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Empty Egg

By Icehunt
Created: 2022-07-01 10:35:17
Updated: 2022-07-27 20:53:45
Expiry: Never
wiphorrormysterymarriage

  1. > What's this about?
  2. A married couple receives a so called “empty egg” from Celestia.
  3. A mysterious egg-shaped artifact with unknown capabilities.
  4. She orders them to take care of it or be killed should they fail.
  5.  
  6.  
  7. I've listened to a song these past couple of days and wanted to write a story for it.
  8.  
  9. ----
  10. Empty Egg
  11.  
  12. > A hot summer day filled with chores finally draws to a close as the sun moves over the horizon. You and your wife have opened the big windows in the living room to let the cool night breeze inside.
  13. > She sits at the table on which a few candles illuminate a colorful assortment of gemstones. This reminds you of the time you first met her.
  14. > She used to work as a gemstone appraiser in the city. You walked into the store with an odd-looking stone one day, looking to sell it for some quick cash
  15. > Struck by her beauty you wanted to ask her out but didn’t find the courage too.
  16. > As fate would have it, you met her again later in a bar and with the help of some alcohol tried again.
  17. > You two are married now and own a little farm in the countryside. You work together on the farm.
  18. > She uses her levitation skills to repair things, that hoofs just don’t have the dexterity too and you tend to the plants.
  19. > Even though she gave up her appraisal job, she never lost her passion for gemstones and still likes to get her collection out every now and then. Just to look at them a little with her pretty green eyes.
  20. > Today was another hard day’s work out in the field for you.
  21. > Now, that your work is done and the heat of the day slowly relents, you have nothing more in mind than to relax on the couch with a bottle of cider in your hoof.
  22. > You watch her levitate a red gem in front of the candles to inspect it.
  23. > The unsteady light from the candles on the table is scattered by the gem into a swarm of little dancing red dots.
  24. > You smile watching the spectacle and take sip of your cider.
  25. > Suddenly the clip clop of hoofs walking outside rips you out of your daze.
  26. > A pony coming to visit this late?
  27. > Unthinkable, the path to the house leads through a forest and no sane pony would walk it in the dark.
  28. > Unless it could fly of course, but you heard no wing flapping.
  29. > You jump of the couch and walk towards the door.
  30. “Are you expecting someone?” your wife asks.
  31. > Before you can respond, you hear it knocking on your front door.
  32. > You open the door. A tall, hooded figure stands bevor you.
  33. > Taller than any pony you have ever seen.
  34. > Except, well, but it couldn’t be.
  35. “Good evening, Meadow”, the pony says.
  36. “I’m princess Celestia and have urgent business to discuss.”
  37. > She removes her hood, and you are dumb struck.
  38. > You have only seen pictures of her before, but there can be no doubt.
  39. > It is her, the goddess of the sun, ruler of Equestria, maker of night and day.
  40. > Also, she knows your name!
  41. > Quickly you bow deep, unsure of what to do next.
  42. > Your wife comes to join you at the door.
  43. “Who is it? Oh- Oh my goodness, have we done something wrong, my Princess?”, she asks frightened and like you lowers her head to bow.
  44. “You must be Chirality, right? I know you two must have many questions, but I don’t have much time. May I come in?”
  45. “Of course!” Chirality answers quickly.
  46. > You and your wife take seat close to each other on the couch.
  47. > Instinctively you hold each other’s hoofs unsure of what to expect.
  48. > Meanwhile Celestia paces up and down in front of you.
  49. “I have come here at the advice of a friend”, Celestia begins, “to hand this empty egg over into your care.”
  50. > With her hoof she opens a saddle bag and extract an egg and a cushion.
  51. > The egg is completely white and looks large enough to fit a squirrel inside.
  52. > She walks towards to table, where your wife’s gem collection is still spread out and places the egg on the cushion on top of the table.
  53. “It’s pretty”, your wife mutters to herself.
  54. > Celestia continues with a sad tinge in her voice,
  55. “Circumstances outside of my control force have forced me to find a new temporary home for this egg.”
  56. > You see Celestia become a little teary eyed, but she overplays it well.
  57. “I’m making you personally responsible for the wellbeing of this egg.”
