The Incredibly Crazy Days of a Little Sparkle

by BronyWriter


Time Travel Theories, Troubling Tribulatione, and Terrible Treats

Princess Celestia arrived at the library a few hours after her letter did. I’d been waiting anxiously for her considering there were several questions on my mind that I really needed to ask her. Thankfully I could keep myself occupied with magic lessons with Dinky and Midnight, even if it was tricky when the both of them were at different levels in their education. Then there was the whole issue that I didn’t want to teach Midnight anything that might cause a time paradox. My report for Princess Celestia was going to be awkward enough as was without me having to explain how I might have broken the universe with casualty issues.

I barely gave Her Highness enough time to knock on the door before I opened it. “Princess Celestia! It’s great to see you. Please, come in.”

Princess Celestia beamed as she ducked her head to enter the library. “You really don’t have to call me princess anymore, Twilight. At least when we’re in private. You’re a princess too, you know.”

“I know, I know.” I took a deep breath to calm myself. “It’s just, you know, habit.”

“Being a few millenniums or so old, I think I understand about falling into habits,” she said, keeping up her smile. “Though you hardly demand your friends call you princess, and I would like for us to be able to act like friends when we aren’t at some public function.”

“Okay—Celestia,” I made myself say.

Celestia grinned as she leaned in her head to whisper conspiratorially. “And if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can even call me Tia.”

An awkward chuckle escaped me. “One step at a time.” Being that familiar with Her Highness was... I just wasn’t ready for that. It was already weird enough as it was. Becoming an alicorn had come with a lot of adjustments I still wasn’t used to yet.

Celestia nodded. “Of course, at your own pace. Though I don’t believe I came here for us to talk about what I’d like for you to call me.”

“No.” I shook my head. “There’s the little matter of my thirty times over great grandmother suddenly showing up in the Everfree Forest. Oh, and she’s only a filly. And she’s, um, how to put it...?”

“Different,” Celestia suggested helpfully.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “That’s probably the best word for it.”

“She was certainly one of the more unique ponies I’ve known.” Her gaze swept the library. “And where is she, by the way?”

“I’m having her and Dinky help Spike cook in the kitchen,” I told her. “That should be safe enough for them.”

Celestia nodded. “They should be fine.” She cast a privacy spell over the library, probably to make sure no curious fillies didn’t overhear something she shouldn’t. “I trust she’s alright?”

“As well as you could expect, given the circumstances,” I said. “Even if there have been a few hiccups from her adjusting to the present.”

Celestia smiled knowingly. “That much I can understand. Much has changed since she last walked the earth.”

I chuckled nervously and my ear twitched. “Yeah, and a lot of that she shouldn’t find out because if she does and brings that back to the past, what’s going to happen?”

I had to keep Midnight from reading nearly everything in the library. I hadn’t had the opportunity to confirm it yet, but I was pretty sure she had an eidetic memory. So her getting her hooves on any kind of science book was a bad idea for all the obvious reasons unless I wanted to risk all of history getting disrupted by technology from the eleventh century getting introduced in the second. Giving her a history book was every bit as bad. Even something as innocent as a Daring Do book could have all sort of consequences considering it could introduce ideas into her head that simply hadn’t existed during her time period. Ugh, her just being in the present was already doing that. I realized I had already introduced the idea that indoor plumbing would become commonplace, advancements in food production capacities, she was probably leaning all sorts of things just being in my kitchen with Spike, oh, and there was the teeny tiny little fact she had a descendant who was going to be an alicorn. Way to go, me. I was just asking to break space and time.

My breathing became a little more rapid and, despite myself, I began pacing. “Her telling Sunbeam that one of her descendants is going to become an alicorn is already a huge issue! And that’s only one issue that could come up!”

“I admit that it is a bit of a thorny issue,” Celestia said. “Sunbeam wouldn’t directly challenge me if I put my hoof down, but I’m certain you’ve read how she could be.”

I scoffed and emphatically nodded. “Yeah! That’s information she’d never forget or let go. Not to mention she’s the type to argue that ‘it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission’.”

Celestia sighed and nodded. “All too well. She was brilliant, but troublesome all the same at times.”

