The Twilight Child

by Detectivefish

The Birthday Party Everypony Should Have

Two blissful and strangely quiet days passed, with nothing out of the ordinary happening whatsoever, save for Pinkie occasionaly making odd remarks about 'montages' for some reason. Unfortunately on the day before Twilight's birthday she decided to have her party in Canterlot, having even made complicated graphs detailing exactly how having a party with one's best friends was better than having a party with most of one's best friends.

Upon hearing the news, Midday quickly borrowed an overnight bag, making sure to gently place the recovered and restored Smarty Pants inside. As she and Twilight were leaving she noticed something.
"Spike, aren't you coming with us?" She saw the look on Twilight's face, the mare looked almost confused.

"But who'd look after the library?" Twilight asked. Midday's horn flashed, and a small sign saying 'sorry, we're closed' appeared.
"Oh yeah." Twilight said, sheepishly. Midday just rolled her eyes. She turned to Spike.

"You coming or not?" The little dragon quickly rushed past her, making an impressive leap onto Twilight's back. Midday closed the library door and locked it, placing the sign on the door and smiled.
"Alright. Let's go" she said.

The walk up to the train station was quiet. They found Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all expectantly waiting on the platform.
"It's about time" Rainbow Dash declared.

"Twilight, are you exciting that we're going to Canterlot to visit Rarity and have your party there? I'm excited because I've never had to throw a party in Canterlot and it'll be all different and I couldn't decide what to bring so I just brought my party cannon!" Pinkie smiled, revealing said mobile decorating implement.
"And this bag of jelly babies." She said, lifting a small paper bag containing little bits of gelatine shaped like foals. For some reason, Fluttershy looked alarmed by them.

"How come she's coming along?" Rainbow Dash asked on seeing Midday.
"I simply have my own things to do in Canterlot, completely seperate things which do not involve you or your partying."

"I thought you said you were coming anyway?" Twilight asked, confused.
"I am. I just have have other things to do before that" she smiled. The six mares, and Spike, slowly walked towards the train doors when they heard something. They turned to see a rapidly approaching blue/purple shape. It was Trixie.

"Wait!" She said, as she skidded to a halt.
"I'm coming with you!" she said, once she caught her breath.

"You are?" Twilight asked, Trixie nodded.
"You didn't think Trixie would sit out a birthday party in Canterlot did you?"

"I was kinda hoping she would." Rainbow Dash muttered.
"I suppose you can join us, Trixie." Twilight said, hesitantly.

*****

Midday kept close to Twilight and Spike. The little dragon looked amazingly cheerful, not doubt because of excitement at seeing Rarity again after only a few days apart, while Twilight looked... uncertain. Nopony seemed to have noticed, all engaged in their own matters. This sounded familiar to Midday.
'The difference being nopony's going to stab her in the back this time' she found herself thinking.

She overheard Applejack talking with Fluttershy.
"-wuz thinking of buying Big McIntosh something. He's been in a funny mood since yesterday, and I can't figure out what's causing it."

Pinkie Pie was humming an annoyingly catchy tune which was apparently about being popular, Rainbow Dash was taking a brief nap and Trixie appeared to be shuffling cards.
"What are you up to, Trixie?" Twilight asked. The carriage went silent.

"I was just thinking of practicing my craft in Canterlot, is all." Trixie said.
"You're gonna perform magic tricks at a birthday party?" Rainbow Dash smirked.

"Pretty sure Twilight isn't sixteen" she added. Trixie ignored her.
"And if Trixie can impress the snobs of Canterlot, she can impress anypony."

"Snob?" Midday tried to look offended.
"I'm pretty sure Twilight, Spike and I aren't snobs." She said. Trixie did look a bit embarrased.

"Well, what Trixie meant to say was that... I..." Midday just chortled.
"You meant all the other snobs?"

"Yes. NO!" Trixie buried her face in her hoofs.
"Just throw me into a dungeon." She muttered.

"What? Throw the granddaughter of the Magnificent Lulamoon into a dungeon like a common goon? No chance."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Twilight said. Everypony stared at her.

"You're the granddaughter of THAT Lulamoon? The greatest illusionist in modern history?" Trixie looked up at her.
"Yes. Where did you think I got this cape from?"

