Letters From a Little Princess Monster
New Life, New Lives, New Friends - Part One
Summer was over.
Winter was coming.
But between those two wonderful seasons, came the most terrific season of all.
School!
Monster fairly jittered with happiness, and barely could even think of her life a few months ago when she had been reborn
with wings and horn
into this town
where… Something with a crown, maybe.
Every morning she would prance down the stairs of her house, make breakfast for her mother and her spouse, then gleefully scoot for her friends ‘Bloom and Scoot, so they could all travel together in any kind of weather to arrive early at school, because that was the rule.
“Sometimes I really don’t like being your friend,” said Scootaloo with a yawn. Her feathers were ruffled and her mane still tied in knots while the three of them sat on the steps of the Ponyville schoolhouse and watched the sun rise. “It’s at least an hour before school starts, Twilight.”
“It’ll take you at least an hour to get your homework done, Scoots.” Apple Bloom plunked the uncompleted math assignment down on the smooth boards of the front steps and produced a pencil. “It’s not that bad. We’ll help.”
Monster nodded. It was agonizingly difficult to keep from filling in the answers for Scootaloo as she worked through her math, but the practice gave her math-muscles strength, just like the flying exercises she had been doing were building Scootaloo’s weak wing-muscles. That is her specific wing-muscles involved with level flight. The Sonic Rainboom from last week had shown the little pegasus could fly, but only for a short period, and the day after the event she had been almost bedridden with sore muscles.
Monster charted her friend’s painful muscles, of course, and came up with a strange answer: Scootaloo’s scooter was keeping her groundbound.
The powerful flaps she used to drive the scooter as such a high rate of speed forced her flight vector in the direction of her hooves instead of up. The muscles she used for regular flight were only used during scooter braking, which was fairly rare.
After completing her biophysical study and turning her paper into Miss Cheerilee as extra credit, Monster was overjoyed to receive an A+ on it with only a few minor spelling issues and one math error to correct.
“When you are done with your homework,” said Monster carefully, “we can practice wakeboarding. Tug of war?”
“Yeah!” declared Scootaloo, heading into her math homework with renewed vigor.
“Provided you get all of your answers correct,” said Sweetie Belle, who had arrived while they were talking. She yawned and sat down on the school front steps. “Are you all excited about our school trip to Canterlot after the weekend, Twilight?”
“It’s just another boring school trip,” said Scootaloo, raising her head from her homework. “We look at all the statues, listen to the teacher, go through the boooring museum, and come home, just like the last time we went to Canterlot.”
Monster trembled. “The last t-time I was in Canterlot—” She swallowed and hunched her shoulders, but Sweetie Belle was right next to her in a moment.
“I know,” she murmured, rubbing her neck up against Monster with the dragon’s egg in her bit purse making an awkward lump between them. “I’m going to be staying the night there, since my admission test for Celestia’s school is that evening. Mom says I’m too late for this year, but I could get in next year’s class.”
Scootaloo spit out the pencil. “My parents are coming to Summer Wrap-Up tomorrow. My aunts say they’re probably not going to take me back to Cloudsdale, but I don’t know.”
Apple Bloom reached out and pulled them all into a hug. “We’re all together in this. Cutie Mark Crusaders forever!”
“Even after we got our cutie marks,” said Scootaloo. “As long as I’ve got you girls—”
“And Featherweight,” added Monster.
“—I don’t have anything to worry about my parents taking me back to Cloudsdale.”
“Or me going to school in Canterlot and hatching a dragon’s egg and destroying the city,” said Sweetie Belle.
“Same,” said Monster. She held a hoof out from the hug and waved it, frowning in concentration as she tried to make sense of the invisible threads of fate streaming by in knots and tangles. “Summer Wrap-Up first,” she declared. “Talk to Trixie’s parents. Maybe they can help.”
* * ✹ * *
“What do you mean, you invited my parents to the Summer Wrap-Up Celebration?”
Trixie looked out the Town Hall window at the tents and exhibits being put together for tomorrow’s festival, then back down at the cringing little alicorn. Trixie had to keep reminding herself that Twilight Sparkle was both Trixie’s physical age and the Crusader’s apparent age, and that her first ‘S’ instincts — screaming, shouting, and stomping — would not be productive, and might even make Twilight regress from some of the amazing development she had managed over the last few months.
After taking a deep breath, Trixie extended and retracted one foreleg at the precise angle Cadence had taught her while being aware of Twilight Sparkle doing exactly the same thing. Several repetitions later, Trixie reached out with her magic and picked up the unexpected letter.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
We would be overjoyed to attend Ponyville’s festival this year, and to catch up with our daughter. Thank you for offering this invitation, and we look forward to meeting you. I’m sure she’ll be excited by the surprise.
