There was nothing but black abyss. It looked a lot like the waking dreams she had grown used to being with Celestia in.
But something was wrong.
There were dozens upon dozens-no, hundreds upon hundreds of little specks of light everywhere in the distance.
Twilight looked around and she realized something else far more important.
She wasn’t Twilight. That is, unless Twilight had mysteriously turned blue. That wasn’t it, though. She was suddenly bombarded with an immense wave of emotions. Loneliness, deprivation and hurt the most prominent among them. She was crying, but she had no idea why. She knew it had something to do with why these strangely familiar emotions were domination everything else.
How could she be this distressed? It’s like there was absolutely nothing she could do to make things better, there was nothing good for her. But that was impossible, she had Spike and Celestia.
Celestia... for some reason thinking that name sent her into a fit of sobbing.
Why did she feel like this? What happened? And most importantly, who was she? She was definitely not Twilight Sparkle
After a little bit of thinking, trying to remember who she was if not that little filly in Canterlot, she noticed more of her surroundings. There was a monotone plain of white under her. She looked up and saw a great sphere of green and blue.
...It was the planet. She looked down. and that was a very intimidating mare with a black coat and eyes filled with hate.
“It’s almost time.” She said, giddy with malicious intent.
---
“Twilight?!” She heard exclaimed softly as she was shaken awake. Her eyes fluttered open and she recognized two things. First, she was Twilight Sparkle again. Second, Celestia was staring at her with eyes full of worry.
There was a third thing that she noticed after those. There were tears steadily running down her face.
“Twilight?” Celestia asked, much less panicked, though the amount of worry on her face didn’t change.
“M-Mom?” She said. Without even letting Celestia speak further, she quickly bolted upright and clung to the alicorn.
“Talk to me, love, what’s wrong?” Celestia asked.
“I... I don’t... I had a dream, but it was so strange... I wasn’t even me, and all of my memories I had from here weren’t right and... and...” Twilight sputtered out and explained her dream. When she finished, Celestia looked horrified.
“That... Are you sure that’s what you saw? What you heard?” Celestia asked. Twilight nodded, confused by Celestia’s reaction. The Princess thought for a moment before picking the filly up and placing Twilight on her back. She quickly penned up a letter for Cadence, who was surprisingly still asleep in the other bed nearby, and left the tower.
“What’s wrong, Mom?” Twilight asked. She peeked at the tower’s clock before they left and it was about three in the morning. Celestia must have just gotten home and decided to check on her. Celestia didn’t answer her right away, and that was enough for Twilight to know that it wasn’t just a bad dream. The Alicorn looked to be deep in thought before she finally spoke.
“Twilight, I have never wanted to keep even a single secret from you... And I don’t want that to change, but I’m going to have to leave you in the dark with this. At least for right now... There are certain things in my past that haunt me even to this day. I’m exhausted right now, and I don’t think I could handle talking about it right now...” She explained. She thought for another moment before continuing.
“But... I also don’t want to ruin our little vacation I told you about... I promise I’ll tell you after that. I just really hate keeping things from you...” She continued. Twilight was starting to get confused now. Whatever it was, it was really causing Celestia distress.
“Don’t worry Mom, it’s alright. You don’t need to worry about keeping secrets from me, everypony is entitled to have them.” Twilight said, nuzzling into Celestia’s back. She couldn’t see it, but Celestia had the biggest grin on her face from that.
“I love you, so much.” Celestia said, looking back and nuzzling Twilight when she stopped to open the door to her chambers. Twilight just giggled and nuzzled back in response.
“The same to you. If you don’t mind me asking, though, why did you take me to your room?” Twilight asked.
“Oh a few reasons.” Celestia started as she entered and levitated the filly onto the bed. She proceeded to begin removing her regalia as a brush floated over and started going through her mane.
“The biggest one being I want a snuggle buddy. There are a few more, though. I have a few surprises for you. Most of them are souvenirs, but the main one is a really big surprise we need to be up early for and I’ll need you to wake me up. The surprise starts at ten, so we’ll need to get breakfast and leave by nine.” Celestia explained, joining Twilight on the bed and curling up around her. Twilight had no objection and got comfortable.
“Alright. You’ve got me excited for the surprises now, though! I’m not sure I can fall asleep.” Twilight said. A massive yawn a few seconds later betrayed that thought, though. Celestia giggled and nuzzled the filly.
“Good night, my little Sparkle. I love you.” Celestia said softly.
“Love you too...” She said, her voice trailing off. Within the next minute the filly was asleep again. Not one to be left behind, Celestia followed suit just as quickly.
