Twinkling Through The Dark

“It’s so beautiful up here.” Twilight remarked as she could see all of the lights of the houses and buildings down below.

You should see it in the summer time, for you can see Canterlot if the weather is good. Now come inside where it is warm.” Steller said with no exaggeration as the clear air can make one see for a few hundred kilometres around. Steller Clockwork and his wife’s home wasn’t fancy. A simple two story, stone home with a veranda that encircled the entire home. The Hotel was a short distance below the house which Steller told Twilight that the Hotel’s office was connected to the house viva a tunnel that was used primarily through the winter months to help service the hotel as the weather can get quite bad.

“Honey, I’m home and I’ve brought a special guest.” Steller announced.

“Oh, who is it?” called a voice from upstairs.

“You’ll see soon honey.” Steller answered back as his wife trotted down the stairs to see for herself who was this mystery quest.

“Twilight, this is my wife, Evernight Bliss.” Steller introduced his wife who had red violet coat, magenta mane and tail with turquoise stripes and light navy blue eyes. “She would prefer if you wouldn’t be formal around her.” Steller went on trying to save Twilight the trouble in which Twilight gave a light blush.

“Oh, anyway it’s a pleasure to meet you Twilight. I assuming that you are wanting to stay for the next few days?” Evernight stubbled as she tried to get over the shock and trying to form a coherent sentence.

“That’s right.” Twilight said, nodding.

“I’ll even let you stay for as long as you need for free! It’s the least I can do for you.” Evernight said, for she felt wrong to charge a princess, let alone one who was on the mend.

“I’d rather…. On second thought, I’ll take your offer.” Twilight said as she looked in her purse and saw she had spent the last of the bits she had on her for Starlight’s gift.

“But before I take your things and show you to your room, do you want to join us for dinner? I’ve got potato and carrot bake in the oven.” Evernight said.

“That sounds wonderful.” Twilight said after realising that she had not eaten since yesterday and was quite hungry. Twilight was amazed by the interior design, although Rarity might not approve in its age, Twilight always seemed to like designs from a few centuries ago.

The living room had a black granite fireplace with a white marble mantel piece with various pictures on it and three stockings dangling from the edge. A stained oak bookcase surrounded the fireplace and chimney with a large lounge in front of the hearth. Green velvet carpet floors with crimson red walls and stained wood edging. A large Hearth’s Warming tree, lavishly decorated stood near the front window. Then Twilight went under the stairs towards the kitchen and dining room, which was in a similar style to her own, albeit different colour scheme and lack of crystals.

“Please, have a seat. We’ll bring everything over for you.” Steller said as he showed Twilight to the head of the dinner table.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to at least help set up the table?” Twilight asked if she could help.

“Twilight, you are our honoured guest, you just need to relax, we have everything covered. But thank you for your offer. I’d just thought you would be used to having your servants getting you everything you need.” Evernight said as she’d didn’t expect a princess to help set up for a meal when she was a guest in her own home.

“Servants? No, I don’t have any, to tell you the truth, me and my assistant, Spike help each other with cooking and cleaning. Having some pony do everything for me just doesn’t feel natural.”

“Really? I just pictured royalty getting treated like that on a daily basis.” Evernight said as she started to set up all of the cutlery and the various plates, bowls and spices.

“Sometimes we appreciate the help, but we’d just like to be treated like any other pony. That’s especially true for Princess Celestia, who after 1000 years, has grown a little tired of the formalities to the point where she caused chaos twice with the Grand Galloping Gala by first inviting all of my friends without telling us how it actually was and drove us a little crazy and secondly by inviting Discord and you could probably guess how that would turn out. But it did make her very happy in the end to my amazement.” Twilight recalling the two disasters that almost drove her crazy, but looking back were actually pretty funny.

“Do you drink wine, Twilight? We had got Canterlot Sovereign, bottled from the 500th summer sun celebration.” Steller asked as he went through the wine rack on the kitchen buffet.

“Oh, normally I’m not really a drinker, but yes please, a glass will do.” Twilight said. She wasn’t an eager drinker, but on special or important occasions, she would have at least a couple of drinks.

