PONYTALE

Chapters

Chapter 1: Arrival
Chapter 2: Welcome to the Ruins
Chapter 3: Heart of the Ruins, Part 1
Chapter 4: Heart of the Ruins, Part 2
Chapter 5: Standing and Waiting
Chapter 6: Run Home, Twi
Interlude: Knock-knock
Chapter 8: Home, Part 2 - Bonding and Wondering
Chapter 7: Home, Part 1 - First Lesson

Chapter 1: Arrival

No one was there to see the unicorn land on the bed of golden flowers, nor was there a soul around to wonder how she had managed to survive with naught but the flowers themselves to cushion the landing. But land she did, and in quiet stillness the lavender pony lay for several long minutes before she finally began to stir. A hoof moved slowly up to the horn peeking out through the bangs of her navy-blue, pink-and-purple-streaked mane, rubbing at its base and the temples around it. Then, as the same hoof joined its three fellows in raising her to a fully standing position, the same filly groaned and opened her amethyst eyes to the world around her, blinking in the halo of light shining from above, as she gazed out into the darkness.

Tentatively, she stepped out from the ring of flowers and swallowed down a lump in her throat before calling out, "H-hello? Is anypony there? Hello...?"

Yet no answer came. She sighed and bowed her head a moment before looking up to the hole far overhead, many hundreds of feet above her. There would be no getting back through the hole, even with teleportation magic–not that she knew how to use such magic, anyway. Once more she looked around, walking slowly around the bed of now thoroughly crushed flowers with a growing sense of dread.

Dread, thankfully, that faded as she spied a doorway off to the side. Eyes darting about, she walked towards it, her ears twitching at the loud clack of her hooves against the stone. Passing under the doorway's arch, she blinked as she found herself in a room just as dark as the last, though with a patch of light coming down to shine upon a mound of grass with a single flower in the center. With a pure white center surrounded by bright golden petals and supported by an equally bright green stem, it made the filly suddenly aware of her hunger, her mouth watering as she approached. But that hunger abruptly died out as she backpedaled, stunned, at seeing a pair of beady black eyes and a little thin mouth open in the flower's center, forming a simple little face.

"Howdy!" The flower chuckled as she blinked in utter stupefaction, its voice chipper like that of a child. "I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower! What's your name, hmm?"

The filly found her lips slowly curling up into a smile as she replied, "T-Twilight Sparkle. Um, a-are you really a...a talking flower?"

Flowey laughed and shook his head. "Asked the talking pony!" As Twilight laughed with him, albeit nervously, at his little joke, Flowey smiled brightly. "I'm gonna guess you're new to the Underground, huh?"

"The Underground?" Twilight blinked as she bent her knees slightly to get closer to the flower's level. "What exactly is 'the Underground'?"

Flowey just laughed. "This whole place, of course!"

"Oh. Well, in that case, yes. I mean, I know I've never been here before. I'd remember a talking flower."

Flowey rolled his eyes, chuckling lightly. "Gee, nice to know I'd be something memorable, if nothing else. Still, I gotta warn ya, things down here in the Underground are kinda different from what you know up on the surface." He suddenly grinned widely and said, "Say, d'ya want me to show ya the ropes?"

Twilight gasped. "You mean you'd teach me what's different? Oh, yes! Yes, yes, yes!"

Flowey cackled inside as the world around himself and this lavender filly, this Twilight Sparkle, seemed to vanish, replaced by a pitch black emptiness. Seeing her jump at the sudden change and watching as her form turned dark and transparent, revealing a glowing red heart in her chest, he smiled, struggling to hold back the sinister intent rising within him. It was always so much fun to watch newcomers react to the change, especially as the glowing white lines formed themselves on the ground around them, trapping them.

All too easy, he thought. Aloud, he said, "Okay, d'you see that heart in your middle?"

Twilight's hoof rose to rest over her chest, her eyes wide as she stared, open-mouthed, at the gently glowing heart. "W-what is it? ...is that my actual heart...? Why's it glowing like that?"

"Well," Flowey said, gesturing with a leaf unraveled from his stem, "that's not actually your physical heart. No, that is something much more important–it's your SOUL."

Twilight's eyes, if possible, grew even wider. "My... soul," she breathed. She closed her eyes, hoof resting over her chest, and slowly smiled ever so slightly. "It's...really warm..."

Flowey blinked, staring in confusion. No one had ever reacted to their first glimpse of their own soul like this before. He supposed it might just be because she was different like that in regards to her personality.

Not that it'll matter for much longer, he chuckled, schooling his features back to friendliness. "Yep, that's your soul. The glow is pretty normal–most souls from the surface glow like that. However, you should know that every soul starts off pretty weak. But, you can make it stronger by getting a lot of LV."

"LV? What's that?" Twilight asked.

"Why, it's LOVE, of course! I'll bet you want some, don't you? Well, I'd be more than happy to–"

Flowey blinked, once more confused, as Twilight's stats became visible beneath her heart. There was the usual yellow bar beside a group of letters and numbers, along with a lavender bar that had nothing to explain its purpose. The latter was strange enough, but the stats beside the yellow bar were what made him pause.

Twilight LV 1/2 HP 50/50 ?? 1 ?? ???/???

The above-average HP, as far as Flowey knew, was nothing important to worry about–different creatures would naturally have different measurements of health. The LV was unexpected, but not a big deal–clearly, she wasn't much inclined towards gaining LOVE. No, what confused him was the question marks. That had never shown up before on anyone he had encountered from the surface. Whatever they were, one was clearly a measurement of something with a limit, probably to do with the lavender bar. But what was the other one?

Shrugging, Flowey looked back at Twilight's face–and stared, seeing tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.

"H-half a LV...?" she said, hiccuping as she did. "I-is that–*hic*–is that normal...?"

Flowey slowly shook his head, an eyebrow rising over one eye. "Er, no, not really." Seeing her sniffle and sit heavily backward on her rump, he quickly raised two leaves in an imitation of placating hands. "D-don't worry, though! I'll give you some LOVE!"

Anything to keep from dealing with a crybaby.

"R-really?" Twilight sniffled and wiped her eyes, a hopeful gleam in her eyes. "Y-you'd do that for me...?"

Flowey grinned, fighting back a wicked cackle. "Sure! After all, I said I'd teach ya how things work down here!"

As the lavender filly perked and stood up, wiping her eyes again with a foreleg, the golden-petaled flower grinned. All too easy.

Twilight watched as Flower smiled, a group of small white dots, almost like specks of snow, formed in the air around him, five in all. "Down here," he said, "LOVE is shared through all kinds of ways, but I prefer to use these little white 'friendliness pellets'. All you gotta do is hold still while I send 'em over to you, okay?"

Twilight nodded, smiling, and watched as the first of the pellets flew towards her. She waited, smile slowly widening, as it came steadily closer. Then, when it touched her...

She yelped, eyes flying wide open, as a sudden, sharp pain rushed through her body, focusing in her chest and almost flashing outward through her every limb. It was so strong it made her stumble backward, panting, as she realized it had come from her chest...exactly where the pellet had struck her. She felt the blood drain from her face as Flowey's grin suddenly changed, exposing jagged teeth in the most cruel, sadistic smile she had ever seen, and one by one the other pellets slammed into her. Each time one hit home against her body, it sent the same jolting pain through her, centered each time in her chest.

No, she realized. That's not my chest it's coming from; it's my soul. He... He's attacking my soul...!

As the last pellet struck home, Twilight yelped, shoved backwards from the impact, and collapsed back and sideways onto her side, pressing a hoof to her chest as the pain subsided. She looked up, panting, and stared in horror at the yellow bar floating beside her glowing soul. Where she had once seen 50/50, it had now dropped al the way to 1/50, and the yellow bar beside it had turned almost entirely red, with only the smallest sliver of yellow remaining like a thread.

A thread, she thought with a shudder, that's about to be cut.

Flowey cackled as he glared at the cowering filly. "You little idiot. Don't you know anything? Down here, it's 'kill or be killed'! Who in there right mind would pass up this kind of opportunity? Not me, dummy!"

His cackling grew louder as he conjured a ring of magic bullets, orbiting them just outside the barrier of the box in which his victim was trapped–a barrier she quickly rose to attempt to pierce, but to no avail–and he grinned viciously. He did so enjoy it when his victims were scared...

"Been nice meetin' ya, STUPID!"

With that declaration, he cackled again, slowly constricting the ring of bullets, passing them through the barrier as Twilight moved to the center of the box it formed. She was heaving heavy breaths, glancing around every direction in terror, desperately seeking a way out. He felt his grin grow, if possible, even wider, almost literally splitting his face in two...only for the grin to falter as her horn suddenly glowed.

"What are you–"

Flowey's voice cut off and his eye widened in horror as, suddenly, the lavender bar turned red.

"Please, leave me alone!"

Twilight stood on her hindlegs as she cried out, trying to give herself more space to move, buy more time to try and think her way out of this situation. Flowey had seemed so nice, but he'd turned out to be this cold-hearted thing that wanted to kill her–her, when she had done nothing at all to him! She clenched her eyes shut, trying to reach inside of herself as she'd once read to do, trying to tap into something there she didn't know how to find. She ignored his words though she could easily hear them, and begged the heavens to save her.

She called within for help...

...and found DETERMINATION.

Twilight cast Magic Surge

Suddenly, she felt her horn become enveloped in a powerful, tingling warmth that rushed through her every fiber down to her hooves, flowed like a river suddenly freed from the blockage of a dam, and rushed back upwards. It coalesced first in her horn before completely wrapping around her, overwhelming her senses, leaving her unaware to anything but vague outlines beyond the glow, unaware that her eyes had turned completely white. It was like nothing she had ever felt before, as if some immense force had laid dormant within her, had been fueled by her desire to exist beyond this moment of terror, and was now rising to grant her wish.

"Wait," she could hear Flowey saying, his voice spiking in pitch, "you can use magic?!"

Focusing upon Flowey's voice and the outline she could see of him through the warm, bright lavender light obscuring her vision, Twilight ignored the words themselves and rallied herself. She thought of what he'd said about LOVE, how he'd betrayed her, and how much it had hurt. And Twilight, with what little control she had over the maelstrom building around her, gave it a target to focus on.

In the moment the lavender light enveloped Twilight, turning her eyes a pure white, Flowey gasped and almost withdrew into himself. A mixture of awe, terror and utter shock froze him up inside, draining what little warmth usually collected in his face to drain away. She was using magic, and a lot of it–far more than he was using to conjure his ring of bullets. Glancing at her soul and stats, he blinked...then gasped in terror.

Twilight LV 1/2 HP 1/50 ?? 1 MP 0/100

Sweet Honey Ice Tea, he mentally screamed. What the f–!?

Twilight's eyes suddenly snapped to him, her brow furrowing, and her horn flashed with a pure white light as she screamed,

"Leave! Me! ALONE!"

The shockwave of pure magic blasted away all of Flowey's bullets, supercharging many of them and causing them to lodge themselves permanently into the masonry of the walls as others ricocheted back into his command boxes, breaking them as the barrier around Twilight shattered like glass. The force of it was such that he was uprooted completely from the ground and flung backward through the doorway behind him, three of his petals knocked loose to leave a trail behind him. He wasn't sure how long he was flying for, but the moment he finally touched down he immediately dove under the dirt, panting and gasping. He made a mental note to return only once she was calmed down as one word repeated over and over from his lips amidst the echo of Twilight's scream.

"NOPE!"

As the energy around her faded, Twilight slumped to the ground, not even registering as her body reverted to normal, revealing cuts along her sides and chest where Flowey's bullets had struck her. She simply lay there, panting and sniffling, as tears once again began to well up in her eyes. Flowey had been so nice to her at first, offering to teach her about the Underground and share LOVE with her. Then he'd attacked and hurt her, deliberately and without any sign of compassion or mercy in his face. He would have killed her, and she'd lost all focus of his words

Why? All she'd wanted was to learn, to be shown how to get LOVE. Was there something wrong with her? Was she... not meant to be loved...? Was that why she and Shining...?

Mom... Dad... Is this why you both...

"Oh my, are you alright, child?"

Twilight gasped, scooting back from the direction of the voice, her eyes darting about wildly. "N-no, s-stay back! Leave me alone!"

Eyes locking on the hole Flowey had left behind, she dove, scrambling as she tried to force as much of herself inside as she could, shivering from fear. All the while she listened, peeking out to see who or what had called out and begging that they would simply leave her be. She expected to see some great beast coming through the doorway through which Flowey had been sent flying, coming to finish what he had started. She expected to see a shadow in the doorway become something frightening and vicious.

She peeked out of the hole...and gasped.

It was a pony, easily three times as tall as she with a pure white coat, her form draped in purple robes with white sleeves. A mane embodying the colors of a sky at sunrise flowed behind her head in a nonexistent breeze, her tail colored and flowing to match. Her every step seemed precisely articulated, golden hoofshoes quietly tapping as she approached. Her elegant, slender form came a literal head with the gentlest, kindest face topped by a thin, spiraling horn and almost glowing as her eyes, a bright amethyst lighter than Twilight's own eyes, met the face of the cowering filly.

The tall mare smiled as she looked Twilight over for a moment then said, "Do not fear, my child. I'm not going to hurt you."

Twilight said nothing in reply, but continued to shiver and otherwise remain very still. Taking this in stride, the mare slowly knelt and brought her head to the filly's level, her face screwing up with worry and concern as Twilight inched just the slightest bit back from her.

"Oh, you poor thing," the mare said. "You're shaking as if the world around you is frozen... Tell me, child, who did this to you?"

As the mare gestured to her wounds with a hoof, Twilight sniffled and bowed her head pitifully. "A-a flower..."

"A flower?" The mare looked surprised and confused.

"Y-yes... He s-said he was going to h-help me, but instead h-he..."

The mare glanced around for a moment, her eyes slowly widening. Then she paused and looked down at Twilight again, and for a moment the little filly feared she was considering exactly what Twilight had feared she would. But then, to the filly's surprise, she simply sat down on her haunches and reached out a hoof, brushing it through the filly's mane.

"What a terrible, despicable creature that flower must have been," she murmured, "to have taken advantage of one so young and innocent... Do not worry, my little pony; I will help you. Truly," she added, seeing Twilight cower, "I will. I am not like that flower by any means. He, I am sure, used his powers to hurt you, but I..."

She raised her head slightly, and from her back there spread a pair of great white feathery wings, the sight eliciting a gasp from the astonished filly.

"...prefer to heal," the mare finished, smiling warmly.

Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat and stuttered, "Y-you're a... an Alicorn... B-but there are no Alicorns...! They're just a myth!"

The mare giggled, attempting to stifle it with her hoof, and gently stroked the filly's head with one of her wings. "I assure you," she said, "I am very real."

Twilight sighed, then whimpered as the feathers of the wing brushed across her scalp through her mane. The feathers were so soft, they felt wonderful, but in the same motion they were brushing over scratches left by Flowey's attacks, drawing forth little whimpers and winces as she fought back tears. But these sounds faded into a gasp of surprise as the same wing, joined by its twin, gently scooped her up, pulling her to the chest of the white Alicorn, and nestled her there. The tall mare's forelegs carefully wrapped themselves around her alongside the wings, cradling her so that her head rested comfortably on the mare's bosom.

Then there was a warmth, gentle and soothing, flowing through her and twilight blinked, eyes widening, as she noticed a golden glow enveloping her. She looked up and stared at the mare's serene, caring face and the bright blowing horn of the mare just above, then sniffled as tears once more welled up in here eyes. Desperate for comfort, she pressed herself tightly to the mare's chest as she felt her wounds slowly closing and sealing themselves up, the pain fading to a distant memory. She blinked for a moment, then smiled, as the mare began to hum, the sound reverberating through her chest into the filly's tiny body, and gently nuzzled her head.

