No Pedigree Save Chaos Chapter 1 [R/MLP]

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No Pedigree Save Chaos Chapter 1 [R/MLP]

Postby LawOhki » Sun Jan 06, 2019 5:55 pm

Ten Days from Arrival

Following the hard packed dirt path as it snaked its way up the hill, Ranma almost felt a sense of normality even though she wore the form of a talking pony. The woods were nice, the air was clean and fresh, and with barely a cloud in the bright blue sky. But there was nothing normal about how she was well and truly stuck as a female pony. Hot water did not activate her Jusenkyo curse and return her to male and the little monster that had brought her here had not yet reappeared.

Supposedly there were a lot of dangerous creatures that lived in the Everfree Forest, and she dearly hoped that some of them would cross her path so she could take out some of her frustrations on.

But no such beasties seemed inclined to cross her path.

‘Though,’ she glanced back at the dark blue guard unicorn mare following dutifully a short distance away. ‘What was her name? Olanver? No, Oleander, I bet she’d jump in and be annoying about it.’

Oleander noticed her attention and seemed to smile reassuringly before resuming her vigil for any possible threats. The unicorn wore the same style armor as the rest of the guards but included a short straight sword held securely in a simple scabbard strapped behind her left foreleg.

“Oh yea, she would get in the way,” Ranma mumbled to herself, jealous of the unicorns ability to casually manipulate objects with magic while her own attempts barely resulted in an embarrassingly small sputter of pink mana around her horn.

She hadn’t lost any noticeable strength, speed, or endurance with the change of form. Training to adapt to a quadrupedal form would take a significant amount of time, but while testing herself she had thought she had demonstrated to Celestia that she was very capable at defending herself. ‘But appearances!’ she sarcastically whined in her mind, holding up her right hoof intending to make a talking gesture with her hand before remembering she didn’t have fingers.

“This pony thing is stupid, and the alicorn thing is even more stupid,” she grumbled and kicked at a few stray rocks as she increased her pace. “I can’t even have bed head without some pony getting on my case.”

Zx

Oleander gave one last glance at the tree line further down the hill just for something to do as she kept track of the new alicorn of the castle. Everfree forest held more than its share of dangers, but not this close to the castle; or the small village Gaitlend that was also in the forest. How was she supposed to make a good impression when she couldn’t even speak to Ranma? ‘Poor thing can’t even speak Ponish. I wonder what land she hails from? How can an alicorn be so ignorant?’

At the crest of the hill, Ranma sat down to take in the view of the castle grounds far below them. As one of Celestia’s guards, it wasn’t often that she had reason to come visit Luna’s observatory. Only a handful of ponies ever made the trek out to use the massive telescope or to service the device and mechanisms that maneuvered it. The double doors leading inside were open and she could hear at least two voices conversing from inside so they had come at a good time if Ranma wanted to see more of it.

Not having wings herself, Oleander allowed herself to enjoy the elevated view that she was usually denied. To the north, she could even barely make out the floating pegasus city of Cloudsdale holding position alongside Mount Cantor.

Her new assignment was content to sit and enjoy the day for a long time, looking out pensively at Everfree Forest reaching out to the horizon.

‘Please, please don’t take off flying, I don’t want to have to gallop all the way back down this hill after you,’ she pleaded fervently when the young alicorn excitedly bounced back to her hooves and stretched her wings.

Oleander had just barely begun to consider how much of a pain it would be to try and follow Ranma when the alicorn appeared suddenly inside her personal space, their muzzles nearly touching. She barely stopped herself from shrieking in shock from Ranma’s surprise appearance so close, but couldn’t avoid the instinctive reaction to magically grasp the hilt of her sword ready to draw and deal with whatever threat had appeared.

Ranma bounced away and pointed animatedly in the direction of Mount Cantor, rapidly asking something in her strange language.

“Um--,” her ears laid back in trepidation. “I don’t know what you’re saying.”

The alicorn paused and groaned in frustration, “What?” she once again invaded her personal space, pressing against her side and trying to see from her own perspective to point directly at the city made of clouds next to the mountain. “Cloudsdale,” she answered as clearly as she could.

‘Hmm,’ she glanced at the telescope, not sure on it’s operation but there were ponies inside who would be. “Come with me,” she jerked her heads towards the observatory and trotted the short distance over to it.

“Greetings,” she called out upon finding a unicorn stallion on the lower floor near the base of the telescope and two pegasi at various positions among the giant machinery that turned the fully opened dome.

Everything was decorated with intricate moon designs in silver and navy. The doom high above with the doors closed displayed a full moon and as it opened would change phases until it became what it was now, a slim crescent. Taking up the majority of the space was the telescope that reached the full height of the structure. It’s exterior covered in glittering stars and subtle lines to denote constellations. Purely decorative rotating rings depicted shooting stars and the sun and moon. It’s what she had heard artsy ponies call a one of a kind work of art in Equestria.

“Greetings, to what do we owe this visit--,” the unicorn who was clearly the oldest of the three asked, adjusting the glasses that perched on his muzzle. “Corporal. Hopefully there’s no danger in the area.”

“Nothing like that,” she glanced behind to see that Ranma’s head was peeking out from the side of the doorway taking in the interior curiously. Oleander frowned and her horn glowed azure. Ranma yipped as she was lifted off the ground and swiftly carried up next to her, body surrounded by her azure magic.

The trio immediately bowed deeply to the new alicorn and Oleander softly deposited the surprised pony to the floor. “The Steward’s ward was wondering if the telescope could be turned to see Cloudsdale?”

The elderly unicorn quickly recovered from his bow, “It would require some recalibration but of course we could do it for her.”

“Thank you,” she allowed the trio to go about turning the building to face Mount Cantor and make some complicated looking adjustments to the place she thought they would look into. This kind of thing was something her sister would understand, while she just didn’t have a head for understanding how anything with more than two moving parts worked.

Ranma gave her a giggly happy smile before bounding off to pester the stallion as he carefully adjusted things. Before she galloped up the steps to see the gears and wheels that drove the dome mechanism.

