=Familia 13=

>It was scheduled to rain in Canterlot today. It wasn’t a common occurrence, but with the sheer number of gardens present throughout the city, it certainly needed it every so often.
>Dark grey clouds hung in the sky out the window of the Royal Library, and from your desk you could see Anonymous sitting quietly in chair by looking out it.
>You look up from your book for the third time in five minutes and glance at him, seeing if he’d moved from his frozen position at all and sighing when you saw he did not.
>”How long?” you hear from behind you.
>The heart in your chest relocates to your throat.
“Gyah! Don’t scare me like that, Chrysalis!”
>The Changeling Queen stands motionless in the doorway and looks down at you with unwelcoming eyes. “How. Long. Sparkle?”

>That gaze hurt to meet, but you stay strong. 
“I’ve been in here a few hours, and he was here before me. He hasn’t moved since.”
>Chrysalis seems to lose interest in you just as fast and looks over to the corner. “Yes…that sounds about right.”
“Is it important?”
>Chrysalis turns her emerald eyes back to you. “The story is not mine to tell. Nor also is it my place to say you cannot ask him yourself, though I would if I could.”
>Chrysalis turns and walks to the door, speaking without even facing you. “Take caution, Sparkle. Poppy does not enjoy dark rainy days at all.”
“What? Why? Why are you even HERE?” you ask, closing your book.
>Chrysalis pauses to emit a sharp and explosive sigh. “Part of this “family togetherness” headache I agreed to is occasional tea with my siblings…peacefully at that.” Chrysalis shakes her head and continues down the hall and out of sight. “The things I do for that human…”
>You watch her go and close your book, walking over and carefully approaching the old man from behind.
“Anonymous...? Are you alright?”
>”Hrm?” he stirs “Oh, hello Twilight. Yes, I’m fine, sorry to worry. I’m just…so tired on rainy days.”
“Chrysalis mentioned you don’t like them…how come?” you ask, coming around to his front.
>You see Anonymous crack a smile as he stares at nothing out the window. “She’s a good girl…even when her attitude is bad. For all her bluster, I’ve never seen somepony appreciate help when her heart is broken like Chrysalis.”
>He turns his eyes and looks down at you. “Rain…reminds me of one of the hardest nights for my little family…almost a thousand years ago…”

-Anon POV-
>”Poppy, poppy you need to wake up now.”
>You groan and turn over in your bed.
>Chrysalis should not be up this early…
“No…I don’t…and neither should you be. Go back to bed, sweetheart.”
>The LAST thing you needed was another night owl like Luna.
>Living with that little girl for so long had destroyed your circadian rhythm.
>”Yes, poppy. We do.”
>You peel one eye open and see Chrysalis looking at you in the darkness of your bedroom from the hall.
“No, sweety. All this darkness tells me that it’s probably barely two in the morning, and two in the morning is “daddy sleeps for another four hours” time.”
>You throw your blankets over your head and try to shut your eyes with a yawn, you felt groggy for some reason. “So let’s try to get some sleep while we can before morning comes, hrm? You can crawl up here with me if you can’t sleep…”
>Chrysalis crawls all right, crawls and leaps onto your stomach and forces the air out of you with a grunt. “Poppy, we need to get up! It is almost noon!”
>You are about to scold her when that clicks.
“I’m sorry?”
>You take your blankets down and look her in the eyes. “What did you say?”
>Chrysalis buzzes her little wings. “The sun normally shines off the tips of the mountains around eight in the morning, you told me…and that will often wake me up when you don’t. I got up today on my own and wanted to let you sleep, honest, but I’m starting to get really hungry…”
>But that didn’t explain-
>You gently move Chrysalis off you and pull back your curtains, seeing the pitch black of night outside. On your writing desk, you glanced at your clocks, a broken one that was right at two random times a day that Discord had made and a normal one made by the girls for you. Sure enough, it said it was almost ten thirty.
>You feel your stomach clench as the thought of the girls comes up and you look out the window again.
“Something is wrong…”

