That First Book

by Lets Do This

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance, Night Light, Drama, Spike, Twilight Velvet, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 5595

Twilight realizes she's lost track of a book. But it's not just any book... it's *that* book: the first one she recalls being read to her...

Twilight realizes she's lost track of a book. But it's not just any book... it's that book: the first one she recalls being read to her...

A collaborative work, by the main characters in the story itself. You'll see what I mean...

Published 2019-03-08 22:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-03-08 22:10:01 UTC

That First Book

Ponyville prides itself on its humble, quaint persona. In fact, it's often been observed that it's so humble and quaint, it's the only town in Equestria where the local Princess answers her own front door!

Which... is true. Now and then. When she's not too snowed under with Princessy stuff... which seems to be happening a lot, lately. But a Princess has gotta do what a Princess has gotta do, right? Anyway. Where was I?

Twilight Sparkle -- uh, no relation -- was on her way to the map room in her castle when she heard a knock at the front door. Knowing Spike was still occupied upstairs with his morning cleaning work, she trotted over and opened the doors herself.

She blinked, and stared. "Mom?"

"Surprise, honey!" Twilight Velvet smiled back at her.

"Wow! What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was on my way back to Canterlot from a book-signing in Las Pegasus. And since I was passing through, I asked the conductor to let me hop off here so I could pop in and say hi!" She suddenly looked nervous. "I mean, if that's all right? If you're not too busy. Should I have made an appointment for a royal audience, or something like that? I can come back."

"Mom! Are you crazy?" They hugged. "I always have time for you. Come right in! We'll have a nice, pleasant visit."

Twilight led the way into a small side-room that she'd outfitted as an emergency audience chamber. Which basically meant it had a comfy couch and chairs, plus a tea service and cookie tin. The teapot was kept piping hot via a built-in stasis spell. I know... convenient, right?

"So, how've you been doing?" Twilight asked, using her magic to pour out. "How did the signing go?"

"Wonderful!" Velvet put a hoof to her horn and feigned weariness. "Writer's horn like you wouldn't believe! But it was worth it. I get such a charge out of meeting all the ponies who've read my books."

"And how's Dad?"

"He's doing well. Away on business again. Honestly, I thought once he made partner he'd be able to dial it back a hair. But nope! He feels he's the face of the firm now, so he's got to be out there, hooves-on, keeping an eye on things."

"That sounds like Dad," Twilight agreed. "I take after him a lot."

They chatted for a while about inconsequential things, and as usually happens, that turned into reminiscing. And then looking at old pictures. Twilight brought out a battered photo album and they both leafed through it.

By chance they started at the end of the album, and worked backwards. It was like reverse time-travel: the initial class photo of the Friendship School, the unfortunate "vacation" aboard Iron Will's cruise zeppelin, Flurry Heart's crystalling ceremony and baby pictures, Twilight's coronation as Princess, the wedding of Cadance and Shining Armor, Twilight's time at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, the day when Twilight got her cutie-mark... and then further back.

"You know, I've always loved this one," Velvet said, pointing. "You sitting there at the kitchen table, surrounded by your books, studying. I always felt a little guilty, like I should make you go outside and play more. But you were so happy, so busy, I just didn't want to intrude. Oh..." She pointed to another picture. "But I love this one even more. Look at you! Asleep in bed, with Smarty Pants keeping you company." Velvet looked up at Twilight, a crinkly look in her eyes. "You know, that was the only time I ever saw you totally relaxed. You were always so hyper, when you weren't busy reading."

"I know!" Twilight giggled. "Was there a cushion in the house I didn't bounce on at least once?"

"I think there was one up in the attic, with a broken spring... so that doesn't count, right? Oh my word, I was so relieved when you learned to do that Catch-Me spell. It meant I could stop having heart attacks whenever you fell off something."

"Woah, Catch Me!" Twilight cried, tossing herself off the couch and snagging herself in midair with her gleaming horn. "See? It still works!" Lowering herself to her hooves, she sat down again. "But what I loved was how you and Dad used to read to me at night, to help me fall asleep."

