//------------------------------//
// Morning in Ponyville 
// Story: The Incredibly Crazy Days of a Little Sparkle 
// by BronyWriter 
//------------------------------//

"Miss False Alicorn?"

"Gyaaah!"

I nearly hit the ceiling when I opened my eyes to discover Midnight staring at me, unblinking, mere inches away from my face. I had to take several deep breaths as my heart beat like a drum. Midnight frowned at me and tilted her head.

"Have I disturbed you in some manner?"

I really wanted to say yes. However, I don't think she'd really understand why, so she'd keep asking me until I explained it.

"N-no, you're fine, Midnight." I took another deep breath and looked at my alarm clock, frowning when I saw that it was only four in the morning. "Um... is there something wrong?"

"Indeed there is. I find the need to relieve myself. However, my room has not been provided with a chamber pot. I find your lack of foresight in this area troubling. Regardless, may I borrow yours?"

"Oh, right, um..." I awkwardly smiled at her. "I don't have a chamber pot. Ponies don't use those anymore. We have toilets now."

"Toilets," Midnight repeated with a frown.

"Yeah, they, uh..." I groaned rubbed my forehead. "It's easier to just show you. Probably."

I slipped out of bed, grumbling something to myself about being the only mare in history who had to toilet train their great, great, great etc. grandmother when she was a filly.

Someday my life would become something resembling normal, right?

I opened up the door to the bathroom and stepped aside to allow Midnight to go in. "So, uh, this is the bathroom, Midnight." I pointed to the toilet. "That's the toilet."

Midnight walked up to the toilet and stared at it, unblinking as usual. In fact, I think I'd only actually seen her blink a half-dozen times since I'd found her in the woods. She didn't seem to be reacting to it in any way, so I figured I needed to elaborate a little bit.

"So, um, you just sit on it and... yeah... That's the toilet paper for... wiping and stuff. Then when you're done, you just push that button on the side there. Pull up that handle on the sink to wash your hooves."

"Indeed." Midnight blinked once, then slowly sat on the toilet.

"Right. Yes. Just like that. I'll just... give you some privacy." I backed away, closing the door behind me. Once I was sure Midnight wasn't following me to ask more questions about the toilet, I groaned and sat down to put my head in my hooves. "So awkward," I whispered.

After a few minutes, I heard the toilet flush, followed by the water in the sink turning on. I took a deep breath to steady myself for any subsequent awkwardness once Midnight actually came out of the bathroom.

"I am finished," she declared.

"Right. That's good. I let out a little yawn and looked longingly in the direction of my bedroom. "I, um, I'm going to go back to sleep for a few hours. We'll get some breakfast once we wake up again, okay?"

Midnight slowly nodded. "That sounds like a reasonable course of action."

"Good. I like reasonable." Which, of course, meant that I didn't care for this situation. I bade Midnight a final goodnight before shuffling back to my bed and sliding underneath the warm covers. I groaned and put a pillow over my head. Why me? The only positive is that I could contact Princess Celestia tomorrow to see what she would have to say about the situation. She could fix this and send Midnight back to her own time, right?

With thoughts of that nature filling my head, I slowly drifted off to sleep one again.


*  *  *  *


I woke up some time later. My eyes fluttered open, and I saw that it was morning, though my alarm clock stated that it was half past ten. I groaned and rubbed my face. I hated oversleeping. I sighed, then rolled over so that I could get up.

"GYAAAAH!"

I flinched back so hard that I fell out of bed, landing in a tangled mess of sheets. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings, but after my heart stopped pounding, I used my magic to untangle myself before sliding back onto my bed. Midnight sat beside it, mere inches from where I'd been sleeping, staring at me without blinking. I groaned and rubbed my head where I'd landed on it.

"Midnight, have you just been sitting there watching me sleep for the past..." I quickly did the math. "Six hours?"

"Aye," Midnight said after a few moments. "After using the toilet, I did not find myself to be tired. I attempted to sleep for a few minutes, then decided to merely observe thy sleep. I've never seen an alicorn sleep before. I confess I was curious to see if anything new happened." Midnight gave a slight tilt of her head. "You did not break your neck upon falling out of bed. I suppose you must be grateful for that."

"Very," I said, trying and failing to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

"Though if you had broken your neck, I imagine that you would not have been able to feel anything below your neck, removing any pain that usually comes with shattered bones. That is, of course, if the injury did not result in instantaneous death."

