“I can’t thank you enough for offering to foalsit for us, Twilight” apologised Cadence.
“That’s fine” smiled Twilight, leaning forward to tickle the foal under her chin “It’s what best aunts ever are for. Besides, I remember all the fun we had together when you were my foalsitter.”
“You know we wouldn’t have asked at such short notice” said Shining Armor, “But the Duke and Duchess of Maretonia did insist on this meeting without giving us any warning.”
“No, that’s fine” reassured his sister, taking hold of the precious foal,“You run along now and have fun.”
“That’s not quite how I would have phrased it” replied Cadence, sucking air through her teeth, “They are a little ...”
“Dour?” queried Twilight.
They all giggled, and Flurry Heart joined in too, gurgling with innocent delight.
“Thanks again Twiley” said Shining Armor, lining up to give his sister a hug before the couple left their precious daughter in the serenity of the Crystal Castle's nursery.
“I do hope she’ll be alright” confided Cadence to her husband as they walked away down the corridor to meet their notoriously demanding guests, “Flurry Heart can be hard work at times.”
“I know” he agreed, “But Twiley has saved all of us more times than I care to count.”
She leaned in and gave him a gentle nuzzle, reassured by his comforting words; Twilight was an alicorn Princess after all, what could possibly go wrong?
“So, what do you want to do first?” asked Twilight carrying the excited infant back across a floor strewn with a haphazard collection of toys looking like the aftermath of some dreadful apocalypse. She tiptoed carefully over the carnage to the order and organisation of the bookcase, where she began to read out the well-known titles resting on the shelves.
“... Little Red Riding Hood, Aladdin, The Ugly Duckling, Cinderella ...”
Flurry Heart gurgled happily and let out a little giggle.
“Oh, you like that one, do you?” said Twilight enthusiastically, “That’s one of my favourites too! I love the part where the Fairy Godmother uses her magic to get her to the ball ... but I’m getting ahead of myself. Come on, let’s lay down together and I’ll start, OK?”
She lit her horn and covered the toys in a soft magenta aura, levitating them all and placing them down in a neatly ordered pile, selecting a pretty palomino unicorn in a beautiful light blue dress for her niece to hold. Flurry Heart gurgled contently and looked up happily at her aunt with her big blue eyes.
“OK, you ready?' asked Twilight, suspending the book in front of her and turning the first page, “Once upon a time ...”
The young alicorn looked at her doll and giggled, then looked up at her aunt, her horn glowing yellow with magical power.
The first Twilight knew was a flash of yellow light and suddenly she was in a strange room with bright lights shining at her. She felt a bit itchy and looked down and was startled to see she was wearing a light blue dress just like the one worn by the doll she had just given her niece.
Feeling a sense of rising panic, she looked around her and saw she was on a street. It was a very unusual street. The floor she was standing on was made of wooden boards and the buildings looked unusual; vaguely comical.
She looked each way up the road and was surprised to see that it extended only as far as the extent of the boards in either direction. With no apparent risk of traffic, she crossed to the nearest of the unusual looking houses to ask for help and was shocked to find that it was a two-dimensional board painted to represent a house.
Still the lights shone relentlessly, and she set about trying to evade their glare, but in each direction her escape was blocked by an invisible barrier – she was trapped!
She braced her forelegs and strained as a magenta aura formed around her horn and she fired off a spell to probe the extent of her magical containment.
From nowhere appeared a finely dressed character who greeted her from the other side of the wooden paved road facing not towards her, but instead towards the source of the bright lights. This all seemed so unreal; ponies generally walked up to whoever they wanted to talk to and then they looked at each other as they spoke; they certainly didn’t act like this.
“Hello daughter” said the smart looking donkey with an obvious toupee, “I have returned from my travels and wanted to let you know first I have got married again. Aren’t you happy for your dear old Dad?”
“No! No! No!” she cried, suddenly realising what was happening. Somehow, she was in a play. She was on a stage surrounded by set props. Worse, if Cranky Doodle Donkey was Baron Hardup and referring to her as his daughter, then she must be Cinderella!
Quickly, she fired up her horn again to look for a gap, any weakness she could exploit to aid her escape. In response, the magical barrier glowed its unbroken contempt all around her. There was no way out; the extent of her existence was limited to the confines of the stage.
Cranky was waiting for her to cue his lines, grumbling impatiently; she had no choice but to play her part and pray that she could find a way to escape, maybe at the end of the scene, or the act, or worse still, not before the end of the play. She knew the story, it was Flurry Heart's favourite, in fact she could recite it line by line from memory and prepared herself to do just that.
She delivered her lines, allowing Cranky to finish their dialogue and as he left the stage, a familiar baby dragon in a smart red bell-hop uniform joined her. His behaviour was even more odd than that of Cranky Doodle Donkey in that he actively spoke to an imaginary audience on the other side of the bright lights for some time before turning to speak to her. He was Buttons, Cinderella’s best friend who had a secret crush on her. For the first time since she had been transported to this strange theatrical set, Twilight allowed herself a secret smile, thinking about how true to life his having a secret crush was, and wondering whether Rarity really was as oblivious to his desires as Cinderella was.
