“Good morning.” The first thing Moonwhisper heard as he awoke was Twilight’s soft, sultry greeting being whispered into his ear. It took a few moments for Moonwhisper to process what was going on, an effort not helped by the sensation of Twilight cuddling up against his back.
“Er…good morning to you too, Twilight,” Moonwhisper finally managed as he finally managed to recall the events of the previous night. “Not that I’m complaining about the current situation, but what are we going to do if somepony walks in and sees us like this?”
“Oh, I’m not too worried about that, I’ll teleport back into my room in a little bit before anypony realizes that I’m not there. But first,” with a wicked grin, Twilight rolled over and climbed on top of Moonwhisper, straddling him so he couldn’t get away. “I think we should talk about how we want to handle the rest of today.” Twilight let out a sigh before continuing. “More precisely, about how we should let Shining Armor and Cadance know about, well, us.” Twilight blushed as she darted her head down to nuzzle Moonwhisper.
“As I’ve said before, they’re your family so I think you know how best to handle them,” Moonwhisper said. “Although, I do think it would be for the best if you talk with them sooner rather than later.”
Twilight nodded in agreement. “My plan is to send Cadance a letter explaining everything once we get back to Ponyville.” While Moonwhisper didn’t say anything, the look he gave to Twilight spoke volumes about what he thought of her plan. “I know, I’m just not sure I’m ready to talk to Shining Armor directly about us just quite yet. Cadance understands this sort of thing and she knows Shining Armor better than just about anypony, so she’ll be able to handle however he’ll react.” Twilight let out a small chuckle as a thought suddenly occurred to her. “It’s funny, after all my pushing you to face your worries about coming to the Crystal Empire it turns out I’m the one who’s avoiding facing something.”
“The difference is you actually have a plan to deal with your issue, whereas I don’t think I was quite ready for any of this,” Moonwhisper said ashamedly.
“Moonwhisper, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. You came to the Crystal Empire despite you fears, and you should be proud of yourself for facing them.” Twilight gave Moonwhisper a warm smile before leaning down and giving him another nuzzle. “Although, admittedly it might have been a little premature to come here. But you’ll get over all of this someday, I just know you will.”
“Thank you, Twilight,” Moonwhisper replied, his eyes filled with gratitude.
“I should probably go in a minute,” Twilight said, “but before I go there’s just one more thing I want to do.” With that, Twilight leaned down and pressed her lips to Moonwhisper’s in a deep, loving kiss.
Just at that moment the door to Moonwhisper’s room burst open as Shining Armor rushed in. “Moonwhisper!” Shining Armor frantically shouted, “Twily’s gone missing! She’s not in her room, in fact it doesn’t even…look like her…bed was…slept…in…” Shining Armor’s voice trailed off as he saw Twilight in bed with Moonwhisper. “Oh. Twily, you’re…right here. Well, that’s good, I guess. I think I’m going to be leaving now, to do…stuff.” With that, Shining Armor slowly backed out of the room, levitating the door closed behind him.
It took several seconds before Twilight and Moonwhisper were able to fully process what had just happened. As soon as they did, however, both ponies tumbled out of the bed in a tangle of sheets. “Wait!” Twilight desperately called out as she struggled to her hooves. “This isn’t what it looks like!”
“Well, to be honest it would be more accurate to say that it wasn’t entirely what it looks like,” Moonwhisper mused out loud. “I suppose it would be more accurate to say that this was approximately half of what it looked like; two-thirds of what it looked like at most.” Twilight shot Moonwhisper an annoyed glance as she finally got herself free of the sheets.
“It still wasn’t entirely what it looked like!” Twilight yelled, accepting the fact that there wasn’t much she could say to argue Moonwhisper’s point. Setting that aside, Twilight threw the door open and rushed into to the hall, but Shining Armor was nowhere to be seen. As she stood in the empty hallway Twilight closed her eyes and let out a long sigh of frustration. “Well, it looks like we’re going to have to speak with Cadance and my brother while we’re here after all,” Twilight said with a tired air of resignation. “Let’s start by finding Cadance and explain the situation before any weird rumors start spreading.”
