“Twilight?” Kenny called for what felt like the hundredth time as he stuck his head into the treehouse’s library, “It’s okay! You can come out!”
“Bro, I don’t think she’s here,” Kris huffed. “Let’s check back at the house. She’s not responding.”
“When I’m terrified, I go silent,” Kenny countered. “We can’t just assume she’s like you. After all, you know what they say about assuming. It—”
Kris glared at his brother as he covered his mouth. “I don’t care where you heard that, but we don’t use that kind of language,” he growled. “I’m your big brother, and when Mom and Dad aren’t around, I’m the boss, you know that! They said so. You’re not breaking that rule.”
Kenny nodded, and sighed as his brother removed his hand. “Fine. Sorry,” he muttered. “Anyway, I’m starting to think you’re right.” Throwing open another door, he was met with the room he and Twilight arrived in. “Twilight?”
No response.
“That’s the last room,” Kenny grumbled. “You were right, she’s not here.”
“Well, you were also right,” Kris admitted. “It never hurts to be thorough.”
Nodding, Kenny pulled out the teleport crystal and reached through it with his magic, activating it again. In a flash of silver light, they were back in his bedroom.
“Twilight?” Kenny called out before taking note of an extremely fresh indentation in the sleeping bag the filly had brought along. “She was here, and extremely recently, at that.”
Nodding, Kris walked over to the bag, kneeling down to inspect it with hands that glowed a sunset orange: Void magic.
“She just left,” Kris announced as he stood back up. “Teleported.”
“Ugh,” Kenny groaned. “Let’s split up.”
Kris nodded silently, knocking on the door to the bathroom as Kenny left for the family room.
“Twilight?” he called out again. “Come on! He’s harmless! Remember? He doesn’t even have fangs, and he'll never get big enough to constrict anyone!"
Shaking his head, Kenny walked over to his sister’s room. Knocking on the door, he opened his mouth to ask his sister if she’d seen his new friend, only to get yelled at.
“Go away!” Kim screamed. “She’s not in here!”
“Geez,” Kenny muttered, his ears ringing as he walked over to the stairs slowly. “You didn’t have to yell.”
Just as he was going to place a foot on the top stair, he thought he heard the distinctive clip clop of hooves on tile. At least that narrowed down which room she was in. Preparing himself to chase the filly down should she bolt again, Kenny crept his way down the stairs, listening as the hoofbeats got steadily louder.
In the foyer, he listened closely again, taking note that the sound was coming from the direction of the kitchen.
Walking slowly, he carefully made his way to the dining room, then the kitchen, peeking around the counter to see the filly huddled on the ground, shivering in front of the cupboard under the sink. She seemed to not have noticed him, so he crept over to her at a snail’s pace, not catching her attention until he placed a hand gently on her shoulder.
Gasping, the filly lit up her horn to teleport again, but he stopped her by gently flicking her horn, breaking her concentration.
“Please, just listen,” the boy sighed. “I get it, you’re afraid of snakes. But what you did back there? That was very brave.”
“I’m not brave,” she sniffled. “I’m a coward.”
“No, you’re not,” Kenny insisted. “Grandpa once told me that bravery isn’t the absence of fear, but the mastery of it. The fearless are stupid. That’s not bravery, it’s idiocy. The brave understand their fears but don’t let those fears control them.”
The filly giggled. “Sounds like something he’d say.”
“Feel any better?” he asked hopefully.
“A little,” Twilight admitted with a small smile. “But I still can’t get my silly fear of that snake out of my head.”
Kenny’s eyes lit up as a thought occurred to him. “Hey, remember when you offered to teach me that game at the funeral?” He tried to remember the name, but grimaced as he could only draw up a blank. “What was the name again?”
“It’s called ‘Cave Game’,” the filly replied, grinning excitedly. “Does this mean you still want to learn?”
“You bet!” Kenny affirmed with an excited nod. “How about we go to my room, and you can teach me how?”
