To be her Mother...

Chapters

All Quiet on the Western Book Fort
April Fools 2014
My Heroes have always been Pony Princesses
The Noblest of Trades
Are you my Daddy?
Those who Dream
Birthday Cake, Tummy Ache
A Mother in Stereo
What a Fright

All Quiet on the Western Book Fort

Twilight slept contentedly, she had been up quite late gazing at Luna’s night sky and truly felt justified in sleeping in. Celestia’s most faithful student had been visiting her teacher and Princess Luna the previous evening and was allowed to stay the night in her old room. Now she was just happy that she had no princess duties and would be allowed to sleep as late as she wanted. Of course she had forgotten one small detail, a detail that was not in fact one of her princess duties but was more accurately a joyful reprieve from the affairs of state. That joyful reprieve came in the form of a little pink Pegasus filly with a black and purple mane and bluish green eyes. The filly of course had chosen to climb onto her Aunt Twilight's bed just after sunrise and wait for the alicorn to awaken. Still at her age Chrysie was quickly bored and began restlessly jumping up and down on the foot of the mattress.

Crystal didn’t speak a word as Twilight had long since asked her not to yell while she was asleep, but with the sudden bouncing of her bed the groggy princess immediately regretted opening her tired eyes.

“Auntie Twiwight, Auntie Twiwight! Mommy says we have to eat bweakfast, and then we can make a book fort and Uncle Spike can teach me to be a libwawian.” Crystal’s stationary bouncing quickly turned to a happy series of jumps that moved her in a circle around the empty space in the bed.

The excited movement was enough to stir the lavender princess, but it was the muffled laughter of a young dragon that fully awakened the terror of a sleep deprived Twilight Sparkle.

“SPIKE!” To the number one assistant it seemed that Luna’s lessons in using the royal Canterlot voice were paying off as he almost felt the full force of the alicorn’s voice on the other side off the door.

Still he couldn’t quite stop laughing as he entered the room and replied, “Oh be nice, Chrysie was very polite. She knocked and asked if she could wait for you to wake up if she was quiet.”

“Spike, she waited by very politely climbing onto my bed and quietly jumping on it!” It was then as Twilight sat up in bed that she saw the little filly still jumping circles across the mattress. With a sudden burst of telekinetic magic she took hold of Crystal and kept the Pegasus suspended in the air in front of her.

This only provided fuel for the foal’s imagination as Chrysie’s eyes became like saucers. Stretching out her tiny wings from her sides she went on to move her forehooves directly forward and get her hind legs pointed back. She then exclaimed in a cheerful tone, “Wee! Quick Uncle Spike, tell Mommy I’m fwying! Wee!”

Only a truly heartless pony would be able to resist such silliness and keep from smiling. Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle for example, was far from heartless and began laughing warmly and using her magic to move the airborne filly carefully around the room.

Twilight even kept up the spell as she made herself ready for the day ahead. A quick brush of her mane and a drink of water while listening to the excited squeals of the filly above her were all she needed before making her way to the dining hall. Crystal of course followed suit as she was literally still being held in the alicorn’s magic and still happily telling anypony they passed that she was flying.

Twilight’s spell continued even as the two entered the dining hall. The young princess even managed to telekinetically place the filly into the high chair beside Celestia without much fuss before taking her own seat on the other side of the sun princess.

The filly of course immediately began telling her mother of the adventures she had while ‘flying’. Twilight on the other hoof was reminiscing on the events that had led up to her promise to teach the filly the proper structural qualities of a book fort.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With her horn aglow Twilight moved without hesitation. The advanced use of the levitation spell allowed her to write with a quill and scroll, while at the same time pulling books from the shelves around her only to replace them after reading the title and author. While it was true that she had a chance to practice some slightly more complex levitation, the dexterous princess found it rather irritating that she couldn't allow herself time to read the books.

Princess Celestia had recently donated quite kindly to the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville and Twilight had been busying herself looking for titles to add to the public library’s collection. With that goal in mind the chronic bookworm had to force herself into not simply gathering a pile of tomes, finding a quiet corner, and reading for the rest of the day.

In retrospect she might have added to the list, ‘building a stronghold of knowledge to protect her from the bothersome dragons who always sought to impair her reading’. Twilight had almost giggled at the thought of building a book fort at her age until her thoughts were suddenly brought to a single point.

Across the library came a sudden cacophony of books falling in great numbers to the carpeted floor below them. Ponyville’s resident princess slash librarian felt her right eye twitch slightly as she realized the direction from which the sound had come.

“The early readers’ section.” It was little more than a whisper punctuated by a sudden burst of magic. A flash of light indicated the teleportation spell Twilight used to reach the part of the library where she had left her niece.

Quickly scanning from left to right the young princess searched for any evidence of the tiny filly and the crash of books from only a moment before. Despite her hawk like gaze Twilight heard Crystal before she saw her. The already tiny voice only further muffled by the pile of books Twilight would soon find her under, “Hewp Auntie Twiwight! I’m twapped under these bears.”

With a speed that would make Rainbow dash proud she moved toward the voice. Twilight breathed a heavy sigh of relief seeing a tiny hoof and a miniscule wing twitching from under a rather large pile of children’s books. The alicorn smiled as she used her telekinesis to lift a copy of ‘Goldimane and the Three Bears’ from on top of a rather silly filly who was quite tangled up in the mess around her.

When she finally had the mess cleared up for the most part Twilight sat her niece down at a small table before finally speaking, “So, I suppose I can theorize that you weren’t reading.”

Crystal jumped in her seat and wearing toothy grin she replied without hesitation, “I made a book fort! Uncle Spike said you wike them and it was more fun than weading.” Twilight’s right eye twitched as memories of Fortenheit Four Fifty-one echoed through her mind. It was the first, and thankfully last, time Spike had set one of her book forts on fire. Certainly he had burned books on accident after that, but at least he had not destroyed another entire fort… with fire at least.

Now it seemed that instead of destroying knowledge directly he was espousing the unacceptable ideal that the construction of a stronghold of literacy did not go hoof in hoof with reading. As any proper architect of literature knew, anypony building a book fort should read every piece of construction material before it could be used as an effective foundation or supporting wall. After all, reading them post-construction meant dismantling the protective structure then rebuilding it after the book was retrieved.

Then the comment fully hit her. How could her lovely niece dislike reading? Crystal always seemed so happy when she was teaching the filly to read. Though the filly's aunt was not above reproach as her somewhat literal mind had quickly jumped to that overly hasty conclusion.

“She’s five Twilight.” Celestia spoke in a matter of fact tone at dinner later that evening. Her comment was only cemented more when the filly next to her happily spoke between bites of steamed carrots.

“I’m five!” So, Crystal and Celestia were teaming up on the young alicorn princess. Twilight almost grinned knowing that she had a surefire response.

“But Princess, I was reading at an age twelve level when I was four.”

Celestia however simply smiled before both praising her student and admonishing her, “and it is due to your excellent tutelage that Crystal is an exceptional reader herself. On the other hoof she is also not you and while you enjoyed books and learning at her age, my little Chrysie prefers racing with rabbits and chasing butterflies, but it’s not as if you don’t share some interests. You enjoy reading and she enjoys listening to you read. The subject doesn’t matter because she enjoys simply spending time with you. She has asked me on many occasions to change her into a unicorn so she can learn magic just like her Auntie Twilight. Last but certainly not least if you truly think she does not share at least some of your love of books, she told me that when she grows up she wants to be a librarian.” Celestia's tone softened as she spoke until finally, "She adores all her aunts and uncles Twilight, but you are the pony she wants to grow up and be like most of all."

It suddenly made sense to the still growing alicorn princess. Crystal hadn't spent her afternoon building a book fort because she disliked reading. She had only heard Spike mention that her Auntie Twilight enjoyed building them so her actions were merely an attempt at emulating somepony she loved and wanted to model herself after.

With a curt look at Chrysie, Twilight finally smiled as she saw the happy Pegasus filly joyously enjoying her meal to the extent that there would be a significant mess to clean up under her seat. In a far more gentle tone she almost whispered, speaking just loud enough for Celestia to hear, “She always has so much fun when I take her stargazing.” Then another thought came to her mind and she excitedly spoke, still so only the princess of the sun could hear her, “Princess, I know you wanted me to foalsit here tomorrow, but would it be alright if I looked after Crystal in Ponyville? It would be a much better location for me to teach her the inner workings of a proper book fort.” Twilight finished with a pleading smile directed at her teacher.

Celestia allowed herself a warm chuckle before she replied warmly, “Of course Twilight, I’m sure she would love to see your friends there as well.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh my, then what happened?” Celestia wore a tone of playful concern as Crystal continued to tell her about flying.

Chrysie on the other hoof only continued, excitedly unaware of her mother’s patronization, “then I wanted to fwy over the woof, but Auntie Twiwight said it was too danjoo… dangee… dangly-us.”

Luna, having just walked in snickered at her niece’s mispronunciation as she made her way to the chair on the opposite side of Chrysie from her sister.

Celestia however turned to her daughter and gently corrected her, “You mean Dangerous?”

“Thas what I said Mommy, dangly-us!” Celestia turned and glared at Luna knowing that it had been her little sister who had been sabotaging her daughter’s vocal development with immature foal talk and grandiose praise for every distorted word.

Twilight only smiled as she magically lifted Crystal from her chair and excused herself, “Well it was nice seeing you Princess Luna, but Chrysie and I have to pack for the flight to Ponyville.”

The princess of the moon was disheartened and when Twilight and Crystal were both gone from sight she put on a pair of puppy dog eyes and whined gently, “Why don’t you ever let us foalsit for you?”

Celestia raised her eyebrow as if her sister’s question had to be a joke before replying, “Surely you can’t be serious.”

“We are dead serious, and don’t call us Shirley.”

“And now do you see how larger books with hard covers make much better supporting walls?” The young Crystal had not paid any attention to her Aunt Twilight’s words after the foalsitter had relented and allowed her to use books without reading them and instead spent her energy pushing heavy books into place. Then like a house of cards, one wrong move sent the structure toppling to the ground yet again… harmlessly on top of a giggling filly.

Spike had just entered the library proper with a tray of tea and cookies for Twilight to share with her niece when Crystal pushed herself up from the haphazard pile of books wearing one of the smaller tomes like a hat shouting, “Wook Auntie Twiwight! I’m a libwawy!”

Spike was about to reply when he noticed a glare from Twilight that was easily translated as, ‘if you tell her that the books need to be inside a library. You get to clean up the mess and tell princess Celestia why her daughter needed her stomach pumped.’ Unfortunately for him he was bad at understanding communication in the form of irritated stares.

“You know Chrysie; a library needs to have books inside them before they’re a proper library.”

The aforementioned filly stuck her tongue out to blow a raspberry before pushing the book off her head and trotting toward the dragon held snack tray. Her playful tone somewhat diminished as she attempted to sound very much like her mother when she was scolding Crystal for misbehaving, “Don’t be Siwwy Uncle Spike. Auntie Twiwight would be vewy sad if I ate her books.” Twilight let out a bout of laughter at the somewhat dumbfounded dragon.

Stifling her laughs down to minor giggles she spoke aloud this time, “Yes Uncle Spike, it would also give Chrysie a terrible tummy ache.”

Crystal of course was at that point only paying attention to the cookies and happily bounced when she found the one she wanted, “Yay, chocowate chips!” This sent her aunt into another fit of laughter at how quickly the filly could leap from one thought to another.

A few hours, a few visits from some of her many aunts and uncles, and a few more failed book forts later Chrysie lay sleeping soundly within the walls of her first success. It was a fairly simple structure, but the foundation was sound and the walls were strong. Nothing short of a dragon attack would disturb the Bastion of Tomes.

Twilight was laying a good distance from the harmonious pile of books but still kept the filly within her line of sight. She rested happily with a book supported by her front hooves, pages turning occasionally with the aid of magic.

It was only shortly after nightfall and she was expecting Celestia any time now. However taking a moment to glance out the window that during the day looked out toward Canterlot, she noticed the warm green hue of a star she had come to know quite well. Her tone was somber as she looked back to Chrysie for a moment before returning her gaze to the star, “Hello Chrysalis, you seem well. I just wanted to thank you. Your little filly has changed Celestia’s life. She seemed so distant the year after your attack on my brother’s wedding, but when she brought Crystal home with her I saw a look in her eyes I haven’t seen since I was a filly myself. She was always so tired, but when Chrysie came into her life she seemed so much brighter and happier.”

Twilight thought back to the first time she laid her own eyes on the little pink Pegasus. It was true she had been apprehensive about the foal’s origins, but when she saw the love in Celestia’s eyes she knew that nothing would keep her teacher and Crystal apart.

Twilight felt a smile creep across her face as she realized that she was talking to a star, but caught herself before breaking into laughter that would awaken the resting filly. An equally stealthy dragon tiptoed down the stairs carrying a scroll.

Stifling a yawn the fatigued dragon nearly threw the scroll at Twilight before speaking quietly, “You really gotta talk to the princess about these late night letters. Be careful, this one tasted a bit odd.”

After watching her assistant enter the kitchen the young alicorn unrolled the scroll revealing that the ‘scroll’ was in fact a slightly stained napkin covered with barely legible writing and smelling of hard liquor. Still for an experienced librarian such as herself, the repair of any form of literature was only a simple restoration spell away..

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hey Twilight Sparkle! This is ~~Lulu~~Luna by the way. We figured we should get that out of the way. We told Tia that she wasn’t fit to fly after tonight, but she is headed your way. Even after a thousand years my big sis still can’t hold her liquor.

So a bit of explanation, Tia had to deal with some really stupid ~~bree~~ foreign ~~dignititties~~ dignitaries today and so we(we both of us, not we me, in case it wasn’t clear) decided to get a couple of drinks to unwind. Discord offered to take us to this place he knows, Milliways. The food is a bit unusual, but the bartender knows how to make a bucking awesome tequila sunset. Anyway… oh yeah, don’t let Tia fly off with Chrysie, she’s had too much to drink to be trusted flying home with a filly. Tia doesn’t have the best sense of direction when she’s drunk so she probably won’t make it unless Discor… Oh what the buck? Okay I guess Discord went after Tia… and we(we me not we as in more than one of us… perhaps you and Tia were correct when you told us to stop using the royal we. Or at least we should not use it when writing…) Anyway we are stuck somewhere near the far side of the universe. So… send help, we’ll be here waiting… Oh somepony bought us another drink, huzzah!

Signed,

~~Lulu~~ The ~~slightly inebriated~~ Goddess of the Moon, Alicorn Princess Luna, Custodian of Dreams

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As she finished reading the napkin Twilight heard the unmistakable sound of pair of claws snapping. Discord stood smiling at his handiwork. Twilight followed his line of sight expecting some horrible prank to have been played on her.

Instead she saw that Crystal’s book fort had been greatly increased in size to allow an unconscious alicorn princess to sleep beside her daughter under the cover of the now gargantuan tomes without fear of collapse. Another snap of the draconequus' claws materialized a blanket over Celestia to keep her from catching a chill in the night.

“It’s rather awful how adorable they are, isn’t it?” Discord spoke offhandedly and waited patiently for Twilight’s reply.

“They are quite cute. Oh, Princess Luna sent me a letter just now about the three of you going out for drinks.”

Before the amateur princess could truly finish her thoughts on the subject she was interrupted by the spirit of chaos, “Oh don’t fret Miss Sparkle, I’ve taken the liberty of sobering our dear princess mother enough to prevent her from vomiting. She’s still quite drunk and will have one doozy of a hangover in the morning, but at least pretty little Tia won’t ruin your precious books while lying in a puddle of her own sick.”

Twilight was about to explain Luna’s situation when Discord simply vanished with another snap of his claws. So instead of being able to help directly she spoke a discreet prayer, “Oh benevolent Faust, creator of Equestria and first alicorn, please watch over Princess Luna until she can find a way home.” Then with a sidelong glance she noticed the flickering of a rather impertinent green star which she had no choice but to chastise for her childish manners, “Oh shush you. Everypony needs a night off to relax every century or so.”

The librarian might have gone on after her rather unfunny joke but was interrupted by the soft mutterings coming from her beloved teacher, “Look at her Discord, she’s so beautiful… I love you so much.” Twilight’s head jerked as she looked to see Celestia still sleeping soundly. However this did not last long as her dreams shifted and the princess shuddered lightly. After a short silence Celestia began muttering again allowing tears to begin flowing from her still sleeping eyes, “Why Discord? Why? I hate you so much, I hate you... I hate you... ... I hate you... ... ... I hate you…”

Author's Note

Okay!... okay… Um I had plans for this part… I might have to read through the story again just to remember… The line about being a library was unabashedly inspired by this. Shut it, it's cute, I'm allowed to be inspired by cuteness.

Alright now I remember! I want to talk a little about the process this is going through. Yes I will try and keep a lighter tone with these stories, but I am me at heart so I will also be doing whatever I want... within reason... I really wanted this compilation to be rated Everyone, but I got to the point where I really really wanted to write Luna's drunken letter... I don't feel like I went that far with the alcohol parts, but for the sake of safety I'm just going to rate it Teen. This will unfortunately mean that I lose a section of people willing to read the story, but it's fine.