It didn’t take long for Twilight and Moonwhisper to track down Princess Cadance, in no small part because Cadance was already looking for them. “Twilight, do you think you could explain to me why my husband has locked himself in our bathroom and sounds like he’s trying to scrub his eyes?”
Twilight awkwardly shuffled her hooves as she withered under Cadance’s knowing glare before responding. “I think that the reason might be because Shining Armor kind of saw me and Moonwhisper in bed together. It’s not what it sounds like, though,” Twilight quickly added, “we were just sleeping together. No, wait, that came out wrong, Moonwhisper and I weren’t…I mean we didn’t…well, you know…” Twilight could feel her cheeks flush with embarrassment.
Cadance stared at Twilight for a moment before smacking herself in the forehead. “You and Moonwhisper…I’m guessing that means that Moonwhisper’s your special somepony then?” As Twilight managed a brief nod Cadance let out what sounded like a hybrid of a sigh and groan. “So, how long have you two…no, hold on, first we need to drag Shining Armor out of the bathroom. Then, we’re all going to sit down and talk about this.”
*********
“So, Twily and Moonwhisper weren’t…oh thank Celestia,” Shining Armor slumped to the table in relief.
“No, for the last time, Moonwhisper and I haven’t ever gone that for yet period,” Twilight replied, embarrassment finally giving way to exasperation. Even after Cadance finally convinced Shining Armor to join the rest of them he seemed unable to get past seeing Twilight and Moonwhisper in bed together.
“How long have the two of been involved, anyway?” Cadance asked, hoping to keep the conversation moving. “I have to think you must have gotten together fairly soon after Moonwhisper went to Ponyville.”
“Twilight and I have been a couple for several moons now,” Moonwhisper replied.
“Initially I was just trying to make friends with Moonwhisper, but the more I got to know him the more I found myself, well, attracted to him.” As Twilight spoke she gently touched one of her forehooves to Moonwhisper’s. “And once I realized how I felt about him things just sort of went from there.”
“You’ve been involved with each other for several moons, then,” Cadance said. “So, when were you planning to tell us about your relationship?”
Twilight visibly winced at Cadance’s question. “I was going to tell you both eventually…” Twilight offered unconvincingly. “I just could never really find the right time to bring it up. It always felt like there was something more important to deal with, so telling you two about me and Moonwhisper just kept getting pushed back.”
“If you don’t mind my mentioning it, Twilight wasn’t there another motivation for your keeping silent on the issue?” Moonwhisper suggested.
“Well,” Twilight began hesitantly, “I may have still been a little annoyed at the fact that the two of you didn’t bother telling me about you relationship until I got the wedding invitation.”
“Really, you’re still upset about that?” Shining Armor exclaimed. “I thought we settled that back before the wedding; I couldn’t tell you about the wedding before sending out the invitations because I was too busy handling Canterlot’s security. I’m pretty sure we went over all that when you first arrived for the wedding.”
“You know, that explanation has never really made sense to me,” Moonwhisper said. “If nothing else, the sheer logistics involved in handling an event like a royal wedding would require months of preparation. Even if Twilight and her friends were able to finalize everything over the course of a day or two, bring together all the supplies and materials needed would have had to have been a weeks-long process. And before you say anything,” Moonwhisper added, cutting Shining Armor off before he could respond, “I know when the threat against Canterlot was received and based on that you’d have had plenty of time to contact Twilight. Not to mention I know for a fact that you and Princess Cadance were romantically involved for years prior to the wedding.” Moonwhisper wrinkled his snout in disgust. “I’ve listened to you compose enough terrible love poetry dedicated to her during our time at the academy to grasp that much.”
