I ran through the field as happy as anypony in all of Equestria. I was with my friends, although for some reason I couldn't remember there names. I'll just describe them. The first little filly is about two years older then me, but still a really good friend, she is a Unicorn with a white coat and pink mane and tail, I can't make out her cutie mark though. The next filly is about a year older then me, she is a Pegasus and her coat is midnight blue, her mane is also blue but much lighter in color, I can't see her cutie mark either. The third filly is also about my age but still a few months older then me, she is also a Unicorn, her coat and mane are pink, not Pinkie Pie pink more like a soft, gentle pink, her cutie mark is also hard to see. Then there is me, a small Pegasus pony with a black mane and coat, my coat is really more of a dark grey, I don't have a cutie mark yet. The pink filly and I chase after the blue one who is flying above us and laughing, but not in a mean way. The white unicorn is sitting under a tree watching and cheering us on, then she stops and looks me dead in the eye, and in a much older sounding voice says,
"Fudge, time to wake up." Bright light assults my eyelids as I attempt to crawl deeper under the sheets, it doesn't work she just yanks the sheets off like she does every morning, "Come on," Mom says, gently nudging me. I turn over and finally open my eyes looking into a long white muzzle.
"Aw Mom! I don't wanna go to court with you today!" I say in a really whinny voice. "I saw the schedule last Night and Prince Blueblood booked the whole hour I'll be there."
"Yes I know, but we must listen to all our subjects, no matter how annoying they are." she says with a slight smirk.
"Fine." I say as I begin to move towards the door, btu then I am telekineticly picked up and set in front of a mirror.
"Oh no you don't. You are in no shape to appear in court." then her voice went a little higher, the way it does when she is making a joke. "You look like you just got out of bed." I wince as she pulls a brush through my tail pulling out knots in a very painful way, soon though all the knots are gone. Then she goes to my mane where the process starts all over again. As Mom brushes out my mane I look at my self in the mirror, I'm black like I was in the dream but it is a much darker black and I have little swirls ao white all over my body. The white even swirls up my horn along with the black. I am taller then most fillies, actually I am the same hieght as most fully grown ponies. Mom has moved on to my wings where she is smoothing out my feathers, it feels so good. Mom has finished with everything and again I try to leave, and again Mom grabs me with her magic and pulls me back.
"Aw Mom! Do I have to?"
"Yes, just like I have to." She nuzzles me and begins to put the ornamental horseshoes on me, they always make my hooves itch. Then she puts the white necklace around my neck. Finally the tiara is placed on my head where I will have to attempt to balance it all Day. At last we leave my room and start towards the throne room.
"Now Fudge, please try to pay attention in cout this time." Mom says looking down at me as we walk through the halls of the palace. I mentally sigh, and out loud I say,
"Yes ma'am." We get to the door of the throne room and Mom is introduced first.
"Enter Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia! Ruler of the Day and bringer of the Sun!" Mom walks in, her wings erect and her head high. She gets to her throne and sits down, now it's my turn.
"Enter Princess Starswirl, daughter of Princess Celestia! Future ruler of the Night and bringer of the Moon!" Now before you get any ideas Starswirl the Bearded was named after me and was probably teased a lot for having a girls name. Oh and you are probably wondering why I would be future princess of the Night wile my mom is ruler of the Day. Well you should know that my cousin Princess Cadence is future ruler of the Dat and her mom is Auntie Luna.
Anyway back to the story. I walk through the throne room the way Mom taught me, with my head and wings up. I go to the cushion that is next to Mom's throne and lay down. Mom gives me a death glare and I immediately sit back up.
"Enter Prince Blueblood! Representative of the Unicorns!" I mentally roll my eyes. If he represents the unicorns then I'm a tree. I try to listen, I really do but it is so boring. Blueblood, from what I understand, wants to expand his property to about twenty acres and that wouldn't really work since there is an orphanage only a few blocks away from his place and we would have to knock the whole thing down. As I guessed Mom says no, even better she takes away a foot of his land. Blueblood spends the last ten minutes of his hour begging and pleading, the guards have to drag him away. The minute he leaves I leave, I shoot down the hall towards the sculpture garden where Auntie Luna told me we were meeting. For the past thousand years Mom has tried very hard to train both Cadance and I for when we will have to take over from them. Now that Auntie Luna is back she will take over my education. At some point I will start going to the Night court instead and Cadance will stay with my mom. As I run through the halls I actually run into Cadance and her husband Shining Armour.
