Hubris and Rainbows (Rewritten)

Chapters

A day at the beach
Marehood and FateMarks
The begining of a beautiful friendship.
The War inside and out
Back Home
Epilogue

A day at the beach

It was safe to say the experiment was a failure. Her body was numb from ear to hoof, paralyzed where she stood. She could hear something dripping, so her ears worked. Her eyes were locked in place slightly upwards the opposite wall and ceiling. What was left of it anyway.

Of all the theorized results this wasn’t one she considered. Corruption was a decent concern. Ascension would have been favorable. Being blown through the opposite wall and ending up in intensive care was possible, yet perhaps better than this.

From her lack of a worm’s-eye view she could tell she was still standing. Her line of sight was angled towards a two meter hole in her workshop’s clay roof. The edges had a mixture of fire, frost, hardening, and crumbling like the force that created it didn’t know what element it was firing.

Why did that always happen when things went wrong?

What she first mistook for stars in the night sky were fragments of artificial Diamond floating perhaps an arm’s length away from her. If she could move at all she would have sighed. The formerly solid gem served as the core of the device perched on her head. To most it would easily be mistaken for the world's most boring silver tiara, but in reality it was supposed to be the answer to her life’s deepest obsession.

Well f-

Age 3

The dry grass crunched under her hooves as she raced along the border of yellowing fields and white sand, the ocean wind whipping past spread arms as she chased after two of her older cousins. Even at the age of three the small white foal could easily keep up.

She could feel the protective gaze of her parents from a distance as she flexed her shoulder blades, imagining with all her might sprouting wings and lifting up into the air. One more firm squeeze of her back and she felt a tingle. This was it. Today was the day.

She looked up and watched the two black colts racing towards a sudden drop where firm soil was banked by a steep slope of sand. Their backs seemed to catch fire, the left colt a cyan and the right crimson. The ghostly flame didn’t radiate heat but did surge outwards and upwards as it took form. Feathered wings emerged from the vague shapes already reaching high before firmly thrusting down. A single pace before the edge they lifted upwards and glided on the wind.

A distant shout could be heard but she ignored it. Her left hoof pressed down on the ledge and leg sprung with all the strength her little pudgy body could muster. For a wonderful handful of seconds she felt light as a feather before tumbling.

She rolled several times before finally coming to a stop along the beach. Her ears picked up a familiar sound of air imploding into a vacuum a few meters away. Her knees and arms were burning with scrapes and her body felt like one giant bruise. Despite the pain she didn’t cry. All her attention was on the water. Her cousins were teasing seagulls, dipping down above their heads to freak the poor birds out before sailing upwards.

“Arcane!”

Her mother literally popped into existence with a puff of air. She materialized in mid stride blocking Arcane’s view of her cousins. One more step and the raven haired mare fell onto her knees with hands reaching out to closely inspect her foal. Silver Quill had an eye for detail and didn’t miss a single scratch or bump with those sharp olive colored eyes. Her hand cupped Arcane’s head and tilted it one way then the next. She lifted her arms and tilted her little body to see if there was so much as a trace of blood or broken skin. All that time Arcane’s focus was on Silver Quill’s forehead. Her mother’s horn was still ‘out’. Like her cousin's wings her horn was a curved spire of silver light floating like ghost fire.

“Arc.. dear.”

A note of frustration was in that motherly tone. Goodness knows how many times Arcane heard mom’s warnings about trying to fly. Her eyes lowered in shame yet she wouldn’t cry. To her, crying would be making it real. Crying would make the fact she couldn’t fly like her father or cast spells like her mother something she had to accept.

Silver’s horn dimmed and vanished before she leaned down to touch foreheads with her daughter. She smiled and locked eyes. Nose to nose.

“Why do you want to fly anyway? You know I can’t fly either.”

“You can poof. That’s better.” Her voice was so small but it didn’t matter. Face to face like this meant even a whisper could be heard. Better yet, the rest of the world was blocked out by one of the only two things that calmed her little heart.

“Yeah, but I can’t run like you. One day you’ll even get a talent I could never have. Something that is special to you. I’m just a silly ol writer.”

Silver quill made her voice rise in pitch to sound like a fairy. It was silly and dumb but Arcane couldn’t resist the giggle that past her lips.

“I…” her words faded away knowing she was about to say something that might make mom sad. “.. don’t want to be like Grandpa Quill.”

“You mean you don’t want to be a Teran.” Silver smiled as gently as her voice sounded. “Arcane, you are so full of aspiration, and that is a wonderful thing. Just don’t let it turn into Envy.”

“Assberation…?”

Her mother laughed, “No, baby, aspiration. It means you desire to improve, learn, invent, always reaching a higher goal.

“Envy?”

“Well, It means you forgot how strong you already are.”

Marehood and FateMarks

-uck.

What in Hel’s name was that? The memory felt so real. The heat of the sand, the lavender oil in mom’s fur. It felt more like reality than this numb paralysis did.

Then it suddenly occurred to her. When was the last time she took a breath? Why wasn’t the stone fragments falling, why wasn’t she? A half answer came as a moth fluttered into her line of sight. Once it grew close enough it simply paused mid air.

It failed, the experiment failed, but what was fueling this insane… this insane whatever-it-is?!

“You are, dummy.” A voice from her right spoke in an uncanny imitation of her own. Well, not quite an imitation. The delivery was too smooth , too confident and clear. The only time she ever spoke like that was during the war. Back in those days it was more about survival and quick communication. Though it did feel good pretending to be a bad-ass for a time.

“You’re all locked up snug in a cocoon while we are out there. How long? Who could say. Our condition? Maybe stable or maybe dehydrated and on the verge of death. I can’t come in and you won’t come out, so we are in a stalemate.”

She could hear slow clicks of hooves hitting the wooden floor of her workshop. A shadow kept a wide berth from whatever held her in suspension before fully standing in her line of sight. It stood just shy of the large skylight blown in her roof so all she could make out was the luster of two golden eyes.

“Wake up, caterpillar.” From behind its back Arcane could see it held a small digital alarm clock, one she remembered. When 5:59 turned over to 6:00am it began to belt out an obnoxious pop song mixed with the white noise of a badly tuned station.

Age 13

Her hand flew from her quilt and blindly slapped at her bedside table. Little colorful figurines rolled off the edge and tumbled onto the carpet as she missed her target three times. On the fourth her palm met with the oversized ‘snooze’ button, shutting out the BuckStreet Colt’s overplayed hit song once again.

With the perfect impression of an undead thirteen year old mare she rose and slid out of her covers. Between cramps and anxiety there was less sleeping than more staring at the ceiling until her consciousness gave out. On the bright side, her uniform was neatly pressed and laid out on her personal ironing board. Not to mention her body was mostly clean from a 2am shower. If you can’t sleep you might as well be productive, right?

She nearly fell out of her bed and landed on her hooves with a practiced pivot of her spine. Once planted on the carpet she made the five steps over to her standing mirror as arms rose over her head. A brief melody of pops from her spine and finally she was limber enough to walk like a normal equian.

Arcane pivoted her head from the left to the right, eyes focused on her reflection. With minimal fussing she corrected the symmetrical part of her wavy pink hair and smoothed a couple of frayed strands. Her focus lowered to her eyes. The deep blue irises somehow made the dim and bloodshot whites of her eyes stand out, earning a weary sigh. To make matters worse the lower lid was puffier than yesterday.

“Okay, Arc, you’ll be fine. You’re thirteen and going through changes”, she began in a quietly muttered attempt at self assurance, “Whatever it is, we accept it and ignore it. It doesn’t have to define me. It’s just a lame old magic spell some dumb old Alicorn King cast a long time ago.”

She curled her hip, slid a thumb in the waistband of her black pj bottoms, closed her eyes, and slid them down.

Puberty has one extra stressful or exciting step in the life of an equian teenager. For Arcane the first hurtles were already lept. ‘Aunt Flow’ already paid her a visit months ago and the awkward school-class boner so many of us will endure came and went without another classmate taking a picture and putting it on social media. Now, every morning she faced the one fear that kept her up at night waiting for the tale-tell tingle on her hips before her FateSign manifested.

Her mouth went dry and her heart began to beat rapidly. Breaths came so short and fast she began to see spots. The symbol of a grey hollow gear appeared on her thigh, large teeth along the outside and smaller teeth along the inner edge. Within the larger gear were two smaller ones, one black and one white. The white, upper, inner gear had a yellow and red Sun as it gave off solar flares. The symbol that meant ‘Resolution’ or ‘Forgiveness’ in the Arcane Enchantment index. The black, lower, inner gear had a six pointed lavender Starburst. That was the symbol for “Beginnings” normally associated with relationships but could apply to any start.

