Family is Magic
Chapter 1
A dark gray and well-built unicorn stallion walked quickly through the streets of Canterlot. He had been training in Princess Celestia’s new law enforcement program for the past two weeks. After being called away on urgent business, Princess Celestia had entrusted the duties of leading the program to Princess Twilight Sparkle. She had agreed only because she couldn’t refuse her beloved mentor.
Twilight had told all the trainees to meet her in the Canterlot garden, where she would break them up into teams of 6 for team building exercises. There were 24 ponies in the program, so there would be 4 teams, naturally.
The gray unicorn wondered who he would be teamed up with as he made his way to the rendezvous. He had met a couple of the trainees, but so far, he only really knew which ones he wouldn’t want to work with. These include his two roommates—Spencer Reid, an Earth pony, and Derek Morgan, a Pegasus pony. Apparently, Princess Celestia broke up all the rooms like this, with one of each kind of pony, and he did not like it. He played the memory of meeting the two of them in his head…
He opened the door with his magic while also levitating his belongings he packed to have with him during the training program. He was greeted by the sight of a Pegasus flying around and spreading his stuff out.
“Oh, are you my roommate?!” the Pegasus asked, quickly flying over to him. Much too fast for indoors, in the unicorn’s opinion.
“Yes…” The unicorn answered slowly.
“Sweet! I’m Derek Morgan.” The Pegasus said, landing and holding his hoof out. “And you are?”
“Aaron Hotchner.” The unicorn answered in a monotone voice. “Nice to meet you.” He shook Morgan’s hoof.
“Hotchner, eh? I think that’s gonna be too complicated to say in the field.” Morgan said, putting a hoof to his chin in thought. “I am gonna call you Hotch!”
Hotch huffed. “Whatever, I guess.” He said as he started putting his stuff down. Soon, the door opened to reveal a tall, but lanky, Earth pony walking in.
Morgan greeted him the same way he had greeted Hotch. “I’m Derek Morgan, and that’s Hotch over there.!”
“My name is actually Aaron Hotchner—“ Hotch’s voice was ignored as Morgan continued.
“What’s your name?” Morgan said, looking the quiet Earth pony up and down. “And no offense, but you don’t really look like you’re suited for this job.”
“I am Spencer Reid.” The Earth pony replied, adjusting his glasses. “And I’m not really good at physical exercises, but I have an IQ of 187, can read 20,000 words a minute, and I have an eidetic memory.”
Hotch couldn’t help but gape in awe at Reid’s self-description. Morgan had the same expression of shock on his face.
“Alright then, Pretty Boy…” Morgan finally found his voice. “You have definitely proved your worth.”
“’Pretty Boy’?” Reid repeated in reply as he settled himself and his belongings in the room.
Hotch finally found himself standing in the crowd of trainees at the garden. Sooner than later, Derek Morgan came crashing down next to him—though he landed on his hooves.
“Hey, Hotch!” Morgan greeted in a friendly tone. “Maybe Twilight will put us on the same team!”
Oh, I hope not. Hotch internally moaned. “Maybe. And isn’t it Princess Twilight?” he replied.
“Yeah, but she was a normal pony before like us, too. She became a princess later on.” Morgan defended himself.
At that same moment, Spencer Reid quickly trotted up next to them. “Ah, am I late?!” he asked them worriedly.
Morgan chuckled. “Nah, Reid, you came just in time.” He replied with a smirk.
“Oh, okay, thank goodness.” Reid huffed.
Emily Prentiss was not impressed with this training so far. Her roommates were pretty weird and it looked like a lot of the other ponies were pretty much the same. She stood in the back of the crowd as she waited for the team building to begin. She sighed.
Spotting Prentiss’ dark green pelt, Penelope Garcia quickly ran over to her. “Hey!” she said, almost crashing into Prentiss. “There you are! I’ve been looking for someone I knew to stand next to for this thing. Hey, maybe we will be on the same team, since we’re in the same room!” she said breathlessly.
“Maybe.” Prentiss mumbled, but honestly she hoped not. Garcia was her Earth pony roommate and Prentiss would swear on her life that at times, Garcia seems like a direct descendant of the bearer of the Laughter element herself—Pinkie Pie. Garcia was nice and caring, but a little too cheery and optimistic for Prentiss’ darker tastes. And her love of bright colors and sense of fashion could make Prentiss run for the hills sometimes.
