Thankfully, a Guard friend of mine was able to let me sleep in his guest room for a couple of days while everything was sorted out. It was small comfort to being exiled from Cadey’s presence, but it was marginally better than finding myself on the street.
After some messages back and forth, Twily had invited Cadey and me over so that we could meet everypony in Ponyville. A few days had only barely cushioned the truth that I was a dad now. On one hoof it still didn't feel real, and on the other it felt like the whole world was coming down on my head. The stuff with Amethyst only made it all the worse—my second little sister was still alive, I had a daughter, and both of them were living under the same roof. It was all surreal.
The only thing I could think to do was try and meet with long-distant family and hope it would turn out okay. What else could I do? Avoiding the problem or ignoring it wasn’t going to make it better, not by a long shot.
That was why I was waiting in the Canterlot Train Station for the train to Ponyville as my brain ran through a hundred pretty awful scenarios. What if Ditzy hated me for knocking her up and leaving her leaving her alone all this time? What if Dinky, the daughter I hadn't known existed, hated me for not being there for her? Who even knew what Amethyst would think of me when our parents had abandoned her for adoption?
I had been so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I didn't notice somepony sit next to me on the station bench. “Shining?”
I blinked as Cadey pulled me out of my ruminations. She’d said she was coming with me after I sent her a message telling her when I was planning on going to Ponyville. She frowned at me in concern, and her guards were taking positions around us, both to give us privacy and keep some stranger from getting too close to Cadey. Pretty soon I'd be getting my own guards due to being the prince-consort. At least as soon as all the arrangements could be made by the Guard.
I cleared my throat and made myself say something before things got awkward—more awkward. “Hi Cadey. How are you doing?”
“Alright, I suppose.” Her eyes flicked back and forth between me and nothing in particular. “You?”
“I'm getting along, I guess.” I shrugged. “Just thinking. About stuff.”
“There is a lot of things to think about.” Cadey stared at the tracks through the window. “How you feeling?”
“Honestly, kinda nervous.” That probably understated it by a mile. Part of me was tempted to say the hay with the train and just start running to Ponyville. Waiting … waiting was always the worst. “Are we, um, okay?” I tried to smile for her, but it felt more like a grimace.
Cadey huffed, but nodded. “I can't say I'm thrilled by any of this, but ... I can understand. At least where your daughter is concerned. The things with Amethyst is something else entirely, but you didn't have a say in any of that.” She let out an even angrier huff. “I had a word or two with your parents about that.”
I hunched my shoulders at the image of Cadey cutting loose at my parents. They had done something pretty horrible, but I still didn't like the idea of anypony chewing them out. Especially Cadey, when that was going to make it really hard to pull the family back together again. Assuming that could be done—there were so many ifs and buts that I could only guess how it was all going to turn out.
“Nothing too bad, I hope?” I asked, then quickly added, “Not that we don't have every reason to be mad at them, but...”
“They're still your parents?” Cadey finished for me.
“Pretty much.” I ran a hoof through my mane. “I don't know. It’s hard imagining them doing something that bucked up. They’re good ponies—or at least, I thought they were.”
“Everypony makes mistakes.” She shot me a flat glower. “Like this whole situation you've gotten yourself into.”
I threw my hooves up in surrender. “Yeah, I screwed up, and I'll admit that up front. I'm sorry for hurting you. Causing you pain was the last thing I ever wanted to do.” I squirmed on the bench. “I know I keep saying I love you, but that’s because it’s true. I love you to bits, and I couldn’t imagine my life without you. It scares me to death how all of this might ruin everything for us.”
Cadey huffed again, and then nodded. “I know that, really, I do.” She scooted closer and wrapped a wing around me, smiling as she did so. “It’s going to be a long time before I get over this, but after thinking it over I think I can learn to be okay with it. I can help you deal with the consequences of this, at least.”
A ghost of a smile formed on my lips. “Thanks, Cadey. It means a lot that you’re here for me. I’ll do anything to make up for this.”
Cadey’s smile took on an impish air. “I’ll make sure to hold you to that later.” She dropped the smile for a more serious frown. “Though first we need to make sure that Twilight’s alright. Did she say how she was doing in her letter?”
I shook my head. “I couldn’t really tell in her message to me. It was pretty straightforward. All it went over was that she would like for us to come to Ponyville and she’d be willing to help us meet everypony there.” I shrugged helplessly. “Whether she’s handling it fine on her own or really wants our support, I can only guess.”
“We’ll find out when we get there then.” A whistle blew and Cadey’s head turned to see the train coming into the station. “Let’s make sure your sister’s okay, and then we’ll go from there.”
I nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
I could only hope that nothing else could go wrong.
The train ride to Ponyville felt like it took forever and yet no time at all. Cadey and I chit-chatted a little bit along the way, but I could tell that neither of our hearts were in it. Sure, we were back in a good place again, but we were a far ways away from making everything right again. That wasn’t going to happen until we dealt with all the problems we had ahead of us in Ponyville.
I hadn’t really had much time to visit my sister. My time as Captain of the Royal Guard kept me extremely busy, and I felt no small twinge of guilt over being unable to see her. The guilt wasn’t helped when I couldn’t decide whether I simply couldn’t pull myself away from Guard work to see her, or just hadn’t made the effort. I resolved to to do better in the future. One benefit over having lost my job was that I was going to have some spare time for a while. Maybe once everything settled down I could spend some time with family ... which was suddenly a much more precarious idea than it had been a couple of weeks ago.
“It’ll be nice to see Twily again,” I remarked as we walked down Ponyville’s streets. “I haven't gotten much time with her since she moved, and we didn't really get much quality time during the wedding.” At least the town she lived in seemed nice. It made me more than a bit anxious when she had decided to move out here, especially for her stated reasons. ‘I want to be with my friends’ normally isn’t the best reason to move to someplace, but Princess Celestia—Aunt Tia, now, I reminded myself—insisted it was for the best. Twily did seem a lot happier now, and it was good to hear about her going out and doing more than locking herself up in a tower with her books all day every day. So it was probably for the best.
