I stirred slowly from my slumber as I felt something shake me. Yawning widely, I blinked the sleep out of my eyes. My attention was quickly drawn towards the little filly holding on to a little Yu’la plushie, fidgeting anxiously next to our bed. Sunset opened her mouth to say something but immediately closed it afterward, biting her lip with a tiny fang.
“Little Sun..?” I asked, concern rising in my chest. “Did you have a nightmare?”
My daughter nodded hesitantly, looking down to the ground like it was something to be ashamed of. I knew she put on a strong façade around her sister, especially when they were out playing with Cadance on the playground, but deep down, she could be just as shy and socially awkward as Twilight is. Just because she was a lot more outgoing than her sister didn’t mean she couldn’t be insecure in her own ways. A lot of it was (mostly) connected to how those that mattered to her thought of her, as silly as that fear actually was.
There was nothing in the whole world that could make me disappointed in her. Truly disappointed, that is. She and her sister did have the slightly annoying tendency to find themselves in places where I didn’t want them to be (most often with their hooves in the cookie jar, so to speak).
“Come here, you,” I smiled, patting the space on the bed I freed up for her. Sunset beamed, eagerly hopping up on the bed, snuggling herself against me while holding on to her favorite plushie. “Do you want to tell me what it was that frightened you so much?”
“Scary things,” Sunset mumbled, hugging her Yu’la plush a little bit tighter to her chest. “Loud noises and flashy lights with tall shadows. They were creepy.”
“The flashy lights and tall shadows again?” I repeated, frowning slightly. It was the second time this month that she had this dream and it had happened twice last year. I draped one of my wings over her back and gave her a loving nuzzle, hearing her sigh happily as she felt safe from her monsters tormenting her in her dreams. “Mommy will keep the big bad shadows away from you, dear. There is nothing to fear.”
“Promise..?” she whispered, looking at me with hopeful eyes.
I nodded. “I promise, little Sun,” I told her, giving her muzzle a boop with a hoof. “The scary things fear your mother and me, you know? As soon as they see us, they will shake in their hooves before running away as fast as they can.”
“Really?” Sunset asked, her eyes sparkling in fascination.
I smiled, my heart warming at the sight of the sheer adorableness my daughter displayed almost on a daily basis. Oh, how I’ve missed having a little foal running around in the palace to dote on. Already, there was a whole floor filled to the brim with memory balls of Sunset’s and Twilight’s early foalhood in our private tower. “Really.”
“Would those stupid colts on the playground run away, too?” she asked, giving me a pleading gaze.
“Why would I scare them away, dear?” I whispered, starting to get a bad feeling. “Did they bully you?”
“No...” Sunset said, looking away.
“Sunset...” I said, seeing her huff as she turned around and away from me. I saw the frown on her muzzle, though. “Hey... it’s okay, you can tell me. I won't judge, you know that.”
“They didn’t bully me!” she shot back defiantly, squeezing her Yu’la plushie tightly against her chest as I saw her muscles tense. “I’m not scared of some stupid colts.”
“I know you aren't," I told her, hoping to placate her anger. "But I also know you, my dear. You wouldn’t avoid looking at me if there wasn’t something bothering you, Sunny. Won’t you tell me what they did?” I asked, slowly turning her head towards me with a hoof. She tried to hide it, but I could see the tears in her eyes. “If they hurt you, you have to tell me. Please. Don’t try to bottle this up, my little Sun. You don’t have to be scared of something to be upset about it, so... whatever it is... you can tell me.”
“They didn’t hurt me...” Sunset answered reluctantly. “They said mean things to sis and I... I shoved them..."—she puffed out her cheeks, stewing in her anger before looking to the side, petulant—" then, one of them s-started bleeding and I-I...”—she gulped nervously—" I almost lost control of my hunger."
“Oh, Sunset,” I sighed. I had feared that it was something like this, she always did get far too easily into fights, as much as I wished for it to not be so. When she did, it usually was to defend her sister, which... did make me proud of her... but... “That’s not...”
“I know!” she cried, interrupting me from admonishing her as she crossed her forelegs over her chest while she pouted grumpily to herself, barely keeping the tears at bay. “But they deserved it. They said Twilight’s an evil witch for always being a ‘know-it-all’ and getting perfect scores... not like she’s the only one...”
I frowned, feeling heartbroken over the fact that she tried to keep her emotions in check rather than allow herself to cry. “So you just shoved them? Because you didn’t want them to say such mean things?” I asked, uncertain whether I should feel proud of her that she would protect her sister so valiantly like that or be disappointed that she would resort to physical violence first. “What did Cadance say to you about being mean back to somepony?”
“Not to...” Sunset grumbled. Oh, my little Sun... how often do we have to have this conversation? You can’t just always default to hitting your problems, it will only lead you nowhere. “Why does big sis do nothing, though? She always says that we have to ignore them and be the better pony, but that doesn’t work, Mommy. They keep making fun of Twilight behind her back...”
“Attacking them will only make them resent you more, dear,” I answered, biting my lip. I wanted to tell her that following Cadance’s advice was for the best, but... I couldn’t. They hurt my daughters, and despite knowing how much of a silly thing it would be to hold a grudge against foals, I couldn’t help but feel like they needed to be taught a lesson or two in humility.
It was hard, being a mother and the ruler of the nation. Sometimes I wanted to justify being a bit more of a... 'dictator'... so that I could keep my little fillies safe from harm, but that would be abusing the trust of my subjects and my position as their guardian.
“Can I ask Aunty Ruby to scare them off with her gun?” Sunset asked, her ears splayed back against her head as she gave me a hesitant (and hopeful) look. “It wouldn’t be me attacking them then, right? After all, she’s a warrior goddess and those are allowed to do things like that... right? Aunty Yang said so.”
“Sunset,” I reprimanded her, snorting slightly as I imagined Cadance’s marefriend running around with her scythe chasing after misbehaving colts. It was a bit silly but still far too mean, I couldn’t let my daughter talk my petal into doing such things. Not only because it was morally questionable, but also because my eldest would tell me I was being a bad mother (not to mention a bad role model) and would then drag me away by my ear. This would then lead to Ruby and I having to share the dog house as Cadance set up a storm cloud over our heads. That's something I really don’t want to experience.
No doubt would Liz get ideas from that, seeing me spend the night outside like a naughty, misbehaving pet. Actually, I could already see the demented glint in her eyes, trying to get me to wear a collar with my name on it and a leash t-tied to the b-bed frame while I... Fuck. Knowing me, I would end up liking it, too.
Anyway! This was no time to get lost in fantasies and I still have a distraught daughter to comfort. And try to teach her morals, as well, even though I was almost certain that this was going to be far from the last time we would have this particular talk going over this topic.
“Why don’t you try asking them why they are so mean to you?” I proposed, wincing immediately afterward as it sounded like a better idea in my head.
“Really, Mommy?” she grumbled, sounding as displeased about that idea as I felt about asking it in the first place. “They are mean because they are meanies.”
“I’m sorry, Sunset,” I apologized, nuzzling the top of her head. “Wouldn’t it be better if all of you could get along, though?”
“No,” Sunset shot back stubbornly. “They have no hope left of being nice. They are stuck-up snobs that will grow up to brown-nose you and Mommy.”
“Sunset!” I scolded her, feeling completely speechless and appalled at how... well... she wasn’t entirely wrong with that, I suppose. But it was still incredibly mean. Not to mention, I had no idea who taught her those kinds of words. And how to actually use them in the correct context on top of that. That she even understood what they meant at her age was... it spoke a lot about her intelligence.
“Sorry...” she mumbled, fidgeting slightly in my embrace. “It’s true, though. They only value money and their breeding...”
I frowned darkly. “And who taught you that word?” I groused, not even surprised she knew those words as well. Sometimes, my daughters were too smart for their own good.
“Mommy Liz?” she answered, smiling awkwardly. I sighed, feeling like I should have expected that answer before I even asked. It seems like I need to have another word with her about encouraging little foals to learn things they shouldn’t learn at such a young and impressionable age. While it was 'somewhat' excusable with Cadance, Sunset and Twilight were another story entirely.
“Can you promise me to go to Cadance first before you let your anger out on them the next time?” I asked her, almost pleadingly. My darling girl shifted a bit around, trying to avoid my gaze to the best of her ability, but I could slowly see her resolve begin to falter.
Sunset bit her lip for a moment as she glanced hesitantly up into my eyes, letting out a tiny little huff before I could press her for an answer, giving me a reluctant nod. “Fine! I’ll tell big sis the next time those slimy toads come near us again...”
“Slimy toads?” I snorted, getting her to smile as well. “Should I ask?”
“Cadance always says fluffy bunnies when she doesn’t want to say bad words,” Sunset explained, her mood significantly improved from her grumpy demeanor. “And you sometimes say funny words as well... so I thought I should have something like that, too.”
“I don’t say funny words,” I pouted, prompting her to giggle.
“You do!” Sunset giggled with a bright smile lighting up her face, poking my muzzle with a tiny hoof. “You say stuff like flying penguins. That’s silly, Mommy. Penguins don’t fly.”
“And you are so sure of that, huh?” I grinned back, lifting my wing in preparation for what was about to come next. “There is a world where penguins do fly, my little Sun. They use something called airplanes. Those are like gyrocopters, only without the helicopter part and they are bigger and faster.”
Before my daughter could tell me I was messing with her (I wasn’t... that world was certainly an... 'experience'), I had her already at my mercy. Like our mother did to us, I couldn’t resist the temptation to tickle my little filly until she burst into a fit of laughter, waking Luna up next to us in the process. My sister gave us a half-hearted glare, smiling as she watched me exhaust Sunset so much that she fell into a dreamless slumber right afterward.
I’m so glad Sunset and Twilight entered our lives, sudden as it was. While not on purpose, I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like without them anymore. I was... noticeably happier these days with them around. With Sunset and Twilight, Cadance and Ruby, September’s son, and... even Kibitz wasn’t that much of a bore as of late. Usually, he was right there to remind me every few minutes that I had about twelve thousand things to do each day (a bit of an exaggeration, but sometimes it sure felt like I had nothing but work to do).
Kibitz wasn’t the only staff member that managed to worm their way into my heart after I had closed it off for so long. A new secretary had quickly proven herself to be a reliable and responsible aid to my daily life that I was starting to consider her to be somewhat of a friend. Raven Inkwell was still young, and for once, I didn’t mind that I started to bond with so many ponies around me that wouldn’t stay with us for long.
I felt like I learned a valuable lesson from my daughters. It doesn’t matter whether or not I’m immortal, that I will outlive everypony around me... what does matter is that I never let it come in between my little ponies and myself. I can’t just keep everypony at a hoof’s length away from me out of fear that I would lose them, it's only going to make me become more distant from them the longer time goes on like that.
