//------------------------------// // An Opportunity // Story: A New Life // by Roman //------------------------------// An Opportunity Celestia sat down heavily on the cushion at the breakfast table. She levitated every pancake that was left on the serving plate and dumped them onto her own plate. Grumbling, she took one of them in her magic and then proceeded to stuff it into her mouth, leaving quite a sticky mess of maple syrup on her muzzle. Which didn’t improve her mood in the slightest. *door opens* Celestia looked to the intruder. It was a white unicorn mare with a light brown mane and tail. She wore black half-moon rimmed glasses over her blue eyes. “Ah, Quick Quill. I was going to send for you.” The said mare bowed to her, then fully entered the room. “Your Highness.” Said Quick Quill. Her horn lit up in a blue aura and she pulled a scroll out of a pocket dimension. She cleared her throat… but then noticed the absence of a certain dark blue alicorn. “Um, Princess, where’s Princess Luna?” “About that…” Celestia conjured two scrolls and a quill. She began to quickly jot something on the first, and then the second scroll. When she had finished, she floated one of them over to Quick Quill, who took it in her own aura. “Please, take this to my sister. She will be somewhere in the castle gardens with my new niece.” she said, while making the other scroll vanish in a flash of golden light. “I have just booked Moonlight Eclipse an appointment this morning at eleven thirty, with a very well-known therapist in all of Canterlot.” Celestia turned to look out the window that overlooked Canterlot itself. “Please, make sure she gets it. Because the way I’ve seen, and from what Cadence has told me about how that poor filly has been behaving… It’s just, not normal for anypony her age.” “Yes, Your Majesty.” Replied Quick Quill as she turned to leave. “Oh, one more thing, milady.” Celestia looked over to her. Quick Quill then gestured to her muzzle. “You have a little something on your…” And at that, she left to find the Princess of the night and her daughter, leaving a furiously blushing sun princess, who was in vain trying to wipe the sweet and sticky syrup off her muzzle. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. The warm air hit me like a hammer as Luna opened the door to what I could only assume to be the gardens. Luna trotted out onto the grass, heading towards a classic 19th century gazebo, that sat in the middle of the wide lawn. Trotting up the small structure’s steps, Luna floated the food she was carrying onto a small one legged table, which stood in the middle of the gazebo’s floor. Luna conjured a couple of plush dark blue cushions with some sort of flowery pattern that was too complicated to imagine how it was done, and placed them next to each other in front of the small table. My body suddenly felt all tingly, as a very familiar turquois aura surrounded me. I floated out of the cramped carrier, and was set down on one of the large cushions. I stretched my sore hind limbs as Luna sat herself down on the cushion to my right. “Don’t worry, sweetie, I’ll make sure to get a larger foal carrier as soon as I can.” “I’m not a-” I cut myself off before I could finish that sentence. I am really trying not swear. Who knows how many little kids could be watching this cartoon, so it is probably best that they don’t learn this sort of language at this point. My eyes narrowed as I looked down at the cushion. Just because my life sucks, doesn’t mean I should ruin other people’s childhoods. “Sorry, sweetie, I didn’t catch that.” My head snapped up to face Luna, who was smiling down at me. The way she looked at me… made… something deep inside of me want to snuggle up to her. “It’s… it’s nothing.” I stammered, averting my gaze down at my cushion. I then felt something ticklish wrap itself around me. Looking to my left slightly, I saw it was one of Luna’s wings. Brace yourself! And as expected, I was pulled to Luna’s side, her giving me a gentle squeeze. “Honey, please look at me.” She said softly. Looking up at her smiling… sympathetic look. “You know you can talk to me about anything that’s troubling you. Bottling it up won’t help, it will only eat away at you. And I am talking from experience.” I felt her shudder slightly at that last part. I inhaled, “Okay.” I said as I exhaled, which earned me a small squeeze from her wing. “That’s my girl.” Luna said gently, while levitating the plate of pancakes in front of me. “Now, try not to make too much of a mess.” Her aura vanished, and the plate plopped down in front of me, (Well, that saves me from trying to find a way to reach the table, which seems to be ten feet tall from my current height) to which I immediately dived into! These… have to be, the best pancakes I have ever tasted! I heard a giggle from my right, but I ignored it as I continued to stuff my face. I could feel the maple syrup making a mess of my muzzle… and probably the cushion, but I didn’t care. “Excuse me, Your Highness.” Called a rather posh voice, but I wasn’t paying any attention to anything except pancakes. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Luna looked over her shoulder, and saw none other than Quick Quill trotting towards them. She also appeared to be carrying a small slip of paper in her aura. “Good morning, Quick Quill. Is that for me?” Quick Quill trotted up the gazebo’s short staircase and floated the note over to the lunar alicorn, “Yes, Your Highness, it is. Princess Celestia told me to make sure you got this!” Luna put her hoof in the way of the note. “If my sister is writing to me to come to court. Then y-” “Oh, no, Your Majesty.” Interjected Quick Quill, “It’s about your, err…” She glanced at the much, much younger… and rather messy alicorn, the filly looked like she would still be sticky even if you bathed her thoroughly. “Your daughter!” Luna glanced down at Moonlight, and couldn’t help but laugh at the state her child was in. Her horn began to glow, and a camera appeared in flash of dark blue. Luna looked down the view finder. With a flash and small click, which made Moonlight look up from what was left of her breakfast, the camera emitted whirring sound, before a small square of paper slid out the bottom of it. Luna gently pulled the photo out with her magic, while making the camera disappear. She gently blew on the picture, before conjuring a large dark blue book with her cutie mark on the cover. Opening it with her magic, she started to flip through its photo filled pages until she found one that had a space. She conjured a glue stick which she took in her teeth and started to paste the page. After she finished, she levitated the glue stick out of her mouth, and stuck the photo onto the paper’s white surface. Luna sat back and admired her hoof-work, before snapping the book shut, and teleporting it back to her chambers. She turned her attention back to Quick Quill, “Well, let’s see what Celestia wants with my daughter.” Quick Quill’s aura around the note was replaced by Luna’s. She levitated it over to herself, and unfolded it. As she finished her eyes began to tear up, causing her aura to vanish from around the note, letting it drop gently down to the floor. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. I watched the peace of paper Luna had been holding in her magic float down until it came to rest on my plate right-side up. Leaning forward, I managed to see what was written on it. My dear sister. While I am not happy that you just dumped your responsibilities on me like you did, I do understand why you would want to spend more time with Moonlight Eclipse. (I must confess, I do slightly envy you. I remember when we were fillies and we would play games of being a princesses, while sometimes playing “Being Parents”, where one of us would be the foal and the other the parent. Even though you tended to always dominate being the parent. Nevertheless, I did sometimes dream myself of someday settling down and starting a family. But that was before we actually became princesses.) But if you’re going to take time off, you are going to need to get Moonlight to see a therapist. Cadence told me you didn’t want her to sit in a room by herself with somepony she doesn’t know. But this is for her own good. We both know she has not been acting like a foal around her age should. We also need to break her out of her “human” delusions. I have just booked her an appointment at 11:30am with Doctor Calm, a renowned therapist. She will be in good hooves, I assure you. Celly P.S. Please, don’t skip this appointment, I’m sure that this pony will be able to help her. I looked back up at Luna, who was looking over to the white unicorn newcomer (I didn’t quite get her name). “Quick Quill, may I ask, what the time is now?” Quick Quill, huh? Well, I guess it’s an appropriate name, since her flank tattoo is a quill pen scribbling on a scroll. The mare in question raised her right foreleg, which had a late twentieth century analogue watch strapped to it (which I swear was not on her hoof before) to eyelevel. “It’s nine-fifty-four!” “Thank you, Quick Quill.” Luna then looked down at me. She gently picked me up with her hooves, and held me in front of her as she gazed down at me, despite my far smaller hooves leaving a sticky mess on her coat. “Moonlight, sweetheart, mommy has to take you to see somepony who may be able to help you with… troubles, shall we say.” “Um, I kin-” Wait! Maybe I can use this to convince these cartoony loony-toon horses that I’m not from this stupid little girl fantasy. “You kin-?” asked Luna, tilting her head to the side slightly, before giving me a nuzzle on my very sticky snout. “Do you mean, you’re kind of nervous about seeing somepony you don’t know? Well, I’ll be there with you. So you’ll have nothing to be afraid of.” As she withdrew, leaving a small splodge of maple syrup on her muzzle. “But first.” She said, her attention drawing to my muzzle, “Somepony probably needs a bath!” Well, that will give me some time to try and plan a way to convince this lot to help me get home. ‘We are so stubborn!’