My Little Crystal: Love is Magic

Twinkling Glass left with a few goodbyes, only one, well, technically two, being teary-eyed. It was saying goodbye to Princess Cadance and her husband, Prince Shining Armor. The two had met her when she was young, auditioning for the newly founded Celestia's Crystal Empire School for Gifted Ponies, run by Effervescent and Cadance for the year-- it soon turned to Cadance with Effie as the secretary. Audtions were casual. Observing the mathematical brain of an Earth Pony, a speed test for a Pegasus, and a magic test for the unicorns. Each pony was given a dragon egg. When a spell was cast upon it, it would react and have the spellcaster's DNA infused into it, and it decided the type of dragon, the most common being a Fire, Earth, Air, or Water dragon. For ponies that weren't gifted, it wouldn't hatch.

Twinkling Glass had gone, an orphan, cast the spell, and nothing happened. The egg just turned a sickly shade of black. Feeling like she had failed, she walked out of the room, trying not to get teary eyed. When she put a hoof outside the door, an earsplitting crack happened, followed by a loud cry. The Princess herself had come out and brought Twinkling Glass back to see what she had hatched. The unicorn's magic was so powerful, it made a moon dragon. In the dragon government, if you had a moon dragon child, same with the sun dragon, it had to be killed so it wouldn't interfere with Celestia or Luna's sun and moon raising spells. But, this was born into the Equestrian government, so the young baby dragon was sent to Canterlot, to live with Luna.

Twinkling Glass had become Cadance's personal apprentice that day.

Then she had been adopted by Cadance, as Twinkling would get teased mercilessly at the orphanage every night she returned-- it also helped provide them more time with their lessons. She got close to Prince Shining Armor, too. She hung out with him at the barracks whenever Cadance had important matters to do. They would eat clover and mustard sandwiches, a strange combination, but healthy enough. They would joke around and the other members of the Royal Guard loved to talk with Twinkling, as she wasn't an unintelligent brat.

He never really took the place of a father, nor did Cadance. They were mostly big brothers and sisters-- she loved them for that. She quickly blocked out those memories, sitting on the train. She couldn't cry in public. A Royal Guard member sat across the aisle from her. She knew him, she used to hang out with him at the barracks with Shining Armor. Clashing Swords, that was his name. He was an incredibly handsome guy, but he was a softy, and secretly slept with a teddy bear, although Twinkling Glass wasn't supposed to know that. She just heard a group of stallions laughing about it once. Glancing around, this first-class train car was private. It was just members of the Royal Guard, the safest train car there could be. It was an overnight car, of course, so the pony ducked her head to climb out of her tiny "cabin" to go find some grub.

Walking through the train cars, she noticed there were many sleepy guests in ugly Hawaiian shirts that somebody always wore whenever you went on a vacation. Feeling self-conscious, Twinkling Glass felt like everybody was staring at her, when nobody even bothered to look her way. Trying not to break out in a run, Twinkling Glass picked up her pace and moved faster. Reaching the last train car, she scented the aroma of food. She could sense there were one or two train cars beyond this, but they weren't connected at this area. Probably right behind the counter.

A bored pony, about a teenager, probably a little bit older, read a magazine behind the counter. "What do you want?" She asked.

"Do you have a, um, veggie burger?" Twinkling Glass was new to this.

"Anything else?"

"A side of hay fries and a cola." The pony smiled, realizing how twig thin the pony behind the counter was. With a roll of her eyes, the girl turned and shouted the order to a pony, who ran into another train car with the order.

"What do you usually have for dinner?" Twinkling Glass neighed, waiting for her food.

"Here they usually serve veggie burgers for dinner. The side yesterday was hay fries, today it's yams, but they're making an exception for you. Word behind the counter is that you're the student of Cadance."

"Um, yeah. Technically, I'm her daughter, but I see her more as a sister. She adopted me." Feeling the blood rush to her face in embarrassment, she looked at her hooves.

"Cool. What could I do to get a private tour of the Crystal Palace?" Her eyes lit up in excitement.

"I can't give you a tour." Twinkling Glass said, flatly.

Angrily, the teenager disappeared and came back with her food. Twinkling Glass felt no regret.

"Here's your food." She said, bitterly.

"Thank you, it's such a shame you had to loose your tip by being so rude." The worker had a crestfallen look on her face, and Twinkling Glass had to keep from letting out an evil cackle.

"Stand by me." Clashing Swords hissed as we exited the train. I did so without hesitation, levitating my luggage in the air where no pony could reach it. Clashing Swords looked like he wished to do it, but he was a pegasus, so he was more than happy when I levitated his luggage. It was pretty light. It just seemed like a few different pairs of clothes-- probably all the identical two piece that the soldiers had to wear. We quickly approached the tallest building in the city, a giant glass dome that you couldn't look into.

"Bulletproof glass." Clashing Swords informed, and my worry quickly fading. The area was gated, guards were on patrol. There was probably some valuable shit in that area if it was so heavily guarded. Walking up to the guards, they glanced at duo.

"Private Clashing Swords. This is Princess Twinkling Glass. She is to be staying here, I believe." The guards looked surprised, and quickly shuffled through their papers, until one nodded, and they both let them pass.

"Princess?" Twinkling Glass laughed. Clashing Swords was barely older than her. The female was nineteen, he was twenty.

"You're more royal than Blueblood, adopted by the princess and all." Clashing Swords chuckled. It was obvious Shining Armor had told him about it.

"You heard?" The aquamarine pony groaned as they walked inside.

"Um, yeah. The whole Royal Guard in the Crystal Empire has. We encountered the wrath of Blueblood once. What a wimp." That made Twinkling Glass burst out laughing. Everypony glanced at them as they rushed up to the desk. Clashing Swords quickly told the secretary that I was supposed to be staying, and she lit up.

"Finally, we have a girl who will be staying here that can talk to me since all the other ones have 'classified information'." She laughed. "Sir, you'll have to stay down here while I take Twinkling Glass up to her room."

A feeling of clinginess rushed through Twinkling Glass, making her feel surprised. "He's coming with me." Twinkling Glass stomped a hoof for emphasis.

"Ma'am, he has to stay behind, it's the female quarters."

"I am a princess, and I say that he comes with me!" Twinkling Glass had no idea what was up with herself.

"Okay, okay." The seceratary smiled, unphased. "You and your boyfriend can come with me."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Twinkling Glass tried not to shriek with frustration.

Clashing Swords had decided to stay behind, leaving Twinkling with the white furred pony.

"My name is Paradise." The pony beamed.

"Twinkling Glass, but you already knew it. Sorry about earlier, it's just he's the only thing that I have left of the Crystal Palace."

"Are you really a princess?" Paradise looked at her skeptically.

"I'm adopted by Cadance." Twinkling Glass grinned.

"Well your friend sure looks like your his princess." Paradise burst out laughing.

"Despite you cracking some horrible jokes about him liking me, you're pretty cool."

Paradise beamed. "Want to grab a bite to eat afterwards?"

"Sure." Might as well. Twinkling Glass could always use a new friend.