Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance were walking on the deck of the cruise zeppelin they had been vacationing on with a schedule floating in front of them. They were currently discussing what they could do next.
"There's still plenty of activities," Twilight said, looking at her long list of activites. "We pass Fillydelphia on the way back. I could give Flurry Heart a quick history tour."
"That's very thoughtful." Cadence replied. "But right now, the family and I have something scheduled for you."
Cadence pulled the schedule away as she led Twilight towards Night Light, who stood next to a large makeshift sun.
"Behold! The Northern Stars!"
Then, Twilight Velvet lifted herself, Shining Armor and Flurry Heart into the air, dressed as the Northern Stars. Twilight couldn't help but be moved by this gesture.
"You did all this for me?" She asked with tears in her eyes. She wiped away the tears before saying "This is amazing! Thank you. And Shining Armor, I can't believe you’re up there even though you’re airsick."
"Hey! I am not…" Shining Armor said crossly. However, he couldn't hide his airsickness for very long and began turning green. "Oh, okay. Maybe I’m not feeling great." he said, trying to not throw up as they all flew back down to the ground.
"Now this is the only activity I need." Twilight said, pulling her family into an embrace of thanks.
A sudden flash of green light caught the family’s attention. They turned around and saw a single Northern Star flying through the sky. For Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, Flurry Heart, Night Light, and Twilight Velvet the star served as a reminder of the spectacular shower they had seen earlier that night, but for Twilight it only reminded her that she was forced to miss the one activity she wanted to do on the cruise and that she wasn’t able to spend the trip with her family like she wanted.
Twilight let out a sigh. Although she was touched by her family’s attempt to recreate the Northern Stars she knew that they couldn’t truly recreate the breathtaking display the astronomical event provided, and the star that passed by was evidence of that. Twilight didn’t want to admit it, for fear of seeming ungrateful, but she was still sad about missing the Northern Stars as well as being unable to participate in cruise activities with her family.
Cadance was quick to notice Twilight’s sudden change in mood. “Twilight, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Twilight replied. “I think I’ll go rest in our room for a bit before we get back to Canterlot.”
As Twilight walked away her family couldn’t help but feel worried. They knew her well enough to tell that she wasn’t fine like she claimed.
Back in the room, Twilight was laying on the couch with the book she had brought with her. Twilight currently had it open to the illustration of the Northern Stars.
“So I guess you’re still sad about missing the Northern Stars.” Twilight turned to see that Cadance and the rest of her family had returned to the room.
“Kinda.”
“We’re sorry that we didn’t let you know when the Northern Stars were about to appear, Twilight. We knew how much you wanted to see them and we should have taken your feelings into consideration, especially after you missed them.”
“It’s alright. Besides, I’m the one who agreed to do all that stuff for Iron Will. But thank you.” Twilight turned back to the illustration of the Northern Stars. “Maybe someday I’ll get another chance to see them.”
Twilight closed the book and put it in her saddlebag. “Well, we should be close to Canterlot. We should get ready to leave.”
After gathering their things the family went onto the deck of the zeppelin, which was preparing to dock in Canterlot. After exiting the zeppelin the family said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.
—3 months later—
Twilight was in the library working with Starlight, two tall stacks of paper sitting in front of them. Before she would have been overwhelmed by this amount of work, but ever since Starlight began helping her things have become more bearable.
As Twilight finished signing another document she heard a sudden burp from Spike and a scroll landed in front of her. She immediately opened it and started reading.
“What does it say?” Starlight asked.
“It’s from my parents. They want to take me on a family vacation.”
“What kind of vacation?” Spike asked.
“I don’t know. But they say we’ll be gone for a couple of days or so.” Twilight set down the scroll and looked up at the stacks of paperwork. “It sounds like fun, but there’s too much princess work to do.” She picked up her quill and went back to work.
Starlight picked up the scroll and read over it. “I think you should go, Twilight. It’s been a while since you had a break from being a princess, and you did say that your last family vacation didn’t turn out exactly the way you wanted it to, so this is a good opportunity to make up for that.” Starlight told her marefriend in an attempt to change her mind.
“I guess so, but what about all this work?”
“We’ve already done most of it, I can finish the rest on my own.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I am. You just worry about having fun with your family.”
“Okay. Thank you, Starlight.” Twilight gave Starlight a quick kiss before heading off to pack.
After packing her things and saying goodbye to Starlight and Spike, who had insisted on staying home like last time, Twilight took off and started flying towards Canterlot.