Even if I was a bit worried about what she was doing with her life. Managing some small-town library seemed beneath her talents. Not to mention her being so close to the Everfree Forest with its collection of monsters wasn’t something a protective big brother like me liked, but that was something we could talk about later.
Cadey nodded. “I agree. We missed a lot of time with her since...” She trailed off, but I could tell what gave her pause. She knew I didn’t like hearing about Queen Chrysalis, and she had every bit as much reason to hate her as I did. “At least we've got time now.”
“Can’t argue with that.” We reached the library, or the big tree that served as the town library. I had to wonder what the story for this place was. Carving out a tree to make a home and library had probably been a lot of work, and in the middle of town, nonetheless. Oh well, maybe I could ask Twily about it later.
Seeing no reason to delay, I knocked on the door and waited. It wasn’t long before Spike opened the door, “Shining, Cadance?” He smiled up at us. “It’s great to see you!”
“Hello again, Spike.” Cadey smiled and nuzzled him. “I've missed you.”
“Hey Spike! Got something for you.” I pulled out the newest issue of Power Ponies and passed it to him.
He took the comic and beamed. “Oh, that is awesome! Have I mentioned you're my favorite big brother Twilight has?”
I chuckled. “Pretty sure I'm Twily's only big brother. Anyway, where is she?”
“She's down in the basement with some project.” Spike opened the door wider to let us in. Big surprise, the interior of the library was a big open space with lots of books inside. I really shouldn’t have been surprised that Twily had come to live in an actual library, she almost lived in the libraries in Canterlot anyways. “Weird thing is, she hasn't called for me yet.” He shrugged.
“Weird how?” Cadey asked.
Spike led us down the stairs down to the basement. “Usually she wants me there to take notes or hand her stuff for whatever experiment she's got going.”
“Maybe it’s some project she wanted to do alone?” I suggested. If it was something a little bit dangerous she might have decided to not have Spike around.
“Maybe.” Spike shrugged again and opened the door to the basement. “Hey Twilight! Shining Armor and Caaaayyyyuuuuuhhhhh...”
I saw what had grabbed his attention a second later. My sister was kissing somepony. She was kissing another mare. My baby sister. Kissing. Deeply.
My little Twily. With another pony.
Kissing.
Cadey looked into the library basement lab and blinked at the sight. “Oh my,” she whispered so quietly I only barely made out the words, and she covered a smile with a hoof.
Twily and this other mare with a lavender coat and a long, dual-blond mane continued kissing for a second longer before one of Twily’s eyes half-opened, and then snapped wide, freezing in place.
I glared daggers at this mare who was carousing with my sister and loudly cleared my throat in the way I usually reserved for fresh privates who were in the process of doing something very dumb. Something about this other mare pinged a memory of mine, but I was having trouble remembering where I had seen her before.
Twily broke the kiss and flashed us an extremely brittle smile. “Shining! Cadance! Y-you're here already! I didn't expect you to get here so soon!” She laughed nervously as she broke contact with the other mare, looking at a nearby clock resting on the wall. “Wow, time really flies when you’re, um, busy, with studying and projects, and spending time with ponies.” She laughed nervously again.
Spike slowly slipped past me and Cadey. “I'm—I—they're here! Igottagobye!” He clutched at his new comic and fled like he’d stolen it, and I wasn’t about to stop him. Not when I had more pressing business to deal with. Like some mare taking advantage of my little sister.
Twily kept up that brittle smile as she motioned towards the strange mare who had been kissing her. “So, um, this is Cloud Kicker. Cloud, this is my brother and sister-in-law, Shining Armor and Cadance.”
“Um ... hey.” Cloud waved without much enthusiasm behind the gesture, probably because she knew she was in trouble. “Nice to meet you.”
Cadey offered a hoofshake to Cloud. “It's nice to meet you.”
Cloud took Cadey’s hoof and shook it. “Yeah, nice to meet you too.”
The fire in my chest burned hotter still. I had heard of Cloud Kicker, and nothing I knew about her made me want her to be anywhere near my wife or little sister. Rumors got around when you were the most promiscuous mare in West Hoof, especially when you were the heir apparent to the Kicker Clan. I had heard of an incident where she had been caught having sex at the center of campus, and that was only one of the stories I had heard.
And that didn’t even start to cover the grumblings I’d heard among the Kickers that she was no longer her dad’s heir after she’d run out on the Guard and abandoned her oath to Equestria. Yet another reason to not want her near Twily. My little sister did not need somepony taking advantage of her.
A growl grew in my throat as I glared at Cloud. “So, what exactly did you think you were doing with my sister?!”
Twily winced and stepped closer to me. “Shining, there's no need to raise your voice...”
Cloud’s eyes flicked between me and my sister. “I should go.”
“Yeah, you’d better,” I told her. “Now get out and stay away from my sister.”
Twily blinked and took a step back from me. “Shiny!”
I felt Cadey place a hoof on my shoulder and give it a hard squeeze. “Shining.” The word was a warning for me to stop, but she didn't understand who this Cloud Kicker was or what I was protecting my little sister from.
Cadey turned her attention to Cloud as she kept her hoof on my shoulder. “Perhaps you could come by later? I'd love to talk, but some private things have come up we need to talk about first.” Her eyes flicked my way. “Family things.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Cloud paused for a moment before giving Twily a quick peck on the cheek and a couple whispered words, and Twily whispered something back. Cloud then made her way towards the door, but I wasn't going to leave it at that after that going-away peck. She was going to come back, and I needed to make sure she didn't.
As she was about to pass me, I pressed me hoof against her chest and met her eyes with mine as I glared at her. “If you hurt my sister, I will end you.”
Cloud looked down at my hoof and then back up at my face, her face perfectly neutral. “Right.” She stepped well around me and exited the basement. If she knew what was good for her she wouldn't be coming back.
