The Suspicious Behavior of Parents
The Study of a Winning Pony
Chapter 17: The Suspicious Behavior of Parents
Mom lead us to a Roaman restaurant that my family often went to. Old childhood memories resurfaced as I took in the sights and smells of the place. We passed by the classical-styled Ionic marble columns and artwork copying works from pre-Great Migration Roam as we were shown to our table. The aroma of sauces, pastas, and garlic pleased my sense of smell as we sat, and my stomach reminded me that I hadn’t had anything to eat that day since having pancakes for breakfast with Pinkie.
We were seated and given our menus by the waiter. After taking our requests for drinks, the waiter swiftly departed to allow us time to pick out what we wanted to eat.
Sparkler opened her menu and her eyes widened a bit. “This place seems pretty fancy. There aren’t even any prices on the menus.” It wasn’t hard to imagine her going over the potential prices on the menu and how much lighter her bitpurse would be by the end of the meal. While the meals were, more often than not, really good in Canterlot, it could get pretty pricey if you weren’t careful. Especially for the really fancy places that didn’t list their prices. Something I quickly found out during school when I had to budget for meals. Nothing makes you appreciate your parents like the expense of a nice hot meal.
Mom gave Sparkler a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about the cost, dear. I’m paying.”
I could hear the struggle going on in Sparkler’s head between wanting to save some bits and her pride when she said, “You don’t have to. Mom gave us some bits for stuff like this.”
Mom waved dismissively. “Really, it’s fine. This is my treat. Save your money for later.”
Sparkler’s shoulders relaxed as the resistance in her waned. “If it’s really alright...”
“Of course it is,” Mom assured her. “Nothing wrong with accepting a meal from your elders. Now go ahead and pick what you like, both of you.”
Sparkler made a neutral murmur as she returned to looking her menu over. I knew better than to argue with Mom over this. Since she’s a duchess, I have seen her pay for many meals over the years. It was the social custom in Canterlot for those of higher station to pay for the meals of others.
Dinky was much more enthusiastic and cheerful with my mom’s offer. “Thanks, Mrs. Velvet. You’re rilly nice.”
Mom nodded. “You’re welcome, Dinky.”
Spike rubbed at his chin as he considered what to order. “Hey, could we get some extra breadsticks? This place always has great breadsticks.” Having long ago mastered Canterlot dining customs and how to get various little treats out of my parents, Spike gave my mom a big, innocent smile.
“I don’t see why not,” Mom said.
Having decided to go with my old favorite lasagna, I asked, “So Mom, do you know when Dad will be showing up?”
Mom looked up from her menu. “He should be here before too long, assuming nothing at work is keeping him.”
“Alright,” I said somewhat mutely. That was a problem with Dad’s work, things needing his immediate attention tended to come up. More than one family meal had been preempted by his job, and it was something I had more or less resigned myself to happening now and again.
After a few minutes, the waiter came by again and put our drinks on the table. She took our orders (with an order of extra breadsticks, of course) and collected our menus before departing. Mom looked like she was about to strike up a conversation when a stallion and a pair of ponies from the Royal Guard stepped up to our table.
The confident looking stallion was of average height and build, and appeared well kempt but nearing the end of his middle age with his slightly worn features. His light blue coat and dark blue mane still possessed most of their luster though, and his smile was as warm as I remembered it. Dad nodded to everypony at the table. “Sorry for being a little late.” He pecked Mom on the cheek before giving me a big, paternal hug. “How’s my little filly doing?”
“I’m good.” I hugged him back and enjoyed the feeling of my father’s embrace. “You?”
“Getting along.” Dad gave me a final squeeze before turning to Spike. “Hey, Spike. My daughter treating you alright?”
Dad offered a hoof to Spike and he bumped it with a fist. “Oh, you know, tells me to get this and get that while she does her research. Sometimes we go on crazy adventures. The usual stuff.”
Dad chuckled. “Sounds right. At least it’s not all bad. I have a nice big ruby with your name on it for watching over my Twily.”
Spike licked his lips. “That sounds like a good reward.”
I narrowed my eyes at the scene. “Dad, he already got a big gem from Mom earlier.” I swear, my parents were always spoiling Spike whenever we visited. This was doubly annoying given I was trying to be more responsible with Spike now.
Dad leaned his head towards Spike to whisper, “I’ll give it to you after dinner tonight.”
“I heard that, you know,” I grumbled.
“Oh, relax, Twily. You know Spike’s a member of the family.” Dad pulled Spike in for a hug to help make his point. “No reason I can’t treat him now and again.” He fixed me with a more serious stare. “Besides, we barely get to see you two anymore.”
That last statement caused a pang of guilt in me. It was true that we hadn’t visited them as often as we probably could have. Darn it, Dad had always been good at turning the tables on me during an argument. I sighed as I rubbed at my eyes. “Fine, Spike can have another gem later.”
“Good. Now...” He flashed a big smile at Sparkler and Dinky. “Who is the lovely young mare and cute little filly joining us for lunch?”
Mom gestured at the two of them. “Dear, this is Sparkler and—”
Not content to wait for Mom to finish introductions, Dinky had dashed around the table to give Dad the traditional Dinky greeting. “And I’m Dinky Doo!”
Dad was forced back a step as he was assaulted by the ball of adorableness. “So you’re the student my daughter wrote about?”
Dinky nodded enthusiastically. “Yuh-huh! Miss Twilight’s a super-great magic teacher and I learn a lot from her.” She hesitated for a second before asking, “Um, what’s your name? ‘Cause I don’t wanna just call ya Miss Twilight’s Dad.”
Dad patted her on the head. “You can call me Duke Night Light if you like.”
“Oooh, are ya an important pony too?” Dinky asked.
“You could say that.” Dad grinned mischievously. “Most ponies would consider the Grand Vizier of Equestria to be important.”
“Whoa!” Dinky’s eyes widened. “That means you’re a really super important pony, then?”