Surrounded by warmth and enveloped in a hug so loving, the filly found herself filled with something she could only describe as a mixture of relief, love... and DETERMINATION.

Author's Note

The formation of this chapter was inspired by The Moon in the Dark, by Tatsurou. For those who don't know him, he's an amazing author and I just couldn't keep from paying homage to him, as his fic is what inspired me to write this. Please go show him some support.

Also, feel free to Bookshelf this fic so you see when it's updated if you liked and it, and please leave an Upvote and a comment if ya wanna!

Chapter 2: Welcome to the Ruins

When the Alicorn finally released her, Twilight stepped back and smiled shyly up at her. "Th-thank you, miss...?"

The white mare giggled, a hoof at her lips, and said, "Oh, silly me. Of course, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Celestia. I'm... sort of the caretaker of the Ruins."

"Ruins?" Her eyes almost popping, Twilight looked around excitedly. "Where?"

Celestia giggled. "Actually, this is the Ruins, child."

Twilight blinked and stared. "Really?" She bit her lip and said, more quietly, "It doesn't look like it, much..."

Now Celestia laughed, not bothering to hide it, and gently pet the little filly's head for a moment. "Oh, you are just so precious, child! Actually, it's just called that because this was the first place my people came to call home."

"Oh," Twilight giggled nervously, her cheeks tinted red. "That makes sense, I guess. I just assumed, based on some things I've read, that a place called 'the Ruins' would be more, well, ruined. But this place looks too neat to be considered ruined."

Celestia glanced around for a moment. "I will admit, it is a bit illogical when you look at it that way. Although, this room suddenly looks much more ruined than I recall. What could have...?"

The Alicorn's voice drifted off as she stared, blinking, at Twilight, who had suddenly looked very shame-faced. Both just looked at each other, neither one moving or talking, the elder looking confused and the other seeming guilty. Then, as comprehension dawned on her face, Celestia gasped.

"You can't mean," she breathed, "that this is your doing?"

Twilight looked at the holes and deep cracks in the walls and sniffled. She looked about ready to break down in tears, her eyes watering at the corners. "I-I'm so sorry," she whimpered, slowly curling up into a ball, her head bowed. "P-please don't hate me... I d-didn't mean to do it, it's... It's just that flower was going to k-k-kill me and I panicked a-and tried to use m-my magic to stop him and, and..."

To the unicorn's surprise, she found herself once again wrapped in gentle, tender white hooves and wings, her head resting against Celestia's chest as she whispered softly, "Oh, my child, shhhhh... It's alright. I don't hate you. You were just trying to defend yourself from something frightening and dangerous.

"But goodness me," she added, looking over the walls for herself again. "You must have a great deal of power for such a young little filly. You don't look to be anymore than... Seven, perhaps? Maybe eight?"

Twilight blushed and nodded, fighting a smile as her embarrassment wrestled with a slowly swelling sense of pride. "Y-yeah, I guess... I mean, I don't know much about my magic yet, but I've been studying. Well, not so much, recently..." She looked down at that, blinking hard, before she looked up again with that same near-smile. "E-everypony says I'm a natural, but I have a really hard time using any actual spells."

Celestia nuzzled her head and chuckled. "They're right, my child. If you can do something like this, you clearly have a great deal of raw power and potential. But you need to learn to control this power if you want to keep from causing this same level of damage again, and not put others at risk."

Twilight nodded again, slowly pulling out of the hug. "W-would you teach me?"

Celestia giggled and nodded slowly. "I would be happy to teach you, but first I need to know your name, my child."

Twilight blushed and scratched her head with a hoof. "It's Twilight. Twilight Sparkle."

As she rose to her hooves, Celestia had to pause and brace herself to keep from swaying, a hoof pressed to her chest. She shook her head and tried to smile, but inside was utterly stupefied. She had felt Twilight's Determination during the first hug, and even after it had washed away it had left a strong impression in her aged soul and caused a spike in her magic as a result, stronger than any Determination she had felt before. None had held so much of it in themselves since–

Recognizing this train of thought, she shook her head. The past is past, she thought. All you can do for now is hope it doesn't repeat itself... again.

Running through a brief mental exercise to center her thoughts, she smiled down at Twilight and said, "Now then, Twilight, my child, if I am going to teach you to better control your magic, you'll need to follow me to my home in the back of the Ruins. D'you feel you're ready?"

Twilight smiled, a small bit of shyness still evident in her smile and how she looked up at the Alicorn's face, and nodded. "Yes."

The simple reply made Celestia giggle lightly. "Alright, then follow me."

Twilight followed readily as Celestia led the way through the door into a well-lit chamber of purple stone, and gasped. Everything, as she'd said, was very tidy, and though the cracks in the walls every here and there and the patches of dried red leaves on the ground made the name "the Ruins" seem more fitting, she simply marveled at the idea of Celestia maintaining it by herself. She was curious exactly how big the structure really was, as this room by itself had a good deal of room to walk and move around, with a set of stairs along each wall at the opposite end providing passage up to another wide archway leading further in. She flushed as Celestia giggled at her awe-struck face, and hurried to keep up, taking the stairs two at a time where she could to keep up with the precise, almost regal gait of the elder pony.

In the next chamber, Celestia paused and turned, giving Twilight a moment to take in the next archway's sealed door, the sign to its left, and the raised tiles in the floor off to the right. Then, with a small, "ahem," to ensure she was the focus of the filly's attention, the Alicorn spoke. "My child, if you're going to stay here in the Ruins, you'll need to be aware of certain puzzles scattered throughout."

Twilight gasped. "Puzzles?!"

This, in turn, made Celestia step back in surprise, laughing. "Oh my, you're quite the excitable one, aren't you?" Regaining control of herself, she nodded. "Yes. In many chambers of the Ruins, there are puzzles that must be solved. They are a combination of door keys and diversions meant to keep out anyone who would come here with ill intent. But, they are, most of them, relatively straight forward, and those with patience will find them simple to solve, and often there are clues hidden around to provide assistance, such as the sign here." Noting the gleam still alight in Twilight's eye, she giggled and asked playfully, "Would you like to try and solve the one in this room, my child?"

Nodding eagerly, Twilight walked over to the sign and looked up at it...only to frown. "Um, a-are you sure this is writing? I... I can't figure it out..."

Celestia quirked a brow and looked at the sign for a moment, then sighed and rubbed her forehead with a hoof. "Of course, my child, forgive me; I assumed our two realms still used the same writing system. You see, we in the Underground haven't changed our written language since we first arrived here, and–"

"Wait, you mean this is–" Twilight's gasp was even more powerful than when she'd reacted to the idea of puzzles, and for a moment Celestia looked ready to backpedal from her rising concern. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! D'you mean this is an ancient writing form?! Could you teach me how to read it, please?! Please, please, please?!"

Twilight almost faltered as Celestia stared at her, utterly flabbergasted, only to break out into the heartiest guffaws of laughter she had yet endured. The poor Alicorn was shaking so much with her mirth that she was forced to fall back to her haunches as she wiped tears from her eyes. Twilight, in turn felt her cheeks flushing a bright, warm red as she bowed her head in embarrassment.

But, as Celestia finally mastered herself and her voice calmed into quiet giggles, the little filly had to smile as a gold-clad hoof carefully cupped her chin and lifted it up so she was forced to meet the warm amethyst eyes of the snowy Alicorn.

"Oh, Twilight," Celestia said, smiling, "you simply are the most adorable little filly I have ever seen before in my life. I have never seen anyone get so excited over something like that before. Usually learning something such as an ancient language makes young ponies gag, like they're eating some slimy thing they can't bear to taste. But you, you're practically begging me to teach it to you, and jumping over the sheer idea of solving puzzles. Where do you get this enthusiasm, may I ask?"

Twilight gave off of a nervous giggle, looking down to scuff the floor with an idle hoof, and murmured, "I-I just really like to learn things is all."

Celestia smiled and wrapped a wing gently around her. "Well, rest assured, my child, I will most definitely teach you to read this ancient writing when we reach my home. For the time being, however, would it suffice if I simply served as translator?" At the filly's enthusiastic, smiling nod, she looked to the sign and clearly recited, "'Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones; both walk not the middle road.'"

Twilight blinked, then turned to stare at the raised tiles. She repeated the lines softly under hear breath a few times, then smiled and ran back to the entrance of the room. From there she turned, facing the tiles, and grinned. From left to right, the tiles, which she guessed to be disguised switches, formed three lines of two switches leading to the back of the room. With that in mind, she dashed forward, eagerly running along the outer two lines and leaving the middle pair of switches untouched. The moment this was done, looked up at the wall to the right of the door, noticing a lever there she hadn't before, and reached up, pulling it down and causing the door to open with a loud click.

"Excellent, Twilight," Celestia said, smiling as she reached out to gently rub the filly's head. "You certainly picked up on the clue quickly. Now, shall we proceed further?"

The filly nodded and followed, albeit with a light blush and a shy yet proud smile from the attention, as Celestia led the way into another new chamber. This one was longer than the last, stretching off to the far right, separated into three sections by a pair of water streams with bridges leading across them, an exit blocked by spikes visible in the eastern wall. At the north wall of each section, there was a single lever built into the wall, with those closest at hand bearing markings beside them similar to the writing from the sign in the previous room. Writing that, as it happened, also covered a sign just in front of the pair.

"What's this one say?" the filly asked, looking up at her companion.

Celestia gave it a glance and waved a hoof, sighing in annoyance. "This, unfortunately, is just a sign explaining how to read signs."

Twilight blinked, looking from the Alicorn to the sign and back again for a moment, then asked simply, "Seriously?"

"Yes," Celestia answered, sighing once more. "It was left here by...someone." She lightly scratched a hoof at her chin, eyes looking up at nothing in thought. "You know, I can't really remember who it was, but I feel like I should. It's as if their name is at the tip of my tongue..." She shrugged helplessly and shook her head. "In any case, it was just put here to fool anyone who would both to read it."

Twilight giggled behind her hoof and asked, "So, it's almost like a 'made you look' joke?"

Celestia blinked, then giggled herself. "You know, that's actually funny when you put it that way. Thank you, my child; that sign has been bothering me for ages since it first appeared just because I couldn't understand the point of it."

Twilight blushed, then smiled as she looked over the room again. "So, how do I solve this room's puzzle? Do I just pull the right lever?"

"Well, yes, but if you pull the wrong lever you will trigger a trap instead of opening the way forward." As she saw the filly's ears droop in fear, Celestia smiled and gently stroked her back. "Don't worry, it's not anything dangerous. Just water."

Twilight blinked, glancing at Celestia with a raised eyebrow, then shrugged, walking over to the nearest lever. "Why're two of these switches marked, then? Do I spot the difference and pull the last lever, or does it mean to pull these two?"

"The latter option. The third one triggers the trap."

Smiling, Twilight easily flicked the appropriate switches and cheered as the spikes blocking the way onward were lowered, clearing the way ahead. Then, as Celestia trotted over to her side, she glanced at the final switch, scratched her chin, and ultimately shrugged before racing up to and flipping the lever.

"Twilight, what are you–?"

The words died on Celestia's lips, however, and Twilight groaned as she noted the Alicorn's cheeks bloating up with air from suppressed laughter, as she turned to face her. She knew that where she had once been standing there was now a soaking wet filly with her mane plastered down over her face and neck, little droplets falling from her muzzle to the puddle now resting beneath her. She took a deep breath, let it out, then took another one before heaving a long, drawn out sigh.

"Curse you, curiosity. I'm not a cat."

Celestia giggled, shaking her head, and lit her horn with golden light. "No, but you're just as adorable, my child. Here, let me help you. A simple drying spell will suffice for now, but if this is any indication then you're going to need a bath when we reach my home."

Twilight huffed, unamused, as the wave of warmth washed over her body and soaked up the water from her mane and coat. But as Celestia thoughtfully levitated a comb out of a pocket hidden in her robes and quickly helped her straighten her mane back to its normal style, she couldn't help but smile. Having someone looking out for her like this simply filled her to the brim with DETERMINATION.

Author's Note

Once again, chapter structure inspired by The Moon in the Dark. No, I am not sorry for this. This is shameless; I said this fic was inspired by Tatsurou's fic, and it was. Rest assured, I'm doing everything I can to make it my own while it's still so similar, and we'll soon be getting to the point where this fic will set itself apart by a good margin.

Anyways, with that being said, I can't believe how many Favourites this has gotten already. That so many of you like my work enough to put it in a Favourites bookshelf is honestly overwhelming and humbling. I can't tell you how many times I've smiled at seeing my Alerts tab light up with an indicator, and then dropped down to reveal somebody liked this fic. Thank you all!

Please be sure to comment below what you liked and let me know what you think of the story so far. Speculations and such are also welcome!

Chapter 3: Heart of the Ruins, Part 1

As the pair passed through the exit into the next room, Twilight found Celestia looking at her with a quirked brow and a smile. "So, why exactly did you bother with the last lever?" the Alicorn asked. "I did tell you it was a trap."

"You also said it was just water, and you weren't wrong," Twilight pointed out. "I guess I just wanted to see how it worked. I've...always wondered how traps built long ago in old buildings keep working, and I thought it either wouldn't work or that I'd see it coming. Where did it even come at me from, anyway?"

Celestia blushed lightly, saying nothing, only to giggle as Twilight stared up at her with a quirked brow of her own. "My child, you might want to remember that I am the caretaker of the Ruins. If you would like to know how it worked, I could tell you that sometime during your magic lessons, as well as explain some of the other mechanisms hidden herein." She laughed as Twilight cheered, prancing gleefully, then added, "As for where the water came from, consider it was pooled only underneath you and that your mane was flattened against your scalp as it was."

Remembering the results of the trap made Twilight frown and mutter, "Right, obvious answer–above. Always water comes from above."

As Celestia giggled again at the filly's antics, Twilight simply flushed, albeit with a small smile once more on her muzzle. She barely registered the square room into which they'd walked as she looked up at the Alicorn's face, simply enjoying the sound of the elder's merriment, even if it was at her expense. But then she blinked, confused, as she noticed a strange ponnequin, a combat training dummy, standing against a wall close to the room's northern exit.

"What's that for?" she asked, pointing with a hoof.

Celestia, glancing at the dummy, blinked, looked from filly to dummy and back again, then nodded firmly to herself before marching to the northern doorway and stopping. She slowly turned and sat in the middle of the doorway itself, lighting up her horn to levitate the dummy closer to Twilight. At first the filly blinked in confusion, wondering what her guide was up too. But the confusion passed into intense curiosity as the Alicorn looked her straight in the face and began to speak in a very serious tone.

"My child, there is something you need to learn, and there is no other place in these Ruins more appropriate than here," she said. "In the chambers ahead, there are all manner of creatures, many of them with forms the likes of which you will find it hard to properly identify. The only term which properly fits them all–although it is one I personally refrain from using–is 'Monsters'."

Celestia shuddered, and Twilight blinked, feeling a shiver run up her spine, although she suspected the reasons for the Alicorn's reaction were different from her fear. She set those thoughts aside however as Celestia continued. "Many of these 'Monsters' will be able to sense the powerful magic inside you, resonating in your very soul, and may attack out of fear. And some, though I am ashamed to say it, will likely have altogether more cold-hearted intentions. Though I cannot say why the latter are that way, it all comes to the same result: you will often find yourself drawn into a situation where you are challenged to a FIGHT, and you must be careful.

