Tales from the Second Age of Magic

by VeganSpyro97

Chapter 14: Days of Youth

“Mama.”

The entire room went still as a tiny, piping voice called out from on the floor, it’s owner surrounded by plush toys and building blocks, many with fang marks on them. Little Crystal Aster was sitting amid a veritable treasure horde of plush toys, many of them being hand-me-downs from Fluttershy, who had kept many of her old toys, simply out of fondness for them. The only toy that wasn’t a hand-me-down, was the toy that Crystal considered her favourite. The Chrysalis plush that Fluttershy had knitted for her. It sat beside the little Changeling as she stared up at the shellshocked adults.

In the recent days, with all the planning that had to take place between now and the wedding, for the girls to all meet up at the Shy-Thunder household, and hang out there.

As such, the first word of Crystal Aster was heard by no less than the entire family, and three of their friends.

“Did she just say mama?” Fluttershy asked, voice shaking in excitement and joy.

“She did!” Rainbow cheered, jumping off the couch and flying right over to the infant with a big grin plastered all over her muzzle. “Who’s a smart filly? Bet you can say my name, can’t ya? Come on, say Rainbow Dash!”

“Pipe down, Rainbow.” Rarity called out, putting her design covered sketch pad on the arm of the chair she was lounging on. “I doubt that Crystal is going to start spouting off enormous numbers of words in just a few minutes.”

“Actually, Rare, Thorax told me that Changeling’s linguistic advancement is incredibly fast. She could be speaking in half sentences by tonight.” Static explained, waving an envelope next to her head. “And probably full sentences in a month or two.”

Crystal looked up at Static with a furrowed brow, concentrated for a moment, and then cheerfully chirped up at her. “Mama Stata.”

“See? She’s already testing out words she remembers hearing. She’ll get it in a minute, watch.” Static grinned, laying down in front of her daughter, her face contorted into one of goofy happiness. “You’re a smart girl, aren’t you? Yes, you are! Yes, you are!!” Static cooed, prompting Dash to grimace and mime throwing up.

Rarity hit the blue Pegasus with a pillow for that particular transgression.

“Mama Stati.” Crystal tried again, pursing her lips in irritation at the words not coming out right. “Mama Satti...Mama Starstar…” The little nymph made a grumpy frown and crossed her forelegs, eyes fixed on the end of her muzzle as she made her repeated attempts to say Static’s name. “Mama Stat….Stat…..tic. Mama Static.”

Static’s eyes were wide, glistening and full of a huge explosion of joy. “She said my name!!! She said my name!!!” Static started hopping up and down in delight, bouncing around her chair, repeating the phrase over and over again.

Crystal turned to look at Fluttershy, who gazed down at her hopefully.

“Mama Fluty….Flut…Flitty….Flut….” Crystal’s face scrunched up again, as she glared down at her pony “Mama Flit….Flutty…...Fluter…..”

Fluttershy leaned in closer, nodding encouragingly. “You’ve almost got it sweetie. You’re almost there.”

“Mama….Shee…..Mama Shaaa….” Crystal frowned, shaking her head in frustration. “Mama Flittersheee….Mama Fletteshaaa…” Crystal growled in annoyance. “Ma.Ma. Flut. Ter. Shee. Shaaa….Shyyy….Mama Fluttershy!” Crystals eyes lit up, with her starting to chant the name over and over, happily. “Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Mama Mama Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy responded by squealing happily and sweeping Crystal up into her arms and joining Static in her merry dance, bounding around on their hind legs while Crystal laughed happily, snuggling up to her mommies.

“Ugh. Sappy.” Rainbow moaned.

Rarity cuffed her on the back of the head again. This time with a building block.

***********************************************************

“Sywup pwease!”

“Coming up, sweetie!” Static chirped, a grin on her face as she held the current batch of pancakes with the feathers of her wing. “I have to admit, holding stuff with your wings is sooooo useful!” She sighed, happy that she’d finally gotten the skill down. The pegasus passed her pan of pancakes between wings, and then used the free one to pick up the maple syrup bottle on the table, and slide it over to Crystal, who clopped her hooves together happily.