“Oh geeze, Dinks.” Sparkler reach over to pull Dinky back a couple of steps away from Dad. “Sorry ‘bout that. Dinks is a hugger.”
Dinky gave her big sister a pout. “What? I just wanna hug Mr. Night Light.”
Dad waved off the concern. “Don’t worry about it. She’s just enthusiastic. Trust me, I’ve been through worse. Having little fillies giving you a surprise hug is much better than when ponies throw rotting vegetables at you.” He gave them a reassuring smile. “But yes, that does make me somewhat important.”
“He does work at Princess Celestia’s right hoof.” I shuffled in my seat. Talking about how important my parents were never made me particularly comfortable. “Not that I’m bragging or anything. I’m just stating a fact given the position of grand vizier has traditionally been an important one in Equestrian history since Unicornia.”
Mom patted me on the shoulder. “I think they understand.”
I chuckled awkwardly. “Right, of course.”
“So I guess that explains the guards.” Sparkler nodded her head towards the two guards that had followed my dad into the restaurant. They seemed to be doing their best job at looking stoic while glancing around for threats.
“They come with the job. So don’t mind them.” Dad sat down next to Mom. “They’re just doing their jobs and they prefer it if you don’t distract them. Plus they help keep us from being disturbed while we eat. It’s hard for me to go anywhere without somepony recognizing me and wanting to talk about something like taxes or zoning codes.”
Sparkler squirmed a bit in her seat and was noticeably trying not to look at the guards. “Still seems kinda rude to just ignore them.”
“You get used to them being around, trust me,” Dad said. That was somewhat true. Living around ponies who had guards around them all day every day did tend to desensitize you to their presence. Only so many study sessions and meals with Princess Celestia and your parents you can go through without starting to see the guards standing around as part of the background. It’s a bit terrible to think of ponies like that, but they really did try to be unobtrusive to those they guarded.
Sparkler turned to me with a raised eyebrow. “So is there anypony in your family that isn’t important, Miss Twilight?”
Spike let out a snort. “As if. Her older brother is the Captain of the Royal Guard.”
Sparkler did a low whistle. “You know, as much as I’m surprised, I really should have figured.”
“We’re ponies, just like everypony else.” I ran a hoof through my mane, feeling awkward at the admission that my family was made up of some fairly important ponies.
Sparkler’s look made me feel that she was less than convinced. “So a bunch of nobles that help the princesses run the government, and at least one of you has saved the world? Yeah, just like everypony else.”
Mom smiled as she nuzzled me. “Twilight’s always been a bit embarrassed about her family’s status. Haven’t you, dear?”
I felt my cheeks start to flush at the attention. “I just don’t like bragging.” It wasn’t as though I was ashamed of my family or anything like that. I just preferred for ponies to treat me normally, and I prefer to be judged on my own works rather than the legacy of my family and our titles.
“Wait, you have a brother?” A spark lit up in Dinky’s eyes. “I didn’t know that.”
“It doesn’t tend to come up much,” I admitted. That reminded me, I still needed to tell all my friends about him. Shame that would lead to questions like what he did for a living, and thus the rest of my family. I could be vague about the details, true, but that felt like I would be acting deceptively. Not a precedent I wanted to set with them or anypony else. So I tended to just not bring Shiny up whenever we all started talking about family.
“So are ya super close and give each other lotsa hugs like me and Sparky do?” Dinky hugged her sister as an example.
I smiled at the sisterly embrace. “We’re pretty close. We were always playing together when I was a filly. I don’t call him my big brother best friend forever for nothing.” Something tightened in my chest as I thought about my brother and how we hadn’t gotten to see each other as much anymore. Especially once I moved to Ponyville.
“Those two could be inseparable as kids.” Mom gave me an amused look out of the corner of her eye. “Though they could become a handful at times. I had to use some pretty inventive spellwork to keep those two out of the cookie jar.”
“We weren’t that bad.” I felt embarrassed as old memories of Mom catching us with hooves literally in the cookie jar came to the surface. A mixture of alarm spells to tell her when we were doing something we shouldn’t be, and illusion spells to sneak up on us resulted in my brother and me getting busted on more than one occasion.
“Only a little bit bad.” Mom absentmindedly fiddled with one of the pieces of silverware. “To be fair, you two were well behaved most of the time. Even if you had your moments of mischief.”
Dad frowned as he looked around the table. “So have you girls already ordered? I don’t see any menus.”
I nodded, thankful for the change in topics.. “We did, but I’ll see if I can wave over a waiter.” I waved to and got one of the waiter’s attention.
Mom placed a hoof upon Dad’s as the waiter approached. “So what held you up this time, dear?”
Dad took a menu from the waiter as he spoke. “I had trouble getting out of a meeting that went on long. I ended up disguising myself with an illusion just to sneak out. Quill Scratch’s covering for me right now. She’s probably fending off everypony from my office with a potted plant by now, but she has experience enough with that. Poor mare. I’ll have to make sure to buy her a gift before heading back.” He quickly looked through the menu and told the waiter what he wanted, likely not wanting to be distracted from the conversation or have to wait much longer than us for his meal.
Mom tittered. “Sometimes I have to wonder what you would do without your chief-of-staff.”
“Oh, I probably would’ve been crushed under a stack of papers falling on me by now. I swear, my paperwork seems to reproduce when I’m not looking.” He gave us a mischievous grin. “Hazards of being an important pony, I suppose.”
Mom nuzzled him. “Well, you’re here now.”
“So I am.” Dad pecked Mom on the cheek. “So how’s Ponyville treating you, Twily, Spike?”
“Good.” I took a sip from my water after the waiter placed our drinks on the table. “I’m settled in now, and I’m really enjoying hanging out with my friends there.”
“Yeah, it’s been pretty great.” Spike eyes narrowed at me. “When Twilight isn’t blowing up the basement, anyways.”
I laughed awkwardly as my parents focused on me. Spike just had to mention the library explosion ... explosions technically. “It wasn’t any big deal, really.”
Spike rolled his eyes. “Right, not a big deal when we have to replace everything in the basement.”
