Chapter Twenty
----Six years ago: The day after the summer sun festival---
"So I imagine you would like to see Dawn as soon as possible." Princess Celestia said knowingly just as the chariot lifted off the ground, leaving Ponyville below.
Luna chuckled innocently. "We saw dawn not three hours ago."
Celestia cocked her head awkwardly in her brief confusion.
"What ails thee?"
"Nothing..." Celestia sighed as her face grew dull with thought. "There is much I should tell you about our little ponies. Many things have changed in your absence."
"Thou speaks in a new dialect, their dialect. We do not care for it."
"That's just one thing you will have to get used to. Our ponies have grown in your absence."
"Very well..." Luna agreed, sighing as she rested her head against the speeding chariot.
"Perhaps after you have a good, nice, long nap." Celestia suggested.
"Yes. We would appreciate that." Luna gave an exaggerated yawn to show her fatigue.
-----
A brawny brown stallion sprung to the sky, aiming for a spare white cloud floating lazily. "I've never seen the moon look so dim." He said once landing.
"I'm more concerned about Dawn than the stupid moon." Said the black as night mare that landed beside the stallion.
"And I'm not?" He huffed. His wings twitched in agitation.
"What if..."
"She's nineteen she can make her own decisions. We will not let Celestia take her against her will." The brown stallion comforted as he extended a wing over the black mare.
"I doubt I could if I wanted to." Laughed a voice from behind. An alabaster coated alicorn lifted herself to the cloud shared by the two other ponies.
"Celestia..." The brown stallion bowed his head gently out of respect. The black mare under his wing quivered as she delivered a look that would kill any other pony.
"It's quite alright Sturdy." The princess said, landing next to the two ponies. "Eve please relax. I am not going to take your daughter away, I promise."
"So it's true then?" Sturdy asked, half collapsing into the populated cloud.
"Yes. As I foresaw, my sister has come back."
The two parents looked around for another lurking alicorn. "Where..."
"She has no memory of Dawn. I suspect she forced herself to forget soon after her birth.
"What do you mean?" Eve asked, taking an aggressive step forward.
The alabaster alicorn quickly wrapped her forelegs around the two smaller unsuspecting pegasus.
"Princess..." Sturdy said pushing away the royal affections.
"Our daughters should live a normal life before fate takes them." The alabaster Princess said sniffing back some tears.
Sturdy and Eve looked down on the cloud they sat on as the Princess studied the pale starry sky.
"I have asked so much of you two..." The princess said, breaking an elongated moment of silence. A spare tear fell through the cloud she stood on.
"About her magic..." Eve started to ask, getting back to the subject at hoof.
"I've sealed it up. Again." Celestia assured with an exasperated sigh. "I visited her before meeting you here. She won't notice the seal unless she tries that spell of hers again." She said rolling her eyes.
"I don't think we can keep her from casting it again..." Eve admitted.
"Or for that matter thinking of an even worse spell..." Sturdy added.
"You must find a way. Other wise things will unravel before us. She is very much like Luna in that regard, she will figure things out."
"Is your sister..." Eve started to ask. Her words were misused as she stumbled in place in search for the right ones.
"She's sleeping right now. She is out of sync with the moon." The princess said, waving a hoof up at the sky.
"What if she gets her memory back?" Eve finally asked what she meant to.
"We can only hope it will not trigger so easily but if it does we will figure things out from there." Princess answered, turning to the dark eyes looking up at her. Each on was reflecting the sky with a mirrored quality. "She's grown quite a bit... since the last time I saw her." She added.
"She doesn't stop eating." Study laughed.
"I saw 'my' daughter tonight." The Princess returned her gaze back to the dull night sky.
"Princess?" Eve offered a spare hoof for comfort to Celestia.
"It's alright, I'm so happy." She clarified with the beginnings of new tears forming. "She has grown into such a happy young mare with lots of friends."
"Wish I could say we did just as good of a job with Dawn..." Eve said, turning around to the cloud city behind them.
"Don't you worry about tonight's 'incident'. I will clean it up personally." The Princess placed a comforting hoof on the black mare. "Again." She laughed. "Unfortunately, My friends... I can not see you again for a good long while. As soon as my sister is awake she will likely keep a near constant watch over me."
The two parents snapped to a quick attention before giving a crisp salute. "We will manage princess." Sturdy said with every bit of formality he could afford.
The princess broke their salute with another lasting hug. "I will leave you. I would like to be by Luna's side when she wakes up."
"Thank you Celestia." Sturdy whispered.
"Just keep her out of trouble for a little longer." The Princess giggled in their hug.
"We will keep her out of trouble Princess." Eve said with a bit of formality.
"Thank you."
------Present-----
Dawn took in a deep breath. She felt life flood into her limbs as she stretched them. Her body rumbled as her senses returned to her. She opened her eyes to see April's muzzle was at the end of hers. She gave a smile as she filled in her memory where the drink blacked it out with what she figured had happened. We got to the tower, we made drunk sexy times and fell asleep. She felt her bladder full figuring it is all the drink from last night. Wait where is my head ache. Feeling like she cheated death itself, she slowly lifted herself from April's hooves. Once free, she started to roll over only to feel an uneven lump on her back. As she continued her roll she was stopped completely. Dawn turned around to see what was obstructing her and she saw a pink wing the same color as her coat...
Dawn jumped from the bed as she tried to pull off the wing only for it to fight back. Her eyes narrowed on the base of the offending wing it was attached some how. Dawn's mind went blank as she started to groan, hoping to wake herself up. She turned around to see a neatly tucked wing on her other side, her groan grew into a frantic wail of irrational questions as the tucked in wing flew open like the other. "What is this!" She finally yelled at the wings. Dawn was tripping over herself as she inspected the wings, repeating her question over and over.