"We had to, darling," Velvet said with a knowing smirk. "If we didn't watch you like a griffon until you zonked out, you'd have been reading under the covers."

Twilight returned the smirk. "I sometimes still did! But I got better..."

"... at hiding it!"

Twilight laughed at that, a little guiltily. Seriously, I should have known better. Mom never misses a trick!

"I remember that one." Velvet tapped a picture of Twilight, tucked up in her bed with Smarty Pants at her elbow, and Velvet herself sitting next to the bed with a book in her forehooves. In the picture Velvet had a particularly funny expression on her face: her head tilted to one side, a puzzled look in her eyes, her mouth contorted in an uncomfortable-looking position. And Twilight's eyes were shut tight, her mouth wide open, laughing her tiny head off.

"I didn't even know your father was standing at the door with the camera, until I heard the shutter click." Velvet shook her head. "That pony... I could've killed him at the time. But if he hadn't, we wouldn't have this wonderful picture to remember it by."

"Wow... that does bring back memories," Twilight said fondly.

And then she froze, an uncertain look on her face.

"Is something wrong, sweetheart?" Velvet asked.

Twilight looked up at her. "Huh? Oh... nothing. Just remembered something I need to look into... later. Heh, Princess stuff. You know!" She tapped her head. "I'll just add it to the list. Oh! Hey, I'd forgotten all about this one... when did we visit Haywaii?"

They continued looking through the pictures. But Twilight's heart wasn't entirely in it any longer.

Because something was definitely wrong.

She didn't know where it was... that first book...

There was one sound that always made Spike cringe. One sound among all others in the world...

...the sound of a book hitting the floor.

Because it never happened just once. It was always followed by another, and then two more, and then a whole bunch of hardback covers slapping onto the tiles. It meant Twilight was looking for something again. And aside from the hassle of helping get all the books back in order on the shelves again, there'd be an even more difficult problem...

... getting Twilight herself to stop freaking out about whatever it was she was freaking out about.

Hey, I'm not gonna sugar-coat it. Twilight said we should be honest here. And you've never seen a freak-out until you've seen a Princess freak-out. Sheesh! Anyway, back to business...

Spike peered through the door of the map room. And ducked as a large volume sailed over his head and landed in the hallway outside.

"No!" Twilight muttered anxiously. "No, no, no! Where did I put it last! Urrhhhh!"

"Uh, Twilight? Is something wrong?"

"No! Nothing's wrong. Nothing at all! Why would anything be wrong?"

Another half-dozen books swept past her face in her magic, and then were dumped on the floor.

"Goin' out on a limb here, but... we're missing a book?"

"Yes! No! Not if I can help it!" Twilight rapidly skimmed through the shelves in the next bookcase. Her dark blue hair was frazzled, her eyes wide and staring, her horn blazing as she snatched books from the shelves, eyed them, and then dropped them.

"You... gonna give me a clue here? Or should I just start yanking books off the shelf at random, to keep you company?"

"No time! Arghhh! It's not in here!"

Wheeling about, she dashed out of the room and upstairs, taking an increasing number of steps at a time. Spike followed cautiously, and found her in her room, nervously scanning the shelves of her private collection. Then she flung open the closet and began ransacking shelves and boxes.

"Twilight?" Spike said, cautiously. "Could ya please throw me a bone here? What's the matter?"

"Spike!" She swung on him. "I can't have lost it! I just can't! It means too much to me!"

"Okay, okay!" He put up his claws, soothingly. "Whatever it is, we'll find it. You know I'll help. Uh, can you at least tell me what it is?"

Twilight paused, and then sat down, looking embarrassed.

"You're gonna think it's silly, Spike."

"Who me? A baby dragon raised by ponies, who reads comic books and GM's fantasy role-playing adventures, who likes cupcakes with little gemstone sprinkles, and dances the Macarena when you're not looking?" Spike grinned. "I made that last part up, by the way."

