"Why would my friends not take me seriously? Am I really not that important to them?"
The train arrived at Canterlot and everypony got off at the station. Shining Armor had to guide Twilight because she was still crying from all the stress she had suffered from. Her tears dripped from her face onto the ground.
"I'm gonna take her home," said Shining Armor. "I'm sure our parents will be glad to see her. And... they must know about this." Of course he knew that meant telling them those hurtful words he said to Twilight. Even if it was but a week ago, the fact that what was said had been said would never go away. Not only did his words hurt her, but her friends chose to turn their backs on her and even Celestia got mad at her. But no one saw or heard what Twilight had been through shortly after being abandoned, so the post-event stress she was suffering from could have been worse than they thought.
"It's been a long time since you came home," said Spike, as he, Shining Armor, and Twilight were on their way. "Come to think of it, I don't remember your old home at all."
"That's because you had only just hatched," Twilight wept.
"Aw, Twilight," said Spike, deeply saddened by Twilight speaking through tears. Shining Armor brought Twilight to her old home along with Spike where her parents were living and knocked on the front door. Twilight's parents answered it, but they were initially shocked upon seeing Twilight crying while rubbing her eyes with her hoof.
"Oh, Twilight, honey!" her mother cried, taking her into an embrace. "What happened?"
"It's a long story," answered Shining Armor. "We should go inside." Twilight was then in her old bedroom, sobbing on her bed. Spike was also in tears, heartbroken over Twilight's condition. She wiped more tears out of her eyes and then walked to her door to listen in on Shining Armor talking with their parents.
"I don't believe this," said the father, sounding exasperated.
"But why?" asked the mother, Twilight Velvet, practically in tears. "Why would you even think of saying something so awful to your own sister?"
"Well, she was being mean," Shining Armor replied, though he knew it was not an excuse. "We didn't know she was a fake. She had us all fooled."
"In any case," said the father, a bit sternly now. "I thought I once taught you that two wrongs never make a right. Mean or not, fake bride or not, those words you said were very hurtful and quite possibly the meanest thing you've ever said to your sister so far. You have brought shame to your family."
"I'm sorry, dad," said Shining Armor. "Twilight was right. I should have listened to her. I put Cadance ahead of her when I shouldn't have. I underestimated my own judgment. I was wrong. We were all wrong." Twilight Velvet was tearing up, so she left the conversation to check up on her daughter. "What else can I say?" said Shining Armor despairingly. "What else can I do?"
"Nothing," the father sighed. "What's done is done. But... I'm at a loss, son." Shining Armor lowered his head in shame. Meanwhile, Twilight heard her mother coming to the door and stood back. She came in and embraced her daughter.
"Oh, my little girl," Twilight Velvet cried. "I'm so sorry."
"It's not his fault," said Twilight as the two went to sit on her bed.
"Oh, honey, yes it is."
"But that imposter fooled us all," Twilight insisted.
"She didn't fool you. And besides, either way, your brother should not have said those things to you. Didn't he hurt you?"
"Yes, mom," said Twilight, tearing up again. "You're right. I don't think I've been more hurt and lonely than that night." She started to cry again. "I was trying to protect him because I love him. I would never want to ruin anything for him. I don't know why he would ever think that about me."
"Oh, honey... Don't cry. Don't cry."
"I thought I lost everything that night. My friends, my brother... my teacher... Why would my friends not take me seriously? Am I really not that important to them? I'm scared, mom!"
"Come on, Twilight!" Spike begged. "Don't say things like that! Your friends love you!"
"Then why did they walk out on me when I needed them most?!" she cried. Spike knew that he too had abandoned Twilight in her moment of need, so he could not answer her nor could he justify his mistake. "When I first moved to Ponyville, I learned how wonderful it was to have friends for once in my life. And now, after all this time, they could always choose to turn their backs on me again. What if I find myself back where I started? An egghead with no friends because of my silly, stupid studies! I don't wanna be alone! I can't! I just can't!" Twilight cried in her mother's warm embrace, both of them shedding tears.
"Twilight, honey, why don't you just get some sleep for now," she suggested. "Your father has signed you up for a therapy session tomorrow. I'm sure it will be just what you need."
"Okay." Twilight crawled into bed and her mother, after looking back at her once more, left her alone to sleep with Spike by her side. But that night, Twilight had the worst nightmare of all time...
