The Twilight Child

by Detectivefish

On a Mission from Twilight

If there was a problem with the esteemed and ancient House of Twilight (Formerly House of Starlight, formerly House of Shine, and formerly House of Sparklypoo at one misbegotten point best ignored) it was that its members were tenacious to a fault. Of course, there is never anything wrong with tenacity in itself, of course, but members of the House Twilight had a tendency to go just a bit too far.

The pony who once went by the name Twilight Twinkle had once heard a tale from her aunt about how His Grace Shining Armor had, despite being too ill to properly stand, tried to take Twilight Sparkle to the zoo like he had promised.
(It was apparently the result of this incident that led Grandpa Night Light and Grandma Velvet to hire Cadance as a foalsitter, at least until Shining Armor recovered, but the young alicorn had done so well they decided to hire her full-time, which her grandparents probably regarded as one of the most savy ideas any pony had ever made since somepony said 'Hey, what if I sold somepony these apples?!')

And so it was that Twilight Twinkle, under the alias of Midday Eclipse, disgraced minor adjutant to the accounting staff of Their Royal Majesties currently on 'paid vacation' and feeling utterly miserable, decided the only way to make amends for her misdeeds involving a hurled (and then destroyed) piano and a fallen showmare, was to make herself helpful.
If the universe had a method of expressing trepidation, it did not express itself.

So, once Midday removed herself from the bathtub she'd been practically marinating herself in, she vowed to be as helpful as was possible for a pony with most of the powers of a demigod.
Several fortune-tellers did feel a vague sense of dread, though they just blamed their lunches.

*****

Twilight Sparkle found herself woken from her dreams of flying through a massive library by an unusual sound. It sounded like something being scraped across a wooden floor. She opened her eyes to see Midday calmly dusting down her Nightmare Night costume.

"What are you doing?" She tried to say, only to find herself yawning mid-sentence. The royal blue unicorn turned to her and smiled.
"I just though I'd give... this a bit of a dusting down, be a bit helpful. Start earning my keep, as it were." She smiled all the way through that sentence, save for the brief pause where she made a split-second sideways glance at the costume.

"Well, I do appreciate that you want to be helpful, Midday, but really, there's no need. You're a guest here." She considered that. Technically she hadn't invited the unicorn to stay, just recieved a letter from Princess Celestia telling her to accept Midday's presence. Not that she would go against Princess Celestia's wishes. And Midday had managed to locate Smarty Pants. She made a note to ask how she'd done that.
The smile on Midday's face flickered for an instant.

"I know that, but it doesn't mean I can't be helpful." Twilight looked at the clock next to her. It was eight in the morning, and she did feel quite awake. Slowly she got out of bed.
When she came downstairs she saw a strange sight, Midday calmly reorganising the bookshelves.

"And you go there..." She muttered, she looked at one book floating in front of her face.
"Oh dear, you just don't belong there." Twilight gaped in horror at the scene. Her books were being moved! She quickly rushed over to Midday.

"What exactly are you doing?" The mare still smiled that smile.
"I just thought I'd reorganise the bookshelves, since they're in a mess." Twilight just tried to smile gently.

"Well, that's... really quite kind of you, but the reason they are in a... 'mess', is because I was waiting for Re-Shelving Day on Friday." Midday stared at Twilight.
"Oh, yes, of course. Sorry, forgot about that. Which is quite silly of me because it's on the monthly schedule."

Twilight looked at Midday.
"Look, if you want to be helpful, I'm sure there's somepony around town who needs some form of assistance, so why don't yo-"

"Oh, yes, that's a good idea. Go help others, okay! Bye!" Midday said, rushing out of the room quickly enough to leave an after-image. Twilight absent-mindedly decided to wave her hoof through it.

*****

Midday walked along the road, enjoying the bracing winter air. Well, not exactly enjoying. It was cold, but she ignored it. She wondered if there was somepony in need of help, anywhere.
There was a scream. She quickly set off.

"Oh, how could this have happened?" Rarity wailed from inside the building. Midday run up to the door, and calmly opened it.
"Rarity, what is it?" She declared. The unicorn looked at her, the very beginning of tears in her eyes.