“Oh, yeah!” Dinky grinned as she leaned forward on the table. “There was the time she made the library all fwooshy!”
Mom crossed her forelegs as she gauged what she was hearing. “'Fwooshy'?”
Dinky made a sage nod. “First it was all quiet, an' then it was all 'boom!' It was rilly loud and everypony heard it. An' for once, the fire ponies didn't come to our house.” There was a pause before Dinky continued. “An' Miss Blossomforth was a'kay, so that's good too.”
The stares of my parents became all the more uncomfortable. When Mom spoke, it was in the firm tone she usually reserved for when I had done something bad. “Twilight, what have you been doing in Ponyville that’s been causing explosions?”
“Just a few experiments,” I said quickly. “The usual range of projects the princess gives me and things that catch my interest.” I didn’t want my parents to worry that I was doing something dangerous. It really wasn’t. Just sometimes accidents happened.
Dad leaned his head against his hoof in a thinking pose. “And sometimes those experiments end up exploding? These weren’t the type of experiments you were doing in school, were they? Like when you set the school lab on fire.”
I tapped my forehooves together nervously. “It sounds worse than it was.”
My parents exchanged a glance between one another, and I felt something pass between them. Mom’s eyes flicked towards Sparkler and Dinky’s end of the table, and she shook her head. I had the feeling the two of them wanted to talk about something when we didn’t have company. My lab accidents couldn’t be that big of a deal, could they?
Dad nodded to Mom before speaking. “We’ll talk about it later, then.”
Mom rubbed at her forehead. “It’s times like these that remind me of Magetrix, Twilight.”
“Oooh, who's that?” Dinky asked as the waiter brought the food to our table. Sparkler promptly tied a napkin around Dinky’s neck. Given her little sister hadn’t mastered telekinesis enough to properly use tableware, it wasn’t hard to guess why she was looking at Dinky’s plate of ravioli warily.
Mom’s mouth turned up into a warm smile. “She was Twilight and Shining’s tutor when they were kids. The two of us have been friends since school.”
That was true enough. I couldn’t hardly think of a time when Magetrix hadn’t been a part of my life as a filly. She and Mom had been close friends since before I was born and they were always spending time with one another. She was just about a member of the family given how often she was over at the manor. She was almost a second mom to me when Dad wasn’t around due to being posted somewhere in Equestria on one assignment or another.
Leaning back to let the waiter put our food on the table, Sparkler waited a second to speak. “I thought Princess Celestia was your teacher?”
I placed a napkin on my lap as my own plate was put in front of me. “Only once I joined the School for Gifted Unicorns. Before that, Mom and Dad had hired Magetrix to teach me everything.” I thought back to some of the lessons she had given me when I was a filly. My old tutor was always so passionate about everything, and was so fun to learn from. I was almost crushed when I found out I would stop learning from her. But it was a bit hard for her to continue mentoring me when I was going to the School for Gifted Unicorn and become the student of Princess Celestia herself.
"So she's kinda like you for me, huh?” Dinky ceased strapping her eating utensils to her hooves to think that one over. “'Cept it's more like a you for you when you were like me, an' that was way back then, so she taughtcha t'be like her, 'cept for me!"
I had to think a moment to make sure I had guessed what Dinky had said right before speaking. “Yeah, something like that.”
“She left quite the impression on you, dear.” Mom lifted up a pair of eating utensils as she looked over her pasta sprinkled with spices and sauce. “Including the odd laboratory disaster. I still remember that failed alchemy experiment you two had that ended up covering the manor’s lab with that awful yellow goop.”
“How bad was it?” Sparkler grinned, no doubt wanting to get all the juicy details of the incident. Great, I’d be lucky if Dash and then the whole town didn’t know about it by the end of next week. Stupid Ponyville gossip network.
Mom chuckled as she stuck a fork into her pasta. “Pretty bad. The stuff clung to everything. Including poor Twilight. We had to scrub her for hours to get it out of her fur, and it still stained her coat and mane terribly. For a while she looked like some sort of off-color Dalmatian.”
“Ugh, I remember.” Getting scrubbed until my skin was raw and feeling like my coat was getting rubbed right off had not been a pleasant experience. The smell of the gunk had made it all the worse. Shiny teaching me how to do shield spells had been a happy day for more than one reason.
Raising her sauce-covered muzzle up from her ravioli, Dinky asked, “So Miss Magitrix taught Miss Twilight how to make everything go all explody?”
“Something like that.” Mom’s vision became distant as she looked at Dinky—probably thinking about when Shiny and I were Dinky’s age if I had to hazard a guess.
“So what were you planning on doing while in Canterlot, Twily?” Dad popped some of his salad in his mouth as he waited for my answer.
“A few things.” I cut off a piece of my lasagna. “There was some shopping I wanted to do in town, for starters.” I did not mention that most of what I wanted to buy was to replace what had been lost in my latest laboratory disaster.
“My schedule is open for tomorrow after we’re done with our business in the morning.” Delicately wiping her mouth with a napkin, Mom continued. “It would be nice if we could spend some time together. Hm, considering your old tutor was brought up, how about we see if she would love to join us for an afternoon? It’s been a couple years since you two have seen one another, right?”
“Something like that.” It certainly had been a good while since I had last seen her, now that I thought about it. Something like a couple Hearth’s Warming Eves ago? Last I had seen her, Magetrix had been helping with research at the School for Gifted Unicorns, since the school had a huge research wing.
“So shall I go ahead and contact her to see if she’s up for it?” Mom asked. While it would be awkward to explain why I needed all the new lab equipment I was going to buy, I really did want to see my old tutor again.
I smiled and nodded. “Sure, go ahead. I’d like to see her again too.”
“Can we see Miss Magitix too?” Dinky asked as sauce dripped off her face.
Sparkler shook her head as she finished chewing. “Probably not, we’re gonna be seeing the family, remember?”
“Aaw!” Dinky looked crestfallen as her shoulders slumped. “But I wanna meet everypony.”
