The Ordinary Adventures of an Extraordinary Unicorn

by RoyalBardofCanterlot


Twily and the Best Foalsitter in the History of Foalsitters

Twilight frowned as she sat on the couch. The five year old didn't frown often, but this was a situation that definitely required frowning. Her mommy and daddy stood in the spacious living room, Daddy wearing a nice tuxedo and Mommy wearing a sparkling red dress. Beams of the late morning sun sparkled on her jewels and illuminated the living room. Twilight scooted into a sunspot on the brown upholstery. The sunlight felt warm and comfortable against her fur. She smiled as she nestled into it and then remembered she was supposed to be frowning. Maybe frowning wasn't enough. It clearly wasn't getting the desired effect. Just for a change she jutted her lips out in a sulk. She widened her eyes as if she were about to cry.

Then she remembered why she was pouting. Real tears came to her eyes. Mommy looked over, sighed, and trotted over. She leaned down and softly nuzzled Twilight. Twilight gave in and nuzzled her back. "Twily, it's not going to be so bad."

Twilight said nothing. Daddy joined Mommy, affectionately ruffling Twilight's mane. "C'mon, Sweetie. You know Shining can't foalsit you."

Twilight's lower lip began to tremble.

Daddy and Mommy sat on opposite sides of her. Mommy nuzzled her again. "Don't cry, please. We hired a very nice foalsitter."

Twilight sniffled. "She won't be Shiny."

Velvet stroked her mane. "Shining wanted to go to junior guard camp. He wants to get into the guard and he's preparing early. You want your brother to follow his dreams don't you?" She sighed. "I know it's hard, but he'll be back this evening. Then you two can play."

Twilight looked up at her mommy. "Can't I go with you two?"

Night Light shrugged. "Depends. Do you want to go to your mother's boss's birthday party?"

Twilight's ears perked up. "There'll be cake won't there!"

Velvet shook her head. "No, because my boss is on a diet."

Twilight's mouth opened and closed for a few seconds. "A birthday party...without cake?" The two ideas simply refused to compute in her admittedly brilliant mind. Birthday parties meant cake. Birthday parties always meant cake.

Night Light leaned back into the couch. "There won't be many other foals either. Mommy's boss doesn't like foals. No fun party games. Just lots and lots of adults trying to impress each other with useless trivia." He blinked. "Why am I going again?"

Velvet tweaked his ear with her magic. "Because I couldn't find a foalsitter for you."

"Ah. Wait, I don't need a foalsitter."

She gave him a flat look. "Last time I left you home alone you sprained your leg falling off a ladder."

He puffed his chest out. "I've been in wars, Mare. I can handle fixing a light bulb."

"The medical bill says you can't. Anyway, all the other teachers will have their spouses with them."

He lifted. "Ah, fine, I'll go with you."

Twilight frowned again, getting the distinct feeling that she'd been forgotten. She sniffled, bringing her parents' attention back to her. They both nuzzled her. Twilight couldn't help but enjoy the attention, a slight smile crossing her lips.

There was a knock on the door. Velvet rose to get it. "That should be her. Remember, Twily, she's a very good foalsitter. Only the best for you, Sweetie."

She crossed the living room and opened the door. A pink unicorn with a mane and tail in shades of pink, yellow and purple entered the room. Twilight's eyes widened when she saw the foalsitter's wings. They were magnificent even when resting at her sides. They were pink, the tips highlighted in purple.

Twilight bounced off the couch. "You're an alicorn!"

The foalsitter gave her a confused look, then glanced up at her horn. She gave another look to her wings. "My goodness, so I am!"

Twilight stared at her. She'd forgotten she was an alicorn? How?

A grin spread across the alicorn's face. "I'm just messing with you, Kiddo."

Twilight giggled. Velvet and Night Light smiled, Night Light walking from the couch to join his wife. "I knew you two would get along."

Cadence lowered herself so she was eye level with Twilight. "I'm Cadence. You're Twilight, right?"

Twilight nodded, her mind scrambling for something to say. She was terrible at talking to ponies, especially big ponies! "I like ladybugs!"

Cadence blinked, then put a hoof to her mouth while her sides shook. Twilight looked up at her in concern. "Are you okay?"

The fit passed. "Yes, Sweetie, I'm fine. So, you like ladybugs?"

Twilight enthusiastically nodded her head, sending her mane flying back and forth. "They're my third favorite insect right past centipedes and cicadas! And I only like cicadas because their wings make pretty music in the summer!"

Velvet and Night Light watched the scene, their faces showing their satisfaction that the foalsitter and their daughter had hit it off. Velvet cleared her throat. "We have to go. Twilight, be good for Cadence. Cadence, she likes peanut butter and jelly, give her a book if she gets bored, if she's finished all her books take her by the library or the park."

