//------------------------------// // Before the Sun Sets // Story: The Thousand Year Change // by Darthvalgaav //------------------------------// As the sky began to darken, the large egg in Cadence’s room began to open. Once open, Cadence was amazed by what she saw. Midnight Blossom looked like any other normal filly. The machine had plumped her up, her coat and mane looked shinier, and all around healthier. As she stared, Shining used his magic to place the filly on the bed. As soon as she was on the covers she began to stir. The first thing she noticed was that the pain was gone. She had lived with the pain of hunger for so long that not having it was almost a cause for alarm. Slowly the bat filly opened her eyes and found herself on the nicest, softest bed she had ever been on. Everything looked so clean and pretty. Looking down at her body, she saw herself looking fuller than she had ever been in her life. “Am I dead?” she whispered. To her, it was the only possibility that made sense to her mind. “No, you’re not dead,” said a voice nearby. The bat filly looked up with her golden slit eyes and saw two adults. Fearfully, she began to back up until she fell off the bed. She landed on the floor with a large thud before racing under it for some added protection. However, she knew it would be short lived. She had noticed the horns on the heads of both adults. That meant they could use magic to move the bed and then harm her. Cadence was shocked by Midnight’s behavior. Had her life been so hard that this was the way she would react to her presence? But she had to admit that waking up in a strange place would make any pony act that way. Probably more for a filly as young as her. Gently, Cadence moved the blanket out of her way as she crouched down. She could easily see Midnight’s eyes shaking underneath the bed. She then heard a small rumble coming from the foal’s stomach. With a slight smile she used her magic to grab a nearby bowl of fruit and brought it over to her. She then set it between her and the filly. Midnight looked at it and licked her lips, but stayed where she was. Cadence had a good idea what was running through the filly’s head. Once more she used her magic to grabbing a single piece of fruit. She then bit into it, showing the filly it was safe to eat before backing up. Few the next few minutes, both she and Shining could hear the sounds of crunching coming from beneath the bed. Even though she looked better, she was still very hungry. Eventually the noise stopped and a small head popped out from underneath the bed. She looked rather confused. “Are you going to hurt me?” she asked softly. Cadence slowly shook her head. “No dear, I don’t want to hurt a single hair on your head,” said Cadence. “I want to do the opposite. You see, a short while ago I adopted you.” The filly moved back further under the bed. “What does adopted mean?” she asked. “It means that you are now my daughter,” said Cadence. The bat filly’s eyes widened in shock and her mouth hung open. “Y-You mean I get to live here?” she asked. “Yes,” said Cadence with a nod. “You will also get a real name. You will no longer be called ‘It’. From this day on you will be called Midnight Blossom.” Midnight was at a loss for words. She was getting a real name. Not only that but she would be living here as well. The nice pink adult would be taking care of her. Slowly she got out from underneath the bed and asked one final question. “Are you sure I’m not dead?” -x- “This is foolish,” said Gigawatt as he slammed the door to the room he was sharing with Land Share. Both senators had just been informed of the new deal between Celestia and Luna. While personally Gigawatt liked it far better than the old one, he still didn’t trust the ponies of Equestria. He had heard about the bat filly and the idea of ponies from the Republic joining a nation like this sickened him. He had always hated Equestria. He remembered looking at it from his home as a child. He would think about how nice it must be for the children to play in a real ocean or run outside in a real meadow. To not have to worry about the dome above their head breaking it a meteor should hit it. To not have to fear the cold vacuum of space. To have an entire world to explore while the ponies of the Republic were confined to their domes. All of this was made worse when he learned in school the reason they had to leave the planet. It always seemed so unfair. Why did they get this nice, big planet while ponies like him had to settle with living on the moon? Not that he hated the moon, it was just that there was always a limit. But here on the planet there wasn’t a limit. They seemed to have unlimited resources and opportunities. Both, however, they wasted everyday. Slowly Gigawatt walked over to a nearby desk and looked at a book he had been reading while they had been on break. The book was entitled ‘Equestrian Wars’ and had done nothing to improve his mood. The book had told him about the wars that had occurred over the last thousand years which made him worry. According to the book, there were still many unresolved issues with the griffons and the changelings still posed a very real threat. If they did join with Equestria then they would be forced to join in and help in these kinds of conflicts. This also gave rise to a new line of worries. What if the griffons or, more likely, the changelings managed to get a hold of their technology? They could use that technology to invade other countries and through this entire world into chaos. Or worse, what if the Equestrians decided to do that. He could just see it now: Princess Celestia’s nobles encouraging her to attack their enemies before they have a chance to attack them. From then on they would encourage her to attack other nations until they became an empire. Gigawatt had tried to share these worries with Land Share. His family had always been close with Luna since the Republic began. If any pony had a chance to get the princess to call this off it would be either him or Twilight Sparkle. Sadly, after he had shared his fears with Land Share the earth pony had told him that Princess Luna would never allow something like that to happen. “Something must be done,” said Gigawatt as he stared at the book. “And soon.” -x- Twilight hummed a happy tune as the trio made their way through town. There was a bit of distance between her and Shadow due to Scootaloo separating them. The little filly was on her fixed scooter which Twilight had fixed using her magic. However it would only be a temporary fix since her magic was the only thing keeping it together. Scootaloo was ten pounds of happiness in a five pound bag. Her head was full of tricks she would do once she was in the air. She could fly around doing barrel rolls, kick lightning out of clouds, make it rain over Diamond Tiara, and so much more! Then she could ask Rainbow Dash if she would teach her some cool moves. But then