//------------------------------// // 51 // Story: Twilights Mane Passion // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Three days after Fluttershy temporarily became a flying squirrel and after returning to normal quickly made Twilight feel really good to get her out of a depressive mood. Twilight opened the book to start reading, it was an unusual subject choice to read up on as she lay on her fresh knew couch. They now had two couches and a chair in the living room, Mr. Davenport was having a sell yesterday. “Hey Twilight I’m about to set… what are you reading? Is that… is that a Power Ponies comic? Are you actually reading something that’s not entirely educational?” Receiving a blank look as a response, Tress tilted her head in an innocent manner. “I read your comic didn’t I?” Her friend looked away at that retort while toying with her mane, Twilight turned back to continue reading the comic book with mild interest. “Well I knew your daughter still reads them, I just didn’t know you did too.” Tress didn’t dwell on where she came from and didn’t think too hard about it. She was a bit sad that the world continued on without her as normal, at least her minions were still around if the regular comics were to be believed. Her character was completely missing in action after becoming friends with Radiance. She didn’t doubt that she was still friends with a radiant pony. “I prefer to think of this as research Tress; besides that I want to know what has my daughter so fascinated with these stories aside from one of the characters popping out of one. The elements of harmony are going to be the absolute last resort when it comes to Nightmare Moon and since she sounds like a super villain, I decided why not think of her as such. Celestia could only temporarily use them by herself and if she had enough power to seal her sister away for up to a thousand years, she had to have enough power to save her sister as well. Even with the tenuous connection they still had, Celestia still cast her away anyway and most likely for some greater good nonsense.” What Twilight hadn’t stated that compounding the issue is that Celestia made her sister a fading myth. The ponies of the past had horribly failed Luna and so had Celestia. When Luna returned after a thousand years, no pony would have any reason to remember she even existed except from fairy tales. Fairy tales that were very much real and Twilight had the proof of Luna’s existence and that she had fun by building some of the mechanisms in that ancient castle. “I’m working on a plan and I’m already predicting how things will go at the summer sun celebration which is being held here suspiciously enough during that year. Especially suspicious given it’s next to the Ever Free Forest where Celestia’s ancient castle used to be and where Luna will return to on that exact day. In fact, I’m sure Celestia already has a plan for Luna’s return. I hope to implement mine before hers can get off the ground.” “Well good luck with that and whatever it has to do with reading comic books. I was just coming in here to tell you I’m off to take some hoof to anything else fighting lessons with Rainbow Dash.” Tress had an evil smirk plastered on her face ever since she learned Ponyville had a self defense training dojo. “She only just started taking lessons after watching my impressive display of muscle tearing agony.” “Don’t hurt Rainbow Dash to much Tress and don’t push yourself too hard, but make sure to get in at least one cheap shot without any pony noticing. Some pony has to keep her ego in check.” Twilight had noticed Tress’s evil grin when she looked up from her comic book, she thought Tress was really good at smiling like that. “Good luck to you too.” “You’re the one that needs it to have a few quiet days Twilight. I wouldn’t worry about it as I got Applejack in on this as a backup plan.” Tress pranced towards the door while continuing to smile creepily as she exited the house. “Note to self, Tress is an evil genius with an emphasis on evil.” Twilight looked to the ceiling pondering just how exactly Tress managed to talk Applejack into joining in on the lessons. Then again the farmer did do quite a few dangerous things in life that weren’t all related to apple farming. Shaking her head Twilight went back to reading her comic book. Twilight was still trying to grasp the exact reason Celestia sealed her sister away instead of saving her. Maybe some ancient prophecy or something was involved or maybe Celestia had a long term plan involving sending her sister away for a while. Or maybe Luna threatening all life on the planet was bad enough for Celestia to seal her away instead of saving her, thus it ended up breaking the harmony between the two and caused the elements to go inert. Maybe it was that last thing, but Celestia thought sealing her own sister away was the only option and then she took on Luna’s job of ferrying the moon around their world. Either way the elements of harmony were still inert, but Twilight found the stones reacted to her somewhat and was a little pensive to try using them for anything. She did prefer the last idea as it lent to the credence of Celestia secretly being a dejected pony with hidden depths, Twilight always thought she looked a little sad while raising the sun during the summer sun celebrations held in Canterlot. As to her recollection the next one was in Manehatten. Celestia wasn’t a bad pony, but she was one Twilight wouldn’t trust with everything as she can make bad decisions. Celestia made decisions that affected a lot of ponies and she was good at making them in general, but to Twilight she seemed a bit emotionally distant to any pony around her. Celestia was even like this to her own student Sunset; said student really needed some closeness and emotional connections. Thinking of every pony around Luna back then, Twilight wondered how Luna felt to have no friends or subjects that looked up to her. If there were ponies that did look up to her they certainly weren’t very vocal about how Celestia sealed Luna away or weren’t able to garner enough of Luna’s notice to stop her from going off the deep end. Luna really had to have been lonely, not to