Alicorn Song

Alicorn Song

Chapter 8

We meet again...

Frosty sat at the table, a cup of tea and a half eaten Cupcake in front of her. She was quite amazed at the taste, since all she had ever gotten back home was almost tasteless nutrient gel. Only when she had performed very well in some experiment, did she get a treat. Nothing like this though. The scientists were usually quite wary of her, even though she knew how to behave. Frosty had never hurt any of them, yet they always stayed at least eleven feet away from her. Just out of reach of her magic, in other words.

The few times she had gotten a treat, they had ordered her to go to the far wall of her room while they placed it on the floor near the door. Usually, her treats had bite marks on it or tasted slightly stale, but Frosty never minded much. She knew that, to give her something tasty, somepony else had to go without it. The young mare didn't want to inconvenience others if she could help it. She was a good filly after all.

        “I'm really sorry. I've got no idea where the two of them have run off to this time.” Celest called out to her from the kitchen where she was preparing lunch. Frosty had offered to help her with it, but the other mare had denied politely.

        “It's alright. I don't mind to wait until they come back.” she called back after taking another sip of her tea. The cup was so fragile that she had to be careful not to crush it in her magic. She didn't want to damage something this beautiful. The white porcelain was decorated with red and orange patterns, which ended in flowers of different colors. Even though it was the first time she was something like this, she knew that this just had to be something very precious. At home, she had never seen something like this.

        “So, where do you know Lulu from again?”

Frosty froze for a moment. She hadn't thought that far. After seeing the tape of the first attempt to retrieve Luna, she had formed the plan to look for the two civilians that had accompanied the mare, but she had not thought of a valid reason for looking for her. Sweat started to form on her brow as the gears in her head started turning faster and faster. Then, suddenly, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind...

        “She's my mother.”

The sounds of vegetables being cut stopped abruptly, and something fell to the floor. By the sound of it, it broke to a thousand pieces.

        “You... You're her daughter?!?” Celest asked skeptically, sticking her head out of the kitchen to make eye contact with her. There was no going back now. She had to go stick with this story now, even though she was kicking herself mentally. Nodding vigorously, Frosty did her best to look natural. The other mare didn't quite seem to buy her story, narrowing her eyes at her. They stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, before Celest finally went back to cooking.

        “Well, I just hope she recognizes you once they get home. She's gotten injured, and I think she lost a few of her memories because of it.” the other mare explained, while the cutting sounds from the kitchen continued.

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        “If you keep eating like that, you'll get fat.” Candy Cane teased as he put thirty bits on the counter of the local bakery. Ever since the island had been put on lock down, the prices had gone through the roof, but there was nothing he could do about that. Muffins were about the only thing that could cheer Lulu up when she got depressed, so he had taken her out to get some. That he would pay almost four times the usual price per pastry had limited how many he could get her, but Lulu was grateful for each one.

She had already devoured one of the three Muffins he had bought, storing the other two in the saddlebags he had bought her this morning. She had to be able to carry some stuff around after all, and the pockets of his late mothers dresses were not suited for a loaded bag of bits or, in this case, a bunch of Muffins.

Lulu ignored his teasing, and instead nuzzled him gratefully. The gesture felt nice, but also but chocolate and crumbs all over his face. Very carefully he pushed her away with a hoof, blushing slightly.

        “Cut it out. You'll get me all dirty again. I just took a shower this morning.” he huffed in mock anger, but the mare didn't listen to him. Instead she cocked her head slightly for a moment, as if she wasn't understanding what he was saying as she did so often, then continued to nuzzle him. The baker didn't raise a hoof to help him escape his predicament, laughing his head off as the much bigger mare continued to act like a child.

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        “We're home!” Celest heard Candy Canes voice from the entrance hall. Immediately she put down the knife and vegetables she had been working with and went into the hall. The young mare who had picked up her wallet earlier was sticking her head out of the living room door, glaring down the hallway. It sent a chill down Celests spine. There was a kind of determination in those eyes that she had not expected from the other mare. As soon as she noticed Celest, however, the mares expression changed to one of childlike innocence...

        “Is my mother back?” she asked politely, but with a slight edge in her voice. Celest didn't fail to notice it.

        “I think so. Just let me go and check, OK? You can finish your Cupcake in the meanwhile.”

The younger mare, Frosty, did not object. Instead she seemed quite eager to finish the simple pastry. As soon as the living room door was closed once again, Celest made her way to the entrance hall as fast as she could. There was something wrong with that mare, and she began to regret bringing her to their home.

