> The Story of Dawn and Twilight Sparkle > by ChiefKitsune > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > NOTICE > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Look I've been agonizing over this story for months now and I keep going back to re-read my old chapters hoping for inspiration to strike. However upon doing so, I noticed I really hate how I was doing things and how I was writing it, it feels more like the ramblings of an old nut instead of the smooth flowing story I want it to be. So this notice is to explain to all readers both current and future ones, especially the ones who read this and think "This person has some interesting stuff, I just wish they had done a better job at presenting it." Then I promise to you, who feel like this story has potential so long as I am up to the task, that I am going to focus on rewriting the whole thing over while adding more details and interactions than the simple rough way I was doing things. So any new rewritten chapters will be added to before this, though I will keep what is here for the sake of reminding me of what I have and what I don't want to devolve into. If you have any thoughts on this course of action let me know if you feel like it would help me during my rewrite. I already plan to combine the chapters and add more making them longer than a few hundred words a piece. But if you noticed anything specific I'd very much appreciate you pointing it out, kindly, so I can improve my story. > Prologue: The Surge (Edited 08/12/18) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 03/984 ANM(After NightMare) Location: Canterlot, Equestria It was around a week ago that she found out, it was one of the most terrifying moments of her life, it was also one of the greatest. Having gone in for a regular check-up, the doctor discovered an anomaly with the scan, thus she checked for anything significant or worrying. What she had found was that Twilight Velvet was pregnant. This was to be her second foal her first being her young and over-hyper colt Shinning Armor, who has been demanding his parents give him a little sister. And while she loved Shinning Armor dearly as possible she knew that both her son and husband would be ecstatic about this news. So it was with news in the hoof that Twilight Velvet went home and celebrate(responsibly meaning no alcohol) this occasion with her family. Over the course of the week, Velvet was experiencing faint spells(not actual spells) that passed before she could even notice. Thus leaving her ignorant to anything important occurring within her other than being pregnant. This period of ignorance came to an abrupt end one evening when Velvet experienced a magic surge out of nowhere causing her to lose conciseness. Though brief that it was she agreed they should have her checked out at the hospital to make sure the foal was safe. Shortly after arriving at the hospital and explaining what had happened, the doctor agreed that it was prudent for them to seek them out to ensure the foal was unharmed in any way. So the doctor lite up his horn for a quick scanning spell and abruptly stiffened he even recast the spell several times to make sure of his findings. Turning to Twilight Velvet the doctor, Doctor Bed Side, affirmed her fears, "The foals are safe with no negative repercussions from fainting" Velvet blinked before clarifying "What do you mean 'foals'?" Night Light, Twilight Velvet's husband quietly sits down in one of the chairs along the wall. Bed Side clarified simply. "Well my spell is reading two wellsprings indicating that you are currently pregnant with twins Mrs. Velvet" A blank look crossed Velvet's face. "Thank you, Dr. Bed Side, now if you'll give me a moment" Velvet proceeded to sit back down on the bed and promptly fainted again, this time followed by her husband, who did not have a soft bed for his head to land on. > Prologue pt 2: One foal is a hoof-ful, but two is a Nightmare (edited 08/12/18) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Home of Night Light and Twilight Velvet Date: 06/985 ANM Time: 03:15 hours Location: Canterlot, Equestria WAAAAA In an instant two pairs of eyes shot open shortly followed by a deep exhausted sigh, in sync, from the two ponies in the bed. The stallion speaks up first with a question "Is it your turn or mine?" Twilight Velvet's eyes dart from side to side for a moment in thought, then she answers. "Your turn dear, and please try to not need me I have a meeting at the office...." She trails off to glance at the clock, then heaves an irritated sigh. "In less than 5 hours." Another pause. "I love them both dearly but why do all our foals seem to be blessed with endless lungs?" Realizing she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep Velvet shambles after her husband to take care of their daughters. Night Light answers with a simple shrug. "I don't know, I'm just glad that Dawn is easy enough to calm down once she realizes both she and her sister are safe. Though I still don't understand how she keeps getting into Twilight's crib no matter what we do, I mean I could have sworn that last time there was residue from a teleport!" He rants in that way only a parent of a newborn can without actually being angry with the filly. Twilight Velvet's Private Office Date: 06/985 ANM Time: 08:00 hours Location: Canterlot, Equestria As the door opens to allow entrance for a tan Pegasus mare with a monochromatic mane, that looked more frazzled than usual, she is wearing a simple but tasteful purple silk dress that hides most of her body along with her ridiculously sized hat