It was as I watched Cloud leave that I heard Twilight speak up. “Shining, what do you think you're doing?!” The question was more of a statement than a question. “That was incredibly rude!”
I turned around to face my glowering sister. “I'm just looking out for you, Twily.”
Cadey placed a gentle hoof on my chest. “I'm sure the thought's appreciated, but she's a grown mare.”
Twily’s eye twitched. “Yes, because I can't look out for myself. Thank you.”
With Cloud out of the house I felt the steam start to drain out of me, leaving me to realize that I was looking at a glaring little sister and a wife who was giving me her ‘I am not pleased with what you just did’ frown. “I was just trying to...”
Oh, no. I might just have bucked up.
Cadey stepped to Twily’s side and nuzzled her. “I am so sorry about that, Twilight.”
I shuffled awkwardly in place. On second thought, scaring off Cloud might not have been the best way to handle the situation. Yeah, she was bad for my sister, but threatening her right away was escalating things way too fast. I should have asked to speak with Twilight alone and tell her exactly who she was kissing. That probably would have worked out better, but now...
“I was just trying to protect you,” my mouth said on its own accord.
“Why thank you,” Twilight said, her words dripping sarcasm. “You saved me from the terrible fate of kissing another pony. Thanks for protecting me, big brother. Now I won't have to worry about being kissed, or having to hold hooves, or nuzzling, or any other kind of intimate contact. That's a load off my mind. I definitely won't have to worry about having to go out on a date because of your stalwart protection of my virtue. Thanks to you, I won't have to worry about silly things like what to wear, how to do my mane, if I need to get a gift or where I might like to go with a special somepony. All potential suitors will be scared off by my protective big brother. Thank you. Have I thanked you enough yet for driving Cloud off?”
I winced. Yeah, Twilight was pretty mad. The guilt she was making me feel made me want to sink into the floor. All I wanted to do was protect her from a pony who was taking advantage of her. Couldn’t she see that?
Cadence wrapped a wing around Twilight’s back and nuzzled her again. “Maybe you should wait upstairs for a bit, Shining?”
I knew better to argue and dig myself an even bigger hole than I was already in. “Yeah, okay.” I trudged off back to the stairs, done screwing up everything I touched for now.
Way to go, me. Way to go.
I was having absolutely terrible luck with the mares in my life. My princesses and aunts-in-law had asked me to quit my job to avoid an embarrassing incident. Cadey was mad at me for having a kid with another mare and both her and Twilight were mad over how I ran off Cloud Kicker. Things with Mom were on the rocks because of the mess with Amethyst Star. Ditzy Doo was probably all kinds of unhappy with me after I knocked her up and left her to raise a kid alone. My daughter probably wondered why I hadn’t been there for her and given her the love she deserved. Hay, Amethyst probably didn’t like me for not being a big brother to her for all these years.
That didn’t leave many mares I knew who weren’t unhappy with me on some level. There was Vinyl, and while we weren’t that close, we did get along pretty well when we got the time between our busy schedules to actually see each other. I also got along with the fey who attended my regular game night. At least when she wasn’t getting into trouble due to her fey-ness. Which was periodic.
Yeah, I definitely didn’t have much luck with mares.
Thus, I was getting to some very good sulking upstairs with Spike. Pulling out some of his comics to read at least distracted me from how I had bucked up. Just thinking about that pony being anywhere around my sister caused me to start seeing red. I wasn’t sorry she was gone, just how I had gotten her out the door.
Spike at least was cool. He was like the little brother I never had. It was always nice when we got to hang out. I could still remember when I introduced him to roleplaying games, and teaching him all about rolling dice and slaying monsters with the guys. I always seemed to have an easier time with guys. Guys were simple and easy to understand. Mares were hard. Even after all these years I still didn’t have a clue about what I was doing with mares.
Eventually the moment I dreaded came, and Twily and Cadey emerged from the basement. Knowing it was time to face the music, I closed the comic I’d been reading, carefully put it back in its sleeve, and then stood up to face my wife and sister.
Spike, probably sensing that trouble had arrived, quickly put his own comic away and carefully slid it in the box where he kept his comics. “Um, Twilight, should I ... give you guys the library for a bit?”
“That might be for the best.” Twily gave Spike a quick nuzzle before pulling out her bit purse and levitating a few bits to him.
Spike’s eyes glittered and he took the offered coins. “I’ll be back later! Bye everyone!” Spike fled from the library, making him much, much smarter than I felt at that moment. Dad had always warned me never to get between two angry mares, and here I was in the crossfire between my wife and little sister because of my own mistakes. I was not a clever pony, not by half.
Twilight was still frowning pretty heavily, but she didn’t look like she was fuming like she had been earlier. That was probably a good sign. Cadey gave Twily a squeeze and nodded to her. Twily took a deep breath and then spoke with deliberate and even paced words. “So, I guess we have some things to talk about now that you're here.”
“Yeah we do.” I rubbed my leg, drawing on what I had decided to say to her once I had some time to think about what I had done. “Sorry about getting all ... big brother on you. I just wanted to protect you and did it the wrong way.”
Twily pressed her lips together for a long moment and looked to Cadey. Cadey nodded and motioned to me with her head. Twily let out a sigh and nodded. “Okay, apology accepted.” There was a pregnant pause before she added, “And I'd like for you to apologize to Cloud too before you leave for Canterlot. You were really mean to her.”
I groaned and rubbed my face. Apologizing to Twily was one thing, but doing the same for Cloud was something else entirely. “Twily, I'm not sure how well you know Cloud Kicker, but from what I've heard she has a ... reputation.”
Twily shuffled in place. “Yes, I'm aware.”
“I just want to make sure nopony's taking advantage of you.” A pony like Cloud especially. “Unless she’s changed how she was back in West Hoof...”