  58. > She gives you a determined look.
  59. “Should you fail me, I will banish you to the surface of the sun!”
  60. “The sun?”, your wife gasps and clutches your hoof a little tighter.
  61. > Like all ponies you have heard of the legends of Celestia’s lost sister.
  62. > But wasn’t she banished to the moon?
  63. “Rest assured; I trust you to succeed. It’s an empty egg, it won’t require much, and I will make sure to check up on you as often as it will be allowed to me.”
  64. > Saying these words, Celestia’s gaze wanders back to the egg on the table.
  65. “But why us?” you ask. “And is it really empty?” your wife adds.
  66. > Still looking at the egg, Celestia sighs.
  67. “It is empty, but also full of potential. I’ve come to you because no one would suspect…” her voice trails off.
  68. > She tilts her head to the side, as if listening to something you can’t hear.
  69. > Then without a warning Celestia vanishes and you hear the loud thunderclap of air rushing into the vacuum left behind by her body.
  70. > Silence befalls the house.
  71. > Only the wind blowing through the forest outside the still open windows makes a noise.
  72.  
  73. ----
  74.  
  75. > You are lying on concrete.
  76. > It feels warm.
  77. > You open your eyes.
  78. > Everything is dark, except for one star shining with pale white light high above you.
  79. > The star begins to grow and stretch. Forming into a giant dome.
  80. > You are inside a giant egg.
  81. > Its walls are so far out that you can’t see them.
  82. > The eggshell is being illuminated by giant diffuse specks of morphing colors.
  83. > You start to hear mumbling now, coming from somewhere far away.
  84. > You don’t understand what the voices are saying, but their timbre combined, the slow-moving lights and warm ground makes you feel at ease.
  85. > Then it gets quiet again. The lights fade out into darkness.
  86. > You listen to the silence for a while hoping for the voices to come back.
  87. > Suddenly you feel something tiny moving on your left foreleg.
  88. > Its to dark to see what it is.
  89. > You brush it off with your other foreleg.
  90. > Now you feel crawling on both your hind legs.
  91. > With disgust you rise in an instance and try to shake them off.
  92. > More of these tiny things crawl up your legs.
  93. > Panic stricken you jump up and down and shake all your legs as much as you can.
  94. > In your wild movements you squash some under your hoofs, but it’s not enough.
  95. > They are everywhere.
  96. > they crawl
  97. > THEY CRAWL
  98. > A L L O V E R Y O U
  99.  
  100. > Breathing heavily, you awake in your bed.
  101. > You look over and see Chirality being as shocked as you are, crying a little.
  102. > She must have had the same dream.
  103. > With the shock of the bad dream slowly dissipating you move your body closer to hers.
  104. > You wrap your right foreleg around her, and she lays her head on your chest, careful not to poke you with her horn.
  105. “Is that what it’s like inside that egg? It’s horrible.”
  106. “When Celestia comes back will we have to ask her.”
  107. > With your left hoof you gently pet her mane.
  108. > She clams down and closes her eyes.
  109. > Hmh that is odd. Why can you see her face so well?
  110. > Suddenly you are aware of the faint light tinting the bedroom purple.
  111. > It comes from downstairs.
  112. > It comes from the egg.
  113.  
  114. ----
  115.  
  116. > Birds fly, grass grows and brother you grew some plants today.
  117. > It was a nice and sunny day outside on the field.
  118. > You pack your tools away and head home.
  119. > No going out for a drink at your friend’s house today.
  120. > Chirality has been weirdly obsessed with the egg these past days and you feel like it would be better to not leave her alone with it so much.
  121. “Damn egg” you say to yourself.
  122. > Hopefully Celestia will come back soon to free you both of this unwanted responsibility.
  123. > At least after Chirality started spending a lot of time with it ¬¬– gently rocking it with her levitation magic, carrying it places and talking to it – there have been no bad dreams like the one from the first night.
  124. > It also stopped glowing pink.
  125. > You open the front door.
  126. > Your sight falls onto a body lying on the floor.
  127. “Chirality! Are you alright?!” you yell and rush over to her unconscious body.
  128. > You poke her gently with your hoof. No response.
  129. > Her eyes are closed.
