//------------------------------//
// Chapter 181: Fires of Fatherhood 
// Story: My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Stallion Edition 
// by SuperPinkBrony12 
//------------------------------//

With Chrysalis defeated and imprisoned, Shining Armor felt comfortable enough that his sister's school could operate just fine without him needing to be there. So he returned to the Crystal Empire to be with his family, though he still kept in constant contact with Twilight and Starlight back in Ponyville as necessary, and they in turn kept him up to date on all the developments that went on at the school.

But one fateful day as Starlight just so happened to be in the Crystal Empire (she was taking some of the students on a field trip to see the Crystal Heart), Shining had an unexpected visitor come to see him. It was a unicorn stallion with a grayish-purple coat considerably darker than Starlight's, a two tone sea green mane and tail that looked like toothpaste, brown eyes, and a cutie mark depicting a flickering flame. He wore a red buttoned jacket with a yellow necktie. The fact that his coat color was similarly to Starlight's did not go unnoticed by the prince, but as there were no other features that were even remotely shared between Starlight and the stranger he didn't dwell on it for long. He instead greeted his visitor with the usual warmth reserved for all guests. "Hello, stranger," He politely greeted. "What brings you to my castle to see me?"

The stallion cleared his throat. "I was hoping you could help me with something. My name is Firelight."

Shining shook the stallion's hoof. "Well, nice to meet you. So, what can I do for you, Mr. Firelight, Sir?"

Firelight explained. "Just Firelight will do, thank you. I was told that my daughter is a student of yours."

"Who's your daughter?" Shining wondered.

"Does the name 'Starlight Glimmer' ring any bells for you?" Firelight answered. "My full name is Firelight Glimmer, I'm her father."

The prince was taken aback a bit at this statement. Starlight had told him very little about her family when he'd taken her under his wing almost two years ago, and he most certainly hadn't seen this stallion was that now before him in the dream he'd been allowed to bare witness to. There had to be a reason why Starlight hadn't told him about her father and why he hadn't been a part of her dream.

But Shining didn't feel like it was his place to pry. After all, he seldom brought up his family around others and it had been years before Big Macintosh had been willing to trust him enough to open up about his own parents (though when Big Mac had learned about his mom being a Pear he had seen fit to share it with as many ponies as possible, especially since it meant he was closer to his maternal grandfather). So the prince just replied to Firelight's comment. "You heard right, Starlight is or I should say was my student."

At that Firelight appeared to frown and sigh. "Oh, so she's not with you anymore?"

Shining shook his head. "No no no, it's nothing like that at all. She still technically lives in Ponyville with my sister, she's just not really my student anymore. It's kind of a long story, but I came to realize that there was only so much I could still teach her that she didn't already know. So I decided to let her spread her wings. Now we're more like friends, and our teacher-student relationship is more informal than formal."

"I see," Firelight commented. "A pity she's in Ponyville. Guess I'll have to book a train ticket down to there and go to see her."

"Actually," Shining pointed out. "She should be here in the Crystal Empire right now. She works as a guidance counselor at my sister's own School of Friendship, and today she just so happens to be taking a few of the students on a field trip. Why don't I see if I can find her for you?"

But Firelight rose to his hooves and insisted. "Oh, there's no need for that, prince. I'll track her down myself," With a smile on his face he departed the room as he said to himself. "Oh, I can't wait to see how big my precious Pumpky-Wumpkin's gotten!"

"Wait, Firelight!" Shining pleaded to the stallion. "There's something I should probably tell you about your daughter-" But alas his words came too late to be heard, Firelight had already left. All he could do now was wait, something told him that Starlight wasn't exactly going to be thrilled to see her father again after all this time. Still, what he was thinking right now was simple. "Starlight owes me a heck of an explanation for this." He thought to himself.





Starlight was currently leading just a trio of students through the Crystal Empire. Most of the students at least knew about the Crystal Heart or had seen it for themselves. Of those who hadn't, only three were truly interested in going to see it: Gallus, Silverstream, and Smolder.

"Wow! An entire kingdom made up of crystals!" Smolder exclaimed as her eyes took in all the sights and sounds of the empire. "It looks almost good enough to eat. Almost."

Silverstream, meanwhile, was ecstatic! "Ooh! So many things to see, and hear, and smell, and feel! This whole empire is so... so... well, I don't know what it is... but it's definitely something!"