something occurred in the young Pegasus’s mind. What did she really know about Twilight or Shadow? They both seemed really nice and all, but what if it was all an act? What if there was no way for her to fly again? Maybe they made it all up so that she would go with them to some strange place where they would do horrible stuff to her. Stuff worse than what Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would do. “Something wrong?” asked Twilight as she noticed that Scootaloo was slowing down slightly. Scootaloo just gave her a funny look. “Can I ask you something?” said Scootaloo. Twilight nodded. “I just have to know: why are you helping me? I mean, I’m grateful and all but this is starting to sound too good to be true.” Twilight nodded. Now that she herself thought about it, it did seem odd. The idea of two strange ponies promising to give her the power of flight for no real reason did sound like one of those ‘beware of strangers’ classes that she took when she was younger. For Twilight, it was difficult to explain. Her special talent was magic in all of its glory. Back in the Republic, magic was still held in high regards despite all the technological advancements they had made. The two actually worked together to help make their society better. But if magic had been what had caused Scootaloo to lose her ability to fly, then she felt like it was her responsibility to fix it. There was also the fact that she was an orphan with no parents to help her see this through. “Well, I guess it’s because we sort of know what you’re going through,” said Twilight after a while. “Both me and Shadow lost our parents at really young ages. Also, is it wrong to want to help another pony?” “Well I guess not,” said Scootaloo. Still, however, she looked a little worried. “Don’t worry about it,” said Shadow. “If you are worried then maybe we can bring a doctor from our homeland here.” “Good thinking,” said Twilight with a nod. “That way we can-” Twilight stopped in her tracks as three ponies headed towards them. It looked like a family of earth ponies. The stallion in front of them had a slicked back mane and a brown coat. He was also wearing a red tie with a dollar sign on it. Behind him was a filly with an ugly smirk on her face and a mare who just seemed angry. The three stopped right in front of Twilight’s group. “Ah, can we help you?” “That’s him daddy,” said Diamond Tiara as she pointed at Shadow. “That’s the stallion that scared me for no reason!” “I see,” said Filthy Rich as he looked at Shadow. Shadow, in returned looked Filthy in the eyes. For a moment it was like a staring contest, neither of them said a word. It was like they were both trying to feel other out. “My daughter tells me that you flew down in front of her and her friend just to scare her. Is this true?” “She’s lucky that’s all I did to her,” said Shadow. Filthy opened his mouth to yell, but Twilight stepped in between the two. “Lets calm down everypony,” she said. “Now then Mr.-” “Filthy Rich,” said the earth stallion. “But please call me Rich.” “Alright then Mr. Rich,” said Twilight with a nod. “My name is Twilight Sparkle and this is my coltfriend Shadow Blade. Now lets try and keep a cool head so that we can resolve this peacefully. So first lets all take a deep breath.” Shadow opened his mouth to say something but a quick glare from Twilight silenced him. So, reluctantly, the two stallions took a deep breath. “Good. Now then Mr. Rich I will not deny that Shadow could have handled the situation better. Usually he has a much cooler head. Do you know what your daughter was doing before Shadow scared her?” “If you are trying to blame our little girl,” began Mr. Rich’s wife but her husband held up a hoof. He then let out a hum as he turned to look at his now panicking daughter. When he had first heard this he had felt that she was not telling the whole story. However, when she described what happened and that a bat pony did it, his fathering instincts kicked into high gear. “Diamond, is there anything that you left out?” said Mr. Rich in a calm tone. He could see that his daughter was avoiding eye contact as she shook her head. “I was there too,” said Scootaloo. Filthy turned to look at the little filly. “I was trying out some wicked cool tricks on my scooter when I crashed in an alley and it broke. Then Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon saw me and began to make fun of me. That’s when Shadow appeared.” “And the rest I already know,” said Filthy with a nod. He then looked at Shadow. “Is all this true?” Shadow nodded. “Dear, don’t tell me that you believe them,” demanded his wife. “I would, if Diamond hadn’t already received six letters from her teacher saying that she was caught bullying,” said Mr. Rich as he kept his eyes on Shadow. “Now, I am still angry at how you handled the situation. However I will not press charges since you were not doing it to be cruel. But if you do it again I will not be so forgiving.” “We understand,” said Twilight. She then elbowed Shadow. “Ouch, alright I promise not to do that again,” said Shadow. Somewhat satisfied, Filthy Rich turned around and began to herd his family home. Yet as they did, Scootaloo could hear Rich giving his daughter a long list of chores she would be doing for a very long time. -x- Trixie sat in the cheap hotel room as she looked out the window. The sky was beginning to darken. Outside the ponies of Ponyville were finishing up with the preparations for tomorrow while at the same time getting ready for a party. Celestia, she hated it here. Using her magic, she began to fill a glass with her expensive cherry wine that she had brought with her from Canterlot as she thought about how her day went. First she had checked out the food from that apple farming mare. It tasted like commoner fare that would have been seen at a carnival. The decorations looked all wrong and the music was being done by stupid birds. The only thing that this town had done right was that the sky was clear. Trixie quickly drained her glass and then filled it up again. She had no idea why Princess Celestia would send her to this little town in the middle of nowhere. She was the princess’s most faithful student and should have been in Canterlot when those lunar ponies showed up. Trixie had tried to tell her princess and mentor that they didn’t need those monsters from the moon. Everypony knew they couldn’t be trusted, but then again Princess Celestia always seemed to try and see the best in ponies. And it didn’t help that the other students in her class were whispering about her as she got ready to go. Trixie refilled her glass as she tried to forget what they said about her. How she was just full of hot air. How she was nothing special. That the reason she was being sent away was because Celestia was embarrassed by her. Trixie frowned as once more she drained her glass, but the memories wouldn’t leave her head. Perhaps a few more would help.