A realization like this was worth more than I could ever put into words. I had feared becoming some sort of goddess detached from mortal affairs because it would have made me into something I didn’t want to be. Only now do I realize that I had inadvertently become that very thing I feared, having distanced myself so much from those that I never should have distanced myself from in the first place. I had started to live separately from those that I had vowed to protect, having become aloof from the mortal world. Not because I viewed myself as something better... but because I grew distant from my own heart. All because I didn't want to be hurt by the loss of friends.
Ponies had started to view us like we were something greater and that they were unworthy of us and I didn’t realize I had unwittingly played a part in that mindset by trying to avoid friendship. I had tried so hard to not let them think of us as some sort of infallible goddesses, only to inadvertently cause them to view us as something we are not because of my own ignorance.
I’m glad my little fillies changed that. Without them, I would still be keeping my relationship with Luna a secret. Without Cadance, without Twilight and Sunset... my little ponies would still see us as beings that could do no wrong. They not only helped me open up my eyes but also those of everypony living in Equestria.
My daughters helped me become that generous and kind mare that I was in my youth and I couldn’t be more grateful to them for that. Sunset played perhaps even the biggest part in that. My little Sun could always bring back that little bit of sunshine into my life when I felt like I was submerged in darkness. Much like my wives, I would give anything to see her and her sisters happy.
Sunset is also a pretty good judge of character, as much as she tried to avoid social interactions with other foals her age. Perhaps that was because of the environment she grew up in, though. She was right about how many of those foals would, for lack of a better term, ‘brown-nose’ my wives and me when they grow up.
I have seen it time after time, after all. The offspring of those in our immediate vicinity always tried to step into their parent’s hoofprints, trying to make them proud or even surpass them entirely. The nobility never changes. Well... not too much. While they were incredibly self-centered at times, they at least do play their part in keeping this nation running and in one piece. Otherwise, I would have abolished them a long time ago and never looked back (not that it wasn't tempting to do so, anyway).
Ah, well. It was only a small part of the nobility that I had my problems with. The majority begrudgingly did what was asked of them and that's about it. Sure, they complain quite a lot, but so would any other pony not part of the nobility when they had to leave their comfort zone. Then there were those of the nobility that I’d rather see locked away where they couldn’t try their idiotic schemes to gain more influence and wealth.
Like the House of Blueblood, for example. I had no doubt my ‘newest’ nephew would turn out as rotten as the rest of the lot. To be honest... if Sunset had asked me if I would allow Ruby to scare anypony... I would have said yes if she meant Blueblood Junior. Whether or not Ruby would go along with that was an entirely different thing, though.
Cadance can be very scary when she wants to be. It's no wonder Ruby would do anything my Rose Petal asked of her. There was one simple rule in any relationship. You do not say no to your marefriend. Especially if your marefriend is the Alicorn of Love.
Maybe it shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but Cadance’s gift did turn out exactly how she wanted it to be when she turned sixteen. While it only worked on those that already had some of those feelings existing for each other, she could... push things along, so to speak. To a frightening degree, as well.
On top of that, she now has her own aura like Luna and I have. And it wasn’t the innocent type of aura that would make you feel cozy and snug as if you had been embraced by a loved one. Well... it actually does that as long as she keeps it suppressed. One little slip-up, though... let’s just say the day she got her gift, Canterlot was in lockdown.
Cadance’s aura was like a mini-estrus to everypony around her. It isn't strong enough to make every mare go coo-coo in the head and cause every stallion's dick to slip out of its sheathe, but it was strong enough to make even those that have been sexually abstinent incredibly horny for some action. It took her about two years to regain control of her magic (because, of course, she gets a boost in power for each and every pony around her that's in love with somepony) and it was an absolute nightmare until she finally learned how to rein in her aura so that it didn’t turn everypony around her into a blubbering mess because they couldn’t contain their arousal.
Liz was majorly jealous of our daughter for also having an aura. My wife was the only one that never got one as she took up her mantle of Empathy. It was for the best, though. I don’t even want to imagine what she would do with her own ‘horny-aura’ as she put it. Nothing good, I would wager.
It was already bad enough that she could drive me crazy with her pheromones, I didn’t need her to also have an aura of perpetual lust around her that would have me permanently aroused.
On another completely unrelated note, not everything went exactly as Ozpin told us it would. He had told us they planned on tricking Salem into going through the portal, only for Ruby to return with tears in her eyes as she told us that his ‘trick’ was to throw himself through the portal with Salem, never to be seen again.
Maybe on some deeper level, I knew that that was exactly what he had always intended to do. Perhaps my own plan of how I intended to get rid of Platinum influenced his own decision, sacrificing himself for the greater good of Remnant. Without Salem’s influence over the Grimm, the people of Remnant had it easier than ever, fighting back the creatures made out of pure malice and darkness.
Pyrrha and Ruby have been doing a lot of work these past few years, making sure that it stayed that way. I’m glad Remnant didn’t have to live in fear anymore, but... I will miss Ozpin. I never got to help him find a way to get rid of his curse and now he was lost in a desolate world with Salem. We will probably never see each other again, will we? I hope he can at least make amends with her. It would be really sad if they continued their feud in a wasteland of nothing.
We barely started to be friends, only having had a few short years to get to know each other. Perhaps it was just not meant to be. While I would like to blame the universe, it's not going to do me any good. It didn’t even feel like it was the universe that was at fault for this, strangely enough. It lacked that... taunting quality I have come to associate with every premature loss of a family member or a friend.
Sort of like what the loss of the connection to Azeroth felt like, now that I think about it. It didn’t really feel like a goodbye for some reason. I couldn’t exactly explain what this feeling was but hope probably came the closest to it. Hope that I would someday see Ozpin again. Not just Ozpin, though. I felt like I hadn't seen the last of Chen, Li Li, Yu’lon, and Khadgar, either. And possibly even Starswirl. Or... or Amore, even though I knew full well what Sombra had done to her was most likely irreversible. It was a silly hope, wasn’t it? I wouldn’t be seeing any of them again.
After all, it has been a thousand years since we lost contact with our friends on the other side of the mirror. But maybe that was just the thing I needed. A silly little hope at a chance to see some of those friends again, as unlikely as it would be. It would make for a nice surprise if anything. Sun knows I could use a few of those in my old age.
Surprises were so hard to get by, nowadays. My daughters were certainly a pleasant surprise, as was the sudden and unexpected little trip over to Remnant. Not to mention the meeting with September before he left us with an ominous warning.
Maybe I was wrong, after all. It wasn't so much that surprises were hard to come by, I was simply used to the boring monotony of my life as a nigh-immortal pony princess. I was so used to a regular schedule, the past thousand years of peace skewed my perception of what was and what wasn't a 'surprise' to me (with a few hiccups here and there, but basically nothing came close to the thrilling, world-threatening danger from my youth). Ever since Cadance ascended, something always managed to throw me off my game, and... I couldn’t wait for the next time, eagerly awaiting another exciting occurrence to distract me from my daily routine.
Okay, I wasn’t that eager to be thrown into the unknown, not after what happened on Remnant, but... a few 'little' surprises every now and again would be a welcome change of pace. I think. I could go without major, life-altering events for the next couple of centuries, to be honest.
A little nagging thought in the back of my mind told me I wouldn’t be so fortunate. Whatever this feeling was, I started to get the impression things would only get wilder from here on out. Wilder than even the return of Bitchface Supreme and/or the Crystal Empire. Eh... not as wild and chaotic as the things Discord could cook up, though. Speaking of the draconequus, I am pretty sure he was just biding his time to make his own little come-back from being a pigeon toilet (hopefully without ruining my nation in the process).
It wasn’t exactly a feeling of an oncoming storm that I had. More like... something that wasn’t on the scale of a full-blown storm. Something that was instead more like... the equivalent of a ride on a particularly bumpy roller coaster, I suppose.
My quiet days almost seemed to disagree with this feeling welling up within me. Whether it was holding court or teaching my daughters magic (something that was getting increasingly more difficult with Twilight... and to a lesser degree, even Sunset... they seemingly learned faster than my wives and I could teach them), I started to get a bit fidgety as everything simply continued to be... ordinary.
I couldn’t be imagining this, could I? I was almost certain something was going to happen, but I was the only one that had this foreboding feeling. It was almost like an instinct, something quite similar to what animals sometimes experienced before something big happened.
It couldn’t be my gift trying to warn me to get as far away as I could possibly go, could it? I didn’t have the urgent feeling to flee right this instant, so it probably wasn’t something enormously bad that was about to happen.
...right?
As the years continued on, one by one, my feeling never left me. At the same time, though, life continued on with nothing out of the ordinary happening to warrant this feeling. It was perplexing. Utterly. Perplexing.
Sunset and Twilight just turned eight and all I could do was puzzle over the mystery that was this damn, irritating feeling. They could tell I had something on my mind, my smart little fillies. I wish I could tell them what it was that had their mommy in such a funk, but I couldn’t even tell myself.
It wasn’t like I let it consume me, thankfully. I didn’t want to worry them and they deserved to have the best birthday in the whole world. The best birthday with the best gifts. Twilight was very excited about the scroll that Cadance got for her and her sister. Ah, well... I wasn’t about to roll my eyes at my Rose Petal for giving her little sisters something that would cause them to stay up many nights (which my little Star already does on a regular basis, much to my chagrin). Her 'nightly habits' were partly due to her nature as a thestral unicorn and because she was very much dedicated to reading the entire collection of knowledge Equestria possessed.
Both Sunset and Twilight got a similar necklace to the ones we made when we were young, allowing them to teleport to each other whenever they so desired. Not that they ever left each other’s side for long, I suppose. They could also teleport to our side (or to Cadance) if they felt like they were in enough danger to come to us so that we could deal with whatever problem they might be facing. They didn’t have an infinite mana pool to draw from, so it was important for them to understand that these necklaces were only a last resort.
Something else that we gave them was a diary. Not any old 'ordinary' diary, though. No, these ones were special. It would send a copy of what was written inside to the other diary linked to it, allowing them to always stay in touch with each other and us (while we had access to the scrolls from Remnant nowadays, we sadly still had no workable internet yet). They would probably use those diaries to swap notes with each other, both of them were quite studious when it came to magic, but they could also reach out to us by writing one of our names (or 'Mom') followed by a message we would then receive in one of our books.
It was a rather interesting magic technique. Luna basically entangled the state of one book with the others so it would create a state of quantum whatever that went well past my understanding of physics. But she was smart like that while I was more suited to politics.