“Of course!” the filly chirped happily. “I’ll help you set up your account, go through character creation, and even help you make a skin for yourself! Come on! Follow me!”
Laughing all the while, the pair raced back to Kenny’s room, pausing only long enough to tell Kris everything was fine now when they passed him. After Kenny took a seat at his desk, he hit a key to wake the computer from sleep mode and closed the game from earlier.
“Do you have a preferred browser?” Twilight asked as she stood next to him, looking at the screen.
“Yeah, I like Firefox,” Kenny replied. “Will that work?”
“Any will,” the filly giggled. “Just making sure I didn’t make you mad by naming one you don’t like.”
“I don’t get mad over stupid things like that,” Kenny chuckled with a shake of his head before double-clicking the named program. “So, what’s the site?”
“It’s ‘cave game dot net’,” Twilight replied. “No special characters, cave game is one word.”
Kenny grinned as the page loaded, and clicked the link to create an account. Upon seeing that it required money, his face fell.
“I can’t afford it!” He groaned. “I don’t have twenty dollars!”
“Here,” Twilight said as she floated a gold-plated card over to him. “My allowance card from the Princess. She won’t mind.”
Nodding to show his thanks, Kenny filled out the form to create an account, and used the information from Twilight’s allowance card to make the payment.
“So, how often will they charge?” He asked the filly.
“Just once,” Twilight replied with a huge grin. “One payment is a lifetime membership and all updates are free.”
Kenny just stared.
“It’s true!” the filly insisted. “Anyway, now we have to get you a skin. They recently added a skin maker to the site, so you won’t have to go elsewhere to make one.” Using her magic, she formed an arrow of magenta light pointing at another link. “Click there.”
Nodding, Kenny did as told and gasped as a 3d model of a blocky human figure appeared on the screen, divided into segments for each limb, the head, and the torso.
“Before you paint it as is,” Twilight cut in, “Check the options on the top-right. You can customize your character, whether humanoid or equine, and even add other parts. Depending on what you do, you may have different abilities in game, but some powers will nerf your default abilities.”
Kenny was about to just go with the default human form, but suddenly, something in the back of his mind started pushing, guiding him to do something else.
First, he enabled tails, then he started looking through them: cat… fox… bird… dragon… Nothing really appealed to him. At least, not until he saw the last one in the list: A fish tail. It would increase swimming speed, but walking would become a tad more difficult. That, he decided to keep.
Next, he decided to enhance that build with a dorsal fin. The sail one would certainly not work, so he grabbed the fish one. Once again, better swimming, but the added weight would create a bit more drag on land.
As the shape of the head didn’t really have any impact on abilities, he just picked the one that he liked the most: a dragon’s head. The blocky snout looked a little cute in his opinion, so, with one final tweak, he added amphibious breathing to his abilities, since he was allowed one free one without any drawbacks.
“Abilities were added upon the game getting expanded to my side of the world,” Twilight explained. “To draw in non-human players, the creator decided he needed features that would fit the inhabitants of my side of the planet.”
Many would find such random sharing of minutia annoying, but not Kenny. He loved doing it, too, which drove his family up the wall, sometimes. So, he just smiled and nodded.
“So, how do I load all this?” He asked.
“There should be an ‘upload skin’ button,” Twilight replied. “Some unshown pixels on the skin sheet are used to denote active parts and abilities. Clever, huh?”
“Yeah,” Kenny agreed, nodding vigorously, “Hey, I found the button!”
After clicking the command, he was met with a notice that it would take about fifteen minutes for his skin to process.
“The game should be done downloading by now,” Twilight pointed out. “See that icon with the perfect cube of dirt with grass on it? That’s Cave Game.”
Nodding, Kenny double-clicked the new icon on his desktop, and waited for the game to load. After making some idle chatter, Twilight walked him through the process of joining a local server she set up on the laptop she’d pulled out of her bag. Upon joining, he was met with a skin of… Starswirl the Bearded.
