Chapter 4:

Now:

“Hey all.” Ruby said to the group as we entered the cafeteria section that had been well outfitted and cleaned up to again start serving it's purpose.

“Baby baby baby baby!” Lily giggled, scooping Candy from the bundle that held her under Ruby's neck and holding her in her magic. “Hello my little pony, how are you?” She singsonged at the foal, nuzzling her happily. Candy giggled and batted curiously at Lily's insectoid skin. “I am so happy to have you around, you have no idea.” She kissed her tiny horn and sat down again, putting the baby on the table in front of her and laughing and playing with her excitedly.

“Should we be worried about that?” I asked, looking at Ruby curiously.

“Nah, I'm sure she'll be fine. Lily, don't drop my baby or anything.”

“What? No! That's what my magic is for.” Lily said, floating Candy into the air and spinning her around slowly, much to the foal's delight.

“Alright...just be careful.” Ruby said seriously, turning and heading over to get food.

“Well aren't you a fierce guardian?” I grinned at Ruby.

“Damned straight I am,” she nodded, “I don't want nothing happening to my baby.”

“Fair enough. We have to keep her around for a least a few weeks before we let her go wandering off on her own.”

“Totally, and six months minimum before we take her on a mission.”

“But we'll have to train her to use a gun in the weeks before that.”

“Yeah, and she can just stay home alone until then,” Ruby broke into a laugh and kissed me, “I love your sense of humour.”

“I love my sense of humour too.” I laughed.

“I bet you do I bet you do.” She turned and used a pair of tongs to put hay on her plate, along with a stack of pancakes, she hadn't taken to meat the way CB, Brutus and I had so she skipped over it even while I put pancakes and bacon on my plate. She poured syrup on the food on her plate and headed back to the table, sitting down beside Lily and digging into her food, letting her cousin keep playing with Candy for the time being.

I sat across from them and ate quietly while I watched them play. Candy was so happy now, whatever had happened the night before with that Doctor guy had really brightened her up, maybe he really could speak baby...nah.

“So, what are you two going to do about the wedding?” Crackshot asked, looking up from the supply reports she had sitting beside her barely touched breakfast.

“We'll reschedule,” Ruby said, “it's not like we NEED an official ceremony or anything, so we can just wait.”

“I think you two have waited long enough.” Crackshot sighed. “How many times can you put it off? We'll get it rescheduled for as soon as possible.”

“Are you kidding? You barely have time for yourself as it is you putrid meat balloon.” Lily said, still giggling and playing with Candy. “You don't have time to take on someone ELSE'S responsibilities. You should be focusing on getting YOUR responsibilities cut down, there are lots of others around here who can help you with your tasks.”

“I've been doing this for 200 years, I've mastered the fine art of balancing work and personal commitments.”

“Just saying.” Lily said. “I don't know why you let the council rope you back into active work.”

“Because we're upscaling the operations to the point we might actually break into two or even three divisions and they need all the help they can get making everything work on such a large scale without fracturing the organization.”

“Morning all.” Venture said, coming up to the table, “how's my sweet little niece?” He asked, nuzzling Candy's cheek. She giggled and actually nuzzled him back.

“She learns fast.”

“She's my daughter, I'd be surprised if she wasn't coding computers before she could write.”

“Yeah, but she's also Ruby's daughter, so she might not learn anything more complicated than basic level magic until she's a teenager.” Brutus said.

“Oh god, I hadn't thought of that...” I said, putting on a horrified face.

“Shut up!” Ruby pouted.

“Don't worry sweetie, I'm sure she'll take after Cane.” Lily said, grinning at her cousin.

“You are fast tracking your way to losing baby privileges.” Ruby said to the Changeling.

“What?! NO!” Lily leapt back from the table, holding Candy close, glaring at Ruby, “she's MINE!”

“Oh okay.” Ruby said simply, pulling the pack full of baby supplies and tossing them to Lily's feet. “She can't switch to formula for at least a few weeks so I hope you can start lactating pretty quickly cuz she can't subsist on just love.”

“What?! EW!” She whined, holding the baby back out and letting me scoop her into my forelegs with a laugh. “Seriously, when I have a kid they're gonna feed on my love until they're old enough to feed themselves and that's it.” She said, sticking her tongue out.

“How do you intend to have children when your mate is into bucks?”

“Uhh...”

“Oh when the time comes I'm sure I'll be able to soldier through a few goes at mare parts.” Brutus said without looking up from his breakfast, getting amazed looks from everyone and making me burst out laughing.

“What's funny about that?” Brutus asked, looking at me seriously.

“Are you kidding? What ISN'T funny about that?” I put on a disgusted face. “W...Why does it look like that? Ugh, it's so...moist...Lil I don't know if I can do this...please can't we just go back to penis kissing?” I whimpered.

Lily was on the floor laughing by the time I got to the end.