The young changeling giggled happily, and started trying to pick up the bottle with both hooves, which wasn’t very successful, nearly making the syrup spill all over Crystal- not that she would mind. That just meant she got to lick it off. Changelings have long tongues, after all.

“Oh, hold on, Cryssi, let mommy help!” Fluttershy dropped her fork in a heartbeat for the chance to help Crystal practice picking things up without making a mess. “Here, see, like this.” Fluttershy braced both of her hooves over Crystal’s own hooves, gently guiding her to hold the bottle in the best way, and squeezing out a steady stream of syrup onto her pancakes. “There you go! You did it!!”

“Yay!!!” Crystal cheered, clopping her hooves together again. “Thank you, mummy!!”

“You’re welcome sweetheart!” Fluttershy beamed up at Static, who sent a warm smile of her own back, before resuming her pancake duties with a happy hum.

“Um….mummy….?” Crystal said, a few seconds later.

“Yes, sweetie?”

“Can I have some more sywup pwease?”

“Oh, you have such a sweet tooth!”

Static cantered over to the kitchen table with a laugh. “Young Changelings need a larger amount of sugar in their diet than pony foals. Only makes sense they’d like sugary things a lot with those kinds of needs.”

“That and love. They need lots of love, don’t they.” It wasn’t a question, really. Both ponies knew it was simple fact. Fluttershy made sure to give Static a nuzzle, then bent her head down to where Crystal was sitting next to her, and gave her a nuzzle too, for good measure. “Isn’t that right, Cryssi?”

“Wots of wove!!!” Cryssi beamed, throwing her hooves around Shy’s neck in as big a hug as she was capable of giving. Then, for good measure, she reached out and pulled Static in to the hug as well.

“I wuv you mummies!” The two pegasi couldn’t help but share a goofy grin at their little ones declaration.

*********************************************

“Hello book! My name’s Crystal! My mama Shy gave me you! I’m gonna call you Paige! Because you have lots of pages, hee hee!

I love my mama’s a lot. Yep! I got two! Two mama’s! And a bunch of Aunties! I love them all so much! I don’t have a Papa, but I don’t mind much. My mama’s are too nice and pretty and happy and good for me to mind at all.

Mama Static likes giving me rides on her back, and Mama Shy has lots of fwuffy friends for me to snuggle and hug with! Mister Bear is super nice! He gave me a fish once, and I ate it all up! My Mama’s don’t know! Shhhhh! It’s a secwet!

They gave me a birthday party yesterday! They say I’m more than one year old now! That’s a loooooong time. They told me its over three hundwed days! I can’t count that high yet, but I know it’s really big! Aunty Pinkie made me a cake! She said it was double chocolate and strawberry surprise!

I’ll let you know what the surprise was if you promise not to tell! Promise? You do! Great!

The secret was…..whipped cream. A lot of whipped cream in the middle! It went smoosh out of my mouth when I ate it. Mama Shy had to wipe my face with a napkin, and Mama Static took lots of pictures!

I like the one with me and my Mama’s having a food fight the most! My Aunty Twi took that one.

Uncle Thorax told me that I’m a Changeling, and that we apparently learn reeaaally fast! I met a foal called Flurry Heart last week, and she’s older than me, but she can only say a few words! I can say a lot more than her, and I can write already. Does that mean I’m really smart like Uncle Thorax says, or is he just being nice?

Mama Static was being loud today. She said she was singing, but I don’t know what that is. It sounded like she was just raising her voice and moving around weirdly. She told me that people like to dance and sing when they are happy, and that today, she was reeeeaaaallly happy. Is that true? Do you dance Paige?

Oh….you don’t. You hit the floor and went bang.

I don’t understand my Mama’s sometimes, but I still love them to bits! And they love me! I know they do, because I can taste it. Uncle Thorax said that Changelings eat love, but they always have lots, so I’m never hungry anyway!

Mister Crimson is weird. He doesn’t look like anyone else, and he’s really tall. He has to crouch everywhere. Mama Static likes to call him an Elf a lot, and it makes him super annoyed, and that makes him look funny! He puffs his cheeks out and blows out air through his nose! It makes him look like he’s trying not to poop!

