//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - Twilight Velvet // Story: Night Shine // by SparkStone //------------------------------// Twilight Velvet was cooking up breakfast for her children. As time passed, she recalls of the time Night Shine had started walking on his hind legs, claiming it is more comfortable than his all fours. Though she wouldn't have believed him, she decided to let her son learn on his own about defying the body of a pony. Her husband and her eldest son have already found out the hard way about standing on hind legs too long. They haven't walked with them in weeks because of it. Twilight Velvet places the pancakes on the plates, and brings them to the table. With everything set, she calls her family down to eat. "Breakfast is ready every pony!" She alerted them. They come down with excitement, because of the smell that was in the air. Shining knew all his life that his mother's pancakes were something not worth missing. His sister Twilight Sparkle knew all the same. But they were never able to beat the father there, because. Poof! And there Night Light was. Standing by his wife. "Pancakes!" He yelped like a colt. "No fair dad! You teleported!" Shining whined. "Yeah! No fair dad!" Twilight Sparkle agreed. "You two have horns." he countered. "Someday, you can do it, and maybe then you can beat your old man." As the family sat down for breakfast, they got to devouring it before Twilight Velvet could even levitate her fork. She looks around and sees Twilight attempting her levitation on Night Shine's pancakes. She was very close to stealing some away from his plate, but her mother knew better. "And what do you think you're doing young lady?" the mother questioned. "Uh... Trying to help lighten the load?" she grinned innocently. One quick look made Twilight do what was right. She levitated the pancake back to Night Shine's plate. Even though her actions were wrong, her father congratulated her. "Good job Twilight! You're getting your levitation down!" Night Light commended her. "I know, right?!" She replied. "I'm hoping to learn more spells like you and Mom!" "That's great Twilight!" Shining Armor added. "Um... Have any of you seen Night Shine?" Twilight Velvet asked. They all exchanged looks and simply shrugged. Before the mother could call him, they see him coming down the stairs. This time, on all fours. "Sorry I'm late." He apologized. "I haven't been feeling good." "Well, that's what happens if you walk on two legs like some minotaur." Twilight Velvet lectured him. "It hurts your legs, your posture, your body, and can even do some major damage." "Oh... That must be why... heh, sorry Mom." He apologized once more before sniffing the air. "Are those pancakes?" "Yep! Come on Nightly! Sit next to me!" Twilight told him. "Okay then...!" Night Shine took his time to get up on the chair. As he lifted his fork, he coughed a bit. "Uh... Night, you alright?" Shining asked. "I... Uh..." "You look a bit pale son." Night Light pointed out. Night Shine looked up for a minute to see his family getting extremely blurry. His head started to feel painful, and his body felt frail. No much later, he started to wobble back and forth. His family stared at him before he fell on his pancakes head first. The family gasped and quickly tried to wake him. At the hospital, Night Shine was on the bed. His family was very worried. The doctors were checking him over and over again, with nothing to report at the moment. What was a normal day was now a dreadful moment of silence. The father was holding his wife, comforting her. She was tearing up and was shaking. Scared of what had just happened. Is her son going to be okay? Is there something wrong? Can he be treated. The brother fared no better. He was trying to calm his sister who never stopped asking questions. Only showing the same amount of fear as the rest of them. "What's wrong with Night? Is he sick? Is he tired? Is it because I tried to steal his pancakes? Did he hurt himself? Is he poisoned? Will he be okay?" Shining only patted his sister lightly in hopes to make her feel better. Finally, the doctor came back. He looked to the parents and waved over to them to talk. They quickly get up and go to him. "D-Doctor? Is he alright?" Velvet asked. "I... Don't know what to say really..." He said grimly. "What do you mean by that!? Doc, you can't tell me my son is dying!" Night Light yelled angrily. "It's difficult to say. We can't exactly find out what's wrong with him." "What do you mean!? You're a doctor, are you not!?" He complained. "Who else am I supposed to ask about this then!?" "Let me explain the situation then!" The doctor replied vigorously. After they simmered down, he continues. "We can't find what's wrong with him... because we don't know what he is..." "What do you mean?" "You claim that he is a birth defected earth pony that you adopted." He began. "But after doing a scan, we couldn't find much organs or organ systems that fit similar to a pony. Whatever you adopted, it's not a pony." "What... You're saying my son isn't a pony?" The mother questioned. "Exactly that miss." He responded with sympathy. "Sadly, he's not even any other species we know of. Not even a minotaur, and that's the closest we have in our database." "What should we do then?" Night Light questioned. "It's beyond our medical help at this point. His condition seems to be worse. We're not sure if he's sick or if this is just how his species grow." "Can't you just give him some sort of medicine? Any kind of medicine?" Night Light asked. "We could kill him if we just randomly gave him pills." The doctor quickly rejected. "I'm afraid we're no help to you here. Unless we have some data on his species, it'll be too dangerous to do any curing on him." The nurse came back with Night Shine in her hoof. He was breathing loudly, as if it was hard for him to stay alive. The mother took him in her hoof and cradled him. the tears rolled down from her face as she watches her son slowly dying. Days went on quietly. Night Shine ate as much as he could, which wasn't much. He always got tired in the middle of the meal. There were times when he would give up eating and skip it. No matter what she made, it was simply not enough to break this curse. Twilight would keep talking to her brother until he was