Twilight and Luna's Lessons in Teaching

by dracone

Rating: teen
Tags: Random, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Other
Length: 67296

This story is now cancelled, you can read the revised version called Twilight and Luna's Lessons in Teaching: Redux

Dream Step and Eclipse Touch are 2 fillies from a nation outside Equestria. As Princess Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna teach these fillies they learn about this other nation, the fillies, and themselves. As the lessons progress Twilight and Luna uncover things they didn't think were possible. And eventually all 4 discover secrets that shake their understanding of how magic and even time itself are supposed to work

Due to numerous factors this story is now cancelled, I have plans for posting and improved version but as of now the story itself is most certainly done. Thank you to those that supported this first attempt. I'm working on a revised version you can read it here

Published 2014-06-15 05:50:04 UTC
Last updated 2014-08-03 21:45:24 UTC

Chapter 1: An Introduction To New students and Discoveries

An Introduction To New Students and Discoveries

Twilight Sparkle sighed as she sat in the Canterlot throne room, filling in for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna while they attended to events near the borders of Equestria that were demanding their attention. Twilight didn't realize how much effort had to into regularly moving the sun and the moon until that first time she was away from the princesses, fortunately for her it was just for a few days and once the celestial bodies had reached their zenith she had few hours to relax and get something to help renew her strength. It had been almost 7 years since her ascension to alicorn and she was starting to feel the pressure. Her friends were far too busy with their lives now to come and cheer her up, it had been that way for almost 7 months now. The princesses had been gone for 2 weeks and the only sort of solace Twilight had in recent days was Spike's continual daily reports followed by asking how she was holding up.

Rarity's Canterlot boutique had blossomed into one of the city's premier fashion centers just 3 years ago, so now Rarity had her hooves full just meeting orders most days and was loving every minute of it for the most part; Pinkie Pie's Party Palace in Canterlot was a great place to plan parties for young ponies or surprise parties for ponies of any age, at this point Pinkie was starting feel her physical age and overly sweet centered diet catch up with her; Rainbow Dash was busy with her new Wonderbolt duties, this included the Jr Wonderbolt Academy which is intended to teach young pegasi what qualities a Wonderbolt should have, which was an idea she had validated only a year after she had made it to being an authentic Wonderbolt; Applejack was busier with her new duties at Sweet Apple Acres, and like Pinkie was starting to feel her age and lifestyle catch up to her; Fluttershy was also busy with a whole menagerie of new animals that were previously not seen in Ponyville's area until recently, and she was also busy trying get a complex built to house them in addition to a facility dedicated to providing them with medical care. Twilight was delighted with the prospect of actually having free time again, since the princesses were supposed to return later that very week. However what was really lifting Twilight's spirits was that again to catch up on what they all missed.after being free from her duties as a stand in for the princesses was that she and all her friends would be meeting in Ponyville

It had been about an hour after Spike's daily report that said Luna was returning, so you can imagine Twilight's surprise when later that very day Celestia and Luna arrived with an electric green pegasus and a pair of unicorns that looked about the age Twilight had been when she had started learning from Celestia. “Twilight,” said Princess Celestia in the loving care filled voice that Twilight always remembered her having when nopony was threatened with her blue, green, violet and pink flowing mane seeming to stop its motion for moment for emphasis, “this is Storm Walker and his sisters Dream Step and Eclipse Touch.”

Twilight gave the princesses a quizzical look as Luna said in a voice that mirrored Twilight's confusion, “I'm just as confused as you, my sister bumped into them a few days ago and asked them to accompany us to Canterlot.”

“When we met Princess Celestia I informed her of our situation,” said the electric green pegasus in a dignified respecting voice while giving a graceful bow, “My name is Storm Walker and these are my younger sisters, please forgive them for their uneasiness they are a bit insecure at the moment. The white unicorn filly is Dream Step and the black unicorn is Eclipse Touch, be polite girls.”

“Yes brother,” said the pure white unicorn filly with a black mane and tail with a streak of emerald through the mane and tail and indigo colored eyes next to the pegasus and with a strong hint of concern in her voice said, “my name is Dream Step, it is nice to meet you, the princesses of Equestria. I have read what I can in our old home nation, there was very little available in the libraries I was allowed access to.”

“Your turn now sweetie,” said Storm Walker turning to the black unicorn filly with emerald eyes and a white mane and tail with indigo streaks in them, who also appeared to have pair of saddlebags that were noticeably to be too big for her and appeared to be weighted by whatever was in them.

“My name is Eclipse Touch,” said the black unicorn filly with a sense of uncertainty and shyness that reminded Twilight of the first time she met Fluttershy, “I'm Dream Step's twin, we both were born with rare abilities, please don't hate us.”

“Hate you,” said Twilight with a strong concern in her voice, “why would we hate you? You've done nothing wrong as far as I know.”

“We had brother take us away from our overbearing mother,” said the twins in unison with a strong hint of fear.

“Maybe you should start at the beginning,” said Luna and Twilight in unison while turning their attention to Storm Walker, at which point Twilight noticed the violet lightning bolts in his sky blue mane and that his cutie mark was 3 shields that each had one of the 3 kinds of pony on them and the shields bunched close together.

“Okay,” said Storm Walker, “we come from a nation called Bridleton, it is ruled by unicorn nobles who have very elitist views of how ponies should be, the ruler of the land is king Artanus the sixty-seventh. Our parents are named Great Spell and Great Seal and our Grandmother is named Grand Charm, but her personality is from that, and trust me when I say that as bad as any of your Canterlot nobles are ours makes their elitism look like foals playing 'my kingdom'. In the nation of Bridleton unicorns have all the political power, every other kind of pony is just a lesser caste. I myself am seen as a shame on the lineage because of over a hundred generations of pure unicorns a pegasus was born, you can imagine how an elitist family of unicorns took that. We have an older sister named Sunshine Bottle, she's a unicorn who has the power to fill others with a sense of false joy or happiness and when the spell wears off you feel emptiness where the false joy or happiness was and...”

At this point Pinkie Pie popped up seemingly out of nowhere, startling the fillies with her abrupt appearance and saying in her disapproving voice, “ooh, she sounds like a pony that doesn't know what fun is,” then turning her direction towards Storm Walker in a more chipper voice that Twilight knew she usually used when meeting new ponies, “how are you this fine day my name's Pinkie Pie and you are? No wait let me guess... You are one very confused pony.”

“Um yes,” said Storm Walker with a little confusion, “how did you get here unnoticed?”

“Oh, Pinkie does that sort of thing all the time,” said Twilight with a hint of amusement in her voice and then in a bit more serious voice said, “Pinkie I think you might have scared the fillies a bit.”

“I know how to fix that,” said Pinkie with a big grin before hopping over to Dream Step and Eclipse Touch and then pulling 2 lollipops almost size of their heads out her mane and handing them to the 2 fillies who took them in their hooves and stared at them not sure what to do with the treats. “You lick and eat them however you want, silly fillies,” said Pinkie immediately noticing their confusion.

“Speaking of those fillies,” said Princess Celestia, “Twilight and Luna will each be instructing them as mentors,” both Twilight and Luna looked at each other with a sense of confused understanding, “Luna was banished to the moon for a thousand years because of the events that caused her transformation into Nightmare Moon and attempt to remove me from the power structure forcefully,” Celestia continued after the 2 had stared at each other for over a minute, “she needs to rediscover what her best teaching method is and how to interact with students before we begin plans for her own academy of magic,” at this Luna's eyes brightened to the point they literally had a soft glow for a few seconds, “and you Twilight have always been a seeker of knowledge since before the first day you caught my eye, it is through teaching that some of our greatest lessons can be learned. Luna will be the mentor to Dream Step since she has the natural ability to dream walk. I am quite well aware that Luna is an avid dream walker, I am also well aware of when she helped Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom while they were still trying achieve their cutie marks and that she helped them get over some of their troubles within the dream world,” at this Luna blushed with enough embarrassment and adoration to make the cheeks of her black furred face become a deep violet, “as for Eclipse Touch,” continued Princess Celestia, “she has the ability to cancel out all forms of magic they have in their native land, I am hoping that should Discord pop in on you while you are in the midst of training her that the ability will act as a deterrent while you teach her how to get her magic under control.”

“I would be honored,” said Twilight with bow, “I helped tutor Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo while they were trying to achieve their cutie marks. I am looking forward to being a mentor to somepony and maybe with a little luck I may have the honor of presenting my own star pupil.” Twilight then looked over to see the twins embracing each other in a hug that said they didn't want to be separated, the seriousness of their embrace was almost lost in the goofy hug Pinkie Pie was giving them a few second later while telling them the proper way to hold a lollipop, at all times.

“Don't worry,” said Princess Celestia, “you are not being separated, merely placed in the care of 2 different and highly capable ponies. You will still be able to talk with each other in letters and notes with the aid of Spike, Twilight's highly capable assistant,” at this point Spike walked in and the eyes of the 2 fillies filled with both awe and fear. Spike had grown a bit over the years and the beginnings of wings were just starting grow of his back just a short distance from his shoulder blades and form their almost iconic structure.

“Dragons disappeared from Bridleton after the original Artanus disappeared,” said Storm Walker, “as a scare tactic many ponies in our former nation tell young foals that if they don't behave and follow the rules of our society then a dragon will come and take them away to place where they will use their ancient magic's to make us part of their hoard.”

At this Spike just laughed and said in his now comforting and deepening voice, “I've grown up with Twilight my entire life, I'm a friend to ponies and I don't take kindly to others treating my friends badly.”

“I'm going to be living with miss Twilight and that dragon,” said Eclipse with a sense of fear in her voice.

“Yup, silly filly,” said Pinkie Pie setting the twins down and handing chocolate eggs the size of her hoof that were held in her mane to the twins before skipping over to Spike and pulling a large ruby with a big crack going down its face and passing it to him while saying, “Rarity says you can have all the flawed and cracked gems she's been finding lately, she says she's been having them shipped back to Twilight's castle in Ponyville and this is the first one that she found and thought you might want to get some idea of what you'll be getting into.” With a quick inspection of the gemstone Spike took a nibble out of it and told Pinkie to pass his thanks on to Rarity before taking big bites out of the cracked gem and swallowing it then licking the dust of the gem off his lips and claws to which Pinkie and Twilight gave very obvious chuckles.

After their little chuckle Twilight said, “Pinkie what are you doing here? We're supposed to meet up with everypony in Ponyville in a few days, although I am happy to see you.”

“Fluer Dis Lee's colt, Tri-club, had his third birthaversary 4 hours ago and the party just ended a few minutes ago, the party wasn't as fun as I thought it would be, so I decided to stop by the castle and say hi to you,” said Pinkie with a smile that said she disapproved of Fluer's idea of how a party planning pony should be. After saying that Pinkie hopped over to Eclipse Touch and said, “you are just going to love being with Twilight, she practically lives in the library of her new castle so you'll have plenty of books to read. And you'll have so many wonderful adventures with other fillies and colts at the Ponyville school.”

Eclipse Touch's eyes went wide with awe before she timidly said, “the town has a school for all ponies. I don't deserve such treatment, when mother finally finds us and finds out that I was with ponies that are not unicorns then everypony will be in trouble.”

“I know your brother said that the unicorns of your parent nation are extremely elitist,” said Twilight in a comforting voice, “but why would your family care about the atmosphere of your school or what kind of ponies you tried to make friends with?”

“Because our mother and grandmother believe that only a unicorn should be taught by unicorns, that only unicorns should form affiliations with other unicorns and that unicorns must always be surrounded by unicorns,” said Storm Walker with contempt, “it's one thing to hear about, but maybe it would be best if you actually saw our experiences with our family by observing through some of our memories, that way you could make a more informed decision. And when the rest of our family finds us you can compare their memories with the corresponding memories you observed from us.”

“That sounds like a excellent idea,” said Princess Celestia, “but I regret to inform you that we have no memory spells that would allow for such things, I personally archived and remembered every spell in Equestria's oldest libraries and have been kept apprised of all new spells that have been introduced and created in the nation. None are of the level or finesse you are suggesting.”

Eclipse Touch beckoned Twilight over, this was a surprise to which both Storm Walker and Dream Step, and whispered something that only Twilight seemed to hear and Twilight showed so much joy she did a little happy dance. After a few seconds of doing her happy dance Twilight lifted a noticeably heavy red leather bound book from Eclipse's right saddlebag causing the bags to fall over the black filly's left side and give a loud thump that indicated that another book of some kind was still in the saddlebags, and to which Storm Walker gasped in seeing it before he said, “you took the Tome of Mind Magics from the family's personal collection, Eclipse this will expedite the punishment from our mother and her drive to find us quickly as possible.”

“I know, but I just thought we should get it away from that place that never really felt like home,” said Eclipse Touch in a timidly informative voice and then said, “in the other bag is the big book called Ancient Curses and Hexes, I really didn't want grandmother looking through it for possible punishments when she discovered we were no longer at that dreadful place they kept telling us was our home,” after saying all this the little black unicorn pawed at the floor in a manner that indicated she was unsure and very nervous.

During this time Twilight had been leafing through the pages of the book showing that she was disapproving of most the spells despite them being very new to her before stopping at the page that Eclipse Touch had whispered to her, “she actually memorized where a memory experience observation spell was despite only leafing through it once,” said Twilight with a note of surprise and pride, “page 746 'passive memory experience', I have a feeling that our lessons are going to be more interesting than I was anticipating, it'll take me and the princesses time to memorize the spell so I suggest we leave this book in the capable hooves of Princess Celestia while Princess Luna and I help get these 2 fillies situated in our homes. And check on the progress made tomorrow, I want to come back and copy this spell when I have proper materials to do so.”

“An excellent suggestion, Princess Twilight,” said Luna as she carefully curled one of her wings around Dream Step in a comforting manner.

“Might I suggest you take the train back to Ponyville Twilight,” said Princess Celestia, “Eclipse Touch's innate ability is still quite unstable and it could cause problems for you when you try to teleport yourself and her back to Ponyville.”

“Of course Princess Celestia,” said Twilight, “it will also allow me to show Eclipse some of Ponyville and maybe if we're lucky I can introduce to the rest of my friends. Maybe meeting Fluttershy will help Eclipse relax a little, I know Applejack would love to explain a few things to her, Rainbow Dash has been so busy with the Wonderbolts recently I'm not sure if we'll really be able to see her, and Rarity's been pretty busy as well. We all planned for freeing up our schedules on the same day months ago so hopefully we'll all be in Ponyville on the same day so we can really do things like we used to.”

“It does seem you and your friends have been seeing less of each other as of late,” said Princess Luna looking over at Pinkie Pie as the pink mare hopped out the doors that left the castle, “but I'm sure that you and your friends will be able to get together and go about adventures like you used to,” she said as she guided Dream Step to the part of the castle that was designated for the night princess's primary use.

“I'm just glad I don't have your duties of guiding the sun or the moon for a while,” said Twilight as she picked up the Eclipse Touch's saddlebags, noticing how old and worn they looked, and flipping open the bag formerly on the filly's left side to pull out a tome that was as thick as the red one in a pristine forest green leather binding. Open the tome up to the title page she read aloud Ancient Curses and Hexes for when a standard punishment spell isn't quite enough, now that's just horrid. Eclipse Touch was right to confiscate this book from her grandmother, a book like this is rare and needs to be preserved, but it also needs to be put somewhere so secure that nopony with enough brains to be able to read it and stupid enough to try out the spells can get their hooves on it.”

“I agree,” said Princess Celestia, “that is why I am having that tome covertly, and expediently, sent to the spell vault archives in Story Tree. I believe I may know the right pony for the job as well. You, Twilight, need to help your new student become acclimated with her new home for the time she is here. As for you Storm Walker,” said the princess turning her attention once more to the lightning green pegasus, “we will have you train as one of Canterlot's royal guards, and should you pass the tests placed before you then you can be in an excellent position to better safeguard the twins.”

“I don't think I've ever heard of Story Tree before, and I've never found it on any map of Equestria,” said Twilight while putting a reassuring hoof over the right shoulder of a very nervous looking Eclipse Touch, whom also seemed to visibly relax from the gesture much to the surprise of her siblings, “what is so special about it.”

“The settlement itself gets its name from a massive tree in the center of the town,” said Luna with hint of wonder to her voice, “before Discord began his rule over Equestria the story tree, as the residents called it, was a place to tell stories of any kind without the fear of being judged on their quality or content. When Discord spread his magic over the town he made it so that anypony that told or listened to a story near to the tree had to experience that story until it was concluded. After we managed to best Discord the magic on the tree remained, the ponies of the town quickly forgot about that after turning the tree itself in an archive and so only the keeper of the archive remembers, and has tremendous fear of reading any the tales that are amassed in the library anywhere near the tree for fear of getting caught in a story and having to complete it just so that they can do something as simple as take a walk outside. I hear the current archivist at the tree is afraid to sleep in or near the tree out of fear of being trapped in a dream. The archive itself sits above the great spell vault, and the tree acts as an effective security system because all anypony has to do to stop an intruder from advancing to the point of finding the hidden entrance that leads to the spell vault is start telling a story. As to why you haven't found it on any map, the reason is simple. Celestia and I agreed to keep the town marked only on our personal maps of Equestria in chambers that are only accessible to us, that and the town's population seems to always be around half that of Ponyville so in all regards it is considered too small of a settlement to be marked on a map.”

“That's incredible,” said Twilight, “but Eclipse Touch, Spike and I have to get back to Ponyville so that she can get settled in and I can start writing up a beginner's lesson plan so as to assess her strengths and weakness in the art of spell craft.”

“Good luck to you Princess Twilight,” said Luna as she guided Dream Step to her personal section of the castle and Celestia began going over the spell.

“Be careful,” said Eclipse Touch as she trotted with Twilight and Spike to doors that lead outside the castle, “if you aren't strong of mind the book can influence your decisions. According to the story of the book that Grandmother told us the will of the crafter of the book is embedded in the book itself and all who read of it must fight off his influence.”

“What is that pony's name,” inquired Twilight stopping just short of the door.

“Nalsher, the Grand,” said Eclipse Touch, “a misguided student of Myrraldin, the unicorn that instructed the original Artanus in the ways that lead to his greatness.”

“How is you weren't influenced by him when you leafed through the book,” inquired Princess Celestia looking up from the book as it floated in front of her with the aid of her magic.

“My power to cancel out magic is seen as unstable because of my inability to control it,” said Eclipse Touch, “but it has only activated whenever I or somepony standing uncomfortably close to me was in trouble of being affected by a spell.”

“Then it's more of a defense mechanism,” said Twilight returning the black filly to her side and swinging the doors open with her magic and guiding the Filly to the Canterlot train station, “you will be perfectly safe with me and Spike,” said Twilight as she they approached the station and she bought 3 tickets for the three o' clock express to Ponyville, “and once you start feeling a little more comfortable at the castle I'll begin your lessons, even if your family comes and requests we return you to their custody I will not if you feel unconformable being with them. Doesn't matter if it's days, weeks, months or years, I will see to it that you, my student, are in an environment that promotes your magical skills in a constructive manner.” At that the train pulled in and a very bored sounding mare with a city drawl that told Twilight she was from Manehattan announced that this train was the express to Ponyville. Twilight ushered her new charge onto the train as Spike followed close behind with the luggage that Twilight had brought with her to Canterlot. Smiling to herself as she boarded the train and presented her tickets to the conductor pony she lead Spike and Eclipse to the seats the tickets had indicated. Spike sat across from the 2 ponies with the luggage secured next to him, Twilight sat directly across from Spike and Eclipse was curled up like as a sleepy little bundle next to Twilight.

“That's right little Filly, you just rest. You've had a long trip, and when you wake up we can begin learning about your magic,” said Twilight as she gently petted the black filly's white mane with the care and attentiveness with a gentle smile she remembered her mother had done when she was at that age and Princess Celestia had in her early days as the Princess's student. Twilight had a feeling that the days to come were going to prove enlightening for both her and Eclipse.

here

Author's Note

Back to the old format, and sorry for the inconvenient to everyone. As an added bonus I'm going to also upload the Google doc version, for the first 4 chapters anyway, for those of you who don't mind the format, also it will let me more effectively get to writing mistakes that are pointed out. For those of you who are new welcome, also this is my first MLP fanfic so I want you to be honest with me in the comments. In other words I want constructive criticism, not just a thumbs down if .you can spare the time. If you don't like the story tell me why, if you like it try to explain why you you like it. Just a thumbs up up or down won't tell me why you like or dislike the story, it just give a quantified number of people that like or dislike the story.

Chapter 2: Eclipse Touch's First Experiences With Ponyvile and Sharing a Memory with Everypony

Eclipse Touch's first experiences with Ponyville and sharing a Memory with Everypony

Twilight watched as Eclipse Touch began to stir on the couch that she had laid down on, Spike was still working on converting one of the spare rooms in the castle from storage into a new living space. When Twilight had selected the room that would serve as Eclipse Touch's personal space one of the first things she did after removing the books that were stacked up against the wall opposite of the door was give the wall its own little window that was almost the same size as the one in her own room, complete with sill that could act as a bookshelf should her new student wish to only use the window for the source of potentials like it would provide during the day and some of the brighter nights. On the way from the station, at which point she was carrying the sleeping filly on her back, Twilight made quick stop into the furniture store to inquire about their selection of beds and nightstands and taking note of where she was told they were so that she could more ably assist the young filly in the appropriation of furniture for her dwelling arrangements during her time as Twilight's student.

Afterwards Twilight headed straight for the Castle. When she, Spike, and the sleeping filly on her back arrived there were some sizable wooden crates marked with Rarity's cutie mark and notes in Rarity's recognizable stylish script stating what state each of the gems inside were in and asking for the return of any gems that were unblemished. After bringing the luggage into the Castle Spike quickly rushed the crates to the small unoccupied cave he was using as a temporary lair, knowing full well that in a few decades either he or his treasure would no longer be able to entirely fit inside. While Spike busied himself with the crates of gems, Twilight carefully positioned a purple couch in the castle's den area before gently lifting the sleeping filly with her magic and placing her onto the couch, as soon as Eclipse was on the couch she started reaching out with her forelegs as if trying to wrap them around something comforting. Twilight wondered for a moment what she should do before floating the first book of Beginner's Basic Magic's into the legs of the sleeping filly, who immediately seemed more at ease with something between her hooves. Twilight came to the conclusion that the twins had never slept without somepony nearby to provide comfort, but Twilight herself wanted to make sure the room she had chosen for Eclipse Touch would be able to house the filly and the furniture that she would be using before settling down next to the filly put her at ease.

Just as Twilight was finishing her inspection of the room, after the addition of the window, she heard a gentle knocking at the door and went to see who it was. Opening the door she saw it was Fluttershy and gave her gentle greeting while telling her about the fact that there was now a sleeping filly in the building.

Trotting over to the couch Fluttershy said, while lightly stroking Eclipse's mane, in her soft voice that Twilight remembered as basically being a hallmark of the pink maned yellow pegasus, “she really is quite beautiful, and the fact that she's asleep when she just met you this morning says a lot about how much trust she has in you, and the fact that Princess Celestia decided that she should be your first student instead of deciding to teach this filly herself or leave her education to any of the known capable instructors at her school says how much she really trusts your ability to guide her.”

“It's nice to see again too, Fluttershy,” said Twilight maintaining her own low gentle voice, “but we still have a few days before everypony is supposed to meet.”

“Oh,” said the yellow pegasus with a few paws at the floor, “the new animal clinic and adoption center I've been working towards will be opening next week, and when I saw that you had returned I came to ask for few books to borrow about some of the lesser known animals in Equestria and possibly beyond its borders. I want to make sure if an animal that I'm unfamiliar with shows up I don't offend it.”

“Sure thing Fluttershy,” said Twilight, “keep the bestiaries as long as you want, I'm trying to make room for Eclipse Touch.”

“Her name sounds interesting, I've only met one other pony with eclipse in their name before,” said Fluttershy, “she looks like she might be as shy as I was at that age, I hope being with you makes her as comfortable being with other ponies as it has for me.”

“I'm hoping so as well,” said Twilight softly as Fluttershy and her turned their attention to the black filly and noticed her stir and awake.

When Eclipse Touch awoke she first stared at the book in her hooves and then hugged it closer and the 2 mares heard Eclipse whisper to the book, “if you were in the library of my mother or grandmother you would be removed from me and placed out of my reach with them saying something about how proper unicorn learning comes from instructors and books are to only sometimes be referenced,” before leaving it on the couch and sliding off before noticing Fluttershy and Twilight watching her with caring eyes, to this Eclipse gave a soft squeak of fear and crawled under the couch before saying in a soft terrified voice, “Miss Twilight who's the pony next to you? What's your relation with her? Is she nice?”

“Fluttershy is the kindest and most caring pony I know, she's one of my best friends,” said Twilight in her usual voice.

“I heard you would be learning from Twilight,” said Fluttershy in her usual soft voice, “you're very lucky, Twilight is one of the smartest ponies around and she's willing to take foal steps with you in your lesson until you both find the way you learn best.”

“Really?” said Eclipse coming out from under the couch with a wary look.

“Oh yes,” said Fluttershy and then turned her attention to Twilight and said, “Owlowiscious is doing well, you can pick him up tomorrow, and when you next see Pinkie Pie could you tell her that she should bring Gummy in for a checkup, I want to make sure everypony's pet is in good health as soon as possible,” with that she turned to leave while saying, “I've got to go now, somepony's coming by later today to try and see if any of the pets I have are compatible with them. They could be at my house at any time.”

“Okay Fluttershy,” said Twilight, “I'll gather up some of the bestiaries with lesser known creatures into a box or two and bring them to you, it'll also be a good chance to help Eclipse get acquainted with Ponyville.”

“Thanks Twilight,” said Fluttershy as he made her way out the door.

“She really is a nice pony,” said Eclipse in voice that was half question and half statement, “you said she's your friend, that's nice. I wish Dream and I could try having friends like that, but in Bridleton it's not considered socially acceptable for members of the unicorn nobility to socialize with non-unicorns outside of a work environment, and even then the relationship is as master and servant,” she said folding her ears back the moment she said not.

“That's horrible,” said Twilight, “does that mean they don't like unicorns associating with alicorns, like me or the Princesses?”

“From what I've been told, most of Bridleton thinks that alicorns are myths, legends and lore,” said Eclipse with a bit more confidence, “alicorn is used as a title for the royal family and its closest advisers. To be honest most of the unicorn nobility, are of the firm belief that Equestria is not even real and have done everything they can to prevent expeditions to find the nation. We only found it because of Dream's magic somehow guiding us to the town that we met Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.”

“Well then,” said Twilight, “they're going to have to reassess that notion once their emissaries meet me or the other Princesses.” At this statement Eclipse's ears perked up.

“The way you said that indicates that you and the Princesses in Canterlot aren't the only alicorns,” said Eclipse with an interest that confirmed Twilight's hopes.

“You are mind is much sharper than I hoped. My sister-in-law is Princess Cadance,” said Twilight, “she married my big brother, and now she's ruling over the Crystal Empire.”

“Wouldn't that make her an empress then?” inquired Eclipse.

“I'm not familiar with the term,” said Twilight.

“An empress is the female ruler of an empire if it's a male ruler you call him an emperor. Bridleton was part of an empire long before the establishment of the nation. Of course before it was Bridleton it was Bridletania, and it was ruled by the original Artanus in much the same way Equestria was ruled over by Princess Celestia in the thousand years that followed the defeat of Nightmare Moon.”

“From what I know about your nation I'm going to say he must have had an amazing unicorn guiding its course,” said Twilight.

“Many are unaware the original Artatnus was an Earth Pony,” said Eclipse, “but he did have an amazing unicorn as a teacher who instructed him the ways of being a good ruler.”

“What was the unicorn's name,” inquired Twilight.

“His name was Myrraldin,” said Eclipse with a hint of pride, “he later became known as Myrraldin the Great after the loss of the original Artanus, Myrraldin also disappeared from all known history about a decade before the fall of Artanus believing the nation was in very capable hooves. Nopony knows if either had any descendants.”

“What happened after Artanus was lost? How was he lost?” asked Twilight with a hunger to know.

“Somepony stole Artanus's shield, and sword,” said Eclipse, “but more importantly somepony made off with the scabbard of Artanus's sword almost 5 years before the king fell.”

“What was so special about those artifacts?”

“The shield had the power to ensure the innocent and pure were kept safe, the sword had an enchantment that made it so no ordinary weapon could best it and could return to the wielder if lost in battle, but the scabbard for the sword had the greatest enchantment with the ability to protect and rescue life. Almost everypony from Bridleton will say the shield was useful and the sword was the greatest thing that Artanus had. It was after the last of his artifacts was stolen that Artanus fell in battle to a challenger in his own kingdom who was driven by pride and a desire for power, which are now the primary driving forces for most of the unicorn nobility I am aware of.”

“But you think that his greatest of his possessions were the scabbard and his good heart.” Eclipse only nodded and then Spike came in through the door.

“Okay, I got my practice cave all set up, I never thought I'd see so many star sapphires in one place,” said Spike excitedly, “I can help you prep the room for Eclipse now Twilight.”

“Thanks Spike,” said Twilight with gratitude, “let's get to work, Eclipse how about you do some reading while you wait when we're done I'll come and ask you what kind of bed and night stand you want and head out for it.”

“I already know what kind of bed I want,” said Eclipse.

“Here we go,” said Spike thinking he knew what Eclipse Touch was going to ask for pulling out his check list and preparing to write.

“I would like a simple bed, preferably something like what you have in your bedroom,” said Eclipse Touch while looking at Twilight, “and a simple night stand as well.” Spike gawked after noticing what he had just written.

“Your brother said you came from a distinguished aristipony house,” stated Twilight, “so we were kind expecting a set of requests that were a bit more demanding.”

“One of the original Artanus's tenants was 'the greater ones station the greater their responsibilities' and that is an edict I like to hold myself and others to,” said Eclipse, “my sister said she likes that philosophy and has told me she would like to follow it as well.”

“That's a good social standard,” said Twilight, “one that I'm sure the princesses follow and hold me to as well. You have a good heart Eclipse, now let Spike and I prepare the space that will be your room and you can look it over while we go and get the furniture for it.”

“I can tell by the open door and towering collection of books in the room that it will take some time,” said Eclipse before going to settle down on the couch to read the book Twilight had placed in the Filly's hooves while she had been asleep.”

Before heading back to the room Twilight said, “Eclipse leave the book for a moment and come over here,” to which the filly did after staring at the title page for a few seconds, “you've been through a lot and you're acting like a mare who holds it all in, that's not healthy for you.”

“Dream Step and Storm Walker told me I had to be a big filly, and big filly's don't cry or say what they're feeling, before our escape I was already used to being a filly that keeps the bulk of my emotions hidden from other ponies.”

“Well that ordeal is over now,” said Twilight, “come close to me and let it all out, it'll make you feel better.” Immediately upon standing next to Twilight, almost as if a spell had been lifted, Eclipse Touch buried her face in the lavender alicorn's chest and started bawling and saying everything that had scared from the moment her mother began lecturing her on magic up until the moment she started feeling safe around Twilight.

“I dunt wulma glow baulk foo dult phlace dey sud wuz moi holme,” Eclipse kept saying repeatedly through sobs and kept telling Twilight everything that had made her feel uncomfortable or scared.

“Because a home is where you feel safe, secure and loved,” Twilight said gently as she put a hoof and her wings around the little unicorn, “you never felt any of those back there, did you?”

Sniffing a bit and pulling her face out of Twilight's chest and in a more insecure voice that felt more natural to Twilight, “we only felt loved and safe when we were with Storm Walker, and those moments were short.”

“That's why you won't say mom or grandma?” The little unicorn only nodded, at this moment Spike quietly made his way to the kitchen figuring that a small snack might be helpful.

“Your brother mentioned you have an older sister.”

“Yes, Sunshine Bottle” said the filly pulling her ears back while keeping the insecure tone, “for some reason the only 3 known to have an immunity to her false happiness magic are Storm Walker, Dream, and me. I automatically cancel it out, but I don't know why it doesn't work on them, I don’t always feel safe around her and I’ve never felt safe around my parents or grandparents, there were fleeting times when I started to start feel secure around her before she did something to ruin the moment.” At the last part her ears slightly perked and she gave a little smile, “but around you I just feel like everything will turn out right, you don't just make me feel safe and secure. You make me feel like we are family, better than anything else. I know it sounds weird, me just saying that when we haven't even known each other a whole day and me being a pony that was just dropped in your hooves by one of the rulers of the nation almost out of the blue.”

“I'm thankful for the opportunity,” said Twilight, “I felt the same way when I realized the ponies that became my best friends were my friends, and all that took was quest to save kingdom from eternal night. You traveled who knows how far just to get out of the shadow of a family you felt was doing things wrong.”

“Most of that was Dream,” said the black filly pulling her ears almost flat on her head, “it was her ability that lead us to Equestria, it was her research into nations outside our former home nation.”

“But it was you who thought to remove a book might be hoovy and a spell book that really should not be used as anything other than a reference for why the creation of certain kinds of spells is bad. In fact I think I'll copy some spells that might be useful from that book of you brought to help us see through your memories into another book so that we have a reference without spells to tempt us like those to alter a pony's entire mind.” After that the 2 just just stood together in silence for a few minutes, Twilight with her wings around the little filly and holding her head gently on the filly's head as Eclipse let out a few light sobs.

Spike stepped out of the kitchen and said, “I thought you might be hungry, I made some daisy salad sandwiches and large pitcher of lemonade for when you're ready.” At the mention of food the little filly's stomach gave a surprisingly loud grumble, to which Twilight just gave a silent smile. The little filly looked at her with a silent question asking if it was okay, Twilight released her wings from the filly and made sure she was in full view of the filly before giving an approving nod. Looking over at the book on the couch Twilight noticed on the table beside the couch were the sweets Pinkie had given the filly, they looked mostly untouched aside from a set of small dots that indicated that the filly had brought her nose to contacting the lollipop while sniffing it. She returned her attention to the filly who was surrounding the top sandwich in a little purplish-green glow and managing to lift it a few inches off the others before cutting out, out of frustration after her fourth attempt as Twilight watched the filly just grasped the top sandwich in her hooves and took experimental nibble before having her eyes almost light up and munching at the rest in the manner that a filly does when they discover how much they like a food for the first time. Twilight just smiled as she watched the filly, and using her own magic filled the glass next to Eclipse about half way. The filly looked at the liquid in her glass like she had never seen it before and just like with that first sandwich gave a test taste while holding it in one hoof in a manner that indicated she didn't trust her own magic and then after that first taste chugged the rest of the glass with a look of glee.

After the filly had finished off half the sandwiches and a third of the pitcher, which Twilight happily emptied into the fillies glass, she went back to the couch and instead of leafing through the book merely tucked her legs under herself next to the book and laid her head on a nearby throw pillow and was once again asleep. “I thought she would eat the whole plate with the way she reacted to that first sandwich,” said Twilight in a soft voice so as not to disturb the sleeping Eclipse Touch as she and Spike began to reorganize the room in preparation for becoming Eclipse's personal space, “but I guess she wanted to make sure you and I had something to munch on later, she's a courteous filly that has managed to maintain a what looks like something that could grow into any one of the elements of harmony.”

“Where should we place the boxes Twilight,” inquired Spike in his own soft voice, “the doorway to the basement is blocked by a bookcase that can't move because of massive towers of books up against it.”

“Right,” said Twilight, “Spike amend the checklist so that the bookcase door to the basement is free to swing open,” then more to herself than anypony else, “I wish other ponies would stop bringing me books and never returning for them.”

“What was that Twilight,” said Spike, “I didn't catch that last thing you said.”

“Oh, just talking to myself about how I'm going to make sure Eclipse Touch has an enjoyable experience in learning,” said Twilight. Twilight and Spike spent the next three hours clearing books from in front of the book cases and room that would soon be where Eclipse spent her nights in Ponyville. When the room looked less like a collection of boxes with books in them and more like a room with shelved books, and the basement had a corner dedicated to all the books in boxes neatly organized Spike went to sleep in his bed and Twilight folded her legs under herself in front on the couch carefully setting the book next to the untouched sugary treats and positioning herself next to the sleeping filly who reached out with her hooves instinctively the moment she felt a disturbance on her sleeping surface and hugged one of Twilight's forelegs, Twilight just smiled looking down at the filly with awe and concern at what she had been through and managed to accomplish. A few hours later Spike came back down and Twilight floated over a small bag of bits and the list telling him what to look for and what to tell the furniture ponies. And he was off. He returned twenty minutes later with a pair of moving unicorns, one floating the bed and the other floating a nightstand, and directed them to where they would be putting the furniture. After the work was done each of the moving unicorns were given 12 bits each as they headed out the door wishing Spike, and Twilight, a good day and even stopping to ask about the sleeping filly that seemed to have attached herself to Twilight's leg to which Twilight politely explained as the ponies headed out the door.