        “Hey Celest. Wow, that smells nice. Cabbage stew?” Candy said while sniffing the air. Lulu stood beside him, munching on the remains of a Muffin as she mimicked the motion of sniffing the air. Celest silenced both of them by putting her hoof over her own muzzle. It took only a minute or two to explain the situation to them, but as soon as she had finished, Candy looked more than serious.

        “You think she has something to do with the Ponies that hurt Lulu before I found her?” he asked in a low voice so only his cousin could hear him. Lulu, on the other hoof, was distracted by a painting that hand in the entrance hall. She seemed to like it very much, seeing as she spent a few minutes staring at it each time they entered the house. Neither Celest, nor Candy understood her fixation with it, since it only showed some colorful swirls.

        “I don't know. She could be telling the truth. Lulu is certainly old enough to be her mother, but I didn't check of course. Her genitals weren't really high on my list when I examined her wounds the other day.”

Candy thought for a moment. If this mare was really considerably younger than Lulu, then she was, most likely, not a threat for her. He himself had witnessed how strong she was. What could a single Unicorn filly do against that kind of power?

        “I say we give her the benefit of the doubt. Let them talk. If things go south, we can always intervene.” he said, motioning to Lulu with his horn. Celest agreed after a moment. After all, Lulu had proven that she could cast a very strong shield spell if she had to.

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Frosty had done it. A feeling of elation filled her as she trotted next to the other Alicorn mare, who was looking at her curiously all the while. Celest and her cousin had suggested that the two of them took a walk together, so they could talk undisturbed. What they did not know, was that Frosty had been a bad filly. She had influenced their decision with her magic. This was usually a big no no, but her Daddy had allowed her to go all out on this.

After a while, the two mares reached a hilltop where there was nothing but an old cemetery. Frosty looked around, deciding that they had gone far enough. Here, nopony would disturb the two of them...

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Lulu was confused. That other mare, Frosty, looked familiar for some reason but she couldn't place her. Candy and Celest had told her to take a walk with her, but the purple mare was not quite sure why. There was certainly something strange about the slightly smaller mare.

Suddenly Lulu noticed that Frosty was not next to her anymore, and she looked back to see where the other mare had gone. Sure enough she stood a few feet further down the path, glaring at Lulu. It made Lulu recoil a bit, and she took a step back out of instinct. Then she thought better of it. Had she done something wrong maybe? If so, she should go and apologize. That's what good fillies did after all...

Lulu tried to apologize, but the other mare did not react in any way. She just continued to stare at her as if she hated her from the bottom of her heart. But there was something else in that gaze as well. At first, the purple Alicorn did not know what it was but then she recognized the emotion. It was fear. This mare was scared to death of her.

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Frosty tried to decide on a plan on how to take on the other Alicorn. She knew very well that she had no chance against the other mares magical strength. If it came to a fight, it had to be quick and decisive.

Suddenly Lunas horn ignited, taking Frosty by surprise.

        “So that's it then...” she thought as she scrambled to get some kind of defense up. What actually happened caught her even more off guard. The other mare was producing a Muffin from her saddlebags and floated it in front of her with a shy little smile on her face.

The beige mare stared at the Muffin for a moment, before finally regaining her composure. Her foreleg shot up, knocking the muffin out of the other mares magical grip and into a puddle beside the road. Luna looked confused and sad at that, but Frosty had decided on what to do. She wanted that reward from her Daddy, and she was not about to get fooled by this mare who had hurt her in the past.

While the other mare was still looking at the soiled Muffin, Frosty charged up her horn and released a full power blast of magic right into her face. A cry of pained surprise echoed across the hill, as the purple Alicorn mare was thrown into a few of the withered tombstones. They broke under the impact of her body, throwing up a cloud of dust that momentarily obscured Frostys vision.

Not having fought another Alicorn before, the young mare was unsure on what to do next. All she knew was, that she had to end it quickly. Therefor she picked up the pieces of broken stone she could see and propelled them towards her opponent. A hum of magic suddenly drowned out her own and several pings could be heard as her projectiles were reflected off a hard surface.

A magical wind rose, clearing the dust cloud away and revealing a shielded purple Alicorn mare standing in the rubble of several broken tombstones. She was bleeding from a wound above her left eye, forcing her to keep it shut, and her dress was only a torn rag on her big frame now. Frosty took a step back as she saw the cold rage in the other mares eyes.

She knew, from Lunas files, that she didn't have the same range as her, so her best bet was to use that to win this fight...

        “You shouldn't have done that.” Luna said coldly. To Frostys surprise, the other mare didn't move an inch or prepare an attack right away. Instead, she just looked at her as if she wanted to will her to run away...