> Familia
>  by Mandroid
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Wards.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Your hooves find purchase on the ground as you clear the top of the latest hill. You’d been walking for hours and you really can’t place why. But there’s no better way to learn then by asking.
“Princess, can you tell me why we’re walking instead of flying there?”
Princess Celestia tilts her head down to look at you and smiles slightly. ”We always walk to this place.”
That puzzled you, the Princess wasn’t one to stand on tradition when it was negatively effecting somepony.	
“But that doesn’t make any-“
”Everything will be clear in time, Twilight.” Celestia interjects.
You’d been hearing that a lot lately ever since you became an Alicorn.
The last few weeks seemed like a blur of movement when you thought back to them. From emerging from the astral plane with a new pair of wings to being coronated as the Princess of Friendship and the litany of crash courses in politicking and decorum from Celestia and Luna that followed.
You hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a while.
As the two of you crest another hill, you turn back to Celestia. “Princess, can you at least tell me why we’re out here?”
Celestia is quiet for a moment as she shuts her eyes and nods. “That much you deserve to know.”
”You and your friends have been at the epicenter of many world shaking events since you moved to Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle." she begins."  I suspected the course you were on early but needed to be sure before I brought you here. Now with your ascension, I have no doubt in my mind.”
That was Celestia, always thinking how she could improve.
You listen intently as she goes on. “As soon as any of us, those who’s fates it is to alter the course of things, truly begin on that path…we are beckoned here, to insure we get the perspective we need to wield the power that we do properly.”
“Here?” you ask.
Celestia stops at the top of a hill and looks out over it towards a small cabin near the edge of a forest just beyond.
”Yes, home.”
The cabin was by all accounts normal. A single floor, a healthy chimney in the middle, illumination coming from the windows on one side and the dark windows of spare rooms on the other. So unremarkable that you couldn’t figure out why you were here.
You’re about to turn and ask when Celestia composes herself and begins to trot down the hill. Scrambling to catch you, you get her ear.
“Uhh…Princess? What is this?”
She’s silent again for a moment. “It will all be clear soon, Twilight.”
That wasn’t enough this time, though.	
“Does someone LIVE all the way out here?” you ask.
Celestia nods. “A sage…of sorts.”
“Of sorts?”
”Yes. An ancient being who has resided here…for as long as I can remember.” She adds quietly. “This is where those with power learn how to wield it.”
That sounded impressive, Starswirl impressive.	“So he’s a mage of some sort?”
Celestia shakes her head. “You’ll see, you will be coming here often for your lessons as opposed to what I did…you’re a bit of a special case.”
“Why is this sage going to help me?”
Celestia smiles warmly as she reaches the wooden door. “It’s just his way.” Celestia takes a deep breath and knocks on the door with her hoof.
”One moment!” comes a voice behind it.
You hear someone rummaging around behind the door before it swings open. On the other side was something you’d never seen before. A biped, clearly intelligent from the way its deep eyes were looking at you, dressed in soft looking clothes of warm colors while a healthy beard rested on its chin. It smiled down at you in particular. “Hello there.”
“Er, hello. My name i-“
You’re interrupted twice in the same day. ”DADDY!” Celestia screams.
Wait what.

Celestia bounds forward to the creature and nearly tackles him to the ground, indeed he takes a step back to brace himself as Celestia thrusts her had onto his shoulder.
”Whoa-ho! Hello to you too, my little sunbeam.” He says, running his hand through her mane. Celestia nuzzles her face into his shoulder.
You stand, mouth agape, in the doorway. “HUH??”
”Poozer, I think your student is confused.” He says.
Celestia looks over her shoulder and her cheeks turn scarlet. “Oh dear, I’m so sorry Twilight I simply got…caught up in the moment, yes.” She turns her head back. “Daddy, may we come in?”
”Celestia you know you never have to ask that. Come! Come, the tea is just about done.”
Celestia darts off his shoulder to the small kitchen near the back of the house. “I’ll get it!”
The creature chuckles and waves for you to come inside as he slowly heads over to a large faded chair.
You walk inside and shut the door behind you.  “Princess Celestia what the TARTARUS is this?”
”Language.” The owner of the house says.
Celestia returns with a piping hot teakettle and pours the contents into a cup on and end-table. “Of course, I’m sorry again, Twilight. This is Anonymous, the “sage” I was talking about earlier. He was Luna and mine and…other’s cartaker for much of our early lives.”
Anonymous looks at you again and smiles, offering a wave. “Hello.”
”Daddy, this is Twilight Sparkle.”
”It’s a pleasure, Twilight.” he offers.
You blink twice. 
“But Princess, the legends always say you and Luna were the daughters of Queen Galaxia and King Cosmos!”
Celestia pours some tea for you and finally herself. “The truth is slightly more complicated, Twilight.”
Anonymous chuckles. “Not THAT much more complicated! I still remember it.”
Celestia gets excited and sits on a couch next to Anonymous. “Oh! Can you tell the story? Twilight hasn’t heard it and it’s been FOREVER since I have. Please? Twilight, do you want to hear this story to clear things up.”
You just silently nod your head, you really wanted things to make sense now.
Anonymous nods and strokes his beard. “It’s as clear to me as if it were yesterday…”


-A long long time ago-


You stand in your doorway and stare down at the two little fillies hiding behind a pair of legs in front of you.
“What the hell is this.”
”THEY are two little fillies, alicorns, and they have big destinies ahead of them. Their names are Celestia and Luna.” The red maned alicorn at your doorstep explains to you.
“AND?”
”And I’d like you to take care of them for me.”
You blink twice. “For how long?”
She rubs the back of her head. “How long do you have?”
You blink twice more.
“I’m sorry, it sounds like you want me to raise your kids for you.”
”They’re both good fillies, but I think this is the best home for them.”
Your mouth nearly hits the floor. “WHAT?”
”I’m involved in so many other creations…I don’t know if I can give these two the guidance they need for their destiny.”
“What makes you think I can?”
She chuckles a bit. “Anonymous, how long have we known each other?”
Since you ended up in this world.
“A while…”
”And in that time I can already tell you’ve got the heart for these two.”
You look down at the two. One looked barely old enough to walk and sucked on a pacifier, the other had pink hair and looked up at you with big trembling eyes.
It broke your heart.
You sigh and step out of the way. “Say your goodbyes and let them in…I’ll watch them for you.”

After their mother had left, you have the two fillies sitting on your couch while you sat across from them in your favorite chair. The clearly older one, Celestia, hugged her sister close to her and stared up at you. The babe looked around as she suckled her pacifier, interested in every glittering surface of your home.
You didn’t know what the hell to do with kids, man…
You clear your throat. “Celestia?”
The girl jumps a bit and hugs her sister that much closer. “Y-yes?”
“What uh…what was her name again?” you ask, pointing to the smaller one.
She looks down at her sister. “Woona.”
“Huh?”
Celestia straightens. “Woona. Her name is Woona. L-U-N-A.”
You work that out in your head and suddenly your heart hurts.
“Nnngggghhhh…are you two hungry?”
Celestia just nods. “Woona needs her food mashed up!”
Right…
You get up off your chair and go to the kitchen, grabbing a few apples to cut up and beginning to mash a few up into a bowl. When you return, Celestia seems to have relaxed a bit, but she still looks at you like prey would a hungry predator.
“…I know this is strange.”
Celestia is quiet for a second. “Anon-e-mous? Do you…know why we are here?”
Now you hold your thoughts for a second. "You’re here…because your mom wants the best thing in the world for you, and sometimes that means letting you go…”
Celestia hangs her head. “Oh…”
YOU WERE NOT GOOD WITH KIDS.
“Hey…”
She looks up at you.
“Ever seen shadow puppets?” you ask.
The filly shakes her head. You take the shade off a lamp next to you and fold your hands into shapes that appear on the wall. The story of two dogs who walk into a bar, only for one to say ouch, plays out on the wall.
Some giggles and laughs come from the mouths of the fillies and when you next look down, you see them sitting next to you, enthralled by the tale you spun now. 
It made you feel…warm.
The rest would come later, for now you were breaking the ice.


-The present-

“So…you were left here as a filly, Princess?”
Celestia nods. “Yes Twilight, Anonymous took Luna and I in when we were just little fillies. I wouldn’t be the ruler I am today if I didn’t live here.”
It was now dawning on you why you were here.
“What did he teach you?”
”Well as a start-“ Anonymous says, before holding a teacup out to you with fresh tea “-food and drink are an excellent icebreaker, along with a story.”
He sets the saucer down. “We’ve moved onto tea in our older years, but the story part has stayed, hasn’t it, poozer?”
Celestia nods enthusiastically.
“Okay, and the rest?”
Anonymous looks up at you. “Hmm?”
You present yourself forward the same way you used to at Unicorn School.  The rest of the lessons? I’m ready to learn whatever you can teach me to be a good ruler.”
Anonymous chuckles again. “Lesson two, Twilight, is patience. There will be time to learn all the rest later, now is the time for meeting! All friendships are built on the first moment two people meet, after all.”
Anonymous takes a sip of his tea and Celestia motions for you to sit back. Another tale starts getting spun and you silently wonder what this will teach you about magic, but you can’t help but feel comforted in the presence of this oddity in this little house at the edge of the world.
> This is Bait.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	You sit back against the couch and prepare for Anonymous’s next tale. “I just find it so unbelievable that you two…were raised here.”
Anonymous chuckles and plays with his beard. “What’s so funny about that, Twilight?”
“I just never imagined their beginnings being so—humble, I guess.”
Anonymous chuckles and pets Celestia who seems to stir his tea for him without even noticing. ”We all come from humble beginnings, Twilight. I did, Celestia and Luna did, I’m sure you did as well. It’s only as we age that our extraordinary purposes become apparent.”
“Yes, but they’re the PRINCESSES.”
They RAN THE WORLD.
Anonymous chuckles again. “True, but they were once little girls, just the same as any others. They loved, they played…” He reaches under the couch and retrieves a faded, worn, stuffed brown bear. ”and sometimes they fought.”
Princess Celestia rolls her eyes and turns the slightest shade of red. “By the stars, you still have that, daddy?”
”I always keep heirlooms of my little princesses.”
“What is that?” you ask.
Anonymous holds the stuffed bear missing an eye up and looks at it fondly.
”This is a reminder of a time we all played together…”
You sip your tea and listen.

”It’s mine, Luna! Give it here!” you hear Celestia shout.
”NO!” you hear shouted back.
You sigh. “Hells bells, what is it now?”
You get up from your desk and walk out of the study towards the living room where the noise originated from.
“Girls, girls, what is this?!”
The girls had spent a few months at your house already and had gotten a bit bigger as a result, all thanks to your mom’s old pancake recipe every morning, and were locked in mortal combat on the rug. Celestia, still a bit older than her sister and thus towering over the toddler, yanked her head back and nearly pulled Luna across the floor as the two wrestled over the tiny stuffed bear they had locked between their teeth.
”Luna took Sir Bearington this morning and won’t give him back!” she says.
The little blue filly in question flutters her tiny wings and pulls the teddy back a bit. “NO! WOONA BEAR!” she cries through gritted teeth.
Neither of the two little princesses had adapted their magic yet, THAT was all thanks to you not knowing a lick about it, but that didn’t stop their little horns from sparking as their emotions got worked up.
Finally you snap yourself from your stupor and step in. In two strides you’re looming over the girls and staring into their surprised eyes as your hand swoops down and snatches the bear away.
“Okay! I think Sir Bearington needs some rest before anyone plays with him again.”
The two fillies stumble a bit and scramble to their hooves, galloping around your legs as you walk away. “What, no! Anonymous! We’ll be good, we promise! You don’t need to put him away! Luna and I are friends now, right Luna?”
The moppet princess flails her hooves towards the stuffed animal that you place on top of the pantry. “Bear! Bear!” she squeals.
You turn around and cross your arms, looking sternly at the two. “Girls, so long as you’re going to fight, neither of you are going to play with Sir Bearington. He’s staying up their until you cool off.”
Celestia hangs her head and kicks at the floor, glancing over to Luna. You follow her gaze and-
Oh god.
You just catch her little lip quiver before she throws her head back and lets out a tearful wail.
”WAAAAAAAAAAH!” she cries.
Celestia winces and covers her ears to block her sister’s powerful pipes. You kneel down and scoop Luna up in your arms, bouncing her a bit.
“Ooookay. Okay. Calm down sweetie, it’s okay.”
Tears stream down Luna’s cheeks. She reaches out past your shoulder to Sir Bearington and babbles incoherencies at you trying to plead for him back.
This called for intervention and fast. They needed to get off this bear.
“Hey, who wants to play a game with me outside??” you ask.
Celestia’s ears perk up and Luna calms slightly as you pet the back of your head, though you still feel tears down your shoulder. ”What kind of game?” she asks.
Hide and Go Be Quiet.
“It’s called Hide and Seek, it’s a game I used to play when I was little.”
Luna buries her face in your neck and you go back to bouncing her.
“How do you play?” Celestia asks.
“Well, one person is “it” and they have to close their eyes and count to one hundred, and during that time the other one goes to hide somewhere. After they’re done counting, the one who’s it goes to try and find the other, and they win if they can find them.”
Celestia quizzically tilts her head to the side. “You want me…to hide from you?”
“Only for fun and games, Celly.”
Celestia quickly smiles her bright smile. “Well that sounds new and fun, let’s play!”
You hold Luna out and look her in the eyes. “Woona, does this game sound like fun to you? You can be on my team.”
Luna’s eyes are still brimmed with tears, but she looks to her bear and then back to you before nodding her head.
“Alright! Out the back then!”

Luna squirms as you cover her eyes with your hand. “Now now Luna, we can’t see where she goes.”
”Are you both not looking?” you hear.
“Yes, Celestia. We’re ready!”
”You PROMISE??”
“Yes, Celestia. I’m going to start counting now.”
You hear the pitter patter of tiny hoovies running away and begin counting.
“One. Luna? What comes after one?”
”Uhhmm…” Luna says, before she blows a raspberry.
Brilliant.
“One. Two. Three…”
A bit of time passes and you relish being outside on a cool day like today drinking in the smells and sounds of the woods you lived near. You could feel the cool breeze against your face and the warm sun on the back of your neck and felt so at peace. When you’d first arrived here way back when, you’d only settled here because it was near a river for water. But because of the turn your life took, you find yourself thanking your past self for his foresight, this place was the perfect place to bring up children.
“Ninety-nine…one hundred. Here we come, Celestia!”
You hold Luna up to your face so your noses touched.  “Want to help me look?”
The little filly smiles and nods her head, you rub your noses together and then lower her into the neck-hole of your shirt to form a makeshift papoose. 
“Let’s start by the treeline, huh?”
You and Luna waltz through the edge of the forest together looking for the splash of white and pink that would clue you in to Celestia’s location. You searched low under fallen logs and high up in tree canopies, but found nothing yet. Luna’s little hind legs rested atop your folded arms as she peered out of your shirt, looking around. At your glances down, you saw her almost ready to dive back into the shirt and hide.
“What’s wrong, Lulu?”
You both feel and hear her squirm in your shirt, not knowing how to answer.
“Come now, it’s a beautiful day out, and look at all the interesting things!
You reach your hand over and let a caterpillar crawl onto it, then you hold it in front of Luna’s face. When the little bug rises up and wags its feelers at Luna, you hear her yelp through her closed mouth and withdraw into your shirt a bit.
Okay, bad idea. You wag the insect off and fish Luna out of your shirt. 
“What’s wrong, Lulu? There’s nothing to be scared of.”
Luna looks you in the eye, but her gaze quickly shifts around you to all the trees and foliage, to a rabbit here or to a bird there and she starts to look more worried.
“Here, come here.”
You bring her closer and let her head rest on your shoulder. She stiffens for a moment but relaxes soon enough.
“You and your sister were dropped off here because it’s safe…and so long as you’re here, with me, you’ll always be safe from everything that you’re scared of, okay? Nothing can hurt you while I’m here. Okay?”
A bit of passes before you feel Luna relax in your hands and rub her neck against yours. You’d seen her and her sister do that before so you figured it was a good sign.
You smile. “Come on, let’s check again by the house.”

You sat on your deck porch with your arms crossed and Luna on the deck table unpleased. After checking the roof, the chimney, under the porch, and around the side of the house. You still hadn’t found Celestia yet.
You weren’t particularly worried, Celestia always knew to be at home before sunset, but still you didn’t like being beaten by a child. On the table, you can see Luna look past you and hang her head a bit.
“What’s wrong, Luna?” you ask.
She points past you to the pantry. “See bear…”
You look over your shoulder to where you’d put Sir Bearington.
Ah, that made sense, Luna must still want to pla-Bingo.
You get a sly grin and turn back to Luna.
“Okay, sweetie. I think your punishment has gone on long enough.”
She tilts her head as you scooped her up and carry her inside, but quickly claps her hooves together as you grab Sir Bearington from the pantry and set the two of them down on the floor.
“Okay now you have fun while I keep looking, okay?”
She can’t even hear you as she hugs her bear and you zip off into the hallway. Luna begins concocting no doubt some grand adventure with her bear friend and you sit back and stay quiet.
After a few minutes, you see a pair of pink eyes blink and narrow from under the couch, right before a tiny white filly zips out from underneath it. ”Luna! That’s not fair! Anonymous took him away from the both of us and you were playing with him earlier and I-“
Celestia stops mid-sentence, noticing that she is now exposed, and turns to your direction.
You boop her on the nose with your finger. “Found you.”
The princess blows her cheeks out and pouts. “That’s not fair Anonymous, you tricked me!” she cries.
You chuckle. “Maybe, but it worked!”
Celestia pouts more and looks at Luna, more appropriately at the bear. ”Come on Woona, it’s my turn to play with him.” She began.
Oh no, not again. But if the bear distraction worked… “I have an idea, Celestia, since I tricked you. Why don’t you help me cook dinner and then after we eat, you can play with Sir Bearington while I put Luna to bed, does that sound fair?”
Celestia rubs her chin and considers your proposal. “Can we have cake for dessert?”
“Maybe tomorrow.”
”Proooooomise?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
Celestia giggles. “That’s silly, Anon.”
You shrug. “Go wash your hooves and come help me.”
”Okay!” she says and runs off to the bathroom.
Luna continues to play as you get things for dinner out.
It wasn’t that silly…maybe it’d catch on with the girls.
> Short 1.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Eat up, buttercups!” you say as you sling some pancakes onto the girls plates.
Celestia claps her hooves together and squeals while Luna sniffs her stack. “No butter again?” she whines.
“Sorry sweetheart.”
The cows in the field nearby hadn’t been cooperative. It’d be awkward if they ever cognized… 
"Now Luna.” Celestia begins to scold. “Daddy worked very hard to get us these, we should show him how thankful we are.”
”We would be more thankful with some butter.” The little Nighthorse said.
“I’ll get it for you next time, sweety. Honest promise.”
Luna rests her head on her hoof on her face but smiles when she looks at you. “Thank you, Papa.”
You give her one back and the three of you enjoy a relaxing meal.
Until…
”Daddy?”
“Yes, Celestia?”
”Did you have a mommy and a daddy before you had us?”
That surprises you enough that your pancake bite gets lodged in your throat and throws you into a coughing fit. You see Celestia and Luna’s eyes widen in panic, the older sibling races over to you and begins striking the your back as quick and as hard as she can.
”Sorry! Sorry! I’m Sorry!” she cries.
Once you cough the offending food from your windpipe, you hold a hand up. “It’s fine, sweety you just…surprised me is all.”
The little princess looks down at her hooves in shame. “I’m…sorry…you don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to…”
“No no, it’s about time I told you both.
You get up from the table and sit down on the couch, patting your lap in the universal dad-signal for “climb up” which both the girls quickly respond to.
You pet the girl’s manes in your lap as you think back.
“To answer your question, yes I had a mom and a dad, everything alive has one.”
They both nod. “Were they nice?” Celestia asks.
You nod as a familiar smile crosses your lips. You can remember so vividly how they looked, their smells, even so far after the fact “The best, Celly…I wouldn’t be who I am today without them.”
”Well what were they like?” Luna asks abruptly.
You muss her mane. “Good question!” Leaning your head back, you remember as far back as you can, like they’re standing right beside you.
“Dad was…stern. Very stern. But he always had this innate sense of when something was really bothering you and in those moments he could be your best friend in the world. And he always learned from his mistakes.”
You smile and close your eyes. “And mom was always there for you, always helping you figure things out until you could do it on your own, and was always in your corner no matter what. She’d give me all the confidence I ever needed and more.”
Celestia and Luna sit quiet for a moment.
”Do they miss you? Since you’re here with us?” Celestia asks.
You had of course told your girls you weren’t native some time ago; it wasn’t a secret but what you were about to tell them had been.
“No…no my mommy and daddy passed away before I came here.”
Saying that brought back the memories of those days shortly after their deaths, but all you felt was the feeling of picking at a healed over scab at this point. The girls hang their heads in a mix of fear and sadness. One of the first lessons you had taught them was about the concept of death, as lightly as you could put it, so that they could find the appropriate appreciation for life, but it still scared them as it should young children.
”O-oh…” Luna says.
You pet them both to comfort them “Dad…got very sick one day and had to be in bed for a long time, and one day the sickness just…got too bad. Mom was very sad after that…they say she died of a broken heart.”
You feel a sensation on your lap and look down to see Celestia hugging your leg as tight as she can while Luna buries her face in your stomach.
”D-daddy please stop…”
”That’s the saddest story we ever he-heard…”
You can hear the tears in their voices when you scoop them up. “Girls, girls, it’s alright. It was a long time ago.”
After the girls first arrived here, you began to entertain the idea that it was perhaps your orphaned status that was a reason you were brought to…this place. With no one to miss you, you could be given a new purpose.
You lift the girls up and feel them nuzzle your neck for a long time. “I think my mommy and daddy would be very proud of my little girls…”
”We love you, daddy.”
”Pretty please do not leave us.”
You hug them closer. “I love you too, girls.”
You sit there a moment to let the girls calm down.
“Come on, the food is getting cold and we have a full day ahead of us!”
The girls smile at you when you take them back to the table and continue eating.  You sit down and feel a wave of satisfaction wash over you, knowing now as you watched the two of them what gave your parents the motivation to do all they did for you.
> Learn Me a Book.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Wait, wait, hold on.”
Princess Celestia looks through her bangs at you. “Yes Twilight.”
“Something here doesn’t add up.”
Annymous folds his hands in his lap and smiles. “You’re one of the most brilliant minds here, what do you mean exactly?”
“Where does all this fit in with the myths of our world? This was obviously before the Changelings or Sombra, but is it pre-Equestria? Had the wendigos even arrived yet?”
Anonymous chuckles dryly. “Yes…before all those things. Far before.”
“And where does this mysterious alicorn, this…”
”Partner.”
“Partner of yours, fit into it?”
He smiles at you, beard moving as he does. “She prefers an air of privacy to her work and prefers to let the plants grow without her constant care, however that was not the last I saw of her. As for your other question…” He turns to his side. “I believe Celestia was quite knowledgeable about that topic in the past?”
The princess laughs. “Daddy I was a little girl, I didn’t have all the information yet.”
”Ah I remember you were not too far off, would you care to teach a new student?” he says, gesturing to you.
Princess Celestia strokes her chin with her hoof and looks off into the middle distance. “Hmm…how exactly did it go…?”


