“Daybreak?” Twilight’s voice rang throughout the house. “Are you in here?”
“Ugh.” Daybreak tensed up. “Angel, let’s get outta here.”
“Why?” Angel asked. They were alone now, Fluttershy having gone to check on Pinkie.
“I don’t wanna talk to her,” Daybreak said. “I kinda yelled at her.”
“Just talk to her,” Angel said. “I really don’t feel like running away from your mom all day.”
“Me neither, but it’s better than—”
“Oh, there you are.” Twilight walked into the room and tried to give Daybreak a compassionate smile. “I was getting worried. Are you alright?”
“Mm,” Daybreak grumbled. “I’m okay, I guess.”
“Yeah?” Twilight walked over and started to lightly pet Daybreak’s mane. “Is there anything you’d still like to talk about?”
“Not really.”
“Alright, well I’m here if you change your mind,” Twilight told her. “Angel, how are you doing?”
“Better,” Angel told her. “Thank you.”
“I’m glad,” Twilight said. “Well, your other aunts are here, so Pinkie said to tell you the party can start whenever you’re ready.”
“Oh, okay,” Angel said. “What about Royal Gala?”
Twilight frowned. “I think it’ll be a couple of hours before she feels well enough to come back. I’m sorry.”
Angel shrugged. “It’s fine. C’mon, Daybreak.” She hopped off the sofa and waved for Daybreak to follow. “You should meet Aunt Maud. You’ll like her, she’s funny.”
Angel didn’t move through the house in any sort of hurry. She took her time, breathing slowly and making sure she was calm, and when they made it to the door she paused for a moment. Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder to reassure her, and Angel nodded and reached up to open the door.
“Oh,” she said at the last moment, “you two might wanna step to the side a bit.”
She gave the door a shove, and it swung quickly open. Then, instead of going outside, she ducked down as low as she could. An instant later, a pink blur flew past them, sailing right over Angel’s head.
“Angel!” A familiar voice yelled excitedly as she soared through the air. When she realized she missed, she shoved her hooves into the floor and spun around, sliding to a stop in a crouch with a wide, thin smile that said she was ready to pounce.
Daybreak was baffled by the new pony, both for her utter strangeness and her uncanny familiarity. “Is that…” She looked up towards her mother. “Is that Pinkie Pie?”
Twilight chuckled. “Not really. That’s Pinkamena. They’re, like… Twins.”
Daybreak looked back over to Pinkamena. She looked, at the most basic level, like Pinkie Pie, but everything beyond that was completely alien. Everything about her looked sharper. Thick black bands ran through her long, straight mane and tail, and her ears were studded with jewelry.
Most notable, though, was her fur. Daybreak had heard about ponies having their fur dyed, but she’d never actually seen it. There were too many reasons not to do it, be it the pain or the permanence or something else entirely, but apparently, that wasn’t enough to stop Pinkamena. The fur near her hooves was all black, and inky tendrils stretched and curled up her legs, wrapping around each other in a tangled web, before eventually fading away at her torso. It gave Daybreak the impression that she was sinking into the darkness, and that it was trying to pull her in.
“You’re not gettin away that easy,” Pinkamena sneered. She sprang forward, shooting through the air like a rocket aimed straight for Angel.
Before she made it, though, Angel vanished.
Pinkamena pouted and puffed out her cheeks. “Cheater! Can’t you beat me fair and square?”
A moment passed, then Angel reappeared beside them, rolling her eyes. “Ugh, fi—”
As soon as she was back, Pinkamena leapt forward and pulled Angel into a tight hug. “Gotcha,” she gloated as they skidded down the hall and Pinkamena squeezed and nuzzled Angel lovingly.
“H-Hey, Pinkamena,” Angel choked out. “I, uh, can’t really breathe.”
Pinkamena looked at her for a second, then smirked and hugged even tighter. “Nice try, but I know you don’t need to breathe.”
Angel huffed defiantly, then smiled slightly. “Fine. You win.”
“Yay!” Pinkamena kissed Angel’s forehead, then set her gently on the ground and sprang up onto her hooves. “So, Angel, how’s your birthday been?”
Angel shrugged. “Not the best.”
“Aww.” Pinkamena frowned deeply. “What happened?”
“Uhh…”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Um, we had an accident with some chaos magic,” she said.
“Oh, Pinkie was saying somethin about that. I couldn’t really—” Pinkamena cut herself off with a huge gasp. “Twilight! Is that your daughter?”
