The Twilight Child

by Detectivefish

Where Not to Teleport

Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, home of the Princesses of the day and the night, centre of Pony civilization for almost a thousand years. At last census it had fifteen donut shops, and absolutely no bakeries, which only added to the mystery of why the city smelt so much like cake. The locals could be considered friendly, or in the case of the rich just non-threatening, the hotels accommodating to anyone with the bits, and provided one liked cake, it smelt rather nice in the springtime. A common sight at all times were the city guard, having served diligently since the city was founded. Unicorn, pegasus or just earth pony, all served at the command of Celestia and (whenever she was awake or present) Luna.

Currently the majority of this city guard were in the front courtyard of Canterlot Castle, surrounding a containment field that was the signature technique of their captain, Shining Armor (Son of Night Light and Twilight Velvet, brother of Twilight Sparkle and to the crushing disappointment of many young mares, spoken for) and had been created the second they had noticed the abnormally powerful teleport flare. After the recent 'incident' with Discord, the guards had found themselves under serious scrutiny, since It had escaped from under their watch, and as a result were now quite eager to prove their dedication to duty.

Therefore, Midday Eclipse found herself (once her eyes adjusted to the bright light of teleporting, and suddenly being outside) contained in a magical barrier, beyond which she was surrounded on all sides by guardsponies wielding swords, spears, halberds and the occasional crossbow.

"Ah." She said to herself.

"Identify yourself" Barked the guard captain. She stared at him, trying not to smirk. She'd recognise those eyes in an instant. And the armor. She remembered him explaining highlights of his distinguished, if somewhat short, career as captain of the royal guard with only the occasional embellishment (Her seven year old self had been quite upset to learn her uncle had 'fibbed' about fighting off an invading army of ninjas, and had with some assistance from a certain aunt managed to dye his fur yellow as payback.)

"Sorry" She said, though a lot quieter than she'd been meaning to. Feeling this was lacking, she decided to add
"It was a bit of an accident."
Shining Armor seemed to hear her well enough, though.

"An accident?" He repeated, smirking a little, though he didn't look particularly amused.

"Well, yes." She said.

"I see." Midday found her eyes darting to the variety of weapons the guards still had pointed at her.

"You don't mind lowering the weapons, do you?" she said, punctuating her question with a meek giggle.

Shining Armor stared at her for a few seconds, then raised his forehoof. The guards lowered their weapons, though Midday knew they'd be back up again if she tried anything 'funny'. And probably pointing a lot closer than before.

"Anything else you'd like?" Shining Armor asked. The pegasus next to him smirked. Midday stared straight at him.

"Well" She mused, rubbing her hoof against her chin.

"Actually, yes, there is something."
There was a short pause.

"Yes?"
She braced herself. She prepared to say something she had never hoped to say, something she'd sworn never to say of her own free will, especially not to her own uncle.

"Take... me... to your leader." A few of the guards reacted to that. Some grimaced, some winced, one actually groaned.
Shining Armor, much to his credit, didn't even flinch.

*****

Celestia, the Princess of the Sun, Bringer of Harmony, Mother of all Civilisation (she wasn't quite sure where that one had come from), sat resplendent on her throne, calmly sipping her thirty-eighth cup of tea inbetween occasionally glancing at the morning report, hoping it would become slightly more interesting. After Nightmare Night she had to resort to the usual ways of not reading these dreary pieces of paperwork, which was all the more troubling since Nightmare Night had only been a few days ago. She actually had found herself re-re-re-reading Twilight's last Friendship Report last night. It had been quite strange reading about her own sister causing havoc in Ponyville (Luna dressing up as Nightmare Moon had been alarming. And she was going to have a chat with Pinkie Pie at some point. And also possibly schedule an unscheduled visit with Twilight to see the young mare's Star-Swirl the Beared costume. She'd even got the bells right, Luna had said. Perhaps Twilight needed a new project to keep herself busy.)

And now in the middle of her second breakfast tea-break some truly inconsiderate unicorn had managed to teleport into her front yard. This seemed serious enough to warrant her attention.

The doors opened, and Shining Armor marched in, followed by six of his guards surrounding one rather non-plussed looking lilac unicorn.

"Your majesty" Shining Armor saluted.

"Captain." She nodded.

"We found the intruder in the castle courtyard where it seems she managed to teleport herself despite the numerous wards and magical barriers designed to prevent such an occurance."

"I already said it was an accident" The lilac unicorn chimed. Celestia stared straight at the mare. There was something unusual about her, and something familiar as well.

"An accident?" the alicorn raised an eyebrow.