She dreamt that the royal wedding and everything up until the reception was all but a blissful dream, and the real world was in fact ruled by Queen Chrysalis where everypony was imprisoned in cocoons having lived the same lie. And as Chrysalis was preparing for her victims' final transmigration...
Twilight woke up shrieking at the top of her lungs in a cold sweat. It was the middle of the night. She was breathing heavily and her whole body was shaking and quivering with fear. Spike, who had been sleeping with Twilight in her bed, had also woken up when Twilight screamed.
"Twilight!" he said. "Are you all right?"
"I... I don't know," she murmured. Spike looked worried.
"I think we're both gonna be glad when morning comes." Spike dropped off to sleep in an instant. But Twilight was still awake in the dead silence of the night. Were these awful dreams trying to tell her something? Perhaps Twilight was more worried about her friendship and had forgotten her first nightmare, which hinted that the Changelings could still be at large. She needed her friends more than ever, but with all her afterthoughts regarding the wedding rehearsal night, she did not know who to turn to or trust for support and comfort. She laid back down in her bed and cried herself to sleep.
~ Day 3 ~
Twilight was not feeling well when she woke up the next morning. She had a knot in her stomach. At around 8:30 in the morning, her mother knocked on the door.
"Twilight, honey?" she called. "Are you up?"
"Yeah, I'm up," moaned Twilight. Hearing her not sound so good, Twilight Velvet came into the bedroom and sat on the bed with her daughter. Spike was seemingly still asleep.
"Do you need anything? Are you okay, sweetie?"
"My tummy hurts."
"Oh, sweetheart. You must be stressed out from everything. Just take a few deep breaths and try to relax." Twilight did so, and her mother stayed with her the whole time. "Your therapy session begins at 1:30 this afternoon. You'll be just fine, I know it." Twilight managed to show a bit of a smile and then they shared a warm hug. The uncomfortable feeling in her stomach even started to go away after a while.
"Mom?" Twilight then asked.
"Yes, dear?"
"You and dad weren't too hard on my brother, were you?"
"No, of course not. We were disappointed with him, but your father was reasonable. Your brother's too old to be punished, if that's what you're wondering. And besides, you two are no longer under our jurisdiction anyway."
"Um, will you and dad come with me to my therapy session?"
"Of course we will, honey. But I just want you to know that you'll probably be telling the therapist everything. And since some things will be emotionally painful to talk about, it might make you cry. But you'll feel a whole lot better when you're through." Spike had his back turned to them, so while he appeared to be asleep, he actually wasn't. There was a look of sadness on his baby dragon face because he felt sorry for Twilight.
Well, Black Kyurem was thinking of that one bit from the Disney Pixar film Ratatouille to be honest. The woman almost slaps the guy, but doesn't.
That's funny, it does for Black Kyurem. He even uploaded it to his own web site to be sure.
*fakes construction noises* Black Kyurem is trying to keep up here. He had everything all typed up in a Word doc so all he has to do is copy and paste.
Black Kyurem doesn't have a dA page.
Lets see what her mom and dad can do for her
Three chapters in one day, you are on a role my friend.
Why weren't her folks at the wedding in the first place?
Darn you canon plot holes! Darn you!
In Shining Armour's defence, it should also be noted that Chrysiis was regularly using mind control spells on his to lower his ability to reason. By the time of the Rehearsal, his reasoning ability was so impaired that it is unlikely he would have voluntarily done anything other than attempt to please the Queen of the Changelings. If anything, I would think that Shining would have just as many problems as his younger sister having been pretty thoroughly mind-raped in a way that has got to have undermined his faith in his own willpower and identity.
It's bothering me that Shining referred to his parents as her parents, instead of our parents. Other than that I am enjoying the story very much.
Judging from the interaction we actually see between Shining Armor and his parents in this chapter, I'd say he was rather fortunate, or in my opinion at least. If situation the story covers ever occured in MY family, I don't know what would have happened. Among my relatives, I'd like to think there is a relatively high emphasis on the extended family (and thus a high emphasis on familial bonds in general), so Shining Armor's actions at the wedding rehearsal would have been considered unthinkable. However, I could think of a few scenarios:
1) There WOULD have been a punishment regardless of the person's age, if not a subtle one...one that had scarcely begun!
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2) Someone would have been smacked across the face before being reprimanded in a manner that was at least 20% more severe and drawn out.