Twilight, calming down a little, smiled back at him. "It's a book, Spike."

"Yeah, that much I got. Which book?"

She sighed. "When I was little... I mean, even before you, Spike..."

"Wow, ancient history..."

"Spike!"

"Sorry. Go on."

"My mother used to read to me at night. And there was this one special book she read to me from..." Her eyes suddenly welled up, her voice rose to a shout. "It was the first book she really read to me! And now I can't find it!"

"Uh..."

"Spike! What if it was still in the Golden Oak library when Tirek destroyed it? What if it went up in smoke, like all the others? What if it's simply gone, forever!"

Spike blinked. "Hold on. Back up a sec. How can you even remember that far back? And didn't your mom read lots of books to you?"

"Sure, Mom and Dad both read me books," Twilight said. "To pacify me and to educate me. But there was this one book in particular. It was the first book Mom read to me specifically. It was always kind of special in a way."

"Okay. Special book. Gotta find it. No problem! That's why I'm Number One Assistant around here. So, what's it called? Who's it by?"

Twilight stared at him sadly.

"I don't remember."

"You're kidding me, right? The most important book in the whole wide world... and you don't remember who wrote it?"

She shrugged. "It was always just that book to me. I knew what it looked like whenever I came across it on the shelves. I didn't even really think about it all that much over the years, because it was always just there. It's like asking who built the house you grew up in. Who bothers to learn something like that? It's always just... home, you know?"

"I hear ya..." Spike nodded. "I think. Well, that is gonna make the search a little harder. But we'll find it, Twi. I promise!"

Spike managed to get a description of the book out of her. You know, the basic particulars: size, shape, color of binding and lettering. And that it was a book of spells. Which could have been a clue... except Twilight was the Princess of Friendship Magic.

Needle in a haystack? Yeah, tell me about it!

A top-to-bottom search of the castle turned up nothing. Grasping at straws to keep Twilight from imploding, Spike thought fast.

"Well, look, Twi... you know we've sometimes donated boxes of books to other libraries. Maybe that book wound up in one of the boxes?"

Twilight jumped on the idea. And ran out of the door so fast that Spike almost lost track of her too. Heh. Just kidding. By now I've learned to anticipate when the chase music should start. Movin' right along...

They hunted through the stacks at the Ponyville town library. And then not wanting to wait for the train, Twilight took wing and flew all the way to Canterlot, with Spike desperately struggling to keep up on his own relatively new wings.

They checked Canterlot's public library, and came up with nothing. And then Twilight took a deep breath and dove into the Archives. That was sheer torture: she had to maintain a calm, professional demeanor the entire time, and remember not to scream, because it tended to annoy the research ponies.

"Okay," Spike said, when they paused for a late afternoon snack at a local cafe, "I know it doesn't look promising. But we'll keep looking. And maybe you could ask the other Princesses for help? I mean, it's a long shot, but maybe they..."

"Cadance!" Twilight said. "The Crystal Empire!"

She jumped up from the table, fired up her horn, and in a flash of teleportation, vanished.

"Or... we could just do that..."

Spike paused for a moment, glancing around. Then he stood up too and waited patiently, counting under his breath.

In a flash, Twilight reappeared in midair, flapping her wings. One of her forehooves snagged Spike's arm. In another flash, they'd both disappeared.

Princess Cadance, in assuming the throne of the returned Crystal Empire, quickly established a number of informal standing orders for the care and preservation of her citizens' sanity. Chief among these was a very important rule: if a certain lavender alicorn should appear out of nowhere and demand to search your library's holdings, get out of her way and don't ask silly questions. And then alert Princess Cadance as soon as possible.

Well... I didn't phrase it exactly like that. But that's the general idea. I know Twilight, and as the Princess of Impending Disaster -- as we sometimes jokingly refer to her -- she well-merits having such a rule in place.

Sorry... got to remember to stay in authorial voice here...

Cadance quietly stepped into the returns room, and looked around. She saw no one but Spike, standing in the middle of the room next to one of the large rolling book bins. Cadance smiled welcomingly at him, and then she pointedly looked around, raising her eyebrows.

