Twilight Sparkle Lays An Egg
- o -
The morning sun shone gently through the thick curtains of the Canterlot castle guest bedroom as Twilight Sparkle stirred beneath the sheets. Sloth. It was a vice she had long missed, and spending a few leisurely days back in Canterlot with Celestia was just what she needed. Time to reconnect with her fellow princesses relaxed her nearly as well as spending time with her friends in the spa. Plus, she was going to play with Flurry Heart this afternoon, as Cadence had managed to ‘coincidentally’ schedule a trip to Canterlot too.
She took a quick peek between nearly closed eyelids to make sure Spike’s bed was empty, just in case. He had a dawn playdate with Flurry Heart down in the vast castle gardens, and since he was gone as scheduled, Princess Twilight Sparkle had a few more treasured moments to reign over her slumber before she had to get up for anything.
Still, the dream she had last night bothered her.
In the chaos and whirl of images, there had been some sort of cramping sensation, much worse than she had ever experienced before, and growing until it had vanished in the brief feeling of relief and emptiness. She had drifted back to sleep afterwards, but now that she was thinking about it, there was something damp on her hind legs, much the same as—
Oh, no. I haven’t wet the bed since I was a foal!
Twilight Sparkle fractionally shifted position in her cloud-soft bed, which was probably some sort of priceless antique which would never be able to be replaced after being soiled. Princess Celestia would be so upset, and everybody in Canterlot would know about her failure. Even Spike would be embarrassed, and he had not worn diapers in nearly a decade. Twilight screwed her eyes closed, trying not to look at the incriminating wet spot, but an unexpected bumping of a damp object around her hind legs made her eyes pop open regardless.
It was an egg.
She blinked.
It was still an egg. Much the same as the freshly laid chicken egg she had once collected for Fluttershy from her brood, it was slightly damp and glistening, but quite unlike the egg, it was a light violet in color and had her cutie mark emblazoned on the side. Also, quite unlike a chicken egg, it was huge, quite nearly the size of a—
Twilight blinked again. Not wanting to believe her traitorous eyes, she reached down with one forehoof and touched the foal-sized ovoid, feeling the blood-warmth of the impossible egg and giving it a nudge to evaluate its probable density.
It was unmistakably an egg.
In one regard, Twilight Sparkle was relieved she had not wet the bed.
In all other regards…
“Keep it together, Twilight,” she whispered. “There has to be a reason there’s an egg in your bed. Other than the obvious one, of course.”
She tucked her tail in against her damp nethers and tried not to think of how that huge object had theoretically managed to transit that narrow passage without waking her up. Even though it had. And somehow she had gone back to sleep afterwards. Until now.
Although pony reproduction had always been an uncomfortable topic for Twilight Sparkle, she was aware of the basics. The bare basics. The somewhat-sketchy process between mare-meets-colt and the delivery room had always been a topic she had avoided in her studies, except for foal development in the womb and infant care outside. The process of going from inside to outside, as well as the actual… act of reproduction, were much like a visual blind spot to her.
Still, she knew one thing for certain: ponies did not lay eggs.
Dragons laid eggs and hatched them by pouring dragonfire across them, thus triggering the magical process of birth. Birds laid eggs and hatched them by holding them close for several weeks as the little birds grew inside the shells. Lizards even laid eggs and hatched them on warm rocks where Celestia’s sun could incubate them.
Alicorns, however…
Twilight Sparkle had never seen nor heard about alicorns reproducing by way of eggs, but with such a small sample size and only two data points less than a thousand years old, it could have been missed. Celestia had been suspiciously vague about where Luna and she had come from, and claimed Cadence had been discovered as a foal. Twilight’s own experience with becoming an alicorn was singularly unique, as even Starswirl the Bearded had not been able to master the unfinished spell which had transformed her into an alicorn, so she had always thought of herself as an outlier, a data point on the graph outside of the very short line.
Still, she was part of the rapidly-growing sample set. After nearly a thousand years of Equestria only knowing one alicorn, the world had adjusted to two, then three, and now four with little Flurry Heart. No, five. Twilight had forgotten to count herself again.
