The women sighed as she stared at he door in front of her. “ALEX! come out now. ”She shouted, with a tinge of frustration in her voice.
“NO” shouted Alex “I don’t want to go yet.”
“Alex I promise you I’m not going to force you.” she said suppressing any sign of frustration in her voice. “Your just going to be spending the week at your cousin Gammon’s house. There was the sound of a shuffle behind the door, and what suspiciously sounded like a chair being unjammed against it.
“You promise?” asked Alex with hopefulness in his voice.
“Yes I promise sweetheart.”she said with sweetness in her voice.
“Will you Pinkie promise?” Alex asked with hopefulness.
“I Promise.” she said smiling
“No do it.” said Alex now peeking out of the door way.
“Sweetheart is this one of those pony promise thingies?” She asked with confusion clearly plastered on her face.
“What!? you and dad are going to become ponies, and you don’t know what that is?” Gasped Alex. “Here” said Alex “repeat after me cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” He said going through each silly motion.
“Heheh, Yes sweet heart I promise.” She said with a chuckle at his antics.
“Nooo, you have to do it mom.” Said Alex now standing in the open doorway, arms crossed.
“Oh all right, I give.” She sighed submitting to his silly antics. “Now” she said with authority “Get your stuff ready to go, And this time don’t forget your toothbrush.” She walked about the house one last time checking to make sure the windows and back door was locked. Walking back to the front she paused for a moment, frowning slightly at the light in the bathroom, ‘Uh oh’ She thought, picking up, and staring at the orange pill bottle. ‘I hope Hal took his medicine this morning.’ She thought pocketing the bright orange plastic bottle.
She sat outside in her mini van as the engine warmed when her son finally came outside, getting in the passenger seat after tossing his bag into the row of seats in the back. ”Did you get everything?” she asked one eyebrow raised.
“Yeah I got everything.” he said
“Don’t worry Alex We’ll come back.” Said Sonja reassuringly. “You know you don’t have to be ponified right away, you can come with us to the center.” she said before pulling the van onto the road.
Alex said nothing as he read his graphic novel “Humanity's Greatest, Tales of dare devilry”, lost in the real life adventures of Hawk & Zorro, and of general Harth.
“Honey, remember not to show Lilly that comic of yours.” she said eyes focused on the road ahead. “She doesn’t like some of the things printed by I.H.S.A.”
“Hey mom” asked Alex “how come aunt Lilly doesn’t like these books?”
Sonja thought for a moment “Shes part of a club.” She said truthfully. ‘P.E.R is a club she thought to herself, one that encourages people to become ponified mind you, but a club nonetheless.’
"Are you sure it's all right if he stays here?" asked the women, her brow furrowed from worry.
"It's no problem at all, besides you'll only be gone for seven days." said the smiling brown unicorn mare.
"I'm sorry I just hate to burden you like this." said the women, lines of worry somewhat dissipating.
"Oh it's no trouble at all, besides how much trouble can a human child be?" Asked the mare.
"Lots" sighed the women, grimacing at the scene as a brown haired boy dived off into a gulley, barely escaping the outstretched hoofs of the Pegasus filly in a game of tag.
"Why don't you take him with you?" asked the mare.
"He doesn't want to be a pony yet, and I'd feel like a monster forcing him to do it." Was all she said before starting her minivan, allowing it to warm up for a moment."Besides Lilly root I think he'll come around once were back, then he can be just like his friends, even Hal thinks it's a good idea, and you know how stubborn he can be." She said with a faint smile."I'm sorry but I have to go. Hal is already waiting at the bureau, and he forgot to get his medicine again."
"Goodbye Sonja" Yelled Lilly as the women pulled out into the street speeding off into the distance. Turning around, smiling at the sight of young children playing.
"NO FAIR!" yelled the yellow unicorn colt "Dizzy can fly and Alex can do that!" pointing at the smiling child sitting high up in the apple tree.
"Oh come on Gam" Alex said with a grin ear to ear on his face "Your a pony, if I'm on the ground you'd outrun me easy."
"Yeah 'sides you got magic" said the greenish grey Pegasus perched on the branch above.
"OOOHH, I'll show you." said Gam before galloping off, Returning shortly after with a leather bound tome worn with age and hard use, nearly as big as him, shortly after. "Lemme try this one." Smirked the unicorn, horn aglow with a yellow light. 'FZZT' Sparked his horn as his spell fizzled out."Okay then how 'bout this one." he said flipping to another page. With a look of determination, and a grimace of effort his horn was aglow again along with the boy in the tree, as his smirk faded.