"You don't get out much, do you?" Gallus only slightly teased Silverstream (by now it wasn't exactly a secret that he was fond of her, not that he'd ever admit it).

"Hey, I grew up underwater in a coral reef with only whales and eels as friends," Silverstream ribbed back at the griffon. "We weren't ever allowed to go up to the surface, Aunt Novo forbade it. The one time I disboeyed her orders and did so, well let's just say you do not wanna see Queen Novo's when she's angry, because you won't like her when she's angry."

Smolder chuckled. "Big deal. I've been outside the dragon lands multiple times and Ember never cares. There's nothing out there, anyway. Just rocks and smoke," Then she asked Starlight. "Is is true what they say, Counselor Starlight? Does the Crystal Heart really protect the whole empire from the Frozen North?"

Starlight nodded in response as she gestured a hoof towards the aforementioned object. "Yup, it sure does. I found that out first hoof, because the first time I came here it got destroyed and the empire almost froze over completely," She paused for a moment, recalling her first experience in the empire. Then she added. "It can still get a bit nippy up here from time to time, especially in the winter time. That's probably why Sunburst always wears that wizard's cloak of his."

At that very moment an all too familiar voice to Starlight called out from afar. "Sunburst is here too?! Oh, I remember how you two were practically attached at the hip as foals."

Starlight spun around in time to see Firelight approach her and pull her close to him as he pinched her cheeks. "Dad," She groaned as a raging blush started breaking out on her cheeks. "What are you doing here?"

Firelight chuckled. "Nice to see you too, Pumpky Wumpkin. My goodness, despite how big you've gotten you're still just as cutesy wootsy as ever!"

Starlight swatted Firelight away with a hoof. "Dad, please, stop it! You promised not to call me things like 'Pumpky Wumpkin' or 'Chipmunk Cheeks' in public. I'm not a foal anymore!"

"True, but you'll always still be Daddy's little girl," Firelight cooed. He seemed to be oblivious to the embarrassment he was subjecting his daughter to, or the laughs that were breaking out among the students she had been chaperoning. "I'm here for you, now. Ready to be a part of your life again. And your former teacher was kind enough to point me to you. Now come on. Don't tell me you don't wanna spend more time with me, honey bun. I could even take you back to Sire's Hollow with me and you could stay in your old room, Punky Wunk. I made sure to leave it just like you left it, skulls, bat-pony plushies, and everything."

Starlight shuddered and cringed at the thought. "Please don't tell me he's held onto everything from when I was a foal. I swear, if he offers me a blanket and tries to feed me milk and cookies, I'm not gonna be held responsible for the things I'll do!" Still, her father had come all this way just to see him and the mare knew it would be rude to just turn him away. He hadn't done anything wrong. Maybe if she just played along a little bit he'd be satisfied, and then she could politely tell him that she was just fine without him. Hopefully, before it would mean having to delve into her troubled past.

However, that still left the detail of the three students she was supposed to be watching over. She knew it wouldn't look good if she just abandoned them to their own devices, especially when one of them looked ready to try and eat the empire and the other was an unpredictable wild card. Fortunately, she didn't have to look far for a suitable pony to use as a substitute. Princess Cadence just so happened to out and about, enjoying the fine day. And it seemed she had brought her daughter out as well, stored safely in a foal pouch.

"This is perfect. Flurry Heart loves making new friends." Starlight thought to herself and gave a whistle. "Students, I'm going to be... er, detained due to a... er... family matter. So I want you all to go over to Princess Cadence and stay with her until I... return. Okay?"

Gallus, Silverstream, and Smolder all obeyed without question. "Okay, Counselor Starlight." And they all flew over to Princess Cadence's location. The princess of love was a tad bit surprised to have all three creatures suddenly swarm over her, but a quick glance towards Starlight's location told her all she needed to know. "I suppose I'll take up this debt, just this once. I do owe her for bringing Sunburst to help fix the Crystal Heart during Flurry Heart's crystalling." She thought to herself.

Starlight breathed a small sigh of relief. "Okay, now that I've got that taken care of, Dad, why don't we go for a walk and have a little talk?"

Firelight nodded his head. "Sounds good to me, honey bun," And he smiled. "Oh, just look at you. All grown up and working as a guidance counselor at a school run by a princess. Sounds like you've been busy."

"You don't know the half of it, and I intend to keep it that way." Starlight thought to herself as she trotted off, her  father following not too far behind.





