//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Family // Story: Light in the Darkest hour: Revamped // by DerpyEngi and Redd //------------------------------// I started waking up from a nap that I didn't remember taking and I felt incredibly woozy, like I was going to faint. 'Ugh, what happened?' I thought to myself as a splitting headache decided to come out of nowhere. 'Gha! Ow ow ow ow! It hurts!” was the only thing I could think of as I let out a pained yelp clutching my head in the process. I squirmed and tried to get it to go away. As the headache dulled and I regained my senses I started looking around and investigating my surroundings. I was in a large stone brick room decorated to the brim with dark blue carpets, curtains and furniture with slightly lighter blue hues and gold trimmings on some of the larger ones like the bed and sofa. I however was laying on a mattress that seemed very out of place, instead of dark blue it was bright pink. This confused me, hadn't I woken up just a few moments earlier in a forest? How did I end up here? And what even is this place? So many questions popped up one after another but before I could think of any more I heard an excited squee coming from right next to me, I jerked up in surprise and directed my attention on where the squee had come from and I found myself face to face with a familiar dark blue coated creature. Then I remembered why I had been asleep, I remembered that I had offered this creature a hug and that it got a little too excited and I blacked out. And now it was in front of me looking three times as excited than before. I tensed up, ready to run if I needed, this thing had knocked me unconscious once, it was not going to happen again and to my relief it ran out of the room shouting something as it went slamming the dark oak door after it. I slumped back down on the mattress and let go of a breath that I didn't know I was holding. -------------- After some time of me laying on the mattress deep in thought, my ears perked up as I heard the door the creature had left open. I took a deep breath and righted myself up readying myself for what was surely to come, but instead of just a hyperactive small creature there were 3 taller creatures and a hyperactive smaller creature, two of them looking at me with keen interest, while the gray one that I had met before was more interested in it's book than me. The first one had a light green coat and a poofy darker green hair with purple eyes and a horn spiraling out of it's head, next to it was even taller white coated one that had a horn that was slightly longer than the other ones. It also had wings, long pink hair and pink eyes as well. The taller white creature cautiously stepped closer until it was right in front of me. It slowly reached out with a foreleg until it was right in front of my face then it booped my nose. I instinctively reeled back slightly, scrunched up my nose a little bit then sneezed, for some reason it made the two creatures laugh. They laughed for a good while before the gray coated creature announced something which drew the attention of the others. They both turned around to face the gray coated creature which revealed another creature sitting on the back of the white one. It was not like the others, this one stood on two legs, had wings on its sides instead of its back, a beak and orange and red feathers covering its body instead of fur. The orange and red creature took notice of me and waved its wing and hopped of the back of the white creature and on to the table that the mattress I was on laid. I reluctantly waved back and gave a meek smile. It smiled and pointed its wing towards me, "Hi there, my name is Philomena! What's yours?" it asked. This came as a surprise to me as I actually understood this creature so I tried to answer, emphasis on tried, the only noise that came out was a squeak. The creature tilted its head and drew back it's wing. "Ok... Squeak, let me introduce you to the others." It smiled and pulled me closer with it's wing. "The one I was sitting on before is Celestia, the mare next to her is Clover the Clever and that gray unicorn over there is Starswirl" it said, pointing at each of them with her wing as it introduced me to each of them. "Oh and let's not forget Luna, she's the filly that found you and well... knocked you out. You really should be more careful around fillies." 