My Little Prologue
Ponyville, Day 35
A little pool of afternoon sunlight found Twilight Sparkle, local librarian and universal standard for obsessive compulsive disorder, sitting at her desk, magic-borne quill scratching industriously across an open page of her latest masterpiece, the 'Lia Contingency List E-2.7, revision 4'.
□ File away previous list
■ File away ashes of previous list
■ Prepare new list
■ Enchant new list with fire-proofing spell
■ Remember to enchant room with fire-proofing spell next time Lia practices her disguise spell changeling fire-magic thing
■ Clean up Lia's cocoon nest□ Teach Lia to sleep in her bed, not in a cocoon
□ Bribe Lia to sleep in her bed, not in a cocoon
□ Negotiate suitable bribe. Note to self: Sugar cubes are viable currency
□ Convince Lia that she shouldn't try to mimic Owlicious
□ Or Peewee
□ Somehow get Lia to sit still long enough for a proper brushing and preening□ Find Lia
□ Make sure Lia hasn't set fire to/ate/impaled anything/anypony today
Twilight paused in the middle of writing, biting the tip of her quill thoughtfully. She peered up at a nearby calendar for inspiration through eyes lined by layers of dark rings, testament to the trials of the last 5 weeks of her life. The calendar's edges had been chewed quite thoroughly, testament to somepony's determined attempt to test everything in her house for edibility.
Twilight would have liked to use the quiet moment to lie down a little. However with so little time to herself lately she felt she simply had to get on with the organizing her life and that of her little filly. Or try to, anyway, at least before the next big catatastrophe. But before she could write anymore a familiar mischievous little giggle caught her attention. She gave a knowing little sigh as she made a show of looking around, "I wonder where Lia is?" She mused out loud.
"Over here, Twilley~" The bubbly little voice giggled some more.
"Hmmm, under the desk? No, not here." Twilight peered under her desk in pretend puzzlement, "Maybe under my chair? Oh, not here either. Aah, I know, maybe in my drawer?"
A bright tinkling giggle sounded from above, "Silly Twilley, I wouldn't fit in theeere!" The voice seemed beside herself with giggles of amusement.
"Oh yes, I forgot what a big filly you are now." Twilight rolled her eyes.
Twilight knew exactly where she was. The little filly had a special penchant for hide-and-seek and 5 weeks together had taught Twilight all of her favourite little tricks. This one was Lia's favourite by far, a trick she called the 'upsie-downie'. As the name suggested, it exploited everypony's natural blind spot, up above. Not only was it effective (at least the first few times she used it on Twilight), the little filly seemed to enjoy looking down on others. Twilight couldn't help but suspect it was the budding queen within her. Then there's off course the bonus of providing an unrivalled vantage point and there's a whole new range of faces one could really only make while upside down.
"Up here, Twillie~" The voice finally invited her to look up.
Twilight gave a little sigh of relief as she finally allowed herself to gaze up at the ceiling. It was hard not to. Still, she had to let the child believe she was good at hiding, allow her to build confidence in her stealth.
She will need it.
There, stuck to the library's high ceiling like a big dark ink drop, was a small figure of dark midnight blue. A huge pair of turquoise harlequin eyes gazed mischievously down at Twilight through a curtain of silver blonde hair punctuated by a dark blue highlight cascading down from the figure's mane. A small, jagged horn poked out from beneath the curtain like a baby lightning bolt frozen in the air. A small toothy upside down grin spread under (or above) the cute little muzzle. "Hello, Twilley~" it greeted cheerfully with a little hoofie wave. The grin very quickly turn into a cry of panic as the little creature's hooves lost its purchase on the ceiling. "I-Iaaaaaaa!" She cried, hooves flapping wildly.
"Lia, your wings!" Twilight cried out, throwing her forehooves out, ready to catch the falling filly.
"W-wingies! Ummm, more wingies!" There was a rush of air, a frenzied flapping. The falling figure suddenly righted itself in midair. Small dark blue wings, shaped not unlike a pegasi's, though with larger 'feathers' of flexible see-through chitin, had burst forth from the filly's back, flapping as hard and as fast as they can. But they were much too small and stubby to support her weight. With one last desperate squeak she instinctively raised her hooves into the air. Small, heart-shaped openings slid open on her hooves, much like miniature cookie-cutters. With a whooomph, a small silk web burst forth from within to form a half-coccoon, trapping air like a miniature parachute.