The next day Eclipse opened her eyes to find that she was in a bed hugging the top sheet. Yawning she walked out of the room to see a tremendous food spread on the table with 3 different kinds of juice in clear pitchers to accompany it. The 3 juices were colored orange, blue and purple. As for the foods she saw small piles of nearly flat discs of cooked dough, toasted slices of bread, rings of baked dough that were also horizontally cut in half so as to keep their basic shape, what looked like large circles of cooked dough with rising hashes to form what looked like a diamond shaped monocolor golden checkerboard. “Oh good you're up,” said Twilight, “didn't know what you would like so Spike and I made you some toast” she gestured to the toasted bread slices, “pancakes,” she then gestured to the almost flat cooked discs that were slightly golden, “waffles,” she gestured to the hashed cooked circles.

“And I picked up some bagels from Sugarcube Corner,” said Spike gesturing to the small dough rings that looked like they had been cut in half.

“I also got out the orange juice,” said Twilight gesturing to the pitcher of orange liquid, “blueberry juice,” pointing to the blue liquid, “and grape juice,” she gestured to the purple liquid.

“Um maybe a waffle and blueberry juice,” said Eclipse unsure of her choices. Twilight levitated a waffle onto a plate and used her magic to pour some of the blue liquid into a glass before setting it next the plate. Eclipse took a sniff, then nibble at the waffle and her eyes flashed again before she began chomping at it, then when the waffle was half gone she levitated the glass of blueberry juice to her lips and sipped a test before chugging it like the lemonade from the day before, when the glass was half gone she finished off the waffle then chugged the rest of the blueberry juice, then lightly blushed when she noticed Twilight and Spike watching her before she floated 2 more waffles to her plate and used her magic to almost fill her glass with more blueberry juice. Just as she was beginning to set the pitcher down Eclipse's magic sputtered out, and Twilight quickly caught the pitcher with her own magic to prevent it from spilling.

“I was going to have apple juice for you,” said Twilight, “but when I talked to AJ yesterday after tucking you into bed and she convinced me to not do it so that she could introduce you to it herself.”

“We have apples in Bridleton too,” said Eclipse before taking a big bite out of one of her new waffles and then after some big chews of delight swallowed her massive bite and said, “we never had raw apples or this juice you speak of at the manor that our family lords over, we did however have a hard apple cider stashed in the wine cellar every couple of months that mother, father and grandmother would drink and there were a variety of fancy apple cakes and pastries for a variety of meal options.”

“Really,” said Twilight with piqued interest, “AppleJack would love to hear about those, she might not of heard of some. After we drop the bestiaries off at Fluttershy's cottage, we'll go down to Sweet Apple Acres and I can introduce you to the Apple family.”

“I'm afraid I won't be able to do that, I never got to try them but only got to see them,” dejectedly, “you mean that different kinds of ponies have their own land,” said Eclipse in surprise dropping the rest of her waffle from her mouth while just enjoying the feel, taste and smell of it before finishing it off back on to her plate, “such a thing is not possible in Bridleton.”

“Their loss,” said Twilight, “Earth ponies like the Apples have an incredible connection with their crop of choice. The Apples have been on, and owned, Sweet Apple Acres for generations. One more thing pancakes and waffles are sometimes better with syrup,” as she said it Twilight floated bottles of a molasses colored substance, a dark purple substance and a dark blue substance, gesturing to the molasses colored substance she said, “we have maple,” then the dark blue, “blueberry” and final the purple and “boysenberry, or if you prefer you could spread jam on them,” she said as she gestured to a small collection of jam jars with different colors inside the clear jars.

Taking a purple colored jam jar and a spoon from next to her plate Eclipse opened it with her hooves and set the lid down next her glass then took her spoon in her empty hoof and took a small scoop out of the purple jiggling lumpy substance and spread it about her half eaten waffle before eating it again, once again her eyes lit up with delight all that escaped the filly's mouth for a moment was the sound of, “mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh.”

“I think she likes the grape jam,” said Spike as he downed a small stack of pancakes slathered maple syrup with what looked like crushed gem flakes in the syrup.

After finishing her waffles Eclipse said, “grape jam isn't something I never saw in Bridleton, the only grape substance I was aware of there was wine. And that's basically grape juice that's been fermented, only adults are allowed to drink it.” And with that she went back to the silence of enjoying her left over waffle, after adding a thick coat of grape jam to it and in addition gulped down her glass of blueberry juice afterwards. After she finished and slipped out of her seat Eclipse looked a little wobbly for a few seconds before coming out of her stupor.

“Come on,” said Twilight while floating a few pieces of toast and magically spread some strawberry jam over them and began munching one of the pieces as she walked, “we need to find an empty box for some the bestiaries we'll be taking to Fluttershy, Spike gather up all the bestiaries and set them someplace noticeable and out of the way. Eclipse follow me to the basement to look for an used box or two.” A few minutes later Twilight and Eclipse were looking around the basement, which was mostly neat and tidy, looking for a box to hold some books.

Twenty minutes later Eclipse was coughing and saying “I think I found one, it looks like it hasn't been touched in a long time. When will my lessons begin?”

“You need to get a little used to the castle and Ponyville before you start your lessons, some of the exercises I give you will be a bit like running errands across town.”

“Oh, I suppose that makes sense,” said Eclipse with another sneeze that sounded so cute Twilight grinned.

“You're talking like a mature mare again,” said Twilight, “I want you to talk the way you should at your age. Shout at me for how unfair you think something is, tell me if something frightens you, and most importantly I want you to show me the real you.”

Eclipse folded her ears back on to her head and looked at Twilight like she believed Twilight had told her she was in trouble as she carefully pushed the dusty box to where Twilight was and then in a very insecure voice said, “I've always had to hide the real me from everypony before I met you. I had to hide it from my mother and grandmother because I was afraid of their punishments, from my father because of what he might say to my mother, my older sister out of fear she would tell mother, my brother because I didn't want to worry him and my twin because I didn't want her to worry about me more than she already was. I'm the one pony that always feels scared in a crowd,” tears began to well-up in her eyes as she continued, “the one pony that doesn't want to be seen in a public spectacle, the little filly that always wants to be with somepony to protect her, the silly little filly that knows she's the damsel in distress and wants to be the heroine in stories she imagines in order to kweep hlerzelf suwavfe,” said Eclipse finishing bawling beside the box next Twilight.”

“Sh sh sh,” it's alright,” said Twilight in a voice filled with gentleness and concern reaching out and pulling the crying filly next to her with a gentle smile, “nopony is going to hurt you in ways like that as long as I'm here. Eclipse your an amazing filly, I only had a fraction of the talent you displayed at breakfast when I was your age. I know that there will come days that you will be hurt, but with me and your future friends there for you to fall back on the pain won't be as bad as when you tried to bear all on your own. You care so much for your siblings that you chose to hide your real feelings about everything so they could focus on their own problems. You're a smart girl Eclipse, maybe even smarter than I was before I met my friends. You have an amazing memory, maybe just as amazing as Pinkie's, and I can see you have a good heart like me and all my friends. Whatever comes our way I know we can face it as long as we have each other, it'll be like that for you too after you make some true friends of your own,” she smiled a bit more and nuzzled Eclipse before saying, “so the real you just wants to cry until all her pain is gone.”

“No,” Eclipse sounding a little more confident and slightly perking up her ears, “the real me wants to cry for all the ponies I know refuse to cry and hopes that one day she can stand up for her own convictions when she finds out what they are.”

“You really are going to be an amazing pony someday,” said Twilight picking up the box with her magic and inspecting it carefully. Looks like this box will do just fine, all it needs a little cleaning, I have few spells that should take care of that. Come on let's go check on Spike,” she said heading for the stairs with Eclipse half galloping and half trotting close behind her. When the 2 were back up the stairs they saw a small pyramid of books on the couch.

“I'm guessing those are all the bestiaries,” said Eclipse looking with a sense of uncertainty at Twilight.

“That would be correct,” said Twilight, “I'll look through them for lesser known monsters, you go finish some of the food on the table.”

“But I want to help,” moaned Eclipse in a voice that indicated she wasn't putting on an act.

“Sorry, but you can't right now,” said Spike walking up next Twilight, “Eclipse you probably can't tell Equestria's native animals from newly introduced creatures or Equestrian wildlife from somepony's pet.”

Eclipse's ears folded back flat on her head and eyes went big as she began to pout and head towards the kitchen.

“Is it just me or does she look cute when she does cute when she does the whole sorrowful look,” said Spike as he grabbed one of the top books in the pyramid and began leafing through it.

“She's of a mindset that she' just barely gotten out being a foal,” Twilight said igniting her horn and pointing it at the dust covered box that Eclipse had found brought to her, “but the truth is she's still very much a foal, a smart and highly capable filly, but still very much a foal,” she smiled as the box glowed with the same light lavender aura as her horn and then was clean, what was now before Twilight Sparkle was a wooden box that had a red apple branded on its sides, “Applejack said that she lost one of the smaller crates around here 3 or 4 years ago,” said Twilight with a bit of a smile, “After we unload the books with Fluttershy we should take this back to AJ.”

“It was at this point both Twilight and Spike heard Eclipse Touch in a frightened voice saying, “no I don't wanna play with you, you're scaring me, puleaz jwust bweeb gee ulome,” then crying that indicated fear, confusion and a need for safety. Twilight immediately teleported into the kitchen after quickly telling Spike to keep at the bestiaries and was greeted to all the items from breakfast in the form of Discord.

“Discord she's a little filly who has no idea what is going on,” said Twilight in an annoyed tone with Eclipse still weeping in the background, “this game ends now,” and threw up her wings as her horn glowed and all the food stuffs were in the fridge while the dishes were in the sink and condiments back in their shelves and cupboards. At Twilight's display Eclipse's weeping stopped and honest red crying eyes greeted Twilight just as Discord flashed into the room.

“You are no fun these days miss Sparkle,” said Discord in a tone that almost mirrored the annoyance Twilight had displayed before her magic display and then in more excited voice said, “this must be the new student you're taking on, I ran into Fluttershy on her way home yesterday and she mentioned something along those lines, but to truly make her your official student maybe she should have an appearance closer to yours, black and white are not a color pallet a student of yours should have.” After snapping his lion paw he noticed the filly's horn glow as she tried to hide under the table and then nothing, “well that's odd, my spell was a dud, that's never really happened before.”

“She naturally has the ability to cancel out other magics,” said Twilight, “it's more of a defensive reflex than purposeful casting.”

“We'll see about that,” said Discord with a bit more annoyance in his voice snapping his talons and a plush doll Twilight hit the floor in front Eclipse, who then picked up with her magic and dusted it off with her hooves and hugged the doll as her magic ceased.

“I was trying to make the floor under her turn into little ride on wheels so I could get a better look at her,” said Discord with a very notable surprise.

Eclipse looked from her new doll to Discord and back again before saying in delight, “thanks for the gift mister silly face. It's my first real gift.”

“Wait, what?” cried Twilight and Discord in perfect sync.

“What do you mean first real gift?” cried Discord, “what kind of pony doesn't give their foals genuine gifts?”

“I was just about to say the same thing,” said Twilight, “and I'm going to be using her new nickname for you all week now.”

“Do you know how many colts and fillies called me that before I was freed from my stone the first time?” said Discord in annoyance again, “a lot, that little foalish nickname doesn't bother me as much as you might think Twilight.”

Sniffing and hugging the Twilight doll closer Eclipse said, “grandmother always gave my parents gifts with my name on them, they told me I could have them when I was as old as Sunshine Bottle. The gifts were never intended for me anyway, they were always tomes and volumes my parents were after. Gifts given by my parents were much same way, gifts that they had gotten for each other, but wanted to make look like it was for their foals before they were old enough,” she folded her ears flat against her head, “we never saw a gesture to give us toys that hadn't been used by the manor's work force in their colt and filly days. This is the first thing that has ever felt like was meant for me have and share with anypony I want.”

“How did that get there anyway,” inquired Discord.

“It was probably a reaction to your Chaos magic,” said Twilight while watching the filly gleefully huggle the doll of her, “instead of fizzling out the spell like the first time it used the power to create something. Eclipse Touch what were thinking about when the doll appeared?”

“How warm and soft and comfortable you are miss Twilight,” said the filly with joy while nuzzling one of the doll's wings.

“Next time you try that the 2 magic's will probably create another toy based around whatever or whomever she's thinking of at the time. It'll still be chaotic, just not the way you want it to go.”

“I'm alright with that,” said Discord with a genuine smile, “seeing this filly happy is more than enough to drive away my annoyance, but I am very angry at her family.”

“Her big brother and twin sister are wonderful,” said Twilight, “I met them, but I agree her parents and grandmother need to learn what it means to be proper parents.”

“She didn't call them mom or dad or grandma or gran-mum or mum or da,” said Discord, “she's just as approving of them as you are.”

“For now,” said Twilight with a hint of irritation, “Eclipse brought a book with a spell that will enable us to experience another pony's memories as an observer, she's a really smart girl.”

“Ooh,” said Discord with noticeable excitement, “I think that I would like to take part the experience as well.”

“Multiple viewpoints are appreciated,” said Twilight, “After running some errands Eclipse and I are headed back up to Canterlot, last I knew Princess Celestia was studying the spell. Although we probably won't be able to confirm with Eclipse until she has that canceling magic of hers to a more manageable state.”

“I'll see you there then, and I'm sure from what you said about her that the little issue you mentioned will be under control within the week.,” said Discord with glee and in a flash he was gone.

Twilight just smiled for a few minutes as she pranced back the collection of bestiaries, as she leafed through them she stole quick glances at the filly just sitting by the door hugging the doll in Twilight's likeness with a genuine silence of joy and look of real happiness. After about a half hour of leafing through the books only 12 of the dozens Spike had arranged in a pyramid were put into the small crate, “come on,” said Twilight to Eclipse, “it's time to show you some of the town.” On the way out Twilight grabbed her saddle bags and them placed 6 quills, 5 bottles of ink and a blank book.

“Okay,” said Eclipse in a dejected tone putting the doll on a stool that Twilight had by the door.

“What's wrong? Eclipse, you know you can tell me what's bothering you,” said Twilight.

“It's Dream,” said Eclipse in the dejected voice, “she's been through the same things I have, I'm the younger twin, she's the one who lead us here, I don't deserve any of this.”

Twilight said, “Do you know what the Apple family would do if they heard you say that,” more out of curiosity at the filly's response than an actual question, “they'd knock you upside the head and tell to stop that kind of thinking, so let's get going,” with that she floated the small crate beside her and they heard Spike say he'd cleanup the place while they were out and then they were both out. Twilight was explaining every building they passed with what it's purpose was and who it was associated with it. Then after about 10 minutes she stopped in front of Sugarcube Corner and she said, “This is Suguarcube Corner, it's run by the Cake family and Pinkie used work here. The Cake family also lives here, so did Pinkie when she was living in Ponyville. Pinkie got her Party Palace in Canterlot 4 years ago and has been living there, but she's going to be moving it to Ponyville in the next few months. This is the town where all my friends and I lived while trying achieve our dreams. Carousel Boutique was Rarity's primary place of business until she got the Fashionable Gem boutique in Canterlot a year after I became an alicorn, she's been backlogged for months now, if we hadn't forced her to take a few days off later this week she'd burn herself out, we convinced her that the business will be fine with all the help she has running around. Rainbow Dash finally became a primary Wonderbolt 5 years ago, for a whole year she pushed for a school that would help young pegasi increase their odds of becoming Wonderbolts if they wanted to and a year later the Jr Wonderbolt Academy was up and asking for its first batch of students. I think you'll like Rainbow Dash, she's brave and very loyal, also a little reckless and a bit of a showoff. You've already met Fluttershy and heard what she's been up to. Alright we've stood around long enough, Fluttershy's cottage is on the edge of town.” With that they were back to a brisk trot and Twilight kept saying things about different buildings, occasionally giving greetings to other ponies and telling Eclipse who those ponies were. Fifteen minutes later they were at Fluttershy's cottage and Twilight lightly knocked on the door. Fluttershy opened the door and Twilight explained why she couldn't leave the box with Fluttershy as she levitated out the books and stacked them in neat rows of 4 on the table by the couch. Fluttershy gave a gentle smile and softly petted Eclipse's mane, and flinched when the filly did.

“Twilight, did you notice the streaks in her mane?” came Fluttershy's soft voice.

“When I set her down to sleep on my couch before she had a bed at the castle,” said Twilight, “the streaks on the same color as her twin's eyes.”

“So they have an even more special connection,” said Fluttershy with an affectionate look at Eclipse Touch.

“Dream Step and I have never been apart like this,” said Eclipse Touch in a tone that reminded both of what Fluttershy was like when they had met each other for the first time, “miss Twilight makes everything feel secure, she's what I think mother should be like.” Both Fluttershy and Twilight looked at each other in amazement.

“Twilight a mother,” said Fluttershy with a sense of wonder in her voice, “I'm sure she would be a wonderful mother, but you've only known her for a few hours.”

“And in that time,” said Eclipse Touch with a shy confidence, “she's shown me more acknowledgment and care than that the mare who calls herself my mother. I would rather imagine myself miss Twilight's foal than remember how bad everything was before I met her.”

“But you'll have to recall some of those bad memories for us to observe with the spell.”

“And it scares me to pieces,” said Eclipse pulling her ears flat and while pulling herself under Twilight's wing.

“Come on, I'll introduce you to the Apples, and return this crate,” said Twilight with a little smile. Thinking about being a mother was both exciting and frightening to her, just like she figured learning magic was for Eclipse Touch. Nineteen minutes later the 2 were coming up to the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres when an orange mare with a long bunched up blond mane and tail almost galloped out.

“You found et, Twi, I'm so relieved,” said the mare in her distinct country accent as Twilight lowered it on to the mare's back.

“Applejack,” said Twilight gesturing to Eclipse Touch, “meet my new student, Eclipse Touch. I've been mostly calling her Eclipse during her stay.” The little black filly made a sound of being scared and curious as she tried to hide behind Twilight the moment she noticed she was being looked at.

“Not the most sociable filly is she,” Applejack drawled.

“While that may be true,” said Twilight, “she'd be a lot worse if she didn't know I was here, for some reason despite not knowing each other for a full day she's found my presence comforting to point that while visiting Fluttershy a few minutes ago she effectively called me the mother she always felt she needed.”

“Now t'aint that sweet,” came a younger sounding country drawling voice as a mare with a lighter yellow-orange coat and reddish pink mane and tail with a red apple decorated green bow in the mane and pair of blue coveralls that hid her cutie mark.

“Hey Apple Bloom, is Big Macintosh in,” said Twilight, “I want everypony to mee...”

“Ay yup,” came an older sounding lazy male country drawl from behind them and when she turned around Eclipse Touch squeaked in fear and tried to hide behind Twilight with a greater fervor as she looked up at the towering red pony.

Twilight gave a sigh and said, “Eclipse Touch meet the Apple family, well most of them. Granny Smith is taking isn't in right now on account she got note from an old friend and had rush off to meet her in Manehattan in time before she got out of reach again.”

“Well come on in, I got refreshments for ya'll, me an' Apple Bloom just finished making sure the trees have enough water fer the week,” said Applejack as she lead the way with Apple Bloom next to her, “Twi I wasn't really expecting you, but Rainbow Dash should arriving in a few, she'll be so happy to see you back from Canterlot.” The whole time Eclipse Touch kept close to Twilight out uneasiness.

“She reminds of how Fluttershy was back before Twilight came to Ponyville,” Apple Bloom drawled, “but with Twilight there Ah'm sure she'll be more like Twilight by this time next week.” After their short trot over next to barn Twilight, Applejack and Apple Bloom all started talking about how things used to be, with Eclipse Touch listening with interested care and watching the other ponies wearily.

Half way through the story about how they first met Trixie everyone heard thundering crack then saw rainbow ring sweep over the farm in the wake of the forceful thunder, and everpony's mane was tussled as if it were caught in a strong wind for a few seconds only for everypony to see a cyan blue pegasus mare with a rainbow mane descend next to Twilight and hug her excitedly and say with a voice just as excited as she looked, “Twilight I thought I wouldn't be seeing you for a few days, you know the Jr Wonderbolt Academy, of course you do because you know just about everything, well Cloudsdale decided to move the academy to Ponyville. I'm still the only instructor at the school, but with you there it might up some attendances.”

“Nice to see you too Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight calmly while using her magic to gently pry the blue pegasus of herself, “you must really miss Pinkie Pie, because you just talked and acted like her.”

Rainbow Dash gave a little blush and said, “Well there is that, but a few hours before I started my trip back to Ponyville I was told the news about the academy,” her eyes went wide after this because she noticed a little black unicorn with a white mane trying to hide under Twilight's wing and a smile crawled over her muzzle just as she started to say, “so Twi, whose the precious bundle next to you?”

“My new student, Eclipse Touch,” said Twilight, “she's really shy right now and is feeling very uncomfortable around so many new ponies, she hid under my couch when Fluttershy dropped by yesterday.”

“So, who duped you into foalsitting her,” said Rainbow Dash knowing the answer already, “the Princess, right.”

“Princess Celestia put me in charge of her education,” said Twilight with assertion and flapping her wings as she stamped the ground with a forehoof.

“That's all nice and dandy,” said Rainbow Dash, “but you are just going to turn her into another egghead.”

“There is nothing wrong with teaching somepony the quality of a proper education,” said Twilight with authority while giving Rainbow Dash a glare and then they both burst out laughing.

“I missed that sort of thing while you were gone Rainbow,” said Applejack, “extreme obstacle race through Ponyville the day after tomorrow?”

“You are so on, and if I can't use my wings then you have to check the hurdles for damage after every jump, we have to keep things fair right,” said Rainbow Dash with a grin.

“Works for me,” said Applejack, “it'll give me chance to find out if yer rigging the game.” During all of this Eclipse just tried to hide under Twilight's wing.

“She really is uncomfortable with all this,” exclaimed Apple Bloom while watching the filly, maybe this will calm her down,” with that she reached into a cooler that Eclipse had mistaken for an old fashioned table and pulled out a bottle which was green and had a red apple on it and passed over to Twilight who popped the top with her magic and gently slid it between the filly's hooves.”

“Here you go Eclipse,” said Twilight during the gesture, “you might like this.”

“Won't she jus' use her magic on the bottle,” inquired Apple Bloom.

“She has an ability that cancels out magic from anypony, including herself,” said Twilight, “she still can't reign it in, so she's scared of using her own magic out of fear that it might stop working.” They both watched as Eclipse stared at the bottle then took a test sip and then immediately chugged down the rest of the bottle after her first sip, “that means she likes it,” said Twilight with a smile.

“What did they feed you back home,” asked Applejack as she and Rainbow Dash trotted up next to everypony.”

With a scared look and hung head Eclipse Touch said, “all Dream Step and I got fed was wheat and lemongrass salad, it didn't taste very good and a bit before coming to Equestria I learned that it was enough to barely meet our nutrient requirements,” then in a mocking female pretentious tone said, “'you get better food when you show better magic',” then in her normal voice, “that's what mother would say and that's why I get excited with all these new foods, they taste so good, mother only let us drink some kind of mineral water she claimed would enhance our coats and magic,” she finished with a sad tone and started crying.

“Now I want to see those memories even more just see if she was exaggerating,” said Applejack, “who promises and threatens a foal with better food as a reward when they clearly have the resources to properly feed them?”

“Her mother doesn't sound like somepony that hasn't been out of Canterlot,” said Rainbow Dash with a note frustration in her voice.

“Come on girls,” said Twilight, “the princesses have had access to the spell since yesterday and have probably been studying it very closely,” with that Twilight started trotting towards the train station with Eclipse close behind.

“Wait, what spell?” said Rainbow Dash practically leaving an afterimage of herself as she aerial dashed to float almost over Twilight.

“That little filly brought a spell book that lets a pony witness a another pony's memories,” said Applejack trotting up next to Twilight, “personally I want ta experience the spell myself, an' maybe Twilight can use it on some of the animals that keep wandering off to find out why they keep doing it.” A few minutes later they had their tickets and were on the train headed for Canterlot.

Three minutes into the ride Rainbow Dash moaned, “couldn't we have just flown there? Twilight can't you just teleport us there?”

“A few reasons those plans won't work,” said Twilight, “Eclipse's spell canceling ability will most likely terminate the spell before it can activate or make the spell cut out part way, and on the matter of the part way we could end up anywhere from the cloud cover to who knows how far underground and possibly with one or more limbs in the material of where we reappeared. As to the second one we have 4 ponies, only 2 of which are fliers, and the amount of energy for both of us to carry another pony is determined by their weight and mass, not to mention the experience would most likely be very foreign to Eclipse and she might end up accidentally hurting somepony out of fear or we could find out how effectively her ability affect pegasi.”

“Okay, so flying with a unicorn that does not have experience being held while in flight is bad, got ya,” said Rainbow Dash looking with concern at Eclipse Touch, who was once again trying hide under Twilight's wing, “you know she's really quite cute when she does that,” said Rainbow Dash with a warm smile. After the train Ride Rainbow Dash asked about Fluttershy, but before anypony could answer the yellow pegasus mare fluttered down to greet them as stepped into the station from the train. When they arrived at the castle both Pinkie Pie and Rarity were standing next to the princesses, Rarity was actually looking over the spell herself when the other 4 trotted in with Eclipse.

“It's so good to see you all again,” said Rarity with a prim and proper sounding voice after looking up from the book, “the princesses said the more ponies that observe the better.”

“Then start with me,” said Eclipse with an assertive nervousness, “I know just the memory to start this off.”

“But sister,” said a little white unicorn with a black mane and indigo eyes, “your ability will cut it short if not prevent the spell entirely.”

“Miss Twilight mentioned what she thinks of that ability after watching me yesterday and this morning,” said Eclipse in a soft voice scared voice that made everypony take a quick look at Fluttershy, “and I really want to get this all over with.”

“I believe we've found a way to show everypony the memories,” said Princess Celestia, “Luna, Twilight, Rarity and myself will be taking part in a modified version of the spell. Alright everypony taking part gather 'round Eclipse Touch.”

“But I haven't studied the original spell yet,” said Twilight with her ears falling back slightly.

“And Rarity just skimmed it a moment ago,” said Luna, “are you sure this is wise sister.”

“While ideally I would have liked to start things off with Storm Walker, Eclipse's volunteering will help us understand her ability's effect on the spell better so that if it does falter we can make the required adjustments. Also from the conversations I had with him after sending the twins off in your care and Twilight's I believe we might have to rush a few things.” With that she placed her horn on top of Eclipse's and the others touch the tips of their horns to Celestia's and each other's. And then everypony was surrounded in magical sphere just as Discord popped in with a bag of gummy worms and movie theater style soda that were both half his size wearing a pair of 3D glasses.

***********************************************

The motion of a young filly rousing from an extravagant bed greeted them as they heard an overbearing pretentious mare stating, “foals like you don't need this much sleep, you will go down eat your meals and like them, then an hour of study before your classes,” said the condescending regal sounding voice, then a white unicorn mare with well cared for black hooves and an equally well cared for dark green mane came into view and for a moment everypony's gaze went to her open tome within a magic circle cutie mark, and all the observers just watched as she verbally abused the host of the memory they were viewing before arrogantly trotting off.

After the mare had left a soft concerned voice to her right that sounded like slightly younger Dream Step said as they made their way through a lavishly decorated set of corridors in what appeared to be an extravagant manor, “you just let our mother vent like that and never say anything, I'm not sure if you're the braver one or the scarier one, we have to get out of here before we become like...” a bright yellow unicorn mare with dark a dark orange mane and cutie mark of a smiling sun in a bottle greeted them at the stairs with a demeanor that looked like a poor imitation of Pinkie Pie, “Sunshine Bottle,” hiccupped Dream Step.

“Mother is disappointed with your progress from yesterday again,” said Sunshine Bottle in a disturbingly chipper voice.

“We're going to be late for breakfast,” said a younger sounding Eclipse Touch with noticeable fear trying to pull her twin with her hoof towards a fancy spiral staircase that made Rarity elicit a slight gasp of awe. The 2 foals continued down a large hall at the bottom of the stairs that was covered in lavish tapestries and art, and thanks to the magic of the memory spell everypony could feel how plush the crimson carpet of the hall was, and then the polished fire marble that it gave way to as the twins entered the dining hall and went to sit at seats that were just as posh as everything else, only to begin munching at a simple salad that really did taste bland and only had a single glass of water that despite being able to taste the minerals within was also bland tasting.

As the twins headed for the library they heard their mother's posh demeaning voice say, “...if you want something flavorful as oats, apples or strawberries for them then I suggest you actually have them show some results.”

“You never taught them the basics, Grand Spell,” said an equally demeaning sounding well groomed all black stallion as he came into view near the library, everypony watching immediately noticed his overlapping set of magic circles cutie mark.

“For those with a natural talent for such difficult and rare spells the learning of the basics is beneath ones such as them, Grand Seal, and furthermore...” said Grand Spell as the 2 trotted off past to the library. Dream Step immediately went to tome that just had an image of a unicorn on it while Eclipse went over to a book that said “Nutritional Intake and Magical Aptitudes and How They Correlate” Dream Step looked over at her for moment.

“I'm learning the family history like she wants and you're reading up on what foods are good for magic, she's not going to like it.” Eclipse actually ignored the filly and was leafing through with her hooves when Grand Seal's voice boomed through the room saying in a condescending voice, “you should be using your magic to flip the pages, you must flip the pages with your magic.” Eclipse quickly dropped her hooves to her stool and showed a great deal of strain flipping through the pages of the book before stopping at 'wheat and lemongrass' then they could hear the sound of their father clopping away, Dream Step loudly sigh with relief when the sound faded away.

Turning her attention back to the book's article everypony read along with Eclipse how the mixture was good for maintaining health and magical abilities, but was not useful for developing in any way shape or form. After almost a full hour of reading about plants, most of which Twilight was unfamiliar the 2 left the library and ended up in a lecture hall that looked like it could hold dozens of ponies and only had Sunshine Bottle, Dream Step, Eclipse Touch and their mother.

“Now as you remember from yesterday the precepts of plant manipulation are simple, all you have to do is command the plant with your magic to grow or regress. She floated a sunflower seed on to the desk in front of Sunshine bottle, a tulip bulb was set in front of Dream Step and a cherry seed was dropped in front of Eclipse Touch, “I want you to grow all of these to point their flowers are blooming,” continued Grand Spell, “you have the whole 4 hour class period to work on it, at twenty minutes to the end of class I will be checking more closely on your progress, begin.” A half hour later a fully mature sunflower was already in front Sunshine Bottle and a quarter grown tulip was emerging from the bulb, but Eclipse Touch had been straining the entire time and all she had managed to do was get one of the smaller books behind her to hit her in the back of her head.

Eclipse Touch looked like she was breaking down and just tapped her horn to seed and in a very light flash of her purplish-green she quietly said to herself and the seed, “you were never alive to begin with, you were gone before I even got a chance to see you, I hope that someday I can see what you could have become.” 2 minutes later, while Sunshine Bottle still had a stable plant the progress that Dream Step had made was completely undone and every attempt she made to regain her progress was met with failure. When their mother returned she praised Sunshine Bottle and just gave disapproving looks at the 2 fillies. After class was a lunch that was identical their breakfast, except Sunshine Bottle was there enjoying a daffodil and crocus flower salad with chilled apple cider just across the table from them without a care in the world. After lunch a 3 hour class on the exact same thing, this time with Eclipse receiving a peach pit while Dream Step and Sunshine Bottle got lilac bulbs. Once again a fully matured flower was in front of Sunshine Bottle and this time just bare whispers of seedlings were before the twins by end of the 3 hour period.

“It's an improvement,” said Grand Spell with a highly disapproving voice, “you 2 study, 2 hours now,” said the mare and then in a condescending voice continued, “if you aren't reading up on any spells then no supper tonight or breakfast tomorrow.”

“Yes mother,” said the twins in an identical uninterested defeated tone as they left the lecture hall and headed for the library.

“Keep an eye on your baby sisters,” said Grand Spell in an approving tone to Sunshine Bottle who immediately nodded and walked with the twins to the library.

Once at the entrance to the library they noticed a younger looking Storm Walker who just said in a monotone voice, “her regalness, our mother, has insisted I watch the door to ensure you do not attempt another escape and I am to accompany you to dinner this evening,” then in a more animated yet bored voice he said, “I don't know why she even bothers with the formality anymore, non-unicorns aren't allowed in the dining hall, but all family members must be present for special event meals. You would think that... Sunshine your horn is glowing again why is it glo...” Storm Walker gave blank stare for few seconds before shaking his head after a dark yellow aura surrounded his head, “will you stop trying to use that joy spell on me, we already know it doesn't really work on me and when it does manage to affect me it doesn't even last a full minute. And don't try it with the twins remember what happened last time.”

“But you need to be happy, mother insists you be happy whenever you're in the manor,” said the yellow unicorn mare with a less animated voice that actually sounded like her masquerade was being undone.

“You don't know what true happiness is, none of us do,” said Dream Step as she used her magic flip through large tome with a magical symbol overlaying a flower embedded in the spine, “I suspect we never will as long as we're stuck in this place.” Eclipse Touch after that managed to pull a book that looked exactly like the one that original spell had come from and tossed it open physically with her horn and began rapidly flipping through the pages only paying attention to chapter titles and page numbers before stopping at the page for the original memory spell and focusing in on the page number only a couple of seconds before quickly closing the tome with her hooves and pulling out a smaller tome that was sky blue with the image of a magic circle and some unknown creature on the spine, the title page said it all 'The Principles of Summoning: an Introductory Guide' everypony watching took a quick look at Eclipse Touch who was now looking so tired that she looked like she was going to pass out then back to the memory. 2 hours later the 4 were walking in to the marbled dining hall and everypony stopped seeing a magnificent dark blue unicorn stallion with silvery gray mane in a regal purple cloak with a fancy looking crown and an elderly looking bright blue mare with a graying teal mane and a cutie mark that looked like an extravagant charm anklet with a jack playing card and wand all close together.

“Grand Charm,” said the crowned stallion with a self-important arrogance, “am I to assume these are your grandchildren.”

“Indeed, my king,” said the elderly mare with a disapproving voice, “the ones that interest you the most have unfortunately made very little progress in their magical studies, our curriculum is superior so there is no need to change it, those 2 fillies just seem to lack the ability to learn.”

“A pity,” said the crowned stallion, “if it were not for that one little problem that persists we could more effectively negotiate an alliance of our houses, the ability to neutralize any spell is of particular interest to me and my war plans, there is talk that revolution is rumored now more than ever, we must remove the threat to our power before it comes undone.”

“My king,” said the tall black Stallion, “if I may be so bold? Would you not think it wise to increase our likelihood of supporting your efforts should such a travesty befall us by having one of our own and one your own in each other's manors so as to more effectively correspond with one another.”

“An excellent suggestion Great Seal,” said the crowned unicorn, “I will leave my most trusted lieutenant in your care and you will leave lady Sunshine Bottle in mine, agreed?”

“Sadly that cannot come to pass,” said Great Spell, “while Sunshine Bottle is an incredibly capable unicorn in the ways of magic she is also a simple minded thing that would forget half of what you told her the moment she left the room, no I'm afraid for such a transaction to be effective then Great Seal would have to be your correspondent, after all I'm still instructing foals and lady Grand Charm is our matriarch. We simply can't have such ponies taken from their territories without allies and enemies trying to take advantage of such absences.”

“Agreed,” said the crowned unicorn, “who knows when allies will become enemies in an effort to pad their chances of remaining in power during and after the revolution. What is that orange pegasus doing here? He could be a spy.”

“He's worse than that,” said Great Spell, “he's our shame, a stain on our proud lineage; a pegasus born from 2 pure unicorn bloodlines, going back over two-hundred generations we have been unable to find so much as a rumor of any of our ancestors dallying with a lesser class of pony.”

“I see,” said the crowned unicorn narrowing his eyes, “and since the edict that all family members must be present at meetings such as this is effectively a law of our land that even I would not dare remove or alter we have a slight problem here, make sure to rectify any behavioral issues he has before our next meeting.”

“As you wish, King Artanus, for you are our greatest alicorn,” said Great Seal, Great Spell and Grand Charm in unison as they bowed before him. Then the memory flickered out and Eclipse Touch collapsed on the floor and looked like she needed to sleep for week.

**********************************************

“How much are you willing to bet that 2 of those snakes in pony coats are going to play the foreign diplomat card just so they can find these here fillies,” said Applejack in an angered voice.

“There are nowhere near enough gems and bits to cover a debt that large,” said Rarity with sense of importance tossing her mane back with hoof in an elegant manner.

“I was aware of Canterlot nobles making similar arrangements from time to time,” said Celestia as evenly as possible, “but did not think that an entire nation would be founded on such principles, it is a disgrace.”

Keeping a calm voice herself Luna said, “what they won't know is that we've already seen the memories of the ponies they ask about, then we'll just have them allow us to view their memories in that correspond to the ones we've witnessed, but it seems the longer the memory the more draining it is for the one providing it when viewed by others.”