While Shining Armor slumped back in his seat, his face rapidly turning a deep read, Cadance turned to Twilight. “You really had no idea that Shining Armor and I were seeing each other? I had always just assumed Shining had told you about us.”
“I always kept meaning to tell her,” Shining Armor half-heartedly protested, “but things always kept coming up.” Shining Armor glanced around at the withering looks he was receiving from the rest of the table before turning to Twilight. “I guess we both kind of messed up the same way, huh? Why don’t we just say we’re even and move on?”
“Yeah, that sounds good to me too,” Twilight replied with a smile.
“So,” Shining Armor said, “now that that’s settled, I’ve gotta ask, how the hay did you finally convince Moonwhisper to ease off the whole ‘no fraternization’ thing?”
“To be honest, all I needed to do was to research some of the legal precedents surrounding the guard’s regulations. It turns out none of the rule specifying members of the same chain of command apply to princesses.” Twilight allowed herself a smug grin as she continued. “It was actually quite easy to figure everything out as far as the regulations went, just a quick cross-reference of key terms in the regulations in question with existing legal precedents. The tricky part was actually getting Moonwhisper to admit how he felt about me once I proved to him that there weren’t any rules keeping us from being a couple.”
Shining Armor chucked to himself. “Let me guess, you and your friends put together some nutty scheme to trick him into admitting how he felt about you without knowing you were listening, right?”
“Actually, after Twilight showed me her discovery regarding the legal precedents in question she gave me a direct order to admit how I felt about her,” Moonwhisper said.
“Wait a minute, let me get this straight, Twily tells you that she wants you to be her special somepony, and the she pulls out some loophole in the regulations letting you be her special somepony, and she still has to order you to tell her how you feel about her? You know, I really don’t get you sometimes, it’s like you actually enjoy being miserable or something.”
“Speaking of things that don’t make sense,” Cadance added, “there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. From what I understand you seem to have something against the Crystal Empire, and I was just wondering why that was.”
“I’m not quite certain what you’re talking about, your highness,” Moonwhisper quickly replied. “I certainly don’t hold any specific antipathy towards the Crystal Empire or its citizens.”
“Really? Because from what Shining Armor has told me you’ve always made it clear you never wanted to set hoof here.”
“That doesn’t mean Moonwhisper has anything against the Crystal Empire,” Twilight objected, “he just isn’t entirely…comfortable here.”
“Alright then,” Cadance replied as she fixed her gaze on Moonwhisper, “what is it about the Crystal Empire that makes you so uncomfortable that you’d break your own leg to avoid coming here? That sounds like something that goes quite a bit past simply making him uncomfortable.”
“It’s not a subject that I particularly care to discuss,” Moonwhisper admitted. “Let it suffice to say that the reasons for my discomfort are related to my family.”
“Your family?” Shining Armor asked. “That really doesn’t make any sense; as far as I know your father’s never been anywhere near the empire and I’m pretty sure he’s the only living family you have. So, unless you’re actually obsessing over things your family did a thousand years ago I don’t see what the connection could be.” The silence that descended on the table following Shining Armor’s diatribe was deafening. “Oh for the love of Celestia, that’s it, isn’t it? Some ancestor of yours did something nasty and now a thousand years later you’re still beating yourself up over it. Geez, I just don’t get you, what’s the point in blaming yourself for something somepony else did a millennia ago?”
“Hey!” Twilight yelled as she propped herself up on the table with her front hooves, wings flaring out to her sides. “Leave Moonwhisper alone! If you knew the whole story then you’d understand why this isn’t something that he can just get over.”
“But that’s the point, Twilight. Neither of you will tell us the whole story,” Cadance countered “so we really can’t understand what exactly is going on.”
Twilight was about to argue the issue further when Moonwhisper touched her forehoof with his to calm her down. “Twilight, perhaps we should tell them everything. Keeping this hidden…it’s not going to work anymore. It’s time I accepted that this is something that I need to actually face head on.”