As a student, Twilight Sparkle had once asked Princess Celestia just why Cadence had come to be an alicorn. She said Harmony determined the number of alicorns needed in the world, and if Harmony was concerned about upcoming troubles, more alicorns would appear to help deal with it.
Twilight Sparkle regarded the damp egg and considered her error in neglecting to ask just how Harmony was supposed to provide these additional alicorns. She had brushed the question aside at the time, perhaps due to some faint sense of dread about Princess Celestia launching into a lecture about metaphorical birds and bees. It had not seemed very important at the time, since Twilight was still filled with the childish confidence in the abilities of one very old and wise alicorn and one young and loving foalsitter, who between them would most certainly have been able to vanquish any possible foes, from ancient beasts out of legends to invisible monsters who liked to hide in the shadows under her bed and who could only be vanquished by a second⁽*⁾ bedtime story.
(*) Or three in extremely rare circumstances, with a cookie.
Her curiosity about the origin of alicorns had resurfaced recently with the birth of her niece, Flurry Heart, because the time frame between Cadence revealing her pregnancy and the sudden appearance of her foal had been suspiciously short, and also contained one obvious erroneous data point. It was a research project Twilight was looking forward to, which would involve a great deal of cuddling and playing with the adorable little bundle of joy (and possibly a full suit of enchanted armor for protection), but she had been unable to get more than an hour reserved out of the newest royal foal’s very busy schedule this afternoon. Which, in hindsight, was several hours too late.
She had tried to ask Cadence about the birth in a somewhat indirect fashion specifically worded to avoid the Alicorn of Love’s tendency to be far, far too direct about those kinds of questions, but all her sister-in-law had done was smile and say, “It was magic, Twilight.”
Twilight ran a hoof over the damp surface of the warm egg, shifting in her soiled bed in order to hold it closer. This could not be happening to her without a reason. The world was gaining a lot of alicorns in a hurry. There had to be something truly terrible out there which would need more magic to defeat it, and Harmony had found Twilight Sparkle worthy of the responsibility. The thought calmed her rapidly beating heart and made Twilight light up her horn to cast a life-detection spell on the warm egg.
As she suspected and feared, it was an alicorn. No, she was an alicorn.
Twilight took a deep breath. She was the Element of Magic, but this problem was no longer just hers. An infant alicorn could tip some unseen balance of power, preventing or causing untold devastation. Her own mother had once told her about mares holding the responsibility for making the world survive, as only mares could bring forth life. Motherhood in itself was a great responsibility, but this was far, far greater, and as much as Twilight thought she was not up to it, she had to be. Not for her, but for the life entrusted to her care, and all of Equestria.
She leaned up to press her horn against the egg and whispered, “I don’t know if you can hear me in there, but your mother is right here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
The egg felt cooler for some reason, and Twilight repeated the life-detection spell as before. An icy force seemed to slug her in the gut as the spell returned a fainter signal, indicating the life-force inside was failing.
“Oh, no,” she whispered, repeating the spell and finding the life it showed even fainter than before. The infant alicorn in the egg was fading fast. There was only one thing Twilight Sparkle could do, and it would have to be now!
Twilight Sparkle Lays An Egg
- o -
The morning sun shone brightly into the Royal Breakfast Nook, blessing the breakfast table with its glory and illuminating the six place settings, even though only Celestia and Luna were present. The two sisters were giggling to each other as they shared the generous spread of breakfast items, although an interested observer would be unable to tell just what was so funny about their situation. The only clue to the topic of the ongoing unspoken conversation was a pair of golden bits sitting on an empty section of tablecloth, and the unusual mirth between the two royal pranksters.
With a glance over her shoulder at the risen sun, Celestia asked, “Neither of our two young protégées seem to be joining us yet? I know Cadence is busy with little Flurry Heart—”
“And Shining Armor,” added Luna with an additional giggle.
“—and Shining Armor,” admitted Celestia. “Still, I expected young Twilight to be here by now, no matter which way our wager goes.”
“Hmm…” Luna lit up her horn and concentrated. “Young Twilight Sparkle has not returned to the Dreaming. You don’t think she missed the egg when she awoke, do you?”