"Dawn!" April yelled from across the bed room.
Dawn paid it little attention.
"Dawn, listen to me I can explain it all."
"Wings..." Dawn started to mumble as she collided with the corner of the room. She started to curl into a ball, squeezing her head hoping to wake up from this dream any second.
"Dawn." April said, pulling Dawn's head up from the ball she had curled up into. "You have wings now." April said clearly.
"No, I don’t! I am a unicorn" Dawn denied as she felt for her horn that she hoped was still there. To her brief relief, she did find a horn but as her hoof slid up it she found it was longer by a good couple centimeters and sharper... Dawn fainted as her hoof came to the end of her horn.
When Dawn awoke, still on the ground, Luna stood over her with April. "Good morning!" Luna cheered, positively beaming. "Come. We have your family in the dining room. We will settle all your questions over breakfast."
Dawn struggled to get up, her eyes deliberately avoiding all together her new appendages. She pushed her way past the two so she could make it to the bathroom. She went about her morning routine as Luna and April waited in the main room. Coming out of the shower, not really brave enough to clean anywhere near her new ‘things’, she cautiously inspected them in the mirror. They moved almost on an instinctual level, to the point she could only open and close them on command. She ran her brush through her hair out of habit as she brushed her teeth. Her routine always brought a certain clarity of thought. Taking a deep breath to conclude her thoughts, she stepped out of the bathroom letting a plume of steam follow.
"Feeling better?" Asked Luna.
April jumped into a hug with Dawn. "Uhh yah, I suppose." Dawn mumbled, unsure herself.
"You suppose?"
"Well... Thank you for the gift and all, Luna, but I really don't want wings. Can you take them off now?"
April broke into a fit of giggles into Dawn's coat. Luna closed her eyes from Dawn to think.
"I love you, Dawn." April giggled into Dawn's mane.
"I am sorry Dawn, but I can't do that. Celly will explain." Luna said before opening her eyes.
"So they're not a stupid gift?" Dawn asked slowly, hoping this was all a bad dream.
"No, like I said Celly will explain."
April giggled some more as she tightened her hug. "A gift..." She laughed into Dawn's mane. "Let's get some breakfast. They've been waiting for us."
Dawn began to channel her magic to pull the void over her and April but recoiled from her magic almost instantly. It felt like there was her magic well and another beside it. Both were on her beck and call, the latter very foreign and very strange.
Luna was studying Dawn as this happened. She gave a knowing smile. "Allow me." Luna pulled the void over the three of them. They reappeared in the dinning room with her family and Celestia there.
"Good morning." Princess Celestia greeted.
"Come here Honey Buns, sit by us." Dawn's father greeted, patting the chair beside him. Her mother was on the other side of him while Metal sat on the other side of the table.
April broke her hug with Dawn and took a seat by Metal leaving her to sit in between Luna and her father. She was mindful of her wings as she sat in the chair as if not to upset them. She looked around expectantly to the ponies closest to her. They returned Dawn’s gaze.
Celestia was the one to break the silence. "What I am about to say will not leave this room am I understood?"
Every one at the table nodded obediently.
"Very good. First off Dawn, you are an authentic alicorn like Luna and me. In fact you are Luna's one and only daughter." Celestia stopped, letting Metal gasp in surprise.
"What?" was the only word Dawn could push through her mouth among the myriad of other questions she had.
"Twenty five years ago I visited Luna on the moon not out of ritual or habit but by request from Nightmare Moon." She paused to give her time to think back. "When I got there I saw that she had given birth to a baby foal. Just finding out I was pregnant myself, I needed to find out what was going on so I sought answers. Neither of us had a mate obviously, me running a country it was too dangerous and Luna being isolated on the moon..."
"Wait... you're saying Luna is my mother? That's my mother." Dawn argued, pointing to the black mare across her father.
"And I suspect you will always think so." Celestia said, looking worryingly over to Luna. Dawn paid it no attention. "Let's see... The reason we were pregnant was..." Celestia paused in thought, unsure how to explain it all. "There are laws that keep this world... stable. When I was first put here there was only day. There was no respite for life thus Luna was born but neither of us knows who bore us though..."
"There's pictures!" Dawn exclaimed. Her wings flaring out in response, forcing her head to slam against the table. It should have hurt but it didn't. April and Metal laughed at the display.
"Doctored photos, sweetie." Dawn's mother clarified as Dawn retracted her wings and retook her seat.
"Like I was saying." Celestia started again. "Luna came to fill a purpose just like I think you will fill a purpose. Just like my daughter will fill a purpose." Celestia took a deep breath. "I would like her to live her normal life as long as possible, even if it is just an extra six months."
"Not that you won't be able to live normally right now, Dawn." Luna added quickly, giving Dawn a smile that Dawn had not seen on her face before.
"Of course. We will do everything possible to keep your life the way you want it." Celestia agreed. "Right so... Nightmare Moon called me to take her foal. She knew it shouldn't be raised on the moon or by her. At the time even Nightmare Moon respected the laws that bore you despite wanting to usurp them. In the end she made me promise to take good care of you and so I did." Celestia took in a long breath as she thought how to explain further. "Twenty five years ago we were being invaded by the griffons and unfortunately they were being aided by greedy ponies in my court and the northern kingdom. While the conflict was ultimately short lived, I knew I couldn't make your or my daughter's presence public. Without Luna here I think I would be utterly useless if you were to be kidnapped or something and I couldn't very well abandon my duties to Equestria... And it was just a matter of time before I was found out. Servants in the castle are quite gossipy..." Celestria's voice had turned desperately frantic as she tried to explained. She took a deep breath, clearing her mind. "That's when I made the hardest decision of my life. I managed to seal away your celestial connections and I give you two away to my most trusted scholars and guards."