mention incredibly jealous of Celestia despite having an equally important job that was a lot of responsibility. The reason Twilight was reading this comic book was to get into the mindset of the villains, why they became what they are and whether they were being petty or not in their reasoning. She was also taking note of the general things super villains did, like the monologue thing for instance. Twilight could just imagine Luna coming back from a thousand year trip to the moon. The first thing Luna would want to do is talk to ponies about her sister and go on a long rant about being sealed away. Celestia really didn’t help her sister when it came to finding ponies that enjoyed her nights and Luna was either unable or incapable of reaching out to ponies in general other than her sister whom of which she was coming to despise. So of course Luna went insane, as it was bound to happen from the way things were being played out. Getting away from thinking of things that were in the past, Twilight continued to read the comic with more interest than she was previously giving it. The Power Ponies were of course still three males and three female team members, with their one slightly more than capable sidekick. The villain wasn’t as interesting as Tress is, this one didn’t have a cryptic hidden back story to them. “Hey mom, lunch is coming up soon so do you want me to… are you reading the latest issue of Power Ponies?” Barb had little sparkles in her eyes when Twilight nodded to her. “Can we read it together from the beginning?” “Of course we can.” Twilight lifted up her hoof and patted the spot next to her on the couch and Barb crawled up and snuggled under her leg and looked at the cover of the comic. It was things like this that made Twilight feel like a good mother. Smart flew in and saw the scene and immediately flew off with a smile, she was leaving them to have their time together and they looked too cute together for the enchanted toy to disturb. Barb snuggled into the warmth of her mother’s coat and tried to remember the smell and the feel, her mother wouldn’t be young forever and neither would she. She was old enough to learn to enjoy the simple things in life, like reading a comic book with her mom. Twilight would only turn the page when Barb was ready for her to turn it and she stayed completely attentive of her charge. Barb ate up the attention like a little sponge, as she was safely lying underneath her mother. When Barb asked a question, her mom would go into great detail about why every character acted like they did. Their discussions went on for minutes before they could continue, they even went into a discussion about the art style of the comic book once or twice. It was so interesting to her to hear that each character had their motives and the things they did were what they thought was the best thing to do. The Power Ponies weren’t exactly the greatest battle strategists and they always rushed headlong into the fight except for Humdrum who had been shaping up to be a good hero despite his lack of powers. Barb thought Humdrums common sense more than made up for his lacking in confrontations with super powered villains and he was her favorite character since he was different like her. Her other favorite had to be Radiance who actively tried to reign in the other Power Ponies when they rushed into things, apparently her mother’s influence had yet to cease changing the comics. Radiance wasn’t the leader of the Power Ponies, but she tried to be the voice of reason in the group with Humdrum’s help. “The end… well wasn’t that a good one?” Twilight nuzzled her daughters head before planting a kiss on it. Barb yawned and curled into her mother’s nuzzling kiss. “I love you mom.” Barb snuggles further into her mother and started to slowly nod off. “I know you do my little sparkle.” Twilight had tears in her eyes as she held Barb close to her, being a mother and being responsible were some of the hardest things in life to do. The rewards however were worth every minute of watching her child grow. Hopefully Barb would grow into something more beautiful and that her magic didn't do any permanent damage to her daughter. “Well that’s a nice sight to come home to after watching one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life. You and Barb are one of the most heartwarming things I’ve ever seen.” Tress stayed quiet as she watched Twilight cuddle her daughter that was curled up in her hooves fast asleep. She gave a cheeky grin at the thought of what had happened during her martial arts class. “How did things go Tress, did you get any bruises and are you okay?” Twilight stayed quiet not wanting to wake Barb up after she started her nap in Twilight's hooves. “Not many, you should have been there. Fluttershy showed up everyone at the training dojo and what she did to poor Rainbow was hilarious.” Tress couldn’t help the dark chuckle that came to her lips. “I may have a few bruises here and there but Rainbow will never be able to live down the teasing, much less anyone who’s ever faced Fluttershy in a match. I and Applejack got Rainbow good, but Fluttershy was the one that really finished her off.” “Well Fluttershy can throw around bears above two hundred pounds without hurting them.” It wasn’t that odd to Twilight, Fluttershy had an interesting mastery of floating like a butterfly and stinging worse than bee’s. Fluttershy was more butterfly than bee and it would make sense that her fighting style was most likely a soft one and didn’t hurt any pony. “So how bad was the blush this time?” “Fluttershy was so embarrassed that half her body turned red at the attention she garnered for her skills, she’s definitely the same walking cuddle factory we know and love. Now if only she was willing to go to competitions, we both know she’s not that kind of mare though.” Even Tress knew that Fluttershy would never do something she didn’t like unless she was coerced into it. Fluttershy giving Rainbow a friendly helpful rub down while beating her up was still funny to Tress even now. She went to go fix an early dinner for Twilight and herself, dragons were heavy sleepers and Barb probably wouldn’t wake up until tomorrow.