Anyway, our books had a rather interesting twist in that they would only glow when the keyword was written. It basically allowed us to keep in touch with them whenever one of us had to travel the country or go on a diplomatic trip to another nation. Liz also just liked to use it as an excuse to not pay attention in court, so there was that.
Sadly, it was pretty much impossible to do the same thing we did with our books for a scroll (something about messing up the input and whatnot). Hence, both of my daughters were also interested in the technology we were... ahem, ‘adapting’... from Remnant. I’m pretty sure it was Luna’s side showing through in both of them, having inherited her love to tinker with everything she could get her hooves on.
Speaking of that, I was quite happy to see that both Twilight and Sunset inherited my love for gaming (even though they were more interested in learning magic to find time to play games with their old hag of a mother most of the time). At least I had something that only we shared with each other, Cadance was never interested in 'hanging out' with me like that.
Liz, of course, gifted them their first sex toy, something that displeased me quite a lot. Sure, both my little fillies knew far more than what I was comfortable with, but that still did not mean Liz could just go ahead and give them... that.
While ponies were a lot more open with their sexuality (doubly so in the case of Liz’s changelings), stuff like this was more appropriate to talk about after their first estrus. Which, thankfully, was still something they need not concern themselves with just yet.
Despite my best efforts, it seemed like my little fillies were growing up far faster than I ever expected. It was understandable with Cadance since she had her memories still intact upon rebirth, but... Sunset and Twilight didn’t have that. Not exactly, that is.
Both of them remembered fragmented memories of Earth but couldn’t really make any sense of them. Most often, those flashes came in the form of nightmares, something that Sunset struggled with especially. I could tell, though, that from what she has told me of those night terrors of hers, they were memories of my former brother, now turned daughter.
It caused her quite a lot of confusion and I didn’t have it in my heart to tell her that the person she saw in those dreams was her former life and that Tobias had not been... the best kind of person. Sunset was... she was different, more... compassionate in comparison to my brother (haah, this was kinda weird talking about my daughter and brother like this, but they were different ponies, in a sense). My daughter tried to look for the best in everypony, just like I taught her, but... I could see that some of my brother was in her when she thought somepony was a lost cause.
Sunset was like... the better version of what Tobias had been. She wasn’t as power-hungry as I feared she might turn out to be, thanks to my efforts in teaching her what I felt she needed to learn so that she might grow up into a compassionate and righteous mare. Her bond with Twilight was equally as remarkable in that regard, keeping her steadfast in her ideals. So much so that she even felt frightened by how cold Tobias’ memories were and how gaining power seemed to be the ‘only’ thing that had mattered to him.
I suppose the best way to teach somepony morals was to give them an example of what they should avoid at all costs. And there were a lot of examples from those nightmares that she desperately wanted to avoid repeating. The things she saw in Tobias’ fragmented memories frightened even me, never having known just how bad those things were that Massive Dynamic researched without a single shred of ethics and morality.
There were some good qualities of Tobias that I saw live on in Sunset, though. She had a fierce need to protect those close to her and a ‘healthy’ hunger for knowledge that was thankfully not as mad as Tobias could have been at times in regard to things one was better off not knowing in the first place.
Of course, with those memories came the question of gender identity, and honestly? I was... confused. It didn’t seem like she had a problem with being female instead of male. My daughter was happy being herself and that's it. Twilight, on the other hoof, was kind of indifferent. Her only reaction to Liz’s ‘gift’ was letting out a ‘huh’, as if she never even once realized there was a difference between her gender and her biological sex. She basically told us that her gender identity was more or less ‘neutral’, which I guess meant gender-fluid in her words? Or a lack of attachment to either side of the spectrum, at the very least.
Sort of like Liz, I suppose.
While Liz could live out every demented fantasy due to her ability to shapeshift into every shape imaginable, even inanimate objects (I lost count of how often the stupid bug transformed herself into a vibrator to satisfy her ‘needs’ to be... well... stuffed into one of us)... our daughters did not have the advantage of being a changeling. The only real way I could give them to ‘experiment’ was my spell and I wasn’t a fan of teaching it to them when they were so young.
I could see why Liz was so happy to also call them her daughters after Ocellus had made the decision to disappear on us. Twilight definitely would have made for a great changeling queen, what with her quite analytical mindset. I had no doubt Liz would have been ecstatic to have had her as an heir to the Canterlot Changeling Hive, instead. Maybe this might just be the incentive for her to consider trying again, who knows?
I wasn't going to allow Liz to corrupt either of them with all things lewd before they even had their first estrus, though. Or afterward, for that matter. It was already bad enough that Liz and Cadance were getting along famously with each other, talking about things that were most certainly not appropriate. I wasn’t going to allow her to give Twilight and Sunset any ideas.
At least Sunset was less vocal about me confiscating the... ugh... dildos Liz gifted them, but was still a bit pouty about it. Twilight tried to steal her newest 'toy' back, grumpy that she wasn’t allowed to experiment with her newest interest in ‘biological reactions through the insertion of foreign objects into erogenous zones’. I was more appalled by the unappealing description of ‘having sex’ than I was of her attempt to disobey me by trying to take it back, though.
That filly really needs to get out more, I swear. She made everything sound unappealing and scientific. It was endearing in its own way, but... sometimes I worry. Sunset was her only friend and that wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for her. Both of them shied away from social interactions, for that matter. Sunset less so than Twilight, but it's not like my fiery, little Sun didn't have her own problems with that. I was understandably worried that they would never make any permanent friends outside of family.
I know it was hard for them to ‘connect’ with other ponies due to their heritage and their status as princesses, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t at least try, right? Somewhere out there in Equestria, there have to be fillies and colts their own age that had no ulterior motives to befriend my daughters. I just want to see them bond with somepony other than ourselves that they could become best friends with. I was certain that those ponies existed somewhere, they just needed to find them.
Perhaps it wasn’t just Equestria that could offer friendship to those two, I mused while giving Ruby’s group of friends a glance. The four girls were as tight with each other as they have ever been, never having split up as a team of huntresses. ‘Girls’ wasn’t even the right descriptor for them anymore, was it? They were grown adults now, just as much as Cadance.
It was hard to think of them like that, I had to admit. They were all eight years older, all grown up. Time really does fly by when you don’t want it to, doesn’t it? For so long, time had dragged on at a snail’s pace for me and now it was running faster than I could keep up with. I should feel happy about that, getting closer to reuniting with my beloved twin, but... that also meant that my children, my sweet, innocent foals... they would grow up so fast. Faster than I wanted them to grow up, I mourned. Even Cadance was well past the point where I couldn't pretend that she wasn't an adult by now.
“Ruby..?” Cadance asked sweetly, throwing me out of my musings. “Can you tell me why you thought it a wise idea to give my sisters a weapon as a present?”
My fur got incredibly pale (an amazing feat considering it was almost pure white already) as I turned my attention to the recently opened gift boxes in front of my little fillies, seeing just that lying on a velvety red pillow.
“What?” my little petal asked, confused. I tried to keep the panicked whinny suppressed, but a snort of flame managed to elude my resolve to not turn into a raging storm of fire. “I got my first weapon to train with at their age, what’s wrong with that?”
“Petal...” I growled, glaring at her as my mane burst into flames and my coat turned orange. “I don’t care if ponies are starting to think that being huntresses is ‘cool’, I don’t want my daughters getting any ideas.”
“But Mom!” Sunset whined and my incendiary gaze alone made her wilt. That didn't stop her from being pouty. “Being a huntress is cool, though...”
I snarled, snapping the lid of the wooden case shut with a bit too much force, cracking it. “Don’t you ‘Mom!’ me, young lady! It is only ‘cool’ so long until a timberwolf sinks its fangs into your leg,” I shot back, wings fully extended as my blood pounded in my ears. I calmed my temperament to the best of my ability, but it was still boiling with anger and fear. Mostly fear, though. “Trust me... it is something very painful and the resulting infection is not pretty.”
“Fine...” Sunset pouted, sniffling to herself. I sighed, letting go of my anger as I felt an overwhelming amount of guilt. Slowly, I draped my wing over her back and drew her into a tight hug, whispering an apology into her ear regretfully. The thought of hurting her feelings made me feel more miserable than the thought of her learning how to hold her own in a battle. “Why can’t we, though? Learn how to fight and how to defend ourselves, I mean?”
“I...” I began, biting my lip hesitantly. Because I didn’t want you to hurt yourselves, I almost said. Because I didn’t trust you to be able to defend yourselves, I thought. Because... I want to shelter you in a misguided attempt to keep you dependent on me. Because I don’t want you to outgrow my care like... like Cadance and Ruby. I was afraid, simple as that. But I couldn’t do that to you, could I? Telling you of my selfish desires... it wasn’t fair to you and your sister. Even though I wanted to, so very much, I couldn’t do that to you. “Are you sure you want to go through such harsh training, my little Sun? Ask Cadance, she can tell you how taxing it can be. And she was a lot older than you are now when we started with her combat training.”
Cadance scoffed. “Right,” she said. “Mentally, sure. That never stopped you from torturing Ruby and me, though, did it?”
“Oh, hush, you,” I said, getting her to roll her eyes at me with a tiny smile. “Besides, your big sister is an alicorn, she is a lot sturdier than...”
“I don’t care,” Sunset glowered, crossing her arms over her chest petulantly. “I can be a thousand times tougher than the toughest alicorn in the world. I want to know how to defend my sister!”
Her determination was almost cute if it weren’t for what we were talking about here. “I see..." I said, smiling sadly. There really was no talking her out of this, was there? If she was truly serious about this, then I need to know something... "Will you say that a month from now, begging me to stop as you drag yourself to your own bed in pain?”
“Pain? What is that?” Sunset shot back, grinning slightly, seemingly proud of herself. “I can take it, Mom! I’m a big mare now! I’m eight!”
A flash of light and a snapping sound was all I needed to see and hear to know that Cadance just shot a picture of us with her scroll. No matter how dark the topic was, I later would look back at this moment with a fond smile, of that I had no doubt. Still, I wish I could have avoided going through this with Sunset if at all possible. Twilight seemed content with learning magic theory from her books, so I had hoped that I could at least avoid making either of them go through the same grueling training we put Cadance through.
“Your Highness? If I may speak plainly?” Weiss Schnee asked and I gave her a hesitant nod. I could probably guess what Ruby’s friend had to say about this topic, no doubt having seen the potential in my daughter with her keen eyes. She was a perfectionist through and through, after all. “As part of royalty, it would be beneficial for them to know how to defend themselves, and the earlier they learn how the better. The children on Remnant learn to fight at an even younger age, and with how gifted they already are, you would have no fear of something happening to them if they knew what they would need to do and have their skills refined to a fine edge. I know how... 'easy' of a target one can be in a position like theirs.”
