Settling in with Familiar Faces
Friends, Forgiveness, and Magic
Settling in with Familiar Faces
About a week had passed since the Crystal Heart Celebration. It was a beautiful star-filled night. It was almost midnight, as she opened her balcony door.
Princess Sparkle walked out onto her bedroom’s balcony and looked down at her kingdom. These days she wore a small gold and purple crown on top of her head.
She heard a knock at her door as she watched the sky. Telling whomever it was to come in, she glanced back as King Sombra walked up next to her.
“Good evening Princess Sparkle. Wonderful night, tonight,” he said as he sat down to watch the sky with her. “I’ve missed seeing the night like this. True, others have done their best to raise the moon and stars in your absence, but I’ve always thought your work was the best.”
Princess Sparkle nodded and mumbled something. King Sombra sighed and tried another approach. “You know, the winter solstice is coming up. Perhaps you’d want to schedule an event of some kind?”
Princess Sparkle nodded. “Solstice, sure. I’ll add that to the list.”
The king’s magic closed the balcony door behind them. “Sparkle, please face me when you speak to me.”
Princess Sparkle turned to him. “Right, right I’ve been studying so let’s see if I get this…um. Uh, yo! What’s happening, my main stallion? This night be extra heavy, hot dog!” She gave an awkward smile.
King Sombra raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Uh, you know! What’s the haps pops?”
He frowned. “Please stop talking like that.”
Her smile faded and her ears drooped. “Sorry, I just…sorry.”
He sighed and asked, “Sparkle, would you mind telling me why you were speaking such outdated slang?”
Princess Sparkle looked confused. “Outdated? I was told that form of slang was appropriate.”
“And who told you that? Was it Discord? The new Element of Freedom is well known for being a prankster."
“It wasn’t him. She pranked me?” Princess Sparkle muttered to herself. “Why would…I guess it doesn’t matter, does it?” She went back to watching the sky.
“Sparkle, please tell me what’s wrong,” he said to her.
“No, it’s nothing Sombra. I’m just tired. Controlling both the sun and moon after so long has been...tiring. My magic isn’t back to full strength yet either.”
But King Sombra sensed that wasn’t the only problem. “There’s more to it than that. Be honest with me Sparkle. You’ve been shut inside your bedroom and the library all week. Everybody in the castle is worried about you.”
“It’s fine. Just tell everypony that…but that’s not the right word, is it?”
King Sombra nodded. “Correct. These days, there are creatures besides ponies who we are fortunate to have as civilized neighbours. To omit them from our conversations would be wrong.”
“You’re right,” she sighed. “There are dragons, zebras, changelings, and many other kinds of creatures out there. Old habits, I guess. My attempts to update my modern use of language need to be doubled.”
“Is that what it is?” King Sombra asked. “You’re feeling your outdated social skills are putting you at odds with everybody else in the castle? Are you still lonely?”
“Yes. I mean no! It’s not like before. Don’t worry about me.” Princess Sparkle glanced around nervously before looking back up at the sky.
“Sparkle, you don’t have to feel guilty about what happened. You are forgiven. It’s in the past. Now…”
“That’s not the problem!” Princess Sparkle snapped. Her wings unfurled and with a burst of speed she flew away from the balcony. King Sombra grumbled to himself before turning his body into a shadow and gliding towards the palace gardens where the princess had landed. The shadow reformed back into his body.
“Sparkle, I didn’t want to use the Elements on you, but what other choice did I have? I had hoped that the Elements would remove the corruption from you the first time. But their effectiveness seems to have worn out over the years. They made me wait for new bearers to be chosen before we could save you.”
Princess Sparkle wiped the water from her eyes before they could form into proper tears. “I understand that part. I don’t blame you. But…even though what I did as Eternal Twilight was wrong, even though my head was filled with stupid and evil thoughts…one thing remains. And I don’t mean the wings,” she said as he gave her a look. “I feel like the world is…wrong, in some way I can’t explain. Like everything is upside down and I don’t understand it!”
“So this time, let me help you understand it,” King Sombra smiled gently. “We can work through whatever you’re dealing with together. Okay?”