3) Or there would have just been more severe reprimanding.
Fortunately though, I've never had to seriously worry about such scenarios since my siblings, my cousins, and myself have long since learned the fine arts of patience, holding your tongue, and THINKING before acting! While we have had disagreements, I'd like to think that those experiences taught us to how to deal with them. Perhaps the fact that Twilight and her brother had a near lack of disagreements before the wedding could explain what happened between them. Unless Twilight was looking at her relationship with Shining Armor with rose-colored glasses, the two siblings would have never learned beforehand how to deal with a disagreement without letting things getting out of hand, or hoof for that matter.
On another note, you'll be pleased to know that as I write this, all the images in the story are still working. The bad news though (at least for me) is that the images include the one in chapter 6. For some reason, I've never been able to look at the expression of that vector's face, it just gets to me somehow (which considering my love for documentaries involving predatory animals IS saying something). On the brightside though, it means that modern pop culture has not left me completely desensitized.
All in all, though, nice work!
P.S. Would it be sad to note that in the current Clone Wars series, even mentally unstable individuals like DARTH MAUL and his estranged borther Savage Opress were able to work with and care for each other to the very end without disowning each other EVEN ONCE?
While my sympathies during the rehearsal scene rested fully with Twilight, of all those who left her, Shining is the one I'm prepared to give leniency to.
After all it's his wedding day, so he's probably full of nerves already, plus he has to provide the security for the whole city due to what was basically a terrorist threat. On top of that, his bride is acting uncharacteristically nasty so that's yet another level of stress. Just to top it all off, the one pony he was really counting on to support him, his little sister, corners his bride, acts in a very threatening manner, and makes her cry when, as far as he can tell, she's already stressed out
I'm not saying Shining handled the situation right, I'm just saying that under the circumstances it's understandable that he'd blow up in the heat of the moment, and, as others have already said, his judgment may already have been at least partially impaired due to brainwashing. Heck, the VERY NEXT time we see him, he's completely brainwashed, so it's very possible that once he CALMED DOWN he was sad about how that situation played out
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if after he marched out, he regretted his outburst and wanted to reconcile with Twi, forcing Chrysalis, already recognizing Twilight as a threat, to speed up the brainwashing in order to make sure nopony notices Twilight missing
1) While waiting for other stories to update, and thus needing some way to pass the time, I've once again been considering how the meeting with Night Light and Twilight Velvet could have been even worse for Shining Armor. More precisely, the word "shame" led to me imagining of a sitcom based scenario in which Shining receives an unorthodox punishment:
For bringing shame to his family Shining Armor is sentenced to be shackled to a "Stone of Shame," which he is to drag all across Canterlot without magic in clear view of the public. Then, when it seems he has redeemed himself...
2) In recognition of the frivolousness of my past entries, I would like to mention that I was feeling the need to vent over Shining Armor's behavior. While part of me has advocated for forgiving and moving on, another part of me still becomes quite frustrated every now and then, hence the preceding part of my entry. Personally, I think my emotional response to Shining Armor's actions may at least be in part to the fact that I am the oldest out of my siblings and all of my first cousins, a fact that my elders have well-hammered into my head over the years, with good reason. Such a position comes with very large responsiblities, including being able to act as a caretaker and role model whenever necessary. Therefore, whatever the eldest child says or does can have a TREMENDOUS impact on younger relatives, making it important for the eldest to watch their conduct.
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Oh Please I think the Scolding and Guilt was just punishment enough for Shining Armor
While some points are valid and brought up in this chapter and another chapter back, (about the Changeling Queen and Twilight over reacting ), it still doesn't changes the fact that what happened at the wedding rehearsal was handled very badly and it would had been handled in another way.
The video in this scared me bad I can't even
Ya know because of the fact that you're her brother, that would make them your parents too!
As with chapter 2, even though I have been familiar with this chapter for some time, I can't help but comment on it yet again. In this case, I simply felt like mentioning how satisfying it felt the first time I read how Shining was going to have to inform their parents about the situation (which was the same feeling I had when Cadance demanded answers from Shining in chapter 2).
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1237693 They were. But why weren't they at the reception?
Thanks for the video soooooo much I had 2 hours of sleep last night lol
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You're welcome!
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That video was the wrong thing to watch at 230am.
that video was super duper creepy, #scarredforlife O_O