//------------------------------// // Morning Princess // Story: Prince Dusk's Twilight // by TheFaceofMercy //------------------------------// thump-splat-crash Spines awoke slowly from her make-shift bed, the loud noises interrupting her dreaming, how many times had she and Dusk talked about the importance of sleep for a baby dragoness? She groaned in annoyance, rubbing her tired eyes lazily. “Damnit, Dusk. Why you have to be so loud?!” she muttered as she rose from her basket, yawning loudly all the way. She then looked at the bigger bed beside her occupied most of the time by her hectic pony companion. She knew though, from the noise below her, that today was going to be one of THOSE days. “Hmmm, Dusk must have awoken really early, or he didn’t even go to sleep last night,” the purple dragoness said, doing her morning stretch. “Well, he did say he had an important project to work on, and that colt has less patience than Blitz in… well, Blitz almost anywhere.” crash-thump-smack” Spines sighed, Dusk wasn’t this loud while working in his last experiments, he just tried to keep it relatively low down in the basement. What is he doing this time? Prince Dusk… she rephrased, she still couldn’t assimilate the fact of his parental figure becoming part of royalty, not even with everything they had gone through. The weeks after Dusk’s coronation were the most hectic days for her and the gang ever. Not only because they had to deal with the aftermath of the Cutie Marks’ swap screw-up, but because of the young alicorn going haywire with his magic. Prince Solaris said it was normal for an alicorn to experiment several bursts of magical energy during the first few weeks after his/her ascension. It was valid to clarify that they only had three more alicorns to confirm those theories. It would seem that every alicorn had its own little antics, for young Dusk it wasn’t any different. The level of hyperactivity that the newest prince experienced, was compared to Pinkie Pie on multiple energy drinks, and that was shortening it a little. New crazy experiments every day, shocking magical explosions from the library; and from time to time some weird side-effects, that went from a different mane color to changing one’s species. Yet Applejack had to admit that he had enjoyed being a griffon for a little while. Spines drew an exasperated sigh while going downstairs, what kind of madness would be doing his mentor/big brother/father today? She mentally prepared herself to make an acceptable, normal breakfast, that is until she saw the revolting mess that now made up the kitchen of the library. “What in the world?!” Spines yelled, her mouth agape as she walked towards the mess in the kitchen. The saddest part was that she without a doubt was going to clean it. Drawers pulled out from its shelves, tableware dumped haphazardly across the floor, the door of the fridge wide open with various suspicious liquids spilled all over its once shining surface. Who could have done that? A thieve maybe? Eris playing pranks? or… “What were you doing last night Dusky?” She wondered out loud, picking up an empty carton of milk from the floor when the slightly open basement door caught her attention. The purple dragoness cracked the door open, surprised when the usually well-lit room, was shrouded in darkness; she was barely able to see the stairs with the light coming from upstairs. This was getting weirder and weirder, what if Dusk was hurt? What would she do then? “Dusk?” Spines uncertainly called. “Are you there?” she heard rustling downstairs, followed by a soft thump. “Spines, i-is that you?” The voice that Spines vaguely recognized as Dusk Shine asked, sounding like a whole different pony than the alicorn she knew and loved. “Yes, it’s me, What’s going on here?, You want me to light a flame? I can’t see anything here,” she asked, inhaling to blow a flame of her magical fire. “NO! Don’t do that!” the stallion yelled, his voice a couple of octaves higher than his average tone. “What happened Dusk? You sound strange, kind of… girly,” The dragoness said, walking cautiously towards the source of the voice while avoiding to crash with the various machinery which Dusk worked with down in the basement. Spines heard the stallion sigh. “Promise you’re not going to laugh,” he said, his purple eyes barely visible within the dim lights. “I promise.” “Pinkie promise!” “Cross my heart, hope to fly stick a cupcake in my eye,” she answered getting frustrated, “Would you tell me already?!” “Fine just… please don’t laugh,” he said, using his magic to light up a candle. As the golden light illuminated the basement, Spines could finally see the figure of the purple alicorn, she was familiar with. At first sight, something seemed off about him, while the colors were right, the mare in front of her didn’t look anything like Dusk Shine. She for once was shorter, her frame was curvier than a stallion’s. Her face was also different, her eyes were bigger with long eyelashes and mane lacking the somewhat messy, yet elegant style of Dusk—hers was instead longer, falling delicately over her shoulders. “W-who are you?!, Where is Dusk?!, Are you a changeling?, I swear if you’re one of those bug-ponies I’ll—” The mare covered her mouth with a hoof, looking uneasily at the yelling dragoness. “Spines, I-It’s me Dusk, I-I messed up a potion, and I ended up like this… ” the mare that claimed to be Dusk Shine responded, her voice quivering as Spine’s eyes slowly widened in realization. There was