Sincerely,
Mirabelle and Skyflash Lulamoon
P.S. We will be bringing along Grand-père Presto. It’s a rather complicated subject, and I think it best if we explain when we get there.
“They’re bringing Papi?” she said in nearly a whisper.
Twilight nodded, her big violet eyes starting to well with tears. “Should I have kept it a surprise?”
“No,” said Trixie almost immediately. “You did well. As temporary Mayor of Ponyville, I should be aware of important visitors.” Trixie smiled, or at least lifted her lips away from each other so her teeth showed. “Any other visitors I should know about?”
Craning her neck to see over the edge of the desk, Twilight rummaged around in the pile of letters that had shown up in the mail today. “Princess Luna with escort,” she said, floating the letter over to Trixie. “Princess Celestia with escort. Scoots’ parents. Not Cadence or my parents. They’re in Canterlot.” Twilight swallowed, and Trixie could see the tense cords in her neck. “Meet during school trip.”
“That’s… very strong of you, Menace.” Trixie took a deep breath, and her smile firmed out into something that would not scare foals. “If you can face your parents, I can face mine.”
“Someone else is coming.” Twilight made a motion as if she were pulling cobwebs away from her face. “Someone important.”
“Well, if both princesses are coming, maybe it’s one of their escorts.” Trixie looked over the announcement from Celestia with a growing smile. Then she looked over the announcement from Luna while that smile slowly turned into a look of uncertainty. “Oh, buck. They’re both being escorted by Big Mac?”
“Not it.” Twilight quit squinting and shook her head with her short mane flying in all directions. “Can’t see.”
“That’s fine, Menace.” Trixie ran a hoof down Twilight’s ruffled mane several times until the little alicorn calmed down. “Tell you what. Nearly all of the preparations for Summer Wrap-Up are being taken care of by the mayor’s staff, so I really don’t have much to do.”
Other than make Big Mac’s funeral arrangements.
“Other than signing those expense vouchers!” called out Pokey Pierce from the side room where he was coordinating booth reservations for the festival.
“And that,” admitted Trixie. “Since you think somepony important is coming tomorrow, I’ll cook them a special dish. How do you like gumbo?”
~ ~ ☽ ~ ~
“Ah thought we was going to build a catty-pult for the Summer Wrap-Up fireworks tomorrow night,” complained Apple Bloom. The emergency evening meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders was being held in the clubhouse, but most of the space for the meeting was being taken up by a large pile of construction materials. “We got all the nails and lumber and everything.”
Monster tapped the long list of ingredients that Trixie had given her.
“I’m not sure cooking is a good idea,” said Sweetie Belle. “After all, Red Splasher said I need to give the fire department three days notice before I’m permitted to even boil water.”
“Some of these ingredenties look kinda fancy,” said Apple Bloom.
“Diamond Tiara’s cook has some of that,” said Scootaloo, pointing at the list. “And some of that. And those. It’ll be easy-peasy to get everything for Trixie and still make our awesome catapult.”
“Why can’t Trixie just have my cook make what she wants?” asked Diamond Tiara, who looked terribly out of place in the cramped clubhouse, but not quite as uncomfortable as Silver Spoon, who had not said a word during the meeting.
“Trixie wants to cook tomorrow,” said Monster. She fumbled for words, which the rest of the young ponies in the clubhouse allowed until she managed to blurt out, “Needs to cook.”
Diamond Tiara frowned. “Does this have anything to do with the zebra mumbo-jumbo you did on that letter?”
Monster nodded, then after some time to think, shook her head. “Don’t know. Tomorrow. We’ll know then.”
~ ~ ☽ ~ ~
“Summer Wrap-Up, Summer Wrap-Up. Goodbye to skies so clear. Summer Wrap-Up, Summer Wrap-up. ‘cause tomorrow Fall is here!” The eternally perky guard was singing under his breath while he followed Filigree’s waddling path back into the Vanhoover apartment, leaving the pregnant mare to stop him at the doorway with one upraised hoof.
“Look, Lieutenant Sentry. I agreed to let you sleep on the couch so you’re not standing outside the door every night, scaring the neighbors and the landlord. I agreed to let you walk around with me when I went to my job interviews instead of you sneaking through the bushes because you are the worst sneaky observer. I’m willing to keep this up forever rather than read those stupid letters you’re dragging around from…”
“Twilight Sparkle,” said Flash Sentry.
“Yeah, that fictional nut,” muttered Filigree. “Anyway, unless you quit singing, I’m prepared to kick you back out into the hallway, and you can make your own dinners.”
