~~~ The Chill of Autumn ~~~
~~~ Spinner of Tales ~~~

“Winter is coming,” Night Light muttered to nopony as he trotted into his daughter’s huge palace. “There’s a nip in the air. Cold won’t be good for my tomatoes back home.”

“Well, dear, perhaps you’d care to stop worrying about tomatoes and come join me for some food?”

The stallion turned to face his wife as she came around the corner. “Did you get the news?” She asked, and he nodded. “Ooh!” Velvet squeed, bouncing in place on all four hooves. “She’ll be so happy to hear!”

“That she will,” A grin came across Night Light’s face as he pulled the small paper from his bag and opened it up. “Cadance will be spending a whole week with us. Er, a whole week with Twilight, that is.” She’d be so happy!

“Twilight really loves spending time with Cadance, doesn’t she?” Velvet asked, to which Night Light provided a happy nod. “It makes me wonder if we shouldn’t have set Cadance up with her instead of Shining!” She giggled.

“Well, then you wouldn’t have a chance to get those grand-foals you’ve always wanted, would you?” Night Light joked, wrapping his wife in a warm hug. “You said she’ll be happy. She doesn’t know yet?”

Velvet shook her head. “So far as I know, I think she just wants to skip today. She’s still in her room asleep, last I checked.”

“You think I should go wake her up?” Night asked, and Velvet shrugged.

“I think she’d like to wake up to news that her favorite foalsitter’s coming to stay with her for a whole week!”

“Sounds good,” The stallion nodded, and turned around a few times. “Stairs?” He asked, much to the amusement of his wife, who sent him the right way.

Twilight’s palace was huge, and it was easy for Night Light to get lost in it. The halls and corridors seemed to go on forever, turning and turning and rarely going nowhere at all. All in all, it took far longer than Night would’ve liked to find the bedrooms, never mind his daughter’s chambers.

Though, come to think of it, it should’ve been pretty easy to spot. The doors were huge, made of marble, with a star dead-set in the center. As he came nearer and nearer, the doors seemed to grow larger and larger, ‘till Night Light’s horn stopped just short of the mid-point.

Suppressing the urge to grin, Night Light tapped on the door. “Honey?” He called. “Are you awake in there?”

“No,” Came a voice from inside. “No, I don’t wanna…”

The side of his mind which understood the plight of a poor, tired pony told Night Light to leave her be and go back down for a nap, but he forced himself to stay. “She’ll be so happy once she hears the news,” He told himself. Whenever Twilight learned that Cadance was coming to visit, she’d always jumped up and cheered. In fact, the family had come up with a… well, a Cadance-is-coming dance based entirely on Twilight’s reaction to that piece of news. They had done it a lot when she was a filly, but it had tapered off when she had grown older.

“No…” The voice answered again. “No, please…”

Night Light narrowed his eyes. “Twilie? Are you all right in there?” He tapped on the door again.

“Please, don’t hurt me!” The voice cried out, and panic set in on Night Light’s face. He lit his horn and cast the door open as if it were a cardboard box.

“What’s going on he…” He began, but he couldn’t finish. Twilight was on her bed, still asleep, though she was tossing and turning. Tears fell down her cheeks, and her horn lit and sputtered out random magic bursts. Her bed was drenched with sweat, and pillows had been tossed about the whole room.

Twilight was having a bad dream.

Fatherly instincts kicking in, Night Light galloped over to Twilight’s bedside and sat down, running a hoof through her mane. His first task was to get her awake and out of her nightmare. “Twilie,” He called out to her, cringing as she shook in his grasp. “Hey, it’s time to wake up…”

Slowly, far too slowly, her shaking subsided, and she opened her eyes. “D- Daddy?” She whimpered, her ears back against her head.

“It’s okay, muffin. I’m here, I’ve got you…” He offered her a hug, which she took.

“Daddy, I…” She sobbed into his coat, still unsoothed by the hoof rubbing her ear. “I had the worst dream ever…” She whimpered.

“It’s all over now,” Night Light murmured, firing up his horn and using it to bring over a non-soaked blanket, draping it over Twilight’s back. “It was just a dream… Just a dream…”

“No,” She said, still quaking a little bit. “It was… it was so much worse than that… It was like…” Twilight’s voice faded, and she let out a sob into her dad’s coat.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Twilight nodded into Night Light’s chest. “Are you still scared?” Twilight started to shake her head, but then nodded again, another sob wracking her.

