“Okay, Spike! We have everything we need, so let’s go!”
Twilight called her assistant down to the home floor of the library, once again paying no mind that the poor violet dragon’s arms and claws were heavy with supplies, so much so that it reached to his face and he could barely see past his nose. He would really be better off with a backpack of some sort; that would seriously be of aid to him.
Nevertheless, Spike went out of his way to avoid tripping over the stairs as he hurried down them, so that he didn’t drop any of Twilight’s things, and to reach Twilight before she impatiently called his name again.
To his thankfulness, she held the door open for him as he walked out, and closed it behind her so that he wouldn’t have to.
“So, um, Twilight…” he began meekly, “What’s all this stuff for again?”
Twilight gave him a strange look, and then realized that he’d probably already forgotten what they were doing and where they were going. “We’re going to help Applejack manage the barren parts of the farm. She’s going to try and plant more apple tree seeds there, remember?”
“Oh … Yeah … R-right…” Spike’s voice trailed off as he thought for a second. “But what does she need all this stuff for?” That stopped Twilight in her tracks, as she was shocked by such a simple question.
“What doesn’t she need all that for?!” she replied. “There’s going to be a lot of planning to be done! A lot of managing and reports on the barren area of the landscape and soil tests! What if we planted seeds on soil polluted with nothing but masses of arsenic? And then a lot of ponies got poisoned through the apples? Or what if the trees don’t grow at all? And then what if Applejack got blamed for all of it, because it’s her farm? It would be our entire fault!”
Twilight continued her fast gallop without giving Spike any time to think about what she said, and he had to hurry after her, risking dropping everything as he leaned over now and again to pick up something that had fallen off the mass of items he was carrying.
Sometimes he wished his pony companion didn’t exaggerate situations so much. And sometimes, Spike wondered why he felt more like a servant to Twilight than an assistant. But, it wasn’t like he was complaining. Living with Twilight had its perks, though those might have been a large rarity at times.
It really didn’t take all that long to get to Sweet Apple Acres, with how fast Twilight was pushing through Ponyville. When they got there, they were almost instantaneously greeted by AJ’s very big, big brother.
“Hello Big Mac!” Twilight greeted, raising her head to be able to look into the maroon stallion’s eyes as he nodded in greeting at her. Spike had to look even farther up, blinking blankly as Big Mac offered no verbal response to Twilight in return.
“So…” Twilight added, just to avoid standing in awkward silence for too long. “You and AJ are working on the outskirts of the farm today, huh?”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac nodded absently.
“…Can … You … Show me where that is, exactly?” The lilac unicorn dragged.
“Eeyup,” the stallion replied, before turning and starting off in a different direction. Twilight happily skipped after him, leaving her draconic assistant to bundle up all the scrolls, quills and various other supplies before he, too, scurried after the massive stallion.
Big Mac led the lilac mare and her infant dragon through the masses of apple trees, and Twilight didn’t miss any opportunity to look around and take mental images of almost every tree she saw.
“Has there ever been any sign of trees on that land before?” Twilight asked finally.
“Nnnope,” Big Mac replied, after thinking for a few seconds. “Just a few tumbleweeds and some grass. We only recently discovered we had it when AJ saw something flash there.”
“’Flash’?” Twilight turned to look at him, and he just shrugged.
“Maybe she saw the sun hit against a bottle cap or something,” Spike suggested, but Big Mac shook his head.
“The land looks as if nopony’s been there … Ever. No garbage or junk of any kind. It’s like the land’s never been touched.”
“Curious…” Twilight mumbled to herself, and absently turned her gaze back to the apple groves as her thoughts drowned out her vision. At least it made time quicken for her, so reaching Applejack and the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres come faster than it did for poor Spike.
“There you are, Twilight!” Applejack smiled as she ran over to the three as they entered the clearing. “Ah was wonderin’ when y’all’d get here!”
“Hi, Applejack!” Twilight smiled wide at the sight of her friend. “So, where shall we begin? A look into the history of the undeveloped property? The clearing of the weeds and grass? Soil tests?” she used her magic to yank some scrolls and quills from Spike’s arms, causing him to drop everything else he was carrying and fall to his face.
