Login

Nyx's Family

by RealityCheck

Chapter 1

Load Full Story Next Chapter
Chapter 1

       Twilight dashed back and forth through the library, frantically trying to organize twenty different things simultaneously, with Spike alternately dogging at her heels and running off in his own direction. She was in her default mode: frantic. Things were so urgent that she and Spike both had their own checklists and were running amuck trying to check them off. Peewee had given up on following either and was whirling around in a circle overhead, cheeping in excitement.

"Posted the "CLOSED" sign, check--"

"Packed 'An Abridged Guide to the Dewhoof Decimal System,' check--"

"Shut off the gas and water, check--"

"Business suit for official meetings, check--"

"Cancelled the milk delivery, check--"

"Extra extra quills, extra extra parchment, check--"

"Attic window open for Owlowiscious, check--"

"Snacks and munchies for train ride, check--"

Nyx stood in the middle of the room, watching them both trotting back and forth. "We're going to the Crystal Empire!" She said for what had to be the hundredth time.

"Why do you keep saying that?" Spike groused irritably as he ran past,  his arms loaded with--- Nyx wasn't sure what.

"Because it's exciting!" Nyx squeaked. "I've never been to the Crystal Empire before!" Which was more than obviously true. She'd read the few books in the library about the wondrous sparkling kingdom, and listened to Twilight tell her stories about the time she and her friends went there to defeat King Sombra. When Twilight had told her they were actually going there.... well, she'd flipped with glee.

Spike just rolled his eyes and decided to focus on his work.

"Nyx, why haven't you started packing your things yet?" Twilight said as she ran past in the opposite direction.

Nyx looked down at the bag next to her. Her brush and comb, her toothbrush, her towel(1), three extra vests just in case, her favorite book, her journal, her cutie mark crusader cape (2), her summer dress, her winter coat and boots(?), her Smarty Pants doll.... Yup, all packed. "Right here," she said, pointing.

"When did you pack that?" Twilight stopped and asked.

"Three days ago!" No lie; she'd even slept with the bulging bag next to her, in case something happened and they had to leave right then, in the dead of night.

"Spike," Twilight said over her shoulder, "You did go over what Nyx packed, didn't you?"

Spike huffed. "She's old enough to pack her own bag," he said dismissively, scowling.

"Darn it, Spike, you and she were supposed to make a checklist of things she had to pack!" Twilight huffed. Spike grumbled and shot a look at Nyx. Nyx seemed a little cowed by it, drawing her hoof up and scratching the back of her leg. "'I'm sorry, Mom," the alicorn filly said.

Twilight frowned to herself. What was that all about? Lately Spike seemed a bit, pardon the pun, prickly around Nyx. And Nyx seemed to be a touch intimidated by it. Were they having a problem? She hoped it wasn't that sibling rivalry thing she'd read about in the books on parenting.

Twilight gave up and let it slide. She gave the contents of Nyx's bag the once-over. Well, everything seemed to be in order. Then she gave her daughter the once over. "....What is that you're wearing?" she asked.

"Sunglasses," Nyx said. "Twist loaned them to me. Cool, huh?"

Twilight cocked an eyebrow. "Um, yeah," she said, regarding the shades. They were enormous, horn rimmed things that nearly covered Nyx's entire face. "The rhinestones are a bit much though. Why are you wearing them, anyway?"

Nyx shrugged and fidgeted a little. "I... know some ponies are kinda weird about my eyes," she admitted, corner of her mouth twitching. Her memory flashed back to the sight of the Cake twins seeing her without her eye-disguising glasses for the first time and wailing in fear. That had been no fun. "My old glasses are gone, so I figured sunglasses were better than nothing."

Twilight smiled in sympathy. All things considered, it probably would make things a little easier, especially around strange ponies. "Well, if they make you more comfortable, go ahead and wear them," she said.

"Oh!" Nyx jumped to her feet and ran from the room. When she came back in Twilight burst into laughter. "And what in Equestria is that?" she said. Nyx was now wearing an enormous floppy sun hat with a flamboyant purple silk florette. The hat was so large it could have been stood on stilts and served the filly as a lean-to.