Their other roommate, Jennifer Jareau, gently landed beside them. She was almost the complete opposite of Garcia—calm, collected, and quiet. Garcia decided they should call her “JJ”, and Prentiss complied just so Garcia wouldn’t bug her about it all night. JJ didn’t seem to mind and took a liking to the nickname immediately.
“Hey, Jayje.” Garcia greeted warmly, having already discovered different variations of her nickname to use.
“Hi, Penelope.” JJ replied in her soft voice. “Am I late?” she asked, turning to also include Prentiss in their conversation.
“No, you’re just on time.” Prentiss replied with as warm of a smile as she could muster.
JJ nodded, and then silence came over the crowd as Princess Twilight Sparkle walked out in front of the group.
“Hello, my little ponies.” Twilight greeted warmly. She had been using some of Celestia’s phrases like this for a while now. “As you all know, I called you all here today to break you up into teams. As my best friends and I formed a strong team of six all those years ago, I believe that six is just the right number for all of you to work in teams of.”
She began reading off her list of teams and their members. Hotch, Morgan, Reid, JJ, Prentiss, and Garcia all waited with great anticipation, until finally, Twilight finished reading off the members of the third team, with a certain group of six left.
Author's Note
And there's chapter 1! Yeah I don't really know where I'm going with this story. Maybe my brain is making me not study for finals through writing this? I'm not exactly sure. But I guess we'll find out eventually.
Family is Magic
Chapter 2
Twilight had finished reading off the names of the third team, leaving only 6 ponies left.
Hotch groaned.
Morgan smirked.
Reid looked around.
Prentiss facehoofed.
Garcia squealed with joy.
JJ blinked.
"Finally, the fourth team," Twilight continued. "will have Aaron Hotchner, Derek Morgan, Spencer Reid, Emily Prentiss, Penelope Garcia, and Jennifer Jareau."
The three mares walked over to meet the three stallions. They all took a moment to blink and take in each other's appearances.
"So, uh, I guess we should introduce ourselves and our specialties." Morgan began, after the moment of silence. "I'm Derek Morgan, I'm good with physical activities and bomb threats."
"I'm Penelope Garcia!" Garcia immediately replied. "I'm good with the new fancy things we have called computers and electronics. Not good at going out in the field."
"I'm Aaron Hotchner." Hotch said. "I specialize in profiling—"
"And we all call him 'Hotch'!" Morgan chimed in.
"Well, by all, he just means himself and me." Reid said quietly. "I'm Spencer Reid. I have an IQ of 187, can read 20,000 words a minute, and have an eidetic memory… I'm not good at physical activities, though."
"I'm Emily Prentiss." Prentiss said, just wanting this thing to be over as quick as possible. "I specialize in linguistics."
"And I'm Jennifer Jareau. But like Hotch, I also have a nickname. You guys can just call me JJ." JJ said softly. "I'm good at communicating with the media and local police."
In that same moment, Twilight walked over to their team, causing them all to bow respectfully to her.
"I see you all have met each other now." Twilight said. "For some reason, Princess Celestia told me you six would be great together."
This caused the team to all look at each other, confused.
"Um, no offense, Your Bossness, but we've only known each other for about 5 minutes. How does Her Celestialness know we can work well together?" Garcia asked curiously.
Twilight chuckled. "Honestly, I've given up on trying to understand why Princess Celestia always acts on such instinct. She acted the same way when she originally sent me to Ponyville to meet my friends and unlock the Elements of Harmony." She replied with a smile.
"Well, sounds like she's a really good judge then. Guess we're gonna be really good!" Morgan said happily.
Twilight nodded. "I'm looking forward to working with you all. Since there are four princesses, we decided we'd each train a team for a while, and in different parts of Equestria, though Princess Celestia had to go take care of something today. So Princess Luna is taking care of two teams." She explained. "So I've got you six!"
"It's an honor, Your Majesty." Hotch said with a respectful nod of his head. "So, will we be working in Ponyville, then?"
"Yes, Aaron, we will." Twilight replied. "Though it may not seem like much, the Everfree Forest has proven to be a threat before, so we can never be sure."
"We will do our best, Ma'am." Prentiss assured the purple pony.
"I'm sure you will." Twilight said in an agreement. "Now, please excuse me, I have to go meet up with Luna and Cadence. The first exercise will be starting shortly. It shouldn't be too long or hard today, since it's already the afternoon." She then turned and flew back over to where Princesses Luna and Cadence were meeting up after each talking to their teams.
"I'm so happy we got Twilight as our Princess coach leader!" Garcia said with a squeal. "She's always been my favorite princess."
