Chapter 47 – To Learn from the Past
"It takes control." Twilight said, "Focus your thoughts, tell the magic to move quickly or to slow down." Through several hours of training now, Rainbow Dash had made slight progress, the focusing was easier now and she had a little control, but the blue pegasus wanted to ensure that she was going to get it right when applying it to a race.
Behind the scenes, Pilit wrapped her mind around all of the information at her fingertips, the pad that had all of the data from the carrier ship they had found their new engines on was the sole focus of her attention right now, so when a plate of food was placed right next to her, she mindlessly grabbed a piece with her hand, and thanks to her hoof-like fingertips, never felt the heat until it touched her lips, "YEOUCH!" she cried out and looked to the Tukrik in her fingers.
"You're supposed to use a fork." Breeze said to her.
"Is this Tukrik?" she asked.
"Yep, and Kalin said I got the recipe right on my fourth try." the grey pony said.
"Oh yeah, Hulon's father is here." she said in thought and set down the pad before rubbing her eyes in a tired massage with her clean hand, "Thanks for breaking my concentration Breeze, I almost starved myself as Coach Tusks does."
"Do you miss your old family?" he asked, getting the Treeopon to stop from rubbing her eyes.
"I didn't know them well enough to miss them now." she said, "Though I guess knowing everypony around me has a family, kind of makes me a little jealous."
"At least you've got a father figure." Breeze said, "I didn't even know my father. He disappeared right before I was born."
"How do I have a father figure?" Pilit asked.
"Tusks." the unicorn said as he sat down, "He's like a father to you. He teaches you, comforts you, even protects you from certain harm."
Pilit thought upon his words, and smiled a bit, "Gosh I…never really thought about it like that." she said, and then opened her eyes in realization, "Wait, when did I start saying 'everypony'?"
Breeze shrugged his shoulders, "It either grows on you or sneaks up on you." he said, "But I can't help noticing that Writch is starting to be a proper mother to you."
Pilit looked to him in surprise, "Writch?" she asked, "Well, I guess she has been nicer to me. Still stern but not so judgmental."
"That's how my mother was, at least what I can remember of her." he told her solemnly.
The two of them sat in silence for a moment, neither one wanting to make the situation awkward, until Breeze inhaled sharply, "So I see you found one of those dragon light-spear-things." he said.
"I'm sorry…what?" Pilit asked in a shocked curiosity.
"Oh yeah." he said, "When Dash and I disappeared into the track, we saw a museum of things that the race took us through. I recorded all of it and wow was it cool!"
"You made a video record of everything you saw under the track?" she asked. Her nose nearly touched his in her excitement as she caused him to lean back in a nervous fear, "You better still have it!"
"Yeah, it's on the hard drive of the Rainbow Trail gunner system." he said, and she lifted herself, pad in hand, to go and take a look. Breeze on the other hand fell to the ground. "What just happened?" he asked himself. Rainbow Dash and Twilight both turned to her as the young Treeopon dashed into the room, and with a few leaps, scaled the Rainbow Trail to enter into the gunner seat. Breeze following shortly after, "I think I done goofed." he said, "I told Pilit about the recording I made of the museum under the track."
"You recorded all of that?" Rainbow asked in shock.
"There was a museum under the track?" Twilight asked in excitement.
"GOT IT!" they all heard Pilit shout in victory as she popped out with her pad held up high.
"That was a faster download than I thought it would be." Breeze said in surprise.
"Treeopon love technology, so we were able to make things that upload and download really quickly." Pilit admitted and hopped down from the racer. "Come on Twilight, this is going to be amazing!"
"Be right there!" Twilight called after her, and turned quickly to Rainbow Dash, "Just practice what I taught you." she said and turned back to the fleeing Treeopon, "WAIT FOR ME!"
Rainbow Dash and Breeze stood there, watching the retreating purple alicorn with a nervous fear on their faces. "I don't know if what I just did was a good thing or not." was all Breeze said.
"Wanna go into town for a bit?" Rainbow asked.
"If only to NOT be here when the two of them find out that our resident Sunik team destroyed the museum…Yes." Breeze said as the two of them left the garage in a bit of a hurry.
"How do you know he destroyed the museum?" Rainbow asked in curiosity.
"The wings on his ship were damaged and he still had some debris falling off of them." was all the unicorn said as the two of them turned to go to the shuttle to the city.
Now inside the city, Rainbow Dash and Breeze could relax, the train ride had been somewhat relaxing as the two of them had finally gotten to see the sights of the city, the shops, and other wonders like the museum that Twilight had pointed out to them as they had arrived on the planet itself had been some of the things that Rainbow Dash had wanted to see, though she would never tell Twilight that the museum had even been on her list of places to go. They had tried several different cuisines from the planet, even something that looked like a red sausage that tasted like berries and cider with a hint of lemon. They were assured that it was made with local plants.
At the moment, the two of them rested on a street bench, Breeze sighing happily until he let out a loud belch from deep in his stomach. "Scuse me." he said, and the blue pegasus next to him giggled as she prepared to challenge him. Before she could though, a shadow was cast over the top of them. There above them stood a pair of male Treeopon, and each one let out a louder belch than Breeze. Both feeling pretty proud of themselves until Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, releasing the loudest belch of all of them. The two Treeopon stood in shock as Rainbow patted her stomach with her hoof, "Are you sure that was a belch and not your stomach erupting?" Breeze asked.
Rainbow simply chuckled at her success. It was the little things that meant the most around here. She didn't even turn around as the two Treeopons behind her walked away, each still in amazement at how something half their size could produce such a noise. Breese still chuckling as she finally spoke, "You weren't kidding when you said Tusks' species love their contests." she announced.
Breeze smiled and chuckled before leaning into her and relaxing. Rainbow chuckled at his gesture and opened one of her wings just to wrap it around him and sigh with satisfaction. The two of them were blissfully unaware of the world around them until a shadow enveloped them both. "I knew I'd find you here." they heard a female voice say. Breeze opened his eyes in shocked horror and looked up at the figure, a mid-height female with fur and leather wrapped around her for cloths and dark tan skin, she had small pieces of bone that bulged through on each side of her head like pieces of a helmet and her cherry-red hair grew from the spots where the bone did not grow. She also had a tail of sorts, like that of a cat's tail but covered in scales instead.
"Gya!" Breeze shouted and promptly fell off of the bench, "Cya-O-Ur." he said, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm a shaman remember?" she asked, "I can see the future, I knew I'd find you here, just…" as she hesitated, she turned to Rainbow Dash and back to him, "Not like this."
"Um…Breeze." Rainbow asked, and the two turned to her, "Who is she?"
"She's the one who gave me my ability to walk silently." he said quickly and stood.
Before he had a chance to say anything else, she spoke with a smirk, "I'm also his wife!"
"WHAT?" the two ponies asked in shock, Rainbow turned to him in anger while Breeze looked to the shaman in horror.
"I never married you!" he countered quickly, hoping to quell the situation.
"Then why do I have the results of our union?" she asked, and reached behind her, ushering out a small boy around eight years old that had his old skin tone and black hair, but like his mother, had bone bulges growing from the sides of his head and a scaled tail with black scales.
"WHAT?" Breeze asked in the same horror he had been expressing ever since the shaman had shown herself.