entertained enough. When he was sleeping, she lets him sleep. When he wanted to ask how she was, she'd give a story. When he just wanted her around, she stuck around. There were times when Twilight cried seeing her brother not leave his room. Shining took the role as the big brother even harder. He would make everything comfortable for him. His pillow if needed fluffing for his head. His blanket if he needed to be tucked in. A heater if it was too cold. A fanning if it was too hot. He even played some music. However, Night Shine asked he never even poke a violin ever again. Even so, he greatly appreciated all of Shining's efforts. But the grim feeling was that they both felt as if he was just making the coffin comfortable. The dad was doing all the research he can on Night Shine. He described Night and posted the news all over in hopes that some pony will arrive with the knowledge to cure him. But with little skill in the subject, Night Light was simply placing his hope on luck. A week later, some pony came. His gray coat along with his mischievous mustache was enough to alert ponies that he was up to no good. The suitcase however said, he was simply on business. Arriving at the house with a polite knock, the father opens the door with bags under his eyes. "And... who might you be?" He asked. "Ah! Hello! You must be Night Light!" He greeted. "My name is Subtle Sample. I'm here about the news you've been posting. About a creature of unknown species?" "Yes...?" He replied with a bit of excitement. "I may be able to help. May I come inside?" "O-Of course!" He said aloud. "Oh my goodness! I thought it was all over!" He lets Subtle in and calls down his wife with newfound energy. "Honey! Come down! This stallion is here to help us!" "Really!? Hold on!" she screamed from upstairs. She ran through the hallway and looked down to see the visitor. As she went down the stairs, Twilight and Shining peeked from up above, making sure they weren't seen. After she climbed down the last step, she greeted herself to the stranger. "Hello, I'm Twilight Velvet. You said you can help our son?" "Yes, I can." Subtle answered. "That's great news!" Twilight Velvet sighed in happiness. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear this!" "I understand that you two are quite pleased to have some pony assist you in this matter?" "We thought he wasn't going to make it." Night Light stated. "His condition seems to worsen every day that goes by. But you'll be able to help, right?" "Yes, with our skills, we'll solve all of your problems and more." Subtle stated. "You probably won't even need to pay a single bit. All I need is for him to come with me." "Of course!" Night Light agreed. "What facility are we going to?" "The animal researching facility." They stand there not believing what they heard. Is this some sort of insult? Some joke that some kids wanted play on? Night Light wasn't amused. Neither was Twilight Velvet. "Is this some joke to you?" Twilight Velvet questioned. "He's not some sort of pet!" "Please hear me out. I have an explanation in all of this." He claims. "You have five-, no, three minutes to do it before I kick you out right now." Night Light growled. Subtle Sample straightened his throat and puts on a merchant's smile. "Now, as you have informed the public, your son is an unknown species, am I right?" They nodded, not sure where this is going. "This is where my facility comes in. Now, don't take the name of our research as an insult mind you, but we are always willing to do whatever it takes to learn about a species. Place your child under our care, and we will not only get our information about his species, but what is wrong with him and how we can cure him." As reassuring as that may be, it sounded too good to be true. Night Light then asked, "What exactly will you do to our son once brought there?" "We will bring him in, take some samples, scan him." He answered. "Some... experiments, all necessary to learn everything about him." Twilight Velvet heard enough. She stopped him from speaking as she raised her hoof to his mouth. "Stop. We're done here." She declared. "I will not let my son be your lab rat!" Subtle Sample glared at her and looks away. "So be it. But remember. Without our help, you're son is still heading towards a grave without any pony to learn about it." He leaves with a huff and trails off. Night held Twilight close and made sure he was nowhere near the house. But there was something wrong. And what was wrong was that he was right. No one else is willing to do the work, and Night Shine may not have long to live. The mother is worried of what she should do. Take the chance of letting strangers poke needles around him? Or let him suffer through this unknown dilemma? Twilight went upstairs and sees her two kids spying on them. "You kids should go back in your rooms." She recommended. Shining nodded and pulled Twilight a bit to get her to do the same. She however stayed. "Mom! Do you have another pony that's gonna cure Night?" She asked. "H-He's going to be okay, right?" She didn't know what to say. It was painful to hear her daughter ask questions. She easily knew how worried she was. Twilight loved her brothers, and to have one close to death, it was too much to bear. She had to do something. She is the mother after all. Cadence was shopping at the stores, hoping to find something with her hard earned bits. That's saying something seeing how she was working hard on foal sitting. As she trotted through the district, she noticed a poster on the window of a store. She read it and saw a familiar face. Reading it made her eyes shrink, and quickly got her to stop what she was doing and head back to the castle. The day was beyond bland. The day was silent. The day was tiring. The family is lost, knowing that one of their own is suffering. Hanging on life and death. Hopefully, it's a fluke. A normal thing of whatever species he was. But knowing how much suffering there was, it only made them scared. Twilight Velvet was thinking about what to do. All she wanted to do was embrace her son. But for now, she must try to think of a way to make him feel better. Then, something else happened. A knock on the door alerts the household. The mother opens the door to reveal the most surprising guest in all of Equestria. Princess Celestia.