My pacing came to a half as another question came to me, something that had been nagging at me since Midnight had come to the present. “Wait, don’t you remember any of this? The history books still say Midnight did all the things she did, but they don't mention her time traveling. Though you would know if she got sent to the future by accident, and how she got back, right?”

Celestia’s smile became enigmatic in nature and she placed a hoof on my shoulder. “I’m sure everything will be fine, Twilight. Space and time are a bit more sturdy than some ponies give it credit for. We just need to concentrate on her immediate needs being taken care of, limit her exposure things she shouldn’t learn about, and work on getting her back home.”

I couldn’t help but frown as Celestia avoided directly answering my question. She had a tendency of doing that when certain questions came up. I wanted to find out how all this was supposed to go, assuming Celestia did know what was going to happen, which I’m pretty sure she did. The problem was that she wasn’t likely to answer unless I really pushed her. Worse still was that she might have very good reasons for not telling me the truth. Knowing how the future, or the past—time travel was starting to make which tense I should use very confusing—was supposed to go could taint my actions, which in turn could cause events to change. Which could cause history to change, and throw off how everything was to go, resulting in—

I shut down that train of thought before it lead me to crazytown. My previous experience with time travel and causation had ended with me getting stuck in a self-contained time loop where my attempts to warn myself not to worry had only caused me to go into a nervous breakdown as I thought the world was going to end. Best not to repeat that experience again.

That being the case, I locked away sanity-breaking theoreticals to concentrate on the much safer practicals. “So, do we have a way to send her back, then?”

“We do,” Celestia confirmed. “I’m having the magi pull out some materials from the Sealed Repository to help with this. It will take some time to review everything and put together a spell that will let us send Midnight back home.” A mischievous grin showed itself on Celestia’s face. “You could say that it’s all just a matter of time.”

Despite the fact it was my former teacher who said that, I couldn’t help but groan and facehoof. “Okay then, do you need any help with that? Not that I don’t mind the house guest, but it just strikes me as best to get Midnight where she needs to be. And I’m curious what sort of magic you’re planning on using.”

At least I could be helpful where it came to magic, and no small part of me was curious what they had dug up out of the Sealed Repository. That was where all the forbidden and heavily regulated spells, magical items, and similar materials went. Spells intended to send a pony back centuries in time would count. Time travel itself was a pretty heavily regulated school of magic given the potential risks involved in it. Sure, it was supposed to be extremely hard to change the past, but why take the chance? I shuddered to think what could happen if that type of power fell into the wrong hooves. Though this did make me wonder if all of this had been set up ahead of time. After all, Celestia had known exactly what materials to pull to send Midnight back, and if she had been around when Midnight had returned home...

Celestia shook her head. “I’m sure myself and the magi I’ve assigned to this task will suffice. Actually, I have a different, but no less important task I’d like you to do.”

My ears perked. “What did you have in mind?” I was disappointed I wouldn’t get to help with the magic end of things, but Celestia always had reasons for why she did things, however frustrating they might be sometimes.

“As you’ve noticed, Midnight can be very different from the average filly,” Celestia said. “Part of that is because she’s her own unique individual, another part because of the time she grew up in, and then...” A whisper of a frown showed itself on her face. “As is the case with all parents, her mother made her mistakes in raising Midnight. One of those errors was never really giving her child the opportunity to be a filly. That’s partially due to era she grew up in. The idea of having a time of innocence and just being a child is a slightly more modern invention.”

I nodded as I started to understand where she was going with this. “And you would like her to get some time as a normal little filly before we send her back?”

Celestia nodded. “Exactly. A few positive experiences as a child would do a lot to help her. Especially if she were to learn about friendship here, something she didn’t get to experience much during this time of her life.”

“Um.” I pressed my lips together as I thought of the best was to put my question. “Shouldn’t we worry about what we let her experience? Any experiences she has here could affect her outlook on life. It might change some of her decisions, maybe even change all of history considering how important she is. I know how much learning about friendship here in Ponyville fundamentally changed my life. The same could theoretically happen to her.”

“There are a couple of ways to look at that,” Celestia said. “First, near as we can tell history hasn’t been altered by her visit. Any changes that happened likely would have been instantaneous. What we have going on is most likely a stable time loop. Events are occurring in such a manner that they perpetuate one another. For the Midnight of the past all these events have already transpired, and thus helped created the present.”