and simple glasses. Once the door shuts she spares a brief glance around the cozy room, upon only seeing a smirking Unicorn mare, who was also very frazzled, behind the desk offers a long-suffering sigh though she can't keep her own smile from touching her face. She almost faster than the eye could see removes her dress and hat, revealing her normal attire of a pith helmet along with a tan expedition vest. Velvet offers a sly smile at the still visibly disheveled Pegasus. "Soooo some rough nights I take it?" she asks drawing out the first word. The Pegasus smirks back with equal snark, "It looks like I'm not the only one suffering from midnight wake-up calls. How have you been Velvet? I mean besides the usual stuff of having not one, but two newborn foals to deal with." Velvet's smile shifts to being a more casual one "Nothing too much Daring, by the way, how is your own disaster going?" Daring slumps down into one of the chairs in front of Velvet's desk with a tired smile. "She is fine, though I swear I wasn't that bad myself a-" Daring finds herself cut off by Velvet's tremendous laugh, she just offers a deadpan for several moments while Velvet laughs. "Are you done yet?" Velvet's laughter dies out into the occasional giggle but she nods. "You obviously don't remember Mom and Dad's photo album along with the invoices from the repair crews, or how about their Repair Punch Cards" She offers a smirk Daring offers an uncharacteristic pout, "Pooh you know half of those were from you and your magic surges and then later your so-called science leading to explosions" Daring shivers from the memories. "You know it took a few years before I could even look at cheese again after your little portal experiment." Velvet's face flushes at the reminder of one of her greatest missteps. "Yeah, I honestly hope my daughters are more tampered by Night Light's calm attitude, cause I am honestly scared if they both take after us." After taking a few moments to catch their breaths they begin to discuss the most recent adventure that Daring went through. Sparkle Residence Date: 06/985 ANM Time: 08:15 hours Location: Canterlot, Equestria With an adorable yawn, a tiny lavender muzzle nestled its way into an equally lavender neck, receiving a smile from her sleeping sister Dawn, at the nuzzling of her neck Dawn stretched out her foreleg to drag Twilight into a deeper snuggle. Twilight making a soft crooning noise as she is pulled further into the warm embrace. > Chapter 1: Summer Sun Realization Prologue [morning] (edited 08/12/18) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- At 05:00 in the morning the eyes of one adorable little purple filly snap open like they have for as long as she can remember. Dawn only takes a few moments to collect her thoughts coming to several realizations that have a varying degree of surprise. First, she is surrounded by a warm cuddly thing, that could only be her big Sis Twi, completely smothering Dawn in warm, fluffy snuggles. (The least surprising since this is how Dawn has awoken pretty much every day of her short life) Second, after some shuffling of the Big Sis blanket enough to see the window (that faces East, yes I mention that specifically cause in Discords reign the Celestial bodies change from rising in the East to the West to the North back to the East than the South and continuing at random, also there is a prank in the future) as she sees the sky shift to a dark purple slowly transitioning to the clear blue of day, this being what her namesake is 'Dawn'. (Second least surprising point as Dawn has the tendency to awaken before or when dawn starts for the day) Third, she begins to idly wonder what the day would bring since they both (read: Twilight) was super excited for this day since it is their first real Summer Sun Celebration. Since they still weren't allowed to participate in the all-night festivities they did get their bedtime pushed back to 11:30 or so. (This being the most surprising as the only other time that Twi got this excited about anything was on their first day of Magic Kindergarten which was also the reason behind them being homeschooled) > Flashback: Twilight's First Day of School (edited 08/12/18) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was early in the morning, around 05:00 when two adult Unicorns found themselves rudely awoken by somepony jumping on their bed. The two Unicorns being one Twilight Velvet and one Night Light, both of whom didn't get to go to bed the previous night until well after midnight. So the two's eyes shot open in abject horror, also showing them to be bloodshot and highlighting the bags both of them suffered from. As they both moved to sit up and confront the filly they just knew was the culprit for their early morning wake up call, said filly began to chatter excitedly. "Come on it's the first day of Magic Kindergarten! Hurry up! I can't wait," Twilight whines as her bouncing intensifies. "Come on wake up, I don't want to be late for my first day!" Twilight pauses her bouncing midair to cock her head a little before asking, "Why aren't you guys excited it's our first day of School!?" This took about two seconds before gravity resumed working on the hyper filly. Both of her parents groaned at this, they had been forced to do extra work for their jobs recently so they have been going through a few all-nighters lately and today was suppose to be their first day off in a while. So realizing that Twilight wouldn't go away without prompting Velvet sits up to dissuade the filly from interrupting their precious sleep. "Twilight, please it's ...." Velvet looks to her husband for the time. "....5:00" Night Light answers with a sigh. "Twilight....please go back to bed you don't have to get up for another hour and a half and even then School doesn't start for you until 9:00." Velvet resumes in a tone of pleading. "Also you don't see your sister acting like this, not to mention that Shiny starts cadet school today as well and you know how excited he is about that. Yet he isn't barging in here to wake us up so early." As Velvet finishes in a tone of exasperation only a parent can achieve, Twilight stops bouncing and raises a hoof to her chin in thought before nodding and trudging to the edge of the bed, hopping down and continues through the door. Both parents sigh in relief at that before settling back into bed to try and get another hour of sleep. Twilight after leaving her parent's room deep in thought returns to her and her sister's room. Dawn having been awoken with Twilight (Dawn is a light sleeper) is laying on their shared bed with a book on Gryphonhelm's military. Twilight noticing the book her sister somehow got, again Twilight is struck with an idea so she calls out to her little Sis. "Hey, little Sister?" Dawn looks up to Twi and cocks her head in interest. "I don't know what to do, Mommy and Daddy both just want to sleep but I'm just so excited about our first day of school. What do you think I should do?" Twi complains dramatically, even going as far as throwing her forehooves across Dawn's withers. Dawn thinks about this for a moment, 'she had noticed that their parents had had a lot of extra work lately so they are pretty tired and today is a day they get off they probably want to sleep in. But if I don't come up with something to distract big Sis then I'm not going to be able to keep reading....what to do? What to do? .......' Dawn smirks as a prank forms in her mind. '...Oh yes, that will do nicely, hehehe' Dawn looks to Twi with a mischievous smirk on her muzzle. "Hey, Big Sis...I know just what to do." The younger filly motions her older sister closer with her hoof before she starts to whisper her idea. Soon Twilight is sporting a similar grin as Dawn nodding energetically in agreement with the plan. So around ten minutes after Twilight left them alone, both parents were finally about to slip off into sleep when the bouncing on their bed returned in force. Bolting up with looks of pure terror Night Light and Twilight Velvet can only stare at what was before them. All the while all three of their children were bouncing away on their bed. "Wake up Mommy and Daddy!" Shouts Twilight "Yeah wake up it's my first day as a Cadet, this is no time to be asleep!" Shinning Armour adds in. "Yeah! yeah! Yeah!" Dawn just agrees while nodding her head vigorously. Both parents are shocked to silence the only response being that their right ears twitched in tandem with their lower left eyelid. As they stared in wide-eyed horror at the three adorable siblings. > Chapter 1: Summer Sun Realization part 1 (edtied 08/12/18) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Canterlot Main Square Date: 06/989 ANM Location: Canterlot, Equestria "Come on, come on! Your taking forever!" Twilight screams to her twin sister Dawn who is politely making her way through the forest of legs that has become the Square. "Alright, alright," Dawn replies rather sharply(as in a clear tone) to her sister. "Would you hold your horses, Twi?! The sun isn't going to be rising for another 15 minutes." Dawn takes a moment to apologize to an older stallion whom Twilight had nearly tipped over. "I'm sorry sir, she is just very excited about this being our first Summer Sun Celebration ever." Dawn offers a sincere smile. The old stallion waves a hoof through the air. "That's fine no harm done and at least one of ya' is taking the time and being polite about it" With a short nod to the stallion Dawn was off to catch her sister before she could do anymore. A few minutes later Dawn is unsurprising to find Twilight sitting in front of the stage and waving to her like she was trying to throw her foreleg away. "What took you so long I've had to wait here for, like ever" Twilight whines drawing out 'ever' to prove her point. *Sigh* "Seriously Twi-?" Dawn starts only to trail off as Princess Celestia took the stage early. Letting out a mental sigh of contentment, Celestia stoically looked out over her little ponies with not a single twitch from her bittersweet mood. Having noticed a pair of nearly identical fillies in the front row, one of whom was bouncing while she sat, to think a little to herself about this day. I always love seeing the fillies and colts light up when they first see this celebration...Oh dearest Sister, if only you could see the love your night gets now. Though when Celestia looked at the obvious twin sisters expecting near the same level of excitement is struck baffled when the filly was sitting there calmly, and upon noticing the attention gave a bright smile along with a nod of respect. Uh....whuh? ......I've never had that reaction from anypony let alone a foal! I ne- Celestia's thought was cut off when she heard the overly loud trumpets pointed right at her head(actually to the Eastern Sky, it's just Celestia is tall) thus derailing her train of thought rather violently. I suppose I could make it extra special for that filly She decided with a mental smirk, and thus she began her yearly special of raising the sun in an ostentatious fashion. > Chapter 1: Summer Sun Realization part 2 (08/12/18) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Canterlot Square Date: 