• Published 26th Jun 2017
  • 14,237 Views, 980 Comments

Born In Light, Forged In Darkness - Jest



Twilight Sparkle's entrance exam has not gone well, she cannot hatch the dragon egg and in her desperation has begun to panic. Little does she know failure is going to be the least of her worries.

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Interlude One: What Is Lost (R)

Celestia sat hunched in a chair much too small for her godlike proportions, but she did not complain. In fact, she rather enjoyed the change. Every chair she sat on was perfectly sized and had the right density of pillows for her posterior, so it was rather refreshing to be forced into a too-small, too-hard, little chair not meant for her. Plus, it helped her stay focused on what she was about to say to the two parents, who were about to receive the worst news of their lives.

One of her guards, whose name was… Silver Strike? Yes, that was it, poked his head in and leaned towards the princess.

“Are you sure about this, Your Highness? You are going to cut your meeting with the dragon ambassador dangerously close," he offered.

“They will wake in mere moments," Celestia remarked. "I should have more than enough time. That and old Billow’s Breath owes me a favor or five anyway, so he can wait.”

The guard glanced at his partner by the door, who just lifted a silent eyebrow at the young upstart.

“Yes, ma'am," he muttered.

He turned and stood back at attention outside the door.

Celestia glanced out the window, idly noting that the sparse rainclouds she had ordered for the day were where she had asked them to be. There was something about grief and rain clouds that went so well together as if a pony’s mind subconsciously believed that the weather itself should reflect their mood and took solace in the very sky crying with them.

Something stirred and the soft shuffle of thin hospital bedding reached Celestia’s ears. She arched an eyebrow, curious. They shouldn't be ready to wake for another few minutes. Glancing over at the bed, Celestia watched as Twilight Velvet began to shift under the covers, grumbling something and trying to escape the cloth confines.

Gently, Celestia lifted the covers from the mare, placing them low enough for the patient to keep her decency and enough that they were out of the way of her forelegs.

“Ah!” Velvet cried, suddenly sitting bolt upright in her bed.

With wide, panic-stricken eyes she looked around, instantly calming when she saw the ever serene face of their monarch and ruler.

“Be calm, my little pony," Celestia began. "There is no one going to hurt you here. You are in Canterlot General, it's only been a couple of hours and your husband is fine as well.”

She gestured to her right and using her magic pulled back the curtain dividing the two beds.

The mortal mare settled into her bed slightly, letting out a sigh of relief. She lay there, still and quiet for a few moments, gathering her bearings before opening her eyes and speaking.

“When is he going to wake up?” She asked.

“In a few more minutes, the drugs that help with transitioning back into a pony work best when the subject is under, I’m afraid," Celestia explained.

The princess smiled weakly and pointed to the IV still attached to the mare’s right forehoof, same as her husband.

“It wouldn't harm him to wake him up early, would it?” Velvet asked.

Celestia shook her head. That seemed to ease the mare even more.

“Honey, are you there? It’s me, Velvet, it’s time to wake up," whispered the mare in a soft, gentle tone.

Celestia raised an eyebrow but said nothing. The drugs were strong and she doubted Velvet could accomplish anything, but then again, Celestia had already been surprised once already.

Velvet frowned and summoned her magic, using it to tweak the stallion’s nose.

“The souffle is burning," Velvet teased.

Instantly the stallion rocketed up,

“No, not my souffle!” He shouted, drawing an awkward giggle from the two mares.

His startled gaze flitted across the room until it landed on Celestia.

“I’m so sorry, Your Highness," he hastily apologized.

His face burned with embarrassment and he ducked into an awkward sitting bow in an attempt to hide his shame.

“Calm yourself, my little pony, you and your wife have done nothing wrong,” Celestia said with a smile.

His embarrassment vanished and he rose, just now realizing what had happened.

“Where are we?” He inquired.

“Canterlot General, sweetie,” Velvet offered, reaching out with her hoof and taking her husband’s in her grasp.

