Arranging Playdates
“You wish for me to make ... friends?” Midnight said the last word slowly, as though trying to sound it out for the first time. She pressed her lips together as she considered the idea. “Why?”
I kept up my hopeful smile. It was the day after Princess Celestia’s visit, and after some planning and scheduling, I’d made some arrangements to help Midnight make some friends. Of course, it would help if I could get Midnight on board with the idea. Thus why I was speaking with her in the library before some of my other arrangements showed up.
Thankfully, in my preparations I had several answers ready for any questions she was likely to answer, complete with conversational outlines I’d drawn out the previous night. “Because making friends is really important. Friends make life more enjoyable, and also make you a better pony. Spending time and doing things with your friends can be a lot of fun. Not to mention there are several health benefits to having friends, thanks to reduced stress and the fact ponies are inherently social creatures.”
Midnight frowned and took time to think before replying. “Is this about making alliances? Mother always said that ‘tis important to interact with others for the purposes of making important allies who might be of use in the future. ‘Tis why she often engaged in, um...” Her face grew flush as she hesitated to continue. “Relations with others, from time to time.”
“No!” I shook my head. “No, we’re not talking about anything like that.” I’d nearly forgotten how some of Midnight’s more old-fashioned ideas might be a barrier her making friends. Back in the day when marriage alliances had been more prominent, who made friends with one another could have wider implications among the elite of society. But that wasn’t what I wanted for Midnight here. I just wanted her to have some friends she could enjoy the company of for its own sake.
Midnight’s head tilted to the side. “Then what are you speaking of?”
I placed my hoof on her shoulder. “I mean I want you to make some friends while you’re here. Not to make any alliances or anything like that, but just to have some friends whose company you enjoy just to have fun.”
Once against Midnight fell silent. “Can I not spent my time doing something else?” She stepped up to a nearby bookshelf and started looking over the titles of the books. “There are several books here that I am interested in reading. Would not reading up on the magic of this day and age be of more use to me?”
“No! Nononono!” I cried as Midnight started pulling down Star Sapphires’ Specialized Study on Spherical Spellcraft and Star Singularities. I pressed a hoof against the book to push it back into place. “You can’t do that, you might change the future by doing that.”
Midnight blinked slowly. “And? Would that be so terrible? Aye, your present might be irrevocably changed and cease to exist as several innovations in magic are introduced long before they were supposed to be invented, making your existence less than dust in a pitiless and uncaring universe that knows nothing of the struggles of little ponies and their minute struggles of survival, but Equestria might greatly benefit from me learning all that I can while I am here. I could learn much about your magic and other knowledge that could help ponies, and allow the ponies of your present to know even more as further developments are made. What inventions like your trains and internal plumbing might be improved up with nine centuries of advancements?”
I groaned and pressed my hoof to my face. This was not the direction I wanted this conversation to go. “That’s assuming everything would work out the way you think it would. You could easily create some sort of time paradox doing something like that. How will you learn about modern inventions if those developments have changed because of what you brought into the past? Would you try and bring even greater inventions from the future into the past? It’s a huge mess to causality.”
Midnight hummed to herself. “Mayhaps. Though perhaps—”
“I’m just going to have to say no to that,” I told her. “Whatever scheme you might come up with, it’s just going to be no. Celestia doesn’t want to change the past and future, and neither do I.”
“But reading these books about magic could help me become a great magus,” Midnight stubbornly insisted. “I hardly think ‘twould be so terrible if I used such knowledge to help ponies. I have nothing but good intentions.”
That was up to debate when I could tell that one of her motivations was to become a great magus for her own sake, even if she would probably help ponies in the process. That’s not even taking into account what would happen if Sunbeam got ahold of some of the knowledge. Ugh, this could quickly become a mess. No wonder Celestia had suggested distracting Midnight by helping her make some friends. There were just too many ways my many times over grandmother could get into trouble if she were left to her own devices. Best to push this conversation back onto the rails of what I’d planned for.
“Look, I know you would like to learn about things in the present, but that’s just going to be a bad idea.” I wrapped a wing around Midnight to guide her away from the potentially time warping books and the temptations they represented. “Let’s just concentrate on making you some friends in the meantime. Trust me, you’ll be happy that you did.”
