A new chapter arc in Letters From a Little Princess Monster is coming. Soon. · 5:13pm Jan 5th, 2018
One warning: In this arc, Diamond Tiara gets to meet her mother. And it's nothing either of them expect, due to Courier Flash Sentry's big mouth.
Sample splash below the break
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“Summer Wrap-Up, Summer Wrap-Up.” The eternally perky guard was singing under his breath while he followed Filigree’s waddling path back into the Vanhoover apartment, leading the pregnant mare to stop him at the doorway with one upraised hoof.
“Look, Lieutenant Sentry. I agreed to let you sleep on the couch so you’re not standing outside the door every night, scaring the neighbors. I agreed to let you walk around with me when I went to my job interviews instead of you sneaking through the bushes because you are the worst sneaky observer. I’m willing to keep this up forever rather than read those stupid letters you’re dragging around from…”
“Twilight Sparkle,” said Flash Sentry.
“Yeah, that fictional nut,” muttered Filigree. “Anyway, unless you quit singing, I’m prepared to kick you back out into the hallway, and you can make your own dinners.”
“Aww.” Flash heaved a sigh. “I suppose. It’s just I was supposed to spend Summer Wrap-Up with my cousins in Ponyville this year. Best fireworks in the valley, and Sapphire Shores is supposed to sing.”
Filigree fixed the pegasus courier with a firm stare.
Flash Sentry rolled his eyes and gave in. “All right. I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal about this anyway. What did Filthy Rich ever do to you anyway?”
Filigree froze. “When did I mention Filthy Rich?”
“You didn’t.” Flash Sentry gave the pregnant mare a sideways look, as if he were connecting dots on a particularly difficult foal puzzle. “I mean everypony in town knows about Filthy Rich and his daughter. And if you’re Diamond Tiara’s mother, that means you and Filthy had… Well, I’m not supposed to talk about things outside of the courier job, Ma’am.”
Filigree took long, steady steps back out to the apartment kitchenette and busied herself with preparations for dinner, but her mind was a thousand trots away. The irritating courier went off to do his bathroom activities while she was busy, but he left his saddlebags behind, and her eyes kept tracking over to the innocuous things.
“They’re just letters,” she murmured while tossing the salad and arranging the dressing. “Stupid letters from another time when I could have been in his life. My daughter couldn’t have—”
She bolted from the kitchen, leaving the salad tongs in the bowl. It only took a moment to take the two letters out of Lieutenant Sentry’s saddlebags, and she looked back and forth between the crisp library card and the smaller wedding announcement. With hesitant hooves, she opened the larger card first, breaking the seal and unfolding…
A blank sheet of paper.
It had to be some sort of a cruel joke, but the longer she held the paper, the more Filigree could feel the darkness closing in around her, the scent of a dirty alley, and…
She was crouched in a pile of cardboard boxes when a young pegasus, looking almost black in the darkness, came hobbling out in the direction of a large metal trash dumpster. She was carrying a battered ‘Pony-A-Go’ scooter, practically dragging it in her teeth while tears poured down her cheeks until she made it to the dumpster, and with one convulsive heave, tossed it inside.
It landed with a clang, which made Filigree jump, but just a little. She was more startled that she was not in her older pregnant body, but actually in the body of a young pegasus about the size of the crying pony who burst out of the alley and sprinted away. Filigree picked her way out of the crumpled boxes and began to run with long, secure strides, the faint flicker of light from her horn guiding the way to…
Scoots. That was the name of the little pony she was chasing. She could remember the way another young pony, looking so much like Filigree, had shamed and mocked her into tears while Filigree… No, Monster had crouched in the shadows, only able to watch.
They galloped onward, out of the small town and into the dawning light with neither of the pegasi, the pursued or the pursuer, taking to the air. Powerful muscles coiled beneath her coat, muscles that could have cracked open stones or carried her at this breakneck pace for days without tiring, but the images in her mind flickered across her vision like a kaleidoscope. Images of flames sheeting down across Canterlot, a bubble of pinkish light trapping her in a hellish environment of flying trees and melting stones, a pelting dash through a dark forest, the shape of a dark alicorn made of smoke lashing out with her magic again and again until she crumpled in agony.
And through the darkness and pain, she could see Scoots and the rest of her friends. Bursting through the broken doorway to console her even while Nightmare Moon gloated above them all. Giving up their own magic to power the Elements of Harmony, despite the danger. Being there for her when she needed them most.
When she became Twilight Sparkle and saved Princess Luna.
The little crippled pegasus began to climb the jagged rocks of Ghastly Gorge with Twilight right behind her, unable to overcome her fear enough to call out to her, but unable to let her down when she needed her own friends the most. Although she scrabbled up the sharp ascent, nicking her coat and chipping hooves, Scoots managed to stay ahead, lunging into her climb with every bit of her energy. There was only one reason Scoots would be climbing this high, and since she could not fly, she was going to—
The glitter of a wing brace spinning out into the vast emptiness made Twilight’s heart nearly stop and made her redouble her efforts to climb. A second wing brace met its end soon after, followed by the heartbreaking flutter of a set of youth saddlebags. She was so close, so near to being able to save her friend.
“No, scoots!” she called out, scrambling up the last step, then launching herself forward with the flicker of a tail just out of biting range. She skidded across the gravelly stone and looked down before grabbing the vanishing tail with her magic and staring down into infinity with the rain of small pebbles falling and shifting under her chest and knowing that she was going to fall too and wind up—
I just don't see *why* you people think I like cliffhangers....
Ooooh more Princess Monster is always good
Not what they usually mean by "psychic paper," but darn if Twilight doesn't know how to convey a message.
No no no, it's Summer Shutdown. More alliterative that way, see.
4767598 Hm, that does fall more trippingly off the tongue. I'll have to see if I can edit it around and see if it fits everywhere.
4767596 When you absolutely, positively want your message to get through.
4767590 Oh, she doesn't use that spell anymore.
4767600
Took me a while to realize you were referring to the time Twilight split herself into more Twilights.
Damn, that's a way to hook me back in.
And just like that, Sentry won't get bonus this year.
By the way, I am a bit worry about Green Grass right now.