Twilight grinned. “Yup! Daybreak, this is Pinkamena. Say hi!”
“Um… Hi?” Daybreak waved awkwardly. “It’s nice to—”
Before she could finish, Pinkamena sprang forward and pulled Daybreak into a hug. “Oh, I’m so glad I get to finally meet you!”
“Do you greet everypony this way?” Daybreak groaned.
“Pretty much!”
“Great.”
Pinkamena laughed and set Daybreak down, then turned back to Angel. “Where’s your little Apple friend?”
“She got sick,” Angel said.
“Aww, bummer!”
“Wait,” Daybreak said, “how come you know Royal Gala but not me?”
“Oh, we’ve met a lot,” Pinkamena said. “She’s, um. It’s not important. Luna’s in my dreams pretty often. Don’t worry about it.” She tapped her hoof on the floor a few times, then seemed to remember something and hopped up. “Hey, let’s go check out the party!” Without waiting for an answer, she zipped out the door, leaving the others dazed and confused.
“That was… Weird,” Daybreak said.
“Aunt Pinkamena is just like that,” Angel told her. “When she feels good, at least.”
“Speaking of which,” Twilight said, “I’m going to go see how she’s been lately. You two come out whenever you’re ready, okay?”
“Okay, Mrs. Sparkle,” Angel said. “Thank you.”
“Mm-hm!” Twilight grinned and skipped out the door to rejoin the party.
Angel hesitated for a moment, but managed to push her reservations away, and the two children stepped outside.
The party was, surprisingly, all back in order. All the disarray from the chaos had been cleaned up, and the partygoers were all acting as though nothing had happened at all. They were all split off into little groups, talking and laughing and having a great time.
“So, how does the party actually start?” Daybreak asked.
Angel shrugged. “This is it, really. It’s not all that different, except I get to open presents later, and if I get bored I can say I wanna play a game or something and they have to listen.” She started wandering through the party, and Daybreak followed close behind.
“So, what was the point of not saying it had started until now?”
“The pre-party makes it so nopony feels like they can’t come early,” Angel said, “and that helps to make sure everypony gets here by the time the actual party starts. If the party started at dawn and Pinkie said ‘just come whenever,’ somepony might not show up until, like, sundown.”
“Huh.”
Suddenly, Angel veered off and jumped up to sit at a table with one of the groups. It was a small group, but it stood out, as both Chrysalis and—for some reason Daybreak couldn’t guess at—Celestia were sitting at the table, along with a third pony that Daybreak didn’t recognize.
Daybreak hopped up beside her mother, who patted her silently on the back. She leaned hard on the table, still tired from earlier, and turned to watch as Angel struck up a conversation.
“Hey, Aunt Maud,” she said to the strange pony. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” Maud said. She gave Angel a quick hug. “You?”
“I’m, um… Okay,” Angel decided. “Oh, and hi, Celestia.”
Celestia grinned. “Hello, Angel Trifle. Happy Birthday.”
Daybreak decided to lean over and whisper to her mother. “Why is Celestia here?”
“She’s with Maud,” Chrysalis whispered back.
“Are they married? How come she never brings Maud to the castle?”
“It’s complicated,” Chrysalis said. “Ask them if you want to know more.”
“Hey, Aunt Maud,” Angel said, “guess what I got from Royal Gala.”
“I don’t know,” Maud said.
“Well, guess!”
“My guess is that you got a present.”
Across the table, Celestia chuckled. “Angel, dear, I think you’re just going to have to show her.”
“Well, yeah, that was the plan,” Angel said. She moved her hooves across the table, bending and shaping shadows until they came together into the shape of a large, jagged stone. “Check it out.”
“It’s a rock,” Maud said.
“Yeah, but what kind?”
“Hmm…” Maud leaned forward and took a closer look. “Basalt?”
“Well, have you ever seen anything like it?”
“No.”
“Mm-hm!” Angel grinned proudly. “That’s cuz it’s from the moon.”
Maud raised an eyebrow and looked the rock over some more, turning it and examining it from every angle. When she was done, she leaned back and nodded. “Cool.”
Angel clapped excitedly. “I knew you’d be impressed!”
“Is that impressed?” Daybreak asked.
Celestia laughed. “You have to get used to it,” she said, “but yes, I haven’t seen her this wowed since I took her up to see the sun! Oh, now that was a date. Have I told you about that one, Chrysalis? It was so funny, we tried to take some champagne with us, and as soon as we got there it just exploded all over us! What a mess, but luckily—”
“So,” Maud said, getting Angel and Daybreak’s attention as Celestia rambled on, “Pinkie told me you’re going to have a little brother.”