“Uuuuh…” Applejack faltered for a few seconds, giving Twilight a strange look. “Ah was thinkin’ more along the lines of uprootin’ the weeds. We don’t need all’a that there, sugar cube.”
“…Oh.” Twilight looked extremely disappointed as she telekinetically dropped the scroll and pin she had in her magical grip. “Well … then I guess we should get started on that.”
AJ and Big Mac nodded in unison. The siblings began to use their hooves to kick up the grass and weeds, and Twilight used her magic to simply uproot the plants with slight less effort. Spike forgot about the mass of equipment and started to help the ponies by digging with his claws.
There was a great amount of land to be cleared. As Big Mac had said before, the many yards of barren land looked as if it had never been touched by a mortal soul, save the weeds and grass that had grown there, though those, too, were quite a few; only reaching here and there by a few bundles every other foot.
And with Twilight’s help, much of that was cleared within the first few minutes. In fact, within the first five, they were almost completely done.
That is, until Spike’s claws scraped against something hard, and metal. At first he dismissed it and moved to the side slightly; but he started to notice that wherever he moved in the small area he was clearing at that moment, he seemed to run into the metal block he’d discovered.
“Twilight!” he called, and in a matter of seconds, his pony companion was at his side. “I think I found something.”
“Impossible,” Twilight responded, “There isn’t supposed to be anything here.”
“Uh, maybe not.” Applejack added as she stepped lightly towards them, her green eyes focused on only the ground and the metal gleaming from it. “Big Mac,” she turned to her brother now, and he raised his head from the ground as to meet her gaze. “This’s prob’ly the flash Ah saw when Ah discovered this place.”
“Eeyup…” he said meekly as both his and his sister’s gazes returned to the ground. “What’ll y’all s’ppose this is, then?”
“Ah … don’t know…” AJ prodded at it with her hoof absently a few times, lost in thought. “We’d better dig it up. Twi, can ya pick it up with yer magic?”
“I think so.” Focusing, the unicorn’s horn lit up brightly in sparks of pinkish-purple, and so did the few visible spots of the metal.
The siblings and the dragon stepped away from the spot as the ground began to crack and shake; and, willing out all of her magic ability, Twilight pulled a massive metal … Well, it looked rather like a square container, from the ground.
Once she had it out, she moved it to the side a bit and then dropped it.
The four approached it curiously. It was thick, very heavy, and certainly not from this century. Or planet, whatever you would have said; because it had a strange language imprinted on all sides, and strange markings, from, probably, a rather strange culture.
“Whoa…” Spike’s voice was faint, but the ponies could hear it anyway. Not like they were paying much attention. Big Mac was close to reaching out and touching it with his hoof, but Twilight stopped him.
“Stop! You don’t know what that thing is, or what will happen if you touch it.”
“Oh, uh, nope,” the maroon stallion stammered and backed away as he realized she was right.
“Well, then, what should we do?” AJ spoke at last. “We can’t just leave it here … Can we?”
“No,” Twilight mumbled, thinking. “Wait—there’s a latch at the top! Maybe I can open it with my magic.”
Twilight’s horn began to spark and glow again, and she started to pull and tug at the latch on the top of the very large, metal box with all her telekinetic ability. But it wouldn’t budge a single molecule.
Twilight gave up after a minute or two. But, then started to let her magic flow again; like water from her horn with more intensity than before, to the latch on the top of the titanium lid.
“Twi, Ah don’t think—“ Applejack had started to speak, and was very soon cut off by the lid bursting open as Twilight succeeded in prying it open.
Nothing exploded. Nothing shined, or glowed. The box just burst open. No dust. Just dirt as it flew off of the lid. Nothing glamorous or exciting or dramatic happened as the metallic vessel opened at last.
“Ah … Stand corrected.” AJ stammered after a few seconds, watching as once again, Twilight’s magic died down.
“Okay now…” Twilight whispered to herself as she walked up to the massive object and lifted herself on her back legs to raise herself as to see what was inside, placing her forearms half-inside it.
“Let’s see what—“ She cut herself off by gasping loudly and falling over, her irises shank to the size of grapes in her eyes.
