//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 - Meeting // Story: Morning in Ponyville // by Skarsnik //------------------------------// Twilight was quietly doing some homework, if she was honest it was becoming more and more a chore than a pleasure. Sure the heavy load of magic studies was pushing her sharp mind to her limits and she enjoyed the challenge, but the rest was time she was not spending with Morning or even her friends. Well, what was left of her friends, Applejack did not seem to have cool down about the revelations Morning made, Rarity, well she was rarely seen in Ponyville nowaday and Twilight feared she did not take well to not get invited to Cadance wedding. She sighed after putting the last dot on her essay about one of the minor battle of the numerous war between Equestria and the Gryphon Empire. She did not even bother double check. She called Spike to send it along the other finished work. “Hm, already done?” asked a surprised Spike, getting pulled off a book about the history of pastry. “Yes” she proffered the various scroll to him “I am going to check on Morning homework.” Spike eyed the last scroll, it looked a bit ruffled, well ruffled by Twilight standard, a normal pony could take it for a very important official document to take with gloves and put behind glass “Are you sure, it was-” “Yes, I am sure.” “Sure!” Twilight smiled and moved to a desk closer to the center of the library where was seated Morning. She was visibly struggling with something as she shifted nervously on her seat. “Hey sweety, having trouble with something?” since Morning finished most of her homework before playing with Dinky, Twilight has a good idea on the last assignment that was giving her trouble. “History” she pouted “Writing 200 words on this dumb war is not fun!” “Morning, you don’t call a war dumb, think of all ponies that gave their lives to protect Equestria.” The filly mumbled “Sorry.” “It’s alright. Let me have a look.” They were interrupted by a knock on the door. It was past the closing time of the library and Twilight was not expecting somepony to show at this hour, especially with this week weather. Nearly all the pegasus of Ponyville caught the feather flu and as a consequence, the wild weather of the Everfree forest was making itself know. It was very windy and humid and the weather service announced a likely risk of thunderstorms this night. That why Twilight was very surprised to find a shivering filly at the door. “Sweetie Belle! Come in, it’s not a weather to stay outside!” The filly only made one step toward and asked “Can… I stay for the night?” Twilight nudged the filly inside while closing the door behind her then asked: “Your parents are not here?” “No there are on a trip, but I was supposed to sleep at Rarity’s place” the ears of the filly dropped “but she is not here and locked the boutique. I… can’t even ask Apple Bloom.” “Of course you can stay.” replied Twilight with a smile “Hey Spike, can you prepare the guess room for Sweetie Belle?” Spike put his book on a shelf near him and hoped from his seat “I am on it!” Twilight lite the fire of the fireplace with a flicker of magic and levitated a blanket toward the filly “Here, you can wait here. It’s almost dinner.” “Thank you.” smiled Sweetie Belle tightening the blanket around her. Once she was warmed, the filly looked around her. She noticed that Morning was being helped by Twilight on what she could hear was the dumb essay on the third griffon war. She sighed, her mother occasionally helped her with her homeworks, but never her sister. She thought that after the Sisterhooves Social they would spend more time together, but since her trip to Canterlot to make a dress for Princess Luna, she barely spoke to her. And Spike also stopped going to the boutique. Sweetie Belle found Spike cool as Scootaloo would say. She giggled because she was sure Scootaloo had a crush on him. But she liked Spike because he was smart and she could speak with him about stuff the Crusaders was not interested. She found silly his crush on her sister, she was too old for him! Sweetie Belle grabbed a book to pass time, she comes to the library regularly, but she never really stayed to read, she looked at a nearby bench but opted to stay on the rug near the fireplace. She was interrupted by Morning “Do you want to play? Mo… Twilight is making dinner.” “Sure! What games do you have?” “Checkers, chess, Shiny gave me a Genga too! You stack up pieces of wood to form a tower then you tried to pick parts of it without it falling down. If somepony make it fall down he lose!” “Ok, that sound fun,” concluded Sweetie Belle and followed Morning to a nearby table. She levitated the box of the game and Sweetie Belle looked with envy, she was barely able to levitate a fork to eat. “Hooves only?” asked Morning with a smile. Sweetie Belle nodded, she probably had no chance against Morning with her crazy magic. She was younger than her and aside from doing more foalish things and being smaller it was not really showing. She watched Spike built the tower for them and sighed, He was probably going to win with his claws. *** Once seated at the table after helping to set the table, Sweetie