“Are you sure about this?” Twilight asked. As Moonwhisper silently nodded his head in affirmation, Twilight turned back to Shining Armor and Cadance. “You have to promise to keep what you’re about to hear an absolute secret.”
“Don’t worry, Twily, we’ll keep quiet about whatever it is Moonwhisper’s so ashamed of,” Shining Armor assured his younger sister.
“I promise I’ll keep your secret as well, whatever it is,” Cadance added.
For the next several seconds Moonwhisper simply glanced back and forth between Shining Armor and Cadance in complete silence. Eventually, Moonwhisper closed his eyes and drew a deep breath before proceeding. “As you both may or may not be aware, I was born into the von Umbra family from Trotsylvania. Furthermore, you may also be familiar with the fact that the von Umbra family has a rather…unpleasant reputation –“
“Yeah, because your dad’s a tribalist psychopath,” Shining Armor snapped irritably. “What? It’s not like Moonwhisper’s going to argue with me about that, Twily,” Shining Armor continued before his sister could object.
“Actually if anything I think you’re being overly generous,” Moonwhisper added calmly.
“My point is, Moonwhisper, you’re not telling us anything we don’t already. You’re stalling, and only that but you don’t even care enough to try to hide the fact that you’re doing it.”
“You’re partly correct,” Moonwhisper replied. “I will admit that I’m perhaps not being as direct as I could be. That being said, Penumbral Dusk isn’t the cause of the von Umbra family’s reputation; he’s more of a…symptom of the underlying disease. The fact of the matter is that the von Umbra family’s reputation was essentially established approximately a thousand years ago,” Moonwhisper paused for several seconds, screwing his eyes tight and clenching his jaw before continuing. “When the then patriarch of the family attacked and conquered the Crystal Empire.”
An uncomfortable silence descended on the room as Shining Armor and Cadance processed the significance of what Moonwhisper had just revealed to them. “Oh,” Cadance finally said, “I see. So that would mean that you’re –“
“His direct descendant, yes,” Moonwhisper replied solemnly.
“I hate to ask, but how can you be really sure about that?” Shining Armor asked. “There aren’t exactly a whole lot of records that go that far back after all.”
“As much as I’d like to pretend that this was all just some sort of conceited delusional developed by Penumbral Dusk, but I’m afraid that isn’t the case. The von Umbra family has maintained rather thorough genealogical records which confirm everything.” Moonwhisper folded his ears back and gritted his teeth. “After the first time I successfully performed the armored augmentation spell Penumbral Dusk showed me the records and walked me through everything. That was his idea of a reward for a good behavior; showing me proof that I’m descended from a monster.”
“To be honest, I’m a little surprised to learn that King Sombra even had any descendants to begin with,” Cadance said. “I can’t really say Sombra ever struck me as being the type to start a family.”
Moonwhisper simply shrugged. “One doesn’t necessarily have to be a good candidate to be a parent to produce offspring. Conceivably Sombra might have been more interested in securing a familial legacy than actually raising a family. He certainly wouldn’t have been the only von Umbra to focus on that,” Moonwhisper added bitterly.
“At least now I understand why you’re so twitchy when it comes to the Crystal Empire,” Shining Armor said. “I mean…actually I don’t even know what to say about all this.”
“We should probably start by not saying anything,” Cadance suggested. “I can understand why you sere so reluctant to talk about this with anypony else. I’d like to imagine that the crystal ponies would be above holding your ancestry against you, but after everything that King Sombra did to them…” Cadance sighed, “It’s just hard for me to predict how they might react to the news that King Sombra left descendants, even they wound up being somepony like you.”
“I suspected as much. In any event I appreciate your discretion regarding this,” Moonwhisper said.
“Of course,” Cadance said as she got up from her seat. “Oh, Twilight, before you leave I’d like to get your opinions on a few books I’ve been considering as bedtime stories for Flurry Heart. If you could just come with me, this should only take a minute or two.”