"Oh, it's dreadful, simply dreadful." Her horn glowed and a small empty box floated in front of Midday's face.
"I have no more gems, which means I will have to go fetch more, and by the time I have done that..." She let out a sob.

"My inspiration will have vanished!" She leapt onto a small sofa and sobbed.
"Don't say that Rarity. If we act quickly we can fetch a bountiful supply of gems before you run out!" Rarity looked at Midday, confused.

"We?"
"Of course. Two horns are better than one." She said, smiling all the while.

"I suppose..." Rarity said, as Midday quickly set out of the door with a small wagon and a shovel.

*****

"So..." Rarity said as the two mares walked along, Midday carrying the shovel over her shoulder.
"Tell me a bit about yourself, Midday. I feel like we haven't really gotten to know each other lately" The unicorn looked at Rarity.

"I've not really got much to tell." She said.
"You must have some story or another, everypony has something to tell about themselves."

"What would you like to know?"
"Well, anything. Who you parents are, do you have any friends, what are your hobbies?"

Midday's currently ever-present smile seemed to briefly drop.
"No, no friends." She said, quietly. "Never got around to it."

"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Well, my mother always said 'You'll make plenty of friends, just be yourself.' You know, the usual parenty things they say"

"I see."
"Well, I did have a friend but..." Her smile briefly faded, then surged right back to life.

"But that's not important. Isn't it a nice day out?" she said, glancing around at the sky, and the occasional rock.
"Well..." Rarity said, ignoring the cold that seemed to go right through hair and fur. If she'd know it was that cold she would have brought a coat, or a cape. Or a coat and cape.

"So, did you have a special somepony back home, a... partner. A coltfriend?" For a moment, a look passed across Midday's face. Rarity had been expected either a warm smile or a look of disappointment. Instead it was neither. It was the look of somepony trying to remain calm.
"Are there any gems here?" Midday asked, her voice hollow.

Rarity focused her magic, her horn glowed and she could see a small clump of gemstones a few inches under the ground. Midday walked over to it and started digging. Once she dug far enough Rarity removed the gems. Then Midday wandered over to another group of gems, and dug, and so on, for some time. Eventually Rarity said that it was enough.
"That should be enough." She said. She looked at Midday, who looked back at her and smiled.

"I do have a sister in-law." Midday said.
"What's she like, if you don't mind my asking?"

"You'd like her. She loves fashion, high-culture, fine-dining, all that sort of thing. Very loving, very giving. We don't talk very often, probably because she's a lot older than me and usually tries to use me as a mannequin every time I visit." Rarity chortled at that.

"She's got a little sister, too. But... they don't get on. At all. Apparently something terrible happened between them, and... well, that was that."
Rarity felt for this unknown pony. She and Sweetie Belle fought on occasion, and there had been the incident only a few weeks ago where Sweetie Belle had declared her a 'un-sister' but they'd managed to solve that (even if she had required a full-body bath afterward. So much mud), but to deliberately never see you own sister ever again, such a concept was almost inconceivable.

"I'm sorry. Here I am trying to be helpful and I'm being all depressing and talking about ponies in misery." Midday said, her smile slowly returning.
Rarity just nodded, slightly alarmed at how quickly Midday's mood seemed to be shifting, and the two returned to the Carousel Boutique in silence after that. Every time Rarity looked away, she'd try and see if Midday was still smiling. And every time she thought she saw the smile drop, she looked back, only to see it return. She suddenly felt the need to move quickly.

*****

Pinkie sighed. It was tuesday lunchtime and pastry orders were pouring in. She needed help.
"Pinkie, hello!" Said a familiar voice. She looked up to see Midday Eclipse wearing a chefs' hat and apron.

"I thought you might have needed a bit of help today."
Pinkie smiled. "Actually, yes because there's a lot of ponies who keep asking for things and I'm only one pony because I can't clone myself and Ms Cake can't do any work right now on doctors orders and Mr Cake keeps checking to make sure she's okay and I do actually need help!" Midday nodded.

"Right, let's get to it!" She said.
It was hard, sweaty, tiring work, equal to that of the finest pastry chefs, the sort who strode across space-and-time, forging their icing from metals taken from cold stars, who cooked their works in furnaces that burnt like supernovae, making buns denser than the mightiest dark matter but that shone like dozen galaxies.

