Morning in Ponyville

by Skarsnik

Chapter 3 - Dress and Candies

Princess Luna was at her balcony watching the night sky and was smiling at her last subtle addition in the ocean of star when she heard the door of her room open.

“Good evening, Prince Blueblood.”

The white stallion with a nice groomed blond mane answered her “Good evening Princess Luna.”

The princess left the balcony “Excuse us for-”

The prince interrupted the lunar Princess “Me.”

“Excuse me for the… Let’s us move to our-my desk room”

Both ponies took a sit on the coffee table. Princess Luna levitated two empty glass and a bottle of red wine and filled the glass with a bit of the liquid.

Prince Blueblood tasted the wine first “A bit too sweet for my taste, but it’s a fine choice.”

“Thank thee.”

Without leaving his eyes from his glass, the stallion corrected again “You.”

“Thou art infuriating, thou know that?”

“Your sister want you to use modern speech.” the white stallion levitated two stacks of paper from his saddlebag “Anyways I brought you two documents for your night court.”

The lunar princess looked at the first small stack “We are” before being interrupted by the prince she began again “I am quite unfamiliar with the value of bits, but that seem quite a lot.”

The white stallion kept a stoic demeanor as he simply replied, “A rough estimation tells me you could probably buy the whole Canterlot and still have some spare change for buying another small city or building a castle. But it would be unwise to inject that much money in Equestria.”

Princess Luna paused to ponder the information “And all these bits are ou- mine? Let’s said I want to build a castle even our dear sister can not stop us- me?”

Prince Blueblood raised an eyebrow at the implication, he had researched Luna’s personal fortune so she could finance at her leisure, artistic project or research if a request of that nature reaches her in court, but the lunar Diarch seems to have some other ideas and it was not building a castle.

“Well, I suppose if she really wants to prevent you for doing so she could find diverting means like delaying the arrival of supplies and workforce. But aside from that it’s your bits, she had no say in what you do with it.”

Twilight was walking across the street of Ponyville, the baby dragon on her back was replaced by a pink filly. Like every Monday she was doing her groceries for the week. Twilight had feared Morning would be afraid to interact with ponies because she was a bit shy and comparing to the day of her arrival there were more ponies on the street.

Morning had not been afraid of her friends because Twilight had already shown her pictures and talk about them and the presence of Spike was probably reassuring for her, but she rarely met other ponies. But seeing the filly waving back at ponies that were giving them good morning, filled the young mare’s heart with warmth and pride.

Twilight stopped at Applejack’s stand and the earth pony mare greeted both of them “Howdy Twilight, howdy Morning.”

“Hello, Applejack.”

“We did not see you yesterday” Applejack stated while putting apples in a paper bag for Twilight, the unicorn always took the same amount nearly every week so the farm pony did not need to ask how many she need.

“I am sorry Applejack. Morning was a bit sad so we stay all day at the library.”

Applejack leaned her head toward Morning “Missing yer mah and pah, sugarcube?”

“A little, but Twilight is here!”

“Good”, Applejack gave a warm smile to the filly before giving the bag of apple to Twilight, “Too bad Applebloom wanted to meet her for yer Crusader thing” the farm pony emitted a chuckle.

Twilight levitated some bit from her saddlebag and gave them to Applejack “She is too young for these three fillies.”

“I agree. Have a nice day.”

**

After her groceries were finished Twilight made a stop to Carousel Boutique, she let the filly leave her back after pushing the door of the boutique “Good morning Rarity.”

The owner of the place was at her counter drawing something Twilight could not see “Oh good morning Twilight dear, It’s not often I see you in working hour.”

Twilight was nervous, she found herself her request a bit weird, “Well, I have an unusual request I think?”, she look at Rarity that gave her a small nod to let her knew she had her attention, Twilight bit her lips before adding, ”I need an outfit, for a…”, for some reason it was a bit embarrassing and whispered, “magic show.”

“I did not hear that darling”

There was no point to make her friend wait more, maybe she was worried of making Rarity remember Trixie, Twilight took a deep breath to regain some assurance “A magic show, I promise Pinkie I will do a magic show for a birthday.”