‘Seems like I figured out a way to make a good impression,’ she smirked, watching Ranma be directed to look into the lens by the stallion unicorn. ‘And I’ll also have something to report back to Celestia that isn’t just well she walked up a hill. Bleh that’d be boring.’

zx

Four Days Later

Ranma jerked awake, quickly ducking her head underneath the covers to block out the bright sunbeam that hit her in the face. Shifting the leg she had nearly lost about so she could confirm that it was still there, she finally calmed down and relaxed. The pins and needles sensation rapidly vanishing. Turning away from the window, she settled back into the lumpy mattress and hoped to get a few more minutes of sleep before her alarm clock went off.

‘It’s like the sun itself rises just so it can blind me.’

Her room was in one of the tall towers rising up around the center keep, and had a single large window facing East. The scale and level of construction the ponies were able to achieve in order to make such a castle by themselves seemed absurd at first. But after two weeks of seeing their use of magic or ingenuity with raw brute strength, it no longer seemed so ridiculous.

From under the covers she heard her door swing open with a soft creak.

“Good morning!” Pine Berry’s cheery voice announced as the baby blue coated unicorn trotted into the room before she started to say more that Ranma didn’t understand. The unicorn was almost thirty years old but like most female ponies stood shorter than her by a small amount.

‘And there’s my alarm,’ she quickly rose up into a sitting position to respond, trying to tuck her tail away so she wasn’t painfully hauled out of bed by it once again by the unicorns magic. Had happened twice already and she wanted no further repeats. “Good morning,” she responded in Ponish trying to blink the sleep from her eyes.

Berry seemed to take no issue with how she had pronounced the words, and used her magic to pull the blanket off of her, and fold it carefully off to the side in one complicated movement. The unicorn then spared her with an expectant look. Ranma rolled out of the bed barely big enough for her to land on the floor with a big yawn. Berry’s lavender eyes traced around her face before summoning up a comb that she held before her and said some words that Ranma had learned were encouragement but she couldn’t remember exactly how it went.

Focusing on forming an aura around the brush, a faint pink glow appeared above and between her eyes where her horn was. The light blue aura currently around it turned more purple as her magic joined in holding it. Pine Berry released her hold leaving Ranma to hold it alone. Suddenly it felt like she was holding a several hundred kilogram weight from her neck. Struggling just to hold it in place, the unicorn finally took pity on her and ended the test by taking it from her.

Ranma angrily glared at the lightweight object that vexxed her so much and sat down in a huff. Every morning she failed this test even if she was slowly making progress. The first week of attempts, she had barely been able to manifest any visible sign of the magic she now possessed. Up until two days ago all she had done was make a pink aura, and now she had at least been able to hold it briefly.

“Good,” Pine Berry congratulated her, casually using it to brush through her mane and tail to help her be presentable quickly.

‘Only a few more weeks and then I can try that mirror thing Celestia mentioned and I’ll be home,’ she reassured herself, and then she wouldn’t have to put up with this babying.

The denial of her real gender was less annoying than how she was supposed to uphold some high standard of appearance simply because she was now an alicorn. All the cheerful colorful magical barnyard animals she was surrounded by were very helpful in reminding her of this, even if she couldn’t understand them most of the time.

At least if she could figure out the magic she was slowly gaining awareness of, she would be able to feel less awkward without hands. Celestia had been very helpful in trying to go over the basics with her, but all it had done was overload her with information. She failed to grasp most of the information save that it was like a new muscle she had to build up. Which wasn’t easy since she had never had this particular muscle.

Berry finished up smoothing out her mane quickly and gestured for her to go. “Breakfast,” she indicated.

“Yes, breakfast,” she answered and happily headed out to go visit the dining hall for the best part of her morning.

To get to the dining hall required that she go down a long spiral staircase that still set her on edge to travel face first. Even if the entire thing was designed to accommodate a species of quadruped she currently could be counted amongst. Getting to the right level, two earth ponies going the same direction hastily stepped out of the way and performed small bows to her waiting for her to pass.

“Good morning,” she greeted and quickly went past so they would stop. Both immediately returned the greeting before going about their business.

Inside the dining hall, she easily found Celestia waiting along with Luna sitting to her side along a rectangular table only used by the two sisters. Well except for her now. Pine Berry left her to seek out her own meal while Ranma took a seat across from Luna. A plate was already waiting for her piled reasonably high with human looking pancakes and various fruits.

Luna looked like she hadn’t slept at all last night, a perfectly normal occurrence Ranma had found out. The dark blue pony seemed to take that moon mark on her flank seriously as she was the only nocturnal one save a handful of castle guards keeping watch. Unlike her tired younger sister, Celestia looked as perfectly immaculate as she always did, the very image of refined equine royalty.

“Good morning,” she greeted the two with one of the few phrases she could pull off.

“Good morning,” Celestia responded like the cheerful morning pony that she was.

“Morning,” Luna mumbled tiredly, barely keeping her head up as she used her magic to fork more food into her mouth.

Not wanting to embarrass herself publicly trying to use magic to manipulate a fork or wanting to fumble with a much larger one some ponies used with their front legs, she leaned forward and just used her mouth to dig into her stack of pancakes. “These are so good,” she commented between mouthfuls, curious if they would have tasted as good if she was human. Neither sister responded, both having tuned out her use of Japanese unless they were addressed directly.

‘I wonder if I should try to get them to learn japanese?’ she paused long enough to lick at some syrup that was stubbornly sticking to her short muzzle. ‘But why would they want to learn a language only I know? I’m not the best teacher and I don’t really got the time to learn how to. Suppose I could ask if they’re interested.’

Hearing Celestia cast the translation spell for the first time in four days, her ears perked up, and she forgot about asking if they wanted to learn her language. “Did you find anything else in your library about getting me home?” Ranma asked hopefully. “How ‘bout just back to my real body?” Though food might become an issue if she did get to be human again. Pony food was not exactly made of the same stuff as human even if it often looked similar.