Spike jerked a thumb at the bin... just as a book was pitched out of it, nearly braining him.

"Spike..." Twilight called, a little muffled, "would you go ask the palace staff if we can have a room here for the night? This is gonna take a while!"

"Already taken care of," Cadance called. "I'd heard you were in town, Twilight. And I've reopened that little tower garret you're so fond of."

There was silence, and then the sounds of a struggle and a hurried sloughing of books. Twilight appeared, forehooves hooked over the edge of the bin, a sheepish look on her face.

"Hi, Cadance. Sorry about this. Got a little carried away."

"In a library? This is news?" Cadance came over to give her a welcoming hug. "And you don't need an excuse, Twilight. You know that. But what's the rush? And how can I help?"

Twilight looked down, and made a face.

"It's stupid..."

"It is not," Cadance replied firmly, putting a hoof to Twilight's chin and lifting it up. "It clearly matters to you. So... out with it."

"Well..."

"Oh, come on, already!" Spike rolled his eyes. "It's like this, m'lady. Twilight thinks she's lost this book that her mother used to read to her. She doesn't remember the title or the author, just what it looked like. Which is making it kinda hard to find."

"Spike! Uh... well, yeah, that's about the size of it, Cadance."

"It's really important to her," Spike added. "We've been hunting all over the place for it. No dice."

"I see!" Cadance nodded. "And Twilight, I completely understand. This is a personal matter, so we'll keep it on that basis. And if there's anything I can do to help, I will."

Twilight smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Cadance!"

"Not a problem." Cadance gave her a thoughtful look. "Now, just so I have the whole picture... Twilight, would you tell me please, what makes this book so special?"

"Well... it was when I was real young..."

You have to understand that Twilight Velvet... well, she's an author herself. So she can be a little choosy, simply out of a sense of professional pride. Being a picky reader kind of comes with the territory. I mean, all those historical romances aren't going to read themselves, right?

And when it comes to reading stories to her own, precious Twilight... well, she wanted nothing but the best! The stories that Velvet herself grew up on, the ones that lit up her eyes, made her see writing for what it is: a magic mirror, on the other side of which is an entire hidden world. Which, when you take a closer look at it, turns out to be the best part of yourself welcoming you home. And there's just something so satisfying about that, isn't there?

Ahem. Got a little off track there. Right... where were we?

Now, Night Light had just closed a deal with the firm's biggest account. He was really getting noticed! So of course, the firm had to send him off to handle the initial audit for their newest client... which meant he'd be away for a couple weeks at least. But Velvet wasn't worried about that. She was ready to step right up and take care of things.

Including reading to Twilight at bedtime. Which was going to be a challenge.

You see, Twilight was at that age when everything needs to be just so. Don't tell anyone, but sometimes I think she's never grown out of it! Anyway, the task of Reading at Bedtime was clearly Night Light's role at the moment. Velvet hadn't minded so much... after all, there were plenty of other special things for which she was the on-call parent. But with Night Light away, that meant Velvet needed to fill in.

And she was determined to start off with a bang.

So she brought out the big guns: the Equestrian Fairy Tales and Myths volume that her mother used to read out of. Nine hundred pages, and it just felt authoritative. Sitting there with the thing open on your lap, you felt like you were ready to tell a story for the ages.

And truth be told, it started out well. Twilight was snugly tucked up in bed, cuddling Smarty Pants with a hoof. She lay there, wide-eyed, listening attentively as Velvet opened the huge book, turned to the story she'd marked, and started reading.

But after a while, Velvet started to feel uncomfortable. Twilight was looking, well... bored, frankly. The filly fidgeted, her gaze wandered. She toyed with one of Smarty Pants' button eyes.

"Is something the matter, honey?"

"No."

"I mean, you like the story, don't you?"

"It's okay."

"Now, Twilight, darling. If you'd like to hear a different fairy tale, that's perfectly fine. What kind of story would you like to hear instead?"

