//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 - A Bird and a Cage 
// Story: A Light for Someone's Sake 
// by Lunaria 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 4
A Bird and a Cage



"Let me know if you see my coworker, she should be waiting for us here."

Twilight glanced at Minuette as the two of them walked off the train and onto the busy platform. Vanhoover was one of the busier trade hubs in Equestria, so it was not strange to see so many ponies up and about at the central train station.

"What do they look like?"

"Oh trust me," Minuette rolled her eyes. "You'll know her when you see her."

Twilight turned her gaze forwards and glanced about as they walked along the platform. There were so many ponies all around, including those waiting for friends or relatives; how could Minuette possibly expect her to single out a pony she didn't have a single clue to as how they looked?

They were almost off the platform entirely when Twilight had to do a double take, off on the side stood a mare in the most gaudy and oversized pink and frilly dress she had ever seen. What's even worse was that it did not compliment the mare's yellow coat or deep green mane in the slightest.

Twilight nudged Minuette and gestured with her hoof. "Is that her?"

Minuette did a light nod. "Oh yeah, that's her alright."

She could hear Minuette let out a deep sigh as they changed their trajectory and walked over. The earth pony mare lit up with a smile as she noticed them approach; she even started waving with one of her hooves.

"You know, you could have worn something a bit more conspicuous," Minuette exclaimed as they neared.

"What, and miss out on all the mares eyeing me up?" They let out with a happy gait, embracing Minuette in a hug.

"Oh they'd be looking you up alright, to figure out how to stay well clear."

The Earth Pony mare let go and blew Minuette a raspberry. "Spoilsport."

Minuette just rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she gestured to Twilight. "This is Magus Velvet, she'll be helping us. Velvet, this is Lemon Chrome, my annoying coworker."

"You know you don't have to introduce me like that," Lemon reached out with her hoof towards Twilight for a shake, something which Twilight returned.

"It's a... pleasure?"

Twilight wasn't a stranger to fancy wear, she saw nobles in Canterlot nearly every day. She had even attended a few formal events herself, and she had certainly seen ponies that were what she'd consider overdressed. All of that paled in comparison to what this mare wore.

"Let's just get on with why we are here," Minuette said.

"Sure, sure. I set up a room for us at a hotel near the southern edge of town," Lemon set off at a trot, forcing Twilight and Minuette to catch up.

Minuette blinked as she walked. "I'd rather get on with the job as soon as possible. I thought you said your analysis would be done by now?"

Lemon frowned. "It is, but we should be prepared... things aren't lining up as I expected them."

"How's that different from usual? We'll just get to it, disrupt it, and then get on with it."

"I'll... well I'll fill you in when we get to the hotel, but safe to say, it won't be as simple as that here."

Minuette just grumbled as the three proceeded down the busy streets. Twilight had been in Vanhoover a few times before, mostly on jobs though, so she rarely stayed for very long. Most of the buildings near the city center were several stories tall, nearly all being constructed with brick.

Of course, the true city center from when it was just a town and not a city was the docks, the building there being much older and lacking many of the more modern building techniques.

"So, Velvet was it?" Lemon turned her head and asked.

"Just Twilight is fine."

"Twilight it is!" She let out, turning her gaze forwards again. "I'm a bit surprised they sent a magus rather than just a guard or one of the boring suits."

"I asked for someone competent with magic based on the information I had," Minuette chipped in.

"You don't usually work with magi?"

Lemon shrugged. "Not really, we do most of the work ourselves. We only requests backup when we think there is a threat or something out of our capabilities."

Twilight blinked in surprise. "I'm surprised you can just do that, rather than getting bogged down with bureaucracy."

Minuette huffed. "Yeah, I can see that. I have heard nightmare stories about the Council of Magi."

Twilight nodded.

"Well," Lemon started. "We'd simply not get anything done if we were set up like that. It's why we report directly to the crown. Besides, the criminal charges for messing with temporal magic in ways you shouldn't are quite harsh."

"I have been wondering about that, actually. I assume both of you know some advanced stuff in the field if this is your job?"

Minuette snickered. "Something like that."

Twilight glanced at the unicorn, their face unreadable.

"Don't worry about Minuette, she's just grumpy about the subject."

Twilight nodded.

"Basically, the TIA snags up anypony that gets a special talent related to temporal magic," Lemon continued.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," Minuette nodded.

"What if the pony wanted a different career?" Twilight asked.

"Then they are shit out of luck. Look, can we talk about something else?" Minuette scoffed.

Twilight nodded.

"I don't see why you need to be so grumpy about it. It pays well and is a constant paycheck, we don't actually need to do anything unless an issue pops up."

Twilight could hear Minuette grumble beside her as Lemon continued to lead the way through the city.







Twilight glanced at the worn saddlebag filled with yet another batch of peaches. The harvest had been better this year, she reasoned. She was about to sit down and relax when a familiar voice called for her.

"Mom?"

Twilight smiled and set off from the garden towards what had been her house for years. She lifted her bags off her back and placed them near the entrance; she could put the peaches in the icebox later.

