Pancake batter sizzled in the pan under the careful gaze of Twilight Sparkle. At just the proper moment, she levitated the pancake up, turned it over, and carefully set it back down. Soon, the oil in the skillet ran low, and Twilight hurriedly added more.
Behind her, she heard the sound of a filly descending a staircase, slightly quicker than her typical gait.
"Good morning, Sweetie Belle," Twilight said, eyes still on the pan.
"Morning, Mom!" came the reply. "It's my big day! Aren't you excited?"
Twilight looked over at the grinning filly. "Hm? Oh, yes! Your play. You'll do great, I'm sure." She went back to monitoring the pancakes. "Go get your juice, Sweetie Belle; breakfast is almost ready."
She hovered the pancakes onto the plates she had set, doled out an appropriate amount of syrup on each, then took them to the table. Sweetie Belle dug in.
"So what's your play about, Sweetie Belle?" Twilight asked between bites.
Sweetie Belle swallowed. "It's called The Hybrids and it's about me and this other pony turning into changelings." She paused. "I could have sworn I've told you before." Sweetie shrugged and went back to her meal.
"It sounds delightful, Sweetie Belle. I made sure to get the best seat in the house to watch. I have the ticket..." She looked around. "...around here somewhere."
Sweetie Belle polished off her meal before Twilight had eaten half of hers. She jumped up from her seat. "I'm going to go to the theatre early today. Gotta get everything all practiced!"
"After you take your heart pill, Sweetie Belle." Twilight produced the pill.
"Yeah, yeah." Sweetie snatched the hovering pill out of the air and finished off her orange juice. "Now can I go, Twi—Mom?"
"Brush your teeth, mane, and tail and you may leave." Twilight went back to eating.
Sweetie Belle ran upstairs, spent far too little time up there for proper hygiene, and ran back down and out the door. "Bye, Mom! See you tonight!"
Twilight Sparkle chuckled. "Mom. Oh, Sweetie Belle." She glanced at Sweetie's abandoned plate, a pattern in the syrup's remains catching her eye. "Hm, an inverted nine-point circle with non-prime runes... that's a thought."
---
The Cutie Mark Crusaders complex's food court was staffed by both volunteers and the potential chefs of Canterlot. Ponies young and old sampled the experimental foodstuffs, while hoping that theirs was the product of a successful test and not a failed one.
Three foals trotted away with their successful extra-large churros in their mouths. They passed the buildings the Cutie Mark Crusaders had built, and traveled to the grassy area in front of the amphitheatre. Suddenly, Apple Crisp tripped over a rock, dropping her cargo.
Sweetie Belle's horn flared green and the churro hovered inches above the grass.
"Thanks, Sweetie Belle, I almost lost my lunch there," Apple Crisp said. "Sort of."
Sweetie grinned through the teeth that were holding her own food, her head low and her horn still glowing. She grunted under the strain and beads of sweat appeared on her face.
"Oh whoops." Apple Crisp leaned down and retrieved her churro before Sweetie's magic gave out.
The three lay down on their backs, heads together, setting their churros on their stomachs.
Apple Crisp took a bite. "That was an awesome save, Sweetie Belle. You just snapped that spell on like pow! Eight months ago, you struggled to pick up the script."
Sweetie Belle gazed up at the empty sky. "Eight months. With the time before I met you, that makes it... almost a year since I got here. Hanging out with you two makes it a lot more bearable, though. I would have gone nuts if I was stuck with all of Mom's books for a year." She put on her best impression of Twilight's voice, "Here, Sweetie Belle, read this book on a thousand uses of belly button lint!"
Spot Light finished chewing and swallowed. "Um, pardon me for asking, but... what was it like, back where you're from?"
"Oh, I didn't tell you? I'm not actually from across the ocean; I'm a time traveller from three hundred and fifty years ago who came to this time to be saved by today's medicine. I'm really one of the three founders of the Cutie Mark Crusaders." Sweetie took a bite.
The other two stared at her for a few seconds. Apple Crisp cracked up. "Hahaha, you had me going there for a second, Sweetie Belle. Time travel!"