Twilight’s face brightened considerably upon hearing her niece’s name and books being mentioned in the same sentence. “Of course, I’d be glad to help. I can’t wait to see what you’ve picked out so far; I already have a few ideas of my own of course. So, what kind of stories does Flurry Heart seem to enjoy?” As Twilight followed Cadance out of the room she continued asking a steady stream of questions, scarcely seeming to ever pause for breath.
Once the two mares left, Shining Armor slowly turned to regard Moonwhisper. “So, you and Twily, huh?” Shining Armor finally said after a few moments had passed. “This is really going to be a thing from now on, isn’t it?”
“That is the general hope when one enters a serious romantic relationship,” Moonwhisper said, his expression completely serious.
“Sorry, I’m just having trouble processing the whole ‘my baby sister’s old enough to start dating’ thing, and the fact that she’s dating you of all ponies isn’t making things any easier.”
“Really?” Moonwhisper asked as he tilted his head in confusion. “How so?”
“Well you’re…you! You’ve always been this weird mix of a pony I looked up to and some little brother who was even more of a mess socially than Twily was at her worst. And now you’re making out with my little sister, it’s just…weird. I really don’t know how to feel about this.”
“And I’m guessing the fact that your preferred method of handling stallions with romantic interest in Twilight isn’t applicable in my case doesn’t help matters,” Moonwhisper said.
“Did you…did you just tell a joke?” Shining Armor asked.
“Partly, yes,” Moonwhisper admitted, “I’ve been trying to use humor to help with my general socialization efforts. Admittedly, it is something of a work in progress. That being said, I believe that we can both agree that attempting a violent solution to this scenario would end poorly, particularly for yourself.”
“No kidding,” Shining Armor said. “Cadance would kill me if I tried fighting you, Twilight would kill me if I tried fighting you, and you’d definitely kill me if I actually tried fighting you.”
“On the contrary, as Twilight would likely be exceedingly upset if I were to seriously injure you I would take great care to avoid inflicting any injuries more serious than a simple bone fracture.”
Shining Armor stared at Moonwhisper for a nearly a full minute as he tried to work out whether Moonwhisper was serious or making another attempt at humor. Eventually, Shining Armor simply gave up and decided to change the subject. “At least tell me this much, how serious are things between you and Twily, really? I mean, how do you honestly feel about her?”
Moonwhisper closed his eyes and took a deep breath before answering Shining Armor. “I’d be lying if I told you I fully understand all of the emotions I have surrounding Twilight,” Moonwhisper said solemnly. “I’ve never felt like this about anypony before, and it’s exhilarating and terrifying and wonderful and confusing all at the same time. I only recently really began to understand basic friendship and what I feel for Twilight is…more than that. What I can tell you with absolute certainty, however, is this; right now, ensuring Twilight’s happiness is the highest priority I have, with the sole possible exception being her safety.”
“Well, I guess that’s about all I could ask of you,” Shining Armor replied before letting out a brief chuckle. “You know, it’s funny now that I think about it, but you might be exactly the sort of stallion I’d want Twily to get involved with.”
“And look on the bright side,” Moonwhisper added, “learning to deal with the emotions that you’re running into now will likely help you cope once Flurry Heart is old enough to start dating herself. Pardon me, Shining Armor, but are you alright?” Shining Armor was unable to answer, however, as the mention of Flurry Heart and dating had left him unable to vocalize much more than a few strangled noises.
“Grk. Ur hrst,” Shining Armor managed while visibly shaking.
“Hold on, I’ll get you a glass of water…and perhaps a physician as well,” Moonwhisper said as he backed away, taking the gurgling his Shining Armor produced as an affirmation.
*********
“Twilight, would you mind if I asked you a personal question? About you and Moonwhisper, I mean,” Cadance asked as she watched Twilight sort a stack of picture books into neat piles.
“Uh huh, sure, ask away,” Twilight replied absentmindedly, his mind preoccupied with establishing a system of ranking books based on their message, story and illustration quality.
