The Twilight Child

by Detectivefish

How Not to Teleport

Twilight Twinkle opened her eyes, and was amazed to see sunlight. The spell had worked, she was outside and alive and... in mid-air.
At which point she fell, hitting something that felt like a tree-branch, before landing on something soft.

'Okay' she said to herself, 'The spell needs some minor adjustment. Perhaps accounting for alteration in elevation.' There was a strange wriggling sensation beneath her, and a strange squeaking noise. She'd landed on someone.

"Sorry" she said, taking care not to tread on whoever she'd landed on, "Not any good with teleporation spells, didn't realise I'd end up in mid-air." She slid her saddlebag off and started inspecting it. Everything was still there and still intact.

"Oh, no. It's entirely my fault. I should've been paying more attention to where I was going." Twinkle recognised the voice. She turned around. It was Fluttershy. Again.

"No, no! The fault is all mine, completely!" She said, ignoring the desire to flee. This was Fluttershy, she would never hurt someone. Deliberately. That she knew of.

"I really should've been paying more attention to the instructions, probably not been attempting dangerous magics indoors."
Fluttershy said nothing.

"Sorry about landing on you, ma'am." Twinkle added sheepishly.

"Well, I have somewhere else to be" the yellow pegasus whispered.

"Yeah, okay. Bye Fluttershy" Funnily enough, Fluttershy's reaction to this was to rush off. Once she was sure the pegasus was out of sight, Twinkle let her legs give out. After all that work, all that plotting and that ridiculous magical build-up with the bright light and the wind, all she'd done was teleport... she looked up. She was just outside the library.
"I only teleported a few hooves? COME ON!"

She sat there for a while. No doubt her mother was waiting for her to return so she could yell bloody murder at her. And her desperate escape attempt had failed. She was up the chocolate milk creak without a swizzle straw.
She sighed. There was no choice. She had to face the music. Putting her saddlebag back on, she walked around to the front door. And then she remembered she hadn't packed door keys for her one-way trip out to Dodge Junction. She sighed again, and knocked.

For several seconds nothing happened. She knocked again. Still nothing happened.
She lowered her horn to the lock. A brief flash passed between it and the door, and there was a sound of locks being undone. She nudged the door open, not noticing a sign proclaiming
'Back in one hour'
written on the front.
The front room seemed different, slightly. Perhaps it was the piles of books, or all those checklists that hadn't been there when she'd woken up.

"Twilight, you back already?" Said a voice from the kitchen. She braced herself. The door swung open...
And standing in the door frame was a small purple and green dragon, holding a small scroll.

"You forgot your..." he stared at Twinkle. She stared back.

"You aren't Twilight" the dragon eventually said. His expression shifted to mild irritation.

"Sorry, the door wasn't locked, so I just thought I'd come in."
The dragon stared at her.

"Oh no, you aren't are you?" he said, soundly slightly disgusted.

"Aren't what?"

"You are. I can tell."
She sighed.

"Yeah, you caught me. Where is she?" she hung her head, ready for what was about to come.

"Not another fangirl" the dragon fumed.
She looked at the dragon.

"Sorry, what?" He looked unsurprised at this.

"Every few weeks, it's the same thing. Some mare shows up, usually with purple fur and blue hair with dyed-in streaks, saying she's a great admirer of the legendary Twilight Sparkle and she wants to learn magic from her, and couldn't she just show her some magic, just to get an impression." He gave her another stare.

"You're the worst looking one yet. It's like you weren't even trying to look like her."
Twinkle tried to say something, say anything. All she managed was confused stuttering.

"I-I- I..." She coughed, and took a deep breath.
"I am not a fangirl" she declared. Then, after a few seconds she found herself angrily adding "and this is how my mane normally looks!"

"They always say that, too" the dragon smirked, as he picked two books off the floor and placed them back on the shelves.
"Then they say they haven't got anywhere to stay, and no money, and they've heard Twilight Sparkle has a spare bed." He sounded like he was reciting that one.

"Ignoring all the generous and friendly ponies in this town, no doubt."
The dragon nodded, and advanced towards her.

"And I'll tell you what I've told all of them: We don't need any hired help, and Twilight Sparkle doesn't take on apprentices. So go... away" Twinkle found herself sitting outside. She frowned, and knocked on the door. It opened.

"Didn't I just tell you to go away?" he tried to slam the door, but her hoof slammed into it. Using the moment she forced the dragon back with her magic.