"Right." I groaned and rubbed my temples. "Right. So I guess the next course of action is breakfast. Then I'll probably send a letter to Princess Celestia."

"Princess Celestia?" Midnight said, her ears perking up ever so slightly. "We may contact her now?"

"Yeah. She and--" I paused for a moment. Would it really be the wisest move to tell Midnight that Princess Luna was back on the throne? Given that Midnight was created to be an avatar of Nightmare Moon, if Shadow Kicker's memoirs were correct, that could lead to some serious awkwardness, not to mention the fact that the whole Lunar Rebellion had been started to get Luna, or Nightmare Moon, back on the throne.

Best let Princess Celestia deal with that particular issue. I might be a princess now, but there were certain things that were still better suited for her to handle.

"Yeah, I'll send her a letter soon," I finished. "Yeah, I'm sure she'll be, um... happy to see you."

"And I her. She will likely shed light on this situation." Midnight frowned thoughtfully. "And if you are in contact with her, I suspect that you are not, in fact, a false alicorn. She would likely have incinerated you already, unless she has never seen you or your dark magic ascension came about fairly recently."

"I've been her personal student for about fifteen years," I said, hopping off of the bed. "Like I told you: I'm a princess too."

"Of?" Midnight replied, following me out of my room.

"I... don't know yet," I admitted. "But I am a princess!"

"Perhaps. However, I note you do not have the stature befitting a princess. You would even be dwarfed by my mother."

Hmm. I'd always wondered about that, actually.

"Well, I'm not the same type of alicorn as Celestia," I explained. "She's an Alpha Alicorn, and my sister-in-law and I are Beta Alicorns. We're not immortal, just longer lived, and while it would be simpler for us to raise the sun and moon, it would take a significant amount of power to do so compared to Princess Celestia."

"Indeed. I am further confused by you living in a small hamlet with no real value, and in a tree no less. Do you not even have servants?"

"No, and I'm rather okay with that." Midnight and I entered the kitchen, where I directed Midnight to sit at the table. "I know this isn't as grand as you're used to, but..."

"You could not fit an entire royal dining hall in a tree," Midnight finished.

"Sure. We'll go with that right now." I yawned and opened up the fridge to take out a gallon of milk. "We have cereal, if that's okay."

"I... suppose."

"Good." I opened up a cabinet, a silverware drawer, and the pantry to levitate a pair of spoons, bowls, and the cereal to the table. I poured Midnight a bowl of cereal, plunked the spoon into the bowl, then pushed it over to her. "Here you go. If you want any cinnamon or sugar in there, just let me know."

"Very well." Midnight took a small, experimental bite of the cereal, and must have decided that she liked it, because she nodded and continued eating. She ignited her horn and pulled the box of cereal over to her for a quick look, frowning when she read the brand name.

"Celesti-o's?"

Despite everything, I managed a laugh at that one. I guess she would find that weird. Unfortunately for me, I laughed just as I swallowed a bite of cereal. This had the dual effect of me nearly shooting milk out my nose, and getting a piece of cereal lodged in my throat. I began choking on the piece, and had to bang on my chest for a few moments before I managed to dislodge it.

"Sorry about that," I croaked. "I'm fine."

"I see that." Midnight looked a little disappointed. "I have often wondered what it would be like to see a pony choke to death. I suppose it is good that you did not as you are a ruler, but t'would have been a most fascinating experience."

"Yeah, I'll bet," I grumbled before taking another bite of cereal. Midnight quickly returned to her own food. "So do you want anything else? Toast? Eggs? Maybe some orange juice?"

"Orange juice? Thou must be wealthy indeed if you can purchase that luxury freely. Or are we near an orange farm?"

"No, it's fairly cheap stuff nowadays," I said, getting out of my seat so that I could pour Midnight and myself a glass. "Farming techniques have advanced considerably since your time, and we've made great strides in food production, leading to things that would be considered luxuries in your time fairly commonplace items in most households. It's actually kind of fascinating."

I have to admit, going into "lecture mode," as Rainbow Dash would call it, did help to relax me a little. It shifted the situation back to something more logical than "my distant ancestor is sitting at my table."

Right at that moment, Spike chose to come into the kitchen. He yawned and scratched his belly, but stopped halfway through when he saw Midnight. He frowned, but didn't comment on it when he sat down.

"Good morning, Spike," I said, fixing up a bowl of cereal for him. "You're up early."

"Morning, Twilight." He nodded in thanks when I gave him the cereal. "Got woken up earlier than usual. There was a raven outside my window that would just not shut up. I didn't even know we had ravens in Ponyville. I haven't seen any before today."