“That not like you,” Rarity noticed the giggling of a filly, “And why your sister is laughing?” she added with a smile

Twilight facehoofed, that why she did not want to bring that in front Morning or Spike, “Don’t mind her, I maybe tried once to imitate Trixie, using my Nightmare Night costume was maybe not a good idea.”

The filly pushed herself on her two hind leg and was making a gesture to push and invisible cape with her front legs “The great and powerful Twilight the bearded!”

“Thank for remind me what dad say” it was really an embarrassing moment for Twilight, trying to imitate Trixie and get laughed by her whole family, but at least that make Morning happy so it was not that bad, but really her father remark make the whole thing worse, now Twilight could not look at her costume of Starswirl the Bearded without thinking about that event.

At least Rarity was trying hard to not laugh at Twilight distress, she calmed herself and continue “Why you want to imitate this rustre pony?”

“Like I told Pinkie, she was maybe an awful pony but she is good with her craft”, Twilight paused to look for a change in Rarity reaction, sometime Twilight felt a bit sad at her friend lack of advanced knowledge in magic, not sad for Rarity but for conversation she could have talking magic with someone that understand more than basic stuff.

“Make me wonder how Pinkie convince you” was all the fashionista replied.

Twilight was still nervous about the idea of a magic show but part of her found interesting what she could learn from the experience like the Warming Heart pageant, “I thought it could be fun to try, no? Anyways, I have no idea what outfit I could need, I was thinking, maybe the same than Trixie?”

Rarity paused to think, “Hum, that will not do it, yes I can use the base, but the colors are all wrong with you”, Rarity eyes became wide open as an idea struck her, “Maybe we can replace the hat with your tiara?”

Twilight frowned “I don’t have a tiara” then she thought what Rarity could mean and her face light up ”Wait you mean my Element? The elements are not really fashion accessory.”

“Too bad, it adds you a little bit of prestige. I wish I could keep mine. I have so many ideas of wonderful dresses to go with it. You think I could ask the Princess to have mine for the next charity gala of Fancy Pant?”

Twilight switched to a more serious face before replying, “Sorry Rarity, we can only get them outside the vault in case of emergency.”

Rarity forced a smile “I know Twilight, I was just jesting. Do you have a deadline? I am quite busy even if I can make an exception for a dear friend”

While the two adult mares were talking Morning wondered a bit in the boutique. She passed some of the dresses that were in display. Some were pretty, but some were overstuffed with gems and Morning wondering if it was dresses for a dragon to eat. Maybe it was gifts for Spike. Morning remembered finding a dress that smelled like cookies in mommy Velvet’s closet, before she could taste it Velvet had caught her and explained it was for some special ‘grow up’ occasion and not for little fillies.

Passing another dress, Morning remembered what mommy said about cloth and ponies. Ponies mostly wear clothes when the weather was too bad like in winter or when it was raining. Some ponies have to wear a uniform like the guards or the mail ponies. Morning had asked why she could see ponies with pretty outfit outside. Apparently it was a way for some ponies to show they had money or just because they like to look pretty.

Cadance had a lot of pretty dresses, Morning was not sure if it was because it was her job as a Princess to have pretty dresses or just because she had a lot of money. Morning was excited for Cadance’s wedding, a friend of Cadance was making a beautiful dress for Morning and mommy.

But the thing that had intrigued the most was Nightmare Night. Everypony disguise herself and pretend to be somepony or something else to collect candies. Morning had been eager to try that with mommy but the mean princess had kept mommy away. She still had the chance to do it with mommy Velvet and daddy Nighty but it was planned to do it with mommy for her first time, they were supposed to be Starswirl the bearded and her cute assistant.

When her tour of the dresses ended, she stopped at the pile of fashion and gossip magazine that were resting on a coffee table.

Noticing a familiar face on one of the covers she shouted “Cady!” and put a hoof on her mouth, remembering that mommy said to not talk about Cadance. Morning was not sure why, mommy had said it was something because Cady was a princess and she did want ponies though she was an important pony for being friend with a princess.