Sometime later, a rather distraught and frustrated looking Starlight was strolling into the throne room. She immediately cast her angry gaze at the one who had tipped her father off about her current whereabouts, Shining Armor. "How could you do this sort of thing to me?!" She accused. "After everything I've done, after all the lessons we've taught each other, this is how you repay me?!"

Shining sighed as he rose from his throne. "Starlight, I didn't mean to cause you any trouble. I didn't even know you still had a father. All I remember about your family was that you told me you were a latch key kid."

Starlight groaned for a moment, then sighed. "Yes, that's true. And that's because my dad was always so busy with work, he barely ever had time for me. Even as a foal I remember Sunburst's parents being there for me far more than he ever was, especially his mom, Stellar Flare," She gulped. "I think it's safe to say that some of her... mannerisms kind of rubbed off on me."

"What do you mean?" The prince asked his former student. "Didn't you have a mom too?"

Starlight shook her head. "If I did I don't remember. And the few times I tried to ask my dad he'd refuse to say anything about it," She then explained. "But the way he's acting now, well... I think you can see why it is that I wasn't exactly keen on telling you about him, let alone staying in touch with him."

"I see, he's the embarrassing, smothering type of parent," Shining commented. "Even so, why didn't you tell me sooner about him? It's not right to keep such big secrets like this."

"Because you wouldn't understand what it's like," Starlight retorted to Shining. "From what I've seen of your parents, they clearly love you. But they also respect the fact that you're all grown up and can manage your own life. I can't say the same about my dad, it's like he's intent on treating me like I'm some helpless little filly again. And I'm sick of it!"

Shining paused and stood in silent contemplation. He wasn't sure what exactly he had been expecting when Starlight's dad had shown up and announced his intent to see his daughter, but now it was clear that Shining had unknowingly set off a powder keg. And so it was his job to at least try to help put out the fire he had started. But what could he say? Starlight's words rang true, he didn't know Starlight's parental situation was like. How he was supposed to offer advice in a situation he was unfamiliar with?

However, after several silent moments of thinking it over, a solution came to him. And the alicorn spoke up. "You're right, Starlight. I don't know what it's like to have had a parenting dilemma like the one you have. It seems your father was a single father for whatever reason, and it seems that like a lot of single parents he was away due to work."

"Exactly! Yet now it seems he wants to just turn back the clock, completely ignoring everything that's happened to me since I left Sire's Hollow so long ago," Starlight complained. But then she added. "And the worst part is, there's a part of me that wants that. Deep down, a part of me wants to have that warm, welcoming place I can go back to. To feel like nothing's changed and that it doesn't matter what I did outside Sire's Hollow, it doesn't have to apply. But I know that's wrong, that it's selfish of me to desire such a thing. I can't just turn my back on my past."

"Well, I hope you don't think you're the only one who's ever grown up hating their parents or just finding them annoying," Shining commented in reply. "Everypony has days growing up where they can't stand their parents and wish more than anything they'd just go away. But as time passes and you become an adult, you start to realize that your parents were in a way the first friends you ever had. Plus, now I'm a daddy, so in a way I kind of understand all that my parents had to go through raising Twily and I."

Starlight turned. "You're not making any sense. How could you possibly know what I went through? You weren't there!"

"I never said that, Starlight," Shining explained to his former student. "But my family situation was far from perfect. I got into my fair share of arguments with my parents growing up and there were times I wanted nothing to do with them. Usually it was whenever they were trying to help moderate my constant rivalry with Twilight, giving us gold stars whenever we did something truly special. And more often than not, no matter how hard I tried it seemed like Twily always beat me in all the places it mattered most," Then he added. "However, even when I was just a little foal there were things going on in my family that made my relationship with my parents difficult."

The unicorn reluctantly inquired. "What do you mean?"

The prince let out a sigh. "I only found out a lot of this years after the fact, Mom and Dad still don't like to talk about it because they're really ashamed of it," He adopted a somber tone as he spoke. "When my mom was giving birth to me, medical care wasn't quite as advanced as it is now. Heck, even by the time Twilight was born it had definitely come a lot further than it had at the time of my birth. Not only did I arrive sooner than expected, but there were all kinds of complications during and after the delivery. My mom internalized it all, she thought it was her ancestors punishing her, especially because she'd wanted a filly and not a colt."

Starlight gulped. "Wow, I'm... sorry I asked."