“Aww.” Flash heaved a sigh. “I suppose. It’s just I was supposed to spend Summer Wrap-Up with my cousins in Ponyville this year. Best fireworks in the valley, and Sapphire Shores is supposed to sing.”
Filigree fixed the pegasus courier with a firm stare.
Flash Sentry rolled his eyes and gave in. “All right. I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal about reading the letters anyway. What did Filthy Rich ever do to you anyway?”
Filigree froze. “When did I mention Filthy Rich?”
“You didn’t.” Flash Sentry gave the pregnant mare a sideways look, as if he were connecting dots on a particularly difficult foal puzzle. “I mean everypony in town knows about Filthy Rich and his daughter. And if you’re Diamond Tiara’s mother, that means you and Filthy had… Well, I’m not supposed to talk about things outside of the courier job, Ma’am. Sorry about that. I’ll just go take my shower while you’re working on dinner.”
Filigree took long, steady steps back out to the apartment kitchenette and busied herself with preparations for dinner, but her mind was a thousand trots away. The irritating courier went off to do his bathroom activities while she was busy, but he left his saddlebags behind, and her eyes kept tracking over to the innocuous things.
“They’re just letters,” she murmured while tossing the salad and arranging the dressing. “Stupid letters from another time when I could have been in his life. My daughter couldn’t have—”
She bolted in an awkward waddle out of the kitchen, leaving the salad tongs in the bowl. It only took a moment to take the two letters out of Lieutenant Sentry’s saddlebags, and she looked back and forth between the crisp library card and the smaller wedding announcement. With hesitant hooves, she opened the larger card first, breaking the seal and unfolding…
A blank sheet of paper.
It had to be some sort of a cruel joke, but the longer she held the paper, the more Filigree could feel the darkness closing in around her, the scent of a dirty alley, and…
She was crouched in a pile of cardboard boxes when a young pegasus, looking almost black in the night, came hobbling out in the direction of a large metal trash dumpster. She was carrying a battered ‘Pony-A-Go’ scooter, practically dragging it in her teeth while tears poured down her cheeks until she made it to the dumpster, and with one convulsive heave, tossed it inside.
It landed with a clang, which made Filigree jump, but just a little. She was more startled that she was not in her older pregnant body, but actually in the body of a young pegasus about the size of the crying pony who burst out of the alley and sprinted away. Filigree picked her way out of the crumpled boxes and began to run with long, secure strides, the faint flicker of light from her horn guiding the way to…
Scoots. That was the name of the little pony she was chasing. She could remember the way another young pony, looking so much like Filigree, had shamed and mocked her into tears while Filigree… No, Monster had crouched in the shadows, afraid to interfere.
They galloped onward, out of the small town and into the dawning light with neither of the pegasi, the pursued or the pursuer, taking to the air. Powerful sinews coiled beneath her coat, driven by muscles that could have cracked open stones or carried her at this breakneck pace for days without tiring. It should have been exhilarating, but the terrifying images in her mind flickered across her vision like a kaleidoscope, making her heart hammer and her throat choke up around her windpipe. Images of flames sheeting down across Canterlot, a bubble of pinkish light trapping her in a hellish environment of flying trees and melting stones, a pelting dash through a dark forest, the shape of a dark alicorn made of smoke lashing out with her magic again and again until her leg shattered and she crumpled in agony.
And through the darkness and pain, she could see Scoots and the rest of her friends. Bursting through the broken doorway to console her even while Nightmare Moon gloated above them all. Giving up their own magic to power the Elements of Harmony, despite the lethal danger. Being there for her when she needed them most.
When she became Twilight Sparkle and saved Princess Luna.
The little crippled pegasus began to climb the jagged rocks of Ghastly Gorge with Twilight right behind her, unable to overcome her fear enough to call out to her, but unable to let her down when she needed her own friend the most. Although Twilight scrabbled up the sharp ascent as fast as she could, nicking her coat and chipping hooves, Scoots managed to stay ahead, lunging into her climb with every bit of her energy. There was only one reason Scoots would be climbing this high, and since she could not fly, she was going to—
The glitter of a wing brace spinning out into the vast emptiness made Twilight’s heart nearly stop and made her redouble her efforts to climb. A second wing brace met its end soon after, followed by the heartbreaking flutter of a set of youth saddlebags. She was so close, so near to being able to save her friend.