The shout got the attention of the two mares in the room. Twilight’s eyes went wide as Rarity levitated the magazine close to her and looked at Morning with curiosity.

“Cady?” Rarity looked at the cover picturing the head of a pink coated mare with a nice curled mane of three different colors adorned with a small crown “Oh that Princess Cadance, do you know her?”

Twilight replied for the filly, “No, No, I mean yes. She sometimes make some public appearance in some schools. Morning saw her once.”

The fashionista let the magazine fell off on her counter “Oh it’s a shame, her wedding is the place to be, but I heard you can only get an invitation from Princess Cadance or the family of her fiancé.”

Twilight said sheepishly, “Oh she is getting married?”

Rarity chuckled “You should really get out more your library darling.”

“Yes. Anyways I need to go” Twilight made a mention with her head toward the filly that was looking annoyed “Come on Morning” and both left the boutique.

---

Later in the library Twilight was seated in front her desk. Two sets of quills and ink pot laid neatly on top of it. The unicorn’s eyes were drifting between the calendar she had pinned on the wall in front of her and a blank scroll, a quills levitating ready to write her thought. Her eyes sometimes wandering to other scrolls with her hoofwriting in it. On one scroll there was what the Princess wanted her to study this month, it was a little bit shorter than usual. It was hard for Twilight to know if it was some gift for her birthday or just the realization Twilight would have less time for her studies with having to take care full time of Morning. A second scroll was her old schedule for the week, including what she had to do with Morning Star and Spike. A third scroll was the list of books and document concerning anything related she had on magic. On a corner of the desk was two reference books, one containing the list of books of the Canterlot Library and the other one of the magic section of the Royal Archive and Library.

Twilight’s attention drifted to the pile of crumpled papers laying on the floor next to the desk and sighed before starting making a new attempt at forming a schedule. It was one thing agreeing to do a magic show, it was another thing finding the proper material and finding time to properly study and practicing for it.

It had become quite tedious and annoying to borrow books by mail instead of just walking a bit. Not that happened often when she was still in Canterlot, the amount of knowledge in her room in the Castle was some time overwhelming. Twilight remembered the first time she was introduced to her room, the feeling of sadness to leave her parent’s home had be replaced by the excitement of living near the Princess and all the books. But many times she wished she let Spike burnt the place, not that it probably changed something.

Chasing this though, she get back at her blank scroll and sighed again. She also wanted to find a way to have the talk Pinkie wanted to do about mares and stallions. It was not really a surprise to learn Pinkie was sharing more than greeting with the numerous ponies she knew. Twilight had read some book and had some discussion about the place of sex in social interaction between ponies. She knew that could be a good bonding experience, but could she trust Pinkie enough? Or more important who she could add to the conversation to help Pinkie with her relationship issue?

Remembering a bit of her past Twilight just put a name on her blank scroll, then processed to throw random idea for the magic show, she was interrupted when she felt a hoof on her back that startled her.

“Ah!” she turned in her chair and was surprised by the sight of a small dark blue head with green eyes and a light blue mane, there was also a small crown on top on it

“Woona!” the enthusiasm voice of Morning brought a small smile to Twilight now that she could make sense at the sight, it was plush of what looked like a filly version of Princess Luna, the small horn, wings and moon cutie mark were a good giveaway, but it was closer to the way she was after being free with the Elements than her now more regal appearance.

“Oh, where do you find that young filly?”

“Spike give it to me. It’s Princess Woona!”

Twilight giggled at the name Morning was calling the plushie “I see. Did you thank Spike?”

“Yes!” The filly left and start running in the library and levitating the plush in the air “Look mommy. Woona is flying!”

“I see that, be careful” Twilight get back working at the paper in front of her, some time sensing a passing Woona. One might found that annoying, but Twilight could not stop smiling. It was how she pictured her life, feeling her filly close to her.

She finished recopying her previous schedule and add some blanks in it, then she called for Spike that was reading a new issue of one of his comic book.

“Yes Twilight?”, he replied removing his face from his comic.