Belle smiled at the improvised soup Twilight fixed with the help of Spike. It was fitting the outside weather. It had just started to rain. “It’s hot!” shouted Morning after taking her first sip. Sweetie Belle heard Spike snickered and then he took a large gulp of the soup and said: “Meh, it’s freezing.” In doubt Sweetie Belle grabbed the spoon, filled it with soup and blew on it to cool down the fuming liquid. When it looked good enough she bring the spoon to her mouth “It’s good! It’s warm.” “I am glad you like it. Ditzy gave me the recipe.” replied Twilight. “Velvet will make a scene when she will realize you use other recipes, not hers.” teased Spike. Morning giggled but Sweetie Belle was confused. “Who is Velvet?” “My mother” replied a nervous Twilight “And don’t tell her, Spike.” *** Sweetie Belle finished her dessert, she wiped her mouth with a napkin like she had been taught by her sister. She stayed in her seat watching Morning and Spike getting out of the kitchen to finish cleaning the library. When they were out, she says to Twilight, that had started cleaning the dishes “Thank you for having me.” Twilight replied “It’s nothing. I will have a word with your sister.” she paused “Remind me I need to see if she finished my outfit for the magic show.” “I would have normally asked Apple Bloom to stay at the clubhouse but…” “Something wrong with Apple Bloom?” “Morning did not tell you? She doesn’t go to school anymore, and I am not allowed to go to their farm.” Twilight nearly dropped what she was cleaning. “But… how can somepony not go to school?” Sweetie Belle should have been jealous, but she figured her friend was probably spending all her time working in the farm “Yes…” she trailed. Something was the filly but she did not know who to ask, Scootaloo was not much into feeling stuff, so she just chooses to kept watching Twilight doing the dish. She watched in awe the unicorn dried the clean dish and put everything at the same time in their respected place with her magic. “Something wrong Sweetie Belle? I thought you would go back to play with Morning and Spike.” “... can I ask you something?” “Yes, anything.” “Are you still friend with Applejack?” “I… of course, friends fight some time, but they get over it because their friendship is more important.” Sweetie Belle threw her forehooves in the air and whined “That does not help me at all!” then she planted her face on the table and groaned “Maybe Scootaloo is right.” Scootaloo wanted to just gave up on Apple Bloom, they already knew each other since forever, and if the earth pony filly did not want to see them it was hard to stay friends. But they had a lot of fun together and the clubhouse was awesome. “Don’t worry Sweetie Belle, I am pretty sure Applejack will see how silly is to forbid her little sister to see her friends” patted Twilight. --- Later at night, Twilight was in her bed thinking. She was worried about Sweetie Belle. She understood Rarity wanting to spend more time in Canterlot to carry on her dream of designing the best dresses for prestigious ponies, but she was ignoring the trust her parents put in her to take care of her own little sister. It was curious since according to Rarity they managed to build a better bound at the Sisterhooves social. Still leaving a filly alone to freeze outside was making Twilight a bit furious at her friend. She was also furious at Applejack for forbidding Apple Bloom to go to school and see her friends. But was she supposed to be mad at her friends? Princess Celestia would probably not be happy when she will learn that Twilight Sparkle, her faithful student is not doing her work to keep her friendships alive. That worried Twilight even more, maybe she would want to take Morning away from her? It was easy, most ponies only knew the filly as being her sister, not seeing her again would not raise suspicions, and even, what can ponies do against Princess Celestia wishes? A white flash followed by the sound of thunder interrupted the unicorn from her musing. It had started raining just after dinner and now the weather had grown stronger. It made falling asleep even more difficult than usual. She turned and her bed and sighed, why was life so complicated? After another flash, Twilight heard tiny hooves sounds followed by a knock on the door. Without waiting for an answer the door opened revealing Morning’s head. “Can I come in, mommy?” Twilight made some light with her magic and could see that the filly was trotting on three legs, holding her Woona plushy to her chest. Morning looked at the plushy in her grip then said: “Woona is afraid of the thunder.” Twilight smiled at the attempt of bravery from her daughter. She started picking up the plush from her leg “I can take Woona with me if you want, Spike will protect her” she pointed at the snoring Spike in his basket. That made the filly pause but she replied “I think, it will be better if she slept with me!” Twilight moved in her bed to make place for Morning “Alright, I guess you can sleep with Woona with me.” Princess Luna gave a glance at the book currently resting on her study. It was an old book with a stylized cover representing the head of an unicorn. If she was