I froze with my cereal halfway to my mouth, and my gaze fixed on Midnight who was eating her cereal. No. No, it was just a coincidence. Sure, Midnight's memoirs made it clear that ravens tended to follow her wherever she went, not to mention that her tomb was covered in them, but... no. My home wasn't about to become the nesting ground for a massive unkindness of ravens.

I hoped.

"So..." Spike looked back to Midnight. "Who's our guest?"

"Yeah, uh... you remember the anomaly that Princess Celestia had us investigate last night?" Spike nodded. "Well, she's the anomaly."

"A filly in the Everfree Forest?" Spike said, sitting down at the table.

"I am Midnight Sparkle," Midnight said. "And I think thou art a baby dragon."

"Yep, sure am," Spike replied, puffing his chest out a little bit. His smile slowly faded when a thought struck him, and he turned to me. "So, did she say Midnight Sparkle?"

"I did," Midnight said.

"As in that Midnight Sparkle? The ancestor of yours that you keep talking about?"

Celestia dammit, Spike. I loved him, but he could be a bit oblivious to his situation sometimes. Granted, I hadn't exactly told him all of the details of what was going on, but that was not information that Midnight needed to know right then. Or at all, really. Sure enough, Midnight was giving me one of her unnerving stares. Dang it, this really wasn't a conversation that I wanted to have without Princess Celestia present. She'd be able to explain the situation way better than I could.

"You are one of my descendants," she said after an uncomfortable few seconds.

"Yeah, uh..." I chuckled uneasily and rubbed the back of my neck. "My full name is Twilight Sparkle."

"I see. A member of the Sparkle line becomes an alicorn through legitimate, though confusing, means."

"I guess if you want to put it that way..."

Midnight stared at me for a few more moments, then went back to her cereal. "Mother will be most interested to hear about this whenever I return to my proper time."

For some reason a chill went down my spine when I heard that. Don't get me wrong: Sunbeam Sparkle was the most powerful and brilliant unicorn of her era. I might go so far as to say she's still the most powerful unicorn who ever lived. That aside, she was heavily involved in the politics of the time, and she could be a bit... ruthless. That's actually a bit of an understatement. She tended to grab power whenever she could. If she found out that one of her descendants became an alicorn, even though it was nine hundred years down the line...

I didn't like the implications of that, and I doubted Princess Celestia would either. There is no way that Sunbeam Sparkle would ever simply ignore that piece of information. Heck, she might push for ascension herself. She'd say that if Celestia was willing to make a Sparkle into an alicorn, then who better to rule alongside Celestia than her, a mare who would be willing to get her hooves dirty for the good of Equestria?

Several other ponies, actually.

I desperately wanted to explain that to Midnight, but she did hold the high opinion of her mother that was common in daughters. That aside, she'd only decided that I wasn't a false alicorn about ten minutes ago. Like the rest of this, Princess Celestia would be far better suited to explain the situation to Midnight. She'd known Midnight for pretty much her entire life, after all.

"Anyway, I'm going to need you to take a letter, Spike. Princess Celestia really needs to know about all of this."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Spike said. "Just let me get a quill and ink."

"Sure thing."

Just then I heard a knock on the door. I stood up and walked over to the door, pausing before I opened it. I glanced back at Midnight, who had helped herself to another bowl of cereal. If it was one of my friends, that would be find because they already knew that Midnight was here. Other than that, I'd rather keep her presence here as quiet as possible. If the entire town found out that I had a pony from nine hundred years ago in my home, and in a town as gossipy as Ponyville, that wouldn't be difficult, then that could cause some undue complications. On the other hoof, I couldn't just shut myself in my house until this got resolved.

I hate complications.

I lit my horn and opened the door, revealing Derpy Hooves and her daughter, Dinky, on the other side. Derpy smiled and waved at me.

"Hey, Twilight! I'm just here to drop Dinky off for her magic lesson this morning!"

My breath died in my throat. Magic lesson? With Dinky? That was today?! Let's see. Yesterday was Tuesday, so... yep. Wednesday morning. Magic lessons with Dinky. Right. I forced a smile on my face.

"Oh, right. Yes. Magic lesson for Dinky. I didn't forget that. I'm not sure if--"

"This is gonna be awesome!" Dinky squeed, latching onto one of my legs with a big hug. "Thanks so much for teaching me magic, Miss Twilight! I've rilly been excited for it!"