The little filly gave a yelp as the sudden deceleration jolted her. Twilight could only sigh in relief as she watched the filly descend in a more sedate glide, bobbing from side to side under her little parachute. In her prolific reading she had read that baby spiders could use their webs to 'balloon' or 'kite' themselves through the air. Still, the wide-eyed look of disbelief on her face was telling enough. She never would have expected it to work at this scale. But then changelings, particularly the young specimen before her, did not seem to obey any laws, particularly those of physics. If anything, the little filly seemed to break natural law on a regular basis, mostly out of mischief.
"Oomph." Twilight caught the heavy bundle of fur that was the little filly in her hooves and lap. "Phew." She sighed a sigh of relief, though perhaps a little too soon. A sticky greenish blue parachute fell around her face and mane like curtains on a lame sideshow. "Liaaaa," She growled, blowing out gossamer silk strands.
"Ooops. Sorries, Twillie." The little filly squeaked apologetically, squirming in Twilight's lap as she endeavoured to make herself as small as she could. "So...is Lia in trouble?" She ventured timidly.
"..." On the one hoof Twilight didn't want to curb the little changeling's exploration of her natural stealth abilities. If anything she encouraged it, knowing that sooner or later the child would need it, hopefully later. On the other, that stunt just then was dangerous. It never occured to her that, sometimes, punishing could be more difficult than being punished. "Well, you didn't know that was dangerous. Now you do." Twilight said, turning stern, "New rule no. 27, No more wall-stickies...." She paused as she considered this, "...any higher than the table without me around, alright?" She said, peeling off the remains of the parachute off her face. That will be a real nightmare to wash out of her hair, she thought glumly.
"...alright." The little filly said, though with obvious reluctance in her voice. She would break the rule soon enough, Twilight knew. The young caretaker could only hope that when she does she'd have learned something from this particular episode.
She idly stroked the little filly's soft, silky mane with a hoof, partly to reassure her that she wasn't upset, partly because it was surprisingly soothing for her too. It elicited a string of giggles from the little filly. There was a soft clunk as her hoof tapped against the band of armoured chitin hiding underneath the filly's mane. It always reminded her of the chitin 'helmet' of the armoured changeling general she had encountered once before. But unlike his 'helmet', the floral patterned chitin on the little filly's head curled like a tiara around her head, ending around her forehead and tapering into her horn. Twilight couldn't help but think how befitting it was of a little queen. The curious scholar inside her suspected the filly's mother probably had one too hidden underneath her mane, but that was a hypothesis she would never be able to confirm, not anymore.
"So, have you done your writing exercises, Lia?" Twilight asked, expecting one of her playful 'no's.
But much to her surprise, the little filly looked up and returned a smug, maybe even triumphant smile, as she reached back into, yes, into her silver gold carapace. It was an ornate armour-like exoskeleton that wrapped itself about the filly's body consisting of an elaborate chest piece that tapered down into a ribbed natural 'saddle'. One of the chitin plates forming her 'saddle' slid open seamlessly to reveal handy little armoured recess within from which she fished out a piece of paper.
It was one of the minor peculiarities Twilight was still trying to get used to, how the little filly's round and modestly chubby silver-gold carapace featured what she supposed was what would be a corbicula or scopa on bees, otherwise known as pollen storages. Lia had her own native word for it, it sounded something like 'Meepsie', though Twilight silently suspected that was a result of the little filly's squeaky voice and verbal tic mashing up the original changeling word. While Lia obviously had no need to carry pollen, she had found many other uses for her handy internal storage spaces, such as for hiding away her homework.
"See, see, Lia did aaall the exercisisisisisiees!" The little filly struggled to find the breaks on the word.
"So you did." Twilight said, checking the sheet of paper over, raising a skeptical eyebrow. It was, indeed, perfect, which did nothing to help Twilight's suspicions. She had learned very early on, much to her private annoyance, that the little filly wasn't one to do assigned chores without at least a modicum of coaxing. For her to do her exercises without even being told, something was hiding in the hay. "Which begs the question, little miss Twilight Aurelia, what are you hiding?" Twilight asked, bluntly, with a knowing little smile.
"Iaa...!" The little filly tensed up with a squeak on Twilight's lap, confirming her suspicions. "U-ummm...L-Lia's not hiding a-anything, Twillie." She said, as innocently as she could muster, which wasn't much. The little filly's wings had unfolded out of what Twilight suspected were meepsies of their own inside her saddle carapace and were fidgeting nervously, a telltale sign Twilight had picked up very early on. It seemed to be a natural and quite literal 'fight or flight' reflex, one that suggested the little filly was either anxious or, worse, lying.
