Arc: Childhood
Chapter 3: Meeting Twilight Sparkle
“Midnight! Time to wake up~!”
Five seconds later, I found myself flailing in the air before landing face-first onto the floor of my bedroom. Once again my sister decided to appear in my room, once again she decided to bounce on my bed, and once again she caused me to tumble onto the floor. I simply let out a sigh as I slowly lifted my gaze towards her.
“I’m beginning to feel that you like doing this to me,” I stated as I looked outside my window and tried to see where the sun was. Shortly after Celestia's presentation of raising the sun in front of us, me and my sister had quickly gone to sleep. Thankfully, just like how ponies can party throughout the entire night before the rising of the sun, they can continue feeling energized for the rest of the day. Of course, kids like us still need to sleep given that we’re still growing, but even so, we just need a small nap of an hour or two to become recharged again.
My sister gave me a small smile upon hearing my words before she went in front of me and began to ruffle my mane.
“Duwu i wook wike the pony who wouwd pwank theiw wittwe bwothew?” Lightning Spark asked me while using a cute English variant. Unfortunately for her though, I wasn’t so easily demolished by her cute sounds, and I simply laughed it off.
“Yes. You’re the type of pony who would do that to me.” I said jokingly as I hugged my sister. “I guess you woke me up because mom told you so?” I asked. If we were to compare each other, my sister was always the one who woke up earlier than me, early enough that my mom practically made her my alarm clock, even though I already have one.
Lightning Spark simply nodded with a smile.
“Yep! You do remember that you have to go with Twilight starting today right?” My sister asked, which was understandable, seeing that I tended to drift in my thoughts and forget about a few things. Unlike other times though, I was able to remember and thus nodded.
“Yeah, I do. Thanks for waking me up.” I said as I began to lift myself from the ground. “Just please don’t make it a habit of throwing me off my bed ok?” I request. Lightning simply smiled as she gave me a mischief smirk.
“No promises.” My sister stated, causing me to roll my eyes before heading to the bathroom to get ready for the day. After a few minutes, I glided downstairs like I always do and sat in my chair, where my dad was reading a newspaper article.
“Hey, dad! What are you reading?” I asked my dad, but to my surprise, he completely missed what I said and continued to read the article. “Dad?” I asked once again, but like before, he was unaware of my presence. He wore a serious expression as he continued to read the news. “Dad!” I yelled. Upon realizing that my dad wouldn’t respond to me, I tried looking at the article he was reading, but before I could even read the first bold sentence, he noticed me and quickly hid the newspaper away.
“H-Hey son! How long have you been there?” My dad asked, trying to keep his cool, though I could feel that he had become a bit nervous. I simply let out a light-hearted laugh, trying to make him calm down.
“Just recently arrived. What are you reading dad?” I asked as I leaned over the table to see what it was about. Before I could find out though, my mother touched me in the shoulder as she held over a plate of pancakes with her wing.
“Breakfast is served!” My mom said as she placed the plate in front of me. Immediately I had forgotten what I was about to ask, my attention having fully swayed to eating the pancakes. After putting on some strawberry jam and white syrup (which I believe is called buttermilk syrup), I began to munch down on my food. Of course, it didn’t take long for me to remember what I wanted to ask my dad, but seeing that he was eating his meal happily, I decided that should I ever touch that topic again, it would be later.
“So… are you excited to visit this… Twilight Sparkle?” My father asked while my sister joined into the meal along with my mom, the two of them having their conversation. I quickly nodded and let out a smile.
“Yep! While I’m mostly going there to see Spike, I wouldn’t mind talking with her. She’s one of Celestia’s students, so maybe I could try and learn something from her.” I replied. My dad began to scratch his head as he processed what I said.
“Hmm… Twilight Sparkle… like if I remember correctly she’s not only Celestia’s most prized pupil but… hmm… Midnight? Mind doing me a favor?” My dad asked as he turned to face me. I nodded, which allowed him to continue. “Ask Twilight Sparkle if she has a brother and what his name is. Because ‘Sparkle’ sounds a bit familiar to me, but I forgot what it was. Can I trust you in doing that?” My dad asked.