“I am... aware of the practices of Remnant’s teaching methods and how the nobles train their own offspring even here in Equestria, Miss Schnee,” I said, familiar with her family's history with the White Fang. I could guess what she must have felt like growing up in a family that was the target of an extremist group (rightfully so, her father was... anything but a kind man). “You do not have to remind me of that. I am merely... reluctant to do this with fillies so young. Our own mother held nothing back as she trained Luna and me in the art of combat. Cadance knows this perhaps just as much, having taken on the role of a Guardian of Ponykind herself. Willingly, I might add.”
“Mom...” Cadance sighed, fidgeting on her hind legs. “You don’t have to do this, but... I can agree with Weiss that it would help them with... that. You know what I’m talking about and I know you already have something in mind to get them started on that path, haven’t you?”
“It depends on whether my hunch is correct,” I nodded, biting my lip. Both Sunset and Twilight had the potential to wield Magic. As in, the Element of Magic, should they be able to reforge it from the broken remnants in our old castle. If they can truly accomplish the impossible, then I think I might be able to lead them down the path to ascension, something I desired very much.
I looked down into the hopeful eyes of my most precious daughter and felt conflicted. It would be for the best, wouldn’t it? Especially with how gloomy the future might look, fraught with danger I could possibly never predict. This foreboding feeling that I had... it felt similar to what life felt like back in our youth, didn’t it? I can’t keep them sheltered forever like I had wanted to do with Cadance.
“What are you talking about, Mom?” Sunset asked, curiously looking up at me. Twilight was giving me the same look on the other side of the table, cuddled up against Luna. It was perhaps a bit cliché, but they seemed like mini-versions of ourselves, gravitating to the parent they felt like they were the closest to. We both loved them equally, but perhaps we did play favorites, now that I was thinking about it.
“Nothing important,” I said, sticking my tongue out at her. Sunset went back to sulking, pouting to herself despite enjoying the closeness of our hug. “You will find out eventually, dear. I promise. When the time comes, you will know.”
“You always say that,” Sunset grumbled. “It’s always ‘later, Sunny’ or ‘You will learn when you are older, little Sun’. Well, I am older now! I’m eight, I’m a grown-up, too!”
“Yes, yes,” I giggled. “All big and strong. Very well, if you think yourself ready for this, I will teach you the art of combat. Don’t you dare come complaining to me, though.”
“I’ll show you and become the greatest mage there ever was!” Sunset nodded to herself, puffing out her chest proudly. “You will see, nopony will stand a chance against Equestria with me defending it! I’ll be just like you, striking fear into bullies and monsters alike by my mere presence!”
“I have no doubt about that, little Sun,” I smiled, nuzzling the top of her head. It was so very cute, seeing her try to emulate me so much. There were worse things than one’s own daughter trying to step into the hoofsteps of her mother, right? “You will do a great job at keeping Equestria safe...”
...even if I might actually die, against all odds. If that is the case, it would be for the best if I begin teaching you everything you are going to need so that you could, in time (and should the worst come to the worst), be able to rule in my stead over the heavens. As Ozpin and his little secret order liked to say, no one season lasts forever, no Summer is like the last.
That ego, though... while not too bad, it would be better to work that out while we’re already at it, no? Can’t let you end up with as big a head as Tia had. That certainly would not do, I thought with amusement.
Thus, their eighth birthday came and went. And so did their ninth and tenth, passing us by all too fast. Ten years... I had little time left to get them ready until the thousandth year of Tia’s banishment was over.
Cadance was as prepared as she could be, I suppose. Sunset was coming along nicely with her own training, too. Ruby and Cadance were the perfect training opponents for her, challenging her in ways that I could not. Fighting against an opponent (or two) with a perfect defense or offense proved to be the ideal method to train Sunset in thinking outside of the box and adapting to every possible scenario that they could throw at her.
Sunset’s growth was startling, prodigal even. I expected her to struggle a lot more than she already did (not entirely surprising, seeing that she was going up against opponents that were, for all intents and purposes, genuine goddesses), lasting for a few minutes at most against their combined assault. That she even lasted that long against the ‘kinda twins’ was very impressive.
It did not surprise me to see Sunset already trying to use advanced spells and succeeding more often than not in actually casting them with enough time at her disposal. Her destructive potential over her mana pool and spellcasting speed has grown by a ludicrous amount since she started with the combat training that we put her through almost on a daily basis (not to mention, her mana regeneration rate gave her the ability to constantly cast regular spells without pause... and in a few years, she might even be able to cast advanced spells at the same speed).
Most advanced spells caused even fully mature unicorns to struggle with them if they had no aptitude for spellcasting or did not have a Cutie Mark in the field of the particular spell category (especially with spells that were meant for combat). Sunset quite literally had the affinity for it and it showed in explosive results. A few of her more powerful spells already managed to create fine hairline cracks in the shield Cadance put up, a testament to the destructive capability she most likely inherited from me.
At this point, I had no doubt they would put even the professors at our school to shame. Sunset and Twilight were for all intents and purposes on the level of half-gods, magic strength-wise. Regular strength, though? There was a reason why I was so worried for Sunset’s safety.
She was a glass cannon, through and through. If her opponent manages to get into her reach (something that Ruby was very much capable of, to a frightening degree even), I could only hope she would be able to mitigate the worst of the damage and escape. My sweet little filly tried to hide it, but I could see that it frustrated her that she had such a glaring weakness.
It wasn’t at all surprising to me, considering just who it was that she looked up to. Both Cadance and Ruby were able to tank quite a lot of damage, as was the case with me. I could allow myself to make some mistakes, as could my little petals with our accelerated healing due to our alicorn nature. Sunset... she wasn’t that fortunate. And it showed in her mood and determination to work even harder on herself, always keeping that bright and hopeful light alive in her eyes even as she was faced with impossible challenges.
Her resolve was truly inspiring for somepony so young. Even as she kept failing time after time, she picked herself up, again and again, determined to last even one second longer against them the next time.
While I kept telling her that she did not need to try and live up to expectations that were unreasonably high for herself, she kept doing it to herself. She wanted to be better, vowing to herself to do everything she could so that she could keep Equestria, and far more important to her, her sister safe.
Twilight was her whole world and she made it her mission to keep her safe from harm, whether it be hurtful words of those foolish enough to bully one of their princesses or act as her sword should something dare to threaten her.
Although, there was one thing that did surprise me as I taught my daughter everything she wanted to learn from me (within reason, that is... I would not let her come within a hooves length of dark magic tomes if it was the last thing I did). Not only did she turn her disability of being unable to properly control her vast amounts of mana into an advantage, but she also had an insanely high reaction speed to use that mana in the most efficient way to counter almost everything my little petals could come up with. It was almost like she could react faster than physically possible with her magic, being in perfect harmony with her thoughts and will. And with each day, with each training session... she only got better at it.
Sunset... she adapted my own fighting style without too much difficulty. My little Sun had taken to the avoidance style of fighting like a fish to water and was already able to teleport after only two years of training at her young age (not unlike myself, I realized, remembering the first time I used a teleportation spell to save my sister from the timberwolves that threatened her after she ran away).
Both Twilight and Sunset were prodigies with magic, in their own ways. Sunset was quickly proving to be a master of emotional magic while Twilight... Twilight was a genius for different reasons. Our little Star needed to see a spell only once in order for her to be able to figure out how it worked (for the most part) and was already studying spells that would have taken other unicorns decades to even comprehend.
While Sunset was already applying her knowledge and skills quite adeptly in her combat lessons, Twilight seemed to struggle with the practical application of her magic. I had no idea why that was, to be honest. Everything pointed to her being just as gifted as Sunset in magic, even surpassing her in some (if not most) aspects of it. But unlike Sunset, though, she seemed to be unable to get over her unstable control of mana, especially while not within her own comfort zone (meaning: everywhere not in the castle, within the proximity of her family, and/or books).
Twilight was less of a practical learner than Sunset appeared to be, it seemed. Perhaps she was just overthinking everything too much, hindering herself in the process, but that did not mean she was any less good at magic than her sister. Far from it, even. It just took her longer to properly learn how to manipulate her mana safely while casting a spell, which led to her staying up for far longer than what was considered healthy for a foal her age, studying until she literally fell asleep with her muzzle buried in dusty old tomes.
Even then, it didn’t hinder her too much. At the rate at which she soaked up knowledge, she was pretty much on par with Sunset. She had the potential for more, though. So much more, in fact.
Maybe Luna and I were simply not the right teachers for her, unable to properly help her with rational magic in the way that my twin would have been able to teach her instead. Twilight’s growth, while incredibly fast already, was stunted by the single fact that she had to basically teach herself everything she needed to know.
Professor Doctor Cold Hooves was right with his prediction. She had the potential to become a prodigy among prodigies, only for her to be slowed down because nopony was able to keep up with her and teach her properly.
It truly was a heartbreaking feeling, to be unable to help one’s own daughter reach their full potential. She was still a prodigy among prodigies, that much did not change... just not to the degree that was possible for her to achieve.
Perhaps that might prove to be a better thing in the end, though. All the intellect in the world could not help her find true happiness if all she ever knew was studying. A healthy balance of seeking out knowledge and going out into the world would benefit her quite possibly more.
Twilight might never reach the height of her potential if all she ever did was seclude herself from the world in the pursuit of knowledge. It was even more important for her to make friends than it was for Sunset, wasn’t it? I feared she would end up like Tabetha, craving knowledge more than anything else that it became a risk for her own health, dooming herself to repeat the same mistakes her previous incarnation made.
It was hard to get her away from her beloved books, though. If it continues like this, I might have to resort to more drastic measures to get her to appreciate making some friends aside from her own twin. Although... knowing her, she would probably try to study friendship in an academic fashion, as silly as that thought sounded to me. Perhaps that was just the thing to get her motivated, though...
Twilight and Sunset were already progressing at a faster pace than Cadance ever did. I had to wonder how that would turn out for them later down the line. If either of them ended up with an Element of Harmony, something I fear might very much be a possibility, it would mean they would become a priority target for Platinum. That was something I could not allow to happen.
I can’t fail them, I swore that to myself and I intended to keep that promise, no matter what. Platinum would surely try something if she became aware that I even had daughters, to begin with. I had no doubts about that. Whether or not I could prepare them sufficiently enough in the last remaining years remains to be seen, though.
With the rate they were growing, they might just surprise me and defeat Platinum without needing to be kept safe.
Suffice it to say, once they got their Cutie Marks, nothing would stop their growth. By the time they are adults, they might just reach the heights of what unicorns could be capable of. To be honest, they might even become the Starswirls of this day and age, they already had the will to gain the necessary knowledge and they had the potential for casting complex and powerful spells.