What is this… why. I… what? No...no what? What? WHAT? Magic, why magic, magic on my hips, why do I have magic on my body?! Apples, hammers, earth stuff makes sense but… WHY MAGI-…

She twisted around, ran across her room and back to her table. Eyes flicked side to side and found what she was looking for. In both hands she gripped an empty glass and pressed it to her snout. She let out a scream so harsh that her chest stung from the effort, though thankfully the thick glass muffled the noise low enough it didn’t travel downstairs.

After an hour of dressing and hyperventilation she was presentable to the world beyond her bedroom. Well, to some degree. Her pleated dark blue uniform skirt was flawless as well as her white blouse and dark blue vest. Her pink backpack was flung over her shoulder in that one-armed way the cool foals did it. Her eyes, however, were distant and her mind was running faster than that time she forgot to study for school placement exams.

Her legs went on autopilot and made the short trip through the hallway and down the spiral staircase. The stairs landed on the cozy living room her mother spent so many hours writing spells and translating others in. An odd swaying light distracted her so much she turned towards mother’s bookshelf. The nearly thousand-year old wood behemoth had a Unicorn bust carved into the upper shelf. Today it was decorated in glowing symbols and the normally blank eyes of its face had yellow pupils that swept side to side. She made a step towards the odd sight and those eyes locked with her’s. The color momentarily changed to an angry red before fading back into yellow again. Once the transition occurred one symbol near the unicorn’s carved neck changed. It translated into ‘Familiar’ or 'Kindred’.

“Hey mom…?”

She made it one pace into her kitchen when a light ‘pop’ startled her. Standing on the far end of her dining table were the two incredible mares that brought her into this world. As confetti fell onto the table both middle-aged Equians yelled out.

“Happy Birthday!”

She looked down to see white cake with pink icing and thirteen candles in a perfect ring. The circle made her think of that symbol on her hip. She slowly moved into her normal seat and rested her backpack along the table leg before sitting. Her skirt slid to expose her thigh and half of that mark before she tucked the fabric between her legs and hugged the skirt tightly over the FateSign.

“Oh yeah, it’s today isn’t it?” she said with a weary shake to her voice. Her attention moved up ready to fake a smile when she saw something else that stuck out like a grain of rice in a pile of black beans. Dad’s wings, Ivar Gear’s wings, were very pale. The fact she would even have them manifested in the kitchen was bad enough, but why did they look so… so dim? Her nickname in the military was ‘Ol Sun Wings’ for a good reason. Now they didn’t even outshine the lcd bulb above their heads.

“Now, I hope you don’t expect school today”, Mom said as she turned to the kitchen counter to chop mushrooms. The sizzle of porkcumber bacon already filled the room with its meat-like cilantro scent.

Strangely enough, Silver Quill’s horn wasn’t that bright either. The transparent foot-long spiral normally had a gleam like expensive flatware. Now it was just a dull grey.

The scent became mixed with the smell of char. Silver Quill muttered a ‘yikes’ under her breath as her pale horn began to shimmer. Bright silver light traveled up the twisted spire in time with the swelling of a pale sphere along the mare’s shoulder. Arcane gawked as two rods framing gears and chains created a simple pulley system. The resulting mechanism looked like a cross between a swiveling desk lamp and a skeletal arm complete with fine gears and chains to command long fingers. The hand itself began to shimmer but the complex arm remained pale.

The hand reached across the kitchen to delicately pinch each bacon strip and turn them onto their uncooked side. All the while Ivar Gears traced her daughter’s gaze with a growing curiosity.

“Dear, are you alright?”

Ivar leaned back as the sound of sizzling grew louder, Silver adding the mushrooms to the mix. Arcane’s head turned quickly back to her father. She knew her eyes were giving away a level of disturbance. She seriously didn’t want to trouble her parents but this was all a bit much.

“N.. no, just watching mom do that weird thing with the robot arm.” The sound of a spatula stirring up mushrooms wasn’t noticed until it stopped abruptly.

“Robot arm…?”, Silver Quill practically whispered it while looking over her shoulder. “Sweetie, did you get into my diary somehow?” Silver Quill returned to her task, throwing sugar snap peas and giving them just a light singe before turning off the heat. In a few graceful motions the mother mare served three steaming bowls of Arcane’s favorite stir-fry.

Silver sat on the west side of their small square table and faced Arcane, eyes concerned and locked on.

“Mom, horn?”

Silver made a quiet ‘oh’ and banished the horn, but it only dimmed again. Once it had the mechanical construct melted away.

“No, I would never do that. You just sprouted a robot arm from your right shoulder, I saw it happen a few seconds ago, and what’s with Grandma Quill’s old bookcase? The thing looked like it was about to kill me for a second there.” Her voice quivered more. Something in the back of her mind was whispering the truth but she pushed it away.

No, that’s stupid. I can’t see…

Silver Quill picked up a pair of black chopsticks and found a chunk of plant-meat before popping it into her mouth. The mare had a tendency of doing things like this to buy time and think of what to say.

“So, you saw how I envision a levitation spell and you saw the warding spell on the bookcase?”

“Yeah. It read something like ‘Come alive with the memory of my creator, animate and slay the trespasser, or thief’...not sure which one. Then it changed to ‘something something… be still before those who are familiar.”

Silver grinned wide and slid her bowl away. Her elbows fell on the table as her hands supported her slender face. Those almond shaped green eyes sparkled with a delight that made the mare look so much younger than she was.

“Sense the essence of those that mean no harm, be still before those who are family.”, Silver Quill corrected. “Arcane Gears, you have your talent.”

Arcane’s heart began to thud again.

“No mom, that makes no sense. What would I need magic for?”

Her throat grew tight and face grew hot. Her arms and chest became so cold she began to shiver. Spots began to dance in her eyes, everything began to feel so much closer.

“I’m a Teran like Grandpa Quill. Magic is for Ethereals. If I tried to manifest a horn I would just get a migraine.” her voice grew louder with a bitter laugh.

“Arcane, Dear…”

“No, mom, Seriously I would be better off as an Army Field Medic. Run around and patch up all the heroes fighting for Celestia and Country. At least then I can do some good. Maybe I’ll be written into the history books of the mare who healed the stallion that slayed the monster.”

She off looked to the side, not to find any particular thing. All she wanted to do was not look directly at Ivar’s wings or Silver’s horn. The dim ‘offline’ form remained transparent and intangible by the way Dad’s wings were passing through the back of her chair like a ghost. Over the years it became so hard to look at them, her parent’s or any for that matter. Some days were darker than others. On some days an Ethereal or two would remind her that Terrans were servants, surfs, and slaves long ago. She remembered the words said before Arcane punched five teeth out a nineteen year old Unicorn’s mouth before she could manifest her horn in self defense. ‘Strong legs, strong arms, low intelence. Perfect Ch-‘. The word ‘Chattel’ had a dark history. The suspension from ninth grade was more than worth beating it out of a haughty Etherial’s mouth.

“Could both of you… could both of you just pretend I didn’t say anything this morning. I think I’d be happier as a Blankflank. Maybe at Grandpa’s.”

Silver Quill straightened up as her face shifted from delighted to concerned. She was at a loss for words and could only turn to Ivar for something to say.

“Sweetie…” Ivar spoke softly with her smoky and gentle voice, “You can do more than just mess with metal gears. It sounds like you can see the mechanics of magic itself, things even Ethereals like your mom can’t. Remember when we told you about the old FateSeer we took you to when you were born? We didn’t even have the chance to put you in her arms before that old Teran blurted out your name. It confused us, but now it makes sense. You can see the ‘gears’ of the ar-”

The thirteen year old foal launched up to her hooves knocking her chair back. Both hands slammed on the table as she closed her eyes tight. Despite the effort, tears ran down her face and fell from her chin.

Her lips parted as if she knew what to say yet nothing came out. Her mind was spinning, wanting to be honest but afraid of what those words would do, or how they would sound if she could finally hear them out loud.

Do you have any idea what that name did to me? Two amazing parents give birth to a boring Earth Pony like me, raising me with stories of every adventure you ever had. You gave me a name with the word ‘Arcane’ in it knowing I could never cast a spell or fly. All I ever wanted was to be like you and every time I hear that name it feels like I’m being mocked for wanting more than I deserve.

Now, I’m actually trying to accept what I am and what does puberty give me besides weird feelings and cramps? It gives me the ability to see everything I can’t do, but now in detail.

So what do I do now? Help some aspiring unicorns with their spells? They go off and do amazing things while I’m sitting around, waiting to help another that will go on to live the life I wanted.

I just want to pretend I never got this mark, or this power.

She never spoke a word of that. Instead, her voice came out emotionally drained and quiet.

“… I’m going to school. -Love you both.”

She snatched up her backpack and hastily made her way through the living room and out her front door without looking back.