“Sure dad! Anything you want!” I answered. As we all finished eating, we all lifted ourselves from the table. My dad walked over to my mom who simply smiled at him.
“I’ll be going to work if you don’t mind. Want me to bring Lightning Spark with me or do you want to take her with you when you go to drop Midnight off with Twilight?” My dad asked. My mother thought about it for a moment.
“Hmm… Alright. That sounds fair. Take Lightning with you.” My mother said before turning to face Lightning Spark. “Does that sound good to you, or do you want to come with me?” My mom asked. She shrugged.
“Eh. Fine with me. I want to know if it’s true that all that the Royal Guard does is stand around or not.” My sister said, causing my dad to laugh.
“Oh? Is that what you think of me my little Lightning Spark?” My dad said as he walked over to Lightning before attacking her with a flurry of tickles, causing her to laugh. “Maybe I can take you to a flight track so you can practice your skills alright?” Thunder Storm said, to which my sister immediately nodded excitedly.
“Yes! I’d love to go on one of those flying tracks!” My sister exclaimed as she hugged my dad. He grinned as he walked towards the door before opening it.
“Then let’s go right now!” My dad said before the two pegasi spread their wings before flying away. My mother turned to face me with a soft smile.
“Why don’t we go ahead and drop you off with Twilight?” My mother asked. I nodded and soon she grabbed me by the hoof as we headed out of the door. She made sure that the door was locked, before firmly grabbing me and taking us up into the sky. In no time we had arrived at the Canterlot Library where I had first met Spike, and already through the window, I could see him patiently waiting. He soon noticed us flying from the distance and immediately rushed towards the door, disappearing for a moment before reappearing as he opened them, just as we landed.
“Hi Midnight! Hi Midnight’s mom!” The purple baby dragon said, causing my mom to chuckle.
“My name is Snowy Blizzard, Spike.” My mom said, “And no, you don’t have to call me by my full name or by ‘misses’. Just call me Snowy.” My mother immediately added, to which Spike nodded.
“Alright, Mis- I mean Snowy,” Spike said, immediately correcting himself. “You’ll be coming in? Are you two hungry? Cause I can make something for you two eat-”
“We already ate, though we appreciate your offer, Spike.” My mother said, her face forming a neutral expression. “On that note though, I need to talk to Twilight Sparkle about a certain matter, so if you will excuse me I’ll go ahead and meet with your guardian. In the meantime, try spending time with my son if you want.” Snowy said as she stepped through the open door. The two of us simply blinked.
“Yeah, I don’t think she likes how Twilight is operating and is going to do her best to ‘educate’ her,” I stated, which caused Spike to drop onto the floor and laugh.
“Educate! Oh, that’s a good one!” The small purple baby dragon exclaimed as he continued to laugh. Seeing the joke I unintentionally created, I began to laugh as well, with a bit more control though.
“Oh, dear. Twilight must be deep in that rabbit hole if that’s a joke.” I commented. “Let’s just go inside shall we?” I asked. Spike nodded and thus the two of us walked through the doors, closing them behind us. We soon noticed my mom and Twilight talking near a table, but based on her movements, expression, and random twitching, I was able to tell that Twilight had just recently experienced another ‘Blizzard Attack’.
“Spike?” Twilight Sparkle asked, causing the young dragon to look up to her.
“Yes, Twilight? Let me guess: You need me to organize all of these bookshelves again before cleaning up the floor right?” Spike asked, causing Twilight to freeze and look over to my mom nervously. She let out a nervous laugh before turning back towards the small dragon.
“U-Uhm… actually Spike… why don’t you take the day off? You can make those chores optional. I… I need to talk with Midnight’s mom for a moment.” Twilight said nervously. Seeing that she was becoming more and more nervous, I decided to step next to her and give her a soft smile.
“Hey Twilight! How are you?” I asked, trying to start a conversation with her. She simply let out a nervous laugh before sighing.