"Yes." The mare said, though she seemed unusually interested in the carpet.

"You are saying that you managed to teleport straight through the most fortified walls in Equestria, entirely by accient?" Celestia said, not raising her voice once.

"'s a nervous reaction." The lilac mare muttered. Shining Armor turned to stare at her.

"That's... that's..." he said, unable to find the words. Celestia sighed to herself.

"Captain Armor, relax before you sprain something valuable." She stood up, and walked down towards the mare.

"And you..." She pointed a hoof at the mare.

"She says her name is Midday Eclipse" Shining Armor informed her, his face completely straight.

Celestia, for her part, didn't seem to react at all. When one has faced a chaos god who believes sheep needed explosive ordnance to fight off timberwolves, and chose a pupil with an alarming fondess for practicing magic in rooms filled with antique rugs, one tends not to get surprised by anything.

"Well," she said, her voice eerily calm, "I'm confident this is not something Midday Eclipse here intends to repeat, is it?"

"No m'm." The unicorn muttered.

"And that even the most secure defense systems are nothing without dilligent reinforcment and well-led forces complimenting them." She added, turning to face Shining Armor, who didn't seem to acknowledge her remark.

"Especially not without well-trained and maintained ponies dilligently reinforcing them."
Shining Armor coughed. "Yes your highness, of course."

He felt slightly unsure about that, since the last time Celestia had given him a compliment it had been on Nightmare Night, just before he had that horrific encounter with the itching powder, which had been even more irritating because he'd been hoping for a quiet evening with Cadance.

"Now then" Celestia said, turning back to Midday, "I believe you wished to see me."

"Yes. I did." The mare said, before adding, "In private." Shining Armor suddenly coughed again.

"Your majesty, I strongly advise against that." He said.
Celestia stared at the mare, and the Cutie Mark of a moon covering up part of a sun visible on her flank.

"Captain Armor, your dilligence is noted. But please, do not let me keep your from your many duties elsewhere."
With barely hidden reluctance, the stallion saluted, and motioned to his men. As he reached the door he took the time to glare at Midday, before walking out.

"I'd prefer it if we were completely alone." Midday said. In the now empty room, with its incredibly high ceiling, her voice echoed.

"But we are." Celestia soothed.

"And what about those two behind me?" Midday said, motionining her head to her left and her right. There was a pause with the two mares staring straight at each other.
Celestia looked up and nodded. Midday tried not to look smug as she heard two sets of hooves leaving the room and closing the door behind them.

"Alone enough for you yet?" Celestia said, though not with any noticable amount of emotion.

"I'm fine now, Princess."
The two stood there for a moment. Or rather Midday stood. Celestia was sitting down and still managing to dwarf her. There was a pause.

"So, who are you, Midday Eclipse?" The mare didn't respond.

"You aren't one of Twilight's fangirls, are you?" Celestia smirked, though it disappeared once she saw the look on the mare's face.

"No. I am not one of Twilight Sparkle's crazed fans."

The mare sighed. "I am about to tell you something and you won't believe me."

"You'd be surprised what I can believe in."
Midday seemed to be contemplating something.

"My name is... the name my parents gave me is Twilight Twinkle."
In an instant, Celestia's wings spread, and there was a stern expression on her face.

"Twilight Twinkle has been deceased some ten years now. I remember Twilight was quite distraught at her beloved grandmother's passing" she said, her voice that eerie calm that signified her temper being far beyond annoyed.

"I am aware of that."

"So unless I am mistaken..."

"My mother is Twilight Sparkle" Midday said, cuttting Celestia off.
The mare stared at her.

"Time travel" the unicorn muttered sheepishly.

"Which is outright impossible, because there is only one time travel spell, which is kept in a secure wing of my personal library, and even then it can only be used for one minute and a half. Three if you push it." She leaned in towards the unicorn.

"And you are still here."
The mare looked at the floor, and her hooves.

"I... don't know what happened. Only that one morning I'm in my time, and by lunchtime I'm in the past."
Celestia stared at her.

"How far back do you think you've gone?" The mare frowned as she gave this some thought.

"Roughly... twenty-three years, with some generous rounding."

"And how exactly did this happen?" Celestia asked. Midday shrugged.

"I was trying to use an auto-teleport scroll. You know, the sort of scrolls used to tutor children." She started blushing.
"I can't teleport" she muttered. Celestia raised her eyebrow again.

"And what was that you just did getting into my courtyard?"
Midday sighed, rubbing the back of her head.

"It...When I get nervous, like really, really nervous sometimes, I teleport. I can't control it. I can't consciously teleport, I should have said."
Celestia stared at Midday.