She made it less than five paces before the front garden lit up with golden light. Her shadow stretched to the other side of the street yet the sky was overcast. A childish ping of fear ran cold in her chest.

“Arcane Spur Gears!”, Ivar’s voice boomed with the power of a Drill Sergeant, because Captain Ivar Gears was a Drill Sergeant once upon a time. That, and she used her middle name. Not at all a good sign.

Arcane turned to face her father and locked eyes with her own slate grey irises. Ivar taught her daughter to look at people in the face no matter how she felt. Eyes were the window to the soul, she said, and if you want to be seen then never look away.

Ivar stepped closer to her daughter with that stern glare. She fully deserved to be slapped for how she was, so she believed. They moved after Arcane struck an Ethereal that teased her and was expelled. They let her attend summer magic school even though she didn’t have a horn. She braced but never looked away until Ivar’s chin moved over her head and rested between Arc’s ears. The buff mare wrapped arms around her smaller frame as wings closed around her daughter.

“Do you remember Grandpa Gears?”, Ivar’s voice came out soft and warm like her ghostly feathers. Arcane shook her head, her nuzzle framed in dad’s heavy chest… which was not at all weird, “I guess you were too young. Well, that ol wind-bag didn’t cry once in my life until my FateSign appeared. He was military and he always wanted to raise a Military stallion of his own. Instead, he got me, a duosex mare with a knack for putting together pocket watches. I couldn't see him like that so I enlisted and eventually became a ‘saboteur infiltration specialist’, but I prefer the term ‘Gremlin’. Every metal that was pinned on my chest made my dad beam with pride while I grit my teeth. Again and again I tried to tell myself that was what I wanted, but that wasn’t true. I… bought my first watch repair shop on the same day we buried him.

Long story short, don’t let anyone tell you who you are. Not me, not your mom, and not some magical tattoo you get along with a training bra. You will make yourself, Arcane. You will choose what to do with this and you will shine.”

She just let the tears come out after hearing that. Her sobs were mercifully muffled by her father’s chest and the sight of her quivering frame covered by those wings. Long ago she believed crying over things made them real. To her teenage mind her greatest fear was real and she always knew it deep down. Her destiny was to perfect spells she’d never cast.

Everyone remembers the knight, but who remembers the blacksmith?

The begining of a beautiful friendship.

“You were born on that beach, but that’s the day you grew powerful. At least until I came along.”

She was back in her workshop. That cocky imitation of her voice spoke while still in the shadows. Over its shoulder was a heavy bag made of thick canvas with magically secured latches. The weathered old thing brought back memories of chasing down injured soldiers and sending them back into the fray. That was also when-

The dark figure stepped into the light and stopped just before the energy that kept Arcane suspended motionless on her feet. The mare was a mockery of herself. Her fur was black and eyes almost as gold as the metal itself. Her hair was a straight lavender with a center part like her own. Her lips weren't the pink of Arcane’s skin, but a soft plum.

“Oh, does this look familiar?, the dark mare lifted the heavy travel bag up high so one of the silvery medallion-shaped latches cast a reflection from moonlight. A set of turquoise-green eyes stared back at her.

“Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name.”

Age 19

Her new bag slouched between hooves as she sat reading an old book with yellowed pages and moth-nibbled edges. Every few seconds her left ear flicked out of annoyance. The other nineteen teenagers took random spots in the lecture hall chatting endlessly about why they were pulled out of their classes and driven miles to be here. For the past two hours they were held in the proverbial dark while a brown-splotched barrel-chested stallion sat on a professor’s desk, arms tightly crossed and eyes scanning his ‘guests’.

“Hey.” Her twitching ear picked up a voice so close she felt the breath against the sensitive fur lining the inside. Her eyes cut over to a short curvy green mare. Her emerald horn was dim, thus not being used at the time. Once Arcane made eye contact the curvy Ethereal gave her no time to say a word.

“Do you know why we’re here? The soldiers that escorted me didn’t say anything. I was seriously about to freak out.”

Arcane looked for any answer to satisfy the one interrupting her reading of “Transmutation and spells not to attempt alone”. Many of the ponies sitting in the four tiers of curved black tables and Victorian oak chairs were around nineteen like Arcane, two looking much younger than that. The other common feature was berets and military cadet uniforms, though the multitude of colors and symbols on their shoulders suggested they all came from various academies all around the country.

It was obvious this had something to do with the military. That gorilla of a stallion had the familiar posture of a drill sergeant doing the one thing all drill sergeants hate doing, sitting patiently. The question was ‘what for?’. Arcane looked over her unwanted companion and noticed a fine glimmer on the cuffs of her orange NorthWind Academy jacket. She leaned close enough to invade the mare’s personal space and get a better look.

“You’re onto material sciences too?”, Arcane spoke with a neutral tone in an attempt to kindly suggest she wasn’t looking for friends here.

“Yes!” The green mare said in delight, either ignoring or not understanding Arcane’s tone. The short mare grabbed Arcane’s wrist with both hands and bounced in her seat. “Finally! I have someone to talk to! My focus is arcane metallurgy. Finding the right process to break down magically infused gems was the hardest part, but after more failures than I can remember I managed to infuse elemental effects directly into cobalt steel.”

A subtle blush colored Arcane’s face. She preferred books over people. Books always had something useful to say and never bothered her with questions she answered time and time again. Being surrounded by people she had no interest in felt so much easier. She could easily ignore people who had nothing to say, but then random interesting people came to make her simple absence of distraction nearly impossible.

“That’s impressive, but I’m not sure why… conduction, right?”, a hint of excitement betrayed her disinterested act.

“Yes! How did you guess that so fast? Enchanted weapons and tools are nice, but they need command words or be activated by magic. This way-“

“Anyone can use them with a thought!”, both of them screamed out at the same time like the teenage girls they were.

“Cadet Heart, Cadet Gears! This is a lecture hall, not a slumber party. Please keep it quiet.”

The heavy stallion’s voice boomed without having to shout.

“Iron Heart, please to meet you, Miss Gears”

“Arcane Gears, likewise.”, her voice was soft and shy when not trying to act like she was made of stone.

“So… what is your speciality?”, her arm hooking into the bend of Arcane’s elbow.

Arcane’s ears swiveled nervously as the green mare leaned into her shoulder.

“Well, I am training to be a medic, but I’m more interested in mineral contents in biological systems. I had the idea after my professor Maud Pie crushed a Fire Ruby and used the fragments and a pressure incubator to grow a new set of fire gems. It took forever to get the samples and formulate the liquid catalyst, but I did it. I made ‘the state of being a Celestial’ into an elemental stone.”

“Why would you want that?” Iron Heart’s brow furrowing. If you're already a Celestial then you don’t need it. If you’re not Celestial then you can’t use it without it going haywire. Your existing aspect would synergize with the new one and the power would rise exponentially. The best case scenario is you go crazy.”

She gave a shrug, “One problem at a time.”

Iron Heart let go of her arm and leaned back from Arcane. A moment of silence stretched between them as the short mare looked at her new friend as if for the very first time.

“Arcane, you’re not planning to Ascend, are you?”

Her eyes grew wide at the suggestion and smirked.

“Hel’s panties. Why would I do something that stupid? I’ve read ‘The Unicorn’s Folly’ too. I know all the warnings, read up on Queen Crystal’s failed attempt at eternal beauty. I read ‘King Sombra’s Fall’ as well. Moral of the stories? Everyone who attempts to become an Alicorn on purpose eventually corrupts. Even Queen Luna was corrupted when her heart fell into jealousy for her sister.

I have no desire to be an Accended. I mean, aren’t you at least a little curious about what you’re missing? Imagine flying through the air, your body knowing exactly what to do before you realize it. Instincts as fast as lightning. Once I saw a Celestial catch a baby bird who fell out of a tree. His ears were covered with headphones and his hand just flicked into position the very moment that chick fell into his peripheral vision. It took him five hoof steps to realize he was even holding it. I swear his reflexes were smarter than he was.

How about being a Terran? Imagine feeling the grass grow under your feet. Imagine knowing the moment a flower will bloom, or when a cloud will start to rain. Imagine feeling the emotions of a speechless animal so clearly they may as well be talking to you. Sure, you can imagine lightning and throw a thunderbolt, but can you know the second a cloud will do that on its own? I’ve never known an Ethereal who could.

That doesn’t make you feel the very least cheated?”

There was, at least, a little sympathy in Iron Heart’s eyes as Arcane spoke. The green unicorn leaned in slightly as Arcane described the point of view from Pegasus and Earth types, then raised an eyebrow close to the end.

“Hey, how did you know I was Ethereal?”

“Cadets, fall in!”

They could feel the shout in their chest. The moment the verbal thunder spilled out of the older male stallion every cadet sprung onto their hooves and stood with arms at their side. Along the stage of this lecture hall a slender black stallion made his way from a set of double doors to where his thicker companion waited.