"Listen, I'm not here looking for a job, or to impress anyone. I'm here to talk to Twilight Sparkle" she said, trying to sound as polite as possible. The dragon was pressing his weight against the door, and he seemed to have an unusual amount of strength for one so small.

"About what?"

"That's private."

"Quite convenient for you."
She shoved the door back.

"Listen small and scaly, if it were up to me I'd be anywhere but here, trying to muscle my way past dragon border guards. But I am here and I have to talk to Twilight Sparkle, alright?" she tried to get herself under control. She knew what happened when she got angry. The dragon paused.

"So, you aren't one of her fans, then?"

"I promise you" she smiled, hoping it would help.

"Pinkie Promise?"
She sighed.

"I am not one of Twilight Sparkle's fangirls, aficionados or devotees, sane or otherwise. I do just need to talk to her."
The dragon relaxed his hold on the door allowing her in.

"She's not in. She's out seeing a friend"
Twinkle twitched slightly.

"What?!"

"You didn't see the sign?" he said.
She groaned, and ignored the strange urge to bash her head against something.

"I shall wait here then, since I really do need to sit down."

"Y'know, I do know where she is, I could show you"
She gave him a cold stare.

"Or, y'know, you could just wait here, yeah, wait here, that's great."
She lay down on the floor.

"So what's your name?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm Spike." the name sounded familiar, but she couldn't remember from where.

"What's yours?" She froze. If this was one of mother's little mindgames, perhaps for now it would be an idea to err on the side of caution..

"I call myself... Midday Eclipse." The dragon didn't seem to notice her wince.

"Nice to meet you, Midday Eclipse" She winced again. The dragon seemed uncertain about something.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead" she said slowly.

"What is an eclipse?"

*****

Meanwhile, on the edge of the Everfree Forest, inside the house of one Fluttershy, six ponies had gathered. At the exact moment in time a small dragon was barring entrance to a mysterious unicorn, another unicorn was trying to talk to a known nervous wreck.

"Come on now, Fluttershy. We all agreed to these sessions. Even Rainbow Dash agreed to these sessions."

"I'm right here Twilight."

"I know we all agreed" soothed Fluttershy, "Because you said it was important we made sure that Discord had no inflicted any long term damage to our psychological make-up when he... well..."

"Took our brains t' pieces?"
Twilight Sparkle sighed. That had been what she said, and in truth, it seemed to be a wasted endeavour. All six of them seemed largely the same, with no major alterations to their day-to-day behaviour, although Rainbow Dash apparently took less naps than she used to. Fluttershy had shown an alarming recursion, taking to locking herself up since then, only going outside to feed her various animals, or attend picnics. This was disapointing, considering how much effort had been spent getting Fluttershy to socialise with others over the past year. Twilight noticed everypony else was staring at her. (Provided everypony meant Rarity and Appeljack, because Rainbow Dash was staring at the ceiling, and Pinkie wasn't staring at anything for more than a few seconds.)

"Well" Twilight said, "From what I can see, there hasn't actually been any noticable effect from Discord's actions." Pinkie cheered at that.

"So can we go yet?" asked Rainbow Dash, hovering by the ceiling.

"I don't know. Has Fluttershy proved she's not still under Discord's control?"

"But... all those things I did, like hitting you with a bucket, and what I did at the gala..."

Twilight tried not to remember that. She honestly hadn't though the timid pegasus could've caused a stampede or terrifying all those animals. She had speculated the other day if that was the result of Discord's influence seeping out from his statue. And true, Fluttershy had been hit hard by Discord. And many more ponies had been hit quite hard by Fluttershy. For such a shrinking violet, she was ludicrously strong. No doubt because she walked everywhere rather than flying. Everyone was staring at Twilight again. Fortunately Rainbow Dash spoke up.

"How many times do we have to say it wasn't you?" She said, exasperated (mostly from trying not to bump her head on the ceiling.)

"Rainbow Dash is right. And let's face it, none of us were ourselves after that... fiend got his claws into us"

"But..."

"C'mon now Fluttershy. Y' know yer just as sane as the rest of us."

"But the gala..."

"Fluttershy, you simply had a rather bad day and lost control. We all have moments like that, where we lose control of our faculties. Remember what happened with Pinkie Pie and Applejack's cousin?" Rarity said. Then she gasped. The whole room went silent. Even Angel, Fluttershy's pet demon in fuzzy rabbit form, looked shocked. Rainbow Dash dropped to the ground, Twilight and Fluttershy both looked nervous, Pinkie just looked confused, and Applejack looked furious.