“Oh, how? Wait. What happened to Twilight?” He asked.

Their hooves gripped each other tighter, memories of the last few moments before becoming potted plants running through their minds.

Celestia sighed and stood up.

“I will get to that in a moment," Celestia began. "First you should be aware of the side effects of your transformation. First, you may have a sudden urge to stand motionless while bathed in sunlight, this is normal and to be expected and there is no harm in a little extra sunbathing while your body gets used to being a pony again. You may also need to watch your water intake as you will have an intense desire to drink far more than you should. Other than that, you should be fine.”

Velvet’s lip curled in annoyance.

“Yes, that's all well and good, but where is my baby?” Velvet pressed.

“Calm down, dear, she was getting to that,” Night Light offered.

“Thank you, Night Light," Celestia replied, turning to Velvet. "I just wanted to get the less important news out of the way first.”

Velvet gripped her husband’s hoof tighter, her limbs tensing as anger began to course through her.

“Yesterday during your daughter’s entrance exam, she was taken by an extraplanar entity of unknown origin," Celestia declared.

“Taken?!” both parents yelled.

“Yes, though we know not which, you have my assurance that I have placed our best minds on it and every expert on the field has been contacted in order to assist in our investigation," Celestia exclaimed. "In the meantime, I would like to extend the use of our staff, the treasury, and as many days off as you two need.”

Celestia’s frown deepened and she stared into the grief-stricken eyes of Twilight’s parents.

“I know this is infinitesimal next to your daughter, but it's all I can offer you at this time," Celestia concluded.

“Well, that's more than what you had to do. Isn't that nice, dear?” Night Light asked, tentatively turning to his still-tense wife.

Velvet released her husband’s hoof and sneered up at the serene alicorn.

“Bullshit," Velvet spat.

Celestia took a step back as if physically struck.

“I’m sorry, what?” Celestia muttered in shock.

“I said bullshit! You know exactly where she went!” Velvet shouted.

The alicorn resisted the urge to roll her eyes and merely sighed.

“If we knew where she was, we would tell you. A tear in the fabric between planes could lead to literally anywhere," Celestia explained.

Velvet tossed aside her blanket, and threw off her husband's hoof.

“No," Velvet defiantly proclaimed. "You are the princess, flares in unicorn children are rare, but you must have seen hundreds in your lifetime. Surely you must have devised a way to track them down if such a thing were to happen.”

“I apologize for my wife, we just need time-” Night Light began.

Celestia raised her hoof, silencing the stallion.

“That's quite alright, Mr. Sparkle," Celestia offered. "Anger is a common emotion in events like this.”

The alicorn turned to the mortal mare.

“Flares are rarer than you realize and rarer still are the ones that are powerful enough to tear apart the planar fabric," Celestia explained. "Why, I could count on all four of my hooves how many times I’ve seen or heard of such a thing happening and I have but one time witnessed it myself before your daughter."

Rather than be defeated, the mare pushed on, getting out of bed and standing on quaking limbs.

“Then you admit it’s happened before,” she exclaimed through clenched teeth, willing away the weakness that plagued her body. “What happened to the others? Did you leave them to rot as well?”

“Honey, please calm down, she is doing everything-” Night Light tried to intervene.

“Tell me, Celestia!” The mare stomped her hoof, partly in anger, partly to try and dismiss the pins and needles that began to haunt her limbs. “Tell me my baby is possibly dead, stars only know where.”

Celestia sighed deeply and ran a hoof down her face.

“Travelling the planes is difficult, yes, but I have been able to retrieve one such unicorn in the past," Celestia began. "But that was an exceedingly rare case amid an already extremely rare set of circumstances.”

Velvet stomped forward, forcing her shaking body to move.

“Where did she go? How did you track her?” Velvet demanded.

“I'm afraid that's classified, if knowledge of how to traverse the planes or what lies beyond the veil ever got out, it would be a disaster. Ninety-five percent of known planes are either overtly or covertly hostile to ponies. Most prove fatal to the traveler within seconds of reaching their destination," Celestia replied.

