//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Daybreak // by Leafdoggy //------------------------------// The next few days were hectic, but they were also largely uneventful. News outlets were given a picture of Daybreak Nymph, and soon all of Equestria and beyond knew of the new royal baby. Twilight’s parents visited them a lot, perhaps even more than Twilight would have liked. Daybreak grew, and with every passing day she seemed to become more confident, more sure of her place in the world. For a moment, life seemed to be settling into some kind of rhythm. Daybreak was a lot calmer than they’d expected, and she seemed quite alright with the unending parade of new, unknown faces she saw while Twilight and Chrysalis went about their royal duties. It was about a week after she was born when, as Chrysalis sat on her throne doing her morning check of their schedules, Twilight burst out of the nursery in a panic. “Chrysalis!” Twilight shouted. Chrysalis was up in an instant, dropping the clipboard she’d been holding to the floor and leaping over to where Twilight stood. “What? What’s wrong?” “It’s Daybreak, she—” Twilight bit her lip nervously. “She’s not in her crib!” Chrysalis took a startled step back. “What?” Without hesitation, she dashed past Twilight and into the nursery. Standing over the crib, Chrysalis saw that there was no sign of Daybreak. Her blanket was lying empty, and her stuffed animals were scattered all about. Chrysalis stared at the scene for a moment. Then she started to laugh. Twilight was astounded. She ran in after Chrysalis and glared at her. “Why are you laughing? Our baby is missing! She could’ve been kidnapped, or found a way out of the crib, or—” “Shh.” Chrysalis put a hoof to Twilight’s lips to shush her. “Twilight. Look.” She pointed into the crib, and Twilight looked that way. It took her a minute to see what Chrysalis had seen. All that was there were two stuffed bears sitting back to back. There was nothing special about them, aside from the fact that they looked the same. Then it hit her. “Oh.” Twilight froze for a second, then started to giggle. “Well, now I feel dumb.” Chrysalis reached into the crib and gently lifted up one of the bears. As she did, the bear was wrapped in a swirl of dark, cyan magic, and when the cyclone disappeared it left Daybreak in the bear’s place. “It’s perfectly understandable,” Chrysalis said as she raised Daybreak up and kissed her proud, grinning face. They made their way back out into the throne room as they talked. “This is very early for a newborn to start changing.” They sat in their thrones, Daybreak nuzzled up to Chrysalis’ chest. “When does it normally develop?” Twilight asked. “A year or two, generally.” “Wow.” Twilight couldn’t help but grin with a strange sort of pride. “It must be because of the pony part of her. Unicorn foals tend to have very unruly magic.” “Well, hopefully, she won’t get too unruly,” Chrysalis said. “Oh, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Twilight replied. “So, what’s on the schedule today?” “Ah, yes.” Chrysalis lifted the clipboard back up with her magic and flipped a page over. “Your brother is arriving today.” “Ooh! I’m so excited for them to see Daybreak. Should I dress up? Should I dress Daybreak up? I don’t want them to think I’m not taking this seriously or anything. But what if dressing up makes it look like I’m treating it like a game? What if—” “Twilight.” Chrysalis interrupted her sternly. Twilight blinked and looked over at Chrysalis sheepishly. “Heh, sorry. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” “About that…” Chrysalis looked down at Daybreak and frowned. “Are you sure I should be there?” “What? Of course you should! You’re as much her mom as I am.” “I know that,” Chrysalis said, “but I’m still not entirely confident about how Cadance feels about me.” “That’s in the past,” Twilight told her. “It’s no reason to stay away from family gatherings.” “It just feels like a bad idea after what happened with Rarity.” Twilight gave her a funny look. “What, do you think Daybreak’s gonna try to eat her?” “We don’t know that she won’t,” Chrysalis said. “And we don’t know that she will,” Twilight argued. “If something happens, we’ll