//------------------------------// // Home for the Holidays // Story: The Twilight Child // by Detectivefish //------------------------------// Midday woke from her slumber, feeling strangely energised. She smirked ever-so-slightly. She was eighteen, and counting by the date rather then her actual age, she was now only two months from being nineteen. 'One month out from my actual birthday' she muttered to herself. The prospect of spending her nineteenth birthday in the past was... not something she'd considered. She looked around the room, at the ponies sleeping. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were sleeping next to Fluttershy. Rainbow was drooling slightly, and even now and then Fluttershy seemed to twitch, like a dog dreaming of chasing rabbits. Applejack's hat was covering her face. On the small sofa Rarity lay curled around Spike, apparently having shifted in her sleep, a smile on her face. On the other sofa, Trixie was leaning on Twilight, her horn glowing every few seconds as small illusory blue unicorns danced and celebrated around her head. Twilight herself was just breathing in and out every few seconds. That left only Pinkie, who looked almost like she'd just shut her eyes for a moment, still sitting in the same position she had when she'd asked Midday to sing. She looked around the darkened room, and listened for the ticking of a clock. She could tell it was past midnight, and therefore technically Hearth's Warming day, but as her mother had insisted, Hearth's Warming never really started until after six fifty-nine in the morning, and even then not until somepony had some coffee in her. Midday looked about, and tried to see what time the clock said it was. It was only half past four. She sat there for a moment, and then, trying to be as quiet as possible, stood up. As she did she noticed an odd reflection in the light, which she noticed was in fact a tree. She smiled slightly and continued walking, taking every care to avoid the steps she knew would creak or groan, making her way to the library / bedroom. She quietly sat next to the small bed. She looked around the room, which wasn't really easy when the only thing lighting the room was her horn glowing slightly. Unfortunately when awake in the middle of the night with nothing better to do, one could start thinking. She tried to remember the last time she'd been in the family home. Then she remembered, and started trying not to remember the last time she'd been in the family home. She looked up the bookcase. Numerous spell-books and books on magical theory sat there, all looking slightly dog-earred, as if Twilight had read and re-read them over and over again. There were a few non-non-fiction books, the odd Daring Do book, but only the very earliest. She looked at it, and lifted it over toward her, and opened it. Something fell out, and then several things. Little tiny scraps of paper with quotations from the book listing errors of science and magic present in the book, and what looked like a letter. She stared at it. She fought her curiosity and opened it. "'Dear Twilight Sparkle, thank you for the lovely letter you wrote. It is such a joy to me to know that somepony as young as you has taken such an interest in my book. From the sound of it, you are quite the learned filly, and I appreciate your taking the time to correct this silly filly on her numerous mistakes.'" Midday briefly stopped looking. She looked down at the notes. From the looks of it, the mistakes were hardly mind-shatteringly awful, the odd botched bit of Zebrican or Prench here and there, the minor flaw of logic or such, but hardly something to begrudge a piece of fiction on, and some of the critiques were... quite advanced, only something a much older pony would have noticed. This writer seemed amazingly lacking in self-confidence. "'I hope they do not discourage you from further reading. Who knows, perhaps one day we might be able to meet in person, or perhaps you will write books of your own? From your letter, you seem confident and clever enough that I am suprised you haven't stared writing your own books already. You clearly have a keen analytical mind and a way with words.'" Midday frowned and looked around the room. She knew Twilight had written the odd paper, or historical study, but she'd never written a fictional book. Or at least not one Midday had ever heard of. Though, she reflected, there was that unfortunate time she'd met one of Pinkie's numerous spawn. What had her name been? Clove? Chives? No, no, Minty. That was it. Minty Pie. She remembered overhearing Pinkie once remark she'd been running out of names for her children, and her defensive remark regarding just not having more. She smiled at the thought of Vanilla, and his bright pink mane, and genial, if slightly bland personality. She looked back down at the note. "'But regardless of what you choose to do with your life, I am certain you will go far with whatever you choose. Just don't forget, you should enjoy what you're doing.'" She couldn't quite make out the signature. Whoever wrote it had incredibly shaky hoofwriting. They must have been a nervous wreck as they wrote, and