"Hi Fudge! Where are you off to?" askes Cadance.
"To see Auntie Luna! She's gonna show me how to touch the Moon!" I say, and I'm really excited to. Most of what Mom has taught me is levitation, teleportation, and small stuff like that. She didn't want me to try and touch the Moon because Auntie Luna was still going crazy up there.
"Thats awesome Fudge!" says Shining Armour. They both nuzzle me and go back to what ever they were doing before. I don't think I've seen them apart since the wedding, which was two months ago. I make it to the sculpture garden and find Auntie Luna between the two fountains.
"Good Day Princess Starswirl!" she says. I giggle then say,
"You can call me Fudge, Auntie. I only allow ponies that don't know me to call me Starswirl."
"O.K. Then. Good Day Fudge. Are you ready to touch the Moon?"
"Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!" I say jumping around her in a pretty good imitation Twilight Sparkle, my mom's personal student.
"Alright, alright! Calm down all ready!" Auntie says with a look of amusement on her face. I immediately sit down, but I can't get the smile off my face, because I'm SO excited. Auntie gets another look on her faces that says, this pony is so crazy she's cute. 'Well of course I'm crazy. My whole family is crazy!' I think to myself. She starts talking and I make sure to pay EXTRA close attention, but she's just explaining the history of Equestria which I already know.
5,302 years ago the three pony races found the land of Equestria and claimed it as their own, then they stumbled across a small community of alicorns. When they saw how powerful the alicorns were they decided to be freindly (duh). The two alicorns who led the community were my grandparents and were the ones who brought the Day and Night for all the world, my mom and aunt were already around and learning about there parents trade. Now in the language of the alicorns there are two words for leader, one for a female leader and one for a male leader, and instead of translating to King and Queen it translated to Prince and Princess. Strange right? Anyway, the three pony races made them the leaders of Equestria and they ruled for a thousand years, but eventually, like everything must, they died and left the throne to both of their daughters. Then only a hundred years in to their reign Discord showed up and made a mess of everything for a thousand years then Mom and Auntie defeated him. 100 years after that Luna got married and had Cadance, two thousand years later Cadance got her cutie mark (a heart with a sun behind it.) and I was born. A hundred years after I was born Nightmare Moon showed up and was banished to the Moon, then a thousand years later she came back and the Elements of Harmony turned her back into Luna. Then a year after that Discord came back and was again defeated. Then two months ago the changlings were defeated. Now it is the present day and Auntie has somehow managed to streach out what I explained in a few minutes to a few hours and I have given up trying to listen and am now fighting a losing battle to keep my eyes open.
"And that's how Equestria was made." My eyes fly open at that statement and I look up. The sky is a deep red and the Sun is much lower in the sky, actually it is about to set. I let out a moan.
"What is wrong little niece?" Auntie asks me.
"The Sun is setting, and I have to go to bed soon, AND I haven't touched the Moon yet!"
"But this is the time of day I was waiting for." she say with a smile.
"Huh?"
"Well, this way you not only get to touch the Moon, you also get to raise it. I belive you are ready for it."
"WHAT!" My eyes almost fall out of my head and my voice aalmost reaches Royal Canterlot levels. "Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu!" I can't even speak. I spend a few more minutes with my mouth disconnected from my brain. Finally my brain rebuilds the connection and I say, "How can I be ready to raise the Moon if I've never touched it before?" she just chuckles a little.
"You were able to raise the Moon the minute you were born, in fact you almost did luckily your mother put a sleep spell on you. If she hadn't then you might have set all the stars out of alignment and I would still be trying to fix it." She gives a little wink and it makes me giggle. "Now what are you better at, flying or magic?"
"Flying." I answer sheepishly.
"Don't worry, I was better at flying when I was your age to."
"Really?"
"Eeyup."