“Of course,” he chuckled. “Only you would be such a diehard fanfilly of a pony who’s long dead.”
“Hey!” the filly snapped, blushing brick red, “He was the greatest known wizard of his time!” She stated with a tinge of embarrassment mixed in with with her defensive tone as she talked about her idol. “He single-hoofedly discovered the genetic compatibility between ponies and most other races was linked to the magical signature hidden inside everyone’s genes!”
Twilight would have continued, but she was cut off by an unsettling groan from the game.
“Twilight?” Kenny asked slowly. “What was that?”
As both youngsters looked at at their respective screens, Kenny realized the sky in the game was suddenly dark.
“I forgot about nighttime!” Twilight groaned as she started madly hitting keys on her pony keyboard. “We were supposed to be getting resources to build a shelter!”
Scrambling to try to assist, Kenny tried to move with the arrow keys, as almost every game he’d ever played used those. But, nothing happened. Remembering that a few games he’d played used the numpad on the side of the keyboard, he tried those keys next, but once again, his character didn’t respond.
“Twilight!” he called over his shoulder, his voice conveying every single ounce of panic he felt, “I can’t move! What do I do?”
“W, A, S, and D for movement, the mouse is for turning!” Twilight told him as she scrambled to gather resources, only to take damage from behind. Whirling her character around, she found herself flanked by a large horde of green-colored humanoids and equines with total blackness where the eyes would be.
“Zombies!” she cried out. “Kenny! Help!”
“But I don’t know how to play!” Kenny whimpered as he finally got his character moving.
“Control to run, left click to attack, right click to use stuff!” The filly said quickly as she tried to escape the horde. “There should be a chest nearby with four torches around it! Since you’re a novice, I enabled it! It might have an axe or two in it, if we’re lucky! Don’t ask me what it looks like! You’ll know it when you see it!”
Nodding, Kenny swiveled his character’s head around, frantically looking for something that would look like a chest. Spotting a brownish-orange cube with four poles with flames on top a short distance away, he started running. Arrows whizzed by, barely missing him as he desperately tried to dodge and weave, having no experience.
Right-clicking to open it, he quickly scanned the contents. There were two stone axes in it, along with some wood, food, and some other tools. Not caring about everything else, he dragged the axes into his inventory right before the chest’s window suddenly disappeared as he took damage and was knocked away from the chest.
Spinning, he found a zombie bearing down on him and panicked, left-clicking over and over, hoping to dispatch the enemy. He took another hit, and another, but he did kill the zombie before sprinting back to Twilight, who was on the verge of being overwhelmed.
“How do I give you stuff?” Kenny demanded.
“Use Q to toss, or just drag it out while in your inventory!” Twilight replied. “Hurry!”
After bringing his own axe down on a zombie from behind four times, killing it, Kenny moved his character next to Twilight’s and dropped a fresh axe at her hooves.
“There,” Kenny panted, “One axe. Can we handle this now?”
instead of responding, Twilight began slaying monsters left and right clearing a path out of the horde of the undead, Kenny simply watched in awe at the display until a stray zombie attacked him and spurred him into action.
Giving a startled squeak, Kenny whirled his character around in time to be struck and thrown back a second time. Panicking, he started spamming his weapon again, letting out a sigh of relief when the monster died.
Glancing over at Twilight’s character, Kenny was impressed at how in the time it took him to beat one, Twilight had managed to eliminate the rest of the horde.
“Okay, we gotta move,” Twilight said quickly. “Just break the chest to get what’s in it, and let’s move!”
Nodding, Kenny ran back to the chest and tried clicking over and over, but it wouldn’t break.
“You have to hold the button!” Twilight huffed.
Nodding, Kenny just held the button, and after a few seconds, the chest broke, spilling its contents in a small area. As the items were picked up automatically, Kenny just ran through them to collect them.
“The torches, too,” Twilight added.
