August 31,
Year 1,005 on the Grand Celestial Calendar.It's been one week since my entrance exam, and it still feels like I'm the victim of some kind of absurd prank. Every morning I look at myself in the mirror and all but gawk in disbelief. Me? An alicorn? There has to be some kind of misunderstanding. All I did was hatch an egg—
among other things—I didn't do anything worthy of such a gift. It's supposed to be something that you earn. But who am I to question the judgment of someone with centuries of life experience over me? I'm only fifteen, the Queen has lived more a thousand lifetimes.Every living creature in this world has a purpose. From the smallest insect to the mightiest dragon, my Mom and Dad always say that there's a plan for all of us. If I'm an alicorn now, then it's because I'm supposed to be an alicorn now. The only question left is "why?"
On a related note, contrary to popular belief alicorns aren't just winged unicorns or horned pegasi. I am different on a fundamental level. Even things like simple levitation take more concentration and precision now, I have to be gentle or I'll crush whatever I try to pick up. Cadence has been spending every free moment she can get helping me to adjust to my new body and its capabilities, and it's helped immensely, but I'd be lying if I said that I still didn't occasionally obliterate something like a carton of orange juice every now and again.
Speaking of, everyone has been unbelievably supportive during this transitional period as well. I haven't seen Mom and Dad look so proud—surprising considering all that happened—since Shining got enlisted in the Royal Guard. And Shining Armor? Much the same. Despite everything, he's doing everything he can to still treat me like me. I don't think he'll ever know just how much I appreciate it, no matter how much I tell him. We even went out to lunch today, just the two of us. It was nice. After that, we all got together and helped me move into what would be my dorm during the school year: a lofty tower on palace grounds. The location is close enough to the school to walk without any major difficulties, and I'll be within hooves reach of Cadence and the Queen
in case of another accidentin the event I need anything from them.School starts in a week. I need to stop worrying about all of this and fix my broken sleep cycle. Starting now.
Twilight just could not sleep.
How could she? With everything that had happened to her in the last week, it was amazing that she had been able to even been relaxed enough to even try, or even had been able to sleep at all. But here she was again, for the third time tonight, woken up by some unpleasant external stimulus. Eyes groggily opening and looking out one of the room's many large windows, her gaze was returned by that of the Mare in the Moon floating high above Equestria. A quick glance towards her nightstand clock revealed to be just about one in the morning.
Fantastic, she groaned to herself, doing everything in her power to try and roll over without causing any further discomfort to herself. She needed to be up just a few short hours, and she had to spend another one just trying to get back to sleep. One of her pillows was quickly seized and used to bury her face from the full moon's gentle but currently unappreciated light outside, another exasperated sigh escaping from the young pony.
Her attempts at sleep, however, were further delayed by several distinctive crashing sounds coming from somewhere within her home. Based on the sounds of shattering porcelain and glass against the hard tile, it was coming from the kitchen. This got Twilight's attention, causing her to unbury herself from her pillows and rise to a seated position. It couldn't have been a burglar, it would have taken someone very brave or very stupid to try and rob a place this guarded. No, it must've been something else. Probably an animal that snuck in looking for food or something. She was already up at the moment either way, so it wouldn't hurt to at least check it out. With a yawning groan, she hopped down from the bed onto the floor, beginning to walk to her destination.
The pony's progress, however, was stopped by a sudden sharp pain, Twilight let out a growl at the sensation. Lighting up her horn and looking down, it was now obvious that she had accidentally stepped on one of her own wings. "I hate these stupid things," she mumbled to herself, working the muscles and putting the feathered appendages into folded positions at either side of her frame. They were easy enough to keep there once they were in place, it was just remembering to put them there that was the problem. And now some of the feathers on her right wing were damaged and misaligned. In time, keeping them neatly tucked away would become second nature to her, she wouldn't even need to think about it.
But it was going to suck a lot until that actually happened.
With one minor inconvenience out of the way, the young alicorn moved to check on the one that had previously gotten her attention. Walking down the curved staircase that led from the upper balcony down to the primary area of her tower-based home, she scanned the room with her sleep-deprived eyes in the light of her own horn. Thankfully, she didn't have to look far at all to find what was causing the disruption, as the tower's kitchen was illuminated by the refrigerator, proving Twilight's earlier theory that it had been some local fauna that for some reason had decided her home would be a good place to forage for food.
She armed herself with a broom as she approached the light of the fridge. From where she was at, she'd have to walk around the wide-open door to actually be able to see the creature in question as it greedily filled its belly on her food stock. As she got closer and closer, she could make out the sounds of whatever animal that had snuck in as it basically ravaged her fridge. The sounds suddenly coming to a halt when it seemingly found what it was after.
It's probably just a raccoon or something, nothing to be afraid of, Twilight told herself as she steeled her nerves to face whatever trial was ahead. But as she stepped into the light of the open fridge, all fear and anxiety were replaced with confusion and annoyance as to what she saw in the icebox. The magical pony recognized the distinctive creature rummaging through her food. Though it was just a mite different than how she remembered it looking about a week ago.
When she had first met this animal, he had only been about the size of a garden snake, with soft lavender scales and four little stumpy limbs. In the time since then, the scales that covered him had matured and hardened into a more traditional purple with a series of small green spines beginning to grow from atop the creature's head and all down his back and a long tail. No longer the size of a garden snake, he was now comparable to the size of a ferret, albeit much longer. Despite his unconventional appearance, this entity was without question a dragon. Or some previously undiscovered subspecies of, at the very least. Bittersweet memories of that fact being proven to Twilight were coming back to the alicorn at that moment, causing her to thank her lucky stars that she had been aware enough to dodge a firey sneeze before any serious harm had been caused.