“Talk to Grandma and Grandpa ‘bout it later.” Sparkler picked up a napkin and rubbed at Dinky’s muzzle. “Also you’re a mess, Dinks. Try to get most of the food in your mouth, not on your face, ‘kay?”
Dad picked up his cup with his magic and tipped it my way. “Got any other plans besides shopping?”
“I was thinking about heading to the Royal Library to pick up a couple of books for my research.” As sad as I am to say it, even living in a local library only gave me so many books to look at. Not to mention the library was mostly stocked for the general public of Ponyville—most of the books I wanted were on topics nopony else would be interested in, or likely even understand. At least for the non-fiction sections. I often needed to come to Canterlot to either purchase or loan out books to provide for my needs.
“Go figure, Twilight wants to go to a library,” Spike said while chewing on some noodles. “How many bookstores are we gonna see while we’re at it? Six, seven?”
“Five ... that are on my shopping list.” Why did Spike have to make me feel guilty for wanting to go into bookstores? They’re some of the best places to visit in Canterlot. “Also, I hope to see the princess while in town.”
“Make sure to send her a letter, then.” Mom sipped at her drink. “It’s much easier for her to work you into her schedule if she knows you want to see her.”
“I know, Mom,” I said patiently. I knew my mom was just trying to be helpful, but it still felt slightly irritating to be told something I already knew. I guess that’s just a parent-child thing. You want to become more independent, and they still want to help you.
“Sounds like you’re going to have quite a bit planned, then.” Dad picked up one of the bountiful breadsticks—though the little basket was significantly less bountiful than when it had started due to it being placed right in front of Spike. At the rate he was going, he was going to fill up on bread. “In addition to spending some more time with your family, I hope.”
“Of course.” I mulled over my meal for a few moments before I worked up the nerve for what I wanted to say next. “I was also thinking of going to a concert tomorrow.”
Mom’s ears perked at that. “Oh, what were you planning on going to? I don’t believe the Royal Symphonic Orchestra is playing tomorrow, unless I’m mistaken.”
“I was considering trying something a bit new.” Not feeling particularly hungry right at that moment, I put my fork down. “Sparkler mentioned a musician who was playing in Canterlot tomorrow called DJ-Pon3. I thought I’d try it out given Sparkler seems to really like DJ-Pon3.”
So there it was, I mentioned my possible half-sister. That now in the open, I carefully monitored my parents for their reactions. Dad quirked an eyebrow at that while Mom’s ear turned as she gave me an inquisitive look. I knew I had their attention, but whatever they were thinking was beyond me. That was one of the things about my parents being heavily involved in politics, they had very good poker faces.
It’s times like these that I wished I were more socially savvy like Rarity. She had an eye for details I would never even begin to notice. At least I had Sparkler’s attention given the way she had stopped eating and was attentively watching the rest of us now that her favorite musician had been mentioned.
“Is that so?” Dad hummed curiously. “You don’t strike me as the type to like Vinyl Scratch’s genre of music.”
I found it curious that Dad used Vinyl’s given name rather than her stage name. Might as well get all the information I can... “Wait, you know who she is?”
“I would hope so.” Chuckling, Dad gave me a grin. “Given she has our patronage.”
That bit of news caused my eyebrows to raise. “Wait, we’re patrons of DJ-Pon3? Her music is a bit different from the classical stuff we’re normally patrons for, isn’t it?”
“Miss Twilight?” Dinky put a hoof on my shoulder to get my attention. “What’s a patron?”
I leaned down to speak to Dinky in a quiet tone. “A patron is a pony who supports a client like an artist or a craftpony.” Our family, like most of the noble families or affluent ponies in Canterlot, gave money and support to ponies in the city and elsewhere. I knew my parents gave money to ponies who were in the Royal Symphonic Orchestra, had helped fund several public works projects, and donated to several charities. In a bit of benevolent cynicism, this was often done in order to spread a family’s influence and show their prestige by being patrons to other important ponies in Equestria.
“Well, I did feel compelled to be Vinyl’s patron considering her mother works as my chief-of-staff.” Dad let out a hearty chuckle. “Her stuff isn’t exactly what would normally be considered high art. But she really is good at what she does.”
“She’s the best,” Sparkler said as though it were a self-evident truth. “I mean have you listened to Dubbin’ the Wubs? It’s beyond amazing.”
Dad gave Sparkler a wry grin. “A bit of a fan, are you?”
“Only her biggest fan!” Sparkler rocked in her seat like she wanted to leap out of it. “I’ve been waiting to go to one of her concerts for months now.” She hugged herself as she suppressed a squeal. “And I’m going to get to see her tomorrow. I can hardly wait.”
Mom held up a cup for our waiter to refill. “There’s a pretty big endorsement for you, Twilight. I can see why you might want to go to one of her concerts, considering how enthusiastic Sparkler is.”
I rubbed at the back of my neck. “Something like that.”
I’m not quite sure what I expected when I brought up Vinyl Scratch, but this wasn’t quite the direction I had hoped for. At least I had gathered a couple more pieces to the puzzle. This could be one big coincidence, but a lot of facts were lining up with what Cloud Kicker had told me. I knew that Quill Scratch had been my Dad’s assistant for decades, and as far as I knew she wasn’t married. Nor did she have any special somepony I was aware of. All of this together was enough to start forming a pretty solid theory to work off of.
“If you like, we could get you a couple of backstage passes.” Dad’s horn glowed and a notepad and a pen appeared in his magical aura and he started scribbling. He was always writing down notes to help keep himself from forgetting things. It was easy to forget something when you were as busy as my dad was. “There are benefits of being a patron of Vinyl’s. Hm, though you probably only need one ticket given it’s just you, right?”
I was about to tell Dad that I would only need the one ticket when Sparkler interrupted with a “No!” She grasped me by the shoulders and turned me to face her—bumping into the table in the process and knocking over a couple glasses. Her eyes were wide and wild as she looked into mine. “Get both tickets! Pleasepleaseplease, I wanna meet Vinyl, and this might be my only chance! You gotta get me that ticket!”