"I thought you just made it out of whatever you could find" Rainbow Dash muttered, earning her a sharp jab in the ribs from Applejack.
"Also: Your name is Lulamoon?" Rainbow Dash said, a truly nasty grin on her face.

"Say another syllable and you'll spend the rest of your life with pig-tails!" Trixie hissed. Rainbow Dash said nothing, just grinning.

*****

The train slowly pulled into the station, and the seven mares disembarked.
"You know, I've never been to Canterlot before." Trixie whispered.

"Oh, there's so much to see. The library, the museum, the royal library" Twilight beamed. Any further elaboration was cut off when Trixie held up a hoof.
"I wasn't asking for a guided tour." Though there was the tiniest hint of a smile on her face.

"So, we're staying at the castle, right?" Midday said.
"Of course" Twilight said. Pinkie cheered at that.

The seven of them (and Spike) walked up to the castle, and all the while Pinkie was humming the same annoying tune.
"Pinkie?" Applejack said.

"Yuh-huh?"
"Please, please, please stop hummin' that tune."

Pinkie pretended to zip her mouth shut.
"So, what's the plan?" Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight smiled, revealing a checklist.

"Shouldn't have asked that, should I?" the sky blue pegasus sighed.
"Step one: go to Canterlot (done), Step two: ask Celestia if we can stay in castle, Step three: Greet Rarity, Step four: Set up birthday party, Step five: have birthday party." She rolled the checklist back up. Midday raised an eyebrow.
"Succinct" said she.

*****

Step two went easily enough. Upon being shown to the guest quarters, Midday slipped away from the rest of the group, down into the city. Finding the nearest bank proved simple, but from there she had to find a children's toy store. That took a few minutes longer. Eventually she found one, a massive toy store with a sign on the front declaring it 'Toy Palace'. She had honestly been expecting cute backwards letters, or something along those lines. Regardless, she stepped into the strange and alien world, all the while trying not to remember the numerous books her mother had given her as presents for every birthday.

Searching the whole store took quite some time, especially since it was all unexplored territory for her, with the cheerful colours everywhere and strange plastic construction bricks and actions figures and whatever that yellow/black shape-changing toy was. Suddenly books every year didn't seem so bad.

"'First Best'?" she said, eyeing the name of the thing. Whoever came up with that obviously never paid attention in school.
Eventually she found the location of what she was looking for. The exact description for the aisle it was contained was eyesearing. Rainbow Dash would've taken one look at it and felt the need to belch or break wind just to feel less feminine.
It was pink. It was really, really, really pink. It went right all the way to Pink. The floors were pink, the shelving was pink, even the light fittings were... no, actually they weren't pink, just a dull off-white, mercifully. But Midday did briefly wonder if the pink was actually the Smooze's slightly campier cousin, laying in wait for little fillies looking for dolls
.
She also wondered if it had actually managed to get into her brain. She looked at the dolls, declaring on their cutesy boxes:
'Smarty Pants! Comes with Quill and Notepad!'

She looked around. There were several other dolls of similar nature, none of which came with a quill or notepad, although one had a racing helmet, another a familiar looking cannon. She felt incredibly uneasy about that.
Then she looked at the price.

"Fourteen champs? What in Discord's teeth..." She brought the small purse she had in her saddlebags. She'd been expecting it to be roughly ten champs, something sensible and rational.
She still purchased her insanely expensive soft toy, silently fuming to herself all the while.

"Fourteen champs."
Almost silently.

"Total rip-off."

*****

After her visit to the insane toy store, she then visited a bookstore. She was looking for the most boring, uninteresting, dry book on Equestrian history she could find.
That meant finding the one with a minimal amount of postulates on lesbian shennanigans in the ranks of the Pegasi armies.

After ten minutes of careful scrutiny she found one that seemed to suit her purposes.
For reasons she didn't really understand, she stopped by a clothes shop on the way back to the castle to buy a hat. And glasses.

It took ten minutes to reach the castle, five minutes at a jog to reach her room, three minutes to wrap up the book with paper 'borrowed' from Rarity's store, then place it in Twilight's room next to her saddlebags and then seven minutes to find where they were throwing Twilight's party. Or rather, half a minute to remember where it was, six and a half minutes following the occasional crashing noise and sound of party-cannons being fired.

*****

"I... have to go do the... thing... with the stuff... you know?"