  130. “Feth”. Indecisiveness takes hold of you.
  131. “Should I call a doctor? The next doctor is a 1h trip away.
  132. Should I go alone or bring her with me? How do I even transport her?
  133. Should I just wait a little. Try to wake her up more?”
  134. > To break the petrification of your indecisiveness, you grab the nearest pillow and –
  135. “Wait, what if she has a spine injury? Moving her head could kill her!
  136. Feth, back to the doctor plan. I can move her on the –”
  137. > You hear a faint “Ow” coming from your wife.
  138. > She slowly moves up her right foreleg to rub her head.
  139. “Are you okay? What happened? Do you need a doctor?”
  140. > You kneel besides her.
  141. “Uggh” she groans, “I- i- it’s alright. Tripped and hit my head on that stupid table.”
  142. “Phew”. You are relieved.
  143. “How did that happen? Do you have a concussion? Do you ummm – ”
  144. > You look down on your hoofs.
  145. “– want a pillow?”
  146. “Hmh sure. Thanks” she smiles weakly.
  147. “Like I said”, she continues, “I must have tripped. Clumsy me. Ha ha.”
  148. “Tripped on what?”
  149. > It takes a lot to trip a four-legged pony.
  150. “I have never seen you trip on anything before.”
  151. “I don’t know. WHY are you interrogating me like this?!”
  152. > She attempts to up right her body but gives up and lies back down on the pillow.
  153. > This sudden aggression in her voice confuses you.
  154. > Maybe you missed something obvious. You look around and spot it.
  155. “Oh feth.”
  156. “What?”
  157. “You fell down with the egg.
  158. Was it the egg? Did the egg do something to you?
  159. I love you, please tell me what really happened.”
  160. > You look in her big round eyes. She looks in yours.
  161. “Okay, okay. I was levitating the egg like normal.
  162. Then I suddenly blacked out and must have hit my head on that damn stupid table on the way down. “
  163. “But why did you black out?”
  164. > She pauses, clearly trying to find the right words.
  165. “I- I think the egg took my magic…”
  166. “WHAAAT? HOW?”
  167. > Damn egg.
  168. > You should have never left her alone with it.
  169. “It was very subtle at the beginning.
  170. Levitating the egg, I felt my power drain a little.
  171. At first, I thought it was just fatigue. But it just never recovered.”
  172. “But why haven’t you told me? You know you can trust me.
  173. We have been married for 4 years now!”
  174. “I DIDN’T THINK IT WAS SUCH A BIG DEAL, OKAY?”
  175. > She begins to sob a little.
  176. “It happened so gradually.
  177. I was unsure of what happened myself at the start.
  178. Besides, I had to keep going.
  179. Do you remember the first night, after we got that egg?
  180. The bad dream, the glowing?
  181. That was a cry for help!
  182. It needs us, Meadow. It needs me!
  183. Its lonely and scared and requires care. Just like Celestia demanded from us.
  184. I’ve had more dreams since. Happy ones with the egg.”
  185. > Your wife looks at you, longing for understanding.
  186. > You have no idea what dreams she is talking about.
  187. “B- b- but this is crazy.
  188. What if your powers don’t ever come back?
  189. You should have talked to me!”
  190. > Probably not what she wanted to hear from you.
  191. > She lowers her gaze to the floor.
  192. “I wasn’t sure how you would react.
  193. I thought I could manage to keep it together.
  194. At least till Celestia comes back.
  195. I had no choice anyway.
  196. If I hadn’t done it, I would have lost you too. Remember Celestia’s threat?”
  197. > You anger dissipates a bit.
  198. > What’s done is done and you don’t feel like pressing her further.
  199. > Not while she lays on the ground with an obvious headache.
  200. > You gently stroke her mane and take another look at the egg.
  201. > The cause of all of this.
  202. > What you see should be horrifying, but instead a weird calmness overcomes you.
  203. “I guess it doesn’t really matter now anyway.
  204. Take a look at the egg.”
  205. > She turns her head and looks behind her at the dropped egg.
  206. > It’s cracked and a little bit of pink fluid is leaking out.
  207. “No.
  208. I failed it.
  209. I failed you.”
  210. > Now she begins crying in earnest.