Sweetie Belle giggled. "Well the part about coming here for surgery was true; I had to get my heart fixed. Thing is..." Sweetie thought for a second. "After I left for here, something... really bad happened. Everything I knew... everypony I knew was gone. My Mom is the only pony I have now. She isn't my actual mother, either, just a good friend of my big sister's."
"Wow," the yellow colt said, looking up at the sky. He paused. "I knew you lost somepony, but I didn't know you'd lost everypony. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."
"It's okay." Sweetie didn't take her eyes off of the sky. "I miss them, a lot, but there's no use in worrying about the past. Something that some ponies could use to learn." She sighed. "Aww, I didn't mean to bring you all down. Um..." Her forehoof wandered to the green earth amulet around her neck. "Apple Crisp, you're an earth pony. You can feel the grass and stuff better than I can with this, right? What's it like?"
"Hm?" Apple Crisp ran her hind hoof through the grass. "I dunno; I never really thought about it. Sure, I can feel the sun on all of this." She waved across the field. "I guess it's like you and your horn. The times I get to put on a unicorn amulet, yeah it feels like my forehead... I can't really describe it, but it's real strong. But I bet you hardly notice yours."
Sweetie could feel the magic coursing past her horn, the trickle of power running up its groove, waiting to be directed. "I guess I don't notice, not when I'm not using it."
Apple Crisp wiggled on the grass. "Exactly. I'll just have to make do with my natural strength and durability and my ability to turn magic or flight on and off. Poor me, only having my rich and powerful friends." She motioned to Spot Light and Sweetie Belle respectively.
Sweetie finished off her churro and sat up. "He's rich?" She paused. "I'm powerful?"
The colt's green eyes moved away. "I don't like to talk about it," he mumbled.
"Why not?" Sweetie asked.
He rolled over, facing away from her, shifting his black tail. "Mom and Dad dress me up. They take me to their 'little get-togethers.' To see other rich ponies. Rich ponies are snooty. I don't want to be snooty too. Don't want to be 'that rich colt.' I like it better if others don't know."
Listening closely, Sweetie noticed for the first time the barest hint of a posh accent betraying her friend's heritage. "Oh, I see. And what about me? How am I powerful? I can barely hold a churro with my magic."
"Not like that," Apple Crisp said. "I mean, look. You're wearing a custom-made, one-of-a-kind amulet that has no practical purpose. How hard do you think it was to get that made?"
Sweetie looked down, trying to get a look at it. "Um... I don't know, I just asked Mom for it."
"Exactly. I've never gotten to wear an amulet that wasn't borrowed. And think about the play's premiere tonight. Everypony's parents are going to be there. Spot Light's rich parents could well be there; some of the nobility likes to come and watch. But who did you say got the ticket for the front-and-center seat?" She pointed at Sweetie Belle. "Your mother. What does that tell you about her?"
"I never thought of it that way. I wonder if Mom knows."
Apple Crisp, having finished her lunch, stood up. "Well, there is one way I'm more powerful than you are." She turned towards the stage. "All right, lunchtime's over! Everypony back to rehearsal! Set up the props for the forest chase scene!" She grinned at her friends.
"Awww," the two said in unison.
---
Sweetie Belle stood at her position on the set. Prop trees created the illusion of a thick forest, at least from the angle of the audience. The effect was lost from the performers' perspective. A large red curtain hung closed behind the set, and another hung open in front of it. To the side, sets of chairs and music stands awaited their band. Somepony had left a tuba. The afternoon sun produced a short shadow over the front rows of the stands.
Up above, Spot Light adjusted the stage's lighting, flicking individual bulbs on and off. Scores on the wooden floor marked where heavy props of old had been hurriedly moved during some performance, years before. Sweetie Belle mentally ran through her path and hummed her part.
Apple Crisp walked across the front of the stage, her single horseshoe loudly clacking as she moved. "All right!" she said. "It's our last rehearsal before showtime tonight, so show me what you've got. And remember, move with the band! If they go too fast, then you will be going fast, too. The synchronization is more important than the exact timing. Places!"
She stamped out a beat with her shod hoof. "Five six seven eight!"
