"You know, Spike, if you don't want to come..." Twilight's words were calm, as befitting one who had been ruling for as long as she had, but under the surface there was just the tiniest degree of playfulness. She knew how this would go, but it still brought a smile to her when her lifelong friend reacted exactly as she knew he would.
"Oh no! A royal advisor would never abandon his Princess on a day like this!" Of course, he made doubly sure to emphasise his title in that, prompting a light eye-roll from Twilight. Even after all these years, he still loved hearing that role of his being said out loud. The towering pony earned looks of admiration and awe from those she passed as she gracefully strolled through the streets of Canterlot. But for all the smiles and nods she gave in return, her gaze betrayed the solemnness of her journey. She'd made this trip many times, yet she had no intention of stopping. Eventually, she and her beloved dragon left the busier parts of town, heading instead for the greener parts on the outskirts, and a particular grove that had been made especially for this purpose.
"Twilight? I know you're not exactly happy to do this every year, but..." Spike's words made it clear he was concerned for her, and while his elder friend appreciated the sentiment, she still maintained her air of seriousness as she glanced back to him.
"Thank you, Spike, but you know I have to do this. For myself, if nothing else." She again looked ahead, her ears picking up the sound of Spike walking faster to keep up with her again, However, as she approached the entrance of the grove, she discovered, to her slight confusion, the two guards stationed there. But it was not because they were there, but because they were not at their posts, instead whispering to themselves as they looked into the grove themselves. Twilight, arching an eyebrow, cleared her throat, gaining their attention immediately.
"Oh! Princess Twilight! We were...er..."
"Has something happened?" Twilight asked. She wasn't upset with their behaviour, but had spoken with clear authority all the same. The two guards looked to one another, then the younger looked back to her, gulping loudly before answering.
"Well, it's just...somepony else is in the grove today."
Twilight was surprised, not because others were forbidden from coming here, but because nocreature had actually done so except for her and Spike. Her eyes glanced up to the grove's entrance, before again looking to the younger guard. "Oh? Who? And more importantly, why has this worried you?"
The guards again looked to each other, and after a long quiet, it was instead the older who spoke. "Well, your Highness, the pony is, well...I mean to say, she looks kind of like...you."
"But smaller!" the second guard hastily added
Twilight too fell silent now, and Spike looked to her with the same shock she was probably feeling. But with the role of Princess having been hers for so long now, she never once let it known that was what she was feeling. What she did let known, however, was that this was something to apparently smile about, as her eyes once more turned to the grove's entrance. "Thank you, Sirs. I will deal with this."
"Twilight...you sure?" Spike asked.
Twilight nodded, taking her first steps inside. "Oh yes, Spike. I've been waiting for this for a very long time." She saw her companion's concern, but he gave her a nod all the same. Twilight nodded back in thankfulness, then finally made her way into the grove, earning her a couple of salutes from the nearby guards. She walked past the trees and hedges that had been planted to make this place, never paying them any heed, and before long she was at the centre of it all. There, slap-bang in the middle of this place, was a statue. A trio of those she and those closest to her had vanquished many moons ago, still as they were on that fateful day. But it was not they that Twilight looked to now, but the one beside that statue. Even here, looking at the back of her head, Twilight knew who it was, and as she took her next step forward, the newcomer could feel her approach.
"Do I need to call you 'Queen' now?"
A small smile crept onto Twilight's lips. "No."
The other mare turned, revealing to Twilight a very familiar face. But one that was without much of the harshness she'd remembered upon it. "Hello, sister," the other mare said.
Twilight's smile widened. "And hello to you too, Midnight." She walked forward, as did Midnight, and when the two were close enough, they embraced. There was a time this kind of interaction might have been unthinkable for them, but now, after so long, they couldn't imagine anything else. Time passed though, and they eventually parted, with Twilight sighing. "You know, I always kept my ear out for you. Sometimes rumors would come to me of a mare who looked a lot like me, but she never stayed anywhere long."
Midnight chuckled. "Yeah, it's been quite a journey."