Cewestia PoV

“Luna!” you call. “Luuuuuna!”
”Watch out, Tia!”
You freeze in place and duck down as Anonymous steps over you, whisking a bowl of dough as he does.
“Daddy are you busy? Do you need help?”
He goes to the back porch and beats a hanging quilt with a spoon. “I’m fine, sweety! Do what you were doing!”
He was always so busy on days like today…
You trot back over to the living room and look around.  “Luuuna!”
”Down here…” you hear.
You quizzically look underneath the sofa and spy Luna down underneath it, wrapped in a blanket.
“Luna? What are you doing down there?”
”Staying out of daddy’s way…” she says.
“Nonsense.” You say. “We’d never be in daddy’s way like that.”
Luna squirms down there. “I don’t want to make him drop food…”
“We’ll sit on the couch, silly. Now come out, it’s time for your lessons.”
”Okay…” she says, and then begins scooting her way out from underneath the sofa.
You hop up on the couch as daddy continues to maneuver around it and help Luna up as well, she wasn’t quite tall enough to get on her own yet. The big book of historical notes, ones you’d either remembered and written down or Anonymous had told you, was on the end table next to you. You grab it with your magic and float it over.
“Do you remember where we left off last time?”
”Maths?” Luna answers.
You nod. Since daddy had been so busy taking care of you both, he’d given you the grown up chore of teaching Luna her lessons.
“Today will be history! Do you want to know how all this came to be?” you ask, gesturing at the house.
”Uhm…daddy built it.” She said.
You giggle.
“No silly. Well, yes, kind of, but he had help! From mommy.”
Luna tilted her head to the side, she had no memory of your mother. You open the book to remind her.
“Our mommy was powerful and majestic, she had magic inside her that could do anything or make anything, and she flew around the cosmos doing what she please.”
Luna looked confused. 
“Cosmos is the sky where the stars are.” you say.
”Ooooohhhh.”
“Anyway, mother flew through space creating things. She created big things and small things and one day, she created us! And the world.”
Luna looks out the window as the sun begins its descent in the sky. Even if you couldn’t see it all the time, you could feel it. You never knew why…
”The WHOLE world?” Luna exclaims. You nod. 
“The whole thing. Anyway. Mother made us, but she ran into a problem. She was best at creating things, but didn’t believe that she should stay around and fill our heads with EVERYTHING she was, she didn’t see herself as a teacher.”
You turn to a more appropriate page in your book, one of star drawings. “What mother needed was someone she had never created, someone who didn’t have a trace of her in her, and as luck would have it, she found one here on the planet!”
”That’s daddy, right?”
Behind and in front and all around you, Anonymous picks up things, sorts the room out, cleans this or dusts that, and is always back in the kitchen to stir dinner exactly when it’s needed.
“Mhm! By some twist of fate, daddy arrived here completely by chance right after the world finished forming. Mother found him and they became friends.”
”Are you talking about me, sweety?” you hear.
“I’m telling Luna the story, daddy!”
”Only the good parts!”
You chuckle, you thought the entire story was quite good. 
”Cewestia?”
You look down at your little sister.  “Mm?”
”Why doesn’t mommy come back…?”
Ah…
“Well…Woona…we don’t know.” You say.
You remembered your mother a bit, mostly how busy she was with everything and the day she said she was going to be delivering you here. You remember feeling sad, the saddest you’d even been then, because you felt like such a burden on your mother.
After you met Anonymous though and he took such good care of you, he explained it.
“Well Luna…everypony has something that they’re supposed to do, a reason they get born. Mommy’s reason was to make new and exciting things, and daddy’s…” You look over as Anonymous prepares dinner, you smile. “Daddy’s is to take care of those things so they grow into something new. So that he takes care of us, so that there are even MORE new things in the world. Do you understand?”
Luna shakes her head no. You giggle and pat her head.
“You’re silly.”
”Nuuuuu!”
“You’re a silly filly!” You poke Luna in her tummy with your hoof, to which she grips her tummy and giggles.
“Now, Luna, one last thing for today’s lesson.”
Your sister stops giggling and looks up at you with her big blue eyes. “One day, maybe soon and maybe not, we’ll learn what WE have to do on this world. And when that comes, we have to promise that we help each other fulfill our destinies and make mommy AND daddy proud! Okay?”
”Yay!” Luna says.
You bend down to nuzzle her and she grabs onto your snout. “That’s my LSBFF.”
”Girls! Dinner!” you hear daddy say.
“Come on, Woona!” You float her up and carry her to the table so the entire family could eat together.

You listen intently as Princess Celestia finishes her tale. Anonymous pets her mane.  ”A colorful tale, though not inaccurate. You were always such a smart little filly.” He says chuckling.
You ponder the tale in your mind.
“So…this mother of yours, she made the world and then left you here to be raised by Anonymous.”
Celestia nods. “She felt that his unique traits and characteristics would give us the best foundation for our destinies as princesses.”
Anonymous looks into the middle distance for a moment and seems to become lost in the space, but quickly returns. ”She was my first real friend here. I don’t like to toot my own horn, but I’m very proud of who my girls have become.”
Celestia grins like a schoolfilly and nuzzles Anonymous again.
”But…” he begins. “The sun should be setting soon and not as young as I used to be. I’ll see you next time, Celly.” He says embracing her back. ”And you, Twilight Sparkle, I hope to see you again very soon for another lesson.”
“Well these have certainly been…illuminating, Anonymous.”
You’d learned more in a few hours than you thought you knew about the world, you HAD to come back.
Anonymous sees you and Celestia to the door and waves at you both the entire time it takes you to get over the hill. As you leave sight of the small cabin Celestia and Luna used to call home, you feel slightly less warm inside, as if something was missing.
That absence let you think of something.
“Princess?”
”Yes Twilight?”
“In that story…when you and Luna promised to help each other, what happened when sh-“ Celestia interrupts you by flapping her wings and taking to the sky. “Let’s not keep the carriage pullers waiting, Twilight!” she says.
Wha-!
“Princess, wait up!”
You take off after her, or try to if your dumb wings would listen, and your question dies on the early night air.
> Beaches and Shores.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	You wiggle your toes in the soft sand as you walk along the simple path up the dune hill. Between your legs is a blur of action, your girls barely able to contain themselves. At least, one of them was.
”IthinkIhearitraceyou!” Celestia shouts, bolting off to the top of the hill.
”Tiiiaaaaaa!” Luna cries as she gallops after.
“Girls! Stay where I can see you!” you shout.
”Okaaaay!”
”Yes daddy!”
You hike your bag up further on your back and hurry along. The top of the dune offers a spectacular view of the gentle waves of the ocean crashing gently along the shore. Down the miles of untouched beach and around to a small peninsula, you spotted rock formations and caves along easy cliff sides. The girls, even little Luna who’d grown more restrained than her sister in the years, stood in awe.
”It’s so big!” Celestia exclaims.
"We did not think it t’would be so…wow…” Luna says.
You chuckle to yourself and walk past them, unwedging the umbrella you’d made from your pack and digging it into the ground.
”What’s that for, daddy?” Celestia asks as she looks the device over. You expand the umbrella from the pole with a FWUMP. Celestia jumps back in shock and kicks her forelegs before she falls on her butt.
Luna and you both share a laugh while Celestia puffs her cheeks up and pouts.
“Hehe…sorry sweetheart.” You say kneeling down to her level. “As for your question, can you tell me what the temperature is?”
Celestia blinks once. “Hot?”
“Very, and you know why, don’t you?”
Celestia points up at the sun in the sky.
“You got it.”
Your partner’d been telling you via letter what the girls were meant to do, so you’d started basic astrology with them.
You unfurl a towel along the sand and take a seat on it with your bag. “So this umbrella is to make shade to keep us cool, understand?
Celestia and Luna both look up at the shape of the umbrella itself, you see Luna mouthing out the word and chewing it over

“But the other way is right over there.” You say.
The girls turn and look to the ocean and at least one of their faces lights up like the sun on a snowy mountain.
”CAN WE FOR REAL?!” Celestia asks.
”Is it safe…?” Luna asks.
“You can play in it as long as you want and yes, it is perfectly safe. Just don’t go out too far and stay where I can see you, okay?”
Celestia zips over to you faster than you can blink and hugs you. “Thisisthebestdaddythankyou!” she gets out before rushing off in her little pink swimsuit to the water.
Luna backs away from the cloud of sand her sister kicked up and nervously rubs her hooves together against her little blue suit. She sometimes got nervous when she was being looked at. ”I’m uhm…I sh-shall-“
"Have fun, sweetheart.”
She blinks in surprise and hides her face behind her hair. “Yes, thank you papa…”
You lean back onto your hands and watch the girls in the water. Celestia was having the time of her life, leaping over the small shin-high waves and bucking the ones that came up to her. A particularly large wave approached her and the little filly quickly learned how to brace herself for a wave crash, albeit only after she was thoroughly soaked by it and spitting water out. 
”It tastes like snot!” she cried.
“That’s the salt-water, hun!”
”You would know that if you read papa’s books.” Luna said letting the water roll over her fetlocks.
”I read!” Celestia shouts.
Oh no.
“Girls. No fighting.” You say.
”Yes sir…” the two fillies say in unison.
Celestia leaves the water and rushes over to you, tugging your arm and giving you her sparkling eyes. “Daddy! Come on! Let’s play!”
You laugh and let yourself get pulled up, grabbing a toy ball from your bag.
“Alright, alright…watch for jellyfish!” 

“Up high!” you say.
You fling your arm up and toss the ball high into the sky so it frames perfectly in the sun. Celestia shoots up from your legs into the air and snatches the ball out of the air in her mouth. She extends her wings and rides along the coastal air currents, drifting down to the water slowly and safely.
“Ooop!”
You sidestep a bit and position yourself to catch Celestia in your arms. The little filly giggles as you hug her to you and pet her mane. In the time since you took the girls in, you had faced many tough days, but you always enjoyed your time with Celestia. Perhaps it was due to her slight advantage in age or simply her sunny disposition, but the two of you simply connected.
That wasn’t to say you didn’t love Luna as well, but you were personally fearful you didn’t know how to handle her. In the years as she grew, she had become more reserved and inquisitive as time had gone on. You were never the cleverest sort and sometimes you felt you were talking to someone twice your age, not nearly a third it. You had snuck into her room at night sometimes to read from her books just so you could engage with her, but Luna seemed content to manage herself most times, it seemed, and you wanted to give her space.
Speaking of, you look away from Celestia for a moment to keep your eye on Lu-
No.
You whip your head back to your umbrella and all along the beach as the icy grip of terror wraps itself around your stomach. “No…no!”
You run onto the beach and set Celestia down near the umbrella, looking over the dunes.
“Luna!...LUNA!”
Celestia pulls her wings close and steps back a bit. “Daddy, you’re scaring me…”
“Honey, stay at the umbrella and DON’T MOVE from it, okay? Don’t leave the shade.”
”O-okay!”
You kiss her on the head and then run off down the beach, calling Luna’s name.	
“Luna…LUNA!” You shout with your hands cupped around your mouth.
“COME ON, BLUEBERRY! ANSWER ME!”
You turn your head back towards your campsite silhouetted against the setting sun for the tenth time to make sure it was still there. Celestia’s shadow is stretched against the sand and you see her give a tentative wave.
How could you lose her? She was more than your charge or your ward by now, she was one of your little girls. She was the one who you had to coax out of and into bed each night but loved her baths and called you papa. Her favorite food was spaghetti and her favorite color was purple. She was your littlest girl and if she was hurt you’d-
“LUUUUUNNNNNNAAAAAA!” you cry out again until your voice gives out.
You pant on the top of the rock you stood on, nothing but the sound of your breath, the ocean, and seagulls in your ears.
Along with a faint, echo-y “Whaaaaaat?” from below.
Your head jerks up and you run to the edge of the cliff. You lay on the grass and look into the mouth of the cave who’s ceiling made the hill you stood on.
“LUNA?!”
”Papa?” you head from the cave.
“LUNA WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”
”I am fine, Papa. Is something the matter?”
“STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!”
You push yourself to your feet and haul it down the hill in record time. The cave mouth was about as tall as your house and the bottom of its lip was partially submerged in water, you dash through it and onto the rocks inside, descending deeper into the cave. Over the tongue of the cave mouth, you spot a cobalt glow along a flat portion of rock.
“LUNA!”
”Papa! Come look what I have found!”
You run up to her and begin looking her over. No cuts or bruises or scuffmarks anywhere while she illuminated the ponds in the floor.
”These tidal pools create a small ecosystem in this cave totally devoid of sunlight! Look at the little fishies with their big eyes to see in the dark!”
Science could wait. You kneel down and scoop her up. 
“Luna I was worried sick!”
”Papa! The fieshes!”
“Where WERE you, little filly? You can’t just go wandering off like that!”
”But papa-!”
“No buts! You can’t go out of my sight like that Luna, not ever.”
Luna hangs her head and casts her eyes down. “Yes papa…”

Once you got back to the umbrella, you decided it was time to head home. Celestia was exhausted from all the commotion, so she took refuge in your backpack and nodded off.
Luna meanwhile trots alongside you, still looking down at the ground. The silence as you walked home was deafening.
You sigh “Luna, I’m not mad at you…”
”Thou certainly sounded it…” she whines.
“Papa was scared, Lulu. You weren’t there when I looked over and that scared me a lot.”
”We were only in the cave…you could have seen us go in…”
“But I didn’t, Luna.”
”Because though were busy playing with Celestia.”
That stung you more than you thought. You barely noticed the time melt away when you were playing with Celestia. How much time was there between when you looked at Luna? How early did she even leave? What did you miss with one daughter because you were so engrossed with the other?
“…I’m sorry, sweety. Papa messed up.”
Luna kicks a rock at her feet. “…We are sorry for worrying you. Next time we will tell your with all due haste.”
“Just promise me you’ll ask for permission, Lulu. And I promise that I’ll never let Celestia have so much of my attention that I miss something as important as you again, okay?”
Luna nods.
“I love you, little moon.”
”I love you, too, papa…” she says, nuzzling along your leg.
You bend down and pick her up, holding her under one arm as you begin to reach the trees by your home.
“Celestia is asleep, how about we have our time and you tell me about the fishes?”
Luna beams a smile to rival her sisters’ “They were so interesting! They have bigger eyes to see in the dark, and the plants produce their own light in the shadows…”
You smile and walk along the path home.
> Dream Girl.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	You knock on the door and wait patiently for it to open.
”Twilight Sparkle! So good to see you, come in.”  
“Thanks Anonymous.” You say as you step inside the doorway into the home.
Not many things changed in this house whenever you came. Sometimes things were moved here or there and occasionally places were overturned for dusting, but Anonymous kept the house static for his children, Celestia had said. You walk the familiar path to the couch and Anonymous sits across from you in his chair.
”How do you find yourself?” he asks.
You sigh contentedly and begin to ramble off a few things. “It’s good! I’m helping ponies with their friendship lessons and starting to figure out what the map that came with my castle means.”
Anonymous chuckles. “All good to hear, but how do you find yourself?”
You cant your head to the side “Uh…I think I just told you.”
”You told me what you are doing but I asked how you ARE? You, not your duties. Twilight Sparkle.”
You rub your hooves together, a little scarlet-faced. “I’m fine, I’ve been working hard every day since my ascension. Spike’s even started officially scheduling time to spend with me.”
Despite what you would think, Anonymous raises an eyebrow. “Too busy to be with him?”
You rub the back of your head.
“Yes…I feel awful about it, but I know that I’ve got a duty as the Princess of Friendship to the rest of the ponies in Equestria. Spike can’t come before that.” You say, resolve doubled.
Anonymous leans into his fingers and taps one against his face.
“You’re thinking of a story.”
”I often will when you come by.”
Anonymous looks into the distance. ”It was a night like any other…at the beginning.”

You spin the cups around amongst themselves, mixing them up and trying to trick the girls. Once you’re satisfied you stop and sit back with your hands crossed.
“Pick one.”
”That one!” Celestia says, confident as ever.
You lift the cup and reveal…the floor underneath.
“Sorry Celly.”
Celestia frowns in disappointment. Luna then steps forward and bit and silently points to another. You lift that one up, revealing it empty.
Luna plops on the floor defeated and neither of the girls move.
“Well? You still have one more guess.”
Celestia looks up at you. “What? Daddy, there’s only three cups. It can’t be anywhere else.”
You chuckle and lift the cup up, there was nothing there.  “Can it now?”
Celestia hops to her feet, never taking her eyes off the spot the small stone that was serving as the token in this game was supposed to be. She stepped forward and patted the area with her hoof.
”Nothing…daddy you lied to us! There was no stone under there!” She glares up at you and puffs out her cheeks, it was one of the most adorable things you’d ever seen.
“Did I, Celestia?” You ask.
You reach your hand out and into her mane and with a quick flick of your thumb to move the rock from your hiding spot between your fingers, you pull it out from her hair.
Well, Celestia’s jaw hits the floor. Her and Luna both stare with wide-eyed shock when you show them the tiny stone.
”WHA-“
”HOW DID THOU-“
You laugh and kick your legs a bit, watching these two in wonderment always made you smile.
“It’s a secret, girls. One I don’t intend to reveal.”
You glance up at the clock and nearly gasp. It was getting late. “But what’s not a secret is that it’s time for one little filly to get to bed.”
Luna sags her head a bit. “Do we haaaave to?” she whines.
“Sorry princess, but being a night-owl doesn’t mean no bed time.”
Luna sighs.
“When you get older you can stay up as late as Celestia, okay?”
”Okay…”
You pick her up and carry her off to the bath. “Celestia before I put you to bed, I’ll teach you a magic trick.”

The girls asleep, father finally lets himself have the same treat. You crawl into bed after bathing and reading to Celestia and curl up in your covers. You felt tired, as you did after every day with the girls, but it was a good exhaustion.
Your muscles ached with the ache of having worked hard to raise two children and your mind was empty from putting all your thoughts into making sure they were happy. Because of that, sleep comes easily for you. You can feel your mind starting to wander the moment your head hits the pillow and your eyes start to sag.
Your thoughts turn to the girls. In your mind’s eye you see Celestia and Luna frolicking on the lawn outside your cottage. From the door you can see them run and leap and tackle over each other and you smile.
The little figment of Luna runs over to you, between your legs and into the house. “Come play with me, papa!” You turn and chase after her into your home. It was warm inside and you felt safe and the floor was littered with toys and games that never seemed to get in your way.
You scoop Luna up and hold her to your face.
“I got you!”
She giggles and nuzzles her nose against yours, making you sneeze and send little stars into the air.
Wait sneeze? In a dream?
“That doesn’t…”
”What doesn’t, Papa?” Luna asks peering through her bangs.
You catch that too. “Sweety? You…can respond to-“ you look around you at the house, it all seemed so real… “But I’m dreaming…”
Luna titters. “A special dream.”

“Huh?”
Luna floats up out of your hands, though she doesn’t flap her tiny wings. “It was I who made this place! Now we can play together!”
She-
“Sweety…you MADE THIS?”
She smiles and nods. This was not in your lessons.
“HOW?!”
”We have read yours and sisters dreams for a long time now! It simply…happened one night.”
That just raised more questions. How did it happen? Were their powers advancing without you? Could you even trust this was real? ”I know you dreamed up that magical trick, papa! I know you hid the stone between your fingers!”
Okay so it was real.
Luna floats past you on invisible wind and lands on the ground. “Come on! We can do whatever we want here! Let’s play! She says.”
You look around at the toys scattered along the floor and took inventory of them, some you didn’t even recognize or think would work in a physically possible way, but would make perfect sense for a small child. Then you looked at her face and see how wide her smile is when so often it was hidden behind her hair or curled into a non-committal face.
Seeing her happy and comfortable in this place made you feel the same way.
“Alright Sweety…what did you have in mind?”
Luna’s smile grows wider.

It was your turn. “And…flip!”
You jump and spin around, waving your arms and blowing your cheeks out to make a ridiculous face at Luna. You find a copy of yourself staring back at you, one that glows ever so slightly blue. You chuckle.
“I think SOMEPONY here might just be cheating.”
Luna peeks up from behind a rainbow hill in the living room. “What? Me? I perish that thought!”
“And this handsome fellow?” you ask, pointing towards your doppelganger.
”He clearly must have desired to play as well.”
“Oh clearly.”
You walk over to Luna and scoop her up in her arms, tickling her belly and making her squeal.
“We’ll call that a tie game, huh?”
”Hehehehehehe whatever allows you to sleep at night!”
Wow. You’d almost never heard Luna laugh. Come to think of it, the hours you’d spent here with her had shown you many things you’d never seen the little night filly do. Laugh so hard milk came from her nose, make silly faces at her reflection, even frolic. Luna never frolicked back with you and Celestia in reality…
Thinking of Celestia made you remember something.
“Luna…where’s…your sister?” you ask, looking around.
Luna stops laughing. “Uhm…that was your dream, papa. It was before we pulled you here.”
“But you can do all this, surely you can make your sister.”
Luna averts her eyes and taps her hooves together. “We…could…”
You don’t say anything, but you think. Why wouldn’t Luna want to play with her sister and you?
…Oh. Oh!
…Oh…
You sigh and sit down with her.
“Lulu…”
She doesn’t answer.
“Is this because you wanted more time with me?...Perhaps without your sister around?”
Luna remains tight lipped, but that really says it all.
“Sweetie…”
”Well you always put me to bed first and she gets the longer lessons and you and her talk lots more than you and I do and she always butts her big fat butt into things when you and I play!” she pouts.
“Whoa! Luna!”
Luna stops screaming but pants heavily. You hug her to your chest.
“Lulu-- Your sister…she’s older than you, sweetie, and she has different needs than you. I love both of you more than you can imagine, and from the look of this place, you can imagine quite a lot.”
She titters at that.
“If I spend time with you or your sister…it’s because one of you needs me. Celestia is learning more about her magic every day and she needs help, that’s why I spend time talking to her and helping her study. I’ll do the same for you once you start learning as much as she does.”
Luna is quiet for a bit. “How come she stays up later with you then?”
“Because she’s OLDER than you, Silly Filly. When you’re her age, I’ll let you stay up later.”
Luna is quiet for a bit longer.
“We’re a family, little moon…and we fit together no matter what. If there was “us” without any one of us, it just wouldn’t work…Do you understand?”
”…I guess so.”
”Good girl…” you say, petting her.

