Something New in the Wastelands
Some days Twilight Sparkle wondered why she even bothered to stay on Equus anymore. Or for that matter, why she even bothered to stay in this universe at all.
It wasn't like she could leave and be done with this place once and for all.
But a part of her still hoped that good still existed in the ashes of Equestria. Call it spending too much time with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, but Twilight refused to abandon her home.
Even if she had no home now, not anymore. Ponyville was nothing ash on the atomic winds of the Everfree Dust Bowl and Canterlot? She didn't even want to think about what had become of the city of her birth.
Now it was only known as the Alicorn's Dagger, the mountain it had once sat on now barely half the size it had once been. And oh how she hated that name.
In her heart, she may have still been the slightly neurotic unicorn that had first moved to Ponyville all those years ago, but Twilight had long ago grown into and accepted her alicorn nature.
It had taken a trip to another universe, one where she had in fact been born an alicorn, that had helped her grow past her anxiety and fear she still had at the time about her own future.
It was at times like this that she missed going to Princess Celestia for advice, or Luna when she needed a friend. Heck, she'd even take Cadance and Flurry Heart's relentless teasing over the loneliness.
But that wasn't possible now. She still had no idea of where they were, or what had happened to them. She refused to believe they were dead. They were all too good for that.
For the moment though, Twilight was more worried about what lay ahead of her. She had been following this particular group of slavers for a week now. Another day and they would enter the Unicorn Enclave's territory and she would lose the chance to stop them and save as many ponies as she could.
She knew they had ponies in chains with them. When she had gotten close a few days before, she had been able to make out a few. One of them, a heavily pregnant Pegasus mare, looked ready to drop any moment.
Twilight refused to let any filly or colt be born like that. She knew what the Enclave did to newborns or expecting mothers. It disgusted her to no end. Though it was no better than what the Unspeakable King did.
And again, she was struck between the names and activities of Equus in this time to what she knew of the Age of Strife of Terra. It was odd how much was the same between the two universes.
The only good thing she was glad of was that the Ruinous Powers of Chaos did not seem to exist within the Aetherium. Why that was she didn't know, but she was glad for it anyway.
She had enough memories of fighting them once. And that was more than enough for her.
Back to the slavers though. From what she had seen, they were armed well enough to make most think twice about attacking them, or their captives think of escaping into the radwastes.
Twilight had had pimples scarier than them. The real danger though was that they could use them on the ponies she was trying to save, rather than lose them and the payday they represented.
It had happened before. Twilight though would make sure that didn't happen here.
What worried her though was what could have happened recently. She had lost track of them two days ago and had only found their trail again a few hours earlier.
Luckily this group had been easy to track as Twilight came over a small rise, and her heart dropped right out of her at what she saw below.
The slavers sat around a fire, laughing at some joke one of them had told, It was what she didn't see that worried her. There were no ponies in cages. No sign there had ever been any in fact.
Twilight felt her tears gather and fall as he flank fell to the ground with a thump. "No. I'm too late," was all she could whisper.
Why? This wasn't fair. None of this was fair. They didn't deserve to die, so why?
In that moment. her grief turned to anger and then hate. Maybe she was too late to save them.
But she wasn't too late to avenge them. And avenge them she would
***
The fight barely lasted five minutes. And four of those were because Twilight wasn't in the mood to be quick, even though she could have been and had this all over within a minute if she really want to cut loose.
But where was the fun in that? Quick was far more than these scum deserved, so Twilight took her time.
The first thing the slavers had known of her was when she teleported right into their midst. She only spoke one word "Die," and then came nothing but slaughter.
The first fell within seconds, his head imploding with a sickening pop before he toppled. The rest soon sprang into life and had managed to get off a few shots at her.
All rebounded off a shield Twilight had thrown up around herself, a modified version of her brother's Shield Spell. She let it go on for a few minutes before her wings had cut two more in half. Another fell as she bucked her in a way that would've made Applejack proud.
That had done it for the last three who made a run for it. One fell and Twilight trampled him. The other two she gave a thirty-second head start before blowing holes in both of them.
Once the rush had ended, Twilight felt her vomit rise at the sight and smell of what she had just done. No matter what they were. she hated killing now as much as she once had. Her long life had made it easier to do, but never to stomach.
As she poked through the remains of their camp, she felt her anger rise again. No sign of the ponies who had once been here. Just some scraps of clothing and bits and pieces of belongings.
Kicking over the slavers fire, Twilight heard the last thing she had expected. One that made her heart sink all over again in despair.
The cries of a newborn filly.
Following the cries, she rounded what had been the slavers transport and the crying's source. A newborn Pegasus filly sat next to the body of an older mare, pushing and prodding her to get up, to wake. Twilight though could see the truth.
The mare had been dead for days.
It was a miracle then that the filly had been born at all. Judging by her looks, she couldn't have been more than a day or so old.
Questions of why the group had kept her as they had were pushed away for the moment as she looked at the filly more. She looked like Luna had that first morning after Nightmare Moon's return. For a moment Twilight thought she was Luna.
And then Twilight slapped herself upside the head. That wasn't fair to the filly and she felt horrible for even thinking it in the first place. But that still left what happened now.
She would be dead within days if somepony didn't do something. Without her mother, she had no way to feed and Twilight had no way to get her to somepony who could fast enough. Unless she wanted to do it herself of course.
The thought made Twilight blush. She had never been a mother of any kind in her life. Only Cadance had of the five of them. She knew how it all worked of course, but she had never gone through with it.
For the moment though she walked over and bent down so she was eye to eye with the filly. The noise got her attention and she soon turned toward her. Slowly her eyes began to open. They were a beautiful shade of green.
Again Twilight was struck between how much she looked like Luna but quickly squashed that thought as she put on her best smile. "Hello," she whispered.
The filly blinked before she too smiled. Twilight giggled. She reminded her so much of Flurry Heart at this age. But that still left what did she do now.
Twilight blinked. The filly was gone. Where did she go? Before she had a chance to look around, she felt something latch onto her right leg. Looking around, she found the filly holding onto her as if her life depended on it. She had a strong grip too for one so young.
Twilight rolled her eyes a bit as she gave the filly a look. "I guess that means you don't want me to leave and you want to go with me?"
The filly only smiled. Twilight's heart melted at the sight. Even if she wasn't related to her, she couldn't just say no to that face. She never could if somepony did that. Call it a weakness she didn't care.
Twilight smiled as she lifted the filly off her leg and floated her up to eye level. "Well then. Looks like you're coming with me, little one."
The filly smiled wider if possible as she was floated over and settled on Twilight's back. Walking around a bit, she sighed before lying down. She was asleep within a few minutes as Twilight turned to look at her. She already had a name picked out for her. It fit so well too she thought.
"Sleep well, Midnight. I promise. Nothing will happen to you. Not while I still draw breath, and as a Princess of Equestria."
Author's Note
So I decided to make this its own separate story, and not just part of Rise of the Empress. That chapter will be modified for the change that I've done.
Nothing about the plot of the story will change. Just the chapter in question that this first appeared in.
In case you didn't see the original version, Twilight will be Midnight's mother in all ways except having given birth to the filly. Alicorn or not, Twilight is still a mare and therefore has all the tools a mare does.