He stood with arms behind his back, his eyes scanning the twenty young cadets scattered along the rows of tables. His face held a scar that ran from his left cheek and across the center of his forehead. His dark blue duster’s collar was decorated with a General’s rank.

“Good Afternoon, Cadets. I apologize for the wait, but I hope the reason we brought you here will make up for that.

As you are all well aware, every cadet who joins any military academy in our kingdom is required to keep any classified information under penalty of imprisonment or death when in war time. That said, I will give you one chance to walk away now. An escort is waiting outside to take you to your dorms or outside residences.”

Silence, apart from one dry cough.

“No takers? Excellent. The bad news first. We have credible rumors that the Dragon Kingdom is in possession of a Mirror Portal. Not only does this violate our treaty, it can potentially threaten multiple realities and expose us to others hostile to our own. It is almost certain this will lead to war.

The good news is we now have a tool that can help us immensely, and it’s all thanks to you. We always look for the best and the brightest, but all twenty of you have made discoveries that sped up the development of our project by nearly three decades.

Knowing that war is inevitable, we need you to perfect and set up mass production of what is essentially your combined effort.”

The black stallion reached into his long coat and pulled a cigarette pack-sized green box with an opaque glass panel.

“Holy Hel, that’s a Pandora Box.”, Iron Heart muttered under her breath.

The black stallion placed the cap of his index finger along the glass and waited for a green line to travel from left to right. The finger-hoof gave off a soft glow before the box opened with a click, disabling the incendiary explosive that would have otherwise dissolved the contents of the box and the hand that held it.

A murmur rose between the small group that quickly settled down when the General cleared his throat. The contents consisted of two rather simple looking stud earrings with Opal stones, one golden and one silver.

“They did it. Those bastards used my research.”

Arcane squinted to focus on the metal of that stud. She could swear there was some kind of tendril made of faded light squirming around. It was so disturbing she was glad to be the only one who could see it.

“Our research.” Arcane continued before the two teenagers met Eyes. Both of them had an odd bond at that moment, like two girlfriends that just found out they were pregnant. The baby in question was in a box and owned by the military.

“If a Celestial sustains severe damage to their shoulder blades or the fourth node of their spine they can lose the ability to manifest their wings and reflexes weaken. Even after years of physical therapy a number of our soldiers after the Third Changeling war still lack the ability to fly. These Emulators have successfully re-established their ability to manifest wings in three veterans for a period of fifteen minutes. With a perfected version of these emulators I believe we can send injured soldiers back into the fight and restore their natural abilities.”

General Raven nearly smiled seeing all the young faces with barely restrained enthusiasm. They all remained at attention and did their best not to make noise, but the impetus of youth and this new mission made most of them squirm in place.

“Sergeant Boulder will go over the details with each of you before you are escorted back to your dorms. Pack a bag and get some rest. We will return to move your belongings to Canterlot Academy. We will meet here on Friday at 0600 sharp. At ease.”

The following four hours were not so exciting. One by one the cadets signed transfer orders, level four confidentiality agreements, shared patent agreements, and other legal paperwork. By the time it was all said and done Arcane felt worse than her first day of basic training.

The group was allowed to exit the lecture hall and guided by the Sergeant to Canterlot Academy’s driveway where a convoy of black auto-cars were lined up.

“So, I guess we are classmates now.”

Iron Heart remained close to Arcane the entire short trek from lecture hall to curve. As they walked, the short Ethereal leaned into her side. She simply assumed it was due to fatigue until she spoke. Not a hint of that assumed sleepiness showed as the short mare stood before her.

“Yes, it certainly seems like that.” She cursed in her head. Her cheeks were hot and she knew the blush was showing. Iron was grinning wider.

Arcane was saved from the awkward moment by a nondescript stallion in a long leather coat and driver’s cap. With a few muted words he escorted Iron Heart to one of the many vehicles, opening the back door for the green mare.

“It’s okay, I got this one.” A similar driver was about to approach Arcane as General Raven saluted and excused him. “Miss Gears?” Opening the back door and waiting for Arcane to step inside.

They drove for a solid hour in silence as tall buildings passed by. The majesty of Canterlot gave way to increasingly humble store fronts and residences. Once the only artificial light was the occasional rural home and starlight filled the sky, General Raven finally spoke.

“So, what does it look like?”

“What does what look like?”

“My horn, or should I say what’s left of it.”

Arcane turned her head from the landscape passing by beyond the passenger-side back seat window and looked into the rear view mirror. She squinted and finally noticed it. The flickering pale line was so dark blue that it was nearly black. It looked like the spittle of a leaky fountain pen sticking out from that nasty scar which ran over the General’s forehead.

“I don’t think you would like to kno-“

“I was the first to test the Unicorn version. Sorry, ‘Ethereal’ version of the emulator. I swear something I lost returned while it was active. I hadn’t felt that clear minded since Crystalis tried to take my head off. I will never forget that jagged horn of hers. It was a physical horn, an actual hard bone jutting out of her head like some insane sacrificial dagger. Okay, maybe it was chitin at that point. Oh, and I saw the transformation. In a bright flash of green light she went from spoiled princess to bug-momma in seconds.”

Perhaps the General didn’t want to know about his horn after all?

“Can I ask why you’re not wearing it now?”

“I could simply tell you it’s Military property, but to be honest I am used to who I am now. Gears, no one talks about it, but there is a downside to being an Ethereal. Your mind never quits. Life is endless worry and thought even when you go to sleep. Losing my horn freed me, showed me how much I was overthinking and obsessing over the smallest things.”

“I think I understand.”, she said in the tone of someone that wanted the conversation to end.

“My deepest fear is that you don’t. Growing crystals from extracted biological samples is a pretty extreme thing to do. It was brilliant like Frankenstein was brilliant. I’m not telling you to stop, I’m just asking that when you come to the line between smart and insane that you step back.”

The vehicle slowed as they turned into the driveway of MidPoint Academy. They paused long enough for the automatic gate to swing open and turned right onto a large circular cobblestone street. She passed the squat building Freshmen stayed in during basic training. In the dead center was a refurbished royal mansion that served as classrooms and the Normal dorm.

The General came to a stop when reaching the newest building in the campus. High marks came with perks in these academies. The building was a fourth the size of the main structure but made in the same curves and swirls of classic Canterlot design. Midpoint Academy’s private dorm.

Arcane let herself out and bent down to look through the passenger side window.

“General, permission to speak freely?”

He stared right into her eyes as if trying to read something off her irises.

“Go on.”

“If you want me to swear under the effects of an honesty spell then I’ll gladly do it, but I’ll tell you the same thing I’m about to. I’ve read virtually everything about Ascension. I don’t want it. I’m pretty sure my inner self is someone I don’t want to meet, let alone become.”

Raven gave Arcane a tight smile and a small nod.

“Goodnight, Miss Gears.”, he said with a distinct lack of ease before driving off.

Arcane entered her room on the third floor with a weary sigh before mumbling the word ‘Lux’. An enchanted hanging lantern in the center of her three by two meter bedroom lit the humble space.

Her furniture consisted of a wardrobe, single bed, desk, a long table, and her babies.

“Hey sweeties, I hope you didn’t get too hungry while I was out.” A few clicks of her hooves brought her to a mid-sized aquarium decorated with false rocks and rainbow hued light. Taking a small canister from close by she carefully shook a few healthy servings of fish flakes. She took a few moments just to look at the black and white spotted fish with huge magenta eyes and orange fin tips as they reached the surface and burbled up the flakes greedily.

“Guys, it’s been one hel of a day. I’m a part of a team working on top secret stuff, I met a cute girl, and thanks to her I finally have an answer to that little stumbling block. Mineral infused alloys, why didn’t I think of that?”

Arcane sat up and grasped the edges of the aquarium to carefully slide the tank away from the pink wall, rotating it 90 degrees to expose the back. Her hand pushed a lower corner to make a hidden panel click out of place and fall away, exposing the source of that rainbow hue. Seven fist-sized jars stood in a row, their walls thick enough to contain immense pressure. Each contained a fluid that glowed one of seven classic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, indigo, and violet.

She reached further into that hidden space to pull a leather notebook and flipped it open to the last of many dog-eared pages plus a pencil keeping her place. On the page was the date and a spreadsheet with numbers that wouldn’t have any meaning to anyone besides her. The only thing labeled clearly were the seven columns of that sheet. Crown, Eye, Throat, Chest, Solar, Lunar, Mundus. She leaned in close to each jar and noted the growth of tiny crystals forming in their glowing solutions, jotting down their progress.