Sweetie Belle and her counterpart, High Note, ran across the stage, zigzagging through the props. When they reached stage left, they stopped and turned to meet the half-dozen ponies that had pursued them.
"We're not like you!"
"You are like us!"
"We can't join you!"
"You will join us!"
"We're not like you!"
Sweetie turned to High Note. "If we can't go around them, we'll go through them!" She threw a punch past the nearest actor, who reeled away. High Note followed suit. Seeing their opening, they ran past the ponies and across the stage again.
After the scene, Apple Crisp stamped her hooves. "And scene! Beautiful! Do it just like that tonight!"
"Yeah," Sweetie said. "Tonight." She swallowed.
Sweetie Belle looked out across the seats that would be filled with ponies that night. She shivered. Sweetie walked towards the backstage.
Wingnut intercepted her. "How are you feeling, Sweetie Belle?"
"N-nervous. But also kind of excited. I want to go out and sing but I don't want everypony to watch me. But I feel kind of good about tonight too, like... like I'm meant to be out there. But I'm so nervous about going out there! I just want to get it over with!"
The pegasus wrapped her wing around Sweetie Belle. "It's all right. It's your first big appearance; it's only natural to be nervous. I bet Apple Crisp is nervous, too."
"Her? No way. She doesn't even have to get out on stage. I have to be the star of the show!"
"Apple Crisp has to make sure that you hit your spots at the right times. She has to make sure that you sing your lines the exact way you should. She has to make sure each scene flows into the next. And she has to manage everypony, and everypony will be seeing the result of her work."
Sweetie looked down. "I didn't think of it that way."
"You're going to do great out there, Sweetie Belle." Wingnut smiled.
Sweetie Belle hugged the pegasus's leg. "Thanks, Wingnut."
---
Sweetie Belle paced back and forth. On stage, the props for Act 1 Scene 1 stood ready, hidden from the audience by the closed curtain. Her heart pounded loud enough for her to hear her valve over the pre-show preparations. Part of her mind wondered if the rest of the cast could hear it, too.
The sounds of chatting ponies wafted across to the stage, as did the broken melodies of the band warming up. Sweetie took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. She stood on her mark, trying and failing not to fidget. Sweetie hummed one of the show's tunes.
Something in her blood called for the stage, for the spotlight, yet she dreaded answering it.
"I can do this. I practiced for months. I can do this," she said to herself. She took a breath.
Apple Crisp's voice called out from the other side of the curtain. "Fillies and Gentlecolts, it is my honor to present The Hybrids, as performed by the Pony Thespian Performance Troupe, a tale of change, and of a friendship that remains strong through the worst of adversities. So sit, my fellow ponies, and enjoy tonight's performance."
Apple Crisp walked off the stage and past Sweetie Belle. "Break a leg, Sweetie Belle. And sing your heart out."
Sweetie swallowed and nodded.
The curtain opened and the band began to play. On cue, Sweetie Belle trotted out onto the stage. Her eyes flicked across the ponies watching her, then landed on the front row.
The center seat was empty.
Twilight Sparkle was not in the audience.
Sweetie Belle froze, staring at the gap in the audience. There was nothing else. No stage, no props, no lights, no band faltering at the lack of a singing accompaniment, no director hissing her line. Just Sweetie Belle and the empty seat. Then hundreds of eyes faded into her awareness, all watching her.
She trembled, then broke into a run, fleeing the stage. She didn't hear Apple Crisp's hurried command to close the curtain, nor her hasty assurances to the audience that the play would continue shortly.
Sweetie ran to a corner of the backstage, then curled up, sobbing. Apple Crisp ran to her a moment later.
"Sweetie Belle, what's going on?!"
Sweetie looked up. "I can't! I can't do it!"
Apple Crisp stomped her hoof. "Come on, get out there! The show must go on!"
"I'm sorry! I can't go out there!" Sweetie cried.
Apple Crisp grit her teeth. "Argh! I don't have time for this!" She turned towards the cast. "Hey, the performance is still on! Get back to your places! Foot Loose! You're playing Sweetie's part tonight! Get on your mark, now! Somepony tell the band to get ready to play again!"
