again, I've met his parents, and neither of them are alicorns.
"Of course, for all I know, maybe alicorns could be born of a normal pony. Besides, Twilight did give some interesting reasons why he could be a chimera."
They looked at each other again. Of all the ponies to think he was a chimera, it was Twilight?
The comment about lacking magic was an interesting angle. They didn't have much information on natural-born alicorns, so how quickly they developed magic was still a mystery. Perhaps one day Cadence and her husband would be able to answer that question. Of course, a changeling imitating an alicorn was a plausible explanation for the lack of magic as well.
Sunny Skies decided to skip to the question at hoof. "Did you hear of the newspaper articles about him?"
Rarity's expression noticeably soured. "I think those ruffians shouldn't talk about the princesses like that. I'm good friends with their personal student, and I assure you they'd never do such a thing."
Sunny sighed. That was a relief.
"At least, I don't think they would."
What?
"Did you hear something about them?"
Sunny Skies stammered, trying to come up with a plausible excuse to switch topics. "Uhh... no, no. We... uhhh... we didn't.."
Moonlit Night, on the other hand...
"Nothing happened, and that's final!"
... at least didn't use the royal Canterlot voice this time...
As they stepped outside, Moonlit Night thought for a moment. "If he was an alicorn," she finally said, "he should have enough innate magic to be detectable, even if he can't use it yet."
Sunny Skies considered the thought. "I suppose that should make sense. Perhaps we could measure it using some of Twilight's equipment."
"She's away, remember?"
Sunny Skies simply sing-songed. "I know where she keeps the keeeeey."
Less than an hour later, they were changing back into their disguised selves after having to teleport themselves out of the local jail. Apparently, Twilight had found a new hiding spot for the spare key to the library.
It also seemed that looking for hollow tree branches through which to get in counted as "attempted breaking and entering."
With that option ruled out, they went around town to try asking some of the others.
"If he's a changelin' he's a strong-willed one. I tried every trick in that book, an' he never dropped his disguise once."
"A bunch of his friends at school made up an awesome new game. I think they call it extreme golf or something. I'm gonna start up a league back in Cloudsdale."
"He seemed... nice... ..."
"...so that's when I tried sticking marshmallows in the piñata, but they all fused into a big gooey mess, so then I..."
They soon decided that the best option would be to get the answer straight from the horse's mouth.
They watched the stallion enter his house after work, then approached the house themselves and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?"
"Sunny Skies and Moonlit Night, sir. We have some questions about the newspaper articles."
"Go away."
Moonlit Night spoke up. "We work for the princesses, sir. If anypony had reason to believe the story was false, it's us. We thought at first that the articles were against them, but we wanted to determine if you may have been the target instead."
The door opened a crack, and the unicorn inside looked them over. "Are you the one who was hiding in the bushes yesterday?"
Sunny Skies averted her eyes. "I may have been a bit overzealous in my investigation." As the door was closing, she stuck her hoof in the frame. "Please. We just want to know what happened."
The stallion sighed, muttering something about getting it all over with, and opened the door the rest of the way. As the two stepped inside, they met a darker gray pegasus mare that Moonlit Night recognized from the school.
Her flank involuntarily twitched.
Behind the pegasus, the colt and filly from yesterday were on the floor with a chess set between them. The filly rolled a pair of dice, then turned a rook upside-down. The colt responded by dropping three playing cards beside the board and moving his king five spaces. They both looked up from the game upon noticing the newcomers.
"This is my wife, Gneiss Crystal, and these are my foals, Obsidian Crystal and Feldspar Stone. Gneiss, Obsidian, Feldspar; this is Sunny Skies and Moonlit Night. They say they want to know where the news articles came from."
Gneiss spoke up. "Well, I'll most certainly confirm that he's mine. He poked me with his horn enough times..."
"Mom..."
She tussled his mane with her hoof. "Well you did. And everypony else said the kicking was what to watch for."
"We have our own reasons to not believe the rumors. You don't have to worry about that."
The others looked at the investigators skeptically. Quartz decided to ask the unspoken question. "I know you said you work for the princesses, but how can we be sure you do? How do we know you're not just reporters trying to spread this mess even further?"
It was at that moment that a letter materialized in front of Sunny Skies's face. She tried to catch it in her magic, only to be reminded that she didn't have a horn anymore as it landed on the ground. She swiped it up as quickly as she could with a wing, but not before Quartz and Gneiss could read the first lines.
Dear Princess Celestia, I'm sorry I didn't see your letter until now...
Quartz and Gneiss both looked up, eyebrows raised. "Dear Princess Celestia? What's that supposed to mean?"
Gneiss finished the thought, "and how did that letter appear in front of you in the first place?"
Obsidian, meanwhile, subtly used a bit of blue magic to reposition the decorative mirror on the wall.
ɒitƨɘlɘƆ ƨƨɘɔniɿԳ ɿɒɘႧ ɿɘttɘl ɿυoγ ɘɘƨ t'nbib I γɿɿoƨ m'I .won litnυ γnɒ tυodɒ bɿɒɘʜ t'nbɒʜ I tloɔ ɘʜt ʇo bɿɒɘʜ bɒʜ I tυd ,ƨɘlɔitɿɒ ƨwɘn .miʜ tɘm nɘvɘ ɘvɒʜ I .bɘnoitnɘm υoγ ɔitɘmɒϱɒɿtɘt ƨɒ nwonʞ ƨi noitibnoɔ ƨiH. ϱninnɒlq ƨɒw I .mƨiɿɘmiʜɔ I nɘʜw miʜ no ƨtƨɘt ɿɘʜtɿυʇ nυɿ ot (ɘƨɿυoɔ ʇo noiƨƨimɿɘq ƨiʜ ʜtiw) ʞɔɒd toϱ ƨɘɔnɒʜɔ γnɒm bɒʜ t'nɘvɒʜ I tυd ɘʜt ot ɘυb oƨ ob ot ϱnioϱ ƨtnɘvɘ ɿɘʜto ƨυoɿɘmυn .no tnɘbυtƨ lυʇʜtiɒʇ ɿυoY ɘlʞɿɒqƧ tʜϱiliwT
"You're the princesses?" Obsidian reread the letter just to be sure.