“Could that not also change the future?” Midnight asked in a tone that made me pretty sure she was just asking it to cause me consternation. “Anything I experience could irrevocably change the past, neigh?”
“Celestia said it would be okay,” I assured her. “We’re going on the assumption we’re dealing with some sort of closed time loop, and that this shouldn’t be a problem.” Or at least I dearly hoped that Celestia knew what she was talking about. The consequences if she was wrong... best not to think about it too hard. I could panic about changing history when I wasn’t trying to convince Midnight to do what I wanted her to.
Midnight let out a long sigh. “Very well. If I am not to be allowed to study—which strikes me as a missed opportunity considering we are in library—then what do you intend for me to do?”
“Nothing too complicated.” I guided her to a table and the two of us sat down. “I’ve arranged for you to get it spend some time with some playmates. There are some fillies your own age around here who I’m sure you’ll get along great with.”
Midnight frowned. “And who are these other children?”
“I’ll introduce you once they arrive.” I glanced at the clock. “Which shouldn’t be too long from now. Though first there’s couple things I wanted to discuss with you.”
“What about?”
I recalled the list I had produced the previous list. “First is that I’m planning on introducing you as my cousin from Vanhoover.”
Midnight’s head tilted to the side. “Why? We are not cousins. That would be a lie.”
“Because I’d prefer if we could avoid any complications that could come up if they found out the truth. Not to mention I think it’d be easier for them to treat you as another filly their age if they didn’t have to wrap their heads around the fact that you’re my many times great grandmother.” That didn’t even get into all the types of trouble they might get into if they knew Midnight was from the past. The girls might very well get it into their heads to do something like send five bits apiece back into the past with Midnight with the intention of having Midnight open bank accounts for each of them. With nine centuries worth of accumulated interest that could turn into a tidy little sum of bits, at least by the standards of a few school-age children. But who knew where that could lead, and that was one of the more benign thinks they could try and pull off. Best to prevent them from getting ideas like those in the first place.
Midnight’s frown deepened. “Should an adult really be encouraging a child my age to lie? Much less the Princess or Friendship? I have heard that a friendship based on a lie is building a foundation on a swamp.”
My ear flicked and I had to put effort into not scraping my hoof on the ground. Technically Midnight was correct, but the pros outweighed the cons on this particular instance. But yeah, she was right. I’d read that Midnight could be extremely stubborn when she put her mind to it, but it was quite different to go from reading about it to bashing my head against that wall of stubborness.
“Well, um, it’s just that telling ponies you’re from the past could have some disastrous consequences. There’s no telling what ponies would do if they found out. I can’t see anything good coming of it.” I didn’t exactly want to bring this next point, because I didn’t want to worry Midnight, but considering she was digging in her heels it seemed best to make sure she knew that she needed to agree with me. “For example, I don’t want any of Equestria’s enemies to find out you’re here. There are a lot of immortal beings who have been around since before even you were born, and a few of them might try and take advantage of this situation. That’s something that would be really bad for all of us, and the last thing I want to happen is for you to get hurt because some ancient evil or monster wants to change the past to benefit them in the present.”
Midnight blinked owlishly as she processed that information. “Ah. Yes, that would be unsettling if I were kidnapped again by some terrible monster to further their schemes to destroy Equestria.”
I couldn’t help but let out a relieved breath. “Good. Though to keep up the disguise that also means you’re going to need to talk like the ponies of the present. So no thous, or words like ‘tis.”
Midnight pressed her lips together. “I still do not know why the modern tongue has done away with thou. ‘Tis useful to distinguish between ponies of different station and to express familiarity.”
This was not an argument I wanted to get into as I noted the seconds tick closer to Midnight’s playdate. “Be that as it may, that’s just how things are. So if you could just go along with doing your best to copy how everyone talks now I’d really appreciate it.”
Midnight let out a melodramatic sigh and her eyes rolled towards the ceiling. “Very well, I will do as you request.”
“Thank you, I really appreciate your cooperation.” Even if it felt like I was pulling teeth to get it, but we were getting there, and it would all be worth it in the end. I was sure once Midnight got some time with her new friends she would see that she enjoyed it, and go along with the idea. It was just a matter of pushing the boulder to the top of the hill before I could let momentum take its course.