Celestia gritted her teeth, though it was necessary to be a little harsh, she feared she may laid it on too thick.

Velvet’s quaking hooves stumbled and she fell to the ground, her teeth grinding, but unable to find an outlet for her grief-fueled anger.

“What should we do, Princess?” Night Light asked.

“Hope," Celestia replied simply. "I know it sounds cliched, but it’s far from over and I would urge you to continue living your lives and holding on. When we find her, everything can go back to normal, but only if she still has a home and a loving family waiting for her.”

Celestia smiled weakly. “Other than that, put a little faith in our best mages, I have personally tutored several of them and they will work tirelessly to bring Twilight home safe and sound.”

Night Light’s features softened and he let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. The thought of so many talented ponies and the princess herself all looking was a pleasant one. Despite the context of it all.

Velvet spoke, her gaze not lifting from the ground, her body still trembling with a mixture of many warring emotions, “I have one last question.”

“Yes, Mrs. Sparkle?” Celestia answered, raising an eyebrow at the mare.

“Why were the walls on fire when I came to?”

Celestia’s hoof twitched and she pushed it hard against the ground, hoping no one would notice.

“Magical fire can burn almost anything in existence, it must have been summoned by accident during Twilight’s flare," Celestia answered, the alicorn mixing truth with a small white lie.

The mare snorted and lifted her gaze, meeting Celestia’s eyes and forcing the alicorn to reconsider her less-than-straightforward approach.

“I have seen magical fire and it was nothing like what happened back there!” Velvet retorted.

“Dear, please-” The angry mare spun and glared at the stallion, forcing him to gulp and sit back down.

“Flaring unicorns are sometimes able to construct and cast wholly new spells on the fly, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case," Celestia continued. "We have no idea how or why this happens.”

“What were those strange bodies then?” Velvet demanded, stomping closer to the alicorn. Her weakness rendering the angry stomps to little more than a regular walk. “What manner of creature were they?”

Celestia’s hoof twitched in her golden shoe, but she did not falter. Within her mind, she made a note to the dispel unit about the importance of taking individuals from classified areas before removing the spells cast upon them and allowing them to come to before administering sedative.

“They were imps," Celestia answered.

Velvet’s angry stomping stopped and she glanced at her husband, who merely shrugged.

“Imps?” Velvet asked.

“Yes, minor demons that are called forth by an immense expenditure of mana,” Celestia remarked nonchalantly.

The mortal mare scoffed.

“You expect us to believe there were demons in that room? They are just an old mare’s tale!” Velvet proclaimed.

“They are frighteningly real, though exceedingly rare and nearly impossible to summon to Equestria for reasons I cant get into," Celestia continued.

“Yet they were here, how?” Velvet asked the anger slowly returning to her.

“Like I said, Mrs Sparkle, they were summoned by the mana burst put off by your daughter. Or perhaps even spawned by Twilight herself through a random spell,” Celestia stated. “We cannot know for sure.”

“So you are saying there's a chance that demons took her?”

This time Celestia did roll her eyes.

“I am not saying that, you are," Celestia pointed out.

The alicorn rose to her full height and stared down at the smaller mare, who didn't flinch under the monarch’s intense gaze.

“Did you trade her over to a demon?” Velvet demanded.

Celestia’s serene smile and kind countenance cracked and she gritted her teeth.

“Mrs. Sparkle, I have entertained your paranoia out of respect for what has happened, but you are trying my patience with this line of inquiry. If you would like, you may speak to my top mages, but I’m afraid I have better things to do than sit here and listen to your wild accusations," Celestia stated, the alicorn glaring at each of them in turn. “Now if that’s everything?”

Even Twilight Velvet wilted under the sun’s intense gaze, a slight sweat breaking out along her spine. Before she could regain her composure, Celestia turned to leave without another word but stopped at the door and reconsidered.