*****

She braced herself. This was Twilight's birthday party. It meant behaving and being polite and restrained. She took a deep breath, and focused her magic, preparing to open the doors.
"BEHOLD, THE ETERNAL GLORY OF MIDDAY ECLIPSE!"

She looked at the surprised faces of the seven mares (and Spike). Well, Rarity didn't look so much surprised as thankful.
"Sorry" she said, "Was I interrupting anything important?"

"What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?" Rarity asked, pointed a hoof at the trilby sitting on her head.
"It's a hat" she said, trying to sound haughty.

"Well that won't do." Rarity said, advancing towards her menacingly.
"Wait!" Twilight declared, "Were you at that other party in the garden?"

Rarity looked nervous.
"Looks like we have ourselves a schedule conflict" Midday laughed.

"Yes, that's it! Scheduling conflict!" Rarity said quickly. "After all, I didn't know you would be arriving in Canterlot and throwing your party here so I might have been prepared to go to a completely seperate party. That makes sense, right?"
"Rarity..." Twilight said. Suddenly everyone in the room took a deep breath, save Trixie, who was just smirking.

"I'm surprised at you."
"Twilight, let me explain, I-"

"I hadn't realised you were such a sage businesspony." There was the distinctive sound of a drinking glass smashing on the floor.
"(Buck)."

"All those ponies look so posh!"
"That's because they are posh, Twilight." Miday said.

"I bet you could totally get some of them to buy your dresses." Twilight continued, ignoring Midday.
"Very smart."

Rarity looked taken aback. Midday just tried not to laugh at Twilight's near-endless capacity for forgiveness.
"I didn't want you to think I was being rude. That's why I didn't tell you." Rarity said.

Now it was Twilight's turn to look confused.
"Well you didn't have to do that. You should totally go over there and mingle."

"I though Rainbow Dash was the one who said 'totally'" Trixie remarked.
"Do not."

"Do so."
"So totally don't" Rainbow Dash said, in an oddly triumphant tone.

"Twilight, you really are the best friend a pony could ask for." Rarity said. She looked like she was about to burst into tears . She embraced Twilight. "I don't know why I ever thought you wouldn't understand."
"Understand what?"

Rarity quickly leaned back out, smiling broadly.
"Nothing." She turned to leave.

"See you girls later."
And then Rainbow Dash did the unthinkable.

"Hey" She called out to Rarity, "Wait up! We're your friends! I'm sure they won't mind if we check out the party too!" That sounded reasonable and well thought out. Had Rainbow Dash been replaced by a changeling? No, no Changeling would ever say 'check out'. Or what Rainbow Dash said next. An alarming look passed across her face.
"C'mon you guys! Let's show them how to party! Ponyville style!"

The strangest bit was that Fluttershy sounded excited about the suggestion. Midday watched as the six mares rushed through to the garden, leaving an utterly horrified Rarity standing there. She walked over to the fashionista.
"Sorry, Rarity."

"Aren't you going to join in?" Rarity said, her voice filled with terror.
"One step at a time." Midday sighed. She walked through into the garden, walking past the posh ponies paralysed with shock at the sight of antics ensuing, straight to the table with drinks, whereupon she absorbed several martinis. She glanced around to see Pinkie Pie demolishing a cake, Fluttershy being swarmed by birds and Rainbow Dash attempting to assassinate ponies with a croquet mallet. Then she saw it.

Twilight was trying to dance and not doing it at all well. But there was the look of utter joy on her face as she danced. Midday restrained the urge to explode with laughter at all the rich ponies slowly backing away from Twilight's random kicking and swaying. She briefly considered joining in, and looked down at the empty martini glass in her magic's hold. She was going to need more drink.

"Am I actually seeing this?" Said a familiar voice. She turned to see Lyra and Bon-Bon staring with alarm in the direction of Twilight.
"Oh, you most certainly are." She said, suppressing a giggle.

"What is she doing here? And also, what is she doing?" Bon-Bon asked, though she sounded like she wasn't actually listening.
"Well, it's her birthday party and she'll dance if she wants to" Midday said. Lyra stared at it.

"I only came to visit Tavi" she said, waving a hoof in what she apparently assumed was the direction of the orchestra. "And now I... I... I don't even know what I'm seeing."
"Well, you cannot blame Twilight for being unable to dance. She's the student of Princess Celestia, she did not have time to study grace and poise." Bon-Bon stared at Midday, and the glass she was still holding.

