New Life in Equestria

by jkreader

Chapter 9 - Comfort in the Night (Rewritten)

“The Crystal Empire?” I asked, feeling my excitement build up. I had only seen a dream version of the Crystal Empire, and that was last Hearth’s Warming when mine and Uncle Shining’s dreams were bridged together.

“That’s right!” Twilight replied. I started bouncing in circles and yelling “Yes!” over and over again, excited to see Uncle Shining and Aunt Cadance again.

“What’s the Crystal Empire?” Joshua asked.

“It’s one of the most beautiful places in Equestria,” Twilight explained, “It’s many miles up north, and it’s where my brother Shining Armor and my sister-in-law Princess Cadance live.”

“What’s the letter about?” he asked again.

“Well, Celestia told her and Shining about you living with me, and they’d like a chance to get to know you. We’ll take the first train out of Ponyville to the Empire tomorrow morning, so we’ll need to go to bed early tonight.”

“You have trains here?” Joshua asked starting to sound excited.

“Yes,” Twilight replied, “Did you have trains back where you came from?”

“Uh-huh!” Joshua said nodding, “I really like trains!”

“That’s nice,” Twilight replied. She then turned to Spike. “Spike, could you help me start dinner?”

“Sure, Twilight,” Spike said stepping into the kitchen with her. I walked up to Joshua.

“So,” I said to him, “Are you excited?”

“Yeah!” he said nodding again. He then turned to face me. “What are Shining Armor and Princess Cadance like?”

“Shining Armor was the captain of the royal guard in Canterlot before he married Princess Cadance,” I explained, “When he and I first met, he was a bit apprehensive and mistrusting of me because of what happened, but he learned to see past all that and accept me as his niece. Cadance was Twilight’s old foal sitter when she was a filly. She’s a really sweet, kind, and caring pony. I really think you’ll like them.”

“They do sound nice,” Joshua said. Just then, his eyes widened a little, “Excuse me, please.” He then ran upstairs, probably to use the bathroom. While he was up there, I walked into the kitchen to see what we were having for dinner. When I entered and sat down at the table, I could smell my favorite: celery soup. I could also see some daffodil sandwiches being made. A little while later, Joshua walked into the kitchen.

“What’s for dinner?” he asked sitting down at the table.

“My favorites,” I replied, “Celery soup and daffodil sandwiches.”

“You don’t have to eat the daffodil sandwiches if you don’t want to, Josh,” Twilight said, “I know humans can’t eat everything we ponies can.”

“I’ll give it a try,” Joshua said. After everyone sat down, we started eating. Joshua found the sandwiches and soup delicious. We were all surprised. For the past couple dinners we’ve had him here at the library, we’ve been eating what we knew humans normally eat in vegetarian terms. After dinner, we all got out some suitcases and packed a few things for the trip tomorrow. We weren’t going to be staying in the Empire for too long, just overnight. We then brushed our teeth and got into bed.

In the middle of the night, I woke up to the sound of quiet whimpering. I looked next to me and saw Joshua shaking and making the whimpering. It looked as if he was having a nightmare. I gently shook him to wake him up.

“Joshua,” I whispered in his ear. He didn’t respond, so I tried again. “Joshua, wake up. You’re dreaming.”

Joshua suddenly yelped, shot up, opened his eyes, and started breathing heavily.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

Joshua shook his head and started crying. I brought up one of my fore hooves around his back and pulled him closer to me. He then wrapped his arms around me and sobbed into my shoulder. I then brought my other hoof around him and started rubbing his back.

“What happened?” I asked him.

“I-I-It was awful,” he said, “What happened back on my home after I went through the thing that brought me here, it happened to Ponyville! And it took you all away!” He started crying harder.

“Shhhhh,” I said trying to calm him down, “It was just a bad dream, Joshua. That’s all it was.”

“What happened?” We turned and saw Twilight awake with a sleepy look in her eyes.

“Joshua had a bad dream,” I told her.

“Come up on my bed for a minute, Joshua,” Twilight said. Joshua still had tears falling out of his eyes as he left our bed and walked over to Twilight’s. She then lit up her horn and brought Joshua up onto her bed. She quickly embraced him in her hooves and wings as Joshua hugged her neck still crying. Joshua then retold his dream to Twilight.

“It’s okay Joshua,” she said rubbing his back, “It was all just a bad dream. I promise nothing bad like that will happen again.” She then started nuzzling Joshua’s cheek. Joshua seemed to calm down a bit a little while later, but was still sniffling. By that time, I had also hopped up onto Twilight’s bed and placed a forehoof on Joshua’s back to rub it. Eventually Joshua had calmed down completely.

“Feel better?” Twilight asked keeping him held in her hooves and wings. Joshua pulled back a bit and nodded his head.

“Thank you,” he said, “Mommy used to do that for me whenever I had a bad dream.”

“It was no trouble at all Joshua,” Twilight replied, “I was happy to help. Do you want to sleep with me tonight?”

“Yes please,” he said, “Can Nyx sleep with us too, please?”

“Sure,” she said. I carefully walked over as Twilight placed Joshua to her left keeping one wing on him. I then lay down on Joshua’s left as Twilight used her magic to pull the covers over us.

“Sweet dreams Joshua,” Twilight said nuzzling his cheek once more.

“Good night Twilight,” Joshua said drifting off. He then turned to me and said, “Good night Nyx.”

“Sweet dreams, little brother,” I said to him placing a hoof over him. Soon all three of us fell asleep.