Princess Luna was seated at her desk. She had multiple files open and was taking note about ponies she thought would fit a future project. She was interrupted by one of her thestral guard announcing the arrival of the pony she summoned to have to some feedback.
A white pegasus entered the room, he had a blue mane and thing a bit unusual, the tip of his feather were also blue. He wore the purple armor of the night shift.
“Good evening, Major Silent Knight.” greeted the Princess.
The stallion bowed “Good evening, your highness.”
Luna let the stallion seat in the offered cushion before speaking “You are the officer in charge of the night shift, right?”
“Not for long, as you probably know.” The stallion pointed at the file encased in the alicorn aura “And I am pretty sure a thestral will took my place, considering the boost in their desire to serve in something else that dark ops. With your return.”
Princess Luna laid down the file in front of her “Yes. Sorry if they are a bother. They stayed quite protective toward myself, despite all these years.”
The stallion chuckled “They are a bit zealous, but they respect the hierarchy.”
Luna tapped the file “So you are in line to be the new Captain of the Royal Guard. You are recommended by Shining Armor himself, I see.”
“Yes” replied the stallion.
“Excuse us to be so blunt, but usually the Captain is a powerful unicorn” Luna flipped a page of another file “trained to power the shields of the city.”
The stallion brought a hoof to his chin “You must have an outdated document. Captain Shining Armor and his sister managed to tweak the spell so multiple unicorns could be used. It’s actually a better security approach. Relying only on one pony was a big weakness.”
Luna paused, eying the date on her folder “It seem that you are correct. Still it must not be easy to take the place of a stallion that receive high praise from all his superior during his career.”
The stallion straightened his posture on his seat “If the Captain said I fitted for the position, I am fitted. I trust his judgment. But I don’t think you have summoned to talk about this.”
“Yes, indeed. Don’t feel like you are a bad choice, but I had a hard time having a meeting with Captain Shining Armor. He is probably avoiding me. Also, my first choice was Commander Wings. But my first impression of him let me think his zeal toward me will be a hindering for an objective discussion.”
“I listen.”
“Good, good. A long time ago, after the defeat of King Sombra. I realize that we… Equestria always relies on improvisation when facing against powerful foes. You could say it started with the Windigos then it was Discord. But King Sombra had put a toll on my sister and I moral. A whole civilization disappears because we were not really prepared.” The luna princess paused to look the reaction of the stallion, but he remained impassible.
“I suggested at this time to try to form a specialized squad to train and come with ideas to deal with this kind of threat. My sister was not thrilled with the idea and for a good reason. Equestria was not that peaceful and there was more concrete use of bits than the unknow possibility of a powerful foe attacking us.”
“You want to bring back this idea to life?” asked the stallion to the surprise of Luna.
“Yes. My personal funds are quite high according to my nephew. But We-I am curious you seem not that surprised?”
“Captain Shining Armor had a similar idea after you…” he trailed trying to avoid the gaze of the alicorn.
“Nightmare Moon got back.” finished Luna for him.
“Yes sorry.” Silent cleared his throat “He did not like the idea his sister was put in danger with no support. He had a very heated argument with your sister when he learned that his own sister has to stay in Ponyville. I think the Discord accident put a final stretch with his relation with Princess Celestia. So he wanted to train guards to deal with things like King Sombra, but she never gave the authorization for it.”
The eyes of Luna open wide before she regained her composure “That could explain his unease in my presence. Wait did you said about Twilight Sparkle and Ponyville?”
Two fillies and a mare were seated around a coffee table. On a nearby bench lay a young purple drake, a comic book in his claws. Everypony was focused in their tasks in their own way. The mare was surrounded by books on equine anatomy and drawing. The younger of the two fillies was biting her lower lips while levitating a colored pencil. The pink gray coated filly had her eyes crossed following the pen she was holding in her mouth while letting a small trail of red with the other crayon she held in her left hoof.
There was a fifth participant, but she was serving as a model for one of the fillies. It was not a hard as it consisted staying still on top of a book pile, something easy for Woona.