"GAAAHHH!" Yelped Alex as his body went aglow with the warm yellow glow of magic. He braced himself to be lifted out of the tree, letting out a sigh of relief when it didn't come.
"Ha, Guess it didn't work, huh?"
"Just wait" said the unicorn, face now adorned with a mischievous grin.
"Still waitin, And surprise nuthins happe- -" "WHAAA?" Gasped the child as a breeze pushed him from his perch on the branch, and sent him floating down, gently like a leaf.
"Heheehee" Snickered Dizzy, I didn't know you could use a spell like that Gam.
"TAG!, Your it" cheered Gam as he Tagged him with a touch of his muzzle, skidding in the grass a little as he spun around putting distance between himself and the human child.
"How am I supposed to catch you now?" Said Alex digging his heels into the dirt to keep from being blown away. "I wonder" He said before giving a small test jump "WHOAH!" Yelled Alex gleefully as he shot up into the air grabbing hold of a surprised Dizzy. "Tag your it!"
"Way'd to go Gam!" "Now he can catch both of us." She yelled with a mixture of annoyance and glee at the turn of events.
"My little ponies *Cough* and little person Be careful." Cried out Lilly from across the field. 'Heh it is true what they say. Humans will use any advantage their given'. She thought cheerily to herself as she smiled as the boy leaped away from the filly, rocketing almost 30 feet off the ground. Before Turing around and trotting off to the house to prepare supper.
"Hey Dizzy" Shouted Alex "watch this!" The boy coiled his legs launching himself into the air, catching an up draft Sending him well above the tree tops, The view was beautiful He could see all of the clearing he could even see over the waving tree tops "Huh?!?" Was all he could say before Another mighty gust of wind pushed him higher 'This isn't fun anymore' he thought to himself as the warm buzz of magic left him. The feeling of his weight returning to him, grasping him like a great weighted hand, as he Fell, fast.
Dizzy had been swooping and diving after Gam and Alex, but they would wait till the last moment before diving out of the way, or leaping like to side.
"HEY DIZZY" "WATCH THIS" Said Alex before catching an updraft and rocketing upwards With a look of exhilaration Before turning to a look of horror as another Powerful gust sent him much higher. He screamed as the yellow glow of magic Faded away, along with the color from his face .
'Oh NO, what do I do!' thought Dizzy thinking back to her flying lessons. 'Hope this works on humans as well as ponies!’ ,She thought to herself, as she flew faster than she ever had before, Forelegs outstretched sliding under his flailing arms. "I GOTCHA!"yelled Dizzy in triumph. She Gasped and grunted with effort from the sudden weight, fighting to stay in the air.
"Your really heavy!" she grunted and strained with effort. 'Come on Dizzy you can do this, just a little more and we'll be back on the ground.' Her sore and tired wings would have none of it though, As they fell to the earth in a heap. " Alex you OK?" panted Dizzy.
"Heh, Guess I'm it." Was all he said.
"OhmyGosh are you ok?" asked Gam As he Galloped over, a lingering cloud of dust settling behind him as he came to a stop."I Shouldn't have used magic on you Alex.""I'm Sorry."
Alex only grinned as he reached up, placing a hand on his friends head, Before Replying with a playful grin "Tag your it."
The brown coated mare trotted in and out of the rows of various veggies. Lilly sighed to
herself lost in thought as she went about picking food from the garden. ‘They shouldn't have left
Alex here, even if he doesn’t want to go through with it, he should be with his parents.’ She mused
‘I understand why she didn't make him though. He’d probably resent her for ever. . . well technically he’d resent her till he woke up from the process. Alex is going to have to go somewhere tomorrow, I’ll have to hide Alex tomorrow, no telling what the more zealous members of my group would do if they saw my nephew here.’She cringed as thoughts of being scorned and shunned went through her head, but the thoughts wouldn’t stop as she frowned with worry as thoughts of potion crept through her mind. ‘I’m going to have to find some where for Alex to hide. . . the question is WHERE can I hide him. Oh why does my group have to come over tomorrow? If only Sonja would have taken Alex with her he’d be out of sight of my groups more. . . fanatical members, ‘She let out a chuckle as she thought to herself ’ he’d see his parents walk out of the ponification room too. He’d get to see his dad walk out. . . cured, then Alex would agree to go through with it, no more arguments no submitting him to the horrors of forced ponification more fighting no mo- -’ she was interrupted in her thoughts as her
nephew ran through the garden, jumping over each row, like some sort of hyped up hurdler .