"When you are brought into a FIGHT, the very Underground will recognize it, and ensure you are not caught completely unawares. Approach this dummy, and you will see what I mean."

Twilight nodded, nervously, and slowly stepped up to the dummy. As she drew close, she gasped, finding a series of glowing lines forming a box on the floor around her, a thin aura of light shining over them as if to form a thin barrier. The same lines formed around the dummy, and Twilight shivered as she saw her soul appear over her chest, the yellow bar once again forming beside it along with the numbers she'd figured out represented her health. The second bar appeared beside her health with almost the entirety of it turned red, only about a fifth restored to the lavender of her coat.

As Twilight swallowed back a lump rising in her throat, Celestia's voice came clearly to her ears despite the barrier formed by the glowing lines. "Don't worry, my child," she said. "This is the way of a normal FIGHT. The barriers are weak and easily broken if you have a strong enough will to escape and enough magic to force them to open." As Twilight still shivered in apprehensive fear, Celestia's voice came again. "Do you understand, my child?"

Twilight nodded and replied, "Yes, but..." She swallowed again and looked down, suppressing the urge to shudder. "When I met that flower, he... He made these same lines appear, only stronger, and my soul wasn't just on my chest. It... it was still inside of me..."

For a moment, the FIGHT lines vanished, and Twilight whimpered softly as Celestia's wing gently curled around her shoulders. "You poor child," she murmured. "That is a very special form of FIGHT that only happens when fighting against very powerful denizens of the Underground. The barriers are strengthened by the intent and will of the one who starts the FIGHT, and that intensity bonds to both the participants, making it so that your very body is a barrier in itself, ensuring you cannot escape by attempting to run, regardless of your power or will. Only when both participants feel themselves on equal footing, or when both have the utmost respect for each other, can one of them flee the FIGHT border in such a scenario."

Twilight blinked as she looked up at Celestia's face. "So, I wouldn't have been able to run even if I'd wanted or been able too?"

Celestia nodded, nuzzling the filly's head. "You would have only been able to flee if this... flower... had some form of true respect for you, and you for them."

Celestia slowly released Twilight and stepped back, causing the FIGHT lines to reappear. "Now, however," she said, "you have no need to fear. You can break this border without any strain, and I am right here. You are perfectly safe." She gestured with a hoof to first the dummy then to Twilight. "And your opponents in the Ruins will be nothing like the flower that attacked you, anymore than this dummy is like it. You don't need to fight them, only keep from being harmed by them in the event that they attack. Many of them you can even try to befriend, which will only benefit you later."

Twilight raised a brow and stared at Celestia in confusion. "Make friends with them? Why?"

Celestia smiled warmly and answered, "Friendship is a wonderful thing, my child. It can solve all manner of problems you would never have guessed. It is something which I, personally, value quite highly." Her eyes drifted off to the side a moment as she added softly, "It is something that I...learned the hard way to treasure more than anything. I had forgotten that, and it cost me dearly, for the strongest bonds start as those of friendship."

Twilight smiled a little and gestured towards the Alicorn. "Like you and me?"

Celestia blinked, seeming stunned, then slowly flushed, her head bowing as she shut her eyes a moment before meeting the filly's gaze with tender eyes. "Y-yes, my child. If you feel we are indeed friends, then it is the perfect example."

Twilight's smile only widened as an idea–a silly one, she knew, but one she had to admit sounded good–occurred to her. "Then I just have to hug whoever attacks me until they know I'm not a threat!"

Celestia laughed, hiccuping from the shock of this declaration, and shook her head so that her mane's ethereal breeze seemed to lose its rhythm. "Oh ho, my child, you are simply too precious!" She sighed as she mastered herself, still smiling. "Yes, that idea might work for some, but there are a great many creatures in the Ruins alone, and beyond for certain, for whom it will not work so readily. When faced with such creatures, you would be better off watching them first and trying to figure out some way to meet them, as the saying goes, on their terms. If you can figure out a way to calm them and show to them that you mean them well, then they will be more likely to accept you and see you as non-threatening or friendly."

Twilight grinned, taking this information in stride. "Okay! So first I befriend them, then I can hug them!"

As Celestia chuckled, Twilight giggled and turned to face the dummy. Schooling her features to be serious yet as calm as possible, she glanced over it a moment and thought. She knew she could keep being silly and hug it, but she wasn't sure the humor would last any further if she did. The only other thing she could think of demonstrating she would do in a proper FIGHT was wave. So, trying to smile and feeling a twinge of her nervousness returning, she waved.

And the dummy waved back.

Twilight instantly dashed to Celestia's side, ducking under her wing and staring out with wide eyes at the dummy's raised foreleg. Celestia, for her part, stared with equally wide eyes at the inanimate imitation of a pony for a moment before muttering, "We should move on," and gently pushing Twilight through the doorway. Before they were fully through, however, Twilight swore she saw the ponnequin's foreleg lowering... with a thin, leafy vine retracting from underneath it.

That's what you get, Flowey thought, snickering. Nopony makes a fool out of me without getting paid back. And just wait, cause this isn't even the best in my bag of tricks!

...wait, did I just use "nopony"? What the hay?

Celestia gently rubbed Twilight's back with her hoof, holding her gently with her wings as she attempted to calm the little filly's fears. "It's alright, child, it's alright," she softly cooed. "There's nothing to be afraid or ashamed of."

"I-I never thought it would wave b-back," Twilight said with a whimper.

"Nor I. It has never done that before. It may be a spirit had decided to inhabit it." Seeing Twilight look up at her curiously, she smiled and explained, "There are some wandering spirits in the Underground, mostly ones called 'Blooks', that seek vessels to take on as their own. They want nothing more than to be able to interact as we do with the world and others. One likely took control of the ponnequin and decided to wave back."

Twilight nodded, seeming to understand, but shivered a little. "You d-don't think they were trying to scare me...?"

Celestia shook her head. "No, my child. I am quite sure they're sorry for it, too."

As Twilight seemed to calm down, Celestia smiled a little wider, watching the filly as she released her and allowed her to look around the room. It was another of the longer chambers, this time split into two sections by a thin hallway halfway along. The first section was the plain portion, the only exceptional thing about it being the shade of purple that covered several sections of the floor, forming some manner of vague pattern. Yet, as they were about to move on into the second section of the room via the hallway...

Ribbit!

Twilight yelped and backpedaled as a large frog-like creature easily as big as the filly herself leapt in front of her, croaking. Celestia blinked, stunned at such behavior from what was usually a fairly calm example of Monster kind, yet stayed back, watching as Twilight righted herself, the FIGHT lines forming around both the filly and the Monster, a Froggit. Though the Alicorn worried for a moment her inaction might be a mistake that would put Twilight at risk, it was something she knew would be far more beneficial, particularly after how the dummy had scared her so badly. If Twilight was successful in peacefully ending the FIGHT on her own, it would be a for certain boost to her confidence as well as an easy way to determine how quickly Twilight could adapt to a puzzle that wouldn't simply wait on her to be ready.

After all, she thought, I cannot be with her all the time. Just as I couldn't with–

Once again clearing her head with a firm shake, she refocused upon the FIGHT before her and watched, curious, as Twilight slowly tried to stand on her hindlegs. For a moment, the white mare was confused, until Twilight said one word:

"Hug?"

The Froggit, which had been nervously twitching, seemed to freeze, curiously cocking its head to the side with a quiet croak. But this first croak was drowned in a second, much louder and surprised one as Twilight, unused to standing as bipeds are wont, fell flat on her plot. Between this, the Froggit's face quickly bloating from its croak, and the croaking laugh the Froggit released as Twilight got to her hooves and giggled in embarrassment, Celestia couldn't fight back a laugh of her own. The sight of Twilight and the Froggit sharing the offered hug afterwards was simply the icing on the cake which made her let loose a playful, "D'awww!"

The Froggit, blushing as much as Twilight from Celestia's reaction, smiled and nodded once to the Alicorn before hopping off, waving goodbye to Twilight as he went and leaving behind a pair of shiny gold coins.

"Oh, wait, Mr. Froggit!" Twilight called out once she spotted the gold. "You forgot your bits!"

Celestia smiled and picked up the coins in her levitation, saying, "Actually, my child, it is not uncommon for Monsters here in the Underground to leave behind money for each other as signs of friendship after peacefully resolving FIGHTs."

Twilight, eyes wide, glanced from the gold towards the direction the Froggit had vanished and back before looking up at Celestia in wonder. "R-really...? You mean those bits are for me...?"

Celestia nodded, still smiling, and slipped the gold into one of the pockets in her robes before gently urging the filly onward. They passed quickly through the hallway and into another wide section filled with water, an island in the center covered with spikes. Though two bridges spanned the gaps from one side of the room to the island and from the island to the exit, there was no way to cross the island itself without touching the spikes, and no way to avoid the island without knowing how to swim.

"Um, how do I get past this one?" Twilight asked. "I don't know how to swim yet, and I'd rather solve the puzzle anyway instead of just going around it."

Celestia looked down at the little filly for a moment, then smiled and gently held out a wing to her. "I will guide you through, my child. Try to memorize the pattern."

Twilight looked at the offered wing for a moment, then nodded, grasping one of the larger primaries with her hoof and letting the Alicorn gently pull her along across the bridge. Celestia was unsurprised to see shock flicker over the filly's little face when, as they approached several of the spikes, the apparent obstacles sank into the floor, forming a maze as they walked with each square of spikes shooting back up into place once the pair had gone by. When that same face became full of dawning understanding, recognition and excitement, she had to fight a powerful urge to giggle.

"It's the same as the first part of the room," Twilight said once they were on the second bridge, prancing in place from her excitement. "The lighter areas on the ground match the path you take to get through the spikes!"

Celestia nodded, a hoof to her lips to stifle her giggle, and replied, "Yes, that is exactly the way, my child. Very clever to figure that out so quickly."

"Thank you, Mama!"

Both ponies froze at that, Celestia staring down at the filly as Twilight stared up with a look of dread. "Did you just call me... Mama?" Celestia asked, feeling something in her chest begin to race.

Twilight cowered, stuttering, "I-I'm so sorry, i-it j-just slipped out! It's j-just that you've b-been so night to me, p-promised to t-teach me and h-healed me when I was h-hurt and scared and... and... P-please don't hate me, please!"

Celestia stood there for a moment, completely still, as she watched the lavender filly in front of her quivering and fighting back tears. It was so tempting–so very, very tempting–to reach out and scoop her up, cradle and nuzzle her and pledge herself to the task of being the filly's mother. It was something that would be easy for her, as she had honestly already come to see something utterly precious in the little thing. She was clever, eager to learn, and so adorable and sweet that it had taken every fiber in her being not to coddle her already.

But Celestia knew she couldn't do it; not again. So she schooled her features as best as she could, calling upon her innermost strengths to calm her mind and center her emotions before smiling patiently at the little filly and stroking her head, and said, "I do not hate you, Twilight. Truly, you are a very kind filly, to so readily address me with such an affectionate title. However, it is a tittle better suited for your true mother. They are the one whom you should call 'Mama' or 'Mommy'."

Celestia watched Twilight slowly calm her shaking and turned to lead the way onward. But she froze, as did her mind and heart, when she heard the filly just behind her sniffle and fight back a sob. It wasn't the sniffle itself or the sob that made her stop, however. It was the words within the sob.

"...I don't have a Mommy..."

Author's Note

Wow, so sorry for how much time was spent on the FIGHT with the dummy, guys. I just wanted to explain the FIGHT and why it's going to be different for "Boss Monster" characters. As for the rest... Well, did you really think I wasn't going to have that bond form? :twilightsheepish: I admit, I may have taken things a bit too far in one direction or the other or overdone the FIGHT thing, but... Meh, I think it still works.

Once again, please be sure to Upvote if you like what you read and also be sure to leave a comment about what you liked or to speculate about what you anticipate is going to happen.

Chapter 4: Heart of the Ruins, Part 2

As Celestia turned around, she wasn't sure what she was feeling. This sudden revelation, spoken with such a dejected tone, had thrown her thoughts for a serious loop. Yet, when her eyes fell upon Twilight, the feelings which rose to the surface with the most potency were pity, sorrow and a desperate desire to wrap the little filly in a hug.

Twilight simply sat, her plot planted on the wooden planks of the bridge, with her head bowed so her bangs hid her eyes from sight. Tears slid slowly down her cheeks to the end of her muzzle, gradually forming a tiny puddle beneath her. Her entire body had begun shaking again, only now she was doing nothing to stop or hide it. It even looked like her coat and mane had dulled in color.

Celestia bit her lip as she reached out with a hoof, only to hesitate when it was inches from the filly's head. Only when she had retracted the hoof and removed its golden horseshoe did she again extend it and this time brush it through Twilight's dark blue mane. This caused the lavender pony to jerk back and slowly lift her head, and the sight of her dewy eyes made Celestia flinch. One way or another, this reaction was her fault; if she hadn't said anything about Twilight's true mother...

Shaking her head, the white Alicorn once again slid her hoof through Twilight's mane before gently wrapping her foreleg around the tiny filly and drawing her into a hug. She let the child sit there in her embrace for a moment, neither moving nor saying anything as Twilight hiccuped and sniffled, slowly mastering her sobs. Only when the shaking of her little body had calmed significantly and Celestia was sure her tears had subsided enough to talk coherently did she speak.

"You say you have no mother?" She asked.

It was a simple question, but the way Twilight sniffled and shook her head after it was asked made the Ruins' caretaker feel as if her heart was going to break in two. Still, she kept her voice steady as she next asked, "What about a father?" Again, there was a shake of the head to answer, along with an a loud hiccup, and Celestia shuddered, dreading the answer to the next question. "A sibling?"

Twilight shuddered, but through her sniffles she managed to croak out, "M-my brother, Sh-Shining Armor..."

Celestia bit her lip again, then quietly asked, "W-what happened to your parents...?"

Twilight shook her head. "I-I don't actually kn-know... One day they were there, b-but then the next..."

Gently stroking the filly's back with her wing, Celestia slowly stood and nudged her, urging her to rise. Shakily, Twilight obliged, and both began to walk as Twilight, fighting back her tears and treading with shaky hooves, started speaking. She paid no mind to the long, wide hallway into which they'd stepped, only kept her head down and walked as Celestia, in turn, listened, her wing staying firmly placed on Twilight's back as she matched the filly's pace.

"M-Mom and Dad were the greatest... They were researchers, studying n-new ways to use magic to make spells that could make everypony's lives easier... They w-wanted to help ponies by m-making it so that they had more time to spend d-doing things they liked... They hoped it'd make it e-easier for other mommies and daddies to find time to spend with their foals... h-helping them find their talents, playing g-games..."

Celestia nodded in understanding and murmured, "They sound like wonderful ponies."

"Y-yeah," Twilight said, seeming to cheer up a little. "Th-they really were great ponies... I always wanted to be j-just like them..."

Celestia's lips curled at this, her smile kind as she said, "A lovely ambition. Helping others achieve their dreams." She waited, looking down at Twilight before asking quietly, "How did you learn that they were...?"

"A-a mare came to the house one day," Twilight said, blinking through fresh tears. "Sh-she said she came from the academy where Mom and Dad worked–"

"An academy? For ponies?" Celestia blushed as Twilight stared up at her in surprise at the interruption, muttering, "Nevermind, please continue."

"W-well, she said she worked there with M-Mom and Dad and th-that... Th-there'd been an a-accident..." Twilight sniffled, wiping away a tear, and bowed her head again. "We g-got taken to see them in the hospital, b-but... D-Daddy was... a-already..."