"I though" the farmer said, her voice utterly calm, "We were never going to mention that ever again"

"We agreed not to mention a lot of things" Rarity shot back.

"Y'know, so long as we're not pretending that didn't happen ('cuz it so did happen)" Said Rainbow Dash, who was now hovering over Fluttershy, "You've got to admit you never did anything as bad as what Pinkie did that day."

"Week" muttered Twilight.

"Whatever."

"Well, I suppose that is true, but..." Fluttershy stopped when they all took a deep breath.

"Are you willing to admit you weren't responsible for Discord's heinous actions?" Twilight said, eagerly holding up her notepad.

"I... yes."
The others cheered.

"Can we go get some lunch now or something? I'm starved" Rainbow Dash said.

"Have we all proved we're all sane and can return to normal?"

"YES!"

"yes."

*****

Back at the library, the lilac coloured unicorn had begun pacing.

"Is she usually out this long?"

"Not for a Fluttershy visit, no." Said Spike, who was watching the strange mare browsing through the shelves. Eventually she picked out a small red and blue book, the spine of which proclaimed it to be
'The Foals' Guide to Myths and Legends'.

"Why exactly are books for kids next to adult reference material?" She pondered.

"That's something Twilight gets angry about, people taking books and stuffing them in any which way they can once they return them."
She set the book down on a small desk.

"Although" Spike said, "She might have gone to visit Zecora"

"Zecora?"

"She's a zebra who lives in the Everfree Forest, speaks all in rhyme. Or..." Spike's face went pale. "A cockatrice might have gotten her, or all of them, or she's been attacked by a manticore, or Celestia summoned her for some reason."

The newly renamed Midday stared at him.

"Wouldn't Celestia have to summon her through you?" Spike looked horrified. This didn't seem to have occured to him.

"What if she's found a way to get around that? What if Twilight doesn't need me any more?"

Midday ignored this baseless panic attack, flipping the book open and skimming through the pages.

"Here we are" she said, "Eclipses"

The page showed a crudely drawn pale-blue circle in front of a bright yellow circle. Whoever had made this book had included helpful arrows declare the circles to be 'The Moon' and 'The Sun'.

"A theo... theore..."

"Theoretical."

"Theoretical event where the moon comes between the sun and the world, blocking out its light." Spike looked up at her.
"Still doesn't make sense. And how did you get it for your Cutie Mark?"
She frowned.

"You know, I am honestly not sure. I wasn't awake for most of it."

"You got your Cutie Mark in your sleep?"

"No, I..." she sighed, "It's a long story and I don't want get into it." She pasued.

"Actually, it's not really anywhere near a long story. I just wanted to say 'it's a long story'. That and, 'our magic is just making it stronger!'"

"And how do you not know how you got your Cutie Mark?"

"Don't even start"
The two stood there, having managed to run out of things to talk about.

"What else is in here?" Spike asked, grabbing the book and skimming through the pages.

"Hey, look, Discord. What's he doing in a book on myths and legends?"

"Popping in to persecute perfectly peaceful ponies, perhaps." Midday growled. Spike suddenly felt an urgent desire to change the page.

"Hmm. Crystal ponies. Shiny, huh."

"Yeah" Midday sounded unenthused, looking out of the window. All there was were clouds.

"Cockatrice... hey... what's this?" He said, pointing at the page. She looked.

On the page were several pony-like forms. Each had dark grey skin with slightly blue segments on their backs. They had no manes, and greasy tails, their ears looked tattered, and their eyes were solid blobs of blue. Their legs seemed to be missing large chunks, and their horns were curved and sharp-looking, like a dagger.

"Change...lings? Never heard of them." Spike said. Suddenly the book slammed shut, flew over Spike's head, hurtled across the room before gently settling back into place on the shelf.

"Just a dumb book for kids." Midday muttered. There was an angry tone creeping into her voice. Spike started sniffing the air.

"Do you smell that? Smells like something burning?" He looked towards the kitchen.

"'scuse me a moment" he dashed off, leaving a confused Midday standing there.
How did this dragon not know about Changelings? Why did everything look different? Where was Vanilla?

"Oh no." she muttered. She quickly searched the room, hoping to find a newspaper, or a checklist or a calendar, something to calm her rising panic. Was she even in the library at all? Was she just drooling in a floor somewhere while Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy and Vanilla all had a good laugh at her?

She immediately dismissed that thought. No illusionary mindscape produced by Twilight Sparkle was ever, ever, EVER going to have books lying around unsorted.