>You and Chrysalis rush out to the back porch and consider the sky. The sable expanse sits as still and perfect as it did each night, but life as normal continues around you. Birds chirp away in a frenzy around you and the small woodland animals scurry to and fro, trying to make sense of all that was going on.
>They weren’t alone. You gaze up at the stars in the sky and wonder immediately what state the girls were in. Were they hurt? Were they in trouble? Was there anything you could do? 
>You silently kick yourself for allowing such responsibility to befall the two of them and for the world to need them in such a state, but you quickly drown those thoughts with simple hopes that they were both okay.
>A tugging on your pant leg returns you to the back yard as Chrysalis tries to get your attention. “Poppy…what is going on?”
>Any parent could tell you that if your child was afraid, your first duty was to calm them, and so instinct kicks in and you spring to action.
“I’m sure nothing, Chryssi…” you lie, kneeling to caress her. “You needed some breakfast, right? Let’s go get you fed.”
>”O-okay…” she responds and letting you pick her up.
>You focus entirely on the child in your arms, or at least try to as you head indoors and don’t give the outside a second glance while you still could.

>It began to rain over breakfast and the darkness became ever more suffocating outdoors in the ensuing hours. You took a glance at one point and saw the moon vanish behind the clouds carrying their rain.
>Every effort was made in the interim to keep Chrysalis focused on you and not at whatever calamity was causing this eternal night outdoors, and right now that meant study, of which your little one was a natural.
>Chrysalis’s horn glows bright green as she points it towards one end of the couch and dashes towards it. You hear space getting sucked into itself before Chrysalis triumphantly on the other side.
>”Tadaaaah!” she exclaims.
>You clap excitedly from your chair. “Very good, little one! You may be the fastest learner I’ve ever had.”
>A bit of red takes her chitinous black face as she when she whiles over to you. “Yes, I am! The taste of the experiences hangs in the air here like a nectar, but only one such as I can pull them from their home and figure them out.”
>Chrysalis hops up onto your lap and silently demands congratulatory headpats. You oblige.
“Mhm. This is all related to how you “eat love”?”
>”Yep!” 
“What’s that feel like?”
>Chrysalis rubs her chin in thought. “Mmm…I cannot remember... Ever since I came here, I’ve never had to do it.”
>You chuckle and pat her some more.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
>”Mhm…”
>Chrysalis is silent for a moment more. “Poppy…?”
“Yes hon?”
>”Some of what I taste in the air here…it sort of tastes like what it’s like outsi-“
>A knock on the door interrupts Chrysalis and turns her sentence into a startled yelp and a dash to your side, putting you between her and the door.
“Chrissi?”
>”Th-that feeling…whoever is responsible for the night time outside is at the door!” she shivers.
>The knock comes again, this time more rapidly.
“…Stay behind me.” You say as you rise from your chair.

>The single thought that runs through your head as you grab the fireplace poker is “What in the world are you doing?”
>You’d never protected anyone like this before, you’d never even been in a fight before, but if who or WHAT ever was behind the sky was on the other side of the door, they might be able to answer your questions about the girls, they might be able to tell you what happened to Luna and-
“Celestia?”
>You push the door all the way open and lower your poker.
>Celestia stands in the doorway, but so much different from the last time you saw her. Scrapes and soot covered much of her body, and she looked ragged and tired. The feathers on her wings were frayed at the edges and the horn on her head had a crack running through it. 
>However the most extraordinary difference was her mane, once bubblegum pink and now a rainbow of pastel colors that even now tried to flow in the wind, despite the torrential rain battering it down.
>Celestia’s face hitching and meeting an eye filled with a sadness you’d never seen before grips at your heart.
“…Tia?”
>”D-daddy…” she says through her tears.
>You hold your arms wide and let her nearly collapse into them. Celestia buries her face into your shoulder and sobs, you can hear her whisper “sorry sorry sorry sorry” under her breath.
“Sorry? Sorry for-“
>Only now do you look past your doorway and see the moon hanging in the sky with its new face.
“…No…”
>Celestia continues to weep into your shoulder and collapses to the floor.
“No…no no no…”