“I know, I know.” Twily groaned and shook her head. “And she's not, trust me. Cloud's really nice.”
Cadey’s ears perked. “How do you mean?”
“Well, we've been going on a few dates.” Twily’s cheeks flushed. “Seeing how things are working out, and thus far it hasn’t been bad.”
“Looks like they went just fine,” I grumbled. That burning in my chest came back with a vengeance, but I suppressed it, hard. Blowing up again was the exact opposite thing I needed to do right at that moment. Call it a guess, but I had a feeling Twily wouldn’t appreciate me going after Cloud and telling her again in very firm terms not to be around my sister. Again. The fact that Twily seemed to be okay with seeing Cloud didn’t inspire me with confidence. Near as I knew Twily hadn’t dated anypony else before. If somepony like Cloud wanted to take advantage of her she would have the experience to know how to do it.
I should probably stop thinking of ways to quietly dispose of Cloud. I wasn’t going to get out of the hole I was in by digging literal holes.
Cadey placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Perhaps we should trust Twilight to determine that? It’s her life, and she should get the opportunity to live it.”
“I know, but...” I didn’t have anything to follow up with that I hadn’t already said. My dislike of Cloud was already pretty clear, and it didn’t seem to be dissuading Twily from seeing her. Ugh, I was trapped.
Twilight huffed and turned her head away from me. “Well maybe it's nice to finally have somepony romantically interested in me for once.”
“But you're—”
“What?” Twily snapped, interrupting me. Her nostrils flared. “You got a special somepony, why can't I?”
I shuffled in place. “It’s just ... you're just my little baby sister.”
Something passed over Twily’s face and her head drooped. “Right.”
Cadey cleared her throat and squeezed my shoulder. “The fact that you want to look out for her is at least a kind thought, and while it’s hard to do, you need to let her make her own choices.”
“I know, but...” Ugh, why were words so hard right now? I wanted to make Twily understand Cloud was bad for her, but I couldn’t seem to explain it right for her. “I want you to be happy, Twily, more than just about anything. You deserve somepony that’s good for you. Not...”
Twily nodded slowly. “I appreciate that you want to protect me, but there are more efficient ways to go about it.”
I raised an eyebrow. “More efficient ways?”
“Maybe you can concentrate on any monsters attacking me instead of ponies that want to kiss me?” Twily suggested. “Consolidation of resources, you could say.”
“Uh, right.” I shuffled again, feeling a familiar discomfort falling over me again. “But you're really good at blasting monsters already.” Probably way better than me, even. I would have been trounced by Nightmare Moon if it came to a straight up fight between us, and Discord could make even the princesses look like a joke. But Twily had beaten both of them with her friends. Considering part of the reason I had joined the Guard was to protect Twily, that stung. All the really big incidents where she had been in danger and I hadn’t been there for her. Then if not for Cadey I would have stood around like a zombie as Chrysalis took over Equestria and did who knew what to my poor little sister. Even my request to send a Guard detachment to Ponyville to help keep Twily safe had been rejected by Princess Celestia for some mysterious reason she couldn’t tell me. I was starting to wonder if I even had a purpose anymore.
Twily sighed. “That's somewhat true, yes. Not that I particularly like running around blasting monsters, and that only worked against Nightmare Moon and Discord because me and my friends were using the Elements of Harmony.”
“But you’ve proven you can take care of yourself.” Cadey smirked. “And if you can blast monsters, you can blast unwanted suitors. Not to mention that you have a direct line to Princess Celestia.”
Twily’s eyes widened. “I-I don't want to have to write her because I'm having dating problems! That’s a gross misuse of my relationship with her!”
It was hard to suppress a laugh at the idea of Twily sending a letter to Her Highness over dating trouble, but I managed. Barely. It helped that I had some serious stuff to talk about. “Yeah, but ... well, somepony taking advantage of her is different, is all. I just wanna be a good big brother, and for my little sis to meet the right pony. That’s all I want.” If there was anypony good enough for my sister, which was a big if considering how amazing she was.
Twily groaned and ran a hoof down her face. “Okay, if somepony is causing trouble I'll make sure to talk with you, and if need be, you can go all big brother on them with my blessing.”
“But what if you don't know they're doing it?” Like Cloud.
Twily let out a frustrated sigh. “And what does somepony taking advantage of me look like?”
“...I know it when I see it.”
Twily shot me a skeptical frown. “And you can tell that with Cloud based on one kiss with me?”
Cadey interjected herself into the conversation again. “Let's leave aside the whom for a moment.” She looked to me. “Would you have reacted any differently if it were somepony else?”
“Um...” I couldn’t quite bring myself to meet either of their gazes. If I was being honest with myself, I had trouble imagining anypony being good enough for Twily. Cloud was especially bad, but then who would be right for Twily? I tried to think of any of my friends dating Twily and ... no, no, and no. Definitely no. Not happening. Half if not all of the nobility would only be interestested in Twily because of who she was and her connection to Princess—Aunt Celestia. The same for a bunch of the rest of the population of Equestria. Right, so I was automatically disqualifying at least 99.99% of Equestria’s entire population out of hoof for dating my little sis, and I’m sure the remainder could quickly be turned down due to one problem or another, but that was only rational.
Twily frowned and looked to Cadey and I could feel an unspoken communication between them. After that silent talk between them it was Cadey who spoke up next. “Then it seems to me that you would think anypony who's involved with Twilight would be taking advantage of her.”
“Um.” Sometimes I wondered if Cadey was really a mind reader, but just because I couldn't think of anypony being good enough for Twily didn't mean there wasn't theoretically somepony right for her. It was possible, anyways. “That's not necessarily true.”
Cadey shook her head before nuzzling me. “I know you want to look out for her, and that's endearing, really, but perhaps you should take a step back. It's hard because you love her, but it's precisely because you love her that you need to do so.”
