Fanfic / Little Glimpses

Cover by Novaintellus

Twilight Sparkle's wildest dreams have just been met, and exceeded. Due to an unexpected magical outburst during her entrance exam to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, the Solar Princess herself took an interest and took Twilight on as her personal student.

This was a pleasant shock for Twilight and her family. However, a few months later, a less pleasant shock would reach Twilight in the form of Celestia returning to Canterlot with a new daughter, a freshly adopted pegasus filly named Rainbow Dash. As the two get to know each other, Twilight can clearly see something eating at the self absorbed and competitive filly's mind.

To make matters even more confusing, Princess Celestia is now hiding something. Twilight dares not question it, but it is quite clear that Celestia isn't being wholly open with anypony about her decision to adopt some random orphan.

Could the answers have something to do with the cryptic dream Twilight had the night before she met Rainbow Dash?

Little Glimpses is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic by Skijarama. The first of a longer series, it follows the childhood of Twilight Sparkle and Princess Rainbow Dash (though she prefers just Rainbow Dash) as they grow up together in Canterlot. Throughout their lives, they both suffer flashes and glimpses of a world different than their own, one where Rainbow Dash is not a princess, and they met for the first time in a small town far from Canterlot.

Little Glimpses is the first of a series set in this alternate universe. It is followed by Little Choices, Little Consequences, Little Memories, and the currently ongoing Little Keys. The series also features an anthology of short stories set in the universe called Little Fragments. Finally, there is Little Changes, a crossover with the fic Change, co-written by Skijarama and tom117z.

The fic is formated in short storyarcs of about four chapters each, going over a few days at most. The first chapter was uploaded on 26th of July 2017, with the final four uploaded in one chunk on 7th of November the same year.