06/989 ANM Location: Canterlot, Equestria After letting out a vibrant corona burst as the sun appeared to be raising from her back to the tip of her long ivory horn, Celestia sets down gently betraying her pastry filled dairy-air. Looking towards the spot where the two fillies were a few moments ago, she was a little smug that her little extra was enough. For the less excitable of the two was staring at her with her jaw between her hooves and stars in her eyes, well they both had literal stars in their eyes but that wasn't unexpected from they hyper one. Celestia waited a good minute, with the crowds cheering, for the calm filly to snap back to it. Once she was sure she had the filly's attention she let a little bit of her smug grin out through a sparkle in her eyes and a nod to the filly. Celestia had to call upon her insurmountably amount of will to keep from laughing at the filly's expression. Her jaw was again having a meeting with her hooves, but her eyes seemed to want to join in as they bulged from her head in an expression of shock. And with the filly in that state, Celestia left her be to join in the revelry that everypony else had already begun. /////Dawn.exe has suffered catastrophic failure attempting reboot////// ////Dawn.exe attempting reboot//// ////Dawn.exe reboot successful//// Once Dawn's brain got back on track she chanced a glance at her sister who was still star struck(literally a paper stared piece of confetti was lodged in her mane), then looked back to where Princess Celestia raised the Sun. Thus lead to one of those moments that both fillies had the same thought at the same time. I want to do magic like her! With that monumental Summer Sun Celebration, a new era for the Sparkle house began. The era of Magic also lots of studying and explosions, lots and lots of explosions. > Chapter 2: The Exam part 1 (Edited 08/12/18) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns Date: 02/990 ANM Location: Canterlot, Equestria A small(adorable) lavender filly shuffled her front hooves about from nerves. The reason for her nervousness is completely understandable, what with five of the School's most prestigious Unicorn's staring her down over the edge of a clipboard. OH this isn't good, not good at all! Are they going to make me go retrieve some long lost artifact, or are they going to make me fight a dragon!? What do I do? What do Ido? What doIdo? WhatdoIdo?! Oh- This filly is so nervous that her brain is coming up with very far-fetched ideas of what could happen. This filly's name is, of course, Twilight Sparkle(six years old). After letting the poor little filly stew for a few more moments, the head evaluates (judge) stepped forward and cleared his throat. Immediately catching the filly's attention, before he began speaking. "Twilight Sparkle, so far you have completed the written portion of the exam," Twilight squeaks at the word 'exam'. "now it is time for you to demonstrate to us that you can also utilize your magic." His horn lights up and the room falls into silence for a few moments. Just as her nerves were about to break her, she jumps at the door to her right is slammed open and a wooden cart is pushed in. Twilight, Dawn, and their parent's eyes widen at the very large purple green poke-doted egg on the cart. Once the cart carrying the egg have reached a point near Twilight it stops and the two Earth ponies pushing it to leave quickly through the same door. With that Professor Nearsight resumes talking, "We want you to hatch this egg with your magic." Twilight stutters a little in fear. "W-What if I...I hurt whatever is inside?" Nearsight snorts "It's hardly in danger, that is a Dragon's egg after all" Velvet and Night Light's jaws drop at this crazy feat they are about to force their daughter to do. They, however, withhold any objections on her at least trying to hatch the egg. Twilight gives a determined nod showing she understands what she has to do, if not the difficulty of such a task. With the look of determination not wavering in the least, Twilight confidently strides up to the egg(which is around three times her size) as she gets closer she focuses her magic to her horn causing a purple aura to form around it. As the filly nears and comes to a stop she encompasses the egg with her magic giving the whole egg a lavender hue to match the one around her horn. Without any other instructions and no idea on how to go about hatching said egg, Twilight decides to just push in as much of her magic as she can. After a few minutes of feeding her magic into the egg with no noticeable effects to the egg, the lavender filly, however, is sagging in her posture with sweat forming across her brow and nearly panting out of breath. Night Light and Twilight Velvet watch in growing concern as hatching a Dragon egg is a very difficult task even for a group of archmages. Just as the young filly seems to be out of energy there is a massive explosion along with a wave of rainbow light surging across the sky in all directions. As the light seems to pass harmlessly by the instructors as well as everypony in the room are drawn to look at where the young filly was taking her test, though because of the surprise Twilight's magic begins to surge out of control. > Chapter 2: It's Godzilla! (08/12/18) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Twilight Sparkle slowly floats into the air, magic beams lance out from her horn striking around the room randomly so much so that everypony misses Dawn's own horn flare to life with wild magic. A lance of purple magic strikes the instructors causing them to float