My ears wilted as the guilt hit me twofold. How could it hurt so much to just want to do the right thing? “But ... I just wanted to...” I trailed off when Cadey gave me a look warning me to drop it. I sighed and bowed my head. “Okay, okay. Sorry, Twily. I’ll leave you alone now.” I trudged towards the door, feeling like a wreck.
So I had a kid outside of my marriage, hurt Cadey because of it, and now I'd made Twily mad at me when all I wanted to do was protect her. At this point I wanted to crawl into a hole and pull a rock over me, but knowing me right then I'd somehow manage to screw that even up.
“Shining, wait.” Twily grabbed my shoulder. “I know you're trying to do the right thing, and I appreciate that. I really do.”
Cadey stepped to the other side of me, and wrapped a wing around my back. “I do too. You don't always make the right call, but I know you mean well.”
I dropped my head almost all the way to the floor. “Yeah, but apparently I still messed it up, and now you're both mad at me.”
“I might be a little mad at you, but I still love you.” Twily gave me a nuzzle. “You're my big brother. Even if you can be a big doofus sometimes.”
I nuzzled her back, feeling a little better. “And you'll always be my little sister.”
“So how about we let bygones be bygones, and forgive and forget?” Twily asked.
Cadey nodded. “With some apologies, in due time.”
“Works for me.” I hugged the both of them. The last thing I wanted to do was fight with either of them. All I wanted to do was protect those I loved, not bring them pain. “I love you both.”
Twily squeezed me in turn. “Right back at you.” She slowly broke the hug and gave me a smile. “So, do we have that little bit of drama out of the way now?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I'd like that.” Even if I was hoping to be able to avoid apologizing to Cloud. My reaction to seeing her kiss Twily had been wrong, but I still didn't want her near my sister. One step at a time, though. There was still a whole bunch of other stuff to deal with. “So ... now the other big thing of drama.” I grimaced at what was not going to be one of the most pleasant discussions I was ever going to have.
Twily grimaced in return. “Right, that.”
I took a deep breath and plowed on ahead. “So what can you tell me?”
“A lot.” Twily ran a hoof through her mane and let out a huff. “What do you want to know?”
I thought about that for a moment. “Everything?”
“That's going to take a while,” Twily said. “Want me to make some tea? This isn't going to be a short conversation.”
Cadey nodded. “That sounds lovely, thank you.”
“If you don't mind...”
We headed downstairs for some tea and one of the longest conversations of my life.
“...and I think that’s everything,” Twily finished. She let out a long breath of relief as she poured herself another cup of tea. Not that I blamed her for being a bit tired after bringing us up to speed.
“That is definitely a lot to take in.” Cadey shook her head and then sipped her tea. “It sounds like you've been through a lot.”
“You could say that, yeah.” Twilight rubbed her upper leg as she grimaced.
I scooted closer to Twily to wrap a leg around her shoulders. “I wish you'd come to me sooner when you were going through all of this. I could have helped you.” Even based on what Twily was willing to admit about Cloud, things had been pretty rough between them, and that had been the easy stuff for her to deal with. All the drama she had gone through with Mom and Dad, learning about Vinyl, Dinky, and Amethyst, and a half dozen other things past that must have taken their toll on her. The fact she had gone through all of that alone hurt me. That was a lot for any one pony to bear in a short period of time. I should know, a lot of what she had learned had thrown my entire life into chaos.
Twily shook her head. “You were busy with being captain of the Royal Guard. I didn't want to bother you with this stuff.”
Part of me wanted to argue the point with her, but what was done was done, and I didn't want to get into another preventable argument with her. The good news was that I'd gotten to hear about Dinky and Amethyst—Sparkler, I reminded myself. Ditzy sounded like a pretty good pony as well. That was something of a relief, at least. Even if Dinky and Sparkler coming to live under the same roof seemed like some sort of weird joke on the part of fate, it was good to hear they were in a loving home. Twilight seemed pretty positive about everything, so that was a good sign. Or at least a start, anyways.
I moved onto the next practical point before I fell too deep into thought. “Think you could arrange a meeting between me and Ditzy?”
“I think that would be a good idea,” Cadey agreed. “It’ll be a lot less complicated to talk about everything without the kids running around.” She fidgeted almost imperceptibly. “Not to mention there’s probably going to be a few things we’re going to want to talk about that we’re not going to want the kids around for.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Can’t argue with that. Even if Ditzy—Derpy is as nice as you say, Twily, this isn’t going to be the most comfortable talk ever. Best we talk about everything in private before we see Dinky and Sparkler.”
“It shouldn’t be a problem to arrange a meeting.” Twilight refilled our cups from a pot of tea. “She’s been wanting to talk with you too since I told her the truth. Though, um...” A pensive frown found its way to Twilight’s face as she looked Cadey’s way. “Did you want to be here too?”
Cadey placed a hoof on my leg and nodded. “I think that would be best. Best we clear the air between us. I don't see any good coming from us trying to tiptoe around one another.”
The thought that Cadey might not entirely trust me around Derpy caused a jab of pain to run through my heart. Not that I could entirely blame her for that. If I learned that Cadey had a kid with another pony from before we hooked up, I... Well, I don't know what I would do. I would like to think I would act cool and collected, but I just didn't know for certain, because the idea was just too out there for me to even believe it could happen. But then, I never would have imagined myself in this situation either.
Whatever the case, I knew better than to argue with Cadey. Trying to convince her not to be there when I met Derpy would probably only make things worse between us. No, better I agree and try and win back a few points with my wife.
“That sounds like a good idea to me,” I said. “When do you think you can arrange a meeting, Twily?”
“Possibly today.” Twily stood up and stretched. “It might take a few hours. I need to find Derpy and explain that you’re here, but with any luck she should be able to drop whatever she’s doing to come right here. Want me to go ahead and find her to try and set everything up?”
“If you don't mind,” I said. “The sooner we can take care of this the better. The stress is killing me here.”
“I think that's a good idea.” Cadey patted my leg. It did feel good to have her here, even if the circumstances were awful.