---
Twilight was in a bit of a predicament. It was about 7:30, an hour and a half from when Celestia said they had to leave, and said Alicorn wasn’t stirring to her gentle nudges.
Right now she was debating whether she should just keep trying, or whether she should so something else...
You know what? It’s about time she started acting like Celestia’s daughter. And besides, it was her own fault for getting the filly so excited over the surprises. She looked at the pink maned princess and thought of something that wasn’t too much, but would still get the job done. Practically leaping onto her adoptive mother’s head, she giggled.
“Wake up! Wake up!” She exclaimed loudly, though not excessively so. Celestia slowly cracked her eyes open and looked sideways at the filly. A tired smile appeared on her face as she chuckled.
“I’m up, I’m up...” She mumbled. Twilight giggled again as she let the Princess get up. She did a few stretches, yawned wide and looked at the little filly practically bouncing with excitement.
“A bath, first. We’ll get to the surprises at breakfast.” Celestia said. Twilight nodded and turned to go to her own bathroom, but Celestia picked her up with her magic and turned towards her own.
“Not so fast, I haven’t been able to bathe you yet and it’s something I’ve wanted to do since we met.” She explained.
“What about Spike?” Twilight asked after a moment.
“He’ll be alright, I left a note with Cadence. She was supposed to stay another few days so now that I’m back so soon she has nothing to do. I think taking care of a little dragon for the morning won’t be too hard, right?” Celestia replied.
“I guess.” Twilight said. Anything else she wanted to say was lost as they entered Celestia’s private baths. They weren’t baths. They were waterfalls flowing into a miniature hotspring.
“Nice, isn’t it? One of the very few things I just couldn’t give up. Bathing in a waterfall is much more relaxing than a tub.” Celestia said. She walked towards one of the smaller ones and set Twilight down as she levitated a number of soaps and scents into the water.
“You take a dip in this one to get your coat all nice and soaped up, then we move into the bigger one to shampoo our manes and tails and then relax for a little while.” Celestia explained. Twilight noticed there were a few other smaller pools connected to the one Celestia was entering. Celestia seemed to notice her looking at them and smiled, gesturing for the filly to join her.
“This chamber hasn’t changed at all since it was first built nearly a thousand years ago. Back then, at least after that negative phase you saw, other ponies used to join me all the time. Mostly emissaries and ambassadors or captains, or even sometimes just a stranger that had traveled long and hard to get here. That stopped not too long ago.” She explained. When she was finished she took a breath and dipped under the water for a moment. Twilight followed her lead and they resurfaced at the same time.
“What happened to make it stop?” Twilight asked as they moved on to the larger pool, the humid heat of the room keeping them from getting cold during the transition.
“The nobles happened. Before them there was just a council and my role wasn’t so much a title and a public figure as a pony who went out and actually did things for her kingdom. You know how the nobles of today are, they’re not much different from two or three hundred years ago. While they don’t have the authority to bar anypony from using this place, they instil enough fear so that nopony asks or refuse if I offer. Normally something about not being worthy, usually.” Celestia answered. As Twilight sat down in a particularly comfortable spot, Celestia walked over to one of the large waterfalls and quickly put her head under it.
“Oh, that’s better... Nothing like a cold waterfall to wake you up.” Celestia said, shaking her head a bit as she pulled her head out and joined Twilight. “Now turn around and close your eyes.” She continued, levitating what looked like a porcelain bottle over. Twilight did as she told and soon found shampoo covered hooves going through her mane.
“If you don’t like them, why do you let them have so much power? Why do you let them change so much if what was there before was so much better?” Twilight asked, relaxing and nearly reclining into the alicorn behind her. Celestia giggled at that.
“Well, everypony craves progress. The council wasn’t enough to handle the growing population, to nobles were chosen to represent everypony else. They originally did exactly as the council did, but they all lived in canterlot instead of spread across Equestria. It was much more convenient to simply fetch the nobles instead of wait a week for all the council members to get here.” Celestia replied.
“Well what happened to them?” Twilight asked.
“Well, the power they held kind of went to their heads and before I realized what was happening they turned into what they are today. They’re not exactly power hungry, but... well... They tend to have a really bad holier-than-thou complex. And you’ve seen how they are. They’ll probably throw a fit when I announce your adoption and make it official, since you’re not from the higher circles of nobility. If I remember correctly, though, you do come from minor nobility.” Celestia answered.
“I do?” Twilight asked as Celestia finished shampooing and had her put her head under the waterfall for a bit to rinse off.