That made a kind of sense. It was like my one experience with time travel. I’d ended up creating a series of events that with my time traveling that ended up causing me to go on a specific line of actions. If that was the case here then there wasn’t too much to worry about. What’s more, considering Celestia must know what happened here, then it was probably safe to say she knew the best course to follow. Theoretically any changes made by an occurance of time travel would instantaneously change the future. So any changes that would happen to the present have already occurred. I hoped.

“I think I’m following you,” I said. “What else?”

“My second point is this. Can you think of a reasonable scenario where history would be made the worse for her learning about friendship?” Celestia asked. “At the very least she should be made happier for it. Not to mention make the lives of those she befriends better.”

“That sounds like it makes sense.” I wasn’t completely sure about this idea, but Celestia usually knew what she was talking about.

Celestia beamed at me. “Besides, I can hardly think of a better pony to teach her about friendship than you.”

I guessed Princess Celestia had a point. As highly unorthodox as all of this was, I could see why she’d want Midnight to learn more about friendship. There were obvious benefits to one of the most magically powerful unicorns in history learning all about the magic of friendship, and if Celestia was right about this being a closed time loop, then after all of this was said and done, it would definitely be fascinating to go back and read Midnight’s memoirs and see some of the friendship lessons she learned in action! I could have a huge impact on the past, but in a positive way!

The loud caws of several ravens outside broke me out of my thoughts and made me flinch back. I glanced out one of the windows and grimaced at the sight of three of them perched on one of the branches.

“Was there ever a real consensus on why ravens followed her around everywhere?” I grumbled.

“I have a few theories on that, but nothing I could ever definitively prove,” Celestia admitted. “What you have here may very well be the descendants of the Great Unkindness that lives around her tomb. Ravens are highly intelligent creatures who do pass things down, so this particular unkindness would be drawn to her even here.”

“Oh that’s just great,” I snarked. “Absolutely wonderful. So my home is about to become the nesting ground for all of the ravens in Equestria. Should I start buying up all of the corn I can?”

“Well it might not be the worst idea,” Celestia mused. “It might be interesting to have Midnight interact with them.”

“I’ll add getting corn to the list of things to get later.” I rubbed the side of my head as I tried to focus my thoughts. There was a lot to absorb right then. “So that sounds like a plan. You can take care of arranging everything to get Midnight back home, and I’ll take care of her in the meantime.”

“That sounds reasonable to me,” Celestia said.

I smiled as the positives about this situation came to the forefront. “I do have a few lesson plans about friendship I wouldn’t mind giving a test run. This sounds like a perfect opportunity to try them out. I can give her a lecture on what friendship is, move onto lessons about how best to make friends, have her write a reports on the essentials of a healthy friendship, then—”

Celestia interrupted me as she raised a hoof to my mouth and cleared her throat. “If I may suggest an alternative idea? Considering Midnight shouldn’t be here for too long, it might be best if you put the time you’ve got to the best use. I’d suggest you let her try and make some friends, instead of spending all your time on lesson plans.”

“Oh.” My ears twitched as I thought it over. “That might be the most efficient method if we don’t have much time to work with.” My lesson plan was a ten week course. Considering we didn’t want Midnight to be here for three months, that might be a bit much upon reflection.

“Indeed, and in my experience hooves-on experience is the best for something like this,” Celestia said. “I seem to remember how a student of mine greatly benefitted from being sent off to make friends for herself instead of being given a point by point guide on how to do so.”

I chuckled awkwardly as the memories of meeting my friends for the first time trinkled through. “That is true. Though...” I frowned deeply as a problem started forming in my head.

Celestia’s head tilted slightly as she watched me. “What is it?”

“Thinking about when I came to Ponyville reminded me of a few things.” I grimaced. “And how I wanted to move here after I made so many wonderful friends. That... really isn’t an option for Midnight. Not if she’s going to be sent back to her time.”

Celestia’s ears wilted. “No, I’m afraid not.”

“It almost seems cruel to have her make friends, only to them separate them,” I told her.

