Ab Initio-Al Principio-From the Start

by Daxn

For many, "Lesson Zero" was the episode where FiM metaphorically "grew the beard", since it established that Twilight's duty to send reports weekly ended. However, the events could have taken a different direction entirely. For the example, what if the Mane 5 did the sane thing at the wrong moment? What if Celestia wasn't so merciful towards Twilight?

1. Chapter 1

Ponyville was in an uproar. Unicorns and earth ponies created a terrifyingly big rabble, trampling and stomping whoever was unfortunate enough to be in its way, while the pegasi were flying over that rabble in a compact formation, diving to the ground from time to time looking for their prey.

Said prey was a red stallion with a cheap doll in his mouth. He was, like pretty much everyone else there, determined in taking and keeping the doll, even if it meant going against all of the two hundred ponies living in the town.

Twilight Sparkle was watching the scene with horror, since she knew that the triggering cause of that situation was her own fault. Indeed, what started as an attempt to cause a "friendship problem" using an old doll from her distant past, three reluctant school-aged fillies and a "I Want it, I Need it" spell, turned into a civil war without bloodshed for the toy.

Since Twilight was busy staring at the mess she created with so few ingredients, she didn't notice the presence of five shapes hidden by the dust that were running in the opposite direction than the crowd. The identity of the shapes' was soon revealed: they were her friends, namely Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. For some strange reason, they weren't attracted by the doll, nor were they trampled by the fighting ponies.

The first pony to reach Twilight was Rainbow Dash.

The cyan mare asked worried to Twilight:

"What's going on, Twilight? The whole town seems in love with that mass of deformed fabric!"

"Yes, I know and it's my fault!" the reply showed more panic than guilt "I've tried to create a 'friendship problem' for my weekly letter to my mentor, since I forgot to write one in the past days, but..."

"But?"

Twilight raised her voice:

"The whole thing degenerated! I used one of my old dolls, a spell that allowed imitated mind control, and Cutie Mark Crusaders."

Rainbow Dash only leered. Twilight, noticing that, rumbled:

"Yes, you heard correctly: I used Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle as one of the elements for my plotted problem. To do so, I just hid in the bush, waited for their arrival, teleported in their little game of ball - destroying the ball in the process - greeted them, offered the doll..."

Rainbow Dash, rolling her eyes in confusion, put her front hooves in, and said: "Woho, woho, wohoooo! Calm down, Twi! I could not understand you a single word."

Sighing, the purple unicorn started again, this time much slower:

"Alright. I hid in the bush, I waited for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to arrive in the place, decided to teleport in the ball, destroying it. I greeted them, showed them the doll, and since they didn't appreciate it, I casted the 'I Want It, I Need It'."

Rainbow looked around her, seeing the same gigantic fight among adult ponies, and asked:

"Aand... in what way is this brawl linked to three fillies fighting over an enchanted doll ?"

"I was getting there! I tried to separate them, but to no avail. I saw Big Macintosh passing by not too far away, and so I asked him for help. However, I forgot that one of the side effects of that spell cast on objects was the instant charming of the observer towards the object. Now, consider that the stallion has necessarily seen the doll. Now, you know that Applejack's farm is on the other side of the town, right?"

Rainbow Dash nodded.

Twilight Sparkle screamed:

"And so everyone else saw it!"

Rainbow's eyes widened:

"And you did that... because you were late? This isn't something that a sane pony does!"

The purple unicorn glared at Rainbow:

"Do you have any idea of what we are talking about? I'm late for an assignment from Princess Celestia herself! The ruler of this and the bringer of the sun, my mentor! If I don't fix it now, I'm in trouble!"

"I still don't see the problem…"

Twilight grabbed Rainbow's fur: "DON'T SEE THE PROBLEM? She is my teacher, and as a student, I must comply to her order: until now, I have been always a dutiful and punctual student.

But if I fail, if I am late for just one time, she might question my dedication as well, and since she is my teacher, she might give me a test. And if I can't pass the test? I will be punished like all the bad students, with the flunking.

But Celestia isn't subject to rules. She makes them ! So instead of letting me flunk, she can send me to... MAGIC KINDERGARTEN!"

Rainbow Dash was left confused by Twilight's rant about Princess Celestia and being a good student, while the purple mare was picturing, once again, the scene of her in the middle of a group of 3-4 years old foals laughing at her failure.

The mares arrived at Twilight, but when they saw that their friend was staring at the sky, they said nothing, fearing that they could interrupt an important process.

Suddenly, a blinding light spread in the marsh where the citizens were fighting and a unique voice resounded from it.

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!"

It was Celestia's voice, and unlike on pretty much every other occasion, she sounded really angry at something... or somebody.

The arrival of the solar goddess distracted the denizen of the town for a brief second, allowing Celestia to undo the spell casted on the doll; once that happened, every pony that fought for the doll stopped, and after looking at the mass of an old fabric with indifference or even disgust, everyone left the marsh, the only exceptions being Twilight, her friends, and Princess Celestia.

The white alicorn walked dramatically slowly to Twilight.

"Twilight, meet me in the Library. We have much to discuss," she ordered and then left without saying any other word.

Sighing in defeat, the purple pony started to walk away, towards her home.

"Goodbye, girls. If you care," she said sadly "I will be in the Magic Kindergarten... back in Canterlot." Then she headed for her destination.

The five mares gasped.

"Magic Kindergarten?" whispered Fluttershy.

"Canterlot?", asked a nonplussed Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie, after jumping incredibly high in the air, shrieked "We're never gonna see Twilight ever again!"

Rarity, as her usual, proceeded to place her left forehoof on her closed eyes, moaning, crying and pulling hairs of her mane like a prefica in the process, and then said with a voice bordering with the spirit of an opera character, for the third time in the day "Of the horrible things that could have happened, this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!"

Applejack was more collected; after taking a look at the reaction of her friends, the orange pony sighed.

"Uh, and so, what are we going to do?"

Rainbow stated with decisiviness: "We need to act, that's for sure! We can't leave Twilight anging!" then she started to fly away… only to be pulled back by a force.

Turning her head, the cyan mare saw her multicolored tail held by a blue aura, the same aura that engulfed Rarity's horn.