as well as being knocked unconscious by the overwhelming magical pressure. A massive beam strikes out at the Dragon egg from the test, releasing a brilliant purple and white flash which then reveals the egg was hatched. Though as the newly born drake looks up to the floating lavender filly another bolt of lavender magic strikes him causing the drakeling to grow in size rapidly. Quickly outgrowing the cart that his egg was brought in on, soon the drakes head reaches the ceiling before it easily overpowered the wards that were to contain wild magic, now with a large hole in the roof provided by the now massive dragon. Dozens of lavender flares of magic begin darting out of the room through the hole, acting much like fireworks. The other beam strikes the filly's parents rendering them as nothing more than potted plants, the beam missing Dawn by a very small margin as the filly had taken several steps towards her sister. Dawn's luck however soon runs out as another fairly large beam of magic strikes her, causing her barely controlled magic to be pushed over causing her to Surge as well. Canterlot Royal Gardens Celestia POV As Celestia enjoys her mid-morning tea and cake, a ritual that no being has ever dared to interrupt is startled when a rainbow wave of light(and magic) races across the sky following a loud Boom of something breaking the sound barrier. Though she is surprised it mostly comes from witnessing such a rare event as a sonic rainboom. As the rainbow fades from view, Celestia raises her teacup up to her lips when she is startled for a second time by the roof at her School for Gifted Unicorns explodes as a massive dragon's head rises into the sky. Seconds later Celestia is hit by a massive wave of magical pressure, causing her levitation spell on the teacup to give out, the sure sign of somepony having a magical surge. Celestia realizes that she will need to intervene because as soon as she realized what was going on another wave threatened to send Celestia to the ground as another powerful pony begins to surge. Quickly trotting towards her School Celestia begins to hope she arrives in time as a surge as big as the two she can feel usually results in the pony's death. > Chapter 2: What was that?! (08/12/18) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Exam Room, Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns Dawn Time seemed to slow down for Dawn as she watched the beam of magic leave Twilight's horn and travel directly towards her. It felt like an eternity while in reality, it was less than a second for the wild magic to travel the short distance between the two sisters. As it inched closer to her head Dawn had the feeling this wasn't the first time something potentially deadly was on a direct path with her head, though she couldn't for the life of her know why. Though she only had moments to ponder this conundrum. Then the magic struck. Flashback BOOM Ducking as debris started raining down around him, kicked up by the exploding ordinance near his foxhole, Staff Sargent Christian Stansfield offered a short prayer in thanks that he survived unharmed. With dirt still raining down around him, the young NCO was already up and searching for target's through the smoke rising from the smoldering crater a foot away. 'Damn it, how could I lose my squad?! I mean we were not even in combat, yet I still get separated and that's when I stumbled across an enemy squad!' His mental rant getting cut short as he sees movement out of the corner of his eye, turning to sight his target Christian fires a burst at the center of mass then follows up with a burst to the enemy's head. The Chinese infantrymen drops to the ground, a small bulbous object rolling from the combatant's hand before exploding in a flash of fire and invisible pieces of flying death. Before he has a chance to feel relief at stopping a second grenade exploding near him, the young soldier hears a thump a little to the left of the first infantryman turning Christian sees the form of another enemy soldier peering around a corner further back the rifle's grenade launcher belching smoke. This only holds his attention for less than a second as the more immediate concern being said grenade flying at him. Time seems to move to an agonizingly slow crawl as the Sargent's eyes track the explosive hurtling towards him, inching closer ever so slowly know there is not a thing he could do to stop it. After what feels like an eternity that was in reality only moments, his world goes black as the grenade detonates right next to his head. Meanwhile in Equestria Exam Room SFGU (School For Gifted Unicorns, also Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns) Celestia's POV Finally reaching the top of the tower the exams were held in, Celestia bursts through the weakened doors to the exam room. What she finds causes her to hesitate for a moment (less time it takes to blink) at the pure Chaos the room was in. (Incidentally, Discord goes back in time to view this after he becomes free since he nearly broke out on this day) Inside the room, Celestia finds the head instructors for Her school floating unconscious in the air, the rest of the dragon's body that was laying on the remains of a wooden cart filled with straw. As well as two potted cacti in the reserved area meant for parents or guardians. But the main attraction for her attention were the two lavender fillies experiencing a massive magical surge, beams of wild magic flying from both fillies randomly striking the walls leaving scorch marks. Celestia, having to almost literally wade through the magical