The Broken One

I stared into the burning pink eyes of my mother and waited for her to speak. Her nostrils flared as furious breaths ripped from her. She stared into my eyes for the longest time before she spoke.

“How could you get engaged to a changeling”, she asked loudly. “You’re already marrying a vampony, for heavens’ sake!”

“I did it to prevent a war with the changelings”, I shouted.

“WHAT?!”

“She knew we had sex”, I explained loudly as she cringed. “Ancient law said something about two houses joining and if I said no it was a slap in the face. That would’ve led to war!”

“ALL BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF”, she boomed in her Canterlot Voice.

“Have you ever been hit with her talent”, I shouted. “It’s like sex just takes over your brain!”

“That’s no excuse”, she hissed. “What do you think this does to your image?!”

“My IMAGE”, I shouted incredulously. “I don’t give a damn about my image! I refuse to be responsible for a global war in my first year on the throne!”

“She threatened war”, my mother asked in shock.

“I think she’s still pissed about our last encounter”, I laughed ruefully. “But then again, she did say something about a bright future for our alliance. She also mentioned turning a profit in my little forest.”

“A profit”, mom repeated quietly. “What could be prof- Oh, yes, the mines. That would be-“

She stopped midsentence and went wide eyed as she looked around her.

“I think not”, she shouted as her horn began to glow.

“No”, I shouted as I grabbed her horn, rapping my knuckle against the tip cancelling her magic.

“What”, she asked heatedly and jerked her horn away.

“I was in the library yesterday and I came across some healing medicine books. One of the most potent healing potions calls for foalflower”, I explained. “My healing magic doesn’t work on myself anymore, and I tend to get hurt a lot, so I figured I would look into it.”

“I… wasn’t aware of this”, she replied sheepishly.

“Yeah, it was in this dusty ass book written in some kinda weird symbols but they just turned into Ponish right in front of my eyes”, I grinned. “It was extremely cool.”

“I know the book you speak of”, she smiled lightly but shook her head. “You’re distracting me. How do you intend to handle the nuptials?”

“Cindra doesn’t want to intrude on Shadow’s wedding day”, I sighed.

“This is going to be expensive.”

“Yeah”, I laughed in agreement. “We haven’t decided on a date, but we are still betrothed.”

“I still find it difficult to believe you agreed to a political marriage”, she said as she shook her head.

“Again”, I said evenly. “Mom, I have a question.”

“What question is that”, she smiled nervously.

“Are you racist?”

“I-WHAT”, she shouted. “Why would you ask me that?!”

“Well, you only ever address ponies”, I said as I ticked off points on my fingers. “You accepted Shadow a lot faster than you did Cindra. The terms ‘everypony’ ‘somepony’ and ‘nopony’ are the normal terms, but there are so many races out there such as griffins. Everything in this country is tailored to ponies. I can’t complain too much because this land is my home, but there is definitely a slight bias.”

“It has been this way since ponies were the only race in existence”, my mother explained stiffly. “Four thousand years of tradition are hard to break.”

“So you’re okay with racist traditions but not multiple marriages”, I asked as my wings twitched. “Or is there a problem with the race of my second fiancé that I should know about?”

“Jackson, the race isn’t the issue”, she sighed. “Chrysalis outmaneuvered you, and that is the most upsetting part.”

“Oh, so now there’s a problem between you because of her mama”, I almost snarled.

“That mare is cold, calculating and downright vicious when crossed”, my mother almost hissed. “I have had dealings with her in the past and know firsthoof how conniving she can be.”

“I’ll be careful in my dealings with her”, I promised.

“See that you do”, she said coolly before she vanished.

I asked myself what the hell had just happened before turning my attention to the crop in which I stood. Since I was here anyways I materialized a hand scythe and basket to harvest some of the plants. When the basket was full I made my way down the path to my castle. As I came into view I was greeted immediately by Shining Armor and Silver Lance.

“Which one of you ratted me out to mom”, I asked as I strolled by them.

“I thought it best if Princess Celestia was kept abreast of the situation”, Shining admitted.

“Well, you got me yelled at”, I scoffed as I kept going.

“Prince Jackson, is that foalflower”, Shining asked as he followed me.