“Okay, okay!” I put my hooves up in surrender. “I’ll get both tickets!” Looking at Sparkler, I worried what would happen if I told her no. I knew from my own time as a teenager how easy it was to get really passionate about something like this, and I couldn’t think of a really good reason to outright deny getting her a backstage pass if I could. “As long as that isn’t a problem, Dad.”
“Not at all.” Dad wrote on his notepad. “I’ll make sure to get you those tickets tomorrow. Quill might even be able to get them before I come home tonight. Just be sure to have fun with them.”
“I’m gonna meet Vinyl! I’m gonna meet Vinyl!” Sparkler jumped to her hooves and hopped in place, letting out a squeal of joy.
Dinky covered her ears with her hooves. “Sparky, you’re bein’ rilly loud.”
Sparkler blinked and her face flushed as she noticed that everypony in the restaurant was now staring at her. With her carefully cultivated image of maturity now shattered, she sat down with her shoulders slumped and her head down—looking like she wanted to shrink until she disappeared from sight. “Sorry. But thanks for the ticket. Means a lot to me.”
Mom lifted a napkin to her lips to hide her smirk. “It’s quite alright. Just make sure to temper your excitement in the future.”
“‘Kay,” Sparkler said demurely. Her ears flattened on her head when she saw a couple ponies at a nearby table glancing her way and whispering disapprovingly to one another.
“So that’s settled.” Putting on an encouraging smile for Sparkler, Dad put his notebook away.
I prodded at my food with a fork. “So it seems.” While there were still a bunch of unknowns for tomorrow, one thing I was fairly certain of, tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.
After we had lunch, Dad had to return to work—after throwing on a quick disguise with his magic first anyways. The rest of us shopped around town for a couple of hours before my mom suggested we take a break at the estate. After the train ride, a meal, and walking around Canterlot, we were all ready to rest for a while.
The Sparkle Manor has been the traditional home for my family for generations. The manor had been constructed in the white stone typical of Canterlot. What had started out as a single tower nine centuries ago had gradually grown with additions, expansions, and renovations. What had resulted was a hodgepodge appearance as towers sprouted out from the building at seemingly random places, and it looked like five smaller buildings rammed together rather than a single planned building. I suppose that was probably inevitable given the manor had been owned by a series of powerful and somewhat eccentric magi over the generations. Style had never been my family’s forte. That and plowing the whole thing over and rebuilding from scratch would be a dauntingly expensive project.
My family is reasonably wealthy, but there were limits. While asymetrical architecutre of Sparkle Manor drove me crazy at times to look at, there were better things for my family to spend bits on, like the numerous charities we gave money to. Somehow rebuilding our home to look more uniform didn’t seem as high of a priority as giving disadvantaged ponies food, or helping fund magical medical research. Not to mention that our manor didn’t exactly stick out in the general “just add another tower to the other tower” style of architecture that was a mainstay in Canterlot.
We had stepped into the manor and were walking down one of the hallways when Dinky pointed into one of the rooms. “What’s all that?”
I glanced at the room to confirm which room she was pointing at. “That’s the state room. It’s where we keep a lot of the historical objects of our family.” The room was stuffed full with suits of armor, personal effects of famous ponies of my family, documents, and various other pieces of historical paraphernalia. Mom had even commissioned a museum curator a number of years ago to organize and label everything into something more presentable for guests, and now it wouldn’t look out of place in any museum in Canterlot.
It was even chronologically ordered to cover the major events in the history of my family, and go over the lives of its members. There were some really nice spots set aside for influential ponies like Grand Vizier Sunbeam Sparkle, Archmagus Midnight Sparkle, Aurora Sparkle, and others. Somewhat embarrassingly, there was even a display for me now. Mom thought it was appropriate after I had saved Equestria a few times, even if I didn’t really want it. Still, it was a pretty fascinating show room given the historical legacy within. I suppose it isn’t a huge surprise that I grew to love studying history when I had a small museum in my own home.
Dinky craned her neck at a few different angles from Sparkler’s back to get a better look at the room. “Oooh, can I see?”
Mom nodded. “I don’t see why not. Given you’re our guests, how about we show you around? At least if you’re up for it too, Sparkler.”
“Sure, got nothin’ better to do,” Sparkler said with a shrug.
“Count me out.” Spike yawned and rubbed at an eye. “I need a nap. Let me lay down on a couch or something.”
I chuckled and gave my assistant a nuzzle. “How about I find someplace to let Spike lie down for a bit while Mom takes you two around the show room.”
Everypony agreed to the plan, and I headed upstairs with Spike. In my bedroom, I found a basket already set up. It probably hadn’t been moved from the last time the two of us visited my parents. Whatever the case was, I wasn’t going to complain about a nice set of clean sheets and a soft pillow for Spike. By the time I levitated him into the bed, Spike was already nodding off. It had been a pretty long day for him. Either that, or Spike had been up late reading comics again. I really needed to crack down on that, but it had always been hard for me to say no to him reading anything. Even if the medium was dominated by drawings.
Spike now settled in his bed, I returned downstairs to get back to the others. It was in the hallway leading to the show room when I saw a pony I hadn’t expect to see there. Standing in his purple barding was my big brother, Shining Armor. Upon recognizing him, I ran to close the distance and flung myself at him to wrap him up in a hug.
“Shiny!” I gave him a quick nuzzle. “I didn’t think I would get to see you today.”
Shining gave me a big, goofy grin while giving me a good squeeze that made me worry about my ribcage for a second. “Now what type of big brother would I be if I didn’t set aside some time for my little sis? Besides, if I wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be able to do this.” Before I had time to figure out what he was doing and react, he put me in a headlock and then brushed his hoof along my scalp in a noogie.
“Hey!” I struggled, but Shining’s grip proved too strong. Go figure, a career in the Guard and his greater bulk gave him the advantage over me in a situation like this. “You better stop that before I retaliate by turning your mane green.”