“It’s just…are you sure you know what you’re getting yourself into with Moonwhisper. I mean, I can understand the appeal of dating a ‘badcolt’, but –“
Cadance found herself cut off as Twilight broke out into a fit of laughter. “Moonwhisper? A ‘badcolt’? Are we even talking about the same stallion?” Twilight took a moment to let her laughter subside before continuing. “Yeah, Moonwhisper might be a grumpy, by-the-book soldier on the outside, but deep down he’s one of the sweetest ponies I know.”
“I’m just worried you’re rushing into a relationship with him without thinking things through,” Cadance said. “It’s noble of you to want to help somepony like Moonwhisper, but his problems aren’t the sort that you can just fix by jumping into a relationship with him. I understand better than almost anypony how powerful love and friendship can be, but they can’t replace professional help.”
“Which is why I’m making sure Moonwhisper sees a therapist every week,” Twilight replied. “Geez, Cadance, did you honestly think I just rushed into a relationship because I wanted to ‘fix’ Moonwhisper or something? Sure, I want to help him to get through his issues, but I wanted to do that long before I, you know, fell for him.”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt,” Cadance said.
“And I appreciate that,” Twilight replied before Cadance could finish, “but I know what I’m doing. Moonwhisper isn’t perfect, and I understand that there are parts of him that I’m never going to be able to change no matter how much I wish I could. But isn’t that how relationship are supposed to work, accepting your special somepony’s faults along with everything else?”
At first it looked as though Cadance was about to say something in response to Twilight’s declaration, but instead she simply closed her mouth and smiled. “Alright, Twilight,” Cadence finally said, “you win. It sounds like you’ve put a lot more thought into this than I gave you credit for. I was just worried that you were rushing into a relationship blindly without considering what the consequences could be.”
Cadance’s statement elicited a groan from Twilight. “Why is it that everypony keeps acting like I’m some clueless schoolfilly giggling over her first crush? I’m a grown mare who’s fully capable of making her own decisions.”
Cadance calmly put her hoof around Twilight’s withers and pulled her sister-in-law into a hug. “It’s not that we don’t trust you, Twilight, we just don’t want to see somepony we care about get hurt. But I do trust you to make your own decisions, and if this is really what you want then I’ll support you however I can.” Still smiling, Cadance levitated several of the picture books Twilight had been sorting. “Speaking of decisions, I’d still love to hear what your thoughts are on some of these.”
*********
“That was certainly an eventful visit,” Princess Cadance said to her husband as they watched Twilight and Moonwhisper’s train pull out of the station. Flurry Heart gurgled in general agreement as she stood up in her stroller, energetically waving goodbye to her aunt with both of her front hooves.
“I’ll say, honestly I’m still a little weirded out by the whole deal. I mean I just can’t quite wrap my head around the idea that Twily’s got herself a special somepony,” Shining Armor said.
“Really?” Cadance said as she gave Shining Armor a look of utter disbelief. “After everything we learned today it’s the fact that Twilight’s dating somepony that you find hard to swallow? You do realize that Twilight’s a bit older than we were when we started courting, right? In fact, I’d say Twilight’s about the same age I was the first time we –“
“Cadance, honey, I’m begging you, please don’t finish that sentence,” Shining Armor pleaded. “It’s bad enough that I walked in on the two of them here, I really don’t want to think about what those two might get up to when they’re all alone back in Ponyville.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing Spike and Starlight Glimmer live with them, then,” Cadance reminded Shining Armor with a grin. “All in all, though, they do seem happy together, and that’s the important thing. Who knows,” Cadance added as she leaned down to nuzzle her daughter, “maybe Moonwhisper is going to wind up becoming your uncle someday.” As Shining Armor let out a whimper at this possibility, Cadance idly wondered if she should to talk to Twilight’s friend Rarity. There was definitely something to be said for having a spell to summon a fainting couch, especially when married to somepony like Shining Armor.