"Had a bit to drink already?" She said, her eyes slowly drawn back to Twilight.
"Only a slight amount" Unfortunately it only took a slight amount to get her to start using Recieved Pronounciation, and from there to start calling ponies things such as 'dear' or 'darling' with the 'r' turned into an extended 'h'. She looked at the glass and set it down, before shuffling away from it.

"And what's with that dress?" Bon-Bon asked.
"I know."

"Rarity made that dress." Midday said.
"Looks like she should've stopped halfway." Bon-Bon remarked. Midday paused. On the one hoof, she should probably have defended the honour of her mother and her sister in-law-a-bit, on the other hand... on the other hoof she was of the opinion that yellow didn't work for Twilight. And it did looked half-finished anyway. Then she turned to look at the two mares, and smiled.

"If you two will excuse me, I feel a sudden need to dance."
Several years before, her mother had made a serious effort at teaching her daughter to be more 'ladylike' for reasons Midday had never been able to determine. This had included the occasional dancing lesson, though the young filly had insisted loudly and at length that learning to dance was 'dumb'. She had changed her mind later on though. She tried not to think of Wisp, and instead focused on how not to dance. It was actually a bit harder than she'd assumed.

As she began not-dancing she noticed her hat was missing. Rarity had probably managed to acquire it back in the hall. That was thirty champs she wouldn't see soon. But the nerd-glasses remained.
As she was dancing, making sure to remain close to Twilight at all times, while at the same time out of the reach of her swaying hooves, she noticed a well-dressed pony wandering over to Twilight, a curious look on his face. She recognised him from somewhere, but she couldn't tell where.

"Excuse me" He said, in an impeccably polite tone, "Might I ask where you got your ensemble?"
Holy hay, it was Fancypants himself! Fancypants. The Fancypants! In the fur!

"Why yes, yes you may." Twilight responded. Midday could see Rarity over by the drinks table looking very alarmed.
"A very, very close friend of mine from Ponyville made it for me."

Midday heard the distinctive noise of a spit-take. Fancypants seemed impressed.
"Ponyville? You don't say?" Twilight smiled at this. Party-goes seemed to be quite interested in this conversation. Doubtless due to the presence of Fancypants.

"I do say" the mare responded. Midday could see Rarity begin to move towards the conversation.
"Fancypants! Come with me! I'd like to show you this-" She stalled. Midday raised an eyebrow. What had Rarity been up to?

"This thing, that's over there. On the other side of the room." Midday winced at the poor excuse.
"In a moment, my dear. This lovely filly from Ponyville."

"Canterlot" Midday stated.
"Oh, thank you. This lovely filly from Canterlot was just about to tell me who made her charming dress." Rarity looked like she was about to explode, and shower everypony in bits of her giant hat. How had she not noticed the giant hat yet? Did she think rich ponies wore giant hats? Midday was certainly rich, and the only time she'd worn a crown or tiara was on that nightmare night. Suspicious of her suddenly seeming obsession with the hat, Midday began wondering what had been in those drinks.

"That dress? Oh, come now, who cares, it's just a plain old-"
"Oh, don't be so modest" The surprisingly slow-on-the-uptake Twilight said. Midday considered that one. Considering this was a mare who's idea of making a point about untrustworthy brides was to storm a wedding rehersal and raise Tartarus, she wasn't sure why she was so surprised at this at all. Probably the drink.

"This dress you made is beautiful." There was a small symphony of gasps, and the odd percussion of shattering glasses.
"We all think so" Twilight said. Midday suddenly noticed the girls (and Spike) standing next to her.

"Don't drag me into this" she muttered, earning her a sharp nudge from Applejack. Had there not been a crowd, she'd have nudged back. Fancypants turned to Rarity.
"You know these ponies?"

The crowd muttered.
"She knows the personal student of Princess Celestia herself, yes." Midday said, "And she knows Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in all of Equestria, and the former superstar model Fluttershy, and the heir to the Magnificent Lulamoon, the Great and Powerful Trixie." The muttering changed in tone. Midday could feel more than a few eyes on her.

"Yes." Rarity said. "I do know them. They may not be as sophisticated as some of you Canterlot ponies."
"Certainly not." Midday said, beaming, and quite happy to ignore the fact that she was one of those 'Canterlot ponies'.