... Actually, it was nowhere nearly that dramatic. But it was sweaty and tiring rushing back and forth and checking on the various meals. To an outside observer the kitchen looked like it was host to a pair of hurricanes rushing back and forth, occasionaly producing the odd cupcake, muffin or loaf of bread, and unlike last time the two had worked together, nopony was pretending that their baguettes were swords (or making those truly bizarre humming noises they'd made).

"Well, that's everypony served and stuffed." Pinkie smiled.
"Hooray!" Said the collapsed tangle of legs Midday had turned into.

"Are you okay?" Pinkie asked, concerned for her assistant chef.
"I'll be fine, just give me a minute." The unicorn waved a hoof, which due to the way she was lying appeared to be jutting out of her stomach.

Pinkie momentarily seemed concerned. Then somepony entered and Pinkie had to answer her call of obligation.
Midday's horn glowed. A small light washed over her form and she shakily got to her hooves and set out the door.

*****

On her way back to the library, a strange sudden downpour started. 'Strange' because the rain seemed to be completely focused on her. She looked up. There was a raincloud right above her. After a few moments it stopped, and she saw Rainbow Dash stick her head over the edge.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't see you there." Rainbow Dash said. Midday looked at the pegasus, who looked like she was expecting her to get mad or try and fight her. Instead she just smiled brightly.
"That's okay Rainbow Dash." She said, and continued onwards. She barely heard Rainbow Dash's confused 'huh'.

*****

When she entered the library she found a familiar-looking brown earth pony stallion looking over the shelves.
"Can I help you?" She asked.

"No, no, I just came to investigate this library. Very nice, very cosy. And you've got a comfy chair. I like comfy chairs." He said. He looked slightly nervous about something. Perhaps he was just a mustang.
"Have you by chance got any books on temporal theory? Also, you seem to soaking wet." She looked about.

"Temporal theory. I think so... I'm sure I saw something on it in here. Or it's in the spare room. Mind if I ask why you need it?" The stallion shrugged.
"Thought it might be a laugh." She looked at him, smiling but sounding dead serious.

"Might be in the secondary room." She said, pointing towards the door, before going to sit down. He walked over to it and then, as he opened the door he suddenly gasped.
"Oh, look at you!"

"What? Is something the matter?"
He took a deep breath. Unfortunately, due to the rules of the healing spell she'd worked on herself, she was now unable to stand. She sighed, and levitated the cushion she was sitting on. Perhaps not the most sensible means of movement, but certainly interesting. She floated the cushion towards the door, where Time Turner or Doctor Whooves or whatever he called himself was staring, wide-eyed, at Twilight's Star-Swirl the Bearded costume.

"Look at you!" he repeated.
"You even have the bells" he said. He reached out a hoof to touch it, then lowered it. He spun arond to stare at Midday.

"Who made this?" He asked, sounding for all the world like somepony who'd seen their high-school crush after several years.
"Twilight Sparkle did. All by herself. Which is all the more impressive because Star-Swirl has never been depicted in any artwork. She was just working on accounts of his... dress." She wasn't trying to sound vindictive (despite it being Star-Swirl the Bearded), she just wasn't sure what to call it.

He was still staring at it, smiling like someone who'd seen an old photo of themself.
"I remember those days. A young man trying to act old and important. Being smug and rude and never listening to anyone else." He whispered. She stared at him.

'Great', she told herself, 'one of those sorts of ponies'.
There was something new in his eyes. Regret. And his smile had vanished.

"I said I'd come back one day." He turned to look at her.
"I knew I never would. I lied to her and said I'd be back when I knew it was goodbye. I knew it." He looked at the costume and seemed to get angry.

"Anway!" He clapped his hooves together, "Temporal theory. Need a bit of cheering up and I can't go anywhere so I might as well find something to do. That lovely pegasus with the eyes got a bit tetchy with me for painting her fence." He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially.
"Scariest thing in the universe, an angry mom. Or just a bus full of people." His tone went slightly dark at that last bit.

"Well, you just let me know if you need anything. I'm here to help." Midday said. He seemed to find that funny. He rushed out with the book. She let the chair set down again. Then the door opened again.
"Sorry to bother you, but... do you know where I can get a fez?"