Even if I... ugh, I hate to even consider it, but... even if I might fail in getting them to ascend before they grow too old, I could train them well enough that they might attempt Starswirl’s old faulty time travel spell and succeed, granting me enough time to come up with another solution.
I was sure that I could...
My thoughts were derailed as I felt massive amounts of mana burst forth from both of my daughters as another source in the distance spread all over the nation in a matter of seconds. Cadance threw up a shield around Sunset in her panic as a maelstrom of fire threatened to turn everything to ash in the training courtyard and I saw something similar happening somewhere around the Royal Archives with a hail storm.
Sunset cried out for me and I was at her side an instant later, bracing myself against the rogue mana of my daughter. It stung mildly, but the well-being of my little Sun was more important right at this moment. I knew Luna must be doing the same for Twilight, having taken it upon herself to make sure our little Star took a break every once in a while from her study sessions.
“Mommy!” Sunset reached out to me and I let out soothing hums, embracing her even as I felt her mana attack my own. “It... hurts!”
“Shh, Sunset,” I said, trying to calm her erratic magic down. I knew it would happen at some point, there was no way I could have prepared her enough except to drain her magic on a daily basis, but... it still came as a surprise to see how powerful her surge would be. At least it happened while I was right next to her. “I’m here, I’m here.”
“Make it stop,” she whimpered and I smiled gently, silently telling her that everything would be over before she knew it. Her mana refused to bend to my will, though. Plan B it is, then.
“I need you to calm down, Sunny,” I told her, making her focus on me through her agony. “Let my mana guide yours, okay? You are a brave and smart little filly, you can do it.”
“O-okay,” she nodded, whimpering. Absentmindedly, I noticed large cracks forming in Cadance’s shield as she struggled to contain the sheer power my daughter displayed with her out-of-control magic, but I focused back on what was important right now. Teaching my daughter control on a level that she had never needed before this moment.
From outside our little fiery bubble, I heard a muffled shout of encouragement from what could have only been Cadance. “You can do it, Firecracker! I know it!”
Cadance’s words almost seemed to give her little sister the resolve she needed and slowly, the flames began to grow smaller around us. Just like that, I nodded at Sunset, taking most of the explosive force stoically head-on, helping guide her magic with my own.
“I... I am strong,” Sunset told herself, wincing as she snorted a puff of flames out of her nostrils. “This... urgh... this is nothing. My... magic... is my own to control!”
“Almost there,” I reassured her, for now ignoring the startled call of the Heavenly Sun and the Summer Sun within the sky. I did not dare to listen to what they had to ‘say’ while my daughter was fighting down the veritable storm that was her surge right now. She was doing an admirable job, so far. “Just a little bit more, little Sun.”
Before Cadance’s shield broke utterly, another one formed over hers, reinforcing it. It almost had the same color, only showing a subtle difference to the light brilliant blue of my Rose Petal’s aura. Thankfully, it turned out that it wasn’t needed as the flames receded, at last, leaving me with a heavily breathing filly in my arms.
On her flanks, I spotted something that had not been there before this moment. A red and golden sun, making my eyes widen in disbelief. Her very Cutie Mark depicted the twin suns in a single emblem, causing me to wonder what that could possibly mean for my daughter. What sort of destiny did she have?
My eyes grew even larger as I saw the mare standing next to Cadance as they let go of their battered shields. An alicorn mare.
“Aunty Yang?” Sunset asked in my arms, as confused as myself. “What are you doing here? And why do you have wings and a horn?”
“Uh...” the alicorn in front of us hesitated, her eye color not a lilac one but a very familiar cyan reminiscent of Luna’s and Sunset’s own. “This is... awkward.”
My Rose petal snorted. “This is weird, you mean,” Cadance corrected her, staring between both versions of her little sister. One being not so little, at that.
“Yeah...” she laughed awkwardly back, rubbing her neck nervously. “Hi, Mom?”
One of my brows went up at her blatant casualness. “All you have to say for yourself is ‘Hi, Mom’?” I asked and snorted in disbelief. “How did you get here? And for that matter... how did you get those wings?”
Adult-Sunset fidgeted on the spot, trying not to look too chastised. “I better don’t tell you anything in regards to the future, Mom,” she said while her gaze wandered over to her younger self. “Timey-wimey... stuff, you know?”
“Wait, so you aren’t Aunty Yang, then?” Sunset asked, confused. “But...”
“It’s best to not think about it too hard, Firecracker,” her future self smiled. “Trust me. Time travel is way too complicated, and for some reason, these things keep happening to us.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” I asked, narrowing my eyes in suspicion.
“Spoilers,” my future daughter shrugged. “I really can’t tell you too much about what is going to happen, Mom. You already know too much as it is and... you know... you told me not to.”
“Of course, I did,” I rolled my eyes grumpily. “I hate future Summer.”
“So... what now?” Adult-Sunset asked and I sighed, setting my daughter down after looking her over one last time for any lasting injuries. I thankfully took the brunt of her destructive magic, so she was none the worse for wear aside from a disheveled mane and a headache.
“I should better go look if your sister is okay,” I said, readying my wings. “Will you be okay looking after... well, yourself... for a moment?”
“Sure,” she shrugged. “I have big sis here with me, no problem.”
Right, I sighed, taking flight only to see Luna in the distance flying over to us with another alicorn mare. An alicorn mare that suspiciously looked like the little filly riding on her mother’s back next to her.
“Sister, you will never believe this,” Luna said once we were close enough to each other, looking exuberantly over to the adult version of Twilight Star next to her. I suppressed the urge to run my hoof through my face and, instead, settled for twitching eyelids as I regarded my daughter with a stare.
“Surprise me,” I said with a dry tone of voice, turning to Lulu with a deadpan stare.
“That’s Liz,” Luna said, barely holding back the grin that threatened to show on her face.
“Uh-huh,” I nodded.
Luna pouted. “You’re no fun, you know that?” she said and I smiled slightly. I should have known that would be the first thing Lulu would try with me, it was just too bad I already knew what was going on. Sort of. “I guess you have run into Sunset’s adult version, then?”
I nodded and gave the Cutie Mark on both the filly version and the adult version of my daughter a quick glance. A six-pointed star with six other, smaller ones, around it. I couldn’t help but stare at the very depiction of the Element of Magic right there in front of my eyes on their flanks. First Sunset’s Cutie Mark, and now Twilight’s? Surely this could not be a coincidence. “I’d better show you our... not so little Sun, then...”
“My sister is also here in Canterlot?” Twilight asked with a happy little grin gracing her muzzle, showing off her sharp fangs. She was beating her leathery wings furiously without a single effort, a stark contrast to the feathery wings I had seen on Sunset not a moment ago. “Great! That means I don’t have to go searching for her... again. That just leaves the rest of our friends.”
“Right...” I sighed, mentally adding ‘Spoilers!’ to that statement and leaving it at that. I’m sure I will find out eventually. As aggravating as it was to not know what was going on, one thing that I had in abundance was patience.
I suppose one good thing I learned from this was the fact that Twilight and Sunset apparently had found friends. Friends that were most likely also currently absent from their proper timeline and with their younger selves. It would be for the best to get them back to their own time lest they cause more paradoxes with their presence here. I’d rather avoid having the universe implode, thank you very much.
Their arrival would also explain the massive surge of mana I felt spread over all of Equestria, causing both of my daughters to surge at the same time as well. Probably from being startled while using magic, suddenly overwhelmed from the sensation of this... 'mana explosion', for lack of a better term to describe this. Hopefully, none of my subjects were affected too badly. “I’m glad nothing bad happened to you, little Star.”
“Which one of us do you mean, Mom?” she asked and I groaned silently to myself. This was just as annoying as not knowing what the flying penguin was going on. It would probably be for the best to figure out a way to address them separately aside from mentally adding filly or adult to their names.
“Let’s just say both of you, for now, dear,” I smiled, booping her muzzle with a hoof. “Now come on, your sister is back with Cadance in the training courtyard, waiting for us.”
“How does one get wings, Mom? You can't just stick them on, that doesn't make any sense!” Filly-Twilight asked and I mentally groaned once more. Perfect. Just perfect. Now they were curious, weren’t they? It’s going to annoy them to no end that I couldn’t give them an answer to that particular question. Especially Twilight, she really could get grumpy about not getting her curiosity sated.
“I’ll answer that question when you are..."—I stopped, blinking before looking at the adult version of my daughter—"...how old are you, Twilight?” I asked, curious. I suppose I could address her with Twilight and her younger self as Star, couldn’t I? I hate time paradoxes. It makes everything needlessly complicated.
“Sunny and I just turned twenty-six,” she answered, coming in for a landing next to me while the rest of my daughters came over to us. “I suppose we should explain what happened to send us here?”
Sunset let out a strangled kind of noise, rubbing her neck anxiously. “I mean... it’s your call, sis,” she said, biting her lip with a fang. “I’m not going to piss off Mom again, it’s your turn.”
Adult-Twilight rolled her eyes, an aggravated look on her muzzle that reminded me of Luna when she was annoyed. “Mom told us not to tell her what happened that caused us to be alicorns and... you know... that,” she retorted. “I’m frankly surprised she didn’t go through with erasing our memories the first time this happened to us.”
“What?” I asked, aghast. “Why would I do that?!”
Twilight laughed nervously, rubbing her leg as she avoided my eyes. She and Sunset shared a glance with each other. “Something about avoiding paradoxes..?”
Flipping flying penguins...
“Okay...” I sighed, rubbing my eyes tiredly. “That does make sense, but... I’d rather not use mind magic on my own daughters. You didn’t commit a crime by accidentally traveling back in time, did you?”
“As far as I'm aware?” Twilight said slowly, giving me and Luna a sheepish look. “You should probably make time travel illegal, but that would also create a time paradox because... uh... Sunny and I have gone back in time a couple of times now?”
“And how often did you do that exactly?” Luna asked, raising a brow at her. Ugh. The more I find out, the bigger the headache would become, wouldn’t it? “For that matter, why are you even using time travel magic in the first place? I would think we taught you better than that.”
“Well...” Twilight began, fidgeting nervously with her wings. Wings that our little Star and Sun couldn’t look away from. Twilight’s younger self even went so far as to stretch the membranous wing of her older self out in order to study it up close, something that Adult-Twilight didn’t even seem to mind at all. “There was that one time with... uh..."—she snapped her muzzle shut before she could mention anything further than that—" Right, no spoilers, eh heh heh. All I can really say is that we haven’t gone further back than around this point in time.”
“And that will hopefully stay that way,” Sunset muttered, giving her sister a look that made Twilight blush in embarrassment. “Discord causes enough chaos as it is.”