“I will send your son in on my way out," Celestia stated. "Last I saw, he had finally been coaxed into eating something in the cafeteria.”

The alicorn took a step but hesitated. I’m sorry. Just say it, damn it, Celestia, say the words. Her lips refused and with regret she walked out the room, leaving one parent confused and the other irate.

The pair sat in silence for nearly a minute, unsure of what to do or what to say.

“I can't believe you would say such a thing! To the princess no less. What were you thinking?” Night Light accused.

The mare wilted and made her way back to the bed.

“I... I… wasn't. I just thought she could be startled into giving us more information,” Velvet gulped and slipped back into bed, unable to face her husband. “She is hiding something.”

“What would she stand to gain from not telling us everything?” Night Light pressed.

“I don't know,” Velvet muttered.

She sunk into her bed and turned towards the wall.

Night Light sighed and tugged her chin with his magic.

“Look at me, dear," he urged.

Reluctantly, she turned to him.

“Even if she might be hiding something, what would it matter? We can't traverse the planes and fight demons and monsters from other worlds," Night Light exclaimed.

“I can't believe you would even say such a thing!” Velvet shouted, the mare yanked her chin from his magic and fixed him with a stern gaze. “It does matter! Even if I can't leave this plane to go look for her, it would still be withholding information from the two ponies, who need to know the most!”

“That's not what I meant. I am just trying to put things into perspective,” he pleaded.

A sudden knock broke them from their argument, making Velvet growl.

“We will talk about this later," Velvet muttered.

Night Light sighed. “Yes, dear.”

After an intense glare, Velvet turned to the door and regained her composure.

“Come in," she offered, her voice returning to normal.

The door creaked open to reveal a rather awkward-looking nurse.

“Is it alright for Shining to come in? I heard yelling," asked the slightly confused new arrival.

Night Light smiled calmly. “Yes, it's fine, just a minor disagreement.”

The nurse smiled and pushed the door open the rest of the way to reveal a pensive Shining Armor. The second he saw his quite alive parents, he gasped and ran to his father’s bed.

“Dad! Mom! You are okay!” He excitedly proclaimed.

He squeezed his father tightly, startling the old stallion with his surprisingly strong grip.

“Oof, careful son, your mother and I are still recovering from being turned into plants," Night Light remarked.

Shining Armor hugged his mother with slightly less enthusiasm, making sure not to hurt her.

“Where's Twily?” He asked, his tone quiet and soft, as if he expected the worst already.

His father winced, while his mother grit her teeth.

“She was taken," Velvet murmured.

“Your sister had an… episode and was foalnapped by a creature from another plane,” Velvet explained.

Night Light shot his wife a dirty, accusatory look, which she merely ignored.

Shining Armor gasped, tears quickly coming to his eyes. He tried mightily to subdue his sadness and choked down his sobs, turning away from his parents. A royal guard wouldn't cry, he thought to himself. He wiped his hoof across his face and sniffed hard.

“It’s going to be okay, the princess will find her and bring her home before you know it,” Night Light proclaimed.

The stallion patted the bed and scootched over.

“Come here, little Armor," he offered.

The teen sniffed and shuffled over to the bed.

“I’m not little,” he said with all the indignation he could muster.

“You are right, you are a big, tough royal guard, who doesn't let anything get him down," Night Light exclaimed.

The colt jumped up and sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at his dangling hooves. Night Light looked over at his wife pleadingly, indicating their son with a tilt of his head.

“Why don't we go out for supper? Are you hungry, Shining?” Velvet asked.

“Sorta. They had some waffles in the cafeteria, but they made me think of Twily,” the colt muttered, pausing to snif miserably.

“Let's get out of this stuffy hospital and go to that place on third with that weird name that you liked," Night Light offered.

The stallion then hopped off the bed, stumbling for only a few seconds before regaining his bearings.

“You mean Chateau Blue? I thought you said that was too expensive,” Shining offered, hopping down as well.