"But they are my best friends."
"OUI!" Everypony stared at Trixie. She blushed, and smiled nervously.

"And they are without a doubt the most important ponies I know."
A stallion laughed at this. He had tiny spectacles probably to make him look smarter and was wearing a sweater tied around his neck. In other words, like he had his head stuck up somepony else's behind.

"Important ponies? These ruffians?" He seemed to say the word like it was a euphemism for something far worse. The mare standing next to him laughed.
"Don't make us laugh."

They laughed.
"I for one find them charmingly rustic." Fancypants said. The crowd gasped again.
"And I think the dress you made for your friend is lovely" Clearly even Fancypants could make mistakes. A bitter blow to what remained of Midday's optimism, even boosted by several units of alcohol.

"I dare say every mare in Canterlot will be wanting one."
She watched as the two snobby ponies leaned in to Rarity. Fancypants turned to the fashionista.

"Now how about introducing me to your friends?"
"With pleasure!" Rarity smiled.

*****

An even bigger coup came a short few minutes later when the sun went down, and who should have arrived but..
"Princess Celestia!" Twilight said, rushing over to her.

"Hello Twilight" She said, before adding "Happy birthday."
The unicorn smiled at her. "I'm glad you made it."

"Wouldn't have missed it for the world." The princess smiled, and Twilight's smile actually managed to grow. Midday watched as the two hugged, and turned back to look at the party. Fluttershy had disappeared, quite possibly because of being outed as that Fluttershy, which Midday noted she would have to make up for at some point, Applejack was chatting with somepony who looked almost exactly like her next-door neighbour Carrot Top (or was it Golden Harvest, Midday wondered), Trixie was performing to a small crowd, her sentences now peppered with the occasional bit of prench, Pinkie Pie was handing out those weird jelly filly things to ponies, and Rainbow Dash was surrounded by a small crowd signing autographs.

She smiled. This was a good sort of party. Then she saw Twilight, looking slightly glum. She wandered over to her.
"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Oh, it's not anything, really." Twilight said, trying to look cheerful. Midday stared at her.
"You're thinking about something. You've got that face you have when you're thinking."

"I do?"
"Indeed. And would I be correct in assuming you are wondering as to the absence of your parents?" She looked as Twilight's face drooped.

"Ah. The absence of any family at all, save Spike of course." Twilight nodded. Midday looked about.
"You could always go see them." Twilight looked up at her.

"But..."
"I don't think anypony in the world would begrudge you going to see your parents on your birthday. Not even Princess Celestia." She paused. "Correction: Especially not Princess Celestia." She looked about. The solar diarch was currently eating her way through a rather large slice of cake as if it were the most common thing in the world. A few partygoers were staring in abject horror.

"I guess so." Twilight said.
"Of course, you don't have to go right now." Midday said. "You've only been here..." She looked about for a watch.

"Twenty minutes." Twilight said. The two mares sat there. And suddenly Midday found herself saying something foolish.
"Twilight, you were going to leave Spike in Ponyville, weren't you?" Twilight stared at her.

"He can take care of himself." She said. Midday felt unbidden anger rising in her.
"No, I mean you were going to leave him, in Ponyville, while you came here and danced and ate cake on your birthday." Twilight blinked.

"You were going to leave the baby dragon you hatched and helped raise in Ponyville, with no means of directly contacting you, while you came here and partied with your friends." She couldn't help herself. The look on Twilight's face indicated she hadn't really thought about it.

"In your little dress, eating cake and helping Rarity gain acclaim." Twilight blinked. She looked like she was about to cry.
"Sorry. Shouldn't have said that." Midday whispered, before slouching away.

She found Rarity and Spike chatting, near the cakes and Princess Celestia, who she could occasionaly see was glancing at her, no doubt having noticed Twilight's sudden emotional distress.
"-solutely wonderful, this city has re-enervated me! And I feel so inspired. Best of all, I haven't heard a peep out of Embrace in days. I could just stay here for another week." She sighed a sigh of contentment, not noticing the concerned look on Spike's face.

"Y-you could?" he yelped.
"Oh, yes. But then I'd miss my friends. If only the trains were quicker."

"Don't look at me" Celestia said from behind her, "I don't organise the train schedules."
That made Rarity and Spike laugh a bit.

"Hey" Midday said, feeling distinctly sober now, and wretched. The sheer awfulness of what she'd just done could only have been greater if she'd somehow made Fluttershy cry.
"Oh, hello." Rarity said.