“Discord?!” I asked, my voice coming out in a fearful whisper. What does she mean by ‘he causes it’? Why was she talking like... like he wasn’t imprisoned anymore?
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...
“You weren’t supposed to say that, sis!” Twilight reprimanded Sunset, tugging harshly at her twin’s ear. “Now Mom is panicking! Again!”
“Ow! Sorry, sheesh... always the damn ear,” Sunset muttered, rubbing her ear as Luna tried to calm me down while everything started to spin around me. Discord can’t just... he...
“Sister, breathe,” Luna’s voice felt like a calming balm to my stressed-out mind, and slowly, I regained enough of my composure to not go into hysterics immediately afterward again. “What is this about Discord?”
“We... can’t exactly tell you, Mom,” Twilight grimaced, giving me a worried look as Luna held me in her hooves. Little Star was standing awkwardly next to her, fidgeting a little bit fearfully at seeing me not be my strong self. Sunny was perhaps just as afraid as she watched us from where Cadance held onto her. “But Discord isn’t really... as bad as you think he is.”
I snorted, keeping the snarl barely contained as I thought back to all the monstrous things he did a thousand years ago. Whatever he did to be released from his stone prison, I was sure he was nothing but bad news. My future self must be a moron, I thought darkly. Nothing good would come from having Discord running around freely.
Luna frowned. “Tell me,” she started, her eyes staring sternly at both of our daughters. “Is he or is he not causing chaos on a massive scale?”
“I...” Twilight hesitated, looking to her sister for help.
“Not... necessarily?” Sunset answered, giving Twilight an unhappy grumble for having to be the bringer of bad news. “He is... Discord. He does what he wants when he wants, but... I guess we have somepony that keeps him in check? He actually is a kinda chill guy once you get to know him... and look past his antics...”
That... that was utterly impossible. Discord does not bow down to anypony, he was unable to be controlled. He is the very Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, there was no way a mortal pony could have enough power to ‘keep him in check’ as my daughter claimed.
Subtly, I used my magic to search for any kind of corruptive influence on either of their minds, only to find none. So, for whatever reason, Sunset was actually convinced Discord was ‘good’. And neither was she under his influence, so that leaves out Discord trying to manipulate us in some form to make us ‘trust’ him.
It was confusing to no end.
How could it be that my daughters would trust that damnable snake? And I apparently let Discord roam freely for some inexplicable reason. That was perhaps even more perplexing to me than knowing that my daughters had such a high opinion of him (any opinion other than ‘imprison on sight’ was a high opinion in this particular case, to be honest).
So... what changed? Why would I change my opinion of him so drastically? He couldn’t just be... good, could he? Not after all that he did. My memory of that time was not the best one, but I knew for certain it was absolute madness, and the resulting fall-out was even worse.
So many lives were lost because of him. Back then, hundreds of thousands of monsters were roaming around Equestria, and even to this day, there were still creatures of his design living in the wilderness. I couldn’t just look past all of that and forgive him, could I? What reason could I have to think he would... be... useful...
My eyes widened.
Could it be? Was that the reason why I tried to reconcile with Discord of all beings? Because his type of magic could actually do good? That he would even use it willingly for a good cause baffled me utterly, but apparently, he does. In the future, Discord is going to use his magic for good and that would earn him his freedom, and perhaps my forgiveness.
I was reminded of his last moments, that satisfied glint in his eyes. Was all the chaos he caused... could it be that he tried to do a good thing? But... what could there possibly be that was 'good' about all the suffering he caused?
One thing did come to my mind, at that. Progress. He caused the whole world to think of solutions to the plight that plagued each and every nation after his reign ended. Ponies, too, for that matter. A lot of different remedies and medicines were discovered around that time, hygiene became better, and schooling became commonly available. Ponies actually made progress after Discord put the fear of mortality in them. In all of us, for that matter.
Most of the things we have now wouldn’t be possible if it were not for Discord. It was a frightening thought, wasn’t it? We... we were indebted to Discord.
My eyelid twitched. Indebted. To. Discord. After all the suffering he caused, are we suddenly supposed to be grateful to him? To that abhorrent snake? He was the reason I couldn’t say goodbye to most of my friends as they died in his make-believe Wonderland! How was I supposed to forgive that?!
I... I was holding a grudge, wasn’t I? A thousand years in stone... it was punishment enough. He has had enough time to think over all the things he did. Wasn’t it time to forgive him?
How could I hold his very nature against him? He was supposed to cause chaos, it was his purpose. Like it was my purpose to raise and lower the Summer Sun. If I hold that against him... what kind of pony would that make me? I swore to myself that I would return to how I was, to not let my bitterness guide me anymore. To listen to my heart.
So... what was my heart saying right now?
The answer came almost instantly to me. I knew it with such certainty, my mind began to protest against my bleeding heart. My heart wanted to give him that second chance. If he was willing to be good, to use his purpose in a way that did not create suffering... I knew I could actually forgive him.
I had been willing to give Platinum chances upon chances once upon a time in my youth until I realized what a monster she truly was. Why couldn’t I grant Discord that chance to better himself? If I could give somepony that never deserved a single chance so many of them... shouldn’t I give Discord the same courtesy? If he truly was trying to help (as ridiculous as that sounded in my mind), I owed it to him and myself.
It was up to him to accept my offer to start anew and take that chance. It was up to him to decide whether or not he wanted to make the best of it. Either he took that chance or he would prove me right and betray my trust. Whether or not I would grant him a chance after that was up to him and his willingness to repent. I would have to really think of this conundrum a bit more when everything was sufficiently calm enough for me to do so, possibly stall out the decision until I’m absolutely certain of what to do so that it wouldn’t immediately backfire on me (and have a backup plan in case that he does decide to cause havoc again), but first... I have to get my daughters back to their own time. Somehow.
“So,” I began, breathing calmly in and out, my panic from a few moments ago (mostly) forgotten. “How did you get here and how do we get you back? What do you remember from your first time witnessing this?”
“Well...” Sunset muttered, thinking probably about the exact circumstances that led to their appearance here. “One of our friends was performing for some delegates from Abyssinia and during her sonic rainboom, lightning struck. It must have caused all of us to go back to the time of her first sonic rainboom.”
“I agree, that sounds like the most plausible theory. And... to be honest?” Twilight said, giving her younger self a glance while muttering under her breath. The look in her eyes... was she being judgmental of her younger self? “Most of the things I remember from then are along the lines of ‘Wings, wings, wings!’ and ‘I grow up that tall?’”
“I wouldn’t exactly call you of all ponies ‘tall’, sis,” Sunset teased her, making her twin pout back at her. “But we should probably get back to Ponyville and group up with our friends there. Rarity and Applejack already live there, Pinkie will no doubt be on her way over to there from her parent’s rock farm, and Rainbow and Flutters aren’t too far away from Ponyville in Cloudsdale.”
“How do you think Fluttershy’s younger self will react to... well... herself?” Twilight asked her sister and Sunset grimaced slightly.
“I have hope that she won’t scare herself to death, at least,” Sunset said, biting her lip nervously. “She hasn’t really changed all that much from how she behaved before... you know, 'that' happened... but she does look kinda scary when she doesn’t want to. Or if she actually wants to be...”
I raised my eyebrow at my daughter, finding it particularly interesting as she subconsciously rubbed her ear again. There was a story there, wasn’t there? If they continue to give me breadcrumbs like those, I’m going to die of curiosity despite my vast patience.
“If you hadn’t told Aunty about that, I might have been able to change her back, you know,” Twilight grumbled, only to receive a glare from Sunset.
“Sis, if you ever use another experimental spell on her, I’mma stuff you into our Aunt’s room during estrus,” she threatened, causing her sister to sputter with a bright red muzzle. “Let’s just get to Ponyville before Mom gets a conniption from trying to figure out what we are talking about. We really need to learn how to shut our muzzles around her, you know.”
She wasn’t wrong about that. I had even more questions now than before and I was extremely curious to find out who they actually meant by ‘Aunty’. They couldn’t mean Tia with that, could they? Why would they call her Aunty instead of... Mom?
You know what? I don’t want to know. Knowing too much about one’s own future was way too dangerous for my liking. That I knew far too much already was bad enough as it is.
“If you need to get to Ponyville, we could get a few chariots ready,” I offered, only for Twilight to shake her head at me.
“No need,” Twilight said, smiling slightly as she unfurled her wings. “We can just fly there...”
I pointedly gave her younger self a look and she shut up before she could continue with that train of thought. “Right. We probably need our younger selves there to get back to our own time, don’t we?”
“It stands to reason that it would help to have yourselves there with you,” Luna nodded. “In that case, we should make haste with getting you to Ponyville. Preferably before something happens that might endanger the future.”
Our daughters didn’t argue against that, and together with their younger selves in tow, we saw them off at the Canterlot Royal Airport. Our guards didn’t even question why there were suddenly two versions of the royal heirs here with us, stoically going ahead with their duty to serve us to their best ability.
Perhaps they deserve a raise, I mused to myself.
“Shouldn’t we make sure they are okay?” Cadance asked and I looked down at her for a moment, before gazing back towards the chariots that grew more and more distant from Canterlot.
“I have faith in them,” I smiled. “Seeing those wings on them... it does make one wonder how they got them, does it not?”
“It doesn’t hurt to go spy on them, right?” Cadance proposed with a mischievous glint in her eyes and Luna snorted next to me.
“What do you think we are going to do, dear daughter?” Luna grinned, walking off the edge and letting herself drop for a few meters before shooting off into the distance after our daughters. I sighed. A giggle next to me caused me to roll my eyes at their antics before I followed after my wife and my eldest daughter.
Besides, I was curious to see their friends, myself. Liz could probably take care of anything that would come up here in Canterlot, couldn’t she? I felt only slightly guilty for leaving her here all alone without saying anything to her.
Ah, well... she was holding court, anyway. It's not like we still have a few hours in our schedule for magic and combat training left. This was just an... unexpected field trip. She won't get mad at me for that, right?
Ahem, anyway! We didn’t actually go into Ponyville looking like we usually do. Not only would that have clued our daughters into us spying on them, but it would have also caused far too much of a ruckus with us there as the Princesses of Equestria. I’d rather avoid causing a scene by going unannounced to a small little village that was by all rights unassuming and unimportant.
It was anything but that, wasn’t it? Not only did my daughters apparently live here in the future for some reason, but it was also right next to the Everfree Forest (and with that, our old castle). Not to mention, since the very founding of this settlement, the Apple Family Clan has spread all over Equestria, making Ponyville a hot spot for everything apple-related. I might pay Granny Smith a visit, just to see how she’s doing these days.