“You do, it’s an old bloodline but your parents were captains. I talked to Shining about it when I was in the Griffon country and your bloodline is an old one, from the first nobles. That’s why you're not egotistical snobs like most of them are.” Celestia explained. She looked down at Twilight, then sideways at her own mane and then back to Twilight.
“Hm... I’d say it’s my turn, but you’re not quite big enough to reach.” She chuckled, using her magic to start the shampooing process on herself.
“I can still nuzzle up to you.” Twilight stated and did just that. Celestia giggled and used her magic to alter the flow of part of the waterfall to rinse her mane instead of moving. When she was done with that she unfurled her wings and looked at them with a bit of distaste.
“Hm... you think you could help me with the lower feathers? It seems my rushed departure and arrival has left my wings in a bit of a sorry state.” Celestia offered. Twilight looked and saw that some of the feathers were crooked or bent, some of them even nearly falling out. She was confused as to what Celestia was asking, but then she started straightening and fixing and plucking the feathers.
Preening another’s wings was something you only did if you had absolute trust in them. THe wings, at least the undersides, were quite sensitive and one mistake like pulling out a healthy feather or biting the wrong place could cause serious harm.
Twilight looked down at the lower feathers and saw that none of them were loose, but quite a few were crooked and bent. Very cautiously, she leaned over and started straightening them out. It got easier over time as she moved on to the next one. After the fourth or fifth one she got a feel for how the feathers were supposed to be and the rest went much quicker. Every now and then Celestia would let out a sigh as Twilight unintentionally massaged a few knots of the wing’s muscles.
“You’re very good at that, I have to say. I can’t remember the last time I had help with that.” Celestia thanked her when they were done not much later.
“Well, I have read a few books...” Twilight admitted.
“Oh I think it might be the fact that it was you doing it. Thank you, Love.” Celestia said, nuzzling the unicorn. She got up then and gestured for Twilight to follow. They entered what looked like a little cave. It was cooler than the other room and not nearly as humid.
“Brace yourself.” Celestia warned before she used her magic to move a rather large chunk of earth from the wall. What used to be a little draft turned into a very powerful wind. The aerodynamics of the small cave created a sort of wind tunnel. Twilight couldn’t help but burst out laughing as their manes and tails were flung backwards.
“No matter how many times I do that, it’s still so amusing to see another pony’s first time.” Celestia said as she replaced the chunk of earth when they were dried off.
“How does that work?” Twilight ask as they made their way out of the room and out of the bathing room.
“There are a few strategically placed holes and tunnels on the other side of the mountain that Canterlot is built against. They speed up the winds that go through them and all come out here.” Celestia answered as they returned to her bedroom. She replaced her regalia and used her magic to carry a few wrapped packages with them as they left. It was about an hour until they needed to leave for the surprise, so they were heading to breakfast.
“If you haven’t guessed already, these are some of the souvenirs I brought with me. There are more, which are special gifts to you courtesy of the captain of the Griffon royal guard, but you won’t get those until you’re older. For now, though, have at it.” She said as they waited for their breakfast of massive waffles to arrive. She levitated the three packages in front of Twilight.
Twilight wasn’t dumb, they were books. That particular fact excited her to no end as she ripped the packaging open on all of them at once. There were three books. ‘Dictionary of Glyphs’, ‘Griffon Dictionary of Glyphs’ and ‘Griffon Magic’. She read the names out loud and Celestia seemed surprised by them.
“I didn’t know you could read Glyphs and Griffon...” Celestia said.
“Well, the royal library has the DIctionary of Glyphs, but now I have my own! And this one and the Dictionaries in other languages are all in a series so they teach you a little bit of them. I only know how to say the book titles, though. Thank you thank you thank you!” Twilight finished, pausing before the last part and nearly tackling Celestia with a hug.
“I knew you’d like them.” Celestia chuckled. “And now this.” She continued, levitating a small paper rectangle to Twilight. The filly took the thing in her own grasp and gasped when she saw what it was.
“A Wonderbolts ticket?!” She exclaimed.
“Yep, front row seat. Better, actually, you’re in the VIP box.” Celestia said.
“Wait, what about you? I wouldn’t want to go without you.” Twilight asked. Celestia grinned and gestured towards the ticket. There was a short description of the event.
“‘Celebrating peace with the Griffons, a public Wonderbolts performance congratulating Princess Celestia on her success.’” She read.
“Who do you think asked for the performance? I’ll be right next to you, I just don’t need a ticket.” Celestia giggled. Twilight grinned and made a happy little squeal. She had always wanted to see the Wonderbolts.