“Where did you find that?” said the unicorn pointing at the flying Woona.

“I get it by the mail today, was expecting that last week. it’s my welcome home gift for her” Spike replaced the comic in front of his face to continue his reading.

“I asked where, it look hoofmade” Twilight was not a specialist but having seen some other plush she could see this one was of very good quality, the stitches were nearly invisible and the fabric looked expensive.

“I have my way”, the dragon replied not looking away from his comic.

“You will not tell me?” Twilight knew the answer but still she asked for good measure.

“Nop” Spike turned a page of his comic “Do you need something else?”

Twilight looked at the paper in front of her “Yes, I saw an old friend from school here in Ponyville, do you don’t know where she live? Lyra Heartstring, a mint unicorn with a golden lyre cutie mark”

“No, but you should ask Pinkie. But an old friend?” Twilight did not have difficulty imagining a raised eyebrow on Spike face at the last part.

Twilight nearly facehoofed, of course, Pinkie would know, and of course Spike had to ask who she was “I helped her studying...doing homework”

---

Once she learned from Pinkie Pie where she could found the mint unicorn and had lunch, Twilight decided to bring Morning Star with her. After all whose filly or colt did not like to go in a place like this?

It was a two-story house typical of country town like Ponyville. The first floor was dedicated to a store and the second was probably for living. The store was quite plain on the outside with a lone sign saying “Bonbon’”. The large two windows showed you a glimpse of the good you could find inside. It was large glass jars containing small coloreds good of all shape and color, delicious treats for fillies: Candies.

Upon entering the candy shop, Twilight and Morning were greeted by a cream colored earth pony mare with a colored candy cutie mark “Good afternoon, welcome in Bonbon’s bonbons.”

Twilight had thought it was some sort of nickname Pinkie Pie had picked up for the mare but apparently she used it for her business and maybe it was her real name.

“Good afternoon, you are Bonbon, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well I want to talk to Lyra Heartstring and a friend told me she is living with you.”

“Wait here, I will call her.”

“Thank you.”

The earth pony disappeared behind a curtain and climbed some step before shouting “Lyra, somepony for you.”

“Bring them upstair.”

When Bonbon came back from behind the curtain Twilight spoke to her “Can you watch Morning while I talk with Miss Heartstring?”

The cream colored mare just put a vendor smile on her face “Only if you bought something”

“Fair enough” Twilight smiled at the mare and lowered her head toward Morning while putting bits on the shop counter “Ok, Morning. I will talk with Miss Heartstring, you promise to behave?” she continued after receiving a small nod from the filly “Here five bits, you can choose what you want, but choose well”

The visage of the filly bright up at the prospect of being allowed to buy candies “Thank you!”

---

Twilight climbed the stair that lead at the second floor of the house, she was greeted by the face of the mint unicorn, “Good afternoon Miss Sparkle”

The previous smile Twilight wore at the idea of meeting an old friend faded quickly “You can call me Twilight, Lyra”

The mint mare chuckled “That a good one, you forbid me to call you Twilight after you kinda dumped me” her face became more serious as she continued ”But if you want a bounty call, I am with Bonbon, I am sorry.”

Twilight lowered her head and ear at hearing the words bounty call, remembering how poorly her relation with Lyra was at the time. It was not even what ponies called ‘friends with benefits’, that imply there was friendship at some point “About that, I am sorry.”

Lyra was a bit surprised by the other unicorn display “Sorry for what?”

Twilight sighed “Maybe we could have been closer at the time, I mean outside a bed.”

“It’s alright, you just wanted a good time. But come in, I don’t think you just came to apologize” Lyra opened the door of a nice living room, showed the couch to Twilight and take a cushion for herself “I learned you make yourself some friends here, look like you changed, I was surprised to see you here far away from the books of the Canterlot Library and Archive” Lyra laughed.

Twilight smiled sheepishly, “I live in a library so...”

Lyra emitted a small giggle “Yeah, but why are you here?”

“I need your help”

Lyra levitated two glass from a cupboard and a pitcher of water “My help?”