Next... this is not the story I have planned for actually dealing with drunken ponies in a bar. That will be posted at some point in the future... I was hoping to post it for Saint Patrick's day, but that probably won't happen... I got a lot on my plate already.... Seriously, I'm writing this collection,(already got the next one on my mind) I'm writing the next chapter for "Of Quills and Couches",(almost a third of the way way there but very few of you care about that) and I have another story I'm working on without any sort of deadline... Yay!

Lastly, this is basically what I will be doing with the Author's Notes section for these collections. I'll basically be using it like I use the main description and just talk about the story a bit and give shout outs to anyone or anything that inspired me on individual stories, Also cut me some slack on the chapter title... there aren't that many good book fort puns available. Oh one last thing, points to anyone who gets the pop culture reference in Luna's Letter.

A couple more things about this. One, I got to stop thinking of this story as the same thing as, 'A Mother's Love...' Really, I can't just write the same thing over and over again and expect people to keep reading it. I have reminded myself a dozen times while writing this story that this is a continuation, not a reboot or re-imagining or re-posting of the same thing I already wrote. While it is a continuation I do not have to continually make references to the previous story. In fact that is the last thing I want to do, I want people to be able to simply sit down and read this without feeling like they need to read the previous installment and at this point I like to think I accomplished that task.

And Last I've been thinking I should announce the guest stars in some way. The author"s notes is the best spot for it so here it goes. Oh but before that, in the future the guest star will be placed at the top of the Author's Note section. Also when I say guest stars I mean the characters that were prevalent in the individual story but do not have a place in the whole collection's character list.

So guest starring in the pilot episode of "To be her Mother..." the one and only, Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle. Featuring minor cameos from Discord and the Immortal Princess Luna.

April Fools 2014

Author's Note

Okay Now that the first is past... I'll just say it right up here. This is an April Fools gag. It is in no way shape or form canon to the "Motherverse" continuity. Fear not I'll try to have something proper out in a week or two.

Oh you want to know about the "Motherverse"? Well technically "The Motherverse" is what I will be calling this particular continuity. For more I'll be setting up a blog about it.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

April Fools 2014

Luna was beside herself with joy, after five and a half years she had finally convinced her sister to let her foal sit Crystal. It was less fun because Twilight had fixed the filly’s wonderful speech impediment, but they could still have their share of excitement.

“What do you mean past her bed time?” Luna became enraged. Not only was it going to rain that evening covering up her wonderful night sky, but her sister had tricked her.

“I mean that I only need you to watch over her while she sleeps.” Level headed as always, her sister replied with a warming smile.

The princess of night emitted a low growl before speaking again to reveal a rather unusual fact, “That’s not special, do you know how many foals I watch sleep every night? All of them! Chrysie included.”

“Sister, do we need to talk about your nightly activities? I don’t think parents would appreciate knowing that one of their beloved princesses was doing nothing but watching their foals sleep at night.”

“Oh come on Tia I do more than that, I also watch Twilight Sparkle sleep at night. Occasionally I’ll watch the Cakes at night but they aren’t always sleeping... By the flapping gates of Tartarus Tia, I even watch you sleep from time to time.”

Celestia was beside herself. Did her sister really just admit to...? “Luna, that’s awful!”

“Not really, they are married. What they do under their own roof is their business... also mine sometimes... and Pinkies every so often.”

“So, you just watch them mate?”

Now it was Luna’s turn to be disgusted. With a tone of surprise she defended herself from the accusation, “Are you insane? They play cribbage on one of those boards that can support three players so Pinkie can play every once in a while. I even joined them once. It is a delightful game. They often have tea and small cookies.”

“Alright... well I guess that seems less... uncouth, but you can’t... wait you said you watch me sleep?”

Luna rolled her eyes before speaking again, “Oh come on Tia, you know I like big butts and yours is the biggest.”

“Stupid sexy Tia.” With her coat coloring the black eye would not be easily noticeable to the casual observer, but it still stung whenever Luna lifted the bag of ice from her face. With her uninjured eye she watched the gentle rise and fall of her niece’s chest.

It was rather peaceful all things considered with the rain falling on the castle rooftops all other sound was muted. This of course made it incredibly boring. The princess of the night paced back and forth until finally a thought came to her.

“We can play in her dreams and the fun will be doubl... no the fun will be tripled!” Of course Luna forgot one little detail. When she entered another’s dreams anything not carefully watched could be dangerous enough to kill.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dearest and most wonderful sister, Princess Celestia, greatest and most high ruler of Equestria who is far better than her humble and apologetic sister...

Oops.

From the infinitely forgivable Luna

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“What did you do?!” Tears flowed from the sun goddess’s eyes as she held her now lifeless filly.

Luna however was less than truly heartbroken as she tried to explain her actions, “Well I got bored of watching her sleep, so I used my dream walking ability to take her swimming. I took my eyes off her for like one second and...”

You foal! She’s five! I haven’t taught her to swim yet.”

Luna rolled her eyes before replying, “Duh Tia, that’s why I taught her to swim first. She got eaten by a shark.”

Only a few minutes later Luna was sitting once again on her moon staring down at Equestria. “Stupid sexy Tia, now how am I supposed to get my daily dose of your fine behind?”

Below in Canterlot a small funeral was held, full of weeping aunts and uncles. With one mortified mother holding an unusually somber draconequus. It was a quiet affair only accented by the sound of occasional sobs from those attending. Even Rainbow dash was a wreck, knowing that now she would never have the priviledge of teaching Celestia’s daughter to fly.

Still the greatest sadness belonged to one particular green star. In spite of Celestia’s promise she would not get to see her daughter grow. So without anything left to hold her to the world below, the former queen faded into the blackness of space.

Author’s Notes
I’m tired of writing this story... so I tried to figure out the best way to go out and I decided to pull off the ever popular killing of my main character. So I’ll be changing the status to complete and I’ll add the Tragic story tag because I guess it is rather tragic when a young filly dies. Still as you saw I tried to keep it somewhat lighthearted in spite of the tragedy. Um there was one more thing... I think... give me a few lines

Nope not that

No

That’s just silly

Oh wait... no

Well if you tried...

APRIL FOOLS!

My Heroes have always been Pony Princesses

The Summer Sun Celebration. Celestia herself had often thought about whether the occasion was still her favorite in the whole year. There were so many other days that had meant so much to her. Birthdays for Crystal, Luna, Twilight, Cadence, and Twilight’s friends, the anniversary of Twilight’s coronation, the return of the Crystal Empire, still it seemed that through it all her favorite day was the anniversary of her sister’s salvation. Which obviously happened to coincide with the Summer Sun Celebration.

The sun princess sighed at the thought that perhaps the Celebration itself was simply becoming another Grand Gala, boring and repetitive. Then again maybe having Ponyville as this year's host town would bring some life to the festivities.

“Infiltration successful.”

“Well it won’t be if you announce it to the entire universe Fillet.” A rather calm unicorn mare quickly chastised a Pegasus stallion after he had spoken. She couldn’t help but feel that she had been partnered with a complete amateur for this mission. With a white hoof the mare pushed her rust colored mane from her clear blue eyes and continued, “Do you even remember why we are here?”

The stallion nodded his mustard head vigorously shaking his brown mane. His grey, almost lifeless eyes seemed to shimmer with the cruelty of his reply, “Of course I do Zero, infiltrate, feed, and destroy.”

A heavy sigh escaped the lips of the unicorn. She shook her head gently to keep from disrupting her mane before hissing under her breath, “Miserable single minded drone.”

Several young fillies and colts sat and played in a well-lit play area quartered off for the foals of ponies involved in preparing Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration. Crystal Dream sat reading with her younger cousin, a reddish purple earth pony with a straw colored mane by the name of Pacific Rose.

In another section of the play area was a small grey unicorn with a rather striking blue mane playing with blocks. The unicorn was the daughter of two of the performing musicians at the celebration. She was quiet aside from her almost constant humming of a significantly complex tune for her age.

Another earth pony, this one quite a bit larger than Crystal or Rose sat near the grey pony obviously interested in the blocks but too awkward socially to ask to join in the play. Still her very presence kept the older ponies from disrupting the unicorn’s play. The earth filly was certainly a striking example of her tribe, built taller and stockier than any other pony her age, colts and fillies alike. Her coat was a drab olive green, but her mane was amazingly diverse in its hues, Streaks of two shades of tan beside streaks of forest green and black. She was often proud to proclaim that her mother was one of Princess Luna’s personal guards.

Of course none of those ponies or any of the other colts and fillies were paying attention to the conversation between two rather conspicuous ponies and a cream colored Pegasus called Honeydew, Ponyville’s newest primary school teacher.

“Now see here Miss...”

“Honeydew, though I don’t,” the young teacher was almost instantly interrupted by a unicorn mare while her Pegasus partner remained on watch for anything out of the ordinary.

“Well isn’t that wonderful? See Fillet I told you these country ponies had some of the best names.”

Again Honeydew attempted to take control of the conversation, “Yes, thank you, but,” and again her attempt failed.

“Look Miss Hanky-pank, we simply cannot be inconvenienced further. Just let us look through your foals and we will be on our way.”

“It’s Honey...”This time she meant to finish this insane conversation once and for all, but there was something about the unicorn’s eyes. The crystal blue orbs had become a venomous green as Honeydew was stared down by the changeling called Zero.

“Yes, yes, Miss Harpy Melon, but you see there is simply nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry...” the teacher’s repetition of Zero’s instruction trailed off into nothing just as the changeling continued.

“I will just smell these pretty flowers for a moment and then we’ll be gone.”

“Smelling the flowers gone...”

Zero grinned; even in disguise as a pony her teeth seemed frighteningly dangerous. Still with the school teacher under her control she was free to examine the tiny ponies.

She highly doubted that she would find what she was looking for until she came to the princess’s daughter. “You can’t be serious.” She stared at the filly’s eyes until she was brought out of her stupor by a young voice.

“I’m not Sueious... Serpitus... I’m Chrysie!” Crystal announced herself with an enthusiasm only found in children. Zero on the other hoof acted with an enthusiasm only found in changelings who had suddenly found the prey they had been hunting for six years.

She used her magic to almost instantly wrap the pink filly and pull her away from the other ponies. In a flash of teleportation she was gone. Fillet took the hint and also quickly moved to their predetermined rendezvous.

While all the foals were surprised and even a little frightened, there were three fillies who jumped into action, a grey unicorn, a green earth pony and a terrified Pacific Rose.

The first to address Honeydew was the unicorn with the blue mane, “Miss Honeydew. You have to do something, somepony was foalnapped.” The teacher simply looked at the fillies with a vacant smile on her face.

This led the filly with the camouflage mane and tail to speak up next, “Ma’am we need you to call the guards, somepony took Princess Celestia’s daughter.”

Still with an empty expression Honeydew finally spoke. However her tone seemed muted and void of all emotion aside from contentedness, “Oh hello pretty flowers, did you smell nice for the lovely mare?”

Finally Pacific Rose had enough and opened her lungs crying out so that all the ponies nearby would hear, “SOMEPONY HELP!”

Crystal struggled against her assailant’s magic with no results. She wanted more than anything to cry and scream for help but was interrupted from her first attempt by the sudden appearance of a Pegasus. The stallion then spoke quickly to the unicorn, “What have you done Zero? You said we are just to search and identify, why did you steal that pony larvae?”

“Foal, you diluted genetic backwash, they call their young, foals and this is not a pony. Just look at its eyes.” Zero bit back at her partner harshly and allowed him to look at Crystal’s eyes before explaining, “Obviously this is a hereditary failure on the part of Chrysalis to build a new hive. It shows weakness that she didn’t simply kill it and she will likely come for it if we are patient.”

Of course the bright green star above them burned with rage because it could not save the small filly from the changelings. It was also at that time when Crystal managed to speak. She shuddered with fear as she spoke, “Who are you? Why are we here? Where is Mommy?”

Fillet growled as she looked down on the frightened filly, “Silence cretin! Who we are is none of your concern, but I will let you in on a little secret, we are here to draw your dearest mommy Chrysalis out of her hiding place.”

“Chrysilisie isn’t Mommy...”

“WHAT!” the Pegasus disguised changeling was furious to say the least. He was about to crush the filly under his hoof when Zero pushed him aside.

“Pay attention fool. She obviously knows Chrysalis and I’m certain she will be kind enough to tell us everything she knows about her.” Zero’s tongue was silver coated in honey. A master infiltrator always had to hold the mission above any personal feelings. “I’m sorry for my associate but it would help us greatly if you told us all about Chrysalis.”

Despite still being afraid, Crystal felt.. calm. She looked up at the changeling female and replied, “Chrysilisie is Mommy’s friend. Mommy says she’s always watching me and protecting me.”

Fillet grinned, so harming the worthless foal would draw out their quarry. All he needed was the right application of pain.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The two changelings turned to see a gray Pegasus with golden eyes and a yellow mane staring at them from the opposite entrance to the alley. The intruding Pegasus then smiled when she saw the unharmed filly and continued slowly moving toward them.

Fillet glared at the Pegasus, but Zero raised an eyebrow as she asked, “Who are you?”

“No one of consequence I assure you. All you need to know is that I can have every pony in town right on this spot in ten seconds flat. So if you don’t want your cover blown, I suggest leaving the filly and running like your lives depend on it, because... well I guess they kind of do.”

“You’re bluffing,” Fillet replied with venom in his voice and was surprised at the mysterious mare’s own quick reply.

“Try me parasite. You two obviously have no idea who you just foalnapped so I’ll clue you in. About five years ago the princess of the sun, Celestia herself, adopted a newborn filly of unknown origins. Now Celestia loves her filly very much and I’ve heard it said that she would destroy all of Equus if it meant keeping her little Crystal safe. That very same princess is not far away with her sister, her most successful student, and a whole company of royal guards all looking for this filly. Any questions?”

The two changelings exchanged glances and vanished in a gout of green magic. They left the two Pegasi alone in the alley and the grey mare couldn’t have been happier, after all she was too old to be fighting off changelings by herself.

She then turned her golden eyes to the still frightened filly, “Do not fear little one, I have to make sure the bad ponies are gone, but I promise, I will be right back.” Crystal’s rescuer then quickly ran to the end of the alleyway and was in a blink lost to the darkness, but just as she had promised she returned just as quickly, though now her eyes seemed... different.

Of course a five year old filly would never notice something so trivial and happily jumped into the yellow maned mare’s hooves, “You’re back!”

“No, I’m Derpy Hooves.” Derpy replied quickly with a gentle smile to show that she had been joking. With one eye she kept Crystal in sight at all times while the other carefully assessed a tipped over garbage can.

The daughter of Celestia was quick in politely asking, “Princess Derpy Hooves?”

The older pony’s kind laughter was warm and musical as if it had been practiced every day since she was foaled. She did manage to compose herself quickly so she could ask in turn, “Why would I be a princess?”

“Because all the best ponies are princesses!” was Chrysie’s excited reply, but she was not quite finished as she happily provided evidence of her theory that all the best ponies were princesses, “Like Princess Mommy, and Princess Aunty Twilight, and Princess Aunty Luna, and Princess Aunty Cadence, and Princess Aunty Rarity, and Princess Uncle Big Mac, and Princess Aunty Cheerio,” She went through many other names that were quite familiar to the now cheerfully laughing delivery mare including Spike, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. Still the name she finished with made Derpy as happy as the day her own little muffin first spoke, “and now I have Princess Auntie Derpy Hooves!”

Without any pretense Derpy embraced the little filly and spoke softly, “Come along my little pony, I’m sure your mommy is worried sick.”

“Indeed I was, Auntie Derpy Hooves. However it seems we will need to have yet another coronation for yet another new princess.” A worried expression adorned the grey mare as she turned to find herself face to face with Princess Celestia. The royal alicorn of course saw the worry and quickly cast it aside, “fear not, you won’t really be expected to have any princess duties. Mostly I think is has become an excuse for my little Dream to have a tea party with cake. Something I most certainly would not argue with after this affair. So just consider it my thank you for finding my precious daughter.”

“So... did it go well?” A smooth dark voice echoed through a poorly lit chamber in a deep cave.

A grey mare with yellow eyes and a yellow mane suddenly burst into green flame as she spoke in reply, “Everything went swimmingly my master.”

As the flames cleared they left the form of a changeling not terribly unlike the late Queen Chrysalis, though this one was a bit shorter than the deceased. Her master grinned at her transformation and report. He then reached out with a paw similar to that of a lion and snapped his claws creating a shimmering oval through which he was able to watch Crystal being reunited with Celestia. The changeling could see her master’s triumphant expression quickly soften to one of relief and a little bit of remorse.

“Master, if you don’t mind me asking... why do you care so much for the wellbeing of Celestia and her daughter?”

“Oh I don’t mind in the slightest insect, I’ll even answer you. It is none of your business Seed. I have more concern for Celestia and her little filly than most would ever imagine I was capable of. That is all you ever need to know.”

“Of course Master.”

Author's Note

Arthur’s Notes

Today’s episode was brought to you by too much sugar and features guest appearances from a bunch of currently undeveloped OC’s, the musical styling of Santa Fey Train Rack and the all too underappreciated toy blocks... also Derpy Hooves... Who, if anyone paying attention to my jokes remembers, is in fact my Waifu... but not really because I’m not in that particular wheel house of crazy just yet... Oh and the moral of our story today is... well points to you if you can guess the moral... no it isn’t because I didn’t have one and I want other people to write it for me...