“You forget her wings!” said Dinky, looking at Morning’s drawing.
Morning blushed but blurted “I haven’t finished!” she peered at Dinky’s drawing, it was a big brown circle with small black squares and rectangles on it, the filly was working on various round shape “Is that a giant muffin?” asked Morning.
“It’s a muffin house!” beamed the other filly.
“A muffin house?” questioned Morning.
“Yes. There is the door.” Dinky pointed at the lower rectangle with a small circle representing a door handle. “And here a window”, pointing at one of the black crossed squares.
Twilight watched with a small smile on her face Dinky going through the intricate detail of muffin house architecture, which mainly consisted on what batter to use for each part or if black chocolate chips were harder than regular chocolate. Dinky was also talking how she planned to draw the ponies she liked on it which included Morning and Twilight.
It was a nice distraction to watch the two fillies interact with each other. Drawing was not something easy for Twilight. For her magic show, Lyra and she had agreed to tell the story of the rescue of Princess Luna using something similar Trixie had used to tell her fake story of the Ursa Major defeat. It ended the base spell was not really hard to learn, especially for somepony so astute with magic like Twilight, but it rely a lot on the caster imagination. So Lyra had proposed for the purple unicorn to try to draw what she would represent with her magic.
But it was hard, first it felt weird for Twilight to draw herself and her friends. Nightmare Moon was also a challenge and for somepony more used to draw graphic or magic formula, trying to draw semi-onirique pony was a struggle. At least it looked like ponies concluded Twilight.
“Is that Rainbow Dash?” asked Dinky, interrupting the mare’s thought. The filly looked at the blue pegasus with a rainbow mane having her muzzle glued to a lavender unicorn “Is she kissing you?”
Blood rushed at the tip of Twilight’s ears. “No, No, No, she.. “ but no explanation came quick enough to her mind before Morning started singing.
“Rainbow Dash and Mommy under a tree, kissing!”, soon enough she was joined by Dinky while Spike was laughing behind his comic book.
Twilight managed to get out her embarrassment and sighed “You spend too much time with Cadance, I swear” that earned a giggle from a Morning and a puzzling expression for Dinky.
“Who is Cad-”
Dinky was interrupted by a loud sound of shattering glass coming from one of the library window, followed by a crash in the floor. Without giving a glance from his comic book Spike turned one page “Well, it’s your friend Rainbow Crash.”
Twilight and the filly rushed at the source of the sound and felt on the sight of a pegasus, but not a rainbow maned one.
“Mommy!” shouted Dinky.
The pegasus rise on her hooves and shook her head to remove eventual shard glass stuck in her mane. She put a smile on her face while her eyes tried to focus on the ponies looking at her “Hey, muffin.”
“Are you alright, Ditzy?” asked Twilight while levitating the shards scattered on the floor into a nearly bin.
The gray pegasus did not reply but followed with one eye her filly while the other eye remains focused on Twilight.
Meanwhile, Dinky probed with a hoof her mother’s right front leg “Right hoof!” she shouted.
“Fine” replied Ditzy with a small giggle.
Dinky scolded her mother “It’s serious, Mommy!” then proceed to do the same with the next leg.
Twilight looked in puzzlement the small routine of Dinky probing various spot on her mother, while the pegasus was smiling and saying fine when asked.
Morning watched the same thing, but her curiosity was stronger than her mother, she asked Dinky “What are you doing?”
“Mommy is clumsy, she fell or crash a lot! So the doctor tells us to check if something hurt before going to see him.”
Ditzy blushed before grabbing Dinky with one foreleg and ruffling her mane with the other “Thank you, muffin.”
Twilight smiled at the display but she was not expecting Ditzy at all. It was Wednesday at the beginning of the afternoon, Cheerilee had a family obligation so the fillies didn’t have school. Twilight was supposed to watch Dinky while her mother was working “Why are you here? Something wrong?”
Ditzy released her filly “Nothing! I took the afternoon because this weekend will be a rainy and I though. Why spend all day cooped inside when we can go to the lake!”