Out of all my Aunties, I think I like Aunty Pinkie and Aunty Rose the best. They both make me laugh! Aunty Pinkie does silly things to make me smile, just so it will make her smile, seeing me smile! I like that a lot. She looks silly when she’s covered in that white stuff she dumps on her head. I like playing in the bags once she’s emptied them, they make me all white too! Aunty Rose likes taking me for walks in the woods! They’re so nice, but they have a lot of mud in them, sometimes. Mama Static says Aunty Rose is her sister, but my other Aunties are just her friends. I think that’s really weird. If they’re all my Aunties, shouldn’t they all be sisters?

Aunty Rarity is pretty nice too. She makes me dresses, and helps me with my mane when I can’t get my magic to work right. For some reason, Aunty Twilight keeps giving me books. They don’t have a lot of pictures in, and they’re boring. She says they’re for Skool. If they’re for skool, then skool must be boring too! I hope my Mama’s don’t make me go if it is that boring.

When I get dirty too much, Mama Static puts me in the bath. I like the bath, especially when I get to splash my mamas! They get all annoyed and splash me back, and then we have lots of fun and get the bathroom all wet!

I’m gonna stop writing in you now, Paige! It’s almost time for nom noms! Mama Static’s cooking tonight! She says she’s gonna try a cass-ee-roll today! I don’t know what that is, but I like the sound of it!

Goodnight Paige!”

******************************************

“Okay Crystal, this word is “excited”. Repeat it back to me.” Twilight said, holding up a white card with the word excitable written on it in hasty, but still legible Ponish.

“Auntie Twilight, I know what excited means.” Crystal pouted, crossing her hooves. The carpet in the cottage living room was littered with her toys, most of which had accumulated fang marks of varying depth and shape. “I’m almost a year and…..a really long time-old!!”

Twilight sheepishly rubbed her head, looking at the stack of cards floating beside her, then back at the Changeling filly sitting amid a pile of play blocks. Despite her still pudgy, foalish appearance, her command of language was already at that of a six year old, and if Thorax was to be believed, she would soon start shedding her old carapace and rapidly grow into the size of a teenage pony. “I’m sorry, Crystal. I keep thinking of you like a pony foal, like my niece, Flurry.”

“Why’s she called Flurry?” Crystal asked, cocking her head to one side.

“Oh...uh, it’s a bit of a funny story, actually…” Twilight chuckled, quickly trying to think of a way not to tell a literal child about a harrowing story in which all her loved ones nearly died, (with the exception of Static). She was saved by Static herself, who suddenly burst out laughing.

“I just remembered something! I have the best joke to tease your brother and Princess Cadence with!!! I can’t believe I forgot about it for so long!!!”

Twilight frowned. “I would appreciate you not making fun of my brother and Cadence, please.”

“Oh, I won’t be. I’ll just be taking the pi- uh...I mean, taking the mickey out of some historical facts about the Crystal Empire.”

Cryssi gasped in surprise. “There’s a place named after me?!”

“Uh, actually no. The Crystal Empire was named a very very long time ago, long before you were even born, Crystal.” Twilight explained, motioning with her foreleg as she explained.

“Awwwwwww, I wanted it to be named after me.” Crystal pouted, resignedly placing a pointy block on top of a square one, in a simplified version of a house.

“Twilight, the next time my daughter is having delusions of grandeur, can you at least wait five minutes before bursting her bubble?” Fluttershy asked from the couch, pressing a hoof against her own cheek. “She’s adorable when she’s ambitious.”

“And when she’s playing “Shark in the bathtub”.” Static grinned, before frowning, putting a hoof to her chin. “Though I have no idea where she learned how to become a shark when there aren’t any oceans for miles.”

“I learned from Mummy Shy’s picture book!” Crystal chirped, buzzing her wings and hovering for a few moments, before dropping down onto the carpet again.

“Anyway, Twilight, you didn’t come over here to teach her words.” Static reminded her friend. “You said you had some decisions you needed us for. You know, for our wedding?”

“Mummy’s getting married! Mummy’s getting married!” Crystal started cheering, throwing her Chrysalis plush into the air with her hooves.