The story continued to unfold with Snips and Snails as the ugly sisters and an equine version of Principal Cinch as their gold digging mother. Once the set changed, she caught sight of a familiar blue maned unicorn and her heart skipped a beat as she realised that Flash Sentry had been cast as her Prince Charming.
“Good choice” she mused to herself, feeling her legs shiver and her cheeks glow bright red, “Good choice ...”
The theme of the story grew darker as Snips and Snails, still wearing the most ridiculous dresses, ripped the beautiful gown she was intending to wear to the ball, and for a moment she felt the real pain that Cinderella would have felt. In fact, when it came to her to speak her lines it was with a real tremble in her voice and the tears running down her muzzle were truly heartfelt.
Suddenly in a puff of yellow magic Princess Celestia appeared wielding a magic wand and promising she could go to the ball. Once their lines were finished, Twilight asked quietly, “Celestia, can you get me out of here?”
The white mare just smiled sweetly and shook her head, “Surely you know that’s not in the script. We have a play to finish.”
“Yes, but then what?” asked Twilight.
“Haven’t you worked it out?” giggled Celestia, “This is a book. When it’s finished we enter a dormant state until somepony reads us again.”
“You mean you’re stuck in here forever?” gasped Twilight, shocked.
“Of course, and so are you. We can’t tell the story of Cinderella without you, silly. You’re the star.”
Twilight's blood ran cold. She could be trapped within the covers of this book forever!
“But, I know you outside the book” she protested, “So there must be a way out. You’re Princess Celestia of Equestria.”
“No, I’m the Fairy Godmother. I just happen to be the form that the reader has in mind. I’m no more real than any of this.”
“I’ve got to get out!”
“And go where?” offered Celestia kindly, “Another book? There’s nothing else out there, surely you know that? You’re the star here; there’s a lot of competition to get a lead role. Enjoy your time in the spotlight; after all, this book may never be read again.”
Twilight was stunned. She was already well in to act two of the two act play – there was so little time to plan her escape, especially as she was increasingly required on stage as the story headed towards its conclusion. The situation began to look impossibly bleak and she wished she could be doing something easier, like fighting Tirek again. Her breathing grew more rapid and she began to hyperventilate, counting down the final minutes of her existence.
She was sure that given time, Celestia, the real Celestia, would be able to cast a spell and release her from this prison, but with Flurry Heart as the only witness, how would she be able to explain what had happened or even be believed? Would the book perhaps be discarded and forgotten, or even destroyed in the meantime?
Feeling increasingly stressed and absolutely powerless, Twilight delivered her lines most distractedly, desperately trying to think her way out, but nothing presented itself.
Flash put the glass slipper on her and promised to marry her as they tore on towards the ending, still with no prospect of escape in sight. Twilight knew that now there was only one page left and having run out of options, joined the others for the group picture with Cinderella in the middle, a picture that she knew was her niece's favourite.
They held the pose and Twilight lit her horn again, desperately trying one last time to find some weakness in the magic that constrained her before Flurry Heart closed the book.
Just then she noticed for the first time a fading in the forcefield and directed her energy at it, weakening its strength until eventually there was a hole and she flew into the air heading towards it.
“Come back this instant!” demanded Principal Cinch, “You have your reputation to consider!”
“Amateurs” groaned Cranky despondently.
“Good luck” said Celestia wistfully.
Twilight emerged back in the nursery with the book open on the last page. Flurry Heart was asleep, clearly having held the last page open and stared at the pretty picture until her eyes had got too heavy and she had fallen asleep, her magical spell dissipating at the same time.
She looked at the picture, seeing all the characters now as friends, and felt a twinge of sadness for their shallow existence. The place of Cinderella at the centre of the picture had now been taken by Cadence and all were looking back at her happily.
As she reached to close the book, she could have sworn she saw Celestia wink back at her, and shed a bittersweet tear as she closed it gently shut.
Twilight held the book to her heart and whispered a few loving words that she knew the recipients inside would never hear, before placing it back carefully onto the shelf.
She picked up the innocent little foal and carried her gently to her cot, where she lay her down and covered her in her favourite soft fluffy blanket before giving her a tender kiss goodnight.
Twilight tidied the nursery and made herself a cup of tea, sitting herself down in a comfy chair to reflect on the excitement of the evening, just taking the first sip before her brother and Cadence cracked the door open, looking haggard from their meeting.
“I do hope she hasn’t been any trouble” fussed Cadence.
Shining Armor looked around at the picture of order and serenity that pervaded the nursery before commenting, “It looks like you had a lot less stressful time than we had ...”
“Please dear, show some good grace” corrected his wife, “Flurry Heart can be quite a handful.”
“Oh, er, yes ...” he flustered, trying to find a suitable apology, “But that meeting; I mean - ugghh!”
“Is there anything you need to tell us, Twilight?” asked Cadence.
“Only to take special care of her books, especially Cinderella – that one means a lot to us.”
“That’s my Twiley; the most conscientious librarian you’ve ever seen!” said Shining Armor, “Seriously though, what did you do with her?”
“Oh, I got into a book and time just flew by ...”