to trust her sister it was the latest book left by Starswirl the Bearded. As much as she respected her old mentor, Luna knew the stallion was not always sane especially at the end of of his life. She had been both curious and cautious about the content. His writing style brought Luna founds memories, it was dry, barely readable by the average pony and it was in old Equish, very much like the stallion himself when he was ranting about ideas about magic. It was mostly at this time during their lesson that Luna stopped writing down and drawn on her notebook. Anyways, in the middle of many rants of the stallion complaining about the lack of time to pursue all the research, there was a spell supposed to give immortality based on his cursed research about the Element of Harmony. And according to her sister, her student was worthy to complete his work. It was not hard to understand what was the meaning of this. It had been the same Elements that transformed herself and her sister into Alicorns. Princess Luna was strongly opposed to this decision. Twilight Sparkle was too young for this. Getting the burden of leadership tended to make you miss a lot of what life has to offer, especially it tended to make casual  and personal relationships very difficult: Princess Cadance has been lucky to find a stallion that loved her for her personality and not her status. “Princess, it’s almost time.” her aid called. It was the first day, or night, of the return of her Night Court. Princess Luna levitated the book back in a drawer and straighten her posture. She gave a glance at her guards, she was sure they gave an extra polish to their armor for the special occasion. “Alright, let’s…” she trailed when she felt an unpleasant sensation. It was one of the wards she put in the dreams of the Element’s bearer. She had not resumed her duty as protector of the dream yet, she felt too weak to face the danger of this duty, but she put protection to know if something wanted to influence these very important ponies. “Something wrong, your highness?” “Gave me a minute.” she closed her eyes and braced herself for the sensation of having her mind enter the realm of dream. She hopped it was something minor, something she could easily deal with. She was very wrong sadly. She had quickly identified the issue coming from her sister student. This was very worrying. She braced herself before opening the doorway to the mare dream. Princess Luna entered a non-descriptive bedroom, only the multiple blurry bookshelves were notable, but her attention fell immediately on the bed. On the bed was 2 ponies engaged clearly on the act of intercourse. The pony at the top was a white stallion with a blue mane, he was close to a fully grown stallion. A stark contrast to the filly under him, she was at the weird stage of life where you start growing a lot, not a filly anymore but not close to a mare still. Luna recognized the filly as Twilight Sparkle. It was not unusual for her to be the witness of pony lust, especially in dreams where the mind could break the boundaries of the real and indulge in any kind of way to express its desires or fears. But what attracted the attention of Princess Luna was the expression on Twilight’s face. Her eyes were closed but tears escaped from it, her muzzle open, screaming. She should have been unfazed, it was not uncommon for young mares to be wary of their first sexual experience and have nightmares about being in great pain. But what worried Princess Luna was the other pony in the room. She was an unicorn filly, clearly younger than the young version of Twilight Sparkle, she had a light pink coat and a two-toned blue mare. She was crying, trying to reach for the young Twilight with a hoof while trying to look at the stallion. “Daddy, stop hurting mommy.” she sobbed. Her voice wake up the Princess from the mini stupor she found herself, she realized something fearful: the filly was not a construct from the dream, it was a real pony. To confirm her suspicion she put a hoof on the head of the filly. Princess Luna sighed and gently said to the filly “Rest child.” Her horn light up, and she chased the filly from the dream. She gave a last look at the scene in front of her, gathered her force and stopped the dream before getting back on the real world. “Are you alright, your highness?” asked her aid when she opened her eyes. “We... I must make haste for Ponyville” she looked at all her guards “Sorry everypony, but this is important.” “Do you require a chariot, Princess?” asked the guard in charge. “No, this is no time for protocol.” then the princess trotted toward her balcony and took off. She knew her guards would follow her from a distance. That let her time alone to think. She had so many questions from the short time she spends in this dream. Sure she did not let the dream play for long before putting Twilight Sparkle in a dreamless sleep. But the other being in the dream was very concerning. It was a real pony for that she was sure, but who exactly? In the dreamscape, everything was illusions or could be. Before her exile she only met a handful of ponies who managed to enter the dreamscape consciously, the majority of them used powerful artefacts