Luna, Cadance, and I entered the seemingly tranquil village after we had transformed ourselves into little birds, courtesy of my nifty spell. My daughter looked quite cute like that, fluttering every which way with a certain child-like wonder.
I didn’t expect to find a whole group of alicorns, having waited for the arrival of my daughters. I might have fainted on the spot right then and there if it weren’t for the sheer happiness (and, I suppose, the adrenalin) flooding through my tiny little body. How that happened... I can’t even fathom to guess.
Could the return of Platinum be enough of a worthy Trial of Ascension for all of them? Oh dear, I didn’t want to think about the sheer chaos that would cause in Canterlot. I just know the nobles would throw a hissy fit about that one. So many new alicorns... it made my heart beat faster with joy. So many ponies that would stay with us... it was a dream come true, wasn’t it?
I... I dared to let myself hope that I would be able to make friends again. Friends that wouldn’t leave us alone after growing old. And I dared to hope my daughters would actually be able to find love among that group of alicorns.
One thing that did strike me as odd, though, was the thestral alicorn mare next to the young pegasus version of herself, meeting up with my daughters just as they hopped out of their chariots. Even her Cutie Mark was different from the one her filly version had on her flanks.
Cadance tilted her head, leaning slightly forward. “That must be Fluttershy,” she noted, sitting next to me on the branch Luna and I took a perch on. “What do you think must have happened to her?”
“Twilight, obviously,” Luna remarked, and I hit her behind the head with a wing, causing her to grumble at me. “Though I suppose your sister must have cast a particularly powerful spell to transform her permanently like that.”
“Fluttershy might have had dormant thestral genes in her DNA from the very beginning for such a thing to work in the first place,” I mused, getting Luna to nod thoughtfully.
“It would certainly explain how her transformation stabilized itself like that,” she said, hopping further down the branch to get a closer look at her and the other ponies gathered together with our daughters. “Her fangs aren’t too big, she might be a descendant of a vampire fruit bat thestral. And it seems like this is her regular, default self, judging by the feeling of her presence. So I doubt we are looking at her darker version here.”
“There are different kinds of thestral?” Cadance asked, intrigued. Luna nodded, tilting her head as she noticed the different eye colors of Fluttershy’s older version and her younger one.
“Indeed there are,” Luna answered, turning back towards us as the group left our eyesight. “You should have your own thestral side that you could turn into by becoming your other self. We should probably introduce her to you at some point, seeing that you are already showing signs of her.”
“I do?” Cadance asked and I nodded sadly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You haven’t fully come into your powers until recently, petal,” I said, uncomfortable with the betrayed look she gave me. “We can talk about this later. I promise I will be entirely truthful with you about this, but for now, let us follow after Twilight and Sunset, okay?”
“Fine,” she grumbled, taking flight after us. Any further thoughts about her other half were put on hold as we came upon the sight of a shattered light lazily spinning around in the middle of the street. The crystalline appearance of the shards wasn’t actually solid in any way, more like what I would assume to be a fragmented shard of reality to look like.
It was almost mesmerizing to simply stare at it, threatening to draw me in entirely and never let go of the hold it had on my mind. The very magic radiating from that thing, that hole in reality... I fear if it was allowed to grow, it would slowly eradicate the universe in its entirety.
The conversation between my daughters and their friends drew my attention away from the unstable time portal, causing my eyes to widen comically. Did they just say they needed to find the Elements of Harmony?!
Luna hopped eagerly next to me on the spot, almost falling off of the roof we landed on in her glee. They really would return and my daughters would wield them with their newfound friends. They would bring back our sister...
I... oh, dear. As much as I wanted to... I couldn’t let myself remember this day, could I? I had to seal the memories away, I knew far too much about my own future from this day alone. Luna, Cadance, and I cannot know what would happen. We can’t know or we might just jeopardize what we are trying to achieve.
“Mom?” Cadance asked, concerned. “Is everything okay? You have that stare going on again, the one that says ‘I’m about to do something I won’t like’...”
“As much as I hate to suggest it,” I began, feeling downtrodden as I watched the group of mares and fillies go two separate ways in order to search for the Elements of Harmony that got scattered here with them from the future, afraid of what I had to propose to Cadance and Luna. “We cannot remember what happened here today. Sunset and Twilight were right, they shouldn’t have shown us so much of what is yet to come. We shouldn’t even have come here, spying on them like this.”
Luna let out a groan. “You can’t be serious, sister,” she sighed. “What do you think that would change? For all we know, not knowing would change the future.”
“But...” I muttered, fidgeting with my wings as I abandoned the thought of following after the two groups entirely in favor of finding a solution to this... whatever this problem actually was. “This is a paradox. We aren’t meant to know, Lulu. Nopony is meant to know their own future like this!”
“You might have a point about that, sister,” she shrugged. “But that doesn’t mean we actually have to forget what we learned today. We barely learned anything about the specific circumstances of the future, so what are you so afraid of? Twilight and Sunset even told us we did not erase their memory from them.”
“We could have just... sealed the memories away,” I said, uncertainty plaguing my mind. “So that they would only remember it when they go back in time, you know?”
“You know as much as I do that neither of us would actually go through with that, Summer,” Luna shot back, annoyed while hopping on the spot in agitation. “Besides, we already know about the future from September, don't we? Could it be that you are afraid of knowing all this because you can’t allow yourself that happiness of knowing?”
“I...” I hesitated, looking away from my wife as I began to fidget with my wings in unrest. Was that it? Was I afraid of knowing too much of the future because... but why?
Why was I afraid to know this so much? Was it because... I couldn’t even put this feeling into words. Maybe because it would make me feel guilty to Tia? This feeling was unreasonable, wasn’t it? It feels like I wanted to punish myself by forgetting everything I learned on this day.
“I don’t know, Lulu...” I whispered, too afraid to look her in the eyes. My sister draped her wing over me and I leaned into the hug, confused by my own feelings. “I guess I am afraid to let myself feel this happiness of knowing how the future would turn out because... it would make me feel bad for knowing all of this before it even happened. It would make me feel guilty to Tia.”
“You don’t have to feel like that, you silly idiot,” Luna reassured me, causing a happy flutter to race through me despite her calling me an idiot again. “Tia wouldn’t hold it against you and you know that. Besides... after learning all of these things, do you feel like you actually know what is going to happen, or are you feeling like you don’t know anything at all? Because, let me tell you, I feel like I have absolutely no idea how most of what we have learned today is going to happen beyond a vague sense of us accomplishing what we have promised ourselves to accomplish.”
“I...” I mumbled, struggling with my words as my emotions went all over the place. It felt strangely similar to what I felt like the majority of the time in our youth. This sense of... excitement, of being confused by a lot of things, of not knowing what the next day would bring. “Maybe you’re right, Lulu.”
“See? You are needlessly worrying over nothing. Again,” Luna teased me while rubbing her head against mine. “This isn’t that different from when we were young, you know?”
“What do you mean?” Cadance asked, tilting her head curiously. I sighed, looking up into the sky forlornly.
“Celestia’s gift, petal,” I answered. “I suppose we knew quite a lot of our own future even back then. Not that it helped, most of the time.”
“Indeed,” Luna agreed, a stormy look entering her eyes. “We knew so much, but at the same time? We didn’t know anything at all. We lacked the wisdom to make sense of the future Celestia’s visions foretold.”
This knowledge we now had... in a sense, it didn’t help us at all. We were no closer to knowing what would actually happen than we were before this day. We knew bits and pieces, but the bigger picture eluded us. We were aware our daughters would wield the Elements of Harmony, but we don’t know how that would happen in the first place.
I doubt we could just reawaken the Elements right now just like that by giving their petrified remains to the little fillies and telling them to ‘revive’ them without knowing how to. In the end, it would come down to circumstances we could never predict. Circumstances I fear involve the return of Platinum.
I was understandably fearful of that day, even more so now. I knew I would ‘die’ in some way. I knew my daughters would be there with us whether I wanted them to be or not. I knew Platinum would most likely be purged from Tia. But beyond that? I was tapping around in the darkness, blinded by uncertainty.
All I really knew was that everything would work out. Somehow. While that was reassuring in itself, that didn’t mean all my worries would just go away. A lot of things could go wrong despite all of that, even if the end result of that would turn out to be favorable.
Cadance, Luna, and I waited for the return of our daughters in a somber mood, mulling over everything we knew so far. My little petal was as optimistic as ever, something that helped lift the mood by quite a lot. I have no idea what I would do without her or Luna and Liz. I pity our sister from another realm, I truly do. She did not have such supportive family members there with her, only because she kept everyone at an arm’s length away from her. I hope Luna’s return will finally change that for Tia. She really needs to have her own sister back, only she could get her out of that mindset, I fear. Perhaps she might actually take my advice to heart for once and accept Cadance as her own.
Sadly, the portal refused to open back up again, so I couldn’t help her through this trying time myself. It hurt, but there was nothing I could do to change that. Even alicorns were not all-powerful, as much as our subjects pretended that that was the case.
Before long, the group of fourteen ponies returned to the portal in the middle of Ponyville and we watched inconspicuously from our perch on top of the roof as they stabilized it with the help of their Elements, each one of them wearing a kind of ‘regalia’ that looked more or less royal enough for their status. I gazed wistfully at the green gem inlaid in the regalia of my little Sun, having missed the presence of Hope very much. It suited her, I mused.
While Sunset was sometimes a bit too blinded by seeing the worst in the nobility, I knew she always made the best effort to search for that little light slumbering in everypony, even if it might seem absent entirely. Besides, she wasn’t too wrong about condemning the majority of the nobility like that, as much as it pained me to admit that.
In the end, I watched as my daughters and their friends said goodbye to their younger selves, promising them they would have lots of adventures in the future. Before she went through the portal, I saw my little ray of hope turn her head around, searching for us with a smile on her muzzle. Either my future self told her we would be here on the roof, or she felt our presence despite us suppressing it to the best of our ability.
I was proud of her, even more so than I already was of her. She would grow up into that righteous mare, after all. That was perhaps the most important thing I learned about the future, seeing my daughters all grown up like that.
The portal closed, and with that, everything was back to how it should be. Well... almost everything. “Let’s get those fillies back home to their families, shall we?”
Luna and Cadance nodded, and with a quick burst of mana, our transformation was reversed. While I would rather stay in disguise while we are here, it would look... bad... if we were seen with a whole herd of little fillies like that. It was better to go as Princess Summer rather than some inconspicuous mare that nopony knew (or as little birds, which was perhaps even worse because it would look like there was nopony supervising them at all).
The majority of the little group was understandably in awe to see Luna and me there, here to bring them back home. Cadance was even happier than they were, letting Fluttershy and, as we learned their names after the commotion died down enough for them to introduce themselves in a coherent way, Pinkie Pie ride on her back, ecstatic to play foal-sitter with them.
