//------------------------------//
// Morning 
// Story: Give Back My Baby 
// by A cubed 
//------------------------------//

/x/x/x/

Shifts change. You would think it an ordinary occurrence, no? One mare finishes her job for the daily time allotted, and punches in a card, waiting for the arrival of another to continue in her stead. It happens every day in menial working places. Flower stalls, weather factories, librarians. But there is one instance that is perhaps the most important of all.

Without the sun, there would be no sunlight. No sunlight means the plants can’t get the energy to nourish themselves. No nourishment means they grow weak, and die. Weak and dead plants don’t feed animals or ponies, and without feed, you die. On the other hoof, if you have too much sun, you could bleach out and kill the plants, ending with the same result.

Thus, the cycle of day and night was established, and is maintained by the Princesses of Canterlot. The elder princess, Celestia, has just awoken from her slumber. She removes her manecurlers, puts on her slippers, and while stifling a yawn, sleepily trots across her royal bedchambers to the waiting machine, dispensary of the bitter dark fluid of the glorious coffee bean.

After a sip or two, the contented alicorn smiles slightly, letting the heat warm her from the inside. With a hoof, she rubs the sleep out of her eyes, and heads out her balcony door. There, her younger sister stood, ever stoic, watchful eyes on the horizon for any threats that may pop up. Though there was no wind, the navy mane shimmered and waved, as if it were liquid starlight.

“I trust you slept well, sister?” she asked, without turning around.

“I did, Luna, like a foal.” Celestia sipped. “Now it’s your turn.”

Now, the princess of the night turned to her elder sister; her eyelids were drooping slightly. “In just a moment, sister. I always enjoy your sunrises.”

The white mare nodded. “All right, then.” she drained the mug, and set it on the balcony railing. “Shall we?” she asked, stepping to her sister’s immediate side.

As one, they bowed their heads. Celestia bowed slightly more, so her horn aimed below the line of the horizon. Their horns slowly began to glow, their respective colors corresponding to the celestial body under their control. When the luminescence reached the tips, they grimaced, for the grip had taken hold.

Driving their hooves into the ground, and straining slightly, the princesses slowly moved their heads. Luna down, and Celestia up. As the moon lowered on the horizon line, the sky brightened. When the moon finally dipped below the horizon, the navy alicorn ceased to move: her job was finished.

Celestia continued though her younger sister had stopped. The sun’s journey wasn’t quite finished yet. The horizon brightened from a dark violet to a lighter shade, then to blue, and continued to shift shades. As the sun finally peeked over, as if to say ‘Hello, Equestria!’, the sky broadly painted itself red, then quickly orange, until finally settling on yellow. This persisted for a moment, until the sun was fully over, and into the sky proper.

Day had broken.

Celestia relaxed, for her muscles and become tense during this ritual. She rolled her sockets, and shook her mane. As her hair bathed in the solar energy, it became revitalized, and shone once again. Luna’s did the opposite; in the sunlight, it looked to be a flat ocean blue, and ceased to flow.

The younger of the two yawned. “Beautiful as always, Celly.” she started towards a set of doors on the side of the balcony on the opposite of the wall from where Celestia entered. “I must bid you a good morning before I retire.”

“Good morning to you as well, little sister.”

Luna opened the doors with a hoof, magic glowing and gathering the essentials. Sleep mask, robe, unlocking the secret drawer under the writing desk hiding a stuffed bear. Before slipping the sleeping mask on, she fed the raven in its cage above the writing desk. After her task was complete, she slipped the mask over her eyes, and slid underneath the covers. Within two minutes, she was snoring.

Celestia gripped the mug with her magic, but was sadly surprised to find it empty. She glanced down at her hooves: she was still wearing her slippers. She sighed, and turned to head back inside. She heard liquid slosh in the mug, and she checked it again. Sure enough, there was more coffee in it. She smiled.

“Thanks.” she said to the air.

“Anytime, princess.”

Her guest left. As she removed her slippers, she began to drink... then immediately spit it out. It was liquid black licorice, her least favorite flavor of anything ever. Celestia’s eye twitched as she heard soft chuckling.

“You crafty draconequus.”

/x/x/x/

The sunlight crept through the window, and onto a patchwork quilt. It was a simple butterfly pattern, alternating red and white colors on each rhombus. The light shone directly onto a sleeping rabbit’s face. That rabbit stopped sleeping.

Angel opened his eyes, then closed them again, regretting that decision immediately. He stood on his hindlegs, put his arms in front of him, and began walking. He planned to get out of the direct light so he could open his eyes and adjust. Unfortunately, that was not to happen. He didn’t run into anything... except the floor, when he walked right off the bed.

His ear twitched.

After removing his face from the floor, the rabbit shook himself off. So, it would be one of /those/ mornings, eh? He looked back up on the bed. His master and caretaker lay there peacefully, undisturbed by his trip to floortown. This time, his eye twitched. But, he took a deep breath, and grabbed onto a nearby pole.

He climbed up the bedside table, which was quite a feat considering he had no opposable thumbs. He glanced about the room: no other creature was awake except for him. Angel decided not to let this deter him from attempting to have a good day.