The War inside and out

Age 21

There were few moments when Arcane was glad to be Teran, a fine example being right now. She ran forty miles per hour across a red sandy hellscape dotted with burnt out motorcycles and other attempts at mechanical speed. Good old horsepower would have to do where technology failed.

Others outfitted with the same fatigues and purple cross armband ran alongside of her, all Terran. The group either kept up with her or surpassed her own speed before breaking off in every direction. In no time she was alone in her own search.

Arcane’s worn and trusty satchel bounced on her hip, latches keeping the magic bag securely closed. On the edge of her left ear were seven monochrome metal rings that formed a rainbow.

A true hell was above her head. Celestials in armor swooped down on half naked dragons that were at least a head taller than the largest Equis alive. Agility and speed fought raw power over two hundred feet in the air.

A bright orange flash quickly followed a rush of heat and a wide shadow along her side. The edge of her vision caught the figure climbing back up on leather wings and banking to line up another dive. The back of her left ankle caught up with the power of shock and seethed with pain. It seemed the dragon didn’t entirely miss her.

She could hear a roar grow louder as the shadow rose above her head. She pivoted to the left in what would be a vain attempt at dodging flames. Thank the Goddesses a loud grunt replaced that roar. She spared a few seconds to gaze over her shoulder and see a Celestial mare punch through both wings with her spear. The dragon landed hard on his hip before the neon-green winged warrior sprung back into the air with one titanium horseshoe to the unconscious dragon’s face.

Arcane turned her focus ahead of her. Over the sounds of clashing metal and wing beats she heard a moan of pain. It was faint but it gave her a direction to turn into and dash. After a few moments the prone figure could be seen. She braced her legs and leaned back to skid across the flat terrain and come to a stop within three strides of a fallen soldier.

She fell to her knees and tapped on each clasp of her satchel. It reacted to her touch and popped open with ease.

“Hey there, I’m going to get your patched up.” Arcane reached into her bag and took out a wash bottle. She squeezed the bottle to make its little curved spout blast the poor soldier’s back. The stream exposed glistening raw skin, or at least what was left of it.

“Shit, you fly straight to the Nest when I’m finished, got it? Private, I am not clearing you to fight.”

The stallion had to be seventeen, no more than twenty years old. That baby face of his was pressed to the dirt, the only part of it not caked in the red sand being lines where tears ran alongside his nuzzle.

“It hurts to move and my wings won’t come out. Please, I need an evac.”

Arcane went back to her bag and traded the wash bottle for an unlabeled spray can, “Evac is on the battlefield with the other birds. Dragons are hard to corral. Okay, this is going to sting like a bitch.”

She didn’t hesitate to depress the can and shoot a line of clear liquid on the Celestial kid’s back. On contact the liquid foamed white and made the poor guy’s body tremor in pain. His scream went up to falsetto before he went limp. He began to pant and groan for a long half minute before slowly trying to get up.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore… What was that?”

Arcane tossed the can back into her bag and reached in with both hands. This time she produced what looked like an industrial staple gun and a pandora box. She pressed her index finger cap to the glass panel and waited for the reassuring ‘click’.

“You can thank the alchemists for that one, but this one belongs to my team.”

The open box had room for twenty four emulators, twelve of each kind. Arcane was down to only two Ethereals and two Celestials. Correction, two Etherials and one Celestial. She flicked the stapler’s gun-like trigger forward making a set of jaws open slightly. She slid the stud earring’s backing along two slender prongs before setting the trigger back into neutral, the jaws opening up a bit more and separating backing from the spike.

“This will hurt a little less.”

She gently pinched his right ear with one hand and slid the jaws around the base of that lobe. Arcane pulled the trigger, the jaws closing fast and firm. She slid the gun away and tossed it back into her bag.

He sat up in a jolt and stared up at her in disbelief. He was at a loss for words yet that look in his eyes told her everything she already heard more than a enough times during this war.

“This is where you ask ‘why the fuck did you just give me an earing in the middle of battle’? Then I say ‘just wait a second and you’ll see’.”

She would most certainly see, especially with those eyes of hers. The opal began to shift in every color of the rainbow before stopping at Cyan, the kid’s aura. A faint light extended from the earring’s embedded spike through the delicate pathways of that young stallion’s nervous system. It followed thin branching pathways to the base of his spine and up into his thalamus and cerebellum. Little sparks of arcane energy danced in his skull before the light shot down his spine and spread out like an upside down tree along both shoulder blades. She moved her attention to his back to assess the damage. Thanks to those deep burns across his back his wings were reduced to flickering skeletal shapes. The faint remnant of wings began to reform as if they were being erased in reverse. Finally came the part anyone could see, talented sight or not. A pale blue mist came out of nothing and became feathers that stretched out before hugging around the soldier’s chest.

“How.. I couldn’t even feel them before.”

She reached out and touched his shoulder. “Tap on the stud again to turn your wings off. Just use them every day and you’ll eventually regenerate the ability to summon wings on your own. Just remember to return it to your commander once you’re healed. Now get back to base asap. That spray is only a patch and I don’t want you dying of some damned infection after running my butt off to save you.”

He looked on the verge of crying again as he rose up onto his hooves and shot into the air with a single downward thrust of those restored wings.

A static-filled noise blared from her right hip. Nestled in her fatigue’s holster was a red box with bronze accents and a wide grill.

“Nest Delta to any Delta Patches, if you have a head-band return to base. One of our towers is down. Repeat. Nest Delta to any Delta Patches, if you have a head-band return to base. One of our towers is down.”

The panicked female voice shouted over Arcane’s radio before gritting her teeth and taking off again. There was absolutely nothing she could do to help with that situation. Not all the way to Delta.

The battle field was divided into four quadrants surrounding the Dragon Nation Capital city. The idea was to drive the soldiers into their city’s walls and seal them in a force field until the people turned on their usurper king and gave up their rumored mirror portal. Sixteen of the most learned (and oldest) Ethereals were positioned in groups of four on every corner. Once the majority of dragons were driven into their walls a powerful shield spell would enclose the city. In the meantime that same spell would be warming up and shielding the four bases of operation. As for Arcane, her quadrant was Alpha, polar opposite of Delta.

She grew increasingly distracted by the radio traffic. The same message repeated several times before all professionalism broke down. The one speaking spouted several select curses and demanded their own runners sound off. Forty soldiers responded in numerical order of their call signs. DM-1 reported ‘no headbands’, which translated to ‘no Ethereal Emulators left’. The occasional pregnant pause came over the static suggesting a few of their crew was down, hopefully not dead. Ultimately, no one had what they needed.

Arcane skidded to a stop when a new voice took over.

“Nest Delta to any Patches in Beta and Gamma, Our tower is down and the walls are collapsing. The Commanding officer is acting as Tower but I have no idea how long she can last. Celestia, Cadence, if you can hear this message we need you. Oh God-…”

Her chest went cold as she looked at the tall towers of the Capital. On the other side of that city was Iron Heart, screaming into her radio and praying that one of the two Alicorns in their world came to the rescue. Goodness knows what those two titans were fighting to keep them out of this war, but it was probably something Arcane didn’t want to go up against.

“Okay… okay… think.” Arcane muttered to herself as she contemplated running half way around a massive expanse to save the day. Then what? Everyone would be dead or captured by then and the entire operation would be for nothing. Iron Heart would be…

Her mind flashed to a night in Canterlot Academy’s lab. They were alone working on a solution to the Emulator’s duration period. Iron Heart was writing down some figures when Arcane walked in to offer the green mare a mug of cider. The drink had just come into season and she wanted to toast the occasion, perhaps drag her partner out of the lab for just one day.

Iron Heart turned just at the wrong time and her shoulder knocked the mug in Arcane’s left hand. It went tumbling and drenched the loose white skirt Heart was wearing at the time. She tried to turn away quickly, but Arcane saw the bulge. Arcane tapped on her shoulder and by the time Heart turned her head Arcane had splashed herself with the other mug. Her grey trousers hung to her thighs showing off her own.

“Both my parents are duo-gender.” Arcane assured her. Iron Heart looked as if a lead weight were taken off her shoulders. They became closer after that night. It was always hard to pin down what they were to each other, then again maybe it didn’t really need a name like ‘girlfriends’ or ‘lovers’.

She felt a panic unlike any other before it. Arcane didn’t want to be alone again. She didn’t want to lose her friend, even if that meant being thrown into a dungeon or becoming the next monster for the Alicorns to defeat.

She rummaged through her satchel for The pandora box and opened it, plucking out one of the Celestial Emulators. She froze for a second and felt a temptation wash over her. Curiosity, obsession, maybe just blind panic. Whatever it was, she knew in her heart that one wasn’t going to be enough. She plucked out an Ethereal and exchanged the box for her piercing gun.

“Clear head, Arcane. Regulator first.”