Shining grinned and didn’t let go. “You wouldn’t.”
I tried to squirm, but Shining’s leg might as well have been made of steel. Still, I kept my tone good-natured as I plotted ways to give my brother a new look. “I would. And that’d be the first thing I’d do before escalating. You don’t think I’ve learned a few spells over the years?”
“Okay, point taken.” He gave me one last noogie before letting me go. “But really, it’s good to see you again. How’s it been in Ponyville?”
“Pretty good.” I worked to straighten my mane back to its proper position. “And you?”
Shining let out a long breath and some of the energy in him seemed evaporate as his shoulders slumped. “Busy. Being Captain of the Royal Guard has kept me hopping. Especially lately. It took some work just to be able to come over here to see you for a little bit.”
“You didn’t have to,” I told him. “I don’t want you to get in trouble at work.” My brother did have a really important position. One that took a lot of time to keep up with, from what Shining had written. As much as I liked seeing him, it almost felt criminal to take him away from things that were technically more important than seeing me.
He waved my worried off. “Don’t worry about it. I needed to tell you something anyways.”
“Oh, what is it?” It wasn’t hard to guess that whatever my brother wanted to talk about was the news Mom had mentioned earlier.
Rather than telling me right away, he closed his eyes and rubbed at his face. “Now what was it? I knew it just a second ago. It’s right on the tip of my tongue.” He shook his head out. “I must be more frazzled from work than I realized.”
“Mom said that there was something important you needed to tell me,” I said, trying to give his memory a shake.
“Right, I needed to tell you—” Whatever he was about to say was cut off when he winced with a pained groan and rubbed at his head.
I stepped up next to him, now concerned if there was something wrong. “Shiny, you alright?”
He grunted and nodded slightly. “Just a migraine. Been getting them lately. Probably due to stress from work and not getting enough sleep.”
I gave him a concerned frown. “You need to sit down or anything?”
“No, I’m good. Really.” Shining blinked his eyes a couple of times before speaking again. “The worst of it comes and goes, and I got some pills from the doctor to help. So don’t worry.”
I bit my lower lip. I didn’t like the idea that my big brother was suffering migraines. Especially if they were a result of the stresses of work, but I wasn’t sure what I could do for him given the situation. “If you’re sure...”
He smiled reassuringly. “I’m sure.” He prodded me towards the doorway of the show room. “Come on, let’s go see Mom and her guests.”
“Wait.” I stopped short of the doorway. “You were about to tell me something.”
Shining blinked dumbly at me for a moment. His thought process had probably be derailed by his migraine. “Oh, right. There is something I wanted to talk about.”
Our conversation was interrupted when Dinky tackled Shining with a hug. It was a bit humorous given the size difference between them. She tried wrapping her legs around Shining, but they didn’t get far around his large chest. “Hiya! I heard you have a headache. So I’m giving you a get-better hug. I’m Dinky Doo by the way. What’s your name?”
Shining smiled down at the hugging filly. “My name’s Shining Armor. I’m Twilight’s big brother.”
“Nice to meet ya!” Dinky nuzzled Shining’s chest. “Is my get-better hug helping?”
“A little.” Shining ruffled Dinky’s mane before squeezing back.
“I’m teaching Dinky magic back at Ponyville,” I said. “Kind of got myself roped into escorting Dinky and her sister, Sparkler, to Canterlot to see their grandparents.”
“I see. So you’re the new apprentice Twily wrote about, are you?” He made an amused grin.
“Twily?” Dinky giggled. “That’s rilly silly. Kinda like how I call my sister Sparky. But yeah! Miss Twilight’s teachin’ me lots’a neat stuff. And now I get to see how great her family is.” She reaffirmed her hug with a happy smile.
What was a fairly adorable hug quickly dissolved into an awkward one for me. In the extremely improbable case that Shining was Dinky’s father, this was likely the first time they had ever met. The first time a father and daughter had ever hugged...
“Twily, is everything alright?” He gave me concerned look while Dinky remained firmly attached to him. “You have that look on your face you had when you learned that electrons move differently if they’re being observed.”
I blinked as I snapped out of my trance. “It’s nothing. Nothing at all! Certainly nothing suspicious based on an improbable theory that keeps nagging at my thoughts despite all numbers working against it!”
Shining and Dinky both stared at me for an uncomfortable moment as I gave them the most innocent smile I could manage. At least I hadn’t blurted out everything I was thinking like I had in the past. It was probably a good thing my special talent was in magic instead of something like espionage.
My brother narrowed his eyes. “Twily, is there something you want to tell me?”
I felt my smile become all the more strained. “Nope, I don’t have any deep and terrible secrets!”
Shining gently broke the hug with Dinky—who most certainly wasn’t his daughter, outside of a extremely small percentage range. He put his hoof on my shoulder to give me a comforting squeeze. “You sure? Remember, this is your big brother you’re talking to. You can be honest with me.”
I felt a struggle going on in my chest as my eyes darted to Dinky and back to Shining. Should I tell him the truth? In all likelihood I was worrying about nothing, and I didn’t want to bother him with something this big on so little information. On the other hoof, didn’t he have a right to know? Even if it was highly unlikely he was a father? A lie by omission was still a lie, after all.
Before I could make up my mind, a pegasus wearing the light barding of a Royal Guard courier approached us. He stopped short of us and gave my brother a salute. “Captain Shining Armor?”
Shining spoke quietly to me and Dinky. “One second, you two.” I felt a surge of relief at getting pulled out of a tight spot as my brother turned to the courtier and returned the salute. “Sergeant, what do you have for me?”
“Message from intelligence, sir.” He pulled a scroll out of his satchel and gave it to Shining. “I was told that it needed your immediate attention.”
“Of course it does,” Shining said with weariness. He opened the scroll and quickly scanned its contents. Sighing, he rolled the scroll back up. “If you’ll tell them that I’ll be with them shortly, I’d appreciate it.”
“Of course, sir.” The courier gave my brother a parting salute before turning and departing.