“Ew ew ew ew ew is it supposed to clench up like this?” I continued, whining loudly, making Lily howl with laughter. “Aww Lil come on, it smells funny, don't make me lick it!”

Brutus just sat and ate quietly, paying no mind to our teasing. “You can make fun all you want, when the time comes we'll have a child and there'll be no making fun of me then.”

Lily sat up and looked at him quietly. “So are you saying you want to have a child with me?” She asked seriously.

“I don't see why not.” He said, smiling at her softly.

“I don't see why not...” I repeated slowly, “That has to be the most romantic statement I've ever heard, what do you think Candy?” I looked at the foal against my chest and she just gurgled happily. “Well, she's in.”

“I'm glad I have your support little one.” Brutus smirked.

11 Months Ago:

Everyone sat at a big table in the cafeteria, chowing down on various meals, breakfast food, dinner food, everything in between...Venture's food supply had lead to a lot of ponies trying all the different kinds of food they had never had before.

Xem and CB were powering through a box of Sugar Pinkie Crisp cereal together, a bottle of Brahmin milk between them. Brutus was eating what looked like spinach salad, complete with carrots and broccoli, but it had to have been made with frozen veggies and I couldn't imagine it was THAT good, but he was enjoying it. Lily and Firebird were eating a pizza, I recognized it as a brand of frozen pizza that I had probably eaten a thousand times while working late at the office. Crackshot though, was just eating the same thing she always ate, hay and sauce.

“And I'm telling you that it all tastes the same to me because I don't have proper taste buds anymore, so it doesn't matter what I eat.” She was saying as we walked up.

“Yeah but this is food you ate before the war, don't you miss it?”

“Honey most of that is crap that I wouldn't have eaten before the war, and since I don't have to eat it now I'm not gonna. It'd be a waste for ME to eat it and not enjoy it when others will enjoy it.”

“You really wouldn't have eaten this back in the day? Brothers Cane what about you?”

“We definitely ate it more than we should have.” Venture replied, “When I started stockpiling I had to pick things that could withstand the test of time, so it was still a lot of prepackaged foods, frozen fruits and veggies, we didn't eat meat back then so saving things like bacon or steak didn't even factor into it. I used cryo tech to store massive hay bails but hay seemed to endure quite well so I didn't worry about it. Oats and beans and barley, oh, and sunflower and sesame seeds, all froze and kept very well. Wheat and cocoa pods and things like that didn't take kindly to the freezing process so I only have seed stores for regrowing them once the land can be farmed again.”

“So you're saying most of it is junk food?”

“Most of it is junk food.” He nodded.

Brutus made a noise and I glared at him but he was just focused on his salad. I sat down beside him and Ruby sat between Lily and Xem.

More and more groups filed into the cafeteria and soon the whole place was a mass of chatter and noise, almost impossible to hear each other easily.

I finally worked up the courage to look at Brutus and ask, “I know you have every reason to hate him, but why are you so angry towards Venture? I mean everypony else is at least giving him the benefit of the doubt...”

“It's nothing, don't worry about it.”

“Brutus I have to worry about it, you're my best friend, he's my brother, I want you two to at least be cordial...”

“I said don't worry about it.” He replied angrily.

“Brutus come on dude, talk to me, I want to help if I can, I want things to work well...”

Have you ever been at a really loud party. I mean a good loud party, where the music is playing too loud, and everybody is talking too loudly, and in order to be heard even by the person standing right next to you, you've got to be screaming at the top of you lungs. But every now and then at a party, it seems as though everyone shuts up at the same time...and only your voice...can be heard?

“HE'S A FUCKING HOMOPHOBE!”

Dead silence, through the whole cafeteria, all eyes on our table, and all eyes at our table on Brutus.

“W...What?” Venture stammered, knowing exactly what we were talking about.

“You know what!” Brutus snapped, shoving away from the table and standing up, he'd already made a scene so he was going to see it through. “You used those horrific mind controlling masks to keep your minions in check! But not all of them, oh no, not all of them.” He yanked a control mask from his bag, obviously he'd been carrying around for a while...possibly waiting for this confrontation...

“What does this say?” He demanded, holding the mask out to Ruby.

She looked at him seriously for a moment. “You know what it says...”

“Just say it.”

“Male, attracted to males, rage, lust, impure.” She said softly.

“Now?” The mask flashed as he rewrote the glyphs, changing them to similar to what it had shown when Cap held it.

“Female, attracted to female, impure, depression, suicide.”

“IMPURE, SUICIDE!” Brutus roared, throwing the mask at Venture, “you only wanted ponies that would breed in your little cult so you made it so that ponies like me would just off ourselves instead or go insane!”

“B-Brutus...” Ruby started but he cut her off, “NO! YOU DON'T NEED TO JUMP TO HIS DEFENCE! HE CAN FIGHT HIS OWN FIGHTS!”

“Bru...” I got cut off too with a glare that could wilt flowers.