"As much as you would like to take the matters in your hooves, I can't allow you to interfere. I think that I know you well enough to tell that you would only cause more problems than you would solve."

The pegasus asked back: "Interfere with what? And cause what troubles? Explain!"

Sighing, Rarity spoke up:

"I thought it was clear as day, Rainbow Dash. The Princess asked Twilight to have a private meeting with Twilight and Twilight only: it would be rude to step in violently."

Rainbow Dash hovered near Rarity, raised her front hooves and moved them frantically.

"Celestia might punish her! And, if Twilight gets punished by the Princess, we might not see Twilight ever again! You heard her, right?"

Rarity sniffed with pride, and reasserted her mane as a way to show coldness and composure over the matter, sharply contrasting with the bit of drama performed by her few minutes ago.

"It's also true that our purple friend tends to lose the grasp on her mind when confronted with the inability to comply an order of a superior, and she tends to inflate the punishments that she may receive. Also, I don't think Princess Celestia would be more upset than usually after this accident. In fact, our coming might be only salt rubbed into a wound."

Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves: "I am still not convinced. I think that we have the right to know what awaits our close friend, and not even the Princess shall stop us from knowing," Rainbow Dash landed, and spoke to the other mares: "So, what do you think about that? Shall we go to Twilight's Library now, or wait for the dawn of the next day?"

Applejack spoke up: "I think we should wait for tomorrow. Interrupting Celestia while she talks to Twilight would get us into trouble."

Pinkie Pie, with a tone more serious than her usual, but still a bit cheerful, answered: "I think we can wait. If everything goes well, we can celebrate afterwards."

Fluttershy whispered: "My thoughts are the same as of Applejack and Pinkie, Dash... if you don't mind..."

Rolling her eyes, Rainbow said: "Rarity, you won. We will see tomorrow. Now goodbye, the soup cans are calling me." With that she left. Shortly afterwards, the other mares also divided.

Meanwhile, at the Golden Oaks Library, Twilight Sparkle was moving upstairs sadly; she was going to meet Princess Celestia to receive a punishment for what she had done to the town, and, maybe, for her lateness.

Once Twilight reached the floor upstairs, she saw Celestia standing up in the middle of the room. The diarch didn't show any signs of anger or strong disappointment towards Twilight, and was once again in her calm and composed mood. However, this detail didn't decreased the terror that filled the purple pony.

Twilight bowed down to the ground, and started to chant her excuses like a litany:

"I am really sorry for the delay of my work, I am a bad student..."

Princess Celestia gently moved a hoof over Twilight's mouth.

"There is no need to apologize like that, I'm not upset for your tardiness. What worries me and ultimately makes me act, is your reaction at the tardiness."

Twilight gulped, while the Princess went towards the window.

"You could have sent me a letter apologizing for the lack of the Friendship report;

even just sending the report next week would be fine."

The alicorn suddenly turned, and pressed her muzzle on Twilight's, scaring the latter. Celestia said with a slightly hissing voice:

"But you lost control of yourself. You arranged a plan to create a friendship problem, solve it, and write a report. Staging a problem wasn't exactly the assignment that I gave to you, but let's ignore that for now. Your plan included the unwilling participation of three fillies and, later on, the whole town."

Twilight started to sweat profusely, and moved her eyes from right to left, as if she was looking for a way to get out from that situation.

"Now, it isn't the first time you worried about the punctuality, nor is it the first time you overreacted to something. And this time it was very irresponsible, childishly so even, too.

As much as it pains me to say this and as much as it will probably hurt you, if you act like a foal, you shall be punished like if you were one..."

Twilight raised her head, and watched Celestia's eyes in sign of submission.

"Is it what I think it is?" she asked.

Celestia answered while reaching the balcony: "Yes. You will attend to the Magic Kindergarten for a term. You may pack up right now, since I will fill the papers as soon as I come back to my rooms."

Then, the white alicorn spread out her wings, got up on the balcony's edge, and flew away, leaving a shocked purple unicorn behind.

Twilight tried to say something, but no words came out from it. She was too shocked and desperate to say anything but gibberish about "failure," "humiliation" and the like.

After about ten minutes of ranting and weeping, Twilight stood up again, and, sighing, proceeded to pack the luggages, while a "too-happy-for-the-situation" Spike helped her.

[hr]

The Dawn, with pink hoofs and golden mane, once again rose over Equestria, and with it every creature in Equestria. However, the rising wasn't at the same rhythm for everyone, nor was it pleasurable at the same level.

Twilight Sparkle, once her closed eyes were hit by the rays of the light coming from the window, groaned, and rolled out of her bed onto the floor; she was too demoralized and drowsy to do anything more complicated than breath and crawl around like a slug.

Meanwhile, the usually lazy late-riser Spike sprang out of his bed/dog basket cheerfully, went into the kitchen, and proceeded to make sandwiches and eggs for breakfast at demonic pace, all the while singing happily a whole repertory of goliardic songs.

Twilight, still crawling, once she was out of her room, proceeded to do the insane task of descending the stairs without raising a single leg, but just slithering on the steps, simply ignoring the pain caused by doing such action. Finally, after ten minutes of slow and painful crawling, Twilight Sparkle woke up completely. She yawned, stirred, and got up on all four.

"So, Spike, is breakfast ready?"

The dragon didn't say anything, and just served a plate of eggs while singing.

"You seem pretty happy to make breakfast for me today, Spike. That's unusual for you. Is something the matter?"

Spike chirped: "This is my third-to-final service I will do for you for four months. Then I will be absolutely free! Four months of pure freedom!"

Twilight pretended to not have heard that, and just ate the food without saying a word, since she wasn't in mood for an argument with her servant, nor she was interested to teach Spike some compassion and continence.

Once she finished her breakfast, Twilight asked with a bored voice where the baggages were, and what were the departure times of the trains. At the first question, Spike answered by pointing to the luggages stacked up near the door; at the second question, he shrugged and said: "No idea. I haven't checked them yet, since last night I wasn't exactly fond into walking to the train station".

Sighing, Twilight Sparkle levitated the luggages, strapped them onto her back, slightly pened the door with a creak... and shutting them again, remembering she didn't check if everything was in the suitcases.