“Hi aunt Lilly, bye aunt Lilly” Said Alex as he rushed by followed close behind by a
rapidly gaining greenish blur tailed by a yellow streak
“Hi,Bye” said Dizzy as she flew by
“WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT GOING THROUGH MY GARDEN!” Lilly spat out, she was only fast enough to snatch her son Gammon by the tail.
“I . . Uh” Started Gammon before he realized his fatal mistake. The flap had come
undone on his bag, and his mom was now staring,eyes narrowed, at the brown leather of her
spell book, the one she kept in the glass case on the book shelf.
“Gammon, honey” She spoke slowly and calmly “What is my rule about my books. . .
Sweetie” She said the last part through gritted teeth.
“Um, I can use them . . . jus, um, put them back when I’m done?” said Gammon with a
small smile, that quickly faded as he stared at his mothers twitching eye.
“Annnd” Added Lilly
“Don’t, um, don’t touch the one in the case?” replied Gammon, ears splayed back, as he
glanced around nervously, shrinking away from her. “Oh s-sorry about your garden” said Gammon as he pointed at a few crushed plants, visibly relived at the shoe prints left behind by Alex.
‘Maybe she’ll get so mad about Alex and Dizzy messing up her garden she’ll forget about me’ he thought to himself with small hope.
“Remember, Don’t step foot or hoof out this room till I tell you to.” Said Lilly sternly before
turning going down the hallway to Dizzy’s room to tell her the same thing.
“We said we were sorry, right?” Asked Alex scratching his head
“Yeah, but shes going to stay mad for a while.” Sighed Gammon “I guess she’d be a little
less angry if Dizzy wouldn't have crashed into the tomatoes, and maybe she wouldn't have
yelled at you so much if you wouldn’t have kept laughing at her.”
“Yeah. . . ,but it was kinda funny.” said Alex with a soft chuckle. “Hey Gammon?”
“Yeah” Gammon said propping himself up on his bed.
“I brought some of my comics, if you want to read them.” said Alex holding up a comic
with a picture of Hawk grasping the wrist of a suit of armor, holding back a massive ax, ‘Clock Work Menace’ was the tittle.
“That’s GREAT!” said Gammon Ecstatically “Mom took all mine away, she said they’d rot my mind.” Gammon said as he nosed through the comics
“Hey Gam, who’d you think would win in a fight Hawk or Zorro?” said Alex looking at his cousin from the floor.
“I think Zorro would win.” Gammon said without hesitation “Zorro is to quick for hawk, he’d beat him in ten secounds flat!”
“Umm Hawk uses a gun and he has EXPLOSIVES!” Said Alex with a grin “Besides even If he could block bullets or somethin, you can’t block dynamite with a sword.”
“But” replied Gammon “He could cut the fuse off before it blew up or dodge it.”
“Nah Hawk could take Zorro with just his bowie knife.” Dizzy said as she floated outside the doorway.
“What are you doing Dizzy?” Gammon asked in surprise
“Just getting something” She said innocently
“getting what?” Alex asked
“Harmonica.” She said with a smile “I’ve got a problem that can only be solved with the blues.” she said before slowly floating to the hall closet and retrieving a case from the top shelf before turning around and flying back to her room.
“What did she get?” asked Alex
“Not a clue.” said Gammon looking at the still open closet door before magicking the door closed.
“How does that feel?” Asked Alex Sitting legs crossed on the bed.
“How does what feel? said Gammon tilting his head a bit
“Using magic.” Alex replied tapping his fore head. “Does it hurt,does it feel good, is it hard to use?”
“It doesn’t hurt, It feels strange at first, And when they first teach you it is very, very hard to use.” Gammon sat down his comic looking at Alex waiting for the question he knew was coming.
“Whats it like, you know ponification?”
“What do ya mean?” said Gammon tilting his head to the side
“How does it feel?” Alex said looking away from Gammon.
“I don’t really know what to say, it’s. . . it doesn’t feel bad, if that’s what you wanted to know.” said Gammon
“It’s just. . . my parents are doing it, and. . . I don’t want them to leave me.” Alex said turning to look at Gammon. “When some one goes to a bureau and get ponified they go to equestria,right? To learn how to move around and stuff. I was wondering What if they don’t come back, what if they decide they like it there better than here, what if they don’t . . . don’t want me any more because I don’t want to be a pony?!” said Alex standing up breathing hard.
“Alex” Gammon started biting his lip before continuing “They won’t do that.”
“Your right, that's stupid to think they’d leave me” Alex said sitting down at the edge of his cousins bed.