“Eeyup”, I grinned. “It’s an important ingredient in a super powerful healing potion.”

“It’s an alchemical ingredient too”, he asked as he cocked his head.

“Uh huh”, I grinned. “I’ll see you later.”

He bowed to me and trotted off as I carried the basket up to our chambers. I got quite a few curious stares as I walked but I didn’t care. I nudged the door open and dropped the basket as Cindra slammed into me. She told me everything that had happened after my mother poofed me away. Right as she was finishing speaking Shadow streaked in through the window to slide to a stop.

“There you are”, she sighed in relief but cocked an eyebrow as she spotted the plants on the floor. “I’m not quite sure that’s the kind of profit she meant.”

“This is for healing potions”, I said in mock indignation. “Mostly.”

The two mares laughed and helped me hang the plants up by their stems. I breathed in their earthy aroma and looked over the plants. Satisfied with the quantity I plucked a single bud from the stem and eyed it closely. I saw tiny rainbow crystals clinging to the dark green plant.

“Skittles”, I whispered and tried to figure out where that came from.

“Catchy”, Cindra smiled as she sniffed the hanging plants. “It smells like fruit!”

“I think ‘fruity pebbles’ would be a better name”, Shadow replied from over beside the window she was looking out of.

“Okay then”, I smiled as I began pulling the bud apart with magic.

I caught the seeds in my hands as they fell and before long the stems had been separated from the herbal parts of the plant. I floated the stems out of the window and set the rest on a table. I looked around until I caught sight of some thin paper. I rolled the herb into the paper and licked the edge to seal it together before I engulfed my finger in fire. I tried to light the thing but only the paper was burning. I scratched my head and asked what I did wrong.

“You didn’t dry it”, Cindra blurted.

I nodded and cocked my eyebrow at her as I swirled heated air around each of the plants. I kept this up until the smell of the plants grew intense suddenly and I let the wind fade. Seeds littered the floor, having fallen during the drying process.

I repeated the process with the paper again and was rewarded with a lungful of fruit flavored smoke. I instantly went into coughing fits as the two mares looked on blankly.

“Did he really just light an illegal cigar inside of a castle”, Cindra asked quietly.

“Yes, yes he did”, Shadow replied. “It’s clear that he has no fucks to give.”

“What?”

“I heard him say that to one of the guards last week”, she shrugged.

I held the cigar out to Shadow and she took a big draw off of the cigar. Cindra did the same when I extended it to her but her face was priceless when she coughed so hard she farted. Shadow and I laughed our heads off as we continued passing the cigar around the circle. Before long the three of us were laying on the bed on our backs with our heads in the middle of the bed.

“Is this stuff bad for the foal”, Cindra asked suddenly.

“Well, I wouldn’t imagine anything with healing properties would be harmful”, I said slowly. “Still, I don’t want anything to happen to our foal. Maybe it would be best if you didn’t use this often.”

“Okay”, Shadow mumbled as she stared at the ceiling. “Either of you hungry?”

We both said yes and I brought a quill and parchment over. We wrote down what we wanted and I headed to the hallway. The guards snapped to attention when I opened the door and scurried to carry out my wishes when I handed the list to them. I jogged back to the bedchamber and got a thought in my head. I changed course and headed for the pile of books on my table. I picked up the herbal remedy book and opened it to the page I needed.

“Honey, six roses, twelve stalks of wheat”, I mumbled aloud. “Three hours, add foalflower, ten minutes, strain and bottle.”

“That’s easy for a healing potion”, Cindra scoffed.

“Especially one this potent”, I replied as I turned back to the book. “Never mind, here’s the difficult part. It requires a one point twenty one gigawatt blast of healing energy.”

“How the heck are we gonna measure that”, Cindra asked.

“I can contact the head of the magic academy and get his help with this.”

We discussed other topics while waiting for our food. The two shared stories of their past as I shared my few experiences before I met Cindra. They got a good laugh at Fluttershy’s reaction to my kisses but I detected a hint of jealousy and changed the subject. Somehow Rainbow Dash was brought up in the conversation. I laughed at the gleam in Cindra’s eye when she asked me about inviting her over. I said I would and noticed the expectant expressions on their faces.

“What, now?”

They both nodded eagerly.

“Well, fuck.”