Then Dinky hit me with one of the happiest, cutest looks I've ever seen. I... just...

Ugh. I couldn't say no to that.

"Right. I'll do my best to be a good teacher. Yes. A good teacher."

"Great," Derpy said, adjusting her mail bag on her side. "I'll be back to pick her up at one. Is that okay?"

"Sounds like a plan."

I stepped aside to let Dinky inside, then waved goodbye to Derpy as she flew away. "Okay, Dinky, let me get a few things settled, then we'll get started, okay?"

"A'kay," Dinky said, putting her saddlebag on the coat rack with her magic after a few tries. I smiled and patted her on the head.

"You're getting much better at that, Dinky! Very good job!"

Dinky beamed at the praise and took a few moments to hug my leg again. I turned around and saw Midnight staring at the both of us, a vaguely curious expression on her face.

"Oh, um... you're finished with your breakfast then, Midnight?"

"Indeed," she said. "I found its taste to be positive. Unless you have another container somewhere I am not privy to, you are out of... Celesti-o's."

Well, I guess that, whatever else Midnight was, she still had the appetite of a growing filly. Okay, I guess I could add "buy more cereal" to the list of things I needed to do today.

"Hi! I've never seen you before!" Dinky said, happily bouncing up to Midnight. "I'm Dinky! What's your name?"

"I am Midnight Sparkle, daughter of Sunbeam Sparkle, Archmagus of Canterlot, Grand Vizier of United Equestria, Savior of--"

"Yes, right! I didn't introduce you two. Silly of me," I said, interjecting before Midnight could get going. "This is Midnight. She's... well, I'm foalsitting her right now."

Midnight frowned at me and tilted her head. "I had just informed her that I am Midnight Sparkle. Was there some error in my method in doing so?"

"No, it's..." I groaned and rubbed my temple. "Never mind. Dinky, this is Midnight. Midnight, this is Dinky."

"Nice to meetcha!" Dinky said, grabbing Midnight's hoof with both of her own and shaking it. "Is Miss Twilight going to teach you magic too?"

"I had not thought of it," Midnight said. "However, I suppose there are definite benefits to learning magic from an alicorn who studied under Princess Celestia."

"Yay!" Dinky squeed. "This is gonna be rilly cool and stuff! We're gonna do lotsa awesome magic!"

"Yes, I'm sure we will," I said, a strained smile on my face. Teaching Dinky magic was one thing, but figuring out out where Midnight was in her magical education and trying to create a lesson plan on the fly to account for that would take time I'm not sure I wanted to spend. Besides, magic had advanced considerably in the nine hundred years since her time. There is no doubt that Midnight would still be an extremely powerful magus if she lived in the present day, but we'd spent hundreds of years building on magical theories put forward by both her and her mother.

Not to mention the fact that she'd been taught a lot of combat magic from an early age for her magus training. I could sling around an attack spell if I really needed to, but I didn't even come close to some of the stuff that Midnight and her mother could do. There just wasn't a need for that kind of thing in the present time. The magus corps throughout the years had done a pretty good job of getting rid of all of the really dangerous monsters out there.

Before we got started on all of that, though...

"If you two will excuse me for just a moment, I'll be right back."

I quickly trotted back to the kitchen, where Spike waited for me with a quill and ink. He was idly flipping through a comic book, but stopped when I walked in.

"So, Dinky's here," he said as he closed the comic book. "That's not gonna cause any problems, is it?"

"It shouldn't," I said. "Dinky's a good filly. She's smart, but I'm not sure if she would totally understand the situation. We just have to make sure that Midnight doesn't get out of the house and we'll be fine."

"She's probably not going to want to be stuck in the house the entire time she's here, Twilight," Spike observed. "She's not a prisoner, right?"

"Well no, but the fewer ponies who know about her the better. I know you haven't studied Midnight as extensively as I have, but you had a decent idea of who her mother was." I began pacing back and forth, trying to get my thoughts organized. I needed to approach this with as much logic as I could. "Midnight was the kind of pony who would do what her mother said, even when she wasn't sure about it. Especially at this age. If we ask her to do things that her mother wouldn't approve of, she might be stubborn about it."

"So I guess we gotta get Princess Celestia over here as soon as we can, right?"