“Then I'll get right on that.” Twily headed to the door. “I'll be right back as soon as I have word of what's going to happen.”
I smiled in thanks. “Thanks, Twily. You’re the best.”
Now all I could do was wait. Again.
Have I mentioned how much I hate waiting?
Waiting only made me even more anxious about meeting Derpy, and gave me time to think about everything that could go wrong. What if I said something offensive? What if she hated me? What if I made a bad impression? What if she wanted to sue me for child support? What if she didn't want me to see my daughter or baby sister? Even if the rational part of my brain said I was being silly, they still nagged at me.
But what else could I do? This wasn’t exactly the type of situation where I could leap into action without making things even worse, and I’d been making things bad enough enough as of late. So I stood looking out the window of the second story window of the library as I waited for Twily to return.
It was as I waited by the window that Cadey came to step by my side. “Are you doing okay?”
I shrugged. “Just nervous, I guess.”
“I don’t blame you.” She pressed her body against mine as we looked out the window. “I’m pretty nervous too, after all.”
My ears wilted. “I’m sorry.”
Cadey closed her eyes and sighed. “I think we’ve already gone over all of this before, dear.”
I grimaced. “Sorry.”
“How about we talk about something else to take our minds off meeting Derpy?” Cadey suggested. “Fretting about that isn’t going to make it happen anytime sooner.”
“Probably. So, um...” I asked the first thing that came to mind before more awkward silence started. “What did you and Twily talk about?” I felt Cadey stiffen, and I wondered if I had started with a bad question. But I had been a little curious about what they all talked about. It made me a bit paranoid when ponies talked behind my back.
After a moment’s hesitation, Cadey answered slowly and deliberately. “We talked about a few different things. Like where things are going with her and Cloud Kicker.”
My teeth ground together just at Cloud’s name. “Yeah? And?”
A few more seconds of silence passed. “It’s ... Twilight doesn’t have a lot of experience at romantic relationships, so she’s learning a lot as she goes. What she has with Cloud isn’t particularly deep yet, but it might go that way.”
I tilted my head Cadey’s way, not quite getting what she was saying. “What do you mean?”
Cadey looked to me with a wry smile. “You promise not to go big brother on Cloud again?”
I groaned, but nodded. I’d already apologized for what I did, and didn’t particularly want to revisit all that drama. I had more than enough drama in my life as it was. “Yes. Not unless Cloud deserves it.”
“Right now what they have is ... casual, I suppose it the word for it,” Cadey said. “It’s not really love love, at least not at this point. And there’s the fact that Cloud’s already already involved with a couple of other mares pretty intimately.”
“What?!” This Cloud was sleeping around on my sister?! Why I was going to—
Cadey grasped me around the leg, her grip surprisingly strong for how delicate she looked. Alicorns were stronger than they looked. “Shining.” The single word was both a reminder and a warning. “Remember what we just talked about? Take a moment to breathe.”
I took her advice, as hard as it was. A couple minutes later I had myself back under control. Even if I still wanted to have a few strong words with Cloud. “But you said that Cloud is involved with other ponies.”
“It’s ... complicated.” She shook her head. “It’s one of the reasons why we spent an hour talking in the basement. As I told Twilight, she should seek a relationship that’s healthy for her. Whether that’s with Cloud or somepony else, I can’t say, but she definitely needs a deeper relationship. A friends-with-benefits type of relationship isn’t going to be fulfilling for a pony like Twilight.”
I groaned. It had been a huge mistake to ask about this. Me and my stupid curiosity. “Please don’t talk about my sister and friends with benefits. Especially when it involves Cloud.”
Cadey rolled her eyes. “You asked about what we were talking about, you big goof.”
“And regretting it,” I grumbled. “I still don't think Cloud is good for her.”
“I'm sure Twilight will be fine in the end.” She squeezed my leg. “And it will help her if she feels like she can approach us with any questions she might have.”
I ran my hoof down my face as I thought about the idea of Twily asking me for ... relationship advice. “There are plenty of questions I can think of I don't want to hear or answer.”
Cadey huffed in annoyance. “Then I'll handle any questions she might have. Like you, I want her to find the right pony to fall in love with some day.” She grinned and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. “You know, we could always try and find the right pony for her.”
I blinked and staggered back from her. “No! No, no, definitely no, absolutely no, a thousand times no, over and over again. I can't no this enough!”
Cadey shot me a flat glower. “Shining, you have two choices: let Twilight go her own way and let things turn out however they will, or we help her along in whatever way we can.”
I grunted neutrally. She might have a point, but ... this was my little sister we were talking about. Though it didn't help that there were other complications on top of everything else. A big one was that there was the succession for House Sparkle to consider. Technically I was supposed to inherit the title of duke someday, but what made it tricky was that I had married into the royal house. So if I became the duke of House Sparkle then the duchy would just become another part of the royal demesne. That was ... I wasn't sure how I felt about that. The idea of House Sparkle going into the dustbin of history along with its centuries of tradition and history didn't make me happy. But we hadn't discussed any of this seriously yet. The wedding had been rushed ahead and serious issues like this one hadn't been dealt with yet.
One option we had to keep House Sparkle from going extinct was for me to decline becoming duke and for Twily to become the next duchess of our noble house. I wasn't sure how I felt about that either. That was me dumping a lot of responsibilities onto Twily. Especially when there were practical considerations to consider, like the fact that Twily would need to ... produce an heir one way or another to keep the house alive. That meant considering options I wasn't wild about. Sure, Twily marrying somepony for political advantage of my house was something I knew could, and probably would, happen, but now that the time to seriously consider all of that had come I was twitchy. Part of me had hoped that Twily being Aunt Celestia’s student would preclude her from some of the usual expectations of a noblemare, and she must have had plans for Twily. Right?