“Which makes sense to a degree,” said Twilight leaning down to comfort Eclipse Touch, “we're effectively forcing copies of memories to display themselves around us with this modified spell, it could be draining on anypony for a few minutes worth of memories and we just watched what amounted almost 8 hours worth of memories, I'm surprised she didn't pass out, from now on we'll have to do all memory viewing in bursts that each have a maximum of twenty minutes in order to give the pony providing the memories to time to recover.”

“Here ya go,” said Pinkie Pie presenting Eclipse Touch with a variety of sugary treats.

“Pinkie Pie that's not what we give an exhausted filly; it could ruin her body, not mention her coat and mane,” said Rarity floating away the sweets away and presenting the filly with a tea cup that had a still steaming liquid that smelled of honey and peppermint. Eclipse took sip of the warm liquid then downed the rest in a hurried gulp, then blushed with embarrassment and hung her head with her ears flat like she thought she'd be in trouble for drinking the tea wrong. “Twilight, darling,” said Rarity as she scooted closer to the lavender alicorn, “from what we just witnessed I would say that the very act of taking those books scared her more than anything in the world, but she was afraid of how much worse things would be if she hadn't brought them, also she seems to think I'm going punish her over tea etiquette in a way that is worse than when I taught Sweetie Belle the proper way to have tea, she obviously knows the rules but never practiced them which is a worse crime of etiquette far the ones who taught Sweetie.”

“She obviously has had rules drilled into her since she was a very little foal, which is actually worse when you think about it,” said Twilight, “she was never given the chance to truly be a filly and was prevented from making friends. I'm going to make sure the mistakes I made in friendship before meeting all of you don't happen to her, she's looks like she's near a point in her life that she'll need friends to lean on when or risk falling further apart,” She petted the little filly gently and just gave Applejack a look that said the mare should have some snacks on her that aren't filled to the brim with sugar, Applejack picked up on the look and placed 2 shiny green apples in front of Eclipse Touch from inside her hat, Dream Step's eyes went wide when she saw the 2 green orbs, and almost instinctively Eclipse floated one of the apples over to the white filly while she started taking joy filled chomps out of the apple in front of her.

“Oh, but cupcakes and lollipops,” said Pinkie Pie watching the joy filled filly munching on an apple, “oh who am trying to fool, seeing her happy is worth more than anything, especially after seeing how much she never smiled before coming to Equestria.”

“It seems I tormented the wrong nation with my chaos,” said Discord with a sense of self-reflection and then snapping his lion paw and hearing Applejack stammering about something and Pinkie Pie giggling and chanting something about being next, he slapped his face with his talon hand and his eyes moved to the back of his head where he saw Eclipse Touch hugging a new Applejack plush doll along with a Fluttershy doll, “note to self,” he said to a self-writing notepad that resembled his head that appeared as his eyes flipped back around to the front of his head, “find a way to make that annoying reactive ability of Eclipse Touch bring about glorious chaos and not heart meltingly adorableness... Oh who am I fooling, there's always time cuteness,” at this he made his own cute looking plush of himself, then took a double take when realized he was holding three in his paws. Heading back into the room he heard Celestia saying that it would be in everypony's best interest to go through the next set of memories in a few days. The memory had been very long, and was exhausting for both Eclipse Touch and the ponies that had done the memory projection to a lesser extent.

“I say we convene back here in 4 days,” said Rarity, “that should give everypony time to rest and also allow us to be a bit more familiar with the spell.”

“I agree,” Twilight floating a blank book, quill and ink from her bags then jotting down the memory spell as it was in the book, then after that copying the memory projection spell derived from it and a short term dream walking while looking at where Princess Celestia had written the projection spell's formula and instructions down. Afterward Twilight, all her friends, and Eclipse Touch were back on the train to Ponyville. They chose to pass the time by regaling a noticeably drowsy Eclipse with adventures from the first time Twilight arrived in Ponyville and up through their many experiences and were half way through their tale of their first encounter with Discord when the train came to a stop in Ponyville. While on train ride home the sun and went down and the moon rose.

When they arrived back at Twilight's castle Eclipse was still holding tight to her new Applejack and Fluttershy plushes and subconsciously picked up the Twilight doll with her magic as she passed by it, “I'm hungry and tired, but more tired than hungry,” said Eclipse in a groggy voice and Twilight wondered what was keeping the filly on her hooves as said filly headed to her room. Eclipse placed Applejack and Fluttershy on the windowsill and crawled into bed snuggling the Twilight plush with a look of genuine comfort on the filly's face.

“Sweet dreams, little Eclipse,” whispered Twilight as she shut the door gently behind her and heading into the kitchen, ignoring how tired she herself was. Once in the kitchen, alongside Spike whom was now much better at keeping late hours, Twilight floated a pair of white picnic baskets that had her main star emblazoned on them and set them on the table before getting out the ingredients for dandelion leaf and daisy sandwiches and ingredients for mint and daffodil wraps then began making a couple dozen of each and setting the sandwiches in the closer basket and the wraps in the further basket. After she was finished and closed the basket lids Spike carefully placed them in the fridge and with a wide yawn from both he and Twilight headed up to her room, with Twilight realizing just how tired she was.

here

Author's Note

Something you'll notice is that 2 chapters will focus on Twilight and Eclipse Touch and then pan to 2 chapters around Luna and Dream Step which are taking place at around the same time Twilight and Eclipse are having their things going on. Send me your thoughts on this setup. I would also like to thank zachary56 for having the commitment and kindness to go through each of the chapters of this story and send me a version with my little typos and hiccups corrected, you sir have a nobility that should be on display more often, and I consider you a knight among the Bronies.

Chapter 3: The Mane 6 Reunion and Eclipse's First Lesson With Twilight

The Mane 6 reunion and Eclipse's First Lesson with Twilight

The first thing Twilight saw when she awoke was Pinkie Pie with plush dolls that resembled everypony's pet, along with a plush of Spike and a plush of Eclipse Touch. Twilight quickly checked the window and used a time telling spell on herself before groggily saying, “Pinkie the Princess won't raise the sun for another 3 hours, what are you doing in here? I could have swor... I left the door unlocked after I got back.”

“Sorry, so excited, couldn't sleep,” said Pinkie in a hyperactive way that told Twilight Pinkie had been in the coffee beans, again, “when those toys appeared in front of Eclipse I just thought we could all have our own toys and so could our pets,” she rambled in way that was almost so fast that the words almost smashed together, “is that her special skill? Because if it is then she's going be wonderful toy making pony.”

“No, Pinkie,” said Twilight with a little more energy and a lot more annoyance, “Eclipse's special ability is to nullify magical energy fields, but when her magic reacts with Discord's it seems to make a toy of whatever or whomever she's thinking of at the time.”

“Right, sorry” said Pinkie in more subdued voice and then looked over at Spike, “Spike is a heavier sleeper than I recall.”

“It's probably a dragon thing,” said Twilight, “and please don't go near Eclipse's room, she's more exhausted than any of us because of how much time she sacrificed to show us a single day's memory. From what I had observed about her up to the point she volunteered was that she's more skittish than Fluttershy most of the time, she was probably more scared of going back to Bridleton than of anything else, but one memory won't do it in terms evidence for claims like what she and her siblings made. We're going to look at a mass of memories, and after each one we will need to give the donor of the memory a few days to recover. With the way that the spell is set up we may have to go through this routine for a month or more, and I really don't want to tie my hooves up with an obligation like that when I have lessons to go over with Eclipse Touch.”

“Can't you just make it so that copies of multiple memories are in the sphere and then just direct the copies to go into everpony's head? That sounds like it could go faster.”

“While you are correct in assuming that method would be more expedient, it would also require far more energy which would result in the casters and donors having their being so drained of energy it could take a considerable amount of time for them to recover and probably require a few days stay in a medical facility for all ponies involved in the spell itself. And seeing as 3 of the ponies involved will be alicorns and 2 of those alicorns have duties over the sun and the moon I really think a few days of night or day might scare everypony, remember the incident with the plunder seeds?” To this Pinkie nodded vigorously.

Five hours later Pinkie was still at the castle, and had made a variety of cupcakes and various kinds of cakes in preparation for the reunion later that day, “miss Pinkie could you please remove the sweet smelling things,” said Eclipse as she groggily walked to the kitchen table with the Twilight doll riding on her back. As she came in she positioned herself at the table with the Twi-doll on the table at hoof's reach and Twilight floated a bowl of oatmeal onto the table in front of the black filly who took a lazy sniff and immediately went at it with the fervor Pinkie seemed to have for sweets and the very act seemed to wake up the filly who blushed a little and then noticing some of the splatter had gotten on the Twi-doll she said her apologies to the doll before pulling the oatmeal of with her right forehoof and sticking in her mouth.

“We went a little overboard with your breakfast yesterday,” said Twilight who took quick a look at the doll with her likeness and smiled before continuing, “so I thought a simpler breakfast was in order today,” then turning her attention to Pinkie, “you couldn't have done this at Sugarcube Corner? Your own house? Sometime after breakfast? You miss Pie have almost ruined Eclipse's good health with your sweets obsession, she still hasn't touched that lollipop you gave her when you first met. I would ask where you got the sugar for all these sweets, but I know how prepared you can be at times and I know you didn't check my cooking supplies because you are most likely going to ask a very specific question.”

“She didn't react the way a filly's supposed when she smells cakes and pies,” said Pinkie with a hint of distraught pointing her hoof at Eclipse Touch, “they should have woken her all up with their enticing scent, instead she just made a comment about how I should move my 'sweet smelling things' out of the building.”

“She probably has smelled and seen cakes and pies, but never tried any before coming to Equestria, in fact she told me about some special cakes she had seen but never tried,” said Twilight, “she probably doesn't understand why she should be excited for something she's never tasted.” As she finished her sentence Twilight replaced Eclipse's empty bowl with a fresh bowl of oatmeal, “I'll hold on to me while finish your breakfast,” she said as she floating the doll off the table and took a closer look at while it was held in her magic.

Pinkie popped up next Twilight and in a whisper asked, “where do you keep the sugar for your oatmeal?”

“If you must know Pinkie, for health reasons I haven't had any white or brown sugar in stock for the past 4 years, I do have some raw sugar in the ingredient drawer by the stove, but I keep it in container designed to only open with unicorn or alicorn magic. Princess Celestia gave me dozens of such containers on the first anniversary of my ascension to the ranks of the alicorns, so you won't be able to open it and the containers have a number of spells that prevent them from breaking through a variety of reasons which include everything you are going to try in order to get at the sugar in the container.”

“but mixing sugar into oatmeal is half the fun,” said Pinkie with conviction, “look at her.” Both ponies turned their attention to Eclipse who was now going slow and savoring every bite of the oatmeal, “nopony should be enjoying unimproved oatmeal that much, it just isn't right.”

“Pinkie, I will have you know that I enjoy unadorned and unimproved oatmeal,” said Twilight, “I don't really see the point in adding something that has the possibility of masking the initial flavor of the food it's supposed to be complimenting”

“Okay I get it, no more super cinnamonny apple cupcakes,” said Pinkie Pie, “when you tested them 6 years ago and gave me an honest answer you said that all you could taste and feel was the cinnamon and Applejack asked how I could goof up a simple apple recipe.”

“Rainbow Dash said that if you ever gave her anything like that again she would awesomely show you how not awesome the treat was, Rarity said she wouldn't even consider feeding them to dolls at a tea party and Fluttershy said they were nice in a way she thought wouldn't hurt your feelings while I could tell by her tone that she couldn't understand why you gave those cupcakes a name like that,” said Twilight while watching Eclipse Touch finish up her bowl and finish off her fourth glass of apple juice, “Eclipse I think you've had enough for the morning, you don't want to ruin your appetite for lunch and I think it's time we started your magic lessons,” then excitedly the filly fell from her seat like she had tripped on something, causing a small chuckle from both mares, and rushed over to the desk in front of the chalkboard that Twilight had set up in the den area while Pinkie commandeered the kitchen, “well at least she knows the quality of a good education.”

“See you this afternoon,” cheered Pinkie as bouncing out the door with a wagon, that both Twilight and Eclipse hadn't seen the house, loaded with the sweets that she had made.

Just before the door closed Twilight yelled, “you have to return everything you used for making those by the end of the week.”

“Okie Dokie Loki,” said Pinkie in her chipper voice as the door closed behind her.

“Alright, let's start with the basics,” said Twilight after waiting a few minutes to see if Pinkie had actually left, “and that means simple things like levitation spells,” she said with a bit of a grin as she floated a feather, a wooden block, a metal sphere and a little stone triangular pyramid into the room from upstairs, “let's see what your limits are and then we can work your lessons around them.” Eclipse Touch went from morning droopy to excited the moment she heard Twilight say 'practice the basics' and Twilight gave her a little look of confused concern, “you mean what they said in that memory we all saw where Grand Spell said you didn't need a lesson on the basics really was part of your lessons?” Eclipse Touch just nodded slowly before bawling into her hooves for a few minutes, “sorry” she continued, “it's just most unicorns groan with exasperation whenever they're asked to go over the basics, I did so myself a few times when I got excited about new spells as a filly and maybe after some time of learning with me you'll do the same, of course after the groaning phase you return to the appreciative phase.”

“Except if you're Sunshine Bottle,” said Eclipse Touch as she floated the feather and pyramid towards her in a rather awkward way before setting them on the desk before her and continuing with, “she's always putting on that fake joy act no matter what,” with that Eclipse Touch thumped her hoof on the desk and the feather floated to to the floor.

“This lesson is just as much about focus as it is about testing your natural skills,” said Twilight as she picked up all the practice items and 2 pieces of chalk and began orbiting them around Eclipse with her magic, “this isn't showing off, this is demonstrating what you'll be able to do with enough practice. After you gain enough control over your magic you can split your focus to perform multiple spells simultaneously.”

“Um, about that,” said Eclipse in more timid unsure voice, “Grand Charm keeps saying that performing more than one spell at a time is beyond capabilities of any unicorn.”

“Well, she's wrong,” said Twilight with a bit of pride, “before I was an alicorn I was a unicorn and there were a few times where I ended up using more than one spell at the same time. The first time I met Trixie, you haven't met her yet on account she doesn't really settle down in one place to long, she was putting on a stage show for Ponyville and was bragging about things that she never really did. Snips and Snails were so caught up in her stories that they accidentally woke up an Ursa Minor and kind of brought it with them to Ponyville, after some less than effective magic attempts before my arrival and somepony quoting her on defeating an Ursa Major after I arrived on the scene she came out and told everypony that she had made up the story to make herself sound more impressive, I must have used half a dozen different spells in concert at the time just to get it to sleep and back to its mother. I was still a unicorn and had only been living in Ponyville for few weeks before all that, I was nowhere near the level of experience I had when my friends and I faced Discord after he got free. When I thought Discord had won all the letters I had sent to Princess Celestia were sent back through Spike, and he begged for that stop, it was those letters that helped remember just how important my friends were and why I needed to fight for them. After getting each of them into a position where they couldn't move I used a spell that allowed me to copy some of my memories of what each them was like to bring them back to who they were.”

Eclipse's Eyes went wide as she took the pyramid, feather and block in her own magic and began making shaky formations for a almost 3 hours before picking up the rest the moment the formations were smooth and once again she was practicing shaky formations with everything and 2 hours later she had all the practice items orbiting her n perfect arching circles after letting the orbits circle her for a few minutes she set them down where Twilight had first placed and asked, “can't you and the Princesses view our memories and then use the memory transfer spell?”

“Maybe,” said Twilight, “but we'd all probably end up as tired as you were after that show you had us watch yesterday.”

“Oh,” said the black filly pulling her ears flat on her head, “I hope you can teach it to me someday, maybe I can pull Sunshine out of her fictitious belief of the world with it or share some of my memories with other ponies that I come to trust in the future.”

“That sounds like you really want some friends,” said Twilight floating the Twilight doll over to Eclipse, “come on the meeting will be starting soon, and I know that everypony will want you to be there with me,” at the last part Twilight floated a pair of picnic baskets out of the fridge from where Spike had put them when he finished making their contents after Twilight had checked on a sleeping Eclipse Touch the night before. With Eclipse Touch floating the Twilight doll along with the Applejack and Fluttershy dolls and Twilight floating a pair of picnic baskets and the 2 were out the door and headed for the park.

After a few minutes of trotting they came to the park, and per her usual style, Rarity had laid out a large ornate picnic blanket on which Applejack and Fluttershy were laying with their legs folded beneath them with Angel Bunny and Winona curled up next to them. Rainbow Dash and her pet turtle, Tank, were hovering above the 2 mares on the blanket. Rarity was fussing over Opal Essence's coat, the fluffy white cat had become more tolerant of the diva like mare in the past few years. And Pinkie Pie was bouncing up to the 2 with a Gummy half the size of her tail holding fast to said tail and Owlowiscious perched on her head giving the alligator a wary look. “Hi Twilight,” said Pinkie Pie, “Rarity thought that you would be a little later than this.”

“I wouldn't miss something like this for the world,” said Twilight then turning her attention to Eclipse Touch and her friends as Owlowiscious landed on her flank, “Everypony this is Eclipse Touch, my new student.”

“Fluttershy said she was cute,” said Rarity in her refined yet respectful voice trotting up and taking closer look at the black filly, “but darling I dare say she's adorable, even more so with eyes like that. I know we saw her yesterday, and she volunteered that memory, but still a proper introduction, late as it is, is always nice.” At all this Eclipse just did her best to hide behind Twilight, “has her acclimation to Ponyville been going well? I really didn't take notice of her yesterday.”

“I thought she might be more comfortable moving about the town after a lesson or 2 so we had a basic levitation exercise this morning,” said Twilight, “she's really is very gifted in terms of power, but her control and concentration still need some work, I have a few ideas of how to remedy those problems.”

Eclipse squeaked and said in a very soft timid voice, “when mother said things like that it usually meant forcing me to watch her do a spell I had never seen before for 3 hours without taking notes and telling her what flaws I saw in the spell.”

“Well,” said Rarity with a hint of contempt, “that sounds like expecting a musician to play a song they had never heard of or seen the sheet music before perfectly on the first play through or expecting a fashion designer like me to perfectly make a type of outfit I had never heard of in only ten minutes with the client watching and not telling any defining facts about the outfit. You dear are just adorable, and Twilight would sooner face a hoard of hydras without her magic than do anything like that.”

Twilight gave the purple maned white mare a sharp look before saying, “while that is certainly a vivid image I do not wish to explore, Rarity is right in saying that I would sooner place myself in clear and present danger than force a student to tell me what they think is wrong about something they had never seen or tried themself beforehoof.”

“Ooh, you brought the little dolls,” said Pinkie with a voice that indicated she hated getting cut out of the conversation before snatching the Applejack doll from Eclipse's magical grip, which in turn caused her to react by swiftly floating the Twilight doll to her forehooves and hug it with a gentle tightness while leaning up against the lavender alicorn in a way that indicated how much she needed to feel the comfort of the mare.

“Pinkie you're scaring her, again,” said Applejack in a stern voice, “maybe if she has something ta eat she'll start feelin' more comfortable,” she said in a more relaxed tone while petting the border collie next her.” With that Pinkie Pie headed to to the picnic blanket, along with Twilight and Eclipse Touch following, Eclipse more warily while Twilight almost seemed to have a spring in her step.

With everypony settling down on the blanket Twilight opened her white baskets and set them down on the blanket while explaining that the mint and daffodil wraps were in the basket on the right and dandelion and daisy sandwiches in the basket on the left. Pinkie unloaded 3 dozen pies of varying flavor along with three times as many cupcakes of various flavors. Rarity floated elegant looking cloth napkins that each was the color of the pony for which they were intended and each was embroidered with that pony's cutie mark, a blank that looked like it had been made from the cloth as Twilight's was floated over to Eclipse Touch. Applejack got out some simple looking plates and 20 bottles of fresh squeezed apple juice. Fluttershy got out trays of food for all the pets and arranged them in a semicircle around the picnic blanket. Rainbow Dash checked to make sure the sky around their picnic area was clear of rain clouds, while keeping a few of the standard fluffy white clouds present in case somepony wanted the kind of shade a cloud could provide.

“Here ya go sugarcube,” said Applejack as she passed Eclipse Touch a bottle, who just gave her sweet smile that indicated that while she felt marginally secure around Twilight, Applejack and Fluttershy she was still nervous around Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, and was really insecure around Rarity. Moving closer to Twilight Applejack said in hushed whisper, “that filly's more nervous than a long tailed mouse in building full o' rockin' chairs, you sure this was a good idea Twi?”

In a whisper that was just as gentle Twilight said, “she's never really been in situations that meant she could socialize, at least Fluttershy actually had the chance to avoid those kinds of environments when she was growing up. Eclipse has shown signs of never being allowed to socialize outside her immediate family.”

“Oh my,” said Fluttershy watching the filly happily chug her apple juice and try to eat both the sandwich and wrap at the same time, “sweetie you aren't so supposed to do that, you could give yourself a tummy ache.”

“An experience I would have liked to look forward to,” said Eclipse in voice that was so low even Fluttershy barely heard it, “I'll be careful from now... *hicup*... what was that?” said the filly in alarm and in doing so made all 6 mares giggle.

“Wait, I think she really means it,” said Rainbow Dash after hearing a rapid fire of 3 more hiccups, “she doesn't even have the thought to try holding her breath to hold them back.”

“That,” said Twilight in gentle voice, “is called a hiccup, so named for the sound it makes. It's a reflexive convulsion of your throat muscles and larynx that usually occurs when you eat too fast or are surprised. They usually last a few minutes, but if you want to remove them then you could try a variety of 'cures' to get them to stop, if you want to continue eating I suggest you try a few.”

“Like what?” asked the filly between hiccups.

“This,” said Rainbow Dash before making thunder sound with her hooves as she held a small cloud near to the back of the filly's head. Both Eclipse Touch and Fluttershy jumped with fear and surprise, this actually stopped Eclipse's hiccups, but for about ten seconds it looked like they had been transferred to Fluttershy.

“Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight with a note of disapproval, “you're supposed to be making her feel safe around you, not so scared she does everything t...” she stopped at the sound of Eclipse loudly laughing and everypony, including Pinkie, looked at the little black filly with surprise. Turning her attention to Eclipse Touch Twilight asked, “what was so funny it had you laughing so loud?”

“The way miss Fluttershy hiccuped,” said Eclipse wiping away tears of joy with a little chuckle and then in a much more subdued voice said, “so that's what real happiness feels like when it flows through you, it's kind of nice.”

“You've never been so happy you laughed before?” said Pinkie in surprise with big eyes that said she didn't believe it.

“Before today I never experienced real laughter,” said Eclipse Touch in a shy voice with her ears folded back and head hanging like she was embarrassed.

“I tried to make you smile by making silly faces and giving you candy,” said Pinkie, “and the one who makes you laugh is Fluttershy, it makes me feel like I'm not doing my job right.”

“Well Fluttershy's hiccups were very cute,” said Rarity as she munched on one of the wraps, “Twilight these are absolutely delicious, and you made them only just last night.”

“Spike helped out,” said Twilight as she watched a much cheerier Eclipse munch on her sandwich with delight.

“You have the potential to be just as awesome as any of us,” said Rainbow Dash to Eclipse Touch, who was now a little more relaxed around the cyan rainbow maned mare.

Eclipse Touch cocked her head and asked, “what does awesome mean? You keep using that term, but I never heard it back in Bridleton.” Everypony just stared at her, and Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped so hard you could hear the sound of the shockwave hitting the ground.

“It means you're incredible, stupendous, amazing, and just plain cool,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Oh,” said Eclipse, “the way you used the word cool it didn't sound like you were referring to temperature.” Rainbow Dash facehoofed, and gave a look that said 'how can you not know the context of something being cool?' Before she could say anything more Twilight put a hoof on the mare's shoulder and shook her head.

“Listen sugarcube,” said Applejack from where she was positioned next to Rarity, “we're all going to use some terms that yer unfamiliar wit' from time to time, it won't bother each ‘f us too much because we've gotten used each of those same terms when talking with each over the past few years. It's kind like a secret code that only those that are good friends can decipher.”

“Without the need for a decryption key,” said Twilight gently while floating Eclipse's napkin and wiping off some smudges on the filly’s face that had come from the black filly's enthusiastic eating. Eclipse Touch reached over to her Twilight doll and hugged it close, even giving a little suckle on the doll's horn indicating her uneasiness at not being able to understand simple terms that the mares themselves seemed to fully comprehend without much effort. “You're a smart girl, Eclipse,” continued Twilight, “you'll probably have the nuances of our little code figured out in a couple of months. I noticed you used a spell to tell if that seed was actually alive when we all saw your memory yesterday. If you learned that spell from reading it then you're just as capable as I am with magic, or at least you come close. Looking at you I see bits of all of us in you, and you've only just been here a couple of days. You've got the intellectual capabilities that I have, a similar sort of memory to Pinkie's, you have a sort of loyalty that reminds me of Rainbow Dash, you're just as kind and sweet as Fluttershy, you have the kind of honesty that Applejack possesses, and I feel that there is a generous spirit like the one Rarity possesses just waiting to get out. In my honest opinion you belong in Ponyville.”

“I don't deserve to be here,” said Eclipse pulling the Twilight doll closer, “I refuse to acknowledge my own parents as my parents. I think of you as more of a mother, and I've only known you for a couple of days,” she said as her ears fell flat on her head, “the only reason we chose Equestria to run to was because Dream had found out how to get here and how its power structure is set up is more in line with what our old stories of the original Artanus and his kingdom were close to.”

“You told us what his nation was called, but what was the nation's capitol?” inquired Twilight.

“The kingdom city of Galloplot was the capital, and shining jewel, of Bridletonia. It was place where ponies of every kind lived in peace and unity. King Artanus was an Earth Pony, but he ruled with a kind heart and fair mind. The official stories say he never had any heirs, he was in fact the child of 2 warring kingdoms. However through Myrraldin's magic Artanus's father was able to masquerade as the opposing kingdom's ruler for single night. The reason for this was Artanus's father desired the queen of the opposing kingdom, but Myrraldin advised him against such things. Myrraldin finally relented after much arguing with the king, but he had him make a deal.”

“What kind of deal?” asked Rarity who showed great deal of interest in the tale of royal intrigue.

“Myrraldin would be given the child of union to do with as he saw fit, and the king honored his agreement. Myrraldin hid the heritage of the colt that was born from the union, the colt's father named him Artanus as he passed him off to the unicorn. Myrraldin left Artanus in the care of a farming family and acted as a primary instructor for things outside the domain of the colt's adopted Earth pony family. It was his humble upbringing paired with the lessons that Myrraldin had given Artanus over the time he had grown up that made Artanus such a great leader, it was Artanus that united all the warring nations into Bridletonia and Galloplot was his capitol.

Galloplot was place for ideas to flow and mindsets to change on matters that ranged from the mundane to the fantastic. But when Artanus passed on everything he had worked towards fell apart, and a decade before that Myrraldin left the nation for parts unknown because he believed that the ideals that had been forged Bridletonia would last long after Artanus himself had passed on. It is believed by some that if Myrraldin hadn't left that Bridletonia would have lasted longer. As for Galloplot, some sort of spell that Myrraldin placed on the stones made the city itself just vanish leaving all the ponies that had been in the city behind almost as if the entire city had been an illusion from the start just as fighting for who would rule broke out. Artanus's knights tried to keep the peace, but for one reason or another their attempts to keep the nation together just broke it apart faster in their genuine attempts to reunite the fracturing kingdom. The knights finally returned to their own estates and did everything in their power to keep out of the power struggles that came with the fall of Artanus out of their domains. The current Artanus doesn't have a legitimate claim to the heritage of the original, he just has the name because of the greatness associated with.”

“Warring?” Asked Twilight.

“You don't understand because you've grown up in the harmony that has been made a core of Equestria since a long time ago,” said Eclipse Touch with a tone that implied respect for Equestria and shame of Bridleton, “conflicts break out when 2 or more parties are unwilling to cooperate and in many cases they have escalated to what are known as wars, lots of ponies have lost their lives because of the pride of the ones who claimed leadership. It is practically a tradition amongst the unicorns of Bridleton to look down on those that are not unicorns, a tradition that I have always had a drive to fight and one that I could see was beginning to take its toll on Dream. I'm weak in every aspect except for my natural ability to cancel out other magics and unwillingness to give into what my family demands of me. I really am a weak pony,” with that she squeezed the Twilight doll even closer and began to sob into it.

“Oh no, Darling,” said Rarity wiping the filly's tears away with her own jewel embroidered napkin, “you're strong where it counts.”

“Darn right,” said Applejack, “if you hadn't had the strength to leave that place or take those books I reckon that you and us would be in a whole heap of hurt and trouble right now.”

“If only there was a way to observe the memories of you and your siblings without draining your energy,” said Twilight, “it would make things so much more safe for you.” After that little exchange everypony moved on to happier topics.

“So, Applejack, what's been new on the farm?” inquired Rainbow Dash.

“Not a whole lot,” drawled Applejack, “Apple Bloom heard about this breed of blue apples somepony created a few months ago, there's an farmer's exhibition in Appaloosa next month and rumor has it that the agricultural genius that cooked these things up is going to be there and tell us the official name for the things and they might even hand out seeds with the samples for everypony taste.”

“That actually sounds interesting,” said Pinkie as she gobbled another cupcake and tried to get Eclipse Touch to nibble at one, but the filly refused to do so without Twilight's approval, which Rarity and Rainbow Dash were both in awe of and concerned over.

“So Twilight,” said Rarity, “what are your thoughts on your new role as a mentor?” both looked over at Eclipse Touch who examining the cupcakes Pinkie Pie kept placing in front of her and not doing something as obvious as lick the frosting or nibble on the cupcakes.

“I think that this will be an interesting experience, Eclipse seems to to genuinely desire to learn, she even gets excited over the basics.”

“Well you remember when we learned about different learning styles with Rainbow Dash,” said Rarity, “maybe exposing her to different teaching styles and kinds of magic will help her discover what she's meant to do, after all she still doesn't have a cutie mark.”

“You're right, Rarity,” said Twilight, “maybe we'll visit you in a few weeks and you can explain what your capable of and why you're so focused on fashion.”

“Fashion in Bridleton hasn't really changed in the past 200 years,” said Eclipse Touch, “the fashions here are so much more interesting to look at.”

“Well darling,” said Rarity, “I'm glad to hear you're so open with us.”

“It just feels right,” said Eclipse Touch, “I've been feeling like this is where I need to be at this time, ever since I met miss Twilight.” After saying this Eclipse Touch lifted the Twilight doll from its place next to her and hugged with a firm yet gentle force.

“Those dolls just absolutely gorgeous, Twilight,” said Rarity, “wherever did you get them?”

“Ooh, I know,” said Pinkie with excitement, but before she could continue on that train of thought Applejack stuck a slice of apple pie that she had in front of her on the blanket into the pink pony's mouth, held a hoof to Pinkie's muzzle and gentle gestured that Pinkie wasn't to say another word.

“Funny thing is that Discord is partly responsible for them,” said Twilight with amusement, “when Eclipse's canceling ability reacts with Discord's chaos magic it seems to create things like those dolls, I'm sure that given enough time Eclipse will have a full set of dolls in all our likenesses.”

“Well, she certainly seems to treat the doll in your likeness as a sort of security blanket,” said Fluttershy in her soft voice.

“Maybe she'll treat all of them same way she treats the Twi-doll,” said Applejack, “she's just seen the most of Twi and given enough time she'll probably feel just as secure around any one of the rest of us.”

“I really hope one of the next plushies is me, because I'm awesome and everpony needs a little awesome in their life,” said Rainbow Dash with excitement, “I mean she's got half of our group already.”

“But Twilight said they're created through a reaction between Eclipse Touch's ability and Discord's magic,” said Rarity, “who knows what could happen next time.”

“How's it feel being back at the Carousel Boutique?” inquired Twilight.

“Empty,” said Rarity, “Sweetie Belle has been keeping the place clean since I got got the Fashionable Gem, she even kept my room the way I left it. She's been offered numerous permanent residences from Canterlot to Manhattan, but she's been insistent on keeping her permanent residence in Ponyville until I officially move back, which I think I might. While the Canterlot complex is more spacious there are times I wish I were back in my little boutique.”

“It just feels like the home you need,” said Eclipse with a smile.

“Exactly,” said Rarity, “while I'm not done with the high life just yet I think it's time I stopped trying to micromanage the outlet and settle back down in Ponyville, besides everypony else is moving back here so I should too.”

“We have been apart for far too long,” said Twilight, “so I think we should try to spend more time with each other, like in the good old days.”

“It'll be good havin' y'all back in Ponyville,” said Applejack, “it just doesn't feel right with any of you missing. Heck I jus' met Eclipse Touch yesterday and I'm starting to have a hard time imaging what Ponyville be like when she's gone.”

“I don't plan being away from Ponyville for long,” said Eclipse Touch, “this place just feels... right.”

“That's just word to describe Ponyville for all of us,” said Twilight, “when I first came to Ponyville I just wanted to get everything over with and get back to Canterlot, but now as I look back I feel a little guilty for not giving things a chance when so many opportunities practically yelled at me in the face my first day here.”

“Looks like Eclipse Touch is having the opposite problem,” said Pinkie Pie, “she's seeing so many opportunities, but doesn't know how to respond to them. Because of how comfortable she feels around you she's picking things that are close to you, but there will come a day when she decides to make choice that will not be made with Twilight Sparkle as the forethought.”

“And I will welcome that day when it comes,” said Twilight, “because will mean that Eclipse is making choices with herself and possibly others in mind. Something I've learned over my time is that sometimes you need to be a little selfish every once and a while, it helps you to reflect on yourself.”

“Oh my,” said Fluttershy, “I don't think you should be telling a young filly this just yet, maybe you should have waited a few years before saying that.”

“I know what you're getting at Fluttershy,” said Twilight, “but sometimes it's more cruel to wait with a lesson that they might be more appreciative at a younger age. Besides I can already tell Eclipse isn't going to go and turn her back on anything.”

“I was already selfish for wanting my siblings to all be with me on my journey to Equestria,” said Eclipse folding her ears back.

“Part of growing up is knowing how to recognize something and its opposite,” said Twilight, “your attempts to get all your siblings to join you was more selfless than anything else,” as she lifted the filly's head with a wing, “the actions of your parents and grandmother from what you've said and we've seen were selfish, arrogant and greedy. You hid away most of yourself out of respect for the problems of others who more than deserved the acknowledgments you gave them. You have heart that's so kind that you're willing to emotional hurt yourself for the benefit of others. Eclipse, from what I've witnessed, selfless is what you've always been to ponies that you knew needed something of you.”

“Enough with the heavy stuff,” said Applejack, “Pinkie is your little party store really coming to Ponyville.”

“Yup,” said Pinkie in a chipper voice, “the whole place is getting prepped to move into Ponyville in a couple of months.”

“And next month the facility for the Jr Wonderbolt Academy will be moved to Ponyville's skies,” said Rainbow Dash.

“I'll start making arrangements with the Fashionable Gem,” said Rarity, “but with the Grand Galloping Gala coming up in a few months some of the higher end clients for the shop are making their outfits be highest priority, I swear if I knew that my clients would be so hectic this time of year I would have made a set of prepared high class templates for them to choose from. Not mention now I need to work on of your outfits for the Gala, and prepare an outfit for Eclipse Touch that can be ready with a few last minute alterations just in case she gets her cutie mark before the event.”

Eclipse Touch's eyes went wide and she ran to hide behind the tree that the blanket was under before saying in a scared voice, “I'm not so good with formal events or social events, and a gala is a formal dance event which means it's both. In Bridleton when my parents threw that kind of event I was just set piece,” tears starting welling up in her eyes, “which means I had to stand where everypony could see me and it scared mle slo mulch,” at this point she went from teary eyed to full on crying.

“Hey I'm never all that good at those kinds of social events either,” said Rainbow Dash fluttering over to the crying filly, “a trick I figured out is to focus on one thing at the event that is of interest to you, for me it was trying to talk with the Wonderbolts before I made it as one of them.”

Eclipse Touch calmed down to just a few sniffles and looked adoringly at Rainbow Dash and in gentle voice said, “thanks miss Rainbow.”

“Well, I think its time we adjourned this meeting,” said Rarity, “I hope I didn't upset Eclipse Touch too much with mentioning the Gala.”

“No, you're right and its better she had this moment now than when the Gala is almost up,” said Twilight, “but it probably would have eased the stress if I had mentioned it.”

“You're probably right sweetie,” said Rarity, “I'm going to have to take all new measurements of you all, it's probably better if I use your original gala gowns as templates to expedite things, but Eclipse I'm going have to work on from scratch and I really don't know enough about her to know if what I make for suits her properly.”

“Well yor in town for a few days at least,” said Applejack, “maybe you can visit Twilight and Eclipse while yer here to get some kind of idea about what kind of dress is best suited for her.”