Okay, finally another proper addition to The Motherverse! So I had a bit of fun with this one. I especially loved writing Discord’s interaction with his... pet changeling? Anyway... yeah, that will be explained more as the story progresses. I also admit that I almost made a fatal error... I almost turned Crystal into a Mary-Sue... I won’t discuss that horrible path I could have taken... Instead, I’m gonna go ahead and work on the next update... I do have a time limit on that one after all...

Okay I will discuss the Mary Sue thing a little bit. Basically it is really hard because... that pony is so small and cute and lovable that it would be so easy for me to make her... perfect and have no strife or trouble in her life... It makes me long for writing her CMC adventures... but those have to wait until... well the future... for now... I have to develop a character who is for all interns and porpoises... underdeveloped both physically and mentally.

Also points if you figured out who Pacific Rose’s parents are... It seems rather obvious to me, but I wrote it so of course I know... Also Foreshadowing is Magic

Oh one last thing, It is really late when I'm publishing this. I don't think I made any, but if you notice any glaring spelling or grammatical errors please let me know... or not and let me live in the fantastic delusion that I made no horrible errors... I'm not perfect.

The Noblest of Trades

Author's Note

This is my mother’s day gift to all y’all moms out there... I had a lot of trouble thinking about what I wanted to write for mother’s day, but after I started writing this off the cuff I found that it would be a really good mother’s day story. Happy reading friends and neighbors!

The Noblest of Trades

Celestia hated hospitals. She had no fear of doctors or loathing for the work done by the hospital staff. Quite simply she hated anything that forced her to think of the mortality of her little ponies. The patients would die, the visitors would die, the doctors and nurses would die, the potted plants would die, the little foals in the maternity ward would die... everypony would die.

The pony beside her however, loved hospitals, though she was only five and for that reason her rational was quite childish. Getting checkups meant the nice nurse gave you candy if you behaved and there were always so many precious new foals to see. Crystal Dream had loved newborns ever since the first time she remembered being at the hospital. She had seen a new mother being pushed in a wheel chair and holding her foal close to her chest. Crystal had barely caught a glimpse but after following the mother and asking many questions she discovered that the little colt was not in fact a dolly but a very real and wonderful thing called a foal.

The young filly at the time immediately asked her mother if she could have one of her own. Celestia had smiled and then she told her daughter that if she wanted a foal she had to be very patient and very good. Crystal of course soon found it quite difficult to be very patient and very good all the time.

Oddly enough Celestia’s visit to the hospital had much to do with not one, but two foals. As the pair moved quietly Chrysie happily bounced through the halls, all the while staying close to her mother.

First was a surprise visit to a pony she often called her niece. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza lay on her back clutching what might appear to an outside observer as a bundle of cloth. The goddess of the sun of course was no ignorant outside observer. As she entered the room, the princess of love stirred and saw her aunt and the little monstrosity approaching.

Cadence glared at Crystal as she spoke, “I remember asking you to keep that thing away from me.”

A heavy sigh and a slow shake of her head precluded Celestia’s response, “That is not an attitude I would expect from the princess of love. It has been over five years dearest niece how long can your grudge truly last?”

“My grudge, as you put it, will only become stronger as long as that abomination lives.” In this she took her eyes off of the small filly and made eye contact with Celestia. The elder princess could see the seething hatred in Cadence’s eyes and it truly saddened her to see one of her precious ponies with such a powerful anger. Still she loved all her ponies, even the misguided ones.

“Twilight loves her.”

“Twilight loves you, Aunt Celestia. You could have brought home a dead fish as your daughter and Twilight would love it.”

Celestia gave a warm chuckle at the idea of Princess Twilight Sparkle changing the diapers of a dead fish. She was about to reply to Cadence’s rather odd statement when the youthful voice of her daughter interrupted her thoughts.

“She’s so pretty Aunty Cadence!” There on the bed on the other side of Cadence from Celestia sat a well behaved pink Pegasus. She was staring directly at the new born foal of Mi Amore Cadenza who was now staring directly at her.

Cadence could not strike the filly, or push her off the bed out of fear of what her aunt would do to her. All she could do was simply reply, “Thank you.” The young princess hated the creature, but she was still civilized. She would not give the changeling spawn the satisfaction of seeing her act like the monster that its birth mother had been.

Then she saw Crystal’s eyes... truly saw them. Full of wonder and excitement rather than the hungry predator’s eyes she had always imagined. No! Cadence screamed at herself. The worst kinds of monsters could easily hide their eyes.

“Chrysie is right. She has your eyes.” Cadence nearly jumped out of her skin at Celestia’s voice as the elder alicorn now loomed over her quietly inspecting the newborn. The tiny filly had a striking three tone mane of deep blue, regal purple, and a streak with a soft buttercream quality. The pony’s soft coat was the same shade as her father’s but what surprised Celestia even more was the way the newborn seemed to reach out toward Crystal.

The foal’s eyes were bright in excitement over the elder filly’s gentle gaze. “Hello. My name is Chrysie. What’s yours?” Crystal happily chirped only to be disappointed by the simple gurgling and coos customary of such a young pony.

Instead Crystal’s question was answered by her mother, “Well let me think, Aunt Cadence sent me a list of names that she and Uncle Shiny were thinking of. I’d say this little foal looks like a Glimmer Strobe.”

Cadence scoffed at Celestia’s guess. That name had not even been on the list. So without an ounce of unfamiliarity she replied, “That’s an awful name. Shining and I decided on Gleaming Shield. He said it was the name his mother always told him would be his if he had been born a filly.”

In addition to crushing Celestia’s hopes of the two fillies forming a band called ‘Dream Strobe and the Herbal Remedy’ she felt it was time for her to move on to her other bit of business. “Well if you will excuse me I have another patient to visit. May I leave Chrysie here with you?”

Cadence looked at the... ‘harmless’ filly before answering, “Fine. Just don’t take too long.” Of course she only spoke to empty air as if Celestia had already anticipated her response and left the room just after Cadence turned away. “Taking that Batmare thing a little far aren’t we Aunty?”

“Aunty Cadence, can I call her Gleamy?”

Celestia moved with solemn purpose, quietly blending into the world as she assumed a form that she hated above all else. No pony saw it happen... nopony could ever see it happen... Celestia refused to allow it. Her coat turned dark gray and her radiant mane seemed to flatten into a sheet of black that wrapped around her body like a long cloak with a hood that obscured her face. Her horn and wings withdrew into her body and the Gray Mare strode easily between the pages of reality. It was a path she had only seen two others occupy, Discord and one of her faithful student’s friends. An odd coincidence, but still nothing more than a coincidence... or it would be if the princess of the sun believed in coincidence.

The Gray Mare entered a nearly empty room, entirely unseen. Even as she approached the pregnant mare on the bed her hoof steps were soft as a spider’s whispers. A sound that was in fact only slightly louder than butterfly tears falling on fresh cut grass, but since no pony could hear either of those sounds it was enough.

She felt her form shift into that of a nurse as she ran a hoof over the bedridden mare’s mane.

“Oh hello Nurse Echo, how are you feeling today?”

The Gray Mare giggled with the aforementioned nurse’s voice as she replied, “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Not waiting for an answer the impostor nurse continued, “Just get some rest sweet heart... you have a big day ahead of you.”

After murmuring her thanks, the tired mare drifted back to sleep and Celestia set about her work. She pressed her forehead against the swelled belly of the mare and began to concentrate allowing her powers to shift both her and her... client into a separate space where they would not be disturbed.

“Hello my little pony. How do you feel?” Tears began to well up in Celestia’s eyes as she saw the unborn foal grow into a filly the same age as her own daughter.

Even as the foal seemed to slumber, the little one managed a soft reply, “I’m really tired... can I go back to sleep?”

“Soon dearest... soon you can rest...” Celestia had never once been able to take a foal from their mother without bursting into tears. Quiet sobs and invisible shudders rippled across her now ethereal form as she watched a future that could have been unfold before her eyes.

Birthdays and school. Tears of joy and sorrow. Friends and family... all these things and more tore at Celestia’s heart. If things went unchanged... if things went the way of harmony, none of that would happen.

Discord had asked her once what the value of a foal was. She had answered that to a mother, her child is priceless and there was nothing that could outweigh the value she placed on her child. She had gone on to say that to herself however a foal’s life was not valued as something so immaterial. To her, each and every foal she saved from stillbirth had torn a piece of her away. A sliver of destiny; given so that the foal would live and fulfill that purpose.

It was a price she had paid in the past and a price she would pay in the future. The only uncertainty was if she would pay that price for this foal.

“Tell me little one, what do you desire? More than anything, what do you wish for?” Celestia openly wept as she waited for the answer.

“I want mommy to be happy. I know she tries but all this time inside her I felt how sad she was... am I making her sad?”

“No little one. Your mother loves you more than you will ever know.”

Another shift and she stood again before the pregnant pony fully revealed as the Gray Mare.

A look of terror filled the mare’s eyes as she looked upon the face of Death, but she soon became even more frightened when the cloaked pony spoke, “fear not my little pony. I am not here for you.”

“No!” the expecting mare cried out in fear, “No., you can’t take her away from me... I need her.” Sobs of anguish and intense physical pain erupted in the room as nurses and doctors swarmed around the unseen presence of the Gray Mare.

As Celestia made to leave she heard a doctor cry out, “I don’t care if she’s still over a month early. We might lose the foal, but we can save the mother. We’ll be killing them both if we don’t do something.”

Cadence was motionless, holding her daughter and still staring at the filly as if Crystal would grow fangs and attempt to devour both Gleaming and herself.

Crystal of course had no such aims and was happily coloring with supplies given to her by a passing nurse. She bounced with glee when her drawing was complete and wore a toothy grin when she moved back to her aunt while revealing the colorful art.

Cadence couldn’t prevent herself from asking about the crude drawing, “and what is this supposed to be?”

This only seemed to intensify the young pony’s exuberance as she happily replied as she indicated various parts of her drawing, “This is Mommy, giving you a hug. And this is me and I’m giving Gleamy a hug! And that’s a bad monster running away!”

“Why is there a monster... and why are you and your... mother hugging my daughter and I?” Cadence was finished, she couldn’t help but give in to her curiosity now.

“Because silly! Monsters are always mean to nice ponies. So me and Mommy are protecting Aunty Cadence and Gleamy from the monsters with our love. Monsters don’t like love so they are running away.”

Cadence was truly ashamed. How could she have been blinded by anger for so long that she didn’t see what was right in front of her? She had only ever seen Crystal as the daughter of a monster, but now she realized that she had never let herself see her as the daughter of Celestia. “Crystal dear?”

“Yes Aunty Cadence?” The small Pegasus chirped happily in reply, simply elated at the sound of her aunt’s voice.

The princess of love smiled at the filly for the first time as she asked, “Gleamy sounds rather silly. Could you just call her Gleam? Oh and can I have a piece of paper and a crayon, I need to write a letter to your mommy.”

Celestia moved slowly through the vacuum of causality when she heard a voice that was steadily returning to familiarity.

“Well, that was fun, you should be proud of the chaos you made in that little room. Though I should ask you, why? Why did you not simply save this foal? I’ve seen you do it plenty of times before, so why are you now holding so strong to you foolish ideals of order and balance?”

“Because if there is one thing I’ve learned in my many years, it is that I can cheat fate. I can swindle the universe and I am more than happy to take something from the cosmos at no cost if I can manage it. With my powers inducing a bit of premature labor is easy.”

“Then you’re frolicking with luck? Pure unhindered chance in the face of cruel destiny? My dearest Celestia, have you fallen so madly for me that you are willing to play with my toys again?”

“Why do you think I let you out? You are useful to me and I know how to con you as much as the rest of the universe.”

“Fair enough Celly, but I never did ask why you didn’t turn gray for the changeling.”

“She asked for Celestia. I merely obliged her request.”

“Really? Or was it because you wanted her to be able to picture your face better when she remembers what you did to her?”

Fire erupted in the Gray Mare’s eyes as she stared down at Discord. Her rage filled voice overwhelming the minuscule Draconequus, “YOU DARE ASK ME THAT? WHAT ABOUT WHAT YOU DID TO HER? WHAT MAKES YOUR ACTIONS SO DIFFERENT FROM MINE?”

“Well for one little Miss Sunbottom, I don’t regret my decision. I never have and I never will.” Discord might have been lying through his teeth, but the angered sun goddess was not in the right frame of mind to detect his deceit. Instead she simply ignored him for the rest of her journey to return to her niece and filly.

Celestia smirked at the entrance of a highly out of breath doctor as he entered her niece’s room. However she nearly laughed aloud at her daughter’s words, “Shh! You have to be quiet. Aunty Cadence is sleeping.”

“My apologies... your majesties... I should have come... to check on Princess... Cadenza a half... hour ago, but there were... complications... with another... patient.” The young doctor barely managed to squeak out between many gasps for air.

Celestia donned a concerned expression as she quickly replied, Oh dear, what happened?”

“Well,” The doctor was hesitant due to patient confidentiality, but then again this was his princess and he didn’t have to go into detail, “Well, there was a mare who went into labor, five weeks early. It was a bit touch and go, but it seems it was a blessing in disguise. It turns out the foal had twisted herself to have the umbilical cord around her neck. Poor little thing would have died if the mother hadn’t given birth right then and there.”

“Then they are both fine?”

“Healthy as can be Princess. Very tired, but healthy.”

Celestia smiled as her own filly began bouncing up and down in front of her with an excited grin on her face, “I’m sorry I forgot to tell you mommy. Aunty Cadence sent you a letter.” The filly gleefully indicated a sheet of paper on the younger princess’s side table.

With a heavy sigh Celestia magically moved the paper toward her and began reading the letter written in bright red crayon.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Princess Celesti

Yeah, it makes me laugh knowing that’s how Twilight still addresses her letters to you... let’s try again.

Dear Aunt Celestia,

Gleam likes her... your daughter. Gleam has spent the last five minutes smiling and laughing while... Crystal was just sitting, quietly humming. I imagine the tune was some lullaby you sing to her, but I’m getting off topic.

I am the princess of love. So I know a few things about love and... That filly... your filly... loves my daughter. She loves her without restriction or expectation of something in return... it’s like they’re sisters. Yes I know technically they are sisters... sort of. Sorry, off topic again.

Basically, I would consider it cruel to completely separate my daughter from somepony who loves her and that she loves back. So here is my ultimatum, Crystal Dream shall be henceforth invited to visit the Crystal Empire at her mother’s discretion so that she may visit her cousin, Gleaming Shield.

I guess Twilight had it right all along. I have claimed to love you for years, but if I can’t show that love by at least opening myself a little to somepony that you love then I am just fooling myself. I’m sorry for everything I’ve said about Crystal in the past. Please give me a chance to try again.

Your incredibly sleepy niece,

Princess Mi Amore “Cadence” Cadenza

P.S. Sending Princess Twilight Sparkle along with Crystal, as a show of good faith, will certainly help build positive international relations between our countries.(Shiny misses his little sister and he won’t go visit her even when I tell him it’s fine. My husband the ever worrying workaholic.)

P.P.S. Also please hide this letter, Shining should be back before lunch and I don't want to ruin the surprise.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To be a mother. This is the noblest of trades. A mother’s love for her child is the sweetest chorus and is only eclipsed when that love is returned. The success of her child brings delight at her child’s joy and failure brings mourning for her child’s sorrow. Creator, doctor, teacher, counselor, and closest friend. All these things and more are what it means, To be a Mother.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s Notes

Today we featured guest stars Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and a bottle of tooth paste.

The answer is yes, if I do end up featuring a band in future additions it will be called “Dream Strobe and the Herbal Remedy.” Whether this will be by Celestia’s influence or by mad coincidence, I’m not sure yet. Dream Strobe will likely be one pony and the Herbal Remedy will be a quartet of zebras.

As for Gleam, yes I am aware that Gleaming Shield is a common rule 63 name for Shiny... I even poked at that fact a little within the story. My readers probably noticed

More insight into Discord and Tia as the Gray Mare was fun as well... also... Happy Mother’s Day.

Are you my Daddy?

Two young fillies were rolling on the floor in side splitting laughter at the latest derailment of the Canterlot Express. Between them was the wreckage of the aforementioned toy lying on its side in otherwise perfect condition.

Crystal was the first to stop giggling and she turned to her younger cousin with a joyful grin, “That was fun Rosie, but why are you so careful with your train? You aren’t like that with your other toys.”

The hoof painted wooden train was gently picked and held in Pacific Rose’s forelegs as she replied with a smile of her own, “Because daddy made it for me. It’s my treasure because it says he loves me.” She then turned the bottom of the train to face Crystal so she could read the carefully printed letters that read in bold black letters, “For my Pacific Rose, love from Daddy.”

The word ‘love’ caused Chrysie’s stomach to lurch. Not in a feeling of disgust, but that of hunger. The little Pegasus had over her short lifetime begun to notice an odd taste to the air whenever she was surrounded by those who loved her. Her aunts and uncles, her cousins and friends, but more than any other she tasted the love of her mother in the sunlight and the love flowing freely from a little green star in her aunt Luna’s night sky. She had more love than she would ever need, but... she did not have a daddy... or perhaps she did and she simply did not know it.