But I didn't know what those plans were, now did I? For all I knew I would hate those plans. I didn't know how Twily felt about the succession and the whole marriage thing. No, I had thought to chase away everypony who even looked at her in the wrong way. But how long could I realistically keep that up? She was her own mare now, and as much as I hated to think about it, there were things she was going to want to do a protective big brother might not be wild about.
Ugh, this was something to talk to Twily about, and soon. At least if I asked her opinion I was less likely to get myself into trouble doing something stupid and make her mad with me again. Great, another fun conversation I was going to need to add to the already full list of conversations I wasn't looking forward to. Things just kept getting better and better.
“Shining?” Cadey rubbed my leg. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head as I pulled myself from my ruminations. “Yeah, just thinking, is all. Part of me hates the idea, but I'm starting to think that we need to sit down and talk with Twily about some of this. There’s the whole succession issue for my house to deal with.”
“Oof.” Cadey grimaced. “I nearly forgot all about the fact you were to become duke someday. That got pushed to the side with everything else keeping us busy.”
“We did kinda neglect to talk about it when us getting married seemed so far away,” I said. “I figured we would hammer all of that out during the actual wedding planning.” I definitely never planned for my wedding to get rushed like it had been. Endless night, I hadn't even found a good opportunity to tell Twily I was dating Cadey, much less marrying her.
“We’ll try and talk with Twilight about it while we’re here,” Cadey said. “We don't have to make a decision right now, but it would be good for us to at least think it over so that we can figure out what we want to do.”
“Sounds good.” A movement outside the window caught my eyes. “There's Twily. She's not with anypony, though.” Hopefully that wasn't a bad sign.
“Let’s go downstairs to meet her then.” We headed down to the main library room, and it wasn't long before the door opened.
Twily entered the library and closed the door behind her. She smiled for us, even if it didn't look as natural as her smile normally did. “Hey, good news you two—Derpy should be here before too long. She just needed a bit of time to wrap a couple of things up first, but she shouldn't be that far behind me.”
I took a deep breath to steady myself. The announcement I was about to meet the mother of my daughter made my heart beat all the faster. “Here we go, then.”
Twily placed a hoof on my shoulder. “It'll be okay. You'll see that Derpy is really nice, and to be honest she's as nervous as you two are.”
Cadey wrapped a wing around my back as a strained smile creased her mouth. “I'm sure we'll manage.”
A range of emotions coursed through me as my heart continued thumping away: fear, anxiety, a desire to flee from the library and never return. There was the guilt of putting my wife and sister through all of this, and the fact I hadn't even known that I had a daughter. It all made me feel helpless.
I nearly jumped when there was a knock on the door. Twily took two steps before there was a whining screech as the door slowly fell off its hinges, my sister jumping back before the door could hit her. It hit the floor with a smack, revealing the mare who had given me so much anxiety for the last week.
Ditzy blinked at the broken door, and it took a moment for her to recoup. “I can fix that.”
“It's... okay.” Twily moved to pick up the door with her magic. “I'm sure it looks worse—” The halves of her door broke apart, the top half breaking clean down the middle in her telekinetic grip while the bottom half hit the floor again and broke into more pieces. “—than it is?”
So, things were off to a great start. The good news was that this couldn't be blamed on me for once. That was almost a win where I was concerned with the type of days I'd been having. I wondered if Twily was keeping the library maintained. She wasn't exactly a handymare, and probably didn't have much experience keeping someplace together, so after she had lived in the library for a couple of years it could be a few things were falling apart. I would ask her about that later. In the meantime I wasn't quite sure what to do about all of this. I decided to wait until Twilight made introductions before doing anything. That seemed the best course of action, and had the least risk of doing something that would make me want to put my hoof in my mouth.
“I've at least gotten really good at fixing them.” Ditzy smiled sheepishly. “But to be safe, I'll have Tool Time double check it.”
“We'll just ignore the door for now.” Twily sighed and placed the broken door to the side, leaving the doorway uncovered. “We’ve got more important things to deal with.”
“Okay then.” Ditzy looked over Twily’s shoulder and she gulped. I was doing about the same as my mouth felt dry enough to be classified as a desert.
Thankfully, Twily stepped in before Ditzy and I got into the world's most awkward staring contest. “Shining Armor, Cadance, this is Ditzy Doo. Ditzy, this is my brother and Princess Cadance.”
Cadey gave Ditzy something approximately like a polite smile. “Hello, Ditzy.”
I curved my lips in an attempt to make my own smile. “Hi.”
Ditzy smiled back at us, her lips strained at the edges as she waved halfheartedly. “Hi. I'm, um...” Her eyes flicked between me and Cadey. “I'm Ditzy Doo.”
“Um, hi, again.” My brain was nearly freezing up, and I started saying whatever I could get out of my mouth. “We've, um, met, and this is my wife, Cadance. Who is my wife, who I love very much, because I love her, and she's my lovely wife that I love a lot.”
Twily applied her hoof to her face, and Cadey sighed softly as she gave me a reassuring pat to the back. I couldn’t help but think I was missing something here.
I swallowed, trying to get some moisture back into my mouth as I rubbed the back of my neck. “So, um, I guess I owe you apology, or several. Or a lot. There’s a lot of things to apologize for.” I grimaced as I looked Cadey’s way. She was wearing the princessly mask of a cool and calm exterior. That’s how she usually looked whenever she was trying hard to hide whatever she was feeling. How good or bad that was I wasn’t really sure. “I ... did some things I'm not proud of.”
“You're probably not the only one.” Ditzy laughed, but her nervousness was obvious as her gaze kept momentarily shifting to Cadey. “Definitely, definitely not the only one. That, um...” She laughed nervously again. “That was some strong punch, am I right?”
“That's putting it lightly.” I barely remembered anything from that night. Ugh, you would think I could at least get to remember the night I accidently knocked up some mare. Instead I was working through clouded memories of an incident I had all but forgotten about.
Ditzy sighed and nodded. “I'm sorry.”