deal with it. Besides, we don’t even really know that she wasn’t just trying to feed off Rarity’s love.” “If you insist,” Chrysalis relented. “Let’s get ready, then. You’ve still got time to change your mind about dressing up five or six times before they get here.” It was a few hours later, early in the afternoon, when they finally arrived. Twilight and Chrysalis had just finished taking Daybreak on a stroll around the castle gardens, letting her enjoy the beautiful weather, and they walked back into the throne room to find Shining Armor already there, waiting for them. “Shiny!” Before Shining Armor had even noticed them enter, Twilight jumped into him and wrapped him in a hug. “It’s been way too long.” He chuckled and hugged her back. “Hey, Twi. How are things?” “Come on, you know the answer to that,” Twilight told him. “Things are amazing.” As they talked, Chrysalis pushed the stroller that held Daybreak up to join them. She looked up at him with a curious gaze, and when he caught sight of her Shining Armor looked like he almost fell over where he was standing. He sat down and raised a hoof to his mouth to cover the wide smile that grew across his face. “Ohh, Twi, she is so precious,” Shining Armor said. “Has she been much trouble?” “Oh, not at all,” Twilight said. She lifted Daybreak up out of the stroller and held her gently. “Well, a little. Nothing like Flurry Heart was, though.” Chrysalis walked off to stow away the stroller in the nursery as they chatted. “Well, lucky you,” Shining Armor said. He turned his attention to Daybreak and put on a playful voice. “You keep being nice to your mommies, okay? Twilight gets frustrated super easily.” Daybreak let out a high pitch, excited noise in response that left them both fawning over her. Chrysalis walked back over and joined them as they doted on her. “So,” Chrysalis said, “where are the other two?” “Beats me,” Shining Armor told her. “Flurry Heart saw a candy shop, so they could be there for hours, and who knows what else she might see after. Cadance told me to go on ahead so you didn’t worry.” Twilight laughed. “Well, I guess we’ll see her in a week or so, then.” Shining Armor laughed, too, and then reached out and scratched under Daybreak’s chin. “So, what exactly is she? I mean, I haven’t ever seen a baby changeling, is she more like them than foals?” “Not really,” Chrysalis told him. “Changeling newborns are tiny, larval creatures. Their eyes are far duller, as well. Daybreak is something entirely different.” “I’ve been trying to think of a name for her species,” Twilight added. “So far, I’m leaning towards ‘pixie.’” “Does it need a name?” Shining Armor asked. “No,” Twilight said, “but it’s fun to think about. It’s—” “Baby!” Suddenly, the doors to the throne room burst open, and a tiny pink blur hopped inside. She jumped around, chanting “Baby, Baby, Baby!” as the rest of the room watched her with amusement. Cadance walked in a moment later and pulled her to a stop with her magic. “Calm down, Flurry Heart. We don’t want to disturb her.” Flurry Heart bounced in place. She was a tiny little thing, aside from her massive wingspan, and she always seemed to have an overflow of energy. Her short, curly made was almost neat and tidy, but a day of running around had left it frizzy and misshapen.  “I wanna see the baby,” she said impatiently. “That’s what we’re here for,” Cadance told her. “Just try and be a little more… Controlled, okay dear? You could scare her.” “Pfft, no cousin of mine is gonna scare that easy.” Flurry Heart blew a raspberry and jumped away as Cadance sighed. Twilight grinned as she came up to them. “Hey, Flurry Heart. Where’s your candy?” “Oh, I didn’t get any,” Flurry Heart explained. “I just wanted to look. Have you ever been in one of those places? They’re, like, full of candy. The owner pony said some of it had been there for ten years. That’s older than I am!” “Well, I’m glad you had fun,” Twilight said. She tried not to giggle as Cadance walked up beside Shining Armor and discreetly gave him a little pouch of candy she’d gotten him. “So, do you wanna meet your cousin?” “Yeah!” Flurry Heart stomped her hooves on the ground excitedly. Carefully, Twilight leaned forward and laid on the ground so she could hold Daybreak at a proper height.  