“I could be better… Your mom is a very tough mare Midnight.” Twilight said, before nervously laughing again. Deciding to do what my father asked, I decided to go ahead and ask her a question.
“Hey, Twilight. Do you have a brother?” I asked, causing the purple unicorn to blink at me.
“Uhm… yes…? What about him?” Twilight asked in confusion, not knowing where I wanted to take this conversation. I decided to press forward with the subject.
“What’s his name, and who is he?” I asked, causing her to look at me, still confused, before letting out a soft smile.
“Oh? You mean my BBBFF?” Twilight asked. Now it was my turn to become confused as I tried to figure out what that acronym meant.
“I presume that means Big Brother Best Friend Forever?” I asked hesitantly, hoping I didn’t get it wrong. Twilight simply beamed as she heard me say those words.
“You got it! You don’t know how many ponies struggle learning what BBBFF means! His name is Shining Armor, and he just became Captain of the Royal Guard just last year! I try to keep in contact with him, but with him doing his duties and I having to study, it’s been hard, to say the least. Why did you ask anyway?” Twilight Sparkle asked, raising an eyebrow towards me.
“My dad wanted me to ask you about your brother. Considering that he is a Royal Guard, he probably met or heard about Shining Armor, and thus when he heard that I was going to visit you he probably connected the dots, but still wanted to make sure that he was right.” I stated. Twilight Sparkle simply nodded.
“I guess that makes sense… So I guess you’re going to be playing with Spike now?” The purple unicorn asked. From the corner of my eye, I could see Spike’s eyes glinting as he thought about the possibilities of playing with me, especially since his chores were now optional for the day. I nodded.
“Yeah. I plan on playing some things with him, but is there something you’d want to do?” I asked, causing both Twilight, Spike, and my mother to blink. My mother soon began to smile while the other two remained confused.
“Uhm… Study?” Twilight said hesitantly, lifting a large textbook with her magic. I simply shook my head.
“Why don’t we play three-way chess?” I offered, causing Spike and Twilight to blink at me. My mother’s smile only grew when Twilight began to smile as well.
“You like chess right?” She asked, to which I nodded. “Yeah. I loved playing that game with my brother. I usually won. So you want to play three-way chess with me and Spike right?” She asked, to which I nodded.
“Like if Spike is ok with that, we could spend the first half-hour doing it,” I said. “Wanna join Spike?” I offered. The small baby dragon thought for a moment before nodding.
“Sure. We do have all day to have fun, even if I decided to do some chores on my own accord.” Spike said, before smiling at me. “Sure! Let me get the old three-way chessboard we used to play with Shining.” Spike said as he disappeared around the corner. My mother simply smiled at me and Twilight.
“Well, I need to go back home. Stay safe Midnight, and take good care of him Twilight.” Snowy Blizzard said as she lifted herself from the table. Twilight simply shivered but kept a warm smile.
“Bye Snowy! I’ll try to remember what you said.” The purple unicorn said as my mom stepped outside.
“Bye, mom!” I yelled just before she closed the door. She stopped for a moment, smiled at me, before leaving. Immediately when the doors closed, Twilight let out a sigh of relief before staring at me.
“Your mother really can be scary sometimes.” She stated. I simply rolled my eyes at her. Soon enough, Spike brought a circular board and set it on the table. Unlike the black and white chessboard me and my sister had, this board had a light and dark brown pattern. The three sets of pieces came in black, gray, and white colors, which I found to be satisfying.
“So how shall we decide to play then?” Spike asked. I decided to raise my hoof, which brought their attention to me.
“Can I have the gray pieces please?” I asked. Twilight simply nodded.
“Alright, I’ll take the black pieces then, and Spike can play the white pieces. We’ll switch colors when we finish this game.” Twilight stated. Spike shrugged before he began to set the pieces. Immediately I noticed that several pieces were adjacent to each other like how my right rook was next to Spike’s left rook and my left rook was next to Twilight’s right rook. Before I was able to comment on that, I then noticed the green line that separated our armies, and I was able to understand from there that those borderline pieces wouldn’t be captured until they passed that wall.