So, she put the baggages down, placed them on the ground, sorted them by size, asked Spike to take the list of the things to be packed in the suitcases, then proceeded to list everything that was contained in the bags. Once done with the control of her luggage, Twilight put the items back in their slots in the suitcases, closed the packs and then strapped some them back on her back, the rest was levitated.

When Twilight looked at the clock hanging on the wall just above one of her shelves, she saw that this entire operation took a whooping time of thirty five minutes and twenty seconds. in a hurry, she ran out of her house... and tripped on the step which caused her to hit the ground with her chin, and, somehow, sent the suitcases flying away from Twilight's body, opening in mid-flight, and landing softly in a puddle of mud.

The reaction of the purple pony at the sight of her belongings scattered all over the place and/or covered in mud was one of pure rage and frustration. As she picked up everything that she had lost, and tried to save some papers from turning into a shapeless mass of wooden fibers, she said:

"Those suitcases... they never stop breaking at the least convenient moment! And look at this! LOOK AT THIS! It will take me almost an hour to put everything back in the suitcases, and another hour to wash the luggages!"

Meanwhile, Spike laughed under his fake mustache - which he put on for that moment - at Twilight's misfortune. However, as soon as his purple suspended superior noticed that, she gave him an order to help her with cleaning and picking up the pieces of the earlier disaster.

[hr]

Two hours later, Twilight Sparkle and Spike were finally done with the travel supplies: the suitcases were clean once again, albeit a bit wet; the minor papers had been rewritten in a hurry; the damaged important papers muddled throught; and the clothes changed.

Twilight triumphantly strapped the last baggage to her back, opened the door, and came out of the Library once again, determined to reach the train station.

As Twilight walked towards her destination, she thought about an issue that she had ignored until then: her parents.

After all, the apartament in Canterlot that she had before coming to Ponyville was property of Celestia, and was just on an extended loan. Surely, by then, that apartament had to be occupied by another pony, leaving Twilight with a single option, besides rent a very expensive flat - to live with her parents - and the prospect wasn't exactly exhilarating. The reason lay in her parents' behaviour: while Night Light, her father, was a strict parent, Twilight Velvet was a very overprotective and smothering mother. As much as Twilight loved them, their ways to act towards her were a tad bit annoying.

Also, their reaction to the news that their younger offspring was now being sent back to the Kindergarten by her teacher was going to be ruinous: while Night Light would be very disappointed and worried about the costs of having their daughter in his house while having a minuscle pension, Twilight Velvet would burst in joy and happiness, since she was going to see her daughter every day... and have the possibility to treat Twilight Sparkle like a foal once again, thanks to the occasion.

Twilight sighed sadly. Those four months were going to be very long and wearing.

Her train of thoughs stopped when a loud scream came from behind her:

"TWILIGHT!"

She rotated her head quickly, and saw five familiar shapes that brightened her mood up: her friends.

Twilight ran towards them, and said: "Oh, sorry girls, I forgot to say goodbye to you!"

The five friends looked at her a bit confused.

Pinkie Pie recovered from her shock first and asked "Goodbye? Why?"

Twilight hung her head: "I'd prefer to not tell you, Pinkie... it's... a bit secret..."

Rainbow Dash exclaimed in disbelief: "Secret? What do you have to hide from us?"

"Yeah, what?"

"I... I don't know if to ask you... I don't want to intrude..."

"Twilight, what concerns you? Why do you want to hold a secret?"

Then the five friends stared at poor Twilight in pure curiosity, making the aforomentioned pony sweat. In an attempt to cop out, she answered only: "It's... embrassassing. Really, really, REALLY embarassing..."

Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy asked in unison: "What is so embarassing that you can't tell us?"

Once the question faded, Pinkie Pie chirped: "Wait, what does 'embarassing' mean? Is that some kind of icing?" But everybody decided to ignore her.

"Well..." realizing that she had no way to avoid the interrogation, Twilight decided to cut the bull's head, and procceded to take a long breath before saying the big news.

"Alright, girls, listen up: you remember the incident of yesterday, the one that saw the whole town trying to get a doll?"

The five nodded.

"Well, Princess Celestia decided that I needed a punishment for my misdeed, and sent me..."

"And sent you?" They all leaned forward in anticipation.

"To the Magic Kindergarten, in Canterlot."

The five friends gasped, and everyone expressed their opionion: from the simple "that's awful" of Fluttershy, to the long and lyrical cry of Rarity, the Twilight's friends had their turn to show their grief over the purple pony's departure.

Once the atmosphere relaxed a bit again, Twilight Sparkle sighed, and returned to her walk.

"The moment has passed, I am going to the station." Twilight adjusted the luggages: " Goodbye, see you in four months."

The five answered back.

[hr]

Four hours later, in Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle had finally reached the neighborhood where her parents' house lay. While she was walking in the empty paved streets of the area, Twilight looked around her to find out how much the neighborhood had changed since her moving to the "Ivory Tower" and later on to Ponyville. Not at all, apparently, since every building, street lamp, trash cans full of syringes and druggie spot were still there just like ten years ago. It seemed that the whole area had fallen into a temporal stasis, since she had left it, making her even more depressed.

Finally, she reached the gate of her house, a three-floors villa, different from other buildings in Canterlot thanks to its "Liberty" style.

For the first time in years, Twilight rang her old house's bell, and awaited response from whoever was in the house.

After few minutes, a gray mare with straight black mane exited from the house's door. She walked slowly towards the gate... but upon seeing the visitor, she screamed "Twilight!" and rushed to the gate, opening it carelessly.

Twilight recognized the mare: she was Sedula Serva, the valet of Twilight's household. Twilight could remember the times she was forced to interrupt her studies to let Sedula pass the rag, or when a filly Twilight ranted on the order of the books that the valet placed.

Now, her biggest annoyance was likely to be the only light of sanity in the darkness of the days to come.

Sedula, while hugging Twilight, exclaimed with a voice affected by old age:

"Twilight! So much time has passed! What brings you back home?"

Twilight, while gently taking off the valet's hooves, smiled weakly, and said: "The thing that brought me here isn't good..."

Sedula pointed at the door.