or potions made with rare components. The Princess made sure to either destroy or hide such means to enter her realm, not that she wanted to keep it for herself, but it was easy to influence other ponies mind in it, and she had a hard time trusting ponies with this kind of power. During her exile on the moon, the Nightmare make it impossible to fulfil her duty as protector of the dreamscape, but she managed to monitor for intrusion as the Nightmare was too trying to find another target to influence, but luckily nopony entered the parts the Nightmare was preying. When she inquired her sister, she discovered that her Night Guard kept their duty to seek for any mean to enter the dreamworld and hide them or destroy them. That made her even more worried, who was the pony behind the filly? What was her or his goal? Influencing Twilight Sparkle would give her/him a great deal of power and influence, probably even weakening the Element of Harmony. She still not have the beginning of an answer when she landed on the balcony of the Golden Oak Library. It leads directly to the main bedroom of the library. She shook slightly her wings to remove some of the rain that managed to stick to them during her flight. On the bed was Twilight Sparkle sleeping, this was expected. But Princess Luna was surprised to found another head peeking out the blanket near the mare own head. It was the head of a light pink unicorn filly with a two-toned mane. The same filly she saw in the dream. This was even more confusing. She only had one way to get more answers. She knew a lot of spells to wake up a pony, but she chose the more gentle approach. She nudged slowly the mare with a hoof “Twilight Sparkle, wake up.” The mare fluttered her eyes open “Hmm.” then her eyes grew as big as plates “Princess Luna!” she looked between her foreleg and noticed the filly, gently she levitated her off her so she didn’t wake her when leaving the bed. She bowed and said, “How can I help you, Princess Luna?” “No need to be so formal, Twilight Sparkle. Thou we-I come here under a dire emergency. I am not sure now.” The unicorn looked ensure “I, would you like some tea?” The princess raised an eyebrow at the unexpected inquiry, but from what she learned from her sister and Cadance, It was better to talk to Twilight Sparkle in a familiar setting for her for she was less prone to panic. And tea sounded like a nice idea after flying in the middle of rain and thunder. “Yes, I had a long flight from Canterlot.” “WWould you like to follow me to the kitchen?” she pointed at her bed “Morning is sleeping and Sweetie Belle is in the guest room and both have school tomorrow. I don’t want to wake them up.” “A sound reasoning, Twilight Sparkle. Lead the way.” Once in the kitchen, Twilight put the kettle on the stove to boil water. Princess Luna took one of the offered seats. She looked as the mare in front of her was fidgeting, occasionally biting her lips. After a sigh, she asked “So. You talked about an emergency.” “Indeed. I was on the verge of opening Night Court when the wards I placed on you and your friends’ dreams triggered. They either trigger on a very nasty nightmare or if something is trying to intrude your dream.” “You can enter dreams of ponies? Can-” started inquiring the mare. Luna raised a hoof silencing the unicorn “Yes, I am still unsure what even exactly trigger your ward. What I saw in your dream, neigh, your nightmare was… not unusual, alone.” she paused. “Maybe I be bold and inquire you, do you still have your purity?” “My purity?” Luna put a hoof under her chin “Are… did you already shared a bed with another pony?” “You mean, am I a virgin? No…” trailed Twilight. “You see. I... “ “What did you saw?” cut Twilight. The princess explained what she saw in the nightmare. Twilight reactions were mostly horror and shock but what surprised the alicorn the most was that the mare ended in tears. “I… she should not have seen that. I… mess up I...” Princess Luna hesitated, she should maybe hug the mare, but she did not feel that close to her savior. She instead simply levitated a tissue toward the unicorn. While she watched Twilight Sparkle trying to calm herself, Princess Luna try to pierce the puzzle in front of her. She heard the mare calling the filly in the bed Morning… could that be Morning Star, the flower filly of Cadance wedding? How she was related to Twilight Sparkle? “I am sorry,” said Twilight after dropping the last tissue in a bin. “No need to fret, Twilight Sparkle. This is dire news, thy reaction is normal.” “It’s a memory.” continued the unicorn. She paused “The filly, she...” then sighed, “is my daughter. My biological daughter.” “I…. see.” This statement was so simple and yet so full of implications. She frowned at this newly gain knowledge, but now was not the moment to be angry at being in the dark about such an important information. There was a long silence as both mares stared at each other. Twilight waiting for the Princess reaction and Luna for a way to face this situation. The kettle whistled and Twilight silently finished serving tea. Princess Luna was the first to talk after her first sip of tea. “This nightmare, do you have it very often?” “I… sometime