Scattered pages and dusty old books filled the study in a cluttered mess as Andromeda Sparkle slept among the debris of her own project. Unconscious after a long night of work, her mind only left dreamland when the amber beams of the rising sun shone on her face. With a groan, she slowly rose to her feet, heavy eyelids still drooping. Various loose documents clung to her face as she stood, unnoticed by her until their delicate forms slipped from her lavender cheeks and fluttered towards the blanket of weathered volumes that lay on the floor around her. Once the blur of sleep had finally faded, she turned to see the silhouette of her mom standing against the wall across the room, following a disarrayed chain of manuscripts as if casually searching for survivors.
Twilight Sparkle hadn’t turned the corner yet, but once she did, the purple mare wouldn’t be able to recognize the room. Andromeda’s expression burned from embarrassment at the thought, but cooled gently with the sound of her mother’s humming. Twilight’s melodic tune flowed through the house like a gentle breeze and illuminated the room as vividly as the sunshine outside. Caught in its trance, Andromeda nearly forgot what was happening and suddenly shook herself awake while her eyes scoured the floor around her in worry.
“She’s going to kill me if she sees this!” she whispered aloud.
While Twilight’s shadow was temporarily distracted with gathering up the breadcrumb trail of books and placing them into a neat stack, Andromeda began to frantically tidy up the war zone around her and prayed she would be able to clear the catastrophic remains of her private study in time. With a push of her amethyst-colored bangs out of her tired eyes, Andromeda charged her horn with a yellow glow and began cleaning up as quickly as possible. While she was normally not the disorganized type, she was nowhere near as orderly as her mother. Then again, she had never met anypony as obsessed with order as her mom. Hearing the sound of Twilight’s hooves growing closer, Andromeda panicked and shoved a large number of the leftover books inside a nearby chest and nervously faked a large smile just in time to see her turn the corner.
As Twilight walked in, the glow of the morning sun sparkled in her silky hair with a serene radiance, painting the nearby bookcase in its violet sheen. Andromeda gazed as even the very world that surrounded the famous mare seemed to become magical by her presence. Her mother had a look of confidence and responsibility that one would expect from an Equestrian hero, but all that mattered to her children was her loving compassion, which Andromeda could always see in her eyes. Regardless, Andromeda put on her best poker face and hoped her mother wouldn’t see past her façade.
"Morning, mom," she said happily as her hind hoof subtly pushed the last book on the floor behind the chest. “Did you have a nice rest?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow with a lighthearted smirk. Her daughter’s fatigued eyes did not match the bouncy greeting.
“Yes, I did. How about you, Andromeda? You look like you’ve had a long night. Did you sleep okay? I see you made a mess again.”
“I slept like a baby. And what mess?” Andromeda bluffed. “Sure, I dropped a few books, but it’s not that bad, right?”
“Uh huh. Take a look at your desk. See anything out of the ordinary?”
Andromeda spun to look at her workstation and winced. She had spent too much time organizing the books and not enough time clearing the desk, and the mistake in priority showed. Empty vials lay strewn around and several books were still open. Wrinkled note papers were scattered so thoroughly that one couldn’t even see the wood surface anymore. Andromeda shrugged innocently.
“Organized chaos?”
“Is that so?” Twilight replied, toying with her daughter. “Then I’m assuming the black hair is organized chaos too?”
Andromeda’s eyes grew wide.
“Black hair?”
Scurrying to the nearest hoof-held mirror, she pointed its reflective surface towards her to see a large section of the top of her mane blackened. The dark hue spread through her hair in long gnarled streaks like angled branches of a barren tree. Touching the mysterious color, it felt oily and wet.
“Aw man!” she groaned. “Ink? Are you kidding me?”
Twilight grinned with amusement.
“I warned you about falling asleep in the middle of writing new magic formulas. Nothing tires the mind more than scientific research at four in the morning.”
Andromeda picked up a rag with her magic and began to wipe the black liquid out of her hair with a sigh.
“Alright, fine. You caught me. I dozed off in the middle of my work and the room was a wreck when I woke up. I did sleep like a baby, though!”
“Obviously,” Twilight said with a smile as she took the rag and wiped the last bit of ink from the back of her daughter’s mane.
Andromeda looked at her mom sheepishly.
"Sorry about the mess. I’ll clean it up."
"It's okay. I understand you've been busy and sometimes research can get messy. You may think I’m a neat freak but,” Twilight said, stopping in mid-sentence to straighten a nearby book on the shelf, “I’ve had plenty of disorganized nights of study as well.”