Dinky beamed “The lake!”
Morning following Dinky enthusiasm beamed too “The lake!”
Twilight was quick to reply “No, I mean it’s a nice idea but I have a lot of studies to catch up this afternoon and the fillies haven’t done their homework yet.”
Ditzy tried to focus both of her eyes on the lavender mare. Dinky made a sad face and looked at Twilight with her big, glossy eyes. Morning recognized the familiar expression followed suit and put her own puppy eyes impression.
The three of them said at the same time “Please?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow looking at Ditzy, but the pegasus started pouting like the fillies and pull out a muffin from her mane “I made muffins?”
Twilight looked at the obviously fake teary eyes of the two fillies, she sighed and smiled “Fine, fine. Lake it is.”
The sad expression on the two fillies and the pegasus disappeared as quickly as a filly could eat a candy and was replaced by a cry of joy “Yay!”
Twilight pointed the table they were previously seated “But let me help clean up first.”
Dinky, Morning and Ditzy followed suit. Dinky showed her drawing to her mother that looked with a smile while Morning was trying to finish in haste her portrait of Woona.
“Ha, a muffin house. What batter did you use for the roof?” asked Ditzy and it was the start of another discussion on the merit of muffin architecture. It left mainly Twilight to sort out the currently unused pencils and paper and put them in the nearby drawer for later use.
Ditzy then gave a look at the other mare drawing and grinned “Somepony eager for her date.”
Twilight tried to hide her small blush “Hu, I was… practicing…,” she heard a snort from Spike “drawing, drawing. that it!”
Luckily for the unicorn, her filly nudged Ditzy to get her attention “Look, it’s Woona!”
Ditzy ruffled the mane of Morning “Oh, she look beautiful, sweetie.”
After a while, Twilight sent the fillies in the kitchen to wash their hooves. There was a knock on the door, Twilight looked at a clock and panicked when she realized they were few pony knocking at a public library door “Ho no, I forget about Lyra.”
The mint unicorn entered the library “Hello there.”
“I am sorry Lyra. I forget about you coming and I just promised to take Morning and Dinky to the lake.”
Lyra noticed the smiling gray pegasus near Twilight, she giggled “I see. Did she bribe you with muffins and puppy eyes?”
Ditzy was the one to reply “Yep. Guilty as charged!”
Twilight sighed “Now, we will have to reschedule our lesson. I am really sorry.”
The other unicorn shrugged “Well, now I have nothing to do this afternoon. I can come with you at the lake. I can make you practice a bit like that.”
---
An hour later, Spike was enjoying the now silent library. For once he was not worried about Twilight being in danger or not coming back. He had smiled when he watched the mare that partially raise him departed to spend some well deserved time with her filly and friends.
He was seated at the small counter near the entrance of the library that was used as reception. He traded his comic book for a book about the history of pastry, something he planned to interest Pinkie in.
So far he only got two visits: one from Carrot Top borrowing a book about taxes and the Rich family butler returning a history book. Despite being mainly Twilight’s assistant Spike was acting as the secondary librarian, or primary librarian according to lot of patrons. Most of them were kind enough to not bother the mare when she was busy at her desk and went for the lot less busy drake.
But that did not bother him, Spike liked to help ponies. And he was not the most illiterate pony or drake. Hell, the Ponyville library was so much smaller than the old Twilight’s room and since Morning was here, Twilight was making a point at doing more chore herself. Probably to set a good example for Morning.
“Twilight! Twilight!” Spike almost fell off his chair when a pink blur entered the library. But the blur caught him before the chair lost totally its balance. “Sorry, Spike!”
“Hey, Pinkie Pie. Thank” replied Spike “What do-”
“No time to explain. Is Twilight here? Miss Cake is at the hospital delivering her own little Cakes! I already gathered Fluttershy, Rarity and Dashie!”
“No, she is at the lake with Ditzy and Lyra.”