My brother’s shoulders slumped as he turned back to us. “Sorry, but something important came up that I need to deal with.”
Dinky’s ears flattened on top of her head. “Aw, but I wanna hug ya some more.”
“I understand, Shining.” I nuzzled him on the cheek. “You’re an important pony and have a job to do.” Though I was a bit cranky about Shining not telling me whatever Mom had alluded to, I could understand why my brother needed to go. There was also the relief of not having to talk to my brother about my largely baseless fears about him potentially being a father.
Shining smiled at the nuzzle. “Thanks, sis. I’ll try and get some time off to see you before you leave Canterlot, promise. Then we’ll get to talk about the—things.”
“Yeah, things,” I agreed. I had a feeling there were a few things we were going to need to talk about in good time.
By the time Mom and I were done showing Dinky and Sparkler around the show room, she informed us that somepony had picked up the letter Sparkler had left for her grandparents back at their manor. Given Dinky was excited about the prospect of seeing them, we decided it was best to get the two of them on their way.
We returned to the Doo Manor as the sun started to set. Dinky hardly listened to our warnings to stay close as she bounded for the door and knocked on it furiously with youthful enthusiasm. The rest of us hurried to catch up with her as the door opened.
On the other side of the door was a pegasus stallion with a dark gray coat and messy turquoise mane. The worn lines on his features as he smiled down at Dinky spoke of a pony in his late middle age. “Dinky!” He wrapped his legs around Dinky in a big hug. “It’s good to see you.”
“I love ya, Grandpa!” Dinky hugged her grandpa back as hard as she could. “I rilly missed ya.”
He nuzzled Dinky. “Missed you too.” Looking up from his granddaughter, he gave the rest of us a warm smile. “Sparkler, come over here and give me a hug.” He offered an open wing, which Sparkler promptly slid under and nuzzled him.
“Hey, Grandpa.” Sparkler’s tone had some of the stiffness typical of teenagers who didn’t want to seem like they were being too affectionate. “You doin’ alright?”
“I am.” He gave Sparkler a squeeze. “You two enjoy your day around the town?”
“Yeah-huh!” Dinky nodded enthusiastically. “Miss Twilight and Mrs. Duchess Velvet took us to get somethin’ yummy to eat, then we went shoppin’, and then they took us to their rilly big house and showed us lots’a rilly cool things.”
“Sounds like you two had a pretty good time, then.” He gave me and my mom a friendly smile. “Thanks for watching over these two for the day, by the way. Didn’t mean to ignore you. Just happy to see my grandchildren.”
Mom shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, Klutzy. They’ve both been wonderful.”
I suppressed a shudder as I felt a chilly night time Canterlot breeze blow past me. “You know him, Mom?”
“Your father and I have bought a few curiosity pieces from him in the past,” Mom confirmed. “We’ve also been in the same social circles. So we’ve gotten to know one another.”
“I see.” I gave Klutzy Doo another look. Sometimes it was easy to forget how many ponies my parents knew in Canterlot, and how influential they were.
Mom pulled her cloak tighter around her to ward herself against the growing cold. “I hate to cut this short, but we should probably get going. We have some things we need to do tomorrow morning, so we can’t be up too late. And I’m sure you’re eager to spend some time with Sparkler and Dinky.”
“Of course.” Klutzy lifted Dinky onto his back and she nuzzled his mane. “You two have a good night, and thanks for watching my grandkids for me.”
We all finished our goodbyes, and my mom and I turned to leave. As the Doo’s door closed, I heard Sparkler saying, “So you will not believe what I’m gonna do tomorrow. I’m gonna finally meet—” We didn’t get more than a few steps before we heard a high pitched, giddy squeal from the Doo Manor.
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Hate to be a nitpicker, but isn't it adorability more than adorableness? Otherwise, nice chapter, so the Sparkle family is a patron of Vinyl's, interesting. Grand Vizier of Equestria! Wow, Twilight's Celestia's personal student and future Alicorn Princess, Shining Armor is Captain of the Guard and soon to be Prince of the Crystal Empire, Night Light is a Duke and Gran Vizier. Twilight Velvet is a Duchess, damn they're in thr top tier of nobility. Good thing that Twiight is humble and prefers to be known for what he has done more than who she is and that they don't let their power go to their head like Blueblood.
The game's afoot. Twily. Time to don the cap and pipe.
Seeing her them?
Something went wrong there~
I bet Twilight´s parent already suspect about her reason to meet Vinyl.
Ooooo. There's important and there's important.
Hmn, so we're going with none of Twilight's friends knowing about Shining? Dang, I was hoping that at least Fluttershy would be aware of him. Maybe she does and Twilight just doesn't know.
Magetrix, eh? That would be a fun connection, assuming that the relation I'm guessing exists actually does.
Hmn, Vinyl details, but no more than I am pretty sure we got in her side story with Octavia.
A museum in the estate? Combined with the library (or even libraries) it probably had as well, that must have been like growing up in heaven for Twilight.
Heh.
Okay, wild guess time. Some sort of mental compulsion from Chrysalis was the reason Shining didn't tell his sister about the engagement.
And Shining meeting Dinky, aww yeah.
You know, considering the upcoming hostilities, it's possibly a very good thing that Twilight didn't mention her and our suspicions. Illegitimate or not, the daughter of the guard Captain would be prime hostage material.
Klutzy Doo? Heh.
And so the meeting with Twilights possible half sister grows ever closer. Looking forward to this.
Excellent, new chapter. I'm going to re-read the whole thing, so it'll take me awhile to get here again.
I can't wait for more of this story. People always point out the similarity between shining and vinyl but this is the first tIme anyone has really done anything with it, and doing it quite we'll, as far as I know. Also gotta know about shining and dinky. Part of me hopes they are related but I really just want to see how it is resolved even if it turns out they aren't. If magitrix was twilight's tutor maybe trixie is her daughter. That would be quite interesting if unlikely.
This is starting to get really juicy. I can't wait for the next chapter.
Well, now we know where Derpy gets it from!