"Coooool."
"Yes, now can we begin?"
"Oh right."
"Now I need you to close your eyes."
"O.K" I clench my eyes closed.
"Now reach inside your self and search for something large, solid, and rough."
"I think I feel it."
"Good, now imagine lifting it up."
"O.K. I doing it."
"Very nice. Now open your eyes." I do and what I see is amazing. It's the Moon and it looks like it would on any other Night, but this time I raised it. All my life I have loved the Night, but this Night is the Nigth where my old love dies, and something bigger and stronger takes it's place.
I lay in my bed later that Night as Mom tucks me in.
"You know it's your birthday tomorrow?"
"Oh yeah, almost forgot." She smiles at the idea of me forgetting my birthday.
"Do you know what you want?" I give it some thought and come to a solution quicker then normal.
"I would really like one day to be a normal filly."
"Hmmmmm. Maybe, now get some rest and I'll see you in the morning." She kisses my forehead and leaves the room, closing the door behind her. I turn over in my bed and look out my window to a beautiful Night and I can feel the love swell in my chest again, because this, is my Night.
I sat in the back of a red wagon being squished by two other ponies. One was a white unicorn with a multicolored mane the other was a yellow earth pony with a red mane, she also had a huge bow in her mane. Up front I can see a pegasus pulling the wagon with her scooter, for a moment I can't understand how she is able to do this then I notice that she was flapping her wings very quickly. She was orange with a purple mane. Another thing was that not one of them had a cutie mark.
“WAKE UP!”
“Gahhhhh!” I sit up in my bed and find myself staring face to face with Shining Armour. I back up a little and look outside, it's still dark.
“CIL, what are you doing?” I ask rubbing my eyes.
“Your mom sent me, and CIL?”
“Cuz-in-law.” I say as I walk over to my mirror and brush out my mane.
“Oh cool, that's as creative as BBBFF.” he says with a smile.
“So, where are we going?” I ask as we walk through the halls.
“The inner courtyard.”
“Oh, is Mom there?”
“Yes, along with Cadence, Luna, and your dad.” My eyes widen in excitement. My father (who is also an alicorn) has spent the last year on a diplomatic mission in dragon territory. The dragons have no actual government so whenever we work with them it's almost always a different representative, and sometimes they will switch out in the middle of a negotiation and we have to get the new one up to speed. Also sometimes the new one doesn't agree with the old ones ideas and we have to renegotiate everything and it gets really annoying cause I don't get to see my dad and then I get all sad inside.
Anyway, I start to run ahead cause I am so excited to see my father. Then Shining Armour grabs me with his magic.
“Sorry, your mom said we had to take as long as possible to get there. They are still trying to convince your dad.”
“Convince him to do what?” Shining Armour just makes a zipping motion across his mouth and keeps walking. I pout for a moment and then run to catch up to him. The next 15 minutes are spent in silence, although Shining Armour randomly stops sometimes and stares out a window, when ever he does that I get the urge to slam my head into a wall repeatedly but Mom said I can't do that cause it puts holes in the walls. Then Shining's horn starts to glow.
“Their ready for us.”
“Bye.” I run, or maybe fly is a better term, down the hall, he doesn't try to stop me this time. The first thing I see when I get to the inner courtyard is Dad, a tall, black alicorn with a patch over his right eye. (he lost his eye to a dragon during a peace negotiation, we attended the funeral as a way of saying sorry to the dragons. Dad was really sad about what he did, but the dragons understood that he was defending himself.)
“Dad!” I shout, running straight towards him and jumping to hug him around his neck, but instead find myself firmly grasped in his magic and gazing into his face. Dad gives me a quizzical look and then addresses Mom.
“Pray tell Celestia, what is this rather strange being? It seems to be alive, but” he pauses to sniff me, “smells of Fudge.” Mom doesn't miss a beat.
“I am not quite sure my dear Dark Star. Does it also taste of Fudge?” I know what is coming next. Dad dramatically leans towards me and kisses me on the forehead, then smacks his lips together.
“Mmmm, the most delectable Fudge in existence.”
“Really, then my I please have a taste?” Mom asks.