no way in Equestria she couldn’t recognize those purple eyes, after all, she’d grown up seeing them. “Du-dusk, Is that really you?” The purple alicorn nodded. Spines’ brain was confused, really really, confused it certainly couldn’t work without its morning coffee. Now the aforementioned organ had to deal with a very important choice: whether to burst into a full-fledged cackle or to faint from both shock and exhaustion. With no time to think both thoroughly, Spines did both. Dusk Shine could only stare as her little friend, let out a weak chuckle, before falling unconscious, thankfully, his reflexes still worked and he could catch the dragon before she felt to the ground. “Spines?! Hello, Spines are you alright?!” A faint female voice called in the distance, yet Spines didn’t respond, she was too caught up in her dreamless sleep to care. She vaguely remembered something important happening before falling asleep… Meh, she’d ask Dusk about it when she gathered the force to wake up. Wait up… “Dusk!” the previously stupefied dragoness awoke with a start, her limbs moving uncoordinatedly as she rose from what appeared to be, the library’s couch. Unfortunately for her skull, she didn’t notice the face mere inches from her snout, and in her confusion, she hit it with the force of a startled dragon… Well, a startled baby dragon. “Ow! Spines! Calm down would you?!” the same voice from before yelled, if possible, Spine’s eyes grew even larger. “Dusk! Y-you are a mare!” The alicorn’s only response to the understatement of the century was an unamused glare. “You. Are. A mare. A… mare?” “Are you telling me that you, Dusk Shine— No! prince Dusk Shine messed up a spell and now is a… is a… BWAHAHAHA!” her brain finally catching up with the ramifications of Dusk sudden transformation, these being the fact, the oh-so-glorious fact, that she could finally rub on his/her face this mistake all the times she wanted, and he will stop berating her about all the incidents with… dragonfire. “Spines! you promised you weren’t going to laugh,” Dusk said indignantly, frowning to the choking dragoness. “Oh, oh sorry Dusk, is just… You’re a mare and— Oh, I can’t believe it!” Spines retorted, wiping her tears with a claw. “You done now?” Dusk asked, sitting on his haunches. “Yep… I think so, my princess!” A pillow to her face and Spine’s regained a serious facade. She could poke the matter later, as a matter of fact, she had plenty of jokes already prepared. “Well… now that this is sorted out, could you please explain what happened exactly, and why the kitchen looks like the aftermath of one of those Pinkie’s trash metal parties?” Dusk drew a sigh, “Well, I told you last night that I had to do an experiment about spell matrices and amplifiers, Right?” The purple mare asked Spines who was again containing the urge to laugh of Dusk’s new extremely girly voice. “That you did,” The purple dragoness affirmed between muffled giggles. “Argh! Spines, This is serious, we don’t know what consequences would have this silly mess up in my body biology, I could get sick, comatose, or worst!” Dusk said, her muzzle now inches away from Spines’ face, and some hairs of her mane going askew like when she was going into crazy mode. “Fine, fine, please continue,” The mare grunted, “I started casting like usual using the potion as a, let’s say, ‘container’ for my magic, after a while the mix suddenly went crazy firing my own magic at random directions, one of those beams hit me, and long story short: it turned me into a mare,” Dusk explained, her voice returning to a calmer non-menacing tone. “Okay, and what about the kitchen?” Spines asked pointing the door upstairs. “I was using my last ingredients for the potion, and I thought that maybe we had some of the things that I needed to create a counterspell. Now I see that it was a silly Idea, wherein our kitchen I was going to find fire-tongues of the Everfree?” The alicorn said motioning Spines to go upstairs, she following close behind. “And what are you going to do?” The small dragoness asked now out of the basement and into the massive wreck of what used to be a kitchen. “I-I really don’t know, it was a level ten potion I was doing, and Zircon is out of town for a while, so I can’t gather the ingredients for the potion without him, I’m still wary of the Everfree after the cockatrice thing.” The mare replied with a thoughtful expression. “And what about Solaris? He could really help you right now.” Spines countered as the mare’s eyes widened in abject horror. “The Prince, are you crazy Spines?!, I just became a Prince...err Princess barely a week ago and I had already made my first royal screw up. I’m not going to tell Solaris, not anytime soon at least,” when Spines raised an eyebrow at her explanation she shakily continued. “Also because I’m sure we can handle this on our own,” “Fine, but it’s your call, Dusk,” Spines said looking up at Dusk’s still worried face. “And now what are you going to do?” “I’m going upstairs to read some books that can explain why THIS—” she said pointing herself over, “—happened. Until I figure out something, I think I’ll be in my room,” the mare said walking to the stairs that went to her room. “Oh, no you don’t!” Spines yelled, grabbing Dusk’s tail and pulling it towards the kitchen, “You’re going to help me clean this mess you made!” the dragoness said handing a broom to the confused mare. “Now, Let’s get to it!” Dusk groaned, as she picked the broom in her magic, it was going to be a LONG day.