*****

With her body mostly out of comission from helping Pinkie bake, Midday spent the rest of the day helping Twilight re-organise the shelves, once Twilight had devised an arrangement that suited her. The next morning, she set about helping more ponies, vowing not to overwork herself as much. The first part came when she found Trixie sitting downstairs.
"Good morning, Trixie, how are you?" The showmare leapt with shock.

"I'm fine... fine, yes, fine. Not doing anything." She said. She shuffled her hooves slightly.
"Okay then."

Trixie shuffled a bit more.
"Actually, Trixie wishes to apologise for her actions. It was wrong of me to use highly experimental magic on you for the sake of petty revenge."

"That's okay Trixie."
"If you say so. But... surely Trixie could make it up to you?" She actually sounded genuinely apologetic. Midday wondered if somepony had threatened her, the way she was saying these things.

"You really don't need to. Just don't zap me with any spells while I'm asleep." Trixie looked about the room.
"If it's not too much help, I was wondering if perhaps you would assist me with something."

"What?"
"Well, it... I was hoping you would help Trixie refine her act." Midday stared in surprise.

"Alright." She said, after some seconds of careful consideration.

*****

Trixe stood on a free-standing stage (which struck Midday as rather unusual, even for Ponyville), Midday sitting on the ground in front of the stage watching as Trixie generated illusions that looked slightly better than her usual forte of stick-figures. From the looks of it, Trixie had been practicing her magic at some point, which would have explained where she went when she kept disappearing.
"Well?" Trixie said once she'd finished. "What did you think of that?"

"It was... different."
Trixie frowned at that, and appeared to consider it.

"Different is something. I can live with different." She mused. She hopped off the stage.
"Can I tell you a secret?" She said, motioning for Midday to lean in closer.

"I... have never really had any friends." Midday tried not to make any sarcastic remark.
"It's just... I never really thought it would matter. I though one day I would be a success, that the name Trixie would be cheered on by every pony who saw my show, so I wouldn't need friends... and, well... it all went to Tartarus here." She sighed.

"And then you came along. And you did steal my grandfather's hat, which I am still upset about, but... you actually sounded interested in my getting a second chance. Which I suppose makes you the closest thing I have to a friend." She looked about.
"Well, you and that mailmare. The one with the eyes."

"Ditzy? Really?"
"I like her." Trixie said, slowly. "She's nice."

"How did you two meet?"
"I was... rehearsing and practicing my magic where I thought nopony would be around, and she must have seen me while doing her rounds and wondered what was going on and... we got to talking and she just so... nice, and cheerful and kind."
Midday smiled.

"Well, just to reassure you, I'm really not angry about the 'Great Rainbow Brain Swap', as Pinkie was calling it. Or rather, what you did to me because of it. What you did to Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof will take a while longer to forgive." Trixie looked nervous.

"Yes. Can I do anything about that?"
"Can you get her membership in the Wonderbolts?" Trixie shook her head.

"Then I'd just wait for the storm to pass." Midday said, "Rainbow Dash will probably forget by next week."
"It's Heart's Warming Eve next week, isn't it?"

"Two weeks, actually. And Twilight and the girls have been roped into helping Celestia perform it. I can't wait to see that." Midday smirked. Trixie grinned
"Really?"

"Yeah, Twilight's gonna go mad trying to make everything historically accurate." The two mares laughed at that.
"That'll be worth seeing just on the concept alone!" Trixie said.

"Now, then." She said, "Shall I give the rehearsal another go?"
After watching Trixie go over her revised show again, Midday set about being helpful elsewhere, and for the rest of the day, all was good. Aside from her attempting to look after Fluttershy's pets while she went to fetch supplies, but the less said of that, the better.

*****

The next morning, Twilight Sparkle woke up feeling refreshed and ready to study. She quickly got up and brushed her teeth and headed downstairs.
She found Midday asleep next to an empty cup, a stack of books and a small notepad and a nub of a quill sticking out of an inkwell.

"Somepony's been busy." She said. Suddenly Midday woke up, leaping to her feet and scaring Twilight.
"Oh, Twilight!" Midday said. She sounded unusually energetic.

"Good morning, what's the plan for today!" She said.
"Are you... alright?" Twilight asked. Midday nodded.