Velvet followed suit.

“Well, Celestia did say we had access to the treasury…” Velvet remarked.

Shining Armor stopped abruptly and with a guilty whisper asked, “Are you sure the princess would be okay with spending all her bits on pizza?”

Velvet blew a raspberry and shrugged.

“Who cares," she mocked.

Shining Armor and Night Light shared a pensive look before quickly trotting to catch up with Velvet’s quick pace.


Night Light sighed wearily and stepped through the entryway to his house, over the small mountain of letters that lay undisturbed for several days. His gaze lingered on the many tiny slips of paper and, though a part of him was tempted to look, the rest of him didn't want to be reminded again and so he passed them by without another thought.

He turned and made sure to firmly close the door before activating the deadbolt and dropping the freshly installed bar over the door. He wasn't sure why he even bothered with the deadbolt when Velvet had insisted on installing an enormous bar across the inside of the door. Sure, he had talked her down from the nearly foot-wide oak bar she had chosen, electing for a slicker-looking dark wood that at least didn't clash with the door, but it still was quite off-putting, to say the least.

He hardly even noticed the hum as the protective wards Velvet had placed upon the entrance activated. He slowly lumbered into the large room that housed the living and dining room and noticed that his son sat at the dinner table, reading an enormous tome of a book that was easily larger than anything else the colt had tried to read.

He raised an eyebrow at that and trotted up to the colt.

“What are you reading?” Night Light inquired.

“One of Twily’s advanced magic books. Celestia let me keep all of her textbooks at home,” he replied, without looking up.

“Why did you ask that, wouldn't they be safer with the princess?” Night Light asked.

“Twilight is going to need someone to tutor her on her lessons if she is going to keep up,” Shining Armor stated.

The colt tilted the book up, blocking his view from his father and signaling the end of the conversation.

Night Light frowned and made his way to the kitchen. Shining Armor had grown headstrong over the last few weeks and though he had taken to his father’s advice of hope, he had done so with such a naive intensity that Night Light couldn't help but think it might be unhealthy. The colt had abandoned most of his friends in an attempt to learn as much as he could about becoming a royal guard while also trying to learn Twilight’s admittedly vastly more advanced magical textbooks.

Night Light shook it off and poured himself a cup of orange juice and after a quick glance around the corner to where Shining still sat, he swiftly pulled out one of his secret flasks and added a dollop to his juice, then shrugged and added a second.

Today had been particularly difficult, with the kind words and offers of assistance having slowly disappeared, replaced by a strange self-serving interest that disgusted the stallion. The ponies that spoke to him of condolences had already given up hope on Twilight, he could hear it in their voices. They weren't there to truly offer condolences or sincere offerings of help, but were more like crime scene vultures, the disturbed and the strange, hoping for a glimpse of carnage or the haunted expression of a broken pony.

They disgusted the stallion to no end, with their callousness, their perversity, and worst of all, the bizarre satisfaction they took from the interaction. He dropped his cup into a steadily growing pile of dirty dishes, shrugging at the slowly growing mountain of ceramics. The maid Celestia sent over every Wednesday would complain, but he couldn't muster the effort to make her job any easier.

He could feel the soft burn of the alcohol in his throat, soothing his aches and pains as it slipped into his belly. The booze was nice and certainly took the edge off, but if he truly wanted to relax, he had but one last thing to do. He glanced up at the stairs and sighed deeply, he would have to go talk to his wife, something that had grown more difficult as time passed and her obsession grew.

He reached out and grabbed the letter he had set aside yesterday when he hadn't had the nerve. Now, he had to do something, Celestia’s emissary had grown impatient and had even threatened to cut assistance. He knew it was a bluff, one that Celestia herself would never follow through with, but it had been enough to jar the stallion out of his growing numbness and give him the courage to climb those dreaded steps.