'Fillies? Mares? Unicorns? What?' I thought to myself, before Philomena dragged me towards the edge of the table. "Now remember that there are three rules around here.” it said as it lifted its wing with one feather pointing upwards. "Rule number one! You are not allowed to poop or pee in the castle, I learned that the hard way." It lifted another feather. "Second rule, don't break anything." It lifted a third feather. "And the third and final rule, never EVER eat Celestia's cake, trust me she gets angrier than a raging minotaur. Any questions?" I stood there for a moment not sure if I could even reply but as I opened my mouth to try to at least Philomena interrupted me. "Good, I'm sure we will get along nicely." it said as it patted me on the back. Unfortunately that pat on the back was enough to put me off balance and fall of the table, I slammed onto the ground with an audible 'oof', and out came my first word. "Ouch" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Ah! Found it!" Starswirl proclaimed proudly as he set the book he was reading on the coffee table next to him. "It's a Lucis propinquis," he said as he pointed at a picture in said book. "A Luci what now?" Luna asked from behind him. "A Lucis propinquis or a Lightkin, it's a long presumed extinct animal that used to live in the Whitetail Woods." he explained. Celestia walked over to Starswirl and to take a look at the picture he was pointing at and it indeed did look like the creature that currently resided in the room with them. "How come they're extinct?" she asked as she turned her head to face him. "Pretty sure they didn't, I mean we do have living proof standing right there." Clover answered sarcastically while grinning. Celestia rolled her eyes in response and and looked at Starswirl with an expectant look, waiting for an answer. Starswirl looked at clover for a moment contemplating what she just said before answering, "I don't know. The book doesn't really specify, but I do know that this book is 500 years old and if they were extinct long before that means that this Lightkin is a more than five centuries year old relic of time." Luna only stared at Starswirl in aw then looked at the Lightkin with a smile. "And I found it!" she proclaimed bouncing around like if she were made of rubber. "Can we keep it? Please...!" Luna asked excitedly. Celestia looked at the Lightkin then back at Luna, "I don't think that's a good idea since,--" Celestia started but was cut off by Starswirl. "Sure, I think that's a great idea" he said with a smile, "But right now I'm going to try to find out exactly what these things are. This book doesn't go into any specifics so I'm going to try to figure out its diet and etcetera." he explained as he turned around and began heading towards the door. As he walked passed Celestia who was currently imitating a fish, he whispered, "Oh don't be surprised. She wants a pet and she won't stop fighting for one, it's better to just give up while you can." He gave her a small smile and left the room. "Heh, well I'm going to get something to eat, the princess is going to wake up any moment now for our 'magnificent journey to our new land'. You coming Celestia?" Clover asked. Celestia didn't answer for a bit she just opened and closed her mouth attempting to say something, "b-but she's too young" she finally blurted out. Now it was Clover's turn to roll her eyes. "Jeez Celestia, you know that you aren't the only one that's allowed to have pets, right?" She asked sarcastically as she opened the door Starswirl had just left. "So are you coming or not?" she asked, seriously this time. Celestia hung her head in defeat. "Yeah, sure." she looked back at her sister who was now playing with the Lightkin. "I guess..." and with that they both Left the room, leaving Luna behind giggling at the little Lightkin. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Why is it laughing? Does it take pleasure from my pain!?' I thought to myself while rubbing my nose. The little filly had been laughing at me for a while now, I looked up at Philomena for help, as it turns out Philomena was laughing too, I glared at her while she laughed like an Idiot. When she finally managed to calm herself down she jumped down of the to my right as I continued my intense glare. "What's that look for? It's not my fault you have bad footing!" she said, grinning. "Besides, it made Luna laugh. I really don't see the problem here," she said with a shrug. My glare intensified. "Oh c'mon, don't be like that!" Philomena half whined. Glare intensity rising. Philomena sighed, "Fine... I'm sorry, you happy now?" I smiled and turned my attention back to Luna, she seemed to be saying something but I couldn't understand what, I turned back at Philomena with a confused pleading look. "Hide and seek, you know one of you goes and hides while the other one searches," Philomena explained, that only made me more confused "It's a game... She's asking if you want to play,"she added. I nodded slowly, still wary of the dark creature before me and what it must be scheming. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'What am I going to name her? Oh, maybe something cool like Zue or Boo. Wait, no Glory, wait I have it... Fluffy Buns, yes, that's perfect!' Luna mentally patted herself on the back, "Genius!" she told herself. 