"It's okay, kind of helps to talk about it sometimes," Shining replied to Starlight. "Anyway, it took her a really long time to recover from the whole ordeal. Physically and mentally, especially the mentally part. For the first couple of years it was a constant struggle for her, sometimes she'd have good days and sometimes she'd have bad days. My dad was always there to keep her from acting out on some of her beliefs, but he could only do so much to help her. On her good days my mom would always be there for me, giving me lots of love and affection, playing with me, and taking care of my needs. But on her bad days, she would often have to force herself just to get out of bad and take care of me. And if it wasn't something urgent she would lock herself away in her room, all but strapping herself to her writing desk. Dad would try to help on those days by either staying home from work to help raise me, or taking me to a daycare center so I wouldn't have to witness what was going on. But I don't think Mom truly overcame her mental anguish until Twilight was born. And I think that was part of why she and my dad didn't discourage my rivalry with Twilight."

"I never would've imagined that was the case, that your mom ever used to be so... strange," Starlight remarked as the information was slowly absorbed by her. "I suppose that would explain why she has such a love of adventure and why your dad seems to encourage it. I still don't see how that helps me, though."

"Well, Starlight, I'm just trying to show you that no two ponies will have exactly the same parental dilemma growing up. In my case it was easy to forgive my parents, they handled things better than I think anypony would've expected and they came out of with a stronger understanding of each other," Shining said to Starlight. "But I wasn't there when you were growing up with your dad. I wasn't there when you decided to run away from home and cut him off from your life. However, if even Rainbow Dash could reconnect with her parents despite their delicate relationship, there's no reason why you can't at least try to do the same thing."

Starlight reluctantly sighed once again. "I guess you're right, Shining. Besides, if I'm going to continue to be a guidance counselor at Twilight's school, I have to be willing to set a good example for others and practice what I preach. That means I have to face my problems instead of ignoring them or running away from them."

"Speaking of the students, where are they? And how come it's just the three of them?" Shining inquired.

"I left the students with Cadence, figured she'd be able to keep them out of trouble," Starlight explained. "And if you must know: Yona's already seen the Crystal Empire and the Crystal Heart, something about a summit between ponies and yaks in the Crystal Empire a long while back. Ocellus heard about the changeling scare with Thorax, and she just didn't feel like chancing it in case ponies panicked. Sandbar decided to stay behind to support Ocellus, and Yona agreed to do the same. Plus, they all agreed to help Pinkie Pie plan a party because they heard Twilight's potentially going to be welcoming a new student. Can't remember her name, though," Then she got up as she returned to the original subject. "But for now, I've got a dad to find and have a talk with. A very long and hopefully productive talk."





Starlight had actually not wandered too far from Firelight's current location, mostly because he was occupying himself with every single sight that his eyes could concentrate on. "Ah, there you are, honey bun," His tone of voice conveyed a sense that he didn't appear to be at all upset. Or if he was he was doing an incredible job of hiding it. "You just took off all of a sudden and didn't say where you were going. Your old stallion can't run as fast as he used to, you know."

"That's what I was counting on, Dad." Starlight thought to herself but didn't bother saying it out loud. There were more important things to discuss. "Sorry if I left you like that, Dad. But as you can clearly see I'm just fine. I don't need you knowing where I am at every hour of every day."

"My my, someone's being a grumpy pants today," Firelight appeared to coo as he trotted up to Starlight. "I think somepony's cranky because they didn't take their nap. Well that's okay, you can have one when I take you back to Sire's Hollow. Oh, just wait until Stellar Flare gets a look at you!"

A sigh escaped Starlight's lips as she thought back her urge to blush. "Look, Dad, this kind of behavior needs to stop. I appreciate what you're trying to do, really. But I'm not the same little filly who used to wait up for you every night when you came home from work. I'm a grown mare with grown up responsibilities. And I wish to be treated as such."

Firelight stepped back a bit, surprised by the amount of authority contained with his daughter's tone of voice. "That's definitely not the sweet little filly I remember raising. Just what happened to you, Starlight? I've spent years trying to track you down after you ran off. And now I find here, working as a guidance counselor after having been a former student of Equestria's newest prince," A look of horror crossed his face! "Did something horrible happen to you because I couldn't be there to protect you?!"