“Right,” Kenny replied, quickly breaking the four torches and running back to Twilight with them.
“Follow me,” She urged before having her character run into a forest.
With a nervous gulp, Kenny nodded and sprinted after her character.
They wove through trees, dodged more monsters, and traveled for a couple minutes before Kenny asked, “Where are we going?”
“No idea,” she replied with a shrug. “Everything’s randomly generated. But we should keep going until morning so we can set up a base during the day, when monsters won’t spawn.”
With a silent nod, Kenny continued to follow the filly’s lead, only stopping when the sun began to rise ingame, and they were on the other side of the forest.
“A plains biome. Perfect,” Twilight said, nodding in satisfaction. “We’ll need plenty of flat space, and this will do nicely.”
For the next several minutes, Kenny followed Twilight’s directions, cutting down trees, learning how to craft, and helping to set up a small house.
Just as Kenny finished setting down two beds in their small one-room house, the ingame sun began to set again.
“Shoot,” Twilight grumbled. “We don’t have time for the base’s surrounding walls right now. Use the bed so we can skip the night.”
“Wait, you can skip the night?” Kenny asked, eyes wide.
“Is that really such a novel concept?” she sighed. “No time for chatting. Just use the bed.”
Nodding, Kenny did as told, and it was suddenly the next morning.
“See?” Twilight giggled. “You really are a total novice at this. Don’t worry. I’ll mold you into a pro with time.”
Smiling back at Twilight, Kenny let her take the lead once more, helping her to gather more resources to construct a wall to encircle the area they were going to use as their base. It was quite a large area, and the wall took several ingame days, but by the time it was set up and the area was all lit, over an hour in real time had just flown by in what felt like minutes.
They were interrupted by a sudden knock on the door, followed immediately by the door opening enough for Kris to poke his head in.
“Kris!” Kenny snapped right as his brother opened his mouth to speak, not noticing Twilight’s startled yelp, “I thought you, of all people would remember that I hate it when anyone opens my door without me agreeing to it! I have a right to privacy, you know! Had you just waited two seconds, I would’ve asked who was there! Geez!”
“Heh, sorry, Bro,” Kris sighed. Taking notice of Twilight slowly backing up, staring wide-eyed at Kenny while shaking like a leaf, shook his head and locked eyes with Kenny.
“Look, I get you’re upset,” Kris said flatly, “But look at your new friend! You scared her with that outburst!”
“Huh?” Kenny looked behind him to see Twilight staring at him as if he’d turned into a werewolf ready to rip her apart. “Oh no!” Panicking, he crawled over to her shaking form, immediately enveloping her in a hug, crying his eyes out at the realization of what he’d done.
“Twilight, I’m sorry!” he blubbered. “Please don’t hate me! I’ve only known you for a short while, but you’re already one of my best friends! Please don’t hate me for this! Please forgive me!”
Having stopped shaking already, Twilight rolled her eyes, pushing Kenny away gently and helped him wipe away his tears.
“I’m not going to hate you, you silly goose!” she huffed. “I may have been frightened, but I can get over it!” Turning to Kris, she adopted the tone and mannerisms of a polite houseguest and asked, “So, what did you come here to tell us?”
As Kenny hiccupped a few times while drying his tears with Twilight’s help, Kris stiffened.
“Oh! Right!” he exclaimed, “Mom just finished making lunch. If you don’t hurry, we’ll just bless it and start without you.”
“J-just a minute!” Twilight stammered. “I have to stop the server!”
With a few clicks and a bit of typing, the world of the game disappeared from Twilight’s screen, while a message informing Kenny he’d been disconnected now covered his.
“So, you coming or not?” Twilight’s voice suddenly said from the direction of the door. Kenny jumped at the sudden change in position he hadn't seen happen, resulting in a giggle from the filly. “Wow, do you get that absorbed often?”
Standing up and chuckling nervously, Kenny nodded sheepishly.