In that moment of thought Rose’s father entered the room. Weary from his hard day at work the red stallion still held the strength to happily embrace his daughter as she ran toward him calling out, “Daddy! I missed you. Did you miss me?”

A joy filled, “Eeyup!” was his only response as he held his daughter, however he still managed to greet his young niece while still holding the tiny purple bundle of energy called Pacific Rose, “Howdy Chrysie. Are y’all gonna be joinin us fer supper?”

Crystal wore a toothy grin as she happily emulated her big red uncle, “Eenope! Auntie Twilight is going to take me back to her castle and Uncle Spike will help me make dinner.” While the filly was proud of being able to help with dinner, Big Mac only chuckled at the thought of Twilight’s ‘castle’.

It had been years since Tirek had wreaked havoc all across Equestria and in one of his last acts of vandalism he had burned Golden Oak’s Library. Still as his Granny Smith would often say, magic does what magic will and magic is what happened in the aftermath of Tirek’s defeat. A strange magical lock box, opened by his sister and her five closest friends poured its magic into the smoldering remains of the library causing a thousand years of regrowth to occur in a matter of seconds.

The tree grew taller and stronger than ever. It had not only become the grand public library of Princess Twilight Sparkle, but also the Grand throne room where Twilight and the other five former bearers of the elements of harmony held their royal court.

Macintosh had never seen Twilight so relieved as when her home had been restored. Pinkie’s “The Library Grew Back Celebration” lasted for days. It had taken Spike three weeks to reshelf all the out of place books. Macintosh’s reminiscing was suddenly interrupted when a lively pink filly asked childishly, “Uncle Mac, are you my daddy?”

Big Mac was immediately happy that he had not been drinking some of his Wife’s freshly made lemonade as it would have no doubt ended up all over his daughter and niece after an exaggerated spit take. After finally composing himself he replied gently, “No ah’m not yer daddy, but if’n ya don’t mind me askin, why would ya think I was yer father?”

“Because Daddy loves me!” Crystal joyfully exclaimed, but to say that Big Mac was confused would be a dreadful understatement.

“Well how do ya know yer daddy loves ya if y’all don’t know who he is?” Obviously Macintosh had no idea how simple his niece’s logic would prove to be as he suddenly felt impressed by her reasoning.

“Well, you love Rosie and Uncle Shiny loves Gleam... so my daddy has to love me too right?”

The stallion couldn’t hold back a laugh at Crystal’s childish but logical argument. However the filly had other thoughts as she realized that there was another possible father candidate she would have to question... after getting to Auntie Twilight’s castle.

It was then that Big Mac began wondering just who Crystal’s father was. Of course all those thoughts were erased from his mind as he watched the two resume their joyful play at wrecking the little wooden train in heavily populated areas of Equestria.

He quietly observed until he heard the familiar voice of his wife as she approached from the direction of the kitchen, “Thank you so much for your help princess, this is going to make things so much easier on the kids.”

“Really Mrs. Cheerilee, it’s no trouble at all and your argument was entirely valid. Like I said before, I think the neighsayers are just the noisy ponies who are afraid of change. I’m really surprised you didn’t ask me for help earlier.” Twilight replied with a smile as she entered the quaint sitting room of Macintosh and Cheerilee’s little home situated on the edge of Sweet Apple Acres. She gave a small wave of recognition to the stallion as she listened to his wife’s reply.

“Well, I never wanted to ask you to abuse your authority, just because you’re a friend of the family.” Twilight’s laughter was musical yet it still interrupted the speaking mare.

In the resulting silence the princess spoke in her own defense, “Mrs. Cheerilee, if I were going to abuse my power in this I would have simply pulled your schoolhouse from the little hill it’s sitting on and moved it myself to your proposed destination. All I’m going to do is get the ball rolling in the right direction by having a little chat with the city council and school board reminding them who they are supposed to be working for.”

Cheerilee let out a relieved chuckle at hearing Twilight’s pure intentions for her part in her upcoming proposal to Ponyville’s self-proclaimed board of education.

Twilight on the other hoof had been mobbed by the two little fillies crying out in unison, “Auntie Twilight! Sunshine sunshine! Ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” They had both completed the dance that went along with the poem and were rewarded with a warm bout of laughter from their royal aunt.

Twilight had only been alone with Cheerilee for twenty-five minutes, but the girls had already managed to start missing her. So she answered the playful greeting by using her telekinetic magic to lift the pair of fillies and rub her nose against theirs.

Reluctantly she lowered Rosie and moved Crystal to her back before issuing her goodbyes and instructing the filly holding her neck to do the same.

“Bye bye Rosie, Uncle Mac, Auntie Cheerio. I love you!” Twilight chuckled, the little filly had so much kindness in her heart that she seemed incapable of not loving every pony she met. The little one even occasionally spoke of two fillies she had met on the same night as the foalnapping. Crystal called them her best friends even though she hadn’t seen them since.

Twilight smiled as she carried the happy filly toward the Ponyville library. It was a pleasant feeling having something small and warm clutching her neck as she walked, it reminded her of when Spike did the same thing. Nostalgia was a curious thing.

“Auntie Twilight? Can you help me send a letter?” the interruption to her thoughts can suddenly and Twilight turned to her niece with a slight look of confusion.

“Why do you need to send a letter, sweetheart?” Twilight asked gently as she theorized all the reasons the small filly might have.

Chrysie nearly fell from her aunt’s back as she almost jumped with her response, “I need to ask Uncle Shiny something, but he is too far to talk to him. So I send him a letter.”

Twilight barely held back another round of joyful laughter as she tried over and over to get Chrysie to spill the beans on the topic of her question. Of course the filly was no diabolical mastermind as she shouted the moment they entered the living area of the first floor of Twilight’s living castle, “Uncle Spike! Take a letter!”

The confused dragon turned to Twilight for reassurance and was greeted with an approving nod. So quill and scroll in his claws he began writing everything Crystal said.

“Dear Uncle Shiny! Are you my daddy? Love, Crystal Dream!”

Regardless of his further confusion Spike was about to roll up the scroll and send it when Twilight ripped it from his grasp and tore the letter into pieces before throwing them into the fire, all in a matter of seconds. Crystal was about to ask Spike to try again when she felt the embrace of her aunt’s wings and fore hooves. The soft tone of her loving voice calmed the filly only slightly and only for a moment, “Oh Chrysie, I’m sorry, but Uncle Shining is not your daddy.”

Crystal was heartbroken... if Shining Armor was not her daddy, then who was? Before her tears erupted however the calming voice of her aunt continued, “I’m curious though, what brought this up?”

“Well, Rosie has a daddy and Gleamy has a daddy and Auntie Pinkie has a daddy and Auntie Rarity and Auntie Twilight...” The slight pause was enough for Crystal to have another idea about her daddy’s identity and she happily jumped on it, “Uncle Spike! Are you my Daddy?”

Twilight’s laughter filled the library and Spike had to ask, “Wait what?”

“Are you my Daddy?”

“No Chrysie, Spike isn’t your daddy either.” Twilight quickly answered for the stunned dragon after forcing her laughter to cease. Still she wanted to get to the bottom of Crystal’s new fixation on finding her father. Her tone was now far more sober as she asked, “Tell me sweetheart; why are you trying to find your daddy?”

Crystal let out a heavy sigh. She was so tired after a long day spent with her aunties in Ponyville. Even moreso now that she had failed yet again to find her daddy. She did however perk up slightly as she revealed her motivations to Twilight, “Because daddy loves me... I want him to know that I love him back.”

Twilight’s heart melted. Such pure innocence that made her wish she had let Spike be the filly’s daddy... There really weren’t any ponies left that could play the part... except, “Well Chrysie, I think you only have one more option left.”

A confused expression adorned Crystals face as she considered all the stallions in her life. Uncle Macintosh, Uncle Shiny, Uncle Spike, and... “Uncle Discord? Auntie Twilight! Is Uncle Discord my daddy? If he is then he would be Daddy Discord.”

“That’s right Chrysie.” Twilight smiled at the filly’s expression of pure joy at finding exactly what she was looking for. Also the young princess smiled at the thought of how Discord would react.

“Oh my, did somepony call my name? Was it Sunbutt’s little squirt? Or was it Chrysie?” As sudden as the voice from nowhere, Discord appeared before them in a puff of yellow smoke that smelled like burnt blueberries.

Twilight smirked, unable to hold back as she thought to herself, Yeah laugh it up Discord. Prepare to meet your adorable match mister god of chaos.

Crystal jumped for joy as she squealed, “I did Daddy! I said your name, um... a hundred times!”

Discord was silent until he felt the filly embrace him tightly. He finally got up the nerve to ask, “That’s very sweet of you little one, but what is this all about?”

Crystal only beamed brighter as she finally told her daddy exactly what she wanted him to hear, “Daddy Discord loved me all along, but I didn’t know... so now I know so I can say, ‘thank you Daddy for always loving me. I love you too.’”

Much to Twilight’s amusement, Discord was speechless.

Author's Note

Arthur’s Notes

Happy Father’s Day! Yeah I know my last update was a mother’s day thing so I figured I should write a Father’s day thing. So her is to all the real men out there. I’ll explain in a bit... first of all some news

I’m thinking of adding two tags to this story. One the Alternate Universe tag. For a while it didn’t bother me that I didn’t have it as I was just adding another pony that would be Celestia’s daughter, but now that I have written an alternate tree library castle... thing... I’ll just bite the proverbial bullet and add the A.U. tag... which really shouldn’t be that big a deal. Still I thought I should tell my readers so they didn’t become confused and full of rage.

The only question in my mind is whether I add Discord tag to the main characters. As far as I remember he has been in every chapter so far and he does have a major effect on the story... So I just talked myself into attaching the Discord tag... no more question in my mind.

Um... this month’s episode feature guest stars Big Macintosh, Cheerilee, Pacific Rose, and a mummified gator claw that grants quiches. Makeup and costume services provided by the Equestrian Order of the Winged Seapony. Cider service provided by FimFlam Nonpareil Incorporated. Duck Herding provided by the Manehatten branch of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

In Loving memory of Herman the Mime, Devoted Husband and Father, Proficient Conversationalist and Expert Foley Artist for the Motherverse from March 11, 2014 to June 15, 2014.

So Fathers’ Day... I have a philosophy on fatherhood. It comes in several parts but I’ll only detail two. One, you never abuse the mother of your foals. That one I am paraphrasing a line of dialogue from a story I’ve been reading. Second is something my own father taught me, “Any fool can be a father, but it takes a real man to be a dad.” I love my dad. Thus two things. One, Twilight wasn’t exactly lying when she said that Shiny was not Crystal’s daddy. Two, I would like to motion that the two holidays, Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day, should be changed to, Moms’ Day and Dads’ Day Respectively. Feel free to discuss.

Oh! One more thing! I am coming toward the end of this collection. I will not stop writing for it if I find the inspiration, but I am soon going to move on to the next stage in Crystal’s life. She will be older, taller, smarter and more responsible. Responsibility is an important element as I would like to give Crystal a pet. I don’t know what I want to give her just yet, so I figured a little audience participation would be kind of fun. So if you have a fun idea for Crystal’s pet just leave a comment. I’ll leave it open until I feel there are enough choices then I’ll make a list and ask for everyone’s vote. So good luck to all of y’all and may the best pet win.

Those who Dream

“Now you are certain you understand fully?”

“Yes dear sister, as thou have told us, no sweets unless she eats her supper... hypocrite...”

“What was that?”

“Nothing Tia oh wonderful sister of mine.” Luna put on a forced smile in an attempt to show her sincerity... a feat that easily eluded the long since former bearer of honesty.

Celestia let out a heavy sigh as she continued to glare at her younger sister. She then found herself in a giving mood as she gave the princess of the night just one more chance, “Alright, if you think you are ready, then tell me, what are the rules I have given you for caring for my daughter.”

Luna grinned playfully as she recounted, “We must never feed her after midnight, we shall not get her wet, and we must not expose her to bright light, especially that of the sun.” The smile quickly faded as Celestia replied.

“Alright then I guess I’ll just ask Twilight if one of her friends can-“

“Wait sister! We apologize! Crystal will have time to play until dinner, then after dinner, we shall give her a bath. After the bath is quiet reading or coloring time until we raise the moon and set the sun, then stargazing with a snack, bed time story, and then is the time for sleep and dreams. Dost thou not see sister? We will behave and care for her as if she were our own!” It actually only took half of Luna’s speech before Celestia burst into laughter, though Luna only noticed after she had finished.

“Honestly Lulu, I know you won’t let any harm come to my Crystal. You are not the kind of pony who would allow a dream to become a nightmare.”

In an instant the younger princess was holding her sister in a tight embrace. Celestia chuckled warmly before whispering, “Really now Luna, were you not at one time the bearer of laughter?”

In another place, and another time... relatively speaking of course, A relatively out of place changeling and a predominantly timeless draconequus sat around a rather unassuming table enjoying an afternoon tea... At least the changeling was enjoying herself.

“Apologies Master, as much as it amuses me that you have a new daughter, did this not happen before?”

Discord seethed, he hated being reminded of the past by his own creation... slave... pet? Perhaps... tool... yes, while the world was not composed entirely of nails, he did at times need a hammer that came in the form of a changeling, “Silence worm. If I had wanted your opinion on the matter I would have said, ‘Oh Seed, tell me something, should I do something about little Chrysie calling me daddy?’ but I did not say that did I?”

“Of course not master, please forgive my insolence. Still after meeting her, I can see why you haven’t erased her like your first daughter, she was quite pleasant even after being foalna...”

Seed was quickly cut off by the snapping of Discord’s claw in an instant the changeling had become a life sized plush of herself. With reckless abandon the master of chaos began beating and tearing at the stuffed changeling until all that remained was shredded fabric and tufts of stuffing.

Another snap restored the toy to perfect condition and one more turned her back into a changeling. Discord growled when he finally addressed his underling, “Be careful with your words Seed. I might forget to make the process painless next time.”

Seed had experienced the whole thing, but being made of stuffing and cloth she felt no pain. Being beaten and thrown about was not such a terrible experience when one could not feel hurt. However, being torn apart was... terrifying. While she did not feel it, she knew it was happening. Still even with her rattled mind Seed stood respectfully before Discord and spoke, “Of course Master. Do you require anything else this evening?”

“No, just a little privacy while I get ready for my hot date.”

“As you command, Master.”

“Are you certain your majesty? This seems rather extreme.”

“The filly has an unfair advantage. It is a travesty we will no longer stand for.” Also there were other reasons, but her guards didn’t need to be informed of such things. It was still a little over an hour until dinner, so having the spell wear out after an hour would work just fine.

Crystal however saw nothing of this and busied herself in her mommy’s garden by sniffing every rose she could get close enough to smell. A dark blue aura surrounded Luna and two of her guards leaving two others available if anything should go wrong.

After a sudden flash of blue light, three foals each appearing to be between five and six stood where the princess and her guards had been only a moment before. One was a midnight blue alicorn foal. The second was a light grey unicorn colt with an almost pale white mane. The last was a lunar Pegasus filly with a dark grey coat and nearly black mane and tail.

The little Alicorn cried out triumphantly the moment she saw the other foals and herself, “Huzzah! We have been successful! Come along fillies and colt, we had a game of hide-and-seek to commence!”

While the now foal-sized Luna giggled with excitement her two small guards answered in unison with equally childish voices, “Yes your majesty!” Soon the guards were overcome with laughter as their new squeaky vocalizations, drawing the attention of the only true foal of the group.

Upon seeing her Aunt Luna now the same size as herself, Crystal ran to her aunt crying out, “Aunty Luna! You are so cute!” Luna barely registered her niece’s statement before she felt the impact of Chrysie’s embrace. The hug quickly deteriorated into a rousing tickle fight and haphazard game of tag.

With hide-and-seek forgotten the shrunken guards remained still until their princess called out, “By royal proclamation! Get your cute little flanks over here and start playing! I didn’t turn you into foals so you could stand around acting like boring old guards.”

While the former stallion was still apprehensive, his partner was more than ready as she dashed toward Luna and Crystal shouting, “Bastion’s it!”

The aforementioned unicorn was stunned for only a moment before replying with his own battle cry, “Not for long Echo!”

“Discord.”

“Ah my dear Princess Celestia, I’m so glad you could make it.” Discord wore a warm grin in spite of Celestia’s burning glare.

“I was the one who asked you to meet with me.”

“Oh come now, at the very least we should be civil, besides I managed to get us a reservation at a rather exclusive little café.” Discord was unflappable even in the fiery presence of the sun princess herself. Of course one had to be able to stand a little heat if they were going to spend any time at all at the restaurant he had chosen.

“Discord, I don’t want to go out to eat. This is a very serious matter that needs to be dealt with swiftly and with discretion.”

“But darling Tia, we’re going to one of your favorite places...” One could call Discord many things, subtle was not one of them. So a quick pause for dramatic effect led to a prideful shout and a victorious pose, “Tonight we dine... On the sun!”

After a joy filled round of tag, the four foals rolled playfully in the grass, giggling at nothing.