Cadance took it upon herself to be the voluntary foal-sitter as the group of fillies agreed on having a playdate every first weekend of the month, reluctant to go separate ways after having bonded so much on their very first adventure together. It was a massive relief to my heart to see that my daughters were among the loudest voices in that group to remain friends with each other. They had genuine friends now, something that is (in itself) a massive relief to me.
The stars were indeed shining brightly, foretelling a glorious future.
Rarity was the first to say goodbye, living the closest to the center of Ponyville. She did squeeze a promise out of me to always have a room prepared for her at the castle. I couldn’t say no to her, not after seeing to what lengths the little seamstress was going in her creation of art. Luna was especially proud of the little artist, sharing something in common with her (not particularly the 'dresses' part, but she does dabble in Victorian and Gothic styles). Both of them were passionately artistic with the things they did.
Next was Applejack, living on the farm of Sweet Apple Acres. I had a little chat with Granny Smith, trying to leave an ‘anonymous’ donation only to have her chuck the bag full of bits back into my waiting hooves, having expected her reaction. One day, I swear, she will accept it without complaint. I left with a little laugh, smiling fondly at the thought of the stubborn mare’s pride, ushering Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy with me and Sunset while Cadance and Luna would go to the home of Pinkie Pie together with Twilight to see their last friend off.
I did find out one very interesting thing as Fluttershy began talking about what she went through after falling off the cloud as her friend's race started: she could talk to animals.
It was a tempting proposal I had in mind, one I was sure would make her and her parents very happy. And happy they were as I told them I would like to tutor Fluttershy in her gift. Every month, when they would come over to have their little get-together, I promised Fluttershy to teach her the subtle nuances of understanding animals to an even greater degree than she thought was possible.
Suffice it to say, the little pegasus looked very much forward to this time next month. Sunset couldn’t wait to show her Yu’la, as well. The little dragon has become almost inseparable from her. My darling little dragon was sure to enjoy Fluttershy’s presence, the gentle pegasus was almost like a mini-version of myself at her age. In a way, Fluttershy also reminded me of Yu’lon, always talking with a gentle tone of voice.
I wondered what Fluttershy’s reaction would be to the pandaren on Azeroth. Sometimes I wish that they also existed here on Equis, simply because of their sheer cuteness. To be honest, though? Equestria alone had perhaps too much cuteness, already.
Pfft, nah. There can never be enough cuteness in the world.
Later that evening, after I relieved Liz of the boredom of going through all of the paperwork by herself, Cadance joined us in our private chambers for a very special occasion, indeed. It would be easier for Luna to drag Cadance into our shared dream if she was right next to us, not having to breach the barrier of our spell that kept the minds of our subjects safe from Platinum’s meddling hooves.
Once more, the almost innocent surface of the soul mirror greeted my eyes. I smiled reassuringly down at Cadance, giving her a hug. Her nervous eyes found mine, and with a deep breath, she slowly inched forward to stand in front of it.
Her reflection, surprisingly, didn’t look all that different from her regular self. The silver slit eyes reflected back at her regarded her with a quiet fascination, mirrored in Cadance’s own light purple eyes.
“You are... me? My darker side?” Cadance asked, uncertain. I could tell that she was a bit underwhelmed by what her other side looked like.
“I think so?” her reflection murmured back, fidgeting with her own wings. Wings that had silver accents, instead of purple ones. She wore a spiky collar around her neck and her make-up... well, my daughter usually didn’t use the color black for anything beyond eyeliner (not unlike myself, I suppose), but her other half could pull it off if I was honest with myself. Her regalia... I’m unsure what to say about that, seeing that it was primarily black and made out of very thin fabric that left nothing to the imagination, even accentuating all her feminine features in ways I was not comfortable with describing. The 'dress' was far too... ahem, let’s call it ‘alluring’ and leave it at that. It wouldn't be entirely out of place in an 'adult' nightclub. On her hooves were silky, black ballerina shoes that had a subtle rose pattern stitched on them, strangely fitting the overall look of her. Her Cutie Mark depicted the Crystal Heart surrounded by thorns. I could just barely see the tiny fangs as she spoke, clueing me in into her thestral nature. “I’m Loving Thorn... it’s nice to meet you, me.”
“Likewise,” Cadance muttered, almost absentmindedly. My daughter shook her head, forcing herself out of the mesmerized trance she found herself in. “To be honest, I expected something a lot more... evil? I mean... not actually evil, but definitely something more... wicked? You manage to make black look sexy as hell...”
“Yeah, I don’t think we have it in us to be all ‘evil-y’,” Loving Thorn said, rubbing her leg awkwardly while a blush appeared on her muzzle at Cadance’s compliment. I swear, I think my daughter is even worse than Tia with the whole ‘I wanna have sex with myself’ thing. “Not like Mom, at least.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I grumbled, giving her a pouty glare.
“I... uh...” Thorn hesitated, gulping nervously. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Mom, but... you kinda are the ‘either or’ type of pony. You are either really kind... or you go completely off the rockers.”
“I do not go ‘off the rockers’ as you say,” I glared at her, feeling insulted.
“She is not wrong with that, sister,” Luna remarked, grinning back at me. “You really do go ‘off the rockers’ when you get mad at somepony.”
I pouted. “Not you, too, Luna,” I complained, crossing my forelegs in front of myself. “I have anger problems, sure, but I’m not that bad.”
“You are,” both versions of my daughter and Luna said at the same time and I grumbled sulkily under my breath. Fine. Maybe I am a loose cannon sometimes, but those that earn my ire actually deserve it.
“Aren’t you supposed to be on my side here, Lulu?” I shot back, daring her to say otherwise. Too bad my wife was not intimidated by me. At all. She never was, even when I went ‘off the rockers’ as they so eloquently put it. To be honest, I had no idea what she saw in me when I was like... that... turning into a raging she-devil.
“One of us has to keep you grounded, sister,” Lulu shrugged and I let out a sigh, dejected. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, you idiot. I love you despite all your faults, but that doesn’t mean I have to say yes to everything you say.”
“Am I the only one that does that, then?” I asked, blushing slightly while feeling dumb.
“Yes,” Luna said, her voice completely deadpan. Then she grinned at me mischievously, licking her lips sensually, causing my blush to brighten considerably. “But that’s because you are unable to say no to this sexy devil of a sister, Sunny.”
“Damn you, Luna,” I cursed under my breath, fighting against my tail’s desire to stand up straight.
Luna giggled. “Aww, you love me,” she said, giving me a half-lidded gaze. Her muzzle came dangerously close to my ears, her breath tickling the inside of it. “And my dick, of course.”
“Can we get back to what we came here for?” Cadance asked, sporting a blush herself as she saw my tail twitch and wings suddenly pop open from that whispered remark, no doubt wondering what it was that my sister just told me. “I want to know more about... well, my other side.”
Thorn hummed from the other side of the mirror. “I agree, it would be nice to know how we can turn into each other,” she said. “You also promised to tell us what kind of thestrals there are.”
“Well,” I began, bringing my wings under control before this got even more embarrassing than it needed to be. Ugh. I hate my damn sexy sister. She totally did that on purpose, didn’t she? “There are two main types of thestral ponies that you should be aware of. Luna and I are the vampiric blood thestral type, meaning that we can sustain ourselves purely on blood if we want to. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the blood of fellow ponies, animal blood works just as well and most thestrals prefer it that way. The other type is the vampire fruit bat thestral, meaning they prefer to drink the juice of various fruits. As you can see by the fangs of your other half, you are the latter type, as is Fluttershy from what we have observed of her.”
“Ah, I was wondering about that,” Cadance hummed, tapping a hoof to her chin in thought. “So... that means Twilight and Sunset are the blood-drinking type as well, right? Or can the fruit bat variant drink blood if they want to?”
“Twilight most definitely is,” Luna answered, giving me a look. “Sunset, on the other hoof? We are still on the fence about what type she is.”
“Why is that?” Cadance asked, confused. “She has also been drinking blood like Twilight, hasn’t she?”
“It’s... a bit more complicated than that,” I said, starting to pace back and forth. “There are some... let’s say unique variants of the thestral tribe. It is very rare that a thestral is born as a unicorn instead of the usual thestral-pegasus. Sunset... she is actually closer to a unicorn than to a thestral if my guess is correct. It would certainly explain why she has feathery wings in the future instead of the usual membranous ones. Although, the possibility exists that she is a kind of thestral we have never encountered before. We would have to find out once she turns into an alicorn, in that case.”
My daughter frowned in concern. “What does that mean for her? She can just eat whatever she wants?” Cadance asked, and I laughed slightly.
“All thestrals can eat ‘whatever they want’, petal,” I explained to her. “Otherwise, Twilight and Sunset would get sick from the cookies I bake, don’t you think so?”
“Oh, right,” Cadance said, blushing in embarrassment. “So, does that mean I could drink blood if I really want to?”
“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” Luna said, shaking her head. “That is a trait unique to the vampiric blood kind, which is also one of the main reasons for many of the ridiculous rumors floating around about thestrals.”
“I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise to us,” Loving Thorn sighed almost forlornly. “Although, it does ruin the romantic possibilities for us...”
I rolled my eyes, not at all surprised that that was the reason why my daughter wanted to be able to drink blood. I suppose she was taking after me in that regard, having a penchant for vampire shenanigans myself.
“Maybe Ruby has the vampiric blood type?” Cadance proposed, blushing brightly with a lecherous glint in her eyes. I gave Luna an exasperated glance as both Cadance and Loving Thorn started to lose themselves in their little fantasy. Luna shrugged back at me, as helpless about this as I felt.
I don’t even want to think about the things my daughters have gotten up to in the last few years. I was happy for them, don’t get me wrong, but... I’d rather stay far away from what was going on when they were alone with each other. Knowing Cadance, she was taking way too much after Liz and Tia. No doubt did she have just as many ‘weird’ things that would get her excited as those two.
Maybe it was actually a good idea to keep her as far away as we could from Tia once she returned. With all of these new alicorns popping up all of a sudden, Tia would no doubt get it in her head to ‘expand’ our herd. While she’s technically as old as myself, Tia was sort of frozen in time being locked up on the moon and within her own mind. She wouldn’t see little foals like Lulu and I would.
I shudder to think what she would think of Cadance, not knowing who she is.
And that’s an image I never wanted to have in my head, I thought with a queasy feeling. Considering just what Liz could do... I need to ban her from using her changeling magic to satisfy each and every one of Tia’s crazy ideas and demented fetishes.
Otherwise, the moon will have two perverts on it for the next thousand years, I swear.