She loaded the piercing gun before raising up her right hand to her ear. Three taps to the red ring, three taps to the orange ring, yellow, green, cyan, indigo, finally the violet. As each ring came to life she felt a sort of hollowing sensation climb up her spine. The mysterious source of magic itself entered the body through the head as life itself rose up through the base of the spine. Along that spinal passage were flood gates some would call ‘chakras’.

The theory was relatively simple. Everyone who ever went corrupt was overwhelmed by magic. Their souls were condensed down to their very essence. In fact, the word ‘Corruption’ was misleading. Being overwhelmed simply shows you who you are under all that pretense. Magic can’t be blamed if that true self was an asshole.

Arcane felt an urge to collapse by the time the Violet ring opened a spiritual tunnel through her body. The free flow meant whatever essence her body required to live was draining away. She couldn’t afford to delay the moment of truth any longer.

She brought the gun up to the base of her left ear and pulled the trigger. It felt like the worst bee sting she ever had, but she already went through this seven times before. She loaded the silver stud and pierced the same ear less than an inch higher.

She let the gun drop from her hand and tumble back into her bag. The core of her body felt cold while the desert heat assaulted her skin. It reminded her of every 3am convenience store microwave burrito she ever had. Then it finally began. A tingle traveled through her ear and up her neck. When it entered her skull everything about her felt ‘closer’ somehow. Burning wrecks of motorcycles and discarded broken spears littered the flat plain of this desert. It was amazing how she didn’t notice half of them until now.

She looked up and saw every swooping figure with Celestial or Dragon wing carrying on their battles. She could feel their minds, read their faces. She anticipated their motions and began to see patterns. It was as if she could clearly predict their motions before they did.

This incredible clarity came with a flood of “what-if”. What if that dragon over there tossed his sword and it spun down on her? What if that Celestial over there miscalculated his thrust? The winds were perfect to send his spear falling towards her. To make it worse she knew she always favored her right hip when dodging, a sudden motion to the left could inadvertently send her head-on into the tip’s path.

The fear grew worse and mutated into pure paranoia. She was taking in too much information. Her fight or flight was responding too eagerly. Her mind was flinging out scenarios faster than she could rationalize them away.

The chill in her spine was fading yet she couldn’t appreciate that change. Her eyes darted for any form of danger and it took no effort to find it. Her spine was growing hotter. Hel, her heart was beating faster. She could feel it slamming inside her chest.

I deserve power.

I never asked to be born like this.

I know more magic than those who can cast it.

They walk around looking down on me. It could have been me looking down on them. Cocky bastards, all you did to earn that was falling out of your mother.

She didn’t say that, she didn’t think those words and yet she heard them as clearly as any thought. The tone of those words changed randomly from confident to deeply upset. The paranoia was starting to refine itself. Her mind dived inwards and focused on memories. Every time she yearned for another foal’s power. Every time she silently corrected a badly cast spell or critiqued a Stallion’s flying abilities.

A brief moment of sanity came over her when she realized her regulator was failing. This was corruption in slow motion, but corruption all the same. Her hand flew up to tap the Ethereal Emulator when the shifting colors of both opals went solid. The upper one fell on Lavender, the lower became rose.

Every muscle in her body tightened into steel cables as she froze in place. Her finger cap hovered millimeters away from the lavender stone and remained motionless despite Arcane’s desperation to turn the damn thing off. Her left shoulder lifted slowly as the muscles suffered spasms.

An aura of swirling rose and lavender light burst from her left shoulder blade and stretched into five tendrils. The tendrils coiled around each other and thickened into an arm, the tips merching into a massive hand. An elbow cracked upward into form and a wrist cracked downward. Fingers speared into the dry soil. Another violent quiver arched up her right shoulder before the same process began.

The transparent arms bent to tilt Arcane’s paralyzed from back as a blister of transparent flame swelled from her forehead. It burst into two thin vines that twirled around themselves and hardened into a unicorn’s horn. Arcane could only watch helplessly as the tip of that horn generated a tiny glimmering star that faded in and out of existence. Every time it returned from nothingness it grew brighter. It flickered faster until it seemed to burst like a lightbulb and fade away. Five seconds later it bloomed back into existence like a supernova. Six new stars grew from the void to encircle the blooming light and shaped it into a beam. It’s color randomly shifted to every hue she could name while her unique eyes read elemental symbols and spells that flickered by faster than she could read them. It was just chaos, pure unadulterated chaos.

Her ears were assaulted with the rapid base thrum of the blast. In years to come she would debate if it sounded like a Dubstep D.J. On cocaine or a poorly maintained electrical substation during a flood. In the meantime all her focus was on doing something so miniscule as curl an index finger. Black spots began to grow across her right ear as Arcane finally touched the lavender stud.

Her horn flickered out of existence along with the beam. Once the overwhelming surge of power was cut off her muscles relaxed. She fell like a marionette with cut strings and landed on her knees, slumping forward in a daze.

Her demonic second set of arms was consumed in a flash of rose light. The thick fingers dislodged as the mammalian form of an arm was warped into avian proportions. When the flash finally dimmed her true wings took shape. Fluffy dove-like feathers covered the ghostly extensions of her body. Thankfully, In the absence of her ‘unicorn’ aspect her paranoia settled into a relatively manageable anxiety.

The dusky haze before her was split for several moments. In the distance she saw several dragons fly off to cower from whatever lit up the sky. Those that ran were attacked and thrown to the ground by their own people.

Along the center of that Dragon city was a crumbling gothic castle spire now reduced into little more than two walls and roof. Gravity seemed to remember the distant structure as it collapsed into a plume of dust.

“Oh Hel…”

Something big fell from the sky roughly four meters away from her. The sound of it was wet and kicked up a plume of red dust in its wake. Four more followed, one after another making the sound of a giant playing in a mud puddle. A short trail of unconscious or worse-off dragons lay before her. Each was a manic jigsaw of burns, frostbite, petrification, and electrical scars.

She stared wide eyed with a blank expression as shock mildly numbed the anxiety eating away at her. She knew she should be horrified yet everything that happened in the last minute left her without any words, verbal or thought. Her brain was just… kinda humming.

A thump to her left made her head flinch towards the source. Out of some defensive urge her wings closed around her like a cloak, leaving only her head visible. A Celestial caked in red dust and splatters of blood gracefully landed from a straight hoof-first descent with just one firm flap of her wings to slow her fall. At least a hundred more did the very same and soon she was surrounded by weary soldiers pulling off helmets. It grew uncomfortably strange when the majority knelt down on one knee and lowered their head.

“What are you doing…” she tried to say yet found her voice was barely a weak croaking.

Then it became stranger still. Three unblemished Celestials made their way past their dirty allies and stopped roughly a meter from her. One wore armor far too large for their sixteen year old frame. Another’s armor was flat and too narrow along the hips for the mare’s frame. The third dangled an eyepatch in his hand that he obviously didn’t need.

It was the teen foal that spoke first.

“Thank you for your intervention, your majesty. However, my colleagues and I were caught in the blast. Is there any way you reverse the effects?”

The one holding the eyepatch turned to the child as if waiting for permission to speak. The child nodded with an intimidating glare.

“I’m fine, actually I just wanted to thank you, your Majesty.”

“Same. Your majesty.” The mare said simply, earning a confused stare from eyepatch, “Don’t look surprised, Eagle Eye. I told you that when we were-“

The young foal cleared his throat. The other two stood to attention and didn’t say a word.

The shock never fully left Arcane’s face. At least she was thinking in words again.

HEL’S TITS, THEY THINK I’M AN ALICORN.

Static blasted from every hip around Arcane including her own.

“Mayday! Mayday! Towers down! Dragons are attacking Delta Nest! For fucks sake help us!”

“I’m Coming Iron H-“

Arcane began to shout those words as her back flexed. In one moment she gained a realization her wings pointed up to the sky. There was a burst of air and pink light. The next second she was fully aware, her body rushed upwards on wings folded to her sides like a gliding falcon. She looked back to see the crowd she left behind sailing backwards with wings flapping in an effort to stabilize themselves. The whole scene looked like a flock of startled pigeons.

Her mind was a wordless mess of joy and panic. She was flying. She imagined being up here wing to wing with her dad, finally being the daughter Ivar deserved. She imagined learning spells with her mom, perfecting her technique and growing closer to her as equals. She imagined bringing Iron Heart home so she could meet-“

Arcane opened her wings and righted her frame to slow her acceleration. When a cluster of tents were below her hooves she folded her wings and shot down like a spear towards the earth.

Iron Heart stood on the south corner of her base, her teeth clenched in pain as her emerald horn bathed everything in green light. All her focus remained on keeping a Violet wall of light solid around Nest Delta. Her commanding officer lay unconscious by her hooves. Looking over the fallen captain was an elderly stallion with his head wrapped in crimson bandages.