"Hi" said Spike. She smiled, though she didn't feel cheerful.
"How's everypony doing?"

"I'm enjoying myself" Spike said, calmly taking a sip of what looked amazingly like orange juice.
"That's nice." She said. She looked about the party.

"I was about to go, I've got places to be. Spike, could you tell Twilight there's a present waiting for her in her room in the castle at some point? She might already know, but I don't think she's going to be sleeping there tonight and she might miss it."
"Okay." The small dragon said.

"Oh, where is she?" Rarity said, "She seems to have vanished."
"I'm sure she's just gone to the lavatory or something" Midday said in a barely half-hearted tone.

"Hey, everypony!" Said a beaming blue unicorn mage, "Guess what? Some ponies said they'd like to hire Lulamoon for parties? C'est bien, non?"
Rarity looked at the smiling, and slightly drunk, unicorn.

"Yes, that is great. It seems everything seems to have gone right for everypony tonight."
"Hi!" Said Pinkie, "Anypony want a jelly baby? I gave one to that grumpy unicorn in the velvet coat but he was 'bleargh' and stuffy and didn't like it"

"I'll have one, Pinkie Pie." Said Celestia, "If just to see if they still taste the same as I remember"
She took one, and chewed it.
"Still the same." She said calmly.

Rainbow Dash flew over.
"What a night. I've had to sign more autographs than I ever thought possible. Everypony here seems to love me" The pegasus laughed.

"That's good news" came the voice of Fluttershy from underneath the table.
"Fluttershy, have you been hiding from everypony?"

There was a long pause.
"Well, yes. They might have asked me for autographs again."

"I must say, that was a bit insensitive of you Midday." Rarity said, turning to where Midday was standing, only to find...
"Huh. She was here a second ago." Rainbow Dash said.

*****

Twilight walked through the streets, apparently not focusing on anything. Her path eventually brought her to a small, modest looking house, utterly unremarkable looking, or at least by Canterlot standards, at any rate. Its design did nothing to betray the identity of those who dwelt inside. She knocked on the door. After a few moments the door opened.
"Twilie?" She looked up at the smiling white and blue stallion standing in the doorway. In an instant most of her sadness disappeared.

"B.B.B.F.F!" She said, lunging at him in a warm embrace.
"Mom, dad! Twilight's here."

*****

Midday carefully walked through the castle, recounting where her room was and where Twilight's was. She opened the door to Twilight's room, and found the small present and the box with the sealed envelope on it. She lifted them, and activated the small invisibility spell.

*****

"Are you sure you don't want something to eat, dear?" Night Light asked.
"Yes, I'm sure." Twilight said. Her father made an effort at looking slighted.

"Sorry for trying to feed my daughter." He said. There were a few giggles.
"So, how have you been, sweetie?" Twilight Velvet asked.

"I'm fine, Spike and I are fine, we've just had an odd few weeks lately."
"Even more odd than that Pinkie Pie you keep telling us about?"

"Or getting a visitation from Princess Luna?" Shining Armor smiled.
"You did?" Night Light asked, startled. Shining Armor just nodded.

"Yeah. She snuck out of the city on Nightmare Night, Princess Celestia was really unhelpful about that, even when Big Lug threatened to arrest half the city because he thought somepony had foalnapped her."
"Big Lug, he's the giant purple and green one, right?" Twilight Velvet said.

"Yeah. Kicks like a... very solid thing" Shining Armor said upon seeing the warning glower of his parents. "But loyal, and he does what he's told. He's just a bit too enthusiastic about serving the Princesses sometimes."
"What's she like?" Twilight Velvet asked, "Princess Luna, that is."

"Well, she still hasn't gotten the hang of modern Equestria, kinda loud, but she's really nice once you get to know her."
"How come you haven't gotten to know her yet?" Night Light asked his son, who looked nervous.

"Well, she's got her own guard, so I don't meet her that much."
"Nice save."

"Thanks, dad."

*****

Midday calmly walked through the town, feeling slightly satisfied about having discarded the glasses. It still wasn't totally dark, in fact it was barely even late afternoon, it was just because it was winter. And the giant mountain right next to the city really didn't help. She cursed the rapid alteration twenty-three years had on the design of the city. Most of the usual buildings that could identify the way to the family home weren't there. However, she did recognise the streets, so that helped somewhat. She eventually found the house, set the presents down on the doorstep, knocked and quickly galloped around a corner.