Princess Sparkle sniffled, dried her eyes again, and nodded. “Okay. Um…uh…oh! I returned the Mister Smarty Pants doll to that river serpent!” Princess Sparkle nervously smiled.
King Sombra knew a subject change when he heard one, but it didn’t bother him. He could help sort through Sparkle’s emotions another night. He wasn’t great with emotions anyway. “I’m happy to hear that. You know, it was your own Smarty Pants doll that started that toy line to begin with.”
Princess Sparkle sighed again. “That’s the other thing. The world has progressed without me. Towns replaced lakes; farms replaced fields…but that I could deal with. Just everypony…sorry, I mean everybody…” she paused and ran a hoof over the grass. “Everybody I ever knew is gone. My…family…”
This time she couldn’t stop all the tears from flowing. But before her emotions could completely overwhelm her, the king said, “Not exactly.” Princess Sparkle looked up at King Sombra as he looked at her, more specifically at her hooves. They had gotten tangled up in vine-like roots covered in thorns. She noticed this, and used her magic to remove the roots from herself. When she looked back up at him he said, “Follow me.”
He turned into a shadow once again and flew back up to her balcony. This time she teleported back to her room, disappearing and reappearing in a flash of magic. King Sombra began to walk out her bedroom when he saw a few documents on Princess Sparkle’s desk. “What are those?”
Princess Sparkle took a second to remove a thorn from her hoof with her teeth, before answering him. “A name change application. I’m changing my legal name to Twilight Sparkle.”
King Sombra looked at her with confusion and a little concern. “Why?”
“As a reminder,” was all she said as she grabbed a pen with her magic and signed off the last part of the application.
He sighed but kept walking out of her room as he led the way. “So I am to introduce you as Princess Twilight Sparkle now? That’s a bit of a mouthful.”
“I understand your concerns, including the ones you’re not voicing. But I think this will be good for me.”
“Not so good for your reputation though. We’re trying to make people forget about Eternal Twilight.”
“The point is that I don’t forget. I never want to hurt my subjects like that ever again.”
“As you wish, princess,” he smiled. “But to me, you’ll always be Sparkle, the girl who kept me and Star Swirl on track.”
Princess Twilight Sparkle smiled gently. “Sombra, Sparkle, and Star Swirl,” she giggled. “We were quite the group of maniacs. What happened to him?”
“Star Swirl?” Sombra said. “One day, he left on a journey and I haven’t heard back from him since. I don't know if his magic was strong enough to prolong his life, like ours. Either he's passed away or he's gone into hiding.”
“I hope he’s still alive,” she said. “He was a good friend, even with that silly beard.”
“It grew longer. They actually called him Star Swirl the Bearded. It’s in all the history books now too.”
Princess Twilight Sparkle giggled. “You’re kidding! Oh, pardon me,” she said as she accidently bumped into someone. “Sorry, I…oh Luna! How are you doing?”
Luna was a dark blue alicorn slightly taller than Princess Twilight Sparkle. She had a light blue mane and tail. She turned around and bowed to them. “Princess Sparkle, King Sombra. It’s good to see you. Forgive me Princess Sparkle, it was my fault.”
“Oh it’s not a problem,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said. “And it’s Princess Twilight Sparkle now that I’ve changed my name.”
Luna raised an eyebrow. “That’s a bit of a mouthful. Permission to call you Princess Twilight for short, Your Majesty?”
“Granted. Oh um, Sombra informed me that the book you gave me on current slang wasn’t actually current. You must not have noticed.”
“Oh for crystal’s sake,” King Sombra grumbled. “You were the one who pranked her, Luna?”
Luna looked away from them to hide her mischievous smirk. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Your Majesties.”
“Very funny,” King Sombra growled. He sighed and smiled again. “So how is your daughter doing? I haven’t heard from her in a while.”
Luna turned around again and smiled. “Moony is doing great! I was just about to go to my bedroom and visit her in her dreams again.”
Princess Twilight’s eyes widened. “Daughter? Luna, you have a daughter? Wow, congratulations! Who is she?”
King Sombra chuckled. “Surely you must have noticed how Nightmare inherited her mother’s good looks.”
Princess Twilight put the clues together and gasped. “No way…Nightmare Moon is your daughter, Luna?” Luna nodded. “What…I…how? When did this happen?”