Flurry Heart moved in quickly and stared down at the baby, her eyes widening and her mouth falling open in wonder. She gasped. “Wow! She looks so different! Did I look like this?” Cadance came forward and laid down beside them. “No, honey, you pretty much looked like you do now, just smaller. Daybreak Nymph is half changeling.” “Why?” “Wh—” Cadance was thrown off for a second by the question. “Well, it’s because one of her parents is a pony, and the other is a changeling.” “Aunt Chrissy is a changeling?” Flurry Heart looked up at Chrysalis and squinted her eyes. “She doesn’t look like one.” “Before Thorax, they all looked like me,” Chrysalis said proudly. “When he changed, they all followed suit.” “Why didn’t you change, then?” “Because you can’t improve on perfection, sweetheart.” “I dunno,” Flurry Heart said, “I like their colors. I bet you’d still look cool.” “Well, thank you,” Chrysalis replied, “but I am quite content as I am.” Flurry Heart looked back down at Daybreak and moved her head in to get a closer look. “Is she an alicorn like me?” “That’s… A good question,” Twilight said. “She hasn’t really used any magic yet, so we’re not sure if she’ll have alicorn magic. She does have wings and a horn, though.” “Why won’t she do magic?” Flurry Heart reached out and touched her horn, which got a shocked reaction out of Daybreak, and she reached up and grabbed Flurry Heart’s leg. “Is she scared or something?” “We’re not sure,” Twilight said. “There’s never been a half-pony-half-changeling before. We have no idea what’s ‘normal’ for her.” “How do you know something’s not wrong, then?” “Well…” Twilight pursed her lips. “We don’t, really. We just have to be extra careful.” “Aww.” Flurry Heart frowned. “Well, let me know if I can help. Like, maybe I can show her how. Here, Daybreak, look.” She got Daybreak’s attention, pointed up at her own horn, and shot out a little spark of magic. Daybreak’s eyes went wide, and she let out a quiet, happy noise. “Now you do it!” Flurry Heart told her. She reached out and tapped Daybreak’s horn again. “Just like I did.” Daybreak looked at her for a moment, then tried to look up at her horn. Then she shut her eyes, concentrated, and shot a single tiny spark out of her horn. Twilight gasped. “Wow! Oh, baby, you did so good!” She kissed excitedly all over Daybreak’s face. Around the room, the other adults smiled and let out various exclamations of wonderment. “See?” Flurry Heart said. “I knew my cousin would be cool.” Spurred on by all the cheeriness, Daybreak laughed and shut her eyes to try again. Again, a single spark shot out, but this time it was far faster. It flew across the room and landed on a curtain, and a second later the cloth exploded into magical cyan flames. The room panicked. Chrysalis and Shining Armor immediately leapt over and started trying to put out the fire, but the magical nature of it made it hard to extinguish. The magic they were using to keep it down almost seemed to just fan the flames, as though they were using the energy as fuel to burn more furiously. After a few moments of less-than-successful attempts to put out the fire, Flurry Heart jumped up and ran over before Cadance could stop her. She shot out a bolt of magic that slammed into the curtain. There was a short, bright burst of light, and then the fire, the curtain, and a sizable chunk of the wall were nowhere to be seen.  Chrysalis and Shining Armor turned to her. “W-What did you do?” Shining Armor asked. Flurry Heart looked between their serious faces and frowned. “I… I just wanted to help.” Their expressions softened. Chrysalis leaned forward and put a hoof on her shoulder. “You did help,” she told her, “we just want to know how. Just to be safe.” “I just kinda poofed it away,” Flurry Heart explained. “It was fire, so I sent it into the river.” “Ah.” Chrysalis stood back up. “Well, that is going to need to be cleaned up, but I suppose it did put out the fire.” There was a lull in the talking. For a moment, the only noise in the room was Daybreak, who was giggling gleefully at all the excitement she’d caused. All the excitement and, just as noticeable to her, all the frustration.