waves flowing off the two fillies finally reaches the one closer to the cacti, leans down with her majestic horn to touch the horn of the filly. Celestia planning on syphoning off this filly's excess magic flow (not for life and she can only do it during surges or voluntarily) then move on to the other surging filly, though something about these two fillies brought a nagging feeling to the back of her mind she paid it no mind as she had more important things at the moment. However, upon connecting with the young filly's wellspring Celestia is treated to something she has never in all her years come across. That while this filly does possess her own unique wellspring, her wellspring is inexplicably tied to the wellspring of the other filly who is surging. While this is unprecedented for her it also makes solving both surges much simpler, Celestia wouldn't admit it to anypony but just getting to this first filly was severely taxing for her and she had some doubt in her ability to reach the second filly in time. So with this new development Celestia begins to syphon off the bleed off magic from both fillies over the link and feeding it all through her own link with the Sun, this was the only way she could safely dispose of so much excess magic that both fillies were emitting as her Sun could both supply her with massive amounts of extra magic it did not possess a limit on how much it could hold. (Celestia in her younger days did many experiments to see just how much magic her Sun could store, though she had to stop when the other nations of the world complained about the Sun being too hot, also there was a massive explosion in her lab that created the Badlands. She was ever thankful she had the foresight, aka nagging little Sister, to build her personal laboratory far from civilization, though she was still saddened at the loss of such beautiful landscape) It took nearly three minutes for Celestia to siphon enough magic from both fillies for their surges to come to an end. This was, however, exhausting for the Princess more so than anypony would think, it left the matronly alicorn weak-kneed, panting, as well as a good amount of sweat matting her fur in uncomfortable ways. The large flanked alicorn found herself standing above two lavender Unicorn fillies, both of whom were unconscious, that not only were their very being linked, they were each on their own, magnitudes stronger than anypony in the past millennium. The proof of their linked souls (for lack of a better term) they both sported identical Cutie Marks. Meanwhile, once the wild magic bleeds off completely the extremely radical changes reverted themselves. Thus the two cacti in the room became engulfed in a flash of white leaving behind two very disorientated adult Unicorns, who sank to the floor leaning on one another. The dragon shrunk back to his actual size of a newly hatched drakeling, whom promptly began sucking on his spaded tail cooing happily. Once Celestia was able to get her breathing under control, did she notice the two fillies stir. So to help them along she gave each a comforting nuzzle with a smile on her muzzle before moving back and sitting down in front of the two. As they both seemed to be dazed but aware she decided to do something she has not done for centuries. "Good morning my little ponies," Celestia began in her motherly voice drawing the attention of the two, as well as their parents. Unnoticed by all but Celestia the instructors were rousing as well, but nopony really cared at the moment. "I have never in my long life met a single pony let alone two with so much magical potential. However, I'm afraid that because you both are so powerful that my faculty here at the school would be unable to handle teaching either of you." Celestia lets it sink in and resumes before either filly could be said about this. "Therefore I am going to offer you both a place as my personal students." At this there were literal stars in the fillies' eyes as they stared open-mouthed at her, their parents weren't any better off. "Though this is a great opportunity, I'm afraid that your parents must agree before we can continue...." Tia trails off with a smirk, watching as the two fillies turn to their parents with watery-eyed begging expressions that Tia had to fight 'daaaw-ing' at. This lasted a moment before the adult Unicorns shook off their shock and began nodding vigorously, their head blurred they were doing it so fast. So it was this that the two fillies turned back to the alabaster alicorn about to voice their parent's agreement (though it was not needed as they were right there) Tia decides to point something else out. "Oh I also believe you both received your Cutie Marks," She said motioning with her head to the two's flanks, leading the two to look before it seems their brains got overwhelmed as they froze slack-jawed for a full minute before the alicorn lightly clears her throat breaking their stupor. "YES! YES! YES!" Twilight and Dawn shouted in unison as they hoped in a circle around their monarch, while the parents could only lay down from all that happened. Speaking over the two fillies Celestia addresses the parents, "why don't we move this to my personal study to iron out the details" Velvet and Night Light could only nod in response. > Update-Notice > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay so this is not a 'chapter' type of chapter, this is more of an update-notice/Extra's. So this first part will basically be explaining how this story works, along with plenty of rambling, the second part will be 'Mothballed' ideas for the story. Now let me explain what I mean by 'Mothballed', I use it in reference for little details that I thought up for a chapter but weren't big enough to 'edit' the chapter, basically anything less than a short paragraph worth of text or something that will be important for later I won't be adding it. But that doesn't mean that those little blurbs of comedy won't be told, by that I mean that this will have little things that would have been great in the quoted chapter had I thought to add them when I wrote it. For Example: -Chapter 2: It's Godzilla!