Everything seemed wonderful until one of the remaining adult guards spoke, “Your highness, dinner will be served soon.”

The tiny princess rolled to her back and excitedly threw up her hooves shouting, “Huzzah! Come along Chrysie, we... have...” As Luna spoke she noticed that her voice was still that of a small filly and her shout became softer as it was soon laced with worry, “How long? How long have we been a foal?”

“A little over an hour ma’am... why do you ask?” the guard obviously had no knowledge of age alteration and regression spells, though for that matter Luna had very little.

It had been a foolish decision to use such a spell without careful study and due to the enhanced power of an alicorn’s magic the spell’s duration was exponentially increased from one hour to eighteen.

Of course that deviation was entirely unknown to her and before she could get far in her calculations she heard the excited voice of her dear niece, “Yay dinner! Auntie Lulu, can my new friends have dinner with us?” As if she needed to sweeten the deal not only did Crystal have puppy dog eyes and a quivering pout cemented on her face, but the two guard foals wore the same expression.

After a long bout of joyful laughter Luna agreed to letting the tiny guards join them for the evening meal

“See, this is why I hate The Sun. The service is terrible, it’s always too hot and my drink boils away before I even see it, and the atmosphere is radioactive. Honestly I have no idea why you thought a restaurant on the sun was a good idea.”

Discord dismissed Celestia’s complaints as the pair sat peacefully under the raging inferno of the photosphere. The still slightly amused draconequus allowed himself a knowing smile as he spoke, “Well at least we don’t have to worry about eavesdropping.”

“I have a spell for that.”

“Right, well... so tell me Tia, what has you so desperate to speak with me that you are missing your daughter’s dance recital?”

Celestia thought a moment before raising an eyebrow; still she had business to take care of. “I would like to speak with you about acquiring the indefinite use of one of your... assets. Also Crystal does not take dance classes so she would not have a recital.”

“Well there is the old tyrant I know and love, unwilling to let your own daughter dance.”

“She can dance if she wants to.”

“Well at least she didn’t learn the Twilight Two-step from your faithful student.” At that Discord snapped his claw and a shimmering moving image appeared.

Crystal happily skipped around the large dining hall table. Her joyful dance done in time with the odd lyrics she was singing with much more than an ounce of enthusiasm, “Eenie meenie miney moe, catch a tiger by his toe, if he hollers put him in a bucket, saddle up your flank and move it and tuck it, my mommy told me to, pick it like a piece of plum, pop it in and chew, Daddy wears a hair piece, so the choice is you!”

“I taught her that one!” while the pride in Discord’s voice was palpable, Celestia was far from amused.

“Of course you did.”

A unicorn maid carefully placed booster seats in the chair Crystal had chosen and three others close by for the other foals. She wore the biggest smile she had in weeks seeing her beloved princess Luna in the form of a young foal. She along with much of the staff felt that despite her age, the lunar princess had the tendency to act quite foolish in private situations. This was just the outsides matching the insides so to speak.

“Well I think I’m working that night, so I’ll be dressed as a member of the Lunar Guard on Nightmare Night. What about you Echo?”

“Well if you’re working then I’m working so I’ll dress up as a unicorn.” The Lunar Pegasus filly joyfully replied in an attempt to tease her partner. “Oh Chrysie! What are you going to dress as?”

“Mommy is gonna make me a Chryseelisee costume!” The two foal sized guards were silent, they had heard Celestia speak highly of Chrysalis with the filly before, but they never understood why Crystal had any connection to the deceased changeling queen.

However, before they had too long to think too much on the subject Luna shouted, “We will be Batmare!”

While Crystal and Bastion were simply happy with the results of the game, Echo had her own objections, “And what makes the princess think she would make a good Batmare?”

Luna rolled her eyes before laughing. Once the laughter died she put on as serious a face as possible with her youthful appearance and said, “You foal, we are the night!”

“You want what?”

“As I just said, I want to employ your changeling servant as an undercover guard for Crystal.”

Discord growled at the mention of Seed, more specifically he growled at finding out that Celestia knew about her. “Oh dearest Tia, one does not simply employ the services of a slave.”

“Is that so? Well then by the third Lunar Act of Accord prohibiting the ownership of any member of a free willed intelligent species, I hereby free her and grant her citizenship as a free Equestrian. Will you tell her that I am offering her employment or shall I send her a letter?”

“What makes you think I will agree?” Discord was fuming at the meddling of the solar princess, yet Celestia remained calm and collected.

“Because you owe me something worth far more than a simple plaything, you miserable hodgepodge monstrosity.”

Discord smiled, not a fun kind of smile but one that held some dark twisted thought as he reached out to caress Celestia’s chin with his lion paw and replied, “Oh Tia. Very well, you may have my servant, but only because I love it when you talk dirty to me.”

“Remove your claw! Do you have such a short memory to think I would forgive you?”

“A thousand years is a long time to hold a grudge, still I won’t apologize. Nothing you say will ever make me believe I was in the wrong” The infinite regret and self-loathing took care of that all on its own.

The four foals happily splashed about as they played in the large tub in Luna’s private bath. What was normally enough to easily allow an alicorn to have a comfortable soak had become a swimming pool for the four little ponies.

Much to the dismay of the maid who was currently trying to wash them after a particularly messy dinner, complete with optional food fight, “Oh Princess, your hooves are all sticky... Chrysie, how did you get tomato sauce in your ear...? Will you two settle down? You are royal guards for buck’s sake!”

A sharp gasp echoed from the four younglings before Luna spoke, “Constant said a swear...”

The bath was silent as the maid slumped to the floor with her forehooves hanging in the tub and her head resting on the edge with her eyes closed. However the momentary peace only lasted until a bar of soap enveloped in a blue aura floated to Constant Care’s lips.

The foals burst into laughter as a sputtering Pegasus writhed on the floor in her attempts to remove the taste of soap from her mouth, “You little tyrant! I should give you the spanking of your life for that.” So with renewed vigor Constant resumed her cleaning of the still giggling foals.

“You never told me why you wanted to use Seed.” The pair now sat on an immense asteroid floating through the depths of space with the best possible view of the universe that reality altering chaos could provide

“No I didn’t.” Celestia winced slightly as she watched a pair of smaller asteroids crash together with Discord’s head in between. There was no cause for concern as to his wellbeing; after all he was like a cockroach in more ways than one. “It really shouldn’t be a surprise that I want my daughter to make as many friends as possible.”

“So she can channel her inner Twilight?”

“So she can be safe from loneliness and despair when she finds out what she is.”

Discord chuckled as he thought about the creation of Seed. He had never planned to use her for anything beyond simply wanting to find out if he could. The wondrous magical construct had spread more than enough chaos among the changeling hives, perhaps it was time to release her into the wild to see what would happen. “If she is to be Chrysie’s friend then I imagine you will use an age spell.”

“Age spells have limits. I will need you to alter her mind and body to make her an appropriate age for a foalsitter.”

“And what of her origins? Ponies don’t just come out of nowhere anymore.”

“She will be an orphan; I already have a wonderful family lined up to adopt her. They have been looking to adopt for years and were more than happy to let me give their daughter employment as Crystal’s foalsitter.”

“Pegasus? Or are you going to want another Cadence?”

“She will be a Pegasus; another alicorn coming out of nowhere would be too problematic.”

“Who will know what she is?”

Celestia smiled, she had wondered when this question would come up. It made sense that he would want to know who the liabilities were going to be when he set out his creation on the world, “Only you, Luna, and I will know that she is little more than an animated doll. Twilight and her friends will know that Seed is a changeling. The rest of Equestria will know that she is a Pegasus filly named Maple Seed.”

Four glisteningly clean foals had arrayed themselves in a circle facing each other on the soft carpeted floor of Crystal’s room. In between them all there was a pile of strewn papers, crayons and a plate that had been recently emptied of the cookies it held. Even the shrunken guards had happily joined in the coloring and after dinner snack.

It was actually quite a pleasant change from their earlier rowdiness with only soft giggles when one showed their latest picture to the group and the occasional instance of Crystal hugging a drawing she made of her mommy or one of her aunts and uncles.

It took a little time, but Luna eventually saw a trend she just had to make an inquiry about, “Chrysie, why have you not made a drawing of us to hug?”

“Because I can do this!” In that instant Crystal jumped at her aunt embracing her. It was an act that might have caused the foals to become excited and noisy once more were it not for the chimes of an old grandfather clock in an adjacent room.

Luna jumped in quiet excitement as she began chanting, “Yay! Moon rise, sun down! Bedtime story time!” As she sang the princess ran out of the room leading her niece and the two guards to the nearest balcony to watch the sun make way for the moon.

Then as darkness swept over Equestria a look of concentration took hold on Luna’s face and her horn began glowing bright. The light of the moon was swiftly revealed just as the stars began to appear in the night sky. As the grand lunar orb settled in its place the now fatigued princess fell on her side with a tired cheer, “Yay...”

“It’s getting late.” Celestia observed while the she and Discord sat in a small row boat in the middle of the western sea.

“Well I had a good time; perhaps you would like to come back to my place?”

“Don’t be disgusting Discord.”

Luna grinned; she and the other three foals had curled up together on a makeshift mattress made of blankets and pillows as the lunar princess prepared to tell her bedtime story.

After taking a deep breath Luna began.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria two princesses lived together in harmony. They were born to rule over the ponies of Equestria, protecting them from harm and misfortune.

The elder sister was destined to control the sun and her younger sister who was much more lovely would hold sway over the moon and stars. But soon the elder princess grew jealous and demanded that her sister be covered in mud to make her less lovely.

The moon princess refused, instead showering mud all over her older sister’s room and books. Retaliation came swiftly and the first great mud war came full bore through the castle they shared with their parents.

The princesses’ mother and father were filled with anger at the mess and sent the sisters to bed without cookies or cake. Weeping at their misfortune they promised to never fight again so they would never again miss out on cake or cookies.

The End!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“Do you want to hear the story of how Tia and I started a pie war?” Luna smiled as she quickly added.

However by this time the other foals were happily asleep curled up together in a friendly pile of foals. Deciding to not argue with the inevitable, Luna quickly joined them in soft filly slumber.

“Discord, go home. I don’t have any patience left and you have a changeling to prepare.” Celestia stood proudly on her balcony still trying to get the lord of chaos to leave her alone.

“As you wish dearest.” With a snap Discord was gone leaving Celestia to shake the old thoughts and feelings from her mind. In her eyes he was a monster with no regret for his actions.

Celestia gracefully stepped into her chambers immediately continuing toward the guarded door to her daughter’s bedroom. However just as she reached the door a guard stopped her, “Your highness, you may wish to prepare yourself...” The princess silenced the guard; there was nothing her sister might have done to Crystal that she had not already prepared herself for.

Except of course for the pile of foals she saw as she entered. Unable to hold back her emotions upon seeing Luna she stifled her laughter into a soft giggle that only roused one of the foals. A small unicorn colt that she immediately recognized as one of her sister’s guards.

Fear filled his eyes on seeing the mother of the filly he was sleeping with, but as he opened his mouth to defend himself Celestia again raised a silencing hoof as she spoke so as to not arouse the three fillies still asleep in the pile, “Shush now my little pony. It is quite late, you must be quite tired. I can see your intentions are pure, so please go back to sleep without fear in your heart.”

The guard colt quickly gave a respectful bow as he reset himself and quickly fell back into a peaceful rest pressed firmly against Echo. Celestia however drew upon her magic casting a spell that washed a soft light all over her body.

When the light was gone Celestia found herself much shorter, about the size of an average mare. Her long flowing mane had also shortened and now rested stagnant in a soft hue of pink. The once again teen aged Celestia smiled warmly as she laid herself down with the foals curling her body and wings around them in a show of protectiveness and love. Her heart sang at feeling the heartbeats of so many of her ponies. As the music filled her she began to sing softly. A lullaby for the four foals she was now cuddling with.

“Hush now, quiet now. It’s time to lay your sleepy heads. Hush now, quiet now. It’s time to go to bed. Drifting off to sleep. Exciting day behind you. Drifting off to sleep. Let the joys of dreamland find you. Hush now, quiet now. It’s time to lay your sleepy heads. Hush now, quiet now. It’s time to go to bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Within the dreamscape, Luna stood once again tall and proud as a nearly full grown alicorn, but as with many of the dreams she helped foals with she was not the focal point. Instead the focus was on the warm embrace shared between Crystal and an entirely different alicorn princess.

This princess stood as tall as Celestia with a cobalt blue mane that seemed to flow ethereally like Luna and Celestia’s. Here piercing blue-green dragon-like eyes were a striking contrast to her shining black coat. Tears of joy and regret poured down the alicorn’s cheeks as the filly she held in her embrace spoke, “Please don’t cry Princess Chryseelisee, I love you so much, I don’t want you to be sad.”

Chrysalis only wept harder as she replied, “Oh Crystal, I’m not sad. I love you so much that I wish I could always be with you. Please know that I am so proud of you and I will always be watching over you.” The former changeling queen looked up to see Luna smiling at the heartwarming scene playing out before her. Chrysalis smiled as she softly spoke, directing her words at the princess of the night, “Thank you Luna... thank you for letting me hold her again, even if it is for only this night.”

Author's Note

Yay another part happily published. This release guest stars Princess Luna, Stalwart Bastion, Starfall Echo, and a delicious rack of ribs. The really bad bedtime story was brought to you by the folks at your local library... so be nice to Luna, in my headcanon she is really bad at telling bedtime stories.

Okay Updates for the grand pet for Crystal project, I got a few last time but I would like at least a couple more. So far we have... Bat suggested by DollyisBestPony, Phoenix suggested by Ulrezaj, Monkey suggested by SoulBroney, and Raven suggested by Rootbeer Dew. Voting will commence upon the release of the next part regardless of how many suggestions I receive.

Birthday Cake, Tummy Ache

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Author notes preamble

Please stay tuned after the program for an important message!

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Crystal happily bounced around her new foalsitter as they moved through the vaulted halls of her mother's castle. At first, Maple Seed had been quite overwhelmed by her young charge’s abundance of energy, but soon learned to take everything in stride.

Maple shook her head letting her short cut auburn mane dance in the bright light of the hall, likewise her bright yellow coat reflected the warmth of the rising sun. Her kind hearted smile was easily visible in both her grin and her gentle blue eyes.

Her adoptive mother had warned her about the follies of the young, but it had taken being a witness to Crystal burying herself in bread dough to fully realize how whimsical a foal can be... and how wonderful caring for them could be at the same time. “Come along now Crystal. Your mother gave me orders to have you in the dining hall no later than half past two. You don’t want her to fire me and find you a new foalsitter do you?”

“No! Mommy won’t put you on fire!” Crystal squealed as she stopped right in front of the slightly older Pegasus filly. Her pleading eyes looked up into her foalsitter’s as she continued in a more subdued tone, “Mommy won’t hurt you, I promise.”

Maple’s eyes softened even more as she failed to hold back a joyful giggle. Still the laughter subsided quickly as she reassured her little filly shaped responsibility, “I’m sorry Crystal. I was just teasing you; I know your mother won’t hurt me. Now come along, let’s see why she wants us in the dining hall.”

“Princesses report.” Celestia’s voice easily reached the furthest corners of the dining hall and each of the three other princesses quickly made their way to her. Luna expertly flew down from the ceiling to land beside a recently teleported Twilight. Cadence was last as she remained on the ground and had remained graceful enough to forego galloping. Celestia smiled at her fellow members of royalty and spoke, “Princess Twilight if you would care to go first.”

“Of course Princess Celestia.” The four alicorns shared a warm bit of laughter at their old inside joke before Twilight got down to business, “Pinkie and A.J. have a handle on the food, Fluttershy and Rarity just finished the decorations, and Rainbow and myself are putting the final touches on Luna’s ceiling plans.”

“Very good, and yourself Luna?”

“Thou dost doubt us sister? We might take offence if not for our love for Crystal. The party games are ready and the ceiling is perfect. Thou should be proud of thy excellent student.”

“Very good. Cadence, how are your preparations?”

The princess of love smiled before rendering a salute that made her husband cringe, “The party guests were acquired with minimal loss of life. Though Shiny almost got kicked in the head by a cellist.”

“Yeah, but I think her wife broke a couple of my ribs.”

Cadence giggled warmly as she pressed a hoof against her husband’s side. She was about to tease him further when she was interrupted by Celestia, “Alright that’s enough, Crystal will be here any minute so let’s get everything finished.”

Crystal was humming a happy tune by the time she arrived at the giant doors leading into the royal dining hall. Maple giggled at the sight of her young charge pushing on one of the doors with all her foalish might.

Which to be fair was more than some other foals her age, but still it was not enough to budge the magically sealed doors. With a caring smile Crystal’s foal sitter lifted a hoof and knocked three times grinning when she saw her charge abandon her efforts and look to her sitter with curiosity in her eyes.

Maple replied with a knowing smile as the doors before them were slowly pulled in revealing a space of insurmountable darkness.

With only a gentle push from her foalsitter, Crystal began walking. Fear gripped the small filly, but just as she began to whimper silver lights illuminated the room. An expanse of the night sky had been painstakingly fastened to the ceiling.

Crystal was slack jawed at the display she didn’t notice her mother’s approach until everypony in the room leapt from their hiding places to shout.

