Twilight Child

Chapter 1:

All was quiet in Canterlot Palace's Royal wing. Soft moonlight streamed in through the windows, painting the white, gilded walls a serene silver. Pale candlelight dodged through the cracks in a door; Celestia's door. It was not unusual for the Princess to read into the small hours, but this, this was an entirely different flock of griffons.

An agonized wail slashed the silence like a sword.

Behind the intimidating door, Celestia was laid on an ivory sheet, as not to dirty her bed. Luna crouched by her, biting her lip as her sister crushed her hoof.

"Remember to go... with... the pain!" Luna said through gritted teeth.

After what seemed like an eternity of pain and discomfort on both sides, the experience finally came to an end. One last cry of pain from Celestia was followed by the wailing of a newborn.

"Congratulations, your Majesties!" a doctor smiled, "It's a filly!"

Both Celestia and Luna sighed with relief.  The foal was wrapped in swaddling cloth and handed to the new parents. She was a unicorn, unlike her parents, and she had Celestia's pure white coat. A mess of tangelo orange and rosso corsa red framed her face. She had a small snub nose and Luna's teal irises. Like Celestia, even now, the foal was smiling.

"She's beautiful," Celestia said.

"No," Luna sighed, "she's perfect!"

"What shall we name her?" Celestia asked, regaining some composure.

Luna smiled to her sister, "Candlespark."

"Why's that?" Celestia chuckled lightly.

"For she lights a spark of passion in my heart whenever I see her."

A month and a half later, Candlespark was causing all sorts of mischief in the bedrooms of the royal wing. She had upended coffee tables and nightstands, bookshelves and lamps. Even as a month-old foal, she was incredibly powerful in her magic.

The public currently knew nothing of Candle; Celestia had used a spell to hide her pregnancy.

At the moment, though, it was bathtime. Luna had tied back her hair, as Candlespark had a habit of playing with the floaty, weightless mass. Celestia had to entertain griffon ambassadors, and fill in some forms, so she could not see her daughter much that night.

"Scrub a dub dub, three mares in a tub,

A bookkeeper, a baker, a candlestick maker!

And how do you think they got there?

They all jumped out of a hot potato!" Luna sang as she washed the filly.

Both princesses giggled like schoolfillies. Candlespark started an impromptu splash-fight by flinging  some bathwater at Luna, only making them laugh more.

Unfortunately, the water fight had to come to an end; Luna finished washing Candlespark, and levitated the filly from the tub, gently rubbing her dry with a fluffy towel from the airing cupboard.

The alicorn placed Candle into her crib, softly singing Little Sunshine, the filly gazing at the magical ceiling, which displayed the sky outside. She weakly raised an ivory hoof to point out a pale orb.

"Moon!" she burbled gleefully.

Luna was ecstatic; her first word! She tugged sharply on her mental link to her sister, to tell her the news.

Celestia perched daintily upon the golden throne, aside the vacant obsidian one. In front of the dais was a curved stone table, at which three male and one female griffons sat, all five deep in diplomatic discussion.

"Of course, if we allow the griffon kingdom that land," Celestia reasoned," we do wish for compensation, as we cou-ouch!"

An unreasonable headache could only mean one thing: her sister had called on her before, but why now?

She sighed, "Sirs and madam, please excuse me one moment."

The company nodded, "But of course - go right ahead - there is no need to ask..."

Celestia hastily entered the mental realm, not wanting to waste a moment. Locating her sister, she launched right into it:

"That really hurt, sis! I was saying something important!" Celestia half-whined.

"Candle said her first word! 'Moon'! Eee!" Luna gasped excitedly.

"Really? So soon, too!" Celestia gave a grumpy frown "Of course, she doesn't say ‘Sun’ first, me having birthed her!" she huffed

Well, it's not as if she can properly look at the sun," the black alicorn deadpanned.

"Mmm, now I need to get back to the ambassadors, they're probably worried," Tia sighed

"Pfft! Yeah, go back to what you were doing, whatever!" Luna snorted.

Luna returned to find Candlespark in a deep slumber. She had only been gone a short while, but Candle was a foal. Philomena the Phoenix nestled near her, emitting warmth, because, like always, Philomena wanted to help in any way she could, especially in the colder months.

Luna perused the bookshelves, searching for two specific books. She had always wanted to learn lots of languages when she was younger, and now that she knew some, she wanted Candlespark to as well. She was going to start off with Zebrikaans and Traditional Griffonese, and perhaps move on to some others. For now, though, Luna needed to brush up on them herself.

She settled into a comfy beanbag-like chair, setting the two tomes down on the table before her, and began to read.

Unbeknownst to the Princess of the Night, her daughter was peacefully dreaming about... a lot of chaos.

Candlespark trotted along in a garish purple meadow, blissfully unaware of the chaos unfolding around her. The sky shone light onto hams flying through the sky on angelic wings, and ducks dancing around on copper platters. The trunks of the nearby trees were healthy leaves, and the actual leaves were checkerboards. Every so often, Candlespark would come across a dip or dent in the ground. Above those impressions floated gummy drops, which changed colour every so often.

From nowhere, a chair appeared, and as she neared it, she glided counter-clockwise, vertically, coming to rest comfortably in the seat. She hummed a few tunes, not really doing much aside from sitting there; all the same she enjoyed it.

As she had her eyes closed, she did not notice  the short flash of light. She did, however, notice the pop-squeak that followed. And when she opened her eyes, she certainly noticed the creature before her; a draconequus.

From the little knowledge of species she had inherited from Celestia and Luna, she knew that this wasn't exactly a draconequus. It was a sort of... draconequus-chimera cross; she wondered if it knew this.

He (at least, she thought it was male) nonchalantly cast his gaze around. His yellow, mismatched eyes settled on Candlespark, who was trying as hard as possible, to be as still as possible.

"Why, aren't you just the most adorable little monster!” He exclaimed, "You, little monster, have a good mind for chaos!"

Luna had read more than she thought. After the first two books, she just kept pulling them off the shelves; one by one at first, but soon, they were flying off the shelves. The many years of language lessons came back to her, hundreds of years, even. Before she knew it, her telekinesis was grasping air; all the language books were stacked in towers next to her desk.

She checked the clock on the wall.

"Agh! It's 9 pm!" she yelled; she should've started the Dream Watch two hours ago!

Flustered, she gushed into a random dream, and her mind picked up the closest; her daughter's dream. Luna was sure that the little one’s dream wasn’t going to be too heavy, unlike some of the other dreams she had to resolve. The Cutie Mark Crusaders didn’t even reach half the spectrum. She had so little time to prepare herself for what came next.

She should've prepared herself.

"Discord! What are you doing in my daughter's dream!”

“Ha ha! Hello Luna, this charming filly and I were just having a Chaospetition. She really is very good; perhaps I should make her my student…” Discord smiled wryly; wait for it… 3, 2, 1:

“You will do no such thing! She’s my daughter and I don’t need her mind tainted, no, poisoned by your chaos! Hay, you’ve already taken over the bucking world twice and I don’t want to have to banish her for it too!”

“...” Discord stayed silent.

“In peace there is chaos my flank! I honestly don’t care, neither me nor my sister give a flying feather about your bucking ‘art’!”

“Horseapples…” Discord whispered, “took it too far. Time for me to disappear.”

As he acted upon that, there was no puff of smoke, nor any other effect accompanying it; there would be no frivolity here.