"Umm..."

"Twilight?"

"Well... I've already read them all."

"Oh!" Velvet's eyes went wide. "Really?"

"Uh huh. And they're, well... kind of predictable."

"Predictable?"

"Yeah." Twilight's small hoof patted the covers as she enumerated. "If it's two young foals, the zebra enchantress ends up in the oven. If it's a filly with a wicked stepmother, she loses a shoe at midnight. If it's a beggar foal, he finds a lamp, and gets three wishes. Or else there's a cave, and the password is 'open sesame'. If there's a beanstalk, the giant centaur smacks into the ground, forming the Celestia Sea. If there's a well, it takes them for-ev-er to get there. And if there's a spinning wheel, everypony falls asleep until the prince kisses the princess."

She paused, screwing up her tiny face. "Yuck, by the way!"

Then she went on. "I do kinda like the one with the fisher-pony and the genie in the bottle. The genie is fun, he gets all scary." She raised her hooves and made a hideous face. "You may choose the manner of your death! Heh heh heh!"

"Um. Yes. Well." Velvet felt at a bit of a loss. She looked down at the enormous volume before her. All the stories in it were a little predictable, when you put it like that. I mean, to be satisfying, they had to have some kind of solid, reassuring conclusion. Well, really, it was part of the entire hero's journey paradigm, wasn't it?

But... never let it be said an author doesn't rise to the challenge. It's simply a matter of understanding the market, getting a bead on what's appealing, and putting your best hoof forward.

"All right, sweetie. What does your father usually read to you?"

"Oh! We read the encyclopedia!"

"The... encyclopedia," Velvet echoed, a little hollowly.

"Uh huh! We're almost finished with Jag to Kek. It's... kinda weird. You never know what the next article's gonna be about!"

"I imagine it would be." Hurriedly, Velvet looked for an out. "Well... I wouldn't want the two of you to lose your place. So, what should we read instead?"

Twilight immediately shoved back the covers, hopped out of the bed, and went over to the bookcase. She tugged out a slim volume with a scrollwork-inlaid cover, and brought it over.

Velvet examined it worriedly, as Twilight clambered back into bed and tucked herself in again.

It was a book of spells for foals, by some no-name arcanist. Velvet opened it, and gently turned the yellowed pages. It was as dusty, dry, and staid a work as she'd imagined. Just one spell after another, laid out like bicycle instructions, in faded wood-block print and tongue-twisting Latinate prose.

She felt Twilight eyeing her a little uncertainly, worried that her mother didn't approve of her choice of reading material.

To cover her discomfort, Velvet tapped the pages. "Are you sure this is safe, honey? Reading aloud from a spell-book? I mean, we're not going to accidentally set the house on fire or open a dread portal to Tartarus or something, are we?"

Twilight shook her head. "They're little-foal spells, so they have trigger phrases. Those are always on the next page, so you can't read 'em by accident. And the spell doesn't even charge up in the first place if you don't have your horn on." She tapped her own stubby horn.

"Ah. Well, then." Steeling herself, Velvet turned back to the beginning, to the first spell. Reading it over in her head, working her way through the complicated, dusty-sounding text, she realized that despite appearances there was a certain, well... almost poetic quality to it. If you looked hard, you could find a rhythm to it.

"Okay, so here goes..."

Est nomen meum pie rosea.
Et adsum ad dices:
Ego sum iens ad te ridere, et in die
perspicuus sursum vestri!

She realized Twilight was giving her a look. You know the one, the oh-how-do-I-put-this-Mother-you're-full-of-it look. Oh yes, any parent gets that look from time to time. And you can't take offense from it. If you're smart, in fact, you learn from it.

"Is... something wrong, Twilight?"

"That's not how it goes," Twilight declared firmly. "All bouncy and smiley like that. It's a spell, Mom! You have to say it serious-like. You know, the way Star Swirl the Bearded would. Spell-language is structured. It's like a house of cards, but made out of words. You need to get 'em all just right, or it doesn't work."