"Penelope, you shouldn't pick favorite princesses." JJ said with a smile, showing her amusement.
"Well, Twilight's always been, like, the most relatable one." Morgan said, nodding in agreement with Garcia.
Hotch and Prentiss just stood off to the side in silence. Neither of them were very fond with the team they ended up on. They just wanted to be done with it already.
"So, do we need to choose which of us should be the leader?" Reid said, turning his head to the side.
"Hm, that doesn't sound like a bad idea." JJ said, nodding in agreement. She then turned to Prentiss and Hotch. "What do you guys think?"
Prentiss nodded. "We need someone who can make good decisions and stay level-headed during the hard times." She said. Hotch nodded his agreement.
"Well, how about we choose after the exercise the princesses are about to make us do?" Garcia suggested. "We can see who's the best at directing all of us while we're in there."
"That sounds like a good idea." Morgan agreed. He turned and saw 4 other heads nodding their agreement.
"Then it's settled." JJ said.
"Alright, ponies!" They all turned, hearing Princess Luna's voice. "Your first challenge will be to get through the Canterlot garden maze… The team who can get out the fastest wins!"
Then Twilight began her part of the explanation. "Each team member will have to start from a different location. You'll each have ear pieces to communicate, but other than that, it's up to you to find each other in the center, which will trigger the magic to lead you to the exit. There is also a spell preventing the pegasi from skipping out and just flying over the entire thing. This will help each of you build your communication, for you may end up in situations like these in the future."
Everyone on Twilight's team gulped. They were all so awkward around each other, and Twilight expected them to be able to pull this off? Not to mention Celestia's high expectations of them… Just what was that about?
Finally, the third team finished the maze and it was time for Twilight's team. She set each of them up at different entrances with their ear pieces. After wishing them good luck, she resumed her watchful position, with her own ear piece so she could listen in on the team.
"Alright, team. Get ready… Get set…" Twilight began into her ear piece. "GO!"
"Alright guys, when Princess Twilight put you in your starting place, what could you see?" Prentiss decided to begin solving the puzzle in her ear piece.
"Lots and lots of hedges…" Reid replied nervously.
"No duh, Pretty Boy." Morgan chimed in.
"Who is Pretty Boy?" They all heard JJ ask.
"Me." Reid replied with a sigh.
"Alright, people, just try to go towards the center." Hotch directed, snapping their attention back to the task at hand. "And try to think of an answer to Prentiss—"
"Eep!" Garcia squealed loudly.
"Penelope, are you okay?" JJ quickly asked.
There was no reply.
"Penelope, answer me!" JJ gasped.
"Could the princesses really have booby trapped the place?" Prentiss couldn't help but ask herself and the team.
"It's highly possible, considering the job we are all signing up for." Reid replied.
"Reid's right, everyone has to be on the lookout." Morgan replied. Then, "Oh, I think I see her!"
Morgan quickly walked over to a pony huddled up in a corner. "Hey…" /Darn it, what was her name again?/ "Gomez?" he tried.
No reply.
He got closer, and finally, giving in, he shrugged. He simply called out, "Baby Girl!"
This, for whatever reason, got Garcia's attention, as she slowly sat up and turned back to see Morgan. "Baby Girl…?" she repeated, questioningly.
"S-Sorry…" Morgan stuttered. "I just couldn't remember your name, and…"
"Nono, it's fine, ah, I've been called worse before." Garcia said simply as she got up and walked over to him.
"Anyways, are you okay? What happened?" Morgan said, quickly looking her over for injuries.
"Yeah, but the place is booby trapped." Garcia said irritably. "I was just walking when all of a sudden, I tripped over a tripwire and the ground gave in below me. I managed to climb my way back up, but afterwards I just couldn't take the pressure anymore and I decided to just stay over in that corner…" she said shamefully.
"Hey, it's okay now." Morgan tried to reassure her. "We've found each other, so we can look out for each other's backs now." He said with a smile.
Garcia smirked. "Are you trying to charm me, Derek Morgan?"
Morgan chuckled. "Maybe, Baby Girl, maybe."
"Alright, so Morgan and Garcia are together now, so that's a start." Hotch said over their communication system. "The rest of you, you heard what Garcia said about the tripwire—watch your step and be cautious. We should expect the worse."
Garcia smirked, and she and Morgan started walking side-by-side through one of the many winding ways of the maze.
Author's Note
And there's chapter 2! I just had to throw that little Garcia-Morgan scene in at the end, I just had to.... XD