Little Tropes

• Academic Athlete: Rainbow Dash, of all people. Thanks to some Positive Friend Influence from Twilight, she's a lot more interested in reading from a much younger age. She's never quite as nerdy as Twilight, but she's willing to dive into reading and research on subjects that are relevant or interest her without any outside prompting. And, of course, she's a sportshead who loves flying and dreams of being a professional athlete.
• Accidental Misnaming: Rarity misremembers Twilight's name as "Twilight Sprinkle" when they meet again after several years.
• Adaptational Badass: Downplayed, Twilight is a bit stronger than in the show thanks to Rainbow dragging her along for non-academic activities, but not by a lot.
• Adaptational Explanation:
  • Twilight realizes that the Everfree is a Primal Zone, an area not tamed by the ponies of Equestria where nature still operates like it did pre-Equestrian settlement.
  • Nightmare Moon tells Rainbow that Celestia is on her way to exile on the moon, explaining why she was absent during the events of Friendship is Magic.
• Adaptational Protagonist: Rainbow Dash is part of an Ensemble Cast in the original show, but is part of a duo of protagonists and viewpoing characters here.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Because Rainbow moves to Canterlot, she, Twilight, and, to a lesser extent, Fluttershy are childhood friends in this universe, rather than meeting each other as young adults. Rainbow is also friends with Minuette, whom there's no indication she even knows in the show.
• Adaptational Upbringing Change: Rainbow in this continuity lost her parents shortly after she got her cutie mark, and was subsequently adopted by Princess Celestia, spending the rest of her childhood in Canterlot.
• Adopted into Royalty: Rainbow Dash is the adopted daughter of Princess Celestia, making her a princess herself, even if she prefers to not use her royal position much. The same is true for Cadance, though she's Celestia's adopted niece rather than daughter.
• Allohistorical Allusion: A central part of the plot. Whenever Rainbow or Twilight encounter something very similar to events of the main show - Twilight's introduction to Fluttershy or Minuette warning Rainbow not to prank someone who would take it poorly, for instance - they have one of the titular little glimpses of how things went in the original timeline.
• Alternate Timeline: One created from the time traveling in the season 5 finale of the show. In this series of events, Rainbow Dash was orphaned and adopted by Princess Celestia.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: Celestia engages in it every now and then, teasing her daughter by suggesting that she could adopt Twilight too just because she and Rainbow would be so cute as sisters.
• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: As princess, Rainbow Dash has limited access to the royal treasury. To give an idea of how much spare change she can throw around, it took Fluttershy's middle-class family six months to scrape together enough money for a short trip to Canterlot at the cheapest hotel they could manage. When Rainbow hears about it, she waves her hoof and pays for the entire trip, even extending their stay. With what amounts to her allowance at nine years old.
• Baby Talk: Spike talks like this in his first few appearances, usually transcribed as strings of letters that vaguely resemble whatever word he's trying to say. He gets better with time.
• Bad Liar:
  • Rainbow is terrible at lying. The best she can think of when trying to keep Twilight out of Pinkie's surprise party is that there are rats in a basement, which she says with a lot of stuttering and hesitation. Twilight also immediately catches that something is wrong when Rainbow says she got her "fast," when Rainbow would otherwise never call her fast.
  • Celestia is pretty good at lying to anyone other than Rainbow, who knows her tells and considers them obvious.
• Bait-and-Switch: When first seeing Pinkie, Rainbow recognizes her from her first flash. Pinkie says she also recognizes Rainbow... Because she's Princess Rainbow Dash, a public figure. And also because she's hallucinated her for years.
• Birthday Episode: "Happy Birthday," entirely about celebrating Rainbow's tenth birthday. She missed her birthday the year before, so Celestia makes sure to make this one extra special, with a mountain of gifts, specially ordered cake, and all of Rainbow's friends she can get ahold of. Rainbow tries very hard to hide how touched she is, and the chapter ends with her happily falling asleep under her mother's wing.
• Brief Accent Imitation: When Twilight tells her to not do anything stupid or reckless, Rainbow puts on the cheesiest upper class Canterlot accent she can and says "Moi?!" with sarcastic indreculousness.
• Bully Hunter: Neither Rainbow nor Twilight like bullies, though any actual hunting consists mostly of just Rainbow telling them to stop and let them freak out over being in the presence of royalty.