Reaching out, she pointed a hoof at the page, tapping along as she intoned the words in her small voice:

Si definias munus, quod facit recursa munus argumentum transierunt ipsa est ejus. Hoc munus et munus accipit, et refert recursa fixo proportionatas punctus.

Et hoc est notum quod recursa combinatorus.

Despite herself, Velvet was proud, listening to her daughter's clear, ringing pronunciation, her fearless march through the spell's tangled thicket of verbiage. To Velvet's ear, it still sounded like reading a book of cake recipes written in Vulgar Latin. But maybe that was the point. Despite Twilight's young years, she had a highly rational, highly ordered mind. And maybe rationality and structure itself was a comfort to a mind like that.

Yielding to the inevitable, Velvet settled herself comfortably, cleared her throat, put her eyes on the first word of the spell, and started working her way through it. It was rough going. She often had to pause and really think about the next word, because nothing seemed to follow the normal, natural flow of regular speech. In fact, it often felt like the spell deliberately went in a direction ordinary speech simply wouldn't.

She moved onto the next spell. And the next. And it gradually got a little easier, once she got into the swing of it. She started to recognize patterns of structure in the prose, because they were there, again and again. Little idioms of phrasing that kept popping up. Eventually it became a kind of game, trying to stay just far enough ahead of the text so she could keep rattling it off without pause, sternly and confidently.

And whenever she glanced up at Twilight, she saw the lavender filly was laying back on her pillow, eyes blissfully shut. Her small forehoof swung back and forth, as if she was directing a recitation. Gradually, the hoof sank lower and lower, until it finally settled onto the covers. And Twilight gently snored, quietly asleep and utterly contented.

Velvet sighed. That look on Twilight's face...

... that was all the encouragement she needed to keep going.

A couple weeks passed. When Night Light finally returned home a day early, he immediately went to the door of Twilight's room. And stopped. And hurried to get the camera. He came back, and managed to snap one picture before Twilight's eyes sprang open and she noticed him standing there.

"Daddy!"

"Hey, Button! What have you and Mommy been reading about, huh?"

Twilight Velvet brushed back her purple-and-white locks, and eyed him sternly. "About something called the recursive combinator," she said in an arch tone. "And I'll thank you to go hang up that coat and leave us to it."

Night Light managed to stifle a laugh, yet couldn't hide the smile as he checked the camera and then went to put his coat away.

Twilight Velvet sighed, unable to really be angry with him. Some moments were just too priceless to let slip away...

Princess Cadance paused to put a comforting hoof around Twilight's shoulders, as they climbed the stairs to Twilight's garret guest-room. Celestia only knows why Twilight prefers living at the tops of towers, but who am I to judge? Oops... I mean, who was Princess Cadance to judge?

"I understand, Twilight," she said. "And I see why it matters so much. You're not really worried that the book's content has been lost. After all, most books today are printed in multiple copies; even if one was destroyed, there would always be others."

Twilight sighed. "You're right, Cadance. I'm worried that book has been lost. The specific one Mom read to me."

"And," Cadance added gently, "if I might further suggest, it's not even that book itself, right?"

Twilight thought about it. "You're absolutely right. Sitting and chatting with Mom, thinking back to when I was little... it made me realize how little time Mom and I have spent together lately. How little we've seen of each other..."

"And you're worried that was slipping away... the connection with your parents, and by extension the memories of your own childhood."

"I've just gotten so busy..." Twilight grumbled, as they resumed climbing the stairs. "With Princess stuff... and Friendship School stuff... and the occasional Changeling invasion or power-mad lunatic trying to take over Equestria..."

"We're lucky we have you, Twilight. Whatever would we do without our go-to Princess for saving the world from conquest and utter destruction?"

"Thanks... uh, I guess. But what I was really worried about was that one day I'd look back... and find it was gone, that the memories had slipped my mind completely."

"You don't have to worry about that. We'll all keep reminding you."

Twilight sighed. "I really let my worries run wild again, didn't I? I'm sorry! It's so stupid of me! Worrying about some old book."