"If you don't want to talk about it, it's not necessary. Now come in: I'm certain that your parents willcertainly want to see you," then she walked away. Twilight followed.

The interior of the building was... different, from what Twilight remembered about her Canterlot's house: she didn't recalled small ivory statues in niches around the walls, or expensive paintings, nor did she recall to have ever seen a big chandelier in the living room.

A male voice called from upstairs.

"Who is it, Sedula?"

Sedula answered chirping: "It's Twilight, sir!"

"Don't be silly. My wife is in the bedroom!" The voice started to sound closer as the pony it belonged to made his way to the entrance hall.

"Not Twilight Velvet, sir, but your daughter," Sedula explained with a happy smile on her face.

"Now you are just making a fool of me." The sound of hooves treading the soft carpet stopped. "What would be Twilight doing here? She would certainly let us know before visiting. Anyway, just send whoever it is here." The hoofsteps echoed once more and vanished.

The gray mare pointed at the stairs: Twilight understood, and went upstairs.

Twilight's father was sitting on a red couch, and was drinking a glass of sprizt from a cocktail glass: he seemed pretty relaxed, joyful even.

"It's a pity that I am going ot break his joy..." thought Twilight.

"Twilight? So it really is you! And I thought Sedula was just pulling my leg! What brings you here, my beloved daughter?" Night Light took a small sip and smiled at her warmly. "Feel free to sit down."

Twilight sat down on one of the red couches in the room.

"Well... not a good thing."

The cheerful demeanor of Night Light disappeared in a whim. The sudden change to a cold stare scared Twilight to the core.

The tone of the father got serious: "What happened?"

Stuttering, she said: "I'm here becuase Princess Celestia punished me with flunking."

His eyes widened: "Flunking? But you are out of the school system!"

"That's the problem! Since I finished my studies, flunking means starting all over again..."

"You mean... you are in the Magic Kindergarten now?"

Twilight nodded.

Soon after that, Night Light was on fire.

-

Once Night Light was extinguished by the combined efforts of both Sedula and Twilight Sparkle, the latter said, panting and with her mane slightly burned:

"Listen, father, you didn't caught the meaning of my words..."

The father, with his coat burned and his tail reduced to ashes by the self-combustion, started to twitch.

"I didn't understood what?" he said, "Princess Celestia decided that for your doings the best course of actions was to force you to redo the whole education all over again. That is all. Also, she evicted you from your house, I suppose."

Twilight put her left hoof on her face, and said with an irritated voice:

"Father, first of all, Celestia didn't evict me from my house in Ponyville. Also, I have to attend the Kindergarten only for a term, so I will be there for four months."

Night Light, clearly comforted from the news, sighed in relief and with a calmer tone he asked Sedula to get rid of the destroyed couch where he was sitting: the gray mare nodded, and slowly yet effortlessly moved the piece of furniture out of the room.

Then, Night light returned his attention to Twilight:

"Well, the moment of rage has passed, proceed to explain the reason for your punishment."

Twilight sat down on one of the non-damaged sofas, and told the whole tale to her father, leaving nothing to the imagination.

"To be honest, I'm not surprised to find out that the cause of your punishment ultimately was your incapability to deal with deadlines and authorities at the same time."

The purple pony looked unamused at her father. She was tired of being reminded of the cause of all her problems in the past two days, and the fact that her own father didn't say a word in her defense was even more depressing, even if expected, considered Night's personality.

"Thanks that you have reminded me of the painfully obvious facts, father,." said Twilight with an irritated voice "I'm going to unpack my luggages: is my old room free? Or do I need to unpack my luggages in the guest ones?"

Night Light, while walking out of the room, answered: "Ask your mother; she said that your old bedroom must be used only on special occassions."

Twilight was a bit surprised at that.

"What special occasions? My mother wasn't prone to invite ponies in this house, I can't really imagine what kind of occasions would trigger unlocking of my bedroom. Or why my bedroom has to be locked in the first place..."

"I don't know. So far she unlockes it once per month, carrying gray bags in, but she never let me or Shining get in, and since we don't even dare to imagine what's there, we never tried to step in. I think you are the only one allowed to see it, but better ask her."

A bit freaked out by such information, Twilight nodded, and moved towards the bedroom of her parents located on the third floor; as she ascended the marble steps, Twilight thought about the strange behaviour of her mother regarding her old bedroom. What could have triggered it, and, above all, what so important could possibly be in the room that it had to be locked and opened only scarcely for depositing of something contained in gray bags? It was weird, it seemed wrong... it seemed just plain obscure and incredibly intricate for her mother.

Her thoughs stopped dead in their tracks at an acute shriek.

"Twily! My beloved Twily!"

A white and purple blur catapulted itself over the purple mare and knocked her to ground, drawing a grunt of pain.

"Why did it take you so long to get back to me? You made me worry SO MUCH!" After saying this, the shape hugged her tightly..

As she tried to fight off her mother, Twilight said: "Mother... please... stop..."

Twilight Velvet, while still hugging her, cooed: "I can't! I'm so glad that you came back that I can't stop myself from snuggling you!"

Desperate for air, Twilight fought with all her might to break free from her mother's snuggly iron grasp. Alas, she could have just as well been glued to her mother's chest and so after about a minute of struggling she decided to spare her remaining energy and wait for the hug to end on its own.

When Vevet terminated her cuddling session with her reluctant offspring, she got back on her legs, and asked with an irritatingly sweet voice: "So, why have you come back to me, Twily? Are you in need of some love from me?"

Twilight huffed, then she answered in annoyance:

"No, mother, it wasn't because I missed you; I am here because Princess Celestia has stated that I need an extra term at the Magic Kindergarten in Canterlot, after a freaky accident that I'd wish to avoid recalling. Since my workplace-home got sequestred, my only option was to return to live under this roof, and that's the only reason for why I am in this house."

Twilight Velvet looked with widened eyes at Twilight Sparkle and questioned:

"And that is all? Well then, why you were so sad then?"

The purple pony felt her jugular vein grow in size, and her teeth grind.

"And that is all? AND THAT IS ALL? I made a mistake, Princess Celestia punished me, and starting tomorrow I will be attending to Magic Kindergarten for four months with fillies and colts that are there for actually learn something! How can I not be at least upset?"