Cadence produced a pencil and notebook from her saddlebag, jotting everything Velvet said down. "Got it. Does she have any allergies? Anything I should know about?"

Velvet thought for a moment. "Hmm...look out for any magic surges. She bed surges sometimes."

Twilight's face turned crimson under her violet fur. "Mommy!"

"Oh, Sweetie, I have to tell her. ."

Cadence shrugged. "I used to bed surge when I first got the horn. Had to sleep with an inhibitor for the first few months."

Twilight's jaw dropped. Today was just full of surprises! "But you're a big pony!"

"I know, but I used to be a Pegasus. I didn't know how to control my magic and if I got slack about doing my meditations before bed whoosh, I'd wake up to everything in my bedroom flying around me." A despondent expression crossed her face. "Broke my favorite lamp that way."

Night Light gave Twilight a kiss. "See, you already have something to talk about. We have to go now. Love ya."

Velvet gave her a kiss too. "Okay. We love you, Twilight."

Twilight said goodbye as they trotted away.

Cadence glanced around the living room. "So, what do you want to do, Twilight?"

"Can you tell me how you became an Alicorn?"

Cadence sat down on the couch, motioning for Twilight to sit down next to her. "I come from a really far away place. That place went away a long time ago, but I was raised by Princess Celestia. One day when I was around thirteen-last year, in fact-me and Auntie Celestia went to investigate a mysterious incident. An entire village had started fighting. Ponies were attacking and hurting each other. Celestia realized it was a spell being cast by an evil witch. Well, we went to confront the witch. As we fought her, I felt some mysterious magic I had never felt before. It filled my heart. I couldn't explain it. As I drew on my Pegasus magic to defeat the witch I felt that magic rushing through me. It was the magic of love. Somehow, I knew the spell to release the power of love. Not only did my love spell break the witch's hate spell and return peace to the village, it also turned the witch's heart. She became a good pony, one full of kindness and joy. After that I grew a horn and Earth Pony strength, becoming an Alicorn."

Twilight was spellbound herself as she listened to the story. "How'd you do it?"

"When a Pony reaches the highest level of their tribal magic, they can become an Alicorn. I had managed to take my Pegasus magic to its highest level and I used it to create a love spell, something no Pegasus before me had ever done. There are many Alicorns Twilight, but only two currently live in Equestria."

Twilight bounced up and down. "Cool! Could I become an Alicorn too?"

Cadence stroked her mane. "You can become anything you want to be, including an Alicorn."

Twilight hopped off the couch. "I'm going to go see of any of my books have anything about Alicorns!" She rushed up the stairs, heading towards her bedroom. She rushed back down, carrying a book on her back that was nearly bigger than she was. Cadence flew over and scooped her up in one foreleg, taking the book in the other. "We wouldn't want you to fall now would we?"

Twilight shook her head. "So, about the bedsurging..." She trailed off, nervously pawing at the carpet. "It stopped eventually, right?"

"It sure did. Like your mommy said, it's nothing to be embarrassed about. As you get older, you will get more control over your magic and it'll stop. In fact, bed surging means you have more magic than your little body can handle. When you grow up, you're going to be a very strong Unicorn."

Twilight blushed, her ears folding back. "Really? You think so?"

"I do." She laid the book on the coffee table. It was a heavy, faux leather bound volume that must have run above one thousand pages. Imprinted in golden letters was its title, The Encyclopedia Equestriananica. Cadence blinked. "Wow! That's a big pony book! Do you need my help to sound out any of the words?"

Twilight, with a practiced motion, scooped the book onto the cushion next to her. "No, thanks, I'm good."

Cadence sat down on the far cushion and watched as the first grade filly flipped through articles that many college graduates found confusing. Her parents said she was smart, but there's no way she can be understanding all of that! Maybe she just likes the pictures.

She laid a hoof on the page Twilight was flipping through, deciding to test her. "So, Twilight, what do you think of Existentialism?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "The pro-pro-the thought that the universe is entirely meaningless is contradicted by the fact that the universe is orderly. Clearly, order points to a higher intelligence or intelligences ordering the Cosmos. Whether that is a literal god or not is entirely up to conjecture, but life clearly has meaning."

Cadence's jaw dropped. While Twilight had oversimplified existentialism to an extreme degree, she clearly had a basic grasp of it. "How old are you again?"

"I'm five."

Cadence decided to give her another test, flipping through the encyclopedia again, ignoring the annoyed huff from her charge. She went to mathematics. "Give me an example of a Fibonacci number."

"Eight! You get that by adding three and five, the two numbers that come before it in the sequence!" Her tail started wagging. "Ooh, are we playing school? I love that game!"

"Sure." Cadence quizzed her on the math articles, the science articles, the history articles. While she faltered just a bit on history, her grasp on math and science were solid with only a few blind spots in her knowledge. Finally, Twilight tired of the game when Cadence reminded her that she had wanted to look up Alicorns.