"No, Dad," Starlight coldly retorted as her eyes narrowed. "You wanna know the truth? I ran away because I couldn't stand how you were treating me, trying desperately to preserve this much younger version of who I was. It was because of you that I never learned how to cope with Sunburst's departure and never tried to make another friend. Yet all you did was try to get me into kite flying or offer to be at my tea parties with my stuffed animals. And that was whenever you were around, which wasn't very often. You kept treating me like somepony I used to be, and you couldn't see what kind of horrible pony I was turning into," Her stern facade began to crumble a little as her lips trembled. "I... became a monster, Dad! I stripped ponies of their cutie marks and fed them a bunch of lies! And when I was exposed as a liar and a hypocrite, I snapped! I tried to rewrite history just so I could come out on top!"

Firelight's mouth dropped open in shock! He could hardly believe what he was hearing!

By now, tears were starting to form in Starlight's eyes and she was forcing herself not to cry. "Yet despite all of that, despite the horrible things I said and done, Shining Armor took me in. His family became my family. I was able to make amends and patch things up with Sunburst. I made more new friends than I knew what to do with. And I helped save Equestria at least twice. All the while though, I kept thinking of you. Like there was a hole in my heart that could never be closed or filled in no matter what I tried."

"Why didn't you just write to me hon... er, Starlight?" Firelight inquired, his tone sounding less like a patronizing comment and more like that of a concerned parent who'd learned their child had been badly injured.

The next words were slow to leave Starlight's mouth. "Because... I couldn't do it. Every time I wanted to do so, I kept thinking back to how you'd treated me. I knew it was selfish, I knew avoiding you and pretending you didn't exist wouldn't solve the problem, but I let myself believe that was the best way to ease my pain. And until today, it worked. I should've known you would find me eventually, though," At this point the tears had finally broken free, streaming down her cheeks. "I'm a horrible daughter!"

And in that moment, Firelight did the only thing he could think of. He lit up his horn and pulled his sobbing daughter close, letting him bury her face into his jacket. All the while he delicately stroked her mane with a hoof, just like he used to do when she was younger. "Starlight, don't say such silly things," He reassured her. "You're not a horrible daughter and don't you dare say otherwise. You've clearly made some bad decisions in your past, and you regret them."

"That's putting it mildly." Starlight sniffled.

"If anyone's to blame for the pony you became, it would be me," Firelight insisted. "I haven't been fully truthful with you. Surely you've always wondered what happened to your mother. Why she was never around and why Sunburst's parents spent so much time raising you," He waited for his daughter's sobs to stop before he went on to explain. "Your mother was a beautiful mare. I wish more than anything she'd been able to see what a fine young mare you've turned into," He wiped a lone tear from his eye before he continued. "When it was time for her to have you we weren't worried. The doctors told us there might be complications, but they also said the first pregnancy always was the hardest and complications were usually nothing to worry about. If only we'd known what was going to happen, maybe we would've done something differently. Your mother brought you into this world, but it took every ounce of strength she had. The doctors tried everything, but they... they..." He trailed off, unable to bring himself to say what came next.

He needn't have bothered, Starlight was able to finish his sentence. "They couldn't save her, could they?" Her confirmation came in the form of a head shake from her father.

Now it was Firelight's turn to look and sound unhappy. "It devastated me to lose her at such a young age. For a time the doctors weren't sure if you would survive either. When I was finally able to bring you home, you were all that mattered. I took as much time off from my job as I possibly could to be with you, to change your diapers, give you baths, and feed you. But I couldn't keep doing it, it was destroying me. That was when Stellar Flare stepped in," His tone became slightly more upbeat. "Because of her I was able to finally pull myself together and go back to work. But the whole time I kept feeling like I was missing out on your life, like you were Stellar Flare's kid more than mine. And I saw how much it tore you up inside when Sunburst left without even saying goodbye. I made the wrong call, I thought I could just be there to protect you and everything would be good. But all I really did was push you away."

"And yet in the end, we ended up here and met each other again," Starlight realized. "Everything happens for a reason."

Firelight nodded as he helped his daughter to stand. "Well, I hope it's not too late for us to start over. If I promise not to treat you like such a little filly all the time, and more like a friend, do you promise you'll come home and visit more often? I really meant it when I said your old room was just like you left it. I tried to clean it up but I couldn't, too many memories."

Starlight nodded back. "I'd like that very much, Dad. But is it okay if I invite Sunburst to come along as well? I think he could use a break from being Flurry Heart's crystaller."