One hoof followed the other and soon enough he found himself at the second story, home to his office, and his children... err, child’s room. He turned at the landing, noting the steep stairs that went up to the now frequently used third floor that had become his wife’s study. No, ‘study’ wasn't the right word, ‘laboratory’ was much more fitting.

The wood creaked beneath his hooves and he winced, not sure if his hoof was about to fall through or not. Hastily climbing the rest of the stairs, he made sure to duck his head when he reached the top. The third story had been intended as a child’s room, but the original owners had run out of money and the Sparkle family had not had the bits necessary to make it anything less than an infrequently used attic with exposed studs and a single grimy window overlooking the street in front of their house.

All around him was the clutter from Velvet’s many experiments and study materials. The original junk that had cluttered the attic had been moved out only a week ago, stuffed into Twilight’s now slowly filling room. Gone were the Hearth’s Warming decorations packed to the rafters, gone too were the baby pictures and mementos, all put into old cases of various sizes.

In their place were various piles of alchemical ingredients, spell components, and books. Oh, so many books the likes of which Night Light had never even heard of before. Titles both mundane and bizarre jumped out at him, within one pile were several books on the history of famous magical mirrors and ones with great long titles that Night Light presumed were from some sort of medical journal or a transcribed scroll of ancient origin.

Amidst the chaos sat the mare herself, her back facing the stallion, intently staring at something in her hooves that he could just barely see. Mad scrawlings and notes littered the floor around her and she clutched a strange red letter in her hooves, an odd even deeper red seal with a black hammer on it.

“Hey, honey," Night Light greeted.

The words felt forced and sounded worse. It wasn't that he didn't love her, but she had rapidly changed since Twilight’s disappearance, her obsession consuming more and more of the mare he had fallen in love with.

Her eyes went wide and she tucked the red letter into a stack of papers, causing the entire precarious tower to topple into a heap. She didn't seem to notice or care and turned to her husband, smiling widely at him.

“Hey, handsome. Do you need something?” She offered.

No ‘how was your day?’, no ‘how is Shining doing?’, no inevitable request for him to make supper once again. Night Light pushed the accusatory thought from his mind, his wife had changed, but he would always stand by her, in sickness or in health.

“Yeah, I was hoping you would know why the crown was billed for over four thousand bits for uh…” He began, pausing to peer down at the open letter in his hoof. “Services Rendered, to be paid to a one Maul and co.”

Velvet gulped and pushed a small pile of notes and news snippets off to the side.

"That was for a rare book I had been looking for. Mister Maul is facilitating its delivery," Velvet answered.

The stallion raised an eyebrow.

“And that cost four thousand four hundred bits?” He pressed.

“It is a very rare book," Velvet stressed.

Night Light sighed.

“You can't keep charging everything to the princess. She is going to look into your spending soon enough. You also got another letter from the editor, he said you still have not sent back the second draft of some Daring book?” Night Light inquired.

Velvet snorted quite unladylike.

"That book was trash, so I put it where it belongs and Celestia owes us.” Velvet proclaimed with a sneer. “Or did you forget what she took from us?”

Night Light should be hurt, shocked, and annoyed, but he didn't have the patience for such taxing emotions.

“I know as well as you do what happened to Twilight. Besides, Quick Quill threatened to pull any assistance if there were any more…. anomalies billed to the crown," Night Light answered.

The mare settled back slightly, some of the anger blowing out of her.

“It won't happen again." Velvet replied.

Night Light blinked, that had been surprisingly easy, he thought to himself.

"Thanks, say, what book did you order-” Night Light began, only to be cut off.

“Hey, I’m getting pretty hungry. Did you want to order in again?” Velvet asked.

“Uh, sure. I’ll call it in, the usual for you?” Night Light replied.

She nodded and he made his way back towards the stairs.

“Okay, but this isn't over. Tonight we are going to talk about this book, okay?” Night Light stressed.

She smiled fakely.

“Of course, honey," she answered.

That night Twilight Velvet did not return to bed.

Author's Note:

Edited by the Everwonderful, EverFreePony!

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