The Broken One

Shadow’s return was bittersweet. The only bitter part was telling her about the library incident with Twilight. After I explained everything I knelt before her waiting for her anger. To my surprise it never came. She looked at me with pity and understanding as she spoke to me.

“Jackson, I’m not upset”, she smiled. “You and Twilight spent a good amount of time together trying to figure out how to bring me back. It stands to reason that something would happen between you two.”

“But Shadow, I still feel bad about it”, I murmured. “It almost feels like I forgot about you.”

“It made you forget your grief, didn’t it”, she asked. “Besides, I know you.”

“But-“

“Just let it go”, she sighed. “You came to me like a grown stallion and that means a lot to me. Now just forget about it.”

I nodded and she kissed me before turning her attention back to the nearly two month old foal in her embrace with a smile. I stared lovingly at the scene before me and kissed both of their foreheads as I stood. When I turned around I noticed the oddest expression on Cindra’s face.

“Hey Cindra”, I called and tousled her mane on the way by. “Wanna join me for a pint?”

“Sure”, she said with what sounded like forced cheerfulness as she spun and trotted along beside me.

She cocked her head in confusion when I stopped right inside the antechamber and closed the door behind us. I summoned a keg of mead, tap and two mugs before I motioned for her to sit. I tapped the keg and poured two mugs, sliding one to Cindra as I sat across the coffee table from her.

“Well”, I asked as I took a gulp of the sweet alcohol.

“Well what”, she replied as she sipped her own mug.

“I saw the face”, I sighed. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing”, she blushed.

“Cindra, I saw how you looked at the three of us”, I said quietly as I moved around the table and sat next to her. “Do you want foals of your own?”

“I… I don’t know”, she whispered as she set her mug on the table. “I see how happy it made Shadow, even with everything that happened, and I want that happiness. But I don’t know if I’m ready to be a mother. Even if I was, the only stallion I would even want offspring with can’t reproduce with me.”

“If it means that much to you we could find a way to make it work”, I urged. “Twilight and I have already been studying my blood and we just might be able to figure something out.”

“I don’t even know if I’m ready for that”, she whispered tearfully. “Part of me is raring to go but part of me is terrified!”

“Hey, it won’t happen right away”, I said gently as I turned her face toward me. “Twilight and I have to figure out how to get it to work before we try anything. You’ve got some time.”

She nodded and sniffled before mentioning hot mead. I laughed as we lifted our mugs and drank heartily. After we finished our mugs I sent the tapped keg back where it came from and sent the mugs to the kitchens.

“Now we just run this by Shadow”, I grinned as I stood and walked to the door.

“I suggest you write a letter to Twilight immediately”, Shadow said as soon as I stepped inside. “You two had better figure it out.”

“How did she-“

“Vampony”, I sighed as I lay my hand on Cindra’s shoulder. “Just remember she smells fear.”

“Har har”, Shadow scoffed. “But he’s right, we can. That makes me wonder.”

I felt her gaze shift to me.

“Jackson, is there something I need to know about Silver Lance”, she asked innocently.

“What do you mean?”

“He stutters an awful lot around you, but he doesn’t smell like fear”, she said slowly as she inspected a hoof.

“Are you asking if Jackson’s playing the flesh flute”, Cindra asked in shock.

“Yes”, she replied flatly.

“Fuck no”, I shouted and reeled back in horror.

“Then what is the deal?”

“He’s been crushing on me for Luna knows how long”, I shuddered. “I didn’t even know until you made me apologize to him.”

“What, he just told you”, the vampony asked incredulously.

“I smelled his pheromones”, I replied sheepishly.

“A gay unicorn”, Cindra whispered. “For some reason that sounds kinda hot.”

“No”, I growled.

I lifted a quill and parchment into the air and supported them with magic as my thoughts were transcribed. I sent the letter on its way and thirty seconds later I was notified that Twilight was at the gates. When she was allowed through I met her at the front door and headed toward the dungeons.

“Oh, we’re going down there”, Twilight commented as her voice took on a slightly hollow quality.

“Yes, but I’ve made a few changes”, I replied as I stroked her mane.

We went into the dungeons and Twilight’s jaw dropped. I had been in her lab twice before and in order to make things easier I had copied the layout perfectly. To my astonishment there had been an autopsy table added between my first and second visits, but to each their own.

“Wow”, she muttered as she looked around. “Your attention to detail is astonishing, but the mandible separator goes on the other side of the sphincter relaxer.”

“I also added more filing cabinets”, I pointed out. “If only there was a way… Audrey!”

Yes Prince Jackson?

“If I made a screen on the wall would you be able to compile all of our notes together and put them on the screen”, I asked as I focused on the wall.

I would be able to compile all of your research into one file that you can access at your leisure.

“We also need some manner of input device for doing sophisticated computations”, Twilight added with a glimmer in her eye.