Celestia turned so that she faced some photographs of me and my friends hanging on a nearby wall. “I can understand your fears. It can be hard to leave a friend. Especially when it might be forever. But ultimately that is a pain we all must learn to bear. Time, if nothing else, will eventually separate even the best of friends.” She turned to face me again. She still wore a smile, but it was tinged with sadness. “So I would ask this: is it better to have had a friend, but to lose them, or to never have had them to start with?”

“It’s better to have had the friend,” I said, even if I knew that answer to be problematic. “While the idea of losing any of my friends hurts, the idea of not having made friends with them to start with hurts even more. There’s so much I wouldn’t have experienced without my friends. So many great things memories I wouldn’t have now. Those experiences made me a better pony, who I am today.”

“Exactly.” Celestia wrapped a wing around me. “While we don’t like to think about it. The pain we feel from losing a friend shows how much they mean to us. Her learning how to make friends here will help her. In addition to the great memories she will be able to make in this time, she’ll gain experience at making friends and be able to carry on that experience to help her make yet more friends in her time.”

I took a deep breath and nodded. I still wasn’t used to making decisions like this—decisions that could shape the lives of ponies for the rest of their lives—but it was part of being a princess. This was something I needed to do. While I was making a huge decision for Midnight, I could do the best I could to make that decision the best for her wellbeing.

“I understand,” I told her. “And I do think it’s for the best.”

“Good to hear we can agree on this.” The corner of Celestia’s mouth turned up in a wry grin. “You weren’t thinking to adopting Midnight for yourself so she wouldn’t have to separate from her friends, were you? She has a way of growing on a pony, even if adopting your many times over great grandmother would be ... unconventional, to say the least.”

My eyes widened. “W-w-what?! I wasn’t thinking to do anything that’d massively change history! I mean, yes, I was thinking how best to manage the situation, but I was dismissing any of the crazier ideas!”

Celestia chuckled. “I’m kidding, Twilight.” She squeezed me with her wing. “I’ve been known for doing that from time to time.”

“Oh, right.” I chuckled nervously. “Just a joke.” Even if I was considering a few options to help with this problem facing us. But most of that was just theoretical at best at the moment.

Some of the mirth left Celestia’s features. “Though there is one last thing I wanted to bring up with you before I met Midnight again.”

My ears perked as I noted the shift in tone to something more serious. “What is it?”

“It’s about my sister,” Celestia told me. “She wants to meet with Midnight.”

My teeth clenched as all the implications of that settled on me. “Oh dear. That would be... um, awkward.” Considering Nightmare Moon had plotted Midnight’s birth so that she could serve as a vessel for her to possess and foster her escape from the moon, the two of them had history. And that history went on to affect Midnight for the rest of her life, and usually not for the better.

Celestia let out a long breath. “So it would be. But my sister sincerely wants to give Midnight an apology for everything, and it’s something I’m encouraging her to do. For her sake if nothing else. Her guilt for her actions as Nightmare Moon still haunts her.”

“And Midnight suddenly appearing in the present must have hit her hard,” I surmised.

Celestia’s gaze shifted to the floor. “So it has. But still, I think this is something she needs to do. Anything that helps her put the past to rest is good for her.”

“I can understand that.” I bit my lip as I considered the problem with that. “The problem with that is Midnight herself. To her Nightmare Moon is still, um...” I couldn’t think of a way to gently put ‘a monster’.

Celestia sighed. “That is the problem, yes. That’s why Luna isn’t here yet. I wanted to come here first to see exactly how Midnight is doing, and if possible, lay the groundwork for my sister to do a proper apology that Midnight will listen to.”

I ran a hoof through my mane. “Makes sense. That’s not something we should rush if we can help it.”

My old teacher shook her head. “No. This is something to be very carefully managed, and I wanted you to know what my sister and I were thinking about this, since this is very important to Luna.”

“Right.” This whole thing was getting more complicated by the minute. Though things getting continually more complicated was pretty much inevitable whenever time travel was involved. I was hopeful that it could all turn out alright in the end, but there were several tricky hurdles we were going to have to get over to make it work. Even if Celestia was right and we were in a closed time loop, I couldn’t just let Midnight run around and do whatever she wanted. A filly as curious and powerful as her could get into all kinds of trouble.

“Until then, I suppose we should see how she is getting along,” Celestia said, breaking me out of my musings. “I’m certain that Spike is doing what he can to keep control of her, but I think it will do her good to see a familiar face.”