The Queen's dragon? She asked herself, slowly putting the broom down as she observed the young creature. How the heck did it get here?
Sensing movement behind him, the dragon spun around with haste and locked eyes with Twilight. He had been too young to open his eyes when they had first met, but now Twilight could see the vivid shade of green that had been hidden before. Twilight also noticed the dragon's prize hanging from his jaws, half of a sandwich that she had bought from a local shop earlier that day. She hadn't finished it and had planned on saving the meal for consumption at a later date. But clearly, the dragon had different plans for who would be doing the eating.
"Hey! That's my sandwich!" Twilight blurted out, eyes narrowing with frustration. Almost in reaction to this, the dragon began to quickly chew at and swallow the item with haste and gusto, unphased by the alicorn's shout. Frustration turned to grief at this new development.
"That... was my sandwich... Guess I need a new plan for lunch tomorrow." With a hearty sigh, Twilight calmed herself. She couldn't exactly be mad at the little guy, he was just a hungry animal. She could be confused as to why he had chosen to come here of all places for a meal, but not angry. "Alright... whatever your name is. Let's get you back in your pen before the Queen wakes up and has a heart attack."
Based on the look on his face, the small dragon clearly didn't understand what Twilight had just said. He simply tilted his head quizzically. "Sah..." he muttered, eyes shifting to look at his own snout. "Sha... Sahm... Samee..." Ignoring the odd sounds the infant was making, Twilight rolled her eyes and went to magically grasp at the creature. But what happened next gave her pause, halting her actions immediately.
"Samich," the dragon murmured as his eyes returned to Twilight in a wanting gaze. "Samich?"
She had to sit there for a moment and process the sound he had just made at her. Unless she was mistaken, it almost sounded like the dragon had just tried to say "sandwich." Did it... just mimic me?
"Samich!" he sounded a bit impatient, seemingly waiting for Twilight to respond to his... request?
Hmm... his subspecies must have some kind of parrot-like ability to copy sounds and voices, she quickly theorized, I should let the Queen know. She'll probably do a backflip when she figures out her little pet has a new tri—
"Samich!" The dragon barked again, seemingly angered by a lack of a reply. With a sound that could only be described as a moan of frustration, the young reptile leaped from the fridge and scurried into the cabinets along the nearby counter. Twilight was just about ready to magically drag the little guy back out, but he returned faster then she could act. Held in his teeth was an unopened package of bread that he proceeded to drop at Twilight's hooves before swiftly dashing back into the cupboards.
What happened next was utterly baffling. The small dragon proceeded to drag out more and more food items, leaving them at the alicorn's hooves. He had even returned to the fridge at one point to grab lettuce and mustard of all things. Twilight could only watch with fascination at what she was watching, unable to react in any meaningful way as the small pile of food was left before her. Satisfied with his findings, the dragon proceeded to sit down before Twilight in a way that was very reminiscent of canines and other such animals.
"Sa... mich," he spoke slower and more deliberately, almost as if trying to place emphasis on the broken word. He became all but motionless after that, looking up at Twilight with wide, pleading eyes. Twilight, meanwhile, was beside herself. She couldn't believe what was transpiring. If this dragon was doing what she thought it was doing, then the comparison to parrots would be a great disservice. There was only one way to find out for sure, and she knew what had to be done.
"Do you... want another sandwich?" She lightly poked a hoof at the wrapped loaf of bread.
"Samich!" He didn't seem as flustered as before, continuing to look at Twilight with those big emerald eyes. He looked down to the pile of food items that he had placed at Twilight's hooves for a moment before returning his eyes to her.
"... Alright then," Twilight replied cautiously as she carefully stepped through the stack. She magically collected a number of items that would be put into a sandwich, ignoring the ones that weren't traditionally used in such a meal like cookies or bagels. The young one didn't seem to mind as he hopped up onto the counter to watch Twilight work. She occasionally looked over to him only to see that he was absolutely entranced by the process of combining the food items. It took only a moment for the alicorn to complete the preparations, slowly sliding the completed sandwich over to the dragon.
"Here you go... I guess..."
The dragon eyed the small meal with absolute intensity, his next course of action having long since been decided. He practically pounced onto the sandwich and seized it with his foreclaws, soon after proceeding to bite and chew at it with his newly grown fangs. Twilight couldn't help but let out a surprised almost chuckle of a huff as she watched the dragon greedily consume his meal. It didn't take him long to finish, letting out a small burp as he did. He then let out a loud yawn, curled up on the countertop and proceeded to go back to sleep as if nothing had happened, light snores escaping his nostrils as he dozed off.
"Did he just... teach himself what a sandwich is...?" She slowly asked of nobody in particular, leaning in closer to examine the smarter-then-previously-assumed dragon with great curiosity. "That's... that's incredible!"
She ran off as quickly and as quietly as she could, madly searching for something to write her new discoveries down on. The young pony could hardly contain her excitement. Her feelings of sleep-deprivation and anxiety were all gone, replaced by her usual academic curiosity and enthusiasm that had been all but absent in the previous week. She needed to take notes on this, she wouldn't be able to do or think about anything else until she had at least a three-page report for the Queen before sunrise.
After all, if the idea of a dragon that could mimic pony speech would make the Queen do a backflip, this new discovery would reduce Equestria's most respected and dignified ruler to nothing more than an excited little filly. Finally finding a quill and paper, the ecstatic alicorn began to write.