“Me, too,” the filly admitted and Kenny caught up to her. “Don’t worry, it’s not such a big…”
Suddenly, her eyes went as wide as saucers, and she clasped her hooves over her mouth, blushing fiercely.
“Is something the matter Twilight?” Kenny asked as he helped her stand back up, putting her hooves back on the ground and getting her to walk alongside him towards the stairs.
“Eh-heh-heh-heh…” The filly’s nervous chuckling went on for a few seconds before she took a few deep, calming breaths, than smiled.
“N-nothing’s the mat–” She sighed and looked him in the eyes, the trust in them speaking volumes. “Yes, I don’t know why, but I just admitted–eep!”
She quickly bit down on her hoof, her entire face a deep crimson. “Why’th Aihh foo vat?” She squealed around her hoof before spitting it out, beginning to panic. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with—”
“Twilight?”
After a few more seconds of panicking, Kenny grabbed her cheeks with both hands, looked her in the eyes and snapped, “Calm down! It’s not like the Second Coming is here and we’re unprepared or something! Get a grip!”
“What?” The filly stopped as requested, then blinked in confusion. “Were you worried about me?”
“Of course I was worried!” Kenny huffed. “I care about you much more than I should for a filly I just–ack!”
Now it was Kenny’s turn to have so much blood rush to his face, all other color was overshadowed by pure red. Even burying his face in his hands failed to hide all of it, as even the tips of his ears had turned red.
“I-I mean, yeah! I was worried,” he chuckled nervously, “L-like I w-would be for any friend of mine! E-even though I-I’ve never been this attached to a friend I only recently met…” His eyes bugged out as he covered his mouth again.
As they walked down the stairs, the two new friends both looked at each other in confusion, the same thoughts going through both minds.
What was going on? Why were they constantly unable to hide even the slightest thing? If either opened his or her mouth, deeper feelings just started tumbling out. This wasn’t normal, even for friends who’d known each other for a long time, let alone ones who’d just barely met!
But, it was for some other relationship both were familiar with.
As that thought occurred to them, both looked away, faces paling. There was a way to forge such a bond outside of the ones that occurred naturally, but… it was permanent, just like the naturally-occurring ones. And they’d both have to be sure, could they really see this individual they’d only just met, as close as those they’ve grown up with? And to each, another thought occured right as they stepped into the Dining Room: and what if the feeling was only one way? What if they really had those feelings, but the other didn’t reciprocate them? What then?
Luckily, this train of thought was broken by Kenny’s Mom.
“Hello, Twilight,” she said warmly as Kenny sought out his assigned chair, “I made sure to cook something more fit for a pony for you.”
Before Twilight could ask what it was, Mrs. Draper set a plate of steamed broccoli with a cheese sauce in a small, short cup at the one spot at the table that was unassigned: the guest chair right between Kimberly and Keith.
“But I hate broccoli!” Twilight protested.
“Mom! Why’d you only give her that?” Kenny demanded, eyeing the plate jealously, “that actually makes it taste amazing! Not fair!”
“Wait, what?” Twilight asked, looking at Kenny in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Broccoli is nasty on it’s own,” Kenny huffed, “Ranch may make it tolerable, but if it’s steamed and served with cheese sauce?” Kenny started drooling. “It tastes awesome! You trust me, right?”
“O-of course I trust you!” Twilight huffed. “In just a short time, you’re almost like a—eep!” The filly blushed red again, once more placing her hooves over her mouth.
“Hmm?” Kris looked up from his plate in interest. “What was that? You were about to say Kenny was like a what?”
“N-none of your business,” Twilight muttered nervously. “I-it’s nothing.”
“Oh, I know what this is!” Kris chuckled. “You have a crush on him, don’t you?”
Twilight’s eyes widened in shock, as did Kenny’s.
“No! I feel close, but not like that!” the filly protested.