"I heard what you said last night about needing to study teleportation, and how you thought you didn't have enough time to study it in detail, so I stayed up all night studying it, and I took NOTES!" she said, brandishing the notebook, an unsteady gleam in her eyes.
"Did you spend all night doing this? How did you stay awake?" Twilight asked.

"Coffee!" Midday declared, her ears twitching violently. Further conversation was ruined by the door opening, and Spike walking down the stairs.
"Morning Twilight, morning Midday." He paused when he saw the frankly unstable looking unicorn.

"Morning?" Midday said. She looked at the clock on the wall.
"I FELL ASLEEP!!" She yelped, "I missed the train! And the next one's not going to be here for fifteen to twenty minutes!" she turned back toward Twilight, "I know because I checked the train schedules last night before I decided to stay up all night helping you revise your notes!" She said, sounding slightly smug. There was an eerily familiar nature to her behaviour.

"What do you need the train for?" Spike asked hesitantly.
"I was going to go to Canterlot, so that I could do something for Rainbow Dash to make up for swapping minds with her!" She said, gritting her teeth and rubbing her forelegs over each other. She was jittering slightly.

"How much coffee did you have?" Twilight asked, noting the fact that the cup was completely dry.
"NOT ENOUGH!" Midday said, the windows shaking.

"Don't you think you might want to calm down? I'm sure Spike and I could go to Canterlot and fetch whatever it is. In fact, you don't really need to get Rainbow Dash anything."
That was not the right thing to say. Midday stared at Twilight, which considering her unbalanced, sleep-deprived behaviour was not pleasant. Also, her breath smelt unbearably like coffee.

"Don't. Need. To?" She whispered.
"Don't. Need. To?" She repeated, leaning in further toward Twilight with each word.

"Yes." Twilight Sparkle said. Spike buried his face in his claws. It was going to be one of those days.

*****

Everyone in Ponyville heard the agitated scream. Instantly, several ponies rushed outside to find the source of the disturbance, and found Twilight Sparkle wrestling with what appeared to be Midday Eclipse, albeit badly dishevelled and massively sleep deprived and screaming up a storm.
"Get off me!" She yelled, her horn flaring as she tried to focus her magic on the struggling unicorn being dragged along behind her.

"No!" Twilight said, "You are not in any fit condition to be going anywhere!" Midday strained and apparently broke free of Twilight's hold on her and began running. Twilight's horn glowed, and there was a flash of light, and Midday appeared in front of Twilight. She quickly turned around and started running again. Twilight teleported her back. She tried running again. Twilight teleported her again. Then, when Midday tried to run again, Twilight teleported in front of her.

"Stalemate!" Twilight declared. Midday stared at her, and her horn glowed. There was a rumbling noise, and Twilight looked up to see ominous grey-purple clouds forming above her. She tried to move, just as a massive lightning bolt hit her. Midday seized the opportunity and started running past her. Something slammed into her.
"Stop this at once" Rarity said. Midday just shook her off. Rarity grabbed her. For such an elegant pony, she proved remarkably strong.

"Leggo me! I said I was gonna help, AN' I MEAN IT!" Midday yelled, slurring half the words she was saying in her sleep-deprived state.
"I really don't think so" Rarity said. Midday focused her somewhat bloodshot eyes on her.

"Rarity" She said, in a sing-song voice, "I know your secret. I know how to make you go to sleep!"
"That's fascinating, Midday. Perhaps we should all be getting some sleep."

"Let go of me, Rarity. I have to help."
"Help who?" She said.

"Everypony. Anyone who asks. Gotta help, gotta help, or there's no point. I said I was going to be helpful and I meant it."
"You won't be much help to anypony half-insensible. Can't you just wait for a while?"

Midday shook her head. Rarity sighed, and her horn started glowing.
"I am sorry, but you've left me no choi-"

"EDAM!"
It was not the fact that she had yelled the name of a type of cheese out loud that was weird, but it was the fact that Rarity collapsed, then proceeded to curl up into a ball that truly sold the scene as bizarre, after which the royal blue unicorn rushed away towards Ponyville's train station, though some claimed she had muttered something under her breath that sounded like the word 'sorry', albeit highly slurred.

Spike, having watched the whole ordeal, quickly wrote down a letter to Princess Celestia.