"Well I guess that explains some things..." Dawn admitted.
"Yeah, like how their cutie mark never made any sense what so ever." Metal said, pointing an accusing hoof at their parents.
"I was captain of the royal guard." Dawn's father admitted.
"What were you mom?" Metal asked eagerly, both siblings were on the edge of their seats for her answer.
Their mother smiled quietly back to her children, innocently. Both Dawn and Metal recognized the smile as the same smile they got when they asked about things her mother wasn't going to talk about to them like hearths warming gifts and the like.
Dawn wasn't going to push it. She would likely never find out what those cross blades meant. "Well I guess being a pink unicorn in a dark coated pegasus family was almost a dead give away. If not for those pictures..." Dawn trailed off at the thought.
"Yeah. Your mother got pretty good at those." Dawn's father chuckled.
"That I did. That I did." Dawn's mother added, chucking with her husband.
"Dawn!" April cheered. "I get to teach you how to fly!"
"Oh! You're right!" Dawn's parents squealed in unison out of excitement.
Dawn cringed at the thought. She could barely look at the stupid things on her back much less think about using them.
"Maybe later." April offered, after reading Dawn's face.
"I suggest you get used to your new magic source as well. That will not be going away just like your wings." Luna added with that same smile that just about creeped Dawn out.
Dawn closed her eyes as she focused on the new magical well in question. It was just as vast if not more as the one she has had her whole life. She sighed as she rested her head on the table.
"How are you not hung over?" She asked April across the table.
"Hung over?" April asked in confusion.
"Ahh, the date. You have been asleep for two days. I imagine you may be hungry." Celestia answered in hopes of clearing up some confusion.
"Well that explains Luna then..." Dawn mumbled on the table. "You don't remember giving birth to me?" she asked Luna with the skepticism of this whole plot.
"Well, no... I didn't..." Luna wilted to her own despair. "I do now..." She offered to Dawn. "'She' must have used that memory spell I told you about."
Dawn sprang up from her seat, wings flared out. "What was that place?" Dawn asked excitedly.
"A plane of existence where we, alone, are allowed." Luna answered, placing a hoof on Dawn's shoulder to calm her down. Only then did Dawn notice that she had hit her father with her wing. "Stupid things. I'm sorry dad..."
"I really need to get you in the air, Honey. Those are some powerful wings." He said, nursing his face with his hoof.
"You really should try flying today, Dawn. It's not like you will die or something." Luna commented lightly.
I won't die...
"Well let's get our food in here. I hope you don't mind, Dawn, but we ordered you a large stack of Waffles." Celestia said cheerily.
"That sounds good..." Dawn replied as servants ran in and placed food in front of every pony.
Dawn raised her fork with her magic, her green magic... She accidently tapped into the new magical well to do this. It some how felt rather strange, foreign, not static and yet as natural as her normal magic. The fork dove in, cutting into her waffles, then the plate, the table under that, and started to dig into the stone floor below, all before she could notice what happened to stop it.
"I'll go ask for another plate." Celestia said, not missing a beat. The pegasi at the table were shocked to see such destruction from such a simple act.
"I suggest you use the magic that you are used to for cutting waffles." Luna said with a light chortle.
"Dually noted." Dawn mumbled as she jumped down from her seat. "I am just glad that didn't happen in the shower." Something felt off by the action of sliding down the chair but she didn't know what. She walked to the other side of Luna to the undestroyed part of the table and sat down next to April who was eating a salad. Every movement felt a little strange but Dawn simply couldn't place her hoof on it.
Celestia came back with a servant carrying another plate. She placed it in front of Dawn as Dawn picked up the waffles and syrup with her 'normal' magic to gently place it on the new plate, letting the servant pick up the mess. Dawn barrowed April's unused fork and tried again at this eating thing. April's fork succeeded where its predecessor, which was currently submerged in the marble floor, could not. She welcomed every bite of waffle she could shove in her mouth, she was hungry. They all ate in silence, likely still in shock from Dawn's destructive power or deep in thought at the new info. It gave Dawn time to digest what she learned.
"So, who's your daughter?" Dawn asked across the table when she was about three fourths done with her waffles.
"She won't tell any pony." Luna answered before Celestia could clear her mouth. "I think it may be Twilight."
"That wouldn't make much since. Why hide her away only to bring her close again." Dawn said, letting her logical mind set in place of all her worry. "I mean even Twilight has had kidnapping attempts, right?"
"Yes, but her birthday aligns correctly." Luna refuted quickly.
"You can not let your 'theory' known to any one outside this room. I would not have Twilight in danger." Celestia said sternly, trying to end the conversation. "Twilight and my daughter share a birthday, that is all."
"Celly, even her name gives her away..."
"Luna, I will not have you make these accusations. And why would I name my child similar to yours?"
Dawn closed her eyes to think, letting the fork fulls of fluffy sustenance float in her mouth every so often. I got wings. Luna is my biological mother. Immortal. Magic is scary powerful. Mysterious cousin. Dawn was brought out of thoughts when her fork started to jab an empty plate. She opened her eyes to see every pony was done with their food and looking at her.
Dawn pushed the chair back to stand but something defiantly felt very odd. She was taller. A lot taller. She was taller than her father and nearly eye level with Celestia. "What the heck is this?"