“That’s true. We should let her know what the next steps are.”

The hardest part of that would definitely be broaching the topic of friendship lessons. As an idea it was a bit more abstract than Midnight might be used to, and certainly not something she would have studied in her lifetime. Tapping into the literal magic that friendship could create was still a new field. She wouldn’t have even thought of such a thing in her time. If nothing else, though, Celestia explaining it to her would help things along.

Thus the both of us headed to the kitchen. The aromas of baked goods hit my nostril as they waved from the oven. Thankfully everything seemed to be in order as Spike instructed Dinky and Midnight. Dinky was in the middle of putting some icing on a cookie when she spotted us.

Dinky gasped as she looked up and up at Celestia. “Miss Princess! I didn’t know you were here!”

“Your Highness.” Midnight bowed like a proper lady—something she had never done for me, an annoyed corner of my mind said. Not that I really wanted ponies to bow for me. It was just—gah, I really was off. I needed to get my head in the game.

My own existential crisis over being a princess aside, Midnight narrowed her eyes at Dinky as she remained bowed and then elbowed her in the ribs. Dinky frowned at Midnight before her eyes widened as she realized what Midnight was trying to tell her to do. “Oh right! Sorry, Miss Princess!” Dinky bowed for Celestia, if not with the practiced grace Midnight did.

Celestia chuckled. “It’s quite alright. I think we can dispense with some of the formalities when it’s just us.”

“Okay!” Dinky hopped back to her hooves and then tilted her head as she studied Celestia. “Can I ask you a question?”

“I don’t see why not,” Celestia said, always playing the role of benevolent mentor and ruler.

Dinky’s bright and hopeful smile widened. “Can I hug ya?”

Celestia lowered her head to whisper conspiratorially to Dinky. “A little hug shouldn’t hurt.”

“Yay!” Dinky ran over to Celestia to give her a big hug around the leg. She was too, um, dinky to reach anything else.

Celestia smiled as she wrapped a wing around Dinky. “Well aren’t you a really good hugger?”

“I have a lot of practice with Mommy, and Sparky, and Rainbow, and lots of other ponies.” Dinky nuzzled Celestia’s leg and let her go. “And now I’ve hugged a whole three princesses! Now I just need to hug Princess Luna and I’ll have hugged all of ya!”

Midnight glared and Dinky and scowled deeply. “Why would you want to hug the traitorous monster who tried to usurp the throne from her loving sister?”

Celestia stiffened and winced, one of the hooffull of times I’d ever seen her mask of serenity crack. Sweet, innocent little Dinky’s mouth hanged open at the sudden and harsh word directed at Luna. I moved in to do some damage control.

“Um, actually Luna isn’t evil anymore, Midnight.” I placed a hoof on her back. “A lot has changed since your time.”

Midnight narrowed her eyes at me. “Aye?”

Celestia nodded. “It’s as Twilight said. The madness that infected my sister is now gone, and now she rules Equestria alongside me, as it was always meant to be.”

“But—”

“I promise to you that everything is alright,” Celestia said, interrupting her before she could get any momentum for a protest. “In fact, she is very sorry for what she has done, and wishes to atone for her actions in the past. She would very much like to apologize to you personally.”

To my surprise, Midnight actually took a step closer to me, as though to hide behind my leg. She didn’t reply to Celestia, and instead focused her gaze on the floor.

Celestia took a deep breath. “I realize that seeing my sister won’t be easy for you.” She stepped closer to Midnight, and cupped her chin in her hoof so that the two of them would look at one another. “All I am asking is that you hear her out. Everything else after that is up to you.”

Midnight mumbled out an unenthusiastic, “Okay.”

“Think about it, okay?” Celestia released Midnight’s chin. “If you have any questions, feel free to ask Twilight. I’m sure she’ll give you good advice, whatever you want to talk about.”

Midnight’s gaze returned to the floor. “Okay...”

I grimaced and wrapped a protective wing around Midnight. This was the first time I’d really seen Midnight in a state of vulnerability since I’d met her. She was more composed being alone and confused in the Everfree Forest than she was right now talking about Luna. That was something I was going to need to work with her later. Though that was a topic I was going to have to bring up carefully. Little surprise when cultists working for Nightmare Moon had attempted to sacrifice her to power the Avatar so that she could take over Equestria. That was the type of thing that would have to stick with a filly like Midnight.