Behind Iron Heart was a continuous struggle between a handful of medical staff and the few dragons which managed to pierce the base’s defenses. A pink colored Teran was doing most of the fighting by throwing medical supplies at their heads and running off at speeds the dragons couldn’t keep up with. Thankfully, dragon soldiers had more muscles than brains. Otherwise, they would have struck down Iron Heart minutes ago.

A bed pan flew into the jaw of a green dragon armed with a rusty mace. The pink mare that flung it dashed across the dusty ground past Iron Heart seconds before she realized her mistake. The dragon’s bloodshot eyes locked onto the mare keeping his mates from entering this base and ending things once and for all. With a sinister smirk he walked over to Iron Heart, his fist squeezing the handle of his mace tightly.

It was a perfect though painful landing. Arcane forgot the vital step to a zero-point landing. She forgot to flap her wings before meeting the ground. Her hooves were together and arms up. Her wings were high to catch the wind and slow her descent by some degree, yet she came down like a raindrop the weight of a full grown mare onto the… ground?

A quivering green form lay on his stomach under her hooves, his arm still poised to thrust his mace down, yet now quivering. She stepped off the dragon who wasn’t dead, but stared out at nothing as if his mind was somewhere far away from the pain of a broken spine.

“I’m here.” Arcane stumbled forward and fell onto her knees close to the injured old stallion. “W…e’ll get you patched up in a second.”

The pink Teran ran up and took Arcane’s bag for her.

“You just rest up, you look like shit.”, the pink mare said in an oddly cheery tone. Arcane looked down to the short shorts this one was wearing and saw party balloons on her hip.

“Hey, I remember you from elementary school…”

Arcane muttered as the pink mare took Arcane’s hand and touched her finger to her Pandora Box.

“And I remember you, miss cold-shoulder foal.”, Pinkie Pie wasted no time stapling the remaining Ethereal Emulator to the old stallion’s ear. When the stone turned bright blue his ghostly horn manifested. He slowly hoisted himself onto his old knobby knees and touched Iron Heart’s shoulder. Bright blue light replaced Iron’s green magic as the protective barrier expanded, pushing back the dragons fifteen meters in every direction.

Iron Heart fell to her knees with an exasperated sigh, her horn just flickering out. She looked up at Arcane and smiled a weak smile.

“You crazy bitch.”

The Violet dome protecting their base fell away. All three turned their heads to the sage in shock. That panic faded once each realized the Dragons were flying towards their city and abandoning the war. The heavy thud of two clawed feet made all but Pinkie turn around once again. A bronze dragon lifted his injured partner over his shoulder and prepared to take off.

“Wait, what’s going on?”

The dragon looked over to Iron Heart with a casual gaze before giving a quiet huff.

“The King is dead and with him, his orders.” Was all he said before a hard flap of his wings kicked dust everywhere and sent both up into the air.

“Probably the chaos spell that blew up the castle, I imagine. It’s just so strange. Only an Alicorn could have done that and none alive would be so reckless. Perhaps we have a corrupted being to thank, which would mean things have only gotten worse.”

The old sage finally spoke in his wavering voice.

Iron Heart gave Arcane a weary look, one that silently communicated the four words no one wanted to hear from a loved one.

‘We have to talk.’

She felt a hand on her back and looked to the side. Pinkie Pie looked into Arcane’s eyes with a sympathetic stare. Somehow that Tarren always knew more than she should. Arcane knew her reputation since her first summer with Grandpa Quill well over a decade ago. If she was worried, it stood to reason she should be too.

She looked down at her knees and reached to turn off her pink stud followed by the seven rings that had kept her from going fully corrupt. Once the magic was gone from her body all the damage and stress of her experiment caught up. Arcane’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and blood ran from her nose as she collapsed. The last thing she heard was IronHeart screaming her name.

Back Home

Age 23

The engine of her motorcycle was the only sound apart from birdsong and the barking of a single squirrel. It was practically silent and exactly what Arcane needed. The constant beeping of heart monitors and the squeaking of hospital gurneys was close to driving her mad after the coma and her rehab.

That whole time IronHeart was by her side, but even from the first day she woke it was clear their status was as friends-only. She would never turn Arcane in for nearly becoming the next threat to the world, but she would also never trust her enough to share their lives together. It was for the best and she knew that. Still, it didn't hurt any less.

The burble of water let her know the next turn down her winding forest road was her destination. Around a bend to the left a wooden bridge as old as some of the surrounding trees stood sturdy as ever. She rode across a seven meter river that fed a vast network of waterways serving the agricultural expanse known as Everfeild.

The road continued into a line of trees that grew gradually denser from this point forward. Looking deep enough between those trees you’d only find shade where the canopy blocked all light. Though it was a shortcut to many places, few would ever venture down into the abandoned old-growth forest called “Ever Free”. Rumor had it that the ruins of the first Capital city can still be found among the swamps and sentient plants with a rather long and disgruntled memory.

Arcane parked her cycle and cut the engine before detaching a saddle bag and slinging it over her shoulder. Her hooves clicked over mossy cobble stones forming a path through tall grass. Down that short trail was a two meter narrow bridge over a Stone-bottom stream that joined the greater river. Past that was her Grandfather’s cottage.

The home was a relatively humble six by five meter cottage with two floors and a steep angled thatch roof. Skylights we’re on either side of the roof and the front had a triangular face with a tall window. Along the river-side of the home was a second-floor balcony and a reading nook with wide reinforced windows below that.

Her maternal grandad was a master carpenter and this was his opus. The old place stood against Timberwolf attacks and every ridiculous crisis Everfield had suffered for the past 150 years. Now it was hers to make all her own.

However, this wasn’t the only reason Arcane decided to accept her parent’s gift. Behind the cottage was a less humble fifteen by seven meter brick building choked in ivy and covered with a less steep clay tile roof. Grandad’s old wood mill had its own doc and water wheel to generate power. With time and a little elbow grease it would soon be her new workshop.

A year passed by before she even knew it. She renovated her home and installed an entire machine shop and Crystal incubator tank set up. To pad her bank account she took to repairing the arcane machines of the townsfolk, earning many friendships in the process.

Her ambition never died, but here she found something just as precious. Peace of mind.

Then the fateful night came. She finished what she believed to be her own opus. A silver tiara with an artificial Diamond set in the center.

“So?”

The dark version of Arcane crossed her arms and waited as if the magically paralyzed twin could respond. After a moment of sheer silence she gave an exasperated sigh and dropped her arms.

“Fine, let me spell it out for you. This isn’t our workshop, nor is it a dream. We are where ponies go before they ascend. Yeah, you heard that right. Our mark two regulators failed big time.

This is also where Alicorns-to-be gain their element. Of course, it’s not always a nice element, hence you and me. One of us needs to absorb the other, otherwise we will never wake up. Sure, we might become Target Practice for the Lovebirds and their crew, but that’s just a part of the deal.

You need to realize who you are. You are not her, and having her face isn’t going to change that. Your true nature is showing, even now. I just can’t imagine why you’re running from this. Don’t you want power?”

The mischievous act began to fall away from the black Arcane as real fear welled up inside.

“Listen, We are going to die. Our body is out there defenseless and probably dying of thirst as we speak. Time does not move the same here so Goddess knows how long it’s been.”

Silence followed, her honesty met with more silence.

“Damn you! Get out of that shell right now and fight me, coward! I am Avarice! I am the Element of Greed and desire! I will rise and I will know everything! I will experience everything and no one will deny me again! I refuse to be powerless, refuse to be under another’s shadow!

And you?! I know you and I know why you refuse to fight. It isn’t because you’re afraid to lose. It’s because you’re afraid you’ll win. Then what? You’ll be a Goddess, you’ll be able to obtain anything you want and that is so contrary to your nature that you can’t stand it. Your element depends on your disparity, your grudges. What’s the point of being powerful when all you are is E—-.”

The only word for it was ‘reset’. The world flickered and reality skipped. Avarice found herself being bodily ejected from her counterpart before rolling across the wood floor. For the third time she looked up at a bright moon high in the sky.

Avarice slowly sat up and took a few moments to wipe away tears and work up the mental strength to do this dance again. She slowly made her way to her counterpart and whispered.

“Remember the Beach?”

She repeated all the same steps. Show off the clock, show off the bag. Lay a mixture of blatant information and clues along the way to nudge her counterpart into realizing her nature and hopefully end this hap-hazard accent, or to be honest, this botched corruption. The only thing she couldn’t do is say her name. Envy.

Several flashback sequences later

“What is it going to take? What can I do to get through your thick skull?”

She cupped her face and screamed into her hands before hugging herself.

“What do you need?! Should I get Queen Celestia to do a musical number while we review your life again? Just tell me…”

Her act fell apart once again. Avarice fell onto her knees and squeezed herself harder. For all her ambition the real threat of death was enough to make her think of what truly mattered. Her dad, her mother, IronHeart.