"Hello?" She recognised that voice. Grandma Velvet. She activated her usual invisibility spell, watching as the mare looked down at the presents, made a small noise and lifted the presents indoors.

*****

"Twilight honey, you have presents." The four unicorns exchanged confused looks.
"That's odd. Nopony I know knows that I'm here. Unless..." She took the presents, and looked at the envelope. She opened it. Her expression shifted immediately. She gently placed the letter on a small table, and unwrapped the presents. The first one, that one that to everypony looked like an inexpertly wrapped-up book, turned out to be a book.

"The History of Pre-Warming Equestria." It proclaimed.
Twilight Sparkle's mouth ever so slightly curved. Shining Armor examined the note.

"'Dear Twilight, happy birthday
And surprise.
I figured you might enjoy this book, or at least find it useful for that project you're always working on.
And I figured you were probably missing your old friend, though she might smell a bit 'apple-y'.
All the best, Midday'"

He set the note down and sniffed at the second present. It did smell rather like apples.

Twilight set the book down and opened the second present, revealing...
"Smarty Pants!" She cried. She held the battered doll close.

"I'm never letting you go again" she said. Her parents and brother shared confused looks.
Twilight then proceeded to confuse them more by rushing to the front door and opening it, looking out into the darknening street. Nopony was there.

Despite this, Twilight still smiled.
"Apology accepted" she said, embracing her doll again, as if afraid to let it go.

*****

"Where'd you go? And where'd Twilight go?" Asked Pinkie, upon noticing the return of a certain royal blue mare to the party. Midday raised a hoof.
"Don't worry about Twilight, she's fine. Just getting reacquainted with an old friend."

"Quel?"
"Remember Smarty Pants?" The group went silent. They certainly remembered Smarty Pants. Trixie just stared in confusion.

"Ah remember finding Big McIntosh with it when he was takin' a nap." Applejack said. Then something occured to her. "So that's why he was moping yesterday. Ain't right, a grown stallion having a girl's doll."
"What if he bought it legally?" Midday smirked. Applejack gave this some thought.

"That'd be different, but still weird. Though it was kinda sweet seein' him cuddling it. Ah pity any kid he'd have."
"That's assuming he ever gets a marefriend." The farmpony trailed off into mutterings.

"Should we go see Twilight?" Fluttershy said, having emerged from the table some time ago, after some coaxing from Rainbow Dash, and perhaps some luring involving a slice of cake.
"No." Celestia said, "Let Twilight have some privacy on her birthday."

She gave this some thought. "At least for now, at any rate."
And that was that. Nopony dared argue against Celestia's word. So they decided to party for Twilight Sparkle, eventually resulting in more than a few of the Canterlot elite learning some strange new songs under the advanced tuition of Pinkie Pie. And Twilight's friends returned to their rooms feeling almost completely satisfied with the day's events. Spike kindly asked to share a room with Rarity, and the little dragon's wish was granted.

Midday however did not return to her room. She slipped out past the locked doors into the night. She had somepony she wanted to talk to.

*****

Luna sighed, carefully sipping the coffee she'd made. Made, she said to herself. She was quite proud of that. A whole year since she'd been de-nightmared and she knew how to make coffee, a feat worthy of song and legend. She looked around her observatory, all the careful notes and charts and the occasional book on modern grammar left by the well-meaning Cadance. She sat in the small throne of cushions she'd made for herself and relaxed. Then she felt something. A strange tingling in the back of her mind. In an instant she was on her hooves again.

"Who is there?" She said.
"Show yourself!" There was a flittering noise.

"Okay, okay. Calm down, your highness." She looked for the source of the voice, which belonged to a royal blue unicorn with a dark blue mane accented with two orange stripes sitting on the steps leading to her largest telescope.
"Hello, Luna." Midday Eclipse smiled.

Author's Note:

Whether Smarty Pants is kinda magical is currently an unknown.
Although, she doesn't have hands... so how is she doing her homework?!
(Sorry if Trixie's french isn't acurate. Not a fluent speaker of french.)

Comments

[Enderstorm]

Ain't right, a grown stallion having a girl's doll.

Wait until you find out about all the grown men that like you six.