Pinkie grabbed the drake and threw it on her back “Too bad! Let’s go!”
Spike could have complained, but he knew that when the mare had an idea on mind it was hard to stop her, so he went along. Grabbing the mare mane while she galloped at full speed in the direction of Ponyville hospital.
“You sure love to ride mares” giggled Pinkie when the drake hop off her back in front of the group of friends and Mr Cake that were gathered in a waiting room.
“Way to go.” shouted a laughing Rainbow Dash.
Spike looked at them eyes wide open before blushing.
“Poor dear;” said Fluttershy while hiding her giggling behind a hoof.
“Twilight is not here, Spike?” asked Rarity unphased by Pinkie and Rainbow Dash antics.
Spike regained his composure “She is at the lake with Morning and Dinky.”
After one hour of waiting where Rarity was turning the page of a magazine about fashion. Rainbow Dash taking a nap or watching the poor Mr. Cake pacing around the room. Pinkie had enough of humming to herself seated near Spike.
“You are not sad to not be at the lake with Twilight?”
Spike that had picked up an old magazine on gardening just shrugged “Why should I?”
“Isn’t she like your mother too? And she even let you at Ponyville for her birthday!”
Spike scratched the large spike on his head “I am just her assistant. I mean, I never thought about it” he brought a claw under his chin “Princess Celestia is my mother. She was the one in charge on me before she place me on the care of Twilight.”
That raised the curiosity of Rainbow Dash “Hu, how is that to be raised by a Princess?”
Spike replied, “I mostly remember my nanny. The Princess is a very busy pony.” He paused “I should pay her a visit one day.”
“Princess Celestia?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Spike sighed “No, my nanny.” then he muttered in a lower voice “Wonder what Twilight see in you.”
Pinkie Pie giggled at hearing the last remark on the drake.
---
Twilight and Lyra were laying on a blanket near what was called the “lake” Twilight had expected a long trek to reach the mountain where lay the dam that provided the electricity of Ponyville and Canterlot. But it was totally in another direction, with only twenty minutes or so of walking -It was hard to tell when you have two energetic fillies going around you, or stopping to watch something that caught their attention- they arrived at the lake even if it was more a pond.
“What your poison?” asked Lyra.
“Poison?” Twilight peeked her head off her book.
Lyra pointed at said book.
She showed the spine to the other unicorn.
“The Sparkle Household? I never knew you were from a noble family.”
“What? No.” Twilight sighed “It’s a gift from Prince Blueblood for my birthday. He managed to gather a lot of information about our bloodline and ponies in the family with the purple star as main part of their cutie mark.”
Lyra looked at the flank of the mare “Oh yeah, your brother has the same. Is that something all your family has?”
“No, our father does not have it, neither his mother. According to her it the mark of a pony specially gifted with his special talent.”
Lyra pondered the other mare words when a realization hit her “Wait you said Prince Blueblood? As the second most eligible bachelor of Equestria? And he offers you a gift! Lucky mare.”
“What? He is just Cadance’s family” Twilight turned a page of her book and asked “Who is the first bachelor?”
The mint mare poked Twilight “Duh. Your brother of course!”
“You realize he is with Cadance for almost ten years?”
Lyra looked at the sky, waving a hoof “I still dream of him rejecting Cadance at the wedding ceremony, declaring his undeniable love for me. And after a nice ride to the sunset he will take me passionately all night long.”
Twilight sighed “I thought you were only into mares, and you have Bonbon.”
“Everypony is straight for Shining Armor!” laughed Lyra.
Twilight was confused for a moment before emitting a small giggle.
When Lyra laugh died down she pointed at the two fillies and mare in the pond having what was the time of their life. Ditzy was used as an improvised diving board as she picked one filly on her back and hovered a bit above the water, hen the filly jumped in the water.
“So, your sister is going to have the purple star too? She is super good with her magic for her age.”
Lyra though she saw Twilight flinch, but the mare asked “And you, what is your ‘poison’?”
“Oh, it’s a magazine on-” the mint unicorn was cut by a wet pink filly rushing in their direction.