“That sounds like a plan,” said Twilight, “well, we should all head out seeing as Celestia is lowering the sun.” With that they all packed up and headed off.

As the sun was beginning to set a sleepy looking Eclipse followed Twilight and Owlowiscious back to the Ponyville Castle. The moment they in the castle Eclipse went straight to her room and fell asleep with the Twilight doll held tightly to her as Twilight closed the door gently and began writing up her next lesson plan, smiling at the 2 dolls of her friends that had been brought back as well, until the moon was prominent in the sky and headed off to bed.

Author's Note

I've decided that only the 2 first chapters will have the Google doc format along with the standard FiM fiction format, I'll work on getting the entire Google doc format uploaded somewhere else over the weekend and put it as a link in author notes for the most recent chapter I have at FiM fiction. Mostly because I want as many people to give me input on this story as possible.

Chapter 4: Dream Step and Luna Get to Know Each Other

Dream Step and Luna Get to Know Each Other

At the same time Twilight Sparkle and Eclipse Touch were on their way to the train station so they could get to Ponyville Luna found herself leading Dream Step through the palace to the area of the castle that was set aside just for the night princess. The 2 walked with an awkward silence, both not knowing what to say. Luna checked an empty bedroom next to hers and gestured for Dream Step to enter, indicating that the room was for Dream Step's personal use.

“This will be your quarters while you are in my care and tutelage,” said Luna in her caring starry voice, her constellation entangled mane seeming to flow from a wind that was not present. Looking around Dream Step just gave sounds of awe at the size of the room. A large stained glass window that took up half the wall opposite of the 4 poster queen sized bed by the door had the image of Luna raising a crescent moon. The floor was adorned with carpets that had a series constellations themselves, and all interconnected with pieces of Luna's crescent moon to make the image big and prominent without appearing to dominate the floor. In addition to all that the bed's covers also featured Luna's cutie mark dominating a solid black set of sheets, the posts of the bed also held curtains with the same motif. There was a walk-in closet toward the wall opposite the door and to the right, the door featured what looked like a set of constellations that made up the royal sisters with each dominating one of the 2 sliding doors and their horn tips meeting at where the doors parted. Looking inside both found the closet quite bare aside from a single midnight blue dress with Luna's insignia emblazoned on it in a size for a fully grown mare. Luna gave a comment about how anypony could forget to remove such a dress. Dream Step just walked over and stroked the dark fabric with her hooves giving a little comment on how soft it was in a soft voice.

After walking out of the closet in a more confident and concerned voice Dream Step said, “I hope Eclipse Touch is doing alright, she's very shy. She doesn't feel secure in situations that have a lot of ponies.”

“She'll be fine,” said Luna in a her own gentle voice, “I could tell that Twilight made her feel safer than any other pony, which is surprising considering how much she kept on trying to hide behind your brother.”

“Eclipse hasn't realized just how perceptive she is of other ponies, her ability to cancel out magic has some how provided her with the innate ability to read the true nature of some ponies, but that little talent tends to fluctuate in and out at random intervals. She's a whole lot braver than me, while I'm a little better with social situations it was Eclipse that helped me work up the courage to run away with our brother and her, she didn't want to leave without me, she has a good heart like that.”

“Then she's a perfect match for Twilight Sparkle,” said Luna putting a wing around the black maned filly, “and you think that she's the strongest one among you and your siblings, and you're a pony with a much weaker character.”

“Yes,” said Dream Step as she pressed her ears to her head.

“I've explored the dreams of many ponies in the past,” said Luna, “even showed them glimpses of their pasts and possible futures that would be if the continued down certain paths.”

“I'd immediately know you were in my dreams the moment you stepped in,” said Dream Step, “perhaps you can provide me insight as to what would have happened if we had not run away, I know it will hurt and will probably scare me more than anything before, but I really need to know what would have happened had we stayed in Bridleton.”

“You sound much more mature than most ponies your age,” said Luna, “I suppose you had grow up fast in order to protect Eclipse Touch.”

“She's the younger twin,” said Dream Step, “it's the duty o...” she started crying and Luna positioned herself so that the filly was crying into her star studded mane.

“Let it all out,” said Luna in a gentle sympathetic voice, “once you've cried it all out you can begin to heal better, we won't start any lessons until you're ready. I understand how much you want to face your fears in order to move on, I'm still facing mine to this day. I have a massive demon that I've been fighting ever since Twilight and her friends freed me from the curse of being Nightmare Moon.

“You were another pony,” inquired Dream Step between sniffles while she lifted her muzzle from the black alicorn mare's mane to look into Luna's eyes with tears still streaming down filly's face.

“Yes,” said Luna, “a little over a thousand years ago I became so jealous of my sister because most of the ponies frolicked and played in the daylight, and merely slept during the night that I brought. Some ponies were awake at night, but they only did menial duties like guard ponies at night or move the nighttime weather about, nopony played or frolicked in my beautiful night, sometimes a young colt or filly would stare up at the stars in the night with wonder, but only for short time and those that took time to bask in the beauty of my night would fade out in time and were so few an far between that their presence in those times did little to hinder the emergence of my evil persona. I let my bitterness and jealousy consume me and became Nightmare Moon, I had become such a threat that my sister banished me to the moon for a thousand years, and in that time she took on the role of commanding both the sun and moon while leading Equestria into a new age of continued peace in my absence. Your family isn't bad you as make it out to seem, you should always give them a chance.”

“Eclipse always seems to do just that, she never lets her fears about our family determine what she thinks about our older sister,” with that Dream Step yawned in manner that indicated she was quite tired.

“You should rest,” said Luna pulling the covers of the bed back with her magic and then fluffing the pillow with a constellation of a Luna herself.

Dream Step crawled into the bed and gave a comment on how comfortable the bed was before saying, “this is more concern than my mother ever showed me and my sister, and definitely more than she showed my brother.”

“Sweet dreams, Dream,” said Luna as she headed out of the room.

“Thank you miss Luna,” said Dream Step, “it feels right when you call me that,” before falling asleep. Luna just smiled and gently closed the door behind her before making her way back to the throne room. After she had reached the throne room the first thing she noticed was the distinct lack of ponies, even the guards by the door were absent and only Celestia was present within the room.

“So, how is she?” asked Celestia in her usual soft warm voice, but this had a strong undercurrent of concern.

“Concerned for her sister and unsure of herself,” said Luna in a concerned starry voice. The two just sat at each other's sides for a few seconds with the only movement being their waving manes, Luna's starry mane giving a little shimmer and Celestia multicolor layered mane seeming to have some strands of her different colors move into another color for a second or two. “She's not just unsure of herself, she's afraid what she might have become had she and her siblings not made their escape,” said Luna, “when I told her about how I managed to help some ponies she wanted to go on a similar dream journey. She does her best to act like a mature young mare, because she wants to protect Eclipse Touch's gentleness. She admitted that her sister has an inner strength that she wishes she herself had. In a way Dream Step reminds me of how we were as fillies, you always seemed to have a silent inner strength that I was a little envious of.”

“Your first step towards your fall to Nightmare Moon,” said Celestia while raising a mane brush between the thrones and gently started brushing Luna's mane.

“Sadly yes,” said Luna leaning back in her throne, “it wasn't until after Twilight and her friends freed me from being Nightmare Moon that I began to realize I had that same inner strength you had that had started me on the course to be so jealous of all those years ago. It had always been there, I just didn't have the right frame of mind to see it back then. I remember mentoring ponies alongside you before my fall, but you had to carry on the tradition of mentoring those with the greatest potential of each generation without me after you banished Nightmare Moon. I must now find my own personal teaching style, but Dream Step is far to rushed in her desire to safeguard her sister to realize the dangers of doing things too quickly could hurt those she cares for. I told her we would have to wait a while before we go on a dream journey, heaven knows that filly needs a proper rest.”

“I'm glad you're taking time and having her ease into things sister, I know you are just as eager to show what you can do as a teacher. Patience is something we both had to learn the value of, and our own lessons in such matters were very different. Twilight herself was eager to learn new magics, but she had a natural patience that I nurtured and cultivated carefully so as to not repeat mistakes from past apprentices that let their ambitions go to far.”

“Dream Step really is a good girl, I can see she loves her siblings greatly. She also is afraid of her mother, I don't really know why at the moment. I know it might be rushing a few things, but I'm going to use my abilities to help Dream Step through some of her problems and hopefully that will allow her to relax a little. She seems to be a little relaxed around me, but she still shows those signs of worry.”

“That is nice to hear,” said Celestia in a much more calming voice, “but the fact that she has some sort of fear of her mother is concerning, perhaps the spell in the book that Eclipse Touch provided will help shed some light on the matter.”

“What about the other book? The one on hexes and curses,” inquired the dark coated mare.

“That loathsome tome of dark magics was sent to the most secure spell vault through the fastest and most reliable messenger pegasus I know, that particular mare knew not to ask questions or peek in on her package when I stated that in the wrong hooves the package could be beyond dangerous.”

“You sent Whisper Wind,” said Luna with a smile, “that pony is a credit the pegasi, just as much as Rainbow Dash. Was their a time you considered her a candidate for bearer of the element of loyalty.

“Yes,” said Celestia with a firm nod, “not only that, but she's very proud of her mail service career. She was sent a notice by the Wonderbolts six times stating that they would like for her to take part in their tryouts for new members, Whisper Wind just sent a polite letter back to them thanking them for the invite and declining the offer.”

“I'm sure Rainbow Dash would go into shock if she heard that,” said Luna, “when do you expect to hear from Twilight on her progress as a mentor?”

“I have a feeling that after the third or fourth letter on Eclipse Touch's progress Twilight stop sending updates. I'll be sending a her an invite to the Grand Galloping Gala along with invites to all of her friends as well, and Eclipse Touch will brought along with Twilight as her apprentice. It will be a good show to the public about her progress as our latest princess.”

“From what Dream Step told me about Eclipse Touch that might not be the best of ideas, Eclipse Touch feels very self-aware and frightened in situations that have a large number of ponies. Making her a spotlight character at the Gala might frighten her to the point she accidentally cuts out some of the spells in place during the event before she freezes up and tries to take the eyes off of her by either hiding under Twilight's nearest wing or pretending to be a statue, possibly both. You saw how nervous she was when we met her and her first official meeting with Twilight. She practically was trying to figure out if she had memorized an invisibility spell the moment she noticed Pinkie Pie for the first time.”

“Under Twilight's guidance I'm sure Eclipse Touch will be feeling far more social by the time the Gala starts up, it's still a few months off dear sister. Which reminds me, it's your turn to pick the musicians for the Gala this year. Have you made your choices? Have the artists been notified?”

“I took care of it last month sister. For the the intermission music being played through event I've scheduled Vinyl Scratch, I understand she was at Twilight's first Gala with her friends. As for the main event music I've selected Lyra Heartstrings, Octavia, and Beauty Brass.”

“The Gala usually has a quartet,” said Celestia with a piqued interest.

“Well this will be my first time as a Gala coordinator without out your assistance, sister,” said Luna, “besides all the Galas seem to follow the same formula, so I thought it would be in everypony's best interest to make a little change.”

“I applaud you on your initiative,” said Celestia, “and you're right these sorts of events tend to seem like they blend together. Some change every now and then is just what we need to set events apart.”

“I know she won't say it out right, but Dream Step has just has much concern for her big brother as she does for her twin. She told me that Eclipse Touch is the younger twin. She tried to say how it's the duty of the elder to protect the younger, but her emotions finally caught up with her. I just let her cry into my mane until she she could feel a little better.”

“You're already doing a good job as her mentor, when I first mentored a pony by myself I rushed my student and myself. I quickly discovered that was not a good way to do things, while my student was eager and wished to get through those first lessons quickly we both discovered that moving into lessons at a fast pace was a formula for trouble. It's best to ease your student into their lesson plan. That's what I did with Twilight, and true to her form she'll probably try replicating her lessons with me for her first week or so before learning that as similar as her student is to her either as she is now or how she was when I took her under my wing those lesson plans don't always work.”

“I am grateful for the chat sister, Dream Step is currently sleeping, she exhausted herself more than she thought. Also in her new closet we found and old gown that was fitted for an adult mare. Who had that room before Dream Step?”

“Nopony,” said Celestia with concern, “I kept those rooms free of occupants since your banishment, the last pony to be in that room was one you had there before your transformation into Nightmare Moon.”

“That's just it sister, I never put anypony in that room before Dream, I was saving it for the occasion that I had a close student, I figured with her being my new apprentice it was time to move a pony into the room.”

Princess Celestia gave her sister a confused look before saying, “what do you think it could mean?”

“We haven't had any shortage of time travel spells,” said Luna in an amused voice, “they're all locked up in the Starswirl the Bearded section of the Canterlot Archives, you said Twilight once used one of the more minor temporal transit spells to attempt giving herself a message in her past.”

“Yes, that did happen,” said Celestia giving a look of amused remembrance, “I think I know where you're going, but I'll let you continue this line of thought.”

“What if a future version of Dream Step went back to a point just before I gave her that room and left the dress as a sort of catalyst for deciding some sort of appearance she would go for at a social event in her current future, like the idea for what her dress will be at one of the Grand Galloping Galas or as some official liaison.”

“Or maybe she did it to get you to have this conversation in an attempt to decide what you will wear at this year's upcoming Gala. After their first Gala Twilight and her friends declined an invite to the Gala the year that followed it and the one after that, it wasn't until the third Gala after their first that they all decided to come back for the event. Blueblood wasn't exactly happy to see Rarity, and the moment she saw him she told him off and told him why he wasn't fit to be a noble. I'm sorry you had to miss that one sister, but we do have the whole event on record in case you want to read up on it.”

“Or I could use that spell that Eclipse Touch gave us to study to just look a the memory through your eyes, as awkward as that would be,” said Luna

Just as they were about to continue a midnight blue pegasus mare with white tipped wings, a sky blue blue and crimson mane with a winged letter cutie mark flew in, “the package has been delivered and the message relayed,” said the flying mare in a dutiful voice.

“Good job Whisper Wind,” said Celestia in a courteous voice before switching to a more regal sounding voice and saying, “There is a green pegasus waiting on the results of a letter I sent to the royal guard training grounds, it should be a few days before they send their response, your duty is to check on the progress of the letter and deliver it to him once it has been finalized and sealed. Other than that it will be your duty get to know him so as to better understand his character, since he is not from within Equestria and may be withholding something that may prove vital it is imperative that we learn more about his personal character, also you are to not reveal that part of your assignment is to get to know him.”

“Understood ma'am said Whisper Wind with a sense of pride, “what is this pony's name?”

“Storm Walker,” said Luna evenly with hint of amusement.

“Thank you for this opportunity your majesties,” said Whisper Wind, who then saluted them with her left wing and then trotted out the door.

“We both know fully well what Storm Walker is really like,” said Luna once the pegasus mare had left, “he traveled with us to Canterlot for almost three days while continually worrying about his sisters. You're just trying to set her up with some stallion so that she realizes how wonderful things are outside of her career,” she said with a hint of amusement.

“I'll admit that is partially true,” said Celestia, “but I want to know how well he really is adjusting to Equestria.”

“Have you taken a look at the spell that Eclipse Touch informed us about?”

“Yes,” said Celestia with sense of contemplation, “I've been trying to think of a way to allow the spell to work for non magic users.”

“Oh,” said Luna with a bit of contemplation, “what if we used the spell as the base another spell that allows us to expand the range of who is effected by the spell once it's active? However a spell like that could be draining on the casters of the spell, not mention a spell of that magnitude would most likely require multiple casters and possibly some sort of component that we have yet to identify.”

“You may be right with your warning sister, but the way the twins were acting and the way Strom Walker talked about things gave the impression that we may not have much time. I know we are most likely be rushing things like this, especially with not properly testing the new spell as you have suggested,” she floated the book open to the memory experience spell over to Luna, “but in the thousand years I ruled Equestria by myself I learned that sometimes a field test, hurried as they may be at times, can provide far more insight than a controlled test in a carefully regulated environment. Although ideally we should try the spell on Storm Walker first since he is the eldest and can provide the most information with fewer memories observed.”

“We'll probably run into problems if Eclipse Touch's power interferes with the spell.”

“A known problem, without a knowable outcome can sometimes prove more enlightening than an unknown problem.”

“Don't try to wax philosophically with me, Celestia, you're just as scared of that possibility as I am. Storm Walker would be the most logical choice, but I believe Dream Step may volunteer and if she does we should reward her for her willingness to show strangers something so personal.”

“What if Eclipse Touch elects to go before the others?”

“Honestly, while I see that as a possibility it is very slim considering the personality traits she has shown us and what I have been told about her.” After that conversation Luna spent a few hours studying the spell with Celestia before going back to check on Dream Step. Luna still had a few hours before she had to raise the moon so she thought it would be a good idea to take a look at Dream Step's dreams before getting a some rest herself.

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

The dream was very well constructed, a serene forest with the sound of a river running as a background noise with distant song birds to accompany it, none of the birds sounded familiar to Dream Step, it even felt like she was standing on lush grass with the sent of dew that was finishing its transition to air particles. “Well this is different,” said Dream Step, “but my ability has always allowed me to know when I'm in a dream, it sometimes ruins the majesty of what should be a wondrous sensation. You can come out of wherever you are now, Princess Luna.”

“I thought a relaxing environment within the dreamscape would be more beneficial to our better learning of each other,” said Luna as she trotted out from the trees that surrounded Dream Step, “you've only scratched the surfaces of what the ability is capable of,” her star studded black main flowing more gracefully than Dream Step remembered.

“How so,” said Dream Step, “I can already walk about in another ponies dreams, I can see what they are really like through them.”

“I was much the same way when I was young,” said Luna seeming to glide about the surroundings, “but I later discovered I could influence and alter the dreams,” at this statement the forest clearing transformed into the Canterlot Gardens, “and that was just the beginning of everything. I discovered that dreams are a point between all points in time, and the dreamer is their focus. I've shown many ponies the truth of their past and their potential futures if they were to continue down the path they trotted.”

“You mean, you can see what my past is really like here? And I yours?” Inquired Dream Step with awe, “can you show me what my future can be like now and what it could have been had we stayed?”

“Yes,” said Luna, “but I would advise against such actions. Dreams can provide prophecies, long before I became Nightmare Moon I witnessed a dream that became the prophecy of the Mare in the Moon, and it wasn't until after seeing the return of Nightmare Moon I had also foreseen my own downfall. A glimpse into the future can warn of more that what is right in front of you, you have to find a way to take into account other details as well, and usually you won't have all the pieces of the puzzle until it has become too late. Like what I experienced, it was not until I was freed of being Nightmare Moon that I came to realize this. Are there any prophecies that you have heard that may prove enlightening to your future?”

“Eclipse was the one with the fascination of prophecies and the old ways,” said Dream Step as the Canterlot Gardens transformed into the library of the manor of her old home.

They then heard a very young Eclipse in a shy voice that indicated she was afraid of being noticed saying that she had found a book of prophecies before a younger Eclipse Touch and Dream Step materialized before them, a tome half the size of the little Eclipse Touch was open before her as she said, “here it is. 'Green wings of one who trots the clouds will guard the horn that trots through dreams and the horn that stops all others with a gentle heart that will not waver. The three will cross beyond the boundaries told to the place said to have the horns that stand by horns with wings. The winged horns will guide the horns that refused to be lost to lies of the past and stand before those that claim the lies are truth. The purple winged horn united by a companionship stronger than any spell will help one to see way, the black winged horn that watches in the night will guide the other. The Green winged one will find his place as the guardian he always knew he was, when the ones who persist on the lies that masquerade as truth come to claim the three the three shall stand against them with unwavering faith. After casting back the lies that hide as truth the three will return to bring true unity to all and step away from the mantle of those that lead to once again leave the land until such a time they are needed again.' What do you think it means? No matter what I'm always drawn to this one.”

“I don't know how what the prophecy could mean, but I know that if our mother finds out about this we'll be in some big trouble let's just go to bed already.”

The manor faded away to reveal the Canterlot Gardens and Luna said, “that's an interesting one, I'll share it with my sister and Twilight to see if they can try and make sense of it.

“I never told this to Eclipse or Storm Walker,” said Dream Step, “but I really did like that one. It sounded like it was talking about us. 'The Green wings that protect' sounds like Storm Walker, 'the horn that trots through dreams' sounds like me. It sounds like the three of us will start some kind of revolution, when our mother had us read the prophecies it was the first one Eclipse read out loud and the first one our mother said a load as nonsense since everypony believed it referred to some ponies a hundred years ago that tried for just that and failed miserably.”

“That's the thing about prophecies,” said Luna nuzzling the white filly, “they sometimes have a decoy or so that makes us lose faith in them. After I first prophesied Nightmare Moon's beginning was almost 2 centuries before I became her, and just 2 decades before my downfall a black unicorn mare acted much the way Nightmare Moon was prophesied to act, we later found out that unicorn was under the influence of another unicorn who was using his magic for ever a series of ever escalating dangerous practical jokes. Celestia and I gave the unicorn a firm hour long lecture on why such things were wrong after freeing the black unicorn form his influence. That little black unicorn mare later went on to live a life as an actress, a very good one at that. I even checked the family records in Canterlot to see what had become of her, her name was Night Mask, and it turns out that she is one of Twilight's ancestors. She would have never met her husband if she hadn't been an actress, and she would have never become an actress if it had not been for that event where she was under the influence of another pony's magic. The point of this story, Dream Step, is that we can't always know how a series of events can play out. The same is true with prophecies, a prophecy tells of events, but not their context or anything around them, they always treat everything with broad strokes and arches so what is prophesied may end up happening all on the same day or take years to unfold from event to event and may involve more than one generation of participants.”

“Oh,” said Dream Step as she saw the ruins of the old castle in the Everfree Forest come into view and heard Twilight's speech about finding the elements along with seeing Nightmare Moon's defeat before it all rippled back to the Canterlot Gardens, “you were really trying to harm them, that's horrible.”

“Yes, well I was somepony else at the time,” said Luna, “but I'm still trying to make up for what I did as Nightmare Moon, even though my sister says it's unnecessary.”

“Please show me what my life would have become if I had remained where my mother could influence me.”

“That is a very dangerous road,” said Luna, “it could easily break your will and make just as dangerous as Nightmare Moon, you should wait until after I've given you a few lessons and we've established a good relationship. If I were to do this now you could very well think of me as a more powerful version of your mother or grandmother who could send you right back into that terrible memory of a possible future that frightens you at any point I display disappointment.”

“The fact that you're worrying about it is all the proof I need you won't,” said Dream Step, “please I have to know.”

“Very well,” said Luna, “I know you'll keep at this until I agree, but as a comparison I'll show you a future that is likely should you take Equesria's tenants to heart. I know you would ask for this sort of thing anyway, so I decided we'll do just that. But both of those will happen another time, they are a promise for when you have a stronger character from our lessons. They are not something for a first night, the last thing I want is for your first dreams in Equestria to be nightmares.”

“Thank you,” said Dream Step, “you'll remember your promise?”

“I will,” said Luna with a smile, “but you may not want me to carry it out when the time comes, remember the warnings I gave now and will give in the future. Sometimes a dream or memory can hurt more than anything in the real world.”

“I should know that better than anypony you've said that to,” said Dream Step with a hint of worry, “things in the dream world just feel more intense. It was through my ability that I was able to see my parents and grandmother for who they really are, how I was able to see the selfless loyalty Storm Walker has for everypony that he sees as truly being friends and family, and how I was able to see the hopes for a better future for other ponies that Sunshine Bottle has. Eclipse found some old unaltered accounts of the original King Artanus, they told a very different story than what we were constantly being fed by our mother as fact. It turns out that Bridleton as it is hasn't been around any more than three-thousand years, Bridletonia was established over ten-thousand years ago, and the civil wars that lead to the creation of Bridleton as a nation lasted several hundred years,” her ears folded back, “when Equestria was at the mercy of Discord as he used to be Bridleton was . If a being anything like Discord had been around then the nation would probably of never happened and t the land would still be embroiled in war. Wars are very chaotic in nature, and if such a thing were to ever befall Equestria all the things that everypony that lives in this nation takes for granted will fall apart, Bridleton's history is rife with conflicts that took friendships beyond their breaking point and resulted in long time friends and companions fighting against each other with a savagery that those that have only known the kind of peace Equestria has would not be able to fully imagi...” Dream Step started crying and the peaceful gardens turned into husk like ruins of their former glory and Luna saw Celestia in battle armor commanding troops against a black pegasus in combat armor with the ruins of Canterlot all around them and the sound steel weapons and armor striking each other with sound of Discord in the background laughing like a maniac from almost every direction.

“Dream Step,” said Luna putting her wings around the crying white filly, “this is your dreamscape, that means you have primary control.”

Dream Step stopped crying and with a few sniffles they were back in the forest clearing, “sorry, I'm just so scared of what could happen.”

“You must understand, said Luna, “before Celestia and I arrived in Equestria we saw firsthoof what fighting amongst ponies unchecked could bring. When you let your fears loose in this dream realm just now they influenced the serene image I was trying to project in order for you to feel more comfortable. And the fear of Equestria at war was projected over the serenity of Canterlot.

“Oh,” said the filly with her ears falling back and preparing for the coming reprimand, but it never came.

“You've shown me your fears here within the dream realm, I was able to see one of your more favored memories and through all that I got to know you better as an individual, there is no reason to think of what we've been through here as wrong. The first step in that is knowing which dreams are yours and which are others, within your own dreams you get to see glimpses of things that represent what weigh on your mind and shining hopes. Within your own dreamscape the only one you have to please is yourself. When you are in the dreamscape of somepony else you have to take care not disrupt their dreams or alter them too much. While I have used dreams as a means of showing others aspects of their lives I have only done so as a witness and not once have I tried to alter their memories of the events, instead I showed them the same series of events from the side of an observer looking in. It is important you endeavor to do the same once you are more capable with your ability, if you use the ability to witness something that you yourself are not ready for it may prove damaging. You probably were not ready for the dreams of your elders and while it accelerated your preparations for leaving your former home it has also left your will and emotions in an unstable state. It is taking a greater deal of my personal energies to stabilize this dream field that we are within and it only when...” the surroundings changed to the Canterlot Gardens, “I sense the instability as being too great to maintain a setting that I reshape the fluctuations, this is why you need to practice your magic. I believe that if you follow with my lesson...” the surroundings changed to the Canterlot throne room, “plans you might be able to build up your confidence and help stabilize your will and emotions enough to no longer be a potential threat to those around you.

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

Luna came out of the dream and went to raise the moon, just as Celestia was making the sun set. Luna Began raising the moon. After the third hour of night Dream Step was up and found Luna in the room adjacent to hers writing an addition to an already complex formula. Dream Step Step just sat their looking over the equation for a few minutes before her yawn alerted Luna to her presence. Luna just turned and smiled before saying, “I hope your dreams were good after our little talk.”

“Better than any I ever had,” said Dream Step in a genuine happy tone with a little smile of her own before saying in an interested voice, “what are you working on?”

“I'm working on a formula for extending the range of the memory experience spell your sister left for us to study,” said Luna with a bit of frustration, “truth be told Celestia's always been better at that this sort of thing, I'm more of an artist and as such I just try to let things flow naturally.”

“Maybe you should start my lessons instead,” said Dream Step, “it'll probably help you relax a bit, show what you've gotten so far to Princess Celestia and let her take it from there.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” said Luna stepping away from the chalkboard that took up the entire wall, “come with me.” The two trotted down the lunar halls of the Canterlot Castle before they stopped at a set of double doors that formed the constellation of a winged pony.

“I know this constellation,” said Dream Step as she came closer to the door.”

“Is that so,” said Luna with amusement, “what is this constellation called in Bridleton?”

“Pegasus,” said Dream Step, “he was the first winged pony and the one the pegasi get their name from. He has a companion on the opposite side of the night sky.”

“Really,” said Luna with piqued interest, “what is the name of this companion?”

“Unia,” said Dream Step, “she was the first unicorn. It is said the unicorns get their name from her.”

“An interesting piece of lore I haven't heard before,” said Luna, “but I find it worth hearing, come on in,” she said as she opened the door

“Wow,” said Dream Step with wonder looking around the large room with high risen stained glass windows that had each of the zodiac constellations. The room itself was filled with a variety of musical instruments and and art supplies. “What is this room for?”

“It's an arts room,” said Luna, “I make sure it's kept well stocked and everything is in usable condition every week just in case I feel the need to express my artistic side away from the sky. This is where your first lessons will be held,” she she gestured to an art easel that had a mass of practice art sheets on it with her wing and said “find the art medium that feels most right to you and bring it to the easel,” Dream Step looked around the darkening room before settling on an assorted collection of water colors and bringing it over to the easel. Luna smiled and used her magic to moisten each of the colored dots before saying, “now take these brushes and carefully dip them into the colors you want to use, but don't use the same brush for more than one color,” as she floated six paint brushes a quarter the size of the white filly's horn over to her, “don't worry about what your creating, just let it flow. This is an exercise in maintaining a spell for an extended period, in particular a levitation spell, we'll worry about control later.” Dream Step took one of the brushes from the stand that Luna had set them on and dipped it into the green and started t make strokes of varying intesity for a few minutes before setting the brush aside before picking up another in her magic and dipping the new brush in the black and kept at her art project for another half hour before setting the brush aside and then dipping a third brush in the purple dot and kept at it for another ten minutes before setting the brush aside and smiling to herself and telling Luna she she was ready to see her work.

Luna took a look at the filly's proud work, which made her smile when she saw a simplistic, and rather messing, painting of her and Twilight next Dream Step and her siblings. “Is this your first painting,” inquired Luna already knowing the answer.

“Yes,” said the white filly with pride.

“It's quite good for a first piece, but as you become more accomplished as an artist you will begin to see the little mistakes that you didn't know about, you'll probably be proud of it, but the reasons for why it you're proud if might change as you grow in your artistic endeavors. My first piece was much like this one, and to this day I am still proud of it even though it only can be found in the memories of my family and me now. I might share the memory with you some day, but for now just work on your art,” she said as she tore the page of the easel and set it by the door to dry undisturbed. Dream Step took a new brush and dipped it in the yellow before making her new art piece, after a few minutes she dipped a new brush in the pink and began her strokes of paint again. After another half hour of working with the 2 colors she looked satisfied with her work and Luna took a look at the new piece, what she saw was a pink image of Pinkie Pie on the ground laughing in front of a Yellow unicorn.

“Is this how you imagine a certain meeting,” said Luna with amusement.

Dream Step nodded before saying “the meeting of Pinkie Pie and Sunshine Bottle,” looking at this piece Luna noticed that image was a little cleaner than the first piece and smiled to herself.

“That's enough for tonight,” said Luna checking a clock above the door, “I need to talk with my sister before I lower the moon. And you 'my little pony' need to get a little more rest.”

“But I'm *yawn* not that *yawn* tired,” said Dream Step while looking like she was about to fall asleep on her hooves.

“Bed. Sleep. Now.” intoned Luna in a firm version of her gentle starry voice and the white filly gave a pitiful face before heading back to her bed and fell asleep when she was half on the mattress. Luna just shook her head as she gently lifted the sleeping bundle and tucked her into the bed before quietly and gently closing the door before heading to the throne room to see Celestia. When she came into the throne room she saw Celestia on her throne gently brushing her 4 color layered mane. “I hope this isn't a bad time,” said Luna almost catching her sister off guard.

“Not at all,” said Celestia, “it's almost time for you to lower the moon.”

“I know,” said Luna, “there's something I want to show you before then.”

“Oh,” said Celestia as Luna headed into the Night Wing of the castle before following her sister, “what could it be?”

“This” said Luna opening the door to the room with the wall size chalkboard to reveal the formula she had been working on when Dream Step had awakened earlier that night.

“Luna this formula is very complex, it seems to be a magical equation,” said Celestia with a awe and pride.

“It is,” said Luna, “a formula for extending the memory observation spell that Eclipse Touch presented us. You've got better experience with such things, I just thought that maybe helping you to understand some of the elements of my dream walking would help. However it will take at least four magic users to to cast the spell, and at least 3 of them are going to need to have a basic understanding of the original spell. I know Twilight won't like being left out of the loop with first test of the extended spell, but as you said we might be racing the clock in this regard. If these 3 are really in kind of trouble we find distasteful then we need to do everything in our power to find out, and one of them actually gave a means to do so.”

“Thank you for this sister,” said Celestia, “I'll look this over after I raise the sun, you should begin lowering the moon.”

“Right away,” said Luna as she headed out the door, “Dream Step woke up in the middle of the night and I gave her a little practice, she seemed to enjoy it. She's asleep again.” With that the 2 alicorns departed from the room to take care of their great duties. 4 hours later the sun was up and Luna was in her bed getting some sleep.

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

Luna found herself standing in an extravagant manor. In front of her was Dream Step, who just gave a smile and started walking towards a spiral staircase. Dream Step lead Luna down a lushly extravagant hall with a red soft satin floor and walls adorned with very pompous looking unicorns. She stopped at a fire marble floor with a very expensive looking dining table and was just looking out at it when Luna walked up next her. “This was where they raised us, this is the place that has more painful memories than good ones,” said Dream Step with a tone that implied she was doing her best hold back anger, “I can't show you any of my memories just yet, but I can show you their backdrop, we were never allowed to leave the manor, the closest we got was the garden,” the inside of the manor rippled away and was replaced by a large enclosed garden that looked like it was being constrained by the boundaries within itself as well as the boundaries without itself. The gardens were all neatly arranged and there was not a leaf or petal out of place, there was a large oak tree in the middle of the garden that looked like it wanted become towering and was having its growth halted, even the cobblestones were too neat and tidy to be considered part of anything other than a presentation.

“This what you're afraid of,” said Luna, “being in a land of forced order? This is why you chose to come to Equestria, a land where order is not imposed and just seems to find its own natural flow and rhythm.” Dream Step just nodded, “after just one experience in my power and a simple lesson you managed this, you have talent my dear. I'm glad I get to find a way to nurture it. There's something you need to know before you try something like this again.

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

Luna came out of her dream and walked into Dream Step's room to see the filly was still sleeping, the black alicorn just smiled and quietly closed the door behind her. She then turned into the room where she had written the memory spell's adjustment formula and saw Celestia making alterations to the equation, then taking glances at the original spell before making more adjustments or correcting a section that had been written up in her letters and numbers that looked far more elegant than the ones Luna used in the initial equation.

“I see you've made some serious changes to the initial formula,” said Luna as she trotted in.

“The base of the formula is mostly unchanged,” said Celestia, “You gave me a good starting point for adjusting this spell for multiple viewers. And before you say anything I am aware that we are rushing a few things, but knowing Twilight she'll be too excited about a new spell to think straight for the next few days and chances are she'll be back at the castle later today. In anticipation of this I've already sent for Pinkie Pie and Rarity, I said for them to get here at their earliest convenience today,” said Celestia with a concerned voice.

“You're talking about what to do about the memory spell from Bridleton,” said a groggy Dream Step walking into the room.”

“Dream, you're up again,” said Luna with hint of surprise and then in more caring motherly voice said, “how about we get you something to eat before our guests arrive.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” said Celestia as she translated the formula into a spellbook that took almost 7 pages. After Celestia was done checking over her elegant scroll work she, Luna and Dream Step all made their way to the royal dining hall. 20 minutes later the three had steaming plates of warm oat and cinnamon coffee cake with a chilled light breakfast salad of daffodils and carrots and a large glass of green pureed vegetable juice. While Celestia and Luna used their forks to delicately eat their salads and magic to take careful sips of their cool drinks Dream Step sniffed each before carefully nibbling each in a taste test. To her surprise they not only tasted good, but she could also feel her magic growing in strength. She then carefully imitated Luna's table behavior, in an awkward manner that made both the royal sisters smile, the filly's greenish indigo magic encasing her eating utensil.
Celestia's smile broadened when she saw Luna take the initiative in teach the white coated filly with a black mane how to properly hold her eating utensils with her magic and and what each was intended for. For a moment it looked more like a mother fidgeting over her daughter than 2 ponies of different backgrounds learning what it was like to be teacher and student. This made Celestia begin to wonder.

“Eclipse felt secure around miss Twilight within a few minutes of meeting her,” said Dream Step after taking a healthy sip of her drink after a finished salad and half finished coffee cake, “I'm starting to see what she saw in miss Twilight in Lady Luna.”

“Sweety,” said Luna in her caring starry voice, “just call me Luna, when you call me lady it feels like I'm with a stuffy Canterlot noble. You can call me that when at formal functions or occasions, but outside of that just call me Luna. I want us to have a more casual relationship, when you're finished with breakfast we'll go and practice your art.” Dream Step gave a smile and and an energetic nod, which was countered by her attempt to copy the black alicorns refined manner of eating the coffee cake and drink her beverage. “You put almost all your energy into that little display you made for me last night, didn't you,” said Luna with a more disapproving voice. Dream Step's ears fell back and she nodded like she thought punishment was coming, “you shouldn't push yourself like that, you aren't quite ready for anything of that magnitude yet. I found it impressive that you pulled it off, but that kind of magic has greater consequences than most others,” Luna continued, “if you aren't careful pushing yourself to far to fast can result in you being stuck in the dream realm for who knows how long.”