She hiccuped as Celestia stopped walking and started to lightly caress her back. "M-Mom looked r-really bad... Wires and t-tubes all over her b-body... Shiny a-and I went in to see her, a-and... She opened her e-eyes for a minute, s-smiled at us, th-then..."

Twilight suddenly slumped onto her belly and wept, "D-doctors s-started r-running all o-over the place, p-pushed me and Shiny o-out of the room and... and...! I s-saw, for a m-minute, past e-everypony and I c-could see her shaking, m-moaning and screaming...! Sh-she was taken out a-and taken to a b-back room, b-but...!"

As Twilight began sobbing heavily, pressing her hooves over her eyes, Celestia finally let go. She had heard far more than enough. Twilight was clearly hurting more than any child her age should ever have to, and was in desperate need for comfort. Whatever had led her to fall into the Underground, regardless of all else, she was only a filly, a child in desperate need of comfort.

After all she had endured, Celestia had tried to close herself off. She had known the pain of losing children far too many times. True, each and every one was adopted, and each one of them had been taken in long after the last, but they had all meant something to her. They had brought her joy and happiness in ways no other living things had ever done, even before she'd been forced into the Underground. After the loss of the first two, she had tried to keep some level of distance between herself, especially after the first of the last six had come.

They'd been human, those last six children. However each one had looked to her for comfort, and bonded with her as she had granted them what they had sought. Then every single one of them, shortly after arriving, had left. She had been able to keep from embracing the role of a mother, using the cell phones created by the researches in the distant Hotland Lab to ensure a final line was drawn to keep her from making that mistake. Yet the pain had never not come, every child's inevitable death stinging like a knife in her heart, making her fleetingly wish for an end to come to her unnatural lifespan.

But Twilight wasn't a human; she was a pony. She wasn't a young teenager like the humans had all been; she was just a filly, young and impressionable, and there was no telling how long she had gone on without a mother's love. A brother was all well and good, but there was no conceivable way she could come up with that a young stallion could balance living his own life with raising a filly. Perhaps that was why she had been on the mountain and fallen?

Regardless of why, the point remained Twilight needed someone to be her mother, and the count of mares who truly cared and knew of her location and hurting amounted to only one, and Celestia was it. Thus she found, despite knowing she might one day lose this child to the Monsters of the Underground and the folly of the one who had ended all the rest who had fallen, that she had no reserves now in wrapping her forelegs tightly around the little lavender filly. In fact, she was more than happy to add her wings to the embrace, and pull the precious child to her barrel as she sat down with her, resting Twilight's head against her chest as she nuzzled her and allowed her to weep into her robed bosom. No one who looked would have been able to tell Twilight was even there, ultimately, with how much of her Celestia's hug enveloped.

And Celestia found she didn't care if anyone or anything were to see her as she swore in her heart that she would find some way, no matter what happened, to keep Twilight safe, no matter the cost. All she cared about was the filly she was gently hugging and caressing as she murmured quiet assurances and soft shushes in her ear. All she cared about was making sure the little lavender bundle she held was able to feel just how much she had wormed her way into Celestia's very soul.

A fact she made clear as crystal as she whispered, "Do not fear, my little Twilight Sparkle; I am here. If a mother is what you need... then a mother you shall have."

Twilight's eyes widened as the words met her ears. She heard them, but she couldn't begin to bring herself to believe them. Just minutes ago, she would have given anything and everything to hear them, and suddenly here they were. And here was Celestia, already acting the part as she held her and tried to calm her down.

Slowly, hesitantly, fearing she were under some spell her slightest motion or vocalization might break, Twilight looked up into the eyes of the snowy Alicorn and asked, "R-really...? Y-you mean it...? You'll... be my Mommy...?"

Celestia's smile was tremulous. "If that is what you need–what will make you happy–then yes."

As Twilight wrapped her forelegs tightly around Celestia's neck, she felt a smile tugging at her lips despite the fresh tears in her eyes. After all, they weren't there from sorrow anymore. Feeling the Alicorn's hug tightening around her, she chat her eyes and just let the feeling of the moment soak through her. In that moment, all she felt was love and DETERMINATION to make her new Mommy proud.

Author's Note

Sorry this chapter is so short, but I just felt like this was enough by itself. The next chapter should be longer.
Y'know, part of my process is trying to picture and vocalize parts of what I'm writing. I think I hit myself a little too hard in the feels...
As always, please Upvote if you liked and comment down below.

Chapter 5: Standing and Waiting

Twilight wasn't sure how long the hug lasted. It may have been minutes, hours, or even days for all she knew or cared. The simple truth was she didn't care how long it lasted, only that it did. Celestia's form practically surrounded her as they remained locked in a loving embrace, the white Alicorn keeping her newly adopted daughter held tight to her chest as they hugged. She could almost feel the love of the moment saturating her body and the air around her, and she smiled still more happily as the warmth permeated her being. All she wanted right then was to stay like this, or else to ask her new mother to carry her home, wherever it may be.

In fact, she would have acted on this last notion... if her stomach hadn't grumbled right then and elicited a whimper from her lips.

"Oh," Celestia said, pulling back to look at Twilight with a gentle smile. "Are you hungry, my child?"

Twilight blushed, nodding, and sighed sadly as she was set down on her own four hooves. She watched, a curious brow raised, as Celestia's hood disappeared into her robes to retrieve something. When it was revealed, the filly's mouth watered.

Celestia, holding a frosted doughnut with her bare hoof, giggled lightly and said, "Here, Twilight; this should tide you over until we get to my home–our home–further in."

Twilight eagerly dug into the sweet treat, humming with delight as she quickly finished it off and said, "Thank you, Mama!"

Celestia's smile was, once again, tremulous as she giggled and nuzzled Twilight's head. "You are very welcome, Twilight."

Once Celestia had replaced her horseshoe and stood up, both mother and child walked together to the end of the chamber, stopping beside a tall white pillar before Celestia paused, biting her lip. "T-Twilight," she said hesitantly, "I just thought of something I would really like to do for you, a sort of surprise."

Twilight looked up with a gasp at that. "A surprise? Really? What is it, what is it, what is it, what–?!"

Celestia, pressing a hoof to the filly's smiling muzzle, gasped though her laughter, "S-something that I–haha!–am quite certain you will like, my child." Yet as she straightened up, her face became serious. "However, if I am to prepare it, it would require me to leave you unattended. That... does not sit well with me. Not in the slightest."

Twilight nodded, certain she understood completely. As a filly with little control of her magic, she was practically defenseless. Yes, she had been able to befriend and thus avoid a true FIGHT with the Froggit earlier, but that could easily be noted as being either beginner's luck or because Celestia had been right there watching. If any other Monster decided to FIGHT her, she could easily get badly hurt, or worse, especially if Celestia left her alone.

And yet, Twilight felt this was an opportunity. It was a chance to make her new mother proud of her by proving she could handle herself at least as far as staying out of trouble. If she just stayed put, that would be easy.

"Well," Twilight said, sitting and smiling up at Celestia, "What if I wait here for you to come back? That way you can get the surprise ready, and you'll know exactly where to find me to come back and show me the way."

Celestia blinked, surprised, and lowered her head to better meet her daughter's eyes. "Are you certain?"

"Uh-huh." Then, thinking about it again, Twilight bowed her head and scuffed the floor with a hoof. "But... Well, maybe that won't work... I mean, I guess you could be a while, and we'd probably worry about each other..."

Celestia, smiling, nuzzled the filly's head and giggled. "Oh my, you are a smart little filly, Twilight." She sighed, then lit her horn as, with a golden aura surrounding it, a small rectangular device levitated out of one of her pockets to settle gently on the ground before Twilight's hooves. "This is called a cell phone, Twilight. And while I still do not like the idea of leaving you all alone, this will most likely make things easier."

Twilight blinked as she picked the phone up in her hooves and looked it over. "How will it help, Mama?"

"Well, you see, this cell phone is a sort of communication device."

Taking the phone in her magic's grip, Celestia pressed a specific sequence of buttons, making sure Twilight could see which ones she'd pressed, and held it up to the filly's ear as a ringing sound filled the air. A second cell phone quickly levitated out of the Alicorn's pocket, vibrating as it went, and was up against her ear in a second as it beeped.

"As long as I have one and you keep yours close, we should be able to stay in touch," Celestia said, stifling a giggle when the same words echoing in the grille of Twilight's phone caused her to jump and press her hoof against it to hold it in place with wide eyes. "The trick will be to push the green button when it rings, that way you can answer my call."

"Wow," Twilight murmured, glancing at the phone in awe. "That's incredible."

"It is certainly convenient, I will agree," Celestia said, stifling another giggle.

"But, um, how am I going to carry it...?"

Twilight watched as Celestia blinked, glancing between the filly and the phone in her hoof. Then, with a smile, the Alicorn hung up and tucked her phone away in her robes before retrieving a needle and thread and a roll of fabric from another pocket–Twilight wondering idly how she could carry so much in said pockets as she watched–and began to craft something with them. Humming a tune, Celestia quickly used a series of deft, rapid motions to shape her creation, using her magic to tear off sections of fabric as needed and holding it all where Twilight could watch.

Finally, Celestia nodded to herself and tucked away her needle, thread and fabric roll as she placed a set of small yet sturdy saddlebags into place on Twilight's back, levitating the filly's cell phone and the two gold coins left behind by the Froggit earlier into one of the pouches. "This should be able to hold anything you need or find along the way, my child," she said. "But make sure you are careful in choosing what to take with you; you never know when you may find something you'll later regret not having picked up."

Twilight nodded, smiling as she tested the weight of her new saddlebags–her first gift from her new mother!–and nuzzled against the Alicorn's side happily. "Thank you so much, Mama."

Celestia's lip trembled as she returned the nuzzled and replied, "You are most welcome, my child. Now, are you sure you will be alright waiting here for me?"

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, then shut it and cocked her head to the side, tapping her chin with a hoof before asking with a small blush, "What should I do if I, um, need to...go to the bathroom... Or something..."

Celestia laughed, nuzzling the filly's side and eliciting a giggle from Twilight's lips, and answered, "If you feel you must leave the room for some reason, Twilight, then this should help you." She levitated a folded bit of paper from one of her pockets–How in the world does she carry so much in there? Twilight wondered–and placed it in the filly's saddlebags. "It's a map showing every chamber of the Ruins, marked with every clue to each puzzle. It even has a spell attached that should show you the clue in writing you can read."

Twilight smiled as she gave her mother's side another nuzzle. "Thank you, Mama. I think I'll be okay now."

The Alicorn smiled and nuzzled Twilight's head again, saying, "Alright. I will do my best to hurry and come back for you as soon as possible. Stay safe, my child, and be good."

"Okay, Mama," Twilight replied, her smiling brightening as Celestia turned to go. "I love you!"

Celestia froze, turned, and smiled with a tear in her eye as she gave the filly a tight squeeze. "I l-love you, too, my child," she whispered.

With that, she kissed Twilight on the forehead, right at the base of the filly's horn and set out through the doorway. Twilight, feeling warm and happy from the kiss and loving words, laid down on her belly to wait, humming the same tune Celestia had hummed during her sewing in an attempt to keep herself entertained. Yet, barely a few minutes later, her humming was interrupted by the ringing of her phone.

Digging the device out of her saddlebag, Twilight quickly accepted the call and said, "Hello?"

"Twilight," said Celestia's voice, "I am afraid I am going to be a bit delayed. It appears I am running low on what I need to prepare your surprise properly. I do not expect it to be much longer, but I must ask you to wait until I come back."

"Okay, Mama, I understand," Twilight said happily. "I'll wait as long as it takes."

"Thank you, my child. I love you, Twilight."

"I love you, too, Mama!"

As the call ended, Twilight smiled and set the phone down beside her and sat up, humming in thought. After a moment, she refocused on the phone and grinned. Shutting her eyes, she focused inward, trying to once again find that well she had discovered deep inside of herself. She knew it was there, drained but still very much within reach. After all, if she was going to be learning how to use it properly from her mother, it would be wise to learn how to at least focus her magic.

Yet, she hadn't even elicited a drop of power before the phone rang again, and she rapidly scooped it up in her hooves to answer it. "Hello?"

As she kept the phone held against her cheek, Celestia tried hard to both trot and talk at the same time. "Twilight, I fear I will be a bit longer than I hoped," she said, panting a little. "I found everything I needed, but the next thing I knew there was this little white dog that came up and snatched away my bag." stopping for a moment to catch her breath, she added in a murmur, "Do dogs even like flour or baking poweder?"

"Maybe it's just trying to say it wants to play?" Twilight suggested, giggling.

Giggling herself, Celestia shook her head as she glanced about to try and relocate her prey. "Perhaps. In any case, the result is I will be even longer getting back to you."

"That's okay, Mama! I can try practicing tapping my magic while I wait."

Celestia smiled, both at finding her bag lying on the ground and at the filly's enthusiasm. "That would be a wise idea, my child. Do you know how to do it?"

"Well," Twilight said, "the books I've read keep saying it's like opening a bottle. You have to find it, carefully loosen the cap, then channel it once the seal breaks."

Celestia winced, picturing such a reaction herself–not a difficult thing for her at all. "Um, that might not be the best way to picture it, Twilight. Normally, unicorns and other magic users do not have a great deal of magic available to them when they first attempt to tap into it. Their reserves are still very shallow, so the result of such methods do not result in anything particularly flashy. However, in your case, the matter is entirely different."

"What d'you mean?"

"Do you remember what I said about the inherent magic in your soul attracting Monsters who would attack from fear? And do you remember what happened when you tried to repel the creature that attacked you before I found you?"

She could almost hear Twilight's shuddering. "Y-yes, Mama."

Picking up her bag in her levitation, Celestia sat down for a moment and explained, "Your magic is very strong, Twilight–stronger I think than most unicorns several years older than you. If you attempt to tap into it as if it were a bottle, you will find it is no bottle of water, but one of bubbling wine or champagne. I assume you have seen the results of popping one of those open."

"Um, heh, yes, Mama."

"...Twilight?"

"...Shiny and I tried that one time. There was this big bottle in the cupboard at home, and we thought it was one of those fizzy sodas. We tried to open it, but the cork... Well, we didn't need to open a window in the kitchen after that."

She tried not to laugh, she truly did. But as she pressed a hoof to her inflating cheeks and pictured a slightly smaller lavender filly and an amorphous colt trying to open a bottle of champagne as described, she had only one reaction. It consisted of three very simple steps: lower hoof, open mouth, and release the pressure.

"...It's not that funny, Mom," Twilight moaned through the phone.

Celestia shook her head. "I am sorry, Twilight, but it truly is." Mastering herself, she giggled and added, "Anyway, it might be wiser to wait until we can begin your lessons together at home. But know that I am proud of you for thinking ahead like that."

"Th-thank you, Mama."

Celestia took another look around and began to retrace her steps. "I will be there soon, my child. I love you."

"I love you, too, Mama! Bye!"

As Celestia hung up, she sighed happily. Twilight was truly a little treasure, and every shared word was only adding fuel to the rising fire in the Alicorn's heart. Every fiber of her being suddenly felt more alive, her strength renewed with the notion that she finally had someone to take care of as her own child again. While she was nowhere near the vim and vigor of when she had taken in her first two foals, there was a definite pep to her step as she walked back towards her house.

Her mood persisted until, out of the blue and from off to the side, a little white dog–the same dog that had snatched her bag–suddenly jumped at her. Caught by surprise, she yelped and backpedaled, falling sideways to her back as both her bag and her phone fell out of her grip. She quickly scrambled to her feet, her magic aura reaching out to both of her possessions. But while she managed to pick up her bag, her phone wasn't claimed by her magic but rather by the dog as it snatched it up in its mouth before racing off, yipping as it went.