I also noticed various colored oval-shaped lines within the circular board, which I presumed would help players figure out where to move their bishop or queens in a diagonal pattern. After studying the board for a bit longer and developing strategies, we shook hooves (or claw in Spike’s case) and began our game.
We all ended up playing the King’s Pawn move, though it felt strange how it looked like it barely moved at all given that the board was scaled up to 12x12. As the game began to progress, I began to realize that Spike, though very young, was much more intelligent than the average kid, playing moves that usually ended up balancing the struggle between me and him. Against Twilight though, there was no such thing as competition as she began to dominate us, checking us using the diagonal paths of the chessboard. But while Spike was nearing capitulation, that didn’t mean that I wasn’t able to put up a fair fight. Each time she took a piece, I’d either take it back or create a threat that she’d have to deal with. Pretty soon Spike was just reduced to a King with two pawns while me and Twilight duked it out, ‘simplifying’ things as we continued to take pieces from each other.
Of course, I always felt like she was holding back, making moves that were always ‘excellent’, but never the ‘best’, as if she wanted to see where I lay. However, as we moved into the endgame, the advantage quickly began to slip into Twilight’s favor, who must’ve studied that category extensively, as in a matter of no time she slipped a queen into a square, attacking both of our Kings and saying a simple sentence.
“Checkmate.”
I looked down and saw that me and Spike were both pinned to the sides, however, I felt great about this match. I was able to find somebody stronger than me and had a good time fighting against them. Even though I lost, I felt a sense of pride that I was able to put up a fair fight against her. I proceeded to lift my hoof towards her and smile.
“Good Game,” I said, and the two of us shook hooves. She simply smiled.
“You’re a rather good player Midnight. I think you’d be placed as an ‘advanced beginner’, you’re around the rating of 1200 to 1400, which is pretty high for your age. Spike on the other hand is around a rating of around 1000, which again is good for his age, as I’ve been trying to teach him how to become intelligent despite his youth. I’m in the 2000+ Rating though, so considering that you were able to fight well against me is pretty impressive. You remind me of my brother in that regard, as you two might have similar ratings.” Twilight commented, which caused me to smile.
“Thanks Twilight. Wanna play again, this time just you and me?” I asked. Twilight looked over to Spike, who shrugged.
“You two could do whatever you want. After all, he’s going to be visiting us for an entire month, maybe even more depending on your choice. I’ll go ahead and do some chores if you want, maybe read some comics afterward before cooking up something for us to eat.” Spike responded. Twilight simply sighed before coming over to Spike and hugging him.
“You do what you think is best, Spike.” Twilight Sparkle said before she disappeared around a corner before bringing back the regular chessboard. “So Midnight. Wanna play for a few more rounds?” Twilight asked me as Spike left to go ahead and read some comics by himself. I instantly beamed as she began to place the chess pieces.
“Let’s do this!” I yelled enthusiastically as I chose the white pieces and played the King’s Pawn, beginning the game.
The next few hours were intense but had the same outcome.
No matter what I tried, no matter how many times I threatened her King with a knight fork, a bishop, a queen, a rook, or any of the many ways I could attack her, her experience with the endgame always gave her the edge. Now, that didn’t mean that I was angry at her, far from the contrary, as I was able to grow from my mistakes at a decent pace. However, it was annoying feeling so close to victory, only to end up losing in the end.
It got even more annoying as my mind began to tire out and I began to create blunders. Sometimes I would move the pawns in front of my knight before getting sniped by a bishop or a queen. Sometimes checkmate was inevitable due to her being able to keep both of her rooks while I only had a bishop left. Sometimes it was the old-fashioned queen-rook checkmate that got me, other times she was able to promote her pawn to a queen first. Against her, victory seemed downright impossible.
But I continued to try, and whenever I felt that she was trying to go easy on me, I’d tell her to stop and that she should continue fighting aggressively. Otherwise, how would I learn if my opponent gave me the win on a silver platter?