“Mo-Twilight! Come play now!”
Twilight closed her book and put a smile on her face “Yes, yes, I am coming.”
Lyra looked at Twilight being dragged by Morning and hide a giggle with her magazine. She was always impressed how fillies and colts were able to coerce their relative into doing something when they really want to.
She watched at the inevitable action when a new participant join in an activity involving water: The lavender unicorn being attacked by said liquid from Dinky and Ditzy as she reached the border of the pond. Soon enough the semi drenched mare entered the water and started forming small bubbles of water with her magic to splash the others.
For Lyra, it was a side of the mare she never saw before. Even after or before their intimate moments she never saw the mare happy, smiling or playing without a care like that. Their rapports were albeit enjoyable, rather mechanical.
She got back at her reading. It was a special edition of a well know magazine that talk in simplified term of the last progress in research. Lyra was interested because there was some progress about something called DNA. It could hold the secret of the equine nature.
As she progressed through the article Lyra enthusiasm deflated, for now the main practical use was to found stuff like which sex your baby is. For the occasion, the magazine did a big series of article about pregnancy. It was still something interesting for Lyra, since Bonbon had expressed the possibility to have a foal to strengthen their bond.
She flipped the pages, most of the first articles were a remember of their sex ed class, with added technique to improve the chance to get pregnant. She smiled when she reached the article about all the symptoms mares had to go through during the pregnancy. But something caught the eyes of Lyra when reading the article about the different delivery technique. She recognized a familiar sight.
“It can’t be” she muttered while looking at Twilight and Morning Star.
Making up her mind, Lyra rises up and moved to the border of the pond “Hey, Twilight. I was thinking, maybe we can go buy some Ice cream.”
That particularly caught the attention of the fillies “Oh yeah. Ice cream!”
Twilight get out the pond and shook herself “Well. sure”, she looked at Morning “Be careful while I am gone. Ok?”
“Ok!” replied cheerfully the filly.
Morning watched her mommy drying herself with a towel and walking with Lyra toward Ponyville. She got back at playing ball with Dinky on the area of the pond where they had hooves. Ditzy had switched to just hover above them to keep her eyes on the two fillies.
“You swim pretty good.” said Dinky to Morning “I though you never went to a lake.”
“I went to the sea already with Cadance and ... Shiny.” she paused to open her foreleg very wide “It’s like huge!”
Dinky ears flattened on her head “I never went to the sea.”
Morning said after catching the ball in her magic “Maybe I can ask them to bring you next time.” She threw the ball at Dinky again but the other filly throw it too far away and Morning galloped in the direction of the ball without looking where she was going.
She did not see a small rock that was in front of her left forehoof. The filly tripped on it and fell head first on the grass. Dinky rushed to her friend to see if she was alright, but Morning was holding her forehead with one hoof while crying.
Ditzy came to see what was the issue but Dinky shouted to her “Get the first aid kit, Mommy!” the mare saluted and flew toward the blankets with their belonging nearby.
Dinky put a foreleg on the shoulder of the other filly and said with a soft voice “Let me see.”
Slowly Morning removed her hoof, letting show a small cut just under her horn.
Dinky looked in her eyes “It’s very small! It’s gonna be alright.”
The tear of Morning stopped. She brought a hoof to her eyes and she sniffed “You promise?”
Dinky kept smiling and nodded vigorously “I promise!” she noticed her mother flying over her with the first aid kit in her mouth. “Thank” with the help of one hoof she opened the box and grabbed the antiseptic gel with her mouth.
“It’s gonna hurt a little, but it’s ok?” she asked Morning. She received a quiet nod for reply then grabbed the bottle of gel with her right hoof and apply a bit of the gel on the small cut.
Dinky saw the other filly winced, but she was happy seeing Morning held her tears. “Nearly done!” she said while putting back the bottle and grabbed in its stead the band-aids box. She pulled one from the box and put it carefully across the cut.
“And done!” she beamed after making sure the adhesive parts were holding correctly.