"I was afraid of seeing mother." Eyebrow again.

"Because of things I had done... and also not done."

"Such as?"

The mare looked reluctant to speak, as if she was fighting some great battle with herself.
"I may have... skipped school."

For a few moments Celestia did nothing. Then she laughed.

"You are telling me... that you... are Twilight Sparkle's daughter" she said inbetween trying to catch her breath, "You. The daughter of the most studious unicorn I have met in my entire life... and you are telling me that you..." She chortled, "You skipped school?"
Midday waited for several minutes as she kept laughing.

"I'm immortal, and I've not heard anything like that before." Celestia said. Then she saw the look on Midday's face.

"First of all: I'm not as old as I look. And I didn't skip school. I stopped going. And by school I really mean university."

That stopped Celestia's laughing. She looked at the unicorn standing in front of her. True, she did look a little bit like Twilight Sparkle, in that she had four legs, a tail, a horn, and blue hair. But then there were the differences, like the two orange stripes instead of one pink stripe, the lilac fur instead of Twilight's purple, the burnt orange eyes. And the Cutie Mark. In all of Equestria only three beings she knew had ever seen an eclipse and were still around, one of whom was currently working as a pidgeon toilet in her gardens. The other was doubtless taking a nap somewhere instead of brushing up on modern syntax like she'd gently suggested after Nightmare Night. The last was herself, and she'd been somewhat distracted when that had happened.

"And the last time m-..." Midday paused, and smiled a blatantly false smile. "Twilight Sparkle and I had seen each other we had argued. Passionately. About a lot of things." she muttered.
"And some of them I couldn't take back" she added, at the barest whisper.

Celestia said nothing.

"Because mother felt the need to send me off to university at your 'School for Gifted Unicorns'. And they gladly let me in without taking an entrance test, because I didn't need it. I was the daughter of the famous Twilight Sparkle." Cynicism was dripping from her every word. She sighed. Her voice became quiet.

"I didn't enjoy it. I didn't hate it either, I just.... I don't enjoy studying the exact same way she does. And I don't think she ever understood that."

"That must have made things difficult." Celestia said

"Frequently. Some foals are too willing to be friends with the daughter of a ...." She trailed off, and stared at Celestia, though her eyes seemed to be focused more on her wings. "Of a celebrity. And too often they were incredibly willing." She sighed again.

"It wasn't all bad. I mean, there were a few nice ponies, and they tried to be friends with me. I just wasn't trying to be friends with them. And after a few months, I decided I wasn't really learning anything new, and I wasn't happy. So I packed all my stuff, walked out of my dorm all the way to the train station and hopped on the first train to Ponyville."
She stopped speaking and stared up at the ceiling.

"And then?" Celestia asked, tilting her head slightly. There was something about the young mare's expression, the way she kept shifting and shuffling and pausing, that suggested she wasn't being absolutely truthful.

"For a few days I decied to lay low, while trying to figure out something to do. Eventually I decided I'd head out to the frontiers, like Dodge Junction or Appleoosa. Somewhere where no-one would care who I was, or my mother was. Somewhere I could try and make my own way in life, free of my mother's influence. So I enlisted the help of a local madpony who calls herself the Doctor."

That one gave Celestia pause. "Wait. 'Herself'? He's a she in the future?" She couldn't stop herself. The idea of the stallion who had barged his way into Canterlot Castle and claimed, to her face no less, that he owned the place, the mad pony par-excellence becoming a she was.... not the weirdest thing she'd ever heard (Although after Discord's boomerang snowflake pillows, very little was truly strange). It wasn't even that surprising. He'd mentioned something once during one of their meetings that he could in theory one day change gender, she just thought he was saying that to get her paying attention.

"Yes" Midday said without stopping to pause, "Anyway, I asked her to translate some scrolls for me that I claimed Twilight had discovered, and..." She was blushing now.

"I figured if I modified the spell a bit I could get myself as far as Dodge or Appleoosa in one sitting."

"You 'modified' a spell scroll given to you by a openly self-aware madpony, and you thought you'd walk away unscathed? Where'd you get this suicidal overconfidence from?"

"From a mare who figured she could take on a rampaging possessed alicorn by herself."

"Ah. Yes. I see. Bit silly that question."

"And my experiment... didn't work. The spell went hayware. And I wound up teleporting back twenty-three years and all of a few feet. Only I didn't know that bit, so I figured I'd just head back inside and wait for Twilight to come yell at me and pack me off to Zebrica or something." She laughed a bit.