"Well you know how I change size. You seem to do it a lot more... frequently. Almost randomly it would seem." Luna answered almost as baffled as Dawn was.
Dawn looked behind at herself. Her now ethereal mane was blowing in some unfelt wind. It was its typical orange but the purple remained above resembling a sunrise in her tail and mane. "I guess I am appropriately named then..." Dawn deadpanned, referencing her mane.
"Of course!" Luna laughed.
Dawn walked around the table, over to her parents to hug them. "I need to think for awhile if you don't mind." Her parents were small compared to her now; it was a very odd feeling. She quickly teleported to a mountain side that she had found for Twilight's date so long ago. She gave a great stretch, letting out that built up tension from today's revelations. When Dawn reopened her eyes, she found she was back to normal size. Her tail and mane were to their normal state and her wings were a normal size. Noted. She lied down to her side, taking in the scenery of Equestria. She then turned her attention to the wing that was free from Dawn's weight. She spread it open gauging how it moved. Clumsy was the answer. It reminded her of trying to write with her hooves. She folded it with a sigh of relented thoughts only to be lost in those thought as she stole a breath of the spring morning mountain air.
She had guessed a couple hours had passed. She grew again only to shrink back to normal when she stretched. When she did so she felt the earth below her hooves shiver with her. Something deep inside her knew that the earth itself was what she was 'attached' to now. She noticed something even more curious, a weed that was once so small when she arrived grew several times in size, blooming a bright white flower as if greeting her. She suspected if this mountain side had more growth they would all be doing the same thing.
"Luna or April?" Dawn asked herself. Her voice was swept away with the mountain wind. She gave a quick stretch so she could shrink to normal size. She figured she would keep herself small, it was something she could hold on to. In a wisp of dark smoke she disappeared, reappearing next to April. She was in her favorite spot to study in all of Canterlot, the café they had stumbled onto her first visit to Canterlot.
"Hey you're small again." April greeted with smile, looking up from the book she was reading.
"Yah, figured that one out pretty quick." Dawn replied, sitting down next to April.
"Good. I wasn't sure if we were gonna work if you were going to be a giant half the time." April giggled at her mock shallowness. "You talk to Luna yet?"
"No." Dawn shrugged. She turned her attention to her wings. She was still getting used to them just sitting there.
"You have very pretty wings." April said, reaching out a hoof to touch one closest to her. They were tender to her touch but she was gentle as she felt for the muscles in them. "Hey guess what?" April whispered.
"What?"
"I'm dating a princess." She giggled.
"Ugh... you don't think I'll have to pick up royal duties do you?"
April shrugged. "That's something you should ask Luna, Princess Dawn." April went into a fit of giggles again as she stroked Dawn's wing some more.
"You'd think the immortal goddesses could've waited fifty more years. Or sixity."
"Oh, it's not so bad. I get an eternally young mare to play with in my old age." April laughed. "Though that horn of yours isn't coming any where near me like it used to." April finished sternly.
"Fair enough. I did kind of destroy a table with a fork this morning."
"Yeah, that was neat." April shuffled in place for a second. She could feel it too. The grass under both of them was growing rapidly. April ignored it. "You should go talk to Luna. Mother, daughter time as it were."
"She is not my mother." Dawn said more bluntly than she intended.
"Why can't you have two?" April looked into Dawn's green eyes with some longing. "Some of us get only get one crappy mother you should be grateful you get two great ones."
"Point taken." Dawn agreed with a sigh.
"Off you go." April said, shooing Dawn with a hoof.
"Fine..." Dawn relented, before kissing April and dissolving into the dark cloud she had summoned around her. Dawn reappeared in Luna's room. She had only been in here a couple times before. It was lined with ancient tomes and trinkets that looked older than any mortal pony. Luna didn't have a bed in her room since she didn't sleep most of the time. Instead, she had many cushions splayed around the room. That aside, it looked like a normal room of the castle lined with the typical tapestries and colors.
Dawn was greeted with a large smile that stretched ear to ear. "Sort things out?"
"More or less."
"I imagine you have plenty of questions, I will do my best to answer them for you." Luna said almost motherly.
"Well at this point I'm mainly wondering what is in store for me?"
Luna smiled a wicked smile on the verge of full on laughter. "Well Princess Dawn. Life is what you make it. At least that is what our little ponies have been saying apparently."
Dawn didn't like that answer. "So it's all up to me?"
"Well I expect you will want to finish your research." Luna said. "That research..." Luna briefly waned into a somber pony. "I would never have put my daughter on such a task. Why didn't Celly stop me..." She looked worriedly to Dawn in thought before composing herself. "Though... Celestia and I were talking after I woke up. We taught ponies magic when language was new and ponies still favored running in herds. We taught earth ponies how to grow plants and care for animals. We taught Pegasi to forge weather and create cloud cities. And of course we taught unicorns the intricacies of the more typical magic." Dawn took a seat where she stood. "Each one has dark and light properties as you well know. With your birth brought the possibility of something more, a deeper pluralism in magic if you would. Something not seen yet, not been taught to ponies yet. Just think, magic that is not light or dark but acts totally independent from both!" Luna sounded very excited, it got Dawn excited all the same and it showed in her wings which were in the air. Stupid things. "Of course you will have millennia's to come to figure those things out, but know the option is likely out there." Luna finished saying.
"So I guess I'm the earth?"
"Hmm... It is not as much as you are the earth as you are what the earth can resemble. I represent rest while my sister represents action." Luna replied in that familiar scholarly voice. "Thought vs knowledge, Emotion vs logic, dark vs light. You could say there has always been two sides to everything but now... there may be a third and fourth side. Or not we will just have to see." Luna giggled to her thoughts. "One thing is for sure though, I am the respite to life. I am even told on the new moon I wander ponies dreams."