considering their noticable lack of self-confidence, she wasn't surprised. She gently folded the letter back up, and returned it to the book. Then she noticed on the inside of the book was scrawled something, in different, slightly neater handwriting. "'To Twilie, for being the best little sister, your B.B.B.F.F.'" Of course, she told herself. Twilight was never going to examine a non-fiction book voluntarily, but if her Big Brother Best Friend Forever said it was good, then Twilight would take a look at it. "Shining Armor bought it for her a few days after she got her Cutie Mark" a voice said, a voice that caused her heart to suddenly leapt up into her throat, dropping the book to the ground. She turned around to see Twilight Velvet standing in the doorway, silhouetted by the lights in the hallway. "Trouble sleeping?" The mare asked. Midday just nodded. "Haven't quite gotten the nack of sleeping on Hearth's Warming Eve yet" she said. Velvet walked over to her. With her really light purple hair, she almost seemed to glow in the dark. The mare looked at the book incuriously. "I remember when little Twilight got this note. She'd read the whole book cover to cover, then wrote all these notes, and sent a long letter to the writer informing the poor mare of every mistake she'd made. Then, two weeks later we got a note from the writer back, and I though she was going to faint from surprise. Or worse." "Like turning everypony around her into potted plants again?" "That was an unusual minute and a half." Velvet frowned. Something occured to Midday. "What's got you up and around at half past four in the morning?" "Hearth's Warming. Got to leave the presents out." Midday smirked. "Even if your kids aren't there?" She instantly regretted that choice of words, and the briefest flash on Twilight Velvet's face. "Especially if they aren't there" Twilight Velvet smiled. The two stood there for a time. Midday suddenly felt much more tired. "Think I'm getting sleepy" she muttered. Velvet stared at her. "You said you were from Canterlot, right?" Midday felt a sudden pang of fear. She tried to ignore it. "Yes." "Twilight said you claimed that you could trace your ancestry to Mimic herself." "Yeah" Midday said, fighting down a yawn. Twilight Velvet said nothing, just fixing her with a steady stare, which quickly changed into an almost motherly look. "You look awful. Get some sleep already." "Yes m'm" Midday mumbled, her body practically on automatic by that point. She walked over to the bed and lay on it, and was asleep in seconds. Twilight Velvet stared at the sight of the royal blue mare asleep, looking for all the world like her own daughter. ***** Midday was woken up by Pinkie Pie's extremely raucous cheering. She made her way downstairs to find the girls tearing into a pile of presents. Pinkie seemed quite impressed with her present. "Look, it squeaked!" She said, bopping the little rubber ducky in front of her every few moments. "The new Daring Do!" Twilight said, her voice lowered and in awe. "Goodness" Fluttershy whispered. "Why in Equestria has somepony given me a tea-cosy?" Rarity guffawed slightly. "I already have a dozen of them. I suppose this was Sweetie Belle's idea." She shrugged, and gently placed it next to her, her eyes occasionally darting toward it as she examined her other presents. This proceeded on for a few minutes, until everypony had opened theirs. Midday allowed herself a smile. She felt good. Better than she had in a long time, she thought. Perhaps that was something to do with the strange blast of friendship from the play. She considered that, and decided to just ignore it. It was Hearth's Warming. Nothing was going on that couldn't wait twenty-four hours. ***** "Ah. Surrounded on all sides by snowponies. Killer snowponies. Killer snowponies who eat real ponies." He waved his screwdriver, not liking the result he got. "Very extremely far from good." The large blue alicorn standing nearby rolled her eyes, while the strabismus-afflicted mailmare sitting nearby held her foal tightly to her. "But I have a brilliant and clever plan" "Which is...?" Luna asked. "Not getting eaten." "How did I get talked into this mess again?" Luna asked, as the snowponies advanced towards them. He ignored her. "Better snowponies than Ice Ponies. I really don't want to run into them again." The brown-haired stallion smiled. He checked to make sure he still had his bowtie. "Right." He tensed himself, and prepared to be clever. ***** The rest of Hearth's Warming Midday spent relaxing and joking about with Twilight and her friends, and having as good a time on Hearth's Warming as possible. The day passed without major incident, and neither did the day after. On the next day however, it was decided that perhaps it was time to return to Ponyville. "Thank you ever-so-much for having us" Rarity smiled. Night Light just smiled. "It's quite alright, we're always happy to see Twilight and her friends." "That's us" Pinkie beamed. Everypony ignored her. "Travel safely" Twilight Velvet said. As they started walking out, Midday turned to them. "Be sure to tell Shining Armor to write. Just because he's older doesn't mean his sister