//------------------------------// // Family Visit // Story: A Queen's Perspective - Rainbow Rocks // by gerandakis //------------------------------// As the ethereal queen above their heads dissolved into a glowing mist that quickly dissipated, the only lights illuminating the scene were, once more, those up on the stage, casting light on the three girls who now fell to their knees looking down at the shattered remains of their pendants. Floating down from their position in midair, the Rainbooms landed just behind the fence that separated the crowd from the hill they had positioned themselves on. Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie and Sunset landed, the crowd parting for them, while Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy remained flying overhead, the soft buzz and whooshing of their wings the only noise heard over the almost eerie silence that had fallen now that the song had ended. The sirens, noting their approach, scrambled to pick up some of the fragments of the gems at their feet and attempted to sing. The result was not what they expected, clearly the same song as before, but without harmony, completely out of tune and off key. It only took a few seconds before the booing crowd drove them off the stage. Those among the Rainbooms that were walking got up onto the stage with some help from the crowd. The others simply landed, seconds later their, Transformations reverted. Ignoring that, Sunset picked up one of the larger crystal shards. "That's why these were so important to them." "Without those pendants and the magic you brought here from Equestria, they're just three harmless teenage girls." Twilight agreed. Any further attempts a conversation were drowned out in the cheers of the crowd. Some time after, the girls sat at the edge of the stage while the crowds dispersed. "You know what to do about them, don't you?" Twilight asked The others gave questioning glances, only Sunset understanding what she meant. "'Responsible for the lives you save', I remember. I'll make sure they get the same chance I got." "Good, you can contact me with the journal. Tell me how they're doing, I might have something for them, the next time I come here." She turned around and scooped up as many of the scattered shards behind them in her psychic hold as she could. "You thinkin' bout givin’ them their powers back?" Applejack asked with concern. "Not exactly." Twilight replied cryptically. "Now unless one of you wants to host another slumber party, I'll sleep back in Stripped Gear, we can catch up properly tomorrow. Good night girls." The next morning, Sunset was leading the other five to the portal. It was five minutes before ten in the morning, but since it was a Saturday, the girls had no school to worry about. They had decided to come a few minutes early, just in case Twilight was more than punctual. They happily chatted as the minutes ticked away. Finally, at exactly 10am, not really surprising anyone, the portal began glowing and a second later Twilight once more emerged out from the seemingly solid stone. Her practice from her recent passages through the portal allowed her to remain standing, only wobbling slightly. After hugging each of the girls in turn. Twilight focused her mind. Her lover quickly answered. Almost immediately, the portal wavered again and only a short moment later another girl emerged. To the others the girl looked like Twilight, except she seemed to be about the age of the CMC, the only feature that broke up that image was her rather messy hair, not unlike Vinyl's hairdo, as opposed to Twilight's immaculate style. Unsurprisingly the young girl fell to all fours the moment she emerged from the portal, but Twilight stood ready to help her up, quickly gifting her the knowledge for bipedal locomotion and the use of hands. After she had ushered her over to clear the way from the portal, she gave ratchet a quick ping, signaling him to send the next. The process repeated for three more girls looking almost the same except for differences in hairstyle. The second of the four had hair kept just as well as Twilight's own, only shorter. The third and fourth both sported the same haircut, having long hair hanging off of them only on one side, only the third had it hanging on her left, and the fourth on her right. Finally, a boy emerged from the portal, looking to be about their age and bearing gray skin and and orange hair in a short, utilitarian hairdo complimented by simple clothing and a toolbelt with various wrenches and other tools, some of which had strange crystal structures on them, looking completely alien to the CHS students. Rarity stepped up to him, appraising him with a schooled eye, after he managed to stand on two legs he looked at her and after only a second or two seemingly made the connection. "Miss Rarity, I presume?" As Rarity gave a pleased smile and nod, Twilight barely managed to suppress a giggle. Ratchet gave no outward indication of