"Yeah, you do." Dawn got up and walked to Luna's balcony that over looked the west. Luna followed.
"We have no idea what triggered your birth. Nature guides even us. I guess you could say however that nature's general philosophy is mainly it will all work out in the end. Rarely will you see nature take a stand for something. In fact the last time it happened, before you that is, were when the elements of harmony appeared before us when Equestria was under Discord's rule."
"Oh, that funky looking statue?"
"That is no statue. It is a prison. Twilight and her friends encased him in it give or take five years ago when he escaped last time." Luna explained.
"Well that explains that." Dawn said. Something to tell April later.
"Indeed! When you were destroying cities, Twilight was saving the world." Luna laughed.
"So you think she's my cousin? I've never had a cousin."
"Well we must hide that opinion for six more months apparently."
"Ok, so uhh... why couldn't you guys wait a couple more years? Why not fifty or sixty?"
"To be fair Dawn, you are talking about bottling up a magic that destroyed a perfectly good table with a fork." Luna gave a small chuckle at Dawn's expense before giving the question more consideration. "Celly won't tell me the specifics for good reason but she some how made a deal with nature itself to have your 'celestial' connections severed. I know you must not feel it but right now you are bristling with as much, if not more, magical energy than I do during a full moon."
Dawn didn't like holding so much power in inside her but she knew it to be true. She could feel the waves of her two magical sources flood and smash up against inner being. "How does Celestia expect to hide this? Even if it isn't true our names, our birthdays... Twilight is smart will connect the dots like you have."
"Hmm... I know you have a lot of respect for Twilight but our little ponies tend to believe what they want to believe. Just explain it like..." Luna stopped to think as she fell back on her quarters. "OH! You ascended because you fell to the void. Hide behind something that you have both been researching and know little about. She needs to be thrown off track only for six months at least until Celestia's daughter is revealed. Whether or not it is Twilight."
"I suppose that would work but I don't like lying to Twilight."
"You must understand, Dawn. This is not only for Twilight's benefit but for the enemies of the state. If they were to catch wind of what is to be, you just might see what kind of world I lived in a thousand years ago."
"Enemies of the state?"
"Seeing as you are a princess of Equestria now, Celly and I will sit down with you some time and explain the intricacies of what we deal with on day to day biases. When you want that is. I have no inclination to force disgusting royal duties on you. You are, after all, still an infant in my eyes."
Dawn chuckled at that but it brought up a question she often thought of. A question she thought was out of bounds for her teacher to answer her student but now... "So uhh... how old are you and Celestia?"
"Oh, I don't know." Luna answered plainly as if expecting it. "We have spent many hundreds if not thousands of years in solitude, watching over our ponies. It would have been maddening if we were to have kept track." Breaking from her own train of thought, Luna launched off her balcony letting her wings pick her up. She swooped around as if advertising a grand product only to stop to a hover in front of Dawn. "Let us find your parents and April, you should learn to fly. It will help clear your head of some anxiety." Without waiting for an answer, Luna surrounded both herself and Dawn in the void only to reappear at April's apartment. "April?" Luna called out to the apartment.
April popped her head out from a corner. "Oh, hey. I just got back. Let me put away my books." She greeted, retreating back to the room her head originated.
Luna followed, mindful of the papers on the ground. Dawn joined Luna, noticing everything was shorter by a great deal. They walked into the room April resided. Dawn was at least a head taller than April and Luna. Her growth was so gradual she didn't notice just with Luna. Dawn stretched out the built up tension in her limbs and muscles, letting her shrink. Luna and April watched the process with a healthy curiosity.
"So is that how it works for you?" Luna asked, cocking her head. "Stretch, shrink?"
"That's fine by me, I get to keep a Dawn sized princess as a fillyfriend."
"Yes... We will need to talk about that later April. 'Long story short' as the ponies say, you will likely have to live in the castle so long as Dawn has feelings for you." Luna said plainly.
"What?" Dawn asked surprised.
"I know, Celestia told me when you were two were asleep." April waved away their concerns.
"We can't have a princess or an alicorn of your power be manipulated by outside forces. If April were to be captured, hurt, or anything of the sort, who would stop you?"
A curt shiver of fear ran through Dawn's body. She didn't think of that either. April could be in danger.
"Who would hurt me anyways?" April asked, likely following Dawn's most prominent train of thought that she had gotten to know so well.
"Like I said we will have to talk later."
"Can't I masquerade as a winged unicorn?" Dawn asked.
"You could, but you aren't one are you? You can easily mess up and reveal your identity only to cause a horrid political storm that I am not really willing to endure." Luna said dully, slumping in place as she said it.
Dawn knew it to be true. Plants spring to life near me, I'm constantly growing. Crazy hair... It would be difficult to hide.
"I already have Ward and Marti following me everywhere..." April started to say.
"We will figure out something later, April." Dawn said, cutting her off. Dawn let out a stressed sigh as she pulled the veil of the void around the three, placing them next to Dawn's parents.
"Well hello sweetie." Dawn's father greeted. He was sporting a black eye that was visible through his dark brown coat. Dawn went up to him as she searched the many volumes of medical spells she had learned and/or created. She reached a hoof out to his face as her horn sprang to life with a pink aura. The black eye started to fade instantly.
"Sorry about that." Dawn apologized, assuaging the bruise that was.
"Not a problem, Honey Buns." He replied quickly. "I've taken harder hits at worst times." He chuckled in his baritone voice.
"I was hoping you would join us in teaching Dawn how to fly." Luna invited, cutting in between the father and daughter.