“Kris, she’s my friend!” Kenny snapped. “A very close friend, dare I say my best friend, but it’s all platonic! My crush is Mary from school! You know that!”
“Kenny’s been reading the dictionary as if it were a normal book again, I see,” Kimberley giggled. “Nerd. Platonic isn’t a word some nine-year old should know yet.”
“Hey!” Twilight snapped. “So what if he’s a nerd! He likes books, I like books! It’s almost as if we’re tw—ack!” Once again, she covered her mouth, bushing fiercely.
“Oh…” Kris gave her a knowing look and nodded. “So, it’s like that.”
“Like what, Kris?” Kim inquired, tilting her head in confusion.
“If you didn’t catch it, then too bad for you,” Kris said firmly. “This is something serious, and it’s between the two of them for now. My lips are sealed. Not even you using biting and your fingernails will get me to spill.”
“I’ve outgrown that!” Kim insisted. “I don’t do that anymore!”
Before any arguments could continue, Kenny’s mother had returned to the table, passing out plates of freshly-grilled hamburgers and homemade steak fries. She offered some of the latter to Twilight, who accepted, even if they weren’t hay fries.
Finally, she sat down with her own plate at the north end of the table, opposite Kenny’s father at the south end, who had simply been observing with slight amusement and not interfering. After all, kids will be kids.
Twilight was about to lift up her fork and dig in, but Kim cleared her throat to stop her.
“We don’t eat cursed food in this house,” she said flatly.
“Kim, it’s not ‘cursed’, it’s just not blessed!” Kenny huffed.
“Whatever,” Kim huffed, rolling her eyes. “Point is: there’s seven in this family, seven days in the week, so each day is a different person’s day to bless the food at family meals, and we rotate around the table. I do Saturdays.”
Twilight simply nodded politely, and imitated the motions of her hosts: forelegs folded like their arms, head bowed, eyes closed.
Then Kimberly cleared her throat again, and began blessing the food:
“Father in Heaven,
We come before Thee at this time to thank Thee for this food,
And to ask Thee to please bless it to nourish and strengthen our bodies.
Please help us to us it to do good in Thy service by obeying Thy commandments and reading the scriptures daily,
These things we say and ask,
In the name of Thy Son,
Jesus Christ,
Amen.”
With it over, all said “amen” as well, and all began eating.
Twilight, having never seen a blessing on food from any human religion, was full of questions and wishing she had something to take notes with.
“So, is that how you say it every time?” She asked, looking around for any to answer.
Dean chuckled.
“Goodness, no!” he laughed, shaking his head. “Young filly, prayer by rote is not something we do. For a more personal relationship with our Father, we ask for specific things, editing prayers and blessings as necessary, sort of like how a mortal child would talk to his or her mortal parents. You wouldn’t use a list of scripted sentences to communicate with your mother and father would you?”
After thinking for a second, Twilight shook her head, giggling.
“Of course not, Mr. Draper!” she snickered. “That’d be ridiculous! I mean, that sounds like a robot or computer from a sci-fi movie from decades ago!”
After stopping for a second, her eyes widened as a realization hit her.
“Wait, are you telling me you literally believe your your Creator’s literal offspring?” She inquired, staring in utter shock. “But every Christian sect I’ve read up on considers themselves in an artist/masterpiece relationship at best! But parent/child?”
“That’s right, Twily,” Kenny said, using the more intimate nickname without even thinking. “We see Him as our literal Father, and use the source of human magic as our evidence: it’s but a mere sliver of divine power, as if it’s but a tiny crumb of what we’re truly capable of. Just as we grow up and leave our mortal parents’ nest—the home—so can we grow up spiritually and leave our Father’s nest—this universe— to start a new spirit family of our own.” Noticing his new yet dear friend’s look of shock, he nodded. “Yes, kind of like the Orthodox concept of theosis, but more well defined: literal deification. You know how ponies can ascend into Alicorns? We believe there’s a form of human ascension, and it allows us to ascend into a divine form equal to our Father.”