“Sorry, we haven’t been able to find anything else we can try. You’ll need to have patience for the one I told you about. But we’ll only be able to try it in three weeks, after that it’s another two and a half years before it opens again.”

“Oh-- alright,” she sighed and no longer felt like finishing her breakfast. But she would soldier on so that none of it would go to waste, maybe see about getting seconds, no reason to be rude to the cooks.

“As for the reason why I activated the spell, your aerial escapades while learning to fly by yourself have attracted some interest. Captain Lockheed has been kind enough to volunteer himself to give you a lesson in proper flight,” Celestia explained.

“What? I’m getting the hang of it,” she half heartedly protested, ears laying back and looking away evasively. Ranma had no clue when she would be human again, getting to do cool stuff like fly or learn magic were the best ways most enjoyable ways to keep herself busy. Even if she made Pantyhose Taro look graceful in the air.

Lockheed’s deep authority filled voice responded, “And I’m sure with a little help you WILL have the hang of it.”

Luna was awoken from where she had fallen asleep with a start and Ranma nearly jumped in surprise, not having noticed the sea green pegasus standing stoically off to the side, most of his armor removed except for a decorative red sash wrapped around his neck and tied to his front right leg, a familiar stone that Luna usually wore resting where his neck and body met.

‘When did he get there?’

“I’m honored to be given the responsibility,” the pegasus stallion politely inclined his head to her and Celestia.

“Thank you, Captain. I’ll send Ranma along to meet you in the private courtyard momentarily,” Celestia instructed and he briskly saluted before trotting off at a measured pace.

“Thank you,” she whispered to Celestia, once she was sure the only other pony who could understand her wouldn’t over hear.

“Nonsense, you’ve been hiding in the castle so much I’m worried you might become part of the decor,” Celestia laughed lightly to herself.

“I shouldn’t keep him waiting then,” she said eagerly on her way out the door before she remembered she had to return her plate to the kitchen.

zx

Ranma maneuvered quickly through the castle on her way to the back courtyard, nearly running into many of the ponies who worked in it on the way, eager to find out how to take to the skies properly. Passing by a window with a view out at the main courtyard, she was impressed by the number of ponies that had come today to do business at the Castle of the Two Sisters. Not as much as when Celestia had some big wig over a few days ago but there were still a lot of colorful bodies on the grounds.

Finding a window facing the right direction and locating Lockheed who must have flown out a higher window, she leapt out and used her wings to glide semi-gracefully down to the dirt below. Her landing was a lot less jarring than if she had been human, and she bounced a couple times from the momentum before continuing with a spring in her step.

“A solid beginners glide,” Lockheed announced, having watched her leap. “But you relied too much on your wings to keep you aloft, ignoring maintaining posture to let your body dangle like a useless piece of meat.”

Ranma was taken aback by the blunt description of what she had thought was a reasonably successful use of wings. But at the same time it made her even more eager, actual direct instruction of how to do something felt so refreshing after being surrounded by so much politeness. “What’s the right way then?”

“We’ll get to that, first things first, wings up and hold em,” he stood up straighter and stretched his own wings out.

She copied his movement and held her wings out to the side. He relaxed his stance and approached, stretching out his right wing to try and push hers around. Lockheed gave a satisfied noise after finishing pushing each one forward and back then up and down.

“Solid muscle tone, feather condition is-- acceptable but could use more regular and thorough preening, and you have enough confidence to leap from three stories up. Impressive for a former earth pony. Let’s get started with the basics and break those bad habits I’ve seen you developing. And then we’ll start on the obstacle course,” he said after finishing his brief inspection.

‘Wonder what he would think if I told him I could have done that jump without wings?’ she mused briefly before paying close attention when he began to lecture and demonstrate proper wing positions.

Zx

Ranma hovered several meters off the ground, feeling a small amount of strain from using new wing muscles so much. It was easy to ignore the fatigue because she was gaining a lot of confidence from the different drills Lockheed had came up with. Though she had not expected for him to create a complex obstacle course in the training field just outside the castle walls out of puffy white clouds. Pegasi having control over the weather and manipulating elements of it was something she had learned soon after arrival, but it always slipped her mind.

In terms of teacher, Lockheed was a wonderful change of pace compared to the wise old human masters she had learned under. He gave clear instructions, didn’t patronize her with empty praise, and corrected her when she wasn't doing something right instead of repeatedly making her fail until she deciphered whatever vague lesson he had intended.

“You’ve done really well with what my kids did when they were five for fun.” Lockheed swooped past her at a leisurely speed. “Now I want you to try to get through all the hoops as fast as you can, then if you’re up to it, a barrel roll over that cloud at the end,” he explained and flew over to land on a small cloud he had placed halfway down the course off to the side. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Eager to show off, Ranma shot forward like a furry missile through the first two large rings, weaving around small cloud obstacles between them without slowing. The next required her to tuck her limbs in order to fit through. Immediately past was a cloud she had to suddenly throw out her wings and swerve to avoid, almost losing control. Flapping hard, she rounded a corner through the next ring. Climbing, she had to tuck her body in again to fit through a ring placed high above the rest before initiating a sharp dive to reach the next.

Coming up towards the large cloud blocking the last ring, she glided briefly before with one final flap shot upwards with enough speed to carry her over. Adjusting her wings to create more lift on her right side, she jerked suddenly and nose dived directly into the cloud to get stuck in the cotton candy like substance facing straight down.

“I’ve been stuck in a lot of stupid embarrassing positions before,” she grumbled, feebly kicking her still exposed hind legs in the open air as she struggled to escape her yielding precipitation based prison. “But I think this is one of the worst.”

Zx

Later

‘This place is kind of creepy at night,’ Ranma stopped and sat down to look upwards at one of the beautiful tapestries that hung from the high ceilings in the main hall. A stylized version of Luna posed at the bottom with a night sky stretching up above her to reach the actual sky through the glass ceiling. ‘Pretty though,’ she had never seen the stars look so big and bright in the sky as they did on this world.