"Is that what we're doing?" April asked, whipping her tail as she stepped to Dawn's side.
"Apparently." Dawn said, deadpanning. She was trying to hide the dread of the moment she felt.
"You will love it, I promise." April assured quickly after reading Dawn's face.
"Metal! Come here. We're going to teach Dawn how to fly!" Dawn's mother yelled into the room behind her.
Dawn wasn't completely sure where they had appeared, it was in the castle to be sure but she had never seen these rooms before. They were lined with the finest stone, cloth, paintings, and woods that Equestria had to offer.
Dawn's brother flew out from a neighboring room to land by his parents, just as excited as they were. They all looked to her expectantly as Luna raised the void around the group placing them in a field of grass.
It was just about high noon. The new grass was blowing in the wind, letting the sweet smell of spring it carried buffet Dawn's nostrils. The pegasi let out their wings and lifted with the wind into the air only to land quickly after.
Dawn's father lifted Dawn up on to his back, giving Dawn little warning like he often did when she was a foal. "Hold on." He cheered excitedly as the group all launched to the sky. Dawn's father's wings were beating twice as fast as the others but he seemed no less worse for wear.
Dawn looked down to the ground, it made her stomach churn by reflex but Luna was right. She had nothing to fear from the ground any longer. She looked up to what was likely their destination, a lone cloud sitting high in the sky. Everypony was laying on the cloud when she and her father arrived. Each pony had their wings fully extended in the air. As Dawn stepped on the cloud, she noticed her wings extended as well, seemingly out of instinct.
"Well this is different." Dawn laughed as she played with the cloud under her hooves.
"Really? You walked on clouds before." Her mother commented, cocking her head in her curiosity.
"It feels different, under my own power I suppose." Dawn concluded.
"They really made this one really high, didn't they?" April said, looking over the edge of the cloud.
"The camp here calls this 'dead pegasus drop'." Dawn's father informed, rolling his eyes at the dramatic name. "Alright honey. Extend your wings outward like this." He stepped in front of Dawn and extended his wings out straight as example.
Dawn turned her head around to look at her wings, wincing inwardly at the sight of them, she willed them to straighten outwards. Not quite like her father's, something was off. Her mother swooped in to fix one of Dawn's wings as April took to the other, contorting them so they became straight as an arrow.
"What beautiful plumage." Her mother cooed as April joined in agreement. "There, that looks good. Remember how that feels." She went on to say once she and April were done.
"Now you need to focus on your inner energy." Metal said, nodding with his father.
"Your magic well feeds your flying, Dawn. Just focus your magic in your wings." Luna chimed in.
Dawn did so. She called upon her magic to surge through her body. She felt her muscles tighten and strengthen in her legs and chest. I guess that would be earth pony magic... She redirected the magic to her wings only for them to do the same as her legs. It only took a thought, Fly, and she launched into the air only realizing, as she knocked off her entire family and April off the cloud, she had pulled from the wrong pool again. She could hear Luna's hysterical laughter over her own screams as she launched awkwardly sideways off the cloud at break neck speeds. Another flap of her wings launched her in another random direction until she managed to cut off the magical connection to her wings completely. Her wings tucked in half way just as she started into a free fall.
She focused her magic that she was most familiar with into her horn to teleport out of her free fall and back next to Luna. Momentum not lost in teleportation as she slammed hard against the cloud letting it absorb every bit of energy she had in her free fall without it budging.
Luna tried to control herself from laughing as she walked up to Dawn who was now struggling to get up herself. Everypony she knocked off back in her take off had landed behind the night princess, their jaws dangling at their feet. "Just like eating, you really should only use your normal magic for flying." Luna laughed as she helped Dawn get up.
"Yeah, figured that one out quickly enough." Dawn chucked at herself, brining a hoof behind her head in shame.
"And not a single dining table destroyed for it." Luna laughed.
"Err... Yeah. That was a good test flap, Dawn." Her father said, picking up his jaw in the process. "So where were we?" He asked himself. "Right, now extend your wings like we showed you."
Luna stepped back, giving Dawn plenty of berth. Dawn did as she was told, she turned to look at her wings, they still weren't completely right. This time her father just gently poked at her wings, forcing them to alter their shape to what he wanted.
"Perfect." He cheered. "Alright, remember how that feels." He said with an affirmative nod. "Alright now walk over here, to the edge." Dawn's father pushed her to the edge of the cloud where April was looking down earlier. She peaked over the edge and saw there was a cloud sitting down there, ready to catch her if she so choose to jump. "Alright Dawn, Give us another test flap. This time less power behind them."
"Uhh how..." Dawn asked, deadpanning.
"She'll be fine." chirped Luna, before pushing Dawn off the cloud cackling to herself. "Fly!" She cheered in the midst of her cackling.
Dawn, in freefall, noticed her wings were keeping her from spinning out of control. They remained in the same position her father had put them in. She thought to fly, channeling her regular magic to her wings. It was all instinctual, very much like the pegasus race. With the first flap of her wings she pulled out of the dive Luna had set her in, with the second flap she started to climb at ferocious speeds by the third she wasn't sure if she was screaming on the outside but she was in the inside. Her thoughts were flooded with sensory overload as she sped through the sky, the wind pulling back her mane and coat hard. She saw Luna appear next to her, flying just as fast. Luna pulled up to be right behind Dawn. She felt her rear hooves and tail being pulled back, slowing her down. Their wings fought for domination of the air that they were both pushing.
"TEMPER YOUR MAGIC INTO A TRICKLE!" Luna yelled over the wind their flapping caused.
