//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: "Shining? You Think Mom And Dad Might've Been Kidnapped By Ninjas?" 
// by naturalbornderpy 
//------------------------------//

Shining Armor shot awake in the darkness of the night, his thoughts flying straight to Flurry Heart. In his large bed, he sat up and turned to her crib, where not single peep could be heard. He then turned to his wife and found her very much the same.
                
He was momentarily puzzled, until he looked down and found the tip of his tail stuck in a sparkly aura. Based off its color, he whispered, “Twilight? Are you in here?”
                
Twilight lit her horn by the edge of his bed. She gave Shining’s tail another playful tug. “I’m asking you for another favor, Shining.”
                
He squinted at her, wiping sleep from his eyes. “One of what now?”
                
“I’m collecting my second boon.”
                
Then it finally clicked. That still didn’t mean Shining wanted to leave his overwhelming soft and warm bed, though. Turning onto his side, he yawned. “I’ll do whatever you want tomorrow, Twily. You and your friends are visiting all weekend, so… maybe after breakfast?”
                
By the tip of his tail, Shining was roughly lifted from his bed. He was left to spin upside down in the air, glaring at his sister.
                
“I liked it a lot better when I was the one doing this to you.”
 

***

 
Less than ten minutes later, Shining Armor’s second boon had been finished and paid for in full, stacked on a plate and blackened around the edges. On a couch inside her guest room, Shining sat beside his sister, a magically created fireplace roaring on the floor in front of them.
                
“You woke me up in the middle of the night just so I’d make you garlic toast?”
                
“What’s so wrong about that?” Twilight asked innocently, several crumbs stuck to her lips. “I felt like a snack.”
                
“The castle staff would’ve been happy to make you something if you’d asked.”
                
She smiled at him. “But no one burns bread quite like you do, big brother.”
                
The pair were silent for a while, enjoying the magically flickering flames on the ground. Eventually, Shining chuckled. “You do realize you wasted a perfectly good Board of Best Brothers boon on a plate of garlic toast, right?”
                
Twilight quickly picked up another slice to munch on. “First off, Shining: it’s Band of Best Brothers. Second: you’re forgetting I still have three boons left. I waited this long for my second one, hadn’t I?”
                
“Still…” Shining admitted quietly. “Not all that much of a wish, if you ask me.”
                
“Isn’t it?” Twilight said. “When was the last time we even did something like this? Sat by a fire and just spent time together eating something as simple as toast? Just you and I as brother and sister? No friends. No parents. No wife or baby or noble dignitary.”
                
Shining found he really had no good answer to that. Instead, he chose to focus on something else. “Remember when we were kids and I was the one saying how I’d always be the one protecting you? All because I was a member of some made up group? Look how that’s turned out: Discord, Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, Tirek. Each and every one of them defeated by my little sister.”
                
“And what of all the things that you protected me from when we were kids?” Twilight asked earnestly. “Ninjas and overworked robots, hungry zombies and greedy breakfast mascots, dragons with a weird bro code.”
                
A small smile found Shining then. “Sounds awfully ridiculous when you say it out loud like that.”
                
Twilight edged across the couch to rest her head on Shining’s shoulder; same as she had all those years ago. “All I’m saying is that maybe it’s my turn to look after you. I mean, you do have Flurry Heart to look after now.”
                
“Look after her how? By telling her lies I make up on the spot?”
                
Twilight shook her head. “No, just by making her feel better; just by telling her what she needs to hear no matter how silly it may sound; by telling her stories that she’ll always hold onto and remember. And… and…”
                
Shining turned to her.
                
“And by giving her those three boons you still owe me,” she finished with a sigh. “I think right now she needs them more than I ever will. But I still got what I wanted, though. I still got my garlic toast. I still got my moment with my big brother again. Him and I and nopony else. So now I think it should be Flurry Heart’s turn to have a few wishes to call her own.”
                
“You sure you want to give those away, Twilight? Just like that?”
                
“I am.”
                
A pregnant pause followed that, and just when Shining thought that nothing more would be said that night, Twilight told him in a faint whisper, “I think I hear the grim reaper prowling around downstairs, Shiny. I think he’s searching for someone’s soul to steal.”
                
Shining wrapped a hoof around her shoulder to pull her close. “That’s an easy one. All you gotta do is take his cloak away when he’s not looking.”
                
“Because it’s the source of all his power?”
                
“Nah. He’s just left buck naked without it. Kinda puts a damper on the whole ‘soul collecting’ thing once everyone’s laughing at your boney butt.”
                
Twilight giggled, wrapping him up in a hug. “Never change, Shining. Never ever change.”
                
He returned the embrace. “Wouldn’t if I could.”
                
And as if precisely to spoil the tender moment with, Shining said, “I gave Flurry Heart a glass of water today.”
                
“Oh. Okay. Why?”
                
“Because she was a little horse.”
                
Twilight took a moment. “How long you been holding onto that one?”
                
Shining smiled. “What feels like a lifetime.”