"No!" she cried out. "That phone belongs to me! Give it back!"

The dog, it seemed, either didn't understand or chose to ignore the Alicorn's words as it took off running. Celestia, shaking her head from the frustration, set off at a gallop, intent on overtaking the canine quickly. She panted from the exhertion, unused to such activity after so many years of trying to live peacefully in the Ruins, yet continued to run, calling out for the dog to stop. And stop it did, but not from Celestia's call. It stopped because of the phone in its mouth, which had apparently dialed while it was running, and a loud sound that had come from it.

Stopping long enough to glance over the dog for a moment after it had tumbled head over paws, Celestia quickly picked up the phone and said into the grille, "Hello? Twilight? My child, what is it?"

"My child? Twilight? What happened? ...Twilight?"

Twilight didn't answer, even with the phone held to her cheek. She was too busy shivering, staring down the hallway to the way she had come while walking and talking with Celestia. She had turned at the sound of a cold, high cackling coming from that way. Now, as she sat and stared at the entrance, she swore she could see something there that hadn't been there before. The laughter, one that was far too familiar and chilling to be good, seemed to be coming from a flower. A flower with golden petals, a white center...

...and glinting, grinning razor teeth.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHGG! MOMMY!"

Author's Note

Wow, so this was actually a good bit of fun to write and I hope you guys enjoy it.
As usual, please make sure to comment and Upvote if you liked what you read.
Pre-read/edited with the aid of: superfun

Chapter 6: Run Home, Twi

Twilight didn't dare to use her magic; Celestia's warning and the memory of the damage she had inadvertently done were too fresh in her mind. She had no way to fight back, and even if she had Flowey had already shown a great deal of power. All it would take is one mistake on her part or one lucky shot on the part of the flower itself, and she would be finished. She had no chance if she stayed put.

So she ran. She moved the cell phone so that she could grasp it with her mouth and ran, her four little legs moving as fast as they could go to propel her out of the hallway into the next chamber. She didn't get far before slamming into something soft and warm, and in her desperate state of mind she immediately latched onto it. She was a little surprised when this same something–a Froggit as a glance revealed–gently embrace her, stroking her back as it croaked in bewilderment and comfort.

"Twilight, what happened?! Twilight?!"

Once again grasping the phone with her hoof, Twilight held it to her cheek and whispered desperately, "M-Mommy, it's him! I-it's Flowey!"

"Flowey?" Celestia sounded confused, but there was a much stronger sense of concern to her voice.

"The flower–th-the one that h-hurt me–he's chasing m-me! Mommy, what do I do?!"

For a second there was silence, then Celestia's voice grew serious. "Twilight, listen to me and do exactly what I tell you. I need you first to calm down. You are going to need to be strong for me for a moment. Take out the map I gave you and look for a house marked on it to the east. Can you see it?"

Twilight fumbled with the phone, trying to both pull out the map and keep her shaking hoof pressed to the phone so it wouldn't slip. She sighed in relief and whispered a quiet, "Thank you," as the Froggit quickly unfolded the map for her and pointed to the described spot. "Y-yes, I see it, Mommy."

"I want you to head there as quickly as you can. Do you understand, Twilight? I cannot get to you fast enough to help so you must do exactly as I say. Follow the map until you reach that house. Whatever you do, you must keep heading for that house, and do not backtrack if you can avoid it. I will try to get to you as soon as I can. If any Monsters give you any trouble, remember what I taught you and find a way to resolve it peacefully or else flee the FIGHT. Can you do that for me, my child?"

As she shivered in the Froggit's embrace, Twilight slowly nodded, plotting the course along her map. "Y-yes, Mommy. I-I can do that."

"Go quickly now, my child," Celestia said into her phone, trying to keep her voice calm despite the shaking she was feeling. "Be careful and be safe, but whatever you do make sure that you put as much distance as you can between yourself and that flower."

"O-okay, Mommy," Twilight replied, her voice quiet and shaky. "I'll do my best."

"I know that you will, my child. I love you, Twilight."

"I love you, too, Mommy."

As the call ended, Celestia slowly returned the phone to her pocket. Feeling a soft touch on her leg, she glanced down to see the little white dog that had originally stolen her bag and then taken her phone staring up at her. If it's eyes were anything to judge by, it was trying desperately to show its remorse for delaying her as it had, and she found she couldn't resist giving it a gentle Preservation on the head.

"It is not your fault, small one," she murmured. "I should not have left her alone for so long."

Sighing, she bowed and shook her head wearily. "It seems I am far more out of practice in regards to being a mother than I had first thought. My instincts are sharp as they have ever been, yet I ignored them. I am truly a fool."

The dog softly whined and nuzzled against Celestia's leg, placing a paw upon her cheek as a tear began to slide down it. She looked at it again and stared, somehow seeing in those eyes a wealth of emotions she wouldn't have believed it capable of expressing or understanding. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she marveled at this, and even further back she realized it somehow understood exactly how she felt, and wished to contest her conclusion on the matter.

"Perhaps you are right," she said. "I acted based upon the situation as it stood, so the fault is not entirely mine but that of life itself. It is, after all unpredictable."

As the dog barked and wagged its tail happily, Celestia smiled and patted its head again. "I apologize for chasing you, little dog. And I apologize for leaving so abruptly, but I promised my child a surprise for when she arrived at home, and to go to her as quickly as possible. Perhaps we shall meet again, but for now I must say farewell."

The dog simply yipped happily at this, standing on the tips of its hindlegs to lick Celestia's face. As she laughed, it barked happily before running off, its tail wagging as it went. The Alicorn, in turn, smiled as she turned and began the journey back to her above with a brisk trot.

Though she couldn't help worrying, somehow she felt certain Twilight would be able to make it. There would be puzzles to slow her down, and she would undoubtedly attract the attention of several Monsters. But she knew the Monsters of the Ruins, and most were peaceful by nature, with very few actually desiring conflict at all. They would most likely spare and even assist Twilight if she were clever, and Celestia knew for certain she was. There was a keen mind and great potential in that little lavender filly, fueled by a thirst to learn and prove herself.

That form of DETERMINATION would see her daughter through, she just knew it.

After calming down and giving the Froggit a grateful nuzzle, Twilight stood and glanced around at the leaf-riddled corridor she had run into. Her phone and her map were once again tucked into her saddlebags, and the Froggit had even been kind enough to hop into a northern chamber and back with two pieces of Monster Candy for her along with a present of two more gold coins. She didn't dare to linger after that, however, knowing that Flowey could easily be just behind her, and so walked quickly into the next chamber through a southeastern exit.

As she entered the next room–a short one with cracks along the middle section of the floor–she found a new Monster confronting her in a FIGHT. Shaped like a sock puppet with wings, the Monster–a Whimsum as the name above it revealed–floated before her with a frightened look to its face, its entire body shaking. Realizing it was just as reluctant to attack as she was, Twilight said down and did her best to stay still to show she didn't want any trouble. As the Whimsum slowly stopped shaking and settled down lightly on its feet, Twilight cleared her throat.

"Um, excuse me, but, could you help me across the floor? My map says it's full of pit traps, and I don't really want to fall."

The Whimsum blinked, then slowly nodded, scooping the filly up and carefully depositing her across the room before departing, leaving behind a single coin. Twilight, grateful but still fearing for her safety, packed away the gold and moved on, finding herself entering a room with water running through the center with a single short bridge to cross covered in spikes. Before her was a large rock sitting on a path of darker flooring leading to a discolored tile in the ground. She glanced at the map and, after seeing it mentioned pushing the rock onto the tile, smiled and prepared to do just that.

Before she could, however, she jumped as her phone rang and quickly picked up the call. "Hello?"

"Twilight?" Celestia's voice was worried, but hearing it made a sense of relief wash over the filly. "How are you doing?"

Twilight smiled as she replied, "I've gotten through two more rooms so far, Mama. I'm at the rock puzzle now."

"The rock puzzle? Oh, good, that is perhaps the simplest of all. I am glad to hear you are making progress, my child. For no particular reason, do you prefer butterscotch or cinnamon?"

"I actually like both. Why do you ask, Mama?"

Celestia giggled quietly. "Oh, as I say, no particular reason. Still, it is good to know, dear."

Twilight's eyes suddenly widened and she gasped in excitement. "Is it part of my surprise?"

Now Celestia laughed, causing the filly to blush a little. "Oh my, you are such a smart little thing, my child! Yes, I suppose I can admit that it is. However, that is your only clue to what I'm preparing."

The call ended at that, and Twilight, still smiling excitedly, found it was very easy to push the large rock–easily almost as big and heavy as her own body–onto the tile before moving onward. At first, the massive chamber seemed straightforward, but a glance at her map caused her to pause, looking between the chamber, the map, and the clue on the map. According to the clue, the floor had pit traps hidden all throughout, and one misstep would land her in another room below this one, but she could avoid it if she didn't step on any leaves. As the pictures on the map showed the lower chamber had leaves covering most of the floor ahead, she made sure to glance between the room itself and the map until she had gotten through, and breathed a heavy sigh of relief when, just as one floor tile began to crack, she arrived at the exit and could move on.

In the next room, Twilight found three more rocks that needed to be moved onto weighted tiles, and she grinned happily as she eagerly raced forward, grateful for another break from difficult puzzles. But just as she approached the third rock...

"Eh, no ya don't, missy!"

The voice, emanating from the rock itself, made Twilight jump in shock, but she immediately tried to salvage the situation by saying, "Oh, I'm s-sorry, I didn't mean to bother you!"

The rock shifted ever so slightly, almost as if trying to shrug, and replied, "Eh, no worries, lass. I s'pose I were over reactin', but I dun'a like bein' touched, y'see."

Twilight smiled a little and nodded. "I understand. Personal space, right?"

"Aye, that be it exactly, lass!"

Twilight rubbed her foreleg for a moment, feeling both foolish for talking to what should have been an inanimate object and distinctly curious how something could speak without a mouth, and asked, "Um, then, could you maybe do me a small favor? You see, I'm trying to get past the spikes just ahead, but..."

"Eh? Oh," the rock shifted again, this time seeming to nod as it rolled just slightly back and forth despite its uneven shape. "Aye, ah think ah could manage that for ya, lass! Jus' be quick, now!"

Smiling and nodding her thanks to the rock as it rolled over onto the third pressure plate, Twilight walked briskly past the spikes as they lowered out of the way. Just as she entered the next room, she stopped as new FIGHT lines appeared, and a trio of blob-like creatures called Moldsmals came up towards her before going still, as if waiting for her to make the first move. Uncertain, Twilight decided to stay still as well, the filly eyeing the Moldsmals cautiously until they began shaking themselves, casting water droplets. Though she could tell the droplets were charged with the creatures' magic and would likely hurt, she stayed firm in her stillness, offering a patient smile as she settled onto her haunches. Seeming to realize her peaceful intent, each Moldsmals oozed forward and placed a gold coin in front of her before all three seeped into the ground and vanished, the FIGHT lines dissolving.

Encouraged, Twilight kept moving and passed quickly through a room in which there was only a single table standing off to the side, a piece of cheese sitting at its center. She glanced back at the sound of a squeak and smiled upon seeing a tiny mouse staring out at the cheese, and waved her hoof at it before continuing, feeling a little of her fearful tension slip away. Ahead, she spotted a patch of red leaves in the way and stopped, not to avoid the leaves but rather to avoid the ghost lying still upon them, apparently asleep.

Twilight, glancing back the way she had come, looked at the ghost in all of its simple, almost cartoonishly-shaped glory for a moment before smiling. She settled down on her belly beside the ghost and simply waited, resting her head on her fore hooves as she watched the ghost continue to snore. Gradually, she realized it was only pretending, and began to do the same as she shut her eyes, more of her tension easing away as she did so.

"Um, what... are you doing...?"

Twilight opened her eyes and sat back on her haunches as the ghost, Napstablook apparently, floated before her, FIGHT lines forming a border around them. "Playing pretend," she answered, saying it as if it were the simplest and most obvious thing.

Naptsablook blinked, seeming surprised. "You mean... You're really not afraid of me...? And you're not... gonna attack me...?"

"Why would I attack someone I want to be friends with?" Twilight asked.

"You... really want to be my friend?"

Giggling at Napstablook's disbelieving yet hopeful face, Twilight nodded. "Of course! I wouldn't play with someone unless I wanted to be friends with them."

Napstablook smiled at the filly's words, tears slowly dripping down his face to the ground. "Wow... You're... really nice... What's your name?"

"Twilight, and thank you," Twilight said, smiling warmly. "You seem really nice, too, Napstablook."

"Th-thank you... Say, would you... like to see a trick I can do?"

"Sure!"

Napstablook shut his eyes, and suddenly his tears began floating upwards, melding together and forming the shape of a top hat on his head. "I like to call it... 'Dapperblook'. W-what d'you think...?"

Twilight clapped her hooves happily. "It's so cool! I'm gonna have to ask Mama if she can teach me to do something like that!"

Napstablook smiled a little wider at that, and the FIGHT lines vanished. "You know, I usually come here because it's quiet, and nobody's around... But today I made a friend... I gotta go now, but... I'll see you again, hopefully."

Twilight stood and nodded eagerly. "Sure! See you then, Nappy!"

Laughing quietly, Napstablook vanished, Twilight's last sight of him being his cheeks turning pink. Giggling, the little filly marched onward, glad to have made yet another friend. She kept Celestia's words in mind, and so stayed focused on following the most direct route on the map to her house, but made sure to note the location of the "spider bake sale" so she could come back, and listened intently as, in a longer chamber, she found three Froggits who paused to give her advice she was sure would be useful later.

When she arrived in a new chamber the map claimed to be filled with pits with a switch in one, she paused, and wasn't entirely surprised as a new Monster–a roach-like creature with four limbs called a "Migosp"–took the opportunity to engage her in a FIGHT. As she needed to think through how to approach the pits anyway, she decided to sit and wait for the Migosp to make the first move, and smiled as it seemed to relax. It wasn't long before it left, leaving behind a pair of gold coins and a quiet hint: "There's more in pits than leaves."

Twilight smiled as she approached on of the pits, and her smile grew to a grin when dropping into it revealed a FADED RIBBON sitting amongst the leaves, the once red fabric turned a dingy pink from the passing of time yet still clearly usable. Eagerly, she picked it up and tied it into a bow in her mane, pulling it back into a little ponytail, before climbing up a chute leading back to the main chamber overhead. In the next pit, she yelped as she nearly landed on a carrot-shaped creature called a Vegetoid, which immediately growled and triggered a FIGHT with her.

"I-I'm sorry," she whimpered, cowering.

The Vegetoid seemed to hesitate, then blinked as the filly's stomach suddenly growled loud enough to fill the air. Both stared at each other for a moment, then the Monster laughed as Twilight blushed and tried to hide behind a foreleg. The Vegetoid, however, waved its hand airily and grinned before tossing a series of vegetables into the air.

"Eat your greens," it proclaimed.

Twilight gasped happily and jumped, snagging the only green veggie in her mouth before sitting and eagerly chewing it. When she had finished, the Vegetoid patted her on the head and placed four gold in her bag. Climbing back up again, she dropped into the next pit to find another Monster waiting for her, this one shaped like an eyeball with arms and legs. She smiled and waved at it, and the creature, a Loox, seemed to relax as it cast a wave of magic into the air which she easily dodged in turn. After that, it handed her five gold and departed, allowing her to climb up once more and try the next pit.