Twilight let Lyra pour her a glass of water before replying, “You know Pinkie Pie?”

“Yes, who doesn’t know her in Ponyville?”

“Yeah, stupid question. Well, I think she wants to have an evening to talk about stallions and mares, this kind of stuff. We never really talk about that with my friends and-”

The mint mare finished Twilight’s sentence ”Let me guess, they don’t know you like mares?”

“Yes, Pinkie knows, maybe the other figured but I don’t want to startle them. And since you know about me, I thought maybe you will maybe interested to join me and Pinkie.”

“Sure, can I bring Bonnie?” Lyra brought her glass to her mouth.

“That actually a good thing, Pinkie seem interested in a having a relationship, and I don’t really have experience with that, but I want to help her.”

Lyra nearly strangle herself with the water, “Wow, you mean you really never hang out with a mare for more than just sex?”

“Yes” Twilight took another sip of her glass “I have another request, but this one I can paid you. I need help with magic.”

Lyra stopped moving for a while then shook her head, “Hold on, are you really Twilight Sparkle? First you want to be my friend and now you want help with magic?”

“I...am serious, you remember Trixie?” Twilight rolled her eyes before putting her foreleg in the air “The Great and Powerful Trixie.”

“Yes.”

“You remember her act? I meant outside her infamous personality” Twilight was a bit annoyed, it felt like it’s the third time she said something like that in the past two days.

Lyra started playing with her glass of water by levitating it in circles in front of her “Yes, it was quite good actually. I rarely see somepony that good with illusion and her levitation control was very good too, she must have practiced a lot.”

Twilight smiled and nodded at Lyra analysis “I am kinda engaged of performing a magic show and I have no idea where to start really, I remembered some artists learn some illusion spells from each other. I feel a bit shameful, I never was interested in this branch of magic”

Lyra lip curl again in a smile “You know what? I could do that for free, I don’t think it’s everyday Twilight Sparkle ask help with something magic related.”

The remark from Lyra was genuine, sadly Twilight knew it was right, she always seek the comfort of book or the Princess when she had to deal with something magic related when she was younger “Please, I am not that great, I have a lot to learn yet.”

“Sorry I am just teasing you.”

**

Meanwhile in the candy shop, Morning was eying all the glass jar containing a lot of variety of colored candies, not moving from the middle of the shop just staring with her eyes wide open and turning her head, contemplating the shelves. Most shelves were near the ground so the jars were are at foal level eyes, some other were at grow up reach and other make the content of the jar only reachable with magic, flying or a ladder.

Morning snapped out her amazement to look at the cream colored mare that was watching her with a bright smile, she beamed to her.

“You have a lot of candies!”

“Thank you”, Bonbon paused to think, she only had heard the lavender mare call her Morning, she tried to be friendly with foals since they were her customers, but she was not the one to use names they may be used only with their friends or their family “What is your name?”

The filly straightened her pose taking a more forced polite tone “My name is Morning Star.”

That remembered Bonbon of some fillies of Canterlot when she was only working as an apprentice candy maker in the great city but that was not the full snooty typical pose and tone that she did not like in the most important ponies that give Canterlot the bad reputation of being full by stuck up noble full of themselves. Just a proper educated filly, that was something she missed from Canterlot, fillies not too excited barely saying hello. With a smile Bonbon continued the conversation “You are a polite filly, how old are you Morning Star?”

“I am eight-year-old.”

“I never see you around, are you in vacation here?” It cost nothing to know if a foal could be a regular new customer or just passing by.

“No, I just came Saturday with Twilight” Bonbon smile grew wider at hearing the filly answer.

“Did you already be in a candy store?”

“Mommy take me only before Hearth's Warming day”

“That not very often” Bonbon was not surprised, most ponies bought only candies in the shop they went for their usual groceries and only went to traditional shop only for specials occasions like birthdays or Hearth's Warming day. That why she had developed a contract with Sugarcube corner and the local grocery store.

“She said candies are bad for my teeth.”

“Yes, she is right, but if you brush your teeth you are fine, do you brush your teeth?”

“Yes, three time a day!”