A knock on the door brought me out of my thoughts. I slowly turned in the direction of my front door, part of me wishing that I didn’t have to do this. Sure, it would be great for Midnight to make some friends, but at the same time, I didn’t know what would happen. If I was being honest, the odds of Midnight not botching our cover story were rather low. Still, Princess Celestia had suggested this, and she knew what she was doing, right?
Right?
I took a deep breath and walked up to my door. I opened it up and saw Applejack smiling at me, surrounded by the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I forced a smile on my own face and pulled Applejack in for an awkward hug.
“So good to see you, Applejack,” I said. “And thanks for doing this.”
“No problem,” Applejack replied, tipping her hat to me. “Always willing ta help a friend out, and if mah sister and her friends can make a new friend themselves then so much the better. Although, uh...” Applejack grimaced and motioned outside. “You got a bit of a raven problem out there.”
I sighed and facehooved. “Yeah, I know. I’ve had a few of them around the library today.”
“Um... it’s kinda more than a few of them, Twilight,” Apple Bloom said.
“Yeah.” Scootaloo grinned uneasily. “Like, a lot more.”
“Great,” I said through gritted teeth as I pushed past the four of them. “How many more of theeeeaaaaaaa!”
Oh dear.
Instead of the half dozen ravens that I’d seen earlier, every single branch of my library home was completely overtaken by ravens. I had no doubt that if I was seeing the library from far away, the top of the tree would appear to just be a solid black mass. The ravens for the most part didn’t even move. One or two of them looked down at me with some mild interest, but for the most part they just sat there. Unmoving. Not doing anything. I could see an occasional flutter of a wing and one or two of them would snap at another, but that was it.
If I had nightmares, I knew what would cause it. I walked back into the library and tried to push the thoughts of hundreds of unnervingly smart birds making my library into their new home. I reminded myself to check that all of the windows were locked.
“Well, I can deal with that... later, I guess. Yeah, a bit later.”
“Uh, can it be sooner than later, Twi?” Applejack looked up at the mass of birds and grimaced. “They’re gonna get hungry soon, and when they decide that they wanna eat, there’s only one good place for them ta find food.”
My ear flicked at the implications of that. I mentally added ‘find spell that will repel ravens from crops’ to my ever-growing list of things to do today. I didn’t want this mess to negatively impact Applejack.
“In any case, thanks fer takin’ the girls today. It’ll be nice for them to meet new ponies.”
“And it’ll be great for my cousin to make some new friends, too.” I stepped aside and let the four of them come in. I glanced back and saw that Midnight had walked up to us, and I motioned to her. “Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, this is Midnight. She’s my cousin from Vanhoover.”
In a move I should have seen coming, the three fillies zipped over to Midnight as if they were all magnets. She flinched back and probably would have bolted if it weren’t for the fact that her back was to the wall. Thankfully she didn’t have some instinct that would cause her to go on the defensive, or if she did, she suppressed it.
“Well howdy do there, Midnight!” Apple Bloom said, sticking her hoof out for Midnight to shake. “Ah’m Apple Bloom!”
“I’m Sweetie Belle!”
“I’m Scootaloo! And we’re the--”
“Cutie Mark Crusaders!” all three of them said at once.
Midnight just stared at them, totally unblinking. She looked at each of them in turn before slowly inching away from the three of them.
“Um... hello.”
Well that could have gone worse, I suppose.
“So you’re from Vanhoover?” Sweetie Belle asked. “That’s so cool! My sister is thinking of opening up a shop there.”
“Um...” Midnight slowly nodded. “Good.”
“Yeah! She was thinking about a few spots.” Sweetie’s expression brightened a bit more. “Hey, since you’re from there, give me your opinion! Where’s the best place for my sister to put her shop?”
Midnight gave me a quick, helpless glanced before turning back to Sweetie Belle. “Mayhaps she could... put it where business might be best?”
“Well yeah, that’s a given,” Scootaloo said with a wave of her hoof. “But I’m sure you’ve been shopping there with your parents or your friends a few times. Where’s the busiest place? There’s a dress district, right?”
“...Yes?”
