“And Rubesloveshaving people to show off to,” Hector said with a smile. “The more people she has to admire her, the happier she is.”
Trent grinned as he watched the four of them play. Soon, he imagined, Dusty and Goldie would be able to use their wings for longer than a few seconds too, and would be able to join Ruby in her air-bound play.
God help us when that happens,he thought, shaking his head.They’re enough of a handful now as it is.
Ruby, apparently only the slightest bit dizzy after showing off her flying skills, landed back on the table, her hooves clicking on its surface as she trotted over to where Brooke had placed the unhatched egg.
“She seems very curious about it,” Brooke remarked, as Ruby sniffed it, her eyes bright with interest.
Ruby sniffed a little at the egg, seeming curious. She turned her head this way and that, nostrils working, as she inspected it all over, as if trying to figure out what it was, making her way around it, tapping at it lightly with one of her front hooves, clearly absolutely fascinated by it.
“What’s up, Rubes?” Hector asked, cocking his head.
“Meeh! Meeeeh!”
Ruby looked up at him in a way Trent would have called imploring, if Ruby had been capable of making human facial expressions. Either way, something had obviously caught her interest: she pranced a little on the table, circling the egg, sniffing at it again before looking up at her parents with huge eyes.
“You better be careful with that egg, Ruby,” Myrtle said gently, moving to pull the alicorn away from it a little. “It might be delicate. I wouldn’t want you to –”
Crack!
Just as Myrtle spoke, the tell-tale sound of an eggshell breaking open filled the room.
“Meeh! Meeeeeh-eeeh!”
Ruby bounded about excitedly, tossing her head and swishing her tail.
“Oh – I guess we found out how to make that egg hatch,” Zina murmured, moving closer to it.
“Put it close to an excited alicorn, apparently,” Myrtle laughed. “I wonder what’ll come out of this one?”
Trent was just beginning to lean over to try to get a closer look, when a thought occurred to him, and he glanced up at Hector.
“Hec, where did you say those bikies who were trying to sell Ruby’s egg found it in the first place?”
“In a cave system they were using to hide drug shipments in,” Hector said, looking at him curiously. “Why do you ask?”
“So… it was underground, then,” Trent said. “Just like where we found this egg – in an underground cave system.”
He’d said it only quietly, but immediately Trent could feel every eye in the room turn toward him.
“You mean, you think this might be another –” Myrtle began to say, until, at that very moment, the egg they’d been watching split apart – and there, on the table, was –
“A baby alicorn,” Callan said, sounding amazed.
And so it was – it was an even more miniature version of Ruby, sitting in the remains of its shattered eggshell, blinking up at them with the same luminous, silvery eyes that Ruby had.
There was, however, one important difference.
“She doesn’t have a horn, though,” Zina pointed out. “Is it really an alicorn, or is it a pegasus?”
“Ruby didn’t have her horn at first either,” Myrtle said, as, with all the gentleness in the world, she reached down to scoop up the new baby alicorn in her hands. “But she lookedjustlike this. I’m sure this must be another alicorn – and it’d explain why Ruby was so excited, too! Perhaps she knew, somehow, that there was another alicorn just like her inside?”
“Meeeh! Meeeh-ehhh!”
Ruby certainly hadn’t gotten anylessexcited by the hatching of the egg – she pranced and capered, as the baby sat cupped in Myrtle’s careful hands, clearly not sure what to make of suddenly being out in the wide, bright world.
“Hello, little one,” Myrtle said softly, stroking a finger down its pure white flank. “I know this must be a bit of a surprise, but we’re all very friendly, I promise!”