*****

The reason for Midday's sorry mental state was that when she had promised to take notes of teleporting for Twilight, she had forgotten how long the book on teleportation actually was (With several pages devoted to warning about the dangers of teleporting blind, with friends, while drunk or an hour after eating). So she had started drinking coffee just to stay awake, and the sleepier she became, the more unfocused her thoughts, until eventually she just collapsed.
This had also resulted in her notes eventually descending into outright, poorly-written gibberish, as it turned out.

*****

"Rarity, you okay?" Twilight's voice said, drawing Rarity out of her self-imposed withdrawal.
"Oh, that's... really embarrasing." She said. Fortunately Twilight taken her indoors and placed her on the comfy chair, so there was no crowd of gawkers. The purple unicorn frowned.

"I thought you were seeing a psychiatrist about your... phobia."
"Well, that hit a... snag. It turned out that psychiatrist was in my arch-nemesis Embrace's employ and... things devolved quickly from there."

"Is there anything you need right now?"
"A strong pot of tea would be quite welcome." Rarity sighed.

"And perhaps an explanation of why exactly you were wrestling with your lodger."

*****

Midday felt the gentle rocking, and the clattering noise of train-wheels moving, and opened her eyes, which stung. For a moment, she had a blissful lack of recollection as to what she had done during the night. Then she remembered.
"I pulled a Smarty Pants." She said. Fortunately the carriage she was in was empty, though she did briefly wonder if she'd played some part in that. She looked out of the window. The train was almost at Canterlot. Knowing Twilight, the Royal Guard was probably waiting for her at the station there. She sighed. What was left of the caffeine in her system was probably beginning to fade, but she did remember what she had promised to do for Rainbow Dash. After that, she would stop her ludicrously overzealous attempts at helping ponies without being asked. She was amazed that her efforts managed to slip out of control after only one day, and wondered if perhaps she'd made other declarations on her coffee high, possibly pertaining to world domination.

And it was nice to know the family madness was alive in her. For a given value of 'nice'.
The train soon slowly came to a halt in the station, and she could see the distinctive golden armor of the royal guard.

She stepped out onto the platform, and was met by the (slightly nervous) brandishing of remoreless pieces of metal, and their wielders.
"Miss Midden Eclipse" The pony who looked like the guard commander said.

"Midday." She said.
"Midday Eclipse, we would ask that you please get back onto the train."

"Or what?" She said. He looked nervous.
"Or... we will be required to make you board the train." He didn't sound at all convinced of his ability to do so. She looked at the guards. There were several of them, and only one of her, and they looked nervous.
"Will you, now?" she said.

If there was a problem with her family, it was that when they promised to do something, they went to lengths that made Pinkie Promises look like the agreement of a cheap lawyer. Destroy an evil war-lord on my own? Sure. Stare down a rampaging moon-god? Easy. Save a wedding from an awful bride? What do you want played at your reception? and so on. And she had promised to apologise to Rainbow Dash for her part in the brain swap, and while she was loathe to admit it, she was her mother's daughter, she was of the House Twilight (Formerly House Starlight, formerly House Shining, and during the reign of bonkers great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandma Sparklingshine, House Sparklypoo) and like Tartarus if she was going to break her promise just to make a bunch of guards feel slightly less uneasy.

"Yes." The commander said. "We will."
"Er..." One guard said, "How?"

"What?"
"Well, sarge" The guard, who by the looks of him was one of those overly-clever sorts who'd either get promoted really quickly to Blueblood guarding, or just sent to watch the Griffin embassy, "The thing is, there's about eight of us, right, and we're the guard, if yer get what I mean, and there's one of her." He shot Midday a nervous glance.

"An' she's smiling."
"Am I?" She said, making sure to make her grin wider.

The sergeant looked irritated.
"Look you bunch of skirts, there's one of us, and only one of her. What's she gonna do?"

"Steal our weapons and start leapin' around on the table?"
"Swing from the chandeliers?" Said another. Paranoia clearly did odd things to a guard.

"Do they actually do that?!" Said a particularly young-looking guard, whose helmet didn't fit yet.
"For the love of- Look, we are well-trained members of the royal guard, and she is clearly sleep-deprived and in no condition to fight off eight guards, and even if she wasn't sleep-deprived, she would still be in no condition to fight us."