My good sir did you know Idroped everything to read this... please more.
Hmm.. Shy and Dash, I'm more curious about what will happen when she meets Rarity and introduces herself as Celestia's adopted daughter.
I can imagine squeeing,fainting and lots of hoof kissing.
Awww
Looking at both Tillight and Celestia, and keeping in mind their behaviour to eachother and how they are... I have come to a conclusion upon the desires and perceptions of the nobility as pertain to this subject of the adoption of Twilight Sparkle by Princess Celestia.
Fuck 'em.
And now we see the picture take place. Very touching.
I await the next update with joy!
~Skeeter The Lurker
just replace all the insults with twilight hugging celestia.
woke up saw a new chapter read it and then died how could you do this to me!!!...........more please
So... freaking... adorable!
Spell Check Here
"...It was the planet. She looked down. and that was a very intimidating mare with a black coat and eyes filled with hate."
Should be
"...It was the planet.
She looked down. And saw that she was a very intimidating mare with a black coat and eyes filled with hate."
"The council wasn’t enough to handle the growing population, to nobles were chosen to represent everypony else. "
Change to so
Keep up the awesome storytelling, and until you get a dedicated beta reader I shall be here
to bad i haz to go to school now cya later guyz!
Ahh, so the mane 6 are meeting as fillies? I approve!
2604152 thats my opinion of most nobles
So cute!
2601351 why must you tease me so? I didn't want to remember that story! you abandoned it, you-- ahem........... pardon me as I assert control over my impulses. I must attempt not to commit some level of murder.
This is possibly the cutest Momlestia story I've ever seen.
Wow, you're keeping up on the update role. I hope you don't slow down.
Speaking of slowing down, I notice you're making a few mistakes I myself make too when I type fast. There are a few parts where you capitalize the second letter in a word where the first letter is also capitalized. Maybe slow down a little bit when you're typing, and try to make sure you catch them. There are rarely any other errors otherwise, and I'm loving the story.
That picture is s so effing cute.
Great chapter. What kind of timeline is this story going to have?
So that's how Celestia's mane gets like that.
Molestia. Too much Molestia in Celestia's actions here...
Nothing out of place...everyone seems in character.....
Oh who am I kidding. HNNNNNG! So much 'daww!'
p.s.
. THe <--- extra caps on the H.
2604405 crimson night finished.
the rewrite for Dawn is on hold
Aww More please!
You magnificent bastard, that was adorable!
2604085 I hate to correct you again, but I said county, not country.
Got a major Lion king feel there..... im gonna cry like a babe when it happens
Twilight meeting Fluttershy and RD? Watermelon must commence!
th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2013/135/c/4/fluttermelon__commission__by_facelessjr-d65e6pq.png
2604230 How about instead of
go with
2604715
That might work better, just concerned with semantics.
My heart almost exploded reading about it. I bet the surprise is Twilight being able to meet Shinning Armor after so long. So more daws shall commence and my heart will be put to the test of how much adorableness I can handle.
2604210
I know right? My heart was just about overcome with daaawwwws.
2604256
What this pony said.
~ Super-Brony12
Just want to voice my concern here as well. Please do not twiluna this. The story is so very sweet. It does not need that.
UH oh... I think some nobles are gonna start to catch on after this... MOAR!
something i think i'll be doing to stories i favorite and really enjoy
t.qkme.me/3uhcom.jpg
Captain the shilds can't handle DAWS of this magnitude!!!
I am enjoying this story immensely.
It is so much more intelligently written than most with similar premises which sacrifice character depth and plot for a D'aww fest.
Her parents' deaths and brother's response was handled believably and without the usual melodrama.
A few issues with things that don't quite mesh with canon but don't have a reasonable AU explanation, but I can chalk those up to authorial liberties since they are not especially world breaking.
As for where the story is going, it is cool that she is having some kind of link with Luna. Also very cool that she will be befriending or at least encountering Dash and Shy at such a young age.
One thing I would suggest if you aren't doing this already, is with Dash being around 12 she's about the age to join the junior speedsters, and with peace with the griffins being renewed, it might be opportune to introduce Gilda as well.
On another note, and forgive me if this has been addressed elsewhere, and it has been improving steadily as the story goes along, but the level of errors and typos are not really at the "there's a few per chapter" level and more at the "there are so many it's making me enjoy the story less" level.
I can understand not wanting to break your creative flow with extensive editing or wanting to spend as much time proofreading as writing, or not wanting to bother being anal to the point of correcting every little mistake.