You look at Anonymous expectantly.
“…And?”
”And what, Twilight?” he responds.
“And what happened NEXT?”
Anonymous chuckles. “And then I woke up shortly thereafter and I played with the girls in the waking world for the entire day! We had such a grand time.”
“That’s IT?”
Anonymous gets up off his chair. “Not every story has a fantastical ending, Twilight.”
You get off the couch as well, following what he does without thinking. “Why did you tell me all that?”
Anonymous puts his hands into his pocket and his beard smiles at you. “Your assistant. You can’t ignore personal connections for your duties, he relies on you more than you realize.”
Anonymous starts ushering you to the door. “Never let your princess part of your title outweigh the friendship part. Ignoring those things can have…dire results.”
“A…huh. Anonymous? Can I ask you a question?”
”Sure.”
“All this about Luna…what happened when Ni-“
Quickly, Anonymous hurries you out the door. “It was nice seeing you again Twilight! Do bring Celestia next time, I always love seeing her!”
And with that he shuts the door, leaving you perplexed.
…What just happened?
> Those Neighbor Kids.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Anonymous slips one of the last books onto the shelf. “There…a place for everything, and everything in its place!”
“It’s killing me that you won’t alphabetize these.”
”Twilight I’m an old man and I have my books sorted just the way I like them. You wouldn’t force an elderly person to change their bookshelf, would you?”
Your inner librarian screamed at the concept. A bookshelf was a sanctum.
“No…”
”Thank you.”
Anonymous continues to stock his bookshelf, quietly humming to himself.
You look around the room for the third time that day and finally say what’s been on your mind. “Anonymous? Why am I the only one here?”
”Whatever do you mean, Twilight?” he asks, sliding another book in.
“Normally I’m here WITH someone. Celestia or Luna…but today I stop by and it’s just you.”
”Does the solitude trouble you?” he asks.
“I’m afraid I just don’t see the value…”
Anonymous smiles but doesn’t look at you. “Twlight, we may learn how to better ourselves from others but its only on our own that we truly begin to understand it and our place in the world.”
He slots another book in. ”Even I had to let my girls out from under my nose sometime…”
“Is this another story? Should I sit down?”
"It was a bright, sunny day…”
Yep.

”Hurry up daddy!” Celestia cries as she runs to the top of the green hill you were walking up.
“Hold on, sweetness!”
”Higher papa!”
“Okay, hold on!” You hold Luna up above your head and make rocket blastoff noises for her while you increase your speed to get to Celestia. Luna holds her hooves straight out and adopts a heroic face as she flies through the air, although she devolves to gigglefits once you reach the top of the hill.
”There it is…” Celestia says “I can’t wait!”
The girls and you overlook the deep forest spread across the land before you with trees so thick that the ground underneath was cast in perpetual shade. Shapes darted between the trees in dashes almost too fast to see as they watched you carefully. The girls, and now you as you discovered, aged slower than the rest of the world but the world still aged, and races beyond your little daughters had begun to appear.
The closest to you being the deer.
Celestia and Luna had both had brief spurts of interaction with them at the edges of your respective spaces, mostly in the fields or rivers and you’d caught a few in the backyard a few times before they scamper away in surprise, deer seemed just as skittish here as they did on Earth.  It warmed your heart to see a friendship forming between the girls and one larger white deer youth that’d appeared a few times behind the house. Imagine your feeling when the girls came to you saying this deer invited them to come to his lands to play.
You set Luna down and walk hands in pockets down to the edge of the trees, stopping when you see the deer inside inch back. “Girls, I want to know who you’ll be with and when you’ll be back. Can you find out?”
”Leave it to us!” Celestia says with a determined grin. Luna and her gallop off to the trees and converse with a dark shape before running back.
”Daddy! We’ll be with our friend Aspen and we PROMISE to be home by sunset! Okay?”
You kneel down and boop her nose. “Best behavior, alright?”
”Cross our hearts and hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye!” they both say in unison.
You smile and turn, walking back towards home. “I love you both!”
The path you take is the same path you took to where you are now. You smile to yourself as you feel the grass crunch under your feet and your mind thinks about the girls and the day they had ahead of them.
You think back to when you were a little boy and playing with your local friends. Often leaving the house early in the morning and not returning until late that night with wild tales of adventure under your cap to regale your parents with.
“Heh…this’ll be good for them.”
It’s about halfway back to the house when you remember the other side of that coin you had with your friends.
Namely all the trouble you used to get into.
You stop in your tracks.
There was the time you fell into the lake or when you broke your arm…holy hell you used to grab electrical wires and play with knives!
You feel your breathing quicken but force yourself to calm down. “They’re smart…they’ll be fine…”
You hold your head up high and continue walking home.
…But what about diseases?
Deer back on earth carried Lyme disease along with a dozen other illnesses. Could horses contract Lyme disease? Could magical ones?
What if the deer were more reckless than you were because they were nimbler than ponies? The girls couldn’t fly yet.
You take a deep breath and press onwards.
“It’s nothing, Anon…just relax…trust them.”
You lean forward and walk home with more determination than ever befor-
What if those deer try to touch their horns?
You turn on your heel and start sprinting back towards the forest.

You run back to the forest and feel the rush of wind as all the deer spying on you utterly vanish in fright. You’d apologize later, you had dad neurosis fueling you right now.
The tracks in the ground lead all over the place, probably from leaping excitement and glee, but two stood out. A pair of the tracks were lighter than the rest, clearly made by the marshmellowy hoovsies you’d washed hundreds of times.
“There you are…”
You give chase along the path the tracks lead down at full tilt until you hear girlish giggling. The bushes nearby offer safety from sight and let you hide behind them easily enough. When you’re sure you haven’t been seen, you peek through a hole.
Your fillies frolic and play alongside three adolescent deer, the tallest and whitest of which you guess is Aspen. Above them fluttered a flock of chirping orange plumes of flame.
Magic maybe? Around fire, never tire.
You take a closer look and see faces in the forms, avian ones.
“Pheonix chicks…” you mutter to yourself.
In the woods like this? Was that even safe?
”Go ahead, Celestia!” you hear.
Peeking through the brush, you see Celestia stare intently at the flock of phoenixes, smiling up at them and looking non-threatening. One of the birds flutters down lower than the rest and flirts with her nose. Celestia can’t contain her joy and smiles wider. The bird, reacting to her change, gets spooked and flutters off with a slight whiff of flame that dances over Celestia’s snout.
”Yow!” she exclaims as the deer groan their disappointment at the phoenix.
You’re a heartbeat away from rushing through the bushes to help her when a snort from behind distracts you. Looking over your shoulder you lock eyes with a large imposing buck standing some hundred feet back. His brown eyes look past your own and bore into your brain, momentarily sapping you of your drive to your girl’s aid.
He snorts once and gestures to the youths.
Looking back you see Luna look at Celestia’s snout. “Are you okay?”
”Yeah, it’s nothing…”
Oh…thank god…
You sigh and the deer look over to you, spooked.
”Did you guys hear that?” one says.
SPOOT.
”It was probably just my dad spying on us…” Aspen answers.
”He does that?” Celestia asks.
”All the time.”
”How droll.” Luna replies.
Oof…
”I want to try again!” Celestia says, planting her flank in the ground amongst the phoenixes and holding her nose high. The birds circle around her in a lazy trailed pattern until one, the same one as before, makes another lazy descent. This time Celestia stands perfectly still while watching the bird land on her nose and smiles when it perches.
The deer smile and cheer. “You did it, Celestia!”
Celestia grins a toothy smile and moves with the bird on her nose.
”Luna, do you think daddy will let us keep it?!”
”Maybe. He let us keep you.” Luna responds.
Celestia blows her cheeks out while the deer children laugh.
You let out another sigh, masked by their laughter, and turn back behind you to find the buck gone. Shame washes over you, at what the boy said and your own realization.  There was no danger here, at least none that could readily occur. The girls were smart and these children had parents as well, parents who would go just as far to protect their children as you would.
You feel the fool and back away from the bush, content to have the little ones have their fun Once you exit the forest and REALLY start heading home, you decide to make it up to the girls by preparing for their new pet.

”And…done.” Anonymous says, slotting the last book into place. 
You blink twice and shake your head, having lost track of time. “Wah-huh?”
”Did you space out, Twilight?” Anonymous ask chuckling his old chuckle.
“I…guess. Nice story though.”
”Thank you. I love stories about the big moments in the girls’ lives.
“Why’d you tell it?”
Anonymous looks down at you and cocks an eyebrow.
“Well all your other stories had sort of a…moral or a point I guess that related to my life or princesshood, what’s this one?”
Anonymous stares at you for a long time and then shrugs. “Cute things are cute?”
“Anonymous!” 
”Alright fine! Always trust those who are important in your life and give them the space they need to grow or SOMETHING. Happy now?”
”You threw that together just now!” you accuse pointing at him.
”Maybe!”
“That’s a waste of time!”
”Did you like hearing the story!?”
“Yes! It was cute to imagine Princess Celestia getting what I’m guessing was Philomena!”
”That’s right it was! If you thought, it was cute then that’s all the point you need!”
You shut your trap and look up at Anonymous with narrow eyes. “You win this round…”
”I win every round, I practically invented the game. Same time next time?”
You go to the door and find Anonymous already there holding it open for you.
“Sure, do you want me to bring anyone or…?”
”Let’s see where life takes us, Twilight.”
The two of you exchange a smile and you fly off.
> Prodigal Son.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	You crest the next hill before you and finally see Anonymous’s cottage in the distance. You catch yourself smiling without knowing and wonder how he’d had such an effect on you in so short a time. It had only been about two months since you began visiting Anonymous for your princess training and you’d heard a lot of his stories.
First trips to the beach, how Celestia grew to love all things sugary, and what morals he had imparted onto the princesses you’d spent your life venerating.  The strangeness of it all had already dawned on you when you were in his presence. Somehow Anonymous projected an air to him that made you want to trust him implicitly. It was like he would subconsciously pick up on what you felt a father should be and became that person.
You smile as you go over the next hill. Thinking about that got you thinking about your own dad. You remembered his face when you had been accepted into Celestia’s School or when Shining became a captain or gotten married. He looked proud and unshakable, and happy that his children were achieving the heights he wished for them. You wondered, did Anonymous have those same feelings with the Princesses when they had ascended to the throne?
Would Anonymous and your dad get along if they ever met?
You chuckle and approach the door, knocking on it with your hoof. ”Twilight, is that you?” you hear from behind it.
“Hello in there, Anonymous! I’m here for our meeting!”
”Of course, dear. I’m afraid I quite literally have my hands full in here, can you let yourself in? The door is-“ You hear him mutter something too quiet to perceive and the door lock clicks open. ”-now open!”
You let yourself in, all smiles, to the cozy little cottage. “I have so much to tell you Anonymous! I’ve finally explored my new castle and-“
You finally catch sight of Anonymous with a tray of cookies in his hands. You also catch sight of who is standing next to him.
Your jaw drops to the floor.
“WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?”

You smile looking out the window as you watch the snow pile up in the backyard. The cold and wind outside battered against the home, but your study stone walls kept it out and the warmth of the fire in. The commotion behinds you hurries your to removal of the turkey you were cooking in your oven and head into the living room.
“Easy now girls, don’t knock it over!”
Celestia and Luna each flutter around a mounted fir tree you’d put in your living room, decorating it with magic ice crystals from the deer forest and baubles of gold. On the top of the tree rested a wooden carved star that you’d made in your free time, and beneath it was a collection of gifts covered In white sheets.
”Sorry daddy!” they say as they touch down.
You smile and chuckle to yourself as you set the table. Each year since you had taken the girls in, you had slowly introduced more and more of your traditions from the holidays back home. One year just the tree, another year stories, or another food. Last year was the first with presents and this one was the first where you’re surprising them with the presents.
You catch the girls eyeing the gifts as you cut the turkey.
“Giiiirls. First food, then toys.”
Celestia snaps back to reality and stands up straight. “Y-yes daddy!”
”Oooookaaayy…” Luna says, fluttering over to the table.
“And go feed Philomena, Celestia!”
You pull your seat out and grin to yourself. They were going to love what you got them.

“And now the best for last…”
Celestia tears the sheet off the present with her sister and the two of them gasp. In shock. ”YOU GOT US A SAMOPHLANGE!” they both cry out in joy.
”OH MY- GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Celestia cries.	
”YES! YES! YES!” Luna exclains.
“Girls, the neighbors will hear!”
What neighbors? Didn’t matter.
The girls run around the living room and bowl over each other. That was the last of the presents you had obtained over the last year that now sat spread around the room. You sit in your chair and smile down at the girls when they stop in front of you.
”Thank you daddy! We love you!” they say in unison.
“I love you too, girls. Did you get me anything?”
Luna’s eyes bug wide at the task you reminded her about, but Celestia nudges her. ”In our room, remember?”
”A-aye. Beneath the toy chest.” You hear them whisper.
You keep your act up and tilt your head to the side inquisitively, the girls see that and zip off in a flash. ”Berightbackdaddy!” 
The girls zip in and out of their room and hide behind your chair
”Close your eyes!”
You cover your eyes with your hands.
“I’m blind as a bat now.”
You hear them fluttering behind you and feel a soft warm cloth drape around your neck, the girls saying “Okay!” as soon as it’s snug. You take your hands off your eyes and look down at the red and gold scarf draped around your neck.
“Wow! Girls I love it!”
The little fillies beam with pride and joy and jump up on your lap, hugging you tight.
”Aspen and the others helped us make it!”
”We love you, daddy.”
You hut the girls close and hug them tight. 
“I love you girls too.”
For a blissful moment, everything was harmonious and peaceful in the world.
“…Daddy?”
"Yes Luna?”
”What is that present?” she asks.
You open your eyes and glance over to a still covered box hiding behind the tree. “I don’t remember that one…”
You set the girls down and go snag it, sitting down with it on the floor with the girls flanking you. You’d gotten every gift and counted them, you remembered and kept track of them all. Did you forget one?
“Well girls…let’s see what else you got!”
You throw the sheet off the gift and take the top off the box.
“…Who the Zog are you?”



He, as you gather from his high but a bit raspy voice, looks down his little snout at you. ”I’m Discord.”
”What’s a Discord?” Celestia asks.
He narrows his eyes in impish annoyance. “I’m a Discord!”
”Why art thou in our Chrissy Mas gifts?”
”Oh…I knew I was forgetting something.” Discord reaches into the box he came in while his rear floats into the air and carries him with it.
Oh great. He can float.
The child presents a letter to you. “I couldn’t read it.”
You take the letter and give it a once over.

”Hey partner! I saw how well you were taking care of the girls and was hoping you could take in this one as well. He’s been lonely since he popped up and I think he and the girls can become fast friends. His favorite food is chocolate milk and he hates bedtime. Work in the galaxy is going well, but one of my creations is causing a ruckus! I’ll never make skeletons again! Give the girls all my love and keep that disposition we all love so much! Signed, Red.”


You blink twice reading the letter again while Discord cleans his ear out and smells it.
“…Girls. This is Discord. He’s going to be living with us from now on.”
The girls take a long gasp of air behind you and look each other in the eyes with big smiles.
"WE GOT A LITTLE BROTHER!” they exclaim.
”Wait what-“ Discord gets no further before the girls leap over your shoulders and embrace him, nuzzling his face in a hug-pile and probably smothering him.
”Blech! Ew! Ach! Get off! I’m the big brother! THE BIG BROTHER!”
You sat there watching the revelry still looking over the letter. Just like your partner to gift you a boatload of work for the holidays.

”And that, Twilight Sparkle, is why you find me here today.” Discord says, munching on a cookie on the couch next to Anonymous.
You shoot an annoyed scowl at Anon. “You could have told me Discord was your adoptive son.”
Anonymous shrugs. “He doesn’t like me advertising it.”
You glance over to Discord. “I find that hard to believe, Discord loves an audience.”
Discord munches on another cookie and opens one eye at you. “While it may be true that I am often…GRANDIOSE-“
”Especially when you were younger.” Anonymous says.
”-yes, especially then. While I may have been known to be grandiose, I will have you know that he is telling the truth. I mean can you imagine what it would do to my reputation if ponies knew I had a perfectly normal and boring father? Not to mention the commotion it would bring to his doorstep…”
You cock an eyebrow. “You’re actually protecting him?”
Discord sighs and considers the distance for a moment. “You cannot live with someone for the formative years of your life and have them be an ever-present nugget in the back of your mind without developing a rapport, Twilight.”
That was not the answer you expected. You watch the old man and the Draconequus shoot idle glances at the other and send light elbow jabs out between held back chuckles.
”He’s a softie underneath all the fur, Twilight.” Anonymous says.
“I’m sure…”
A timer in the kitchen rings and Anonymous and Discord jump to their feet.
”The cookies!”
”Twilight help us save this batch! They’re almost perfect!”
“What do you mean sa-AHHH!” Discord pulls you in a magic grip as the two rush to the kitchen and enlist you in their father-son cooking brigade, whether you liked it or not.
Maybe now you understand where Discord gets that from.
> Advanced Placement.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daddy-hood was a full time job and it started at the crack of dawn.  You were fine with it, you’d sleep when you were dead. Whenever that would be.
Before the sun was up, you climb out of bed and head to your bathroom. It had taken you a while to learn how to make your own toothpaste, but it’d be worth it. Plaque was not going to worm its fingers into the home of your children, no matter how much cake Celestia tried to fit in her mouth at once.
You lock eyes with yourself in the mirror and think about what you had to do today. It was Tuesday, that meant that it was school day. The lack of any formal professionals meant that all the kids had to be homeschooled, much to at least one of their chagrin.
Most lesson plans you thought up before they woke up and tried to do your best with. You weren’t exactly the most learned man back on Earth. Hopefully a solution that offered more insight would appear.
Once you were clean you headed out into the kitchen to start breakfast and soon enough the kids join you at the table. Well, two of them.
Celestia and Luna come trotting out of the hallway just as you put breakfast on the table. You take a scant moment to smile and note how big they were getting in their years here, Celestia almost came up to your chest now.
Wait, only them?
“Girls, where’s your brother?”
”Probably sleeping in…” Luna says, taking her seat at the table.
”I’ll get him, daddy!” Celestia exclaims, heading to the door. She opens it a crack and peaks her head in. “Discord? Papa says it’s time for br-“
You hear a snap and the door gets shut in her scrunching face.
”We could have told you that would happen.” Luna says.
Celestia takes her seat and you go bang on the boys door, he was always like this in the morning.
“Discord! Eyes up! It’s breakfast time!”
You get a pathetic groan in response. “Sixty more minutes!” he cries.
“Now! Discord!”
”This is torture! You’re torturing me!”
“If I was torturing you, I would have made no pancakes for you!”
You hear the sounds of someone rocketing out of bed and then a snap of fingers. You turn around and find Discord sitting at the table with a bib around his neck and knife and fork in his hands.
”That was all you had to say.”
Little snot.

For slamming the door in his sister’s face, Discord was the first lesson of the day.
”UUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGG.” he groaned.
He didn’t like lessons.
“Sit down, young man.”
Discord puts his hands on his hips. ”I resent that! I’m not a man.”
“It’s a turn of phrase now SIT.”
You reach out and push Discord’s rear onto the couch, he grumbles and pouts. “I’ll turn your phrases you…” he trails off into mumbling.
“WHAT was that?”
”Nothing!” he screams with both hands up as you sternly look at him. “Relaaaaaax pops, you’ll give yourself an ulcer if you keep that up!”
You can imagine what he said, but part of working with him was playing his game.
“Have you been practicing?”
”You know I have.” Discord says while blowing on his eagle claw.
“Snapping a door shut isn’t the same as learning to control your powers.”	
Discord rolls his eyes. “There you go using that word again…”
“Mm?”
Discord makes yappy gums with his hands and rotates his head around with a screw sounds. “Control control control control! That’s BORING! Where is the fun in everything being controlled?!” Discord points to the oven. “I bet the oven would be MUCH happier cooking when it wanted to instead of when you tell it to!”
He leans over the back of the couch and holds his fist up. “AM I RIGHT, OVEN!?” The oven releases a small cloud of smoke from itself. ”See!? He’s with me!”
You simply look at him unamused. “You haven’t been practicing, have you.”
”Have so.”
“Discord.”
His eyes drift to the side. “I have! Hey! What new thing are you gonna teach me?”
“Discord.”
”I bet it’s math.”
“DISCORD.”
”WHAT?”
You take a breath.  “If you didn’t practice and can’t control your magic, it’s okay to tell me.”
Discord visibly twitches near the eye. “There’s that word again.”
The boy snaps his fingers and you look up just in time to see the bucket of water fall on your head. ”And don’t say it like I can’t do stuff!”

After setting up a quick lunch, you come out of the bathroom with a towel over your head and already find Luna sitting on the floor.
“…Sweety? Did you let yourself in?”
”We heard commotion…” she says, looking back behind her. “Why does Discord sit in the corner?”
“He knows what he did.”
”THIS IS CRUEL AND UNUSUAL! I WILL HAVE YOU IN COURT!” he cries, facing the corner and pouting on a stool.
You ignore him and sit on the chair Luna sits at the foot of, grabbing the tome used to teach her. With the girls, it was all about magic spells…which you knew nothing about. Luckily, you had devised a way to get in touch with your partner and she penned something for you.
“Now…where did we leave off, Lulu?”
Luna nods matter-of-factly, instantly sure of her studies. “Upon the origins of Arcana and its place in the metaphysical ordering of the cosmos.”
You nod, pretending you know more than you do.
“Of course…”
You flip a page to a diagram and show her, reading what it says. “The power of Arcana you and your sister tap into is a result of the natural ordering of the universe and as such, is one of the most prominent magical energies in our world. It is the antithesis of destructive magic, entropy and disorder.”
”Did someone call me! My ears are burning!”
“STAY IN THE CORNER, DISCORD!”
You look back down to Luna. “Because of the nature of Arcana and of the planet, it’s closely associated with-“
Luna dismissively waves her hoof. “Yes, yes, the natural Drudic magics of the Elk and Deer, we know. Get to the part on the dreamscape and shadowlands!”
You blink twice. “Did you read ahead?”
”Thou were teaching us too slowly!” Luna catches herself yelling and flattens her ears. ”Uh…we are sorry, daddy…”
You bend down and pet her head.  “Don’t be, sweety. I’m proud of you! Proud that I have such a clever little filly for a little girl.”
Luna giggles and Discord piques up. ”If she’s so clever then why were you able to get the bucket off your head before I was gone?”
Luna fidgets and turns to her brother. “If thou had made the bucket the appropriate size, he would not have!”
“What.”
Luna’s eyes bug and she looks back at you again. ”Uh…hehe…”

Celestia sits on your lap and Luna sits on another stool in the corner next to her brother. While the evening sun comes in through the windows. ”This is poopy.” She says.
”Got that right.” Discord answers.
“Quiet over there, you two! Time out means quiet!”
They both pout.
“Now… You flip the book to another bookmark. “Celestia, I can only guess you read ahead too, where are you at now?”
Celestia looks at the contents of the book like a well cooked meal. ”Mmm? Oh, I didn’t do that.” 
“Excuse me?”
Celestia turns her big pink eyes up at you. “I haven’t read ahead a page, daddy.”
You look at her, finding that a bit hard to believe.
“Luna? Tell me the truth and I’ll give you dessert.”
Luna’s shoulders pop up nearly an inch and she looks back at you. “No papa! She’s telling the truth!”
”How come I don’t get an offer?!” Discord wines.
“You’d try to lie anyway is why.”
Discord blows a raspberry at your correct guess.
Celestia smiles up at you.
“Okay then…well…” you turn the page again. “Due to the role in ordering the world Arcana has, it often forms a tight relationship with the ordered events of our world and thus the easiest avenue to travel if you’re looking to affect them.”
Celestia nods an understanding nod. “I see…and the leyline paths crisscrossing the planet spread the Arcananic influence and offer more avenues.”
Okay that sounded too smart.
You flip through the book pages, but find no reference to what Celestia said. “…Huh?”
Celestia giggles. “It’s easy, daddy.”
”Know-it-all…” you hear Luna pout.
This was getting too strange.