“You're sorry?” I bit my lip. “I’m the one that left you with a foal and didn't even know about it.” I groaned and cupped my face in my hooves. “I swear, if I had known—”
“I know.” Ditzy shifted in place and looked at Cadance. “I mean, I wouldn't want to ruin anything you have. I'd never want to do that to anypony.”
Cadey nodded slowly. “But we want to do right by you and your daughter.”
I seized on the idea Cadey offered, that was one thing I definitely knew I wanted to deal with. “Sorry. And yeah, I ... want to do what's right for Dinky. And you.”
Ditzy inhaled a big breath and then let it out. “Thank you. I ... hearing that, I really don't know what else to say, but thank you. I didn't know what I was expecting when I came here. Hay, I kinda circled around a few times to just think about what I might say. It's...” She trailed off and her gaze fell to the floor.
“To be fair,” I said, “I've been spending all this time trying to figure out what I was going to say.”
Ditzy snickered. “Luna, I bet. I don't want to cause a mess, or steal you away from your new wife, or bit-and-copper you like some vindictive nag—er, sorry for the language, Princess.” She rubbed the back of her mane. “I just want what's fair for my daughter. But I don't want to cause problems for you, I really don't.”
Cadey nodded. “Of course. I'm sure we can arrange something for child support. Both Shining and I have agreed that Dinky deserves that much.”
“Right, I want to do that.” I shuffled in place. “And, um—see Dinky, if I can.”
“You'd ... like to see her?” Ditzy repeated slowly. “I thought it'd be more complicated than that.”
“She's my daughter, right?”
Cadey wrapped a leg around mine own. “And I'm sure she's a very lovely young lady, and I would like to meet her too.”
A wide smile spread across Ditzy’s face. “Sure! Sure, definitely! She'd probably ask about you anyway, so that probably makes it easier.”
“Has she… Has she asked about me in the past?” I swallowed, my throat dry again.
She gave me a small, hesitate tnod. “A few times. Especially on Father's Day. I never figured out what to tell her, to be honest.”
I grimaced as I felt a stab in my heart. “Sorry...”
“Hey, that's not your fault,” Ditzy tried to reassure me. Shame it didn’t feel like it wasn’t my fault. How much pain had I caused Dinky because I hadn’t been there for her? I didn’t even want to think about it.
Cadey squeezed my leg. “At least we can answer that question for her now.”
I took a moment to breathe and nodded. “Right, I can fix that now.” I couldn’t change the past, but I could make amends now. “I'd like to get to know her.”
“So would I.” Cadey tensed as she leaned against me. “If ... if that's acceptable.”
Ditzy nodded. “If you're willing to do that, it wouldn't be fair to cut you out.”
Cadey smiled, the relief clear in her face. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, thanks.” I squeezed Cadey’s leg back. “That means a lot to me.”
“Not just to you,” Ditzy said. “I know it'll mean even more to her.”
“She's gone too long without her dad.” As bucked up as this whole situation was, I knew that much, and I planned on fixing it. There were a lot of details to work out, but I’d do what I had to in order to set things right with my daughter, however hard it was.
“When would be a good time to meet her?” Cadey asked.
“And Sparkler, if I can.” Ugh, we hadn’t even gotten into that whole mess with my long-lost sister. As if this wasn’t complicated enough. Still, I had an idea of what I wanted to do with her. “Though it might be best if I met her a different time than Dinky.”
“I think one thing at a time,” Cadey agreed. “We have more than enough to deal with just by meeting one of them.”
Ditzy took a sharp intake of breath. “Yeah, I agree.”
I shuffled. “It’s just that I don't want either of them to feel like I'm neglecting or snubbing them by meeting one before the other.”
Ditzy came closer to sit opposite of me. “I think we’ll be okay. I’ve already talked about all of this with Sparkler, and I think she’ll understand if you want to meet with Dinky first, all things considered. Especially when you want to give her the attention she deserves.” Ditzy smiled. “Besides, Sparkler wanted to spend some time with her fillyfriend, so that'll let you meet Dinky one-on-one. Well, two-on-one, but you get what I mean.”
My nostrils flared. “A fillyfriend?”
Cadey placed a restraining hoof on my shoulder. “Shining...”
Ditzy’s face scrunched up as she frowned. “Star's a really great mare. I think you'd like her too if you gave her a chance. She’s in the Guard, and they seem to really like one another.”
“Right, we'll ... talk about that later.” Pointedly. I may not even have met Sparkler yet, but I still didn’t want just anypony dating her. “Meeting Dinky first works for me. When’s the soonest we can do so?”
“Later today would work if you wanted to meet Dinky,” Ditzy said.
I nodded. “We can do that.”
“I'll see you then.” The smile Ditzy gave us was still nervous, but I could see some legitimate happiness in it. “It was nice to finally meet you both. Thank you.”
Cadey smiled back. “Likewise.”
“Yeah, you too.” Finally, I managed to get through a conversation without some big disaster happening. “It’ll be good to get to meet Dinky.” I extended a hoof to Ditzy.
“I think you’ll love her.” Ditzy stepped forward to shake my hoof but then her hoof caught on one of the seat cushions surrounding the central table. She was sent careening into me, causing me to bump into Cadey in turn. Cadey let out a cry of surprise as she flailed and crashed into Twily.
The world spun as the multi-pony pile-up played out, and I felt my whole body flip along the floor due to the impact. It took a few moments for me to regain my bearings after I stopped moving. Then I noticed somepony was sitting in my lap, her legs wrapped around me. Ditzy’s eyes were twirling in her head. Knowing how terrible this looked, I glanced around to find Cadey and saw her against a nearby bookshelf with Twily. Dozens of books had fallen on them, and Cadey and Twily were—um, awkwardly positioned with one another, causing my cheeks to blush.
Ditzy shook her head and took in the sight around us, blinked, and then looked at how we were touching, closely. She smiled awkwardly and chuckled nervously. “Oops. My bad.”