The white mare put her left hoof over the purple mare's shoulder.

"Aaah, now I understand, you don't want to go to the Kindergarten. Well, better go to your room, so we can have a nice talk in private. Oh, and I also have a surprise for you." Then she levitated the luggages with magic.

Twilight Sparkle's eyes widened, at the phrasing of her mother. If her father's words were any indication, her old bedroom was never opened for anypony, and was always locked. If Twilight Velvet decided to open it to her punished daughter, telling her that she needed to talk in the process, then either Velvet wanted to punish Twilight further, or just both metaphorically and factically sealed the door for the purple mare's homecoming.

While Twilight's mind buzzed with theories, the white mare delicately placed the baggages on the ground, levitated a copper key hanging from a hook on the wall, then she placed the key in the lock, unlocking the door. The old wooden door opened with a loud squeak of rusted hinges, revealing what was contained in the room.

The walls were painted pink with white dots, the floor made of liliac moquette; a small poplar chair painted red was also there, along with a small blue table of the same material as the chair, a round wicker basket lay in a corner of the room, a big wardrobe near the window, with blue shutters and pink walls, a bookshelf with only three books... in other words, the room was furnished like one of a little filly.

In fact, Twilight herself, while staring motionless at the interior of the chamber, could not believe that what she was seeing was her room. She remembered that before leaving her native home for her studies she had left a pretty spartan room behind, with a military-style bed and huge piles of books scattered all over the place.

The white mare, blissfully unaware of the utter surprise of her daughter, chirped:

"Look how I redecorated your room! It was so... depressing! I think it is so much better now, don't you agree?"

The purple pony kept her jaw open in surprise.

"Wow! I've never seen you so positively surprised! Now, come on, get on bed, so we can talk."

Twilight Sparkle snapped out from her stupor, and decided to obey, since some talking could give her clues about what happened while she was away, and why Twilight Velvet had forbidden everyone from entering the room.

As she sat down on the bed, Twilight Velvet sprawled on the moquette and said:

"Twily, sweeatheart, I know you don't like to stay with the other fillies, but..."

Twilight reacted in rage:

"Fillies? Stay around them? Mother, I am a grown pony now, I shouldn't have to attend to Kindergarten and interact with three-years-old fillies! I'm here just to do time for a penalty given by Celestia!"

Velvet, seemingly unaware of the meaning of her daughter's words, giggled slightly, and said:

"I know you are a big pony. But you still have to see the others of your age, if you want to be even more bigger."

Twilight flailed her hooves in desperation and skimmed saliva in wrath: "Mother... I mean... I am a mare, I am going to repeat it, I AM A MARE! A M-A-R-E! Not an ignorant three-years-old filly with difficulties in both control of the bodily functions and the social relations! If I am going to attend to the Kindergarten, it's only because I got punished with the attendance itself, not because I need to do that! Do you understand that?"

The white mare sniffed, and kept her amplomb.

"Throwing a tantrum won't solve anything, Twily," she said, "you must attend to it."

Twilight Sparkle sighed. Her mother was just openly ignoring what she was saying, and was basically doing a conversation with herself. Clearly, Twilight Velvet went apeshit, and thought that Twilight Sparkle was a three-years-old.

Twilight decided that trying to reason with her mother was impossible and that asking questions about the decoration of the room wasn't going to reveal anything. Trying to play along her rules wasn't going to hurt at all, since nothing could go wrong, nor the things could get any more awkard.

Naturally, the things COULD get even more embarrassing.

The white mare, noticing that her daughter calmed down, smiled and walked towards the wardrobe. She opened one of the shutters with her magic and pulled out a pink box.

As the mare moved towards her daughter with the pack, she said: "Now, Twily, it's time to get the... 'protection' on. You can't keep it all yet."

Twilight Sparkle immediately understood what was going to happen soon, even without looking at the box - she was going to get diapered.

Twilight Velvet put the box down, extracted a purple diaper with her magic, put it on the bed and unfolded it with her hooves.

"Lay down, dear, and lift your rear legs."

By this point, the purple pony wished that she could kill her mother without losing the estate or going to prison. However, she still lifted her rear legs and didn't complain, thinking that by playing along with her mother the madness would stop soon. And so, the garment slided under her bottom and was taped on her waist.

After getting diapered by her less-than-sane mother, Twilight Sparkle proceeded to climb down the bed, and stood up, awaiting the next step of Twilight Velvet's farce/insanity game. As far as the purple pony knew, her mother could try to do... pretty much anything, from ridiculous and incredibly embarrassing dress-ups, to random acts of domestic violence masked as punishments for supposed "Runaway", otherwise called "Having a life outside the parents' home."

But Twilight Velvet was still terminating the first part of her madness. She took the box of diapers in her mouth, opened the wardrobe with her magic, and put the box back in.

She closed the white shutters of the wardrobe and walked towards the bed once again, smiling at Twilight.

"Since mommy is free today and wants to satisfy her precious daughter, I will give you a choice: do you want to go out for a stroll, Twily? Or do you want to stay at home? The choice is all yours."

Twilight reclined her head in a pensive position, thinking about exploiting of the opportunity that her mother was giving her. Her choice was between getting caught by her father, who was quite surely not involved in the sham... but if Night Light was out, then Twilight was going to be humiliated even more in public, and the mare felt that her dignity had ate enough mud for the day. Meanwhile, the other option meant staying at home with her mother around, and since she wasn't in the open, with no escape ways... however, Night Light could still enter the room and try to stop the whole "you are a filly" affair.

Twilight Sparkle tilted her head as she thought about what option to choose. Her mind was processing and trying to calculate all the possible outcomes of each choice. It would be easier, if it wasn't for the regular pokings by Twilight Velvet, who pushed Twilight Sparkle to make her choice before sunset.

After around ten minutes of thoughts, quiet moaning, and concentration-breaking motherly pokes, Twilight came to a decision - go out from the house, and take a relaxing breath of fresh air.

"I'd like to go outside. Take a breath would be wonderful, and it will be a great way to vent out the stress I've accumulated lately," she said, the last words accompanied by a slight hiss and a scolding glare directed on her mother.