“Thank you” replied shyly the pink filly.
Meanwhile Ditzy was watching the whole scene with a smile on her face, but the smile quickly changed in a gasp of surprise when the flank of her sweet filly flashed.
***
Lyra was walking in silence near Twilight. She wanted to talk to the mare alone without risking somepony hearing or interrupting. Her plan was simple with the pretext of ice cream, but now she had no idea how to confirm her suspicion. It was especially hard looking at the serene smile on her face.
Still she tried something “I don’t remember, why did you miss nearly two years of school?”
One of Twilight’s ears twitched “I… there was something with my family.”
Lyra shut herself, there had been a lot of theory about the top student absence. It varied from the filly giving up or more absurd stuff like the filly turning evil and was imprisoned or banished to the sun. But one theory worked too well now in her mind.
Lyra put a fake smile on her face “It’s…” she paused to look at a tree for inspiration but just simply asked “Morning Star is your daughter?”
Twilight eyes opened wide. She did not answer immediately. She lowered her head and sighed “Yes.”
Lyra froze. It was one thing to have a suspicion about something, but to have it confirmed like that. She stopped trotting, thousands of questions went through her mind. “So your scar under your belly…”
“Yes, It’s a scar from a c-section. I was too young to give birth normally.” Twilight ears fell down on the back of his head, she brought a hoof to her chest “Can you… please, not tell other ponies, please?”
Lyra replied “Hu, of course. I mean…Does she know? Not that it’s-”
A frown make her way on Twilight face “Of course she knows! What kind of mare disown her own daughter?!”
Lyra took a step back at Twilight outburst “Sorry, sorry.”
The other mare sighed again “It’s… sorry. It’s… “
Both mares felt in silence and simply resumed walking. Lyra absorbed this new information about a mare she admired for her mind. It explained a bit of the mare attitude. Before her break the filly had little interaction with the other student but was not really dismissive. After, it was clear she avoided other ponies.
“You… could not trust ponies? I imagine that will not give a good image for the Princess if her protege was pregnant. That’s why you were not making friends?”
Twilight looked at the floor “I...yes. I feel stupid” she raised her head to look at Lyra “I always thought getting close to a pony mean I will have to tell about Morning… but even know I have a cover story. It’s still not easy.”
---
It was Thursday afternoon at recess. Dinky had told to the class the story on how she get her cutie mark the morning. Most of the foals cheered for her and Cheerilee was also proud of her. Dinky was happy about the stethoscope on her flank and had a renewed vigor for school. Her mommy told her that if she wanted to be a doctor she would have to study a lot and with Morning helping her with the thing she had trouble with, it was not that bad.
She was seated on a bench playing checkers against Morning. Morning still had the proof of her cutie mark story on her forehead, in the form of a new band-air and of course she was at three wins in a row.
“No hooves,” said Morning to her, a small frown on her face while pointing at the left hoof of Dinky.
Dinky removed her hoof from the piece she had reached on the board “Sorry” The hardest thing with magic was to think to use it instead of your hooves or mouth. Checker was a great exercise for Dinky because it was not a difficult task to just push the pawn with the help of her telekinesis, comparing to lifting something.
Their game was interrupted by Cheerilee “Alright, recess is over.” she said cheerfully while clapping her hooves.
All the fillies and colts complied and get back in the classroom. In the class was waiting Granny Smith. Dinky loved the family appreciation days, she liked to learn about what ponies do for a living, it was like a whole world to discover.
Like all the foals, she was hooked to Granny Smith story about the foundation of Ponyville. Dinky turned her head toward Morning to see how the filly was listening, but she could see that the filly was lost thinking about something, a small frown on face.
Granny Smith finished her story and Cheerilee asked if somepony had a question. Dinky could see that Morning has indeed a question with her hoof raised.
“Yes, Morning?” inquired Cheerilee.
The filly lowered her hoof and pointed it at Granny Smith “Mommy Velvet said the Princess didn't give you the land, you took it from the ponies who built it."
.