"And I met Spike, who is currently a baby. And eventually I figured out I was in the past. And when Twilight finally got back from visiting her friends, well... 'bloink'. And you know about the rest." She laughed some more.
"And of course the damn scroll was one-way, which means..."

"You're stuck here."

"I'm stuck. Here." She laughed a bit more.

"And I haven't spoken that much in quite a while. Actually my throat's getting kinda sore."

Celestia's horn glowed slightly as she summoned someone from the kitchen.

"You said you wanted to speak to me. I presume it wasn't just to exposit about all this."

Midday shrugged.

"I figured I might stay in Ponyville. That's where I did the spell so it's the best place to try it again."

"And you think it'll work for going forward?"

"P'rhaps. Got nothing else to do."

The door opened and a stallion came in carrying a drink on a tray. Celestia levitated it over towards Midday. The mare quickly gulped it down.

"Warm blackcurrent juice. Worked wonders with Twilight when she was young."

"It's purple." Midday deadpanned.

"Your point?"

"Nothing, nothing." The corner of the mare's mouth seemed to curve a bit. The room then went silent save for the noise of a mare drinking, followed swiftly by the satisfied sigh of a mare who had finished drinking.

"Anything else you would like?" Celestia asked. Midday considered this.

"An alibi." she said eventually.

"An alibi." Celestia repeated.

"In case anyone wonders about the suspicious looking mare suddenly in their midst. A mystery doesn't stay a mystery long in Ponyville."

"I'll have to take your word for that."
There was a cough from behind Midday. A young guard-stallion was standing in the doorway.

"Your majesty" he said, staring straight ahead.

"Ah, Lieutenant Redcoat, would you kindly show Ms. Eclipse here to her room?"
The guard, whose fur was in fact sea-green (a fact that had caused him a lot of childhood trauma) nodded.

*****

Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, inside the Golden Oaks library

"Hmm."

"Hmm? What does 'hmm' mean, Twilight?"

"It was a teleportation spell. A highly overpowered one."

"How overpowered?" The dragon asked. Twilight shot him a Look.

"Train of though, Spike. Train of thought."

"Sorry."
She turned back to the outline of where the mare had teleported.

"I'm not sure how far you could go with a teleport as powerful as this, but if my estimates are right..." she said, turning to the chalkboard she'd covered with complex mathematical equations (along with a poor sketch of what she had dubbed the 'scene of the crime').

"If my estimates are right, the exact definition of how far your could go with this spell would be 'too far'" She said, frowning at the equations, as if she expected them to spring to life and help her make sense of this conundrum.

"So, it is a teleportation spell? Not a ghost, or an illusionist, or Trixie in a disguise, or Discord again?" asked Spike, hopefully, from atop the small pile of books he'd arranged into a makeshift chair. Twilight turned to him and frowned.

"Well..." She rubbed her hoof against her chin, "It might not be a good idea to rule those out just yet Spike. We have no idea how Discord escaped his prison in the first place. For all we know he might have been faking his defeat."

"Faking being turned back into stone? Can you actually do that?" Spike asked nervously, glancing around the room as he said so.

"We cannot rule it out" Twilight repeated. Spike sighed. They'd been going at this for several minutes now, with Twilight going over the area the mysterious Midday Eclipse had vanished with a fine-toothed comb. And if she had one available, Spike was certain she'd be using a powerful electron microscope. Whatever an electron microscope actually was. Twilight had even, over his concerns, gone through the mare's bag, finding only a tooth-brust, a recently cleaned towel, a sponge and some toothpaste. She had turned the saddlebags upside down, hoping to find something of note. There was nothing. The clasps were those of a regular store bag, not the expensive sort done in the shape of their owner's cutie mark.
And all this after several more minutes of Twilight corroborating Spike's claim that this 'Midday Eclipse' (an obvious pseudonym, she had proclaimed) was not some crazed fangirl come to 'help out' again. Twilight's serious investigation down that route had determined only, in her view, that Spike did not believe he had let a crazed fangirl into the library.

"We must triple-check our findings!" Twilight declared, "Only then shall we be able to determine the mystery of this... mystery pony."

"Maybe she just left something somewhere and went to fetch it?" Speak said weakly. True, it wasn't much of an argument, but he was spending of the few days left before winter kicked in for real sitting inside collating data. Then Twilight said the words Spike had been dreading.

"No, no. That can't be it. There must be a deeper reason than that. We shall work all through the day if we have to!"

"Do we have to?"

"We must, Spike. This is the truth we are looking for here!" She paused, and her expression grew worried.

"What if Princess Celestia sent her here to see if I'm keeping up with my studies?" Her eyes started darting about. She ran up to Spike, leaning right into his face.