The mother didn't pick up the bit of venom in the words of the daughter, and instead chirped happily: "Whatever you wish is an order!" and bounced out of the room. Twilight rolled her eyes and said on reflex: "I hope you don't really expect me to go out with the diaper in plain sight."

It took two seconds to her to realize what she just said, and what she just agreed to let her mother do: in shame, Twilight covered her mouth with her right hoof, and murmured "No", hoping that Velvet was going to pick that.

However, it was too late to retract the statement. The white mare asserted: "You are right, some mean filly would laugh at you, seeing you are still in a diaper. So, let's hide it." Then she propelled herself towards the closet, opened it quickly with magic, scanned the clothes contained in the piece of furniture with her eyes, and pulled out a little blue box, with the label "Della Spora" on the side. Velvet put the box on the bed, slowly opened it, put the lid on the floor, and extracted a folded dress. The dress was, basically, a light gray-dotted pink full skirt full of lacets and plissets, like pretty much any filly's skirt would be, this one just being adult-sized.

Twilight Sparkle could only stare at her mother unfolding quickly the dress on the bed, and tidying up everything at a very fast pace. While she knew that getting dressed in ridiculous costumes and dresses was unavoidable, Twilight wasn't expecting to see her mother so eager to put such piece of clothing on her.

As Twilight continued to stare at a wall, the white mare proceeded to dress up her in a vest, by adjusting the size of the waistline, and closing the chest buttons.

Once the dress was put on, Velvet chirped: "Now you are good to go, dear!"

Then she exited again. Twilight slowly got out of her stupor, sighed in annoyance and followed her mother out of the room, knowing that a world of ridicule coming from other ponies was awaiting her.

Since she wasn't really happy about going outside dressed like that, and trying to change her mother's mind right there was going to be about as successful as trying to eat a soup with a fork, the only prospect of avoiding even more humiliation was her father's intervention. And, knowing him, it wasn't too far-fetched that Night Light would just laugh at the sight of his daughter in diaper and a comic attire, and let Velvet continue treating Twilight like a baby, maybe as an extra punishment, maybe from pure ignorance of the extent of the situation and its consequences.

On other hoof, her father probably wasn't cruel enough to turn Velvet's decision to treat her daughter like a three-years-old into a punishment, nor so stupid to not notice how letting Velvet do whatever she wanted with her namesake offspring could be hurtful for the safety of everypony involved.

Basically, it only depended on whether Night Light was at home or not, and whether or not he was still angry at Twilight for Celestia's punishment.

While she pondered about this, walking with her head bend forward, the white mare skipped happily and hummed a variation of "Quel Mazzolin Di Fiori", still unaware of the true feelings of her daughter about being treated like a little filly and be dressed like one.

Twilight Sparkle followed her mother down the stairs, only to notice that her mother had suddenly stopped on the last step.

The white mare turned her head, and said with her now-signature cheerful voice:

"Honey, I'm going out with Twily now. Are you going to stay in the house, or do I need to take the keys?"

Twilight Sparkle quickly realized that her mother was talking to Night Light.

The masculine voice of the father answered:

"I am not sure. I might stay in the house. But keep the keys in your bag, just to be sure!"

Twilight Velvet nodded, and resumed her walking. Twilight Sparkle decided to use the chance, and ran towards the end of the stairs. Doing so, she knocked her mother to the floor, and cracked two of the marble steps in the process.

While Velvet was busy getting up, Twilight Sparkle with bloodshot eyes appeared at the base of the staircase. Nonplussed and extremely confused Night Light dropped a pile of papers he levitated and stared at his daughter.

"W-why you are... wearing such a weird dress, Twilight? It isn't exactly a mainstream attire, nor would I ever imagine you to like such kind of clothing."

The purple mare stopped dead in her tracks in front of the blue stallion and panted: "I didn't... choose this!... It was... my mother..." then theatrically collapsed.

Night Light did a puckered face at the sight of her collapsing daughter. He couldn't compute what he just saw, since the sight of his adult daughter dressed like a young filly, his wife telling her namesake to not get winded before going outside, and the marble getting cracked by something theoretically weaker than a pneumatic hammer was quite weird.

The stallion asked his wife:

"What's going on, Velvet? Why is our daughter dressed like this?"

The white mare answered with a calm and almost soothing voice:

"Oh, it's nothing. Twily just wants to go out as soon as possible."

Twilight Sparkle raised her head slightly and said, while still panting:

"That's not true, father! She is treating me like a filly, genuinely thinking that I am one! She is convinced that I have some problems with going to the bathroom!" Twilight raised part of the dress with her magic, revealing her purple diaper. "Yes, father: believe it or not, your wife just put on me a diaper without my consent."

Twilight Velvet, keeping her tone of voice, moved towards her daughter and put her left hoof under her chin.

"You know why you are wearing it, sweetheart," said Velvet "it's for avoid causing damage with your little accidents."

Twilight glared at her mother in response.

Night Light was still trying to process what was going on and what to do next, since the situation wasn't really something that usually happened in the household. On the one hoof he wished to give his own punishment to Twilight Sparkle, and letting his wife treat Twilight like a filly seemed appropriate; on another hoof, it was pretty clear that his daughter was stressed enough by Celestia's punishment, and Twilight Velvet's treatment was going to be the last straw needed for true insanity, if left unchecked.

Since the verbal fight between a disgruntled daughter and a willingly deaf wife was going to end up into a physical confrontation between the two mares, the blue stallion tried to use his power as husband and father, saying:

"Velvet, stop this sham right now! Twilight isn't a filly anymore, even if she acts like one sometimes." Night Light then glared at his daughter, who curled up slightly at the gaze of scolding "It doesn't matter how much you wish she was, she simply isn't. So, free her from her diaper and her dress, and let her live like a mare she is."

Twilight Velvet whined: "But she is my precious little filly! She is! She is!"

Night Light sighed. The attempt to use the verbal force had failed miserably. He quickly discarded the idea of physical violence, and tried to go for a diplomatic route, one that could save part of the dignity of Twilight, and trick Velvet into thinking that she is still in control:

"How about... she is under your hoof during the morning, and during the afternoon she is under mine?"