You set Celestia down and look at her. “You just know things and your sister read ahead three chapters. Are you two little geniuses keeping something from me?”
The sisters exchange a “We-share-a-room-and-whisper-a-lot” glance and then look back at you.
“…Some insights came to us. B-but we were going to wait until you covered that chapter to show you!”
You sigh and stand up, signaling for Luna to come over as well. “Girls, you know I want you to try and be honest with me whenever you can. If you have something you want to show me about your studies, don’t ever be afraid to.”
The sisters glance again at each other and nod. ”Thou may want to sit down.”
”And don’t be afraid! We know we can do this…”
You can’t really relax when they tell you that, but you sit down for their sake. Celestia and Luna close their eyes and point their horns at the window, their horns glow with magic and for a second you think you see the sun beyond the window twitch.
You blink and look again, surely that was a trick of your eye.
The sun stops its decent across the horizon and seems to waver, before dropping down much MUCH faster than you’d seen it before. In barely a moment it crawls behind the hill in front of your house and ushers in the blackness of night. Meanwhile the room fills with silver light from the window in the kitchen as the moon rises at the same speed as the sun.
“Oh my god, girls…”
You look down at the two of them adjusting the heavenly bodies with their magic at such a tender age agape, suddenly feeling very small. The two finish their magic and release it together, having successfully heralded the night and looking up at you.
”Well?”
”What do you think?”
Before you can talk, you hear munching next to you. Discord floats next to your ear with a bag of popcorn. “I think it was neat! Imagine how funny it’d be if you made them switch super fast!”
You want to answer your girls, want to show them how amazed and proud you are, but all that comes out is “Discord, who said you could get off your stool?”

Later that night, later that early night, you put the kids to bed and stand out back by the oak tree over the hill and close your eyes. You concentrate on your heartbeat, centering yourself and blocking out all other distractions save the sound of the wind in your ears.
When satisfied, you speak aloud.
“Can you hear me?”
Nothing comes at first, but a gust of wind from the hills brings “Loud and clear” in the familiar, but seldom heard voice of your partner. ”This must be important, you never try and hear from me like this.” The wind says.
“You’re darn right it’s important!”  You used to swear more, then you had kids.
“The girls surprised me today! They lowered the sun, Red! They reached out with their little magics and pop!” You clap your hands. “Pulled the sun right from the sky and sent it on its merry way!”
The wind is silent for several moments. ”Yes…I thought they might by now.” It says, finally.
You sigh and lean against the tree “You could have warned me…”
You feel a soft breeze brush against your cheek almost apologetically. ”Anonymous, you know I can’t. I left those children here because a proper upbringing, a NORMAL upbringing is more important than anything else for their futures.”
You don’t say anything.
”Would you honestly not treat them any differently if you knew what they were capable of?” you hear.
“I might be more resistant to letting them have temper tantrums.”
The wind wavers in a chuckle.
“I just don’t know, Red…If I’m supposed to be this form of stability to them, why do I feel so powerless if I think about controlling an outburst?”
The wind blows against your back. “Parents aren’t kings. You can’t force a child, or any living thing for that matter, to bend to your will by words alone. Sooner or later, they have to make the choice to listen. You need to find a way to make them want to listen to you if you long for the peace of mind you’re after.”
“Remind me again why you’re not the one raising these three if you have so many answers?”
”Because I already have the best man for the job on it.” She says.
You sigh again and notice the height of the moon in the sky.
“Right…goodnight, partner.”
”Sleep tight, Anon…” you hear before the wind becomes just wind.
You turn and head back to the house to climb into bed, trying to put your concerns to rest along with yourself.
> Lil' Matchmakers.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

”Lulu, wake up.”
You groan and pull your pillow over your head. “Nuuuhhhh…”
Your sister nudges you with her snow once again and makes her hair fall in your face. It always smelled like wildflowers no matter how often she insisted it didn’t.
”Lulu we need you! Get up!”
You seethe for a moment under the blankets, she never understoo- Father wouldn’t like you acting like that, so you rise up to a seated position with your eyes barely cracked open and mane all mussed up. Even through your dreariness, you can make out Discord and Celestia standing next to your bed.
“What. Time is it.”
”Almost lunch.” Your brother says.
Almost-
You take a deep breath and calm yourself. “Both of you are well aware that I do not awaken until after noon at the earliest. Please come back later.”
In the recent years you’d found it impossible to go to sleep while the moon hung in the sky, only finding the doziness overtake you once the sun began to rise. Father had worked himself ragged for a day figuring out how to re-arrange your schedule and now you ate “breakfast” with your family and then went to bed.
Your head is almost back on your pillow before Discord snaps his fingers and turns it into a flopping fish. You only need a second touching its slimy scales before you leap in surprise from the bed and flutter in the air shrieking.
“D-DISCORD!”
”Awake now?” he says with a smirk.
“DO NOT TEST ME, CHIMERA! BROTHER OR NO YOU WILL FEEL MY WRATH AND I-!”
”Lu’ would you settle down and listen to what Pinky here has to say!?”
You glance over to your sister who is prancing back and forth like she needs to relieve herself and biting her tongue. “Fine.”
”WE’REGOINGTOGETDADDYASPECIALSOMEPONY!” she blurts out.
You don’t say anything, but you hope your expression says it all.

You land next to them, suddenly very awake as Discord snaps your fish back to a pillow. “Pardon me, sister, but I believe I heard you say something incredibly foolish.” 
Celestia shakes her head and bites her lower lip. “You must have misheard, because we’re going to get daddy a special somepony!”
You point with your hoof. “No, see, that is the incredibly foolish thing I heard.”
Celestia’s smile quickly turns to a pout. “Lulu!...Always so cynical!”
“Is all this because you have been making goo goo eyes at Prince Aspen lately?”
Discord smirks and glances down at Celestia. “You know I’d been wondering the same thing…”
Your sister’s coat turns from alabaster to red and she scrapes her hoof on the ground. “B-both of you shut up!”
You and Discord hold your forelimbs to your mouths and laugh.
Celestia composes herself and takes a step towards you. “Lulu, I am serious! How many years have we lived here with daddy?”
You recount the time in your head, the seemingly endless parade of days under his supervision. “…Many.”
”And in all that time have you known daddy to even ONCE have met someone special?”
You start to get what she was putting down “I have not…”
”Us neither…” Celestia said, looking downtrodden with Discord, though he’d try and hide it.
”Like in his stories, love is one of the most important things in the whole universe! If daddy can’t or won’t find it on his own, we’ll just have to help him!”
“How utterly egotistical.” you say.
”Oh you know what she means. I remember pops’ stories too. If love weren’t so important, that Loaf of Meat guy wouldn’t do anything for it.”
”Except that one thing.” Celestia corrected.
”Yeah, except that.” Discord accepts.
You rub your snout. You knew they weren’t going to let you sleep until you helped them, and your rest had already been broken…
“You had a plan, I presume?”
Celestia nods enthusiastically. “You remember those small tribes of little ponies daddy sometimes takes us to observe??”	
You nod.
”Aaaaand do you remember the one from the unicorn tribe who wears the hood?”
You think for a minute. “Sssssomething the Clever?”
Celestia locks her sparkling eyes with yours and her smile just gets wider.

Father let the three of you out to play under the guise you were going to play with Aspen and his friends. Little did he know that you had made a detour to a rocky valley just outside of the area the tribe of horned little ponies had settled in. It was odd to you that they only had one or the other, horns or wings, but you didn’t give it thought right now.
Instead you were just bopping your hooves on the ground you lay on and watching the dirt cloud up in the air. “Tia, this is dull as a post.”
”Quiet Lulu, they’ll hear us!”
You push yourself to your hooves and annoyedly blow your mane from your face.
“Who is going to hear us. THE EMPTY VALLEY?!”
This time both Discord and Celestia turn and shush you.
“UHG.”
You roll over onto your back and look at the sky. It was daytime, you could be sleeping now. “You two haven’t even told me your plan.”
Discord and Celestia both look each other in the eye and grin wildly.
”Well, Discord thought of it.” Celestia says.
”See, we invited the old man and Clover to this spot.” He says.
”But we pretended we were the other one in the letter!”
”And so when they get here…”
”They’ll find THAT!” Celestia says, pointing to the valley floor past the rock you hid behind.
You take a peek. “…They’ll find some sandwiches, still water, and a blanket?”
”It’s called a picnic, Luna, and they’ll find it and fall in love!” Celestia says.
You cock an eyebrow and look up at her. You didn’t understand, she was supposed to be smart.
“Tia neither of those two things are remotely related.”
Celestia scoffs. “Don’t ask me! It was Discord’s idea!”
You turn your head to your brother. “Well?”
”Well what?” he answers.
“Where did you come up with this idea?”
”I read it in a trashy romance novel once. Or, I will. In a thousand years. It’s too complicated for you, Lulu.”
"Oh. Great." you thought.
Celestia gasps and points to the picnic. “They’re here!”
Despite your protests, you still climb to your hooves and peer over the rock. From one side of the valley you see father walk past the rocks with his old weathered walking stick in hand, while from the other side approached a small off-green pony with a rich emerald mane shrouded in a dusty old cloak.
Celestia shushes the both of you three times each. “Shush shush shush! We need this to go off flawlessly!”
“Okay! Settle down…”
Father and Clover were too far away for you to hear what they were saying to one another, but it was easy enough to watch them.
Celestia sighs wistfully. “This is the part where she falls into his arms and they declare their undying love for one another…”
“…I believe this is the part where they look this way, sister.”
”Give them a moment, Lulu. All will be well.” Celestia says with a cheer.
“Sister I think they see us.”
”See us watching their love unfold!”
“Celestia, they’re walking over here now.”
Father looked confused, Clover just looked annoyed.
”Discord, what did the book say we should do now?” Celestia turns around after she doesn’t get an answer. “Discord?”
You glance over where Discord was standing and see the tiny speck of him on the horizon hightailing it out of there.
“OH THAT ROTTEN-“

”It’s not that we’re mad at you per say, girls…” father began, glancing awkwardly at Clover the Clever. “But…matters of the heart are usually best left to the people involved.”
”Especially important that they KNOW one another first.” Clover says.
Celestia sits next to you, both of you turning your faces to the ground, and sighs.
You guess apologizing will have to fall to you, like always. “We are very sorry for what we did, Miss Clover. We were…mislead.”
Celestia turns to look at you. “But Luna! Discord said that in the book he reads-“
”Celestia, what is the one thing I keep telling you about Discord?” father says.
Sister sighs and closes her eyes again in shame. “That Discord lies…”
”Mhm…” Father holds Discord up by his tail, retrieved by a magical spell quickly performed by Clover after you’d told him that your brother had run away. The Draconequus nods. “He’s right you know, about everything.”
Discord sits still for a moment. ”Except that.”
”…And that.”
”And that.”
”And tha-“ 
Father clamps Discords mouth shut quickly. “Do not do that.”
Discord gives a thumbs up.
Clover the Clever gets closer to you and Celestia and seems to be inspecting you. ”I’m dreadfully sorry about this, Ms. Clover. I try to teach my children to be respectful, but we’re all unused to neighbors.” Father stammers.
”There was no harm done…” the hooded pony says as she looks the two of you over.
“…What?” you ask.
”May we help you, Miss Clover?” Celestia says.
She backs off, but continues to watch you. “Horns and wings…curious.” With that she trots back around you and past father, casting a glance back. “Good day to you and your…interesting brood, Anonymous.”
”And you, Mrs. Clover.” He responds.
Once she’s out of sight, father looks down at you with his textbook disappointed face. “Come along, you three. Let’s get you home and think of an appropriate consequence.”
“I would like it noted that I thought this was a horrible idea from the start.”
Father was liable to go easy on you if you made things clear to him!
”Yeah well I want it noted that you’re a butt.” Discord says.
Father was less likely to go easy on you after you tried to thwack Discord with a stick for being so cowardly.
> Teenage Dirtbag.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

”THOU ART SUCH A PEST!” you hear shouted from the hallway.
“Oh boy, here we go…” 
You set your dish down and storm into the hallway. “GIRLS, GIRLS, THE DEER KINGDOM CAN HEAR YOU! WHAT IS WITH ALL THE RACKET!?”
You find Celestia standing in Luna’s door, Luna sat at her desk, with a handwritten tome floating between them in both their magical grasps.
”SHE IS STEALING MY BOOK!” Luna shouts.
”LUNA WON’T GIVE ME THE STUPID BOOK!” Celestia yells.
”TIS NOT A STUPID BOOK, I WROTE THESE NOTES MYSELF!”
”AND I NEED IT YOU LITTLE BRAT!”
“HEY! HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY!” You step in and tear the book from the air, standing between the two girls so they both must look at you. “This isn’t how we solve problems in my house! Both of you settle down and explain this to me or neither of you get the book!”
”BUT DA-“ they both start, but you interrupt them with a stern “NOW!”
Both Celestia and Luna bite back whatever curse they were about to utter and take a moment to swallow their anger before glaring back at each other.
You can feel the daggers passing you between the sisters’ eyes.
”Sorry.” Celestia says.
Luna chews her apology for a minute before replying dryly with “Yeah.”
The daggers continue to fly between them before Celestia turns and walks away.
“Tia-“
”I’m going to my room.” She says before a door slams.
Great. Just great.
Luna sighs behind you. “Wonderful…may I have my book now, father? And my privacy?”
You hand the book back to Luna and watch as she opens it “Do you know why your sister is like that, Luna?”
The Night Pony narrows her eyes a bit. “Maybe she sat on a pinecone. My privacy?”
Right. No help here.
You leave and walk out of the room and feel the door get shut right on your butt the second you’re out.
”Oh, this family is finally getting good.”
You look down the hall where Discord is leaning against his doorframe munching popcorn. “Do you think one of them will run away? Can I have their room if they do!?”
You sigh and rub the back of your head.
“Go finish the dishes, Discord.”
”Hah! You MUST be joking!” Discord turns in the hall and goes back to his room, shutting the door.
Gor rammit. You cut your losses and turn the knob to Celestia’s room, heading in to find your daughter on her bed with her pillow over her face.
“Tia.”
”What, father.” She responded.
She was being testy, she’d been testy for months now.
“Are you going to tell me what in Tartarus is going on with you?”
”Nothing.”
You feel your eye fidget. “It doesn’t seem like nothing.”
Celestia doesn’t say anything but uncomfortably shifts on her bed, you hear her lightly groaning under the pillow.
“Tia?”
Celestia throws the pillow off her head in your direction, but it bounces harmlessly off the wall.
“Hey!”
She pushes herself up and stares at you. “Perhaps it IS nothing because, just perhaps, THIS is who your precious little girl is now, father!”
You just stare back at her. “Are you serious?” is all you can ask.
”UUUHGGG.” Celestia grabs the pillow and drops it on her head again before screaming “GET OUT!”
You want to scold her but you also don’t want another fight, so instead you just throw your hands up and walk out. The door slams shut behind you.
Now you stand at the intersection of three doors shutting you off from each of your children.
“Fantastic…”

Neither Celestia or Luna came to dinner that night, each saying nothing when you asked them what was wrong. You lean against the railing looking over your back yard and faithful play tree, now a mighty oak touching the sky, and sigh at the moon.
“I guess I should be happy they let this happen…”
You hang your head and shake it, what were you going to do with those girls? Maybe it was time to get in touch with their mother…	
”Penny for your thoughts?”
“Huh?”
You look up behind you where the resident draconequus lazing around on the roof of your house. “What little there are, anyway.” He says.
“Discord, you might as well clean the gutters while you’re up there.”
He kicks his leg leisurely and tsks you. “Now now pops, you don’t want three angry children, do you?”
You sigh heavily and turn back to the moon, hoping to lose some of your sorrow in its pockmarked surface. You always felt so old looking at the moon, you remember it being much less blemished when you first arrived here. 
“Low blow…” you groan.
”…That’s a matter of perspective.” Discord says after a moment. You feel the air ripple behind you and he slithers up next to you. “Is there a REASON this is breaking you up so bad?”
“In all the years that I’ve taken care of the girls before you came, this has never happened. They were always sweet little dumplings and this new attitude from both unnerves me.”
Discord scoffs. “Shows what you know…”
“What?”
”What I mean is you may be dad, but you don’t understand what it’s like living with you.”
You furrow your brow.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Discord coils up into the air and floats. “It means what it sounds like! You don’t know what it’s like living with you, being us. Whatever is going on with Celestia, she’s OBVIOUSLY keeping it locked away inside her and away from you for a reason.”
“Very helpful…” you grumble.
”And WHATEVER it is, she’s been talking in her sleep so much that it’s keeping me awake. My beauty sleep schedule has been DECIMATED.”
Talking in her sleep?
“Hey now…”

Minutes later, you stand over Celestia as she sleeps, trying to be as quiet as possible while she tosses and turns.
“Luna, are you ready?” you whisper.
”This is absurd!” She yells while still whispering.
“It is not absurd! Your sister is clearly troubled by something and she needs our help! You’re the only one who can dreamwalk so she needs YOU.”
”She STOLE my BOOK!”
“I will help you MAKE another BOOK! She is your SISTER!”
Luna screams in silent frustration and makes her horn glow “Fine but I am not forgiving her so easily! SHE will be making the new book!”
Luna unleashes the magic in her spell and the shadows on the wall close in on you until all you see is blackness The blackness recedes from a vision of the front door of your house and suddenly you’re alone. That was fine, Luna just needed to maintain the connection, not be here, she had been practicing enough to do that.
You watch as the door to the house opens and a single bag is tossed out by a familiar voice; your own. ”Alright kids! You’ve ambled around here long enough, time to go off and make something of yourselves!”
A loud WHOMP comes from the house and Celetia, Luna, and Discord fly in an arc from the door to right next to the bag. 
”WHAT!?" Celestia cries as she hits the black dirt.
”Good luck! I’m rooting for you!” Your doppleganger says as he shuts the door.
Luna and Discord rise to their feet and brush themselves off while Celestia looks at the door in shock. Discord is the first to speak. “Well, guess that’s that. I heard about an island called Eden a ways up North? Think I’ll check that out…” He begins to float up to the blackness and gives a halfhearted wave “Don’t wait up, sis.”
Luna looks to the sky as he goes and floats up herself “The stars…they’re calling to me, sister. I need to answer them…”	
Celestia’s head whips back and forth watching them go and she bites back tears. “N-no! Wait you two! You can’t go! We have to stick together now!”
Her pleas fall on silence as Discord and Luna vanish away. Celestia doesn’t waste any time galloping to the door and banging on it with her hooves.
”Daddy! DADDY! PLEASE LET ME BACK IN!”
You wanted to watch from the shadows as tears streamed down her face, but your legs wouldn’t stay still.
”PLEASE DADDY I’M NOT READY YET! I’M NOT READY TO LEAVE YET! I’M NOT READY TO BE ALONE!”
You step from the shadows but let yourself pause just from the edge. Celestia slides down the front of the door and hangs her head, crying openly and hitting her hooves against the hard wood. ”I’ll do anything you ask…I’ll help you around the house, I’ll never raise my voice...please don’t make me go…”
“Sweetheart, is that what you think will happen?”

Celestia turns her head in the dreamscape and finally spots you. Her eyes were red with strain and tears flowed freely down her gentle face. “D-daddy?”
You choke back what you saw.
“You-- do you think this is what would happen?”
Celestia gets back to her hooves but holds herself back, looking away from you. “Birds need to leave their nest eventually, Daddy. It’s a law of nature.”
"Sod the birds."
The distance between you both vanishes under your strides. “Is that why you’re acting this way, Celestia? You’re pushing us all away.”
Celestia jumps slightly and refuses to meet your eyes again. “If I’m going to leave…I-I want it to be on my terms. It’ll s-save trouble later. You will not miss me if you detest me before I go.”
“Celestia…” You get down to your knees and wipe away the tears on the side of her face. “…you big dummy.”
”Huh…?” Celestia turns around to face you, shocked. You give her a smile.
You run your hand through her mane slowly. “Honey, birds only leave their nest when they’re ready. I would never send you all away before then…”
Celestia sniffs. “Then why are you teaching us so much? We learn so much every day and you make us go watch the new pony tribes or do so many things we never used to do! Why else but our eventual exit would you be doing that?!”
Silence fills the dreamscape for a moment, but you still pet her head. “…It is for when you leave, Celestia, I’ll give you that. But that isn’t ALL there is to it.”
“The day you three leave- I promise that it will only be after the day when you’re all ready to go. It would be the worst thing I could ever do to you if I forced you out early.”
Celestia rests her head in your hands. “You wouldn’t ever hurt us…”
“Not ever on purpose, Celly…”
Celestia sniffles and shudders “I was so mean to all of you…”
You pet her head some more. “We’ll deal with that when we wake up.”
”Did someone say “wake up”?” you hear Luna say.
“Wha-“

“YAH!”
”GAAAH!”
You and Celestia jump a foot as Loon pulls you from the dreamways, making the little blue alicorn titter. ""Aha! You should both see your faces!”
Both of your faces were your annoyed faces.
“Very funny, Luna. You could put Discord’s standup act to shame.”
”I heard that!” you hear through the wall.
Uhg.
You turn back to Celestia and rub her back while she collects herself. “Are you okay?”
”Yes…” Celestia says. “Yes, I believe I’m…better, thank you for coming to find me, daddy…”
”Does this mean you’re done being a huge beeeeeeeeeeee…” Luna begins, but trails off when you shoot her a stern glare. “…eeeeeeeeeeehind pain? A huge pain in the behind is what I meant to say.”
“Of course.”
”I…am, yes, sister. I’m sorry for what I did to you I was—I was being dumb.”
Luna chews the inside of her cheek and takes a few steps forward, lightly smacking one of her hoofs against Celestia’s shoulder. “Indeed, thou were. We are happy to see that such behavior has passed.”
You take a deep breath and lean against the bed.
“It’s not hugging and making up, girls, but right now I’ll take it.”
All is at peace in the house for one shining moment.
”I’ll need to get in touch with Aspen when the sun is up…” Celestia says.
“Mm? The Deer Prince? Why’s that?”
Celestia sheepishly rubs her hooves together and averts her gaze, why was her face getting red? “I-In my haste to make you both weary of me, I may have…requested he and I spend some time together…alone.”
“…Oh. I see.”
You push yourself up and walk out of the room.
”Daddy?” Celestia asks.
”Where are you going, father?”
“Gonna go get my whacking stick, girls.”
The two alicorn youths look at each other. “But you do not have a “whacking stick”.” Luna says.
“I do now.”
You hear Celestia climb out of her bed and chase after you. “No! You don’t have to- daddy! DADDY!”
> TNG.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Princess Twilight Sparkle to see Princess Celestia?”
The guard at the palace gates looks over his clipboard and nods to you with a smile. “Welcome back to Canterlot, your highness!” He opens the gate ant ushers you in “Always nice to see you!”
“You too!” you call back.
Today was the day you were supposed to go visit Anonymous, but Princess Celestia had called you to Canterlot instead. Her letter was vague as to the reason, but an official summons was an official summons. Anonymous was the kind of guy who wouldn’t get upset about princess business, anyway.
The path to the conference room was one you were more than familiar with from the gate, even before your princess duties manifested themselves. You remember back when you were a little filly receiving lessons from Princess Celestia how she would always let off steam having come directly from a conference or another just before. Eventually you had asked to see the room she was so annoyed with and remember being a bit disappointed to see nothing but an average meeting table overlooking the city.
“I guess everything seems more intense to a filly.” You say to yourself with a giggle.
Finally you come to the room and head inside, meeting your first surprise of the day.
“Oh! Anonymous, what are you doing here?”
The old man with a freshly trimmed beard looks up from his teacup. “Oh, hello Twilight! You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t greet you but an old man like me can’t be roused too easily after he’s had his tea! Hohoho!”
You chuckle to yourself and walk in, shutting the door behind you “I don’t mind, but what brings you here? Is this what Celestia’s summons was about?”
”Heh. I’m sure Celly just wanted us all to meet.”
Us? You don’t get to ask before someone else speaks up. ”Poppy, do you have enough tea? I’m sure I can find us more.” 
Wait, you knew that voice. It couldn- You whip your head to the other end of the room and find that it’s EXACTLY who you think it is.
“WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE?!”