“Alright girls, I think we shouldn’t ask too much about that,” I said, exchanging an uneasy glance with Applejack. “How about I get you girls some cookies?” That immediately caught their attention. Thankfully, I’d made some arrangements for cookies. “Just give me a minute and then we’ll go get some.”
I turned back to Applejack. “Thanks for helping me out. I’ll try to keep the ravens from your farm. Although, if you have any spare bags of corn in your barn or something, I’d be happy to buy them from you. We could, um, kill two birds with one stone, as it were.”
Applejack chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, Ah think Ah have some bags lyin’ around. Ah’d be happy ta bring ‘em over later.”
Good. That was one less thing I had to worry about, then. Whether it would mean that more ravens would come to my tree, I didn’t know, but for the moment I had a solution for the ones that were there. I was going to need to talk with Fluttershy later about if she could do anything to fix that problem. Having my home infested with ravens was definitely not natural.
After a hug goodbye, I went into the kitchen where the fillies, including Dinky, who had been in the kitchen helping Spike, were sitting at the table, animatedly chattering with each other and eating cookies. Or rather, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Dinky were chattering. Midnight was sitting there and occasionally nodding to something that they would say. Thankfully Spike had made some actual edible cookies, so the girls wouldn’t be killed by Midnight’s attempts at making food. That would definitely be getting things off to the wrong hoof. Or maybe that would give Midnight and Sweetie something in common? Friendships could be weird like that.
Each of the fillies thanked Spike when he delivered the cookies onto the table, and each of them took one to eat. For a moment I thought thing might be alright, but then I realized I had made a terrible oversight when a question was asked.
“So how do ya get yer cutie mark, Midnight?” Apple Bloom craned her neck so that she could get a good look at her at her snowflake cutie mark.
“Why dost th-you want to know?” Midnight asked.
“Because we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Sweetie said as she snatched up another cookie. “We’re trying to get out cutie marks, and so we like to ask ponies how they go theirs.”
Midnight glanced as their blank flanks. “It seems you have failed in your quest thus far.”
Apple Bloom groaned with frustration. “It’s a work in progress. Sooner or later we’ll find our special talents. Just you see.”
Scootaloo nodded enthusiastically. “So what’s your special talent, already? Are you a champion snowball thrower? Snowboarder?”
“Or maybe you’re really good at making snowponies?” Sweetie asked over as Midnight as she tried to tell them, eliciting a scowl from Midnight. “Oooh! Or making snowflakes?”
“Nah, those would be boring,” Scootaloo dismissed as she chomped down on a cookie. “Making a snowfort would be way cooler than making some dopey snowpony.”
“Aw, but I like making snowponies,” Dinky pouted. “They’re really fun to make with your friends and big sister. And afterwards you get to snuggle up with your family with hot chocolate by the fire.”
Scootaloo frowned as she was faced by this cute logic. “Maybe. But who’d want to only be able to use their cutie mark for, like, a fourth of the year? That seems like a big waste. Unless you want to move all the way to the Crystal Empire where it’s always snowing.”
Apple Bloom rushed to finish chewing her cookie so she could add to the conversation. “Maybe her special talent is something else? Like snow magic? She is Twilight’s cousin, after all. It’d make sense if she was good at magic. So which is it, Middy?”
Midnight frowned deeply. “Middy?”
Apple Bloom nodded. “Yeah, it’s short for Midnight. Right? Haven’t you ever gotten a nickname?”
“No.”
“Don’t get distracted!” Scootaloo slammed her hoof on the table, and upon seeing me frown at her being rough with my furniture, smiled apologetically before turning back to Midnight. “So how’d you get your cutie mark already?”
I cleared my throat, trying to interrupt before they could push anymore. Midnight’s cutie mark story was a bit ... sensitive, we’ll say. Not to mention it would be a pretty big hint that she wasn’t just some normal little filly. “Now girls, that can be a really personal question. If Midnight doesn’t want to answer quite yet when she’s only met you she can—”
Before I could head off a potentially awkward conversation, Midnight spoke. “I got my cutie mark when I was kidnapped by warlocks most foul who intended to sacrifice me to their dark goddess so that she could be empowered to overthrow all of Equestria and bring about and evil reign that would cause all ponies to know nothing by tyranny and despair. It was as they were about to plunge a dagger in my heart that my magic welled up and unleashed itself in a chaotic display of destruction that smote all the foul warlocks around me with ice and darkness, their pitiful cries for mercy consumed in an impenetrable.” She blinked slowly. “I would not recommend trying it for yourselves.”