“What is it, sugar cube?!” AJ asked, concerned, and helped Twilight up as the lilac mare stuttered and stammered, shocked.
“A—a—a—a—f-f-fil-ly!”
“A what now?” Big Mac didn’t have to raise himself on his back legs to peer over the side of the vessel, but he had almost the same reaction. “Holy hay!” he yelled, looking back at the other three. “She’s right; there is a filly in there!”
“A filly? But how?” AJ went over herself to look.
Indeed, the filly was curled up at the bottom of the titanium, ancient-looking vessel, and sound asleep — alive; and breathing through her half-gaping mouth. Her pelt was a pale off-white and her mane and tail a darker, pale gray.
She looked lifeless, to say at the least, but she was, rather, full of life. Though, that couldn’t have been known for sure. The way she was heavily breathing from her mouth, and all curled up like that, as well as pale as she was, it was not certain she was at the fullest of health.
“…How … In … Equestria…?” AJ drawled quietly, as the other three stared.
“Spike…” Twilight managed to choke out at last. “…Take a letter…”
“…Wow,” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “I guess there really was a filly in there.”
She said, looking at the pale, barely breathing foal in the hospital bed.
Twilight was pacing. “I just don’t get how she got in there in the first place,” she said, staring at the ground as she took another round in her circled course around the room. “Or who put her there, or where that vessel came from.”
Rarity thought for a second. “Could she be a Crystal pony that appeared there when the Empire returned?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, because then the vessel would be made of Crystal, not titanium. And her mane would be shining, even if it would be faint, and there’s not a single crystalline hair on her.”
This wasn’t Pinkie Pie’s worry. Instead, she was typically bouncing with excitement. “What should we name her?!” she squeaked. “Does she even have a name? I wonder what it is! I wonder what she’s like!”
The nurse poked her head through the door, putting a hood to her mouth and shushing the group in a rather blunt fashion before disappearing again.
Fluttershy was occupying herself by gently petting the filly’s mane. “You poor dear,” she cooed under her breath. “How did you get in there? You’re so malnourished…”
“Well, wherever she’s from,” Rainbow Dash began, “She must be pretty tough to still be alive. There must’ve been almost no air in there.”
“That’s prob’ly why she’s so pale,” Applejack pitched in at last, taking a few steps to the young mare’s bedside.
The nurse walked in again at last, to which Pinkie Pie frowned slightly. “I didn’t do anything this time,” she protested.
The nurse shook her head. “I just need identification of this filly.”
“But we don’t know who she is!” Twilight said, to which the nurse frowned.
“Well then,” she said, “Someone will have to claim her, or else once she gets better, she’ll go to a foster home.” That statement made the girls gasp.
“Oh, no, no, no!” Fluttershy sniffed, “That can’t happen! That’s too horrible to happen!”
The nurse’s frown only seemed to increase. “Unless someone takes her,” she repeated, “then we’ll have no choice but to hand her over to foster parents.”
“I’m the one who found her,” Twilight dragged at last, seeming to be a bit hesitant at first, but then she struck a proud pose, becoming brave. “I’ll take her.”
Fluttershy and the nurse smiled wide at the news, while the others stared at their friend in slight shock; that including Spike, who’d been sitting there silently the whole time.
“What?” the dragon finally gapped. “We can’t take care of a foal!”
Twilight hesitated again for a few seconds, but then seemed to get proud again. “I’ll write Princess Celestia another letter. She’ll know what to do; after all she took care of Princess Luna when they were little.”
“That was thousands of years ago!” Spike protested again.
“It doesn’t matter. We have to try. As for us, we have to think of a name for her?” at that point, she turned from her draconic companion and turned to her friends.
Pinkie Pie seemed to be the first one to suggest something. “Paley Pants!”
Rarity shook her head. “We found her in a box of titanium, still breathing and… Slightly, alive. We should name her Titanium Heart!” Dash seemed to agree, slightly.
The girls threw in many different names, until Fluttershy pitched in (while getting close to fix the filly’s hair to look at least a little more decent) that the young mare smelled like the ocean.