- An other beam strikes the filly's parents rendering them as nothing more than potted plants. The ex-parents share a single thought, 'Not again.' before letting out a mental sigh. Since it was at most a sentence worth or words it does not warrant me adding it and the changing the 'Edit' date, but I still want the reference to be there for the joy of someone knowing what or where the line (or scene) came from. Well that and it's funny. I have several other ideas that I thought up but don't have a way to use them in the actual story (Which are mostly references that popped into my mind that will be further in in this 'chapter') well that was until I had the absolutely brilliant idea that spawned from a wondering thought to AMARG{Name of Air plane graveyard| i.e. Look it up idiot} that the Air Force has in Arizona for extra, unused, expensive aircraft, or think of it kinda like Army Surplus stuff that is there and is to good to throw out. I feel this is something many authors would love to have, since I've lost count of things I wanted to add but just couldn't get it to work right and so far this entire story has not been planned out in more detail than 'Celestia grows close to a little filly Twilight' (there just happens to be two of them so "The Twily has been Doubled! Hazza!") and they form a mother daughter relationship as Twi and Dawn end up filling a missing piece of Celestia's heart but does not really see it until further down the timeline as she grows to enjoy having a little energetic ball of floof hanging around. (sorry hard to know when to stop a sentence from becoming a run-on while rambling) Nothing more than a handful/hoofful of key events I have planned everything else I've been pulling out of my Plot (I mean both as in the story theme as well as pulling things out of my rear ) However that is not going to be the case from now on, but more on that later. So this type of 'Chapter' is going to be a reoccurring thing from now on in my work, mostly when I have enough 'Mothballed' Ideas to write. Think of it like a Deleted Scene type deal similar to movies with some being longer or some being short like the previous example. I could keep going on all that, but I won't. So I said before that I've changed how I'm going to handle this story from now on. What I mean by that is after this is up and or I get enough "Mothballed" idea's for another 'chapter' I'm going to be putting out blog posts that will affect the progression of this whole story. Now its not so much as what you reader's want to happen its going to be more along the lines of which you would rather have me working on by priority. I mean I get the whole 'more, more, more, NEED MORE!' of wanting the next chapter in the story line to be written, but upon reflection I've decided to add an other chapter detailing some "Slice of Life" from before the 'Exam' chapter that will be added either as the next actual chapter or following the next chapter for the current story line. So basically I'll be asking things from you readers to offer your opinion on which you want to see next, as well as possible decisions that may affect the story but those won't come for several more chapters at least. Also I've deiced to take the time a actually write a decent amount before posting any further chapters I strive to release no more chapters less that 1,500 words in length at the bare bones/ rough sketch with plans to add to it later. Okay so I don't have any ideas like the example, that however doesn't mean that I am going to write the ideas out as non-canon chapters. Cause they are just too long and in depth, I mean the first one is already more than 400 words for the first two paragraphs and I have only started with the idea. Those paragraphs being the opening in which I describe the location and what is going on. In other words I've got lots more for the idea and if I put it in this 'chapter' it would probably make this the longest for the entire story. Actually now that I am putting them to paper I feel like these could be published as a separate non-canon side stories. Voting time! From now on any votes will be done through my blog posts but I need these out there now so I know what to focus on. So please follow me as well as the story so you won't miss out on updated news for this story as well as the result of the voting. Vote starts (07/20/18) Vote closes (07/30/18) So in light of this I'm going to as for a vote from you readers, do you want these non-canon side stories be included as 'bonus' chapters for the story or to be published as their own stories for the site? (So please follow me in case I do publish them as their own 'story') As mentioned earlier, which should I be focusing on first, continuing the story line or adding more world building and character development? They both are going to be done I just want to know what you the readers want more, interactions with the fillies and their family prior the Exam, along with introducing 'The Foalsitter' and several stories filled with adorable floof. > Omake: Plot-Holes > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Location: Gaurd Training fields, the base of Mt. Canter Time: 08:00 hrs CST (Canterlot Standard Time) Objective: Assess Gaurd capabilities with newly upgraded Field Guns It was a clear and sunny morning at the Training Fields below the city of Canterlot, the sun had already risen for a little over an hour already. So like any good army everypony was already up and moving well before then. So with ponies already formed up to begin the day's training with the newly issued Field Guns (fancy way of saying cannons). So it is with this that Commander Shinning Armor gives the order to begin the training. As Shinning and his Adjunct are standing there watching as the first couple barrages landed way off target, though all just barely within the range. A white chariot detailed with golden accents descends from the city up above. Meanwhile, Shinning just facehoofs and grumbles to his Adjunct so only him and a Major who should've been the only one close enough to hear him say, "Well...at least they are all firing in the same direction" As the Commander of the Gaurd comments, but is surprised as he is answered with a clear crystal laugh from behind him. He's surprised because he was saying that sarcastically and had not expected his fellow officers to actually laugh at how poor the display is. Snaps his head up and behind him followed by his Adjunct and the Major to see that a Royal Chariot had just landed behind them in the Landing Zone. With a lavender Unicorn mare was disembarking having been the source of the laugh as the Pegusis Guards were trained to be Stoic. Shinning like any good military stallion quickly overcame his surprise to greet the newcomer not in the least surprised at seeing who it is and her being able to sneak up on him. As he opens his mouth to greet one of his baby sisters the Royal Chariot explodes into a blizzard of splintered shrapnel, obscuring his sister from view. "SPARKY!!!" Shinning screamed out in terror for his sister as he, along with his Adjunct and the Major, rush in the direction of the former transport. As they arrive they notice that the two guards that had brought the Chariot down had been able to escape the explosion and were now clearing away the stubborn dust cloud from the remains. And as the dust settles they see a lavender hoof waving in front of a similarly colored muzzle accompanied by light coughing. "Gezz Shiny, I know I have a sparkling personality but I didn't mean it literally. You know that's Twi's stick." The dust finally clearing away by the end of her sentence, reveals the smirking face of Dawn Sparkle. As Shinning's brain gets back to work he takes notice that his sister had leaped forward, clear of the blast range, before she could've been injured. Shinning not even going to make note of this other than in comfort that his sister wasn't actually endangered. "Sure Twi is the one who somehow ignites herself, you do tend to leave craters in, like, every other thing you do" Shinning Armor snides back having gotten more used to his youngest sister escaping a dangerous event unharmed with no clear reason why. Well aside from herself, but everypony always tosses that out if they even think of it since Dawn carries the same figure as her twin Twilight. But Shinning knows that Dawn is one of the fittest mares he has ever known, able to trump any Gaurd, himself included. "Hey 'that' one was Not my fault" The lavender mare complains with an adorable pout, but her usual complaint snapped Shinning back to what happened. So with his mind refocused the stallion's head darts around the area searching for the culprit to the explosion. Though it didn't take the Officer long to find it, on the line of Field Guns a newly set up cannon was facing Away from the range and at them. Its barrel still belching out smoke, so with his anger relight Shinning raises a hoof to the literal smoking gun, before demanding of his Adjunct. "Who made that Stallion a Gunner!?" To which the Major replies for the Adjunct. "I did, Sir" Shinning looks at the Major with a blank look before turning to his Adjunct. "Who's he?" The Adjunct whispers back. "He's a Plot-Hole, Sir." Shinning groans. "I know That. I mean what's his name." The Adjunct rolls her eyes. "That is his name, sir. PlotHole. Major Plot-Hole" Shinning then moves his eyes in the direction of the gunner. "And his?" To which the stallion answers, standing at attention with a salute. "Gunner First Class Phill-my Plot-Hole, Sir!" The Major throws in trying to be helpful. "He's my cousin." Shinning just looks back to his Adjunct in disbelief, all the while Dawn is rolling around on her back, biting her foreleg to contain her laughs. "Just how many Plot-Holes do we have here!?" To which all the ponies besides his laughing sister and Adjunct, snap to attention and salute him with a single. "Ho!" As Shinning Armor realizes that well over 200 ponies just answered he signs in dejection, dropping his head a little. "I knew it. I'm surrounded by Plot-Holes." Still with his eyes to the ground Shinning Armor raises his hoof in the direction of down range. "Keep firing, Plot-Holes!" Dawn upon seeing the scene play out like she knew it would finally release her foreleg and lets her laughter free. Though it sounds more along the lines of Demented Cackling if somepony were to question the guards that overheard it. Finally, after catching her breath Dawn looks up to the shining sun with a content smile and speaks to the heavens with a smirk and wink. "Mare...I can't believe I just saw that. Thank you, Faust."