• Butterfly of Doom: This entire timeline spins out of Twilight and Starlight from the main timeline merely being present in Cloudsdale the day Rainbow got her cutie mark. Rainbow saw them and was confused since as far as she knew there were only two alicorns in existence and neither of them look like Twilight. Her confusion over this eventually led to an accident that killed her parents, leading her to be adopted by Princess Celestia, and the fic spins out from there.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Justified since she's adopted. Rainbow Dash calls Celestia by her name most of the time, though she at least doesn't use her title. She does call her "mom" sarcastically in the first chapter, but the first time she actually calls her mother genuinely is when demanding to know what Nightmare Moon has done to her.
  Rainbow Dash: Where is Celestia? WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY MOTHER?!
• Childhood Friends: Rainbow Dash is this with Fluttershy of course, and with Twilight, meeting and becoming friends after Rainbow moves to Canterlot. Changes to the timeline also meet that they first meet Rarity as children.
• Comically Missing the Point: Having worked together to repair a rope bridge, Rarity asks Fluttershy how it looks, as in if it looks safe. Fluttershy responds that it looks very pretty.
• Commonality Connection: Rainbow Dash and Cadance bond over being regular pegasi Adopted into Royalty. Cadance ends up giving her new cousin some tips on how to not let Canterlot get to her.
• Convenient Coma: Twilight spends the entirety of the aptly named Unwaking Twilight arc in a coma, brought on by an especially powerful flash. Notably, Rainbow had the same flash but she was only out for four days.
• Damsel in Distress: Nightmare Moon kidnaps Rainbow Dash so they can "catch up." In fact, this makes Rainbow the archetypical damsel, a princess in a tower (the Everfree castle) guarded by a dragon or evil sorcerer (Nightmare Moon).
• Did You See That Too?: Twilight asks this of Fluttershy and Rainbow after her first vision, though neither of them saw it.
• Divine Parental Issues: Downplayed. Rainbow and Celestia generally have a pretty healthy relationship, with Celestia being a good if slightly absent parent, and Rainbow growing closer and closer to her as the years go on. Rainbow is still rather frustrated at how secretive Celestia is, though.
• Dramatic Irony: Rainbow notices that Celestia seems gloomy around Nightmare Night, and asks her about it. Celestia is clearly about to tell her about Luna, but doesn't go through with it and changes the topic. Rainbow eventually gets her to spill the beans.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Nightmare Moon immediately accepts that Rainbow is her niece, treats her with some amount of respect and affection, and even offers her to be monarch of Equestria alongside her. Her affections for her newfound family member seem to be genuine.
• Evil Aunt: Nightmare Moon to Rainbow Dash, as she eventually learns when demanding an explanation of the topic that Celestia has been avoiding.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: More jerk than evil, Blueblood is confused as to why Rainbow prefers to just go by her name rather than her title. After all, why wouldn't she want to flaunt her superiority over the common mare?
• Evil Laugh: Of course, wouldn't be Nightmare Moon without one.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Rainbow Dash overhears a conversation between Celestia and Highblood in which the latter remarks that it's unheard of for Celestia to adopt a child, and implies that she has ulterior motives. This ends up putting a dent in Rainbow's faith in her adopted mother, though Celestia later assures her that any other reason to adopt Rainbow is secondary to how much she loves her.
• Feather Fall: A mostly mundane example. When Twilight falls down a cliff, Pinkie produces a bunch of balloons out of nowhere to halt her fall. Twilight is still hurt, but not nearly as much as she could have been.
• The Fettered: Rainbow acknowledges that she could waive any rule or regulation that she doesn't like if she felt like, but abusing her power like that would earn her a scolding from Celestia so she doesn't do it.
• Foreshadowing: After taking Twilight for a flight, Rainbow idly wishes Twilight had wings of her own. Twilight does eventually become an alicorn in Little Consequences.
• Forgot About Her Powers: A mundane example occurs during Rainbow's first scenes with both Celestia and Cadance . After snapping at them, she's briefly scared she'll get punished for mouthing off to royalty, before remembering that she too is royalty now.
• Gaslighting: Rainbow has known about Nightmare Moon's return for years, but has promised Celestia not to say anything. As such, when Twilight starts worrying about it, Rainbow has to pretend that she knows nothing about it and suggests that maybe Twilight just got her research wrong.
• Generation Xerox: A few times throughout the fic, Celestia very nearly tells Rainbow about Nightmare Moon, but stops herself and changes the topic. In "The Eternal Night," Rainbow (who's been told by this point) is about to tell Twilight that she believes her concerns about Nightmare Moon, but is interrupted by Spike, and changes the topic when Twilight asks what she was about to say.
• Good Parents: Celestia does everything in her power to give Rainbow Dash a happy childhood, keeping her away from the burdens and expectations of royalty (at Rainbow's request) and taking as much time as she can out of her day to spend time with her daughter. It is hinted that she had ulterior motives for adopting Rainbow, though the love she has for her is genuine.