the conversation. Twilight rolled her eyes, noticing she had neglected to mention that and quickly granted all five of them her knowledge of the terminology used in this world. Turning to the girls she spoke up. "I've already told you about Ratchet, and these are Aegis, Intel, Ferrum and Riposte, my first clutch." As she introduced them, she pointed at each of them in turn. It took a few minutes to get introductions over with, but then the group of now twelve began making their way towards the city center. As it turns out, the booths at sugarcube corner really were never designed with twelve people in mind. Even with four of them still being children, it was still stretched to its limits. With some generous help from Pinkie, Ratchet and Twilight, the kids picked out their drinks and conversation started. "So, how old are you four?" Fluttershy asked curiously. "Were two, well slightly older technically, but that hardly matters." Intel answered nonchalantly leading to a round of stunned looks around the table and a soft chuckle from Twilight and Ratchet, who were sitting right next to each other. They were still trying to get the hang of physical closeness in these strange bipedal bodies but they did a fairly good job. "Two years?!" Rarity exclaimed so loudly that she would likely have attracted curious glances from other patrons, had they not been too busy discussing the second occurance of strange light phenomena at the evening sky in this city. "Pre-adolescent development is accelerated in changelings." Twilight pointed out, earning herself a round of confused glances from the others. "She means that drones mature faster," Aegis calmly pointed out causing a round of 'Ohh's to run around the table. "Well it's nice to meet some more of yer family, Twi. Woulda liked to meet all of 'em tho." Applejack fell in. "And I would have liked to introduce them all to you but even four children that look practically the same are bound to arouse suspicion. Subtly introducing you to two thousand is just not possible." "Fair enough." Rainbow agreed. "That would be hard to hide. Anyways, what do you girls usually do everyday?" "School mostly, we learn lots of stuff." Riposte pointed out before going on to talk about some of the things they had learned recently, from geography to basic engineering. The other three soon joined in. "Yup, definitely Twilight's daughters." Sunset chuckled to Fluttershy who was sitting to her right and only gave a silent nod in response. After a few minutes the girls finished their tales of education and Pinkie, who had kept exceptionally quiet during their explanations, seemingly listening attentively, spoke up. "So what do you girls wanna do when you grow up?" At the stares she received she only gave a "What? It's an important question" The currently-not-nymphs didn't seem deterred however. "I wanna be one of the Queen's Guard." Aegis said proudly, while the other three gave sounds of general agreement. "I'm gonna keep mommy safe." Twilight gave a small, proud smile at her children but remained quiet otherwise. She knew that they didn't need words to feel her pride. The conversation went on for some time. Between Twilight and Sunset chatting about the differences between worlds, the recent  developments in Equestria, magic theory and ideas on how the portal bridge and the local leyline network might work, and the other girls talking to Twilight's children about various topics it was easily an hour before they finally finished their drinks and, soon after, left for the portal once more. Back at the portal, Twilight once more pulled out the enchanted gem she had brought with her from Equestria. Taking only a moment to appreciate the soft shimmer of magic in its reflective surface. She turned to Sunset, handing her the small gem. "Here, keep that somewhere safe, then we can open the gate whenever necessary." "Oh right, with everything that happened we completely forgot about that, didn't we?" Sunset took the gem with a smile. The girls, once more, came together in a group hug, eliciting giggles from Twilight's children and an amused chuckle from Ratchet. All too soon, however, they began returning through the portal one by one. Twilight went last, giving a final wave to her friends. The portal kept glowing for a short moment before once more returning to being an inert stone surface. Back in the small workshop in Stripped Gear, Twilight stepped down from the portal's small pedestal and walked over to the machine that kept it open. Pulling back the lever soon caused the beam of magical energy to vanish. Once more the portal was only a simple mirror, though admittedly a rather elaborate one. Ratchet reached into one of the drawers and pulled out the counterpart to the gem Twilight had just given to Sunset and went about mounting it to the machine they had used to open the portal, they had dubbed it the 'Gatekeeper'. Twilight meanwhile went to take the four nymphs back to the caretakers.