Twilight mused on that, thinking back to her own days after Midnight's departure from her castle. "Yes...it certainly has been."
But it was here when Midnight own smile faded, and she turned, looking up to the statue behind them both. Twilight didn't need to guess who it was she was looking at specifically, especially when she started speaking again. "So...here she is."
Twilight nodded. "Yes...here she is."
Midnight never took her eyes off the paralysed face of her creator. "I told you once, didn't I? That she was still out there? That she would come back? That she would, in one way or another, be the final threat you and your friends would face?"
Again, Twilight nodded. "Indeed. Seems you were right after all."
Midnight briefly enjoyed that moment, but said nothing on it as she asked the truly important question in all this. "So...how did you beat her?"
Twilight took no time whatsoever to come up with an answer. "...Together."
Midnight again laughed dryly. "Well then...I guess we were both right in the end." They shared the laugh, but it soon ended when Midnight started to look a touch more serious. "Why are they here, Twilight?"
Twilight sighed deeply. "I know they were our enemies. I know they did many terrible things. And I know they were undeserving of any kind of respect...but I still wish that things had not come to this." Her eyes fell to the tiniest figure on the pedestal. "One of them was my student once, Midnight. I look to her and I feel it was my failure in teaching her the value of friendship that led to her doing what she did. And the others?" She looked to the horned figured, then the winged. "I have made so many friends, several of them once bitter enemies. Yet these I could not reach out to." She hung her head slightly. "An enemy vanquished...is a bond I failed to forge."
Midnight raised an eyebrow as she looked to her. "Still the naïve idealist, I see."
Twilight raised an eyebrow right back. "And you're still the tired old cynic."
A pause, and then the two finally broke out into simultaneous smiles, sharing another laugh. "Oh, how I've missed these kinds of talks," Midnight remarked.
Twilight nodded in agreement. "As have I." But it wasn't long before the statue was again her focus. "I keep this here, for myself and for all, to serve as a reminder to us that not all are able to be friends, even with all the strides the peoples of this world have made. I come once a year to visit them, perhaps, in some small way, to make whatever peace I can with them."
Though Midnight had once felt nothing but hate and fear to the Changeling who had spawned her, even she couldn't bring herself to criticise Twilight's choice there, instead just nodding silently. In the quiet that followed, the now-smaller doppelganger glanced upwards to her royal counterpart. "...You've grown taller."
Twilight smirked to her. "And you've grown older."
Midnight looked back, seeing the greys in her mane, before smoothly stroking it slightly with her hoof. "Well, what can I say? Not all of us get to have magical flowing manes, Princess."
Twilight snickered, then noted something about her counter's mane now that she really paid attention to it. "I see you decided to grow it out again."
Midnight nodded, again looking to her mane, which was more-or-less at the same length it was before her big cut of it years ago. "I guess I decided that, maybe, being like you wasn't as bad as I thought it was."
The taller mare seemed flattered by the remark, but didn't speak up on it, instead casting a look back towards the grove's entrance. "I'm sure my friends would love to see you again...even if you weren't all that close back in the day."
Midnight considered that. "It might be worth speaking to them. I'll admit, there were times I missed having them around. Those oddballs of yours certainly knew how to liven a day up, if nothing else."
Twilight pondered that remark. "You know, I think that might be the nicest thing you've ever said about them."
Her clone shrugged. "Hey, time changes us all, right?" She snatched a quick side-glance to her mirror image. "Some more than others, admittedly." They again laughed together, but only a little, and soon all that could be heard was the sounds of the wind and the occasional bird flying overhead as they took to looking to the statue once more. Midnight, in this calm time, seemed to be thinking long and hard over something, before finally speaking. "...I have a daughter."
Slowly, Twilight's eyes widened, and she looked down to Midnight. After such an eventful life, there were few things that truly shocked her or took her aback, but this was definitely one of them. Part of her even suspected that her copy was kidding, trying to maybe mess with her or get her off-balance. When it became abundantly clear that this was not the case, Twilight cleared her throat. "I...um...wow! I don't know what to say! I mean...I didn't even know you could...er...you know..."