“I’ll need to write this down when I get back to your room,” Twilight muttered before noticing Keith staring at her, not even eating his food. “Um… Keith, right? Could you stop staring at me? It’s making me uncomfortable.”
“Why, Twilight Sparkle?” Keith replied, still staring, and eliciting a grunt of annoyance from the filly.
“Just Twilight will do fine,” she huffed. “And I just told you! It’s unnerving.”
”It’s not nerving?” Keith said a bit forcefully, acting as if he hadn’t just made up a term on the spot.
“Keith, that’s not even an actual term!” Kenny huffed. “I know you have this obsession with rephrasing everything, but if you must, use real words and terms, please!”
“Why I must use real terms?” Keith asked, his bad grammar evident once more.
“That’s not how you say it, but it’s because—”
Kenny was cut off by Keith doing another one of his villain impersonations. “BECAUSE I SAY SO, THAT’S WHY!” Keith began before Kenny started to cry.
Before Keith could finish, a magenta magic hand slapped him across the face, and all turned to see a fuming, red-faced Twilight glaring right at Keith.
“I get it, you’re the most disabled out of your family,” she growled, “ But no one hurts my broth—uh… My best friend Kenny like that!”
Kenny stared at her in shock, the tears suddenly stopped. Had she been about to say what he though she’d been about to say? Brother? Did she actually feel the same way he did? They’d really need to discuss this when they returned to his bedroom.
“Ow! You hit me!” Keith screeched.
“Yeah, I did!” Twilight huffed. “Because you were torturing Kenny!”
“Thank you, Twilight, but I’ll take it from here,” Dean assured their guest. “Keith!”
“Yes, Dean Draper?” the currently short-tempered boy replied.
“I’m your father! You do not call me by my birth name, is that clear?”
“KEITH?” Keith said to himself in the villain voice again. “What?” He replied to himself as himself. “YOU ARE NOT TO USE MY BIRTH NAME!” he told himself. “Why?” He asked the impersonation of his father, “BECAUSE YOU WILL BE CUT OFF!”
“Keith!” Dean barked.
“Yes?” Keith responded, startled out of his pseudo-tantrum.
“I will speak for myself,” Dean said firmly, “And I would never talk as if I were God or a Prophet! Understand? You’re embarrassing us in front of our guest!”
Keith opened his mouth, but Dean cut him off. “Yes or no only. Do you understand?”
“YES!” Keith screamed in more of a high-pitched shriek, causing all to cover their ears.
“Now, For each infraction, you’ll spend thirteen minutes in the corner, one minute for each year you are old. You made Kenny cry, you unnerved our guest, and you tried to paint me, your father, as a villain. Thirty-nine minutes in the corner. You talk or try to leave it, you’ll get your timer reset. Now get going,”
Keith got up and walked to the corner near the side door to the garage, but only a few minutes after his timer started and peace and quiet had returned at last, he started crying, screeching and wailing.
“I’m resetting your timer, Keith,” Dean announced. You know the rules. If you want out of that corner any time soon, I suggest you say nothing for the next thirty-nine minutes.”
This happened a few more times before Keith calmed down and accepted his punishment, by which time, Kenny and Twilight had both finished eating.
After taking both their dishes to the sink and setting them down next to it for them to be pre-washed for the dishwasher later, Kenny led Twilight upstairs, only for Kimberly to cut them off, appearing friendly and cheerful.
“Hi there, Twily!” she began, only for Twilight to cut her off.
“Only my family get to call me that,” she said coldly.
“But, Kenny—” Kim tried to object, only to get cut off again.
“May I help you?” the filly asked, calming down immediately and returning to the very image of the perfect, polite guest.
“Oh, uh…” Kim stumbled with her words for a few seconds before collecting herself again. “I’m the only girl in this family, and Mom’s over four times my age, so connecting with her is hard. I've always wanted a girl closer to my age in the house to have some girl time with, so… Could we maybe hang out for a bit? An hour or two?”