  211. “What *sob* are we *sob* supposed to do now?”
  212. “Its not dead yet” you say calmly.
  213. “How *sob* do you know *sob* that?”
  214. “Earth pony instinct.”
  215. > Suddenly you both hear two determined knocks on the door.
  216. > You blood freezes and Chirality clings to your foreleg.
  217. > Is that Celestia?
  218. > More knocks on the door.
  219. > The egg is still leaking pink fluid.
  220. > Your wife is still starring at it with her big dumb eyes, as if that could change something.
  221. > And you are wondering if there is a sun creme in this universe strong enough for the place you are about to be send to.
  222. > Probably not.
  223. > There is still one last hail marry option available to you to avert total disaster.
  224. > You don’t like it, it probably won’t work, it will cost you dearly, but a slim chance always beats no chance.
  225. > For her. For “it”.
  226. > Gently but swiftly, you push your wife away from the egg to make yourself room.
  227. > You lie down on your stomach and wrap your fore hoofs around the egg.
  228. > Having the maximum possible earth pony to ground contact will maximize your chance of success.
  229. > Slim as that chance may be.
  230. > After all, you choose to be a farmer earth pony, not a medic one.
  231. > Sure, all earth ponies have the same innate healing and regrowth powers.
  232. > But as it turns out plants and animals are very different beasts and only very few truly master both.
  233. > Most earth ponies, you included just pick one and stick with it.
  234. > Now, the interesting question is if eggshell counts as plant or animal.
  235. > Technically it would probably be closest to a rock, which would be bad.
  236. > There are no earth ponies running around healing rocks.
  237. > But that kind of thinking doesn’t help you right now.
  238. > You empty your mind of all these confidence robbing thoughts and distractions.
  239. > Closing your eyes, you concentrate on your body’s energy channels and open a few to start the process.
  240. > Energy enters you through the ground, moves through your torso and finally exits at your forelegs into the egg.
  241. > Your energy channels begin to feel pleasantly warm.
  242. > It’s a little bit like taking a warm shower, except that the water moves inside your body instead of outside.
  243. > The egg however does not react to your input.
  244. > Would have been too easy, huh?
  245. > You look over to your wife.
  246. > Right, there is no time for half measures.
  247. > This requires your best.
  248. > Closing your eyes again, this time you open all your energy channels.
  249. > You have never opened all before and you instantly regret your decision to do so.
  250. > The pleasant warmth turns into burning heat as hot needles of energy are forcing their way through your flesh.
  251. > The worst pain is in your forelegs, where the energy collected via the entire length of your body is concentrated in just a few centimeters of flesh before it is channeled into the egg.
  252. > Your pathways begin to heat up considerably.
  253. > Which has the pleasant effect of slightly reducing the pain you feel, while also allowing the energy to transmit faster.
  254. > Maybe if you had gone a little slower with opening the pathways you could have avoided a lot of the pain you are feeling right now.
  255. > Through your closed eyelids shines an increasingly bright green glow.
  256. > Careful not to break concentration you manage to half open one eye.
  257. > The egg is glowing, and the cracks recede slowly.
  258. > Awesome.
  259. > Increasingly the pain sensation switches to a general numbness.
  260. > Unsettling, but bearable.
  261. > An eternity later – in real time it can’t have been more than a few seconds – the last crack finally closes, and you start closing your energy channels again.
  262. > Or at least you try to.
  263. > The incoming energy pushes hard like a rapid stream of water against your channel entrances.
  264. > There is nothing you can do to stop it anymore.
  265. > Its just too much to push back against.
  266. > You try to move your forelegs away from the egg, but the numbness has rendered you unable to move.
  267. > Panic sets in, as you realize the helplessness of your situation.
  268. > You can’t even close your eye.
  269. > Powerless you are forced to watch as the egg accumulates more and more energy.
  270. > Your wife noticing your precarious situation and somehow intervening is your only hope at this point.
  271. > Until suddenly without warning the egg simply stops accepting your energy.
  272. > With nowhere to go the energy inside you stops flowing instantly, giving you the needed respite to close your channels.
  273. > Exhausted you are finally able to let go of the egg and close both eyes.
  274. > With your mind you explore your body.