Luna’s voice saying something she didn’t understand in her ear made Ranma jump up halfway to the ceiling. Hovering there, she glared down at the smirking dark pony who had somehow snuck up on her and was now giggling at her.

‘How did she sneak up on me?’ Ranma seethed, unable to walk around in this hall without producing loud sounds due to the acoustics. ‘Even as a human without these damn hooves, I couldn’t get across this place without making a noise.’ She snorted and dropped back to the floor with a loud clatter, trying to act like nothing had happened.

“Ha ha, sneak up on me, fun times. I’d get you back but I don’t own a castle,” she told the bigger alicorn who had no clue what she was saying, and looked away with a huff.

“Correct, you don’t own a castle,” Luna answered, emerald green eyes twinkling with amusement.

“But you didn’t-- say the spell,” Ranma nervously pointed a hoof at Luna.

“Sister loves her pomp and circumstance,” Luna answered with a roll of her eyes. “You’re up quite late, should you not be asleep like the others?” she asked a bitter edge to her voice.

“Couldn’t sleep,” she answered somewhat evasively, muscles in her back leg unconsciously tensing and Luna nodded knowingly like she knew that Ranma had had a nightmare. “It’s too peaceful here, I need more crazed idiots screaming for my head to get a good night's sleep,” she quickly added.

“If you wish, you could come visit the forest with me?” Luna offered before hastily adding. “Not that I am a crazed idiot! But there is little to do about the castle until the morn. And while Captain Lockheed is an accomplished day flyer he knows little of how to deal with the still air under my moon-- and I could give you some instruction-- if you wished,” Luna awkwardly smiled, lips twitching from the strain of holding it.

“Just out to the forest?” Ranma asked and raised an eyebrow, getting the sense that Luna didn’t ask many others to go with her anywhere.

“I didn’t mean to Everfree.”

Zx

Ignoring the shiver elicited by the cool night air cutting through her fur coat, Ranma felt giddy skimming the tops of trees. Thoroughly enjoying the chance to fly without restrictions. The moon was almost full with barely any clouds letting her see almost everything now that her eyes had adjusted to the soft light. They had covered a huge distance, well past the borders of Everfree before following a large river cutting through a grassy plain that took them to a different forest.

“This way,” Luna buzzed past her with an impressive burst of speed and arc down into the forest.

Ranma recovered from the wake of Luna’s passing before following with less grace and speed, finding Luna settling her wings against her back next to a small quick flowing stream. “Is this where you run off to at night?” Ranma asked, breathing heavily from the extra exertion needed to keep up with Luna’s quick pace.

“To the White Tail Woods? Not often, I get restless around the castle so I travel all over Equestria, though obviously not all in one night,” she answered and dipped her muzzle into the water to start drinking.

“I get why you’re tired in the morning,” Ranma also took her opportunity to get a drink from the refreshing stream. Coming up with a gasp she shook her head to get rid of the excess. ‘No contest, Equestria has the best tasting water.’

“Follow me,” Luna didn’t wait before bounding over the stream and through the woods.

Ranma traced Luna’s path with far less speed, eyes struggling with the moon hidden above the trees. Coming up to stand next to the much larger alicorn at a tree line facing the big river they had followed on the way here. In the distance, a mountain range rose up slowly from the plains with the moon hanging overhead.

“Tired?” Luna jokingly teased, trotting out into the field to roll around in some long grass hooves splaying in the air as she got comfortable and relaxed. Disturbing the grass caused a swarm of fireflies to launch themselves into the air, filling the area with pulsing flashes of green light.

“Is the rest of Equestria like this?” Ranma asked breathlessly as she followed slowly enjoying the sight of all the insects putting on a show. ‘I’m going to have to go track down that Cloudsdale place so I can see it up close.’

“Equestria has much wonder and danger,” Luna paused in rolling around only briefly to answer. “Most ponies only care to see the beauty of the day, always sleeping through the night.”

“Well they’re missing out,” Ranma replied watching watching the fireflies with rapt interest before they began to return to the grass. Luna favored her with an intense but unreadable look before with a snort she returned to rolling on the ground. “You look ridiculous,” Ranma said returning the snort and dropped into a sitting position with her legs kicked out to one side.

“I look nothing of the sort,” Luna righted herself up into a lying position with her legs tucked underneath her. “You’re going to be very stiff tomorrow if you don’t give yourself a nice big stretch,” she explained beginning to pick at some grass to eat. “I love coming here, it has the best sweetgrass in all of Equestria.”

“It’s just grass,” Ranma half heartedly made a disgusted face. It wasn’t exactly like she was in a bakery but her traitorous equine nose found the smell appealing.

“Try some, it’s so much better when fresh.”

“Humans don’t graze in a field,” Ranma’s nostrils flared as she took a more deep appraising sniff of the wonderful smelling grass before quickly jerking her head back and shaking her head. “Who knows if that little monster changed me all the way. I could still have human insides. I’d rather not get sick,” her stomach chose that moment to betray her with a loud growl.

“You have eaten hay regularly,” Luna stared at her like she was a moron. “You have the body of a pony, inside and out, you will not get sick or else you would have already.”

Ranma winced and looked away, her mood souring the moment Luna so bluntly summarized the situation.

“I-- am sorry. I know that your true form is quite different. It was rude of me to presume you--,” Luna haltingly apologized.

“Whatever,” She interrupted Luna who seemed as uncomfortable making an apology as Ranma was with discussing her currently being the wrong species. “I’m just being dumb about something that doesn’t even matter. Food is food.”

“To some ponies it does matter,” Luna quickly tried to switch the tone of the conversation, changing her voice to sound like an uptight snob. “Eating from the ground? How uncouth!” she bemoaned dramatically and brought a hoof to her forehead before rolling into her side like she was fainting. “The very foundation of Equestria shall shudder and crumble if there is not separation between the food we can find from the ground and a plate to serve it with.”

“Are you calling me a snob? You? Who has a castle with servants? Call me-- a snob?” she asked incredulously.

“You doth protest a great deal something I did not say,” Luna smirked.

