//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 The Cubs React // Story: Memories Lost After Daybreaker // by SamSwordsman123 //------------------------------// "What?” Shining Armor and Twilight said together. Night Light gaped at his wife. “Velvet, dear. This is clearly an overreaction!” Velvet threw a glare at her husband, silencing him. “Mom! You can’t do this! I’m marrying Cadance!” Shining Armor protested, looking at his fiancé. “You can still marry her, but you will have nothing to do with Celestia now!” “That’s going to be impossible! She’s Princess Celestia’s adopted niece!” Shining Armor pointed out. “She lives in this castle with her aunt!” “Well…” Velvet hesitated. “You can’t expect a princess to give up living in her castle!” Shining Armor said. “And I’m the bearer of the element of magic! I can’t just walk away from the princess!” Twilight pointed out. Velvet frowned. “Then let your friends relay her orders as you continue to protect Equestria! You are not to go near her anymore! Come on! We’re going home!” She made to take Twilight’s hoof, but Twilight yanked it away. “Mom! I’m not a little filly anymore! What Princess Celestia did was not her fault!” Celestia shook her head. “Twilight, this is my fault! You lost your memory because of me. I alone am to blame for tonight’s events.” “You see?” Velvet asked. “She admits it being her fault! Both of you have been in too much danger lately. Twilight, you’ve been sent on dangerous missions by her! You nearly died of poisoning after fighting Queen Chrysalis, and you were abducted by Celestia…” “Daybreaker!” Twilight corrected. “Doesn’t matter what she’s called! They’re the same pony!” Velvet snapped. “And now you’ve lost some of your memory! I nearly lost you to her, my own daughter was nearly stolen and made to be the child of a dark alicorn! I’m not going to go through that again! For either of my children! Shining was brainwashed and nearly forced to marry Queen Chrysalis! I’ve had enough life-threatening events happening for my children right now! You are both to return home this minute!” At this point Twilight was upset. Mama Bear’s cubs were not appreciating their mother’s protection. “I don’t live under your roof anymore!” Twilight pointed out. “I’m not a little filly anymore!” “Twiley’s right!” Shining Armor agreed. “We’re both grown ponies and capable of making our own choices! Come on, Twiley. You can stay at my place until this dies down. I’m not resigning from my post as Captain of the Royal Guard, and Equestria needs you as the element of magic.” He glared at his mother and was about to say, "You’re uninvited to the wedding.” But after what happened with Twilight, he couldn’t bring himself to say that to his mother as well. He was not going to make that mistake twice. But the wedding might have to wait even longer, at least until his mother cooled down. Instead he merely huffed. Twilight nodded. “Lead the way. B.B.B.F.F.” Velvet’s mouth fell open as her children turn away from her. “Twilight! Shining! Wait!” she called. “Sorry Mom! But we can’t talk to you right now when you’re all… bear like!” Twilight said. “Come on, Spike! We’re going to Shining’s house!” The baby dragon looked back at Velvet as he followed Twilight and her brother out of the room. Velvet watched as the door to the hospital wing closed behind them in a reddish pink aura from Twilight. She let out a deep sigh and sat down on the floor. Twilight’s friends watched sadly, it was like when Twilight had been kicked out of the wedding. Yet another reminder of the horrible thing they had done, what their friend had forgotten that they had done to her. This time they would not abandon somepony. This wasn’t a close friend of theirs, but it was a mother of a close friend who was sad. She needed to have somepony to comfort her. Applejack approached Velvet. “Hey, it’s okay. They’re just mad at you right now. We all do… stupid things when we’re mad.” “Like how you walked out on my daughter when she was sad after Shining kicked her out of the wedding?” Velvet asked as tears flowed from her eyes. This tore a hole through Applejack’s heart. “I’ve never been more sorry about anything, Mrs. Sparkle.” “I suppose you’re relieved that Twilight forgot about that?” Velvet asked. “I… can’t deny that it is somewhat relieving,” Applejack said. “I wish all of us could forget about that ever happening! I can’t believe I actually thought Twilight would be possessive of her brother!” Rarity said. Applejack looked at her friends. “Girls, we got to tell her the truth!” “No!” Pinkie said. “What if she doesn’t forgive us?” Rainbow Dash asked. “She forgave us once, remember she said it wasn’t our fault and that Chrysalis fooled everypony!” “But she doesn’t remember it now! What if she decides we were to blame after we tell her?" “I can’t bear the thought of losing Twilight as a friend. Even though I truly don’t deserve it from her,” Fluttershy said. “I was so cruel, leaving her when she was sad. Some element of kindness I turned out to be.” “We all betrayed our elements,” Rarity agreed. “I chose to be generous and ignore the imposters bad behavior, thought it was the result of nerves. But I didn’t do the same for Twilight! She was just trying to look out for her brother!” “I should have stayed with her!” Rainbow said. “She could have been through a lot worse! The queen could have chosen to bite her than and there, then send her to the caverns to die!” “Please, don’t say that!” Velvet sobbed. “I can’t bare the thought of anything bad happening to my children!” Princess Luna stepped forward. “I believe we would all benefit from some sleep right now. We’ve been up all night.” Looking at a clock nearby, Celestia saw that it was indeed time to raise the sun. “Oh, well here comes daybreak!” she sighed as she rose the sun. “I’ve been up all night!” Rarity exclaimed. “So much for my beauty sleep! I spent some of it in that filthy prison!” Fluttershy yawned. “I’m very tired." “Let’s get some sleep, we’ll figure out what to do about this later,” Applejack said. They all walked out. Night Light put a hoof around his wife. “Come on, Velvet. Let’s go home. We’ll smooth things over with Shining and Twilight.” Wiping the tears from her eyes, Velvet nodded. “You mean I will. This was all me and my Mama bear.”