-Anon PoV-

You press down one last time on the suitcase and click it shut.
“There…that should just about do it I think, hmm?”
You turn and look back at the owner of the suitcase. Celestia’s eyes were wide with tears and her bottom lip trembled.
“Tia…”
”DAAAAAAADDYYYYYYYYYYY-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y!” she cries through snotty sobs as she throws herself onto your shoulder.
This had been a common occurrence the last few weeks so you knew at this point to just keep quiet and pat the back of her neck.
“Tia. TIA! It’s alright! This was your idea!”
”I DON’T WANT THIS IDEEEEAAAAAA!” she bawls.
You pat her neck again.
”She still screams?” you hear behind you.
“She still screams.”
Luna comes out of her room with a suitcase of her own and rolls her eyes. “Let me, I suppose…”
She goes for Celestia’s bag but gets swatted away by a magical hoof. “I can doooo iiiiiittttt.” Celestia says through sobs. Luna scoffs. “Come now sister, compose thyself! T’was our own decision to go to the tribes of ponyfolk and establish a nation! You saw what their division almost did those winters ago!”
You feel your shoulder getting wetter.  ”BUT I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE DAAAADDYYYYYYY!”
Luna grunts in annoyance again.
“It’s fine, sweetheart. I expected this. Can you get the door?”
As Luna opens the front door, you begin to lead Celestia through it.
“Ooookay, okay sweety, let go.”
Celestia does as you instruct and takes her place next to her sister, you stand before them and smile slowly.
Luckily, you’d been practicing for this.	
“…Look at you two…so big now, so wise!” You take a few steps closer and run your hands through their manes, thinking back to when those two little fillies ended up on your doorstep.
“When I was first asked to raise you, I was scared I’d mess it up, did I tell you that?”
”Only every other year.” Luna says with a sarcastic scoff.
“Well it’s true. But look at you both now…”
You sniff and pull a tear back into your eye. “My little girls…going out to make the world a better place. I was scared when you both first came here, but now, now I feel…lighter. Like I know that everything went as it was supposed to.” You pull the two of them closer and wrap your arms around them.  “I promise, you two both taught me more than I ever could have taught you…I know you’re both going to do fantastically with the other ponies!”
The girls sniff and hug you back. “Oh father…”
”We love you!”
“I love you too, gir-“
”Oh blast it STOP, this is giving me cavities.”
The three of you turn to where Discord is leaning in the doorway. ”I think I’m gonna yak” he says, gagging on himself and coughing up a small six inch high yak from his throat that runs off around the back of the house.
Your boy smiles down at you and strokes his cultivated billy goat beard “Discord, when YOU first came here, you were the biggest pain in my butt I’d ever experienced. Whereas now-“
”Now I’m the cultured and erudite master of random chance that keeps your dreary life from becoming completely malaise?”
You blink a few times wondering when his diction evolved. “No, now you’re a sliiiightly smaller pain in my butt.” You say, holding your finger and thumb an inch apart.
”Tch. You’re all love, pops.”
You hold both your arms out.
”…No.” he says.
“Yes.”
”No, dad.”
“Yes, dad.”
”Dad, I’m serious, I’m not going to hug you.” he says crossing his own mismatched arms.
“Hi Serious.”
Discord’s pupils shrink and he jams a finger of his lion paw in your face. “DO NOT-”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
”I’M WARNING YOU!”
Your arms are still out. “Youknowhowtomakethisstop!”
”GAGH!” Discord stops his hoof in annoyance and puts his arms around you, tugging you in for a good-bye hug.
You enjoy a moment in your first son’s embrace.
“…I’m dad.”
Discord vanishes in a flash of light and reappears behind his sisters. “There you go! You ruined it! You know this is why people have trust issues!”
”Thou art such a drama queen, brother.”
”Oh who asked you.”
The three children all look to each other and share a small smile. “You know” Discord begins” Living with you two wasn’t as much of a hassle as I thought it might be, I could PERHAPS be talked into doing it again sometime soon.”
The celestials sisters glance at each other and then say “We couldn’t.” in unison.
Discord’s face falls. “Hah. Aha. Aha.”
The three snicker to themselves.
”You’ll write?” Celestia asks.
”Oh maybe once or twice, if I’m in the MOOD.” Discord says.
Luna winks at her sister. “Worry not, we can track him down.”
A long silence hangs in the air for several heartbeats, and it’s up to dad to break it. “Go, get out of here, all of you have grand destinies to meet that you can’t do on my doorstep.”
The three turn their gaze to you now and nod, then Discord floats off. “So long! Farewell! Auf-wiedersehen, you three!”
Celestia and Luna nod and then fly off themselves, waving goodbye with tears in the corners of their eyes as well.
And you stand there, grinning like a mad fool beaming with pride watching them go. 

That night you stand by your favorite tree and talk to the wind with a glass of milk in your hand.
“Ah, you should have seen the three of them, Red. If I was as proud as I was, I can’t even begin to imagine your reaction.”
The wind swirls among the grass and up to your ears. “I promise, it couldn’t have been as beaming as yours.”
You take a sip and ponder that. “How does that make sense? They’re your creations, them realizing their destiny has got to be a point of pride for you, right?”
”Who is more worthy of praise? The one who built the house, or the one who made someone want to live in it?” she asks.
You take another sip. “…Deep.”
”I try.”
“Come on though, not even a bit?”
The wildflowers chime with a melodious chuckle. “I’m happy that the three of them are taking their first steps into a larger world. They have a lot to do in it.” You nod, that was true. ”But I’m also happy for you, partner. You proved my hunch right.”
“Hunch? What hunch?”
The stars in the sky seem to look down on you with grace and gratitude. “That it doesn’t matter where something comes from, what matters is what we do with it while it’s here.”
You nod and smile to yourself. “Yeah, I think I understand that.”
”Good, because it’s about to be put to the test.” Your partner says before the wind abruptly stops and you hear something hiss from your house behind you.
“Huh?”

What was that noise? 
You hide yourself behind the tree and peak back at your domicile, never having seen it be this threatening before.
“Heeeello?”
There! Off to the side, you see movement, black on black darting to the shadows underneath your porch.
“Hey! Who’s there!”
Silence is your answer.
You gather your courage and creep closer towards the deck. “I saw you run under there, you might as well come out!”
No answer, but you hear something shuffling around down there. Your curiosity overrides your survival instinct now, making you lean down and look in through the hole it must have squeezed through.
“Is it a raccoon?” you ask out loud.
”I am most certainly NOT!” is your high pitched response.
You jump back a bit and an awkward silence sets in.
”U-uh…I mean…you heard nothing, pale thing! Now away with you!”
“I can’t go anywhere.” You tell the little voice “This is my home.”
The voice is quiet again, not having considered that, perhaps.
“I know you’re in there now, what are you?”
You hear shifting and a slight rumbling sound. ”Hungry…” it answers, pathetically but earnestly.
The sky smiles down at you when your feet start moving on their own. “Hold on.”
You head inside the house and grab a basket of cookies you and Celestia had made a week or so prior. Once you return outside, you have a seat next to the hole and put one in your mouth.  “See? Yummy.”
Then you offer one to the darkness. “Would you like one?”
”…What is in it?” asks the voice.	
“Uhm…dough, chocolate, and love?”
”…Stay right there and do not move.” The voice says wearily.
You do as you’re asked and let her walk closer to you just as the moon shifts slightly and you get a good look at her.
“My…you’re certainly a unique one.”


-Twilight PoV-

”Stop yelling, by the Progenitors.” She says rubbing her hooves against her forehead.
“Not until someone tells me what is going on! Why are you here, Chrysalis!?”
”To receive a splitting migraine, it seems!” she retorts.
Anonymous chuckles with a slightly pained look on his face in the seat next to her. “Quite the set of lungs on her, huh?” he asks.
Chrysalis nods. “Quite so, Poppy.”
She said it again.
“Don’t tell me…”
”Don’t tell you what?” Anonymous asks.
”I invited them here, Twilight.”
Princess Celestia enters the room over your shoulder and bows her head. “Apologies for my lateness daddy, matters of state.”
Anonymous smiles warmly. “You never need apologize to me, Tia.”
“I- But- She-“
”One at a time, Twilight.” your teacher answers.
You take a breath. “Will someone PLEASE explain to me what is going on?”
”You’re smart, Sparkle.” Chrysalis says next to Anonymous. “Guess.”
Celestia walks around the table and sits on the other side of Chrysalis, getting narrowed eyes and a tighter mouth from the Changeling.
“Uh…nevermind, I think I figured it out.”
”Your mastery of the obvious is as developed as Celestia’s then.”
”Be nice.” Anonymous chides.
Chrysalis takes a deep breath and utters a faint “Sorry.” Under her breath.
Celestia beams and nuzzles her head. “I forgive you.”
”Joy. Of joys.” Chrysalis bites out.
”Little sister~.”
”DO NOT. Call me that.” She spits out again.
Both Celestia and Anonymous laugh to themselves.
“I- Why did you call me here, Princess?”
Celestia looks down at you with motherly affection. “Today it has been decided that you will learn about the…other members of our extended royal family.”
Chrysalis is still uncomfortable. “Of all those that I could have to tell this tale to, Sparkle. It would HAVE to be you.”
”It could be Cadence again.” Anonymous says.
”Objection withdrawn.”
> Divided Attention.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

”Poppy! Poppy! Up up up up!” you hear through your sleep.
Your body moves without thinking, honed by years upon years upon years of raising two little girls at the same time. It turns over towards the door and shoots your hands out to catch the insectoid missile flying towards you.
“Aha! Got you!”
Chrysalis laughs heartily and wiggles her dangling hooves. “Only because I slowed myself down for you, old timer!” Her wings buzz as she beams at you. Chrysalis’s time living with you had started as you’d expected, with a distinct lack of trust from her as she adapted to her new environment. You would often catch her leering at you around corners while you cooked in the early days, trying to decipher your true motive for taking her in, or perhaps even thinking that it was her you were going to toss in that soup pot.
But, your practiced parenting method of persistence and nurturing had slowly chipped away at her chitinous exterior and brought a bigger and bigger smile each passing day. You were overjoyed as time passed and she became more and more affectionate towards you. It seemed that any time you showed her even the slightest bit of love, she’d shine almost as bright as Celestia.
Chrysalis hops out of your hands to the floor and you throw your feet over the bed.
“Shall I make us some breakfast?”
”You can if you want to, but it all tastes the same to me!” she says, running out into the hall.
That girl…guess eating bugs or whatever she subsisted on before you found her ruined her sense of taste.
It’s quickly out into the kitchen for you where you start mixing up some pancake batter. Chrysalis takes her seat at the table while you work and even from here you can see her constantly fidgeting.
“Is everything alright?”
”Of course!” she claims, glancing over away from you.
Ahuh…
You continue making the food and bring it over to the table once they settle and sit across from her, letting you get a really good view of her glancing behind you.
“Whaaaaaat?”
Chrysalis giggles. “You haven’t seen it yet…?”
Seen what? You look behind you at what she was glancing at. Overtop the fireplace, where you’d placed all the drawings and accomplishments Celestia, Luna and Discord had made over their years with you, there was now an ENOURMOUS drawings of Chrysalis riding on your shoulder while the you walked through a sunny field with your house down at the bottom of a hill.
So large, in fact, that it covered up every other drawing.
“Oh…”

Once you finish breakfast and finish…appreciating Chrysalis’s artwork, you kneel to her level. This was perhaps the most important part of your parenting technique. In getting down close to eye level for whatever prospective child was living with you, you could figuratively put yourself on the same level as them and show you meant no harm. Horses weren’t a hunting species, after all, it was best not to look like a predator.
“Well Chrisi, what do you want to do today?”
The little Changeling rubs her chin with her hoof. “Well-…” Before she can get it out, however, a knock comes at your door ”Huh?”
“Who could that be?
You walk over and open the door, beyond which is the largest deer with the widest wingspan on his 30-point horns anyone had ever seen.
“ANONYMOUS! HELLO!”
The King of the Deer was very…enthusiastic.
You bow. “Your Highness! A pleasure to see you!”
He laughs through his full beard of soft fur and shakes his head. “You have known me since I was a boy, Anonymous! For you, my name will ever be perfect.”
You smile and nod. “Aspen then. What brings you to my home?”
Aspen’s face grows a bit more serious. “The Deer grow more concerned. Night has been lasting longer than it has since back before my father’s time, and all the world’s creatures have taken notice.”
All except one, it seemed.
“Uh…Chryssi? Do you know what the king is talking about?”
”Huh? Oh. Uhm…” she strokes her chin again “You know, I do remember waking up when it was still dark out more often lately.”
Huh.
“Could it be just a change of the seasons?”
”Perhaps.” Aspen answers. “But he who raised the moon would know more than any in the land.”
Aspen was a flatterer.
“Of course, official business and the like…Chryssi, is it alright if I help Aspen with his problem before we play?”
Chrysalis had on a wide, if oddly tight grin. “Sure!...Great!” she says.

Aspen takes a seat across from your favorite chair in the living room, the two of you spending a bit of time wondering aloud how the changing seasons could explain the extending nights. Chrysalis, meanwhile, sat with her back to you playing with a simple doll of hers. You guess she was admiring Aspen’s coat with how intense her eyes looked when she was looking at him.
Regardless though, you had other things on your mind. “Apart from a changing lunar phase, orbital drift, or just a new weather pattern appearing, I’m afraid I don’t have any real answers for you, Aspen.”
He strokes his chin, looking both concerned and distant. “Has Princess Luna perhaps contacted you at all? Given you any insight as to something new she may be trying?”
You shake your head. “My oldest daughters spent many years with me, I do my best to give them the space they need to develop on their own.”
Aspen clearly isn’t entirely pleased with that answer. “She would be the one to know above all others…”
“She would, indeed…but there are times when we shouldn’t immediately seek out the one who has the answers at hand, there are times when it helps us more to find them for ourselves.”
Aspen sighs and nods, understanding. When he opens his eyes, they momentarily lock onto Chrysalis. A loud ripping noise and a flash of green draws your attention to her as well.
”Oh no!”
The head of her sheep doll drops to the floor in her magical grip and drops to the floor.
”P-Poppy!” whines sniffling “Dolly is dead!”
You get off the chair and kneel to her. “Oh no…well, maybe we can-“
You’re quickly joined by King Aspen. “What was that you were mouthing, girl? “Leaf”? You want leaves?”
“Huh?”
Chrysalis chuckles and swallows. “Heh…I-I’m sorry, your highness?”
”Well, no matter!” he says, taking the doll with all points on his horns glowing. “I can fix this in no time.” Magic trickles down from his horns and weaves itself through the doll like an ultra-fine thread. In seconds, the head of Dolly the Sheep was re-stitched and knitted itself back onto her body.
“There we are!” he says, giving it to Chrysalis. 
The little changeling takes it and lowers her eyelids in thanks. “Yes…thank you…” she mutters. “Daddy, I’m going to go play outside. May I get you something before I go?”
“That’s very nice of you, Chrysalis.”
Your little girl beams brightly at your praise.
“Aspen?”
The deer king strikes his chin. “Well…”

Chrysalis had been a very good girl and helped Aspen with what he wanted, but you couldn’t help but wish she hadn’t. While you and the Deer King had had pleasant conversation, topics ranging from how you were adapting to Celestia and Luna living so far away to Aspen’s own children, it was wrought with disaster. In serving Aspen tea, Chrysalis had spilled it on him. When you tried to make it up to him with a snack, the top of the salt Chrysalis had offered him had come undone and spilled its contents on the snack. Both times had turned out well enough, with Aspen happy lapping up his spilled drink or proclaiming he “loved salt!” when the spill happened, but it still put you on edge.
It only got worse when Aspen went to the bathroom and found himself locked inside of it.
”Apologies about the door, Anonymous.”
“Please, Aspen. Don’t apologize. It will be easy to get back on its hinges.”
Aspen’s ears flick as he sips his drink, mostly salt in it rather than sugar. “Mm…I will send a missive to Canterlot, ask Celestia if she is aware of why the nights have been lasting as long as they have.”
You give him a smile.
“If there’s anyone who can get an answer from her, it’s her ex.”
Aspen chuckles at you. “You’re being modest.”
“Not at all.”
”Now I know you are.”
You simply smile at him.
”There is not a secret Celestia could keep from you if you walked up to her and asked. Her subjects revere her, but you must know that she reveres you.” he says.
You smile and silently sip your tea.  “I’m just her father, nothing more.”
You see Aspen’s ears rotate around and twitch again.
“Is everything alright?”
Your words surprise Aspen, making him jump a bit. ”Now that you mention it…” he begins “I swear I hear something…coming out on the wind, something even I struggle to hear…”
“What is it?”
Aspen gulps and looks at you with shrunken pupils. “Anonymous…it is a voice repeatedly saying “Get out. Get out. Get out.”
…A-huh.
“I…see?”
”Anonymous, is your home haunted?”
You almost choke on your tea. “I promise, Aspen, my home is not haunted.”
”If it were, would it be a guardian spirit? Or could there be a boogieman-nay, boogieMEN inside this house?!”
You stare at Aspen to hear him say he's joking but he...doesn't.
“Watch, I’ll prove it to you. Chrysalis!”
”W-wha! Yes poppy?!” she calls from just down the hall, it sounded.
“Do you hear any strange voices saying “get out”?”
”Nnnnnnnope! N-no voices here! Hehe!” she says.
“See?” you say, returning to Aspen. “Nothing unusual.”
He calms. “Thank you, Anonymous. I’m sure you’re right.”

You hear the loud THUMP of something hitting your walls as you sit again.
“Are you okay, sweetie?”
Chrysalis comes out of the hall and heads for the front door, walking slowly but with purpose and looking unamused. “I stubbed my hoof, it’s fine. I’m going to go outside for a minute.”
“Hey wait a minute, what could possibly be outsi-“ The door shuts behind her. She was gone.
”…Children.” Aspen says sympathetically.
“I’m used to it by now.”
You turn back to Aspen. “Now, where were we? I could come visit the Deer lands to consult with your astronomers and see their findings, maybe they have information I can explain away and this whole thing can be one giant misunderstand-“
A flash of emerald light comes in from the windows behind you followed by Chrysalis’s voice.
”Poppy poppy! You and ESPECIALLY King Aspen leave the house and come out here quick! There’s been a uh…magical fire! Yes!”
Oh what now!? You and Aspen rush outside to find nothing but charred grass and Chrysalis with a stick she said she wanted. Within moments she mentions how late it’s gotten and pushes you inside, asking you to help her take a bath.
Your actions decided, you can only wave goodbye to the Deer King and wonder what had gotten into your daughter.
> Growing Up.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was scheduled to rain in Canterlot today. It wasn’t a common occurrence, but with the sheer number of gardens present throughout the city, it certainly needed it every so often. Dark grey clouds hung in the sky out the window of the Royal Library, and from your desk you could see Anonymous sitting quietly in chair by looking out it.
You look up from your book for the third time in five minutes and glance at him, seeing if he’d moved from his frozen position at all and sighing when you saw he did not.
”How long?” you hear from behind you.
The heart in your chest relocates to your throat. “Gyah! Don’t scare me like that, Chrysalis!”
The Changeling Queen stands motionless in the doorway and looks down at you with unwelcoming eyes. “How. Long. Sparkle?”
That gaze hurt to meet, but you stay strong. “I’ve been in here a few hours, and he was here before me. He hasn’t moved since.”
Chrysalis seems to lose interest in you just as fast and looks over to the corner. “Yes…that sounds about right.”
“Is it important?”
Chrysalis turns her emerald eyes back to you. “The story is not mine to tell. Nor also is it my place to say you cannot ask him yourself, though I would if I could.” Chrysalis turns and walks through the door, speaking without even facing you. “Take caution, Sparkle. Poppy does not enjoy dark rainy days at all.”
“What? Why? Why are you even HERE?” you ask, closing your book.
Chrysalis pauses to emit a sharp and explosive sigh. “Part of this “family togetherness” headache I agreed to is occasional tea with my siblings…peacefully at that.” Chrysalis shakes her head and continues down the hall and out of sight. “The things I do for that human…”

You watch her go and close your book, walking over and carefully approaching the old man from behind.
“Anonymous...? Are you alright?”
”Hrm?” he stirs “Oh, hello Twilight. Yes, I’m fine, sorry to worry. I’m just…so tired on rainy days.”
“Chrysalis mentioned you don’t like them…how come?” you ask, coming around to his front.
You see Anonymous crack a smile as he stares at nothing out the window. “She’s a good girl…even when her attitude is bad. For all her bluster, I’ve never seen somepony appreciate help when her heart is broken like Chrysalis.” He turns his eyes and looks down at you. “Rain…reminds me of one of the hardest nights for my little family…almost a thousand years ago…”


Anon POV

”Poppy, poppy you need to wake up now.”
You groan and turn over in your bed. Chrysalis should not be up this early…
“No…I don’t…and neither should you be. Go back to bed, sweetheart.”
The LAST thing you needed was another night owl like Luna. Living with that little girl for so long had destroyed your circadian rhythm.
”Yes, poppy. We do.”
You peel one eye open and see Chrysalis looking at you in the darkness of your bedroom from the hall. “No, sweety. All this darkness tells me that it’s probably barely two in the morning, and two in the morning is “daddy sleeps for another four hours” time.”
You throw your blankets over your head and try to shut your eyes with a yawn, you felt groggy for some reason. “So let’s try to get some sleep while we can before morning comes, hrm? You can crawl up here with me if you can’t sleep…”
Chrysalis crawls all right, crawls and leaps onto your stomach and forces the air out of you with a grunt. “Poppy, we need to get up! It is almost noon!”
You are about to scold her when that clicks. “I’m sorry?” You take your blankets down and look her in the eyes. “What did you say?”
Chrysalis buzzes her little wings. “The sun normally shines off the tips of the mountains around eight in the morning, you told me…and that will often wake me up when you don’t. I got up today on my own and wanted to let you sleep, honest, but I’m starting to get really hungry…”
But that didn’t explain-
You gently move Chrysalis off you and pull back your curtains, seeing the pitch black of night outside. On your writing desk, you glanced at your clocks, a broken one that was right at two random times a day that Discord had made and a normal one made by the girls for you. Sure enough, it said it was almost ten thirty. You feel your stomach clench as the thought of the girls comes up and you look out the window again.
“Something is wrong…”

You and Chrysalis rush out to the back porch and consider the sky. The sable expanse sits as still and perfect as it did each night, but life as normal continues around you. Birds chirp away in a frenzy around you and the small woodland animals scurry to and fro, trying to make sense of all that was going on. They weren’t alone. You gaze up at the stars in the sky and wonder immediately what state the girls were in. Were they hurt? Were they in trouble? Was there anything you could do? 
You silently kick yourself for allowing such responsibility to befall the two of them and for the world to need them in such a state, but you quickly drown those thoughts with simple hopes that they were both okay.
A tugging on your pant leg returns you to the back yard as Chrysalis tries to get your attention. “Poppy…what is going on?”
Any parent could tell you that if your child was afraid, your first duty was to calm them, and so instinct kicks in and you spring to action.
“I’m sure nothing, Chryssi…” you lie, kneeling to caress her. “You needed some breakfast, right? Let’s go get you fed.”
”O-okay…” she responds and letting you pick her up.
You focus entirely on the child in your arms, or at least try to as you head indoors and don’t give the outside a second glance while you still could.