Feldspar, meanwhile, had her own thoughts on the matter. "But you aren't alicorns either. Are alicorns a myth?"
"No, no, we're their...," Sunny looked over to Moonlit Night for guidance, "... secretaries. We get their mail because of that."
"And the Princesses are alicorns, not myths."
It was then that Quartz brought in his own question. "So why would the princesses send secretaries to do investigative work?"
Moonlit Night dug around in her saddlebags.
"She may be a secretary, but I'm an investigator. We're a bit understaffed, and she has experience in these matters. Here. I have some extra copies of my papers."
Everyone in the room looked at the documents.
Quartz sat down, suddenly nervous.
"By Faust," he finally said, "I dropped the Princess's personal secretary in a trash can..."
Mud Slinger paced around the room while his partner sorted stories to send to the editing room for compilation.
"Relax, will you? We have our jobs in the press again, and the idiot who made us lose them in the first place got what he deserved."
"And the princesses?"
"Shouldn't have messed around with common ponies."
"And the colt?"
"Collateral damage." Muck Raker sighed and looked up at his partner. "Look, our story probably upended most of the ponies' view of the royal elite, but it was going to break sooner or later. Not the kind of thing you can hide forever. Besides, it's not like anypony's gonna die because of our report."
He went back to the task at hoof and looked at the next story to be sent in for compilation.
Mare Trampled to Death Outside News Stand A unicorn, later identified as Red Shirt, was found waiting in line for...
He quietly placed the story in the rejection bin.
"Please don't tell us you believe those stories too."
Both investigators facehooved in perfect sync.
"Considering the events of the story would have occurred while Princess Luna was banished..."
"And since I know for certain that Celestia doesn't have a foal, I think we have good reasons to not believe the story."
As the entire household sighed in relief, Obsidian looked up. "So, what happens now?"
"We have already asked them to print another retraction." Moonlit Night stated. "Why they haven't yet is beyond us."
"Well," Sunny said, "given the paper's reaction to the last time we corrected them, we may have to prove that they were wrong instead of only telling them."
Quartz snorted. "Well, if these 'anonymous, reliable sources' are who I think they are, it will probably take a bit more effort to get them to print a retraction than just talking to them. They've got more pride between them than anypony I've ever met."
Moonlit Night nodded in agreement. "The entire publishing company is like that. Besides, the fact that his appearance is real and not merely a hoax may make it harder. We need to demonstrate that another explanation is possible."
"Sorry about that Ce... er... Sunny. When I saw your letter, I checked the papers, and when I saw those, I started looking for you to see what had happened. I checked the palace, the gardens, the bakery, the guards, and then I found out that you had come here..."
Sunny Skies placed a hoof over Twilight's mouth. "Just start with the beginning. You mentioned meeting him in your letter. Try starting there."
As soon as Sunny removed her hoof, Twilight took another deep breath and started again. "He claimed to be a chimera, and the patterns of his eyes support the claim.
"I also gave him a simple magic test at his and his sister's request, and the results matched some of the current theories on pony chimerism. I was going to run some more tests, but I never got a chance to ask for permission."
She turned to Quartz and Gneiss- "if that's okay with you, of course. Is it okay? If these theories are correct, they could lead to major improvements in our understanding of medicine and..."
Twilight caught the look in Sunny's eye.
"Oh, right... Sorry. Anyway, everything I've seen does indicate that he is exactly what he said, nothing more."
As the two investigators sighed in relief, Twilight looked around.
"Where did he go anyway?"
The others finally noticed that the two foals had both left the conversation. Gneiss stepped in. "I think I have an idea."
Up on the roof, Obsidian and Feldspar watched the atmosphere above them. The sun would be setting soon, provided the princesses would remember to lower it in the middle of their PR problem. Some clouds were drifting around in the distance, and a couple off to the right were being pushed into place by a few pegasi to water somepony's crops.
At least the skies offered more peace than the grownups did.
Almost on cue, the flapping of wings behind them interrupted that peace.
"There you two are."
They both looked to the source of the sound as she landed. "Hi mom."
She stepped over to them, flapping her wings a bit to keep balance as she was not nearly as accustomed to walking around on the roof as they were.
"Is something the matter?"
Obsidian looked away and crossed his forelegs. "No. Should there be anything wrong?"
"You two always fly up to the roof when something's up. Now what is it?"
He looked into her eyes, then back at the sunset. "I don't know. I just wish I could be normal. Then this whole thing wouldn't have happened in the first place."
She sighed. "There's nothing wrong with... Obsidian look at me." She waited for him to look back up into her eyes. "There's nothing wrong with you. Your father and I love you as you are, and nothing can change that.
"Besides, those ponies would have found something to lie about anyway. You being any different wouldn't have changed that, so please don't blame yourself for what they did. Okay?"
Obsidian nodded. As he did, Gneiss wrapped him and his sister in her wings.
"Good. Now could you please come back inside?" She turned to Feldspar. "Both of you?"
Obsidian glided down while Feldspar rode down on her mother's back. Quartz, Twilight, Sunny, and Moonlit were waiting for them on the ground.
Sunny addressed them.
"Don't worry, my little ponies, after everything Twilight told us, I'm sure we'll have everything cleared up in no time."
It was then that another letter materialized and dropped to the ground. Sunny looked at the top, then gave it to Twilight.
"This one's for you."
Twilight took the letter in her magic and opened it.
Dear Twilight, I think you forgot something when you left. Sincerely, Spike
Of course in this case, "relatively normal" meant that Cheerilee actually had some degree of control over the class again. It wasn't much of a comfort to Obsidian though, as the majority of the class still believed the rumor.
It didn't help that the papers kept treating the Princesses's corrections as "denial." It also didn't help that every other newspaper with the exception of his dad's was also getting in on the story.
Thanks to the numerous "retractions" and "corrections," he had, over the past week, been Luna's secret son twice, Celestia's secret son three times, Cadance's son once, Cadance's daughter four times, some rival from another nation, a changeling, a forest chimera, a were-timberwolf, and somehow, a half-seapony-half-dragon creature of some sort.
