A Sparkle in the Sky

        Twilight and Cadence sat on the bean bags in the night sky filled room. It was six o clock in the evening and the two girls had just eaten a good healthy dinner Cadence made. Now they were sitting and talking quietly, waiting for Celestia to come home. Before long, the sound of someone opening the front door with a key was heard, and Twilight perked up.

" Celestia!" The little girl jumped out of her seat and ran across the house to meet her caretaker.

Celestia walked in the house, looking just as happy to be home as Twilight was. Her soft magenta eyes smiled kindly at the little girl who threw her arms around Celestia's waist.

" Celestia!"

" Twilight, how did it go today?" She asked, hugging Twilight back.

Twilight’s eyes lit up." Cadence is just the most wonderful babysitter of all babysitters!"

As if on cue, Cadence showed up right behind Celestia and Twilight. She held her purse on her shoulder, her keys in her hand.

"Well, she is the best little girl I've ever sat for. I'm lucky to be here. Thank you Ms. Solaris."

Celestia relinquished her hold on Twilight and moved to shake Cadences hand. As her white one met Cadences pink skin she said,

"Oh, thank you Cadence! I am still getting used to caring for a child, so it's great to have someone to help out."

Cadence smiled and lifted her shoulders ," it's not even a problem, not with Twilight.Plus, ive had five years of babysitting under my belt."

Twilight noticed Cadence give Celestia a wink. "I have never met a girl smarter than that one," she pointed at Twilight and smiled benevolently. Celestia seemed impressed by Cadences statement and nodded slowly.

" Oh thank you, yes she is very smart. Did something happen while I was gone?"

Cadence nodded. " Yes, I asked her sixth grade math and science questions and she didn't miss one. Not one. Her reading level rivals my own and her English is spot on with mine. I'm a little embarrassed, but really fascinated with her. "

Celestia looked completely stunned, (but in the most graceful way you could be stunned). Twilight thought blushing. Anyhow, she couldn’t blame her, this was the reaction everyone had when they found out Twilight was a genius. Still even after all this time she wasnt very good at handling praise. All this attention she was getting was making Twilight blush so she  stood silently and listened to the grown ups talk.

" I- uh, yes. I think Twilight told me she read some very advanced books before but I didn't think-oh wow." Celestia laughed at how she was so lost for words. She was looking at Twilight with awe.

Cadence giggled and opened the front door. "She is really something special." With that, the pink teenager waved at Twilight and Celestia, then disappeared out the door. Celestia turned to Twilight and put her hands on her hips.

"How did you get so smart, little one?"

Twilight giggled and shrugged modestly.

"Well, it all started when I was in first grade..."

.............................................

It was a cool day in fall, and Canterlot Elementary was to take twenty students to the Canterlot observatory. The school field trip was for selected students only. Students who showed good behavior throughout the first couple months of school. It was a rewards trip for the good kids, and Twilight was chosen by one of her teachers for the event. Of course, she needed to get her mothers signature but that hadn’t been possible because her teacher gave the permission slip to her the day before.Twilight Velvet went out to a party that night and Twilight wasnt able to get her signature due to her mother being dead asleep on the couch the morning after. Twilight had to walk to school all by herself the morning of the field trip, and when she got to school she saw the other kids boarding the bus. She so wanted to visit the observatory, that Twilight did what she had never done before. She forged her mothers signature. Of course, Twilight never saw her mothers signature before, but she imagined what it would look like , and signed it anyway. The teacher allowed her on the bus, looking at Twilight with a sad expression. Twilight felt ashamed because she could tell Ms. Smith knew that it was her own handwriting, and not her mothers. But letting her on that school trip was the best thing she could do for the first grader and no one ever found out.

The trip lasted about two hours altogether, and in those two hours Twilight’s life was changed completely. She didn’t know there was so much to learn about the sky and the planets. Space was such a special place, and Twilight knew she just had to go there one day.  She also met real astronauts who came to speak to the class as they went on their tour. It was a group of really tall and smart men who looked just amazing in their space uniforms. Not the space suits, but the uniforms. ( The class was very disappointed in the fact that none of the astronauts got to keep their space suits.)

Anyway, Twilight was having a delectable time seeing all the expensive looking decorations of the solar system that were painted on the ceiling of the lecture room, when she appeared.

       The entire class was seated in the first two rows of seats that were placed in a U shape around a center stage which had one microphone and podium. The room was elevated so that the entire place looked like a movie theater. The top row to the bottom was full of red theater chairs, equipped with cup holders and arm rests. The screen behind the podium on the stage lit up to reveal a slideshow.

