//------------------------------// // 3: Mother of Nyx (Warning: Spoilers for Past Sins) // Story: Words of Advice from the many worlds of Twilight // by Joe Toon //------------------------------// "Are you sure you'll be fine on your own this time, Twilight?" "I'll be fine Spike. You just be safe on your trip to the Dragon Lands. Besides, so far we've met old unicorn me, male version of me, and a (sigh) cavepony version of me that only speaks in grunts." It had been two days since their meeting with Dusk Shine and Barb, and Twilight had been frustrated that she wasted a day accidentally inputting the wrong world that her wise old self recommended; resulting in the most awkward meeting of what might just be the least intelligent version of herself in an Equis that had just finally developed into the Stone Age. "Y'know, you have to admit it was pretty hilarious trying to communicate with her," Spike mused at the memory, "Thak Sap, I think she called herself. I'd like to think you might have revolutionized her world when you introduced to her rudimentary writing, and Fire." "It was the least I could do to curb her boredom," Twilight replied, "and for my sake so that the mishap didn't go to waste. We could only take one trip a day with the seal's cooldown after all." "Welp, I'm off Twilight. Take care and don't forget to tell me of your meeting." Twilight smiled, "Only if you'll tell me how the diplomatic venture went when you come back." As Spike left the room, Twilight inputted the intended coordinates this time: World Equis 46. And just like before, the familiar bright flash transported her away. Without hesitation this time, she made her way to the tree to meet her counterpart. However when she reached the landmark no one was in sight. Odd, shouldn't there be... Her thought were interrupted by a familiar flash of light and there standing in front of her was another unicorn version of herself, except just a few years younger than herself and she wasn't alone. Behind her stood a young, dark alicorn filly. "What?! What's going on here?" Her counterpart became defensive at the situation, "Who are you and why do you look like me?!" "I-it's okay," assured Twilight, "I'm you from another world. I was hoping..." "T-Twilight," the alicorn filly squeaked softly as she hid behind her counterpart, "why does she look like you?" "It's alright, Nyx," the unicorn mare assured the filly; gesturing her to stay behind her while she kept her gaze at Twilight, "Nothing is going to happen to you again, I promise" "You Pinkie-promise?" Her counterpart gave a motherly smile as she turned to assure the little one, "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Twilight averted her gaze from her counterpart and instead bore attention to the young filly. It wasn't just that fact that she was an alicorn that surprised her; it was her night-dark coat and mane and her turquoise, dragon-like eyes that caught her attention. An all too familiar image came to Twilight as she continued to observe her; a smaller version of what was once Equestria's greatest threat... "Nightmare Moon?" The alicorn filly gave a soft and terrified squeak as she curls down and grappled one of the unicorn's hind legs. "NO!" Fear, Rage and Resolve showed on the unicorn's face as she ignited her horn and prepared to make a stand against her potential foe, "SHE IS NOT NIGHTMARE MOON! She is Nyx, my daughter! And if you dare come near her I swear I won't hesitate to put you down!" "Woah, easy, easy! I'm not here for her! I promise!" Twilight tried to de-escalate the situation with an assuring smile, "I'm more here for you, actually." Before her unicorn counterpart could process what was said to her, Nyx screamed a, "NO!" before leaping in front of her mother, fired a weak magic lazer at Twilight and with tears flowing from her eyes pleaded, "Don't take mommy away! Don't take mommy away! She did nothing wrong! Please, don't take her away!" "Nyx, no!" The unicorn covered the filly in a protective embrace; weeping with her child, "Nyx please, I can't lose you again!" The sight of the two huddled together weeping tore Twilight's heart and she too started to tear up, "No, wait! (Hic) I'm not going to take anypony away! Honest! (Sniff)" "R-really?" Nxy looked up, tears still falling from her face but no longer sobbing. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," Twilight gestured the Pinkie-promise in front of the filly and her mother, still keeping her sheepish smile to assure them. The mother broke from her embrace with Nyx and stood up (still cautious). Seeing that they finally calmed somewhat down, Twilight took the opportunity to (carefully) trot forwards, extending a hoof in polite gesture, "I believe we really got ourselves on the wrong hoof here. I am Twilight Sparkle; Princess of Friendship and ruler of Equestria. My version of Equestria, of course." Still cautious, her unicorn counterpart stepped forward to shake Twilight's hoof, "Twilight, just Twilight Sparkle. And this is my adopted daughter, Nyx. I would say I am Princess Celesta's personal student, but from all the excitement that happened over the past few months, I'm not entirely sure about that anymore." "Wait, what do you mean?" "Oh, with her taking my daughter away from me, to unintentionally transforming her to Nightmare Moon, which resulted in her and Princess Luna getting sent to the Moon, and me almost being executed, to finally me lashing out at the Princess when she got out of the Moon because I thought she was banishing Nyx away when she was just reverting her to her young, filly self." "Yikes!" Twilight's eyes widened trying to process her story, "That is a lot to take in." She then took a double take, "Wait, YOU ATTACKED THE PRINCESS?!" "Hey! In my defence, she shouldn't have broken my trust in her in the first place!" The unicorn snapped before taking a deep breath and continued, "I don't mean to sound bitter, but it has hard to trust somepony whom you admired all your life to do such a thing to you, to your daughter! I know she had good intentions for her actions, but it still didn't make it right." "Have you tried talking to her? Making amends?" "How could I? How could we go from where we are now?" "I've had my experience breaking her trust and she forgave me for it," explained Twilight, "I know I can't exactly compare to having your daughter foalnapped by her, to me straight up lying to Celestia about her acting but doing nothing and not apologising will destroy whatever friendship you both had in the past." "...I suppose I should at least see her about it. Maybe even send her a letter," the unicorn smiled sadly as she wiped traces of tears from her eyes before she shook her head, "But enough about me, what's you're story?" Twilight recanted her story and reasons for summoning her (and her daughter). "So let me get this straight, you summoned me because you wanted advice?" "Well, kind of started as that but it ended up more as a means to actually talk to other versions of myself to take what counsel they could offer." "So you're not like the other mean alicorn that attacked us last night?" Nyx asked. "Wait, what?" The unicorn spoke up, "Two nights ago, a dark purple alicorn attacked us from a strange rift. I fended her off, thinking she was after Nyx. And then she stopped for some reason and said to me, "you are not ready yet" then slipped back into the rift." "That's... That's actually alarming." Twilight spoke with concern, "I've met up with three other versions of us and two of them all had an encounter with some crazed version of ourselves bumping into them." "Well, it seems like you have some sort of competition hopping from one world to another," the unicorn mused, "Honestly, I thought such a thing was impossible til we met you." "Wait, you mean you never met the old, wise pony version of ourselves?" The unicorn shook her head, "No, should I have?" "She sent me your address to seek advice from you. Here, World Equis 46." Twilight showed her the book with the world number on it: 46. The unicorn looked at it, smiled and laughed, "Th-that's not a 46, that's a 40. You must have misread it." Twilight did a double take on the horn writing, "40? But how? We are the same mare! How could we read and write differently?" "Maybe it has to do with the fact that you're probably used to the alicorn body and the old mare and I are still unicorns?" Twilight never thought of that possibility. Then again, it isn't outside the realm of probably. "Ponyfeathers! I got the wrong world again!" Nyx leaned at Twilight, "Well, if you hadn't gotten the wrong world, you wouldn't have given my mother advice. So maybe it was a good thing you got it wrong?" A lot of surprises hit the alicorn princess today, but she thought she had the last of it until the filly gave her a second thought. Maybe these accidents are just meant to be. She smiled at Nyx as she lowered herself to her eyes, "You are a very clever filly. Your mother must be proud." She lifted Nyx and gave her a gentle hug, "If I had a filly of my own, I hope she'll be a lot like you." Just then, the familiar beeping was heard. Twilight released Nyx from her embrace and turned to her counterpart, "Well, it seems we are out of time. I wish you all the best of luck!" "Thank you, Princess. I hope we could have another chat in the future." The unicorn smiled as she held Nyx by her side. "Goodbye, Princess!" Nyx waved a hoof in farewell. And just like that, the bright flash returned them home. "So Twilight, how did your meeting go?" Spike returned that night with a bag full of gems and a gold crown. What happened in the Dragon Lands? Twilight wondered. "It was rather enlightening actually. Got the wrong world again, but it gave me a whole new perspective on things. How did your trip to the Dragon Lands go?" "Well, it's a funny story..."