Needless to say, he was quite tired of all of it.
As Cheerilee turned to write a new assignment on the board, Obsidian was hit in the back of the head with a paper airplane. He turned around to see who had thrown it, but whoever it was had already gone back to watching the board. He picked up the airplane and, noticing some marks on the wing, carefully unfolded it.
FS had an idea about stopping this rumor. She wants to talk about it during recess. You in?
KF
He looked in Kind Face's direction and saw her looking back, silently asking for confirmation.
He turned back to the note and added his response.
Sure. Let's meet by the swings.
OC
He surreptitiously refolded it and, as soon as the teacher turned her back, returned it via a rubber band. She picked it up, read the note, and nodded.
Later by the swings, Feldspar revealed her plan.
"I knew you'd want to join!"
"Anything to avoid being called 'prince' again. So what do you have in mind?"
"Dad said he thinks some guys he fired want revenge, right?"
"Yeah, but he can't prove it."
"So what if we prove it?"
Kind Face and Obsidian stared at Feldspar for half a minute. Kind Face broke the silence first.
"How?"
"The break's coming up soon. We'll have a whole week to find them and figure out what they did."
"Wait wait," Obsidian held up a hoof. "Aren't the main offices for those papers all headquartered in Canterlot?"
"Yup!"
Kind Face, naturally, was startled at the idea. "Are you suggesting sneaking off to Canterlot?"
Feldspar just grinned.
Obsidian then brought up his own question. "Okay, so suppose we manage to sneak off and make it there. What do we do when we find them?"
This one had Feldspar stumped for a moment. "I don't know. I didn't think that far ahead." She thought a bit. "I guess we could find proof that they lied. We could bring along your camera, and I found a tape recorder in my saddlebags that we could use."
Obsidian and Kind Face considered it. It was risky, dumb, and not even completely thought out. Then again, it also seemed like the only thing that could end this rumor for good.
"I'm in," Obsidian finally replied.
"Okay," Kind Face joined in, "let's do it."
A few days later, they were meeting again, this time out by the creek.
Feldspar dumped everything onto the ground and rummaged through it. "So here's the camera, the tape recorder, some cart inspection mirrors, enough bits for the tickets... everything we need to be spies."
"Wait. We can't just show up there and start spying on everypony. I mean, I'm pretty sure this," Obsidian stretched out one of his wings while gesturing to his horn, "would be pretty conspicuous, especially with why we're trying to do this."
"Way ahead of you..." Kind Face opened a grocery bag and dumped several plastic bottles onto the ground. Feldspar picked up a few.
"Hot Rod Red, Green Beret, Ocean Waves... what is all this stuff?"
Obsidian picked up a bottle of True Royal Purple and examined it. "Why do you have a half-dozen bottles of fur dye?... Where did you even get this much dye?"
"What do you mean Scootaloo already picked up my order for me?"
"I'm good with disguises."
The other two looked at each other, then back at Kind Face.
She continued, "here, I've also got this."
She hoofed a pair of saddlebags to Obsidian. They were regular-style saddlebags, but very large, big enough to completely cover his back.
"Check out the underside," Kind Face prodded.
Turning the bags over, Obsidian saw a pair of long slits, one leading into each bag. He experimentally slid a wing into one of the slits and found that it fit perfectly.
"Ponies smuggle stuff under saddlebags and blankets so much, that if somepony thinks you're up to something, they'll look under your bags first."
Obsidian tried them on the rest of the way, then stopped upon realizing something. "How would you know that?"
Kind Face simply smiled. "It was in a Daring Do story."
Feldspar looked under the saddlebags and, sure enough, found no trace of her brother's wings. "Cool!" She turned back to Kind Face, "do I get to use anything?"
"That's what the fur dye's for. Since you're in some of the pictures too, there's a good chance you'll get noticed. Fortunately, your coat's one of the easier colors to dye. We'll fix it up right before we leave."
She picked up some Longhorn Orange and examined it.
We get to be spies!
"So, what about you?" Obsidian wondered.
"Let's see..." Kind Face dug through her saddlebags, pulling out a hat and a pair of glasses. "I'll probably dye my mane too, but for now, how does this look?"
Obsidian tilted his head. "You look like the exact same filly, but with glasses and a hat."
As Feldspar giggled, Kind Face frowned, then picked up a bottle and marched off into some bushes. A few moments later, a blue unicorn filly with a music note cutie mark emerged.
"This better?"
The other two simply tried to pick up their jaws off the ground.
"Where'd the horn come from?"
She gestured to her saddlebags. "I keep a few extras in here. Different colors too."
Obsidian looked back at the saddlebags containing Kind Face's collection. "Do your parents run a novelty store or something?"
She looked away just briefly.
"We were entertainers, at least before we moved. The disguises were for playing characters."
Feldspar's eyes widened with wonder. "You're a stage pony?"
Kind Face shook her head. "More like a street performer. Everypony used to love us." She hung her head, "then somepony else came in and took over our territory, and ponies stopped loving us."
She looked up towards the other two. "That's why we moved here. New town, new start."
Obsidian hung his head. "Sorry that happened to you."
Feldspar added her own touch. "We love you."
Kind Face simply smiled a little. "Thanks... Thanks a lot."
Saturday morning, the three gathered by the creek again to apply their disguises. Obsidian wore his new saddlebags, slipping all of Feldspar's gear into them to hide his wings from anypony who did peek inside the bags. He also wore a blue contact lens that Kind Face had brought along to cover his green eye. He spent several minutes trying to get it in right, while the other two went about their own disguises.
When he could finally see again, he found that his sister had turned purple and that her mane was now bright green.
"Hey check it out! I'm the library dragon! RAAAAR!"
Kind Face, meanwhile, had gone back to her blue unicorn disguise.
"How do we look?"
"You look convincing again, and you... aren't spitting fire if that's what you want to know."
His sister looked up from an arrangement of pine cones and acorns on the ground.
"That's what you think."