Ranma glared at the dark blue colored alicorn who remained relaxed and unconcerned. “Fine,” her head ducked down to grab a mouthful of sweetgrass. “Happy? I did a pony thing,” she mumbled, having to let some it fall from her mouth because she had taken too much. Ranma didn’t have a palate to discern much when it came to this style pony food but it did taste better than other grass or hay she had eaten.

“My happiness wasn’t dependent on you having a snack,” Luna’s smirk turned into a genuine smile. “Ooh, let us play a game. You have stars on your world, right? I shall point to a constellation and you shall tell me if there is a similar one in your sky.”

“I don’t want to play that game,” Ranma responded quickly in a small voice. Feeling an intensely painful ache in her chest at the thought of home as she looked up at the unfamiliar stars twinkling brightly against the dark.

Luna visibly wilted like she had just done something awful. “I fear I shall never succeed in being a good friend if I can but make you sad and agitated.”

“What are you talking about? I just don’t want to talk about home. You’re a great friend. I’d be in a lot of trouble if you and your sister weren’t helping me out. I wouldn’t even know what I was,” she scoffed at the idea that Luna was a bad friend. There were enough of those waiting for her back on Earth so she was a fairly solid expert in that. “I feel bad knowing I can never repay you two.”

“So then we are-- friends?” Luna’s voice wavered nervously and she was biting her lower lip.

“Of course, but it doesn’t seem like I’d be able to visit very often if the thing Celestia was talking about works,” Ranma lowered herself to lay down, letting her tired wings relax.

“Wonderful!” Luna bounced over to hug her around the neck with her front legs. “We shall be the bestest of friends!”

“Can’t-- breathe!” she gasped and flailed her limbs.

Zx

Pine Berry hummed happily as she entered the room of her young charge. A grumpy young and completely uncivilized alicorn who didn’t appreciate her efforts. Who as usual was buried underneath a blanket hiding from the day. “Come on now, up with you,” she levitated away the blanket and folded it with a simple spell. Ranma continued to lay lifelessly on the bed.

“Still tuckered out from Lockheed’s instruction, hmm?”

She gave Ranma a bit of a warning nudge with her magic but the red alicorn ignored her. ‘This again? I’ll not be known as the mare who let an alicorn get her cutie mark for laying in bed wasting the day.’’

Taking a firm hold of the young mare’s tail, she yanked her out of bed to drop to the floor. Ranma’s response was to mumble some nonsense in her foreign language before snuggling into the stone floor completely oblivious. Pine Berry tapped a hoof repeatedly in irritation before noticing a small note pinned to the end of the bed.

‘The steward of the moon?’ she wondered at Luna’s signature. ‘Ranma was up much of the night, allow her to sleep. We will inform mine sister.’

“Oh, well now I seem silly for missing that,” she grimaced and quickly levitated Ranma back up into bed with a little strain on her lifting capabilities, and tucked her back in. ‘I’ll need to speak with Celestia about this, accompanying her sister or no, the poor thing shouldn’t be getting exposed to such dangers.’

Zx

Next Day

‘Is it lunchtime yet?’ Ranma’s stomach made a strangled gurgling noise, laying on a comfy cushion rhythmically tapping her front hooves against the stone floor while her folded wings twitched unconsciously to the same rhythm. ‘I miss hands, I miss hands.’ Sometimes she tried to keep a musical beat she remembered and just generally made it sound like some pony was dashing about the library.

Sure it was barely ten in the morning but sitting around as Celestia read from books in the castles giant library was boring. Being that this was not a public space the library was almost always completely quiet. ‘Why’d she even ask for me to come here when she’s just going to stick her nose in a book?’

“If you’re bored,” Celestia started as she floated a book down in front of her. “This one is mostly pictures,” the mare offered, sitting on a chair in front of a desk with several books propped up on stands before her.

“This looks like a babies book,” Ranma leveled an annoyed look at the white alicorn. “Why would you even have this?”

“Because it’s appropriate to your level of literacy,” the aurora maned alicorn answered teasingly.

Ranma favored Celestia with a sour look. “I can read and write just fine-- just not in your language.”

“I have some books that would help with that as well,” Celestia summoned forth more reading material.

“That seems like a waste, I’ll be going home and won’t need it,” she quickly waved off needing to learn any more Ponish, her declaration not sounding as confident as she had wanted. But she had to hold onto that hope and learning this worlds language seriously would be tantamount to giving in.

Celestia nodded as though she was in agreement but Ranma caught the worried look in her eyes. “Are you likely to have a horn or wings when you return home?” the alicorn asked, her horn glowing as she summoned back all the materials she had placed in front of her to a small bookshelf filled with similarly bound material nearby. “Or are your aptitudes simply less suited for academic pursuits?”

Ranma shifted uncomfortably before answering, “I’ve been thinking a lot on how I don’t have a great record for fixing magical problems. Why does all the magic on Earth have to suck so hard?” she sighed. “It’d be great if I get both changed back and return home at the same time, but I can’t rely on that. So there’s a very real possibility if I can, I’ll get back home-- as this, and if that happens then I know I’ll need every advantage I can get so I can start working on fixing that.”

“That seems to be a very reasonable outlook to have for somepony in your position,” Celestia paused before her horn glowed again to open a drawer at her desk and deposit a thin brown book to place in front of her. “I have been very impressed with how quickly you have learned anything you have set your mind to. So while Ponish may not interest you, maybe you would be interested in learning to write with your magic? Maybe keep a diary of your thoughts? Horn writing is an excellent way to work on your fine object manipulation and that will be a useful skill on your world, no?”

“That sounds useful,” Ranma fumbled with her hooves to open up the journal, because diary was too girly, to find it filled with empty pages.

“I also want to see what your language looks like in written form, so it’s not a purely altruistic suggestion,” Celestia laughed softly to herself, slipping off her chair move over and take a seat next to where she was laying, a quill following behind her to come to rest across the journal.

‘Gee, no pressure,’ she breathed in through her teeth, Celestia looming over her expectantly. Struggling to lift the pen with an aura of pink magic, her horn vibrated from the effort creating an electric tingle. But the quill did move, jerking into the air with several small dots of black ink dropping from it due to the unsteady motions.