“Only if there was a book in her vicinity,” said Celestia with a smirk as she buttered a piece of toast. “Ah, here she comes now.”
The quiet clatter of hooves out in the hallway resolved into an alicorn princess as expected, only a somewhat older one who was carrying a young dragon on her back.
“Good morning, Auntie Celestia. Aunt Luna.” Princess Cadence beamed as she swept into the room and deposited Spike on the tallest chair at the table. “We left Shining Armor down in the garden with Flurry Heart, trying to make friends with the bunnies. Where’s Twilight?”
Both of the elder alicorns broke into laughter when Cadence sat down, and only managed to restrain their mirth through strenuous effort with a constant series of glances between them. Cadence shook her head and looked over at where Spike was happily filling his plate.
“Maybe you should go upstairs and check on Twilight, Spike. I think my aunts are pulling some sort of trick on her.”
“Us?” Both Celestia and Luna put on expressions of pure innocence marred only by mutual suppressed giggles, but Cadence was not buying it.
“Spill it.” Cadence gave her aunts a glare of pure cold steel. “Or I won’t let either of you foalsit Flurry Heart for a year.”
“‘Twas Celestia’s idea,” said Luna promptly.
“It was not!” countered Celestia. “You said you’ve never seen a pony so prone to panic fits, and I said Twilight Sparkle was the most clever pony since Clover.”
“Both true. Please pass the pancakes,” said Spike as he continued loading up his plate.
After moving the platter of pancakes over to Spike, Luna sighed. “We made a wager.”
“A small one,” clarified Celestia, pointing at the two bits on the table. “And we put an egg in Twilight’s bed this morning.”
“A large one,” said Luna with a giggle.
“An appropriately sized one,” said Celestia in her most serious voice. “Created out of our magic and crafted to appear as if it were—” she took a brief glance at where Spike was demolishing his pancakes “—laid by her in the morning hours.”
“With a most pertinent dream to go with it,” added Luna as she built her own stack of pancakes. “As well as the most clever enchantments upon the egg which I was able, including a mirroring spell in case she casts a life detection spell upon it to determine the contents. It will only last a short time, but she will undoubtedly consider the egg to be real because of the results and react appropriately.”
“Yes,” said Celestia with a sideways quirk to her lips. “Luna seems to think Twilight is so immature that she’ll come running to me in a panic.”
“And Celly thinks her student is so bright she’ll see right through our little trick,” added Luna.
Cadence passed the syrup over to Spike with a deep sigh. “Aren’t the two of you too old for this?”
“It is a legitimate query,” said Luna, putting on her most serious face although a few small snickers kept sneaking out of the corner of her mouth. “Knowing how our fellow princess reacts to unusual events is only prudent.”
“Like when you told Twilight my husband was a tooth,” said Cadence levelly.
“In my sister’s defense, that was aimed at me,” said Celestia with one upraised hoof as if she were being sworn into court. “Besides, I seem to remember a certain young princess who convinced Twilight she was going to have star-foals because of kissing.”
Cadence soaked in the situation with a long, slow nod, looking back and forth between her giggling relatives. Then she took a deep breath, rummaged around in her bag, and got out a golden bit of her own to put next to the others.
“Point taken. However, you’re both wrong. Remember, I foalsat Twilight for a long time. She’s a research fanatic. Right now, she probably has every book from the Canterlot Archives in her room, studying to find out just where alicorn eggs are mentioned and how to deal with them.”
“It would explain why she’s not at breakfast,” said Celestia with a contemplative frown.
“And why we have not heard a thing since she left the Dreaming,” added Luna.
There was a little click of crystal as Spike put a small gemstone down next to the three bits. “Nope,” he said before shoveling in another bite of pancakes.
“Now this I must hear,” said Luna, gesturing with her fork. “Go ahead, young drake.”
“After you’ve finished chewing,” added Celestia.
Once he had dealt with the pancakes, Spike looked up at the three curious alicorns, pointing to them in turn. “Princess Celestia, you taught her. Princess Cadence foalsat her, and Princess Luna, you may have heard all kinds of stories about her, but none of you have lived with Twilight Sparkle for the last ten years. She’s going to do something none of you expect.”