She returned her attention to the arrangement below her, at which point she stepped on an acorn and scattered a couple pine cones. "How dare you mess with my hoard! BURN, TINY TOWN! BURN! AH HA HA!"
Kind Face stared a moment, then shook her head and turned back to Obsidian. "There's one thing you still need."
With that, she picked up a couple fur dye bottles and proceeded to paint out his cutie mark.
"This was visible in a few pictures, so we'll have to swap it with something else... Hmm... What would be good here?"
"How about an erupting volcano? Ooh, I know! A chalice filled with the laughter of small foals!"
As Kind Face turned to Feldspar in confusion, Obsidian stated his own opinion on the matter.
"You've been spending way too much time around Pinkie."
After ruling out constellations, masks, and a barbed-wire question mark, they ended up going with a pair of pens crossed like swords. "Vengeance by reporting" they called it.
With that, they headed off to the train station.
The trees flew past the windows in a constant blur. Inside the car, the trio were making plans on how to find the reporters. Splitting up was out of the question; none of them wanted to get lost.
Feldspar suggested starting near the castle since the newspapers would be able to cover events there easily. Obsidian, meanwhile, didn't want to go anywhere near the castle on the grounds that somepony might recognize him. Kind Face simply suggested finding a copy of the yellow book and looking through the companies in it. As boring as the solution sounded, it was at least the best option they had.
They all continued their discussion for some time, occasionally pausing to look out the windows.
It was during one of these pauses that Feldspar left to use the filly's room. As she was about to leave, she saw something stuck in the corner between the toilet and the wall.
She gripped a loose strap in her teeth and pulled, but it was stuck pretty tight. She pulled again and stumbled backwards as it finally came loose. In her teeth was a fancy set of pegasus saddlebags. She didn't see a name on them, so she slipped them on and headed back to join the others.
Upon arriving in Canterlot, they all went to nearest booths they could find and started searching through the books.
"Look's like most of the companies are near the center of town."
Obsidian frowned. Maybe they could still keep a low profile, but he couldn't help the feeling that they'd all get caught sooner there.
They headed off in that direction. As they did, Kind Face looked around at every passing face with increasing concern.
"You're not afraid we'll all get caught, are you?"
Snapping back to attention, she noticed that Obsidian's question had been directed at her.
"Oh sorry... I guess I am a bit nervous."
"Don't worry. You said yourself that you're good at disguises. Look around. So far, they're working. Nothing's gonna happen."
She smiled.
"Hi! I'm Green Flame, and I was wondering if you knew who first wrote that story on the colt from Ponyville."
If anyone could radiate innocent curiosity while asking about royal scandals, it was Feldspar.
Unfortunately, the papers they had been visiting had all claimed to be first and had all cited "anonymous sources" for their information. The one she was visiting now was no different, but that didn't stop the other two from hiding just beyond the edge of the door, tape recorder and camera in hoof, just in case this was the right one.
It was getting late, and as they walked away from yet another disappointment, they realized that they had no place to stay.
As Gneiss flew around the town scanning the streets, Quartz asked everypony in sight if they had seen the kids. Glad as they had been that the two were getting out among the other kids more these days, it was getting late. They should have been home by now. He wasn't as worried as Gneiss was, not yet anyway, but the longer they searched, the more he hoped that the two had simply lost track of time and that nothing had happened to them.
He remembered the stories about the Everfree Forest.
He didn't even realize that he had picked up his pace.
Unreliable Narrator stepped out onto the balcony. She had come to Canterlot to find inspiration for her next story. So far, she had been enjoying the atmosphere, but hadn't found anything of note to write about.
As she was about to head back into her hotel room, she noticed three foals climbing the fire escape of a building across the street. They opened their saddlebags and started pulling out blankets.
Homeless ponies!
It was certainly tragic, but it would be perfect material for her story. As she watched them set up their camp, she wished she could see better...
oh wait, of course!
She pulled out her camera. The telephoto lens would be perfect for an impromptu telescope.
As she adjusted the focus, she noticed one of the unicorns pulling wings out from under his saddlebags. She zoomed in, then went back into her room to check the hotel newspaper, then went back out to the balcony. She hit the shutter button several times.
This would be a story.
The police scanned the edges of the forest with their lanterns. There hadn't been any unusual activity for some time, but with at least two missing foals reported, they were checking all the places that made the most sense.
Quartz and Gneiss were told to go home and rest for the night, but they both knew rest would never come until the kids were found, so they asked the police to let them help with the search. The police tried to tell them that they had the situation covered, but their efforts were ultimately futile.
Quartz shook his head. It wasn't like those two to just run away; he was certain of that.
Then again, circumstances lately haven't been exactly normal.
A fog had rolled in last night and was scheduled to remain for a few days.
All three of the Reporters of Vengeance woke up shivering. They hurriedly packed up their saddlebags and headed out towards the news buildings.
In light of yesterday's poor results, they needed a new strategy. Maybe they could use their disguises to sneak inside one of the news buildings.
Five minutes later, all three skidded across the street on their rumps. Obsidian looked back behind them.
"Well, that went well."
Feldspar stuck out her tongue at the newspaper manager and blew a raspberry.
Mr. Watermark stepped out of Quartz's office just as Quartz was walking up.
"I heard about last night."
Mr. Stone looked up at his boss, who simply continued.
"I'm guessing you came here to inform me that you'll have to take time off to find them."
Quartz simply nodded. Before he could speak, his boss gestured towards the door.
"If it were my son, I'd be doing the same. I'll handle things here. You go find your foals."
"Thank you."
As Quartz was leaving the office, he spied a news vendor selling just about every paper there was. Perhaps they had picked up some stories on missing foals.
He picked up the latest one and flipped through it. As he was setting it down, he glanced at the one beside it and almost collapsed.
Discord's Foals Abandoned in Canterlot
He took the paper and ran home, almost forgetting to pay for it.
"I think they're starting to get suspicious."
As Obsidian shook the dirt out of his tail for what had to be the fifteenth time that day, the others agreed with his observation.
Thankfully, Kind Face had thought to bring extra fur dye and props to use. Within minutes, they had an entirely different look from the ones with which they'd arrived.