“Yeah, apparently,” Angel said. “Did she tell you about the magic? I’m kinda worried about it, honestly.”
Maud shrugged. “Pinkie was a pretty chaotic kid, and we’re all fine.”
“Yeah, but she wasn’t magic,” Angel said.
“Could’ve fooled me,” Maud replied.
“Were you like Angel as a kid?” Daybreak asked.
“A little,” Maud said. “I wasn’t as well behaved, though.”
Daybreak laughed. “You sure? Maybe you just don’t know what Angel gets up to.”
“I’m sure.”
“What about the others?” Daybreak asked. “What were they like?”
“I wasn’t around too much for Marble,” Maud said, “but she was pretty quiet. Limestone wasn’t, but she was actually probably the most well behaved of us all, she was just loud about it.”
“What about Pinkamena?”
“She wasn’t around yet.”
“They’re not really twins,” Angel explained. “Pinkamena’s, like, a clone or something.”
“Pinkie fell into a magic cloning pool,” Maud said.
“Why was she hanging out where she could do that?” Daybreak asked.
“Why were you hanging out by the Tree of Harmony?” Maud countered.
“Hey, the tree’s not gonna clone us,” Daybreak said. “You can’t fall into a magic tree.”
“Fair enough,” Maud said. “Anyway, Angel, don’t worry about your brother. He’ll be fine, especially with you there to look out for him.”
“You really think so?” Angel asked.
“Mm-hm,” Maud hummed.
Angel smiled and gave Maud a tight hug. “Thank you,” she said. “You’re the best.”
“I know.”
Suddenly, the air was pierced by a loud shout. Near the house, Pinkie was yelling out. “Angel! Angel, c’mere!”
Angel looked around the table, but none of the others knew what was going on, so she got up and wandered back towards Pinkie. When she got there, she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, nothing,” Pinkie said cheerily. “I just wanna open presents!”
The party went on from there, a day of fun, of joy, of family. A celebration to be remembered for years, not only for the bad but the good as well. It had more than its fair share of turbulence, but despite that, Angel would see it for years to come as the best birthday she’d ever had. After all, it was still the first birthday she’d had with real friends, and nothing could take that away.
The rock farm wasn’t the only lively place in Equestria that day, though.
Deep below Canterlot, a maze of caverns was home to a vast network of pipes and cables that connected the entire city. They ran for miles, crossing over each other and twisting around in an incomprehensible web that even the most experienced of ponies needed a map to navigate.
Despite this, only one pony was tasked with the system’s upkeep. Rugged Hollow was a short, muscular unicorn who, for the most part, quite liked his job. It was simple, it was quiet, and it kept him busy while still giving him time to think. Normally, he spent his days patrolling the caves, checking for any damaged pipes or cut cabling, and most days he went home having done nothing, but still feeling fulfilled.
Lately, however, things had been different. Pipes were bursting. Cables were being torn to shreds. Only a few weeks prior, one tunnel had collapsed entirely, leaving him cut off from an entire section of the system. It was getting out of control, and it was making his normally enjoyable job quite stressful.
He was hoping for some relief when the tunnel was repaired. He could finally stop worrying about the network beyond, and there hadn’t even been any incidents since the walls came down. For a moment, he even let himself believe that it might be over.
He immediately knew otherwise, however, when he turned a corner and heard a splash as he stepped into a puddle.
He quickly swiveled his flashlight up from the map he was using and pointed it down the tunnel. Or, at least, what had been a tunnel. A massive room had been dug out by something. The walls were filled with holes, most empty, but some were actively pouring water out into the room below. When he followed the waterfalls with his light, he saw that the entire room was flooded with water far too murky to tell how deep it was. It could be as shallow as the puddle he’d stepped in, but something in his gut told him it was much, much deeper.
The edge of his flashlight beam glinted off of something in the water. He scanned the surface, but at first, all he saw was ripples.
Then he saw the reflection of light again and snapped his focus towards it. On the other side of the room, something was in the water. Something dark, and wet, and looking straight back at him.
He took a shaky step back, and it moved forward, rising up out of the water. He could see its ears, its eyes, a snout, a mane. He narrowed his eyes. Was it a pony?
Then, there were more ripples. Two more heads poked out of the water and turned their attention to him.
He turned and ran.