It began to rain over breakfast and the darkness became ever more suffocating outdoors in the ensuing hours. You took a glance at one point and saw the moon vanish behind the clouds carrying their rain. Every effort was made in the interim to keep Chrysalis focused on you and not at whatever calamity was causing this eternal night outdoors, and right now that meant study, of which your little one was a natural.
Chrysalis’s horn glows bright green as she points it towards one end of the couch and dashes towards it. You hear space getting sucked into itself before Chrysalis exits triumphantly on the other side.
”Tadaaaah!” she exclaims.
You clap excitedly from your chair. “Very good, little one! You may be the fastest learner I’ve ever had.”
A bit of red takes her chitinous black face as she when she whiles over to you. “Yes, I am! The taste of the experiences hangs in the air here like a nectar, but only one such as I can pull them from their home and figure them out.”
Chrysalis hops up onto your lap and silently demands congratulatory headpats. You oblige.
“Mhm. This is all related to how you “eat love”?”
”Yep!” 
“What’s that feel like?”
Chrysalis rubs her chin in thought. “Mmm…I cannot remember... Ever since I came here, I’ve never had to do it.”
You chuckle and pat her some more.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
”Mhm…”
Chrysalis is silent for a moment more. “Poppy…?”
“Yes hon?”
”Some of what I taste in the air here…it sort of tastes like what it’s like outsi-“
A knock on the door interrupts Chrysalis and turns her sentence into a startled yelp and a dash to your side, putting you between her and the door.
“Chrissi?”
”Th-that feeling…whoever is responsible for the night time outside is at the door!” she shivers.
The knock comes again, this time more rapidly.
“…Stay behind me.” You say as you rise from your chair.

The single thought that runs through your head as you grab the fireplace poker is “What in the world are you doing?” You’d never protected anyone like this before, you’d never even been in a fight before, but if who or WHAT ever was behind the sky was on the other side of the door. You turn the knob and creek it open.
Whomever was out there might be able to answer your questions about the girls, they might be able to tell you what happened to Luna and-
“Celestia?”
You push the door all the way open and lower your poker.
Celestia stands in the doorway, but so much different from the last time you saw her. Scrapes and soot covered much of her body, and she looked ragged and tired. The feathers on her wings were frayed at the edges and the horn on her head had a crack running through it. 
However the most extraordinary difference was her mane, once bubblegum pink and now a rainbow of pastel colors that even now tried to flow in the wind, despite the torrential rain battering it down.
Celestia’s face hitching and meeting an eye filled with a sadness you’d never seen before grips at your heart.
“…Tia?”
”D-daddy…” she says through her tears.
You hold your arms wide and let her nearly collapse into them. Celestia buries her face into your shoulder and sobs, you can hear her whisper “sorry sorry sorry sorry” under her breath.
“Sorry? Sorry for-“
Only now do you look past your doorway and see the moon hanging in the sky with its new face.
“…No…”
Celestia continues to weep into your shoulder and collapses to the floor.
“No…no no no…”
> Back Seat Parenting.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

”Cream and sugar?”
“Please, Anonymous.” You say with a giggle.
The old human paws around at his end table next to his teacup. “Sorry Twilight, can’t seem to find-“
”Tis right here, papa!” Princess Luna sticks her snout out from the kitchen and floats a pair of sugar packets and cream cups over to the two of you.
”Ah, thank you, Woona.”
”Father!” she exclaims, turning slightly more scarlet. “Not in front of my subjects…”
”The day I’m a subject of yours is the day I go back and get my medical degree “woona”.” Teases a draconequus from the couch.
The princess snorts. “Do not test my patience brothe-“
Anonymous clears his throat and cuts the argument off in a heartbeat. “Luna, settle yourself. Discord, don’t tease your sister.”
”Yes papa.” Luna says obediently.
Discord is less polite. “Uhg, fine. When did you turn into Celestia?”
”When I came back.” She answers.
Anonymous smiles and places the cream and sugar for your coffee on the arm of the chair you were in. “Sorry if it’s a bit busy today, I’m afraid I accidentally scheduled my day with you at the same time as my day with them!”
You wave a hoof.  “It’s no worry, Anonymous, I could have rescheduled if you want.”
”At my age a regimented schedule is all that helps me remember what day it is. Now, tell me! How are things back in Ponyville?”
“Well,” you stroke your chin. “Rainbow Dash found out something about her favorite author, the girls and I helped spruce up the old Castle of the Two sisters-“
”We remember the castle!” Luna says from the kitchen “A bit muggy in the summer.”
You chuckle. “And we just recently met Pinkie’s big sister Maud!”
Anonymous chuckles again. “It sounds like an enjoyable time to be certain, but I can’t imagine any family meetup of Pinkie Pie’s was one of peace and quiet.”
“Heh, not exactly, no. Not like here at least.” 
You close your eyes a moment and take in the peaceful sounds of nature outside.
“I’m curious, Anon, you’ve been in Equestria for eons it seems, but how did you do that?”
Anonymous sips his tea and glances over to Discord. “Quietly…save a few instances.”


-The past-


Nothing around you made anything close to sense. Everything about Equestria, the land Celestia and Luna had helped found, made it sound an ideal paradise with babbling brooks and green trees, kind people and clean living. 
This was not that. This was haphazard checkered hills and floating segments of land, disproportioned rabbits galloping like elk and houses made of cards in the place of the homes of families. Beyond that was worse, beyond that was a battle. They flew around a throne on the highest hill in the area, surrounded by the floating bits of land and home you’d passed and firing blasts of magic at one another. Ponyfolk floating in a prison of gelatin stared from behind your warring children in fear at the power they brandished against one another. Mothers covered the eyes of their foals, so they would no longer have to see their benevolent rulers with such rage in their hearts.
It pulled on you more than you could bear, and you could remain silent no longer.
“Stop.”
The war of the three siblings ended just that quickly as the three turned to you. Discord snarled and snapped his fingers, sending Celestia and Luna hurtling backwards as he slithered up to you before your next heartbeat.
”Well, look who finally decided to show up. Nice to see you, “pops”.” He spits.
You look him over and try to gather up everything you wanted to say. “…Son-“
”DON’T CALL ME THAT!” he roars.
You stand your ground and let him coil himself in anger.
”Every SINGLE day you called us those pet names, but you didn’t mean any of it, did you? Not to me, anyway.” He continues to float around angry at everything he saw. “You spent all that time with the two of them. The lessons, the pet names, the late nights and making their favorite foods. I was just an unwanted addition, wasn’t I? The fly in your soup, the boil on your toe, the Jan to your Brady’s!”
Discord throws his hands up in frustration. “I don’t even know what that last one IS but I know I know about it!” 
“I’m sorry you feel that way, I can’t say it enough.”
”Ooooohhhh well I guess that makes it all better! Years and years of watching you eat up those two but it’s alright now because the old man is SORRY!”
He continues on ”Even now I can’t get ANYTHING but that half eyed sarcasm from you! I go through all this work-“ Discord gestures at the pandemonium around the two of you then shoves his face up to yours “-and you don’t even have the consideration to be MAD!”
That was where he tripped over something that made you speak.
“I can’t be mad at you, Discord.”
Your son retracts his head and blinks.
“I just…don’t have it in me, I guess, hehe… You rub your hands together. “You were always so independent even from the first day you came to our home. If you had been first, I’m sure I would have doted on you like I did your sisters, but by the time you got there I’d learned so much, I knew you could be trusted on your own. I suppose I was wrong there.”
You easily open your floodgates and let it come spilling out. 
“I suppose now it makes some sense. You could do so much for yourself, why wouldn’t you want to show it off? But you always seemed like we were bringing you down, so we tried to give you your space…”
You look around at the disharmony he’d made. “To see you use your gifts like this…I-“
You sigh and lock eyes with him.
“I’m not mad at you, Discord, I could never be…but I am so disappointed in you.”
Discord recoils as if struck and opens his mouth to say something, but shuts it just the same before he can even form the words. Then he catches you glancing behind him and turns to see what has your interest, coming face to face with his sisters floating six magical amulets around them. The flash that follows freezes Discord in place, and for the next millennium you try to figure out if the look in his eye was from shock or regret.


-The present-

”And that’s how Equestria was made.” Anonymous says with a smile.
Wow that joke was as funny the ten thousandth time as it was the first.
You humor Anonymous with a smile and glance to Discord who’s looking at his lion claws. “I don’t suppose you’d ever tell me if that incident changed you in any way, will you?”
To your surprise, he answers immediately. “No, it did.”
You’re so taken aback that you can’t even respond to his answer, but Discord covers for you and keeps talking anyway. 	“I’m sure a history buff like you knows how long I was trapped in that statue, Sparkle. I had a lot of time to think about the last words I’d hear for a thousand years. Around year seven-hundred or so, I decided that the old fart had a point.”
Anonymous grins a big grin and points to Discord with both hands. “Luna! Luna he said it! After all this time he finally said it!”
”Oh haaaaa ha.” Discord rolls his eyes. “You know, behavior like this is why I had that episode in the first place.”
”You had an episode because you were a spoiled little brat your entire life and being in a world that wouldn’t fluff your bottom or put up with you like we did made you think you had something to prove.”
”At least my beard doesn’t look like roadkill.” Discord snipes back.
Anonymous looks an eternity younger as he and Discord chuckle at one another and lightly jab their elbows into their ribs like a pair of teenagers.
”They are dooooone~” comes a singsong from the kitchen. Princess Luna trots over happily with a tray of steaming cookies on a plate. Anonymous takes one and pops it into his mouth.
”Mm. These are out of this world, Woona.”
”Daaaaaaddy, you said you’d stop making puns.”
”I would never promise such a thing.”
Anonymous glances over to you while you chuckle. “But it’s good you’re here, Lulu. It reminds me of another tale Twilight wanted to know of…”


-The past-

Celestia had sent for you at the house recently. Her letter was urgent, to come to the palace at once for something you could only see there. You’d packed quickly and hurried out without thinking, just hoping that it wasn’t another sealing of the Crystal Kingdom. It wasn’t. But that didn’t mean you haven’t been both hoping for and dreading this day for the last thousand years.
She was asleep on her bed, a grandiose thing with thick curtains drawn around it to keep the sunlight out while she slept. Your experienced eye caught sight of her nebulous hair, lighter and frostier than in her murals around the castle depicted. Perhaps all that time locked away had regressed her somewhat?
It didn’t really matter now. She lay there still as a stone just as she was when Celestia ushered you in.
She had told you the fantastical tale, about how Nightmare Moon had escaped from her lunar prison and was eventually purified by the new bearers for the Elements of Harmony, how she herself escaped being trapped in the sun shortly after that and tearfully reunited with Luna, and how her sister had privately told her just how exhausted she was through the whole ordeal right after she’d sent for you.
That had been days ago, and you’d been sat here the entire time. Celestia stopped by sometimes, even brought you food or a pillow to rest on, but you hadn’t left and didn’t plan to until she opened her eyes again.
So imagine your surprise when you were sat there, dumb as a post and twiddling your thumbs, almost bowling over when she stirred. 
”Wh-who is there?” she asks as she pushes herself up. “I am still so groggy…”
“Hi, Still-so-groggy.”
Luna gasps in her bed despite the idiocy tumbling from your mouth.
“I’m dad.”
”Daddy! Come here, come here! I don’t want to fall off the bed!” she cheers, patting her hooves against the sheets like she did when she was little and afraid of the height of her bed off the ground and wanted help getting down.
It hurts inside to do it, but you hurry over and put your hand through the curtains on her bed, feeling a slightly damp snout press into it in moments.
”Daddy…” you hear her say between sniffles. “I-I’m so glad to see you all again…”
“I am too, sweetie…”
Your face grows hotter and your eyes sting for a moment, then Luna pulls her snout back.
“Daddy…why do you cry?”
You reach in and cup her face with both hands. “Because ever since one of my little girls came to my door in tears with news that her sister had been locked away in the moon, I’ve been waiting for the day I’d get to see her again.”
You wipe your wrist on your eye. “And now that it’s here I just…can’t keep it all in…”
Luna buries her snout through the curtains and into your stomach. “Daddy…”
You pet her mane as you try to work up the courage to say what’s on your mind.
“Woona…”
”Mm?”
“I’m sorry about this…it’s my fault.”
”What?! Poppa no!”
Gentle pats to the head shush her  “You weren’t like Discord, sweety…I could see how much you wanted to play, to be with the rest of us. I tried to give you that every day but whenever I couldn’t…I just said I’d make it up to you later…”
She remains silent as you continue to pet her mane. 
“It wasn’t enough, clearly…and I’m so sorry…”
A blue marshmellow hoof comes up and boops your lips. “You hush, daddy.”
You hush, but tilt your head to the side.
”I…did want to be with all of your more, that much is true.” She says with her head out of the curtains like a worm. “But at the end of the day, I did not.”
”You pointed us where to go, but we walked our own paths. My actions in the past…they are mine.”
“Lulu…”
You pet Luna’s head again and let her settle into your hand.
The tears stop flowing and Luna picks her head up, looking lighter and with a smile up at you. “Now then! Enough gloom! Please tell me all that has transpired in the last thousand years, you would not believe how poor the view is from the moon.”
You laugh and pull your chair up.
“Alright…where do I start?”


-The present-

You rub your chin. “Oh yeah, I remember Princess Luna having a lighter mane…what happened to that?”
Luna smirks and flourishes her starfield hair. “One may never overstate the effect proper shampoo and conditioner has.”
Anonymous chuckles to himself. Discord too, even.
The house seems to glow with a tranquility and calmness you hadn’t experienced anywhere else in Equestria, you jot that down in your notepad.
“Anonymous, I have to say, I’m truly impressed. All of your “children” seem happy and healthy…eventually.”
Anonymous chuckles dryly, Discord and Luna both look away awkwardly.
”Not all of them…” Anonymous says.
You follow Anonymous’s gaze to a jagged chunk of black rock on his mantel.
> Child of a Trouble Home.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

You sit in your chair looking at the couch across from you and the child planted on firmly it. He didn’t stare so much as glare back at you with red irises and slitted pupils with faint waves of purple energy wafting from them. You had gone about your morning just the same as any other that day. You woke early ahead of Chrysalis, gathered things from your garden and pantry to make a breakfast for you both, it was only when you had gone outside to observe the sky and estimate how the weather would be that day that you found a very strange unicorn on your doorstep with a note.
And now here you were.
It was probably best to break the ice so here you go.
“Wel-“
”Don’t.” he interrupts.
You instinctively shut your mouth, you couldn’t help it. Being soft spoken came naturally to you. The boy continues to stare at you as the other tenant of the house comes out of her room yawning. She’d grown the last few years and was now extremely lanky.
”Mm…good morning Poppy, are you happy toda-”
Chrysalis pauses her ritualistic greeting and looks at the newcomer.
”…Poppy, why is there a strange little pony on our couch?”
“This is Sombra, sweetheart.” You answer.
"I can talk for myself!” he exclaims, you nod your head to give him the go-ahead.
You see his eyes work through what to do next before he sheepishly looks at Chrysalis with a scowl. “…I am Sombra.”
“And Sombra will be living with us from now on.”
You hold up the note that came with the child.  “He has had an…interesting life before he came here.”
Chrysalis looks between you and Sombra several times and blinks several more. “…Okay, I always wanted a younger brother.”
Sombra grits his teeth on the couch. “I did not come here, I was forced here! I want to go home! I a destiny to fulfill!”
Yes, that would be this talk of “Umbrum” in the letter your Partner had sent you, and from the language within it, a lot was riding on this boy growing a heart here.
“…Well Sombra, why not spend a few days here? You might grow to like it.”
Sombra scoffs and rolls his eyes. “As if” he says as he walks to the door and throws it open with his shadowy magic. 
“Sombra, wait!”
You get up off your chair and race to the door behind him, the boy was already out onto the fields. ”Don’t follow me…whatever your name is! You’ve already wasted enough of my time, don’t earn my ire beyond it!”
Well someone likes to read his dictionary…
”I don’t think he likes it here yet, Poppy.”
“I can see that Chrysalis, thank you.”
You leave your doorway and chase after him in your bathrobe “Sombra, please come back. It’s clear that you’re an…extremely capable young unicorn, but you don’t have any idea what’s out there!”
Sombra glances up at you but continues to trot along undeterred. You hazard reaching down to put your hand on him. 
“Let’s just come eat some breakfast and think about this. Do you like-OWW!”
The CRACK of Sombra levitating a small stone off the ground and striking you echoes louder than your yelp. You quickly inspect the wound and see a stream of crimson leaking out of you where you were struck.
”HEY!”
Oh no.
A pillar of furious emerald fire springs up before Sombra and deposits Chrysalis directly in front of him. The little boy so beaming with pride stepped back in shock when Chrysalis got in his face, glowing horn and all.
”You don’t DO that! You don’t GET to do that! Not to HIM!” she shouts.
”Chrysalis-“ you start.
She doesn’t hear you.
Sombra quickly recollects himself and stands up to Chrysalis as best as his height will allow. “I’d like to see you stop me.” He says calmly.
”You REALLY wouldn’t.” Chrysalis counters, her eyes now taking on the green glow of her horn as she grits her teeth.
“HEY!” you shout.
The valley you live in grows silent as the grave as your voice echoes through it, and Chrysalis instinctively pulls back and puts her rear on the ground.
Sombra looks in confused shock as you march up to them both.
“Rule one of my house! No fighting! Do NOT break it, either of you!”
”Yes Poppy.” Your daughter says quickly and respectfully.
Sombra looks up at you out of the corner of his eye. “What are you.”
Hmm?	
“Beg pardon?” you ask.
Sombra now turns to face you, his face is still contorted in annoyance, but his eyes were far more curious than they were. “The world went silent after a word from you, how did you do that? What COULD do that?”
Chrysalis eyes her new housemate and then you. “…He’s Poppy, he takes care of us.”
You offer the boy a smile you know won’t satisfy him.
“She’s right, I’m just me.”
Sombra’s face gains another emotion beyond annoyance; utter confusion.
“How about you come home with me and we can discuss it over breakfast? I’ll make pancakes.”
”Oooohh!” Chrysalis says, clapping her hooves together.
Sombra looks between you and your home before tightening his jaw and marching silently back the way he came.
This one would take some work, it seemed…

“You’re sure?”
Sombra climbs his way onto the couch and shoots a glare at you, gone was the trepidation from earlier and he was back to his old self. “I need a bed as little as I need anything else from you. I have claimed this furniture as mine and this is where I will sleep.” He puts his head down and closes his eyes. “See yourself out.”
You grimace and walk down the hall, knocking twice on the bathroom door before opening it a crack. You’d taken enough soap to the face with the girls to know to know now. “Chryssy, are you brushing behind your fangs?”
”Yef Poppy!” you hear inside.
“Make sure you wash your face and mane as well little lady!”
”Go to bhed, Poppy!” she commands.
“Fine, jeeze…”
You shut the door and head into your own room, the only place in the house that was mostly yours. A sigh escapes its way from your mouth as you make your way across the room to your closet and grab your nightware. Your thoughts were, unsurprisingly, occupied by Sombra and what his addition meant to the house.
It had been a long time since you’d had two youthful bodies under this roof, and the familiar aches of fatigue from your first tenants were starting to rear their heads again in your joints.
“Can I really do this right again…?” you wonder aloud.
You hear the door to the bathroom open and closes as Chrysalis finishes up, flushing the house to total silence and signaling that you needed to be out as well.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine, I was able to raise Discord! This can’t be much harder…”
You climb into bed and feel a slight sharp pain in the middle of your chest as you do what you did every night, look out the window to the Mare in the Moon.
“Goodnight, Moon. I love you.”
And then you lay yourself down to sleep.