"Is that so...?" Twilight said in a slow drawl as her hooves stealthily reached around the little filly.
"Y-yes.....h-honest...Lia is..." Lia said, shifting nervously. "I-Iaahahahahah!" She suddenly squealed as a pair of hooves dug lightly into the soft midnight blue fur over her unprotected tummy. "P-please!" She pleaded through peals of laughter.
"Hmm? Please what?" Twilight asked, unrelenting in her ticklish onslaught.
"P-please don't! Stop!" The filly squeaked, tears of laughter running down her little cheeks.
"Don't stop, huh? Got it." Twilight grinned, much to Lia's horror.
"Iahahahahahah!" A number of Lia's meepsies spasmed with her laughter, sliding open helplessly, unloading their precious cargo across the floor. Bright wrappers of every size, shape and colour clattered across the floor. Twilight recognized them to be all the sweets she had given the little filly over the past 5 weeks, untouched.
From the looks of things, Lia had made another breakthrough in finding use for her meepsies. Candy hoarding. Twilight couldn't help but slap a hoof to her head. Possibly one of evolution's greatest masterpieces, and it was abused for such a childish purpose. Oooh, first world problems...
"Lia...." Twilight began, finally stopping in her assault.
"I-Iaaa..." The little filly tensed up even more, wings stiffening.
"Aren't those all the sweets I gave you?"
"Yessie..." Lia gave a weak little nod.
"You're supposed to eat them when I give them to you." Twilight said, sternly, "Hoarding them and eating them all at once will only give you toothaches. And then the toothmare will come and you'll be really really sorry."
"But Lia...umm...Lia wanted to share them all with you later, Twillie!" Lia said, wings fidgeting again, telling Twilight all she had to know. Twilight felt her heart warm up at what she knew was a lie, a lie she honestly wanted to believe.
"It's not something you have to hide, Lia." Twilight said, giving in once more.
"Umm...but...Lia wasn't hiding that from you, Twillie." The naive little filly said without thinking.
"Sooo....what is it you're hiding then?" Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Meep!" The filly fidgeted even more, "W-well...L-Lia wanted to ask for something-ish."
Ah, that made more sense to Twilight's skeptical mind. So the show of obedience was the little filly buttering her up for a request. She sighed to herself, not sure whether to be impressed at her cunning at developing an understanding of bribery at such a young age or be appalled at how fleeting innocence is. Still, curious, she decided to humour the little filly. Just once wouldn't hurt, so she thought. "Alright then, my little pony, what is it?" She asked with an inviting smile.
The little filly, encouraged by the smile, sat up and placed her forehooves on the desk before Twilight. With a heave and a frantic flutter of her little wings she hauled herself up onto the desk. Then she picked herself up and trotted across the desk over to the window sill before planting both little hooves up on the glass. She began humming a little tune, bobbing from side to side to the rhythm of her own music.
"Say, Twillie~, you know how there's an entire worldie outside?" Her melodious hums gave way to a singsong question.
"No, really, what makes you say that?" Twilight couldn't help but chuckle, watching the little filly pressing her face against the glass.
"Lookie, just press your nose into the window" The little filly exclaimed excitedly.
"There's so much coloury, so much light!"
"Lia, it's cold and the wind still bites." Twilight chimed in.
"See, the glassie isn't misting, it can't be cold now" Lia pointed out,
"Just a minute, just a second would be alright
The winter wrap-up ponies are clearing all the snow
Lia really really wants to go outside!"
"A better idea, I'll read to you by the warm fireside." Twilight offered, levitating a book hopefully, a heavy tome titled 'Orbital Pathfinding of Heavenly Bodies - A Hoofbook'.
"But the booksies say there's lots to see outside!" Lia sang excitedly.
"Grassy to hug and baby critters to mow
Skyhigh flowers and meadows of kites!"
"Okay, I'll admit, that would be quite a sight." Twilight couldn't help but giggle.
"Catsies that caw and cows that meow" Lia pressed her cheeks against the cold glass yearningly,
"Henpecked husbands and bristling brides
Getting married, foalies, and into fights."
"....why is that the only bit you got right?" Twilight sighed, shaking her head in amusement.
"It rhymes~" The little filly said innocently. "Lia wants Lia's first musical number to be just right."
"Fair enough." Twilight laughingly conceded as she picked up the tune. "But look, inside's so much better than outside.
Books can send us around the world right here and now."