"Rarity said it goes with the glasses!" she said, cheerfully plunking down on her bottom  next to her luggage. "She said if I wore it, it would keep somepony from looking like a tourist." Peewee landed on it and began marching around the brim.

Twilight didn't even bother trying to restrain her giggles. "How? That is the most touristy looking hat I've ever seen. It looks like it lurks in tourist traps and mugs tropical cruise passengers for their money!"

"She didn't say it would keep Nyx from looking like a tourist," Spike said drolly. "Rarity gave it to Nyx to keep her own mother from wearing it."

Twilight giggled. "I have no idea what to say to that." She quickly trotted around the pile of luggage that they had accumulated. She looked at Spike. "Your checklist done?"

"Check." Spike nodded.

Twilight perused her own. "My checklist done? Ah, check, all except for one last item." She stepped back from the pile of luggage and lowered her horn. The entire heap became surrounded in a rippling purple glow. Twilight strained silently for several seconds, thirty seconds, a minute; then, with a sound that could only be described as

SMEEeerp!

The pony-high pile of suitcases and bags suddenly shrank to doll size. "Cool!" Spike and Nyx said, stepping forward to look at the shrinkified luggage. Twilight scooped the tiny stack up in her magic and dropped them into her saddlebag.

"Whew," she said. "That shrinking spell is the best spell I've learned yet. But boy does it take it out of you." She buckled her saddlebag. "well, is everyone ready?"

Heartfelt "yays" went up from the rest of the family.


They arrived at the train station in plenty of time, and took their seats in a private car (rank hath its privileges, after all, even in the Land of Friendship.) An hour on their way they had all settled in quite comfortably, much to Twilight's relief. It hadn't taken her long to discover the perils of traveling with children. Spike had been a handful when he was younger, and a couple of trips to Canterlot with Nyx had reinforced the lessons she'd learned the first time. Granted, her new daughter didn't breathe fire on anything or 'accidentally' eat some noblepony's jewelry. Anyway, Nyx seemed quite happy to settle down in the clacking train car and peacefully burrow into a book.

If anything the trip from the library to the train station had been more trying for the filly. At home, or close by her friends in the CMC, she was the same sweet, exuberant, intelligent filly Twilight had always known. When they went out in public among strangers though, she tended to become quiet and withdrawn, speaking little, avoiding eye contact with anyone, and staying close by Twilight's side. The trip to the station had been no different. The instant she was outside she had fallen quiet and kept her head down, only speaking up whenever Twilight tarried to speak with somepony, quietly asking if they could hurry up and get to the station.

Twilight looked over her own book at Nyx. The filly was sitting there alternating between reading and playing with Peewee, who was hopping back and forth on top of her book and pecking at the pages. Twilight fretted. She hoped Nyx wasn't becoming an introvert... just look at the problems it had caused Twilight.

Nyx finally seemed to tire of the game of pick-the-page she was playing with the little phoenix and closed the book. "Mom?" she said. "I don't get it. Why do they need you to fix up the library in the Crystal Capital? Don't they have librarians of their own?"

Spike looked up from his snack of amethyst chips. "I've kinda been wondering about that myself," he said.

Twilight settled in to explain. "It's a little more complicated than that, " she said. "The library itself is in pretty good shape, actually. Because they traveled through time a thousand years, In fact, it's probably got hundreds or thousands of books that haven't been seen in centuries. And just-like-new copies, too."

Nyx oohhed. "But don't we have new books that they've never seen yet?"

Twilight nodded. "That's why Princess Celestia and Princess Cadence want to set up a book exchange between the two," she said. "So they need me to organize the exchange system." Her smile grew a little pained. "And... to help update their filing system..."

"What, didn't they use the Dewhoof Decimal system a thousand-plus years ago?" Spike chuckled.

Twilight gave him a look. "Short answer, no. They didn't. But that's not the real problem." She sighed. "Spike, you remember how much trouble we had finding that book on the Crystal Fair?"

Spike nodded. "Yeah, it was a mess. And that librarian was no help at all with her memory erased."