Naptsablook, as it turned out, was waiting there for her, lying on his back and looking sad. "Fell down here on my way back out... Now I can't get up..."

Twilight laid beside him and tried to nuzzle his side, passing through him instead as she asked, "Maybe I can help? I could try to carry you, or lift you up so you can float for yourself?"

Napstablook blinked, then smiled sheepishly as he slowly rose from the leaves and righted himself. "Oh, yeah... Ghosts float... Heh, silly me." He turned and passed through a wall behind him, then came back into view as a loud click resounded through the chamber. "I flipped the switch so you can move on. See you later."

Twilight beamed at Napstablook as he vanished, then quickly made her way out into the next room. Though there was supposedly a looping enchantment on the chamber itself, the gate ahead remained steadfastly locked until certain anchoring switches were pressed in a particular order, ensuring no one got themselves permanently trapped. More Monsters, each of them in forms she had already met, kept coming after her as Twilight worked her way onward, but with every encounter she simply fell back on the methods she had used to get past the others, and in not time the little filly was practically prancing her way into one final room where a large, leafless tree stood guard, a quaint little cottage-like home.

And Celestia, her face flooding with relief as much as tears, came trotting out to meet her. "Twilight!"

"Mommy!" Twilight immediately raced up to the snowy Alicorn, glomping onto her robed form before bursting into relieved tears of her own. The instant Celestia had sat and properly wrapped the little filly in her hooves and wings, every bit of anxiety and fear was completely washed out by a rush of love and joy at finally reuniting with her newfound mother. Twilight nuzzled as deep into Celestia's chest and neck as she could, pressing herself tightly to her mother's barrel with every intent of staying firmly affixed and never letting go. Here, she knew for certain she was safe and loved, protected from anything and everything that could or would seek to harm her. Flowey was a worry of the past now; all that mattered was that her Mommy was there, and would never let her get hurt.

Celestia's tears soaked into Twilight's mane as she whispered into her ear, "I am so very sorry I left you alone, my child. But I am so very, very proud of you for making it here all on your own. I would have called and checked on you again, but my phone lost power. I was just coming out to look for you when you came."

Twilight hummed happily into her mother's chest and sighed. "It's okay, Mommy... I made it, and I'm okay. I even made some friends, like Napstablook!"

"Napstablook? Oh, that one is such a kind spirit, even if he is so withdrawn and quiet." Celestia smiled as she pulled back and lightly kissed Twilight's forehead. "I am so proud of you, Twilight. Truly, I am."

Twilight smiled, bowing her head a little shyly, before feeling her eyelids begin to droop. Hearing her Mommy giggle, she looked up and yawned, long and loud, before blushing and once again burying her face in soft Alicorn neck.

"Tired, are you, my child?" Celestia asked knowingly.

"Mmhmm," was the filly's sleepy response.

Celestia giggled lightly and slowly stood, keeping one wing and one leg poised to cradle the filly against her chest and shoulder. "Would you like me to tuck you in so that you may sleep for a while?"

Twilight blinked and batted the air with her hoof tiredly, murmuring, "B-but... my surprise..."

"Will be able to wait until you are rested," Celestia said, her voice firm yet gentle, as she began to walk into the house. "For now, you have been through a great deal in very little time. Now is the time for you to rest and recover."

Twilight sighed and relented, resting her head against her mother's neck with a soft murr as Celestia's feathery wing caressed her back. She didn't pay much attention to the house itself as they entered, nor did she see the room into which she was carried. Yet her eyes opened as she was placed gently into a soft, warm bed and the sheets were pulled up to her neck. She smiled drowsily and settled herself comfortably, looking up into the eyes of her mother, as she yawned and whispered, "Good night, Mommy... I love you..."

As she drifted off to sleep, Celestia's gentle kiss and loving whisper of, "I love you, too, my child," filled her dreams with calm and peace as her heart swelled with both love and DETERMINATION.

Author's Note

Whew! If my calculations are right, this is the longest one yet (please feel free to correct me if I am indeed wrong)! It was a chore, but a pleasure to write it. I'm honestly very happy how well this has been received so far, and I hope you all like this installment.
As usual, I appreciate any Upvotes or comments provided as a sign that you liked this piece. Unfortunately, next chapter is going to be short, but that's because it's going to be more of an "Interlude" than anything. It may be up later tonight, but we'll see. It may be going up tomorrow morning. Until then, see you later!

Interlude: Knock-knock

Celestia hummed happily to herself as she moved about the kitchen, fetching the fixings she would need for breakfast the next day, all the while making sure to keep an eye on the timer for her oven. Though she had the recipe and timing for baking most of her favorite confections timed to an exact science, she still worked at them with care. Too often she had fouled herself up by mistakenly walking away while a pie or cake or other pastry was baking, and in so doing had caused something to burn or, once, started a fire as a result. Her natural affinity to the fire elemental made it easier to put an end to the latter issue, but it was always a tragic and disappointing waste when something like that happened. Not only was she out a pie or pastry, but the ingredients used were wasted as well.

Not that she had so many problems with that these days. Centuries worth of practice–one of many benefits of Alicorn longevity–have made it a rare occurance for anything to burn. They had also ensured she had all the time she needed to grow accustomed to the layout of her kitchen so that everything she needed for everything she made was easily accessible and able to be retrieved with the smallest amount of effort, providing more time to carefully craft every meal and treat she liked.

As the timer finally went off, Celestia smiled, using her magic to turn off the timer's alarm, open the oven, and carefully levitate the freshly baked butterscotch-cinnamon pie out onto the counter to cool. Shutting the over, she took a deep breath of the pie's aroma, loving how it delighted her senses. No matter how many times she made this particular recipe, she never quite got tired of the sight, smell and taste of a fresh butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

I only hope that Twilight will enjoy it, she thought.

Once the pie was cooled enough, she carefully brought over a knife and plate and cut out a slice onto the plate before setting the knife aside. She stepped quickly but quietly out of the kitchen into the living room of her simple little house, and form there passed through the foyer into the hallway before pausing at the first of the two doors. She considered knocking for a moment, so that the child within would be able to enjoy the slice of pie while it was fresh, but then paused before simply opening the door and peeking in.

Twilight lay still and silent with her eyes shut and her chest and barrel slowly rising and falling as she slept. Every once in a while she would mumble or snore quietly, and once her face scrunched up as if she had seen or smelt something repulsive. Yet, as Celestia entered the room properly and sat gazing upon the filly, resting the plate and its bounty on one of her hooves, the scent of the fresh pastry filled the room and seemed to draw a smile onto Twilight's muzzle. The filly shifted slightly, curling up a little tighter before relaxing so that she seemed to sink into the mattress, pillow and blankets, her face peaceful and serene in slumber.

Celestia blinked, smiling, and brushed her free hoof across her eyes to find fresh salty droplets at their corners. Setting down the plate on the floor where it wouldn't be at risk of the filly missing it or stepping on it, she gently tucked the blankets a little closer in around Twilight's body and brushed a hood lightly through her mane. Yet, after leaning in and kissing Twilight's forehead just below her horn's base, the Alicorn found her tears growing in number and had to bite back a sob that struggled to escape her chest. Immediately she turned, closing her eyes, and walked out of the room, shutting the door gently behind her so as not to wake her daughter.

"I love you, Mama."

How many times had she heard such words and let the child who'd said them into her heart? How many times had she embraced them, nuzzled them, and told them that she would do everything in her power to protect them? How many of those children had she shown love to and found love in the eyes of?

How many had she failed, utterly and completely, as both mother, protector and friend, as she watched them leave and march into the jaws of death beyond the Great Door?

Shaking her head, Celestia walked back through the hall into the foyer and down the steps, not bothering to watch where she was going. She knew the way by heart to the point blindfolds wouldn't have impeded her, and she marched with purpose as she trod the path into what qualified as being her basement. Yet she knew, just as several in the Ruins, that it was no basement, but the Ancient Hall, the final hallway between the proper Ruins and the Great Door, the entrance from the Ruins into the rest of the Underground.

It was at the Great Door where she finally stopped walking and sat on her haunches, her head bowed as shame wracked over her body. She let the sobs come now, and her entire form quaked as first one tear slid to the end of her muzzle before dripping off to the floor, then several. Within seconds she could feel streams of them cascading down to pool at her hooves, and she gasped through a particularly powerful sob as she laid out flat on her belly, hooves pressed to her eyelids, as the magic flowing through her mane and tail ceased and let them fall flat in waves of pastel pink.

Every ache in her heart was exposed them, let free to echo through the chamber, and she wept openly as she thought aloud, "I am such a great fool of a mare... Six times this has happened before, and they were not even ponies as this seventh child is... They were all older and stronger than she, yet their fates were all the same..."

Heaving another great sob, she sniffled and murmured, "No matter what blood may be upon... upon her hooves... there is as much if not more upon mine from those six poor children... I did them such terrible wrong allowing them to leave when I knew it would be to their deaths, and yet I still allowed them to go... What a great and horrible fool I am..."

She shuddered and lowered her hooves, staring up at the Great Door in a mix of fear and revulsion, before glancing at her reflection in the pool formed of her own tears. "And m-more foolish am I t-than even this, for n-now I have t-taken in a seventh child, and she is my own k-kind as well. It is l-less certain yet still l-likely that one d-day these Ruins will b-become too small for her, and s-she will desire to see the r-rest of the Underground. T-to stop her, e-even if for her own protection, would be a c-crime against her as a m-mother, but it would also be a crime to allow h-her to go and walk into d-death's embrace."

She once again buried her head in her forelegs and wept, asking, "W-what do I do...? What can I d-do...?"

She stayed there for what may have been minutes just as easily as hours, neither moving nor speaking beyond the shaking of heavy sobs and the repeated murmuring of these two questions. She didn't care that her robes were getting wet from the volume of her tears, nor that the sight of her as she was would be nothing short of pitiful. All she felt herself able to do was lay there and wallow in her heartache.

Until someone spoke.

"knock-knock."

Celestia smiled, in spite of herself as she lifted her head to gaze upon the Great Door. "W-who is there...?"

"broken pencil," the voice called, a southern female's voice with a calm smoothness and light drawl.

Celestia's smile grew a little as she pushed herself up on her forehooves. "Broken pencil who?"

"never mind, it's pointless."

Now Celestia laughed, rising to all fours, and walked to the door before leaning against it, slumping onto to her belly again and saying, "W-well d-done, but have you h-heard about the skeleton w-who would not c-cross a road?"

"nah, I can't say as I have, sugarcube. why wouldn't the little feller cross the road?"

"B-because he had n-no guts."

The voice laughed as Celestia giggled, wiping tears from her eyes, then asked, "speakin' as ya are 'bout skeletons, have ya ever heard about the one who was scared of his wife?"

"No, I do not think I have."

"he had a buddy what said to him, 'well, yer boned'."

Celestia's laughter was a touch delirious, but she let it flow regardless, knocking her hoof against the door as she shook with mirth. "Oh, you simply are too much, my friend!"

The voice chuckled, then sighed and asked, "say, are ya'll feelin' alright there, pardner? yer soundin' pretty rattled."

Celestia sighed, giggling a little, and bowed her head as a sniffle escaped her. "I... I wish I could say I was fine, my friend, but... we both value honesty too much for that."

The voice sighed again, a soft tap sounding against the door as if it were being scratched at lightly, before it said, "one of them days, huh? sounds worse than usual, too. anythin' ah can do to help ya, pard?"

Celestia sighed again and shook her head, blowing a stray pink bang out of her face. "I do not know... I f-found a child t-today."

"oh? well, ain't that a good thing?" When the Alicorn didn't respond, the voice murmured, "oh. ...ah don't suppose this new young'n... they ain't another human, are they?"

"N-no, and that is the worst part," Celestia laid her head upon her forelegs and shook it. "She is a unicorn filly, young and innocent, with no knowledge of this place or how to use her magic."

"unicorn, huh? that's new. one of them one's what descended from the ones that managed t' not get banished, right?"

"Yes, and she... she..." Celestia gasped as she struggled against a new bout of sobs and bit her lip, wincing painfully as a taste of blood met her tongue for a moment. "She is so small and sweet and innocent and I... I am scared."

"cause of what I said before, right?" Celestia flinched as the voice sighed, then blinked as its owner asked, "ya'll said ya found her, right?"

"Yes... I have also... I have promised to be her mother."

The female beyond the door laughed a little and whooped. "whoo-whee nelly, pardner, that's some big news t' be droppin'. how old's the little darlin'?"

Celestia smiled as she thought about Twilight again. "Around seven, possibly eight, I believe. But her soul resonates with so much magic and is clearly from the surface," she added, her smile drooping. "Her eyes tell the latter as much as anything. There is a glow in them, a glow you do not find in... Monsters' eyes... She is most definitely not a denizen of our realm, and that, above all else, makes me... deeply concerned."

"ah hear ya, pard'. if'n she's from the surface, then we both know what'll happen if'n she ever comes out over this a-way."

Celestia shuddered, knowing exactly what the voice was implying. Yet, as she sat and pondered it, she blinked as an idea occurred to her. It was a selfish idea, a desperate one, but if events played out anywhere close to what she was afraid they would, if Twilight truly did one day wish to explore and Celestia wasn't able to bring herself to stop her daughter from going...

"My friend, c-can... Can I ask a favor of you?" Celestia asked, voice quivering.

"well, that'd depend... on what it is, I mean."

"You are a sentry, are you not?"

"yeah, that's the job, pard. ...why ya ask?"

"Listen, please. If... If a little lavender filly–my daughter, Twilight Sparkle–ever leaves the Ruins through this door and you do not see me there with her... C-could you p-please promise to... to w-watch over her... for me?"

"watch over her?"

"Yes. I just..." Celestia hiccuped softly as her tears began to flow again. "I-I j-just c-can not stand the t-thought of losing h-her... I have only j-just met her, but I l-love her with all m-my heart and I... J-just, please, promise me th-that, if nothing else, you will w-watch over her and m-make sure that she is s-safe as l-long as you can. C-could you do that for me, p-please?"

For a moment, there was nothing but silence on the other side of the door, and Celestia bowed her head in despair. But then the voice came again, loud and clear, and said, "cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, I'll do whatever I can to help yer little filly, pardner."

Celestia blinked, shocked, and murmured, "W-what was...?"

"that were a special kind of promise. it's sort of one of them there... 'unbreakable vows', y'see. if'n ah break it... it ain't ya'll I'm gonna be answerin' to first."

Celestia gasped in relief as she pressed her cheek against the door and called, "T-thank you... Thank you, s-so much..."

"...anytime, pardner. anytime, every time."

In her bedroom on the main floor of the house, Twilight Sparkle was unaware of any of this. She simply moaned softly as she shifted in slumber, breathing deep of the room's cool air as she settled once more beneath the warm blankets. As the smell of cooling butterscotch-cinnamon pie filled her dreams with another layer of peace and contentment, the memory of her new mother's love and tenderness made her smile in her sleep. Her mind at peace, she felt her heart filling with a fresh wave of love, joy and DETERMINATION.

Author's Note

I know I promised this sooner, but whatcha gonna do, huh? Anyway, this was... actually both hard and a touch emotional for me to do. Imagining the level of turmoil I've put Celly into emotionally... I actually feel bad about it now...
Regardless, brownie points to the first reader who can tell me who's voice that is beyond the Great Door (probably kinda obvious, but we'll see). As per the usual, please be sure to Fave, Comment, Upvote and Follow if you like what you're reading and wanna see more as the plot thickens. Until the next chapter, I'm Flutter-Spark and thanks for reading!