• Happily Adopted: Rainbow takes a while to accept Celestia as her mother, but this has more to do with trauma from losing her parents. Celestia adores her daughter, and Rainbow loves her in turn, with much of the fic dedicated to show how close they are as a family.
• Happy Ending Override: To the season 5 finale. Butterfly of Doom is very much in effect, and even though Starlight stopped trying to actively ruin the timeline, the mere presence of her and Twilight still had an affect. This created a new timeline where Rainbow Dash lost her parents young, and in the process wipes out the timeline of the original show.
• Harmful to Minors: A small case, but Spike, who's just barely learned to speak, gets yelled at by Twilight, the closest he has to a mother, because he interrupted her research. Both Rainbow and Fluttershy call her out for it, and she resolves to do better in the future.
• Hidden Depths: Rainbow is usually not especially interested in laws or politics or other things relating to her title. However, when Twilight makes up some charges to scare off a couple bullies, the bullies are easily fooled, but Rainbow points out afterward that none of what Twilight listed are actual laws, showing a surprising familiarity with the laws and rules regarding proper behavior around royalty.
• Immoral Journalist: Not really, since they respect Rainbow's privacy when Celestia tells them to. Rainbow just really doesn't like them due to a bad experience when she was introduced to the public as the youngest princess.
• Interclass Friendship: Between Rainbow Dash (royalty) and Twilight (minor nobility), and the rest of the mane six, who are all working class.
• Internal Reveal:
  • The reader learns of Rainbow Dash and Celestia's relationship in the first chapter, when Rainbow sarcastically calls Celestia "mom." It's only in chapter 4 that Twilight connects the dots and realizes that the orphan Celestia is acting motherly towards is her daughter.
  • The chapter "Waking Up" has Rainbow learn that Nightmare Moon is her aunt Luna. The rest of the cast only learn years later when Nightmare Moon refers to Rainbow as "my niece."
• Interspecies Adoption: A downplayed case, Rainbow Dash is a pegasus adopted by Celestia, an alicorn. She and Cadance end up discussing it when Rainbow asks why she's not an alicorn when Cadance, Celestia's adopted niece, is. Cadance explains that the alicornhood came before the adoption in her case.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Rainbow may love pranks, but when Minuette warns her that Moondancer is just starting to come out of her shell and wouldn't react well to being pranked, she backs down without protest.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Twilight accuses Rainbow of this when they play a tabletop game. She always uses her best cards the moment she gets them, while Twilight saves them up to use in the most opportune moments.
• Liar Revealed: Twilight is hurt when she realizes from context clues that Rainbow lied about not believing that Nightmare Moon would return, though Fluttershy assures her that she probably had a reason to keep it secret.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Blueblood is as much of a jerk as in the show, but his father, Highblood, is a very kind and understanding man. He pologizes to Rainbow both for his son's behavior and for the behavior of the nobility in general, before sincerely welcoming her to Canterlot and hoping that she will see the city at its best.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Rainbow did not know about Fluttershy moving to Ponyville, since Fluttershy was too shy to write and tell her.
• Lovable Nerd: Twilight, of course. Having Rainbow Dash around means that she comes out of her shell much earlier than she does in the show, and is already more sociable at age thirteen than she is at the start of the show in the main timeline, while still retaining her love of learning and booksmarts.
• Memory Trigger: Only it's not their memories. Whenever any of the mane six see things that are similar to events of the original show, they suddenly experience a glimpse of those events.
• Mistaken for Insane: Rarity is scared that this will happen to her because of her flashes, to the point of begging Princess Rainbow to not let them throw her in an asylum. Rainbow and Twilight, who both have similar flashes, assure her that nothing is wrong with her and bring Celestia to confirm it.
• Modest Royalty: Despite being princess of Equestria, Rainbow prefers to just be called by her name, dislikes it when ponies bow to her, and all-in-all finds the finery of her royal life bothersome. The only time in the fic she wears any kind of royal outfit is during her public introduction, and she expresses strongly how much she hates it. Later fics reveal that she has a crown, but never uses it.
  Rainbow: Yeah, no, none of that. Rise and speak freely. I don’t like ponies over-recognizing my ‘rank.’
• Not So Above It All: Celestia is a dignified immortal ruler, but even she gets embarrasses when she fails at partygames, and it doesn't stop her from joking and poking fun with her daughter.