“So we’re making a big computer”, I asked.

“Technically a crystalloid information storage and computation device, but computer is a much easier term”, she smiled.

“Egghead”, I laughed as a large crystal panel formed along one wall.

“Ruffian”, she retorted with a grin as she eyed my work. “Can you make a keyboard like a typewriter has? That would be sufficient for typing algorithms for spellwork.”

With a thought a keyboard sprang into existence. The keys were just large enough for a hoof to comfortably press. I nodded to Twilight and she moved to the keyboard and began typing a string of letters and numbers. I watched as they appeared on the screen and nodded in satisfaction.

“Hey Audrey”, I said as I scratched my chin. “I want these other machines hooked up to the screen.”

There was a bright flash and then silence before Audrey confirmed carrying out my commands.

“I wouldn’t have thought of that”, Twilight smiled as she eyed small symbols on the screen. “Okay, let’s get started. First I want a sample of your blood.”

I nodded and materialized a glass jar and a dagger. I cut my wrist over the jar and when it was half full I sealed the cut with magic. I held the jar out to her and she stared at me in horror.

“I was going to use a syringe”, she shouted at me before she groaned loudly. “Fine, just set it on the counter.”

I set it down and she loaded a syringe with my golden blood. A single drop was placed on a piece of glass called a slide with a smaller piece of glass over it. That was placed on the platform of the microscope and she moved on to the next device. I couldn’t repeat the name of the device but it supposedly separated the blood sample into alphabetic representations of the chromosomes or something like that.

“Yeah, Scott Bakula and stuff”, I nodded.

“Uh, what”, Twilight asked.

“I dunno”, I shrugged.

She shook her head and moved along to other machines that did interesting stuff depositing samples and adjusting knobs. The machines made a symphony of science as they did whatever they were meant to do.

“You guys have all this cool stuff but still use quills”, I sighed as I shook my head.

“It is rather idiotic”, Twilight admitted. “You would think we would have advanced more in some areas.”

A dull buzz drew our attention to the chromosomething kajigger and we hurried over as a printout slid from the machine. Twilight expressed her confusion and showed me the printout. About half of my little letters were smudged, which didn’t mean anything to me, so I turned to the resident fount of knowledge.

“Audrey, why are these letters smudged?”

The markers that are illegible are markers that were constantly changing at the time of printing.

“Changing”, Twilight asked in alarm. “Can you pull up a real time display of Jackson’s genetic code?”

A string of numbers rolled across the screen and sure enough a little less than half of the letters were constantly changing. I blinked heavily a few times as I tried to understand what I was seeing.

“Audrey, can you isolate modified genes from natural”, Twilight asked.

The majority of my genetic code glowed red and vanished from the screen. I couldn’t tell whether I was surprised or not that only golden rapidly changing symbols remained on the screen. Twilight studied the screen for a few moments before she turned to me.

“It would seem that all of your genes that were changed by magic are the genes going haywire”, Twilight grimaced. “We don’t know what will happen over time.”

“Okay, so what do you want to do about it”, I asked.

“I don’t know if there’s anything we can do”, she mumbled. “All we can do is monitor your genes and if something changes we document it. Maybe we could even find a way to reverse some of it.”

“Okay, the main reason I asked for help is because Cindra wants her own crickets”, I replied. “What do we need to figure that one out?”

“Reproductive cells would be ideal but with a proper blood sample, without knives”, she growled that last part, “I should be able to possibly synthesize reproductive cells.”

“Okay, you lost me after the ‘no knives’ thing”, I grunted. “I’ll let you handle the technical stuff. Just tell me what you need me to do.”

“A sandwich would be nice”, she smiled. “Alfalfa and cucumber with honey, maybe a glass of water.”

I stood there staring at the purple unicorn as she moved around in the lab. I shook my head and stalked out of the dungeons to get her food. On the way back I got an idea and materialized spicy peppers inside of her sandwich. I slid her plate to her and kicked back in a chair. I snickered when she picked the sandwich up.

“What’s so funny”, she asked with her attention glued to the screen.

“I just got an idea for a prank on Dash”, I lied.

“Huh”, she hummed absently and took a bite of her sandwich.

I held my laughter in as she slowly chewed. Her eyes suddenly got really wide and she coughed out the bite of sandwich. I cackled as she drained the glass of water and searched for more. I relented and shot a stream of water into her gaping mouth and she drank until she couldn’t drink any more.

“JACKSON”, she shrieked as soon as she could breathe again.

“Gotcha”, I cackled.

“Not funny”, she growled as she drove a hoof into my gut.

“I thought it was”, I groaned.

The door opened and Shadow popped her head in. She informed me that she was planning to go to Ponyville and wanted me to go with her. I nodded and asked what we were headed to town for and she grinned. She told me we were going shopping for Cindra’s birthday and needed groceries making me rub my eyes.

“Well, fuck.”