'Wow!' Midday thought to herself. This guy was either a brilliant liar, or his parents needed a good kicking for their poor child-rearing skills.
"He's got a point. I am sleep deprived. Mostly harmless." That didn't seem to put them at ease. The young one was glancing at the ceiling, evidently scanning for chandeliers.

"But I'm still not getting on the train." There was a nervous whimper from the young guard.
The sergeant stepped forward.

"Right, if none of you hopeless clowns are gonna do your jobs, I might as well show you how."
It should be noted, if only for the record, that what Midday had wanted when she was younger, really really REALLY wanted, more than anything, even wings, was to be a hero. To right wrongs and pound two-hoofed justice into the cowardly elements of the night. To that end she had studied everything a young mare would need to survive in those situations, and had even asked her uncle, former captain of the Canterlot Guard himself and part-time instructor to the Crystal Empire athletics team Shining Armor, for a few pointers on fighting. Her uncle had been a bit reluctant to teach his ten year old niece how to wield a sword for some reason, but eventually he had given her more than a few tips on physical combat.

So, as the sergeant reached out to 'gently encourage' her onto the soon-departing train, she grabbed his front leg, pressed it between her forelegs and flipped him over her head. He hit the ground with an almighty thump.
"Who's next?" She smirked.

*****

Some fifteen minutes later, and Midday reached the booking office of Canterlot Stadium.
"Hello" The young mare behind the glass said. By now the adrenaline was wearing off and Midday's mind was beginning to slip back into sleep-mode, though the fact that she'd wiped the floor with a group of well-trained Royal Guardsponies was helping to keep her on track.

"Yes, I would like..." She paused. Herself, Rainbow, her bargaining chip and her two friends, which made...
"Five tickets for the Wonderbolt Derby" She said.

The mare pulled out five tickets and gave her the price, she handed over the money she'd retrieved from the bank on her way there. It seemed a bit strange to her that the guard hadn't caught up with her y-
There was a polite cough behind her. She took the tickets and turned.

She was met with the sight of the entire Canterlot Royal Guard pointing very sharp-looking weapons at her.

*****

The train from Canterlot slowly pulled into the Ponyville station, and Midday stepped off, flanked by several members of the Royal Guard. They marched alongside her all the way back to the library, wherein the guard tapped gently on the door. It opened, revealing Twilight Sparkle.
"Oh, good afternoon." She said, and looked at Midday.

"Oh, you found her." The guards nodded, and their duty done, turned and left.
Midday slowly walked into the library. The tickets she held in her magic she floated into the saddlebags by the door. She then walked over to the comfy chair.

"Is this going to be a regular occurance?" Twilight frowned. Midday turned to look at her.
"No, no. I swear that was the last bit of voluntary crazy I will pull off."

"Okay." Twilight said, though she didn't sound convinced.
"Why did you do all of this?"

"I just... wanted to make up for the whole brain-switching thing." She said, sheepishly. "I just... well, went a bit overboard. But it's all out of my system now, I swear. Complete sanity from here on out."
"You swear?"

"In as much as I can, bearing in mind terms and conditions apply, I promise I will not cause any more," she yawned, "Madness."
"Well" Twilight said, "I'm glad to hear it." She turned away.

"Now, about those notes you wro-" There was a soft snoring noise, and a thump. She turned to see Midday, half-splayed out of the chair and completely asleep.
"I guess you do need some sleep." She said. Her horn glowed, and the slumbering pony was quickly lifted upstairs and gently placed on top of her bed. Twilight went downstairs to get some serious studying done, but not before taking a look at the slumbering pony. She found herself smiling for some reason.

Author's Note:

I had fun writing the bit with the guards. Can you tell?

Comments

[The Random Lord]

I dont know if you noticed but half way though the text turns to italics
it was the same with the last chapter but it was bold
made it really weird to read

[Siras-chi]

Loving this story and I can't wait for Twi to figure things out, but what's with all the italics?

[Detectivefish]

2281252>>2281285
It's my computer. It hates me.
Edit: Fixed. Thanks for calling it to my attention.

[Authora97]

2281285 Near the top she forgot to press the [ and i button so the whole thing is like that.

[Whiteeyes]

Hello Discworld guards!