“This is why it is important to build up your magical abilities and skills gradually,” said Celestia in her warm caring voice, “while sometimes eagerness can yield a memorable reward, the greatest rewards come when we know that we have earned them through efforts and practice. I had many students that let their eagerness and ambitions get the best of them, Luna just wants to make sure you don't hurt yourself.”

“Thank you, sister,” said Luna, “come, Dream Step, let's begin your next lesson before our guests demand our attention.”
5 minutes later the 2 were back in the art room and Dream Step was getting out the water colors again. Luna made sure the easel had an appropriately blank sheet before turning to Dream Step and saying, “I want you to draw three different things with only 3 colors,” she floated four clean paintbrushes to Dream Step, “and if you can I want you to paint with more than one brush at the same time, this is another focusing exercise.” Luna moistened the paint dots again and Dream Step took a dip into the black, blue, indigo and green and carefully started painting. This time showing a more relaxed focus than her prior time. The image was less messy when Luna looked at it, and image made her smile more than a bit. Staring back at her was the image of her and Dream Step, in the dull limits of water colors, and she patted the filly on the head with her wing which caused Dream Step to say with joy, “you like it.”

“I think it's lovely,” said Luna, “I would like you to do this same image with each medium you try, it will be a good way of evaluating your progress. When this dries I think I'll hang it in my room, it reminds of my time at your age.” Just as Dream Step was about to go into another painting the bell indicating guests had had arrived.

12 minutes after straitening up the art room and heading into the throne room they were greeted to the sight of a pink earth pony with a maroon mane hopping excitedly up and down in place on all four hooves and a white unicorn with an elegant looking purple mane. “Who are those ponies, really?” asked Dream Step with a little nervousness.

“Pinkie Pie and Rarity are 2 of Twilight's closest friends,” said Luna, “They are also connected to the Elements of Harmony, which are Equestria's greatest means of defense. The elements were returned to the Tree of Harmony in the Everfree Forest years ago, bu the mystical connection they have with those that were once their bearers is still very strong. Who knows, maybe your sister will inherit the right to Twilight's element.”

“That can happen,” inquired Dream Step.

“The tree and the elements have properties not seen in any other kind of magic,” said Luna, “the rules that govern them are very different from other magics, even those of your own home land. Celestia and I were once connected to the elements, but as far as we know that connection was lost when Twilight and her friends became the bearers of the elements.”

“Well you don't have to put it like that your majesty,” said the purple maned white unicorn walking up to them and bowing before Luna, “and who is this darling filly? Ooh that coat and mane have so much possibility, but the lack of a cutie mark will make it a little tricky designing a proper outfit for formal functions.”

“Rarity, this is Dream Step,” said Luna, “she's already met Pinkie Pie, and is a little wary of her.”

“Well I can't blame her, Pinkie can be a bit to brash at times,” said Rarity before elegantly tossing her mane back, “you're very fortunate that the letter Princess Celestia sent me found me as Sweetie Belle's practice session was wrapping up, she wanted to get my opinion on a new piece she's been working on as present for Apple Bloom's birthday celebration. I know the event is months off, but th dear absolutely wanted to know if there were any problems with the early verses before continuing, and she wanted to make sure she had plenty of time to get it practiced on top of the rest of her work load.”

“Is Sweetie Belle a trusted associate of yours,” inquired Dream Step to Rarity.

“More than that darling,” said Rarity, “she's my little sister, and it is a sister's duty to help her sister out whenever and however she can.”

“Oh,” said Dream Step, “my twin did just that, she's with miss Twilight now, but my older sister is so wrapped up in doing what she thinks is pleasing our mother that she really hasn't focused on her sisterly duty.”

“Well darling,” said Rarity, “I would very much like to have a chat with this sister of yours. What is her name? Where is she now?”

“Eclipse, Storm Walker and I are from outside Equestria,” said Dream Step, “Sunshine Bottle was in the nation we came from before arriving in Equestria.

“She sounds cheery,” said Rarity.

“It's all an act,” said Dream Step before Celestia motioned for Rarity to come and take a look she had in her magic. Rarity thanked the 2 for the chat and took the book in her own magic and was beginning to browse the spell before Twilight, Eclipse Touch and 3 other ponies walked in. Dream Step looked closely at them and saw a yellow pegasus with a pink mane, a cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow mane, and a orange tan earth pony with a blond mane. She noticed that the orange earth pony had 3 red apples for a cutie mark, cyan pegasus had a 3 colored rainbow lightening bolt shooting from a cloud, and the yellow pegasus had 3 pink butterflies.

Celestia made a motion for everypony to gather 'round and said they had made some adjustments to the original spell before motioning for everypony to move in closer before asking for a volunteer, to everypony's surprise Eclipse Touch not only volunteered but also said she had the perfect memory to start everything off. Luna expressed her immediate concerns about doing this. The memory seemed to drag on as everypony watched Eclipse's memory. What caught Dream Step's attention first was what Eclipse had turned to in the book and the second thing that surprised her (even more than the first) was during the plant exercise of the memory, seeing and hearing Eclipse Touch talk to the seed about how it was dead and how she discovered that was something she hadn't expected. Hours later Eclipse's memory ended with King Artanus's visit. After the experience Dream Step noticed Twilight copying the original spell from the book and the modified version from Celestia's notebook.

After everypony departed Dream Step said, “I did not expect her to do that, she's so afraid of sharing what is in her mind. Every time I tried to trot in her dreams her ability would cut my ability short before I could even get a glimpse of her dreams.”

As they trotted back to the art room Luna said, “our dreams are usually the best way of revealing our true selves to ourselves, Eclipse Touch was probably afraid of showing something very personal with you. I know that you're both twins, but everypony is entitled to their own secrets. Maybe your sister just didn't want you to worry anymore than you already were, she seems like that kind of filly.”

“She is, half the time before we came to Equestria I would get the feeling she wasn't being honest with me or Storm Walker about how she really was.”

“She'll tell you when she's ready,” said Luna, “but until then you just need to have faith in her to come to you when she needs you most.”

“I hope you're right and waiting is all I have to do,” said Dream Step with a deep concern as Luna opened the art room door.

“You've tried your hoof at paint, so I think you should try these for a while,” said Luna as she shut the door behind them and floated a box of colored pencils over to the easel, “take whichever colors you want from the box and try to use multiple pencils at the same time, just like with the brushes be gentle.” Dream Step nodded and carefully pulled a light purple, cyan blue, yellow, pink, orange, and dark purple out of the box and began to carefully sketch.

As she sketched Dream Step asked, “why the change in mediums? I was feeling comfortable with those paints.”

“Your first weeks are going to be a couple days for experimentation,” said Luna, “this way we can find which mediums flow most effectively for you, this also helps you in learning your own limits. Once we have established what those limits are I'll design a magic lesson around them so that you can slowly push those limits so as to not experience a magical burnout or become trapped in the effects of your dram trotting. After this lesson we'll both get some sleep, I think that night classes will be beneficial to both of us. Also the arts are a good exercise for you to practice the basics.”

“Because you're the princess of the night,” said Dream Step and gave a quick frown when she lost control of her pink pencil for moment before gaining control of it again.

“To an extent yes,” said Luna, “but mostly because I need to sleep during most days to ensure I have enough energy to control the moon. When an alicorn spends to long awake, especially if their magic is being used we have a tendency to quickly exhaust ourselves after a few days because of the strong magic we have inside. If the magic is mostly unused then we feel a level of energy that we really shouldn't have which usually results with us not being able to control our own personal magic and after expending the excess energy we feel drained much more quickly, but if our magic is being used constantly without much time for rest then we exhaust ourselves to a level that can take almost a full day and night of nothing but rest to bring us to a point where we can effectively display some semblance of the total power at our disposal and if we wanted to bring ourselves up to full strength after an ordeal like that we would require several days of proper rest and a few good hardy meals.”

“The greater one's power the harder it is to maintain, so always live up to the promises of your station,” said Dream Step as her control over the pink, dark purple and cyan pencils began to waver, “it's an old saying of Myrraldin's that my sister liked to quote to our mother and grandmother when they would exposit about how our duty is to the king and country above family and relationships.”

“I'm guessing the intended meaning was lost to them,” said Luna as she watched Dream Step's control over her pencils waver again.

“Yes,” said Dream Step as she put her pencils down on the easel's ledge. Luna took a look and smiled. Before here were colored silhouettes of Twilight and her friends.

“You've really been focusing in on Twilight and her friends, as well as me,” said Luna, “is there a reason why?” She carefully took the sheet and hung it by the door and motioned it was time for bed.

“You're the first ponies to make me and Eclipse feel like we're meant to be part of something bigger,” said Dream Step as she headed for the door,” then she pulled her ears back and said in a more solemn voice, “I really don't want to think about Bridleton. It feels to much like a darkness I can't illuminate.”

As they left the room and Luna closed the door behind them she said, “that's what mentors and friends are for, they help you illuminate the dark places where your fears hide. I let my darkness get the better of me and try to make up for it whenever I can. My sister and Equestria have forgiven me,” she opened Dream Step's door before continuing, “but my spirit feels like I need to do more, and for every genuinely good thing I do for ponies in Equestria and beyond I feel like my soul gets a little lighter. Before I became Nightmare Moon my soul felt lighter than a cloud and bright as my moon. After Twilight and her friends used the elements to free me of that persona my soul felt as if it had weights and was coated in a substance that inhibited its light. Only now years afterward am I feeling like my soul is near being as light and bright as it was before the emergence of Nightmare Moon.”

“Good dreams miss Luna,” said Dream Step as he climbed into bed.

“Sweet dreams child,” said Luna as she watched the filly nod off before closing the door and heading for her room. After arriving in her room Luna closed the door and climbed on her bed and got some sleep.

Author's Note

I know not many people have been reading this story, but those of you that are please direct some traffic my way and ask them to leave comments if at all possible. Also, I may not petition anyone to do art of my OCs, but feel free to do it anyway. I don't have a problem with anyone using my OCs for their own work, I'm just asking you to inform me beforehand so I can help give some character details that don't show up in the story (also if it's an art piece feel free to post it whatever art site you have an account on, I just ask you send me a copy of it as well because they are my characters).

Chapter 5: Dream Step's Memory and the Bond She Shares with Luna

Dream Step's Memory and the Bond she Shares with Luna

Luna was up in time for sun to go down, on her way back to her room to think about what to do next she opened the door to Dream Step's room and saw the filly still fast asleep. Luna's horn gave a light glow after she decided to sit down next to the filly and she was once again in Dream Step's dreamscape. Here she saw and heard a curious thing, a Dream Step much like the one from Eclipse Touch's memory earlier that day said how she knew the night princess would be there without moving her mouth or giving the glow of a unicorn's magic. Then there were 2 with one still heading down the hall with her sister and the other walking towards Luna. Luna gave an amused smile as she and the filly followed said filly and her sister. At the moment that a yellow unicorn with an orange mane appeared the dream seemed to pause itself.

“This is the memory that corresponds with the one Eclipse volunteered,” said Dream Step with a hint of sorrow, “Sunshine could have become somepony to help us, but she's more concerned with making our mother happy. I don't think what Sunshine does really makes mother happy, Sunshine is just fooling herself. You saw how her display almost cracked, I never noticed that when Eclipse did. Maybe the hopes Eclipse has for showing Sunshine she can be an amazing pony without doing things to benefit our family will let us see the real Sunshine Bottle.

“I took a look at Twilight's dreams a short time ago,” said Luna, “she's helping Eclipse be her real self.”

“What do you mean?” said Dream Step looking back at the black filly in her memory.

“The reason she kept you out of her dreams was because the Eclipse you mostly knew was an act make sure you wouldn't worry too much."

“I thought that might have been the case,” said Dream Step with a smile smile, “I look forward to finally seeing the real Eclipse Touch. We all had to put on acts for our mother. Sunshine Bottle with her forced cheerfulness, even when she was crying of sorrow and fear deep inside; Storm Walker with his bored obedience, when we all knew he never felt loyalty to our parents; Eclipse Touch with her calm and collected forgiving look, when I know deep down she was more scared and resentful than any of us; and me with my overly cautious obedience, when I just wanted to defy the rules and scream at the top of my lungs until all the pain and rage had been emptied from me,” she continued, “we kept up the acts when we got to Equestria, I still have all that pain and anger bottled up,” when she said that an image of a midnight blue bottle with a white unicorn on it with a note tied to its neck that said 'Dream Step's pain, fear and rage DO NOT OPEN under any circumstance' appeared next to Luna, “well those art pieces I did in practice were reflections of the good emotions that have been surging through me since arriving in Equestria,” Dream Step said to Luna as the alicorn eyed the bottle with interest.

“This will break eventually and when it does the pain you inflict will be far worse than all the pain you have in the bottle united against you. You need to express your pain. Show that pain with your art, do that scream you talked about, tell somepony about what that pain is really like to live with,” said Luna with a voice that sounded like an understanding mother that was disappointed in her child for hiding something that was something she would said yes to anyway.

“I don't want to give somepony the wrong idea,” said Dream Step with a dejected look.

“I know a few places we can go for you to just scream and yell without anypony for miles seeing or hearing you,” said Luna with gentle smile before looking back over at the frozen memory before saying, “your sister really is beautiful, pity she's not at harmony with herself. I was like how you are now before I became Nightmare Moon, trust me when I say that sealing your pain and anger away will make you transform into something just like Nightmare Moon, you need to find a way to be at harmony with yourself before you can begin to learn anything beyond the basics that art practice can instill in you.”

“Bridleton isn't big the whole harmoniousness thing, it's more a case of imposed order from a class of ponies that mostly do what they want and claim it for the good of the nation,” said Dream Step as she unfroze the memory and they followed the 2 fillies.

“The nation sounds like something that Equestria could have become and to an extent was before my sister and I arrived in Equestria,” said Luna, “you and your siblings talked about how the nation was almost like a Equestria. Care to elaborate?”

“Eclipse is better at that, after all she read more on the subject than me,” said Dream Step as she watched her younger self eating the bland salad and mineral water, “the original Artanus was the child of a unicorn and pegasus, those 2 tribes were at war during that time, and as you've been told he was an earth pony. Artanus had no explicit magic of his own like a unicorn or pegasus, what he did have was a charismatic personality that drew ponies, griffons, and even dragons to his side. He was a kind leader, like you and Princess Celestia. He formed the Circle Knights, a group dedicated to maintaining the peace and stability of his kingdom. The knights had all kinds in their ranks; Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, Dragons, Griffins and even a few Hippogriffs. There were 2 of each in the main Circle Knights. Artanus's kingdom existed for half his total lifespan, that over ten-thousand years ago.”

“I've not seen a hippogriff for some time now,” said Luna with a hint of amusement, “someday in the future we may see one in Equestria again.”

敵riffons in Bridleton are treated with disdain by our family's house, and by that I mean my parents and grandmother. I've heard that many of the unicorn nobles have a great dislike for a union between a pony of any tribe and a griffin. The disdain is so strong that many unicorn nobles refuse to even negotiate with a house that has a confirmed hippogriff as part of the staff. Storm Walker told us about how one of staff that wasn't visible to anypony was a hippogriff by the name of Snow Feather, of course he never told us anything beyond that I don't know what Snow Feather looks like or if Snow Feather is a mare or stallion, we've never really met or had a chance to meet.

“That's fine,” said Luna as they resumed their excursion through Dream Step's memory. The first plant exercise was just as Eclipse had remembered it, with the added bonus hearing the younger Dream Step's thoughts. Thoughts like 'just get to full bloom once, if you do I will keep you in as nice of soil as mother will allow and water you when I can', 'stupid plant just grow a little more' and 'can you just do what I want this once, stupid seed'. Luna gave a comment about how frustration can be problematic to learning after hearing Dream Step's past thoughts.

When it came time for the reading portion Luna noticed the title of Dream Step's choice of reading material was Floral Magic: How to Show Superiority Over Plant Life and just shook her head before saying, “your family really does have control issues if they have book with that kind of title.

“It's worse than that, almost all the spells they taught us were created or improved upon by our family, that book was written by my father's great grandmother, and the summoning magic book that Eclipse is glancing over this time was written by our mother's great great great great grandmother.”

“Why have your mother and grandmother simply not used that magic to their benefit? They seem to only use their magic to levitate books and items in the same room as them, if they have always had access to spells that allowed them to call up other creatures and impose their own will on the summoned entities.

“Because summoning spells are tricky,” said Dream Step with amusement as the memory froze again, “the only unicorn in our family history that managed do any summoning was the one who wrote that book. Summoning creatures takes a noticeable amount of energy, much like the improved memory spell you and the others used to display Eclipse's memories for everypony to see, and then the energy demands of maintaining the summoned creature and the energy demands for commanding it. Only a unicorn with an amazing amount of raw energy or magical talent would ever have a hope of being able to pull a summoning spell off for a few minutes. That still doesn't stop our mother and grandmother from trying to see if we can pull it off once a month. That was one of our worst birthdays ever.”

”Why is that?” asked Luna as the memory returned to its flow and they followed the fillies again.

“Because we never got a celebration, all our 'gifts' went to our parents and we spent 5 hours trying to do a basic summoning spell after only half a minute of reading the 13 page starter spell, that was barely enough time to properly read the first 5 pages and skim the rest with everything else our mother had us doing. Birthdays were never really celebrated, they were just used as an excuse to pile more on us than the year before.”

As they watched the second plant exercise Luna said, “what we've been seeing with these memories are really all going to show very little in the way of having a chance to just act your age, I have a feeling I might end up very disappointed.”

“We never once got a chance to meet fillies or colts our age,” said Dream Step, “the only time we saw anypony our age they were the children of the servants in the manor, and they did their best to avoid us because that's what they had been told to do. We would occasionally hear the sound colts and fillies at play in the gardens, but by the time we got to a place we could watch their time of fun was over and our mother or father was berating their parents for not instilling enough discipline in them to keep composure in a work place,” her ears pulled back before she said, “we really did want to enjoy life the way they were, but every time we tried to approach them they just galloped away.”

“You and your siblings weren't just trying to get out from under the hoof of traditions you knew were wrong,” said Luna with smile as they trotted along behind the memory version of the four siblings, “you wanted the chance to be different than what you had been told was the way things were. So when you found information that confirmed Equestria you knew you had to come here.”

“Eclipse was the one who pointed me in the right direction,” said Dream Step, “but it was me who found what little information on Equestria Bridleton had, and for some reason my horn guided us to the town where you and Celestia met us.”

“How sparse was the information on Equestria?” said Luna with a piqued interest.

“Mostly rumors and partially confirmed stories,” said Eclipse as they watched Artanus prance around like it was his right to everything, “everything cuts off at around the beginning of Discord's reign over Equestria. My parents, grandmother and most of the nobility to my knowledge believe Discord to be nothing more than an analogy, they claim that the draconequus is not a real creature and merely a symbol of a lack of order. I believed that myself until I saw Discord at the viewing of Eclipse's memory, Eclipse believed in everything she read about Equestria without fail. She's still very self-aware in a place with more than 4 other ponies. Of course our parents and grandmother almost never let us off of the family grounds or even out of the manor most of time. The few times that we did have more than one guest were the extravagant balls that they threw twice a year, and during those times we were more of a showpiece than anything else.”

“That is quite unfortunate,” said Luna with genuine sympathy, “you might end up feeling like something similar at the Grand Galloping Gala in a few months.” The white fillies memory paused at the adult ponies bowing to Artanus and her eyes went wide with awe.

“A gala, like a formal dance,” said Dream Step with surprise, “I don't think I could be ready for something like that if I had an entire year to prepare.

“It's an event my sister has thrown every year for a very long time, this year is I got to schedule the music without my sister's assistance. Although the event itself is still very boring. I've been trying to develop my own yearly event that could be held on par with the Gala, so far nothing I've been able to think of will not be able to get approval from an appropriate Equestria's elite.”

“Then don't get their approval, see for the event to be approved by the populace,” said Dream Step as the memory rippled out to turn into the Canterlot Gardens. Luna Just smiled as the dreamscape faded away and Dream Step awoke.

“The memory your sister chose was more than you expected,” said Luna as the white filly crawled out of bed, “that's why the corresponding memory invaded your dreams”.

“Yes,” said Dream Step with a hint of shame.

“You don't have to be ashamed of yourself or your memories,” said Luna, “the only shame you should feel should be for those who did things that weren't for the benefit of the many.”

“Like running away with no intention of returning,” said Dream Step, “I feel bad about that, hopefully when we're all older and wiser my siblings and I will return to Bridleton to make things better for the populace.”

“See you have a heart that is every bit good as your sister,” said Luna, “and the same holds true for the inner strength you talked about. Sometimes our strengths are right in front of our eyes so we can see them clearly as the moon or sun and other times they're hidden in places we are afraid to go within ourselves. Having the courage to face the parts of ourselves we are scared or ashamed of can help us to see strengths we never imagined or knew were possible for us. It was true for me and I know it is true for everypony, especially you.”

“Thank you,” said Dream Step with a timid smile, “I'm starting to feel hungry, maybe we should get something to eat.”

“Of course,” said Luna with a smile, “and after that it will be back to art room for lessons. This time I want you to use the art as a medium for expressing some of that pain and anger you have bottled up, it could help you more than even I could know.” They trotted into the dining hall and Luna informed one of the night staff that she and Dream Step needed a simple light meal. A few minutes later the 2 were at the table each with a plate of tomato slices, bowl of warm applesauce and tall glass of chilled grape juice. Dream Step took slow deliberate bites of the tomato slices and gave sounds of enjoyment. After testing to see if the applesauce was to hot Dream Step used her spoon, which wobbled a bit and made Luna give a ghost of a smile as she ate her meal. After finishing off the dishes and downing their drinks Dream Step trotted over to Luna and gave a little hug.

After their little meal, which Dream Step more than enjoyed, they were back in the art room with the water colors once again close at hoof to Dream Step and five paintbrushes like the one before were close at hoof to her as well. Dream Step took 3 of the 5 brushes and dipped them in the red, black and blue paints then began to make delicate angry strokes across the paper before her. After almost a full hour of painting Luna came to look at Dream Step's creation, what she saw was a simple painting that showed a great deal of anger towards 3 images that resembled Dream Step's parents and grandmother.

“How do you feel?” asked Luna with compassion.

“Surprisingly better,” said Dream Step with a more inviting voice as she tore the page off the easel and floated it over to the wall by the door, “may I have the color pencils again, I think my next piece will need to be done with them?”

“Of course,” said Luna as she floated the brushes and paints away and floated the colored pencils over to the white filly. Without a word Dream Step took out the black, yellow, orange and light green and began to sketch with a sort of sorrow that she had never tapped before, an hour and several colors later Luna saw Dream Step's piece. It was an image of her and all her siblings, but they were each displaying a different emotion. Storm Walker's image was displaying contempt as it looked over at Sunshine Bottle's image which was displaying dread, Eclipse Touch's image had the image of fear as the image of Dream Step showed remorse while trying look at both the audience and her siblings. “So, how's that emotional bottle now,” said Luna in a tone that was more of a statement than a question.

“A little less full, and I feel a lot better. This is a good outlet, but I still feel like I need to scream,” said Dream Step as she eyed the image being lifted by Luna and floated away.

“This is how you see your siblings,” inquired Luna as she hung the piece by the door.

“It's how I see us in our relationship with our family,” said Dream Step as she hung her head in a manner that indicated she felt guilty.

“You feel remorse for leaving your sister behind,” said Luna, “she's your sister no matter what.”

“Eclipse wanted all of us to come here,” said Dream Step with a strong tone of remorse, “but Sunshine was too caught up in her desire to please our mother to listen.”

“Every foal wants to make their parents happy,” said Luna, “it doesn't matter where they come from. You and your sibling probably wanted to make them happy as well.”

“You're right,” said Dream Step, “but it was something Storm Walker said that lead us down this path.”

“And what was that?” in inquired Luna.

“he said 'parents should strive for the happiness of their children, even if it means sacrificing their own happiness' it was after he said those words that Eclipse and I began to notice that our parents put their ambitions and desires ahead of the needs of their children. Storm Walker was placed in the long term care of a pegasi family that has been in indentured servitude to ours for almost 20 generations, the only time we felt anything close to happiness was being with older siblings. Sunshine Bottle would unintentionally ruin those moments,” she folded her ears back onto her head, “because she really believed that the way to happiness for all of us was to make our mother happy.”

After their chat Luna lowered the moon as Celestia raised the sun. After tucking Dream Step in Luna went to sit at her sister's side. For almost an hour they just sat their in the early morning with no words and their manes just flowing gracefully before Princess Celestia finally said in an even and warm voice, “You saw her real dream this time, not something you thought would help her relax.”

“Her memory of how it all happened actually,” said Luna in her starry voice, “we also shared a conversation as we trotted through the dream together.”

“So all we'll need is a memory transfer spell since you've already experienced it.”

“Yes, but I think we should still wait a few days like everypony decided,” said Luna before taking a quick look back at her wing of the castle before saying, “she has some things that will eventually hurt her and others if they don't get out so after the sun goes down I'm going to take her someplace where there's nopony for miles and just let do what she needs to get the bulk of it all out. I imagine her siblings have similar problems.”

“I have a good idea of how Twilight is starting off Eclipse Touch, but I am not sure what your lesson plan is like.”

“You know how I was more of an artist,” said Luna looking over at Celestia who just gave a smile and nodded before Luna continued, “I've been starting her off with basic levitation exercises in my arts room.”

“A good place to start,” said Celestia with a prim and warm tone in her voice.

“Well, when we began the lessons she was only willing to express her brighter emotions, I could tell from the start that she was suppressing her darker emotions the moment I saw her first piece but I didn't let her know I could tell.”

“I take it after seeing her version of the memory you convinced her that doing something like that was dangerous,” said Celestia with very little change in her voice.

“Yes, and I told her to channel some of it into her art,” said Luna with a sigh, “the first piece she did after that was of her parents and grandmother. It really captured the negative energy she felt came from them. The second piece she did was of her and her sibling, all of them, that piece showed the emotions she felt towards her parents and grandmother, it had a sort of dark beauty that reminded me of a star flickering out or falling through the sky.”

“It's nice to see you like this,” said Celestia with a smile as she brushed her mane and looked over at her sister, “When I shared breakfast with you two I couldn't help noticing how she brought a maternal aspect in your interactions.”

“You know how much I've wanted foals of my own,” said Luna with joyful look as she met Celestia's purple eyes with her deep blue ones, “You had the chance to watch Equestria grow and flourish the way parents wish to see their children do, in the thousand years of my absence you've been able to see all of Equestria as your children. For me this is a chance to start feeling like the kind of mother I always thought I could be. Dream Step might even start seeing me as a mother figure, and Eclipse Touch will most likely think of Twilight in such a way.”

“Especially given how she reacted to Twilight,” said Celestia with a smile that almost seemed to trigger a full body glow, “I noticed how surprised her siblings were when she called Twilight over to her, she even whispered something that made Twilight look a little happy.”

“Given the prance Twilight gave before pulling out the book I would have to agree,” said Luna, “it seems that the twins genuinely want to bond with a caring maternal figure, which has me wondering what it could possibly mean for their family life before coming here. The twins have abilities that can be considered quite rare, Dream Step has the same ability I have and just like me she was born with it. Eclipse Touch has a natural ability which could be considered the opposite of Twilight's talent for magic.”

“Or a potential logical extension,” said Celestia with a hint of amusement, “by knowing how a certain kind magic or spell works it is possible to create a counterspell. Eclipse's ability is in a way is a meta-counterspell, something that many powerful unicorns have been searching for as a means of defense.”

“You remember when Starswirl said he found a counterspell for both ice and fire spells that got out of control or were modified for combat purposes?” said Luna with amusement and a chuckle.

“Of course,” said Celestia, “he asked you to attack him with an ice spell and me to attack him with a fire spell, it took 3 hours for his horn to thaw out and almost two weeks for the fur on his legs to grow back.”

“All while insisting that he didn't know how it could have gone wrong. We had to explain to him why a spell like that was beyond his skill level at the time.”

“It was a 4 hour lecture that we gave while lowering the sun and raising the moon.” Both gave a few chuckles and giggles before Luna headed off to bed.

Luna awoke with 2 hours before the sunset. She walked into Dream Step's room to see filly rousing from her slumber as well. Luna just smiled and waited for the filly to open her eyes and crawl out of bed. “Good evening,” said Luna to Dream Step as the filly became a bit more aware of her surroundings an hour later. After a light meal of Lily and carrot salad with chilled apple juice Celestia lowered the sun and Luna raised the moon, afterwards Celestia bid the two a good night as she headed off to her room to rest for a few hours. After attending to a short set of night meetings, which didn't even last a full ten minutes, Luna told Dream Step there was something she wanted show her and then in flash of Luna's dark blue magic the two were out of the castle and in what looked like a massive gorge.

“Where are we?” asked Dream Step with noticeable confusion.

“This is Midnight Canyon,” said Luna with Pride, “a location in Equestria that I personally maintain sole control over in all legal and construction matters, Celestia has the Noon Glade as her personal space. Here you can let out that scream you talked about and the only ponies that will hear at you and me.”

“If your sure this is a good idea then I'll give it a go,” said Dream Step with a tone of uncertainty.

“Just take deep breath and let it all out,” said Luna, “sometimes we just need to scram, or yell, or cry before we can move on.”

Dream Step sat for a moment thinking over what she was just told before taking a deep breath and letting out high scream that lasted several minutes, Luna had prepared herself by casting a spell to keep everything above a pleasant conversational tone blocked out until she saw that Dream Step was done before canceling the spell. Dream Step looked like she had exhausted herself in attempt, and some of her scream was echoing back in much more pleasant tone.

“How do you feel now?” inquired Luna as she approached the noticeably exhausted filly.

“More tired than I've ever felt in my life,” said Dream Step with a hoarse dry tone, “and thirsty.”

“Letting the things that mentally and emotionally weigh us down out like that shows us how exhausting carrying those things can eventually get, in a few years you would have felt like you do now on an almost daily basis as opposed to just a few hours that come after you let it all out.”

“You've seen, my future haven't you?” inquired Dream Step.

“I haven't looked at your potential or possible futures yet,” said Luna with a gentle yet serious smile, “but I've seen what happens to ponies that bottle up all their painful thoughts and memories instead of sharing what their problems were with others like you were doing. If you had told your brother or sister about it all it would have helped ease your pain, and possibly even eased their anxieties as well. You're just like your sister in that you get so trapped in worrying about others that you need an outside perspective to ground you and help bring things into focus, that's what Twilight is for your sister and I am for you. We're not just your mentors, we're an extension of your true family and we would like it if someday you thought of us as friends.”

“I really do think of you as family,” said Dream Step, “so, the Midnight Canyon is your personal place?”

“In a sense, yes,” said Luna, “I know that someday ponies will come here for one reason or another that could have the potential of helping Equestria or the lands beyond, but until that time comes the canyon is primarily here for my exclusive use.”

“If the canyon is your personal place then that must mean that you have a lot of trust in me to bring me here.”

“More than that, I have faith in what you are capable of. You're not quite ready for dream influencing like me yet, but one day you will and when that day comes I hope that you will have the responsibility and morality to utilize it properly and for the benefit of others.”

“My mother would be trying have use that aspect of my ability for far more petty and less noble reasons.”

“That spell book Eclipse Touch left in our care had a number of spells that can influence the mind, is their spell that tells how to emulate our ability?”

“Yes, but not the extent you claim to have. It also has spells for altering memories and even manipulating somepony's personality, I'm afraid that some of the memories I have aren't even the ones I earned through life experience. Eclipse Touch naturally would disperse a spell like that, but my other siblings and myself aren't as fortunate in have a resistance or immunity to such spells. I'm afraid that all the terrible memories I have might be manipulated or fabricated to some degree, what if it was our mother's plan for us to come here? Bridleton's ruling class has been gearing up for some kind of war for as long as I've been alive, possibly longer. What if our being in Equestria is the excuse the ruling class needs to attempt plunging Equestria into an armed conflict? To them it would be an easy victory, after all many of the high class unicorns have been learning very powerful offensive spells. It's possible that everypony being told Equestria is a foal's story is a massive fabrication and all the high ranking unicorn family heads know the truth of the nation's existence, when we got here things that made sense in Bridleton lost their symmetry in Equestria.”

“That's in interesting theory you have there,” said Luna with surprise

“It's not mine, it's Eclipse's. She finally let me into her dreams last night, I didn't let her know I was there watching, and she's the one who put it all together. Of course in her dream she was bouncing some the inconsistencies off of Princess Twilight Sparkle to get her opinion on things. I could tell the Twilight she was saying all this to was a visitor, but I didn't reveal that to her dream self anymore than I revealed myself. Eclipse is either going be excited or feel violated by this, but in the end she's still going have to be the one to work through it.”

“You're being very reasonable, and while I like seeing you do this I must insist you stop the act.”

“But its the only way I can manage the pain that's lingering from my little outburst a little while ago, I might be able to work through it in the studio, but here and now I need something to lessen the pain for just a little while.”

“I went through similar phase myself,” said Luna with a smile, “the only time I want to see this act again is at the Gala, whether you like it or not you are going to be taking part in it this year, once the event is over you won't have to show this face to anypony again for a whole year. As for your worry about false or tampered memories I can assure you that the one you showed me was genuine and unaltered.”

“That doesn't alleviate my fears regarding some of my other memories, what if the corrolating memory of one Eclipse volunteers in the future is altered or replaced for me or Storm Walker?”

“I'll talk to Celestia about it, there might be a spell lodged away in the Canterlot archives that will allow us to verify the authenticity of a memory.”

“Thank you, with spells like those that can forcefully influence minds I'm not sure if my own decisions are what they should be.”

“So, what do you think of Midnight Canyon?”

“I see a lot of barren landscape, but I also feel like there's potential to be had here. I would have not said something like that second part before meeting you, my mother would have said how barren land has no possible potential if you asked her.”

“Your parents and grandmother are already set in their ways, there's nothing that can make them change their point of view and very few things that have possibility of making them reevaluate some of their beliefs. My sister hopes that just meeting any one of the princesses of Equestria will cause them to reevaluate their notions about things, I myself have some experience in seeing into the true nature of others and while I share her hopes I also believe the only one that will be forced to reevaluate their world views is your older sister and that might be more due to Twilight's friends than my sister or me. Your sister's magical talent is incomplete, not just because she has no knowledge of what true joy or happiness is but also because she has never seen or experienced what true joy and happiness can do to a pony or for them. The ponies that will most likely have the biggest influence on her revelation regarding her ability are Pinkie Pie and Eclipse Touch.”

“How could Eclipse be somepony to influence a revelation in Sunshine Bottle?”

“Your twin isn't just learning from Twilight, she is also slowly learning life lessons from Twilight's closest and dearest friends. Your sister is slowly learning what friendship really means and what kind of impact true friendship can have on somepony.”

“You will be learning similar lessons in time, but they will come in different ways than your sister is experiencing, and possibly even in a very different order. Twilight is obsessed with keeping her responsibilities organized, which might not always be conducive to your sister's development, it is also good that Twilight's friends will be there to help teach some of your sister's lessons. Fluttershy is kind gentle soul, Rainbow Dash is a brash and loyal individual, Pinkie Pie is a laughter filled and energetic character, Applejack is a hard working and honest pony, Rarity is creative and generous soul, and Twilight is a brilliant and well read individual in addition to being a magical talented and caring alicorn.”

“I always thought that only instructors could teach lessons, so miss Twilight and her friends will be Eclipse's instructors?”

“It looks like you didn't hear everything my sister said before you were made my student, she said that we can learn as instructors almost as much as we teach. A truly great teacher learns from from their student, your lessons are just as much a learning experience for me as they are for you.”

“That's a mindset I never saw in older ponies before meeting you, it's kind of nice to hear that.”

“Time to go,” said Luna and the 2 were once again gone in a midnight blue flash, when the flash was over Dream Step blinked away the spots from her eyes, she still wasn't used to teleportation spells. When the swirling lights stopped dancing in front of her eyes Dream Step lifted herself from the floor of her room where she had seemingly collapsed. She didn't say anything, but she did give Luna a look that seemed to be asking if what had happened was real. Luna just smiled and nodded. The 2 had only spent about a half hour at Midnight Canyon. Luna and Dream Step made their way to the dining hall. When they arrived in the dining Dream Step politely asked for a large glass of strawberry and blueberry juice mix and some carrot and lettuce salads. Both took took a few minutes to enjoy the small meal before heading to the arts room.

Once the door to the arts room was closed a more energetic Dream Step said, “so, what will I be trying this night?”