“Eh-he, riiiiiight….” Twilight said, chuckling nervously to herself. “Your wedding. That I’m planning. Yeah…..” She quickly wiped the sweat from her brow, and managed to reapply her smile. “Okay, so, I know that you agreed to having Pinkie Pie do the cake, but she asked me to ask you if there’s a particular flavour you girls wanted.”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “She didn’t really, did she?”

“Uh….no, I made that part up. It was a joke. Eheh, so funny….But she did ask how many layers you wanted it to have. You know, tiers?”

“Oh, that’s easy, three.” Static beamed. “One for each of us!”

“Us?”

“Yeah!” Static giggled, pointing a hoof to herself. “Momma.” Her hoof swung around to boop Shy on the nose, gently. “Momma.” And her hoof swept over to boop Crystal too. “And Filly.”

“Nymph!” Crystal protested, with a broad grin.

“Alright, little bug, you win. Momma, Momma and Nymph.”

Twilight smiled at their little antics, before looking further down her list of questions that needed answering, the small square of paper hovering cheerfully beside the Alicorn. “Right. Bridesmaids?”

“Well, you and the girls, obviously.” Fluttershy supplied the answer. “And Rose, of course.”

“”Uh…..are we doing best stallions?” Twilight asked, flipping through her notes quickly.

“Sooner or later, you’ll be checking checklists while wearing glasses.” Static laughed.

“Be serious, please.” Twilight deadpanned. “I wouldn’t be caught dead in glasses, not after that time human me leant me hers.”

***************************************************

“How do you see through these at all? I feel so dizzy!!”

“Oh, careful- uh, me! You’re going to-” *CRASH* “....That.”

***************************************************

“Never again.” Twilight stated, flatly.

“Okay…..uh, no. No best stallions. No offense, but I don’t think Zephyr would be the best pony to entrust a ring to. He’d lose his own head if wasn’t screwed on properly...assuming it actually is.” Static replied, earning a playful thump on the shoulder from her fianceé. “What?”

“You know what you said.”

“Moving on…” Twilight flipped over several more pages before finding what she was looking for. The fact that the sheet of paper had pages of its own was not lost on the couple.
“Um...Twilight...just how many questions and notes do you have?”

Twilight’s page suddenly seemed to burst free of itself, a multitude of branching pages all attached to each other with a mixture of magic and tapes of various kinds. “Oh, not much. Just a few hundred.”

The Pegasi’s eyes twitched in unison.

*************************************************

“Please, Cryssi, come on out. Nopony, noling or draconequus-” Static turned to glare at a particular little rabbit who was sitting by his bowl, tapping his little bunny foot as he waited for his breakfast to be made for him. “Or rabbit, is gonna make fun of you. Are. They?” Static hissed the last two words through clenched teeth, turning her patented “not taking yo’ shit” glare up to eleven.

Angel Bunny returned her glare with one as equally filled with vitriol, but ultimately deemed this a battle not worth winning, since upsetting the shiny pony meant upsetting his loving caretaker, and that meant no special treatment- and Angel refused to even entertain that notion for more than a few seconds. He shook his head in response, prompting Static to attempt to replaster reassurance all over her face.

“You sure?” Crystal’s tentative voice warbled down the stairs, making Static’s eas splay back in both sympathy and empathy at once.

“Of course I’m sure.” Static responded. “Now come on down, sweetheart. You need your breakfast.”

“O-okay…..” The sound of a door creaking open, and the sound of hooves descending the stairs announced the incoming arrival of the prodigal daughter.

In the three months since she had figured out how to speak, Crystal had reached a fifth grade reading level in Ponish, and had started going through her first molting, which left her carapace almost bleached white, and very soft, with a chubby, almost bulbous look to it’s multiple segments, which had made her look like a little nymph again. It was almost a crime that all of her lovely, downy, fuzzy coat had fallen off with it.

Her mane was covering her face, and she was rubbing her left fetlock against her right, nervously. “Is….is it really not that bad?” She asked, hopefully.

“It’s not awful, sweetie. It’s just...part of growing up.” Static replied, slowly. The words felt like they’d come out like bad toothpaste, all squishy and with a funny aftertaste. “It’ll look better soon. You’ll see.”

Crystal mumbled something disheartening to herself, under her breath.