when I am really stressed.” “Is that the circumstance that lead to… Your filly?” “Yes,” Twilight replied silently. Princess Luna eyes narrowed. “I hope the sire is in jail for abusing you like that.” “No! It was my fa…” she stopped herself and looked around her in search for invisible ponies “I think you need to hear the whole story.” Twilight told her everything, to the event that lead to her bedding her own brother then later how she managed to persuade Princess Celestia to keep the filly. “I see…” The situation was even more complex that it seems, now it was not hard to imagine why the filly had such a special place in Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor life. “Can I see her?” Twilight looked at her finished cup of tea “I… she has school tomorrow. But-” Princess Luna raised a hoof “I have a few inquiries before.” then mentally scolded herself for interrupting the mare. The unicorn nodded in reply. “Do she has trouble with her slumber?” “No, she can pretty fall asleep when she wants.” “Does she prove to possess strong magic?” Twilight snorted “She is worse than me at her age. Sometimes is hard to keep her in check.” Princess Luna pondered the answers, what she suspected was very likely to be true. She must see the filly now. The unicorn levitated both empty teacup to the kitchen sink “Is something wrong with Morning?” The princess put a reassuring smile on her face “Nothing to fear, but hopefully good news.” Princess Luna followed the young mare back in her bedroom, now that she was not in a hurry to solve a crisis she could have a more appreciating look of the decor. At the bottom of the bed was a basket where Spike was curled on himself, holding his tail still sleeping loudly. That sparked a thought in Luna’s mind “You must have your hooves full, raising a filly and a baby dragon.” “Yes, but Spike is more independent. I just need to be careful of him not overdoing things.” Twilight replied while moving to her bed. The unicorn nudged the filly gently with a hoof “Morning, wake up.”, she repeated the gesture multiple time but the filly refused to rouse from her sleep. “I am sorry, Princess, usually she wakes up easily.” “Don’t fret, Twilight Sparkle. This is my doing. I put her in a deep slumber” the Princess cursed herself for doing something so dangerous while moving toward the sleeping filly. She lowered her head to have her horn touch the head of the filly. She lighted her horn and undone her work. Immediately the filly woke up and screamed “Daddy stop!” and as fast as it happened, Twilight Sparkle hold her in her embrace while saying words to calm her. “It’s ok little star, it was just a bad dream. Daddy is in Canterlot” Princess Luna heart filled with warmth at the motherly display. She actually never saw what happen when a foal wakes up after a nightmare or even after she chased a bad dream off. It was a long time ago since she helped a filly, but it seems so close. Her time as Nightmare Moon made everything so fuzzy. “There is somepony to see you.” The filly left her mother embrace and looked at her “Princess Luna!”, the filly swept the bed and levitated a plush looking like the princess toward her “Look Woona, it’s your big big sister!” “Hello, little Woona. I did not know I have a little sister, nice to meet you”, she offered a hoof toward the levitating plushie. Not losing a bit, the filly focused part of her magic into the right hoof of the plushie to make it look like it shook the big hoof of the princess. Princess Luna smiled, foal imagination never ceased to amaze her. She was also curious how she get her hoof on one of the very few plushies she made for an orphanage and some close friends… mostly Princess Cadance. “You are so tall! Taller than Cady!” said the filly from her spot on the bed. “You are my favorite Princess”, she looked at Twilight “after Cady.” “Princess Cady? You mean Mi Amore Cadanza, I guess is an honor to be placed after such a kind pony.” and be placed before her sister for a change, Princess Luna though for herself. It was nice to meet the filly, but she was here to confirm something “Morning Star, that it?” The filly nodded “Will you let me check something?” Morning Star looked at her mother “Did I do something bad?” “No no, sweetie, The princess just want to see… if your nightmare is gone.” The filly paused for a moment “Ok.” her ears lowered on her head “Will it hurt?” “Do not fret, Morning Star. I will only put my horn on your head and cast a harmless spell.” she grinned “Maybe it will tickle a bit.” That elicited a small giggle from the filly and that provided a distraction for the princess when her horn made contact with the head of Morning Star. As she feared she found what she searched: traces of dream magic. The easiest traces to find were her own since she blocked the filly out of the dreamland, but now she had her confirmation: The filly could dreamwalk Twilight looked at her with worry when she was done. The Princess looked at Morning “You are very special filly” she looked past the head of the confused filly to see her flanks noticing- “Come on. that not fair!” screamed a white unicorn filly that entered the room “She even got her cutie mark now!”