Not much however, as your door gets opened not too much later.
”Poppy?”
Your muscles pull up upright without you having to think.
“Yes sweety, what is it?” you ask through bleary vision.
Chrysalis rubs one of her legs on the other and looks to the floor in shame. “I uh…had a nightmare…so can I-“
You don’t let her get further, instead you just pull back some of your blankets to make room for her. The little lovebug excitedly taps her hooves on the floor and races over to you in the darkness, hopping up into the bed and snuggling up next to you.
You smile and lay back down. Now what nightmare brings you here at-“
You glance out the window at Luna to judge the time.
“-About two or three in the morning?”
Chrysalis frowns a little bit. “It was about food…”
What.
“…Food, honey?”
”Mhm…” she nods before looking up to you. “Remember how I eat love?”
You nod. Chrysalis told you shortly after she began living with you that her species fed on the affection from one being to another. Because she looked the way she looked and because her nature was to some degree vampiric, she said she was supposed to just siphon off love in secret, but that having someone love her directly would fill her for months. You’d endeavored to make sure she wasn’t hungry.
”Well…I remember how hungry I was before I lived with you, Poppy, but I never…had anyone here but you and-“
She shuffles uncomfortably under the blankets. ”I know you had others here first but I’m…afraid that with him living here…I’ll be hungry again-“
Now you don’t let her get further by talking.
“Are you hungry right now?”
Chrysalis turns her head around to see your arm encircle her and scooter her closer to you, then she shakes her head.	
“Then if you ever feel too hungry while you live here, I want you to bop me on my noggin and set me straight, okay? I never ever ever EVER want to ignore my little girl when she’s in trouble, got it?”
Not again…
Chrysalis smiles and nods, then takes her place under your arm to get comfortable. “I love you, Poppy.”
“I love you too, lovebutt. Now let’s get some sleep, hmm? We need to make sure we wake up before Sombra.”
”Why?”
“So he doesn’t try to burn the house down while we’re asleep or something.”
> Teenagers are Awful.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There were times when you could remember Earth. It was strange, you’d no idea how long you’d been on Equestria, the days and months and years all seemed to flow together now, but you never forgot where you had been born.
In the past you had remembered streets and roads, people and houses, great things you could build with your hands and tried to recreate here for your children.
Today you were thinking about cigarettes and how you could really use one right now.
“I didn’t even smoke…”	
A leather bound book crashing through the window next to you and landing in your back yard where you were taking your refuge pulled you out of your thoughts with an annoyed sigh.
”NOW LOOK WHAT YOU DID!” you hear from inside.
”THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” came the immediate response.
Your head hangs and shakes as you sigh for the millionth time today alone. “If it were easy, everyone would be doing it, right Partner?” you ask the wind.
Old bones creek a bit as you stand up and compose yourself, entering the house to a tense standoff between siblings. Both Chrysalis and Sombra had grown over the years in your care, now both in what you would call their “adolescent” stage.
Which brought with it all the joys of puberty. They both turn to face you as you enter the home and lose just a smidgen of the fire in their eyes.
You keep it brief.
“Whoever threw that is fixing the window. Tonight.”
”I-“
”Chrysalis threw it.” Sombra answers quickly.
The bitter embers in Chrysalis flare up to an inferno as she grits her teeth and gets in her brother’s face “Because YOU were hiding behind it when I was talking to you, oaf!”
Sombra narrows his eyes and glares back at Chrysalis.
You step in.
“Chrysalis, the window. Now.”
All her time with you must still be forming the foundation of her mind because even though you don’t see that fire in her eyes die at all, she pulls her head back and grumbles “Yes, poppy.”
Sombra allows himself a half-smirk at his perceived victory as you walk into the house and Chrysalis walks out, first aiming to get the book.
”Well spoken.” He says.
“For that, go help her.”
Sombra’s eyes bug out and he stomps his hoof at you. “What!? Why?! I will not!”
You turn towards him slowly and point out the back door. “I saw your look. There will be no scheming rivalry or pulling one over on one another in my home. Go. And help her.”
Sombra’s pupils shrink as he lowers his head and glares at you. Chrysalis may have poor control of her emotions sometimes, but you knew she was all talk. The boy was a different story, however. You could see clear intent behind those eyes at times. The only counteraction to it you’d found was standing up to him.
“Daylight’s burning.”
Sombra snorts and trudges towards the back door. Chrysalis spots him and pokes her head up to see through the window. “HA-!”
A single glance from you sends her face into freefall and scrambling for recovery.
”HAAAAAeey, do we have any spare glass anywhere?” she asks sheepishly.
Silence fills the air for a moment as you look at her and she tries a small smile.
“That was a poor save. Pick the glass up from out there first, then we’ll see what we can do.”
”Yessir.” She answers.
”This is your fault.” You hear Sombra says once he’s outside.
Chrysalis shushes him rather than let the argument take on new legs.
Good.

You wait till the two of them are out of earshot before falling backwards into your chair and rubbing your face. There were occasional days such as today where you fear you’re not cut out for this job.
”Strong men carry with them strong spirits”, your father used to say, and the children you watch over now are mighty indeed while you yourself were…not. Even as a boy so many lifetimes ago, you were far happier sitting and listening like a tree instead of standing like the little mountains you were caring for.
Celestia and Luna, even Discord at times, you had taken for granted. It was always so easier to talk to those three and you’d all spent such time together that you knew one another inside and out, and if there was something you didn’t get, you could go ask another.
But most importantly they all LIKED each other, even Discord. Sombra and Chrysalis were just…constantly at each other’s throats since Sombra’d arrived. Assigning blame was a fool’s errand that would lead to trouble, but it was difficult to avoid thinking that his attitude had at least something to do with it.
Squabbling voices outside push your introspective thoughts back again and force you out of your seat. The two of them were at it again, arguing out by the tree.
”I’ll pick up the glass, you go see if any of the wood from the house was damaged!” Chrysalis shouts.
"I should not even be out here you porous poppy! You were the one who threw the book, you shall be the one to repair the damage! And you owe me a new book!”
”I’ll give you a new attitude, how about that?! It’ll do you much more good than another book will!”
You sigh and lean on the frame of the door.
The siblings continue to just go AT IT, leaving you to marvel at where they find the energy to feud over the most trivial things.
"I’d like to see you try!” Sombra shouts.
”I’ll do more than try you ungrateful inmate! Poppy and I were living perfectly fine out here by ourselves when he took you in and this is how you repay us!? I should reduce you to that of a common rabbit and keep you as a PET!”
Now hold-
“Repay? Ungrateful? I was forced here you vapid slattern! You and that bovine guardian keep me here to teach me how to be "proper" or some other such rubbish and deny the BOTH of us the lives we could be living beyond this place to continue playing at some infantile storybook fantasy!”
Chrysalis is taken aback. “Vapi-! Slatt-“
You see the gears in her head turning as she works out what was said to her until she turns to you. “Poppy! Sombra called me a name!”
You restrain your response for a moment, then get off the door frame.
“I should ground both of you until you move out…”
Saying that was a mistake, now they’re both set off.  It barely takes a heartbeat for the both to get to a foot from you and start either begging you not to ground them or declaring how doing so would visit ruination upon you.
Every word they said was like a thousand swords stabbing you in the brain.
”Saints alive, I hope I was never like that.”

Wait you know that voice. 
You and the kids turn your collective heads to the source, a wafting pastel mane peaking around the corner of the house with an impish smile.
”Hi Daddy!” she exclaims.
A smile tugs at the corner of your lips as the sight of your oldest, grown so tall when just yesterday she barely got up to your knees and looking like she was born wearing her raiment. 
“Heh…hello Tia.”
Celestia smiles and prances around the side of the house to the back door, she has a brown wicker basket floating in her grip. “The royal bake sale had about fifty extra Super Sugar cookies left over so I brought you a basket of thirty!”
You take the basket happily. “What happened to the other twenty?”
Celestia looks like a guilty filly for a few moments. “…It was a long flight.”
You laugh, Chrysalis groans. ”Of course YOU would show up here on a day like today…” she says.
Celestia smiles down at the Changeling and nuzzles her face. “Hello again, little friend! I’m so glad to see you again since the…uncomfortableness.”
You reach out and pet Celestia’s mane. The first time she’d met Chrysalis was when she came to you after defeating Luna, you didn’t want her thinking about that.
Chrysalis groans, Celestia shows mercy and turns her attention to Sombra. “But I haven’t met you before…are you new? Daddy, is he new?”
“This is Sombra, Celestia.”
Celestia bows her head in greeting. “I bid you welcome, Sombra. You are in the best of hands possible.”
Sombra appears uncomfortable at all the ceremony and uncharacteristically backs away. “The only “hands” I want to be in are my own, quim.”
Celestia blinks, puzzled. “You speak like my sister used to…” she says, rising with a smile. “You’ll be a fun one.”
A glinting piece of glass catches her eye. “Oh dear! What happened to the window?”
Chrysalis attempts to dodge further interaction with Celestia. “It broke.”
”Well that will not do!” Celestia’s horn glows a gentle gold, making all the pieces of shattered glass raise off the ground and reassemble themselves inside the window frame like a fractal jigsaw puzzle. A quick flash of magic connects the pieces and restores the window as if it were never broken in the first place.
Chrysalis looks annoyed, Sombra looks astounded. “How did yo-OW!”
He recoils as the book that started all this hits him in the back of the head. 
”Ah! You dropped this, little Sombra.”
He begins to grumble but Celestia pushes the door open. “But come! I have cookies and some of them have my name on them!”
Both of your children give a quick glance towards you, gauging your response to this idea.
You shrug “The window is fixed, you two aren’t fighting, and I’m far too old to discipline you all night. If there’s no harm, let’s eat, shall we?”
Chrysalis and Sombra strike momentary peace with a glance and head inside, you pause and talk to Celestia. 
“Just decided to stop in?”
”Originally, yes.” She says with a wink “But you looked like you would appreciate the help.”
> Shape of Love.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A knocking at your door draws your attention away from the scroll you were reading. 
”One second Twilight! I’ll get it!” you hear Spike call.
You hope up from your table and head for the front door  “Don’t worry Spike! I have it!”
Based on the time and date, you knew who it was. You throw open the door to Anonymous and a pony no one in town had ever seen before.
”Hello there, Twilight!” Anonymous says.
”I hate this. I hate this. I hate everything about this and wish I were dead.” His companion mutters.
“Uh…will Chrysalis be okay?” you ask.
Anonymous reaches down and pets the disguised Changeling Queen’s head, who smiles faintly despite clearly being in a bad mood. “Chryssy just doesn’t like this disguise, but she’s promised me that she’ll be putting on a brave face and behaving all day today, isn’t that right sweetheart?”
Chrysalis sighs and rights her mane. “Only for you, Poppy. Only ever for you.”
Anonymous smiles, which makes her smile faintly too. ”Well, if she is ready than so am I!” Anonymous beams.
You smile back at him and float your quill and scroll back to your table. “Spike! I’m going to be showing Anonymous and…a friend around Ponyville for a bit! Lock the door, will you?”
”Okaaaaaay!” you hear him call back.
You leave your tree house and take a few steps down the road. “First I think let’s visit the bakery!”
”I adore sweets! Lead the way, Twilight!”
Chrysalis groans “You two are giving me diabetes already…”


-The Past-

”Poppy! Poppy! I found one! Chrysalis bounds up the hill ahead of you and stops by a tree at the top.
“Hey! Hey! Hold on! I’m not as fast as I used to be!”
You chase after your daughter up to the top of the hill and take a gander at what she’s found, a natural apple tree with glistening red orbs of nutrients dangling seductively from its branches.
“Nice find, Chryssy. How did you get so good at this?”
The teenage Changeling puffs out her chest and grins triumphantly. “Because I am the most amazing daughter ever, Poppy. That is why.” She beams.
You laugh and pet her head, soaking in her affectionately pressing into your hand and pretending you didn’t notice her jealously looking to the sun with one eye.
“Let’s get to picking! If we’re quick, we can be home before-“
Both you and Chrysalis’ heads bolt to the side as you hear a tree crack and fall over. Chrysalis leaps in front of you with her head low and horn towards the danger.
After a few moments pass, you reach your hand out and touch her back. “It’s okay, we’re safe.”
”R-right.” She says, composing herself. “What was that?” she then wonders.
You had an idea, but someone had to pick these apples.
“Why don’t you try that trick you learned and see?”
Chrysalis smiles a full, open-mouth smile. “Aha! What a wonderful idea! Alright, hold on…”
She focuses herself and straightens her stance, closing her eyes and blinking a few times as emerald flame flits about her eyelashes and she aims to get it just right. Finally, when she opens her eyes, they’re no longer green and slitted but blue and compound as her insectoid appearance would make you expect.
“What do you see, sweetheart?”
”I’m focusing, oooone second.” She says as you continue you pick fruit for lunch tomorrow. It didn’t bother you doing all the work at this point, you were far too used to the single father lifestyle. And besides, you enjoyed spending time with all your children.
Chrysalis gasps at something. “Father, I see the ponies you told us about!”
That actually catches you off guard, but only for a moment.
“Huh. Really?”
How far were you two walking to get here…?
You take the bushel of crop you already had and walk up next to Chrysalis, careful to keep ready in case you had to hide. Sure enough, you can see tiny blobs in the distance working through a clearing in and out of some makeshift structures.
“Can you see what they’re doing?”
"It looks like they’re cutting down trees. I see a lot of older ones going into the forest…and a little green filly passing out some golden fluid to them?”
“Cider, for the workers to keep them cool.”
”Mm…now one of them is hugging her, it must be one of her parents…they have the same color hair.”
“Mane, sweetheart. For ponies, it’s called a mane.”
”Right, right. I knew that.”
You close your eyes and take in the cool breeze as Chrysalis continues to look down the hill at the newcomers, fascinated by ones who were outside of her small little world.
This was good for her, you knew. She wasn’t a little filly anymore and was getting to the age where she’d soon go off on her own into the world, like Celestia, Luna and Discord. Already you occasionally heard her talking about the “others” in her sleep at night. You knew that if there was one like her, there may be others, and that being among her own kind would be something she would have to do.
You sigh and look to the spot in the sky the moon occupied every night. For better or worse, it was something she would have to do.
”They’re putting up a sign now. ‘Future site of…Ponyville’?”
Chrysalis blinks her eyes back to normal and turns her head to you, cocking an eyebrow with a sly expression. “A bit on the nose, isn’t it?”
You snicker and cover your mouth
“Where did you learn that?”
”I’ve been eating your sense of humor while you sleep. OoooOoOoOoo!” she mocks.
You pat her shoulder and pick up the basket you had already. 
“Let’s fill this and skedaddle. We don’t want to be seen, and I have the feeling those settlers will need these trees more than we will.”


-The Present-


”Hrm…ketchup? Or…catsup?” Anonymous pondered at the stall, a bottle of condiments in each hand.
Your sheepish snickering at the situation was drowned out by the sound of your other traveling companion groaning next to you on the bench.
”This is why we don’t take him shopping, Sparkle.” Complains a disguised Chrysalis. “He lives at a different speed from the rest of society after raising all of us.”
“Really? He seems alert and full of life whenever I’ve seen him, Chrysalis.”
”Because you’ve only ever seen him around us. He doesn’t have the space for anything else.” She retorts.
Chrysalis gets a look in her eye as she watches the old man go back and forth between the bottles, like she’s staring through the crowds of other shoppers from Ponyville and is back at her old home, just her and Anonymous, again. ”Poppy has given us everything he has inside of him and more over the many years. When he is among us, he somehow summons up more of himself to be the father we all loved, but you now see him when he’s alone.”
A flicker of pain passes through Chrysalis’s eye. “Slow, doting, as if a sufficiently stiff breeze could topple him and break his fragile bones…” Her teeth clench and get a bit sharper, her emotions doubtlessly overpowering her transformation. “It disgusts me that Celestia leaves him in that cottage, away from anyone who could care for him.”
“Hey! Easy, easy!”
You extend one of your new wings over in front of Chrysalis’s face to hide her from the townsfolk and snap her out of her mood.
“I’d prefer you grumpy and disguised over angry and making a panic!”
Chrysalis composes herself and bats your wing away. “I am not ‘GRUMPY’.”
“You could have fooled me. Every time I see you with Anonymous, you look grumpy.”
Chrysalis gets right up in your face and snorts through her nose. “I am like that because I am also seeing YOU, Sparkle. Make no mistake. Our ceasefire is no peace.”
You brush her off with your hooves this time. “Uhg! I thought it was just having to be a pony this time, but you’re just constantly miserable.”
Chrysalis huffs part of her mane out of her face and looks to Anonymous. “I have no problem being whatever shape I must for Poppy, Sparkle…no trouble at all.”
“Oh no, is this another flashba-“


-The Past-

Something bumps in the house late at night and pulls you from your sleep, sitting straight up in your bed.
“Sombra?”
He liked to occasionally root around the house for any of the few books he hadn’t read front to back and memorized. There was also the possibility it could be your illustrious Partner blowing the breeze.
“Red, that you?”
You rise from off your bed and creep to your door. You remember the night alone with Chrysalis, so many years ago when Celestia came knocking after sealing away Luna when you had thought there was…something at the door come for you and her and how you mustered up the strength to be ready to fight whatever it was. You call on that courage again as you open the door to the hall and creep out.
Slightly to your surprise, you hear swearing.
”Ow ow ow ow!”
“Chryyyyyyys?”
The swearing stops dead in its tracks and you jump around the corner of the hall to see what the heck was going on. That’s when your jaw nearly hits the floor.
Time had lost meaning since you arrived in Equestria. You remember that you were contacted by your partner Red shortly after arriving here, and that she needed your help. You agreed, and the girls were dropped off.
Since then every day had been devoted to fathering the little ponies and occasional patchwork draconequus, and apart from Aspen they were the only living souls you interacted with. If you didn’t have a mirror, you’d have forgotten what your own face looked like, or a human face at all.
Which made seeing one in your kitchen with a hand in the fruit jar a bit of a shock. To her credit, she looks back at you equally shocked at being caught, her teenage body freezing in place as her emerald eyes darting back and forth looking for a place to go.
Wait, emerald eyes? Turquoise, moss-like hair? Ashen skin tone?
“Chrysalis?”
”Uhh! No!”
“Chrys, what the heck-butt-nuts!?”
You hadn’t uttered a swear in over a thousand years.
Chrysalis opens her too human mouth and shrugs “Ssssuuuuurrrprise! Haha! Hah! Ah…”
A tension filled few seconds of silence pass before you hang your arms in front of you and tilt your head sideways.
Bu-huh?”
Chrysalis sighs and crosses her arms. “I was hoping to surprise you once I perfected it, but…”
“Oh I’m plenty surprised.”
Fatherly instincts kick in and you approach her, arms outstretched to her to catch her as if her shape would dissolve at any moment.
“W-what is this?”
Chrysalis smiles shyly but rubs her arm. “Well…it’s something I’ve been thinking about and working on for a while now, and after seeing that little filly and her mother today, I…” She looks back to you with cat-like pupils and curtsies. “Hehe. Tadaa! What do you think?”
You approach her gently, as a father would, and kneel to her eye level.
“Sweetie…”
You look her in the eyes, the same eyes you saw every morning but in a different shape, as her face beamed with pride.
“I want you to turn back to normal.”
That face contorted through a flurry of emotions. Shock, confusion, shame, eventually settling on pain. She looks down at her feet with tears in the corner of her eyes.
”…No, I understand.” She sniffs her petite little nose. “I-I should have asked before I did this.”
She turns her face up, tears welling in her eyes more as she looks into yours. “I just thought being like this would help me be your-“
You silence her by sweeping her into a hug that encompasses her entire upper body. “Not another syllable like that out of you, young lady!”	
Chrysalis freezes in your grasp, afraid of even breathing until she understands your thoughts.
“You…don’t say that. Ever.”
You gently pet her head to calm her down. “That little filly today looks like her mother. My children do not. That doesn’t mean I love them any less.”
“You don’t have to ever be “like me” to have me love you, little one. I already do, and I can never stop.”
”P-poppy…”
“You never have to TRY for my love, Chrysalis. You never have to struggle like however you came into my home. My door is ALWAYS open to my children, just like my heart is."
You feel her shape change in your hands and her face get longer as it whimpers and rubs against your damp shoulder.
The two of you stay like that for a while.


-The Present-


You push the door to the library open with your magic.
“Spiiiiike! We’re back!”
No answer. Meaning he was probably asleep. Or playing board games.
You smile and shake your head. You couldn’t get mad at him, today was a perfect day for being lazy. Not that you’d ever do that.
You head back out and find Anonymous and Chrysalis by the mailbox while Anonymous sips from two separate drinks. He looks at you and licks his lips.
”I think I like the Mango Blast better.”
You smugly smile at Chrysalis. “I told you.”
”Everyone’s a critic.” She mutters, sipping her Orange Twist by herself.
A tinge of magic in the air turns your attention to the sky, where the sun hangs mighty low in the sky. Those two facts lead you to deduce that Celestia was going to usher in the night any moment.
“Well, it’s late, and I’ve got a dragon to catch up on his cataloging.”
”And I have to go convince that blasted Sun-“Sister” of mine to get her pegusai to move clouds over the badlands. Her rays are making it unbearable in the summer.”
You glance back to the front door. “Perhaps it’s best we part ways here the-“
You turn back to the two of them and find Chrysalis and Anonymous in an embrace. She has her eyes closed as she rests her head on his shoulder and he gently pets her mane with the same expression. The movements look practiced and learned and you feel you’d be interrupting something sacred if you stepped in.
So for the time being, you’re content to sip your dink and smile at the two.
> Man of the House.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rain patters against the windows as you chop vegetables and slide them into an earthen bowl. “There we go…a nice healthy dinner…”
You set the table and smile at a job well done. “Kids! Supper!”
The only answer you get is the rain on your roof, probably dulling your voice so they couldn’t hear. In a house this old you weren’t surprised; your joints weren’t the only things that popped and echoed at this ripe old age. Normally you could hear just about everything in your tiny cottage, but not on nights like this, when mother nature was putting on a show outside louder than you could be.
“Jeeze louise…making a man work like this.”
You take off your apron and head down the hall. “Sombra! Chrys! Dinner time, come get it!”
You open Chrysalis’ door and find your daughter’s room suspiciously empty. You hadn’t seen any doppelgangers of yourself around and the rain was too heavy to go out, so she had to be somewhere…
Faint voices come through the walls from down the hall, towards Sombra’s room. You amble down that way and turn the knob the special way only you knew that got around the lock.
”-on’t be an IDIOT, Sombra!” was the first thing you heard.
Great, this should be fun.
Sombra has a bag on his bed and is stuffing his few belongings into it; several styles of rock and sediment going up to rudimentary crystalline formations, all his books he still read, and some hearty cloaks. You know what this is when they both look at you and your first instinct is to diffuse.
“Are we going on a family vacation?”
Sombra’s grimace deepens, Chrysalis only looks concerned.
Every so often, Sombra would decide that he’d had enough of his time here and would decide to leave, as he had done when he was little, but you’d always turned him around. The instances became more frequent as he grew through his adolescence and it seems like tonight was another chosen night.

“What goes on here?” you ask.
”Sombra-!” Chrysalis starts
She is quickly interrupted by your difficult son, no longer a boy but not yet a man, screaming “I CAN TELL HIM MYSELF!” over her.
Silence reigns for a few heartbeats as Sombra collects himself and turns to you. ”I’m leaving.” He says
“Again?”
He snarls “I’m ACTUALLY leaving this time.”
“You know, I’ve heard this story before…”
You lean on the wall and cross your arms. You needed to handle Sombra a certain way; capitulating to him wouldn’t work and shouting at him was too far. He had to be a bit on edge yet still convinced he could salvage the situation for it to go how you needed it to go.	
“Would you like to retell it? Or can we just skip straight to the end and enjoy our meal before it gets cold?”
Sombra lowers his head to steam as he always does
”What did you make?” Chrysalis asks
“Fried Gysahl greens.”
Chrysalis sticks her tongue out and gags “I don’t think anyone can enjoy eating that, poppy…”
Sombra collects himself. “Move, Anonymous. Before I make you.”
Now Chrysalis lowers her head, sparks zipping from her horn as her temper flares over the threat to you, but you disarm her with a glance and step aside.
“There’s no need for anything like that, Sombra. You were raised better.”
Sombra snorts out his nostrils and brushes past you. Chrysalis then runs up to your side. ”Poppy, are you just going to let him go!?” she asks. For all her early bluster at wanting to be the sole apple of your eye, she was clearly at least somewhat concerned for the housemate she’d spent so long with.
You reach down and pet the side of her head.
“Breathe easy, little bug.”