"It wasn't just her memory that was messed up," Twilight said. "King Sombra didn't want to destroy the library. He might have wanted to use the books himself." She snorted. "But he didn't want any of the Crystal Ponies using what was in the library against him, so he made it impossible for anypony to find anything except for him."

"What'd he do?" Nyx asked.

"He burned their card catalog," Twilight said dully.

Spike gasped like he was having a heart attack. Nightmare visions flashed through his mind of slaving for all eternity as a librarian in an endless library with shelves jumbled into incomprehensibility by a malevolent tyrant-- and no card catalog. "The horror," he moaned.

Twilight noticed his reaction and nodded. "I know, right?"

"So you gotta help them make a new card catalog?" Nyx said.

"I have to help them make a whole new kind of card catalog," Twilight said, holding up her "Dewhoof Decimal for Dummies" book. "Fortunately we'll have lots and lots of ponies to help with that. But it means I'm going to be spending all day, every day, at the Crystal Capital library. So you'll be staying with your aunt and uncle while I'm working."

Nyx, to her surprise, looked disappointed. "But I wanted to go to the crystal library with you," she said plaintively.

Twilight shook her head. "It's going to be a busy place, Nyx," she said. "And there's not much for a little filly to be doing there."

"Yeah," Spike said. "Besides, you don't need to be under everypony's hooves, anyway."

Twilight winced inwardly and quietly sighed. Why'd you have to use just those words, Spike? Nyx's lower lip stuck out and she scowled; Twilight realized there was a serious threat that the filly was about to throw a tantrum. Ever since--- well, "ever since" seemed to sum it up--- Nyx had developed a bit of a bad temper, and it could flare up at the worst moments. Twilight found she had to be on guard to snuff those bad moments out. "Tuck that lip in, young lady," she warned. "I won't have you throwing any little fits on this trip." Nyx pouted, but she relented, her imminent tantrum turning into a sulk. "Really, Nyx, it wouldn't be much fun for you anyway. We're going to be doing nothing but stacking books, sorting books, filing books, and having meetings TALKING about stacking, sorting and filing books."

"Try not to make it sound too exciting," Spike said, resting his chin in his hand. The more Twilight talked, the less he was looking forward to the end of this trip.

"Besides, I want you to take this time to get to know your aunt and uncle better," Twilight said. "You have a whole family you haven't even met yet."

Nyx's sulk faded away. "Do you think they'll like me?" she asked.

And there's the rub, Twilight thought. "You'll grow on them," she said confidently. Nyx seemed to accept that.

The trip took a day or two-- it was as far to the Crystal Empire from Ponyville as it was from Ponyville to Appleoosa. Every hour the countryside outside got colder and whiter. Nyx had gaped in awe at snow falling in mid June. By the time they finally arrived, the train was passing between snowdrifts as high as the bottom of the windows.

Their disembarking was thankfully more civilized than the last time Twilight had visited. Since Sombra's defeat, the Crystal ponies had been putting efforts into making a proper arrival point for those coming to the empire. Something of a small outlying village had sprung up next to the tracks. They got out of the train, bundled in their winter coats, and found themselves in a proper railway station, just like at home.

Well, not exactly like home. "It all looks like ice!" Nyx exclaimed.

It did, actually. The buildings around the Crystal Empire junction (as the sign proclaimed it) were made of sheets and pillars of gleaming crystal that shone blinding white under the wintry sun. It was dazzlingly pretty, in a rather unforgiving way. Nyx stepped forward, stumbling a little as she squinted against the glare. "It's too bright," she complained.

"Well put on your sunglasses then," Spike said.

"Oh yeah," Nyx mumbled. She fished them out of her coat pocket and donned them, sighing in relief as the tinted lenses blotted out the glare. A fluffed-out Peewee peeked from out of her coat hood, his magical flame keeping her cheeks warm. Best, pet, ever.

A winter-clad stallion came trotting up to the platform, pulling an open sleigh. "Ride to the city, folks?" he asked. "Two bits.."