“SURPISE!”

The party had quickly come to full swing with the young foals and Pinkie happily playing amongst the older guests.

Laughter and joy nearly filled the room. Only one corner remained solemn, though Celestia’s smile was no less filled with joy.

A young unicorn mare stood beside Celestia with a rather quiet smile as she offered the princess a cup of tea. Almost in spite of her station as a servant her alabaster coat and rust colored mane easily showed the care that went into the mare’s grooming. Her crystal blue eyes looked to her ruler as if expecting a response.

Celestia only smiled as she brought the cup to her lips and after a long sip sighed before rewarding her subject’s patience. “Yes, this is quite good. It honestly reminds me of something, but it has been many years since this unique flavor has passed my lips. If my memory serves me, it was during the griffon war about six hundred years ago.” Celestia paused only a moment as the memory of being poisoned played out in her mind.

The griffon king had foolishly thought that an alicorn princess would not be prepared for such mortal toxins, but it amused her even more that her guest had made the same mistake. “Tell me child, what is your name?”

Celestia’s voice carried every ounce of strength and authority that it had for over a thousand years leaving the servant mare confused that her attack had been so... pointless. Still without a moment’s hesitation she replied confidently, “Starlight Zirconia, your highness. I’m glad you enjoyed the tea.”

Celestia’s laughter was musical, and her voice flowed with conscious sincerity as she spoke, “Well that is a lovely name. Perhaps you will tell me who you really are.” Celestia only needed to wait a moment to see a tiny flash of surprise appear then vanish from Starlight’s face. Though there were more pressing matters than the true identity of the pony beside her. “Later then. Now tell me Ms. Zirconia, is this tea anywhere else in the castle? I could find it myself, but I do not wish to miss my daughter’s birthday. She turned six today, though of course you know that.”

Zirconia almost smiled, it was actually refreshing to see a pony so calm after being poisoned. Even if the poisoning didn’t work. “Nowhere your highness. The earth pony mares wouldn’t let me anywhere near the food and you are the only one who asked for tea. Still it seems I overestimated the strength of this leaf.”

“Don’t feel too bad. It would have worked perfectly on almost any other pony. So I suppose it should go without saying that I am thankful that I was your target.” Celestia replied quickly though she kept most of her senses trained on the goings on of the party.

When she noticed the foals being ushered toward Crystal’s pile of gifts Celestia had to summon every ounce of restraint she had to keep from quivering with excitement. Despite this Zirconia still noticed the slight shift in emotion and smiled wickedly before replying, “I suppose, though any measure of chaos that would allow me to capture your daughter would be enough. Though our queen will not need to resort to such brutish measures if you simply told us what that foal is.”

“Your Queen is dead.” Celestia’s tone turned cold in an instant though her face still held an expression of joy at watching her daughter open a package containing two jars of the Apple family’s famous zap apple jam. “I saw her die myself and that filly is likely her only surviving heir.”

Zirconia’s blood ran cold. This new information swirled in her head for nearly a minute before she turned her gaze back to Crystal.

The young birthday filly was happily playing with the gift she received from Luna, a pair of plush dolls shaped like the two celestial princesses. Zirconia simply remained silent as Celestia addressed her.

“Speechless? I would imagine so, usually tyrants who take advantage of a power vacuum would villainize the heir rather than send her soldiers to foalnap her.”

“N- um, no your majesty... it- oh goddess! If I had known...”

Celestia allowed the silence to mature before interjecting, “What would you have done? Would you have taken her underground to prop her up as the rightful ruler? She would have been torn to pieces by any who would see her line fall.”

The young unicorn trembled as her words failed her. Instead she concentrated on her escape plan. Green magic flared around Zirconia’s horn for only a moment before the teleportation spell triggered, sending her far outside the castle.

“Who was that, Princess? She left in an awful hurry.” Celestia instantly recognized the voice of her newest peer and with a warm smile she replied.

“She was a blessed source of much needed information, though it seems some family emergency has called her away. Now what can I do for you, Princess Twilight?”

“Well, it’s time to cut the cake and I thought you would like a piece.”

“I most certainly would. I’m happy to say I have taught you well in regards to the magic of cake.”

The party had ended.

The cake was no more than crumbs.

The punch, little more than stains on the tops of foalish tongues.

In the center of the grand hall three fillies happily slept with the aid of pillows and blankets provided by the princess of the night.

Piled near them were the gifts the young daughter of Celestia had received from friends and family.

A ticket and backstage pass to see a Wonderbolts show from her Auntie Dashie.

A silver necklace with a bright emerald as a pendant came from her Aunt Rarity.

She had received a pet rock named Flint from her aunts Pinkie and Fluttershy. Though they had taken the expert advice on rocks and rock care from Pinkie’s elder sister.

Two jars of zap apple jam sat next to a box of candy she had been given by her foalsitter, Maple Seed.

A soft scarf from Cadence and Shining Armor sat folded neatly beside a tray of fresh muffins brought by Ponyville’s leading(and only) mail delivery mare and her daughter.

Last was a potted tree. Big Macintosh and Cheerilee had put a lot of effort into cultivating a bonsai zap apple tree that could bear fruit. Their happy first success now belonged to the little filly happily embracing a pair of alicorn dolls and dreaming of her future.

A telescope from Twilight and Spike sat far removed from the other gifts, it pointed purposefully at a bright green star happily blinking down toward Crystal. The star only felt joy at the love that little filly was receiving simply from being alive.

Celestia also looked down on her daughter, but hers was a look of concern. What were the changelings planning? Who was Starlight Zirconia? Why had she been so distraught upon learning Crystals parentage?

“Oh silly Sunbutt, if I told you, it would spoil the ending.”

“Discord, you know I have little patience for your games. Just promise me that she will be safe.”

Discord shook his head with a smile. He slowly shrugged as he spoke, “You know I can’t promise that. Chaos means things are always changing. If that changeling you spoke with keeps her mouth shut then the hive won’t notice her until she comes of age.”

“And what will you do, you cut rate chimera?” Celestia asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Only what I should have done over a thousand years ago.”

Celestia let out a heavy sigh of relief before leaning her head against Discords chest. “Thank you.”

Author's Note

Author’s notes

The End... sort of

Finally! It is complete!

Okay this is actually some exciting territory today. One, the major plot for this story is done. That’s right, “To be her Mother” really is complete kind of. Now don’t get all y’all’s panties in a bunch. I still have two holiday specials and a couple origin stories planned for this one. One of those will help explore Crystal and Maple's relationship further. Because that was not a focus of this chapter and I know people want to see them together. I will leave it set as Incomplete though until I finish those parts

Also this means that the next part is next... obviously. I don’t have an ETA yet, but I do have a title. “Mother Knows Best” will comprise stories of Crystal Dream’s youth as she nears the age of receiving her cutiemark and discovering her destiny.

A new story means a couple things, one I have to make or receive new cover art. So that will be fun. Also it means I might lose readers. I hope I don’t and I will do my best to keep you all by repeatedly telling everyone that the next story exists.

Okay now the fun part. We have a poll. Right HERE! Also I will put it in my blogs until the poll is closed.

This poll will decide Crystal’s future pet. Each voter will pick two choices from a bunch of wonderful suggestions. You will have two chances to vote, you can vote for two different pets or the same pet twice. So have fun.

Thanks for voting! I will release a list of the suggestions and the folks who suggested them in a blog later.

I’ll see you at the next chapter.

A Mother in Stereo

Author's Note

Okay for this chapter we have a drastic change in cast. Now appearing for one chapter only: Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Melody. We will remain in the slightly comedic slice-of-life genre so no worries. Though we will be showing a little more romance

Also I’ve made a terrible stnank... yeah I wouldn’t call it a full blown mistake, but you know... Anyway, I realized that I still have a bit more to tell in this story before I get to the next part. I don’t want to trip over retcons and other such oddities so I will complete two more pieces here before I move on.

Also don't forget to VOTE on Crystal's pet, if you haven't already.

So I suppose, without any further ado, please enjoy, “A Mother in Stereo”

A Mother in Stereo

Vinyl Scratch was very serious about her work. If it was work in the recording studio, work in the club, or work in the bedroom, she was always serious. However when her wife laughed at her every time they finished and were ready to fall asleep in each other’s hooves it was hard to stay relaxed.

“Come on Tavi! What are ya laughin at this time? I was totally awesome tonight.”

Octavia Philharmonica Melody Scratch was also very serious. However her seriousness filled every aspect of her life. From work at the concert halls to play with Vinyl, she always carried herself with the utmost seriousness, but when her partner in the throes of passion would cry out, ‘Ah yeah Tavi! Drop the bass!’ The classically trained cellist couldn’t help but mock her wife.

“Come now Vinyl, surely you can’t expect me to take you seriously when you use that kind of pillow talk.”

“Yer damn right sweet cheeks. And what about you, always askin me ta play ya like a violin. I mean honestly, can you imagine the therapy we’d need ta invest in if our kid heard that?”

“Well we certainly aren’t going to be doing this in front of her, are we? Only a pervert like you would even think about doing this where our... chi-” Octavia paused and stared blankly at the mare she loved. Her heart always moved at a breakneck pace whenever Vinyl mentioned foals, especially foals of their own. “Vinyl, you know we can’t have foals. We don’t have the money or the time. Celestia’s beard, I have enough trouble taking care of you.”

Vinyl glared at the insinuation that she couldn’t take care of herself. She was about to defend her pride when she realized the real reason behind Octavia’s apprehension at having a foal of their own. “Tavi, you would make an awesome mom. Buck it all I should be the one worried about leaving the kid unsupervised with the bass cannon or stuff like that.”

Octavia’s eyes softened as she realized that her fears were the same as Vinyl’s. “Vinyl, I’ve seen the signs at your club encouraging your customers to bring ear protection and I’ve seen you refuse to perform for any underage ponies because their ears aren’t fully developed and they could be permanently damaged. Vinyl, you actively care more about your listeners’ than anyone I know in the orchestra.” With a calm smile the young cellist brushed her wife’s cheek with a gentle stroke of her hoof. “Are you sure you want to try? I mean there is no guaranty and, well... I don’t want you to be hurt—“

In a flash, Vinyl leapt wrapping her forehooves around her lover’s neck. “Oh Tavi, you’re the best! I promise you won’t regret this! Now get ready, tonight I’m gonna make this the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Octavia scoffed at the idea of Vinyl’s constant efforts to outdo herself. Still she lovingly offered her expertise. “You mean your magnum opus?”

“My magma what now?”

Octavia sat quietly in a sterile room with her wife. The white unicorn however could not stay still to save herself.

“Vinyl, please cease your incessant fidgeting. I swear you’ll wear a hole through the floor at this rate.”

Vinyl twitched once more before turning her gaze to the one mare who could calm her spirits. “Sorry, it’s just... what’re we supposed to do? What if the doc laughs at us or calls us perverted deviants?”

Octavia smiled warmly at her wife’s concerns. Then reaching out and gently patting the unicorn’s mane she replied, “Vinyl, I assure you that the Doctor is—”

“Standing right behind you.” Sure enough a middle aged mare wearing a lab coat stood wearing a smirk behind Vinyl. Her calm golden eyes radiated kindness and experience. She seemed to have a familiarity with handling nervous patients as she continued, “Please relax, while this is a rather new procedure, I promise that it is entirely safe. Rather than the old method which could cause permanent disfigurement or unforeseen mutations.”

Talk of mutation was certainly not going to calm most stressed patients, but in this case it actually helped. While Octavia remained calm Vinyl nearly jumped. “Mutations like what? Could me and Tavi have an alicorn?”

Octavia rolled her eyes before putting a stop to her lover’s mad ranting. “Octavia and I, also no, the doctor cannot help us bear a princess. She is referring to undeveloped organs and limbs. Fortunately the new procedure has greatly reduced the risk.”

Vinyl was quieted when she realized that Octavia had actually done research on what they were trying to accomplish. She lowered her head and softly asked, “So Doc, what are ya gonna do? Ah, um, I mean how is this gonna go down?”

The calming smile on the doctor’s face never flinched for a moment. It was her job to help ponies and these two obviously needed her help. “Well you see Miss Scratch-”

“Mrs. Scratch.”

“Ah yes, of cour-”

“And Vinyl is fine... I mean you are gonna be... well you know...”

“Certainly. Now as I was saying, I and a small team of nurses will be facilitating the conception by magically removing an egg cell from one of you. I will then modify the egg at a cellular level so it will be able to combine itself with an egg in the other’s uterus. The two eggs will become a single cell then begin dividing normally. Now tell me, which of you will be carrying the foal?”

Vinyl laughed at the doctor’s question, thinking that obviously this medical professional had no idea how parenting worked. “Duh, both of us. Even if Tavi isn’t gonna let me help that much, I’m not gonna make her do all the work.”

Octavia began rubbing her forehead and before the doctor could explain to the oblivious D.J. she gave the now obvious answer, “Me, I read that earth ponies are better suited mothers with this kind of procedure and obviously my partner is not up to the task. I swear in eight months she would be confused about why she was suddenly fat.”

Vinyl stared at her wife’s stomach. I had been eight months since they had taken part in a procedure that would make them mothers and the stress was giving Octavia thoughts on throwing Vinyl of a tall building.

However it was in those moments that Vinyl managed to absentmindedly extend her life with a few words. “Hey Tavi, you’ve changed something... did you get a new mane cut?”

“No Vinyl. Why do you think something has changed about me?”

“Well, you’re prettier. Not like suddenly your body got hotter. I mean your legs are the best. All other legs dream of being half as hot as yours. I just mean, well I don’t know. You just get more beautiful every time I see you.” Octavia’s anger melted away at her wife’s distracted compliment. She was about to reply in thanks when Vinyl continued, “I think having a kid of our own’s got something to do with it. I think this is the... um Tavi, what’s that word for like the best thing we’ve ever done?”

“You mean our magnum opus?”

“Our magma what now?”

“Vinyl, do you know what I regret?” Octavia glared daggers at her just out of reach wife between labored breathing and cries of pain.

Vinyl foolishly chose that moment to don a playful smirk as she replied, “You mean aside from how silly your mane looks right now?”

Four more death glares were immediately pointed at the DJ. Two belonged to the doctor and her nurse, while the other two belonged to the unborn foal’s godparents

“Now Bonnie, would you kindly— AIGH!” Octavia screeched as another contraction hit her. The painful spasms were coming faster and only increased the anger directed at her wife. Still she had enough peace of mind to take a deep breath before continuing, “As we discussed, please.”

Vinyl shivered when she felt Bonbon’s hooves pushing her forward. When the cream colored mare noticed the confusion in Vinyl’s eyes she smiled guiltily as she explained, “Sorry Vi, but Octavia promised that I could be your daughter’s godmother.”

Those words struck home and Vinyl fought back. She had nothing against Bonbon being her kid’s godmother, but she knew that only terrible pain was waiting for her if she got too close to the love of her life.

Bonbon looked quickly to her own romantic partner and smiled warmly as she spoke, “Oh Lyra sweetie, would you be a dear and help me?”

“Well I’ll help, but can I just be a unicorn instead? Being a deer is hard work and it’ll take too long.” Bonbon held back a laugh as she nodded to her incredibly eccentric lover.

In an instant Lyra was helping to push Vinyl to her doom. Vinyl cursed herself for leaving her glasses at home thinking to herself that DJ Pon3 would know what to do. Instead she pouted at Lyra and whispered softly, “Et tu, Lyra?”

“Yep! Bonnie said I could be Foxtrot’s godfather, also I get to name her Foxtrot!” Lyra was more than excited as she quoted back her list of prizes only to have Bonbon herself roll her eyes before correcting the silly mare.

“Lyra! I told you that you would be her godmother, but you most certainly do not get to name Octavia’s daughter.”

Almost the moment Bonbon finished, Vinyl squeaked as she felt her wife’s strong foreleg wrap around her own. Wearing an apologetic smile she began her most desperate attempt at sweet talk she had made since she had proposed, “Hey there beautiful. What’s up?”

Octavia’s anger reached a new level, previously unseen by all but the doctor and nurses who often saw it with other mothers in labor. Pain streaked across Vinyl’s face as the powerful earth pony she loved began twisting her defenseless limb. She was about to beg for release when she saw the pain and despair in Octavia’s eyes.

Tears began streaming as the cellist spoke, “Vinyl, it hurts so much. Why would you let the doctor do this? Why is the filly inside me? I thought you loved me enough to not let me hurt. Viny— AHH!” The sudden contraction left Octavia gasping for air giving Vinyl enough time to embrace her and begin speaking.

“Well Tavi, there was this super smart pony. She was kind of cute, but she was nowhere near as pretty as you. And she told me that our daughter would be so much happier inside you, because you’re quieter, and you have a better job that lets you have maternity leave without firing you, and yer stronger than me, and... Oh Tavi, I believe in you. I know you can do this, just breath like the doctor told you and I promise you’ll be fine.”

Hours passed slowly and Vinyl never left Octavia’s side. She went mad with worry when her wife was suddenly silent but suddenly stopped when the sound of a tiny foal crying for her mother echoed through the otherwise silent room.

As she looked up, Vinyl saw the nurse holding a tiny grey unicorn with a blue mane toward her with a smile and a kind hearted, “Congratulations it’s a healthy filly.”