Chapter 8: Home, Part 2 - Bonding and Wondering

Over the following weeks, Twilight and Celestia quickly fell into a routine. The young Unicorn would awaken at approximately eight in the morning the same as she had the first day, stretching herself out like a cat as she so deeply loved to do, and walk into the living room to find her mother already waiting for her with a freshly prepared breakfast. Most days it was some manner of pastry, whether it be another cinnamon-butterscotch pie, blueberry muffins, or a deliciously flaky strawberry strudel, although it was once a stack of syrupy cinnamon-blueberry pancakes, which Twilight devoured voraciously as she found the combination of flavors was a new favorite.

This would be followed by cleaning and putting away the dishes, which Celestia turned into an exercise in control for her daughter. As the Alicorn washed the dishes and set them on a towel placed over the countertop, Twilight would levitate them in front of herself where she would sit on a high stool and dry them with another towel, often with her tongue sticking out one side of her mouth as she split her focus between either levitating or holding the towel and ensuring the dish stayed stationary before her. Once dry, she would stack the plates and silverware accordingly, then wrap each stack in her magic's aura to carry it up into the cabinets or down into the drawers where they belonged. Every successful completion of this task would earn her a warm, motherly smile and a hug from Celestia's wings and forelegs, which she eagerly reciprocated.

After that, the two would adjourn back to the living room, where Celestia would perform a series of yoga stretches of both legs and wings to, as she said it the first day as Twilight watched in confusion, "Keep them ever ready for motion." The sight of Twilight imitating her that first day brought Celestia almost to tears as the child flopped over after losing her balance, and the rest of that morning had been devoted to ensuring the filly would be better able to maintain her balance. From their stretches, Celestia would walk her daughter out into the yard and sit with her to talk over the scientific and theoretical aspects of magic for an hour, then spend the next hour-and-a-half putting these facts and theories into practice. Celestia displayed and explained the spell or spells upon which they had focused most prominently during their talk, and Twilight would in turn attempt to mimic the same spell and effect, often with a rapidly growing understanding and competency that both amazed and mystified but also thoroughly invigorated the Alicorn. Successful mastery of any spell was met with another proud, motherly smile and hug, and once again Twilight was eager to return all the love that she felt being bestowed unto her.

After a light lunch at noon and a repeat of the morning's "dish exercise", Celestia would recline in her favorite rocking chair with a book and either shoo her daughter back to her room to rest if the morning lessons were particularly taxing, send her outside to play where the window of the living room allowed the Alicorn to watch, or, on rarer occasion, bestow upon her a small list of things to collect from elsewhere in the Ruins that would be needed for making meals over the next few days. Twilight, eager to explore, found she particularly enjoyed it when the last scenario was the case, and always took the list carefully into her magic before placing it in her saddlebags alongside her phone, map and gold before donning them and heading out. She usually ended up making it back between one and two hours later with everything on the list safely secured and good news to share about her continued befriending of the local Monsters.

At around three in the afternoon, the pair would once again exit out into the yard so that Twilight could again practice with her magic, this time focusing on the practical uses of the spells she learned in the morning. Through this, Celestia was able to gauge what areas needing further improvement, whether it be in the technique, the concentration behind, or the level of power invoked to execute the spell, and would be able to properly explain where Twilight needed to shift her focus to improve her skills. All of this, along with anything and everything else her mother had to say, Celestia was glad to find her daughter could soak up like a sponge, and often they spent two full hours discussing the spells being practiced once more as Twilight repeatedly went through each spell's motions until it was decided she had not only mastered the spell, but could properly identify any situation where it would be useful. Naturally, hugs were again exchanged, and Twilight once again beamed up happily into her mother's proudly smiling face.

As five o'clock brought evening to the Ruins, the two ponies headed into the kitchen as Celestia allowed magic to take a backseat in their bonding and instead focused her daughter on an altogether different art: cooking. At first, this was met with some uncertainty and nervousness on the filly's part, but through gentle reassurance and careful guidance, the elder mare was gratified to see a rapid understanding of cooking rise to meet her child's mastery of spellwork. Starting on perhaps the most favored recipe collection of all children–desserts–Celestia was able to teach Twilight the basics of how to prepare chocolate chip cookies–with and without the addition of cinnamon and butterscotch, to the delight of both–the Alicorn's own specialty pie, and even a few basic forms of cake–Celestia's one and only admitted culinary vice, as she could never resist the temptation of them. Of course, these cooking lessons were just as much a chance to learn as they were a chance to bond and playfully enjoy one another's company, as, more often than not, one or the other–though most commonly Twilight–would spill or drop something by accident, and the other would make light of the situation only for the once proper and organized cooking lesson to devolve into a flour, sugar and water tossing fight that left both covered in ingredients, the kitchen a mess, and the food left to sit for a moment as both struggled to control their laughter. Neither was especially good at this last step, and they usually rolled about on the floor in fits of giggles.

By six, however, both ponies would be seated properly with a finished dish to share as the evening's meal, and both delighted in chatting about whatever they could think of, whether it be once again discussing magic, figuring their way through what recipe they should tackle next, or walking each other through stories they had each heard. Twilight found she was most found of story time, as not only was Celestia a gifted and passionate story teller, she had a wide repertoire from which to draw another juicy morsel, and amidst the seriousness or humor of whatever the latest tale turned out to be, she somehow always managed to throw in a joke or two, whether they be well and truly funny, head-scratching, or simply such bad examples of puns that they were somehow good regardless. Either way, it was simply a pleasure to hear the white mare's voice as she regaled her child, her voice rising and lowering as the tension shifted from moment to moment in the story.

After dinner and a final session of dish cleaning, the pair would sit together from seven to eight and Celestia would do her best to teach Twilight yet another new skill, both to practice her magic and to bond: sewing. As with cooking, at first it was a struggle, but as time passed Twilight realized how well it helped her exercise control over her magic when done through levitation, and she delighted in small tidbits of information provided regarding how some objects could have runes stitched or etched into them to invoke unique and powerful magics.

Yet Twilight's favorite time of all came at eight o'clock sharp, for as soon as the clock had struck eight Celestia would gently scoop her up, levitating their sewing equipment back to where it was stored, and settle into her rocking chair with the little filly in her lap to read for her from a thick tome of old fairytales. Each story, as those shared over dinner, captivated Twilight from the very beginning, and she would struggle to remain awake through the entire thing as her mother's calm, gentle voice and soft embrace lulled her towards sleep. Only when the story was finished would Twilight finally let out a long yawn and allow herself to curl in tighter to her mother's chest, at which point Celestia always set aside her book and glasses, scooped up the child anew, and carried her to bed, tucking her in with a warm smile and a kiss goodnight.

All in all, Twilight had never felt happier, and she was always eager to earn another proud smile from her new mother. Sometimes it was by surprising her with proof of her ability to learn the recipes she was taught, slipping into the kitchen to bake a batch of cookies for the pair to share–this often being met with a motherly disapproving sniff at blatant disregard for baking safety before the expression melted into a warm and affectionate smile–or taking what she had learned and using it during time that was meant to be for relaxing to experiment. Though Celestia hid her concern at finding out her daughter was experimenting unsupervised, she was often surprised–more than she would admit–at the results.

"Mommy..."

Celestia blinked and straightened in her rocking chair. One of a few peculiarities she had quickly noted about Twilight since their time together had started was that she would use different terms for her depending on how she felt. If she was happy or the moment was calm, she would simply call her "Mama"; if she was unamused by something, or if there was something more serious happening, then it was "Mom". But whenever she said "Mommy", it was a sure sign that something was wrong.

Peeking over her book, Celestia immediately blanched, shutting the tome with a snap and moving it and her spectacles to the mantle so fast her golden magic's a aura actually crackled, almost causing her to wince. Yet she couldn't, for the sight before her was something she couldn't tear her gaze from even a little: a sniffling, teary-eyed lavender filly covered in soot with a burn on her left foreleg and her hair bearing a blown-back windswept look she knew all too well. It was an appearance she had seen before, and even experienced having on her own person, and it never came without pain.

"Twilight, what happened?!"

Fighting back a sob, Twilight hung her head as she stood there, favoring her burnt foreleg, and answered, "I-I was t-trying to... to do th-the fire spell you taught me, b-but... I lost control a-and..."

Gently wrapping a wing around her daughter, Celestia nuzzled her cheek and held her close, slipping off one of her horseshoes to raise the injured leg to where she could get a better look at it and winced at the sight. It looked to be a relatively minor burn considering the inherent dangers of magical fire, but she knew it would need immediate treatment to prevent it from causing an infection.

Seeing her mother's face, Twilight sobbed and bowed her head lower still, murmuring, "I'm sorry, M-Mommy..."

"Oh, Twilight, sweetheart," she whispered, gently rubbing the child's back as her other wing folded in around her, "it's alright. We just need to get you cleaned up and see what we can do about your leg. Can you walk?"

Twilight nodded, still sniffling, and hobbled along at her mother's side as she was guided down the hall to the white mare's bedroom and through into the adjacent bathroom. Though of modest size for the Alicorn, to Twilight it was truly a very spacious bathroom, the bathtub by itself large enough for her to swim in it if she were so inclined, with steps and handlebars to allow creatures of many shapes to get in and out safely. Since her arrival, she had enjoyed a short bath in it every evening just before dinner as their meal was cooking, Celestia keeping an eye on the time and her magic ready to act so that nothing burned.

Yet now Twilight found it difficult to enjoy the experience as the tub was filled with water, carefully tested and measured by Celestia's bare hoof to be sure it wouldn't be too hot or too high, and the lavender filly was settled into it amidst a much thinner layer of bubbles than normal. She kept her left hoof resting on the edge of the tub so that her leg was well above the water, every touch to the burn bringing sheer, stinging agony, and simply sat in silence apart from an occasional sniffle as Celestia cleaned her up with sponge, soap and shampoo, only relaxing as her mane was briefly rinsed and combed back to keep it out of her face.

"I am not angry, my child," Celestia finally said, looking down with a patient smile at her daughter. "If anything, I see this as a learning experience. First, it has brought it to my attention that I may need to impose a few ground rules for your experimentation, making sure you know which spells and magic forms you can experiment with safely and which you should have me present to oversee."

As the filly looked up and nodded slowly, her head cocked to the side, the Alicorn continued, "Second, it shows that we will need to be more careful with such a wild elemental as fire, considering the power you possess. And, third, it has taught you–I have no doubt–to be more cautious. Am I correct?" Another nod met her question and her smile broadened a little. "You are a very clever and inquisitive filly, Twilight, and that is far from a bad thing. But you will need to be more careful from now on." Tipping her daughter's upper body back, she gently began to scrub at her chest and neck as she asked, "If I may, what happened exactly during your experiment?"

"W-well," Twilight said, stifling a giggle as her mother's hoof brushed over the top of her belly, "I tried to make a fireball, but it burst and the flames shot upward like, whoosh." Her uninjured hoof was raised quickly to emphasize, and she had to bring it down fast to block Celestia's hoof from tickling her in the crook under her shoulder. "And I was so scared that I'd jumped and lost my grip on the spell when some of the leaves that had caught on fire got on my leg and burned me."

Celestia nodded and wrung out the sponge she had been using before picking up a brush with her hoof, guiding her daughter so that she lay with her back against the edge of the tub, her head resting on a bath pillow secured opposite the spout, and began to brush her mane. With long, even strokes she gently slid the brush from the base of Twilight's mane to the end, starting with her bangs and slowly working her way back.

"How high did the flames reach, exactly?" she asked.

"Um, about as high as the tree." Twilight blinked, feeling the brush stop in her mane, and tilted her head back further to look up at her mother's shocked face. "Mama...?"

Slowly, Celestia shook her head and resumed brushing, a small smile on her muzzle as she said, "My child, remind me to read you The Art of Fire-Bending sometime."

"Mama! Mama, look at this!"

It was a few days after the fire incident, and Celestia found herself smiling warmly as she peeked over her book to find a little lavender filly with a bandaged left foreleg practically dancing on the spot before her in excitement. Struggling to hold back a giggle at the sight, she set aside her book and leaned forward.

"What do you have there, Twilight?" she asked, noticing how the filly's horn was lit and an aura of the same lavender glow was shining from behind her back.

Twilight immediately pulled her saddlebags from behind her back, setting them on the floor before saying proudly, "I made my saddlebags bigger!"

Celestia blinked, glancing from the bags to the filly, and murmured, "But they do not appear to be any larger..."

"Not on the outside, Mama," Twilight said, giggling. "I meant on the inside!"

Now Celestia's brow was furrowed, one eyebrow raised high in curiosity as she asked, "Can you explain?"

Nodding, Twilight opened the flap of the left saddlebag to reveal the space inside, which the Alicorn recognized instantly. It looked the same as she remembered, with a group of smaller pouches inside of it, eight in total, for carrying individual items. With her original design, they were enchanted to hold any one object of any size that could fit one end into the opening. However, when she looked closer, she found her jaw dropping as she realized that the runes she had originally stitched there to grant this enchantment had been changed.

"Twilight," she said, sliding from her chair, "what are these new runes for?"

Twilight sat back on her plot and gestured with a hoof at the saddlebags, saying, "Well, you see, I wanted to be able to carry more than just eight items, but I didn't want to mess up the saddlebags you'd made for me yourself, Mama. So I thought I could make them better by making each pouch hold more stuff. But to do that, I needed to change the spell."

Tapping her hoof at each rune on one of the pouches, Twilight continued, "You'd put in runes to make it hold anything that could fit just a little way into the hole. There's a rune there so it can store any one item. These other ones made that into an equa..." Twilight tapped her chin for a moment. "Equator? Equasen?"

"Equation?" Celestia offered, her lips curling into a smile as she began to suspect what her daughter had done.

"Yes! Equation!" Twilight nodded firmly. "I made it into an equation equal to infinity!"

Each pony stared at the other for a moment. Twilight slowly lowered her head, worried, as her mother continued to simply sit and stare at her with an expression that, while on one hoof was honestly humorous, was a touch unsettling. "M-Mama...? D-did I do something wrong...?"

Celestia snapped her jaw shut and blinked. "You made your saddlebags able to hold an infinite number of any eight items?" Her voice was calm and quiet, but her wide eyes still radiated her shock clearly.

Twilight slowly nodded. "A-and added runes to two pouches so that they'd keep hot things hot or cold things cold. Was that... oka-eep!"

Suddenly wrapped in a cocoon of white feathers and fur, Twilight stared up in shock at her mother's face, only to relax as she saw the glow of motherly pride in them. "You certainly are a clever little filly, my child," Celestia said, almost cooing into her daughter's ear as she nuzzled her lovingly. "I just might need to stop being surprised by the things you do."

"But I like surprising you, Mama!"

Twilight would have huffed at the Alicorn's laughter, but she was simply too happy to resist giggling right along with her.

Twilight sighed happily as she sat in her Mama's lap. It had been a few more days since she had experimented with runes on her saddlebags, and now she and her mother were enjoying a moment of peace together before bed. This time there was no story to tell–not because they had run out of stories, but because the day had been a long and tiring one despite the pleasure it had brought–and both ponies were simply happy to soak in each other's ambient love, neither saying anything as Celestia gently ran a bare hoof through her child's mane.

Twilight let out a sound somewhere between a whinny and a purr as a particularly long stroke of a soft white hoof slid beyond her mane down her back, and sighed contentedly as her mind began to ease towards the comfort of sleep. She yawned softly, struggling to hold it back, and thought that perhaps it was about time she succumbed and let her mother carry her off to her room. Yet, as she turned her head to look up sideways at her mother, she blinked, her eyes having chanced upon something she hadn't noticed before.