“As you can imagine, it happened not that long ago,” Luna smiled fondly. “Moony is still a teenager after all, a lot younger than me. She was actually quite a troublemaker when she was a filly. Why else would I name her Nightmare, hmm? But I’m proud to say that she’s grown up wonderfully.”
“Wow. So, um…who’s the father?” Princess Twilight asked.
Luna gave her a mischievous smirk. “Guess.”
“Argh, I’m terrible at guessing,” Princess Twilight grumbled. “Um…is it him?” She pointed at King Sombra.
He raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“Okay um…is it one of the guards?”
This time Luna raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“Who is he then?” Princess Twilight asked the grinning Luna.
“You’ll never guess it!” she sang, doing a little dance.
Princess Twilight rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll find out one of these days. Anyway, Sombra was leading me somewhere so goodnight Luna.”
Luna stopped dancing and her smile faded. “Actually there’s one thing I want to talk to you about in private, Your Highness.”
“Okay.” Princess Twilight followed her into a nearby room that was thankfully empty. King Sombra waited outside as she closed the door. “What did you want to tell me?”
Luna gave Princess Twilight a look. “So Moony has been doing well. Her wings have healed up nicely.” Princess Twilight winced a little but quickly smiled again.
“Right. She said she’d send weekly friendship reports to me, but I haven’t heard from her yet.”
“I believe I heard she only agreed to sending you reports, not that they would be weekly. Maybe she just hasn’t found any problems yet with her new friends.”
“Oh.” Princess Twilight’s ears folded down. “If I was in her place, I’d definitely be having friendship problems.”
“Now don’t say that, you’ll make good friends in time,” Luna smiled. Princess Twilight perked up a little.
Luna suddenly frowned and said, “I wanted to talk to you about what you did as Eternal Twilight.” The princess winced. Did the room feel a bit colder? “Not only did you endanger the Everfree kingdom and everyone in it,” Luna glared at her. “You almost broke my daughter’s wings.”
Princess Twilight gulped and took a step back from the cold yet furious glare Luna was sending her. “Please, you have to understand I wasn’t in control of my actions. I feel horrible about what I did and if I could have done anything different I would have!”
Luna nodded. “I understand,” she said as her light blue hair turned darker. Her body grew a little taller as her mane and tail began to magically flow without wind. “If Moony can agree to be your student; if she can forgive you…I can understand that you didn’t mean to hurt her.”
She leaned closer to Princess Twilight and growled, “Just as you can understand what will happen if you ever hurt her again, even by accident. I don’t care if I get thrown into the dungeons for attacking royalty. If you ever hurt my daughter again, your wings won’t be the only thing I break,” she hissed.
The frightened Princess Twilight recoiled more. Even if she was more powerful than Luna, an angry mother protecting her child was something nobody wanted to fight. “I understand.”
"DO YOU?" Luna shouted at her, her voice blasting into the terrified Twilight’s ears, as icy wind blew through the room.
She cringed and nodded frantically. “Yes! I will never hurt your daughter again! I promise!”
Luna suddenly smiled again. “Thank you,” she said, her mood completely switched back to happy. Her form shrank a little and her hair turned light blue again. “Moony is very excited to be your personal student. I’m sure we’ll all be great friends soon. Goodnight Princess Twilight!” She bowed and walked out of the door, back to her bedroom.
After she had left, Princess Twilight took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves. She sighed deeply and went back out to keep following King Sombra.
“She used the Voice on you, didn’t she?” he said as they walked down the halls.
“Is that what she calls it?” She shivered. “Oh dear, I’m gonna see her in my nightmares tonight, aren’t I?”
“I can imagine. Obviously, I caught that last part of the conversation, but I’m curious as to what caused her to use the Voice. What were you two talking about?”
Princess Twilight thought about her response. She honestly wanted to be friends with Luna and Nightmare Moon, and she didn’t want to get either one of them in trouble. “Oh, you know…just stuff. Nothing to worry about.”
He frowned a little but didn’t press the issue. “Okay, but if whatever it is becomes a problem I wish to be informed. Still, I’d give Luna some space, if I were you,” King Sombra suggested.