Instead of igniting her horn Vinyl raised her forehooves and gently lifted her daughter from the nurse’s grasp. The tiny unicorn filly’s light grey coat and blue mane still needed to be thoroughly cleaned nut Vinyl didn’t care. In her opinion the foal was, “Perfect... hey Tavi. What’s that word for the best thing—” Alarms suddenly rang out in the small room. High pitched beeps went out of control along with Octavia’s breathing and heartrate.

Vinyl and her newly born daughter were moved quickly to the side as the doctor and her nurse began their work. The new mother watched the medical professionals work like a perfectly balanced machine.

It seemed like an eternity when again everything went silent. The doctor looked up with repentance in her eyes as she spoke softly, “I’m sorry—”

“No!” Vinyl interrupted quickly as she moved as quickly as she could while carrying her foal. Tears were already streaming when she reached her true love and began to plead, “Please Tavi, you can’t be gone. You need to teach our filly how to play some boring stringy instrument and, and you have to yell at me when I give her too many cookies... Tav- Octavia, you have to tell me that word that means the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Octavia blinked slowly as she stared at her distraught wife. She tilted her head in confusion as she replied, “Do you mean magnum opus? It often refers to the most important work of an artist.” Vinyl was struck silent as Octavia calmly spoke on the subject of her distraught wife, “Vinyl, why are you staring at me like I’m some kind of ghost?”

“Th-th-the doctor said—”

“No, Miss Scratch, I was merely going to apologize for the scare. This old equipment malfunctions from time to time. I assure you, your wife is in perfect health for having just given birth. She just needs a good night’s rest and we can send the three of you home in a couple days.”

Vinyl’s face almost glowed bright red at her assumption. When she saw Octavia open her mouth she shrank away expecting a reprimand, but was surprised to hear, “I love you Vinyl; now get over here so I can kiss you.”

Vinyls grinned playfully all the stress was forgotten and with a solid measure of sass she replied as she moved forward, “Come on Tavi, you don’t need to trick me so you can get a better look at our Magnum Opus.”

Octavia chuckled warmly before giving her wife a quick peck on the lips and her daughter the same on her tiny forehead. Then looking into Vinyl’s eyes she smiled as she said, “Our Magma what now?”

What a Fright

Celestia stood quietly, entirely alone aside from her young visitor. It was the changeling she had spoken to during Crystal’s birthday and it was approaching far too slowly for Celestia’s liking. “Please Miss Zirconia, in spite of what many think, I do have plans for this evening.”

While she was shocked by Celestia’s sudden address, Zero remained in shadow for a moment to collect her thoughts. It had been months since she had last spoken to the Equestrian princess and she learned far less than she would have liked, but hopefully it would be enough. “I’m sorry for my abrupt departure on our last meeting your majesty. I know now what I must do. Rest assured the nature of your daughter remains my closest guarded secret.” Zero turned aside for a moment before bowing to Celestia and offering a solemn vow, “I would sooner die than allow any changeling to harm your foal, but know that there is sure to be a time when her body’s magic cannot be hidden.”

Celestia tilted her head slightly then turned to the hall where she could hear the pitter-patter of tiny hooves. “Mommy Mommy Mommy! I’m Aunty Twilight!” A small lavender blur almost flew out of the changing room with a white unicorn calling out behind her.

“Now settle down darling, you don’t want to ruin your makeup before the night has even started do you?” In spite of her warning, Rarity couldn’t help but smile at her work.

Celestia however was not as amused as too much makeup could have damaging effects on the skin and coat., “Makeup? Miss Rarity, are you saying that you painted my daughter?”

With a smile and a sweeping bow Rarity quickly replied to save herself from her princess’s ire, “Of course not your majesty. The mane and coat colors are a simple glamour. The only makeup is the cutie mark.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Celestia relaxed and finally got a good look at her dressed up daughter. The Pegasus filly had become light purple with a familiar three toned mane. Atop Crystal’s head was a costume horn and a recreation of the element of magic tiara. “I wonder what Twilight will think.” Celestia said with a smile.

“Truly dearest sister she will be more surprised to see me!” The booming voice almost seemed too small, but when an Alicorn filly appeared Celestia knew her beloved Luna had once again transformed into Nightmare Moon, though an adorably miniaturized version this time.

Celestia was ready to dote upon her Sister and daughter when she saw out of the corner of her eye the changeling shuddering.

Zirconia’s instincts burned for her to feed. The room was filled with a love she was barely familiar with. Changelings had quickly grown past the laws laid down by Chrysalis, but Zirconia still refused to enact long term imitations of close family. It was strong and filling, but her queen once told her that the greatest and most evil act was to tear a child and mother apart.

Chrysalis herself taught her of love, she would often say, ‘Zirconia, there are many types of love on which we gain power. Young love is tender and sweet. Old love is wizened and complex like aged wine. But a mother’s love, a mother’s love can tear the very concept of cosmic balance into shreds. There is nothing more dangerous to our way of life than a mother’s love.’

“Oh how right you were, my queen.”

At the hushed tone of Zirconia’s voice Celestia looked up from watching her daughter and sister playing. With a kindness not often given to a changeling she spoke soothingly, “I’m sorry little one, what was that?”

With a start the disguised changeling focused her attention on the regal mare before her and stumbled through her hasty reply, “Oh um, I’m sorry your highness. I was, um... thinking out loud, about food... um, for me... to eat... tonight, um, for food...” In an attempt to seem less awkward Zirconia put on a wide grin that only cemented her unsure claims.

Still, Celestia’s smile only brightened as she made an offer that anypony would be seen as mad to refuse. “I will be having dinner soon, I would be delighted if you joined me.”

Zirconia however was not a pony and she knew that any changeling would be considered mad to accept a meal from a pony princess who knew her identity. “I’m sorry, you see, well I um—“

“Delightful! We can go to my chambers once I send my sister and daughter on their way.” Celestia’s expression only showed joy and that joy hid only more joy at finally getting a chance for some answers about the changelings. She turned to Crystal and Luna with feigned sobriety then and began her warnings. “Alright fillies, I’m sure you know that you need to behave for Aunt Twilight. Oh yes and make sure to save some cupcakes for me, I won’t be terribly late to the party.”

“Yes Mommy!”

“Aye aye, Tia.” The two foals happily replied before running toward Rarity who would be traveling with them back to Ponyville.

The moment Celestia was once again alone with Zirconia the alicorn spoke again, “Well it might be a little while before I get to eat, but there is no reason why you shouldn’t have something.” The changeling was about to remind the pony of a changeling’s diet when purest affection and love seemed to flood from Celestia’s every pore.

“How? How are you...?”To hell with answers. Zirconia gave up and simply allowed herself to grow fat on the offered meal.

“It is no mystery, Zirconia. I have great love for every one of my little ponies. It would be shameful if I were to make an exclusion of you.” Zirconia ignored that comment as she fed, but was pulled from her feast by Celestia’s playfully tilting head and a return to the original subject. “Now you were saying about my Crystal’s magic betraying her to those who would bring her harm?”

Zirconia considered avoiding eye contact, but decided that full honesty would be for the best. "Perhaps it is not my place, but surely you never thought that Chrysalis’s guise would last forever. A changeling’s coming of age is indicated by a great release of magic, not unlike a young pony receiving their cutie mark.”

Celestia immediately raised a hoof to stop her guest, she had so many questions already and she knew this was only the beginning. “A guise?”

“Yes, of course, you did not think that the offspring of a changeling would be so... pony-like, did you? I don’t know what she looks like under the guise, but well I think the eyes will stay the same... eyes are hard. Anyway I am almost certain when she comes of age all the protective spells Chrysalis cast will burn away and the hive’s current queen will begin her hunt.”

Still showing no emotion aside from the love she was sharing as she asked, “You mean to tell me that another queen will attempt to attack Canterlot?”

“Despite being a fool she did learn from our mother. She will send swarms against all of Eques—”

“Mother?” Celestia interrupted almost the moment Zirconia mentioned the word. The meal she was providing the changeling faltered as she realized how little she knew of her guest.

“Yes, Queen Chrysalis. I’m sure you remember her.”

Meanwhile a sudden flash of alicorn magic delivered three ponies to Twilight Sparkle’s front door. Rarity stumbled slightly as she recovered from the abrupt change in location.

“Thank you darling, but perhaps a little warning would not have been amiss.”

Luna in her tiny form wore a joyful grin as she giggled along with Crystal at the taller unicorn’s lack of equilibrium. “We beg to differ, dear Rarity. This night is for playful scares and harmless tricks—“

“And candy for Aunty Luna!” Crystal joyfully added before allowing Luna to continue.

“Yes of course, so do not fret you will be fine momentarily. Now if I recall you were going to get your costume.”

Rarity finally shook the confusion between spaces from her head as she was reminded of her own outfit for the night. “Yes, thank you Princess. Will you two be alright?”

Luna nodded with confidence as she pointed out Crystal tapping on the door to Twilight’s home. Returning that confidence with a warm smile, Rarity was off and running for her boutique. A small dragon wearing a top hat only caught the end of her tail as he opened the door.

Looking down Spike saw the two fillies begin the holiday’s childish chant, “Nightmare Night, What a Fright, Give us Something Sweet to Bite!” Still Crystal went one step beyond as she remembered her mother’s lessons on manners. “Please.”

“Oh hey Crystal... Princess Luna? Come on in, Twilight should be ready in a moment.”

Celestia held Zirconia in an inescapable embrace. The love felt by the changeling was no longer that of a kindly offered meal, but was instead a love that Celestia had for her as an individual. Only one creature other than Celestia herself would understand the reason and Discord was not in the mood to incur Celestia’s wrath so he wouldn’t be talking.

Zirconia struggled against the far greater alicorn strength but as she felt Celestia’s sobbing begin she began pleading, “Please Princess, what is this? What have I done?”

The second question was what brought the princess back into herself. She released the star struck changeling and with a slight glow of her horn banished the tears that stained her face. “My apologies little one. You see in spite of everything, I cared deeply for your mother as deeply as I now care for your sister. I thought that any ruler taking her place would have stamped out her bloodline.”

Zirconia turned her head to avoid eye contact as she solemnly replied, “She did. I am the last pure blooded descendant of the true queen, I have killed, and lied and hidden to protect myself, but now I know I must raise my sister to take the throne.”

“No.” Celestia’s love was immediately cut off to help make her point. “My daughter will not be endangered so she can be a puppet ruler.”

“I would never—“

“Never what? Never use another living thing for your own gain?” Celestia felt fevered as her own body temperature rose, heating the air around her. “Never steal a youth from a loving family.” Celestia’s eyes flared as her mane and tail ignited. Rage burned in her voice as the stone floor cracked under the heat and pressure. “Never curse an innocent dooming her to thousands of years of hatred and fear! All because you were afraid?! Because you couldn’t commit to anything in your worthless existence?”

Zirconia suddenly felt cooler as if she was protected from the goddess’s flames. Celestia, flames and all, seemed frozen in time. Her confusion was quickly answered as a voice echoed into the now silent room, “Oh dear, it seems my little Celestia blew a fuse. Don’t be scared, she’d only try to kill you if you were me. How about you and I have a chat.”

“Nightmare Night, what a Fright, give me something sweet to bite!” Luna and Crystal cheerfully exclaimed as a smiling Mrs. Cake opened the door to Sugarcube Corner.

While the elder Cakes rarely wore costumes for Nightmare Night they always celebrated at least half as joyfully as Pinkie Pie. Which might not sound like much to someone who didn’t know Pinkie. Ponies who did, of course knew that Pinkie loved any excuse for a party with free candy more than seven and a half hexaplegic Pegasi having all their limbs restored and getting to fly through chocolate rainbows into clouds made of marshmallow.

Unless a Pegasus doesn’t like chocolate, “But I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate? Maybe if they were allergic to chocolate, but that would be sad. So let’s just throw out that silly metaphor and say that I love Hearthswarming more than Dashie liked becoming an elite Wonderbolt Regular. But I suppose she can only do that once and I can celebrate every year. That’s not to say I don’t have something to celebrate every day. I mean just last night...” Pausing for only a moment when she saw the filly sized Luna dressed as Nightmare Moon Pinkie’s pupils shrunk into mere pinpricks before she screamed, “Agh, Nightmare Moon!” and dashed for the horizon as if Tartarus itself were at her heels.

Crystal giggled as always when her silly auntie Pinkie was about and this time Luna joined as well. Mrs. Cake however only shook her head while muttering under her breath, “She was supposed to take the twins too.”

“I did! We’re dressed as Cerberus, see?” Pinkie once again appeared before her employer this time with the Cake twins secured to her shoulders depicting the other two heads of Pinkie’s three headed dog costume. She then turned to Crystal and Luna’s chaperone and continued, “Hey there Twiberry, I thought you were going to be hanging out with your special somepony tonight.”

Twilight’s cheeks blushed only a little at the mention of her marefriend before replying, “Actually we planned on meeting up at her place on the way to Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Really? I thought she would have moved in with you by now.”

“Yeah, well you know how she can be. She feels like it would be giving up her freedom.”

While Luna was curious to hear more she soon found the same draw as her little niece toward the candy being offered by Mrs. Cake

Zirconia couldn’t help but tremble in the presence of yet another mad deity, though this one was the definition of a mad god.

“So you see, that is why I chose the actions I did. Of course knowing then what I do now would still not change my choices. Your little sister is likely the only personal reason as she is the very center of a certain sun pony’s good mood. Trust me when I say I prefer to see Sunbutt in a good mood than the alternative you see burning herself out.” Discord monologued telling every bit of his history with Celestia. The ups, the downs, the side to sides... the very big down at the end.

The unicorn dressed changeling merely stared. Discord was quite responsible for the existence of her kind and he only seemed apologetic that he had not been able to protect the changelings from their own hunger. Zirconia couldn’t fault him for that. Being trapped in stone for over a thousand years made it difficult to feed one’s pets. Even the most tame of monsters are likely to grow feral when abandoned. “So instead of caring for her like you should have, you made her little more than a pet. Was that it? Was my mother’s hive nothing more than a life sized ant farm?”

“The hive should not have happened.” Discord stated softly. “I was nearly ready to fix everything when I found myself turned into a statue. I’m only glad things turned out better than slow death by starvation in the wastes.”

Zirconia was about to return to berating Discord when she heard a much calmer princess, muffled by the shield that had been protecting her from Celestia’s rage. “Thank you Discord I am ready to continue.”

“Release us!” Luna’s cries went unheeded as her yellow marefriend tightened her embrace.

“No.” said Fluttershy plainly as Luna’s ineffectual struggles continued.

“We are the night!”

“Wow Fluttershy, I didn’t think you would be coming with us tonight. What changed your mind?” Twilight asked while watching Crystal play with bunnies and ignoring Luna at the same time.

“Thou will suffer for thine transgressions!”

Fluttershy smiled warmly, quickly correcting her friend, “Oh I still plan on staying home all night with my cutsy wootsy little marefriend. Luna promised that this year she was going to stay here with me and now it will be even better. We can have a nice late night tea and lullabies and a bedtime story—”

“Thine only story shall be that of our swift defeat of the yellow one!”

“Oh but she is a bit dirty, I think we should start with a bath.” At those words Luna stopped all movement and let gravity take her limbs as she looked up into Fluttershy’s eyes like a sad puppy.

“With the blackberry soap and bubbles?”

Twilight shook her head, sometimes she wondered how old Princess Luna really was.

“Only if my little cutie behaves.” said Fluttershy while nuzzling her filly sized sweetheart.

Twilight let herself smile, wondering what it it would really be like to have a filly of her own to care for. She watched Fluttershy carry her inside the small cottage. “Come along Crystal we need to find your Aunty Dash.”

Twilight’s tiny doppelganger perked her head at the mention of her name. She only turned back to the rabbits to whisper, “Bye bye bunnies.” then ran quickly to Twilight’s side.

“I see, then Discord shall be placed in the corner for misbehaving.” Discord was trapped in a field of golden light that kept him from interrupting while Zirconia relayed his claims to Celestia. The field was then pointed directly into the nearest corner for Discord’s punishment.

The princess and changeling had long since returned to their tea that had been saved from Celestia’s wrath only due to the alicorn’s forethought to make the tea set as close to indestructible as her magic would allow.

This meant that it would take a concentrated effort from an alicorn, a draconequus, changeling queen, or a yak that was displeased by the tea not meeting the Yak-Yakistan-dards of a discerning Yak prince.

“Is that really all you’re going to do to him Princess?” Starlight asked softly still concerned for her own safety.

Celestia smiled hoping to lessen her guest’s fears. “He has already paid for his crimes against your mother, this is just a little time out because I was hoping to give the big reveal.” Celestia sighed before asking, “Now do you have anything to ask of me little one?”

Zirconia stared at her hooves. She waited in silence as her mind was flooded with everything she could possibly ask the Princess. Of course the first had to be, “Is it really all true? Did Discord, and you... and... Mother...”

As the changeling trailed off Celestia replied with nought but a warm smile and a somber nod of affirmation.

“Come on Dashie, just wear your old Shadowbolt costume or the Mare Do Well outfit I know you secretly borrowed from Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes before glaring at Twilight.