"There," Kind Face said as she applied the finishing touches. "They'll never recognize us now."
Feldspar had borrowed her brother's modified saddlebags and a strap-on horn, making a fairly decent unicorn filly.
Kind Face, meanwhile, had painted herself green and added a harp cutie mark to her flank. She plopped down on a bench and spread her forelegs across the backrest. "Check it out. I'm just your average background pony."
While Feldspar giggled, Obsidian dyed his fur and hid his horn rather awkwardly under a large hat so that he could pose as an orange pegasus colt. Just for the fun of it, he also repainted his cutie mark to be a huge "X" superimposed over Celestia's and Luna's marks.
Secret prince, my flank.
Kind Face jumped up off the bench.
"Come on. Now that we've all got new looks, let's go field test 'em."
Less than five minutes later, they were skidding across the street in their rumps.
"We definitely need to figure out a new plan."
Obsidian and Feldspar simply nodded. They all got up, dusted themselves off, and headed down the street again. As they turned the corner, Obsidian stopped in shock.
"What's he doing here?!?"
The other two stopped to look. The "he" in question was a unicorn with a skull cutie mark.
Kind Face turned back to Obsidian. "You know him?"
"Yeah, that's Wrath Bone. He's the one I told you about from my old school."
They all turned back to look at the unicorn, who was unloading boxes into a building. Feldspar, unfortunately, decided to take matters into her own hooves.
"Feldspar! What are you doing..."
"Hi there! You look new in town. What are you doing here?"
"My pa's opening up a satellite store to compete with Hard Ware's General Appliances. What's it to ya?"
"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to say hi!"
"Well scram. I'm busy."
Feldspar did exactly that. "Did you hear that?"
The others nodded.
"Let's get out of here," Obsidian cautioned. "I mean, I'm glad your disguise worked, but I still don't want to stick around too long."
As they were about to leave, Wrath Bone bumped into them while carrying a box.
"Hey, watch it!"
"You bumped into us."
Wrath Bone paused, then set down his box and turned to them.
"You sound familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?"
Instinctively, Obsidian backed up. "No. We... we never met before."
As he was saying this, he backed up into a stepladder. Predictably, the ladder was topped with a bucket of soapy water that had been used for washing the windows. Even more predictably, the bucket landed on Obsidian's head, dislodging his hat and washing off most of the fur dye.
Wrath Bone's eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed as a smile formed.
"Prince? What in Tartarus are you doin' here?"
He levitated a few rocks behind him.
"You still owe me for that detention."
They all ran.
The train couldn't get to Canterlot fast enough. Quartz Stone, Gneiss Crystal, and Kind Face's aunt Masquerade all watched the scenery blur by, but none of them saw any of it. All they saw was the faces of their foals.
Quartz had, naturally, immediately told Gneiss of his discovery. On the way to the station, Gneiss stopped to tell Masquerade, who she had met last night during the search, while Quartz had stopped to tell the police. Immediately after that, all of them had gotten tickets for the next available train.
The three hid behind a cardboard cutout display at a comic shop just as Wrath Bone came around the corner, looked around, then continued on.
Obsidian cautiously slinked out from behind the Iron Stallion cutout while his sister peeked out from behind Mare-do-Well.
"I think he's gone."
They both stepped out and looked around.
"Hey. Where's...?"
Before he could finish, a statue of Nightmare Crusader blinked. He and Feldspar yelped in surprise.
"How'd you do that?"
"Like I said," Kind Face pulled off her prop wings, "I'm good."
They all walked outside...
... and straight into Wrath Bone.
"You really thought I fell for that trick, didn't ya?"
Feldspar stepped up and tried her best to scowl.
"Why don't you just leave us alone?"
"Scram kid." Wrath Bone picked her up in his magic and tossed her aside into some trash cans. "This ain't your fight."
Obsidian watched as Feldspar crash landed, unable to use her wings to at least reduce the impact.
He didn't really know what he was thinking other then one thing.
Wrath Bone had just hurt his sister.
Just as Wrath Bone was turning back to speak again, Obsidian frog-striked the base of his horn.
"WHA...EEEEeeee...?...?..."
Wrath Bone's eyes crossed, and he slumped to the ground.
Something clicked.
Obsidian and Kind Face ran over to the trash cans and pulled Feldspar out.
"Are you okay?"
As she nodded, something clicked again.
Kind Face looked around. "What was that?"
Obsidian looked over to Wrath Bone, who was still piled up in the middle of the street.
"I thought dad was exaggerating about that time he got hit in the horn."
"Not that," she said as she looked around, "the noise. What was the noise?"
Something clicked again. All three turned around to see a yellow unicorn with a telephoto camera.
"RUN!!!"
All of them then bolted down the alley. When they were finally in the clear, Kind Face snorted.
"Great. Now we're gonna need new disguises again."
Alien Foal and Two Changelings Attack Canterlot Youth
After a full day of getting kicked out of various news offices, the trio decided that they needed a new plan again. Preferably, they needed a plan that, if it failed, would not contribute further to the growing bald spots on their rear ends. Unfortunately, coming up with said plan was proving to be far more difficult that they had thought.
Eventually, their hunger got the better of them, and they decided to put off brainstorming until later.
They all looked through the saddlebags for their supplies. As they did, Feldspar decided to see if there was anything to eat in her new saddlebags. Unfortunately, all she saw was a bunch of boring papers. She did see the shine of a piece of plastic buried in a side pocket on the bag.
She reached into the side pocket and pulled out a couple ID cards. Both were printed with royal seals and the title "Equestrian Intelligence Service: Chief Investigator," and both were printed with pictures of their owners.
"Hey look! I found some new disguises!"
Kind face took the cards for herself and looked at them.
"Feldspar?" Kind Face looked back and forth several times between Feldspar and the cards. "Where did you get these saddlebags?"
"Oh, I found em on the train. Why?"
"You just found them? You didn't take them from anypony?"
Feldspar shook her head. "Nope! They were just wedged into a corner. Why?"
Obsidian tried to look over Kind Face's shoulder at the cards.
"What are those?"