“It’s okay, Midnight,” I told her. “We can take this slowly.”

“Exactly. But for now, let's move onto something a bit happier to talk about.” Celestia looked Midnight over, the luster to her smile returning. “Now isn’t that a face I haven’t seen in a very long time?”

“A very long time if what Princess Twilight has told me is true.” Midnight glanced my way. “Is it true she is a true alicorn, and not an abomination?”

“I assure you, Twilight has earned her ascension and the crown she now wears.” Celestia smiled in my direction. “She has done much for the good of Equestria, and learned many valuable lessons about the Magic of Friendship and now seeks to spread what she has learned to the rest of Equestria.”

My cheeks flushed at the praise from my former mentor. “Just trying to do the right thing. Pri—Celestia.”

“Ah, that is good to hear,” Midnight said in her perpetual monotone. “I worried that Princess Twilight was an abomination who had used some dark and unholy ritual to give herself wings so that she could falsely claim herself to be royalty and start a dark reign where ponies would be enslaved and forced to toil endlessly under their evil tyrant. From there she would go on to raise the dead, summon foul beings from other dimensions, and invade neighboring realms to spread misery and death across all the world until all that is good in the world was extinguished.” She blinked owlishly. “Thankfully that is not the case.”

Dinky gasped. “But that’d all be really evil and super mean! Like Diamond Tiara times a million mean!”

I frowned at Midnight. “Now when have I done anything like that to make you think that was my goal?”

Midnight’s brow furrowed as she seriously thought over my question. “No small part of me worried I was being tricked into the service of a new and dark master and that a false front was being presented to me. Though I have to admit, the fact you live in a tree made me question that theory. Evil overlords do not live in trees that serve as public libraries. They are far too selfish to share their knowledge.”

Celestia covered her mouth as she chuckled. “Sorry, but this does bring back some old memories. It’s good to see my old—friend, that is.” She cleared her throat. “But yes, Midnight, I can assure you, evil is about one of the last words I would use to describe Twilight. In fact, I can hardly think of a better pony to take care of you while we work out the details of getting you back home to your time.”

Midnight tilted her head. “So you know of a means by which to return me from where I came?”

Celestia nodded. “We have. Though it’s probably going to take a few days for us to ready it, considering the complexity of the magics involved. But I have every confidence we’ll be returning you to your mother before long.”

“That is good to hear.” Midnight briefly glanced my way. “She will be most relieved to see me.” Her ears flattened and she gave Celestia a vulnerable, wide-eyed look. “Am I correct in assuming so?”

Celestia gave Midnight her motherly smile and gently placed a hoof on her shoulder. “I know that Sunbeam can be a little...” She paused for a moment. “Abrasive, but know this: she loves you, Midnight. She just... doesn’t know how to show it.”

“Perhaps,” Midnight muttered. “I fear that she will be quite wroth with me when I return to my own time.”

“If she is, it is only out of fear of losing you. I am certain that you recall her efforts to free you from the cultists during the Lunar Rebellion.”

“I do. How could I forget the night I was almost sacrificed to Nightmare Moon by having a dagger plunged into me, causing my lifesblood to pour from my chest all over the floor for the purpose of resurrecting a mad alicorn with the intent to take over the world and destroying all I knew and loved?”

Dinky gave Midnight a blank stare and tilted her head. “Uh... what does that mean?”

“Oh, that’s a story for another time!” I said quickly. “For right now, I think it’s time for some lunch, wouldn’t you all agree?”

Dinky instantly perked up. “Yeah! Me and Midnight were making muffins!” Dinky skipped into the kitchen and returned a few moments later with a tray of muffins shakily floating beside her. I lit my horn and took it from her so she wouldn’t drop it and examined the muffins more closely.

“Oh, um... These look...” I lifted up one of the burnt muffins and went a little green. “Wonderful.”

“I followed the recipe closely,” Midnight said, taking one for herself. “I hope you enjoy them.”

Right. Right. Just take a bite out of one. It’s not going to kill me.

Will it?

I closed my eyes and took a tiny bite of the muffin. I am happy to say that it didn’t actually kill me.

But it came pretty close.