Firelight smiled. "Why absolutely. In fact, Stellar Flare's been itching for the chance to see her son now that he's made such a big name for himself. She's become obsessed with making up plans for him, and between you and me I think it drives him crazy." Starlight just chuckled.





Meanwhile, in Ponyville, Twilight was currently going over the files for a potential new student at her school. Said student was a pony, more specifically a pegasus filly who had a pinkish gray coat, eyes an moderate scarlet in color, a beautifully curly mane and tail that was a pale, light grayish arctic blue and light arctic bluish gray in color, and a cutie mark depicting a rook.

"So, Cozy Glow was it?" Twilight inquired of the filly. "Your special talent has to do with 'convincing', you've just moved here to Ponyville, and yet you really wanna learn about friendship. Is that all correct?"

Cozy Glow nodded her head. "Golly, it's just such an honor to be in the presence of Twilight Sparkle, the very pony who used to be Princess Celestia's student. Not to mention the younger sister of Prince Shining Armor, the very prince of friendship himself."

Twilight nodded. "Yes, yes, that's all quite true," Then she cleared her throat. "However, there's small or rather I should say big detail that you've left out."

Cozy Glow's happy mood suddenly faded as she gulped. "W-what's that?" She stammered.

Twilight held up the file and pointed to a spot that had been left blank near the bottom of the paper. "This is where you were supposed to have a parent or legal guardian or caretaker sign, giving their explicit permission for you to attend the school. But I see you didn't do that."

The pegasus filly seemed to break out into a cold sweat. "W-well, that's a.... m-minor detail, really," She insisted with a nervous smile on her face. "Surely you can overlook that, right?"

"Unfortunately, Cozy, I cannot," Twilight explained with a shake of her head. "This school may not be EEA accredited but that doesn't mean I can just do whatever I want. If I bent the rules for anyone who wanted to come here, there wouldn't be any rules. I don't wanna get into any trouble. Unless I have a valid signature from whoever's responsible for looking after you, I can't let you into my school. Simple as that."

"But... but..." Cozy stuttered in protest.

"No buts, Cozy," Twilight firmly insisted to the filly. "I need somepony to sign off on you. I'm sure whoever it is that watches over you won't object to attending this school. I know for a fact Miss. Cheerilee didn't enroll you in her newest class, odd now that I think about it since she's always been good at spotting new students and has been a good sport about me taking in some of her more advanced ones."

"Please, you can't do that!" Cozy pleaded with Twilight. "I promise I'll behave! I'll do anything you ask of me."

Twilight wasn't swayed for a second. "Rules are rules, Cozy. Now stop playing around. You have to have parents or some form of legal guardians. I've seen everything, even Scootaloo who had to get her aunts involved because her parents were out of town."

"Come on, Cozy, think! You can't let her know the truth!" Cozy thought to herself and started to panic! But then all of a sudden, an idea came to her. A half truth of sorts, and one that would hopefully be enough to fool Twilight. She wasn't even sure where she came up with it, but she was all too happy to roll with it. "If you must know," She tearfully confessed. "I don't have any parents. I don't even have a family. I'm an orphan."

"Well, I'll still need the head caretaker of your orphanage to give permission," Twilight explained. "Just point me in the direction of the orphanage and I'll take care of the rest."

But Cozy added amidst sobs. "No, you can't! I ran away from my orphanage! Please, you have to understand. It was a terrible place! Everypony there always told me I was worthless, that nopony would bother with a pathetic little filly like me. I wanted to go to school, any kind of school, but they wouldn't let me," She pleaded as she threw up her hooves. "You can't tell anypony there that I'm here. They'll just show up and drag me away kicking and screaming. I don't want that! I wanna have a chance to understand the magic of friendship and to make some friends."

Twilight wasn't exactly sure what it was that moved her upon hearing Cozy's story. But she knew at that moment that in her heart she couldn't possibly turn away such a troubled young pony. Not when she had a chance to help shape her young mind and give said pony a chance to prove all the naysayers wrong. "Alright, alright," She said to Cozy. "Just this once I suppose I'll let the lack of approval from a parent or guardian slide. But you can't tell anypony about it. The less ponies that know about this, the less likely your orphanage will come looking for you."

Cozy Glow flew up and hugged Twilight! "Oh thank you, Headmare Twilight! I won't disappoint you! I promise, I'll be the bestest friendship student ever!"

Twilight just smiled. "I don't doubt that. Oh, I can hardly wait for my brother to meet you. I just know there's something special about you, Cozy Glow."