The filly practically devoured the article, reading about the legends of the first Alicorns, their relationships with other mystical beings, significant Alicorns who had gone onto the Spirit Plains and other tidbits about Alicorn lore. An hour had gone by and Twilight still had her muzzle in the book.

Cadence had decided to make herself a sandwich as she watched her charge quietly read. She wished all of her little charges could be so quiet.

Twilight looked up from her book. "Cadence?"

Cadence swallowed a piece of her sandwich. "Yes?"

Twilight set the book back on the coffee table. "Can we go to the park? I wanna see if I can find any ladybugs!"

Cadence set aside the plate. "Of course! Let me just wash this plate."
...
It was a sunny day with bright, puffy white clouds filling the sky. The long grass of the park felt good against Cadence's hooves. She stretched her back, spreading her wings so that they caught the relaxing feel of the air currents. For a few seconds she closed her eyes, relishing in the feel of the breeze tickling each feather. She opened her eyes. Twilight was still staring intently at a ladybug crawling up the rough bark of a hickory tree.

Every time she found a ladybug-or any other insect for that matter-her face would break out into the most adorable grin. Her enthusiasm, her sheer joy for life was infectious. Cadence found herself looking around at the park, watching as stallions and mares walked or jogged, foals laughed and played, orange and yellow butterflies floated on the breeze.

The grass of the park was littered with fallen leaves in Autumn shades of yellows, and oranges and reds. The brilliant, fiery colors of the leaves still on the trees this October Saturday stood out against the azure sky. Cadence glanced to the grass beneath her hooves. As she watched, a world unfolded. Worms wriggled in the dirt. Grasshoppers and crickets leapt from one blade of grass to another. And there were some of Twilight's favorite insects, ladybugs.

The world really was beautiful. It was a small wonder Twilight took such joy in it. To her, the entire world was fresh and new. Cadence was shocked from her musings by a bright flash of light. She spun around.

Twilight was gone. Cadence looked around, but the filly was nowhere to be seen. She ran though she wasn't sure where she was running. "Twilight! Twilight, where are you! Twilight!"

Her heart was pounding. Her breath was coming out in shorter and shorter bursts. "Damn it! Why did I take my eyes off of her? What is wrong with me! Twilight, please answer! I'll take you to get ice cream if you answer me right now!"

She pricked up her ears, focusing. Finally, she heard the most plaintive wailing. She launched into the air, wings spread to their fullest extent. She soared past the park and stopped at a restaurant just outside of it. Twilight was curled up in a ball, crying her eyes out. Cadence gave thanks to her Pegasus ancestors for her sharp hearing and landed on the roof. Twilight threw herself into Cadence's chest, embracing her. "I didn't mean to! I-I wanted t-to follow the l-ladybug and-"

Cadence wrapped a wing around her, softly cooing. "It's okay. You had a magic surge and teleported right?"

Twilight sniffled. "I just thought about it and...suddenly I was here!"

Cadence kept her wrapped tightly in her wing. "Okay. It's okay. I'll just fly you back to the park."

Twilight's eyes widened in panic. She stepped back a few paces. "F-fly me?"

Cadence nodded. "Right." She lowered her back. "Just hop on."

Twilight shook her head. "Can you carry me in your magic?"

Cadence bit her lip. "Twilight, I'm not that comfortable with my magic. The last thing I want to do is drop you."

"But what if I fall off your back?"

Cadence lowered herself, looked into Twilight's frightened eyes. "Twilight. I won't let you fall."

Twilight gulped.

"Twilight, you're going to have to trust me if you won't to get off this roof."

Twilight sniffled. Cadence softly nuzzled her. "C'mon, Twily. Just hop on."

Slowly, Twilight climbed onto her back and wrapped both forelegs around Cadence's neck.

Cadence winced. "Not so hard, please."

Twilight loosened her grip, but continued holding on. "After this, I'm going to teach you how to use levitation."

Cadence giggled. "I'll look forward to it."

She spread her wings and soared from the rooftop. Twilight screamed and buried her face in Cadence's mane.

Cadence landed on the cobblestone street and Twilight hopped off her back. Cadence reassured her with a hug. Twilight returned the hug, burying herself in Cadence's chest. Cadence rubbed her back until she calmed down. She wanted to make the still shook up filly smile again. An errant thought entered her mind. "You know, this little adventure made me think of a song."

Twilight looked up, her eyes still red from crying. "A song?"

"And a dance. Look, I'll show you."

She crouched down low. "Sunshine, sunshine..." She uncovered her eyes and hopped up. "Ladybugs awake!" She clapped her hooves. "Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

She wiggled her rump, eliciting laughter from Twilight. Twilight joined her in the chant and the dance and they did it several more times before Cadence took her for ice cream.

It was a happy day after all.