“Go over to the musical instruments a pick out the one that calls to you loudest,” said Luna with a smile, mostly because of the fact that Dream Step seemed to have a massive weight lifted off of her. Dream Step went over to the musical instruments and began sifting through them, she stopped at a wind flute and tentatively gave it a few test blows before walking back over to Luna with the instrument floating beside her in her magic. After they were next to each other again Luna carefully instructed Dream Step on how to play the instrument. When Luna was finished with her instructions Dream Step made some very uneven notes that sounded more like random noises blown through the flute than notes that should have made a fragment of a song. Luna just sat and smiled as for the next 3 hours Dream Step worked at the flute, offering up little suggestions, constructive criticisms and even a few praises when the filly managed a note that should have been exceedingly difficult for a pony that had months of practice with the instrument. After a few more minutes Luna told the filly had to go and lower the moon and Celestia raise the sun. Instead of heading for bed after setting the flute aside Dream Step said she wanted to accompany the princess and be there when the two heavenly bodies switched places, Luna didn't argue because she figured it would be a good thing for the filly to see the acts of magic and said filly would probably fall asleep at the black alicorn mare's hooves so she would just have to float the filly back to bed before going to get some sleep herself.

Luna lead a slightly excited Dream Step to the tower and lowered the moon, Celestia watched from her balcony with a smile at the site before raising the sun. As the sun was rising Dream Step collapsed at Luna's hooves and a flash indicating the formation of a cutie mark came from the filly. Looking at the mark Luna saw an inversion of her own moon within a dream bubble and paintbrush crossing across the moon. Luna carefully floated the filly back to bed and tucked her in before heading back to the throne room to have small chat with Celestia and sat in her throne. Celestia walked in and gently sat in her throne waiting patiently for her sister to say something.

“It seems Dream Step has finally come to a realization of what she is meant to do,” said Luna, “she just got her cutie mark.”

“I'm glad to hear it,” said Celestia, “what was the circumstance surrounding its formation?”

“Seeing us move the sun and the moon,” said Luna rising from her seat, “I think this means she was always meant be here. She also shared an old prophecy from her old nation with me.”

“Mind telling me the generalities,” inquired Celestia, “we can get into the specifics when we next meet with Twilight.”

“Of course,” said Luna, “It mentions a green wings of a pegasus, I'm assuming it means a green pegasus or green winged pegasus, and it makes a mention of 2 alicorns. The prophecy also mentions a unicorn with the ability to dream walk and another unicorn that has an ability that disables other ponies. In addition to alicorns it makes mention of the 3 traveling to a land with alicorns. There is some sort of mention of the unicorns being taught by alicorns and refusing to kneel to the rhetoric or doctrine that has been treated as truth when it was false. There's also a mention of a purple alicorn that is connected to others with a force stronger than any magic... and a few other things I think we should share with Twilight. I think that they actually had a prophecy that mentioned Twilight and the power of her friendship.”

“How old is this prophecy?”

“I'm not sure, but the way that Dream Step talked about it and from what I saw in her dreamscape it could be several thousand years old. Which means that whomever was responsible for that prophecy somehow knew of Twilight's ascension to Princess before the emergence of Nightmare Moon, I have no idea how that could be possible. I know that I provided Equestria with some of its prophecies, including the defeat of Nightmare Moon, but even I couldn't see as far as this prophecy seems to have. The pony that provided this prophecy must have had a talent for prophecies.”

“More than that,” said “Celestia, “you said it mentioned dream walking, a talent you and Dream Step both possess, in addition to 2 unicorns being taught by 2 different alicorns. You are currently teaching Dream Step and Eclipse Touch is currently Twilight's student. They have a brother that is a green pegasus and all three came from outside Equestria. If you ask me I think hints of this prophecy are already coming into the realm of the physical world. We learned some time ago that prophecies are imprecise, but hints of the authentic events they speak about can reveal themselves more than once before the genuine event they talk about occurs and because of how they are structured prophecies can be eerily accurate.”

“I know what you mean sister, I told Dream Step about Night Mask.”

“I almost forgot about that mare,” said Celestia with a hint of amusement, “you checked up on her life after you were freed from influence of Nightmare Moon?”

“Indeed,” said Luna, “it turns out she became an actress after the incident and it was through her job as an actress she met her husband and had six foals, 4 mares and 2 colts. Following the lineage of her children I found that one was in fact an ancestor of Twilight Sparkle, the same mare that is now an Alicorn.”

“Which one,” inquired Celestia in a tone that indicated she already knew.

“The mare's name was Shimmer Curtain, she didn't have her mother's flare however she was very good at keeping things organized and had a fondness for checklists so that she knew she was staying on track.”

“I know,” said Celestia, “I kept an eye on Night Mask's line after the incident and was well aware of Twilight's ancestry when I made her my student, Twilight shares many traits with her ancestral mothers and some of those traits I nurtured when Twilight became my student.”

“I'm going to nod off in my room now, sister.”

“Pleasant dreams, Luna.”

With that Luna headed to her room room and once the door was closed and she was on the bed fell asleep.

Chapter 7: Twilight's Confusion and Another Glimpse at What Should Have Been

Twilight's Confusion and Another Glimpse at What Should Have Been

It was the following day and the sun had been up for almost three hours. Twilight was watching the sleeping filly in front her, she had made her way to Eclipse's room almost as soon as she was up. Twilight was still mulling over what she had learned about not just Eclipse's ability, but also what she had witnessed because of it. While on the way to Eclipse's room Twilight had pulled all the books on parenting she could from her library, which unfortunately for her was a total of twenty books, she decided to read the books while waiting for the filly to come out of her slumber.

Twilight had literally read them all in the span of twenty minutes and Eclipse Touch was still sleeping. Spike had come in and removed the books from the filly's room quietly not bothering to ask Twilight what she was up to, because in his mind any day Twilight wasn't buried in literature was good. As Eclipse began to stir in the manner that indicated she was waking up Twilight quietly retreated to the door. And when Eclipse opened her eyes Twilight said, “nice to see you're up, since you've been showing such promise with your lessons I figured I'd teach the memory spell.”

“But I've just gotten an intermediate grasp on levitation, a beginners level on light, and just barely started properly practicing the cloud walk spell you showed me in that book,” said Eclipse Touch.

“That is quite true,” said Twilight, “but I think teaching you this spell will take a lot of stress off the ponies using that memory observation spell, and I really want to make up for intruding in your dreams like that.”

“It was your unfamiliar motherly concern for me,” said Eclipse Touch, “I didn't want to tell you about my experiencing that other timeline, but then at the castle my ability made it so that we all experienced it, I wish I had a better control over my natural ability.”

“You don't have to feel bad about that,” Twilight, “maybe when you have better control you can make it occur at will, come on let's get some breakfast.”

“Okay,” said Eclipse following Twilight. In the kitchen Spike had set up a massive stack of pancakes and was waiting for them.

“So, have you seen Spike in the alternate timeline?” inquired Twilight as she floated a stack of four flapjacks to her plate and Eclipse's.

“Once,” said Eclipse, “he had so much mass he could barely fit through the front door and really couldn't move all that much around the castle, the corridors were too confining.”

“That means Unity is supposed to be born later than this,” said Twilight with a piqued interest.

“Um, what are you talking about?” asked Spike.

“Well you see Spike...” Twilight stopped talking as she saw Eclipse's horn glowing at the same time she heard her friends all coming into the castle.

**********************************************

Rainbow Dash had no idea what was going on, when she tried to look around or say anything she couldn't. Then she heard and felt herself say, “Are you sure this is a good idea Soarin? I just had her a few weeks ago, my focus is going to be more on our foal than practice, at least when you were out training you could focus because you knew she was in my care, and let's face it I am an awesome mom.”

“Yes you are,” came Soarin's voice to her right and Rainbow Dash and she turned to see an older version of the Wonderbolt Stallion in his outfit with his hood off holding her's out to her as he ate a slice of apple pie and waited for his coffee to cool down, “now go get our daughter out of bed, you can leave her with Pinkie or Twilight. You know they're both capable, and it will our foal a chance to socialize.”

“Cherri's just as energetic as her mother and Unity is barely a week old,” said Rainbow as she took the uniform and got it on as she walked, leaving the hood off her head for after she and her Daughter were out the door.

“Rainboom Dash, it is time for you to get up because mommy's getting back to work today,” said Rainbow Dash as she walked into what looked like a new room in her cloud house, one which was darker than she wanted to admit. Shaking her head she pulled a few sections of the wall away to let in the morning sun, causing a large bundle of blankets in a cloud crib to stir. “Got ya, ya little sound flight,” said Rainbow while expertly pulling a little filly from under the blankets that with the same coat and mane as her staring back at her an angry amused look with eyes that looked just like Soarin's, which made Rainbow laugh because Soarin was terrible at making an angry eye look. Her laughter in turn elicited giggles of joy from the filly.

“Sounds like she's up,” came Soarin's voice in an amused voice from outside room, probably still at the table, “it's always the same routine with you two, do you think you could try practicing something new for your morning warm-ups.” This was followed by the sound of him drinking his coffee somewhere between a sip and a gulp.

“Mwa Mwa, Oosham,” came the filly's voice.

“Yes, momma is awesome, and so are you for those being your first words,” Rainbow smiled at the filly as she hovered out of the room with the filly in her forelegs. When she came back to the table, she found Soarin had already placed a bottle of warm milk where she could easily get it with the iconic Wonderbolt symbol on it, a baby shower gift from Spitfire. “She said her first words when I got her out of the crib a moment ago,” said the cyan mare as she brought the bottle to her filly who eagerly took the bottle in her forehooves and brought to her mouth and started suckling the bottle with fervor, “not so fast or you'll get a tummy ache, the hiccups or both,” said the rainbow maned mare with a firm tenderness she had discovered since her daughter was born.

The moment the Rainboom stopped and brought her mouth off the bottle she started crying in a manner that told Rainbow and Soarin that the filly had a stomachache, and half way threw started hiccuping, “She told you,” said Soarin trotting over and rubbing the foal's stomach with a practiced gentle hoof for a few seconds before Rainbow turned the foal over her shoulder and and patted her back in the way a parent does when they burp their foal, a few seconds later Rainboom let out a loud burp that gave Rainbow a half smile because of how it reminded her about how competitive she was with Applejack before having Rainboom. “We really should get going,” said Soarin in a more stern voice, “have you decided on where to take her before we head to Cloudsdale for practice.

“I suppose I'll leave her with Twilight,” said Rainbow as they were out the door. They descended towards Twilight's castle and just as they were coming down for a landing the door opened and Twilight greeted them.

“Nice to see you two,” said Twilight who then turned her attention to Rainboom and said, “and how is my little niece, Rainboom?” Fully expecting to hear the burbles of pre-language that a young foal makes, in particular the ones of amusement that Rainboom always seemed to give her.

Twilight was actually surprised when she heard Rainboom say, “Allkee, Allkee,” then giggle as Twilight took the foal in her magic.

“She said her first words when I pulled her out of bed today,” said Rainbow as she and Soarin pulled their hoods on over their heads and began taking off.

******************************************

Rarity watched from the common area with three foals near her. A little sleeping Fuchsia unicorn she had been calling Unity for the past five minutes, a bouncy pink filly with a cherry red mane that answered to the name Cherri, and white foal with a magenta and violet mane she had identified as her own foal by the name of Caring Jewel was curled up next her taking a nap. When Twilight turned around she had what looked like a foal version of Rainbow Dash in her magic.

“Darling, why can't you just have Applejack help us out?”

“Because the Apples want her foal to know what it's like to be a member of the family today. AJ's still not quite up to being able to perform on the farm, mostly because Zap Apple is taking up nearly all her attention.”

“I still can't believe that's the name she decided to go with for her filly,” said Rarity with a sense of amusement.

“I suppose,” said Twilight, “Pinkie pay attention to your daughter for more than five seconds, Cherri's liable to cause trouble.

“Don't worry,” came Pinkie's voice from the kitchen, “my Pinkie Senses will tell me about her if she's in any trouble.”

“Aside from the fact she seems to have inherited your Pinkie senses and uses them to avoid you whenever she can,” chimed Rarity, “at least my little Jewel is well behaved, as is Twilight's Unity.”

“That's just because they're both sleeping,” said Twilight setting Rainboom down next to her daughter before laying down next Unity Sparkle with her legs tucked under her, “Caring Jewel can be a hoofful when she's awake, especially when she's away from her mother.”

“Well, I'll give you that darling,” said Rarity with smile at the sleeping white foal at her side, “but she does seem to take after mommy.”

“All of our foals do,” said Twilight, “Unity just adores when I read new books to her, Cherri's as energetic as Pinkie, Zap's as grounded as her mother, and Rainboom is highly competitive for her age.”

“Yes, well Rainbow had Rainboom practicing flying almost as soon as the poor thing could stand.”

“She was flying almost a full day before she could walk,” Twilight mused

*******************************************

Pinkie Pie was in the kitchen of Twilight's castle making a big carrot cake for Fluttershy, the yellow mare seemed to always truly enjoy Pinkie's carrot cakes. It was while she was pouring each of the layers into a set of round baking tins that there was knock at the door and she hear Twilight's voice telling the messenger that she didn't care if the messenger said the message was from both Princesses Celestia and Luna she and her friends fully intended to be forgoing the Gala again this year. For one they were all caring for foals that weren't even near their second month. The sound of a frazzled messenger pegasus flying off was all Pinkie heard before Twilight said, “I can't believe half of Canterlot's nobility are saying that my participation this year is mandatory, my foal is barely a week old. I'd have to bring her along because most of them would be asking to see her, Unity has a natural sense about other ponies and that many faking ponies could honestly upset her to the point she starts crying the way she does when she wants you to give her space.”

“And none of the ponies at the party will understand and ask you to make her stop while still trying crowd you both when you try to get some space for the both of you,” said Pinkie as she placed the filled tins in the preheated oven.

“Exactly came Twilight's voice as she stepped into the kitchen, “what are you baking in here anyway Pinkie,” said the purple alicorn as she stepped into the kitchen.

“A carrot cake for Fluttershy, she's had nothing but those bland mother meals the hospital serves for the past month.”

“The Gala's tonight,” said Twilight, “last month I sent a letter to the Princesses stating that even if I wanted to I couldn't attend it in good conscience knowing what would happen when I brought my foal with me to the Gala. Unfortunately the nobles are pressuring Celestia to have me at the Gala this year, with Unity.” Twilight let out a deep sigh, “A pegasus carriage is coming to pick us up in an hour for the trip, I told the princess to make sure there's cradle for foals in it. Fortunately I saw something like this coming and had Rarity fit us both for formal attire a few hours before I headed off to Canterlot to meet Cadance, Celestia, Luna and my nieces.”

“Wanna lick the bowl,” said Pinkie offering the mixing bowl to Twilight who just shook her head. Pinkie suddenly felt a filly latch on to her right hind leg, looking down Pinkie noticed Cherri Party latched onto her leg in a joy filled hug.

“Momma, me want lick yum yum bowl,” said the filly. Twilight smiled and floated the bowl down next to the red maned filly who quickly set about cleaning the bowl with her tongue. Both of them smiled at the filly's antics.

They heard the sound of rustling and then, “mwa mwa, veer joo gluu?

“In here baby girl,” said Twilight, a few seconds later a fuchsia unicorn filly with eyes and mane almost identical to Twilight's trotted in sat down and made hugging gesture. Twilight smiled and lifted the filly up with her magic causing the fuchsia filly to giggle with joy.

“She still finds that fun,” said Pinkie with amusement, then she said, “no Pinkie I will not go out into the other room and make a loud celebration,... because there's a foal still sleeping out there, and Unity doesn't care much loud noises... I realized what it means to be a responsible mother, and before you say anything else sometimes that means doing something unfun to do something fun.”

The fuchsia filly then stopped her giggling and started rubbing her stomach and said, “mwa mwa, mee om humgwy.” To which Twilight floated the filly to her nipples and the sound of happy suckling followed.

“Don’t forget to tell us about all the great parts of the Gala,” said Pinkie as she moved to pick up her foal and the mixing bowl.

*************************************************

Applejack stared down at the foal suckling on her with honest joy. Her daughter, Zap Apple, had the same coat color as her, but her mane was colored just like a Zap Apple. Amusingly when the filly was born Applejack had been quite calm, her siblings however were panicking enough for nine mares, Granny Smith fortunately knocked some sense into them after they had been milling about for almost ten minutes. Now her baby was just a few weeks old and was already prancing around when she followed her mother, not telling her mom she needed to be carried around like the adorable sack of apples Applejack always imagined her daughter to be when carrying her.

“Ya'll er nuttier than squirrel stash if yah think fer one minute Ah'd let you interrupt my sister's quality time,” came an older sounding Apple Bloom.”

“I'm sorry ma'am,” came the voice of a delivery pegasus, but my instructions are to bring this package straight to ms Applejack and nopony else.”

“Let 'im in, Bloom,” said Big Macintosh, “Applejack's in tha family room with our niece, but Ah 'ave ta warn you tha' you might walk inta a sight of a mother tha' ya moight naught be ready fer.”

“I appreciate the warning mister Macintosh, by the way the boss says he would like to hire you on for a heavy load, you'll just be hauling it in the cart, but it's going to still be tricky to deal with.”

“Tell him Ah'll see him nex' week then,” said Big Macintosh as a bright red pegsus in a dark brown delivery vest trotted into the room with a considerable package balanced between his wings and clipboard in his mouth.

“Sign on the blank line ms Applejack,” said the pegasus. Applejack looked back at her suckling filly before taking the pen in her mouth and writing out her signature and setting the pen back in its holder which prompted the pegasus to pick up the clipboard in his mouth and gently slide the rounded square package in front of her before giving a respectful nod and leaving.

After he left Apple Bloom came into the room, in her nearly iconic overalls, and said, “whut ya git thi' time sis?”

“Open it up an' fin' ou',” said Applejack gesturing to the package with her head. Apple Bloom quickly tore away the brown delivery paper to reveal a set of four large apple shaped baby pillows that were each a different color (there was a red apple, green apple orange apple and zap apple), “tha' old one we 'ave 'as gotten ta tha poin' it would be a threat to mah little seedling, so Ah special ordered those ones from Rarity's Canterlot shop, tha estimated delivery time was next week, Ah'm glad they rushed the order withou' sacrificing tha quality.”

“Rarity probably tol' 'em just how big ah deal doing something li' this could possibly be,” said Apple Bloom as she removed the orange apple from the box and passed it to Applejack.

As Appljack was reaching for the pillow her filly stopped suckling and made the series of burbles and coos that told Applejack her filly wanted to nuzzle mommy. Applejack brought her face close to her foal and the two nuzzled noses with each other. After the nuzzling the filly curled up and went to sleep, at which point Applejack gently lifted the foal and ever so gently placed her on the pillow. She smiled at seeing her daughter on the pillow, which was a little bigger than the filly and thus gave the impression that she was sleeping atop a giant apple.

***************************************

Fluttershy nuzzled her newborn foal, almost an hour's worth of labor waiting for her foal to come at the hospital. The pain was more than worth it, the moment she was asked her daughter's name she said “Flutterjoy” almost as an instinct. The little foal had her coat and mane, but her eyes were a charming shade of forest green. Fluttershy was gently cradling her newborn, and she practically snapped at anypony that so much as joked about separating mother and child. All the tests had to be done right there with Fluttershy present, which was hardly standard procedure or protocol. However everypony knew how protective of their foals mares could get, and most of ponyville was more than familiar with Fluttershy's more aggressive side by the time the foal was born.

“Alright, ms Shy let's go over the data so you can be brought up to speed on your foal,” said Nurse Redheart, the only one of the medical staff that Fluttershy had not frightened to point of almost collapsing or wetting themselves, “time of birth is eleven-forty-three in the morning, no anomalies were detected in the tests of your foal, she's sleeping comfortably, we all really wish you would let us put her in a bed instead of holding her all day.”

Fluttershy turned to the nurse and in her usual soft voice said, “I would find that acceptable only after you allow the infant bed to be near my hospital bed. We can go home tomorrow, right?”

“Yes of course, we just need to keep you both here overnight to see if we missed any possible complications during our initial observations. Also we'll need to take some small blood samples from both of you to better check for any inherited complications.”

“Did all my friends have to go through this?” inquired Fluttershy.

“Well, yes,” said the nurse, “Twilight and Applejack earned some quick reputations amongst the medical staff that were so intense that we notified the main medical center in Canterlot about their stay here during their pregnancies, your friend Pinkie was uncharacteristically calm about it all up to the point we tried to take her foal for testing, Rarity took it all as well as we expected, and Rainbow Dash had to almost be held down during her stay here. We recommended home birthings to all of them, we extend the same recommendation to you. Maternal mood swings can be frightening, and maternal protective instincts can be far more terrifying. Your protective maternal instincts aren't letting us take your foal more than ten feet away with us before you become far more aggressive than anypony is prepared to witness.”

“Oh my,” said Fluttershy as she continued to cradle her sleeping foal, “I just want to make sure she's safe, I'm so sorry for being so mean to everypony.”

“It's to be expected,” said the nurse, “mare's have a highly aggressive defense reaction for the first couple of days that follow the birthing of their foals, just keep in mind that this is potentially your first of several foals and your maternal instincts well react differently in response to not only the medical staff, but also your friends and children. Most of your reactions will correlate with the kinds of bonds you have with each of your friends and children.”

“You had to go over this speech at considerable length with Twilight,” said Fluttershy with a smile at the sleeping bundle in her forelgs.

“Yes, at great lengths,” said the nurse, “even in full on protective mother mode she wants as many details as possible for everything.”

“I think it's moreso now that she's a mommy,” said Fluttershy, “before it was just curiosity and a desire to learn, but now she needs to know so that she can better protect her foal.

“You're probably right,” said the nurse, “it's good to see you are mostly reasonable, I'll inform the staff to bring an unused foal bed to your room and place near your bed, it should only take an hour to get to your at the most.”

“Thank you very much,” said Fluttershy as her foal yawned and fluttered her eyes open, before the foal could make a sound Fluttershy positioned her foal so she could begin suckling from her mother.

****************************************

Spike was surrounded by golden coins and a massive number of gemstones in the biggest cave he had ever seen. Not that such a thing was surprising seeing as he was almost too big to get through the front door of Twilight's castle. Spike was preparing to go out and hunt in the Everfree Forest, of which his cave was actually in almost the exact middle of, when Princess Luna and a white unicorn with an three toned mane of orange, indigo and yellow trotted in. Spike gave the young unicorn mare a quizzical look.

“Greetings Spike,” said Princess Celestia, who was now around half his size, “it has been far too long since we last spoke.”

“I was just getting ready to go out and make a supply run,” said Spike in his now rumbling deep voice, “but I suppose that can wait for short while, who is this unicorn with you?”

“I completely forgot you never met her after she was born,” said Celestia with a hint of shame in her voice, “this is my daughter Sola.”

Spike raised an eyebrow as Sola said in a warm voice that was similar to her mother, “it is an honor to me you mister Spike, mom has told me much about how things were when you were younger.”

“Did she also tell you that she towered over me in my early days as Twilight's number one assistant, I miss those days at times,” said Spike with a hint of nostalgia in his voice.

“Um, no,” said Sola with genuine surprise.

“Don't be too surprised,” said Spike, “she was always taller than most ponies for as long I've known her,” then turning his attention to Celestia, “Twilight sent me a note saying that Canterlot's nobility practically forced her attendance at the Gala tonight into mandatory, I thought you had final say in Gala matters Princess.”

“Normally I do,” said Celestia, “but half the Canterlot nobility all called for mandatory participation of Twilight, Luna and their foals.”

“But Twilight's Foal is barely more than a week old,” cried Spike with a voice that lightly shook the cave.

“As is aunt Luna's,” said Sola, “Stella is only a few hours older than Unity Sparkle.” Spike smiled at the name of Twilight's foal how and she seemed to always coo and giggle when she saw him, “please tell me I'm not also on the mandatory participation list,” said Spike, “I don't think I'd even properly fit in the dance hall.”

“No, your fine,” said Celestia, “I just came to remind you that matured dragons have a much more pliable physical form than their younger states, and Sola just wanted to meet you.”

“Oh,” said Spike, “I've been practicing little changes, but nothing as drastic as a full body change. One moment,” the purple dragon closed his eyes and focused he began a slow, yet rapid, transition to a wingless dragon that was roughly the size of Celestia he then opened his eyes and asked, “nothing is out of place? I don't look like some freakish monster do I?”

“Nope,” said Sola, “you look like a wingless version of your larger self that happens to be mom's size.” Spike let out a sigh of relief, then his eyes went big.

“My wings removed themselves in the transition,” he gave out a deep heavy sigh, “it took me months to properly figure out how to keep those from getting too big while still looking impressive.” The ivory multicolor maned mares both giggled and bid Spike a fond farewell.

Spike watched the 2 leave scooped up a claw full of gems next him and began to chew on them with a new fervor, exercising his metamorphic properties always gave him a craving for gemstones that was much stronger than usual.

*****************************************************

Twilight, Spike, and Eclipse Touch blinked before they heard Applejack's voice say, “Wha' in tarnation was tha' Twi?” As she finished the question the five mares entered the kitchen to see the sight of Twilight, Eclipse Touch and Spike preparing to eat breakfast.

“Sorry about that,” said Eclipse Touch, “but sometimes my canceling ability flares up and tries to correct the timeline, but keeps running into a paradox so we just experience the other timeline for a bit before snapping back,” The black filly quickly started slowly munching a pancake to avoid further conversation.

“That was soooooooooooooo much more fun than the last time,” said Pinkie with excitement.

“Wait, you mean we're all supposed to be mothers,” exposited Rainbow Dash, “and that I'm...” she started blushing the moment she cut off.

“Really Pinkie,” said Rarity, “Cherri Party Pie, that's what you decided on as a name for your filly.”

“Ah don' see nothin' wrong with the names of any of our foals,” said Applejack.

“Applejack, darling, you named your filly Zap Apple,” interjected Rarity, “that's not exactly the charming name a filly should have, now if she were a colt I'd understand.”

“You're not much better,” said Twilight, “your filly's named Caring Jewel.”

“It's graceful and elegant, the way a proper filly's name should be.”

“And the fact that her name goes well with your Canterlot boutique has nothing to do with it,” said Rainbow Dash with a smirk and an eye roll, “at least my filly's name is awesome.”

“Rainboom Dash,” said Rarity with sense of bemusement, “her name is a trick you can do and sounds so close yours it borders on narcissistic ego stroking.”

“We never really saw Fluttershy though,” said Rainbow, “Flutters, where were you?”

“In the hospital having my foal,” said Fluttershy in her usual gentle voice, “I named her Flutterjoy, she looks almost exactly like me.”

“Almost?” inquired Twilight.

“She has my coat and mane, but her eyes are a different color.”

“Cherri Party has Pinkie's coat and eyes, but her mane is cherry red,” said Rarity, “Caring Jewel has my coat and eyes, but but her mane and tail are two-toned like Sweetie Belle's.”

“Unity Sparkle has my mane and eyes,” said Twilight, “her coat is beautiful shade fuchsia.”

“And mah little Zap Apple has my coat and eyes, but a mane all her own,” said Applejack, “foals will always resemble thair parents no matter wha' happens.”

“Wait a cloud clearing minute,” said Rainbow Dash pointing a hoof towards Eclipse Touch, “she just said this isn't the timeline we've been supposed to be living in, and the one where we all have foals is the one we're meant to be in. I have no problems with being a mom, I'd be an awesome mom, but how do any of us know that was the timeline we needed to be in?”

“Because the princesses and I experienced yesterday, along with Pinkie,” said Twilight and we all came to the consensus that something about our current timeline is off.”

“How is that possible?” inquired Rarity.

“Sola, Heart Guard, Stella and Unity Sparkle were stolen before they had chance to be concieved,” said Twilight, “they were all raised as siblings in nation with different names and appearances in a nation that Equestria has passed in all areas.”

“The displacement of the foals of Equestria's four alicorns caused a temporal ripple effect that prevented the events that would lead to the original foals from ever getting chance to be concieved and born by their mothers,” said Eclipse Touch, “my siblings and I are the foals in question. It also had the side effect of making so that the events that are supposed to lead to you having foals is far less likely to happen.”

“Who were you meant to be?” inquired Rarity.

“Unity Sparkle,” said Eclipse Touch, “Dream Step was meant to be Princess Luna's daughter Stella, Storm Walker was meant to be Princess Cadance's son Heart Guard and Sunshine Bottle was meant be Princess Celestia's daughter Sola.”

Spike dropped his fork and cried out, “WHAT? YOU MEAN I WAS SUPPOSED BE AN UNCLE? That is not cool, somepony is going to have to answer to all of us for that one.”

“The foals that were able to properly speak also referred to Discord as 'uncle' by the way,” said Twilight. All six mares, and spike, started to laugh hard.

“The funny thing is I can totally see Discord playing with the foals,” said Rainbow Dash, “and they'd grow fond of his antics as well.”

Twilight's horn suddenly flared and a scroll with Luna's moon appeared, all of her friends looked at her before Twilight said, “I've been working on a new spell for communicating with the princesses, so far I'm only able to receive the messages half the time, but so far I still need Spike to send the return messages.”

“It's highly unusual for you to receive a letter from Princess Luna,” said Rarity.

“Not as unusual as you might think,” said Twilight, “we've been sharing stories back and forth for the past year now. But it is highly unusual to receive one of her letters while the sun is still up.”

“Well open it,” said Pinkie, “we need to keep the story going somehow.” Every other pony in the room just shook their heads in the 'typical Pinkie' way.

Opening Twilight found Luna's scrolling script with the Cs made in the to resemble a crescent moon reaing aloud what the Lunar princess's letter was saying, “greetings Twilight, I am sending this to you to inform you that my sister is starting to feel preoccupied by the revelation that the young mare Discord decided to drop into our castle was supposed to be her own genuine child. She is currently trying to undo the damage that her lesson's in that other nation seem to have done to her. Just as we were informed she is indeed a very bright young mare, but the cultural mentality that she was trained in seems to have seems to have done far worse to her psyche than originally thought. Also it appears with my sister's overwhelming willingness to acknowledge her efforts she is willing to acknowledge that she has made mistakes and seeks to mend any wounds that she is becoming aware she inflicted. We will both keep you up to date on her progress, as well as notify of any relapses.

~ Best wishes on your end, Princess Luna”

“Well, that was different,” said Rarity, “but isn't she mentoring Dream Step?”

“Yes she is,” said Twilight floating the message over to her writing desk, “but Dream Step is keeping primarily nocturnal hours, it could be months or years before she is able to keep up during both day and night.”

“You've always been keeping odd hours yourself, darling,” Rarity, “why isn't Eclipse Touch having difficulty keeping similar hours to yours?”

“Probably because the vast majority of our hours together have been consistently within the daylight hours, I have yet to learn during night hours, she has plans to give an astronomy lesson tomorrow night,” chimed Eclipse Touch from her seat before taking a another massive bite of her small pile of pancakes and started slowly chewing.

“Care ta explain thi' one Twi,” inquired Applejack.

“Somepony created a spell for locating ponies the future with potential to bring great change, that same somepony created a spell for stealing those ponies from their mothers in the future and turning another pony into their surrogate mother in a period more close to their current present. Eclipse believes it to be the Spirt of Stagnation, Still, and after reading Myrraldin's journals I would be inclined to agree. Still is a spirit that is the complete opposite of Discord. Nopony knows what she really looks like because she always takes a 'host form' and acts in place that pony ensuring that every aspect of a particular nation stagnates, it takes a few decades or centuries, but she never changes her apporoach, even when all the evidence says she should. She also jumps hosts, making sure their appearance is similar to her prior host in build and coloration of both their coat and mane.”

“Why that's just terrible,” said Rarity.

“Yes, well I initially thought style in Bridleton went unchanged for 200 hundred years,” said Eclipse Touch, “but after I realized that Still was prancing around in Grand Charm's body I came to the sudden realization that our fashion scene probably stopped over a thousand years ago,” Eclipse Touch noticed her plate was empty and went to get some more pancakes, but stopped by Rarity litterally picked the black foal up with her magic and told her that it was time for a proper fitting when the discussion was over and the filly needed to be more active in said discussion, Rarity then plopped Eclipse Touch down between Fluttershy and herself.

“Is this really...” a bright flash disrupted her train of thought and everypony noticed her flank now had a purple alicorn with wings spread circled by an orange apple, pink butterfly, blue balloon, red lightning bolt and violet diamond.

Eclipse blinked for a few minutes before saying, “I have no idea what just happened.”

“I do,” said Twilight, “like sharing knowledge as much as you do obtaining it, you've tried very hard to hide this part of yourself, but it turns out that interacting with my friends like this helped your discover what you want to do with your life.”

“But I still don't know what my special talent is, exactly,” cried the black filly.

“It's dispelling, darling,” said Rarity nuzzling the filly, “you have the natural ability to dispel the magic of others and feel a need to dispel the the misunderstanding and lack of knowledge in yourself and others.”

“That's why you suddenly realized Sunshine Bottle was meant to be Sola,” said Twilight, “and why you felt the need to fill her in on the truth.”

“In a way your abilities and special skill are an extention what Twilight's amazing magical talent,” said Pinkie excitedly.

“Twi's talent for magic is partially affected by her understandin' uhf ah spell, and yer talent drives you to understand a spell aus well,” said Applejack.

“You and Unity have just as magical potential as I had at your age, and when you get near the age I was when I first met my friends you'll probably have around the same level of ability I had,” said Twilight, “whether Unity Sparkle or Eclipse Touch by all rights you are the daughter I'm meant to have.”

“Then I guess the real question is how to properly restore the timeline,” said Eclipse Touch, although if we are successful we won't remember of this, I'll be a newborn foal and none of what we've just been discussing would ever reach you. I know it sounds like a really tall order, but we need to find a way to expose Still to the exact same force used to stop her in this timeline. That means we're going to have to find a way to get her to come to Equestria, which I'm sure she's already doing because of Great Spell's urging her to do so because of not only the disappearance of me and my siblings, but also the removal of the spell books I brought and the sudden disappearance of Myrraldin's journals from her private collection.

Has anything like this happened in Still's history before?” inquired Twilight.

You read all of the journals,” said Eclipse Touch, “you are more qualified to answer that than me, Myrraldin claims to have known the history of Still better than anypony in one of journals that I read.”

Twilight closed her eyes and started scanning through her now highly impressive book memory before opening her eyes and saying, “all who chose to defy her never left the boundaries of their home nation, you and your siblings are the first to do so. She has no precedent for something like this, which means she has no procedure to follow in retrieving you.”

“And since Still doesn't like any sort of deviation that means she'll be appalled at the notion of using another policy as a template, and she most assuredly won't play things by ear.”

“Alright everypony time to leave,” said Twilight, “I have a lesson with Eclipse to get too.”

With a nod the other five mares began to leave the castle and Twilight went over to the chalkboard, just before leaving Rainbow Dash said, “Twilight, if it's any consolation I think all our foals would be awesome friends!” with that she was out the door and it closed behind her.

Twilight smiled as continued to write out the formula and draw the diagrams for the memory spell that had helped save her friends after their first encounter with Discord. When that was done she said, “Alright this spell works on the principle of transferring copies of memories you have, so it will require a lot of concentration, which I am more than certain you have considering you were the one with drive come to Equestria more than your siblings...”

Author's Note

And we've reached the point where I try to figure out what comes next. I 'm thinking of making the next chapter a look at Storm Walker's version of the memory that Eclipse and Dream offered up, and as such it would be a chapter with him as the focus (but only for the single chapter).
I'm working on a companion piece for this story, which is written in the styling of journal and Diary entries from Storm Walker and Snow Feather. However since I want to convey part of the story through font style I'll have a Google doc version to accompany the FiM fiction version if they do not a have a choice of different font styles available for use by the time the chapters for the story are ready to be posted. I just would like to reiterate that I would really appreciate comments and all the characters that I have created are free for you to use so long as you give me a notice of intent to use before you post anything with them, and as always if it's a visual art piece please send me a copy.

Chapter 8: Storm Walker's Trip to the Other Timeline and Account of the Memory

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 6: Twilight Sparkle and Eclipse Touch Uncover Secrets That Should Have Never Been

Twilight Sparkle and Eclipse Touch Uncover Secrets That Should Have Never Been

Twilight watched as Eclipse Touch filled out a complex looking formula on the chalkboard before finally saying in a genuinely apologetic voice, “I'm sorry for intruding into your dreams, I shouldn't have use that spell without your permission.”

“I'm not mad at you for that, a little hurt,” said Eclipse Touch, “but I could never be mad at you, you've given me so much, as have your friends...” Eclipse touch dropped the chalk on floor where it broke in two and started crying and between sobs said, “yluu are sluch a good plony mly glust willsh yluu hladn't vliolated mly dweems, yluu r slow mulch bletter floor aplogizing floor iilt.”

“I noticed somepony else watching from out of reach.”

Eclipse Touch made a few sniffles before saying, “it was probably Dream, I kept her out of my dreams for so long.”