Midnight took some amusement in finally seeing Twilight's graceful and professional persona cracked, if only a little. In that moment, she saw the awkward and occasionally-bumbling mare she knew so well from long ago. But given what they were talking about, she decided to keep this conversation mock-free. "Trust me, nopony was more surprised than I was. Somepony like me? Yeah, I never thought something like that was even possible for me." Another shrug. "You can imagine the look on my face when I realised what was happening to me. Quite the surprise, I can tell you."
Here, the fierce curiosity and need for answers that Twilight was once so well known for began to reassert itself, and she leaned closer. "So...is she an alicorn? It's just, the last time an alicorn had a daughter, we got Flurry, so..."
Midnight shook her head. "No. Pegasus." She sighed. "Before the birth I was hoping to maybe teach her some magic, but I guess that's out the window." She smirked slightly. "Not the easiest time of my life...but I managed."
Twilight looked to her warily. "I hope your relationship with her is a good one, Midnight."
Midnight chortled. "Oh, don't worry. It is. Though I will say she's a complete Daddy's girl when you get right down to it."
Hearing that, Twilight leaned in closer. "That brings us neatly to the most obvious question in this...who's the lucky stallion? I have a hard time believing anypony would have been able to meet your exacting standards."
Midnight looked to her slyly. "Oh, he's a complete and total doofus. But...he's my doofus," she replied with more than a little affection in her tone. But she soon gave Twilight yet another of her all-too-frequent smirks. "Though it's worth noting he had a somewhat irritating habit of having Princesses randomly bumping into him back in the day."
Twilight understood, and smiled softly to her, as if a pleasant and nostalgic memory had just returned to her. "I'm happy for you. Both of you." Then curiosity resumed its dominance in her. "Oh, I totally forgot. What's her name?"
Midnight hesitated here, then slowly smiled. "...Twilight."
Twilight looked stunned, and then, ever so slowly, her eyes began to well up, and she placed her hoof upon her own chest, sounding borderline choked up. "I'm...I'm honored."
Then excitement came screaming back to the Princess. "I can't believe I'm an Aunt! Er...again! We should arrange a playdate with her and Little Cheese! Oh! That's Pinkie's child by the way!"
Midnight slapped her forehead. "Oh geez, that one's a parent now?!"
Twilight giggled excitedly. "Quite, and a very happy one too. In fact..." She placed her hoof onto Midnight's shoulder. "You should come with us to meet them all. They're due for their monthly visit in Canterlot this afternoon. I'm sure they'd love to hear from you after all this time."
Midnight considered that, pausing to look up to the petrified face of the one whom she knew could no longer harm her. Twilight watched as her clone thought deeply on the proposition, and eventually saw her smile back to her. "Yeah...I think I'd like that," Midnight finally answered.
Twilight squeed in a way she probably hadn't done for some time, embracing her "sister" for a second time, much to Midnight's slight chagrin. When they parted though, Midnight again raised an eyebrow, looking to one side and calling out. "You can come out now Spike. I'm not gonna bite."
Sheepishly, the eavesdropping dragon poked his head into the grove, chuckling nervously. "Hehe, sorry, couldn't help myself."
Midnight rolled her eyes. "Of course you couldn't."
Spike stepped closer to the two, looking from one to the other, then sighed. "Wow...I'd almost forgotten how much taller you'd grown, Twily."
Twilight giggled again. "I know. Quite a blast from the past, isn't it?"
Midnight looked to them both, then gestured to the grove's entrance. "So...shall we?"
Twilight, finally re-assuming her more Princess-like demeanour, gave a slight bow of her head. "Of course. It's not every day we get the whole family back together."
Midnight took a deep breath, finding peace in this reunion, then smiled to the both of them. "Yeah...I should have done this a long time ago." She bowed to her original. "Lead the way, O saviour of Equestria," she said, with just the slightest hint of sarcasm.
Twilight stifled another laugh. "Now there's the Midnight I remember."