In so many ways, Twilight was still Night Light’s little filly. Savior of the world she might be, but to a dad, a daughter will always, first and foremost, be a daughter. And a daughter, especially when scared, needs hugs. And so Night Light hugged Twilight. “It’s okay, daddy’s here to keep you safe,” He hugged her again. “And you don’t have to say anything you don’t want to, and you don’t have to tell me until you feel ready, okay?”

Twilight took a deep breath. “I’m being foolish again, aren’t I?” She said, and Night Light began to protest, but Twilight silenced him. “It’s just… these bad dreams I have are so scary…”

“You have them a lot?” The stallion asked, and Twilight shook her head. “Once in a while?” She nodded.

“They began, well…” She shuddered at some hidden memory. “They began when I became an alicorn. When Tirek came to conquer all of ponykind’s magic, I had bad dreams for a few days beforehand. I think… I think the princesses had them too, and maybe that’s how they knew they had to prepare for him. I dunno,” Twilight sniffled, and Night Light hugged her again.

“And then a year later, when that thing happened…” The young mare shook her head. “They all say they should’ve seen it coming, but… I did. For days, I had those bad dreams, warning me about it.”

“So you think that this is some warning? Of danger?” Night asked, and Twilight nodded. Night Light had done his goal. He’d roused his daughter from the nightmare, and now, he had a new goal. Comfort her. Help her overcome the fear she had gone through. “Twilie, it’s just one dream,” He murmured. “It doesn’t mean anything. And you haven’t had them before, or you would’ve written the princesses. So let me ask you one thing, little college student of mine… If this is the first time that this has happened… Is it possible that one dream is just that? One dream?”

“I… suppose…”

“If it happens again, send a letter to Princess Celestia, all right? Otherwise, we should just treat this as we would any other bad dream.”

After a short while, Twilight nodded. “That sounds… reasonable.” She giggled. “I know I’m in a bad state when you’re being more logical than I am, huh?”

Night Light scoffed, and then both ponies broke out into a fit of giggles.

“Mission accomplished.” He thought as his daughter’s laughter subsided, and she calmly rested in his hug. “Twilight, I’ve got something to tell you,”

“Oh?”

He grinned. “Cadance is coming. She’s gonna be spending the week here, along with Shiny!”

Twilight’s eyes became as wide as saucers, and her huge happy smile was even bigger. “Cady’s coming?”

“Yeah!” Night could feel the enthusiasm pop into the young pony. “She says there hasn’t been too much to do these last few weeks. Apparently, Princess Celestia’s all but taken over running the Empire, so she thinks she’ll come down and see what all the fuss about the Summer’s End Week is.”

“That’s…” Twilight broke free of Night’s hug and jumped onto her hooves. “We’re gonna have so much fun! Now Shiny and Cadance and I can do all those fun things I’ve been wanting to try!” She plastered a goofy grin on her face as she began to hop around her dad. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes…”

The stallion merely chuckled and blocked out the parade of yeses flooding the room. “She really loves Cadance, doesn’t she?”
Night was just happy that he had been able to quell his daughter’s fears. He had always hated seeing little Twilight cry, and seeing her happy again brought a flutter to his heart. And truth be told, Night was looking forward to seeing Cadance himself. He had always been fond of her, way back when. She had been one of the few ponies Night Light had trusted instantly, and enough that he had been willing to charge her with the safety of his only daughter, and enough that he had been willing to promise his only son to her. And hay, when she had turned twenty-one, she had proven to be a rather capable drinking companion as well. Always a plus in Night’s book, and who could've known?

“When is she gonna be here?” Twilight’s voice shook him from his internal monologue.

“Uh, soon!” Night said, looking over at the clock. “She said she’ll be coming when Shining does, and Shining said he’d be over a little past two, so… A couple hours, I guess.”

The young mare stuck out her lower lip and pouted. “I can’t wait that long!” She cried, prompting a laugh from her dear old dad.

“Come on, Twilie. Let’s go downstairs. I’m pretty sure your mom’ll make some pancakes if you ask.”

The two ponies walked out into the hallway, the door slamming shut behind them. And as they walked down the stairs, one thought crossed Night Light’s mind.

“This is gonna be a great week.”

Author's Note

User 0utcast9851, please contact me regarding editing for future chapters.

Well, here we are... Setting up the main setting for the story! In this chapter, we've met Twilight Sparkle and her father, Night Light. In the next, I intend for us to meet Cadance in earnest, and the two will spend the day together revealing so much glorious exposition.