Dawn turned her focus to her mind, attempting to clear it. It was easier without the lunatic speeds. Once her mind was cleared, she turned her attention to her magic which was flooding into her body as much as a typical spell would into her horn. She understood now. Flying didn't take nearly as much magic as spells did. She shut her magic to a trickle, her flapping started to ease up. Once Luna saw this she let go of Dawn, taking her side in the air.
"Much better." Luna said calmly. "Everyone is no doubt trying to catch up now. By now you have figured out flying is a feeling not very... conscious. "
"Dark magic." Dawn replied nodding. Still quite dizzy from the heights, the wind, the speed. But she knew she needed to just set those aside let her mind go blank and will her body into action with only the feelings of flight.
"My sister taught the earth ponies while I taught the pegasi. When we switched we couldn't teach the other race as much as we did originally so we decided with the unicorns we would teach together." Luna said calmly while doing barrel rolls around Dawn.
Luna was trying to teach her something beyond history. She let her mind empty as she felt herself turn in the air. Banking, she started to fly the way she came. Off in the distance she could see four dots that were her loved ones trying to keep up. "How fast was I going?"
"Fast enough to make your parents more than a little proud." Luna said, beaming as she intended to included herself. "Come on Dawn, try a little pegasus flare." Luna said as she continued her barrel rolls around Dawn.
Dawn recalled the many tricks she had seen in her backyard from the ground, at the Wonderbolt shows, what her mother did on her weather duties. She has seen it all when it came to aerial tricks. She closed her eyes to clear her mind again as she fed her wings a bit more magic to gain in speed. She opened her eyes when she was upside down in a loop. She started to barrel at the top of the loop, letting her wings do all the thinking, as she came to a vertical dive of the loop she sped up more launching herself out of it. She had seen Soarin do that a thousand times. She found herself giggling in the gusting wind as she straightened out. Luna pulled up to her side, nodding approval.
With her new speed, she met up with her family quickly. As she passed them she imagined swimming in a lake, letting her wings push her back against her momentum, she came to a stop to hover in air.
"Did I see you do Soarin's rifled loop?" Dawn's father asked as he swooped in for a mid air hug.
"Yep. That was fun." Dawn cheered with a laugh for herself.
"I can't believe how fast you launched off that drop." April cheered from behind Dawn's father.
"Well she is my flesh and blood, and she has the two most experienced flyers for parents." Luna said proudly.
"Think all the tricks I get to teach you now, Dawn." Dawn's mother cheered.
"Who would've guessed the milk drinker could fly like that." Metal jeered with a grin that mirrored every one else's.
"Milk drinker? What is wrong with milk?" Luna asked Metal.
Dawn chuckled as she flipped in air. "Well this mare is hungry." She decreed. "How far away are we from Canterlot?" She asked Luna, ignoring her pending question.
"Not far. Those are Canterlot's mountains over there." Luna said, pointing.
Dawn flipped into a dive as she started to feed her wings more energy. Time for a small experiment. While gliding in her dive she started to draw on the new magical well, letting it trickle into her wings. Her wings responded in kind as they pushed her impossibly fast through the air, forcing her cheeks to fly back. She squinted to see where she was flying but it was of no use. Her face felt like it was on fire from the friction of it all. She resulted to sensing through her horn's magic. She was closing in on the mountain range quickly so she decided to slow to a hover using the very same magic that pushed here so fast. The group she left behind were just dots, from what felt like seconds of flight but what she knew was far less. She loved this and they were right to say she would. When she was young she always envied her parents flight and all the pegasus at her school. It wasn't until Metal got in the air too that she came to terms with her winglessness. This was a dream come true as it were. Dawn gave a wide smile to the dots in the distance as she started to fly back to them. She noticed thunderous sounds of flapping from the experiment were just reaching her ears. Neat.
-----
Dawn spent the better part of the day in the air with April and some of it with her family though they wanted to give them space in the end. Luna did what Luna does, disappearing and reappearing at random parts of her day, always coming to see her as the sun set. This time on a lovely little cloud April and Dawn had found over the royal gardens that had escaped the winter wrap up.
"Mind I join you?" Luna asked as she set hoof on the cloud. "You have certainly grown..." She said, noting Dawn's size now rivaling Celestia's.
"She wanted to see how big she would get." April said as she cuddled deeper into the large version of Dawn's chest.
"I've been like this for an hour I think this is it." Dawn said, getting up, much to April's dismay, to stretch herself small again. She then settled herself next to April again, cuddling up in the soft cool cloud.
"Please, join us Luna." April said, patting the empty patch of cloud next to her.
Luna did so, relaxing heavily into the cloud. "You know I always wanted a foal but it just never happened." Luna admitted. "And when it did I was on the moon locked away for being incredibly selfish."
"Aww. It'll be alright Luna." April consoled.
"Well, for what it is worth I'm sorry I wasn't there to raise you." Luna said, stuffing her head in the cloud.
"You would have made a fantastic mother Luna." Dawn said, trying to be empathetic but finding it incredibly hard for some reason.
"Thank you." Luna mumbled through the cloud.
Though they could not see her face, they both knew she was crying. They both got up to lie next to her. After an elongated moment, April whispered into Dawn's ear that she was leaving and promptly jumped off the cloud, leaving Dawn alone with Luna. Her other... Mother?
Dawn spread herself across the cloud letting her tail dangle over the edge. "How much do you remember about being on the moon?" Dawn asked when Luna's tears stopped dropping through the cloud. It was the one thing that they shared above all else, above genetics and history. They both knew incredible loneliness in isolation.
"Everything 'She' wanted me to." Luna relinquished.
"Why didn't she want you to remember me?" Dawn asked.