As Steller Clockwork was serving up the main meal, Twilight noticed an extra dinner plate, cutlery set and cup next to Evernight’s seat. Twilight was just a bit curious and was just about to ask why there was an extra seat set up when Steller asked Twilight a question.

“Twilight, why did you come all the way out here, almost getting yourself killed in the process mind I ask?” Steller questioned Twilight. He could not understand why Twilight would do what she did to reach this village.

“I was assigned by Princess Celestia to come and help assess the unicorn foals for their potential for magical talent. But while I was in the hospital, a unicorn named Cirrostratus helped me out immensely by getting the testing done. I feel that by not performing the job myself, felt that I let everypony down. But sometimes events conspire so that you have to trust others to help you achieve the goal and I am thankful for his and his wife’s help.” Twilight answered acknowledging the efforts of the local residents undertook to help her in her time of need.

“That sounds like them alright. Cirrostratus has always been very supportive, even to ponies who he has never known before. We are greatly thankful to be good friends of those two wonderful ponies.” Evernight remarked.

These were the ponies who Cirrostratus and Sunswirl were talking about. Twilight thought to herself, she looked at the empty seat and just had to ask for what she knew would be a question that would bring back painful memories.

”That empty seat with the dinner plate and cutlery set up, who is that for?” Twilight asked. As soon as that question was out of Twilight’s lips, both Steller Clockwork and Evernight Bliss looked at each other with the unmistakable looks one sees when in pain of losing something or in this case some pony precious and dear to them. Evernight was obviously starting to get quite upset as she started crying and burying her head into her hooves. Then Steller came over to comfort her as Twilight looked on knowing that she had opened a deep personal wound but she knew this had to be done.

“Twilight, could you please come with us.” Steller asked Twilight to come with him and Evernight.

“Of course. Cirrostratus told me about what had happened to your daughter, and I need to ask what had happened. I know this is quite an upsetting subject to bring up on, and I’m deeply sorry for bringing this up.” Twilight said, expressing her deep regret for having to ask such a personal question as the three ponies left the dining room and headed up stairs.

The second floor consisted of a long hallway with a wooden floor and a hallway carpet mat in the middle and a hallway dresser on the right and side. The trio stopped at a door at the end of the hallway. Evernight tried to open the door, but was so upset, she could not concentrate her magic on the door knob. So Steller opened the door and let Twilight in first.

As the lights were turned on, Twilight looked upon a filly’s room. It looked like it belonged to a foal of about 9 – 10 years old. Everything was neatly organised and cleaned as if someone was still living there. As Twilight turned to her left, she saw a display cabinet with a few trophies, ribbons and pictures in it. All of the awards were for 1st prizes for junior kiting competitions, but it was when she looked down at the photos, that the gravity of what this room represented hit home for Twilight as she saw two photos, one of a family portrait and a personal photo and instantly knew who this room belonged to.

“Starlight always had this passion for kiting even at a young age. It was one of the few things near the end that kept her happy. Even to this day, seeing my little Starly flying her kites and showing her friend with the biggest smile on her face just bring tears to my eyes.” Evernight said while sniffling behind Twilight’s back.

“There was always something about her that caught our attention, as if she was special. Unfortunately, the other foals saw that as a reason to mercilessly bully and harass her when she started school. It did not help that she was still a blank flank when almost everypony had already got theirs. So it progressively got worse and worse. Then it started to get better when she first befriended Cirrostratus’s son, Sunburst.” Steller continued as Evernight was getting too emotional to tell the rest of the story.

“Starlight found a connection in him that she was desperate for; understanding of what she was going through and some pony she could relate to. When they were together, they seemed to forget everything else around them for they had each other for support.”

“Every weekend for example Starlight would ask if she could spend the weekend with Sunburst at his parent’s house and what Sunswirl told us, Sunburst would want to be with her. It looked like she would get over this, but then came that Summer Sun Festival.”