Crackshot looked beyond shocked at the outburst but also was looking to Venture for answers.

“Brutus...” Of all the voices in the silence of the cafeteria Xem's wasn't one I had expected to hear.

“You two get to school, you don't need to be a part of this.” Brutus said firmly to the children.

“No Brutus please listen.” Xem said, standing up.

“BUTT OUT XEM!” Brutus finally snapped at the buck, “THIS DOESN'T CONCERN YOU, NOW GET!”

“NO! BRUTE FORCE YOU SHUT YOUR TRAP AND LISTEN!” Xem roared back at the unicorn, shocking him into silence.

Xem composed himself and looked at everyone. “Venture had the masks made, this is true. But he doesn't deserve all of this rage from you.” He was seething with anger and was doing his best not to yell, but he was slipping to rhyme and we knew it had to be bad...

“He paid for the masks, asked for control, but his part in creation was only a supervisory roll. My grandfather and I made each and every mask, they weren't even tough, it was a simple task. I made masks, my grandfather the glyphs, Venture cannot be blamed for this. He asked only that we make him something magically strong, the list of requirements weren't that long. Zebra magic is old and set in it's ways, no matter what the use someone always pays. Homosexuality was a blight to my race, not to honour our creator with children was considered a slap in her face. When the glyphs were first made, so many eons past, there were certain tenants, meant always to last. No gay bucks would withstand their might and filly foolers soon vanished from sight. Don't be angry with Venture he didn't ask for this, if you must, then be angry with me, for the role I served in this.”

“This can't rhyme with this...it's the same word.” CB said softly.

“I know, rhyming is hard and I'm out of practice.” He said, sitting down again slowly.

Brutus just stood silently, taking in what had been said, clearly humiliated about the whole situation.

“I'm sorry Brutus, if you had just asked...” Venture said finally, breaking the silence.

“If you bothered to ask anyone who was in the know about it.” Ruby said, her face neutral but clearly angry with him for causing such a huge scene.

Brutus slunk back to his seat and sat down, muttering apologies and starting to just focus intently on his salad.

“So...Ruby...you said you had something tell us?” Firebird asked once the rest of the cafeteria had settled back into a more normal routine.

“Uhh yeah, it can wait for now. We've already drawn enough attention to ourselves this morning.”

“Alright.” She nodded, starting in on another piece of pizza.

A guard came into the cafeteria and came over to our table. “Excuse me. The council has asked me to bring you new orders.” He said, setting down a folder on the table.

“What's up?” Ruby asked.

“A doctor has requested an escort back to his home town. It seems there has been some kind of viral outbreak of Cutie Pox and he needs to go back and help.”

“VIRAL Cutie Pox? It's viral now?” I asked.

“Not that I've ever heard of.” Crackshot shrugged, the others agreed.

“Yes, yes of course we'll go. Tell him to give us an hour and a half to prep and he can meet us at the dock out back, berth eight.”

“Perfect.” The guard nodded and started out of the room again.

“Alright, well lets finish and get going.”

“Uhh, is it safe?” CB asked quietly. “I mean I've heard what Cutie Pox can do to a pony, it sounds terrible.”

“You're immune if you already have your Cutie Mark.” Firebird said.

“Or if your species doesn't get a Cutie Mark.” Lily added, seeing that Xem still looked kind of nervous.

“Alright, well lets finish and get a move on.” I said, scarfing down my food so I'd be ready to go as soon as possible.

We ate in silence for the rest of the meal and then headed out to get ready.

“Well I guess I'll wait here.” Venture said, walking through the hall with Ruby and me.

“Yeah that's fine. The code to the lab is Mom's birthday, you can finish writing my code for me.”

“That sounds reasonable, at least we know it'll be done professionally and quickly.”

“Yeah yeah, just don't do anything to screw around, there is plenty of non computerized surveillance in this place keeping an eye on you.”

“I've noticed.” He smirked, gesturing with his head towards a guard who was casually walking along about half a hall behind us, slowing when we slowed, turning when we turned.

“He actually drew a gun in the cafeteria earlier when Brutus started screaming at me.”

“I'm sorry about that by the way.” Ruby said. “I'm so embarrassed that he carried on like that without even checking with anyone to know if he was right to be mad.”

“Don't worry about it, I deserve all that and more.” He shrugged.

“Well we'll see you when we get back.” I said, when we reached our quarters.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding his head, “just make sure you bring me something nice. I'll also upload any information in my computers about Cutie Pox to that console in your sky wagon so you can get to work on the way out there.”

“Thanks, and I'll try to bring you something you'll like but no promises.” I replied, heading into the room. He continued on down the hallway and Ruby and I stood, waiting until the guard passed.

“You got a boring job my friend.” Ruby said to him. He just rolled his eyes and continued on down the hall, vanishing around the same corner as Venture had a few seconds earlier.

Footnote: 50% to next level.