"Well, they look like those fake ID cards you can get pretty cheap at Las Pegasus. My aunt still has a few left over from some of her characters."
He finally saw the pictures on them. "You think those are fake?"
"I'm pretty sure, although I haven't exactly seen a real one before."
He stomped his hoof and looked at the ground.
"Great. That means those two really were reporters."
"You know them?"
"Yeah, sorta. I only met them once. Why?"
"Hello, I'm Sunny Skies, and this is my assistant Moonlit Night and our trainee Dusk Dawn. We're here to inspect your facility to see if it's up to code."
The secretary looked down at the trio in front of her. The pegasus who had introduced herself matched her badge, and the earth pony apparently hadn't been issued a badge yet, but something seemed off about the unicorn.
"According to your badge, aren't you supposed to be female?"
"What!?!" The unicorn took the badge in his blue magic and acted surprised. "And I just got this reissued too. Why did they change that?" He grumbled to himself, "and this is the third time this year I've had to get it corrected too..."
The secretary eyed them all suspiciously. "Aren't you all a bit short to be investigators."
"Yep," Sunny Skies cheerily responded, "It makes getting into places a lot easier."
Moonlit Night rolled his eyes. "Most of the time..."
The secretary looked over the ID badges again, then at the three before her. She glanced back and forth between them several times before finally handing them back and typing something on the computer. She squinted at the monitor, then back at the three again, then at the monitor again.
"EIS agents... reporting directly to the princesses," she mumbled to herself. Turning back to them, she gestured towards the back room.
"Wait here so I can tell my boss. He'll get one of the workers here to show you whatever you need to see."
"Hey! Muck, Mud, over here. I need you to do something."
Mud Slinger and Muck Raker stepped over towards their supervisor. As they did, News Flash took them aside into his office and gave them their instructions.
On one side of the desk stood Quartz, Gneiss, and Masquerade. On the other side, Lawful Good took notes.
"So, you believe they came here to Canterlot?"
As Gneiss and Masquerade nodded, Quartz pulled the newspaper photo out of his saddlebags and levitated it over to the officer. He had made sure to cut it out so that it wouldn't have the headline and article attached.
"That's them."
Lawful Good examined the photograph.
"Is that the kid from the..."
"NO!"
The officer jerked his head up at the sudden outburst from Gneiss.
"I'm sorry," she added. "He is. It's just that the article about him was so..." She stumbled trying to find the right word.
"The article was an attempt at petty revenge, and Obsidian got caught in the crossfire," Quartz explained. "None of it's true, and we're afraid that it might have been the reason he and the others left."
The officer nodded.
"Good to know. We'll keep an eye out. And don't worry. I'm sure they're just fine."
Just after they left, another officer came into the room.
"Excuse me sir, we've got a tip from The Horse's Mouth. Mind checking it out?"
"Of course. Meanwhile, would you mind giving copies of these to the others. We've got a missing foals case."
The two traded papers and headed out.
"So here are the presses, where we print out more than 200 sheets per hour. Once the paper quota is met, the plates get taken over there to the hellbox for recycling, and the next day's plates get put into the machine..."
This had to be a punishment. There was no other explanation. Hard hitting reporters, Muck Raker and Mud Slinger, reduced to tour guides for a couple foals with government ID badges.
It was flat-out obvious that they must have "borrowed" their parents' cards just so they could get a free tour. Even if their age wasn't proof of that, their constant taking pictures was.
Fortunately, it was only a matter of waiting.
"So, we do have one more question." The purple one held up a tape recorder while Mud Slinger surreptitiously rolled his eyes.
"Are you the one who released that story about the colt roughly a month ago?"
The police officer stepped into the secretary's office.
"Are you the one who sent in the tip ma'am?"
The secretary nodded. "Yes. My boss has a couple of the office workers stalling them right now."
"And, just to be clear, you're saying a few foals stole the identities of a couple high-ranking royal investigators."
"That's correct. The ID's on the badges checked out, but the ponies were definitely too young to have 20 years of service to the princesses."
"Well yes, actually, my associate and I did uncover that story. Took quite a bit of work too." Mud Slinger took on an air of pride. "Probably our best work too, considering how much they went through to hide it.
"We followed the colt around everywhere to try to catch him revealing himself. We even managed to sneak a tape recorder into the saddlebags of that filly that's supposed to be his sister. We never were able to recover that one though."
Muck Raker nodded in agreement. "You know we even had to sort through the kid's old medical and school records. Not that we found anything; they covered that up too.
"Shame we couldn't find any adoption papers; that would have been the ultimate proof. We looked through every file in the city office too."
"Wait a second," Sunny Skies squeaked, "You actually believe all that stuff in the story?"
Mud Slinger and Muck Raker looked at each other.
In a moment, everything clicked into place: the foals going to such bizarre measures to get in, the tape recorder, the camera...
It was then that they realized that every picture the foals had taken had been at an angle to ensure that at least one of the two reporters was always in the frame.
Those foals had been trying to set them up. But if that was the case...
They looked down at the foals again, turning specifically to Moonlit Night. Their eyebrows rose as his saddlebags twitched slightly.
It was quite fortunate that the officer arrived just that moment.
"Excuse me a moment. Are there any ponies here by the names of Sunny Skies, Moonlit Night, and Dusk Dawn?"
By the way the three foals' eyes widened, they must have known the trouble they were in. Must be some sort of instinct foals all have.
Naturally, all three of them ran.
Obsidian, Feldspar, and Kind Face were in a state commonly known to most ponies as raw panic.
It was in this state that they charged through the newspaper building, dodging through every opening they could find. Behind them, two angry reporters and a frustrated law officer followed.
They dove into the nearest door and charged around the stairwell. As soon as they blasted through the last door, a new realization hit them square in the face.
Obsidian's and Feldspar's instincts had betrayed them.
They were on the roof.
The Reporters of Vengeance looked around. There were plenty of structures, smokestacks, and assorted piles of junk up on the roof to hide behind. Unfortunately, they were spaced so far apart that the ponies searching for them wouldn't have to look long. The only way to ensure they remained hidden would be to constantly move.