Then Night Light winked at Twilight Sparkle, hoping that his daughter was going to play by the rather favorable rules set by him. That was, if Twilight Velvet accepted.

The white mare put her left hoof under her chin, and remained silent for five, long, stressful, minutes.

In those minutes, Twilight Sparkle saw all the possible humiliations she could receive, in case of rejection of the proposal from her mother; while Night Light was thinking of a Plan B meant for avoiding of such scenario.

Thankfully, Twilight Velvet didn't thought it through, and said:

"I accept: from when she wakes up until the lunch hour, she is mine; in the afternoon, if you aren't away, she is yours."

Twilight Sparkle rejoiced loudly, as she screamed and undressed herself with a single swipe of hoof, throwing the dress and the diaper on the floor, and ran into the small family library; Night Light resumed his paper-carrying; and Twilight Velvet, sighing, went back to her bedroom, ready to come back to her catatonic state she was in before her daughter's return.

After an ample dinner, Twilight Sparkle went to her now-defiled bedroom, ready to have a decent night of sleep before the impending first day of Kindergarten.

She entered the room walking slowly, and moved towards the small window. It opened with a loud squeak, letting in a cold breeze of mid-autumn air, and giving a relaxing sensation to Twilight. Slightly refreshed she turned out the light by clicking a button near the night table, and once the light was gone, the mare placed herself under the light-pink blankets of the bed.

The mare soon realized that, clearly, not every piece of furniture in the room was meant for a pony of adult size: her rear legs went over the edge of the bed, and almost touched ground, like if she was on Procuste's bed.

Twilight retracted her rear legs towards her chest, trying to curl up. However, she felt compressed from doing so, and on the verge of choking to make it even worse, so she rather let her limbs touch the ground, despite how awkward it felt. She then put herself on her back, and stared vacantly at the ceiling, while her mind was buzzing with thoughts and considerations.

"Why has my mother forced this on me? Why did she behave in such... bizzare way? I mean, she has always been overprotective and smothering with both me and Shining, but this… this is insane! What got into her to get this idea, accumulate paraphernalia, and decorate my old room, for the off chance of my homecoming? Why did she just plainly ignore my qualms?"

Twilight yawned.

"I guess I will sleep on it. Maybe I will find the best course of actions in a dream."

Then, the purple mare closed her eyes, and slipped into Luna's Domain.

-

For many, the next day comes by the soft light of the dawn, or the musical chirp of bird.

For Twilight, the next day came with a shake, followed by a soft voice:

"Wake up, sleepyhead. It's time to get ready for Kindergarten."

Twilight recognized the voice: it was her mother's.

Sighing, Twilight said: "One second, mom. I am halfway between sleep and wakefulness."

Then, conquered once again by the tiredness, she dropped her head on the pillow like a stone.

Seeing that her daughter was falling into sleep once again, Velvet decided to skip a passage, and pass directly to the diapering of her offspring. The mare went towards the wardrobe, opened it, extracted the diaper box, put the box at the side of the bed, moved the blankets at one side, took a purple diaper from the box, slided it under her daughter's bottom, and taped it.

By the time Velvet had done this operation, Twilight had woken up and felt the absorbent garment wrapping up her nether regions. Realizing that, she tried to protest, only to recall what the terms of the pact between her mother and her father were.

Groaning at the thought, Twilight jumped out of bed, landed on all four legs, and walked out of the room to reach the bathroom, and do her morning ritual of teeth brushing, bodily functions reliving (after removing the diaper, to avoid giving even crazier ideas to Velvet), and a quick shower.

After doing those tasks in ten minutes, Twilight exited the bathroom, and went downstairs, towards the dining room where the breakfast awaited.

While going downstairs, Twilight tried her best at abstaining from thinking to the upcoming day at the Kindergarten. For her, it was already humiliating and depressing to be at home with a crazed old harpy; thinking about a gigantic group of fillies and colts pointing and laughing at her for her failure surely wasn't something that boosted her morale.

Alas, Velvet could not, or didn't want to pick up the signs of distress and annoyance from her daughter, and, while bouncing on the stairs, she chirped:

"So, Twily, aren't you happy that you are going to meet some fillies that are the same age as you today?"

Twilight, trying to not choke her mother with her bare hooves, grinded slightly her teeth, and said:

"Once again, mother, I won't find any mare of the same age as mine at the Kindergarten." Even if she knew that it was useless to try to talk with Velvet, at least it was a way to vent her annoyance without breaking down.

Velvet turned a deaf ear to Twilight's response, and kept going on, while her daughter returned to her attempts to suppress the anxiety of the upcoming day.

Twilight reached the dining room, and saw the table already laid, and the food being brought at the table in green and blue ceramic plates by Sedula, who greeted Velvet and Twilight while they entered in the room.

Twilight greeted the valet dryly, and sat at one of the red padded chairs near the table made of ebony. Twilight's seat was laid with a pretty colorful, and yet still adequate, selection of porcelains, cloths and cutlery, with a white place mat with blue borders, a white cup with green stripes, and the name of the owner in red gothic types, a plate colored like a bullseye, and a silver spoon with a horn handle.

The selection of food wasn't very big: twenty chocolate chips biscuits, cold milk, a small jug of Neapolitan coffee, a small amount of mushroom ham and ten slices of toasted bread.

Twilight picked ten cookies, put them in the plate, then tried to pour some coffee in her mug with the help of magic... for then see the jug fly at Velvet's direction, enveloped by a white aura instead of a purple one.

"Twily, you can't drink coffee, you are too young for it," said Velvet, while pouring the coffee in her plain blue mug.

Twilight, after hearing what her mother said, tried to change her mind, since she was, basically, addicted to caffeine, and needed her fix especially in the morning, otherwise she would be something akin to a zombie in few hours. Since the attempts of talking like they were both adults failed, Twilight thought that trying to talk and slightly act as if she was just a filly that happened to have a bigger body and a huge vocabulary would have more success.

And so, she said with a slightly higher-pitched voice, so to mimic the one of a filly:

"Mom.. it isn't true that coffee will leave me tired. Please, give me some."

Velvet still refused.