As she flew through the Equestrian sky Twilight’s mind was buzzing with thoughts of what kind of trip her parents had planned. Perhaps they were going to Fillydelphia or maybe it would be a camping trip like the ones they used to go on when she was a filly. Twilight couldn’t wait to find out.
Upon reaching Canterlot Twilight flew to her parents’ house where they were waiting for her outside.
“Hi, mom! Hi, dad!” Twilight greeted as she embraced her parents in a loving hug.
“Hello, Twilight.” Twilight Velvet said.
“It’s good to see you sweetie.” Night Light added.
“So what kind of vacation are we going on?”
“You’ll see. Just follow us.” Twilight Velvet responded.
“Here we are!” Twilight Velvet said.
After about ten minutes of walking the family arrived at the Canterlot docks where a cruise zeppelin was currently docked.
“A zeppelin cruise?! Wait a second… You didn’t win another ‘contest’ did you?” Twilight asked her parents skeptically. Although she trusted her parents she didn’t want this to be a repeat of their last vacation.
“Don’t worry, this time we saved up and payed for the trip ourselves.” Night Light said.
“That’s good. I wish you had told me we were going on another cruise though. I could’ve had a schedule written out for us.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. Cadance and Shining Armor have everything taken care of.” Twilight Velvet assured her daughter.
“Cadance and Shining Armor are coming too?”
“Of course they are! It wouldn’t be a family vacation without them would it? They should be waiting for us by the boarding ramp.”
“Well we don’t want to keep them waiting too long, come on!”
Upon finding Cadance, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart the family exchanged greetings before boarding the cruise zeppelin.
Where they were immediately spotted by one of Cadance and Twilight’s many fans.
“LOOK! IT’S PRINCESS CADANCE AND PRINCESS TWILIGHT!”
Within seconds they were surrounded by a large group of fans. Several of the ponies asked to take pictures with them while others wanted autographs, there were even two stallions, and a mare, who each asked Twilight to go on a date with them despite knowing that she has a marefriend.
When it became clear that their fans weren’t going to let up on them any time soon, Cadance spoke up. “Please calm down everypony. Normally Twilight and I would be more than happy to spend time with all of you, but we’re here for the same reason you are, to relax and spend time our family. So I ask that you please respect that and allow us to do so.”
After voicing their agreements the various ponies returned to what they were doing before and the family were by themselves once again.
“Thanks, Cadance.” Twilight said.
“Of course, Twilight. We want you to be able to enjoy your vacation this time and that means making sure we aren’t overrun by fans. Now how about we go get settled into our room?”
After putting their stuff away in their room, which was similar to the one they stayed in last time, they went to the deck so they could start enjoying their cruise. Most of the cruise activities didn’t start until the next day but there were still plenty of things for them to enjoy doing with each other, which was difficult for Shining Armor due to the air sickness he insisted he didn’t have.
The next several hours were spent doing things such as watching the scenery go by and taking family photos. Shining Armor had to sit out a few times due to airsickness but aside from that everypony had a great time. Eventually the sun began to set and the family had decided to return to their room to relax and talk.
“So eventually we found her in the kitchen where she had managed to get into the ice cream.” Cadance said as she finished telling the story about when Flurry Heart decided to spend the day hiding from her and Shining Armor.
“Sounds like somepony has been quite a hoofful lately.” Twilight commented, causing Flurry to giggle in response.
“So, Twilight, how have Starlight and Spike been?” Twilight Velvet asked her daughter.
“They’re doing good. Starlight has been a big help with all the paperwork and stuff. But she’s still a bit overwhelmed by all the attention she’s been getting from everypony.”
“She’ll get used to it eventually.” Cadance said.
“I’m sure you’re right.” Twilight glanced up at the wall clock and saw that it was already past nine. “It’s getting late we should get to bed so we can get up for the activities tomorrow.” The family agreed and after saying goodnight to each other they went into their respective bedrooms. As she peacefully drifted to sleep Twilight couldn’t help but wonder what sort of fun the next day would bring.
Author's Note
I am writing this because, like many people, I was frustrated with Twilight’s family after watching Once Upon a Zeppelin.
The second half of this fic will be about Twilight and her family participating in cruise activities. I’m open to suggestions for what kinds of activities they’ll participate in.
The episode’s ending was originally written out by twilightsparkle3562 (except the first paragraph) who gave me permission to use it because they did a better job then I would likely be able to (I’m just not good at writing out stuff from tv shows for some reason). However I did edit it.
And yes, I ripped off the episode’s opening.