He approached the yellow-coated pony under the cover. Hopping down onto the bed, he stepped next to her hooves, and shook them slightly. Nothing. He ruffled the coat above the fetlocks, but still, nothing. He rubbed his paws together and prepared to do it one final time.

Before he did, however, the hoof came towards him- alarmingly fast- pushing him off of the bed, again. After it did this, it went into the air, stretching the foreleg behind it. From his low vantage point, Angel could tell the other hoof was copying the gesture. She was also yawning. He had woken her, but at a terrible price. His mood was soured for the whole day.

His nose twitched. 

Fluttershy, however, was feeling great. Quite a restful sleep, if she would say so herself. She removed the covers from her body, and slipped out of bed. She noticed Angel on the floor.

“You know, the bed is much comfier than the floor, you silly bunny.”

He sighed, stood up, and hopped his way out of the room. The pink-maned mare watched the door frame after he had left, wondering whether it was something she said. She shrugged it off, and attributed it to Angel being Angel, like always.

She unfurled her wings, and fluttered up to the birdhouses. She started to hum a song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya5ICVKUERg&mode=related&search=] to gently awaken the birds. Slowly, they peeked out the holes at the one who ended their slumber. One climbed out onto the peg, and rubbed its eyes with its wings.

Fluttershy counted the ones on this side of the room, and satisfied that they’d all awakened, she fluttered over to the other side of the room, and repeated the process with the birdhouses that were over there. After awakening all the birds, she exited her room.

As she headed down the stairs, she scanned the rooms for Angel. No sign of him. He’d been acting strangely, ever since the day she reformed Discord. Stepping onto the last stair, the floor, she headed to the hole in the wall where a mouse family was living. She started singing again, and they came out of the hole.

She was alone, with nopony around to hear. So, she allowed herself to increase her dynamics. Heading into the center of the room, her soft piano soon became a fortissimo, which was loud enough to surely wake any animal up, without being obnoxiously deafening.

She soon gathered a crowd: the birds nestled in the rafters, and the various rodents gathered on the rug near her. Fluttershy became lost in the music, and the animals didn’t complain about their food being postponed slightly. It was rare that the pegasus treated them with the honeyed tones of her voice at such a volume.

Angel finished checking on the mass of orange, and hopped back into the main room to hear his master’s singing. For a few minutes, he forgot about his morning mishaps. He leaned against the wall, and closed his eyes.

As Fluttershy took in a breath to start a new phrase, she was interrupted by a knock at the door. She jumped a little. After recovering from the slight shock, she trotted over to the door, opening it slightly. She let out a sigh of relief, it was the mailmare, and a friend of hers.

“Good morning, Derpy.”

“Heya, Fluttershy! I got some mail for you, here...” She turned her head and dug out one of the last two envelopes in her mailbag. “Er cern’t terl herr irt’s frerm, thrr.” Fluttershy took the envelope from her mouth. She read the address on the envelope, and noticed something peculiar.

“Umm, Derpy?” she looked up at the gray pegasus, and attempted eye contact. She settled with the left eye, as it was more aimed at her than the right eye was. “I’m not Cheerilee.” She held out the envelope for Derpy to read: it was addressed to the magenta mare, not Fluttershy.

“Heh, sorry ‘Shy. I don’t know what went wrong there.” she turned back to her mail bag and brought out the other envelope. “Thrss wern’s fer yerr, nrrt thrrt wern.”

Fluttershy exchanged envelopes, chuckling slightly. “The night shift isn’t working out for you very well, is it?”

The yellow-maned mare put the envelope back into her mailbag. “Not really, no. I keep having little mix-ups like this, but it’s not much more than the usual. Plus, since Time Turner leaves on nights, we can have a little bit of, you know, intimacy in the mornings when the little muffin’s at school.”

Fluttershy blushed slightly. “Well, I wouldn’t want to keep you away from, you know... that stuff.”

Derpy’s face scrunched awkwardly. “Umm... I liked that song that was going on inside.”

“Oh...” she replied. “You heard that.”

“Yeah I heard it. You’re a really good sing...”

Fluttershy looked down at the ground, letting her mane obscure her face. She wrapped a hoof around her foreleg.

Derpy hesitated before finishing her sentence. “...ing teacher. Great singing teacher! The, uh, bird choir is really going places!” The yellow-coated mare looked back up while Derpy was speaking. “And now, I’m going from one great teacher to another, because I... have... that letter for Cheerilee.”

Fluttershy smiled slightly. “...thanks...” she whispered.

“No problem.” Derpy replied. She inwardly sighed in relief. “Anyways, I guess I’ll be seeing you later. Any time you’ve got a letter, I, um, well... see ya.” she took off, leaving the cottage behind.

Fluttershy closed the door. Turning around, she saw the animals crowding around each other and looking out the door. At her gaze, they all composed themselves and started whistling. Acting natural. She smiled at their foal-like behavior; then realized she’d forgotten something.

“Okay, who’s hungry?”

/x/x/x/

Derpy landed on the hoofpath to Cheerilee’s house. Right as she did, the front door opened, to reveal a pink-and-white-striped mane. She was clearly not expecting the visitor.