A much worse possibility became apparent. The teleportation spell had worked. Oh, it had worked completely. Just not in the way she'd been expecting.

Spike re-entered the room.

"Well, whatever was making that smell, it's stopped. You okay?" he said, seeing the paniced unicorn.

"Spike, would you be a dear and kindly tell me what the date is?"
He did.

*****

Meanwhile, at the small resturaunt the six had agreed to go to (Eventually).

"Did you hear something?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Only my stomach exploding" groaned Twilight. She hadn't meant to eat three sandwiches on top of the four she'd already had, it was just a choice between sitting there watching Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash eat or having seconds. Also, she might have been a tiny bit hungry.

The six mares sat in silence, sure in the knowledge they were all as sane as could be and free of the influence of any chaos gods.

"Oh my, look at the time" Rarity said eventually, "I had best get back to work. I am quite behind schedule."

"Really? Doesn't sound like you to be behind anythin'" muttered Applejack. Rainbow Dash guffawed at that.

"Well, after the last few weeks and helping mothers make Nightmare Night costumes, I have a rather large amount of work to catch up on. And the constant visits from Sweetie Bell."

"Family trouble?" asked Rainbow Dash, fighting down a belch, mainly to avoid another lecture from Rarity on 'Manners' and 'Good Breeding'.

"Oh, no. I do love Sweetie Bell, but she can be... a distraction sometimes."

"Distraction?" Yelled Pinkie Pie, darting her head back and forth, "Where? Where?"

"Ah suppose ah'd better head home, got a lot t' do before winter starts for real."

"Oh." Said Twilight, "I'd forgotten with all this that I promised the mayor I'd arrange the Winter Start-Up"

"The what-now?" said Rainbow Dash.

"Well, since I had such success organising the Winter Wrap-Up, I asked the mayor why I didn't just get put in charge of bringing in the new winter. Although I have to arrange who's on the start-up teams, and what they'll all be doing, and that's on top of several projects I've already got going at the same time, so I'm going to be quite busy for the next few weeks."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

"Egghead."

"One day, Rainbow Dash, you are going to need me, and we'll see who the 'egghead' is then." The pegasus slowly stood up, and smiled at the librarian.

"You're always an egghead, Twilight." She laughed, rocketing off to her favourite cloud for a post-lunch nap before Twilight could respond, only fume.

"One day Rainbow Dash, you'll see the mistake of shunning learning. Oh yes, you will see." And with that, Twilight slowly walked off to pay the cheque, leaving Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie remaining.

"I guess I should go, as well" Fluttershy said to no-one in particular.

Twilight jogged back towards the library, her library, her mind teeming with ideas about how to organise the Winter Start-Up, as well as several new ways of arranging the shelves, and some research projects. She couldn't wait to tell Spike, who would be so excited, she could barely contain her high spirits.

It took Pinkie several minutes to realise she was the last one left. At which point she ate the leftovers, and then bounced away, singing something completely random that was mainly about kettles.

*****

"Cheat!" Eclipse yelled.

Spike sighed.

"Don't you think this game would work better with two people?"

"Do you see anyone else here? Besides, it's about the only card game I know how to play."

"There's probably a book in here somewhere about playing card games."

"If it doesn't involve playing them on moving vehicles, what use is it to me?" Midday said.

"What?"

"Nothing."

The two were sitting in the middle of the floor, partway through one of the most boring games Midday had ever been involved in since Twilight Sparkle had invented Flashcard Quickdraw.

There was a noise at the door. Midday felt a strange feeling creeping along her back, towards her horn.

"Oh no." she whispered.

The door opened, and Twilight stepped into the library.

"Twilight, hey! You're back!" Spike cheered, rushing over to her. Midday tried to fight down the magic.

"Everything go alright with Fluttershy?" Twilight looked at him.

"Better than I expected Spike, I..." She looked at Midday, a strange light was coming from her horn.

"Who's this?"

"Oh, I-" Midday said, before there was a small flash as she teleported out of the room, leaving Twilight and Spike just standing there, staring at where the lilac coloured unicorn had just been sitting.

"Was that a fangirl, Spike? Again?!"

Comments

[Magthere]

"If it doesn't involve playing them on moving vehicles, what use is it to me?" Midday said.

Well I do know of a card game on motorcycles if you're interested.

[Blaze Song]

I wonder if Twinkle is going to save the world?.... by playing a childrens card game?

[Dorath]

She was up the chocolate milk creak without a swizzle straw.