“Gently,” Celestia instructed, her yellow aura created an outline around her own steadying the quill. “You’re galloping when you only need to walk.”

Ranma almost lost concentration at the odd sensation of feeling Celestia’s mana directly yet indirectly at the same time, the quill dripping a large blot of ink on the page before stabilizing. In a way it reminded her of the aura martial artists could create to intimidate others, but Celestia’s was the opposite, like the warmth of the sun. Reassuring, calm, and confident.

“It’s not the amount of power you conjure, it’s your clear intent,” Celestia leaned forward so that they were closer in height. “Start with a straight line, see the quill performing the action in your mind then make it happen.”

Ranma wasn’t able to make a straight line but she was able to make an uncontrolled scribble down half the page. “Oops.”

Celestia’s aura retreated leaving Ranma to hold the quill alone. “No oops, you’re already far above most young unicorns who have had their abilities since birth. Telekinesis is a learned skill not an innate one,” the white alicorn patted her on the back with a wing. “I’ll return soon. See what you can do it on your own,” she added reassuringly.

Ranma’s muzzle scrunched up in thought, straining to keep her tenuous grasp on the writing utensil. This was like trying to learn how to use her hands to write all over again, except the mechanism was completely different, and lacked a human analog to relate it to. ‘Nothing to do but practice,’ she nodded to herself and set to work.

Most of the first page was filled with clunky marks before she started to get the hang of big strokes and had finally, if very clumsily, written her name in big characters at the bottom of the first page. Which she felt reasonably proud of considering how alien the action was to perform.

She looked up briefly when a unicorn stallion walked by pulling a cart with a harness wrapped around his chest. He gave her a small bow of his head before using magic to unload almost a dozen small cushions, arranging them like seats in a classroom. Ranma watched in confusion wondering what he was doing before there was a rapid and disorganized clatter of tiny hooves from the library entrance.

Celestia had returned with a group of ten small children who were following behind her excitedly. The colorful group of various pony races all looked around the same age with a pair of pegasi that looked like twins standing taller than the rest. ‘Oh my pony kids are adorable,’ Ranma gulped and rose to a sitting position inadvertently drawing their attention. ‘Their vision must be based on movement,’ she realized in horror.

“Children, please say hello to Ranma, she’s an alicorn like me,” Celestia entreated, sounding far too amused at her reaction.

“Hello, Miss Ranma,” the group enthusiastically greeted, a phrase that Ranma recognized even if it was in Ponish.

“Hello,” Ranma returned forcing herself to use the Ponish version, feeling foolish for her brief shock of seeing pony children for the first time. They were just kids after all.

“Now, why don’t you all take a seat and we’ll get started, I’m sure Ranma would love to play with you all afterwards,” Celestia instructed, long legs carrying her over to the front of the small cushions. The kids all made happy noises and clamored to get the nearest spot and any who didn’t moved themselves closer.

“Um, what is this?” Ranma asked her benefactor, happy that the group was suitably distracted by Celestia and weren’t badgering her but worried about the promise of her getting involved.

“Their teacher is sick unfortunately, so they are here at the castle with their parents. I thought it’d be a nice change of routine to tell them a story and maybe play some games afterwards,” Celestia answered, sounding positively giddy at the opportunity.

“Ah, guess I’ll just be over here working on writing then.”

“Alright children, who here has heard the story of Melvin the manticore?” Celestia grandly asked while holding up a large book, an image of a winged lion with a scorpion tail on the cover.

Zx

Later

Lockheed walked out onto the training field, his full armor clanking lightly with each step. He knew he shouldn’t be worried but he couldn’t help himself anytime his twins spent time here at the castle out of his watch. Colts and fillies could be a right terror under the proper conditions. But he was obviously worried for nothing, all the children were held in rapt attention as Celestia spoke.

Ranma was laying in the grass opposite the other alicorn, looking trapped by kids who were competing to see who could be cuddled up closest to her. Hearing his approach, many tiny ears swiveled in his direction while their focus remained on Celestia.

“Excuse me, Steward,” he bowed to her, interrupting when she was at a natural pause.

“Hello, Captain,” Celestia greeted him warmly.

“Father!” both of his sons happily exclaimed, pushing other foals roughly as they excitedly bounced over to greet him.

“I hope they were on their best behavior,” he briefly ducked down to affectionately nuzzle the two colts. “Your mother will hear about it otherwise.”

“Vapor and Stratos were perfect little gentlecolts,” Celestia answered and the twins beamed at the praise.

“Thank you for watching them,” he bowed his head to her respectfully, nudging his twins to do the same. “It is an honor to be gifted your time.”

“Thank you, Steward. Thank you Miss Ranma,” the pair said in unison.

“It’s our honor and our joy to take care of the wonderful children of those who take care of us,” Celestia answered him while using her magic to pinch his son’s cheeks. “But it is around that time, so let’s all head to the kitchen and get some snacks so we can spoil your dinners,” Celestia playfully suggested.

“Aww,” the twins whined at the thought of missing fancy castle food.

“Come on boys, let’s get you home,” he bowed once again to Celestia as he left, both colts happily bouncing along at his side. “So what did you do today?” he asked, noticing that they were both far less energetic than usual.

“Celestia told us the story about when Luna met Melvin,” Stratos answered. “He’s a manticore and was really scary-- he uh kept ponies locked up cause he thought they were-- stealing from him.”

“But then Luna found out she could talk to him!” Vapor butted in. “And then he even helped build the castle, cause he was nice not mean.”

‘I’ve told them this story and they never remembered a word,’ he forced a smile. “Was that it?”

“Then we got to play with miss Ranma, but she can’t really talk right so the Steward said we could play tag. That doesn’t require no words,” Vapor started.

“But she was SO fast!”

“We couldn’t catch her at all!” Vapor exclaimed. “And then sometimes she’d let us catch her, we could tell she did,” Vapor nodded to himself.