"What if she thinks that after the Smarty-Pants incident, and everypony else being told they could send letters that I've been...." She took a deep breath, "SLACKING OFF?!"
Spike stared at her.

"Have you?"
She blinked, and her panic vanished in an instant.

"Um.... No." she said, with only a tiny bit of smug certitude.

"Then it's nothing to worry about, right?" Spike began to feel optimistic. Maybe she'd relax, and he wouldn't have to spend the day working.

"You're right. I'm just being silly. Silly old Twilight." She giggled, though she didn't sound entirely convinced.

"So..." Spike said, "Shall we go get something to eat?"

"No, Spike. I'm not really hungry." She smiled again, "But I am going to need someone to help me with a game of Flashcard Quickdraw in a while." She grinned giddily. Spike waited until she put the blackboard down in the basement for his expression to change to one of despair. Then someone knocked on the front door.

Spike walked over and opened it. Pinkie came in. There was a terrifying look in her eyes. She looked serious, almost like she was hunting for something.

"Hello, Pinkie?" Spike said nervously. Pinkie walked over to him and started sniffing him. Spike briefly wondered if she was about to try and eat him.

"Nope." She said, sounding confused and disappointed.

"Nope... what?"
She gave a frustrated sigh.

"At lunch my Pinkie-Sense started telling me a new pony was in town, but I was all full, and with the girls so I had to wait a bit before looking for them. But now I'm not full and I've looked all over Ponyville and I can't find this new pony."

"Maybe your Pinkie-Sense just... made a mistake."
Pinkie sat down and contemplated this.

"I don't think so." she said slowly, a worrying sign on its own "My Pinkie-Sense never gets it wrong."

"Oh, hey Pinkie Pie" Said Twilight, standing by the door to the basement, carrying a box which Spike recognised with dread.

"Hey Twilight" Said Pinkie, who walked over to Twilight and started sniffing her as well.

"Um... Pinkie?"

"She's looking for a new pony that can't be found" Said Spike.

"Well, I haven't seen anyone new in town today" Said Twilight.
Pinkie looked confused.

"What if my Pinkie-sense has stopped working? I'll never know when a flowerpot's about to fall on my head again."
Twilight placed a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder.

"Don't you worry Pinkie, I'm sure you'll find this new pony, sooner or later."

"Thanks Twilight" the earth pony said, her high-spirits rekindled, "Now I gotta go turn a welcome-to-Ponyville-party into a not-yet-a-welcome-to-Ponyville-Party" And at that she rushed out of the door before Twilight could ask Pinkie to join her and Spike in Flashcard Quickdraw.

Not soon after, as Spike and Twilight began a three hour long gaming session of Flashcard Quickdraw, he wondered whether Pinkie had been sensing Midday Eclipse. But these thoughts were quickly driven from Spike's mind by the sheer excitement only three hours of staring at flashcards could bring.

*****

Midday Eclipse 'oohed' and 'ahhed'.

"Nice room" she smiled, looking at the window opening onto a view of Canterlot that would probably have looked more impressive if it weren't rather cloudy outside. There was a four-poster double-sized bed, and a small table just across from it.

"Never been imprisoned in a room like this before" She said, jumping up and down on the bed in an experimental fashion, before rushing into the bathroom.

"Oooh, shower curtain" she exclaimed.

The guardpony, Glossy Redcoat, simply sighed. He had joined the guard for the uniform, to impress attractive mares, make his parents proud, the usual reasons a young stallion joined a city guard. Not to hear a madmare do horrific things to innocent shower curtains.

"You aren't imprisoned" he said, wondering whether he was required to add 'ma'am' or 'miss' to that statement. He probably wasn't. To his surprise the mare laughed.

"Sure I'm not. I mean, there aren't any bars or anything, but..." She walked over to the window, opened it and leaned out.
"The walls outside are impossible to scale, and way too high for me to make a rope out of bedsheets if I felt suitably mad, and I'm almost entirely certain this room is located just in the right place to coincide with the patrol routes of several guards." She laughed some more, jumping on to the bed.

"And besides, where would I run to? Canterlot? With no money, no contacts, relatives or associates I could reach? Not every prison needs bars." She said. Then she seemed to consider something.

"Hey, do I get room service?"
This was definitely not something his drill instructor had mentioned. Glossy was going to complain about this to the boss the next chance he got, even if it got him reassigned to Blueblood-guarding.

Comments

[The Shade]

Good.
Now kiss.

[Music-and-magic]

The guardponies never seemed to be prepared for working in the castle.