Silent hanged in the dining room as everypony stared at Midnight. She just had to open up with that specific nugget about her history. Eventually Apple Bloom broke the silence. “Wait? What?”
I quickly dive in to save the situation. I forced out a laugh. “Midnight, I know you’re just joking, but that wasn’t very funny.”
Midnight’s ear twitched. “No, that it the tru—“
Now wasn’t the time for her to correct me, so I interrupted her. “We both know that you got your cutie mark when you practiced some cyromancy and were really good at it.” I shot her a meaningful stare. “Riiight?”
Midnight frowned back at me. “That is technically true.”
Sweetie glanced between us. “Um, okay. So, I guess it’s pretty cool that you’re good with, um, what was that word again?”
“Cyromancy,” I repeated. “That means ice or cold magic.”
“Right, that.” Sweetie puckered out her lips. “I don’t suppose you could try and teach me a bit? A snowflake cutie mark would be kinda pretty.”
“How much magic do you know?” Midnight asked.
“Um.” Sweetie squirmed in her seat. “Not much, yet.”
“I’m working with her on that,” I said, patting Sweetie’s back. “In fact, I’ve been giving lessons to all the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”
Midnight tilted her head of the side. “Is that really the best use of a princess’ time?”
My ear twitched as she brought this topic up again. Midnight sure did like to criticize how I did things, but I wasn’t about to let that derail me. “Every princess does things different Midnight. But anyways, I was hoping you would all get to spend some time together.”
“Though probably not much crusading this time.” Scootaloo let out an annoyed huff. “Not like Apple Bloom or I can learn about ice magic.”
“There’s still plenty of things you can do together,” I assured them. “It’d be nice if you could play together and get to know one another. If you need any suggestions I’ve got a list prepared.”
Dinky smiles up at me. “Is it a really fun list of fun?”
“That’s the idea.” I magically summoned the scroll that listed out different activities a few fillies could do together. “Want to see it?”
Scootaloo groaned. “Ugh, I think we can figure out how to play by ourselves.”
“So what do you do fer fun, Middy?” Apple Bloom asked with a wide smile. “There’s bound to be plenty of fun things you do in Vanhoover.”
Midnight considered this for a moment. “I read.”
When Midnight didn’t offer up anything else, Sweetie asked, “And what else? What do you do with your friends?”
Midnight glanced over at me, and I gave her another meaningful look. She bit her lip and turned back to the Crusaders. “My friends and I like... painting things. I have a collection of...” I put my hoof on her shoulder. “Different things painted pink.”
“Ooh, like what?” Dinky asked.
“Skulls of animals I find,” Midnight said. “Or what skulls my mother will buy me.”
Dang it.
“Midnight, there’s that dark humor again,” I said with another forced laugh. I couldn’t miss the uncomfortable looks the other fillies were exchanging. I needed to salvage the situation. “Don’t worry, girls, she’s just kidding.”
“Yes, I am. Kidding.” Midnight nodded. “In truth I prefer to paint... rocks. It helps while away the hours when I have completed my studies and there is little to do.”
Sweetie raised an eyebrow. “Does everypony in Vanhoover like you?”
Sensing that things were starting to spin out of control, I stepped in for a course correction. “You know what I think you should do? I think you should show Midnight the type of games you play in Ponyville. You always seem to be having fun when you have time off.”
“Yeah, I guess we could do that,” Scootaloo said with a frown, not sounding convinced by the idea.
“Sure!” Dinky said much more enthusiastically before snatching up another cookie. “We could play tag, or hoofball, or beanbag toss, or house, or boardgames, or lotsa things!”
“I’m sure Midnight would really appreciate it.” I placed a hoof on Midnight’s shoulder. “Wouldn’t you?”
Midnight pressed her lips together as she stared up at me. I gave her my best encouraging smile, and she sighed. “I can see what it’s like.”
Apple Bloom smiled. “Don’t you worry, we’ll show ya some good old Ponyville hospitality. Then maybe you can help us try and find our cutie marks later.”