“Do you think we can be fast like her someday?”

“With hard work, I taught her after all,” he answered while stretching out his wings.

“Ya but you’re slow, dad,” Stratos scoffed. “She was so fast and she didn’t even have to use her wings.”

“This old stallion is still pretty quick, let’s see if you two can beat me home, I’ll give you my dessert if you can,” Lockheed didn’t even receive a verbal response, the two launching themselves towards home as fast as their tiny wings could carry them.

zx

Ranma paused on her way up the spiral staircase to shake herself out, fur still damp from her bath, and hoping not to get used to the feeling. Arriving at the apex of the tallest tower, she entered the open doorway directly at the top of the steps and knocked on the heavy wooden door carrying Celestia’s sun mark.

“Um, Celestia?” she glanced side to side, not seeing the white alicorn anywhere in the circular room that took up the entirety of the top two floors of the tower.

The lower floor was a lounge area with big carpet in the center of the floor near a substantially sized hearth recessed into a decorative mantel that reached all the way up through the second floor to heat the entire room. To the right were curved steps up to the second floor loft where Celestia’s bed was. A small library of books lined the wall underneath the steps. To the left was an open exit to a balcony overlooking the castle grounds and next to the bookshelf was a doorway to Celestia’s private bath.

Celestia’s head peaked back into the room from the balcony. “Over here, come quickly you’re just in time,” her multi-colored mane briefly whipped into view as her head vanished.

“For?” she asked, quirking one eyebrow as she approached in curiosity. ‘Guess the spell hasn’t worn off yet.’

“So we can set the sun together,” Celestia answered, looking out from the balcony at the sun that seemed frozen unwilling to touch the horizon.

“You mean watch the sun set?” Ranma asked in confusion at the wording, right ear flopping down, and rearing up to rest her front legs on the railing that was too high for her to easily look over. It was a pretty sight from so far up, the sun bathing Everfree forest in a warm orange glow.

“Obviously you’ll watch, but if I don’t lower the sun on time, Luna will be most upset,” Celestia giggled to herself as if she knew from experience.

Ranma’s other ear flopped down as she tried to figure out if there was something wrong with the translation spell. “I didn’t exactly get the best grades in science class, and I am just a human from a different dimension, not normally a magical pony, but even I know that you can’t move the sun.”

“How else would it move across the sky?” the white alicorn asked rhetorically, as if she was explaining something obvious.

“It doesn’t, we’re the ones that are spinning, and the sun stays in place.”

“The sun may exist at the center of the solar system for humans from a different dimension. And I am certainly interested in hearing more about how such a system functions,” Celestia shifted over to be closer. “But maybe this will make it easier to understand,” her horn glowed a brighter yellow than Ranma had ever seen and she leaned in to be flank to flank.

Ranma froze as Celestia shared a small connection of her aura as she reached out towards the sun with a spell. There was a surge of immense warmth and power that made her jump in shock, breaking her connection to Celestia’s aura. She quickly backpedaled into the room, tripping over the edge of a carpet to land painfully on her tail.

“I’m sorry, I’ve only ever done that with Luna before, I didn’t think it could be painful for another alicorn,” Celestia asked in concern. The sun obediently beginning to set behind her as the spell took affect.

“That was--,” Ranma fell over to one side, tucking her right leg up to her chest while holding herself with her left.

“Too much, I should have known you were far too inexperienced to be exposed to that level of magic,” Celestia’s face fell, purple eyes staring at the floor.

“AMAZING!” Ranma jumped high into the air, wings fluttering excitedly at the apex before dropping to the floor to bounce excitedly around a shocked Celestia. “How did you even figure out how to do that? Or train for it? Why do you even need to do it? Did someone do it before you did? Do you have to do it all the time? Can anyone else take over? Wait, that means Luna controls the moon, this definitely explains why you two have a castle!” She skidded to a stop in front of Celestia, body humming with excitement, and expectantly waiting for answers.

Celestia blinked her purple eyes multiple times processing her rapid fire questions.

“You’re this worlds Amaterasu,” Ranma gasped loudly before the alicorn could speak and she hurriedly bowed deeply, almost falling over from the unfamiliar motion. “I had no idea you were a goddess, Celestia-sama.”

Ranma was starting to get a little wobbly in her position from waiting before Celestia finally responded.

“Ranma, what are you doing?” Celestia asked with a soft giggle. “I’m not a goddess.”

“You’re not?” she asked and gave up her attempt at reverence to sit and look up at Celestia.

“Powerful and long lived, yes,” Celestia used a wing to pat her on the head as she walked by into her room to lay down on the thin cushion positioned in front of the unlit fireplace. “Divine? No, well-- no more divine than you are.”

“But I’m not,” she protested with one last glance out the balcony to where the last rays of the sun were finally disappearing over the horizon. “If I hadn’t felt it,” Ranma put a hoof to her chest. “I wouldn’t have believed you,” she quickly took a deep breath trying to center herself, traveling to a different reality felt like less of a seismic shift to her perspective than knowing that the two alicorns she lived with moved the sun and moon. ‘I hadn’t even noticed them doing it, what else have I missed?’

Celestia’s mouth quirked to the side deep in thought, a thin pulse of magic traveling up her horn led to the fireplace roaring to life. “Come sit, I think learning more about how Equestria works may ease your mind. Our control of celestial bodies may seem less daunting if I answer some of your questions.”

‘I hope so,’ she dragged her hooves accepting Celestia’s offer. ‘If she can’t help me get home, and she can move the sun, just how powerful was that thing that brought me here?’ she wondered fearfully.

Celestia smiled reassuringly before beginning. “It would have been easy for you to miss because of Everfree Forests unique ecosystem, but the rest of Equestria requires ponies to maintain it. Without earth ponies to tend to the land we would have no food as the plants would wither and die. They wouldn’t be able to do this without the pegasi who control the weather or the unicorns who move the seasons along.”

“What?” she asked incredulously.

“Did that not translate correctly?”