"It absolutely is not," Cadance reminded her. "It's what matters to you, Twilight. And that should never be taken lightly. Now, come on... I want you to see something..."

They reached the tower room, which had been made ready. The bed was made, the pillows fluffed, the balcony windows flung open to let in the cool breeze. And next to the bed, there was a bookcase, chock-full of books.

And as they got closer, Twilight recognized them. They were all books from her childhood. Old storybooks, picture-books, puzzle-books, and yes, even a number of foal-level spell-books.

"You remember you gave me a box of old books once? To help stock the young foal's section of our library? I recognized some of them from times when you and I read together, after you came to Celestia's School. So I kept them tucked safe away, with orders that they be stocked on the shelf in your room whenever you came to visit. And here they are. And..." Her hoof traced along the titles on a shelf. "Uh huh... here. Is this it?"

Her magic tugged out a book and placed it in Twilight's hooves. Twilight stared at the cover.

Foal's Grimoire, Volume III, by Grindle the Learned.

It was nearly the right size and shape, nearly the right color lettering. Even, when she flipped it open, nearly the right staid, rather academic listing of spells, one after the other.

But Cadance could see that Twilight wasn't sure. It didn't ring a bell as that book to her. Maybe it was the right book, just a different printing or edition. And maybe it wasn't... maybe it was some other book entirely.

"I don't know," Twilight finally said. "It's real close, but I'm not certain."

"Well, why don't we give it a test-drive, just to be sure?"

Cadance took the book from her, opened it to a random page.

And started reading the spells. One after another. Just the way they should be incanted: seriously, confidently, bringing out their ringing logicality and sonorous power.

And Twilight was entranced. A familiar, comfortable smile crept onto her face.

It might not have been the same book. But it was that book, all the same.

Cadance paused, smiling at her. "You think I wasn't paying attention, those times I walked you home from the School to spend a weekend with your parents? When your parents tucked you in, and your mother read to you? I remember how happy you looked, Twilight. And I knew exactly why it was: because you felt someone was listening to who you were, as an individual, as a pony. Listening to what it was that mattered most to you. And then giving that right back to you... letting you know that it mattered to them, too."

Twilight snuffled, just a little.

"You were a great foal-sitter, Cadance!"

Cadance shook her head. "Uh uh! I was a great observer. You had a great mother... I just followed her example!" Then Cadance smiled in amusement. "I mean, any mother who'd willingly sit there for hours, reading dusty old spell-books to her daughter, just to get her to go to sleep at night... well, all I'll say is..."

She leaned close to whisper: "... she's a keeper!"

The two of them giggled at that.

O-kay... it's clear you three have been having way too much fun at my expense. But hey, I wanted to get this all down on paper, so I guess it's my own fault for asking.

And reading it over, I'm really glad I asked. So let's wrap it up here.

Twilight Velvet was busily scribbling away at her latest page-turner, hot on the trail of Princess Platinum as she maneuvered her way to influence and authority in the Unicorn Kingdom of the pre-unification era. And yes, Mom, I know you like to throw in all the details about clothing styles, mores, and culture of the period. But that's the gist of the plot, when you get right down to it.

Anyway, she looked up when Night Light strolled into the room. "Mail's here!" he called, dropping a parcel and a few letters on her desk.

Curious, Velvet took up the parcel in her magic and unwrapped it. Inside, there was a book. A heavy, twelve-hundred page volume:

Equestrian Fairy Tales, Pony Tales, and Myths
Edited by HRH The Princess Twilight Sparkle

Along with the book, there was a note:

Dear Mom --

Thanks ever so much for reading me the books I liked as a foal. This is just by way of letting you know, the books you wanted to read to me then are cool too!

Love,
Twilight Sparkle

Velvet stared from the book to the letter, overcome.

"You're welcome, Twilight," she finally said.

The End

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, its characters and indicia are the property of Hasbro.
No infringement is intended. This story is a work of fan fiction, written by fans for fans of the series.