Midnight hummed contemplatively. “Yes, I could try this.” Somewhat to my surprise, her lips spread into a wide smile that made everypony around the table shiver and look away. “And after we have some fun, I have some ideas for things we could try that might earn you your cutie marks,” she declared as she tapped her forehooves together.
Why did she have to sound like a super villain when she said that?
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Should be Cryomancy. Happens a couple of times.
It LIVES!
Okay Twilight... if you had to step in and VERY BADLY cover for her twice in the first thirty seconds, I don't think your plan of having her lie about herself is going to fly.
9393112
Well, did Middy ever strike you as a pony who could lie well?
Oh dear.....this sounds like Equestria is going to have some real trouble....
There's nothing wrong with reading. And sometimes people prefer to be alone. Pinkie learned that lesson with Cranky.
I'm sorry Twilight, but it feels more like instead of letting Midnight make friends at a pace she feels comfortable with, you're forcing it onto her.
Twilight, your plan hinges on Midnight’s ability to pass as a somewhat normal filly. This is a fundamental flaw in your plan.
9393456
Yea Middy is not even ticking the somewhat abnormal box, not even thinking about it.
I'm surprised that Midnight didn't use the obvious argument: Since Twilight still exists, Midnight must have returned to her own time, which makes any attempt to create friendships in Twilight's time pointless.
Twi' is also not making a good showing as Princess of Friendship here ... seriously, trying to force someone to make friends when they are clearly uninterested? Telling them to build those friendships on lies?
Uhm. Working off the assumption that the investment doubles every decade (which is fairly conservative as an investment I made just before the economic fiasco in 2008 more than doubled in the decade after and if you consider the effect of compound interest at around 7% a year) within two centuries those five bits become stupidly large numbers such that my calculator begins using scientific/exponential notation to display them.
By the time the ninth century rolls around, you'd have more bits than grains of sand in all the seas of the world.
They wouldn't just break the economy. They'd own everything.
Start your 401(k) early, kids. You won't regret it later!!
9393703
Ravens are amazing creatures. I've heard stories that people have trained them to bring them money for treats, they apparently are even smart enough to understand the difference in money and bring you higher bills for more treats (and in one case actually kept larger bills stashed for when they were unable to find food.)
Yeah, this could be going a lot better. Methinks Celestia's trying to reshape the timeline to suit her own ends, or at least try for a second chance with Midnight. Hopefully she opens up with the Crusaders. This could be good for her... or it could result in the Great Unkindness stripping Ponyville down to its frozen bones. We'll see what happens.
And there remains the question of what happens if Midnight ever encounters Luna...
Also, if Midnight and Sweetie tried cooking something together, would it be capable of killing immortals, or would it loop back around to surprisingly edible?
9393625
Yeah, we do seem to be working with parallel timelines. Well, that or a Back to the Future style delayed ripple effect. Or the change won't hit until after Midnight returns to her native time. The problem is there's no way to know for certain that doesn't run the risk of rendering the local reality unrecognizable.
Twi, this was a bad idea, but since it iriginated from Celestia not surprised.
9394008 Rule of Funny says such a meal would be almost sublimely delicious
It is so good to see another chapter of this out, it will be interesting to see what happens next and how much trouble the CMC cause this time.
Put me as well down as a vote for Midnight telling them the truth. They're the Cutie Mark Crusaders (and Dinky). They've seen weirder.
I'm wondering what happens when she finds out Discord is running around.
Midnight's abnormalities have always been obvious (and hilarious), but they stand out all the more when you put her right next to children her age who weren't raised by Sunbeam Sparkle.
Trust me, I understand Twilight's reticence, but I firmly believe that lying is at best a lazy way of getting out of a situation. Truth, plus a real explanation, and perhaps some other well-placed words always ends up working better in the end.
After all, everything hidden will eventually be revealed (especially when narrative logic is in place).
9436582
The best way to lie is to tell the truth. Carefully edited truth but truth none the less.
Edit: After all, in the garden Satan didn't outright lie to Eve, he twisted the truth. Don't mind the religious example btw, it's just one of the most well known things I could point to.
Or when you and Spike have to stop an outraged unicorn who managed to piece together an ancient spell (where'd she find it?) in order to prevent the Sonic Rainboom from ever happening.
Either 'when' works, really.