"We'll take it," Twilight said in relief. It was even more bitter cold than she remembered, and she had not been relishing the idea of slogging through who-knew-how-much snow to get to the Crystal City's magic dome. They hopped aboard eagerly.

"Where to?" the sleighpony asked.

"The Crystal palace," Twilight said. With a nod and a shake of his mane, they were off.

The sleigh ride was quick... They arrived at the edge of the dome before they realized it. When they passed through the barrier, the runners of the sleigh magically changed into thin elegant wheels. "Saves a lot of trouble mounting and dismounting at the barrier that way," the sleighpony chuckled.

Immediately they were hit by the balmy warmth inside the dome. They hastily shucked their coats and boots, relishing the sunshine. Nyx kept her sunglasses on, though. Everything was so bright! Gleaming crystal buildings in every color of the rainbow were visible in every direction. Fountains, sculptures, even the street signs were made of shining gems. Spike must be drooling right now, Nyx thought. Even the ponies in the street were sparkling like they were carved out of gemstones. Nyx was starting to have to squint, even with her sunglasses on. She pulled her Tourist Hat out and donned it, trying to fend off some of the excess light.

It was then that she realized that she, Twilight and Spike were all sparkling too! "Ooh, look!" she said, holding out her foreleg to show Twilight her coat. She was twinkling like a polished onyx. Then she looked up and saw Twilight. "Oh, Mommy, your mane!"

"What about it? Is it mussed--?" She reached up and patted it with a hoof self-consciously, only to realize something was different. She blinked in surprise as she caught her reflection in a passing building; somehow her hair had been done up in a very elegant coiffure. "It's so pretty!" Nyx enthused. "Did the crystal magic do that?"

"It must have. I forgot about it doing that, the last time I was here." Twilight brightened. "Ah, we're almost to the palace!"

Nyx blinked. "We're staying at the palace?" she said apprehensively.

The sleighpony laughed. "For a little filly, you don't sound very enthusiastic about staying in a palace," he noted.

Nyx flashed back to the last two palaces in her life--- the Castle of the Sisters, and Nightmare Moon's Castle Nightstone. "I haven't had much luck with palaces," she mumbled.

Twilight chuckled. "Of course we're staying at the palace," she said. "Where would you expect your Aunt Cadence and Uncle Shining Armor?"

"Uncle Shining Armor...?" Some very awful thoughts started percolating in the alicorn filly's head. Up until now, Twilight had only referred to her uncle as "Uncle Shiny." And there were certain details that were kind of fuzzy from when she had been Nightmare Moon--- she hadn't overseen the running of Canterlot herself, after all... but those names-- Cadence and Shining Armor-- were ringing a bell louder and louder in the back of her head. And not a nice bell either. This was more of a razzing buzzer, like on Scootaloo's "Doctor Sawbones" game, the kind you heard when you got something very wrong or had just made a very, very bad mistake.

The carriage pulled up to the front entrance of the palace. And there they were, standing together, waiting for her and her mother: a white unicorn and a pink alicorn, neither of whom looked happy to see her at all. They disembarked, and a hundred unhappy little memories tumbled into place, filling the gaps in the puzzle, as the unicorn stallion  came down the steps to meet them. He glared down at Nyx angrily, looked over at Twilight, and demanded to know:

"And what is she doing here?"

Yup. It was her Aunt Cadence and her Uncle Shiny.  Or more properly, Princess Cadenza, the leader of the rebellion against Nightmare Moon, and her husband, Captain Shining Armor of the Equestrian Royal Guard--- whom she had magically brainwashed and enslaved and sent to arrest and imprison his own wife.

Guess who was coming to dinner.

"Oooooooohhhh horseapples," Nyx whimpered, faceplanting on the royal front steps.


1)A bright purple towel monogrammed with the words "Hoopy Frood." The towel had been a gift from Snails, of all ponies. She had no idea what a Frood was or how it was supposed to be Hoopy, but Snails had assured her that she would always be one if she had it with her.

2)Just in case she met a pony that needed some crusading to get their cutie mark.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2 Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 8 Minutes
Return to Story Description

Login

Facebook
Login with
Facebook:
FiMFetch