"Right. So take a letter." I stopped pacing and cleared my throat as Spike picked up the quill. "'Dear Princess Celestia. I am writing to inform you that the anomaly you sensed in the Everfree Forest was, in fact, Midnight Sparkle. Somehow she has traveled forward nine hundred years to this time period. Given how you know Midnight well, I thought that you would be best suited for taking care of her. Let me know what you want to do. Your fellow princess, Twilight Sparkle.'"

After having Spike read over the letter a few times, he sent it off. Okay, that's one major thing out of the way. Now to take care of Midnight and Dinky. I left Spike to his comic book and went back to the main room of the library, where Midnight and Dinky were still talking. They stopped their conversation when I walked in.

"Hey, Miss Twilight!" Dinky said happily. "We were just talking about magic and stuff!"

"Indeed," Midnight replied. "I confess that I am confused by the decreasing quality of magical education. This filly has told me that she has not yet begun her combat training, nor is she particularly competent at basic levitation. She is rather far behind on her magus training, is she not?"

"Well, I'm not training her to be a magus," I admitted, sitting on the floor next to them. "She's just here to get the basics down."

"But thou art an alicorn. Would thy talents not be suited for magus training? I assume that thou hast at least an alpha ranking in magical skill."

"Alpha plus, actually, and that was before I became an alicorn," I admitted.

"And thou art not involved in the training of magi." Midnight gave me a blank look. "Thou art a princess and you are spending your time teaching mere levitation?"

I bit my tongue and had to remind myself that her words came from observing her mother's opinions. Based on what history remembers of Midnight Sparkle, a comment like that fit in more with Sunbeam. Although I imagined that Sunbeam would be ruder about it. Probably with a lot more disdain, too.

"Well, everypony learns at different speeds, Midnight. Besides, the Magus Corps has downsized considerably since your time. Even the ponies who are in it don't spend their whole lives training, for the most part. It's a choice they make when they're finished with school. It's..." I sighed. "Look, I'll explain later, okay? It's a lot of history to cover in a short time."

And I wasn't really sure of all I should tell her. I could be majorly changing the past here.

Stupid time travel.

Thankfully, Midnight nodded. "I suppose that makes sense. In the meantime, I am curious to see what kind of magic you have to teach."

"You're not gonna be disappointed!" Dinky said, latching onto one of my legs and nuzzling my shoulder. "Miss Twilight is the bestest magic teacher ever! I got lots better when she started teaching me!"

Midnight raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. "Why dost thou hug so much?"

"Hugs always make ponies feel better," Dinky said happily. "Don't you like it when your mommy hugs you?"

"My mother does not hug me."

Dinky gasped and brought her hooves up to her mouth. "Your mommy doesn't hug you? That's... that's the worst thing I've ever heard! Don't ya want her to?"

"I do not see the benefits."

"Hugs are the best!" Dinky removed herself from me and, before I could say anything to stop her, threw her hooves around Midnight and squeezed her into a tight hug.

"Dinky, I don't know if--"

"There ya go!" Dinky said, releasing Midnight. "Don't you feel a lot better now?"

Midnight, for her part, looked like she had no earthly idea of just what exactly had happened to her. She stared at Dinky for a few seconds, then looked over at me, then back to Dinky.

"No."

Dinky gasped again. "B-but hugs always make ponies feel better! That's what they do!"

"I fail to see how. Thou art merely participating in platonic physical contact. I confess I found it rather constricting."

"Maybe you just need another one," Dinky said, tapping her jaw in thought.

"Dinky, I--"

Once again Dinky pulled Midnight into a crushing hug. "Now you can hug me! Maybe that'll help." When Midnight didn't move, Dinky prodded her back. "Come on, Midnight! It's okay! Just hug me!"

I guess Midnight figured it was the only reason she could get this madpony off of her, as she slowly raised her hooves and returned the hug for a single second before quickly trying to pull away.

"A'kay, we'll need some practice," Dinky said, breaking away from the hug. "Do you feel better now?"

"No."

Dinky frowned in fillyish ponderance before looking back to me. "Miss Twilight, is it okay if we don't do magic today and try practicing hugs instead?"

"Thou wouldst make a sub-par magus," Midnight commented. "Neglecting studies for hugging practice is not a good use of time."

"I don't know about that. It's good to be happy!" Dinky insisted. "It's okay with me. I can always learn more magic later."

Before I could interject with my opinion, Spike ran into the room with a scroll in his hand. I quickly took it and broke the royal seal so I could read it. I scanned it quickly, and let out a relieved smile.

"Okay, that's good. That's really good." I rolled the scroll back up. "Alright then, Midnight. Princess Celestia is on her way."