"Yes dear?"

The unicorn teen was standing still, her eyes fixated on the old letter from Celestia that was still stuck to the wall.

"Your name is Twilight, right?" They turned their head and glanced at Twilight.

Twilight nodded. "That's right dear."

"How come I don't have a name? We have names for everything else, shouldn't I have one too?"

Twilight sighed, she knew this might come up at some point. She was honestly surprised it had taken this many years. She walked over and sat down next to the younger unicorn, giving them a brief nuzzle.

"Do you want one?"

The teen sat down and leaned against Twilight. "Yeah."

Twilight smiled. "Then you'll have to come up with one."

The unicorn remained there quiet for half a minute or so before they spoke again. "Can't you just give me one?"

Twilight was no stranger to the idea, she had asked herself the very same thing before. Yet it felt like stepping over some undefined line, something sacred that she shouldn't intrude upon.

"I could... But I think it's better if you come up with one yourself; it will matter more to you that way."

"Did you do that too?"

"I... no, I suppose I didn't."

Twilight gently put her hoof through the teen's long unkempt mane and started stroking.

"Then where did yours came from?"

For a brief moment Twilight considered just lying, or maybe deflecting. But she knew she couldn't do that, they deserved the truth.

"As I recall," she let out a sigh. "My mother named me. Twilight has been a family name for quite some time. The second half of my name she gave me just because of how soft and smooth she found me to be as a foal," Twilight couldn't help but smile at the memory. Her mother had insisted on telling the story to her once she was old enough to comprehend; then repeat it at every opportunity to embarrass her.

"So... I can also be Twilight?" 

Twilight shook her head. "I already named my previous daughter Twilight," she could feel the tears coming. She tried suppressing the memories of her family as much as possible, but today there would be no fortification strong enough to hold them back it seemed.

The unicorn's ears became alert and she turned her head to face Twilight. "I have a sibling?"

"Two, actually."

The teen's eyes blinked in confusion. "Then how come I haven't ever met them?"

"Because," Twilight sighed as she felt the tears start to roll down her face. "They are outside of the wall."

Her companion's ears immediately fell. "Oh."

Twilight leaned over and nuzzled them.

"You must miss them," they whispered.

"Terribly."

"But... we'll meet them one day, right?"

"...I hope so."







"You said you had something to show me?" Twilight asked as she walked.

Wing Spark nodded. "I have set up enough safety contingencies so it should be safe to approach even for someone who does not have a talent for temporal magic."

Twilight glanced at the pegasus' cutiemark: A lightning bolt covered partially by a wing. For not the first time she wondered how that represented anything related to temporal magic.

"You know, you don't have to check me out, I'm already quite taken," Spark chuckled.

Twilight sighed and glanced the other way. "Likewise, I'm quite happily married I'll have you know."

"Good, I would have cause for concern if you weren't," the pegasus smirked.

The two came to a clearing, it didn't take Twilight more then a moment to discern its use. Spark's camp looked quite similar to her own but smaller, there was a shelter built from local wood and a small garden was planted in the center of the clearing. It did have one benefit Twilight's didn't: near the edge of it ran a small stream.

"This is nice," she complimented.

"Eh, it's serviceable. Between you and me I'm really sick of fruit and root vegetables, I can't wait to get out of this place so I can get my hands on some proper cooked meals."

Twilight nodded. "I do have some oat seeds I could spare if you want."

Spark shrugged with her wings. "Keep them, I don't really have the space for something like that here anyway."

Twilight hummed as the two walked through the clearing, clear past the farm and into the forest again. The rest of the trip was on a small trail, suggesting that wherever it lead was some place Spark had gone often enough.

"I'll warn you in advance, you can't go too close to epicentre. Not even I could survive direct contact with... well, you'll see."

"It's that dangerous?" Twilight pondered out loud.

"Yeah," Spark shuffled her wings. "Frankly I fear it's capabilities."

The walk through the forest took the two of them some ten to twenty minutes. Twilight wasn't entirely sure, she had lost most of her perception of time. The new clearing was quite a bit larger than the previous. Just a few short meters from the tree line a was the start of a circle that encompassed the entirety of it, one which was composed of what looked like obsidian chunks half buried in the ground.

Twilight could feel the hum of magic in the air, frankly any unicorn likely would considering the sheer amount swirling about. But the real thing that grabbed her attention was what rested inside the circle.

"Don't step over the circle, that's the safety ward."

Twilight nodded and came to a stop, she could feel a headache coming on already.

"Let me know what you see."

Twilight had to squint her eyes, it was hard to put it into words. "It's like... a lamp or the sun, except it's producing shade instead of light?"

The entire orb, if one could call it that when it wasn't round in the slightest, was larger than the tree line; and that was with the bottom of the thing being partially embedded in the ground.

"That's an interesting way to see it," Spark mused.

"What... what is it?"

"Now that's the big question. It's sort of a creature, yet it's kind of not."

Twilight turned and stared at Spark. "That thing is alive?"