The cast hurried back to their places, all except for the filly crying in the corner.
Sweetie Belle heard the band starting again, the actors and actresses going out on stage. She heard Foot Loose's inexpert singing, fumbling over the songs that Sweetie should have sung. She heard the cast going through the backstage, changing costumes and preparing props. The intermission came and went, with Sweetie's tears long exhausted. Finally, the closing notes of the play came before the curtain call.
Sweetie Belle took the opportunity to stand up and slink out the back door. She dragged her hooves on the long, dark walk home.
---
Twilight Sparkle busily traced a crystal along one of the lines in her latest magic circle, lost in thought. The basement door burst open.
Twilight turned around. "Swee—"
"Twilight! Where were you?" Sweetie Belle stomped down the stairs. "You said you had a ticket to the play! To my play! You said you were going to be there!"
Twilight shifted backwards. "I'm sorry, Sweetie Belle, I must have lost track of time. You see, I discovered something that might lead to a breakthrough in my research and—"
"Your research?" Sweetie Belle stood on her forelegs. "Your research?! I embarrassed myself in front of six hundred ponies because of your RESEARCH?!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Twilight raised her foreleg. "Sweetie Belle, this research is important and—"
"I don't care about your research!"
"Sweetie Belle!" Twilight admonished, "This research saved your life!"
"You're right, Twilight, it did save my life. And do you know what I'm doing with that life?" Sweetie pointed out the door. "Living it! Spending it out there, with my friends, with the theatre! Not abandoning my family! Not wasting my time in some cramped basement full of gems and crystals, trying to find a way back that will never happen!"
Twilight backed up a step. "S-Sweetie Belle, I promised to find a way—"
"There is no way! We're not going back! Even I can see that!"
Tears formed under Twilight's eyes. "No, that's wrong. Don't... don't you want to see Rarity again?"
"Don't you dare bring up Rarity! We're not going to see her again!" She choked up. "We're not... going to see any of them again. I just want to see you again, Twilight... Mom. I want you to be there for me. Is having a mother too much to ask?"
"Sweetie Belle..."
Sweetie Belle started up the stairs. "You know what? Forget it. I understand. I'll leave you alone with your beloved research."
She walked up the stairs and closed the door behind her.
Twilight Sparkle stared at the door, then turned and looked down at her table. Unfurled scrolls littered the surface, covered in scrawled notes and calculations. She looked at the softly-glowing magic circles she had spent months drawing and refining. She looked at the crystals she had bombarded with every spell she could muster. She looked at her books, piled in each corner, reaching to the ceiling.
Twilight Sparkle walked away.
---
Twilight slowly pushed the door to Sweetie Belle's room open. A lump was under the bed's covers.
"Sweetie Belle?" Twilight asked, slowly walking in.
"What do you want?" the lump responded.
Twilight sat down at the bedside. "Sweetie Belle, I'm sorry."
"Yeah right." The lump shifted.
Twilight set her hoof on her best estimate of where Sweetie's shoulder blade was. "I mean it. I didn't realize that you felt that way about me. I just thought that you... that you didn't really mean it when you called me Mom. Oh, Sweetie Belle, if I was supposed to be your mother, then I've failed, haven't I?"
She looked at the pathetic creature under the blankets. "Here I am, tasked with raising you, giving you what you need to be healthy and happy, and I spent my time neglecting you in favor of..." Twilight sighed. "The Princess was right, wasn't she? It's not happening. And I made you suffer for my foolishness. I am truly, truly sorry. Can you ever forgive me?"
The lump moved again. "Twilight... do you hate me?"
"Why would I hate you, Sweetie Belle?"
"If... if it wasn't for me... if I'd died back then... you wouldn't have gone through time. You wouldn't have gotten stuck here. I'm the reason you'll never go home. You hate me for it, don't you? You wish that you'd left me to die, don't you?"
Twilight leaned in. "Sweetie Belle, if I had another chance, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again."
Sweetie's head emerged from the blankets, her green eyes meeting Twilight's purple ones. "Do you really mean it?"
Twilight pulled her into a hug. "Sweetie Belle, I... I love you."
Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and sniffled into Twilight's mane. "I love you too, Mom."
"I'll be your mother from now on, Sweetie Belle. I don't know how well of a mother I can be, but I'll do everything I can to make you happy. I promise."
Twilight Sparkle squeezed her daughter tight against her chest.
---
"What happened?" Apple Crisp demanded.
Sweetie avoided eye contact. "I... I lost my head. I'm sorry. I just... couldn't handle the crowd."
The earth filly paced. "So is that it? After months of practice you quit, just like that? I don't have any other fillies that can sing like you, and I can't find and teach one the play by next week!"
Sweetie stood tall. "No. No, I'm staying on. I'm going to sing. I'm going to do the play."
"Are you sure, Sweetie Belle? I can't have a repeat of last night. I can't do another last-second replacement with a pony who can't sing."
Foot Loose looked down in shame.
Apple Crisp looked at her. "Uh, sorry, Foot Loose. But I brought on Sweetie Belle for a reason." She looked back at Sweetie. "All right, I don't have much of a choice. You'll stay in the lead role, and I'll hope I'm not making a big mistake."
"You can count on me, Apple Crisp. I can do this..."
---
"...I can do this."
Sweetie Belle stood at the edge of the stage. The moon had come up and the audience had sat down. The props were out, the curtain was closed, the lights were on, and the band was warming up.
Apple Crisp walked up to Sweetie Belle. "Last chance, Sweetie Belle. Are you absolutely sure you can play?"
Sweetie nodded. "I'm sure, Apple Crisp. I will sing."
"All right. I'm counting on you. Break a leg, Sweetie Belle."
Apple Crisp walked out in front of the curtain. "Fillies and Gentlecolts, it is my honor..."
While the director introduced the play, Sweetie Belle steeled herself. She imagined the audience looking at her and swallowed. Her heart pounded in her chest. She closed her eyes.
The curtain opened and the band began to play. Sweetie Belle opened her eyes and trotted onto the stage. She glanced towards the audience.
The front and center seat was occupied. Twilight Sparkle sat with a camera around her neck. She smiled at her daughter, eyes gleaming with pride.
Sweetie Belle looked up, at the hundreds of eyes watching her, and took a deep breath.
"Such a place! (Such a place!)
"Full of splendour and grandeur,
"Where etiquette and elegance are simply de rigueur!
"Such a place! (Such a place!)
"Oh, I want to see the sights!
"The fountains, and the gardens!
"The castles and the lights!
"Such a place! (Such a place!)
"Oh, wherever do I start?
"Perhaps a local café
"Or the gallery of art..."
---
"Though our looks might be alarming,
"Even scary or disarming,
"We assure you we’re quite charming
"After all we have been through.
"And we’ve learned a simple lesson:
"If you fall into depression,
"Accept yourself for who you are
"And to yourself stay true!"
Sweetie Belle and High Note held the last note as the music swelled. Then, on cue, they stopped and the band went silent.
There was a second of silence, then the audience exploded into applause. Ponies stomped their forelegs and cheered, Sweetie's mother the loudest of all.
The curtains closed.
Apple Crisp moved through the set, followed by the stagehooves and the cast. "Curtain call in fifteen seconds! Get the props out of the way!" The ponies hastily moved the props out the way, making room for the assembling cast.
Apple Crisp moved offstage. "Open!"
The curtains opened to reveal the audience, still applauding. Sweetie Belle looked over the ponies, clapping for her, cheering for her. Sweetie Belle looked, and she knew. She knew that this is what she wanted to do. She wanted to sing, to entertain, forever.
Something flashed behind her. Sweetie Belle turned to see, on her flank, an image of a silver bell with a pink ribbon. Forgetting herself, she spun in place to see it, inadvertently showing her new cutie mark to the audience. They erupted into even greater applause. Twilight jumped up and down cheering, face beaming with pride, and occasionally remembering to snap a picture.
Sweetie Belle stopped and faced her audience. With tears running down her face, she looked up, over the crowd, at the stars shining down on her.
After three centuries, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had finally achieved their original goal.
"Apple Bloom, Scootaloo..." she whispered.
"...Thank you!"