“Of course my dear.” The dark aura of Dad's magic disappears, only to be replaced by Mom's golden glow. She proceeds to kiss me as well and licks her lips.
“Oh my! This is the best thing in the whole universe!” I can't help it, I start to laugh. I have fallen into the trap completely and will not be able to get out-
“Look it is giggling, maybe it is ticklish.”
“Only one way to find out.”
-at least not on my own. Mom and Dad begin the merciless tickling.
“Bwahhahaha!A-auntie L-luna-hahahaa! C-cadence hehe! H-help me!” Auntie and Cadence look towards each other and back at us.
“How dare you tickle the Princess of Fudge!” says Auntie.
“Yes, now release her before we are forced to use force.” Cadence is struggling to keep the smile off her face. Mom and Dad just keep tickling so Auntie and Cadence do the first logical thing.
“PONY PILE!” they both yell jumping on top of us. Soon we are nothing more then a wriggling mass of ponies, some trying to tickle me and others trying to protect me from the offending hooves, at least until we hear a pony clear his throat behind us.
“I do not see why you would fight over the Princess of Fudge when she is only from the Fudge Kingdom. I for one support the NCR.” says Shining Armour.
“Um, honey, what is the NCR?” asks Cadence.
“The New Cookie Republic.”
I'll give some props to Shining Armour. He didn't flinch at all when he saw five extremely powerful alicorns running towards him shouting, “Tickle the Traitor!” Now I am leaning against my dad as Mom explains my birthday surprise.
“It took a little convincing,” she looks towards Dad, “But we have decided to send you to Ponyville for a week to see what it is like to be a normal pony.” I almost did a Rarity faint I was so happy, Cadence even grabbed a pillow.
“I have asked my student to set up a room for you at her house, and while you are there you will be in a disguise.”
“A disguise?”
“You do want to be treated like a normal pony, right? That's kinda hard when everypony is bowing to you.”
“Oh.”
“I have always seen you as a pegasus pony, what do you think?”
“I had a dream the other Night where I was a pegasus. My mane was black and I was all gray.”
“That's good, you already have an image in your head. Do you remember the disguise spell?”
“Yep.”
“Very good, remember that a normal filly is about half your size. Now go ahead and do it.” I closed my eyes and reached for the magic. I feel it surround me and begin to change me. My horn shrinks into my head and disappears, I feel me skin get tight and then loosen as the rest of my body begins to shrink. Finally the process ends and I open my eyes to look at my new body, the silver glow of my magic fading away. My wings look basically the same except for the fact that they are now a really dark gray like the rest of my body, my horn is gone and it is kinda weird cause it is usually at the edge of my vision and now I feel like I've lost something, my mane and tail are now black. Finally I look up, and up, and up until I finally see my mom's face.
“Wow, Mom. You are really big.” Mom and everyone else kneels down to my level. Mom smiles and then looks over to Auntie Luna.
“Your turn, Luna.” Auntie stands up and dons her own disguise, which is a dark blue pegasus. I am very confused.
“Why is Auntie also in a disguise?” Mom smiles again and then answers me.
“She will be pretending to be your mother and drop you off in Ponyville. You will both be flying.”
“Oh,O.K.!”
The air, one of the most amazing places to be. Sure, technically everypony is in the air all the time, but not many get to fly through it. Auntie and I have been flying for about an hour (maybe longer cause I keep doing flips and stuff out of excitement) The town of Ponyville is steadily getting closer along with what is sure to be the Best Week Ever!
“Hey, 'Mother',” I say with a smile, Auntie just rolls her eyes, “what's it like to have a friend?” Auntie gives me a confused look.
“Have you not had a friend before, my little niece?”
“The only friend I had was Twilight and that was when she was a filly, and she was always super busy doing stuff for Mom. It wasn't really much of a friendship.”
“Oh, well then what would you like to know?”
“What is friendship?”
“Ah, well then. Ummm, how does one explain friendship? Uhhhh, have your read the friendship reports from Twilight Sparkle?”
“Yes.”
“Good. So judging from those what would you say friendship is?”
“Umm, like finding a long lost sibling and then spending all your time with them.”