“No, scoots!” she called out, scrambling up the last step, then launching herself forward with the flicker of a tail just out of biting range. She skidded across the gravelly stone and looked down before grabbing the vanishing tail with her magic and staring down into infinity with the rain of small pebbles falling and shifting under her chest and knowing that she was going to fall too and wind up—
“Miss Filigree!” The soggy courier dashed out of the bathroom, leaving a wet trail across her apartment carpet from his interrupted shower. “Are you all right? Why did you scream? Are you in labor? Should I boil some water?”
“No,” Filigree managed to gasp in her dwindling panic. She swallowed and let the blank sheet of paper flutter out of her hooves. “Sorry. Had to read it. What in Niflheim did I just read!”
“I don’t know,” said Flash, wide eyed and still dripping. “Are you going to be all right?”
It took several breaths and a quick check of her parts for Filigree to remember she no longer had a horn or wings…
Wait. Horn and wings? She could still feel the useless weight of heavy wings on her young barrel, and the sweet sensation of magic flowing into her horn, so whatever memory she had been forced into was… an alicorn? That was impossible. There were only three alicorns in Equestria, and Twilight Sparkle…
Was a fourth.
“Give me the other letter.” Filigree fixed the Royal Courier with the best stern look she could manage at the moment, and carefully opened the envelope after he passed it over.
“You are cordially invited to the wedding of Filthy Rich and Spoiled…”
The interior of the apartment faded away, replaced by what seemed to be a private corner during a party of some sort, with the thumping of music in the background and bits of confetti scattered around. Directly in front of her was the image of a young mare who looked so familiar that Filigree thought for an instant that she was looking into a mirror.
“Hello, Mother,” said the image. “You don’t know me, I suppose. My name is Diamond Tiara, and— Oh, Twilight. This won’t work.” The scenery behind her shifted, and another young pony appeared, only this was a unicorn who had obviously been dyed a pale, nearly wisteria purple shade across her coat and short mane.
“Yes, it will,” said the second pony. “Your mother will see it. I promise. Friends don’t lie.”
Taking a deep breath, the first pony moved back into view, although she was nibbling on her bottom lip the same way Filigree did during stressful times. “Daddy’s getting married,” she blurted out. “I know you two fought, and that you didn’t want me, but I thought… maybe you two could… talk or something. I don’t know. Just… come before Daddy gets married if you want. At least I can introduce my new Mommy to you. If you can’t afford the train tickets, Twilight says the couriers will pay. And if you don’t show…” Diamond Tiara looked down, away from her mother’s eyes, and took a shuddering breath. “I’ll know you really didn’t want me in the first place.”
The image slowly faded, patterned with drops of tears as Filigree could not hold back her emotions. She put the letter to one side and concentrated on breathing until she could speak again.
“Thank you,” she breathed. “Thank you, Lieutenant Sentry.”
“Um. For what?” The damp pegasus looked back and forth between the letters and the crying mare. “All you did was look at the papers.”
“More than just paper.” Filigree took a deep breath and looked up at the courier. “Look, you’re an idiot, but after all I’ve put you through, you deserve an explanation, at the least.”
The courier waved one damp hoof and shook his head. “Sorry, Ma’am. We’re not supposed to—”
“Filthy Rich and I were in love back in business school,” said Filigree, despite Lieutenant Sentry’s protestations. “He was so focused on his studies and determined to make it in business that we barely had time for each other, let alone foals. When I became pregnant, I… panicked. I knew he was going to be furious. I ran away. Had the foal and gave her up for adoption. I wanted to go back, I tried to go back, but I knew I could never look him in the face after that, so I kept running. Wound up in the manebrush business under a different name. Worked my way up in the company, slept around.”
She caressed her wide barrel. “Quarterly staff meetings are open bar. I’ve got no idea who the father is for this one, and I’m sure he doesn’t know either. I never dreamed that Richie would be able to track down our child and adopt her. I thought I had hurt him so much, betrayed his trust in so many ways, only to find out how foolish I’ve been and how much I missed by not telling him.”
Flash Sentry craned his neck to read the words off the wedding announcement. “The wedding’s tomorrow.”
“Richie and I talked about a Summer Wrap-Up wedding once he had graduated and gotten established in business,” said Filigree. “Foals would have been next on the list, but the more I consider it, the more I think we would have just kept pushing on the business.”
“Yeah.” Flash eyed her expanded belly. “You’re not seriously thinking about—”
“Yes.” Filigree stood up and got the paper off the table. “The train schedule has a morning train with a stop at Ponyville. Get us two tickets.”
“So… I’m going with you?” asked Flash.
“I’m delivering my response to my daughter’s letters personally,” said Filigree while fighting an urge to nibble on her bottom lip. “You’ll get to visit with your cousins, and I’ll…”
She stopped, taking several deep breaths before continuing. “I’ll meet my daughter.”