“Uncle Spike always did say you had a tendency to throw books around when you were in a panic.”
“Which was all the time,” Twilight joked.
The two giggled lightly and began to clean up. As they worked, Twilight found the chest that was hastily crammed with books and shook her head.
‘What am I going to do with her?’ she thought to herself while shifting through the piles of encyclopedias and textbooks.
As she started organizing them, a feeling of nostalgia came over her when she began to take notice of what Andromeda had been reading. At closer inspection, she recognized most of the books and documents that lay before her. Though many of the covers were old and worn, their contents remained in her mind like a fresh memory, piquing her curiosity once again. As she scanned them with purple eyes twinkling, warm sentiments of the many hours she spent reading while under the tutelage of Princess Celestia returned to her. She could tell that they had come from Canterlot.
"I see you’ve been scoping the palace’s library,” she said without looking away, “and quite fervently too. I recognize all of these books except for the ones with the jeweled hearts on their covers. Did you actually travel all the way to the Crystal Empire to get these?”
“Sure did!” Andromeda replied.
“Wow, even I have rarely used so many books for one project! What is it that you've been working on that has you in such a reading frenzy anyway?”
Andromeda immediately dropped what she was doing and grinned widely.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!” she said. “I wanted to show you something!”
With a sudden bolt of speed, she began searching in the heaps with bright eagerness until she finally came across an old book and lifted it with her magic horn. Its leather exterior was rough and its paper had been yellowed from age as well as torn loose in several places. Bringing it to Twilight, she laid it down on the table with glee.
“I was working on improvements to the teleportation spell, when I ran into this in the Starswirl Wing of the Royal Canterlot Library.”
When she lifted the thick cover, a slight musk of old pages filled Twilight’s nostrils in a familiar scent. Many a time had she smelled that musty old aroma from the hidden reaches of the library. Andromeda wasted no time and immediately pulled one of the loose papers out and displayed it while she pointed at its contents.
"Take a look! There's a spell in here that will allow the user to time travel to any moment in the past! Did you know about this?"
Twilight’s eyes glided from one side of the page to the other, quickly scanning it as if copying its print in her mind for later use. When she finished, she looked back at her daughter and smiled.
"Of course I know about this,” she replied. “I’ve time traveled myself.”
Andromeda's sunset eyes glistened with vivid excitement as if a whole new world had opened before her. The world of science and magic was one of her greatest loves and it showed in every fiber of her being as a million questions ran through her head.
"Really?” she cried. “You actually time travelled? What was it like? Where did you go? Who did you meet? How far back did you time jump? Why..."
"Whoa there, filly!” Twilight laughed. “One question at a time! Yes, I've traveled before. I’ve done it several times, in fact. Did I never tell you about this?”
Andromeda shook her head.
"Well," Twilight continued, "the first time I tried to go back in time was to warn myself of a danger that ended up happening anyway. It's a long story that I promise to tell you and your brother another day. The next few time jumps were made when I was testing out my improved spell.”
"Improved spell?"
Twilight lifted the book and spun the pages quickly until a page filled to the brim with notes and formulas appeared. Turning the book towards her daughter, she beamed with pride at her work.
"See the initials?"
Andromeda leaned closer to better focus on the tiny lettering. At first glance it seemed like there wasn’t an empty spot left, but at the bottom of the ink-filled page stood out two letters in bright red ink--T.S.
"T.S.," she read aloud. "Twilight Sparkle! You wrote all this?"
"Of course! Remember who you're talking to," Twilight replied with a wink. "When I first used the spell, it only allowed the traveler to go back in time once and just for a few moments at most. At some point I secretly spent months working on ways to improve and lengthen the period of time the user could stay in the past. I knew it could be done and after countless hours of work, my intuition paid off. The last time I cast it, I was able to extend the trip from mere seconds to as long as thirty days or possibly even more!"
Twilight stopped talking when she began to see the wheels in her daughter's head spinning. She could tell when Andromeda was concocting a breakthrough in her busy mind. It was in her body language. Whenever a big idea sprang into her head, Andromeda's horn would momentarily spark with a dim pink glow, a unique trait that Twilight had never seen before, especially considering the fact that Andromeda's eyes were sunset-yellow.
“Thirty days, huh?” Andromeda asked softly, not really speaking to anypony in particular.