"Eeeh, not really? At least not in the conventional ways we think of living things."

"That's... Well what can you tell me about it?"

Spark sat down with a sigh and rubbed her forehead. "We call it the Time Eater, it's a creature that lives outside of time."

Twilight frowned. "Outside of time?"

"Oh, right, hmm.," Spark glanced between Twilight and the supposed Time Eater. "I guess a better way to put it for the non-initiated is that it's a creature that lives outside of space. Normally we'd never be able to observe or see this creature, nor would we be able to interact with it from Equestria; the reverse is also true."

"But there is more to it than that, right? Otherwise you'd not consider it dangerous."

Spark nodded. "Sometimes it eats time, we don't really have a better way to describe it."

"So, what, weeks just lost to the aether?"

Spark sighed. "No, not like that... what is happening right now is a good example. It 'eats', and then as a result it causes a time anomaly; one that we have to go around cleaning up. That's why I'm here researching it."

Twilight nodded, it made some degree of sense.







Twilight dropped off the two buckets of water outside of the house, wiping some sweat from her forehead with her hoof. The more they expanded their field the more trips they had to take to the river for water. Still, having an abundance of food helped a lot, not to mention the variety was nice; she considered it all well worth the extra work. 

It wasn't like she had much else to spend her time on.

"I'm back," Twilight walked inside, finding her charge absorbed in reading.

A few years ago Twilight had constructed two shelves, one to host any stories she wrote; the other with notes on the lay of the land inside the anomaly as well as any other relevant insights she had.

Twilight walked over and lightly nuzzled the seated unicorn. "Enjoying the tale?" She smiled.

That caused them to jolt. "Mom? Don't sneak up on me," they turned their head and returned the nuzzle.

"I did announce my return," Twilight chuckled as she sat down next to them.

Their ears folded back slightly. "I didn't hear you."

"It's alright dear. So, what's the occasion? Normally you insist on me reading these for you."

The teen grinned. "I like that more. But I finished all my garden chores a while back so I got bored."

Twilight smiled. "You could have practised magic, I know you're still struggling lighting a flame."

She turned to Twilight, her mouth scrunched. "But that's not fun!"

Twilight could only chuckled and shake her head. "Well it's alright, we all need to relax and unwind," she leaned over and nuzzled the unicorn lightly.

"Right!" The teen exclaimed before turning back to the tale she was reading.

It didn't take long for them to reposition themselves as to lean against Twilight. The contact of another pony was probably one of the only things that kept Twilight sane. She could barely feel what it was like being with Night Light anymore, she couldn't remember what it felt like to hug Shining Armor. If someone asked her to tell them what eye colour little Sparkle had, then she couldn't answer.

She grabbed and floated over her old hand mirror, letting it rest in the air in front of herself. She could of course recognise her own face staring back, the dishevelled mane from trudging through the forest multiple times in one day had become a reoccurring sight; she'd have to brush it all again.

If she squinted hard enough, then she could pretend that Night Light sat behind her, giving her a comforting smile; urging her to push onwards. She knew that he'd not want her to give up, not do something stupid. She was not a stranger to stupid thoughts, she'd had some less than a year into this mess.

Twilight glanced at the teen, engrossed in her reading. She couldn't just leave them to fend for themselves. It wasn't relevant anymore anyway, having meet up with Wing Spark at least suggested a light at the end of the tunnel. The pegasus had promised to take a few trips by air when she could to try and find Minuette.

Twilight re-angled the mirror so she could see both herself and the smaller unicorn. No one would likely object to the notion if she presented them as her own child; both of their coats were a similar shade of white, though Twilight's was a bit darker. 

The main contrast between the two were their manes, Twilight's being a two tone purple and white, where as theirs was a very dark brown that could easily be confused for black at a distance.

"I... I think I have an idea," the teen spoke up.

Twilight sighed and floated the mirror away to an empty spot on the shelf. "About what?"

"For a name."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, after the hero of this story."

Twilight glanced over and read from the parchment. She only needed to read a few sentences to figure out which of her tales it was. It was one of the first few she had written, one that had proven to be a favourite. The tale told the story of a bird flying freely in the sky, before eventually being captured by a pony. The climax of the story had the bird mount an escape and make it's way home.

"They're a bird dear."

The teen turn head to face Twilight a bit better. "Is that bad?"

Twilight shook her head. "Of course not, though a bit unconventional for a unicorn."

They turned back to text. "I like the story, because they manage to escape from the cage the mean pony put them in. And-and they get to soar freely in the sky as far as they can go!"

Twilight wasn't certain if she had picked up on the subtext of the tale, but then again; her companion wasn't stupid. Many of her earlier tales she had written while here had similar themes; she had used them as a way to vent her frustration.

"Are you absolutely certain that you want this? Most ponies don't change their names, so make sure it's one you like."

The pony leaning against her nodded. "I'm sure," they put down the story and turned to Twilight fully. "I want my name to be Raven."

Twilight smiled and wrapped her hooves around her. "Then that's your name from now on, Raven."