...causing arcane wards to surround the guest bedroom, sealing it off from the rest of the universe…
“Back when I was just a little whelp, I got to talk with some of the teachers who were there when I was hatched,” said Spike. “They all tried to talk around it, but they obviously didn’t think it was possible to hatch an egg like mine, and had all kinds of questions I couldn’t answer. Since then, I’ve seen Twilight Sparkle do some amazing things nopony has ever done before, things which were called impossible before she did them. Like saving you from Nightmare Moon,” he added, looking at Luna. “She didn’t panic and run away then. Or when she became an alicorn,” Spike said, looking at an uncomfortable Celestia. “She didn’t doubt the authenticity of Starswirl’s journal. She dove right in and tried it, regardless of the consequences.”
…motes of magic floated around Twilight as she poured herself into the spell…
“Spike, she’s always done her research,” said Cadence softly. “I don’t think she’s been out of reach of a book since she learned to read. Plus when she fought Nightmare Moon, I heard she had to go reference a book first.”
“To learn something she didn’t know,” said Spike. “She needed a book to know where the Elements of Harmony were. If she has already read a book about how to deal with a problem, she just deals with it, and since she’s been living in a library, she reads a lot.” He grabbed another pancake off the tray and put it on his plate, sprinkling it with powdered emeralds. “I’m going to be a big brother,” he added as he poured the syrup.
“Spike,” said Celestia gently. “It’s not a real egg. Luna and I created it with magic. There’s no foal inside.”
...mares are the only pony able to create life…
Spike shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Remember, she hatched me when she was taking her test to get into the school, and that was years and several decimal points in her power rating ago. She wants to hatch the egg, so she will.”
...insufficient power to do what was needed, but there were other sources of power available…
Now it was Luna’s turn to frown and address the little dragon. “Are you implying our little Twilight Sparkle wishes to become a mother?”
Waiting until he was done chewing, Spike nodded. “She changed my diapers when I was just a baby and spoon fed me when I was hungry, even when I ate the spoons. She was the best mother to me as a little filly. Now she’s all grown up, and all she seemed to talk about on this trip was Flurry Heart.”
...it’s just borrowing for a little bit…
Cadence let out a sigh and patted Spike on the head. “I know you’re both excited about Flurry Heart, and you think you know all about Twilight and magic, but it’s impossib—” She gave a little hiccup and blinked several times. “That was odd,” she said, peering cross-eyed at her horn. “My magic just blinked out.”
“And my moon hath just risen back over the horizon,” said Luna with a sharp glance toward the west. “I have no control over it.”
Before Celestia could say anything, the sun went out, and the breakfast nook was flooded with darkness of such intensity that all the occupants could see was afterimages.
“What’s going on?” asked Cadence from somewhere in the pitch-black room.
“Twilight,” said Spike. He lit one of the candles at the table with a regulated burst of dragonfire, regarded the three panicked alicorns in the resulting light, then gave a shrug and finished off the last of his pancakes.
Just as he put the fork back on his empty plate, the ground trembled, and a sprinkling of dust came down from the ceiling. The floor of the room tilted to one side and then the other with the popping and crackling of fractured stonework as the castle tower heaved much as a ship in a storm, then settled back down onto its foundations with a series of thuds. A deep tremor continued while the universe seemed to groan in labor pains, twisting and spasming across nearby dimensions with a sensation that only plucked gently at nerve endings instead of tearing the world apart as it seemed to want.
The feeling only lasted a few minutes, but cut off with an intense jolt, and when the sunlight burst back through the smoke-filled air of the breakfast nook, each of the alicorns was sitting rather stunned on the floor.
After cocking his head to one side and listening for a moment, Spike scooped the three bits and the gemstone off the table and tucked them away. “Told ya.”
In the resulting dusty silence, all three alicorns quietly got back to their hooves. The moon obediently slid back below the horizon to its presumably proper place, the sun shifted in the sky as if to adjust itself for a few missing seconds, and Cadence looked up with an expression of unfiltered joy.
Cadence held a hoof across Luna’s chest before she could break the silence.
“No, Auntie Luna,” she whispered. “Listen.”
And the distant cry of a newborn alicorn filtered down from above.