Andromeda was brilliant and, to the shock of most ponies, was actually more so than her mother when she was her age. Princess Celestia herself said that where Twilight proved to have a special talent in magic, Andromeda showed the same potential through her intelligence and scientific analysis. Like her mother, she was made a pupil of the Princess and even managed to impress Luna, who often spent time with her when work carried on into the night. Twilight knew Andromeda was inventing some kind of idea in her mind from the way she continued to decipher every word, note, and formula written in the book with eagerness.
“I know that look,” Twilight said, catching the rapid flash of the pink spark. “You’re on to something, aren’t you?”
The young mare said nothing, consumed in the new revelation that had just been shown to her. While magic was not her special talent, she nonetheless had a keen curiosity for its wonders. She was nowhere near as powerful as Twilight in that department, but with a lucky bit of heredity, she had gotten some above-average magical ability. This often proved useful for her experimentation with old spells. Seeing that she was checked out for the moment, Twilight began to pensively return to cleaning until Andromeda spoke up again.
"Wait," Andromeda said with a tinge of confusion, "these notes are incomplete. It seems you were on the brink of a breakthrough. Why did you stop?"
Twilight paused in rumination and the once shimmering glow of her hair seemed to dull before her daughter’s eyes. Twilight remained quiet for a moment as if carefully weighing her next words.
"The spell was too unstable to continue working on,” she said plainly.
Andromeda waited for a continuation, but received none when Twilight began organizing the sheets again. Impatience nudged her to keep asking questions.
“What do you mean? What happened?”
Twilight sighed.
“The more I 'improved' it, the less control I had over it. Sometimes I would end up several hundred paces away from my intended target, even going as far as aiming for my house and ending up in Froggy Bottom Bog. At some point I realized that casting the spell was taking its toll on my body. Each time I cast it, I grew sicker and sicker. Even returning home started to become more difficult. I kept trying to mend the problem, but every time I fixed one issue, another would take its place. After six or seven time jumps, I finally quit. I haven’t used it since.”
Seeing Andromeda’s perplexed expression, Twilight lightened the mood with a smile.
"Besides," she said sweetly, "after I met your father, I stopped obsessing over spells I couldn’t control and eventually I focused on having a family. Ponies think my becoming an alicorn princess was my proudest moment, but really, the greatest accomplishment I ever achieved was having you and Orion. Even if I had fixed the time travel spell for good, I wouldn’t change a thing in my life.”
Andromeda felt warm from the sentiment, but the fact of near-scientific breakthrough still proved too much to let go.
"But you were so close!" she exclaimed. "You could have perfected it and still had a family! Why didn’t you just fix the spell over time?”
Twilight sighed and picked up the book and notes again, examining it gently like a mare who had just found her old fillyhood doll. For too many years, she traded friendship for knowledge and even though she had raised her own family along with her friends and their children, she could see the same unquenchable drive in Andromeda. With the combination of her close relationship with Celestia and her brother’s marriage to princess Cadence, Twilight knew she could have remained in Canterlot and lived a life of royalty. She could have had the world if she wanted, but she knew that deep down, the life she chose was far greater than any kind she may have had before coming to Ponyville. Looking at Andromeda waiting patiently for an answer, Twilight shook herself out of her internal daydreaming.
"You may not understand it now,” she said, giving her inquisitor a hug, “but I learned long ago that relationships are more important than these things. You can't spend all of your time alone in a lab or a library. It took me years to figure this out, even after I moved to Ponyville. I know you have true friends here, but please don't let them fade away or lose contact with you. Make sure you keep them. Promise me?"
Andromeda felt confused from the “dear princess Celestia” response, but went along with it and hugged back.
"I promise."
Giving her daughter another squeeze, Twilight let go and continued her cleaning.
"Good. Now go get ready. I need you to run some errands for your father while he’s out. I'll take care of this mess for you."
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. And don’t forget to wash your hair!”
"Okay mom,” Andromeda replied.
As she made her way to her bedroom, her mind continued to spin. The idea of a perfected time-travel spell seemed too much to ignore, especially considering the way her mom acted when asked about it. Andromeda had grown up listening to her mother’s many stories, but why Twilight would not tell them about this one was odd. The more she thought about what she said, the more curious she became of her mother’s decision to put aside months and months of work permanently. There was a piece of the puzzle missing and she had no intention of letting the mystery slide.
“Mom never leaves anything unfinished," she said softly. “There has to be more to what she said than stopping to raise a family.”
Glancing back at Twilight, she grinned with a newfound sense of purpose.
“And I'm going to find out!”
(End of Chapter 1)
Wait....is this the same story that is on DeviantArt?
i think so..i hope so
One major question: Does Twilight still have her wings or did she give them up? Cause it's possible to live in Ponyville and keep her wings you know.