The first slide was one that read: “To the Moon and Beyond: A Presentation by Luna Heliopolis.”

When Twilight saw the woman who walked on to the stage, her heart froze. She was so beautiful! The tall and slender woman had night blue hair with light blue streaks running through the elegant and flowy waves which reached almost down to her elbow.

Her intelligent and large teal eyes were dazzling,and  they shone behind tiny reading glasses which rested on her small and thin nose. Her indigo colored dress was form fitting and professional, but not boring. Besides her marvelous appearance, which had the older boys gawking, the woman looked quite kind and maybe even a little mischievous by the grin she wore.

“Good morning Canterlot Elementary!  I am Luna Heliopolis! It is so wonderful to meet you all!”

Twilight adored the way Luna spoke with a punch at the end of each of her sentences. She had confidence, and authority in her tone which made her even more enticing.

Twilight’s eyes never left the speaker until Luna held up a white remote in her right hand.

“Children, have you ever looked at the night sky?”

Twenty hands flew in the air as soon as she said those words. Twilight’s hand flew up faster than any other child in that room.

“Good! I love to see energy in young students. But, I meant to say, have you ever studied the stars? The Moon? The planets? There is so much more than to what is shown to you from your bedroom window. Few people know, or will ever know the beauty of the universe.” Luna clicked a button on her remote and suddenly, the lights in the whole theater went out. Just when Twilight thought it was a technical error, brilliant lights appeared above her head. She looked up, and saw that the ceiling was moving!

The entire ceiling looked like a three dimensional space sky, shooting stars flew across the ceiling in the wonderful display, and many planets emerged out of nowhere. It was like watching a movie, but right above their heads,and the movie was coming right  out of the ceiling, almost touching her.

Luna spoke into the microphone, but Twilight could not see her. All she could see  was darkness, and the projected screen above her head.

“I have studied the universe, and it’s quite a beauty. So please, take a journey with me. A journey into space!”

Unanticipatedly, sound effects started filling the room in surround sound quality which made shivers run down Twilight’s spine. The vibrations of the bass was making her teeth clatter. It was truly amazing, and Twilight could not stop smiling as wide as the Great Wall of China.

There was a loud SWOOSH! sound as the screen raced forward into space to make it look like they were travelling at top speed through the universe. The chair Twilight sat in made a creaking sound, and before she knew it, she was being controlled by something which made her seat tip backwards into an almost laying position.

She looked around, and all of the kids around her from her school were also laying back in their reclined chairs, smiling as the effects of the space journey amazed them.

The  swooshing sounds of wind got louder and louder until a large rock sprung out of nowhere.There was an abrupt whirling sound as the rock tumbled through the air. The image was so real, it made Twilight flinch, it was as if the rock was going to hit her right on the face! Many kids screamed as the images teased their mind with flying Astroids and shooting stars to jolt the children into instant entertainment.

“Whoa! look at that!”

“This is amazing!”

“It looks so real!”

Twilight was awestruck. Never had she imagined space could look so bright and interesting!

Luna chuckled through the microphone and said excitedly, “ Not enough fun for you? Lets try this now!” Suddenly, there was a powerful suction sound as the images were ripped away from the eyes of the audience and the room was filled with never ending darkness. Twilight saw many planets getting sucked into this large looking whirpool of darkness and soon realized that it was sucking her in as well.

The entire class yelled in fright as the sound got so loud, it felt almost too real. Finally, the black hole sucked them all the way in, and the sounds stopped. It was eerily quiet in the room until more sounds like they were traveling dispersed into the air.

They were traveling a lot slower now, but Twilight could tell something really big was coming. She couldn’t see anything, but she knew they were in for a big surprise.

It was as if they were in a tunnel, because a tiny light appeared in the spot above her head and slowly expanded. It was getting bigger and bigger, the light becoming brighter and brighter, until she couldnt stand to look at it. She began to squint and tried to look away, but she couldnt. Once the bright light spanned out across the whole theater, a beautiful array of colors spread through the air. August Music filled the air as the whirl of color surrounded them. The music was simply glorious, as if the heavens above were playing a symphony just for them.

The craziness of the first part of the journey was over and now they had reached the beautiful display of the entire milky way galaxy as it was shown in front of them.

The swirling spiral mass of rocks, planets, stars and the sun amazed Twilight. She didn’t know what the galaxy was at the time but she had fallen in love with it.