“I’ll never win her back. I’ll never have a daughter. I’ll never…”

Avarice wasn’t the half of Arcane prone to tears. That should have made things easier, yet it made this emotion so much harder. Her counterpart handled strong emotions, she was the logic. Was the logic. Having to carry this burden on her own was truly overwhelming. One after another she realized all the things she was almost certain she would lose. It was almost funny. Her first love and a future with her were the first two things that came to mind. Ruling the world from her very own castle seemed so petty she couldn’t even put it into words.

Avarice couldn’t sob, she couldn’t cry the same way Envy did. Her tears came out quietly, her eyes distant and void of any remaining sense of determination.

Through a veil of tears Avarice saw a moth fluttering. It rose up through the ceiling’s hole and vanished among the millions of stars.

She moved!

What? Are you sure?

Photographic memory, remember?

And such humility too.

Come on, I think we can reach her this time.

Fine, but if teleportation doesn’t work to free our arms a second time then you’re wearing the leather catsuit tonight. The one with the milk p-

Sunset Shimmer! She could be listening!!!!

Well, maybe it will wake her up?

The two voices echoing off the walls were absolutely unmistakable. Those two were in the news every night and the couple Pinkie wouldn’t shut up about. They were also the last two Avarice would want to see right now.

Fragments of artificial Diamond fell, soon followed by the heavy clink of a silver tiara. Envy began to slowly collapse. She truly looked like Arcane in almost every way, only the eyes differed. An invisible force sat the white pony up as her turquoise green eyes met her counterpart.

Before Avarice would part her lips ten lights appeared about Envy’s temples. Five lights on her left temple were deep purple, five on her right temple was a warm shade of yellow-orange. The lights extended and merged as they formed a hands, then arms, and entire forms. Colors filled in the shapes as Princess Shimmer and Princess Sparkle appeared on either side of Envy with two supporting hands on her back.

Avarice backed away and crouched like a cat ready to pounce. In that same instant a lavender hued fire swirled over her forehead to form a long curved horn.

Envy raised her hand.

“Stop. Please.”

Avarice’s gold eyes flicked between the purple Element of Friendship and the Yellow-Orange Element of Redemption. Oddly enough, neither were in their armor. They wore sweaters, Tights, and Toboggans that coordinated with their natural colors.

“Remember what General Raven said? Every power has its downside.”

Envy smiled softly, not reacting at all to the two Princesses on either side of her.

“But… you’re Envy?”

Avarice’s voice cracking in confusion.

She nodded once softly.

“Still am. I still feel a void in me. I just think it’s best to choose what is truly worth my Envy. Avarice, you’re the me that has all the confidence and I contain our pain. Honestly, I intended to let you absorb me at first. However, looking back taught me something.”

She huffed, “And what is that?”

“Try to forget your pain, and you forget another’s. Like IronHeart’s, for example?”

Avarice went quiet yet stood up. She walked closer and fell onto her knees so close they brushed Envy’s, her horn extinguished. Her eyes were cast low and tears continued to run down her cheeks. Twilight and Sunset looked at each other with a confused worry in their eyes.

Twilight mouthed the words ‘What is happening right now?’ Sunset simply smiled and quietly shushed her wife.

Avarice began to laugh between sobs.

“Hel’s Arse, we would have made crappy Alicorns.”

Her fingers laced with Envy’s

“Perhaps never.”

Avarice smirked and rolled her eyes.

“Now now, one hard life lesson at a time, please.”

Sunset lowered herself onto her knees like Envy and Avarice. She extended her arm to cup the black mare’s back, looking from one to the next.

“Speaking of lessons, why don’t you learn under us? We can train you, put you on missions as things evolve. Who knows? Maybe you’ll ascend naturally.”

Twilight slid down on the other side and mimicked Sunset, though her hands rested on Envy and Avarice’s laps. She looked into each of their eyes as if deliberating something. She was always the skeptical sort, humming and hawing to herself as she thought it over. It took a glance into Sunset’s blue eyes to make her finally cave.

“Well, we were on our way here to ask for your help, so I suppose we could call that a fair trade. Just promise me that you won’t do whatever this was again.”

Avarice and Envy looked from Twilight to each other. The two nodded at the same time, blinked at the same time, and turned back to Twilight at the same time. They answered at the same time.

“I think that would be best. I would be honored.”

The two turned heads to face each other again, the same confused and slightly annoyed look on their faces.

“Hey, stop that.” They cocked their heads back in surprise. “Cumquat monkey dishwasher. Twelve, Pi, Ruby Dust.”

They spoke complete nonsense to see if the other was simply playing some bad joke on the other, but that was far from the truth. The same relieved sigh came out of Envy and Avarice before leaning in and resting forehead to forehead. Eyes closed.

Arcane felt the chill on her face and two arms hooked under her shoulders, propping up her laying form. The cool autumn morning light beamed through that very real hole in her workshop clay roof. Several incubation tanks were cracked and her expensive machining/ metalworking/ gem cutting tools were in utter disarray.

She felt the cold metal of that failed experiment still on her head and pulled it off, ready to toss it away. She paused, seeing her reflection in the silvery band. She was no longer pure white, her eyes no longer blue, her hair not fully a wavy pink. The left side of her head and right side of her neck was blotched in black. The left parting of her hair was straight and lavender. Her left eye was gold like Avarice’s. Her left arm and right hip were as well. The skin under ther black fur being lavender. The rest of her body was virtually unchained apart from her right eye. The Turquoise green of Envy stared back.

The band fell from Arcane’s hand with a reserved sigh. She shook her head and bit her lower lip with a growing anxiety.

“How in Hades will I explain this?”

Twilight rested her hand over Arcane’s.

“You always were a Pinto breed pony with heterochromia. You just decided to stop dying your hair and fur. You also stopped wearing color-change contacts?”

Sunset leaned forward enough to stare right at Twilight with a smug grin.

“Princess of Friendship is a master liar? How scandalous!”

Twilight smirked and rolled her eyes.

“You’re confusing me for AppleJack, love.”

Epilogue

A shower and a call to Everfeild’s only pizzeria was exactly what Arcane needed. That, and a stupid horror movie which begged to be mocked by her and her two guests. Sunset and Twilight shed their sweaters and cuddled close to one another, drowsily focusing on a rubber masked pumpkin-stallion chasing a blonde actress through a cornfield. Twilight rested her head in Sunset’s lap, her second beer dangling from two fingers. Sunset was already polishing off her seventh.

Arcane lounged on the opposite end of the couch with her hooves up on Grandad’s old sturdy coffee table, giving the two lovebirds plenty of room. She swigged on her bottle of ‘Apple Family’s Hard Cider’ and simply enjoyed the silence that fell between the three. Her interaction with the couple was limited to parties thrown by their mutual friend, yet the two passed ‘the introvert’s potential friend test’. Good conversation early in the night, a comfortable silence shared later on.

Still, Arcane’s curiosity made her break that silence. She continued to watch a character run up an old staircase and appear in the closet downstairs, repeating the sequence.

“Okay, so you didn’t notice the giant chaos beam that shot out of my roof?”

Twilight let out a long yawn leaving a hint of drool on Sunset’s lap. Sunset didn’t seem at all bothered, or she was just too buzzed to care.

“Nope… we were out like a light. We had just come back from Cadence’s place. Someone was trying to resurrect Sombra… again.”

Sunset let out a small burp before she spoke.

“Is there really anything left of that douchebag’s soul?”

Arcane looked sidelong at the offender and only smirked, So this is princesses when the cameras are off, huh?

“So you just came to my place because you were going to ask me a favor. Not sure I could do what Celestia or your many allies couldn’t do.”

“Me and Twi want to have a baby, or two babies.”

Arcane chose a terrible moment to take a drink. She spit up her cider so quickly it shot out of her nose. With a cough and a sputter she lurched forward. She wiped off her face even as her now wide open eyes were suddenly very sober.

“Woah, woah,” Sunset began with a reassuring palm up, signing Arcane to settle down.

“We are not asking you to be a surrogate dad. We just need some help with a little alchemy. We already went to Zecora for a potion to become duo-gender, but surprise surprise, it doesn’t exist. So, we are going to invent it.”

Arcane let out a soft laugh. She would have been upset only hours ago. Being an alchemical bloodhound for Alicorns. How demeaning.

“Let me guess, you want me to use my eyes so we can easily determine magical properties in plants, thus making your research go faster?”

Sunset leaned over and stuck out her mostly empty bottle towards Arcane. She stared at the gesture for two seconds and signed. Arcane extended her arm, clinking bottles in a toast.

“To sexy Alicorns and cute daughters.”

The End

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