By the end of the day though, I was exhausted. Spike, after doing some chores and reading some comics, decided to act like a host announcer of some sort as he tried to predict what our future moves would be. Again, early to mid-game isn’t a problem for me. It’s the end game that proves to be the most difficult for me. The moment I saw her two rooks and queen ready to beam down at my weakest points, I knew I was dead because my King would always be in a weak position.
“Twilight? I’m tired right now…” I simply stated as she checked me for perhaps the 100th time today. The purple mare simply sighed before giving me a soft smile.
“Yeah, me too. You’re a good opponent, but you need to learn how to pin me down in the endgame. Still, it was nice playing with you. This was the most fun I had since I played with Shiny.” Twilight said. She taught me that she likes to call her older brother by the name of ‘Shiny’, while he would call her ‘Twily’. It sounded cute to be honest, seeing how those two were close together.
Hearing her say that it was fun playing with me caused me to let out a smile and a soft laugh.
“Heh. Thanks, Twilight.” I said, before pausing as I thought about asking another question, but unsure as to what would be her response. “Hey, Twilight?” I asked, causing her to bring her attention to me while she began to put the pieces away. “Are we friends now?” I asked. This caused the purple mare to freeze, her eyes darting around. She still seemed reluctant to make me her friend, perhaps not because I was younger than her, or because I wasn’t suited for her, but most likely because friendship was still something she felt she wasn’t ready for?
“I… well… I guess I never really had true friends. I only have my study group, but even calling them friends would stretch the line.” Twilight stated, causing me to frown a bit.
“Twilight… I think my mom is right about something. You need to make friends. And I could be your first one!” I said, trying to convince her with my enthusiastic voice. She simply placed a hoof on her face as she tried to think.
“I know I know. Everypony tells me to ‘find some friends’. Even Princess Celestia had tried to knock that into my mind. But for a long time, I don’t feel that friends are worth…” The purple mare froze as she realized what she was about to say, which I presumed would've been the words ‘worth the time’. She went silent for a moment as she tried to find a better way to say it, but before long she let out a sigh. “I just never felt like it was… like I needed friends… They might be worth it for others… but… I never found myself needing friends ya know? If I had a problem, all I needed to do was either formulate a plan inside my head to solve it or read a textbook about that problem. Friends weren’t necessary if I could do things myself.” Twilight stated, looking down at the table. The two of us stayed silent, which allowed me to hear Spike cooking something in the background (apparently this library had a place for Twilight and Spike to live in, this was their home in a nutshell). Finally, after a few minutes, she spoke.
“I’m not ready for friendship Midnight. I just… I just don’t have the need or want inside me…” Twilight said, which caused my ears to lower a bit in disappointment. “But… I’d be interested in trying with you.”
My frown instantly turned into a smile as I heard her say that, my body becoming excited, and a grin was plastered on my face.
“R-Really?” I asked, wanting to hear her confirm what she said. She did a light shrug, softly smiling while doing so.
“Sure. You’re a good kid, and even if we don’t end up being friends, I think we could develop some type of teacher-student relationship if you want to learn chess from me. Which would kind of be like friendship? I don’t know, this whole concept is new to me. This is the first time that a subject has caused me to think this long.” Twilight stated, laughing a bit. I laughed along with her.
“Yeah. Sure. Friendship doesn’t need to happen immediately. We can try slowly ya know? Learn what we both like, our interests, and such. And maybe I could help you turn your study group into a real group of friends if you want Twi.” I said. She smiled.
“That sounds fine.” The young mare said before gesturing towards the kitchen area. “I think Spike prepared something special tonight. I will change how much he has to work since your mother pointed out that I should give him a bit more care, but I can’t deny that he’s been a good cook. So… Wanna head over to eat there?” Twilight asked. I nodded once more.
“Sure,” I replied. She smiled softly before lifting herself and putting the chessboard and pieces away.
“Then let’s go,” Twilight said. I immediately hopped out of my chair, smiling. Maybe we weren’t officially friends, but there was the chance that we could end up being close. Not to mention that I could help turn her study group into her new close friends and develop a friendship with Spike as well.
Hopefully, I will be able to make a difference and help Twilight find the meaning of friendship!