doesn't miss him sometimes." And with that the group set off towards the train station. "Lovely ponies, I thought" Night Light said, casually. "Yes" Twiligh Velved smiled, watching her daughter still turning to wave. They waited until she was out of sight. "Shall we go see Celestia now?" he asked. "Yes." ***** The train slowly made its way down the mountain back to Ponyville. Midday rested slightly on the small bunk. Then she saw the look on Twilight's face. She made her way over to her. "You okay?" She asked. Twilight seemed to jump. "Yes, I just... I, well... it's not important." "You wish you could've seen your brother." Twilight blinked, and a noticably sad look came over her face. "Yes." "Twilight... feeling miserable about seeing him isn't going to change anything. If you want to talk to your brother, you do have to make a bit of effort towards seeing him." "But I'm busy most of the time" she said, though she didn't sound like she believed it much. "If something's important, Twilight Sparkle, you make time." She patted the mare gently. "I mean, if you just sit around waiting for him to see you, and you to see him, well... it'd be terrible to suddenly find you're an aunt without any forewarning." At the word 'aunt' Twilight started staring straight ahead, her jaw dropped, and she went utterly unresponsive. Midday tried to guess at what could possibly have Twilight so shocked, even waving a hoof in front of her face, to which there was no response. "Is she alright?" asked Fluttershy. Midday looked puzzled and turned to Fluttershy. She tried to think of the most accurate thing to say, glancing at the utterly still Twilight. "I, ah... I think I broke her." Fortunately she seemed to snap out of it by the time they reached Ponyville, though she did occasionaly shoot Midday odd looks. The mare walked along the path through Ponyville, watching as everypony but Trixie split off from the group to go elsewhere. Upon entering the library Midday set her saddlebag down, and sighed. She stood there as Twilight, Trixie and Spike went about their business. She sat there, and found she didn't feel quite at home in the small library as she had in Canterlot. She looked out of the window. It was a generally pleasant day, slightly cloudy but otherwise fine, although it wasn't sunny or warm enough for the snow to melt. She decided to go out. Twilight walked into the room, just as Midday was leaving. She waiting a moment, then looked for one of the books on genealogy. She opened it, and began to study it in detail. 'Let's find out who you are' She muttered to herself. "You say something?" Trixie asked from the other side of the room. Twilight yelped. "No, no, nothing." She smiled nervously. Trixie stared at her, then ignored the matter. ***** Midday walked through the streets of Ponyville, ruminating. The events of the play still troubled her, as did that mad-pony's claims of being Star-Swirl. And she was also greatly concerned by the occasional look she'd noticed from Twilight Velvet and Night Light. She shook her head, and noticed she was feeling slightly hungry, but not hungry enough for a full meal. She walked towards Sugarcube Corner, content in the knowledge that disaster wasn't going to strike anytime soon. ***** Meanwhile in Canterlot, in the castle in the throne room, Celestia took another sip of her hot chocolate, desperately fighting the urge to scratch, or destroy the offending knitwear currently stabbing her in a dozen places. From the look on her face, Luna felt similar. "So" Celestia said "What exactly happened with these snowponies?" Luna made a small noise, "It was the strangest thing, there we were, having a nice early Hearth's Warming brunch, when-" There was a knock on the door, and Shining Armor appeared, wearing what appeared to be a woolly hat that Celestia recognised as one of her niece's creations, along with a matching scarf. She made a mental note to give him a raise at some point, since he seemed able to resist the itchiness where she and her sister could not. "Your Highness," he seemed nervous, "My parents are here to see you." Celestia and Luna exchanged glances. This was not the strangest announcement either pony had ever heard, but Twilight Sparkle's parents just appearing unannounced was certainly unusual as far as Celestia was concerned. She smiled gently. "By all means, let them in." The two ponies entered, a stern look on Twilight Velvet's face. That, Celestia noted, wasn't a good sign. She walked up to Celestia, and bowed, which made her feel slightly embarrased, not least because somepony was bowing to her while she was wearing an extremely itchy sweater and drinking hot chocolate and trying to feel like a regular pony. "Yes?" she asked, feeling slightly flat-footed by the sudden arrival of her student's parents. Twilght Velvet turned to Night Light, who nodded at her. "Your Highness, my husband and I have something we wish to talk to you about." "Of course" Celestia said, feeling concerned. "Is it something to do with Twilight Sparkle?" There was a pause as Twilight Velvet thought. "Not... exactly. More a pony she knows." Night Light said. "What can you tell us about Midday Eclipse?"