“Excuse me, young lady, but what exactly do you mean by, ugly and fat?” Static demanded, eyes narrowing. “I’ll have you know that I am perfectly in shape, and most certainly not a bad looking mare.”

Crystal couldn’t help but snort aloud with laughter at her mother pretending the insult had been aimed at her, and not at Crystal. Her discomfort was whisked away by the quick burst of joy such frivolity offered. Static wasn’t done though, sweeping the now teenage sized Changeling up into the biggest hug she could manage. “No matter what you look like, no matter how ugly or beautiful you think you are, you’ll always be my little Crystal, the most gorgeous girl in the entire world- besides your mama Shy, of course.” Static gave Crystal a little, conspiratory wink as she spoke, as if she had just shared some profound, world-truth.

Crystal couldn’t help but smile.

“Now. Whether you are feeling a little soft shelled at the moment, or not, you’ve got some breakfast to eat, little missy.” Static said, putting on her serious face. “And now that you’re a big girl, you need to start cutting back on the sugar.”

“Awwww, but mummy!!” Crystal whined.

“Don’t awww me, missy. Three dozen pancakes that have been destroyed with syrup would be murder on my figure, and now that you’re a big girl who doesn’t need it as much, it’ll start doing the same to you if you keep eating like that.” Static chastised, waggling a primary feather in front of her daughter. “And it’s bad for your teeth.”

“But it tastes so good! And papa Thorax said I needed sugar!”

Static shook her head in mock exasperation. “You only listened to half of what he said, didn’t you?” The mare lead her daughter into the kitchen, pulling out a chair for her and quickly serving up the breakfast she had made earlier.

“Uh….no? I listened…..”

“Papa Thorax said that you wouldn’t need it as much once you molted. And now you’ve molted. So it’s less sugar for you, missy. You do want to grow up to be big and strong like me, now don’t you?”

Crystal blinked, scrunching her mouth up to one side. “But, you’re not a Changeling. You didn’t do that stuff. You did pony stuff, and hoooo…..uh, hooo…..huuee…..You know….”

“Human stuff?”

“Yeah. Hooman stuff.”

“Yes, but I did what suited my species best and grew up big and strong. And if you do what a Changeling needs to do, then you’ll be big and strong, too.”

Crystal looked down at the significantly smaller stacks of pancakes, and the bowl of oatmeal sitting next to it. “Do I have to?”

“Of course not. It’s up to you.” Static replied. “But you’ll probably get a tummy ache if you eat all of that sugar now.”

“Oh….” Crystal took up a spoonful of oats, nuts and berries, looked at it for a moment, took a bite….and paused, eyes widening a little in surprise. “It’s...not that bad.”

“See? Told you.”

*****************************************

Crystal stood, looking in the mirror in her room. Life was officially let off the hook for her previous bout of bad luck now.

She was officially a year and a half old now, and it showed. Gone was the chubby nymph, gone was the awful return of aforementioned pudge. Now her carapace had reformed, and her coat had grown back with it, all shiny and fluffy and new. Her pale grey, almost white fur gleamed brightly, and the big ring of fur around her neck was a lovely, grassy green, all puffed up and floofy from her bath. Her horn had grown in, going from a short, stubby little thing to a curved, graceful point.

Her stumpy legs had lengthened out into long, and strong- if perhaps a little skinny looking- legs that most definitely did not have holes in- thank Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Auntie Twilight and Papa Thorax for that! Her mane was a long, almost straight curtain that hung past her face and part way down her neck, but it flicked out at the ends, the grassy green darkening to an almost piney colour towards the tips and more towards the roots. Her tail had a similar appearance, what with the flicked out ends and matching colour scheme.

Crystal had seen a few ponies with mismatched mane and tail colours, and she hoped, for their sake, that they were just bad dye jobs and not the result of natural birth.

Smiling happily that her mummy’s had been right, Crystal trotted out of her room with a big smile on her face and a spring in her step.

Then she ran face first into Auntie Rose’s flank.

Rubbing her sheepish face with a hoof, Crystal supposed that sometimes life could still be a little mean.

************************************************

Author's Note:

I love her and want to hug her so much!

Comments

[The Radiance]

Crystal is precious and must be protected

[VeganSpyro97]

9718046
She ish da precious babbu bug! Musht protec!