“We don’t blame Cirrostratus and Sunswirl for sending him to Canterlot. They wanted to see their son achieve his full potential, and just assumed, like we that soon, Starlight would join him. But that did not come to pass. For years afterward, Starlight suffered immensely at school. As the last blank flank in her class, she was being attacked, mentally, verbally and sometimes, physically by the others to the point where we wanted to home-school her for we felt like there was no other choice but we were told that we could not as the regulations in the area prevented it. She would almost always come home crying and lock herself in her room crying and sobbing for hours on end.”

“We tried everything to help her, but as the years went on, in just got worse and worse until her 10th birthday when she left for school and just never came home. I searched everywhere in town, nothing. Then in the nearby area, still nothing. Then I told Evernight that I will not come back until I brought our little Starly home, I had no idea how long I was going to be away for. I literally went all over Equestria, not coming home for 10 years before I felt I had to ask the Princess herself for I was so desperate that I had nowhere else to turn.”

“All she could say was that the same stars that aid in the escape of the Mare in the Moon will bring your daughter home, she continued and said this will happen although she said that she had no idea when and told me to go back home. I told her that I could not just abandon my daughter like that, but despite my desperate and distraught protests she told me that I had done all that I could and that the only thing left was to let go. At that point I completely broke down. Even though I could trust Princess Celestia with my life, personally I felt I had failed Starlight as her father and that’s something Twilight, no parent should ever have to feel.”

“The Princess seeing me curled up crying my heart out was also touched by my plight as if she knew exactly what I was going though. She then wrapped me in her wings and trying to comfort me before taking me home and explaining what she had said to Evernight, and she took it even worse. Even after almost 14 years, that day seems like yesterday.” Steller finished his heartbreaking story as both he and Evernight seeing Twilight on the floor crying and sobbing for she knew Starlight’s life wasn’t pleasant by any stretch of the imagination, but to hear it from her parent’s side, was so tragic, words could not describe it.

Evernight picked Twilight off the floor and hugged the quite heartbroken princess for her, nor her husband ever wanted to drive any other pony to the same emotional wreck that there were. Then Twilight wiped the stream of tears from her face. Twilight then felt for some reason an uncontrollable and instinctive urge to make decree even though she thought she should still be on the floor crying. Steller and Evernight sensing something amiss, stepped back and for what came next, they were thankful not to be right next to Twilight.

“STELLER CLOCKWORK AND EVERNIGHT BLISS!!! I PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE HEREBY DECREE THAT I WILL BRING YOUR DAUGHTER, STARLIGHT GLIMMER BACK HOME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!!” Twilight said whilst using the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice as Steller and Evernight looked with shrunken pupils and blank expressions. Twilight then started gasping and writhing as the stress of using the Royal Canterlot Voice was pushing the limits of what she could do and reached for her pain medication.

“Sorry, I don’t know why, but have no control over it when I suddenly break into the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice but what I said is what I will do. For what I just heard is so tragic, I just can’t bear to see you two suffer anymore. Now however, I’m too exhausted to do anything more tonight. So can you please show me to my room?” Twilight apologising for the sudden shouting. Then unexpectedly, Evernight got on her knees and started kissing Twilight’s hooves repeatedly and thanking her. All Twilight do is look around with the most awkward look on her face and thinking back; So this is what Celestia was telling me about happened when she had shown Rarity that suite in Canterlot….

Twilight was shown to her room, which turned out to be the best room on offer, complete with a spa! The one thing going through Twilight’s mind is how much Rarity would be freaking out over this.

“I hope you enjoy your stay, Twilight. If you need anything, just be free to ask the overnight staff in the reception room downstairs. Thank you again for going out of your way to helping getting my little Starly home. Also sorry for, that before.” Evernight said with a sheepish grin after the saying about what happened moments ago.

“Thank you. Just relax, I will handle it. All you need to know is that I will help anypony in need. Also you don’t need to apologise for thanking me like you did before. That reaction is completely understandable. Just to let you know, your nickname for Starlight is both sweet and adorable.” Twilight said just before going to bed for tomorrow would be a day where multiple lives would be changed for the better, but Twilight had this nagging thought in the back of her mind that it could go all horribly wrong.