Resting on one of the higher bookshelves, almost hidden behind a book describing the many uses of snails–a book, she and Celestia had both agreed, neither wanted to look at again after the Alicorn had finally decided to open it after having never done so before–was a single, solitary picture frame. Old and slightly weathered, the wooden frame seemed unremarkable, but even at this distance the filly could see it held the image of her mother, standing beside another, darker-furred pony, with two other, smaller ponies sitting before them. She couldn't quite make out their faces clearly, but there was no mistaking the aurora of Celestia's ethereal mane.

"Mama," she murmured sleepily, stifling a yawn as she struggled to keep her focus on the picture, "who's that up there?"

"Up where, dear?" Celestia asked, smiling as she continued her gentle stroking.

"Up there in that picture."

Celestia blinked and followed the direction of Twilight's vaguely pointing hoof... and paled visibly, her body tensing all over and her hoof going still. All at once Twilight forgot her tiredness as her mother's amethyst eyes and bottom lip both quivered, the former slowly growing dewey at the bottom. A glimmer of longing, a shimmer of sorrow, began to show themselves there before she blinked hard and shook her head, her features schooling into a look of impassiveness.

"It is no one dear. Not anyone you need to worry about."

If the expression had not done it, the tone of Celestia's voice was enough to make Twilight blink in shock. She had never seen or heard her mother act quite like this before since her arrival, not even when she had spoken of her parents' deaths. And yet, somehow, she could recognize the hurt in the eyes which she had come to love having look upon her with love and pride. It was the same look she had seen in her own reflection every time she thought about her birth mother and father before she had met Celestia.

"Mama..." She kept her voice soft, barely above a whisper, and looked up with dew in her own eyes as she nuzzled into her Mama's chest.

Celestia sighed and slowly slipped out of the rocking chair, holding her daughter to her bosom as she stood up, and said quietly, "Come, my child. Let us retire for the night. Little fillies need their sleep," she added, her voice as loving as ever, though with a twinge of sorrow still present in her eyes, "and we will need all we can get of rest for tomorrow's lesson. I seem to recall someone wanting to learn about transfiguration."

Twilight smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes, she knew. As she lay in her bed minutes later, listening for any sound of her mother next door that she could perceive, she let her mind wander and race. Who were the ponies with her Mama in the picture? Why did the sight of that picture and those ponies make her mama so sad? And was there anything she could do to make that hurting stop, or ease off at least? Celestia had done so much for her to help her heal, there just had to be a way to return the favor.

With these thoughts in mind, Twilight found it hard to fall asleep as her soul filled with love and DETERMINATION to find the answers.

Author's Note

Hey, everyone! Sorry this took so long, but here–finally–is the next chapter! Gotta say, this was a fun one to write! Hopefully you enjoy it.
If you enjoyed, please be sure to Like, comment and Follow so that you don't miss the next installment in PONYTALE, which is shaping up to be a very fun ride for me, and I hope it is for you as well! Until the next update, ciao!

Edit (2/23/2019): I've now gone through the chapter and edited a few areas I felt needed them. I'll gradually start trying to do the same for other chapters. Rest assured, new chapters are coming!

Chapter 7: Home, Part 1 - First Lesson

As she drifted up from slumber's embrace, Twilight moaned and sighed quietly, slowly rolling over onto her stomach and kicking off the blankets tucked around her body. She spread her legs out as far as they would go and slowly straightened up her hindlegs so her little rump ended up in the air, pressing her forelegs into the soft mattress beneath her as she yawned and curled her back into an arch. Then she leaned forward with her hindlegs staying stretched out straight behind her, one leg twitching and shaking as she arched her back down the other way, forelegs keeping her chest supported in the air, and tilted her head back. Finally she heaved a soft sigh and straightened out her posture completely shaking herself before opening her amethyst eyes and looking around with a smile.

The room in which she awoke was a simple bedroom, comfortable and clean with a bed, a dresser, a shelf full of little stuffed animals just above the bed, a chest of other toys, a set of shelves with a collection children's books, a little table and a nightstand with a lamp sitting on it. Everything was a different light shade of sandy brown, with a throw rug placed beside the bed. And sitting in the middle of the floor was a plate with a slice of pie on it.

Immediately Twilight's stomach grumbled, and the little filly licked her lips as she hopped off the bed over to the pie and sniffed it. She gasped happily as she discovered the scent of cinnamon still lingering around the cooled confection, and she immediately took a bite. There was something else, a sweet flavor close to the sweetness of chocolate but distinctly different and delicious in its own way. Butterscotch, she assumed, based on her mother's phone call from the day before. Either way, it made her smile to think of her Mama having baked it, and she eagerly ate what remained before sighing in happiness, though not quite content as her stomach wasn't quite satisfied; cooled pie would never compare to fresh, still hot pie.

This in mind, Twilight carefully opened the door of her bedroom and stepped out into the hallway, glancing one way then the other before walking into the foyer, and from there stepping into the living room. She smiled a little wider and more warmly as she found Celestia sitting back in a rocking chair by the fireplace, a book resting in the grasp of her forehooves and a pair of half moon spectacles resting atop her muzzle. The Alicorn smiled as she peeked up from her book at Twilight before levitating the spectacles off over onto the mantle, marking her place in her book before doing the same with it and getting out of the chair to walk over and embrace her daughter.

"Good morning, my child," she said, nuzzling Twilight's cheek lovingly. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, Mama," Twilight answered, giggling lightheartedly at the nuzzle. "Thank you for the pie."

"You are very welcome, my child. Would you like another slice for breakfast?"

Twilight's rapid, eager nod made Celestia giggle, and Twilight readily fell into step beside her Mama as they walked into the kitchen and the Alicorn paused by the counter. Twilight licked her lips as she spied a still steaming pie sitting on the counter beside the stove, and clapped her hooves together happily as Celestia cut and deposited two slices onto a pair of plates, levitating them back into the living room onto a table by the corner. Both mother and child settled themselves into chairs at the table and began to eat quietly, neither saying anything but readily sharing smiles, the younger humming in delight at the flavor of her breakfast and the elder chuckling through her closed lips.

Once they were both finished, Twilight sighed and lightly hopped down from her chair, watching as her Mama settled once more into her rocking chair by the fireplace. She stared for a moment as Celestia once again donned her spectacles, then gasped in hushed awe as the Alicorn's horn lit up and golden light filled the air. In seconds, the plates from breakfast had lifted into the air and hovered into the kitchen, where the sounds of running and splashing water and porcelain clinking together signaled the dishes being washed, dried and returned to their proper places. At the same time, several books began to pull themselves off the shelves across and opposite from the table before swirling around Celestia's head, her eyes flicking quickly over every cover as if giving a cursory examination. Once in a while, she would set one of the books on her lap, and after every book not given this treatment had been checked it was returned to its home on the shelves exactly where it had come from.

Finally, Celestia smiled as if satisfied and caused the tip of her horn to flash brightly again, and all the books still floating around her instantly returned to the shelves whence they came, perfectly organized by genre, subject, theme and title. All the while, Twilight simply sat, her jaw hanging, and Celestia stifled a giggle behind her hoof as she turned to meet the child's awestruck gaze at last. The Alicorn easily levitated the books she'd sat in her lap over to the table and let them settle there before setting her spectacles once more on the mantle above the hearth.

After a while, Twilight managed to shut her slack jaw and shook her head in bewilderment, asking loudly, "Mama, how did you do that?"

Celestia smiled and slid easily out of her chair, and gently caressed her child's cheek with a gleam of fondness in her eyes as she answered, "It is a simple matter of memorization, my child. I have spent so many afternoons organizing and reorganizing my books that I now have the perfect system to know where everything goes exactly."

Twilight let a light yet nervous giggled flow before she coughed and said, "Yes, but, I actually meant–"

"I know what it was you meant, Twilight," Celestia said, smiling still as she booped the filly's nose with her hoof. "It is perhaps the most fundamental spell of any pony or creature who has the ability to use consciously focused magic, the levitation spell. At its root, it is simply a means by which one may bring objects with them without exerting their own efforts of physical strength, although the greater the weight in mass they are attempting to move the more focused mental effort and overall bodily strain the spell will take."

"Bodily strain?" Twilight asked, blinking.

"Yes. You see, some asume, incorrectly, that levitation requires a purely mental exertion. The truth is that it is more akin to creating an invisible, detached limb that obeys your mental command and lifts the mass of the object you desire to move using the spell. As a result, the weight of the mass itself is still felt as pressure upon the body of the caster, and attempting to lift too much all at once will tax both body and mind."

Twilight sat down and cocked her head to the side as she considered this, then slowly nodded. "So, it's just like you lifting the weight yourself, only it's your magic that's the muscle instead of your body's muscles?"

Celestia grinned and nodded, nuzzling her daughter's cheek affectionately. "Yes, that is it exactly, my child. In a sense, every spell domain and class in existence is like that; it is a muscle which you must exercise regularly the same as you exercise your body and mind. Only by doing this will you grow stronger in the use of that domain or class. In time, you will become able to shape and reshape your power however you see fit to suit the class or domain of magic you wish to use, and create the most amazing effects, the very foundation of principle upon which magic is based."

Twilight smiled and rapidly drummed her forehooves on the grounds, asking, "Does this mean I'm going to start learning magic?"

Celestia chuckled lightly and nodded. "Yes, my child. And we are going to start with tapping into your reserves."

After following her mother outside into the house's yard, Twilight shivered, a rush of excitement running through her along with nervousness as she stood at the foot of the dark dead tree, watching as Celestia paced before her. "Now then, Twilight," Celestia said, keeping her gaze locked on her daughter. "You said the books you were studying said tapping into magic is akin to opening a bottle. However, it is truly more similar to a stream of running water leaving a pond through a dam.

"How I mean this," she went on, "is not to say the dam blocks the water. Rather, the dam is merely restricting how much of the water is flowing at a given time. At the start, your magic is naturally blocked by a dam, composed of the lack of will to control the magic and a lack of need to utilize it. Such is the way of all spell-casters. As such, the first step to any series of lessons regarding magic is to learn how to channel it in its raw state."

Twilight nodded in understanding. "So, I'm going to have to open the dam, right?"

"Yes," Celestia replied, nodding. "However, as I have said, you have a lot of raw power inside of you. Your reserves, somehow, are much more expansive than most unicorns your age. That is why you inadvertently caused so much damage to the room where we met when you were trying to protect yourself. You were tapping into too much magic too quickly. This time, you are going to try to hold back the magic as you gradually open the dam, letting more and more of the stream flow free from within. As you release more magic, be aware that you will find the strain of holding it back becomes greater with every passing second. You must not block or control it, but rather...

"...you must guide it."

Twilight nodded, swallowing a small lump she hadn't realized was forming in her throat, and shut her eyes. She could feel her nervousness growing, and tried to calm her mind and relax. Then, once she felt she was ready, she searched within. She searched for the feeling from when she had been attacked by Flowey, picturing it as a valve on a great dam blocking the waters of a massive reservoir from escaping. She pictured herself there, turning it, struggling to open the channel and let the waters flow.

Instantly, Twilight felt her horn fill with warmth, one she recognized from her confrontation, and she immediately clenched her teeth together as he eyes squeezed more tightly shut, focusing on holding the energy there. She could sense it, feel it bubbling up from within, and it truly was like a stream flowing through her body, coming from somewhere deep in her chest and rising to her horn as if it were the most natural thing.

Yet she gasped and whimpered as suddenly the feeling became unnatural. It was as if the stream had found another blockage and was reversing course, the flow now spreading down through her spine and from there along unseen channels into her legs, pooling at her hooves and rising rapidly to fill her entire body. Her whimpers quickly became a loud groan as she felt the power of her magic overwhelming her attempts to control it, saturating her entire body as her teeth clenches and eyes squeezed more tightly shut with the strain. Then, just as she was sure she was making progress getting ahold of it, the valve seemed to twitch just slightly more open.

And the maelstrom came.

Her eyes flew open as Twilight screamed, her entire body burning with energy as she found a veil of light, the same bright lavender as before, surrounding and enveloping her, seeming to emanate from her every bodily fiber. She had but a moment to take in Celestia's fearful yet almost awe-struck face before it was lost in a sea of white, the pure power turning her eyes into pools of matching light. She screamed again, longer and louder than before, as this time the pain of this force, this "magic surge" overwhelmed her, suffusing her every bodily fiber as she was lifted by the magic and held aloft before the tree. She could head, vaguely, the rustling of a great many leaves caught up in the whooshing of a torrential wind, but it was muffled, dulled out by the sheer amount of pain driving her screams.

What do I do?! This though echoed in her mind, a scream as desperate as her vocalized one was pained. What can I do?! It hurts! It hurts so much! Mommy, please, help me!

Mommy... Mommy...? Wait... That's it!

All at once, the pain was gone, and Twilight felt her entire body relax as it returned to solid ground, her hooves resting with a soft crunch upon the bed of leaves once more. She opened her eyes, unsurprised to see many more leaves fluttering to the floor around her, and looked up into the face of her mother. Celestia simply stood there, utterly and completely shocked, as Twilight looked up at a massive ball of lavender light resting at the very tip of her horn. Inside, pure energy swirled and coiled and flexed in and out of and all around itself, yet gradually began to stretch out and reshape itself into something. It pushed outward, the ball of light stretching to accommodate the mass of energy within, and slowly a slender equine's figure had been formed, equally as tall if not slightly more so than Celestia, with a mane and tail of ethereal light flowing behind it, a horn and wings befitting its form shown off for both mare and filly to behold.

With a small smile, Twilight bowed her head, and in return the ethereal mare's own head bowed before the filly, with a soft sigh, reached within to the stream of her magic and ceased the flow. Then the mare's body dissolved, vanishing as if it had never been, and all once more was quiet and serene.

Neither Twilight nor Celestia disturbed the silence for a time, both simply standing and staring at the point where the little filly's creation had disappeared. Yet, it wasn't long before Twilight turned to stare into her mother's white face, and her ears folded back as she realized the Alicorn looked almost pale, her wide eyes distant and her jaw slack. So it was with great hesitance that Twilight reached out with a shaking hoof and brushed it along her mother's foreleg, flinching back as Celestia turned her head sharply to meet the gaze of her child.

"D-did I do good, M-Mama?"

The question, asked quietly and in a tone more befitting a much younger filly, seemed to stir Celestia from whatever stupor had overtaken her. She shook her head a moment, glancing from the filly before her to the space before the tree where the "energy mare" had been and back again, before she finally sat down with a loud thump. Yet the stunned awe in her eyes grew overwhelmed with a glow of motherly pride and love as she reached out with both forelegs and wings to pull Twilight close, eliciting a cute little "Eep!" of surprise in the process. A loving, tender nuzzle and even a gentle kiss to her forehead, however, made every worry wash away as she buried herself against Celestia's chest.

"Yes, my child," Celestia finally answered, her voice quivering. "You did very, very good. And I am very, very proud of you."

Twilight hummed happily, and as she let the words and the emotion behind them sink into her heart, she found her heart seeming to swell with DETERMINATION to continue making her mother proud.

Author's Note

Okay... I'm a touch conflicted with this chapter. It's shorter than I'd thought it would be, and it was a pain for me to write in a way I liked, but I suppose I'm satisfied with it for now. I wish now I'd done a bit more with it, but... Meh, I'll take what I've gotten. If nothing else, it sets a foundation for more.
And, also, damn if I didn't make Twiley pretty dang powerful! But there's a lot of reasons for this, folks, which we will get into later.
For now, please be sure to Upvote, Comment and Follow if you liked this chapter and please let me know what you are liking about this story.