'Or... maybe I can find an even better name!' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I shuddered at the possible things she could be planning. Luna said something then covered her eyes, I blinked in confusion before Philomena called out to me, "You’re supposed to hide now Squeaks!" She shouted as she flew behind a jar on top of a really high shelf. 'Oh that's cheating,' I complained inwardly as I ran towards the nearest hiding spot. -------------- After a few games of hide and seek I was exhausted, climbing up a bookcase is hard! Also as it turns out, it's really hard to hide when you glow as most of the hiding places in the room relied on darkness. Luna cheered and I sighed, she had won over 20 games in a row even finding Philomena’s cheating spot after she realized Philomena could fly. Currently me and Philomena riding on Luna's back as she giddily pranced down the corridors of the castle going... I actually didn't know where, Philomena hadn't mentioned. I poked Philomena on the shoulder when she turned around to face me I made some body movements to try to ask her where we were going. "Not much of a talker huh?" She asked, I nodded my head. "Can't talk or won't talk? Because I can't understand you right now." she deadpanned. I sat there for a moment thinking, I did speak before so I could but I didn't know how, I opened my mouth to atleast try at see how it goes. "V-vere vee hoinh?" Terrible, absolutely terrible. Philomena laughed. "Guess that answers my question." she bellowed through the laughs, when she finally calmed down she put her wing on my shoulder. "I guess you're a youngling, like me." she said in a questioning tone, expecting me to answer. "So consider me as your bigger sister and that I will teach you the ways of speaking." she said in a mocking tone. I didn't get it. When I didn't laugh she coffed, "Heh... guess you had to be there, well anyway we're going to the dining room to get some lunch," she finally answered. Luna turned her head to face, but a hoof in front of her lips us and shushed then resumed skipping through the corridors, confusing me and seemingly irritating Philomena. "I was just about done anyway" Philomena pouted. Luna snapped back and sushed again. 'This place is weird...' I thought to myself. -------------- After about ten minutes of skipping through hallways we finally arrived at our destination, an absolutely massive room with a huge table in the middle of it decorated with an assortment of food and silverware golden candle holders littering the room, and two massive gold chandeliers adorning the roof. On the far side of the room was another light purple-ish pink creature like the others except with no wings like Luna and Celestia. It adorned a purple crown and cape, the edges of the cape were covered in delicate fur. The crown, mostly silver. had a few purple gems imbedded in it and the bottom of it was covered in the same fur as the cape. Its mane and tail white as snow and its deep purple eyes filled with fury as they stared down a bored looking Clover. They looked like they were arguing about something, or more like one the them is shouting about something and the other one is just standing there taking it all in. I pulled my attention away from the argument and directed it at the table, specifically at the two other creatures sitting there with empty plates and a book hovering between them. Celestia and Starswirl seemed to be having a nice conversation about something... again, I hated not being able to understand them. Just as I finished that thought Philomena took to the air and landed on Celestias head, Celestia smiled and said something before returning to the conversation with Starswirl, shortly after I was picked up via magic and put on the table as Luna sat down next to me. She levitated a bowl filled with food in front of me and sat it down. I looked at the bowl and realised something, 'I haven't eaten my entire life!' And with that though my face fell into the bowl as I began eating. It. was. So good! I ate ravenously I ripped apart whatever it was and put each piece rapidly into my mouth and after a short 10 seconds of eating I was done and handed my bowl back to Luna asking for more. She was covered in food and leftovers. I stood there unsure of what to do as Luna looked blankly back at me, was she going to be angry? Sad? Then she began to laugh hysterically, shortly after everyone else began to laugh too, except for the other creature who had begun complaining about something again. Luna said something through the laughter, I looked at Philomena and gave her a what did she just say look, Philomena stopped laughing for a moment and looked at me with a small smile. "Welcome to the family Ori." 'Ori... I like that name,' I thought to myself as I joined in on the laughter.