• Oh, Crap!: Dumbell and Hoops when they realize that the girl they're bullying is not just some girl who moved away and is visiting home, but Princess Rainbow Dash, daughter of Celestia. A pair of students at Celestia's school have the same reaction, though a good deal quicker since they know who Rainbow is immediately.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Twilight is worried when she receives summons from both Celestia and Rainbow Dash, since it's the first time Rainbow has invoked her royal power to summon anyone rather than just going to talk to them.
• Parents as People: Celestia loves being a mother and would love to spend more time with her daughter, but her duties keeps her occupied a lot of the time. Rainbow isn't upset, but would also love to spend more time with her.
• Parents Know Their Children: Inverted, Rainbow is very good at telling when Celestia is upset or hiding something due to being her daughter. More importantly, she is the only one not afraid to call Celestia out on it.
  “Don’t give me that. I know when you’re hiding something. You’re a real chess master, but you always need time to think about how you want to play your next move,” Rainbow explained before coming to a stop directly in front of Celestia, looking her in the eye intensely. “You always try to excuse yourself from a situation if you don’t have your next move planned out. Like you tried to do in my room two months ago when I woke up.”
• Party Scattering: Only Twilight and Fluttershy (the latter because she can fly) make it across the rope bridge to the castle of the royal sisters, the rest having fallen into the ravine. Twilight tells Fluttershy to check on the others before heading on alone.
• A Place Holds Memories: Seeing the racering where Rainbow did her sonic rainboom - the Point of Divergence - causes Twilight and Rainbow to both flash simultaneously, one that also shows them the old timeline dissolving and Starlight and the original Twilight along with it.
• Point of Divergence: The entire timeline of the fic spins off from Twilight and Starlight being present in Cloudsdale when Rainbow got her cutie mark. Not doing anything mind you, simply being there was enough to radically alter the future.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Nightmare Moon calls the Ponyville populace "Common rabble" with venom in her tone. Rainbow Dash, as both princess and her niece, is the only pony there she shows any amount of respect.
• Positive Friend Influence: Rainbow and Twilight both have this on each other. For Rainbow, she discovers her love of reading at a much younger age, and Celestia observes that she's grown much more organized and tidy in the months she's known Twilight. It says something about her development that she voluntarily jumps into researching medical conditions when Twilight is in the hospital. For Twilight, having a friend her age who actualy drags her out of her books every now and then makes her less of an antisocial shut-in by the time the show's plot starts up.
• The Prankster:
  • Rainbow Dash, of course, loves pranks, to the point where pranking ponies is her favourite part of Nightmare Night, moreso than the candy. She's a tad disappointed at how Canterlot ponies react to being pranked, but at least she has a partner in crime in Minuette.
  • Twilight tried to prank Celestia once. Once. The story is told here.
• Princess Protagonist: Rainbow Dash, one half of the main duo, is the adopted daughter of Equestria's ruler and a princess herself. She doesn't really like talking about it.
• Professional Voice Dissonance: Done with word choice rather than tone of voice, since it's a written medium. Rainbow Dash is generally very casual, but she has grown up in the royal courts, so whenever she's doing anything in an official capacity - like telling a subject not to bow for her - she becomes a bit more verbose.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Fluttershy has a good set of them, which she uses to get Twilight to agree to bring the other mane six along to rescue Rainbow.
• Really 700 Years Old: Celestia is over a thousand. She's not above playing mock offense when Rainbow makes a remark about her age either.
• Related in the Adaptation: In the adopted sense, Rainbow Dash is Celestia's daughter and, by extension, Luna's niece and Cadance's cousin.
• Royal Brat: Blueblood is as much of a spoiled jerk as in canon, seeing himself and other nobility as inherently superior to other ponies, even dismissing Rainbow's deceased parents because they were lowborn. He ends up being put on community service as punishment for insulting Rainbow, his father hoping that will knock some humility into him. The trope is subverted for Rainbow Dash and Cadance, the actual royals in the fic, who are both humble and kind.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Celestia is of course busy most of the time doing actual governance. Rainbow generally tries to avoid anything associated with her rank, but she does step up and resolve situations that require authority if she's present and Celestia is not, though most of it happens off-screen.
• Sand In My Eyes: Whenever Rainbow is especially touched by something Celestia does for her, she always insists on blaming her tears on nonexistant onions.
• Scenery Porn:
  • At one point Rainbow takes Twilight on a flight far above the highest mountain in Canterlot, letting her see almost all of Equestria. Twilight is lost for words at the sight, as even the parts that are covered by clouds look like an oil painting.