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Yes and no. It's the same story, but the reason I've not posted to Fimfiction from the beginning is because I knew that I would need time to continuously come up with more ideas and be able to make sure I submit a truly finished product. Basically, as I submit to Deviantart, I will simultaneously be submitting the "final product" here. I will re-edit the DA ones of course, but only after I post to Fimfiction.
And answering the alicorn question, I don't know. I've left it open to multiple possibilities. Luckily for me, it's irrelevant to this story. The kids' time jump to the place takes place BEFORE she becomes a princess, but I can have the kids make references to it.
2162572 Okay then!
It would though to probably make a quick mention soon, just so that you don't get 90 comments asking the same thing. Something like changing "The purple unicorn" to "the purple alicorn" or something.
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I changed "unicorn" to "mare" to avoid any confusion. The whole alicorn thing is a bit disorienting because I began writing this story in June of 2012, but que sera sera.
Fortunately for me, it won't have any impact on my story.
2162641 Well played. Now nobody's confused and can make her what they want in their heads.
Ohh it's this story. I have it watched on Deviantart.
Wow...just wow. This story was already perfect and yet you made it even better! I loved how much more descriptive you made while still not going overboard. And the extra little things that happened, like Andi trying to hide the mess, really added a lot to the story. Keep up the awesome work dude, you never cease to amaze me!!
Uh oh... MOAR!
they make no sense to me really. i know they have father's but you can't have a good story unless you know them or theres a reasonable answer for why they're gone.
again, some of the names mean no sense what so ever. it's the APPLE FAMILY. i can understand bucky but where the HEY would BISMARK COME IN?! again, bismark is a city in the U.S> not a good pony name!? show SOME creativity. i mean i can see the mother's naming the rest of the kids. those are pretty good names except BISMARK.
anyways i read it and the idea is awesome, just my opinion, i don't like the characters.
2162907 That's a lot of criticism for a story that hasn't even gotten started, but I'll answer your questions. Hopefully you can see my reasoning.
Firstly, I can write a story without the fathers. Don't forget that this is a time travel story. The dads only need to be in this enough to make their existence and presence known, but overall, they have zero impact on the story itself. Not only that, but when the kids go back in time, they can't just waltz up to their moms and say "you're going to marry ____." That has existence-erasing consequences.
Second, I've only introduced one character so far and yet you hate them all? The basis of your opinion is solely dependent on their names, which I will explain. Bismarck is named after a type of apple, the Bismarck apple, but Bismarck is also a name (like Otto von Bismarck) that acts as a representation of what my character is. Bismarck is strong, brave, a leader, and a stallion who takes action.
I understand your confusion, but I believe if you give the story a chance, you'll see where I'm going with this.
I very much like the idea of the meeting the Mane 6's children, but I have yet to see a story pull it off. More often than not the children just end up being almost identical to their parents with not many drastic shifts from those personalities.
I shall keep an optic on this.
2162993 never said i wasn't gonna give it a chance.i already said i liked the idea and flow of the story.
and about the fathers, i understand. i understand it's a time traveling story. i'm writing one with my friend with the same story idea. it's just written differently.
also i still think bismark is a weird and freaky name but eh, atleast it makes sense now. i'd prefer a more common apple name. even i didn't know and i help my aunt who runs a stand at the farmer's market. i won't bring up anymore flack about it
Oh sweet this got on FIMFiction finally, and it got some nice new cover art.
Double like! Also am I to assume that Bismark and Flora are like... together or something? Or is everyone just being super cuddly for this picture.
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1. i've seen fanart for these kids on DA. and i know them by the descriptions on them. if this is the same person than i can safely assume it's going to go the same way as the art stories.
2. i didn't mean to sound harsh, i'm bi-polar, so excuse me if i sound that way. i'm mad but not mean. i already explained it
2163019 Ah ha ha! Exactly! I feel the same way. It's true that it's way too easy to just cut-and-paste the personality from mom to child, but what I'll show soon enough is a clear emphasis on avoiding that. Obviously the kids will show some of their moms' traits, but it has been my goal to make them both unique and well-developed. I want to change what people think of when they hear "fan children." I've been planning them for nearly a year and I'm STILL coming up with new ideas for them. I hope you enjoy what I have in store for this website!
2162738 Knowing you liked the changes I made really makes me feel better about posting here. My other stuff was more of a first draft, but this is the big leagues, so I need to bring my A-game! I have no idea if my story will end up doing well or not, but whatever happens, I really appreciate your incredible support! Thank you, Crisy.