Just as they scattered, the door burst open, revealing the two news reporters and the officer.
Muck Raker looked around, glaring at the shadows between the AC unit and an overturned wooden box.
Tiny hooves clattered behind him. He turned around, only to find nothing. As he stepped over to inspect the area, he heard more hooves.
Looking back, he saw that the overturned box had relocated itself to an area next to the old power weatherhead.
He facehooved at falling for such an obvious trick and stepped over to the box. Just as he was about to lift it, something splashed on his rump.
Turning around again, he saw nothing, and turning back, he found the box on its side and empty.
He made his way back to the others to see how they were doing. As he did, the officer snickered.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing much, although it seems the foals are a bit craftier than I thought."
"What do you..?" He looked behind him and found that his entire backside had been painted pink.
The foals were actually putting deliberate effort into getting on his last nerve.
Mud Slinger dropped beside them from a hover. "I saw them moving on the east side of the building. Looks like they're all trying to find a way down."
"Let's go, then."
The three looked down. The fog still rolled across the city, obscuring their view of the ground.
"Get back here!"
They turned to see the three ponies that had been chasing them. Without a second thought, all three of them ran the opposite direction. As they rounded a corner, the roof came to a dead end, but the outline of another roof hung in the fog within jumping distance. Feldspar jumped, spreading her wings to glide, with Obsidian leaping after her. They both landed on the opposite side as Kind Face leaped to join them.
Both looked down, realizing their mistake.
"Don't jump! It's..."
Kind Face fell through the layer of dense fog that, from a distance, had looked just like a roof.
Obsidian shot her with his horn without even thinking. He heard a thump below and was suddenly sick at the thought that he hadn't caught her. Feldspar, meanwhile, pulled a hole in the cloud and looked down.
"Whatever you're doing, don't stop!"
"What?" He looked down through the hole and saw Kind Face sprawled out on another layer of fog just below them, her body enveloped in a green glow. Feldspar quickly jumped in, with Obsidian following. It was just in time too, as a thump above them reminded them that one of their pursuers was also a pegasus.
Obsidian leaned in and whispered to the others. "We need to head down."
They carefully descended through the fog. The layers formed an ever-shifting maze, making finding a path difficult. Several times, they had to backtrack just to keep from falling through a thin patch. Finally, they found a layer drifting near a building's fire escape.
It was a good thing they found it when they did. Obsidian's horn was getting dimmer. Cloudwalking by itself may not use too much magic for pegasi, but having to cloudwalk for two was draining. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but Kind Face was getting noticeably heavier.
Just as they were about to make it, Obsidian's magic fizzled out. Feldspar watched as he and Kind Face fell all the way to the ground below.
"Oof"
"Ow"
She fluttered down beside them.
"Hey! I think my flying's getting better!"
Kind Face slowly made her way back to her feet. Obsidian, meanwhile, just lifted his head and groaned.
"Well good for you."
He slumped back to the ground and closed his eyes.
Eleven ponies were gathered around the circular conference table at the precinct office.
It had been several hours since the Reporters of Vengeance had been brought in. Much of the time since then had been spent with their parents and aunt alternating between nuzzling them and threatening every punishment imaginable.
The threats had thankfully been tempered slightly by the sight of Obsidian sprawled across Lawful Good's back, still unconscious. Already, a unicorn officer was levitating him off of Lawful Good's back and gently setting him down on a bench while an earth pony with an EMT kit looked him over.
"It's just a bit of magic burnout," the doctor reassured them. "Don't worry. When he wakes up, he should be fine."
Indeed, he had woken up about an hour ago. He was still dizzy, but he at least felt better than that time he hit his head playing extreme golf. Unfortunately, his vision was still blurred from the magic burnout, something the doctor had said would take anywhere from a couple hours to a few days to clear up. From what he'd also said, Obsidian also wouldn't be flying or performing levitation anytime soon. He would have to wait a few days, or preferably at least a week, for the magic to build back up; otherwise, he could black out again from even less strain.
Fortunately, he had at least recovered enough to join that meeting that Lawful Good said he had to go to. Thus, here he was with everypony else.
Here, at the table, he sat between Feldspar and Kind Face. Past Kind Face sat Masquerade, Lawful Good, and two Equestrian Intelligence Service agents with rather familiar sounding voices. Past Feldspar sat their parents and the two reporters from the Horse's Mouth.
Lawful Good slipped a pair of plastic evidence bags over to the two EIS agents.
"Here are your badges back. The technicians just confirmed that these are the real ones, not duplicates or forgeries."
The two agents opened up the bags and examined their cards. Sunny Skies put hers away, while Moonlit Night levitated hers an inch away from her eyes.
"Who crossed out 'Female' and wrote 'Male'?"
Sunny Skies snatched up the card to look at it, then immediately started snickering while Obsidian shrank deeper into his seat.
"So to begin," Officer Lawful Good announced, "the missing foals have been found with no injuries beyond a bit of acute magic strain and several bruises.
"However, I do have official confirmation that you three admitted to trying to pass off the ID badges as your own, which puts you three under the charge of impersonating a government agent."
All three of them shrank.
"That one's federal, which puts you in their jurisdiction." He gestured to the two EIS agents.
"They already told me that they legitimately lost their bags before all this happened, so they aren't going to claim theft. That still doesn't get you off the hook for the fact that you used them while claiming to be federal agents."
"And we will speak with you three about this matter when this meeting is over," Sunny Skies added. "For now, be glad that you're too young to be tried as adults."
Lawful Good shuffled through his papers again and peered at the next one.
"Strong Bone and his wife Big want to file assault charges regarding their son being knocked out."
"No fair!" Feldspar piped up, "he attacked us."
"He tossed her into some trash cans," Kind face added.
"Well either way, the file lists assault charges against," -he adjusted his glasses- "'that alicorn twerp.'"
"Uggghhh..."
Everypony looked to the source of the outburst.
"How many times do I have to tell ponies? I'm not..." he thumped his head against the table and groaned again. "Oh forget it."
"Anyway, we've got pictures showing what happened. Some Unreliable Narrator sold them to the Tribune. Should be easy enough to prove who started it.