“No-- I guess it did, go on,” she tried to add that new information to the pile in her mind that would need to be worked through later. Having purposely avoided finding out more about this world past her immediate surrounding now made her feel like she had missed important details about the wider world.

“A group of unicorns used to shepherd the sun and moon. But the strain was too much and was draining them of their magic. Our mentor, Star Swirl encouraged us to try believing with our more potent magic we would be able to handle the strain. It worked out so well that we each received our cutie marks,” Celestia finished proudly, lifting a wing and looking back at her sun mark.

‘Wow, that’s a girly sounding name.’ Ranma had been wondering about the flank markings but it wasn’t until she saw the children that she had realized it wasn’t something they weren't born with. “Oh right, what’s up with those? That’s what I came to ask about.”

“Cutie marks? They are an expression of what brings a pony their greatest joy. Often, like with mine it’s a special talent. Some have obvious meanings while others are vague.”

“So-- shouldn’t I have one for martial arts? Or punching my old man in the face after he did something stupid? Cause that always made me feel really good,” she giggled to herself.

Celestia grimaced and laughed nervously. “Assuming that you are capable of receiving one, perhaps enjoying violence against your father is not what will cause its manifest.”

“Aww,” she whined but feeling better knowing that Celestia was not in fact a goddess she may have offended.

“I think this is the most you’ve ever spoken of your family,” the white alicorn looked pensive for a moment. “Luna is my only family and we’ve never been apart, so I can only imagine what you’re going through, but I really do hope you can get back to them.”

“Thanks,” Ranma stared down at the floor with her wings twitching. “And I just like to complain about my Pop. He might be greedy, shortsighted, and lazy but he’s always been my only family,” she shrugged her shoulders, avoiding the complicated mess that was her mother. Or Akane who occupied a very complex but important part of her life.

“Would you tell me about him? He sounds interesting,” Celestia asked adjusting herself into a more comfortable position.

“I don’t know if anyone has ever called my old man interesting,” she laughed to herself and slid forward to lay down on her stomach. “Lots of other things though.”
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Re: No Pedigree Save Chaos Chapter 1 [R/MLP]

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:27 pm

One tiny little problem. "... it wasn’t something they weren't born with." That's a double negative, and a confusing one at that. You could say "... it was something they weren't born with." but I'd rather use "... it wasn't something they were born with."

I'm getting jealous. I'm far more into Steven Universe than I am into My Little Pony. No disputing of taste, but Steven speaks to me in a way the ponies don't; your mileage may vary. But there is no denying, there is a LOT more good ponyfiction than there are Stevenfics. I'm not sure of the reasons, but I suspect it's the far larger cast of ponies, able to fill a far wider range of roles in a story.

Luck of the draw, I guess.
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Re: No Pedigree Save Chaos Chapter 1 [R/MLP]

Postby LawOhki » Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:01 pm

Ellen Kuhfeld wrote:One tiny little problem. "... it wasn’t something they weren't born with." That's a double negative, and a confusing one at that. You could say "... it was something they weren't born with." but I'd rather use "... it wasn't something they were born with."

Fixed in my copy

I'm getting jealous. I'm far more into Steven Universe than I am into My Little Pony. No disputing of taste, but Steven speaks to me in a way the ponies don't; your mileage may vary. But there is no denying, there is a LOT more good ponyfiction than there are Stevenfics. I'm not sure of the reasons, but I suspect it's the far larger cast of ponies, able to fill a far wider range of roles in a story.

Luck of the draw, I guess.

Fandoms will do as fandoms will.

To me SU feels more like a story where I'm waiting to find out what is supposed to happen. MLP feels more open ended and like it wants to be more.
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Re: No Pedigree Save Chaos Chapter 1 [R/MLP]

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:34 pm

LawOhki wrote:To me SU feels more like a story where I'm waiting to find out what is supposed to happen. MLP feels more open ended and like it wants to be more.

That sounds reasonable. MLP has more characters, more territories to explore, thus more stories to be written.
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Re: No Pedigree Save Chaos Chapter 1 [R/MLP]

Postby LawOhki » Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:17 pm

Ellen Kuhfeld wrote:That sounds reasonable. MLP has more characters, more territories to explore, thus more stories to be written.

MLP also brings out the jerkoffs, like the one who's threatening to me on ff.net if I don't immediately remove any "pony" content.
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Re: No Pedigree Save Chaos Chapter 1 [R/MLP]

Postby Spica75 » Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:43 am

Ellen Kuhfeld wrote:One tiny little problem. "... it wasn’t something they weren't born with." That's a double negative, and a confusing one at that. You could say "... it was something they weren't born with." but I'd rather use "... it wasn't something they were born with."

I'm getting jealous. I'm far more into Steven Universe than I am into My Little Pony. No disputing of taste, but Steven speaks to me in a way the ponies don't; your mileage may vary. But there is no denying, there is a LOT more good ponyfiction than there are Stevenfics. I'm not sure of the reasons, but I suspect it's the far larger cast of ponies, able to fill a far wider range of roles in a story.

Luck of the draw, I guess.


The Steven Universe is essentially a complete unknown outside of its fans. The ONLY reason i know of it at all is because i looked through the Jumpchain CYOA for it. And when looking it up, the thing standing out most is simply that the creator's last name is Sugar(ie on a quick look it completely blends into the "generic cartoons" category)...
So yeah, no wonder it's not getting a lot of fanfiction, because unless you have happened to have been watching the correct channel at the right time, you've never even heard about it. It's sadly not at all uncommon.
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Re: No Pedigree Save Chaos Chapter 1 [R/MLP]

Postby CRBWildcat » Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:30 am

LawOhki wrote:MLP also brings out the jerkoffs, like the one who's threatening to me on ff.net if I don't immediately remove any "pony" content.


And that's without getting into the fuss someone on Fimfiction's trying to raise, regarding how the focus on good Ranma 1/2 fics has dwindled in recent years. Decent topic, but wrong place and too much frustration being channeled.

Haven't read this story yet, but it's my understanding that there's been a few good Ranma/MLP crossovers in recent years, so I'll try to get to it at some point.
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