“That is a very good way to explain it, you are very wise for your age.”
“Well I am 1,103.”
“Yes, but you are mentally an 8 year old normal filly.”
“Oh, right.” It is now that Auntie chooses to look down.
“I think we should land.” she says pointing down. I look and see Ponyville directly below us.
“ohmygoshomygoshomygosh! Let's go let's go!” I say dragging Auntie with me towards the ground.
“Calm down little one, we'll get there.” she says as we begin our descent.
“Keep your eyes out for a tree that also looks like a house.”
“You mean that one?” I ask pointing down to a huge tree house thing near the town square.
“Yes.” Auntie begins angling towards the tree house and lands in front of it with me behind her. She knocked at the door and it immediately flew open, reveling a slightly disheveled Twilight Sparkle.
“Oh, I'm terribly sorry ma’am, but we are not open at this moment. It would be better if you came back later today.” Twilight says with an apologetic look on her face.
“Hello Twilight Sparkle, it is good to see you again. For the moment my name is 'Moonbeam' and I am dropping off my 'daughter' for her birthday surprise.” Auntie says using her wings to pit air quotes around her fake name and the word daughter. Twilight looks confused for a second but realization suddenly dawns on her face.
“Oh my, Prin-” she suddenly finds a dark blue hoof shoved in her mouth.
“Like I said, for now my name is 'Moonbeam'.” Twilight can only nod. Auntie removes her hoof from Twilight's mouth. Twilight makes a disgusted sound and looks at Auntie.
“'Moonbeam',your hoof tastes terrible.” she says, barely managing to hide her smile. “Come on inside and make yourselves comfortable.” Twilight says beckoning us inside her house thing.“My goodness, Fudge. That disguise spell is amazing, although I must admit it is strange having you smaller then me for once.” says Twilight, nuzzling me in a friendly way making me giggle. “Would either of you like something to eat?” Auntie declines the offer but I snatch it up like my life depends on it.
“Yes! I haven't had breakfast yet and I am really hungry.”
“Well then we better get something in that stomach of yours before you go to school.” Twilight says walking towards her kitchen. My eyes have once again become wide in excitement.
“School! I really get to go to school!”
“Of course.” Twilight says handing me a daisy sandwich. “Now eat up, we are a little late.”
“Thank you again for doing this Twilight Sparkle. It means a lot to Fudge, as well as me and my sister.” Auntie says as she walks out the door, glancing at me once.
“It's nothing at all 'Moonbeam', and I've told you before, call me Twilight everypony does.” she says smiling at Auntie.
“Goodbye 'daughter', be good for Twilight and don't blow anything up, I am not sure what your mother will do to you if you do.” says Auntie giving a devious smile and waving at me.
“'bye 'Mother', I promise I won't do ... to much ... damage.” I say waving back. Auntie smiles one more time and then takes off flying back towards Canterlot.
“Hurry up Fudge we need to get to the school house like now.”
“Right.” I say as I scarf the rest of the sandwich and then let Twilight put some saddle bags on me, most likely containing school supplies and maybe some lunch. Twilight then puts me on her back and runs out of the door, closing it with her magic.
“Wow Twilight. Are we really that late.”
“Yes, but it's not very far. Look there it is now.” I look up and see a small red building where a purple pony is standing outside, presumably waiting for us.
“Hello Cheerilee.” Twilight says slowing down and talking to the other purple pony.
“Hello Twilight, is this your little cousin you were telling me about earlier?”
“Yes, yes she is.” Cheerilee bends down to my eye level and smiles at me.
“Hello there, I'm Miss.Cheerilee and I know we are going to have a wonderful time together. Now why don't we go inside, all the other fillies and colts are waiting.”
“Okay.” I can't help but smile back. I turn around and give Twilight the biggest hug possible and then go inside the school house with Miss.Cheerilee. At first it is a little loud but once everypony notices the teacher they all settle down.
“Good morning class, we have a new student joining us today. She will only be here for a week so I want you all to make her feel welcome.” she looks down at me. “Why don't you tell the whole class your name.” I immediately freeze up.
“Uhhhhhhhhh......”