  • Cloudsdale is given similar attention when Twilight goes there for the first time with Celestia and Rainbow. A city built not just in the clouds but with the clouds is quite the awe-inspiring sight.
• Secret-Keeper: Rainbow learns the truth about Luna and Nightmare Moon four years before anyone else, but is asked by Celestia to not tell anyone.
• Seers: The titular Glimpses are visions experienced by Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy where they see brief glimpses of events from the original show whenever something similar happens to them. No one, not even Celestia, can explain why it happens, though Celestia theorizes that some outside sources is sending them these visions.
• Serious Business: Rarity takes hair, and appearances in general, very seriously. Seeing Rainbow's mess of a mane horrifies her, and learning that Rainbow has it like that on purpose shocks her to the point that she starts trying to fix it despite Rainbow's protests, forgetting that she's assaulting royalty.
• Skewed Priorities: In very Twilight fashion, Twilight's first concern upon being told she's been in a coma for two months is that she's behind on her lessons. Rainbow assures her that the only thing Celestia is gonna do to her is hug the living daylight out of her.
• Spotting the Thread: Twilight realizes that Rainbow Dash lied about not believing that Nightmare Moon would return because Rainbow showed no surprise or hesitation when Nightmare Moon did appear, only anger. Nor did she react in any noticeable way when Nightmare called her "niece," implying that she knew all along both when Nightmare Moon would show up and that she's really her aunt.
• The Stations of the Canon: Most of the fic is an original story taking place before the main plot, but it does move into the events of Friendship is Magic during the last arc, which retells the first episode. Things go a bit off the rails when Rainbow Dash reveals herself as Celestia's daughter and Nightmare Moon kidnaps her as a result. The trip through Everfree follows some events one to one, while others are changed or bypassed entirely.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Nightmare Moon to Luna, of course. As Celestia explains it, becoming this is one of the greatest risks of being an alicorn: In her words, using magic creates a light and by extension a shadow in a pony's mind, and since alicorns are so powerful, the shadows they cast are all the darker, and might swallow them.
• Surprise Party:
  • Celestia holds one for Rainbow in the appropriately named chapter "Happy Birthday," complete with everyone Rainbow even remotely knows being in attendance. Shining Armor is given the task of fetching her and almost gives it away by being a terrible liar.
  • Pinkie tries to hold one for Rainbow and Twilight in the library as per canon, but Twilight finishes her work earlier than expected and Rainbow fails to keep her out, so she ruins the surprise.
• Switching P.O.V.: The fic mainly alternates between its two main characters, Twilight and Rainbow, with occasional scenes starring other characters.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Hayburgers with fries for Twilight, pasta and potato sandwich on sourdough bread for Rainbow Dash, and, of course, cake for Celestia. On the rare occasion that they all eat dinner together, Celestia makes sure to get everyone their favourites.
• Trauma Button: After the accident that killed her parents, the authorities used magic to forcibly remove Rainbow from their bodies. Ever since, being restrained or moved by magic causes her panic attacks.
• Unbroken Vigil: When Rainbow wakes up after a four day coma, Celestia is there in the room with her. When Rainbow asks, Celestia confirms that she was by her side the entire time.
• We Can Rule Together: Nightmare Moon offers this to Rainbow. She appears to be genuine in wanting her niece by her side as a co-ruler, even sweetening the deal by offering to let Rainbow talk to her mother once a year to make her less lonely in the cold dark of the moon.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Rainbow is very casual for a princess, specifically requesting that ponies don't bow to her or call her by her title, and doesn't mind stuff that might otherwise qualify as assaulting royalty as long as it's well-intentioned or joking. Most of Canterlot get used to it pretty fast, to the point where seeing her fly around is treated as a common occurence. At one point she even got the Canterlot newspaper to stop using her title.
• The Worm That Walks: Rainbow's Nightmare Night costume is a ball of vipers, created by glueing rubber snakes to a bodysuit with Celestia's help. Minuette mistakes it for a Medusa that hasn't had a haircut in a while.
• You Are in Command Now: Downplayed. Applejack points out that, with Celestia vanished, Rainbow Dash is first in line to the throne and Equestria needs a leader. The situation ends up being resolved before she has to take charge, however.
• You Remind Me of X: When Rainbow demands to know what Celestia is hiding, Celestia remarks that she's very much like her aunt Luna.
• You're Not My Father: Aunt rather. After Nightmare Moon gloats that she's sent Celestia to the moon, Rainbow furiously tells her that she's no aunt of hers.

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