Could this be a real place? If it was , she wanted to go there. Forever….

The kids around her gasped in awe just as Twilight had. They were probably wondering if this was a real place as well.

As if she had read their minds, Lune spoke again for the first time in several minutes. The passion in her voice was so strong and captivating, Twilight felt like she was being put in a trance as her large purple eyes were glued to the galaxy above her.

“This children, is the Milky Way Galaxy. The galaxy in which our solar system lives in. The same Galaxy in which we are a part of. The galaxy in which the Great God has placed us in, its beautiful isn’t it?”

A hum of approval escaped  the awestruck children.

“Listen all of you, I will now show you the wonders of our solar system. From the sun, to our neighboring planets and lastly, to the moon. Please, sit back and enjoy the journey through our solar system!”

As Luna’s voice filled the air with fun facts about the planets, and stars, and comets, and astroids, Twilight became more and more in love with outer space.

She wanted to go there. She now had a dream, a new hope. A hope that could only mean great things for a child who grew up with a mother like Twilights’ mother. Even this hope for her future could change her life forever. And change it did.

From that day, Twilight put all she could into becoming a scientist.

She found out that Luna had already written quite a few books at her young age.  Luna was only twenty seven but a solar genius. She had excelled in her studies as a child and was offered a place in one of the best astronomic study centers. This, she turned down for an unknown reason, and was now working as a professor at the Canterlot University.

Twilight saved up money she got from her mothers special money box in the kitchen which she took from secretly. Although she was very smart about it. She would only take a little at a time every week until she had enough to purchase Luna Heliopolis’s books from the bookstore. She hid these books in her bedroom, mostly under her own bed, or in the closet.

Her mother never knew, but Twilight was rapidly becoming a genius day after day. She was only in first grade, and had learned most of the dictionary in one semester. What information was put into Twilight’s head, never was forgotten.

It was a gift. A gift that was bestowed upon her before she was born. And only because she met Luna Heliopolis, was that gift awakened and put to use.

And that was how she had become so smart in her short life of being alive. This was the most happiest memory she had of the time she was living with her mother. With that said, she would forever be grateful for that fateful day for years to come.

…………………..

“And that is why I just love that you have all of her books Celestia! I am just so excited that you read her books too! Thats one more thing we have in common because you are a scientist, and I want to be one too, so its like fate brought us together or something -uh, Celestia? Are you ok?”

While Twilight told her story of her time at the observatory, Celestia and her had headed upstairs to Twilight’s bedroom where they settled on the plushy bags on the floor.

Celestia’s expression had changed halfway through her little story into a dark, and serious one. Twilight was worried she had bored her caretaker, and started to fidget uncontrollably.

“Oh, Im so sorry, you must be tired from work, and I was just rambling on about myself I-”

Celestia eagerly snatched Twilight from her bean bag and squeezed her in her arms.

“Oh Twilight, you- you are so special to me you have no idea-” Celestia seemed to have gotten emotional about something, but what was it? All Twilight said was that she wanted to be a scientist just like Celestia. Did that really make her emotional?

Twilight tried to stay alive in the tight grasp of her caretaker but she found it quite difficult because her face was being smothered into Celestia’s chest.

“mmmf….. mrrmmmmf!!!”

Celestia gasped and released Twilight instantly. “ Agh!”

“Oh, darling i’m so sorry!”

Twilight was on her knees now, her hands fell into her lap as she looked up at Celestia.

Twilight was more than confused but at the moment, she couldnt hold back the feeling that had erupted inside of her. She bursted into laughter. Loud giggles filled the air, and Celestia looked at Twilight in confusion for a moment, but joined in on the laughter.

Twilight had noticed the tears in Celestia’s eyes and wiped them away. It was no time for being emotional. Twilight was tired of crying. She wanted Celestia to be happy, and for herself to be happy. She would do anything to make Celestia laugh like this more.This week was just the longest week  of Twilight’s life and she couldn’t take the depression anymore. It felt so good to laugh like this. She had never laughed like she was now in so long, or actually, had she ever laughed like this at all?

Maybe, but she couldnt remember. Her mind was so fuzzy with elation she couldnt think at all. Celestia  just said she was special. She was special! Cadence said she  was special too, why was everyone calling her special all of a sudden? No one ever called her special before!

Sitting in her new room laughing with Celestia gave her more happiness than she could ever have hoped was possible. And one thing was for certain.

Twilight  never wanted to lose this.