“sometimes in my eagerness to try a new spell I forget common decencies, and for the violation of your trust that caused I'm once again sorry.”

“You've been apologizing for that since I woke up 5 hours ago,” said Eclipse Touch, “I would have forgiven you even I had found out some other way, that's how much I respect you.”

“And the only thing I've done to earn even a small fraction of that respect is give you respect I thought you needed,” said Twilight.

Just as Eclipse Touch was about to go into another exposition about how she saw Twilight as more than an instructor when the door cracked open and Applejack trotted in with a small case of red apples and said, “howdy y'all,” took a look at chalkboard and said, “woo, boy howdy you two er made fer each other, I haven' the the faintest clue what dat's even supposed to be about. Ah brought ya some fresh bucked apples Twi.” Then set the crate down next to the the desk that Twilight was standing next to.

“Thanks AJ, that equation is supposed to help explain why Bridleton's social elite would persist in lying about Equestria, and why no commercially available world maps than newer than 3200 years ago are circulated. It's like they never want anypony to leave their oppressive kingdom.”

“Or think there's a working system better than what Bridleton has,” said Eclipse Touch.

“What we need is more information for everypony to work with,” said Applejack, “you 2 er overthinkin' this thing withou’ other ponies to bounce this sorta thing off of.”

“I suppose you're right AJ,” said Twilight, “so Eclipse, is there anything else about Bridleton we should know?”

“I suppose I should talk about griffons and hippogriffs,” said the filly.

“hippo-whats?” inquired both Twilight and Applejack in sync.

“Hippogriffs, they're a cross between a griffon and a pony. I've never met one myself, but Storm Walker said he was good friends with a hippogriff named Snow Feather.”

“She has a pretty name,” said Applejack “I'm sure Dash would like ta meet her.”

“Actually I don't know if Snow Feather is a mare or a stallion, we've never really met,” said Eclipse Touch.

“So, you have griffons in Bridleton,” said Twilight, “what's that like? We don't really see griffons all that often around these parts.”

“Most of the unicorn nobility have a general disdain for griffons, and if a hippogriff is confirmed to be part of staff for any reason the nobility don't want to have anything to do with that house.”

“They seem to take their superiority thing a bit too far,” said Twilight, “somepony needs to shake their pedestal and see how well they can keep on it.”

“I took one look at the pedestal they wanted me to climb on and decided to jump off of it when they weren't looking, they've been trying to get me back on it ever since,” said Eclipse Touch.

“Now that's what I call a smart girl,” said Applejack, “you would prefer to climb the ladder instead of stand on a platform.”

“Yes, I would,” said Eclipse Touch, “I've always wanted to get places on my own merits, not placed somewhere because of where I come from or who I know. I may have been born in Bridleton, but my heart and soul have always told me I was of here. I'm surprised Princess Celestia was so willing to do any of this for my siblings and me.”

“The Princess has always been a kind and gentle ruler, she's not willing to take serious action if there's no proof that such action is needed or required,” said Twilight.

“And you gave a sweet sentiment sugarcube,” said Applejack, “that's the kind ah sentiment we Apples are always proud to hear.”

“The same goes for me,” said Twilight, “It's only been a few days and you're already further along in your studies than I ever was. Thanks for dropping off the shipment AJ, see you again soon.”

“You know it sugarcube,” said Applejack as she took her leave.

After taking a few minutes to watch Applejack leave Twilight said, “alright, since you seem to have taken to the basics in such a short time we'll try some of the more advanced spells, but before that maybe we should have you give your ability a few tries.”

“Why?” inquired Eclipse Touch.

“Because part of your lessons to is get enough of a handle on your magic to have some measure of control over your canceling ability. It'll probably still act as a defense mechanism, but the fact that your ability didn't keep me or your sister out means that you're secure enough here that you don't feel threatened and want to let others in. That's an important first step for true friendship to grow and eventually bloom. You’re fortunate that it's summer right now and school is out for everypony, but in a few months classes will start up and you will be attending the classes there. Before you ask it's simple, you need to socialize with ponies your age and make friends without me there at your side, having friendships will help you in more ways than you could imagine. True friendship has a magic more powerful than any spell or ability, no matter what a true friendship will show you just as much about yourself as it will others. You need learn how to interact with other ponies, and ones meant to be your true friends will never turn their backs on you and will always accept your flaws in addition to try and help you get over some of them. There's only so much my friends and I can teach you, at least at school you'll be able to learn the basics of what everypony in Ponyville knows and it will give you a chance to get to know others.”

“I don't want to be separated from you,” said Eclipse Touch with a voice that sounded equal parts scared and sad, Twilight could see the beginning of tears welling up in the filly's eyes.

“School is only for few hours every weekday, and when its time ends I'll usually be there waiting for you, I'll even see you off on your first day. Before I do I'll be giving you lots of pointers, and I'll probably have my friends give you some school pointers as well. You'll still have your lessons with me, mostly if they don't interfere with your other lessons.”

“So, what's the next lesson?”

“An illumination spell, they're pretty basic so you should be able to get the gist of the spell pretty quickly.”

“Okay,” said Eclipse Touch with some enthusiasm.

“Now the first thing you need to know about light spells is that we you start out you need to dedicate a lot of focus to the spell,” said Twilight and observed black filly's ears flop, “with enough practice they can become almost as effortless as trotting or talking,” the filly's ears perked up at this. “First imagine a torch or flashlight in your mind, then guide it through your horn to its very tip.”

Eclipse touch showed a great deal of effort at the spell with her first attempt at the spell, when she had finally managed to get the tiny dimly glowing orb to appear almost a full ten minutes had passed and she could only hold it for about three seconds, “I'm not very good at this spell, I think my ability is getting in the way,” said Eclipse Touch with a hint of sorrow in her voice.

“The first time I tried a light spell like this it took almost a half hour to get a ball a little brighter than yours for about half has long,” said Twilight, “you’re doing just fine.” This cheered Eclipse Touch up a bit, “every new spell will have its challenges, and you'll probably make a few mistakes along the way. You just need to view each obstacle and mistake as a learning experience,” at this Owlowiscious landed on perch next Twilight before she continued, “it's the same in life, Spike had to learn to cooperate with Owlowiscious and I had come to term with Pinkie senses.”

“Pinkie senses?” asked Eclipse Touch with more confusion without a hint of skepticism.

“Pinkie has the ability to sense different things based on how her body reacts in certain ways, if her whole body shivers all over it means I'm about accept something that I was firmly rejecting as a possibility,” she gave a little smile, “you weren't skeptical of her abilities, that's nice to see.”

“I never officially met an earth pony before miss Pinkie,” said Eclipse Touch, “I don't have enough information to know what passes for a normal earth pony.”

“A fair enough point,” said Twilight, “the only earth ponies you've had extended contact with are Pinkie and AJ. Both of them a bit or two outside the norm. You might not know this, but my special talent is magic. Before you saying anything I'm going to tell you that when I was filly younger than you I had difficulty with my magic, I still did when Princess Celestia made me her student.”

“What made her decide to make you her student?”

“My uncontrolled magical reaction to Rainbow Dash's first sonic rainboom,” Eclipse Touch looked at her quizzically, “it's when a pegasus flies so fast they create a rainbow and a sonic boom at the same time, so far the only living pegasus capable of the feat is Rainbow herself.”

“She has a rare ability, like me and Dream!” said Eclipse Touch with awe.

“In a sense, it took her some tries a few years later replicate her original result. She actually had trouble trying to do her second rainboom, but she didn't want any of us to know that. Sometimes our own pride and fear of what our friends might think of our lack of an ability that we know we've used before can get in the way of actually being able to use the ability, Rainbow finally managed her second rainboom when she stopped thinking about it and just acted when she needed to. Rainbow Dash is as loyal as they come, and from what I've seen of your brother loyalty isn't just in abundance amongst Equestria's pegasi.”

“It's so much more lively in Equestria,” said Eclipse Touch, “when we made our way out of Bridleton it was as if all the advancements present stopped developing before they had a chance to reach a similar point than that of Equestria. Bridleton's sociological and technological advancements seem to have come to a halt.”

“What you've just described is stagnation,” said Twilight as she cleared the board and and wrote out the word and its definition, “it's something we don't really see in Equestria, mostly because of our diversity and willingness to allow ponies to try bringing new innovations to those around them. For a nation to remain in stagnation for centuries is practically unheard of, there must be some kind of force that's been keeping Bridleton in its stagnate state. How is it that windigos haven't ravaged the nation? I'm only asking because the nation is clearly not in cooperative state from how you've described it and has a history of fighting and conflict, windigos feed off that sort of thing.”

“The way I understand it there was a great winter brought on by the windigos a few centuries ago, but how it was ended has been wiped clean from every text that mentions them,” said Eclipse Touch with concern and confusion. “Equestria had a windigo problem?”

“In a sense, you'll learn all you need during the play on Hearth's Warming Eve.”

“That sounds like a nice holiday.”

“It's a winter holiday, so you'll have to wait until after the pegasi have covered ground in snow. We just had the Summer Sun celebration last month and the Grand Galloping Gala is in a couple of months, I'll be expected to attend and you'll be expected to join me and my friends. You'll probably see your sister and brother there.”

“When I first arrived the prospect of the event scared me, but I'm feeling a little more secure about it.”

“Probably because you're not expected to be a set piece at the event, and instead actually participate as much as you think you need to.”

“That actually sounds like it could fun.”

“Trust me the Grand Galloping Gala is not fun,” said Twilight with a hint of contempt, “it's a stuffy formal event that won't let you even try to get closer to who you want to.”

“I'm sensing that your attendance at the event is mandatory in some way,” said Eclipse with genuine concern.

Twilight took a deep sigh and said, “every year I've attended all I've wanted to do is spend some time with my mentor, but the event's social obligations keep getting in the way of that.”

“You mean that because of your social obligations you won't be able to help me through the event?” inquired Eclipse Touch with a sad tone.

“That'll probably be the case,” said Twilight in exasperation, “and chances are your sister will be in the same predicament, maybe your brother too.”

“Storm Walker will be there?” said Eclipse Touch with piqued interest.

“Maybe,” said Twilight with a smile, “now that you've experienced your first light spell what can you tell me about your first experience with the spell?”

Eclipse started tapping her chin in the exact way Twilight did, this surprised Twilight because she knew for a fact that she had never displayed that particular mannerism in front of her student, before the filly said “I tried to push too much magic into the spell too fast,” Eclipse Touch started rubbing her temples in the same way as Twilight, which she also didn't remember doing in front of her new student, before the filly said, “and that's why my head hurts, also I think my ability tried to halt the spell.”

“Sometimes our best teacher is experience,” said Twilight with pride, “if I had guided you through how to do the spell step by step you wouldn't have learned how to better perform the spell for yourself. The same spell can have different problems depending on the caster, I myself was so focused on forming the light my first few times that it ended up taking longer than it should have.”

Twilight gestured for the filly to come over to her, to which Eclipse Touch did. When she got close to Twilight she asked, “is there something you want ask? We're the only ones here, Spike left the palace hours ago.”

Twilight looked at the filly as if she were trying to piece together a puzzle for a few seconds before saying, “how long have you had your thinking and headache mannerisms?”

“I've always done them that way, why are you asking?”

“Because they're the same mannerisms I use, you did them in almost the exact way I do them.”

Eclipse Touch blinked a few times before saying, “You're the pony I want to be most like, mis Twilight.”

“I know that,” said Twilight, “but I've never performed my thinking or headache mannerisms in front of you. So the question is, where did you pick them up.”

“They just feel natural to me, nopony ever did the actions that way around me.”

“We always pick up mannerisms from those around us, especially family. My brother and I both have the same headache mannerisms.”

“Every once and a while I have about... you're in dreams, not all the time, but most of time. I just realized it, how is that I could dream about you before I've even met you?” Eclipse started massaging her head again before continuing, “something is off, and I'm sure if its me or something else. It feels like something is quite right about... me and my siblings.” She immediately erased the entire board with her magic and started writing on the board with purple, green and blue chalk. After 10 minutes a formula that was so complex Twilight would have believed it was one her own if she hadn't watched the filly write it all out in front of her was on the board and Eclipse Touch then said, “we're all displaced; Sunshine Bottle, Storm Walker, Dream Step and me. We're all a divergence from how we're supposed to be. Our personalities don't add up to how environment or the prior generations, it's like we were taken from somewhere else and made to call those ponies in that manor our family. I'm only now starting to see it all add up; the warm vibrant personality of Sunshine Bottle buried under her masquerade compounded with her incomplete joy spell, Storm Walker's guardian persona and caring actions that are only in the presence of ponies he calls true friends and family, Dream Step's love the night when she manages to stay up past the setting sun without being scolded by Great Spell or Grand Charm, my desire to learn from texts even though I kept being told I couldn't read unsupervised. It's like we were taken from somewhere else so that we could continue somepony else's farce, it also explains why we were all treated to coldly by the ponies that called themselves our parents and grandmother. Are there any spells that can aid in the generating of such an elaborate fabrication?”

“Not in Equestria, the moment the princesses hear about such kind of spells or use of spells that are used in the manner you described the ponies in question are punished accordingly, I even read few cases where the princesses used their magic to remove all knowledge of how to execute from the minds of the ponies that were found guilty before sending them off to carry out their sentence. Are you saying that there is a spell can do something like that in Bridleton? Or a whole contingent of spells with those kinds of properties?”

“I'm not sure, but it wouldn't be outside Bridleton's realm of possibility, the nation has been stagnant for years and... its like a spirit that's the opposite of Discord has been holding the nation in its current state, of course it would be her.”

“Someone call my name?” said Discord appearing in a flash.

“No,” said Twilight with a hint of irritation, “she said there's a spirit that's your total opposite.”

“Oh, I haven't seen or heard of the other detrimental aspects in over 3000 years, do go on little one.”

“Who did you mean when you said 'her'?” inquired Twilight.

“Still, the spirit of Stagnation. We had some of Myrraldin's journals at the manor, I actually managed to read through them a considerable distance before I was caught and kept in my room for a week without food and only water, but I managed to get far enough in them to read about his encounter with the spirit of stagnation, a being that introduced herself as Still, he said that she couldn't enter Artanus's kingdom as long as the land remained dynamic, and to an extent harmonious, however he feared what would happen if she managed to whisper into the ear of somepony and convince them to perform a set of acts that would lead to the nation's stagnation, like the 200 year war of the Bridletanian nation eventually did have. Still has been whispering in the ear of every influential individual in Bridleton's history since the fall of the original Artanus, how did I not see it until now?”

“Maybe you just didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle before that little speech of yours,” said Discord as fell apart into a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle that rearranged itself so it looked like he was standing on his head with talon and bat wing before he flashed back to his usual look.

“As much as I loath to agree with Discord on matters such as this,” said Twilight shooting Discord an angry look, “he might be right, to an extent. Maybe you had all the pieces to the puzzle, but didn't know the proper means to sort through the pieces for a proper way to start until now.”

“Hm, Still,” said Discord, “can you tell us about her?”

“Or at least what she's been described as,” said Twilight.

Eclipse Touch took a deep breath before saying, “According to the notes Myrraldin made on Still he said that she's something like a parasitic entity, she chooses a host entity to inhabit and in sense removes their soul while still having access to the hosts memories. This happens slowly over the course of the host's lifespan, and after several decades the host's soul is gone and the body lives well past the point it should with Still being in control. She's very particular in her hosts as the time passes, she only inhabits hosts that are very close physically in size, stature, coloration an tribe. She always seems to pick a host that is tied the power structure of the nation she's stagnating, and usually chooses unicorns so that if anypony catches her using magic she doesn't really need an excuse as to why she is using a spell beyond a pretentious remark. Once she moves out of the host body it literally becomes dust, or at least that's what Myrraldin suspected considering how she proudly proclaimed her host at the time of his discovering her charade was several centuries old. He actually managed to see her as she is without a host, it was only for a split second, but from what he could remember about the event was that she herself seems to be slow moving with no visible mouth. He did his best to diagram her, but the page he indicated in his journal that had his rendering of her was torn out.”

“What do these journals look like?” said Discord with a mischievous grin, “I think Twilight would love to have them as part of her collection.”

“No offense but they would better serve Equestria in the Canterlot Archives than here,” said Twilight.

“The Journals are thousands of years old, they have ancient magics to protect them from the ravages of time, ponies, and other forces Myrraldin said he was more than aware of and had to deal with more times that he would like to admit. They're bound in an ancient white willow bark with a hard cover made of white oak, they're emblazoned with the symbol of a unicorn raising the moon over a tree. That was his personal insignia.” said Eclipse Touch, “back cover is branded with a circle that has the symbols of the 3 pony tribes along with those of the other races that made up the Circle Knights just below a symbol of a unicorn, earth pony and pegasus united together. The pages are made of paper unlike any other, I have no idea what was used the creations of the pages, I don't even know how to describe the way the pages felt in my magic or hooves because it seemed to be related to my mood.”

In a flash two-hundred and thirty books matching the filly's description were in massive pile between her and Discord, and nearly burying Twilight's right legs and wing. “I believe these are what you were talking about,” said Discord with a knowing smile. “I never met any of the figures you've been talking about personally, but I did visit that nation before it was you described and saw a young unicorn writing in a journal with the properties you described minus the images. I thought about messing with him, but something suddenly forced me out of that land and I just decided to move on to the next place. I was young and adventurous in those days, I must only been about 300 years back then, I wasn't nearly as powerful as am now, I also seemed to lack the creativity I do these days. Oh, to be young and foolish again, no on second thought that nostalgia trip should never happen.” In flash Discord was gone.

Twilight had been eying the books for the entire time Discord had been talking and just as she was about to dive in she was handed one of the thinner looking journals by Eclipse Touch who said, “here, this is the first one he ever wrote, I think it would be a good idea to start here.”

“Thank you Eclipse Touch,” said Twilight as she took the book in her magic, “we probably won't have another lesson for a few days, thanks your story and Discord.”

“I don't mind too much,” said Eclipse Touch, “just being with you is enough to make my day feel like I'm learning something. If they weren't planning on rushing here before today they are now.”

“I'm assuming you are referring to Great Spell and Grand Charm,” said Twilight as she opened the book and began to read it.

“Yes,” said Eclipse Touch with curt nod before curling up next to Twilight and taking a nap.

Twilight smiled at the filly before returning to her reading, when she got to the last page she a message magically appear on the blank back of the back cover in the same color as her coat, “I'm glad these have finally found their way to you honored Alicorn, forgive me for the ruse to others. The next message will be in the same place in the next book you read through, and I know you are going to read through it. The messages might end up jumbled, that means you need to determine which journal was written in the sequence. Once you have 'ringed' the books in the proper order my final message for you will be given. As to how I know you are an alicorn my dear, it's quite simple to say I have spell that allows me to see the silloutes of entities in the distant future, I know there is a foal curled up next to you right now because that as far as I saw you reading this book. The spell is draining and this is my test of the spell, but because of the energy demands I will not share knowledge of how to perform this spell anywhere or with any entity in addition to only using it maybe once or twice more.” Twilight stared at the message a bit before reaching over and inspecting the cover of the book, that is when she noticed light indentation she knew as a 1 from her lessons about the numerical systems once used by unicorns. Sifting through the pile with her magic Twilight pulled out 3 journals that had indentations she recognized 2, 3 and 4 in the ancient unicorn numerical system. She set the journal she had just finished in front of her and began reading the journal with the 2 indentation, after reading through the other 2 when she finished the second, and getting a series of broken message much longer than the first one that lined up when she arranged them by number and Twilight slowly started piecing together the next me message after finishing the 9th of the books, sifting through for several hours for the next 3 to 5 books in the order she found the message talked about how the dreaded fall of Artanus's kingdom probably came to pass and his regrets at not being able to do anything for it, it also explained why he left the kingdom when he did.

As Twilight was going through gather the next 5 journals Eclipse Touch yawned and fluttered her eyes open and said, “I must have been more tired from the exercise than I thought,” she noticed the pile of books before Twilight then said, “you're fast reader when you want to be.”

“Indeed I am,” said Twilight petting the filly's mane which elicited a giggle of joy from her before continuing, “it seems Myrraldin left some messages magically hidden in his journals. Do you know what he meant 'ring the books'?”

“Ring was one of his favorite means of saying circle, why?”

“Just something the first message said, I think I'll send a letter to Princess Celestia about this, she'll want to read the rest of these messages with me.”

“Which means we're going to have find a way to transport all these journals to Canterlot without drawing to large of a crowd,” said Eclipse Touch with a knowing smile that reminded Twilight of her early days with Princess Celestia.

“I'll get to work on the letter to Celestia,” said Twilight, “Spike won't be back for another hour or so.”

“I'll get to work writing up notes for your friends explaining what we're up to,” said Eclipse Touch, “we can have your magic deliver them on when we're ready to go. Do you want them to come to Canterlot and join us or just know what we're up to?”

Taking a moment to think Twilight said, “both, I know some of them are pretty busy today, but I want them to be there once we've gotten the final message arrangements completed.”

“Okay,” said Eclipse Touch as they both headed to the writing desk.”

While writing their letters and notices Twilight made a note about how Eclipse's writing was quite good, Eclipse responded by just saying she had a lot of practice. While they were waiting for Spike after getting everything written Twilight asked, “so, Eclipse in these dreams you have, that also have me in them, what's going on in them.”

Eclipse Touch sighed on the couch next all the letters that she and Twilight had neatly stacked before saying, “Not a whole lot, I'm just a little foal and you're looking down at me call me 'Unity Sparkle' or your little Unity... Now that I think about it I hear your friends in the background with foals, except for Fluttershy. Fluttershy is still with foal in most of them and keeps saying how she's looking forward to motherhood. Rainbow Dash is a bit more subdued, but hear foal is rambunctious with her commenting about how she used to be that way, Applejack is giving everypony pointers because Rarity keeps bringing up it was Applejack who had her foal before almost everypony else, Pinkie's foal keeps popping up next my crib wanting to play then everypony keeps telling her I'm not quite old enough for the kinds of games she has in mind.”

“Rainbow and Pinkie as mothers, I'm having trouble envisioning it. What are the other foals like?”

“I don't know, I haven't had those kinds of dreams yet. “ said Eclipse Touch with little perk in her voice. “It's either been me in a crib with you looking at me with a sense of peace and accomplishment or you holding me in your forelegs or magic talking with others or telling me children's stories that you think I might like,” Eclipse Touch gave a smile before saying, “you told the story of the Mare in the Moon and immediately followed up how you and your friends first met and defeated Nightmare Moon, I always coo and giggle when you tell the story of your defeat of Nightmare Moon and it makes you smile and laugh with a joy like no other images of you I have. There's one time you get a message from Princess Celestia informing you of the birth of Princess Luna's foal only few hours before me on the same day, you give a little chuckle that makes me giggle in a way that has you smiling when you get to my crib and say I have another cousin. I'm not entirely sure they're dreams anymore.”

“What do you think they could be then? Visions doesn't sound right because you said your a foal, do you ever see what you look like?”

“Not entirely, I see fuchsia legs and hear your friends comment about how I almost look exactly like you did when you arrived in Ponyville.”

“You're coat is a lighter shade than mine, that's interesting. Wait a moment, you said you realized you and your siblings were displaced. What if these dreams you have been having are your ability trying to correct the displacement?”

“But not being able to because its running into a magical paradox that it can't correct, what if my ability has also been doing the same for my siblings?” Eclipse Touch immediately facehoofed, “it should have been obvious this entire time, the reason I felt comfortable around when we first met was because I recognized you as being my true mother, or rather my ability trying to correct the paradox. Maybe if we work with the other Princesses we can create a spell to correct for the paradox, but we'd also have to weave spell that would also prevent what happened to us from being repeated in the righted reality.”

“That would be several highly complex spells the likes of which I've never heard of before,” said Twilight as she massaged her head, “we're going to have a spell where there is a message is for us explaining why we need to perform the spell the righted timeline, because we won't remember any of this when we correct the timeline. We're probably going to need Discord's help with it.”

“We're also going to have find a way to seal away Still in both timelines, if we don't she'll just keep at this game of hers of bringing the development of nations to a grinding halt and reverting some of their developments. We need to find out who her host is and remove her from them and then seal her away, and tell everypony's alternates what to look for so they can do the same in their timeline. Why didn't I come any of these realizations until now?”

“Me, sweetheart,” said Twilight bringing the filly into a hug with her wing, “I'm not sure I entirely believe you yet, but if it really is a possibility then I am going to have some very loud words with Still.”

“So are the other Princesses,” said Eclipse Touch with a smile as she curled up next to Twilight as they waited for Spike.”

Almost an hour later Spike walked in with a load of groceries and set them on the counter in the kitchen before saying, “I found almost everything you asked me to get today Twilight,” then walked in to see a sealed letter floating in front of him, “wow, you haven't asked me send a letter to Princess Celestia in a long time. What's the occasion?”

Twilight gestured to the mass of ancient journals with her wing and said, “I found something that the other Princesses need to see in those, we're going to need moving them all to Canterlot with as little notice as possible.”

“I understand,” said Spike, “you're worried if somepony sees you moving a mass of books out of the castle they might get the wrong idea.” Twilight and Eclipse both gave curt nods simultaneously that were so similar Spike would have sworn that he had been talking to two Twilights for a moment.

“I know mentors and students will often have similar mannerisms, but that was almost too cute,” said Spike, which caused both Twilight and Eclipse to giggle as he sent the letter off on its way.

“I know you just got back,” said Eclipse floating her letters to the other Mane Six over to him, “but could you deliver these to the others, we want them to know what's up.”

“I guess,” said Spike, “if I'm just supposed to deliver these to Twilight's friends it shouldn't take long.” With that he was out the door, just before he could leave he belched out a response form Celestia, “Twilight I keep telling you that you need to find a new method of communication with Celestia and the other Princesses because I won't be able to stay at your side forever, with that he dropped the letter and was out the door.

Twilight opened the letter and read, “my dear Twilight I am glad to hear that you have come across a situation that might require the aid of your fellow princesses, I just didn't think it would happen so soon. I will be arriving shortly after sending a letter to Cadance and confirming that she is available for this endeavor. Your claim that the journals of a great unicorn from another nation have hidden messages at the back of the back covers does sound like something that an individual with your reputation would notice. I however would like to know more about these messages and would like you to tell me about what it is they have thus far.

With Care your mentor and friend, Princess Celestia.”

“Looks like we're waiting a bit longer than you thought,” said Eclipse Touch.

“That's okay,” said Twilight with a smile, “I've been wanting you to meet Cadance anyway, before she was my sister-in-law she was my foalsitter, and I've been meaning for her to give her thoughts on you. She's a really caring pony, did I tell you about the properties of the Princesses of Equestria before.”

“No,” said Eclipse shaking her head and slightly tousling her mane.

“Alright,” said Twilight putting some thought into what to say next before saying, “initially there were only two Alicorns in Equestria, but when she came to a realization about love Cadance ascending from being a pegasus to being and Alicorn and shortly after was adopted by Princes Celestia as her niece. It wasn't until around 7 years ago I ascended from being and unicorn to being an alicorn. Each of us is the princess of something that has great importance in Equestria. Celestia is the Princess of the Sun, Luna is Princess of the Moon, Cadance is the Princess of Love and I'm the Princess of Friendship. You know about Celestia's power to raise and lower the sun and Luna's power to raise and lower the moon, but do you know what Cadance or my special talents are?” Eclipse Touch shook her head violently and tousled her mane a bit more, almost blinding herself and eliciting a chuckle from Twilight, “Cadance's special brand of magic can enhance the love of those who are truly in love to the point that they have a truly full understanding of each other for almost the entire day and night and if they aren't truly in love it cause them to politely tell each other then feel the need to seek out somepony they can truly feel love for; and my special talent is magic itself, there is no spell I can't gain a full understanding of or perform. It was when I fully came to understand magical power within friendship that I became an alicorn.”

“So, this Princess Cadance is the Princess of Love,” said Eclipse Touch slowly in a way that told Twilight she was processing the information, “are you sure your the Princess of Magic or Princess of Friendship?”

“Friendship,” said Twilight with a sigh of joyous nostalgia, “but magic is still my special talent. I told you that earlier, but I guess it will take some time for all of this to sink in.”

*****************************************

A half hour passed before Celestia appeared in a nearly blinding flash of yellow and said to Twilight, “Cadance will be in Canterlot in a few hours,” then turning her attention to Eclipse Touch said, “how are you adjusting to everything young filly?”

“Okay, I guess,” said Eclipse Touch, “but some of my sudden realizations have me wondering if this is how things are supposed to be.”

Celestia turned to face Twilight with an expression that said she needed an explanation to which Twilight sighed and said, “she thinks that somepony intentionally pulled her and her siblings from the futures of the mares that were supposed to be their mothers. One of said mares is supposedly me, she's unsure if this the right timeline now.”

“That sounds like a powerful spell,” said Celestia, “one that all of us Princesses would consider among the greatest of taboo.”

“Yes,” said Twilight, “well, she thinks it's a spell created by a spirit that causes advancements to stop in a nation, said spirit picks up and moves on to the next nation when a revolution becomes unavoidable.”

“And whom would this spirit be?” inquired Celestia.

“Her name is Still,” said Eclipse Touch, “she's the Spirit of Stagnation, Myrraldin talks about her in his journals,” at the last word she gestured with a hoof towards the mass of journals.

“Have any suggestions on where to start? Or how to go about this?” inquired Celestia with genuine interest, she took a deep sigh and said, “there are days I wish Starswirl were still around, he would have loved doing this sort of thing. Making new discoveries in regards to magic was one of his greatest passions, and this little endeavor you two are bringing along would definitely qualify. Where did you get all of these in such a short amount of time?”

“Eclipse described them to Discord a few hours ago and he used his powers to bring them all here.”

“To be fair I only was aware of about 30 or so of the journals,” said Eclipse, “and now that I've gotten a better look them not all the journals match my description, maybe they have an enchantment that makes it so that if you magically conjure up one the rest of the collection comes along.”

“Or it could just be Discord being Discord,” said Twilight and Celestia in unison before continuing in unison to say, “either way we have an invaluable resource at our disposal thanks to you, again.”

“Okay that kind disconcerting,” said Eclipse, “how often have you both done something like that?”

“The last time was 3 years before I sent Twilight to Ponyville,” said Celestia, “I was showing her how my court operated at the time and the only time she talked in the prescience of another pony was when I was showing some displeasure with a noble for actually thinking of bringing a trivial matter to me because he was dissatisfied with the chef of a new restaurant he had just recently found the day before.”

Twilight gave a little chuckle before saying, “I'll share the story with you sometime.”

“I think you already did,” said Eclipse Touch with a smile.

“I would remember telling about something like that,” said Twilight with a look of confusion, “it's not the kind of story you can forget witnessing or telling.”

“In those dreams I told you about, where I'm your daughter, one of the bedtime stories you tell me is about what you just mentioned, I give loud toddler laughs and giggles during and after the story, that's how you know it's one of the stories I really like. Prince Big Deal needs to learn that he isn't entitled to his way like that.”

Celestia looked over at the black filly before saying to Twilight, “we need to investigate these claims of hers if she's making comments like that.”

“The problem is how to test whether or not the theory is true or not,” said Twilight who then beckoned Celestia and used the memory sharing spell from her first encounter with Discord to share the entire conversation she'd had with Eclipse Touch on Celestia to bring the ivory alicorn up to speed.

The ivory alicorn blinked a few times getting used to the new memories, “now I think we really should investigate her theory, because if she's right then the past 7 years since your ascension to Princess haven't unfolded the way they were supposed to for you, me, my sister, your family or your friends.”

“If that is indeed the proper theory then that would be magic on level so high that it could only be in the realm of possible for an entity like Discord,” said Twilight, “as powerful as we are manipulation of reality to that extent would be to strong even if all 4 of us alicorns combined our magic for a simple test of the applied application we would most likely be feeling so drained that it could cause a panic in Equestria for days or weeks.”

Celestia just nodded before approaching the pile of journals before saying, “about approaching these journals.”

“Oh,” said Twilight, “the journals have an ancient unicorn numbering system on their spines, I've been trying to read them in the order that the numbers on the spine indicate, it's much slower going than it normally would be for me than if I just grabbed the next nearest book at hoof's length.”

“I can see why,” said Celestia with a knowing smile as she eyed the the disorganized pile of unread journals and Twilight's neat little pile of read ones.” Carefully Celestia slid the journal Twilight had at the bottom of her neat pile, checked the spine and found an indentation in of an ancient unicorn symbol meaning 1 and started reading it, when Celestia got the back of the back cover she saw the first message that Twilight had and looked over to Eclipse Touch curled up next to Twilight talking about what she and Twilight would have for lunch and her eyes gave a quick note of surprise before she said, “the unicorn that wrote these had a kind of magical capability that I've never heard of before, in addition he showed a lot of wisdom in dispersing his knowledge in a manner that it could be shared.”

“But was hoarded by political and social elite of the country that forced its way from the ashes of the nation he helped build and left behind because of a belief that no matter what the future would be in good hooves,” Eclipse Touch said to Celestia in a disappointed tone, “sometimes I wish he could be around to help teach his lessons that he gave to the original Artanus.”

Celestia gave another warm smile before saying, “you almost sound like Twilight when she learned about Starswirl.” Twilight gave a little blush as Celestia continued, “Eclipse Touch you are so much like Twilight when she was your age, I'm not surprised you have started developing the kind of relationship Twilight and I had in her early days of study under me. Now back to the matter at hoof, we're taking all of these and you both to Canterlot. Twilight if you would be so kind as to provide assistance, Eclipse keep close we don't want you to get lost.”

“I hope my ability doesn't ruin this,” said Eclipse Touch, “not to mention teleportation spells get more and more difficult as you increase the mass of what is being put in transit.”

Twilight smiled and said, “you remembered that earlier conversation I had with my friends, I'm looking forward to the day you start learning to do a teleportation yourself.”

With that Eclipse Touch climbed on top of the pile and curled up on top of pile in a way that reminded Twilight of Spike on his small hoard and the two alicorns teleported her and the entire collection of journals Canterlot.

When they arrived at the Canterlot castle they were in large open space and Luna was waiting to the side, although her placement almost got her left forehoof buried under the pile of ancient enchanted journals. “Well, I can see why Twilight was excited,” said the star maned alicorn with a smile, “before you ask, Eclipse, your sister is sleeping soundly in her room, my classes with her usually occur at night and she does not yet have the fortitude or presence of will required for keeping herself up during my sister's bright days.”

“She seems to enjoy the night well enough,” said Eclipse Touch, “the night was always her favorite time when she was able to save enough energy to stay up and see the stars and moon. She always enjoyed that time, but Great Spell and Grand Charm forced us into the same day cycle they operated on.”

Luna cocked her head towards the filly and said, “and what of your natural rhythms?”

“My natural cycles have always felt like they should mirror miss Twilight's,” said Eclipse Touch, “when I started doing that it just felt right.”

Twilight smiled a bit and said, “off you go, young filly, you need to stay out of our way as we cycle through the journals in their numerical order.”

“And place them in a circle,” said Eclipse Touch, “that's the only reason you would ask me about ringing the books, and I know the unicorn that wrote these journals better than any of you.”

“Because you think of him in the same way I think of Starswirl,” said Twilight with a smile.

“In a way,” said Eclipse Touch, “I've done my best to research him and his accomplishments, but I had those activities mostly restricted by Great Spell, Great Seal, and Grand Charm.”

“I noticed you aren't calling them by familial titles now,” said Celestia with a concerned tone and face.

“They lost the right to being considered family when put their desires ahead of the needs of their children,” said Eclipse Touch promptly, “that first memory I showed is one of the kinder memories I have of those 3,” then in almost a whisper she said, “and one of the harsher ones that I have of my oldest sister. I really don't want to share anymore memories of that place, but I know that I need to in order for a full understanding to be made.” Sorrow seemed to poor through her words at the last part of what she said along with almost appearing to do everything in slow motion as she climbed the couch in the room to observe the the three princesses at work while staying out of their way.

A half hour later the three princesses had managed to unearth four more books in the set and Twilight was just finishing reading the twelfth of the journals when Princess Cadance trotted in and said in her all to caring voice, “somehow I had a feeling something like this would be what was called for when your note mentioned Twilight, auntie Celestia,” she then noticed the filly on the couch watching the three alicorns and said, “you're even more caring than I thought,” as she approached the filly looked at her for moment before smiling and embracing her in a hug.

Twilight watched the display and said, “it's almost like you know her, Eclipse.”

“Sometimes it feels like I can sense the true nature of others,” said Eclipse coming out of the pink alicorn's embrace, “and what I'm sensing from her is the kindness and caring devotion that should be the rule and not the exception.”

“Care to explain,” inquired Cadance.

Celestia merely walked over and used the memory spell before saying, “that should bring you up to speed, your magic has the aspect of being able gauge the emotions of others, what is it telling you about her?”

Cadance blinked for a few seconds as she got used to the memories before saying, “she's concerned for her siblings, but...”