2162736 Eeeeeyup. I've made a LOT of changes though and I'll continue to do so while I'm here. Hope you enjoy the "new and improved" version!
2163038 Thank you. I know you've seen their personality profiles on DA, but reading a few brief summaries is not going to give anyone a proper idea of my characters. They're more complex than that and a fanfiction can better portray what I want out of them than a profile biography. There's still a lot of story to be told.
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Don't we love how this fandom fixes these kind off problems easily. We are so awsome
YAY! Been following this gem on DA. Glad to see it make the jump
fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/141/3/5/children_of_the_mane_cast_by_shrapnelleader-d50kzsk.jpg
Man, I just want to create a Muary account and be like "You are not the father!"
Thank you for sharing this story with us.
Ah, time travel and cornucopia of great stuff to play with.
Questions, questions so many questions but for now...
good first chapter, the kind that gets me pumped to read more but also make me sad that I might never do some thing good either.
But I would like to see more but I can wait.
I do hope that we can find out the who the other children belong too, I can guess but I would like to know.
I mean in this first chapter you already put fourth two and I knew Bismarck was a type of apple so I could guess his linage.
I want to make these guess aloud but if I'm wrong I look the fool.
so I must weight.
Good luck and I hope everything will work out
Good luck in the future
(Joke) Alt. Title: Daughter Who: Blink To The Future
The kids of the Mane 6: Hora the Explorer! Tempest 2000! Metallic Orion! Peach "Mac" Cobbler! Andromeda Domine! Bismarck Madness! A Dose Of Bucky! Radience!... I-I can't think of a lame pun for that.
*Sees title*
Insert "Brain is full of fuck" image here
You know, when I saw this with what I thought was a fairly kitschy title and, worse, a story about the Mane 6's kids (a story idea that's never really done well) I didn't think much of it. But after reading it, well, I'm glad to see I was wrong. Even with just the introduction of Twilight's daughter, the story seems to be going well. Andromeda seems to be different enough from her mom to be interesting, but not too much to the point of ridiculousness. I like the idea of using her mom's notes on time travel, and the character designs for the kids, after another look, are pretty enjoyable and I look forward to meeting them as well. Liked and faved.
2164358 Thank you for the compliment and support. That's the reason I chose this as my story topic. I've never spoken with anyone who said they saw a fan children story that they liked, so it inspired me to attempt to be the first. One of the most important aspects, I feel, is my neutrality on shipping. When I designed my characters' appearances and personality profiles, I wanted them to be seen as more than just the spawn of two canon (and sometimes non-canon) ponies. As I write this, I intend to make them believable individuals who carry traits from their moms without being cardboard copies of the Mane Six.
Take Andromeda for example. Like her mother, she is ambitious, intelligent, and (not seen yet) a natural leader. Because she has grown up with the other children of the Mane Six, she is more in tune with their personalities and tendencies than her mother was with her friends. At the same time, however, she is not as confident as Twilight, nor is she as adept in magic or experienced in Equestria-saving situations. In the future, I'll further show that she has different strengths and different weaknesses.
I just hope more people will be willing to look past the subject matter to see a story that, I believe, has great potential.
hmm good one, saw this story on Da, but then I forgot about it, will follow it here
Welcome to Fimfiction my friend.
Well this certainly seems interesting. I like the concept quite a bit. I look forward to your next chapter.
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Thank you guys so much for reading and supporting my stuff. This story is an updated version of the Deviantart version, so it's not entirely the same! Since I've made sure I've improved it for posting here, anyone who has read it on DA can still get a fresh experience! I will change the Deviantart chapters to the updated Fimfiction ones one chapter at a time as well, so when this is all over, both sites will have the same finished product. =)
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Thanks! I was hesitant to post here because I knew there is always improvement to be made first and I didn't want to post until I felt ready and confident. And yes, new artwork! A friend of mine made the art and she's awesome. I've designed a new poster to be the cover a few chapters down the road and she may design it as well. It's very exciting.
As for Bismarck and Flora, the two are very good friends. They were CMC's together and have one of the closest relationships of all the kids, but the picture is pretty cuddly overall.
Looking forward to more! Hopefully you keep up the writing!
Uao!! The new cover art is very beautiful!!
The one thing throwing me off was when andromeda said "aw man". Does that mean they met humans?
Other than that, liking the story so far.
Hey, Shrapnel! I didn't know you had a fimfiction account!
This is a story that should be voiced over by Caitbug, Scribbler, so many others that have great talent in voice acting!