"All we ever do is hole up in the library and hide" Lia sighed, tempo slowing a little.
"In this paper garden there's shelves to plough and booksies to sow
And Lia's not saying it's all too cramped and tight
But...."
"I know, I know, you want to go outside..." Twilight sighed, nodding with understanding.
"The worldie outside seems so bright and wide...
Oh the sunny's so close to hoof, if only in here it sank
setting on mount manuscript, over paperback brook Lia'd ride
Across quill hill and bookmark meadow, the sunny shines on Lia's...." She paused for a bit, little hoof on her chin, "Umm, Twilley? What rhymes with sank?" She asked, reaching a hoof out for Twilight's help.
"Err...flank?" Twilight said before she could stop herself.
"Yeah, flank! On Lia's flank!" The little filly said, tapping her hooves together. "Now, umm, where was Lia?"
"You're going to say something about outside." Twilight said, helpfully.
"Oh, yessie. But inside's...inside's just not like....outside..." She said, ending her little ballad on a long and longing note. With a little thump she let herself fall back on her rump on the window sill. She watched quietly as the foals outside help the grownups finish the last of the winter-wrap up. Twilight didn't have to look at her to know she was wearing a yearning expression.
A different tune filtered in through the glass, muffled and quiet, but the two could just about make out the words, 'Winter wrap-up, Winter-wrap up, let's finish our holiday cheer~'. It sounded so distant, yet looked so close, so cheerful yet so...so melancholic.
Twilight herself had missed out on Winter-wrap up with her friends. With everything going on there was just no way she could take part. The thought alone was enough to give her a little pang of longing. Celestia knows how much more the little filly was going through.
"Lia..." Twilight said, putting a hoof on the little filly's slumped shoulders.
"Lia knows, Lia knows..." The little filly sighed, climbing down from the window sill, "Rule no. 1, No going outsidies until Lia grows up." She said as she landed surprisingly silently on the floor, looking forlorn.
"Yes." Twilight nodded, biting her lip. It was difficult. She knew it would be. It had been only a matter of time until the filly demanded to see the outside world. Now that time was running out. The books in the library could only tide over an excited, energetic little filly for so long. "Tell you what. You can build yourself another book fort and we can have a pillow fight. Then we can have our own little winter-wrap up cleaning up."
"We can?!" Lia's eyes lit up like Ever-glow(TM) lamps.
"And we can eat dinner and sleep in your book fort too, so make sure it's big enough for both of us." Twilight said, giving the child a loving nuzzle.
"Yippeeee!" The little filly bounced away excitedly towards the section labelled 'Fanfiction - Various'.
"Oh, I'm so going to regret this in the morning..." Twilight sighed to herself, feeling as if she had gained at least two decades in age. But then and there, the big warm balloon in her heart was worth it.
She felt an affectionate little nip on the balloon. She felt a little soar of happiness and warmth swell up within, but at the expense of a niggling little headache knocking and making itself known at the back of her head. She frowned a little, feeling more of the pent-up exhaustion catch up with her. Her vision seemed to swirl as the world spun about her, causing her to almost stagger. The nipping feeling almost immediately ceased, as if the source sensed her headache and tiredness. It was almost immediately replaced by what felt like the distant echo of a slow, sad little tune. Twilight knew it for what it was. She had experienced it enough times by then to recognize it almost instantly. It was an emotion, guilt, strong and heavy.
Twilight looked down and found little Lia, head cast down, looking the very picture of remorse. With a pained smile the exhausted mare sat down and pulled her changeling charge into a tired but sincere hug. Neither said anything. The little echoes of each other in their minds said more than any amount of words ever could.
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promising.
Lia is adorable, I want to see more of her. But I bet just living in Ponyville is like being in a very good buffet for her, all that love and friendship in the air must make her mostly full all the time.
Wow this story is cute.
New Skill: Comment Box Replying! Unlocked!
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Yep, you got it. That's Lia feeding. I figured I'd try and imagine what it felt like being Shining Armour having his love being nom'd on. He complained of headaches mostly so that ended up being the main feature.
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I agree, at a glance it'd be just like a buffet, wouldn't it? But then it begs the question, why did Chrysallis have to invade Canterlot? Why didn't she and her changelings just infiltrate, assimilate themselves into pony society, and live off the 'buffet'? It's a question I want to try and explore in this story.
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Thanks! Glad you all enjoyed it. :)
I don't know how to feel about this...
this looks interesting...I shall continue to read.
Hey now, there's nothing wrong with a cocoon...