They landed on the name Titanium Ocean (the nickname instantaneously turning out to be ‘Tiny’ when Spike wanted to add in, and the name was cast aside until the true name was deciphered, and, persistent to have a choice in something for once, Spike turned to the name Tiny again, and Rarity, trying to be fair to the baby dragon, confirmed it to be the official nickname of the filly.)
They wrote it down for the nurse and she went to a doctor with the sheet to have the official birth certificate made, and the foal’s ‘birth’ date was decided being the day she was found.
The girls spent the rest of the day there, discussing and preparing for Titanium Ocean’s life with Twilight and Spike in the library. They decided that when Twilight couldn’t take care of her, then she’d go to Rarity.
And if Rarity and Twilight were unavailable, she’d go to Fluttershy.
And if Rarity, Twilight and Fluttershy were unavailable, she’d stay with Applejack.
If all four were unavailable, she’d stay with Dash. And if Dash couldn’t take her, she’d ultimately have to be with Pinkie Pie.
If none of them could take her, they’d hire a foal sitter.
By the time they’d organized that and memorized it, the nurse told them that visiting hours were over, and that they had to leave.
“Titanium Ocean’s birth certificate will be out in two weeks… There are many more that have to be made. As you know, Ponyville is growing quickly, and so is its population… And so is the birthrate.”
The ponies understood, and left one by one out the door of the room and then exited the hospital. They all took the paths to their homes after saying their goodbyes and see you later’s.
But Spike couldn’t get his mind off of the situation. When Twilight was preparing for bed, he brought it up again.
“I can’t believe you claimed Tiny,” he grumbled, fixing his blanket on his pile of junk he called a bed.
“Well, who else was going to claim her? None of the girls seemed willing, or ready,” Twilight said, as if they were talking about nothing but sand. Her flat tone was probably just because she was just tired and ready to sleep.
“What are we going to do with a filly in the house?” Spike protested again.
“Come on Spike,” Twilight yawned, crawling into bed finally. “She’ll be a good asset to my studies, Celestia said so herself. Now go to sleep Spike… And can you turn off the light on your way to your bed?”
-
The next morning, the hospital called Twilight just as she was finishing up her breakfast (she was Tiny’s ‘in case of emergency’ number) to tell Twilight that “the filly Titanium Ocean is awake.”
Twilight’s ear pricked and a huge smile spread across her face. She gobbled up the rest of her breakfast and grabbed hold of Spike with her magical grip, causing him to drop his plate, which fell and shattered.
Twilight didn’t even care. “We’ll clean it up later Spike, come on!”
When they got there, Tiny was rested on her forelegs, her head up and staring out the window blankly. Her irises were a shiny silver-white, that weren’t exactly white or exactly gray.
“Hello,” Twilight greeted gently, and yet proud. Tiny gasped, her shiny eyes went wide, and she sat up in haste. Still being weak though, she had to keep herself from toppling over her own forelegs, in a second successful attempt to prop herself into a sitting position.
“Don’t worry,” Twilight said, attempting to be softer, holding out her hoof. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Titanium Ocean’s silver gaze switched from Twilight’s outstretched hoof to Twilight’s gleaming violet eyes as the lavender mare smiled a wide, inviting smile.
The pale filly hesitantly attempted to hold her hoof out in response, but instead fell over, too weak still to trust in only one foreleg to support her weight. Twilight gasped, and hurried over to help Tiny up.
Tiny, as soon as she saw Twilight rush to her aid, took it wrong, and found her strength to stumble to the other end of the bed; so far that she fell off of it with a loud squeal and a dull thunk that made Twilight recoil.
Slower to react, she went around to the other side of the bed, where Tiny was on her back, blinking blankly. Twilight put her hoof to her mouth to suppress a giggle. “Thought there was more bed there didn’t you?” she asked, and Tiny looked up at her and blinked.
For the first time after two attempts to refuse Twilight’s help, Tiny finally let her new caretaker help her to her wobbly hooves, then escort her back to her bed. Twilight smiled and fixed Tiny’s mane.
Tiny simply helped her by blowing out of her face then looking back at Twilight. Then she smiled, and Twilight smiled back.
“Welcome back to the world, Tiny,” she said.