“I never felt love or concern from Great Spell, Great Seal or Grand Charm,” said Eclipse Touch.

“The only way to properly assess that claim,” said Cadance is for me to experience one of her memories or meet her family. She cares greatly for all her siblings, she also seems feel a familial bond with Twilight and me.”

“Which is odd,” said Twilight, “this is the first time she's met you. She's already formulated the theory that she and her siblings are temporally displaced and that each of them was meant to be born to mares in Equestria. If the theory is in fact true that means there's spell out there that is a crime against everything we hold dear and sacred.”

“And to whom are the siblings to be born to?” inquired Cadance.

“I'm not sure about Dream Step or Sunshine Bottle yet,” said Eclipse Touch, “the dreams that feel more like legitimate memories haven't shown me who they were meant to be yet.”

“But you think I was meant to be your mother,” said Twilight as she flipped the last page of the journal she was reading and copied the message to a notepad she had next to her, “what about the other one?”

“I don't know why but, I have yet to see Princess Cadance or Storm Walker's equivelant in the dreams. Regardless, my memories of my brother have him making me feel similar to Princess Cadance, I think he was meant to be her foal, but I'm not fully sure yet.”

The four alicorns stared at each other before Celestia asked, “do you think that Dream Step was intended to be Luna's foal?”

“All of the data lines up properly,” said Eclipse Touch, “she's always loved the night, she's been able to visit dreams almost since the day she was born, and I suspect Princess Luna started having maternal feelings toward her shortly after she was placed in Princess Luna's care.”

Luna gave a surprised look before saying, “I have been feeling unnaturally parental toward my student, but I just thought that was part of the mentoring process.”

Celestia shook her head a bit at the thought of her sister omitting such important information before saying, “that's never been a case for mentors and students, Luna. There are cases where you might feel something similar to being a mother, like the way I am with Twilight, but you never truly feel like a legitimate parent to your student.”

“I think my ability is trying to correct the...” suddenly Eclipse Touch's horn flared cutting her off mid-sentence and her eyes began to glow along with her stare becoming completely neutral, a whitish purple filled the room and all four alicorns suddenly found they were having a different experience.

*******************************************************

Twilight tried to blink a few time and found she couldn't. She was at the Canterlot train station, but found it was different than she remembered before she heard and felt herself saying, “Unity we're here to meet your aunts and cousins,” she then turned her head to see a fuchsia unicorn filly sleeping on her lavender back just between her wings. The filly's eyes opened slowly after she gave what Twilight thought was the cutest yawn she ever seen, when she saw the filly's eyes they were a near match to her own violet eyes. The infant foal gave a few coos of joy and hugged her neck before Twilight said, “love you too baby girl,” before the filly let go of her neck and almost fell off with Twilight catching the filly in her magic, which in turn caused the foal to elicit giggles of joy, “you just like it when mommy uses magic, don't you,” said Twilight as a they both heard a train pulling into the station, and she returned the foal to her back.

Both turned their attention to the train as it came to a stop and a pink alicorn along with a white five-year-old pegasus colt with a pink and blue mane with a slight crystal sheen stepped off the train and the pink alicorn said, “so good to see you again Twilight, you remember Heart Guard?” She motioned to the colt with a wing.

“Of course I do, Cadance,” said Twilight, “it's nice to see my nephew again, why isn't Shining here?”

“Something about somepony wanting to have a security symposium at the Crystal Empire,” said Cadance, “it was kind of sprung on us, and he said it would be rude to not hear them out, so he won't be joining us for a few days,” turning her attention to the filly on Twilight's back Cadance said, “and this must be my new little niece, what's her name?”

“Unity Sparkle,” said Twilight with pride, “she's the most well behaved little filly I've ever seen.”

“Twilight,” said Cadance with a knowing voice, “every parent has similar thoughts about their newborns, even me.”

“Mom,” said the colt in tone that reminded Twilight a bit of Shining Armor, “who's this strange mare? And why you being so friendly?”

“Takes more after his father than you like I see,” said Twilight with a smile before turning to the colt and saying, “I'm your aunt Twilight Sparkle, the filly on my back is your new little cousin, Unity Sparkle.”

The colt looked to his mother who nodded with agreement, his face then lit up like Cadance when she was Twilight's foalsitter and he said with joy, “will I get to foalsit her when I'm older?”

“Maybe,” said Twilight and Cadance in unison.

Unity gave a few little giggles before saying, “mla mla,” and hugging Twilight's neck again.

Twilight had a bit of a surprised look before saying, “those were her first words, ooh I wanted to have her somewhere else when that happened.

The filly looked over at Cadance before saying, “almwii, almwii,” and raising her hooves up like she wanted to hug the pink alicorn. Cadance gently took the foal in her magic which caused her to in turn coo and giggle with delight. The colt just watched in amazement at how the foal floating between his mother and aunt kept cooing with approval in Cadance's magic. Twilight took the filly back with her own after gesturing to Cadance she would, the moment the filly was in her mother's magic she started giggling with joy and clapping her little forehooves together with jubilation.

“She seems to get enjoyment from magic being used on her,” said Cadance, “which reminds me, how are your friends doing?”

“Pinkie had a filly named Cherri Party a little over a month ago, Rainbow and Sorin officially married last year and had a filly about two weeks ago named her Rainboom, Rarity had a filly a last week named Caring Jewel, three weeks week Applejack had foal named Zap Apple and Fluttershy is still expecting her foal. We all had to put our schedule and plans on hold when it became evident the foals were coming, Rainbow just recently got a notice stating that she is again one of the primary fliers for the Wonderbolts.”

“But with all those foals it's a bit of chore keeping them in line,” said Cadance with a smile, “if Heart was a little older I'd recommend him as a foalsitter, he just loves being around small foals.”

“Kind of reminds me of a certain pink alicorn that used to watch over me when my family was busy,” said Twilight just as all three ponies heard a yawn from Twilight's back and turned their attention to see the little fuchsia bundle on Twilight's back curling up to sleep, “but my foal is remarkably well behaved. She only cries when she's hungry or needs a change, watches the other fillies when they come for visit and doesn't make a disruptive sound when she's in h crib, is polite when interacting with the other foals and never interrupts mommy when she's reading a story for anypony.”

“Twilight,” said Cadance with concern, “she sounds like an overly respectful foal, did you cast a spell on her to make sure she behaves?”

“Actually no,” said Twilight as they made their way to the Canterlot castle, “she seems to have a natural defense that counters any spell that targets her or something in close proximity to her. Discord popped in a few a few days ago and her magic reacted with his by first canceling out his magic then creating plush dolls of me and my friends instead of whatever he was going for. The time he showed up yesterday every one of the foals, including her, got their very own plush Discord doll, Discord also got one it seems.”

“All the foals are probably calling him uncle Discord,” Heart Guard said in lighthearted deadpan.

“Actually, yes,” said Twilight with a smile as they continued, “well the ones that can talk anyway.”

A semi-sleeping fuchsia unicorn foal on Twilight's back giggled as she said, “unga, Discode,” then repositioned herself and started making the noticeable sounds a true slumber.

Cadance and Heart Guard looked at Twilight with surprise, but all she said, “she has habit going half to sleep and saying something related to a conversation going around her before falling completely asleep, and before you ask she does not talk in her sleep after her little expression while in between waking and sleeping.”

A few minutes later they arrived at the palace and when the doors opened a six-year-old white unicorn with 3 toned mane of orange, indigo and yellow with pink dark pink eyes and a bright orange sun cutie mark greeted them by saying, “it's so good to see you all again,” she paused as she noticed the sleeping bundle on Twilight's back, “ooh, I have another cute little cousin, this so exciting aunt Twilight.”

“Hello Sola,” said Twilight with cheery friendly tone, “can you tell us where Princess Celestia is?”

“Mom's with aunt Luna in her room, aunt Luna had a foal a little while ago.”

“I know,” said Twilight, “I got the letter, the time she gave is six hours before I had my little Unity Sparkle,” at the name of the foal Twilight turned and smiled at the still sleeping bundle on her back.

“Has Luna decided on a name for her foal?” inquired Cadance.

“Yes,” said Sola, “my cute little cousin is a filly named Stella, aunt Luna's already calling Stella her 'little star',” Sola gave warm smile at the name of the foal before saying, “you chose cute name for your little filly, aunt Twilight.”

“Thanks, Sola,” said Twilight, “would you mind leading us to Celestia and Luna?”

“Not at all,” said Sola motioning them to follow her.

As the made their way down the hall Sola kept yammering about how it was wonderful to have two adorable foals in the castle at the same time, but when they were half way to the door a reverbarating yawn from Unity cut her off and then the filly's eyes fluttered open before she said, “mla ma, mweer larr kwee?” with a big inquisitive stare right into Twilight's face.

“Were in the Canterlot castle and going to meet your cousin Stella,” said Twilight as she gestured down the hall with her right foreleg then gesturing to Sola she said, “this is your cousin Sola.”

“Sholka, Sholka,” said Unity with a giggle before gesturing to the young unicorn and making a move to be hugged.

“I'm impressed that she's already forming such cohesive sentences on her first day talking,” said Cadance with a smile before turning to Sola and saying, “she wants you to pick her up with your magic.”

“Oh,” said Sola picking the foal up in a bright orange aura and causing the filly to giggle with joy, after holding Unity in her magic for a few seconds before she placed the filly back on Twilight's back. The filly began to slip off of her mother’s back.

Just as she was falling Unity's horn glowed and she surrounded herself in whitish purple aura and righted herself on her mother before giggling and clapping her forehooves in joy, Twilight smiled before saying, “she does that sometimes, once she even managed to float my cookie jar from the kitchen to where Cherri was, I was so impressed I didn't bother with a stern voice or disciplining either of them.”

“You're spoiling the foals,” said Cadance as they resumed their walk down the hall.”

“Perhaps,” said Twilight, “but a little spoiling them now and then helps remind them how much you care about them in the special way a mother can, I read that in one of my parenting books as I was awaiting Unity's birth.”

“Typical Twilight,” said Celestia in good hearted laugh as they came up on the doors they swung open with the aid of Celestia's magic. Both she and Luna were sitting with their hind legs tucked under them with Luna cradling a small black pony shaped bundle with bright blue star dotted ebony mane and closed eyes.

Luna looked up at the visitors and said in a very gentle voice, “we welcome you Princess Twilight, Princess Cadance, Heart Guard,” her eyes then went to the fuchsia filly with violet eyes on Twilight's back and she asked, “and who might this be Princess Twilight?”

“My daughter, Unity Sparkle,” said Twilight with a smile, “she's only 6 hours younger than your little Stella. She surprised us today by not only saying her first words when I met Cadance, but she said her first real sentence on the trot down here.”

“Well, her mother is one of the most intelligent and gifted ponies in all of Equestria,” said Celestia with a look that said she wanted to interact with the little filly.

“Go ahead,” said Twilight, “she loves when you levitate her, although her innate ability will pretty much counter any other spell you try on her.”

Celestia nodded and picked up the filly in the yellow aura of her magic, as soon as the Unity noticed the glow of Celestia's magic around her she began to giggle with delight which in turn brought a smile to the ivory alicorn's face. She floated the filly over to Luna and the still Sleeping Stella. When she was set on the floor next to the other filly Unity gently reached out a hoof to touch the other filly with a sort of careful curiosity, the moment the fuchsia filly lightly tapped the the umbra filly Stella's two-toned midnight green and night indigo eyes opened and stared at the new comer who just waved her right forehoof in greeting, the dark filly then turned her attention to Luna and started tapping the ebony alicron in the shoulder, which was her way of silently telling her mother she was hungry, Luna obliged and brought the filly to her nipples where the filly just silently started suckling. Unity upon seeing this actually made a slight rumble in her stomach and Twilight positioned herself for the fuchsia filly to better feed, which she did with a the fervor Twilight had become used to shortly after her daughter was born. As her daughter eagerly suckled Twilight gently petted the her daughter's mane, which was visually identical to her mother's.

“You've become more openly kind since I last saw you,” said Celestia with a warm smile as she watched Twilight and her child.

“It just felt natural when she was born,” said Twilight as she continued to stroke her daughter's mane, “a few times when I met my friends with this little bundle of joy a few times they asked if a spell had been goofed and caused me and Fluttershy to switch bodies,” she lightly giggled at the memories, her daughter lightly poking her mother while suckling to remind her mother to not do anything that could potentially disrupt the flow of her nutrient rich meal, “the only time she's demanding is when she's eating, I'm sure it's quirk she'll grow out of by the time she's old enough for classes at school.”

“You mean you intend to teach her before she's old enough for an official school's lesson plans?” inquired Sola, whom had been very silent this whole time as well as Heart Guard.

“Aunt Twilight,” said Heart Guard finally breaking his silence, “are you sure that's wise.”

“Wise, probably not, Smart on the other hoof very much yes. I don't have the wisdom Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have accumulated over their many years, or anything like Cadance's innate wisdom and knowing. However I do have the kind of knowledge which comes from the many books I've read and adventures I've had with my friends, and it is this knowledge coupled with the intelligence of how to properly apply lessons learned from my younger days that tells me that the smartest thing to do with my daughter is teach her everything I can. From the the basics like walking, conversation and interacting with others to the more complex things like magical theory, spell application, actual practice sessions to properly gage which kind of spells she may have the most difficulty with.”

“Twilight, she'll already effectively be mentally you,” Luna when she looked up from her still feeding foal, “you don't have to go to great lengths to increase the odds she'll end up being another you.”

“I'm not,” said Twilight with conviction, “I just don't want her hurting herself or somepony else if she has anywhere near the magical potential I had as a filly, and if her innate ability is any indication then her magical potential is potentially greater than mine was at her age.”

“Actually I would that you two have about the same level of potential at that age,” said Celestia, “here potential is just manifesting differently.”

“I am not going to put my foal and the foals of my friends in danger because my daughter isn't aware of what her magic could do if unfocused or unsure of how to keep some measure of control over her magic.”

**********************************************

When everything came back into focus Eclipse Touch said, “that lasted longer than usual, I was Unity again. It always feels right when I'm her again.”

Celestia blinked a bit before saying, “it would be nice to be real mother, and her name was fitting for who I am.”

“Could Dream Step really be an alternate version of the foal named Stella I was so caring towards?”

“Wait, you all experienced that as well?” cried Eclipse Touch in genuine fear and surprise.

“Yes,” said Cadance while passing another journal to Twilight, “I can see why you feel like you need that to be real, you're happy in a way only a foal can be. Shining and I have been trying to have a foal almost since our wedding night, but he's only recently gotten over the embarrassment that comes from a couple sharing a bed.”

“I suppose that explains why Sola is older than Heart Guard,” said Eclipse Touch.

“I wasn't sure your theory had any real substance,” said Twilight, “but after a few minutes of what it's like to being Unity Sparkle's mother I can see how much merit your theory has. I was concerned it was a very elaborate illusion spell, but your genuine surprise told me otherwise.”

“Well, that and I've never even attempted an illusion spell before,” said Eclipse Touch with a hint shame in her voice, “besides even the most advanced illusion spell couldn't make you all experience something separate from each other.”

“She has a point,” said Luna smiling at the filly, “if anypony attempted an illusion spell to that extent it would have little hiccups and hints that would be noticed out of the corner of your eye that would eventually make their way to the front of your field of vision.”

Celestia nodded before saying, “I suddenly found myself in the throne room with only the pony known as Sola calling me mom, I couldn't do anything at all and felt and heard myself doing things almost like living through a memory.”

“I was on the train to Canterlot with Heart Guard asking me about where we were going,” said Cadance.

“I was nuzzling Stella when it all came together,” said Luna with a smile.

“I was Unity Sparkle on miss Twilight's back, and the happiest little thing in my memory,” said Eclipse Touch with genuine grin to rival Luna’s

“I was waiting at the Canterlot train Station for Cadance with Unity Sparkle on my back,” said Twilight, “it looks like it couldn't have been an illusion.”

“But that leaves the question of why we were experiencing those things at all, based on the ages of all the children we interacted with...”

“Sola would have to have been born a year after miss Twilight had become an alicorn and Heart Guard would have to have been born around a year after her. Unity and Stella would have to be born a few days ago, but only after all the other things that were talked about happened,” said Eclipse Touch causing everypony to look at her, “I've spent a lot of time trying to calculate it all, that last vision gave a lot of data to work with, I could still hear everything going on and being said around Unity Sparkle.”

“But if Dream Step was meant to be my foal Stella,” said Luna, “why are we now coming to this realization? We're all much more sensitive to disruptions in the flows of time and magic than we usually let on.”

“Maybe you did feel it,” said Eclipse Touch as she made herself more comfortable on the couch, “but the sensation was so new or far removed from what you are used to that you didn't know how to make sense of it.”

Twilight's eyes suddenly flashed, “my tingling mane last year, I thought I might have gotten something similar to Pinkie's Pinkie Senses, but it only happened once and I didn't hear about anything that happened. I even asked Pinkie what an itchy mane meant, she said it meant to watch for stampedes, and she hadn't gotten that in while.”

“Well sorry about that,” said the pink pony seeming to pop out nowhere, “by the way I really liked my little filly, Cherri is so cute and looks almost like her mommy,” said Pinkie with a big grin.

“aside from the cherry red mane,” Eclipse eying Pinkie, “she even has similar mannerisms. Did your Pinkie Senses act up when we saw that alternate timeline?”

“Yup,” said Pinkie, “I got a new combo.”

“What was it?” inquired Twilight, “itchy mane, double twitchy tail, left ear flop, wobbly right foreleg,” said Pinkie with with a smile.

“And you waited for us to formulate everything before you popped up because...?” inquired Twilight.

“Simple,” said Celestia, “she wanted to hear what we thought about the experience.” Pinkie just nodded vigorously.

“So what exactly was that?” inquired Twilight, “Eclipse Touch thinks it could be the timeline as it was supposed to be, I think it's just a glimpse into an alternate universe, but I have yet to hear the theory the other princesses have.”

After a moment Luna said, “After what we just experienced, I'm inclined to be more of the same opinion as you Twilight. I know more than anypony that some things that aren't entirely real can feel more real than anything else, especially when strong emotions are involved.”

“The other me told me that Eclipse is right,” said Pinkie, earning looks from all the alicorns and the filly, “what she really did say that our current timeline was messed with by somepony.”

Twilight facehoofed and said, “Pinkie you can't just take the word of another you at face value! That's just weird, even for... no wait it's perfectly in character for you.”

“Ooh, I know let's have Discord bring the other yous to talk with you.”

“You would have to wait for Dream Step, Storm Walker and Sunshine Bottle to be with us for that,” said Eclipse Touch, “and the other you is still caring for a foal, would it be smart or wise to pull a foal with no known standing alternate along for the ride just for the sake of confirming something?”

“She's right, Pinkie,” said Twilight, “even if it is within Discord's abilities to do so, we shouldn't bring young foals like Unity Sparkle and Cherri Party into something like this just to end our debate.”

“Really now,” came Discord's voice, “you're having that kind of debate, never in a million years did I think I'd hear a debate like that. Also I kind of liked talking with my other self, he could handle all that easily.” Suddenly a second Discord appeared, wearing a pirate hat, eye patch and medical tape on his tail.

“Well,” said the second Discord with a slight pirate accent, “you weren't joking when you said they didn't have foals, and before anypony asks this timeline isn't really supposed to be the one you remember. I know because about a month ago you had a talk with your other selves in a space outside of time, which I helped make by the way, and figured out a way to correct the timeline. Although in your time you'll have to wait a few months,” he then turned his attention to Eclipse Touch and said, “you always knew this timeline wasn't right.”

“Only after the second time my ability showed me what it was like to be Unity, the first time I thought I was just projecting my hopes and dreams around me to escape my less than nurturing parents and grandmother.”

“Perfectly reasonable,” said Twilight.

“Yes, yes,” said Pirate Discord, “she takes after you even when she has no idea who you are,” with that he snapped his taloned hand and the image a young Eclipse Touch showing excitement over a book before it was tugged from her hooves and magic by Grand Charm as she was told she wasn't ready for the book, tears welled up in the foal's eyes and she gave silent cries for a full two minutes before the image blinked out.

Twilight turned to a now ashamed looking Eclipse Touch silently crying on the couch with her ears flat against her head before saying, “when is your birthday?”

Sniffling a bit Eclipse said, “Unity and Stella were born six days ago, Dream and I have been told our birthday is at the end of this week.”

“That's just three days away,” said Pinkie with excitement, “more than enough time for an amazing party to be planned.”

“Do you remember the title of the book?” asked Twilight.

With tear reddened eyes Eclipse Touch said, “The Complete Book of Magical Theory.”

Twilight smiled as Celestia said, “I think you'll get something much better than a mere book on magical theory this year, and this time you'll get to enjoy it.”

“I really should be going,” said Pirate Discord, “the foals need a rugged captain to rebel against,” with that he disappeared in a flash of light.

“Me looking forward to playing the villain for foals I...”

“Can totally see it as in character,” said Twilight promptly, “you like randomness, and young foals can be quite random at times.”

“I'll give you that,” said Discord, “what are you all doing here anyway?”

“Aside from miss Pinkie,” said Eclipse Touch as Pinkie trotted over to be next to the filly on the couch, “figuring out the messages hidden in the journals and trying to arrange the journals in a circle large enough for all of them.”

“Oh, is that all,” said Discord snapping his lion paw and a mass of note paper was floating in front of Twilight with Discord hold one of the journals in his talon hand while the rest were in a circle on the floor.

“What do the completed messages say?” inquired Celestia.
“Mostly they talk about how the unicorn who wrote these journals had hopes for something brighter than Eclipse Touch says Bridleton is. A few notes on how the original Artanus kept trying to find the right mare, but everything never felt right after a few hours with the mares. Mention of a spell for finding both of them, but no actual spell written for anypony that want to attempt, said Twilight. “A surprising number of apple recipes, looks like about eighty percent of these are old family apple recipes Myrraldin wanted to pass on. Wait he mentions having a child and using spell to send her to another nation with his magic, he says she was an earth pony and he cast a spell to keep her and her descendants from producing unicorns for around two-thousand years.” At this the sound of Applejack and Rainbow Dash coming caught her attention.

“Ah heard something about apple recipes and a unicorn with an earth pony filly,” said Applejack.

“Um, yes,” said Twilight, “her name was Avalonia.”

“Doesn' ring any bells,” said Applejack, “and Ah would know bit about that, after Pinkie claimed to be a distant cousin Ah spent almost a week going over the entire family tree.”

“She probably used her name's meaning,” sad Eclipse Touch, “Apple Island.”

“But, she's the original matriarch of the Apple clan,” said Applejack, “she's the one who knew more about apples than anypony in any time, that was over two-thousan' years ago, are you sayin' that we've got a powerful unicorn as an ancestor.”

“Ayeup,” said Eclipse Touch, “one that was every bit as tenacious and concerned about the safety of family as any of the Apple clan today. By the way you might start having unicorns as foals in the coming generations.”

“Any suggestions on names for somepony like that?” inquired Applejack.

“Mage Apple, Apple Spell, Apple Charm, Magi Crisp” said Eclipse Touch.

“Tha only ones uh those Ah liked was Mage Apple And Apple Charm,” said Applejack.

“Well there's an old book of magical crops that I read once,” said Eclipse Touch, “and apples that come from Avalonia's namesake were called that, the apples had magical properties that none had ever seen.”

“Like what?” Asked Rainbow Dash, “I can't see apples doing anything magical other than growing faster or tasting really good when turned into cider.”

“Avalonia has mystical force stronger than any other known island,” said Eclipse Touch, “and the only trees that grow there are apple trees. The massive grove has sections of apples with different magical properties. Some of the apples can heal any sickness or the the most grievous wounds, some can enhance the senses, some have the power to give anypony that eats them the power to fly without the aid of wings, some are even said to grant the wish of anypony that eats them. Nopony's been to Avalonia since before the fall of Artanus.”

“Ah sure would like some seeds of those healing apples, the rest just sound like askin' for trouble.”

While they were chatting Twilight read the final journal, after resting it from Discord's hold. When she came to back of the last journal the only message she got and read out loud was, This is the last of journals I will be writing in, place it in the ring for one final message. Wonder what this last message is.” Just as she was setting the journal in it's place Fluttershy and Rarity entered and gathered around next to Princess Celestia.

A magical image flickered with no distinct form or color in the middle of the circle for a few seconds before coalescing into the form of an apple amber unicorn stallion with what looked like a short beard and main that looked like it was loosely wrapping around his neck and keeping out of his apple in apple red and apple green eyes. He looked around a bit before settling on Applejack and saying, “it's nice to see my little apple found herself somepony to build a family with,” then he turned his attention to Discord and said, “Trickster, I certainly hope you aren't causing too much trouble.”

“Oh perish the the thought,” said Discord taking on the worst upper class Bridleton accent that Eclipse Touch had ever heard before returning to his normal speech pattern and saying, “I'm reformed.”

The image stared for a moment before saying, “this spell was designed to answer any questions and give a variety of responses, I only wish I could be there myself, but alas it can not be due to the difference in times. The spirits responsible for my birth made it so that I would naturally live thousands of years, but I sealed myself away for the safety of others, I had hopes of the spell being activated in Bridletonia, or whatever nation took its place, the magic of this place is not feeling like the base mystical energies I remember.”

“This is Equestria,” said Celestia, “I am one of the four rulers of the nation.

“A nation ruled by the elite, I can't say I'm surprised,” said the image.

“Princess Celestia ruled over Equestria for a thousand years when she when Princess Luna's jealousy drove her to become Nightmare Moon,” said Twilight, “Princess Cadance and I only have a few years worth of experience being alicorns, Princesses Luna and Celestia have been alicorns for their entire lives and those lives have been well over a thousand years.”

“The image gave a look of surprise, before saying in awe, “genuine alicorns, not a title. Life spans that are measured in centuries rather than decades, it is an honor. Whom may you be honored alicorn?”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle,” said Twilight, “I was just unicorn until seven years ago. The spell for locating the real you, can you share it with me.”

“Yes,” said the image, “but you might need a map to narrow down my general location. It is also highly complex and only those with the greatest understanding of magic could only have a hope of doing, I've never really tested the spell myself.”

“I'm sure it will be fine,” said Twilight, “my special talent is magic itself.”

The images eyes widened with astonishment before saying, “that too is my talent, never in a thousand lifetimes did I think another would be able to achieve that talent.”

Celestia and Luna smiled at each other before Celestia said, “I take it you are Myrraldin, or at least a representation of him.”

“That is correct,” said the Myrraldin image.

“Go ahead and share your spell with Twilight, we will wait for our chance to continue a conversation. The image nodded and a silver aura surrounded the horn before a beam the color of a zap apple shot from his horn and hit Twilight's causing her eyes to glow for a few seconds.

Twilight shook her head for a moment clearing the glow from her eyes and said, “I never thought I'd have access to such a spell, it just doesn't apply to Myrraldin and Artanus. The spell can be applied to find anypony, you just need to know their name and what they look like. When this is over I'm going to the map room.”

“That will have to wait,” said Celestia, “ Myrraldin, you said you were born of spirits. Could you elaborate? I am unfamiliar with such origins.”

“A powerful spiritual entity known as the Shadow Queen used her magic to birth me to my mother. She was chosen to be my mother because of her immense magical potential.”

“The mare known as Lady Shimmer Star,” added Eclipse Touch, “the legends say she was a unicorn from a long forgotten line.”

“Yes that was indeed my mother's name and she was indeed a successor to a forgotten line of those who drew on the magic of the nature around them known as the druids, but she was a pegasus, not a unicorn, stories passed on through the ages are always subject to change, I still can't understand how they managed to change my mother from one tribe to another.”

Luna gave a little giggle before saying, “please continue.”

“I defied the Shadow Queen at every twist and turn, I was a stubborn colt in those days, and my defiance of her became more evident when I learned she had the power to save my dying mother and chose of her own accord let my mother die. However her sister got along incredibly.”

“The Mare of the Lake, Nimuwane,” Eclipse Touch interjected with a smile.

“Yes her power over water was great, and her form was much like that of the princesses of Equestria. She had the look of an alicorn, and she told me what the name of her form was. That's how I was able to recognize an alicorn when I saw a shadow of the future in my younger days.”

“The Shadow Queen, Mabb, she faded away with Nimuwane before you left the nation to the hooves of Artanus and his successors,” said Eclipse Touch.

“Yes, but that would be many years later,” said Myrraldin.

“Was this Mabb really Nimuwane's sister?” inquired Twilight.

“As much as a manifestation of nature, the minds of many and power can be,” said Myrraldin.

“They were born of the same minds of ponies that were the ancestors of the ponies that would later build Artanus's kingdom,” said Eclipse Touch, “when belief in them wanes to a certain point they fade away into nonexistence, then all the spells they weaved become unbound.”

“Those directly tied to life a living entity with the ability to channel magical energies, like myself, are the only exception,” said Myrraldin.

“Embodiments of forces of nature and reality, like Discord and Still, are also exceptions to this rule. If enough ponies believe in Mabb or Nimuwane again then they will return to the world in a place that is of great importance to the ponies of those nations,” said Eclipse Touch, “or so I've read.”

“It's just a working theory,” said Myrraldin, “it's never been tested.”

“What if you described what Nimuwane was like and let her story spread across Equestria,” said Twilight, “even if there aren't enough ponies that believe in her to help her manifest somepony might like the stories enough that they name their filly that and tell the stories about the original Nimuwane to the point that the filly wants to be like her.”

“That might take a few generations, mom,” said Eclipse Touch.

“I'm supposed to be Unity's mother, you were supposed to be her,” said Twilight, “so while I'm not your physical mother, I am looking forward to making sure that I truly am her mother.”

“So, Still created a spell for stealing the hopes of the future,” said Myrraldin, “she would have to be nearby the pony that cast the spell to ensure the spell was executed properly.”

Eclipse Touch's eyes went wide and she uttered, “Grand Charm, she's been prancing around as Grand Charm since before me or my siblings were born.”

“Oh, is that all,” said Discord with a sense of contempt, “I have no intention of meeting her then, but as a gift,” snapped his taloned fingers and in bright Flash a yellow unicorn with an orange mane appeared in the room.

“Sunshine Bottle,” said Eclipse touch with surprise then smiled and said, “how's it going... Sola?”

The mare's eyes widened and she said “How do you know that name? Nopony should know that name?”

“Take a look over at the white mare,” said Eclipse Touch calmly while gesturing toward Celestia.

Sunshine Bottle looked over at Princess Celestia and started having a breakdown, all the more evident by her saying, “no, you're not real. You can't be real, she's not supposed to exist. True alicorns a myth, a fantasy. Mother said so, father said so, grandmother said.”

“Excuse me for trying to think for myself,” said Eclipse Touch with concern, pity and no trace of malice for her sister, “but I would reconsider anything the spirit of stagnation has to say.”

“She's as real Discord,” said Sunshine Bottle.

“You mean me,” said Discord appearing in front of her upside down in the air with stationary wings and big grin detached from his face floating next him, his mouth began moving and he continued, “this is probably breaking your little brain now.”

“No this is an illusion,” said Sunshine Bottle.

“Actually it isn't,” said Princess Celestia in her warm caring voice while walking up to sunshine bottle and carefully wrapping one of her ivory wings over the orange mare's side, “nopony's horn is glowing to indicate the use of magic, and before try to counter the point it is impossible to hide something like that with even the highest level illusion spell.

Sunshine started crying into the ivory alicorn's chest and in her crying said, “Mwy allphase hoped you were real, Vie vhould slee vuu whenever I put Eclipse Touch thuu vedd,” then taking her face out of Celestia's chest with tear streaks running down the ivory alicorns chest fur and her own face said, “even without out those experiences putting the foals to bed was one of my happiest moments. It made me stop thinking about pleasing Great Spell.”

“I've kept telling you that no matter what you do she'll never acknowledge you the way you wanted. I recently learned why, she's not our genuine mother. When you saw Princess Celestia in those visions and called her mom that was who was meant to be your mother, we were all stolen from the futures of Equestria's princesses so that Still could more easily gain a hoofhold in this nation.”

Sunshine Bottle turned her attention to Princess Celestia and in the voice of a little filly said, “momma, mommy.” Before collapsing like a tired foal at Celestia's hooves.

“Was that really necessary?” said Luna with a disapproving look at Eclipse Touch.

“She needed to have somepony confirm the truth for her, I'm very certain she already figured it out without meeting Princess Celestia. Sunshine Bottle was always brighter than she let on.”

“Just like her mother,” said Luna with an approving nod towards Celestia whom was showing the kind maternal concern for the mare in front her that Twilight remembered having for Unity Sparkle when she experienced the other timeline.

“You need to mend the timeline,” said Myrraldin, “Still's spell causes immense damage to the timeline, but she's unwilling to even take notice. She's unwilling to change the way she does things.”

“Even when she has overwhelming evidence that her approach isn't as effective as she believed at the start.”

“Maybe a little help with our Elemental Rainbow powers from the Tree of Harmony will help,” chimed Pinkie as she passed Eclipse Touch an apple muffin from in her mane, the filly took few sniffs and nibble before practically gobbling it up in two bites which in turn caused cries of joy to emanate from Pinkie.

“That would probably work in this timeline,” said Myrraldin, “but you'll have to perform a similar act to her in the restored timeline after putting a spell in place prevent the spell used to steal the foals before their birth,” everypony turned their attention to Eclipse Touch then Sunshine Bottle. However you would need a spell that acts unexpectedly while still keeping the spell from affecting the timeline like it has in this one for when it encounters Still's spell.”

“Because Still's spells would act like her, unwilling to change regardless of evidence that said it needs to,” said Twilight with understanding.

“Exactly,” said Myrraldin.

“I'll do it,” said Discord, “my magic is the exact opposite of her's so no matter what when they get close they'll act as a nullifying force.”

“You have changed a bit,” said Myrraldin, “I have an old memory of you just starting to realize your full potential, and just going off doing random things with no real reason beyond something catching your attention.”

“Yes, I was like that when I was young and stupid,” said Discord, “but after a couple centuries I was more about causing the chaos than being it, I found a way to be smarter about my application of magics. That said being encased in stone for a thousand years helped temper me a bit, as much as I am loath to admit it. Besides it will so much more dynamic around here with Twilight and her friends having foals, and the me in that timeline was more than enjoying himself.”

The Myrraldin image showed a great surprise before saying, “you can move outside of a timeline with no ill effects?”

“In my first encounter with Discord he actually pulled back to an earlier point in time that same day,” said Twilight, “granted neither of us could interact with the world around us there, it was just like we were neutral observers.”

“I see,” said Myrraldin, “well then I wish you luck, you can summon me again by performing the same act, but I recommend you separate at least one of my journals from the rest for security reasons.”

“Well I've read them all by this time,” said Twilight, “I'll take some of the later volumes with me back to Ponyville, the other Princesses can read through them at their leisure if they want.”

“I think it would be more prudent have at least a quarter of the volumes in each of our libraries,” said Luna, “that way when Great Spell and Grand Charm do make their way to Equestria they won't be able to claim all of the journals, I also recommend that Princess Cadance take the mind magic book and hide it away from most of the kingdom, many of its spells are far too tempting to those with a weak sense of ethics or morality.”

With that all the Princesses nodded and broke up the circle to take a noticeable number of books, they also made sure to not all have entirely consecutive numbers for the same reaason. When Twilight had her pile all ready to goo she motioned for Eclipse Touch and Pinkie Pie to join her and teleported them all back to her castle library in Ponyville.

With that Cadance did teleported herself and her smile pile to the Crystal Empire library after Celestia floated the mind magic tome over to the pink alicorn. With the other two alicorns gone Celestia and Luna set about placing their collection of the old unicorn journals in their private libraries. Afterwards Celestia returned to a sleeping Sunshine Bottle and curled up next her after she and Luna had confirmed it was time to lower the sun and raise the moon and performed that duty, as the ivory alicorn curled up with the yellow unicorn her thoughts and dreams drifted to what Eclipse's ability had let her experience and her last thought was about what it would be like to be a genuine mother instead of merely a motherly figure.

Author's Note

This is my longest chapter yet. Also a lot of this chapter was intended for the next chapter, but I was really in the zone when writing this chapter and decided to just put it here. To me it feels like I'm accelerating the story a bit to quickly here, but we'll see how well it works out. In addition I would love to have the quote from the journal appear in a different font style, but the default for Fim fiction doesn't have that option (hopefully with their next system update it will). Also I just want everyone to know they can use any of the OCs from this story, you just need to message me and ask. The same holds true with art containing the characters, just let me know about it and send me a copy when you're done. Sunshine Bottle was originally intended to show up with Great Spell and Grand Charm when they arrived after a few months had passed by in the story and I originally wanted to have her and Pinkie end up in a sort of confrontation that would lead her to understanding what false happiness and true are like, but I figured since I already had Discord at my disposal and he really hadn't done anything majorly random I thought I might drop her in and have her start having something akin to a crisis of identity.