You catch Sombra before he gets to the door. “You know-“
He pauses and looks over his shoulder at you.
“You’re already out here, and the food’s right over there. Sit down, let’s talk about this.”
His eyes narrow “I do that and before I know it, I’m back in my room unpacking.”
That wasn’t good, he was catching wise.
Sombra faces the door, ”I have a destiny to fulfill, Anonymous. A grand and glorious destiny promised to me ages ago. I don’t know how you did it, but I haven’t heard the Umbra since I came here.”
Red had seen to that, she said.
”What I was promised is out there, and I will play house with you for not one moment longer.”
“You’re not ready.”
As soon as the words come tumbling out of your mouth, you regret saying them, but you couldn’t pull them back, so you had to make due.
You take a step towards Sombra. “You think you’re ready, everyone around your age does. You all think that way, but you’re not. The world has things worse than you’ve prepared for in it and it won’t hesitate to swallow you up.”
Sombra turns his head to you, offence radiating from his eyes on wisps of magic “You doubt-“
“Yes, I do.” You interrupt. “I doubt that you can live the life you want in the outside world because I don’t think you’re ready to do it. I know that’s the last thing a father should say to a child, but…” You glance over your own shoulder out the kitchen window, spotting a hint of the moon behind the clouds. “Call it a hunch.”	
Sombra breaks his gaze from yours and kicks the door open, the rain has picked up outside into a steady torrential sheet washing over the graceful countryside. The bugs and birds have all taken shelter from the storm and Sombra simply looks out over it.
”You’re wrong.” He says. “I have prepared every day of my life to hold a kingdom of my own, the outside world does not frighten me.”
He floats his hood up over his head as he walks out the door. “And neither does leaving you!” 
You could have told him of all the dangers in the woods, how his time here was to try and weed out that isolation and anger he suffered from to make sure there was never another Luna, you were sure there were things you could have said to make him stay, but all you could do as a worried father was rush out the door after him.
It takes barely a moment outside to get soaked to your bones tailing after Sombra, but he powers through it determined to get away from you.
“Sombra, you need to stop!”
”It’s over, Anonymous!”
Sombra pushes up the hill that sits in front of your house against the raging storm. “This little experiment of yours, whatever it is, is over for me!”
“It’s not-!”
”Go back to your cottage! Back to your children and the honeyed words you feed them to keep them docile!”
“I do that so you stay SAFE, Sombra!”
He pauses and looks back to you, his green eye standing out against the darkness. “Safe? SAFE!?” He stomps his hoof, bringing up jagged black rocks around the two of you from the depths of the earth. “What use is safety if we never lay eyes on the world beyond!? What are you protecting us from if you never allow us to reach!?”
“Yourselves!” you shout, holding your clothes to you tightly. “You know there were children before you here! One of them fell to the same darkness I see in YOU and there are those still suffering for it! I know you want to prove yourself, but you don’t have to! Not to me!”
”I do not-!”
“I know how hard you try to succeed but that’s not all there is to living! And if I must keep you here for longer just to make sure you don’t drag yourself and the ones who love you through Tartarus for YOUR hubris, then I’ll do it in a heartbeat!”
A long silence passes between the two of you.
“I wasn’t smart enough back then to prevent a tragedy from befalling my family, so I’m trying again now. You’re staying, son. You’re not ready to go yet. Now stop this and come home.” you say.
Sombra snarls at you and stomps his hoof again, breaking one of the crystals behind him and walking through the gap. “Goodbye, Anonymous.”
You lower your head, that was his last chance.
“I. Said. STOP.”

And so everything stops.
You never raise your voice in your house, as talking to children was always better than screaming at them. Shouting just made kids block you out or ignore you, and it was all over once you scared them. So, over the years, you’d practiced and cultivated a way of speaking that let you get your point across without raising your voice.
Sombra stands motionless, hoof off the ground and mouth agape.
“Is that the rain…or are you sweating?”
”What…did you-“
“I told you to stop.”
You trudge up through the wet grass to your wayward son, the rain went away so it was easier to move at least.
“And like a good child, you listened. I’m proud of you.”
Sombra turns his gaze to you with a look you remember from when he was first getting to that age.  For a pony like Sombra, who spends so much time reading and trying to understand the world around him, even if it was in his words “to know what he would rule”, little shook him.
Save for things he just plain couldn’t understand, and those thinks shook him to his very core.
Dark pinprick pupils shake as they look into your eyes. “Th-the rain…how did you-And-“
“Hush, now.”
Sombra stops talking, letting you put your hand to the side of his face.
“To be clear, I always dislike talking like this. Most of the time I don’t have to but…you’re really stubborn!”
You sigh. “I told you, you’re not ready. You’re not ready to be out alone in the world and the world isn’t ready to deal with you alone in it, that’s part of why you’re still here. Now turn and march.”
Sombra turns around in the dead silence of the night, clouds parting and the moon glistening off the shattered remains of his crystals before he crunches them underhoof.
“I know the world calls to you, son, and I can’t stop that call forever. That’s why I have to try extra hard with you to make sure that your stubbornness doesn’t win out before I HAVE to let you go.”
Sombra walks back to the house, head low and teeth grinding as he tries to figure out exactly what’s happening to him, passing Chrysalis who smugly looks at him, already knowing.
Father’s word was law.
“You’ll leave, Sombra, one day. When that day comes, I’ll freely let you go…” You walk past him and sit at the dinner table, looking him over in your living room. “But you are not excused yet. So, please take a seat and let’s enjoy our dinner and tomorrow will be one day closer to the day you’re independent.”
Sombra pulls a chair up to the table and sits across from you, seeming to see you for the first time while you think you truly see him for the first time.
> Ohana.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Thanks so much for taking time out of your schedules for this, Your highnesses.”
Celestia and Luna sit across from you in a lounge room, smiling and sipping tea. ”It’s our pleasure, Twilight. We always have time for all of our little ponies, especially when they’re going through a change like you are.”
”Indeed” Luna says” How art your studies in statecraft proceeding? Are you ready to assume the responsibilities of your office?”
“Oh, I finished those a while ago. I wanted to talk to you both about something else.”
The two monarchs look to each other in slight surprise, doubtlessly amazed you’d finished your studies of statecraft so quickly. ”What is it you need, Twilight?” Celestia asks.
“I wanted to ask you some questions about Anonymous.”
The two of them blink, even more surprised. Luna speaks first this time. “Father? Forgive me for asking, Twilight Sparkle, but what does Father have to do with your princess studies?”
“Well,” you begin “Spending so much time with Anonymous has taught me a lot of things, MOSTLY about you two and your history with others.”
Celestia snickers.
“But it also taught me just how much having a guide can effect somepony growing up.”
You sheepishly shift your hooves, a bit shy. “I’ve…always thought of Princess Celestia as a second mother to me, but now I see that so much of Equestria does as well. That’s what being a princess means, being a guide and a teacher for an entire kingdom, and that’s what Anonymous is to you both of you, as well as Discord, Chrysalis, even Sombra. So, I want to learn what Anonymous means to all of you, so that I can know what it means to be the best guide I can be when the time comes.”
Luna blinks twice and sips her tea. “I…see. Very well then.”
Celestia winks at you. “Good answer.”
Princess Celestia pours more tea into her cup and stirs it around, thinking aloud. ”Let us see…daddy, daddy…what does daddy mean to us…”
Celestia looks to the ceiling to collect her thoughts while Luna scratches her chin with her hoof. “To say that he means the world to us…it feels wanting.”
”Indeed.” her sister mirrors. “From raising us to know right from wrong and teaching us the fundamentals…”
”I’m not certain that we could be the Princesses we are today without Father.” Luna says.
You float your notepad in front of you and place your pen to it. “Just say whatever you feel, anything and everything has a use.”
Celestia continues to think, looking off into the reflective surface of her tea. “I…think daddy is the reason why I never married.”
The room gets so silent that you could hear a pin drop in a sandstorm onto a bed made of clouds.
“U-uh…”
”Sister, perhaps-“
Celestia’s face reddens as she plays back what she said. “N-not like THAT, you two! Don’t be ridiculous!” The Princess composes herself and continues. “What I mean is…Cadence once told me, shortly after she became an Alicorn, that she believes many young fillies end up comparing the stallions they wed to their fathers.”
As Cadence’s in-law, that makes you wonder about her father.
”In all my years I’ve had many attempted suitors but…none of them have “held up” shall we say. Thinking back now, I believe I was comparing them all to daddy subconsciously.”
“Mhm-mhm.” You write that down, taking special note of the reverence in the Princess’ voice at the topic of the human’s strength of character.
”I believe I understand what my sister means.” Luna says. “After you and your friends purified me of Nightmare Moon, Twilight Sparkle, I was taken to the castle to recover. Upon my waking, Father was the first soul I saw.”
”In that…trying time, there was no anger in him, no sorrow or fear at what I had become. Simply…” Luna smiles. “Simply joy, that I had returned, as well as…regret, that he could not have done more to help.”
Celestia nods. “Daddy is quite good at that, you truly feel that he’ll go to the ends of the earth for you before long.
”Or perhaps beyond, in my case!” Luna jokes.
The two sisters, once torn apart by jealousy and greed and now brought together in part by the contribution of on old man, chuckle and share a laugh.
You make sure to write that down.

A few days later, you’re on the other side of Ponyville.
“Thanks for doing this.”
”Are we kidding ourselves into thinking I’m doing this for you, Sparkle?”
Discord sits on a stool behind the cottage tucked away neatly in a blanket of trees just outside of town, he looks at you with a persistent grin while he shears a sheep with his hands.
“A-huh. Fluttershy’s still visiting her brother, huh?”
”Her train was delayed. Is this about the twenty-questions you played with my “sisters” the other day about Dear old Dad?”
“Yep,” You flip open your notepad. “Anything you’d like to say? I’m trying to get a grasp of him.”
”Why are you even coming to us with this, Sparkle?” Discord asks, surprisingly composed.
It catches you by surprise.
“Uh, well, I told you. I’d like to understand your father and what he means to you.”
”You heard the stories, what do you think?” he asks.
“I think you don’t like talking about him.”
Discord flicks his wrist and lops off a big portion of wool. “How FANTASTICALLY astute of you, Sparkle. Really, I can see why they made you a princess.”
You jot down in your notepad. “Discord…remains…ashamed still.”
That gets his attention, his eyes snap open and he looks like he just tasted toejam. “What!? I am not ashamed! Give me that notepad!” he says lunging at you.
You zip back with the pad and let him clonk his head on your stool, getting a laugh out of the sheep he’s shearing.
”Oh, shut up, Gary.” Discord says. He snaps his talons and poofs Gary away, leaving his wool behind. ”I’m not going to just LET you keep libel on me like that, Sparkle.” Discord rises and pushes his scales and fur up like sleeves…with more scales and fur underneath. He raises his limbs in magic symbols and sparks the air with chaos. “If it’s a fight you want than-“
“You could also just tell me about Anonymous the right way. That way we wouldn’t disturb Fluttershy’s house.”
The gears turn in Discords head and the sound of them disturbs the birds.
“Alright fine, but I’m making this quick.” The spirit of Chaos sits himself upright and looks unamused, which for him was like wearing his flank for a face. He sighs.
”Listen, Twilight. I don’t know where or why I was born. I didn’t exist, then I did, and then I was brought to Equestria and given as a holiday present.” Discord holds his leg and rests his head on his hand. “For all my magic, good looks, intellect, charm, wit, grace, and uhm…oh what else am I forgetting…?”
“Humility?”
”Ah yes! My SELFLESS humility…for all that, my formative years weren’t exactly shall we say “easy”. My two housemates my age both resembled each other, and Pops still remembered where he came from. On nights I would occasionally sneak out to go around the world and see if there was anything like me out there.”
“Did you find anything?”
”Do you know anyone as resplendently astounding as ME?”
“Point taken.”
Discord continues. “I held it in for a while, but I must have let slip something to Pops because one day he took me aside and showed me sketches in a book of Celestia and Lunas. The book had Timber Wolves, Jormundgandr, Blue Whales, Pheonixes, and about every other ancient creature in it.”
“Did that help?”
”On it’s own? No.” he answers. “But…Pops explained it to me, that each of those creatures, on its own at least, was mind-bogglingly strange to all the rest and vice-versa. Why, to some of them I might look more familiar than some of the others! Haha!”
Discord slaps his knee as he has a great guffaw. “I stopped feeling out of place then, and little by little every day since, I felt more at home here, on Equestria.” He raises his talon and lets a blue jay land on it, smiling at it in a way like Anonymous’s fatherly grin. “Why, I do say I’ve become quite fond of this little ball of mud by now.”
You smile and not to him. “Acceptance, huh? Is that why you spend so much around Fluttershy?”
”What? No Twilight, of course not, she’s just demonstrably the best pony in this town, would you like to see my graphs that prove why?”
You fear you may have mistepped.

Later that day, you’re sitting on a bench outside of the park as the sun starts to set. You allow yourself a brief moment of reprieve from your day to day hustle as Celestia lazily drags the sun across the sky. Townsfolk pass you by going about their lives. A few greet you with a wave of a smile, a few more with a brief hello. You return in kind and politely continue to sit as you wait for the next interviewee.
Another leaf in the wind of the town lands on the bench next to you. She’s a smaller thing, with waving auburn hair and a pale green coat. Her cutie mark was a small ladybug. A brief check with your heightened magical senses told you it was who you wanted.
“Glad you could make it, Chrysalis.”
”I don’t come this far for just anyone, Sparkle.” She says, keeping her disguise tight. “This had better be worth it.”
You float your notepad out. “It will be, I promise. I wanted to talk abo-“
”Yes, about poppy, I know.” She interrupts. “I have ears everywhere, Sparkle. I was able to pick it up.”
That Chrysalis apparently had Changelings in enough places to hear about you going around interviewing Anonymous’s children would alarm you if you hadn’t seen what a complete daddy’s foal she was these last months.
Chrysalis adopts the same far off stare her siblings did when reminiscing about their father, the look one gets when remembering a lifetime. ”I understood shortly after arriving in Poppy’s care that I was the second generation to be there. The love and affection those before me shared was seeped into the very walls. From day one, I was prepared for an uphill battle to win myself a section of poppy’s heart.”
“And did you?”
Chrysalis looks to the last gasps of twilight in the sky with a sorrowful look. “I tried. In the early days I would try anything and everything I could think of to elevate myself and de-elevate those who came before me, I simply couldn’t stand the thought of there existing those who had more of what I desired most in the world.”
“Is that why there’s…tension between you and Celestia?”
Chrysalis huffs and hardens again. “Celestia…ever the golden child of that home, even when not there…No, Sparkle, that is not the cause. I will tell you the result, however. Poppy told you the story of the night I took on the shape of one of his kind?”
You nod.
”It was that night that it dawned on me…I didn’t see results in my competition because there was no competition. Poppy saw me, as I was when I first came to his home and chose to love me entirely and absolutely. The love he gave to me was unique, real, and unquestioning, something Celestia could never take no matter how much he loved her as well.”
You write that down as Chrysalis gets off the bench. ”That night…was the most ashamed I’d ever felt in my life, Sparkle. To think, it had taken me all those years and all those schemes to convince myself of something that he had been presenting me all that time.” As she begins to walk away, she looks back to you. “My calling lead me away from Poppy. However if I may be a tenth as noble as he was to me to those who rely on me, I will be content in this life.”
You nod as you understand the Changeling’s words in the newly night sky, but panic as she gets further. “Wait! What is he to you? I need to know!”
Chrysalis does not turn, but calls back. “Sanctuary, Sparkle! No matter my choices in life, I know I will ever be welcome at my old home…and such things are precious to my kind.”
Chrysalis continues, and you close your pad.

”I don’t like this, Twiley.”
“You’ve said that six times now, Shining.”
Your older brother leads you down a secret stairwell beneath the crystal castle that only he and four other ponies knew the existence of.
It used to be just three, but then you became a princess.
He opens the door at the bottom of the staircase to a pitch-black room with a single obelisk in the middle. Above the obelisk floated a single crimson horn. Shining eyes the horn wearily, as if it will spring to life with his worst nightmares at any moment.
You place your hoof on his shoulder to comfort him. “I’ll be FINE. I was last time, remember?”
He softens, but only barely. Reassuring you. “If even one thing goes wrong, I want you to shout for me, alright? I’ll come running.”
You nod and step inside the room.
Space is difficult to judge in the infinite room, but you focus on the obelisk in the center to orient yourself. The only sounds beyond your hoofsteps on the floor is the labored breathing of something off within the darkness.
“You can come out.”
You sit yourself down on the floor and float out your notepad.
“If I can hear you, I’m going to guess you can hear me.”
The shadows on the walls move and shift along an unseen wind into a gale around you and the obelisk. Wisps of shadow tear away as a monstrous green eye turns its slitted pupil to you while it radiates spectral energy.
”WHY. HAVE. YOU. COME?” it roars.
You levitate your pen up.
“Tell me about your father.”

After letting Sombra scream himself silly for a few minutes and explaining the situation, he releases an exacerbated sigh and vanishes from the wall. A smoky substance seeps from the horn on the obelisk that coalesces into the vague shape of a pony upon which Sombra’s green eyes return.
”WHY would you waste your time on something so trivial?”
“It’s a better use of time than sitting in a secret basement prison, I think.”
Sombra snorts and trots around the obelisk. “What can even be said? I was forced to his home, I hated my family, I left as soon as I was able. The end.”
“Is that all?”
”That. Is all.”
You write that down. “I see. And how quickly did you go from his home to ruling the Crystal Empire?”
”I took the throne a mere five years after I left. Pittance to one such as me.”
You learned this from Anonymous’ stories. “Wow, that’s impressive. Did you learn statecraft in that short a time?”
He bites. Sombra’s father was quick to tell you that the umbral king couldn’t resist talking about himself. “No, I am entirely self-taught in statecraft. I’m not surprised you don’t know, Equestria was sure to lie about me in their history. Make no mistake, the Crystal Empire under my rule was a paradise of wealth, happiness, and cared for citizens.”
And a war with the Changelings, but you kept mum on that.
“We were always told you said you took care of your citizens before things started toppling, where’d you learn that?”
Sombra stiffens a bit, despite being a shadow. “It was within me all along.”
“Are you suuuure?”
”Yes.”
“Sure you’re sure?”
”YES!”
“Are you sure you didn’t…pick it up from somewhere?”
”CEASE!”
“Anonymous told me what he tried to teach you…sounds like you were listening.”
Sombra lunges at you over the obelisk and for a moment you’re unprepared, your protective wards don’t get up in time. He swipes his shadowy limbs impotently at your neck, both passing through harmlessly.
You give him a wry smile and flip your book closed. “I think I have what I need.”
You’d never seen a shadow simmer, but here it was. “Then. Leave.”
“Not yet, Sombra. I have a deal to make with you…”
The shadow king’s eyebrow arches as your horn sparks.

A few days later, Anonmous takes a seat in his favorite chair in the royal library. ”Ah…max comfy.”
“Huh?”
”Just something I said when I was younger.”
You have a hard time imagining Anonymous young.
”So, little princess, what is it you needed of me? Canterlot is a long way from my cottage to send a letter.” he ponders
“I wanted to ask you some things.”
You take out your pad and pen, noting Anonymous’ perplexed look. “I always love a talk, but what could I have you’d need now? You seem pretty put together.”
“It’s about your children.”
”Alright…shoot.”
“Well, I’ve been speaking to them privately the last week or so as a sort of personal project. I wanted to hear from each of them what you meant to them and their lives.”
”I’m sure it was nothing but negativity.”
You chuckle. “Pure venom. Each of them gave me an answer that illuminated them in ways I couldn’t imagine just a few months ago, so now I want to ask you.”
”Ask me what, exactly?”
“What do you think you are to your children?”
”Well, a parent, first and foremost, obviously.”
“I know but…the last few months visiting you have changed what I thought that word meant drastically. I wondered why Celestia wanted me to meet with you originally, but now I can understand it.”
”Mm?” he ponders.
“How close the two are! That the teachings you gave to them as a parent are what formed the basis for their actions as monarchs! It formed the foundation of Equestria itself! What you discovered as a parent are what they each practiced as a princess or queen or whatever. Princess Celestia didn’t send me here to learn about her history, she sent me here to learn about responsibility like she did.”
Anonymous leans back in his chair and smiles. “Very good…” he chuckles. “She did say you were a smart one.”
“Beg pardon?”
”Celestia told me early on not to tell you why she was sending you to me. Something about you “appreciating lessons you earned more than lessons you were given”.”
You feel your cheeks get hot at being predicted by your teacher.
Anonymous rubs his chin. “Now…what do I think I am to my children? That’s a simple answer; anything.”
“...What do you mean “anything”?”
Anonymous leans forward. “Being a parent, being an authority over others, is not a simple thing. Ponies are different, each and every one, so the same solution might not worth with everyone. Celestia I could teach naturally but Sombra required a more…direct approach.”
You nod.
”The secret to both, Twilight Sparkle, is to not become something absolute. You must watch them, hear them, experience them, and become what they need you to be at that moment. A teacher, a father, an adversary, or a challenge.”
“I…think I understand.”
He smiles a smile that makes you feel at ease. “That’s the big secret, Twilight. I’m not so special, I just listen to them.”
“What about the tiny house? You could have still been around them if you lived here.”
”I like the smaller existence, it helps them realize there’s more to life beyond me.”
You hop off your chair. “Well, I wanted to repay you for all you’ve taught me.”
”Mm? How?” he asks.
“Come with me.”

You lead Anonymous through the castle to a small banquet hall used to host smaller nation dignitaries friendly with Equestria.
Anonymous halts as he enters through and sees what’s behind it.
Celestia and Luna both have their hooves to their mouths and their cheeks puffed out, looking horrified. Discord floats next to them. “What? Too soon? It was fine, he asked me to do it.”
”Brother!”
”You don’t DO that!”
”He asked!” Discord shouts, attempting to defend himself.
You giggle. “Sounds like they already started…hehe.”
Celestia turns her head to you both. “Greetings Twilight. Hi Daddy!”
”Will you three PLEASE keep it down!” comes from the far side. Queen Chrysalis trots into the room followed by the wispy form of a pony made of pure shadow. “Sombra is trying to tell me what all these treats taste like and I can’t hear a WORD of it with you three gawking like-Poppy!”
The five children walk up to the two of you and smile, even Sombra, at Anonymous’ mouth hitting the floor.
”I don’t…know what to say right now.” He looks down at you. “Twilight…you did this?”
“I got the idea that you guys hadn’t had a family reunion in a while.”
”THANK you, I-“
You put up a hoof as Anonymous prepares to hug you.
“This is for you and them, Anonymous. Not me. Go be with your family.”
You smile up at him and get a tearful one in return.”Right.”
Anonymous walks into the room, immediately swarmed by his children both close and wayward as they enjoy each others company.
You’re content to sit and watch the would-be family with a smile.


-Epilogue-


”Twilight! They’re here!”
“Down in a minute, Spike!”
You hold the picture in your hoof, the only one to ever exist of its kind, and smile. Years have passed since that day, when five of the most extraordinary entities in Equestria had met with their father under the same roof for the first time in…ever.
Laughter was had, smiles were shared, you’d hoped they each became a bit closer to each other. Family was the purest form of friendship, after all.
Anonymous had insisted on a photograph for everyone in attendance, especially you, he’d said, for making it all happen. You recollect and place the picture back, for now it was time to get to work.
You leave your private study and head down the stairs to the front doors of your new Friendship School. In front of you there are your new students, each eager to learn the ways of friendship and comradery for their own reasons. They weren’t just ponies. A griffon, a yak, a sea pony and more were before you in the foyer. Each more different than the last and each needing you for guidance.
You call upon your memory, and the textbooks worth of teachings by both Celestia and Anonymous to deduce the absolute perfect icebreaker for these situations.
It was so obvious, he’d done it to you.
“Welcome to the Friendship Academy, everyone! How about we get to know each other over some tea?”

-End.

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