However, if you were to enlist a proofreader or editor from the groups on site and instruct them that you only want error checking, it could be expedited. You could even copy/paste the edit mode (to retain format tags) text from your chapters into a gdoc, give the editor edit privilege, have them correct the errors directly, then copy paste the edited chapter. It would only take around a minute work per chapter on your part, and would show respect for your readers and fans.
That's all for now. Looking forward to the next chapter.
2605275 the thing about editors, I've tried and not only does it lead to extremely late chapters, but it directly conflicts with the way I write and post chapters. There's a reason I post chapters as I finish them. It's so that you guys are as caught up as I am and the fact that I enjoy letting the readers have influence on the story. I refuse to stockpile chapters. If i see a great suggestion, you'll see it as soon as the next chapter.
also, if I were to stockpile chapters they'd be more of a pain to upload them all in bulk so chances are they wouldn't.
and having to constantly paste and re paste to an editor, all that waiting, i WILL write more chapters during that wait. As I've said before, I look through it when I post it but if gdocs doesn't give me the red line I normally don't notice it.
2604871 this story is not twiluna. the sequel will be. I've said this numerous times both here and on the blog post.
2604715 i have no idea why I typed to... it was supposed to be so...
The Dawwwwww is strong on this one
2605373
What I was suggesting is that you continue as you are, but once you publish a chapter you hit "edit" then copy and paste to a gdoc. The editor makes the corrections while you continue writing new chapters and uploading them. The editor notifies you when the corrections are complete and then you click "edit" on the relevant chapter and copy paste the edited chapter over the original.
Since this is done after the fact, it does not interfere with your writing and updating at all.
Keep in mind that unless you delete it, this fic will be here forever. Also, every time you upload a new chapter you will be bumped into the feature box and acquire brand new readers.
After the fact edits are still worth it.
2605373
Having a editor or a proofreader is incredibly important. Even the greatest story, with the most well-rounded characters, perfect setting, fantastic plot, and realistic dialogue, will look like absolute dog shit if it's filled with spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. Don't let the pride you have in your creative process get in the way of having a properly edited story.
2604144 oh yeah I can just see that as well that should get rather nausiating but still rather fun to read
Thanks for the new chapters
you know it seems inevitable, that Twi is gonna meet Blueblood, now i just wonder which role he becomes from my experience one of two cases are gonna be true
1) bully: he is gonna be as mean as possible towards her
2) gold digger: he gets persuaded by his parents to be nice to her, in hope to get the adopted Daughter of Celestia into the family
but that would be boring, blueblood the villain/bully is common so maybe you could try something different(since it is AU)
Maybe make him her friend even though his parents forbid it. Heck you could show how he could become the Jerk at the Gala, if not for the influence of Twilight which stops it from happening. Then everyone starts thinking these two end up in a Relationship together and you throw another curveball and ship him with Applejack in the future.
Too much D'AWWWWWWW.
This can't be natural. I should have been reading my last school work for tomorrows presentation but once I started reading this I couldn't stop. Like and Favorite well earned. DO NOT DISAPPOINT ME NOW. I want to continue reading this...
2601268 Just a day in the life of the Troll King.
i read this entire chapter for some reason in a really deep monotone and i have to say it made it about 20% sexier lol
“Not so fast, I haven’t been able to bathe you yet and it’s something I’ve wanted to do since we met.” She explained.
well this is an awkward line
oh my god my feels!
2606134 oh hush you. this isn't twilestia
2604152 With a chainsaw!
(What was here is now unneeded because of recent chapters :I )
2605775
Also if Prince Blueblood was to be introduce I think he would seem like a shy loner type of colt.(Thinking if introduced he would be a colt instead of being a full stallion.) Like one the hides behind his mom when they meet someone. Blueblood is a jerk but he does know who is who. He has/gained the title Prince so I would think he would know his place if he were to bully or insult a noble and/or Twilight. He of course would probably change his attitude with non-noble ponies to express he position and have the feeling a superiority. If Twilight and Blueblood met I would expect jealousy, confusion, or awkwardness to be coming from the colt.
Good chapter overall, aside the usual things that im trying hard to ignore since normally it bugs the heck out of me but is part of your 'style' i did notice one thing. Its minor but it caused me to continue questioning it over and over... Did Celestia raise the sun while sleeping? Since it never is written i guess it is assumed she does it someplace but it made me wonder since we followed the two from waking till the presents and no mention of it even in passing. I'm just really curious XD
keep up the good work!
Can't wait for the next chapter.
STOP MAKING MY HEART EXPLODE!!! lol