Gammon sat up ears twitching a bit. “You hear that?” gammon asked shushing Alex
“Hear wha- -” Alex tried to say before being shushed by Gammon
Gammon hopped off the bed pressing his ear to the vent, motioning for Alex to come over “Am I
going crazy. . . or do I hear a harmonica?”
“Wait I hear it to” said Alex eyes going wide
“No-pony knows the trouble I've seen, No-pony knows the sorrow. . .”
“Dizzy!” Hissed Gammon “Mom isn’t going to fall for that twice” “Dizzy! . . . your just going to
make her madder!”
“Wh-why is she doing that?” Asked Alex “Won’t your mom get even angrier?”
“Shes trying to bug mom so much she’ll let her out. So she’ll stop” he cringed as
Dizzy started to sing off key intentionally.
They both looked at each other in unison as they heard the rapid sound of Lilly's
hooves come up the stairs.Gammon and Alex both covered there mouths to stifle their giggling.
“HARMONICA NOW!” Yelled Lilly stamping a hoof.
“Whatcha going to do, Send me to my room?” asked Dizzy with a smile, and a odd sweet sounding smugness to her voice. Lilly only frowned as she grabbed hold of the offending instrument in her mouth.Alex lost control laughing and snorting at that
“ALEX!” Lilly was now standing in the doorway to Gammon’s room “do we need to have
that discussion about not laughing at others misfortunes again?Hmm” She mumbled around the harmonica before
moving back down the stairs
Having locked the junk drawer Lilly pulled out the key, after safely depositing the harmonica. She
sat there staring at the twisted remains of a trumpet ‘from last time’ she thought to
herself shuddering at the thought of losing her temper “just like last time” she muttered.
“IT WORKS, by god it actually works!” Came a distinctly male voice from the kitchen
followed by a loud popping sound, then a crash. With a sigh Lilly trotted over to see the damage her hubby had invariably caused She went slack jawed at the sight of him standing there , a pack strapped to his back with 3 mechanical arms some being held together by duck tape and bailing wire, and one sparking stump attached.
“Ah darn-it” he said “O’ course how sturdy you think it can be when you can barely hold a
tool in your mouth.” Gambit said stomping hoof breaking another plate of china by accident.”
“Gambit, What have I told you about fooling around with those things. especially using it on my great grand mothers china!” she stated pointing a hoof to the shattered pieces of glass.
'Musn’t lose my cool, can’t let it happen again like last time.’ she thought to herself breathing in
slowly to calm herself.
“I’m so sorry, but it was working fine only a minute ago. I won’t try it again. . .” he said with a sheepish grin
“Your right about that. If I see you using that gizmo and it breaks even one more thing I'm locking it up.” she said eye slightly twitching
“Understood, just let me get the dust pan and broom, to clean up this mess, then I’ll finish cooking dinner.” He said as a metallic arm reached out to slowly open the door to the closet. They cried out in alarm as the arm suddenly tore the door from its hinges, throwing Gambit across the room, adding insult to injury as a metallic hand waged a finger at him as Lilly started to count down from ten and take deep breaths.
“What was that noise?” said Alex looking up from his comic
“Just one of dads inventions back firing.” Gammon said flatly, not even glancing up from
the comic Alex had brought
“Does this happen a lot?” Alex said now peeking out the door way looking down the
hallway straining to hear the argument going on down stairs.
“If you’d just learn to use your mouth to use stuff like any normal pony you wouldn't be trying to fix those awful things” Hissed Lilly
“My cutie mark WILL NOT define me as pers- *ahem* pony, I was an inventor before and I’m an inventor now.”
“Only when dad tries out something from his old job.” Gammon said with a sigh
“Dad was one of those guys who built stuff. When his work closed down he took a lot of half finished stuff from the place. He’s been trying to make them work for ponies, You should have seen the time he tried to modify a bicycle or when he tried to get one of those cleaning drones working, mom was so happy . . . till it started washing the books, in the tub. . . then it sorta . . . kinda caught on fire when he tried to turn it off, He tried bucking it to make it stop when that didn’t work.”Gammon trailed off for a moment staring off into space “and that's why we had to repaint” he said motioning towards part of the still partially blackened ceiling of his room ,and slightly scorched wall paper.
“Wow, just wow.” Alex said trailing off as his eyes wandered to a plush foreleg sticking out from under the bed. “Hey” said Alex reaching under Gammon's bed. “Who's this?” he said with a grin, holding up the plush blue coated stuffed unicorn with silver hair. Giving the hoof a squeeze the stuffed toy almost seemed to respond to the question “I. AM THE GREAT. AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!” Alex sat there for a moment laughing as Gammon buried his head under his pillow with a groan.