“Good filly, now what do you want? since it’s your first time here, I give one bit of candy for free.”

Morning scanned the room again spotting some candies that caught her eyes or one she had already tasted, but there was so many choices and she didn’t know if she had enough money “I don’t know.”

“I can show you what I have.”

**

Back upstair the two unicorn mares were making arrangement to found compatible dates for their future meeting.

“So, Friday is fine for you two?”

“Yes, that should be-”

Lyra reply was cut by a shout from downstair “Attention!”

Twilight and Lyra rushed in the shop area at recognizing the voice of Bonbon, they heard a crash sound when they were in the stairs. When they reach the shop they could see that one of the jars of candy was now laying in the floor broken, round red candies were spread across the floor.

Noticing the presence of Twilight, Morning Star started watching the floor with great attention.

“Is everything alright?” asked Lyra looking at Bonbon.

Twilight stated the situation and her attention fell quickly on Morning avoiding her gaze. She moved closer to the filly seeing she was not harmed “What did you do Morning?”

“I…”

“I wait”

The filly finally held her head up “I tried to pick up the candies, but it tickles, so I tried harder”

Twilight’s stern expression shift a bit to show curiosity “It tickles?”

Lyra answered for the filly drawing Twilight’s attention to her “That’s maybe me Twilight. Bonbon asked me to protect her most expensive candies to avoid unicorn fillies pick them up. The enchantment is just supposed to provoke discomfort if you try to pick the candies with magic if you are a foal”

“I see” Twilight had similars enchantments on the upper shelves on the library but mostly to avoid accidents of filly hurting themselves. She got back looking at Morning “and what did you do Morning?”

“I try to get through and I lost control, I am sorry.”

“Good, but what do you say to Miss Bonbon?”

The filly looked at Bonbon that was just listening to the conversation “I am sorry Miss Bonbon.”

“And?”

“I will help clean up?”

“Good” Twilight patted the filly on her head “We will take more about it later. I am sorry Miss Drop, Morning’s magic is growing up and she a bit too curious sometime.”

Lyra levitated a broom and a small shovel from behind the counter and give them to the earth pony mare. Bonbon grabbed them before addressing Twilight “It’s alright Miss, she does not need to clean up. It’s not the first time a foal made a mess.”

---

After the purple mare and her filly had left the shop, Lyra and Bonbon were still a bit confused by what just happened. They had clean up the mess and Bonbon had replaced the broken jar with a new one.

Lyra was reapplying the enchantment on the new jar while Bonbon was refilling it with news candies. The mint unicorn mare was the first one to broke the silence “That was weird.”

“What was weird honey?”

“First Twilight Sparkle ask for my help and invited us for a mare evening. Second who is this filly? It’s her daughter or something? And how she manage to overcome the enchant?”

Bonbon paused in the filling of the jar “I don’t know. She looks young to be a mother. And for the magic part, you are the expert here.”

Lyra brought a hoof to her chin “You are right, she can’t be her daughter, she is like two years younger than me. Maybe it’s her sister or something. I guess we could ask her Friday.”

Comments

[Archivist Nightwatch]

I wo t lie I am confused. Is twilight her real mom or is velvet or is she really an rphan. If you dont want to spoil it can you just send me a message with the answer? It is taking awhile otherwise I would wait.

[Skarsnik]

Sorry for the long wait, chapter 3 give me a lot of troubles for some reason.

5984750

Haha, I kinda glad you feel that way.
Twilight did not really lie to Pinkie Pie

[Archivist Nightwatch]

5985059 ok so she isn't REALLY twilights daughter? Cause this is one of those stories where it happens and i look and wonder if this is one of those stories where twilight had a kid before coming to ponyville and just like her brother she never mentioned it.

[Ulrezaj]

So I'm going to take a guess here. I'm guessing that Morning is Twilights biological daughter. She got pregnant and gave birth when she was young and her parents had to take Morning in. When Twilight turned 21, she could officially adopt her.

Am I close?

[Fluttershylover3]

if English is not your 1st language you could always look for an editor if you wanted but otherwise it's a pretty good story