“Oh, I will,” she promised. “Is this where you were taking me?” she asked as Sombra brought her into a large room at the end of the hallway.
“Indeed.” A royal guard wearing enchanted armor stepped forward. The stallion brought forward a small doll on a dusty cushion. He then bowed to the king and princess before leaving.
Princess Twilight inspected the doll. “I don’t understand. I returned the river serpent’s doll back to him.”
“I know,” King Sombra said. “This is the original Smarty Pants doll, as in your doll. I had it locked away in the vault. So far, time is the only thing that has damaged it. The castle servants cleaned it the best they could.”
“Miss Smarty Pants!” Princess Twilight hugged the doll tightly, smiling gently.
“That’s not the only thing I brought you here for,” King Sombra said. He pointed a hoof over to two beds where three unicorns slept. On one bed a stallion with a white coat and a blue mane and tail slept. On the larger bed, a blue stallion with a darker blue mane slept next to a grey mare with a purple and white striped mane.
Princess Twilight Sparkle stared at the three ponies in complete shock. “…Sombra, what am I looking at here?”
He smiled gently. “Out of all the ponies in Everfree, none were more worried about you than your family. Your parents mourned for you, treating your banishment as if it were your death, because nobody knew when you would return. Your brother was angry with himself for not being strong enough to protect you from the nightmare you became. They demanded I bring you back and restore the kindness in your heart, but I didn’t have the power to do so. We took a different approach.”
King Sombra held up a tiny crystal fragment that had been lying on the floor in his magic. “Unlike you and I, their magic was not strong enough to prolong their lives. They asked me to freeze and seal them inside crystal chambers and put them into a deep dreamful sleep. In all the years you have been gone, they haven’t aged a day inside those crystals.
“After the Elements had purified you and the celebrations afterward, I undid my spell and released them from the crystal sleep. They’ve been recovering their strength after being frozen so long. To them, only a short time has passed since they saw you turn into Eternal Twilight, over a hundred years ago.”
Princess Twilight was crying again as she stared at her family and processed the king’s explanation. “So…it’s really them? They’re alive? But…they…they wouldn’t leave their friends and their old lives for…me…would they?”
King Sombra placed a hoof on her shoulder. “They’re your family. To them, you mean more than life itself.” He lowered his hoof and walked out of the room. “I’ll leave you alone now, shall I?”
Princess Twilight moved closer to the beds, numerous emotions and thoughts circling her mind. But she didn’t have to wait long to act, as the king’s story had slowly woken up one of the unicorns. Her brother, Shining Armor weakly opened his eyes and stared at the purple alicorn in front of him.
“Shiny?” The princess said, pleading that this was real.
Shining Armor smiled gently. “Sparky…you’re back.” There were only three ponies brave enough to nickname Princess Sparkle like that.
“Shiny!” She cried happily as she hugged and nuzzled her big brother, now little brother after years of being separated by time.
As her mom and dad woke up, Princess Twilight Sparkle hugged them as well, tears of joy falling from her eyes.
Twilight Sparkle hadn’t lost everything, after all.
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D'aww, so nice to see Twilight reunited with her family. I also really like how you have Luna and her relation to Nightmare. Wonder what Luna's job is. Also wonder how Celestia fits into this equation.
No clue to the father. Random guess is... Starswirl? I dunno.
I also really like how she feels things are 'upside down'. Seems she kinda feels she's in an AU...
The father? Hmm...usually I would say Sombra...but.....
Wait! Where's Tirek? And Celestia and Cadance? ...that's what I would like to know!
This is really good especially how it isn't just the unoriginal exact opposite of Equestria especially when it turns out Luna is Nightmare's mother
Makes since that Luna is nightmare's mother because she created her in the tv series.
At the end made sad, so much feels!
Hmm... so Luna, is apparently Nightmare's mother, huh, I like how you rounded that off.
And Twilight says there is something strange about the world, hmm... so this sounds interesting, very much interesting, is this perhaps a twist in the tale where canon Equestria actually exists? Who knows.
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if it isnt sombra then who is it? that mean there's no ship in this!
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I wonder if Daybreaker is Nightmare Moon sister and getting married soon?