“No way Twi! You promised.”

Crystal however was ignoring the adults so she could instead investigate the sleeping tortoise in the room. “Good night Tank.” she whispered while watching him snore. He wasn’t as much fun to play with as bunnies, but he was really nice in his own way.

“Alright there, the spell is done. Are you happy?” Twilight growled at Rainbow.

Dash however was unimpressed, she looked over her body for whatever transformation Twilight had given her and found nothing changed. “You said you would make me into the coolest most awesome creature you could think of.”

Twilight giggled at her own little prank before replying, “But Rainbow, what could possibly be cooler and more awesome than Rainbow Dash?”

Dash smirked a little. It wasn’t that funny, but if the cutest egghead she knew thought it was, then that made all the difference. “Twilight, you are such a huge dork.” Rainbow then looked to her marefriend’s eyes with loving adoration.

“Come on Dash, you know you love it.” Replied Twilight with a smirk as she let her lips drift toward Rainbow’s. Neither was paying any attention to Crystal until the mini Twilight began whispering.

“Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss...” and so on until an embarrassed pair of mares heard and pulled back with Dash almost shouting.

“Yeah, so how about we go out and get some more candy!”

Twilight’s reply in the affirmative was quick and conscice as she lifted the tiny copy of herself and began dragging Rainbow along with them, “Yes! Let’s!”

“Wait, Mother is a star?” Zirconia couldn’t help but laugh Her questions for Celestia had gone through everything the princess knew from the birth of Chrysalis to the queen’s death. She laughed when Celestia admitted to not being able to bring her full strength against the invader and cried when she realized how little Chrysalis had ever thought of her own children.

“I wanted her to watch her child grow. The star part only seemed fitting and since Luna’s return she has let me play a little with her night as long as she gets to show our ponies an eclipse every so often.” Celestia’s reply was vague, but Zirconia had come to realize that the princess must have her reasons for keeping the finer details to herself.

“And you... you are the death of all things?”

Celestia always hated that part of her life. She took a long sip of tea to form he response, but nothing seemed right, except the truth. “No. All things would still pass from this world even if I did nothing. I am merely a guide for lost souls.”

Nodding Zirconia pressed further, “So mother was one of these lost souls?”

“No, she had a very determinate destination. She merely invited me so she could ask that I care for Crystal. I was just happy to find that her will was strong enough to persist.”

Zirconia was about to ask more when the pair was interrupted by the sudden pounding against the doors of Celestia’s chambers. Green flame flared to return Zirconia’s disguise before Celestia calmly spoke, “You may enter.”

Without skipping a beat a pegasus guard pushed open the door and gave his very short report, “Highness, Ponyville is under attack.” He then pointed out the window at the fire now spreading through Ponyville.

Eyes narrowed and Celestia replied, “I will go at once, prepare the fifth and seventh platoons for immediate departure. Then find a second to ready the royal chariot so you can transport my guest to Ponyville as well.” In a burst of golden light Celestia teleported herself outside of her window and used all her strength to fly toward her daughter.

Twilight, Rainbow, and Crystal were in merry spirits as they approached Sugar Cube Corner once again. Pinkie had invited them as well as her other friends to a post candy gathering Nightmare Night party and Twilight was not one to deny such an invitation.

All seemed right until the screaming erupted. Twilight immediately searched for danger and found it just as quickly. A great fox, with bright red fur that almost seemed to be made of flames was wrestling an ursa major.

“Firefox? I personally prefer Chrome.” Pinkie Pie calmly commented.

Twilight turned and nearly yelled, “Pinkie this isn’t the time for your antics!”

“But it’s never the time for my antics, that’s how comic relief works. It keeps things from getting too boring or intense for the audience. Though I suppose I just interrupted the start of the climactic fight scene more than anything... usually my timing is better than this. I’d blame the wri—”

“Pinkie! We need to get out of here.” Twilight’s cry was nearly drowned out as the fox crashed into the ursa. Twilight then focused all her attention on saving the citizens of Ponyville. She was only thankful that most ponies were out or at least awake on Nightmare Night. It would be easier to evacuate if they knew of the danger already. Dash, you and Pinkie need to get everyone away from town. I’ll take Crystal to Fluttershy and get Luna’s help managing damage to the town.”

“You got it boss.” replied Rainbow as she flew into action with Pinkie following quickly behind without a word. Twilight’s horn began to glow and in a burst of magic transported herself and Crystal to Fluttershy’s cottage.

Outside the small building Luna stood at her full height as if itching to get moving and save the burning town. “Fluttershy said she thought you would come. Please hurry, I do not wish to leave her here alone.”

The aforementioned yellow Pegasus flitted quickly down from the second floor window toward Luna. With little more than a tender nuzzle Fluttershy quickly moved to take Crystal up in her hooves. “Now you two better stay safe.”

“Of course my little butterfly.” Luna replied with confidence before flinging herself into the sky.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, I’ll keep her safe.” said Twilight as Luna and herself vanished in a flash of magic.

The moment they had gone Fluttershy tried to make her way someplace where she could keep Crystal safe. She was barely off when she heard chuckling coming from the woods. “I knew killing that baby bear would cause just the distraction I needed.”

It was a female voice, like the changeling queen Fluttershy had seen at the wedding so many years ago. Fluttershy knew that Chrysalis was only trying to feed her family and had forgiven her long ago, but this one, this one seemed, wrong.

“Now little pony why don’t you hand over that little prize and I’ll let you be my meal instead of simply killing you.”

Fluttershy gripped her charge tightly as she slowly moved away. “No.” She might not understand politics between species or whatever complicated plans the changeling might have for Crystal, but she did understand the part where she killed an ursa minor. With a deep breath Fluttershy brought herself up to glare the moment the changeling made her face visible.

“Don’t try that with me, little pony. We changelings invented that little stare of yours, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if you weren’t a descendant of my sister Menelaus. She always had a soft spot for your kind. Then she mated with a Pegasus, and died giving birth. Not really complications or anything, I just killed her while she was giving birth. Obviously the larva survived. Now give me that snack or I’ll see to it that you beg me for the sweetest release of death.”

Fluttershy had never been more afraid in her life, but one thing kept her from crying and that was the foal she promised to protect. Green fire gripped around her neck slowly stopping her breathing until an immense fox crashed between herself and the changeling.

The choking stopped but that is when tears began to well in her eyes. The fox was wounded beyond help and it was all this monster’s fault. The fox was thrown away like trash by the changeling and the timid yellow pegasus gained a level of anger beyond anything her friends would have imagined. “You!” Fluttershy’s voice gained new volumes as she glared. “How dare you?! You think you can just do whatever you want because you’re stronger?! Well you just better stay back or—”

Fluttershy was cut short as more green magic lifted Crystal and threw Fluttershy against a tree. “Well now that you’ve shut up I can see just why this little morsel is so worth protecting.” The changeling queen was completely oblivious of a certain green star and its flares of rage. She was not however unaware of another changeling standing before her.

Zirconia’s magic flared and her eyes burned with rage as she cast aside her disguises and showed her true form. Then with all the stature of a changeling queen she glared at the monster so recklessly handling Crystal. “Put her down Jequirity, I won’t ask twice..”

Twilight’s horn blazed beyond anything she had ever tried before. Her shield was not one but a dozen separate spells latticed together to create an impenetrable barrier to hold the ursa still. At the least it seemed to take more effort than cutting butter for the giant bear to crash through. So again and again Twilight remade the shield, buying time for Luna to evacuate the populace.

“Twilight Sparkle!” The familiar voice of Twilight’s teacher echoed as a new shield wrapped around the ursa. The new barrier was far more complex, seeming to be a rich network of a hundred spells. It’s strength was far greater than Twilight’s attempt, but it would not last forever against an ursa major’s rage. “Has my faithful student been neglecting her studies in exchange for more alone time with a blue pegasus?”

Twilight’s face bloomed as she sputtered, “Bu- um, n-n-n-no! It’s just that I never heard of a spell like that before.”

Celestia smiled as she reinforced her shield buying another few minutes, but it was obviously wearing on the older alicorn. “You need to stop listening to what old spell casters tell you is impossible, Twilight. Your title may be Princess if Friendship, but you need to realize that friendship is magic in more ways than one. You have become powerful because of your friends. You might even say that your friends are your greatest power..”

“But Princess, my friends are all over and—”

“Twilight, have you tried bucking apple trees since you ascended? I could possibly earn a connection to the trees and the Apple family’s land over time, but you don’t need to connect with the trees because you have a connection with Applejack.” Celestia faltered, her magic was powerful when moving the sun or using powers associated with it, but in the dark of night she could do nothing that wouldn’t kill the poor enraged creature before her, she only hoped Twilight would figure out what to do before that last resort was required.

Twilight thought about Celestia’s words and considering Applejack she found her strength returning. Then she thought of the three friends whose greatest gifts would be needed. “Maybe if I had a Pinkie sense—” a tick in her lower spine and Twilight vanished in a flash of light. A moment after she reappeared far to the left the ursa broke free and swung its claw down on the spot she once stood.

“Rarity has such a sense for using gems—” Her horn now blazing in a bright blue Twilight focused on the normally gemfree earth of Ponyville. Suddenly bursting up like bright shining obelisks great gemstones grew around the ursa stopping its movements. It would not last forever, but all he needed was a few seconds to look the creature in the eye and began bawling at what she saw.

’pain... heartache... rage... despair... it was all so wrong...’

“I’m so sorry.” Empathy for the childless mother swelled in Twilight’s heart as she flew to embrace what little of the bear’s snout she could.

Jequirity laughed when she finally recognized the changeling before her as a queen. “Well it seems I missed an heir. What interest is it of yours if I kill this pony?”

Zirconia summoned up all the strength she had gained from Celestia’s meal. “It is not for you to concern yourself with. Simply know this, if she comes to harm your end will not come quickly.”

“Really? A minor descendant of a failed bloodline is threatening me? I have taken enough love to cast aside the sun and moon, you will be like naught but dust before me.” Jequirity let her horn glow with power that might make her claims not quite as empty as Zirconia had hoped. then cast Crystal to the ground as she focused her attention on Zirconia.

However in a blink, the young queen teleported to catch Crystal. She then attempted to flee, but was caught by a fiery burst of green flame that sent her flying. Zirconia could only thank fate that she had been between the fire and Crystal, protecting the filly from harm.

Jequirity stood over the pair with a bloodthirsty grin. She was so close to ending Chrysalis’s bloodline forever now. Igniting her horn for a second attack she paused when the filly began to cry out, “Mommy, please mommy help.” Jequirity laughed, there was no possible way this foal’s mother would ever come to her aid

New flames erupted from the ground between Crystal and Jequirity. Bright greens and blues blended as a tall figure emerged. “Get away from her.” The voice was calm yet it demanded the attention of Jequirity who recognized the voice as one she had not heard since its owner was left to die in a cave.

Twilight was so focused on the ursa that she did not notice the gems surrounding it beginning to crumble. She did however notice the flash of blue light signifying Luna’s magic at work.

“Dread not old friend, your cub lives. It would surely take more than a foolish changeling to end a creature of the stars.” Luna’s words seemed to calm the great beast as its ears began twitching in search of evidence that the pony was telling the truth.

As suddenly as it had come into town the ursa jumped as it ran back to its cave after hearing the faint cries of an ursa minor.

Ponyville slowly returned to normal with much praise being directed toward the princesses, but all was not over yet. Celestia still needed to reach her daughter.

The figure standing before Jequirity was tall and trim with shining black fur and a long, straight horn. The figure’s mane and tail flowed like an ocean of blue and green that matched her eyes. Her four wings were like those of a dragonfly and her hooves were like obsidian. She seemed so delicate like thin glass yet did not flinch as Jequirity cast more fire to engulf all three of her targets.

Her horn only glimmered slightly and Jequirity’s was extinguished. Again and again the changeling attempted to kill this new adversary and yet it seemed the newcomer with the voice of a dead queen would not even allow her to cast a spell.

Jequirity shivered as confusion and fear overtook her. She had taken the love of a hundred ponies and yet the unusual creature before her seemed to effortlessly control the battle. What are you?!” Jequirity screeched hoping that she could distract her foe enough to escape.

Still she gained no ground as she attempted to teleport. “I am merely an overprotective mother. Did no one ever teach you about the dangers of angering a protective mother?”

Jequirity tilted her head in confusion. “You mean to tell me that hideous semi-pony creature is your offspring? Though I suppose it makes sense considering your appearance, I mean what are you supposed to be? Some freakish cross between a pony and a housefly?”

For the first time the figure considered her appearance. Looking to her hoof she immediately saw the reason she was not recognized. "Ah, I suppose you wouldn’t know it was me without the holes.” Jequirity was no fool she immediately took the moment her foe paused to look at her body to attack. Fire erupted again from the changeling’s horn only to be extinguished with a glance. Still the stranger spoke without an ounce of stress in her tone, “Personally I like it, this body is like, well it’s like... um—”

“A princess,” Squeaked Crystal now fully conscious and quite enamoured with her savior.

“Yes quite, thank you sweetheart. I do believe that is what I will be.” The self-proclaimed princess then turned back to Jequirity and finally introduced herself, “I am Chrysalis, sovereign of the changelings and you would do well to walk away now, i really don’t want the little one to be forced to see more violence.”

Jequirity was furious, not only was her magic useless, but this creature before her claimed to be a dead queen. “You won’t frighten me with stories of the dead and I will see to it that you bleed along with those you came to save.”

Chrysalis shook her head, she wished she could kill Jequirity and be done with it, but it was something she never wanted her daughter to witness, and in exchange for a short visit to her daughter every now and then she had promised Celestia that she would never take another’s life. Still, she had one last trick up her metaphorical sleeve.

Her eyes began to glow as she used her magic to force Jequirity to stare into them. “You will leave, lose yourself in the Everfree Forest for twelve nights before returning to your hive. The events of this night did not occur and you will remember nothing but your wanderings in the forest. Now go.” At that Jequirity fled, overcome as she was by Chrysalis’s stare she could do nothing but obey.

“Thank you Princess Chrysilis.” the young filly behind Chrysalis remarked. The mispronunciation of her name was actually amusing as well.

“Think nothing of it Crystal Dream and before you ask, I most certainly know the names of all the wonderful little fillies who spend their nights looking upon my star.” Chrysalis felt herself fading, it had taken more effort than she had shown to keep Crystal and Zirconia safe. Her attention quickly shifted to find Celestia and Luna moving toward them. “Well Sunbutt, I’ll leave the clean up to you, it seems my time is over for the moment.”

As Chrysalis suddenly vanished from sight, a bright green star appeared in the night sky.

When she was gone Crystal stood and moved toward Fluttershy who had begun weeping over the fallen fox. “Aunty Fluttershy, what’s wrong?”

Fluttershy looked up, her eyes red from tears, and replied, “Oh sweetie, it’s just... this fox was going to be a mommy...” Pausing she looked to Celestia, hoping the princess would take the reigns in explaining to Crystal. A soft smile was the only answer she received. “See she was hurt very badly and she won’t be able to take care of this little one.” Still covered in the great fox’s blood Fluttershy revealed the only surviving kit.

“So she doesn’t have a mommy?” Crystal asked softly looking up at the newborn fox.

“That’s right, but we—”

“I’ll be her mommy!” Crystal quickly interrupted looking to her own mother for approval.

With a smile Celestia spoke before Fluttershy could make her own case for keeping the delicate creature, “That is such a wonderful thought Chrysie, but this little one needs some extra special all the time care, so how about we leave her with your aunty Fluttershy until she is healthy enough to come home with us.”

“Okay Mommy.” It was that moment Luna moved to take hold of her injured marefriend.

“You go back to town, sister. I shall tend to the wounded here.” While she was not specific she intend to give as much care as Zirconia needed to recover. After all the changeling seemed to desire Crystal’s safety as much as any of her many aunts.

Cheers for the return of Celestia and Crystal erupted the moment they came into view. She quickly explained the injuries that Fluttershy had sustained and assured all concerned parties to not worry as she was in capable hooves. In spite of her vows, Twilight and her closest friends all ran to Fluttershy’s cottage as quickly as they could.

Of course Celestia couldn’t fault her former student for merely wishing to help a friend. She then turned to her own responsibility and spoke, “Worry not my little ponies, I will see to it that your homes will be restored soon, but I must apologise as it is far past Crystal’s bedtime and so I must leave you for a moment.”

Most of the residents assured their princess that they would be fine. The royal daughter needed her rest after such an ordeal and Twilight with the help of the unicorn guards had already constructed temporary housing for those whose homes were broken. They could wait until morning to worry about their homes.

One pony however couldn’t help but speak her mind, “Don’t you mean you’ll be back in like four or five years? Like after the timeskip?” asked a truly concerned Pinkamena Diane Pie.

Everypony else only chuckled, thinking that Pinkie was just being Pinkie.

Author's Note

Arthur’s Knots

It’s finally done! Oh my freaking duck, it’s finally over... until I start the next part and then take three years to finish that... So those following the poll might now realize that the pet is decided, now I just need to give the cutie a name...

Oh well this was fun, I’m so glad I finally just sat down and wrote it. So now we are complete in spite of needing another side story that can wait until later... also yes I love writing Pinkie all your arguments are invalid.