"I think it was because she knew that the end of our imprisonment would be soon and Celestia would be ready. We had lost the moment we were imprisoned on the moon. She had lost." Luna pulled out her head out of the cloud and looked at Dawn's laid out figure. "She may have wanted eternal darkness, to usurp nature itself. She may have been evil but she knew that there was no stopping the fate that bore you. She knew I would be free of her in the end. Despite all that she had done, she thought you as her daughter."
"Cool I got three mothers." Dawn cheered half heartedly, laughing at herself after, trying to make light of the somber topic she wrought on herself.
"You consider me your mother?" Luna asked, a smile breaking through her self pity.
"April put things in perspective for me. Her parents are wretched ponies from what I've heard." Dawn paused letting the point get across and to think how much she should reveal. "I don't even just get two great parents but I get you too." Dawn said as she nuzzled the night goddess affectionately like Luna had done to her so many times before all this happened.
The sun had dipped completely over the western horizon, letting the moon rise in the east. Stars started to trickle into the sky as the 'mother' and 'daughter' watched the sky. Dawn had always liked Luna since she took her in as a student, they were friends. She didn't care for the change in their relationship and would likely never think of her the way she wanted her to. It brought a sickening pit in her stomach every time she considered the very idea but she liked Luna too much to do anything less than try.
After a long peaceful moment of watching Luna's night take the sky, they both dissolved off the cloud into a dark smoke reappearing in the dinning hall with a new table concealing a floor marble with a fork still submerged in it. Celestia and April were already sitting at it, talking as two friends did.
"I understand you had a fun day in the sky. Wish I could have seen the first flight of my niece." Princess Celestia said, almost cooing as she did so.
"You should have been there. Takes after me like no other." Luna said proudly.
"Indeed." Celestia cheered, smiling brightly at Dawn. "I was telling April on how we are going to make you public." Princess Celestia said, adopting a tone with objective. "And the unfortunate consequences of doing so." She added as Luna and Dawn took their seats at the table.
Dawn, sitting next to April, noticed she had grown quite a bit from when she star gazed with Luna. She was nearly eye level with Celestia and her hair was just starting to pick up in the freaky wind.
"I decided that it would be best to make you publicly seen at the gala in a couple weeks. But I am having all the news papers around the country announce your arrival, explaining you are a long lost princess who has been reborn." Celestia said, waving a hoof in the air.
"Reborn?" Dawn asked skeptically.
"Being who we are, Dawn, we get the choice to rewrite history all we want. We can set them right in a century or so." Luna clarified, waving her hoof in the air like her sister.
"Just a little white lie for our convenience. Other wise, there could be riots outside saying, 'children out of wedlock blah blah blah'." Celestia said, mockingly still waving her hoof. "And of course I don't want anypony to jump to the same conclusions as my sister has."
"Umm, Ok." Dawn shrugged. She had no problem lying to millions of ponies.
"And unfortunately we will also need to introduce you to the nobles this Friday." Dread dripped from Celestia's mouth as she said this. "Winged unicorns from distant lands will be there, scrutinizing you for authenticity." Celestia slumped in place as she thought. "I loath them so..." she added with a heavy sigh.
Luna laughed at Celestia's dread. "Whatever we got to do, Celly." Luna said in between her laughter.
"I am sorry Dawn, I did plan all this in advance. My daughter's too." Celestia said before taking a relaxed sigh. "Now, on to you and April."
"Yeah, wouldn't want me to go on a rampage." Dawn chuckled.
"As absurd as it may sound, love does affect us as much as any other pony. Before nightmare moon we often kept lovers of all kinds but I felt without Luna counterbalancing me, I would be too weak to shrug off all outside influences." Princess Celestia said.
Dawn yawned and stretched herself small only to rest her head on the table with a great exhale. Celestia was caught slightly off guard by her transformation but continued all the same.
"So, April has reluctantly agreed to stay in the castle with formal titles and all. The titles will give sufficient reason behind the extra guard that will be accompanying her when she leaves the grounds. When she isn't with you of course."
"Well 'Lady' April can stay in my tower." Dawn laughed.
"That is up to you two." Celestia said plainly.
"Oh the times you have woven, Celly." Luna sung.
"It would be unorthodox but not unheard of, Luna." Celestia replied to Luna before turning back to Dawn. "I will not stop you two if you choose to live together but know you will be under the public eye soon. Gossip rags will be drenched in ink every time you do something scandalous like this." Celestia said from experience. "These walls are made of thick stone yet still thin as paper when it comes to gossip among the servants."
Dawn rolled her eyes at the silliness of it all. "Are you sure there isn't some really cool spell you guys made a thousand years ago to make you guys normal looking or something?"
"I wish there were but that is one thing we can not change. I am sorry Dawn." Luna said. "This was all fated the day you were born."
"Bleh." Dawn stuck her tongue out at the situation. "By the way, what did you tell the party about my disappearance?"
"Well, Twilight felt the ancient magic at work so she was naturally worried. When I finally got back to her I told her you were going through some transformations and you were alright. She trusted me enough to just take solace in my words alone." Celestia said.
"Alright..." Dawn sighed. "Guess I can have fun with that tomorrow when April is at school."
"Fun?" April and Celestia asked wearily in unison.
Dawn giggled at what was going through her head. "Rarity wanted to fit me for a dress." Dawn laughed.
Luna joined in the laughter. "That would be funny, I may join you."
April and Celestia face hoofed. "Just try to restrain yourself from doing something I will have to clean up later would you?" Celestia said, earning a eager nod from April.
"Yes, yes... No chaos infused fun tomorrow."