  275. > Your channels are burned out from too much energy moving through them to quickly and you doubt that you will ever be able to use them in a controlled manner again.
  276. > The ground beneath your belly feels cold now.
  277. *bump* *bump* *bump*
  278. > Oh right, the door!
  279. > Oh fuck, Celestia…
  280. > With a heavy head you stand up.
  281. > Trying to put your best “everything is okay princess” look on, you trot towards the door and open.
  282. > Seeing who is outside, you breathe a sigh of relieve, but also feel a tiny bit disappointed.
  283. > In front of you stands a slightly whacky looking pegasus in a mail mare uniform.
  284. > She has a big smile on her face and looks at you excitedly.
  285. > Well, with one eye that is. The other seems more interested in inspecting your hoofs.
  286. > “Hi! So glad that you are home. Almost wanted to leave already. Ha ha. I’m Derpy! Your new mail mare taking over for Zentyal. Missed you guys at her retirement party. Too bad you couldn’t come, it was fun! So, how are you - Meadow right? - this evening? I hope I didn’t interrupt anything important.”
  287. > In a very stoic fashion, you decide to be amused at the absurdity of the situation rather than outright slam the door on her in anger.
  288. > Just a few moments ago, you where worried your wife had been seriously injured.
  289. > Then you learned she sacrificed her powers to the egg without telling you.
  290. > After which you too sacrificed your own powers to the egg to save you and her from getting the darkest tan in the history of pony-kind.
  291. > But instead of the royal grace of princess Celestia, in front of you stands the derpiest pony you have ever seen.
  292. > A pony so derpy that even her parents simply gave up and named her after that.
  293. > “Ahem, are you still with me?”
  294. “Oh. Sorry. I was thinking about something else. Yeah, I’m Meadow. Can we make this quick? I’m in the middle of something.”
  295. > “Oh, well for one I wanted to give you two of the muffins from Zentyal’s party I saved. Thought it would make a good welcome gift!”
  296. > With her muzzle she quickly produces two muffins wrapped in clear foil and offers them to you.
  297. > “th ar blu bewwy muffis” she mumbles careful not to let them slip her mouth’s grip.
  298. > Muffins. By Celestia – no fuck that no show mare, by Luna - this horse came all this way to offer you muffins.
  299. “Thanks.”, is all you can say manage to say in responds to that.
  300. > You quickly take them, turn around and set them down on a little bench next to the door.
  301. > “Oh. Makes sense. I guess you can also just eat them later…”
  302. > She seems oddly disappointed in you not eating a muffin right away.
  303. > Are they drugged or something?
  304. > Nah, probably not.
  305. > She looks like she couldn’t hurt a fly.
  306. > Both because of her apparent cheerful nature and because her aim must be incredibly bad with those eyes.
  307. > Every time she moves her right eye, her left follows the movement for a bit but then dips up or down.
  308. > Its hypnotic to watch and you find it hard to look away.
  309. > “Ahem.”
  310. > She finally breaks the silence.
  311. > “Of course, this isn’t the only reason I’m here. I’m not in civil after all.”
  312. > She proudly points one hoof at her uniform.
  313. > “This is also my first mail tour. Wait a sec…”
  314. > Again, she looks through one of her pouches with her muzzle.
  315. > This time her teeth clamp down on a white envelope.
  316. > Positively glowing with excitement, she mumbles “Hre”.
  317. “Great. Thanks”
  318. > You really couldn’t care less about mail right now.
  319. > You take it and place it next to the muffins behind you.
  320. > “Don’t – Don’t you want to read it?”
  321. “Maybe later. I not in the mood right now.”
  322. > “Well, I think you really should read it now!”
  323. > What is her problem?
  324. > Why can’t she just leave now?
  325. “I’ll do it later”
  326. > “Oh, aren’t you curious what it is? I know I’d be!”
  327. “Ehm, no. What I do with my mail is none of your concern, alright? Thanks for the mail and the muffin, but I really have no time right now. Good evening.”
  328. > With that you close the door and trot back into the living room.
  329. > Muffled by the wood of the door a faint but disappointed sounding “oh, okay then” is audible, followed by rapidly receding wing beats.
  330.  