"Last but not least, we have Muck Raker and Mud Slinger."
"Yes," Mud spoke up. "Why did you bring us here?"
"Well, first off, those two insisted on seeing you. Something about defamation against the Crown itself."
Lawful Good flipped a couple papers to them. "Also, courtesy of his honor Blind Justice, two restraining orders." He pulled out a couple more papers. "Finally, the Stone family is pressing charges."
They looked down at the papers.
"You know," Mud smirked, "we could claim that there's technically nothing illegal about anything we wrote."
As Sunny Skies and Moonlit Night noticeably bristled, Lawful Good held up a hoof.
"Of course. We do have free speech after all. You could write that the world is round and that it orbits the sun if you want, and nopony would stop you.
"However, what you wrote was clearly intended to cause harm to your former employer in retaliation for his lawfully letting you go, and we do have laws about that. Fortunately for you, they're all civil laws, not criminal ones.
"Not that I would get my hopes up if I were you." He pulled out a copy of the original article and flipped it open to reveal the pictures inside- "we do have criminal laws against stalking, planting remote listening devices on a pony without a warrant, and unauthorized access to medical records, personal identification records, and educational records."
He pulled out another evidence bag, this one containing Feldspar's tape recorder.
Their faces fell rather drastically.
"How long have they been in there again?"
Gneiss, Quartz, and Masquerade looked at each other, then at the doors to the conference room. Beyond those doors, the two EIS agents were speaking with the children and the reporters in private for what must have been at least an hour.
After a few more minutes, the doors opened. The three kids stumbled out, looking like they had seen a ghost. They were followed close behind by two smirking agents.
The children stopped near their parents and aunt, while the agents continued outside.
As they passed, Sunny Skies grinned towards the parents.
"I don't think they'll be committing any more identity theft any time soon."
Shortly afterwards, the two reporters stumbled out, making the kids look like they had been on a trip to the beach.
Lawful Good could swear he heard one of them muttering to themselves.
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS FIRED FOR FRAUDULENT REPORTING
Reporters Muck Raker and Mud Slinger have confessed to having fabricated information for their reports regarding the supposed affair between the princesses and the reporters' former employer, Quartz Stone.
According to their confession, the report was an attempt at retaliation against their former employer for firing them. Quartz later testified that they were fired for their insistence on printing a conspiracy theory claiming that Princess Mi Amore Cadenza still is and has always been the changeling queen Chrysalis.
Legal charges against the two reporters include stalking, planting bugs without a warrant, and unauthorized access to records containing personally identifiable information. Their hearings scheduled for later this month.
For printing these stories, the Horse's Mouth wishes to formally apologize to the princesses Celestia and Luna and to the Stone family. We should have verified the nature of these stories for ourselves, especially considering their implications and the secondhoof nature of the claimed evidence. For our failure to do so, we are as much in the wrong as they were, and for this, we apologize.
They were grounded.
Oh, they were so grounded.
They were going to remain grounded for a long, long, long time.
It was fitting, in a way. Their punishment for running away from home was being no longer allowed to leave home, with the exception of going to school. Gneiss even followed them back and forth for the first few weeks to ensure that they went straight there and straight back.
There were a few concessions. Most notably, their mom had finally given up on trying to keep Feldspar and Obsidian off the roof, instead resorting to asking Quartz to put up a fence to at least keep them from falling off.
It was on this roof that they were playing another game of house-rules chess using a footstool perched on the crest as a makeshift table.
Obsidian moved an inverted rook into attack position using a rather lucky roll, and Feldspar countered with two aces and a queen.
Rats, that's the third time in a row she's countered my attacks.
As Feldspar was about to launch her own attack, a muffin with a note tied to it landed between them. They both looked over the edge of the fence to see Derpy walking past.
They waved at the mailmare, and she waved back before trotting off.
They went back to attacking each other for a while. Feldspar finally won by resurrecting a few pawns as zombies behind Obsidian's line. He'd forgotten to guard against that trick.
Just as they were resetting the board, a thump landed next to them.
"Hi kids. Would you mind giving these to your parents?"
Derpy Hooves dug a couple letters out of her saddlebag and handed them to Obsidian.
He and his sister looked at each other, then back at the mailmare, who was busy digging around in her other saddlebag.
"Oh and here, have a..." She looked down at the muffin sitting beside the board. "Did I already give you a muffin?"
The two looked at each other, unsure whether to nod or shake their heads.
"Oh well. Here, have an extra one." She tossed the muffin to Feldspar and flew off.
They looked at each other again, then opened up the note that had been tied to the first muffin.
Gotcha.
KF
They both looked down again to see Derpy Hooves looking back up at them, grinning.
Feldspar flipped the note over and wrote a reply on the back, and Obsidian folded it into an airplane and threw it down.
Cheater
The mailmare caught the plane and unfolded it. Just as she looked up and stuck out her tongue, Masquerade approached.
"There you are. Let's go. You're still in trouble for sneaking off to Canterlot like that."
Obsidian noticed that Kind Face had somehow grown almost as tall as her aunt.
What did she use for that stunt, stilts?
As Obsidian tried to figure it out, Feldspar looked through the letters.
"Hey look! This one's for me!"
She held it up for him to see, then tore open the envelope and pulled out the paper inside.
We are sorry to say we do not have any recommendations for ways in which thou may pass the time. We spent most of our own time mapping out the rock formations and plotting revenge, the first of which is not useful where you are, and the second of which we most vehemently recommend against.
We also spent quite a bit of time drawing pictures and writing messages in the dust. It would be best to be thankful there are no telescopes in Equestria powerful enough to see any of it. Some time, I ought to remember to go back to erase those writings, but good opportunities to do so never seem to arrive.
Thank you for your letter. Reading it did make for a most welcome break from our usual duties.
Sincerely,
Obsidian looked at his sister.
"You didn't..."
A few days ago...
Laughter echoed whether the halls of the palace. As it finally died down, Celestia wiped a tear from her eye.
"She actually wrote that?"
Luna smirked. "Verily she did" -she picked up the letter so her sister could see -"in crayon."