"I don't want to see you bounce around like a rubber ball, Twily. I cannot give you coffee."

Twilight, who was desperately craving for caffeine, tried to reach a compromise, no matter how much the latter was humiliating.

"But... not even the mix between milk and coffee? Not even a small sip? Pleeaaaseee..."

Velvet looked her daughter in the eyes sternly... and passed the jug to her daughter.

"Fine," she said "but you must add milk."

Twilight smiled, and mixed the hot brown beverage and the cold white one, and drank it in a gulp. Done that, she started to slowly consume her cookies, and while eating, she thought about what it got to get her mother listen to her qualms and requests.

Namely, she had to act and speak like a younger pony to get some coffee, and this was done, paradoxically, after hearing that she was too young to drink it. Clearly, Velvet was trying forced regression by subjugation on Twilight, starting from dresses and enforced speech patterns, to maybe reach the point where Twilight would act in every aspect as a three-years old. Clearly, that stage wasn't going to be reached anytime soon, barring unusual changes.

But as long as it served its purpose, and didn't worsen her mental state, Twilight was ready to partially talk and act like a three-years old in front of her mother.

When Twilight finally snapped out of her thoughts, she saw Sedula carrying the plates and the placemats away, and Velvet levitating a small pink smock.

Velvet said with a hint of happiness in her voice:

"Now that you had your breakfast, let's get the smock on, shall we?"

Twilight analyzed the smock with her eyes, to see how old it was, where it came from, and such. Judging by the slightly off patches, the washed-out pink of the "main" smock and the much brighter shade of pink of the smock's extension, and the presence of fluzz, it seemed that the smock was the same that Twilight wore when she was really a filly, just patched up with low-quality pink fabric.

Twilight was going to say something about the outfit, but decided at the last second to stay silent, and let Velvet put the smock on her without putting up any fuss, since it was going to be useless.

Once that was done, Velvet gestured to Twilight to follow her outside, and Twilight complied.

-

Ten minutes of walking in strangely empty streets later, Twilight, accompanied by her mother, reached her destination: the Kindergarten's building.

The structure was delimited by a rusty iron barrier and by a well-kept garden behind the barrier. In the garden, there was a small fountain covered in moss and a crumbling steel octagon.

As for the building itself, it was actually pretty nice to look at: it was a two-floors square building with an architectural style between the Liberty and the Futurism, style that sharply contrasted with the rest of the buildings around, which had an older style.

The walls were brightly colored, as much as an external wall can be brightly colored, and had a big murales over the entrance and spanning for the whole façade. The murales represented a big tree stretching its branches with fruits towards the sky: over the trunk, the word "Knowledge" was wrote in red characters. At the base of the tree, fillies and colts of every race were depicted taking the fruits from the tree.

Sighing, Twilight entered in the courtyard.

Standing at the gate she thought "At least the building won't hurt my eyes when I look at it everyday for four months."

Twilight walked towards her mother with closed eyes and biting her lips, the tension building up step by step, and the fear of what was coming increasing its intensity.

Twilight heard some soft shrieks and giggles. Realizing that she was in the hall of the Kindergarten, she opened her eyes.

The hall was also brightly colored, between several colored flashcards on the most various subjects, and the walls painted in red and yellow. Ten white cardboard arrows were attached to a metal pole in the middle of the hall: on each arrow there was a stylized animal that symbolized each class.

Realizing pretty quickly that she had to follow a direction indicated by the arrows to reach her classroom, Twilight quickly asked her mother what class she was assigned.

Velvet, after a small conversation with a custodian and a teacher about the papers regarding Twilight's position, answered to her daughter.

"Your class is the Chicks."

Twilight thanked her mother, and, moving as fast as she could to avoid getting accompanied by her mother towards the class, she followed the arrows that pointed towards the class where she was assigned.

Few seconds later, Twilight reached her destination, a light yellow door with a cardboard plate that read "Chicks". Slightly sweating in tension, Twilight knocked the door, then lowered the handle.

She opened the door, causing a soundwave of various noises to hit her ears; a wave of the unmistakable stench of corporal functions expelled and left there came right afterwards and hit her nose, followed by a surge of heat. Twilight's senses were overloaded and in short circuit, thus leaving the mare in a stupor.

"So, you are Twilight Sparkle, the… 'odd addition' to my class. I am right?"

Twilight shook her head to get out of her stupor, then looked at her interlocutor. The mare that spoke at her was a unicorn with a light peach-coloured fur and yellow mane.

Clearly, she was the teacher of the class. Twilight answered:

"Yes, I am Twilight Sparkle."

The teacher nodded, and put her right hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

"Well then, come in the class, so I can introduce you to your classmates."

Twilight reluctantly obeyed the teacher, and stepped in the classroom.

The room, true to form, was occupied by many fillies and colts, who were minding their own business, playing with toys scattered around, drawing something with pastels and doing many other simple activities. Such indifference from the fillies and the colts in the class surprised Twilight, since she was expecting to get some attention from the little ones in the classroom, since they likely never saw a big pony wearing both a diaper and a smock like them.

That is, unless it was suddenly common to send adult ponies into Kindergarten classes.

The teacher clapped her front hooves to gain the attention of the foals present: as much as it seemed impossible, among loud noises and everything, the fillies and the colts immediately stopped dead in their tracks whatever thing they were doing, and like obedient puppies they sat down looking at the teacher.

Once everypony settled down, the teacher began to speak:

"So, do you remember when I talked about your new classmate?"

The foals answered in unison, as if they were a single pony with a stentorian voice:

"Yes, Ms. Nutriz."

Nutriz gestured at Twilight, and continued talking to the foals.

"Well, here she is." Nutriz pointed to the embarrassed Twilight standing near the door "Twilight Sparkle, these are your new classmates!"

Once the small presentation ended, Twilight still unsure about what to say to a bunch of young ponies, stuttered "G-g-ood m-morning…"

The foals looked at Twilight confused, and, in the attempt to know, they broke their strangely disciplined silence, opting instead for chaotic rumble.

Twilight left Nutriz to do her job, and calm down the foals; meanwhile, she tried to think about what else to say to the fillies and the colts, who were surely curious about seeing an adult in their same class.