“I”m Kenny’s friend first,” Twilight insisted. “Sorry, but no thanks.”
“But, if you think it’d be too typically girly, that’s not a problem!” Kim called after the filly as she followed Kenny back to his bedroom. “I’m not a fan of frilly pink bows and fashion dolls! I just want to hang out with a girl around my age! Please! There’s so many guys in this house! I’m drowning in testosterone!”
Ignoring the melodramatics of Kenny’s sister, Twilight followed him through the door, and waited as Kenny closed it behind them. But unlike last time, he pushed the knob in and turned it until there was a light click: he’d locked it.
Watching in confusion, Twilight saw him move to the door to the bathroom and perform the same motion, locking it as well.
“Okay, now we have all the privacy we need,” Kenny told her as he hopped onto his bed and patted a spot next to him with his hand. “Please, have a seat, Twilight.”
Her heart beating faster, trying to swallow her nervousness, the filly slowly trotted over to her human friend and hopped up onto the bed, sitting next to Kenny.
“Twilight, we need to talk,” Kenny said, looking down at his hands and fiddling with them. “I’ve had these feelings towards you ever since a few minutes before lunch, I wanted to tell you, but, I was afraid you wouldn’t feel the same way.”
“Kenny,” Twilight said slowly, “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“At lunch, you started to stay something that sounded like ‘brother’ in referring to me,” the boy continued. “That got my hopes up, for Twilight, I’m starting to feel as close to you as a sister I’ve known all my life, like you’re…” Kenny forced himself to swallow a lump in his throat. “Like you’re family.”
Twilight’s heart began beating even faster at her friend’s confession, and she couldn’t stop herself from hugging him, smiling warmly.
“Yes, I feel the same, Kenny, as if you were my brother all my life!” She exclaimed. “I just… I was afraid, too. Afraid you didn’t consider me that close! I mean, we’ve only known each other for a short time!”
“But we’ve hit it off perfectly, like kindred spirits, like twins, as you were about to put it,” Kenny chuckled, hugging his near-sister close. “There is a way to solidify it, you know. Right Twily?”
Twilight stared for a few seconds before nodding. “You mean the ritual of Kinbinding? To bind our spirits as brother and sister? But, are you sure?”
“Only if you are,” Kenny said gently. “I want to be able to call you my sister, but only if you’re willing to go through with it. We actually have everything we need here today. We used them all for different things but…” Suddenly, he paused. “We each require our favorite thing for it to work. I have Memo here,” he nodded at the dragon plush and figure collection on his computer desk, Memo rising above the others, the largest of his collection, “But do you have whatever yours is?”
“I have Smarty Pants in my bag,” Twilight affirmed with a nod. “I was going to go to bed with her.”
“So, do you want to go through with this?” Kenny asked again. “If you don’t, it’s okay for us to just be brother and sister in name only.”
“No, I want to do this,” Twilight said firmly. “We’ll have to contact my family, as they’ll have to approve and also be here for it, but I think we can do this.”
“There won’t be enough room here for the Feast of Families,” Kenny pointed out. “We’ll need to get a member of the Bishopric to unlock the local church building for us. We could easily use the cultural hall to set it up, as they’ll have tables to spare, tablecloths, and plenty of room.”
“Actually, if we’re going to do this, I think it might be better for you all to come to Canterlot for it, even though it’ll only be for a few hours,” Twilight replied. “I think Princess Celestia would want to be there for this, even though the Feast of Families is strictly for the immediate blood relatives of those bound by the ceremony.”
“We’ll discuss that after we get the approval of both our parents,” Kenny told her, his near-sister nodding in agreement as they got off the bed. “Come on, let’s tell Mom and Dad, first.”
Nodding excitedly, Twilight waited as Kenny unlocked the doors, then followed her near-brother, a new spring in her step as they made their way back downstairs.