“Oh, hello!”

“Mornin’, Ms Cheerilee!”

“Good morning, Mrs Hooves. I see you’re in uniform: any mail today?”

Derpy nodded, and reached into her mailbag for the final letter. She trotted to the mailbox and slipped it in. “You know, I almost gave Fluttershy your mail today.” she said, laughing slightly. “Silly me, right?”

‘sometimes I hear Momma crying in her bedroom’

“Yeah, silly...” Cheerilee trotted over to the mailbox and opened the other side. She scanned the return address, then rolled her eyes, and looked off into the distance.

“Welp,” Derpy said as she stretched her limbs. “Hard night’s work, my bed is calling me-”

“You know...” Cheerilee interjected, cutting off the goodbye (accdentally, of course). “Your daughter wrote a nice essay for me this week.”

Derpy stopped stretching. “Did she, now?” Cheerilee was distracted, and didn’t hear her, so she chose not to be offended at the interruption.

“It really opened my eyes about her home life...” she focused on her surroundings, then looked Derpy in the eye. “It was really good, for a filly, and I was just on my way to run it in the Ponyville Gazette. It completely slipped my mind that I should have gotten parent’s permission first.” she looked down at the envelope. “Silly me...”

“Well... if the essay’s good enough for the paper, then I’d like to read it. That okay?”

“Well, you didn’t help her write it, and that’s the only thing parents aren’t allowed to do at this point in their school lives. I suppose I could show you the drafts.”

“Alright. I’ll probably have to give Ammy a few bits extra, but it’s worth it to see how the little muffin’s doing in school.”

Cheerilee nodded, then reached into her saddlebags. She pulled out the original copy, and hoofed it over. Derpy grabbed it, and sat on her haunches. She looked at the paper, then looked at it again. She looked up at the teacher.

“Her writing’s messier than mine.”

Cheerilee facehoofed. “Sorry about that.” she reached in and took out the copy she’d made. “Well, I read foal’s hoofwriting all the time, so I made a copy that’s more, well, legible.”

Derpy swapped papers, and started reading the copy. Cheerilee’s scrawl was more professional than most earth pony script, and was quite easy to read. It was nowhere near the caliber of hornwriting, but it was quaint.

At first, she smiled. Almost immediately, she unsmiled. She wasn’t frowning, but her face became neutral. She started nodding a little bit, then abruptly stopped nodding. She mouthed ‘and to me...?’

She moved the paper up. She pursed her lips, then unpursed them. She stared nodding lightly, then stopped as her eyes widened. To herself, she murmured “They did what...?” Then she looked to be in thought. “I remember that...” she looked back at the paper, then chuckled once.

She moved the paper up again. She put a hoof up to her mouth, then put it back down. She smiled a little, then she smiled a lot. The corners of her eyes sparkled a little. She put her hoof back up to her mouth, and turned the paper over.

She started reading the other side. She nodded a bit, and her smile faded slightly, before going back up again. Then her eyebrows raised, and the smile was gone, replaced instead by embarrassment. She blushed furiously. At this, so did Cheerilee.

“About the, uh, wrestling-”

“I know. Just... keep going.”

Derpy facehoofed for a few seconds, then composed herself and started reading again. She smiled a bit, and started nodding again, and when she finished, she closed her eyes. She gave back the paper with one hoof, and wiped her eyes with the other.

“That was...”

“I know.” Cheerilee put the papers back into her saddlebag as Derpy rose from her haunches. “So, you’re okay with the, uh, wrestle-”

“Dinky’s just a foal, it’ll be fine. It’s not like anypony doesn’t know what married couples do. And, it’ll be good for her to see that something she did was put in the paper.”

“It’ll be good to see something in the paper by my class that isn’t Gabby Gums.”

“Oh, I’d almost forgotten about that... Oh, I’ll make sure Time Turner reads the news tomorrow.” Derpy unfurled her wings.

Cheerilee nodded. “Have a nice day, Mrs Hooves.”

Derpy started flapping. “You too, Ms Cheerilee.” she said, as she flew towards home. However, she detoured herself. She went into Sugarcube Corner, and a brief argument about the superiority of Cupcakes to Muffins later, she exited with a box of muffins in tow before heading the rest of the way home.

When she finally arrived, she crept in the front door quietly. She looked to the right, the kitchen, and set down the muffins and mail bag on the counter. She turned around into the living room to see Amethyst Star reading a book. Derpy coughed quietly, and Amethyst looked up. Having been holding it up with magic, she put her bookmark in and closed it as she stepped off the couch.

“Sorry I’m late, Ammy.”

She shrugged. “No biggie. My weekends have nothing scheduled but Dinky and Tootsie Flute.”

“Here’s your pay, and here’s for the extra hour.”

She looked at her employer quizzically. “You’re only twenty minutes late. Why an hour?”

Derpy smiled. “Just read the Gazette tomorrow.” she started to trotto her bedroom, but before she got there, she turned around. “I bought muffins, feel free to take one. Have a good morning!” and with that, she opened the door slightly, then closed it quietly behind her.

Amethyst blinked. “Well...” she said to herself. “Free muffin.”

/x/x/x/