And we get to see that Shining's already starting to experience Chrysalis' love-drain. No wonder he kept forgetting to tell Twilight he was getting married.
Man, I love this story. Can't wait for the next update!
4463005 I saw one story where Vinyl was Shining in disguise.
*gifted
I think I've played through a few D&D maps like that.
4462567
Nah, Dinky owns the whole group.
4463005
Yeah I'm kinda dying to see Cadance's reaction to Dinky.
Canterlot is best magecity.
4463975
Gift Unicorn is best pony.
4462409 Maybe "adorability" is technically correct. But in cases like this, I like to give it the practical test: Google both words. In this case, "adorableness" has about nine times as many hits, so I'd say it's right. Also, "adorability" is flagged by my browser's spell-check, while "adorableness" isn't.
Oh I so hope Twilight finds out her parents marriage isn't perfect and tell them to stick to whole arranged marriage thing up where the sun don't shine. I'm probably hoping for too much though.
I don't recall "rilly" being used in this story before in place of "really" but after seeing it 3 times in this chapter I'm wondering if the placement of it in this chapter is intentional. If so I don't see the point of it since it sounds the same as "really."
4462567 4463975
Thanks for catching those typos, fixed.
4464926
It's a thing we do for Dinky in the Winningverse. Granted, is about the same.
Given Twilight's power levels, she could probably rebuild the Sparkle estate just by shifting entire chunks of building around... if she could spare the time. And of course, there's the whole history of the place written in its appearance; wiping the slate clean and planting a modern supermansion on the site might have social implications.
i miss life and times but these stories fill the fix nicely keep up the good work
4462409
And despite all those connections, a bunch of garden party snobs still treat her like something their servants scraped off their hooves until Fancy Pants steps in. In others words, she's very good at being humble.
And as enjoyable as the story is, we go another chapter of dancing around both the "Is Night Light Viny's dad?" and "Is Shiny Dinky's dad?" issues. For that, you are a horrible, HORRIBLE plot tease!
4466284
I wonder how they'd react of they found out she was the Element of Generosity and knows both Celestia's personal student, Celestia's herself and thr rulers of the Crystal Empire, or simply Cadence and the Captain of the Guard all personally?
4465308 Ah ok figured that may have been the case but thank you for clarifying. Also one typo I came across
it instead of is
You know I'm now sort of wondering if Velvet and Magitrix are lovers. Is Night Light her beard? Might explain why she doesn't have a problem with him sleeping with his assistant.
Yay update~
To be honest, the fact that Twilight now has backstage passes further confirms my theory that she'll end up dating Vinyl. Hopefully Scratch's resemblance to Shiny is only a coincidence.
Though idk, can't wait for the next chapter anyway :D
4467912 Hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure it's already been confirmed in another of Ponibus' stories that Vinyl is Twi's illegitimate sister. Or at least its very strongly implied
But I agree, the next chapters should be good!
4468878 Then I wonder who Twilight will end up with O.o (which has been confirmed in the main winningverse story). Although I still do still hope for the Twinyl ship, I never even thought about it until now, but it seems pretty cool :3
4466284
If it makes you feel better, at least some of my readers questions will be answered next chapter. Can't tease everyone forever.
4466490
Thanks for catching that.
4470150 It's cool. Glad to hear it, though.
4464034
forget shining armor, this little filly's love is enough to feed my whole hive! changeing #35132, what does the scouter say about dinky's love level?
4471006
"Scouter's on the fritz, sir! Levels read: 'Nope, ain't goin' there.'"
4462409
Makes me wonder if she will turn into an Alicorn in this story. And if so, how? I wonder if she will bang Cloud Kicker, and realize how awesome it is and become the Alicorn of Lust
4472933
Doubt it, but she will become Princess of Friendship, that includes friendship with benefits.
That was great
I suspected something with the chief of staff 
I can't to see what happens DJ-PON3's concert 
I WANT MOAR SOON! 
If that is alright with you 
Good chapter. Twilight trying to understand quantum has got to be interesting
Commence read.
Still plenty of things for Twilight to theorize and test out.
Sparkler busy fan-girling. Dinky just trying to crush everyone with hugs.
The more I read this chapter, the more I have this impression this vision of twilight's family is a sort of extended Mary-Sue... Why does ALL of her family just has to be some super-duper important grand something of Equestria ? I know the trend was already there in canon with twi and her brother, but still...
On another note... With all political background, army, and administration secured by her family, were I twilight, I'd happily have kamehized the pretty powerless pony princesses, blamed it on tirek, before ranbowizing him, then taking control of equestria... I'm sure that would have made a great finale.
Meh, I may finally start writing something after all.
4474314 Chengar has already alicornified Twilight in his post s3 stories, those with Storm Kicker being Twilight's Captain of Guard and Ponibius's stories are canon to Winningverse, so Twilight is scheduled for alicornication (love that word)
Anyway, this chapter has so much foreshadowing in it that I'm gonna die waiting foe next chapter. Twilight's family is badass. Great work as always, Ponibius
Also: Magetrix has you
4496618
I think this is post Magical Mystery Cure since if you look closely, Twilight has wings in the cover image. But, no matter, I'm calling it now, Cloud Kicker is going to make a joke about friendship with benefits when Twilight gets her castle.
4496708 It's just before the Changeling invasion, actually. If you read the winning pony story it's explained that Shining Armor is unable to tell anyone about the danger he is aware of because a spell is stopping him. If he tries to recall what it was the spell eventually causes him terrible migraines.
You remember how he had something important to tell Twilight but his head started hurting?... This is before the invasion. As for the cover art, it's a lot like a game trailer without gameplay in it. Flashy, yes. Accurately represents what you'll experience in the game? No...
4500343
Ah, right, thanks.
Awesome Story!!!
Can't wait for the next chapter.
Ah so that is where we are, shortly before the royal weeding. Good to know, also excellent chapter.
I find this to be a rather odd phrase to be used by a pony. Wouldn't they say something along the lines of hooffull?