  331.  
  332. > For the rest of the evening you and Chirality both try to avoid each other.
  333. > Chirality stays in the kitchen preparing a belated dinner.
  334. > The clink and clank of pots and plates coming from the kitchen is louder than usual.
  335. > You lie on the couch in the living room looking upwards at nothing in particular.
  336. > Just trying to process the recent turn of events.
  337. > A thought goes through your head.
  338. > Maybe you ought to go to her, ought to console her and play up the loving husband role even if you don’t feel it.
  339. > She has been through a lot today, that’s undeniable.
  340. > She lost her powers.
  341. > The noises from the kitchen underline that fact as you hear her repeatedly hit a pot with a wooden spoon.
  342. > Probably in an attempt to stir something using her mouth to hold the spoon instead of her magic.
  343. > But something within you won’t let you get up from the couch and go to her.
  344. > Something within you doesn’t want to see her right now.
  345. > It’s not like she is the only one who suffered today.
  346. > But can you blame her for what happened?
  347. > Should you even?
  348. > Shouldn’t she be the one trying to make you feel better?
  349. > After all you sacrificed your powers without a second thought to fix the mess she made.
  350. > To save her ass and the ass of that egg.
  351. > Do eggs even have asses?
  352. > You continue to stare at the ceiling.
  353. > No… you don’t hate her.
  354. > You don’t even hate the egg.
  355. > You just feel numb now. [spoiler]Is that a feeling? Like a plastic boxed orange with no peeling [/spoiler]
  356. > It was the right thing to do.
  357. > The rational thing.
  358. > The grown-up thing.
  359. > The sort of thing a loving husband and protector of his family is expected to do.
  360. > Sacrificing yourself…
  361. > Dinner is ready.
  362. > Her and you eat without saying anything more than necessary.
  363. “Pass me the salt.”
  364. > She looks up from her plate, directly into your eyes.
  365. > A few seconds pass with no movement from her.
  366. > You get the feeling that she wants you to say something.
  367. > Like that you still love her or that you forgive her or that you never want to see her again.
  368. > But you remain silent.
  369. > She passes the salt and stares down on her plate again.
  370. > After dinner you both go to bed and sleep each on their own side without touching.
  371. ----
  372. > You wake up early.
  373. > Sleeping has cleared your mind and in the early morning light things don’t seem so bad anymore.
  374. > Sure, you both lost your powers, but hey you are still alive, and the egg is still in good shape.
  375. > Ready for Celestia to come back and collect it at any time.
  376. > And an alicorn with her god like power’s must have the ability to make you and Chirality whole again. Safe bet.
  377. > Really all you and Chirality have to do is hold out a few days more and things will get back to how they used to be.
  378. > A sudden pang of guilt overcomes you at the thought of Chirality.
  379. > The way you acted towards her yesterday was very cold.
  380. > You should have been stallion enough to overcome your own feelings and be the loving husband she deserved and needed at that moment.
  381. > But you couldn’t.
  382. > Those damn feelings always getting in the way.
  383. > You roll around in the bed to face her.
  384. > There is only a mare shaped depression in the mattress where she slept.
  385. > No Chirality.
  386. > You trot down the stairs to the living room.
  387. > On the table is a very scrawly written note.
  388. > It looks like she struggled to manipulate the pen with her mouth.
  389. > Makes sense, Unicorns usually don’t write that way.
  390. > You squint at the almost illegible note trying to read it.
  391. > It says:
  392. > “Went to town for groceries. Will be back soon. Don’t worry.”
  393. “Don’t worry”? … your heart stings a little.
  394. > She didn’t write “I love you” or something.
  395. > In fact, this whole note reads very impersonal.
  396. *sigh*
  397. > Your happy vision of pretending that yesterday didn’t happen and just going on like normal fades away like the morning mist over the field.
  398. > Your head droops a little.
  399. > Field… yeah maybe going outside doing the usual routine – or at least pretending to - is a good way to pass the time before she comes back and you can talk this out with her.
  400. > You are no longer connected with the earth, but maybe seeing the flowers, corn and assorted vegetables will improve your mood regardless.
  401. > Surely, one does not need to be an earth pony to enjoy nature… right?

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