Shiny led me into his home, and went to get a scrapbook, where he kept all his information on Twilly. He believed I was there to help with his romantic troubles, and I played along, seriously wanting to understand what was going on.
There were certificates on his walls, showing that he passed a royal guard exam, and games of strategy in the corner, showing he had similar interests to my Shining Armour. He also had a collection of Mystery novels, which was new, and photographs showed that apparently he spent a summer helping with the relief efforts for the hurricane in Klugetown.
Shiny began explaining to me about his search for Twilly.
First he tried to guess her full name. He assumed it was a combination of the first and last name, therefore he visited neighbouring towns to find girls with names like Twinkly Lights, Twisty Liquorish, Tweets Merrily, and Two Blossom Lily.
With no luck there, he considered other search options. He would see her once a year at the Canterlot book fair, so he tried going to other towns book fairs. This led him to the Caterlot Library events newsletter. She showed up at several events on the newsletter, and missed a few advertised by other sources. This was the best breakthrough in his first three years of searching.
He was very ‘enthusiastic.’ I asked him to step back and start from the beginning.
The first time he remembered meeting Twilly, he was seven years old. He saw an adorable unicorn, probably a year younger then himself, trying to load books into a little red wagon. She had so many, and stacked them so awkwardly that a few fell behind her, and he went to pick them up.
When he approached her, he was trying to think of what to say when she said, “It’s you, I hoped you’d be here again.”
“Excuse me,” he said, “I don’t think we’ve met before.”
“I saw you last year,” she said, “we just never got the chance to talk.”
I asked Shiny if he did meet her the year before. He said all he remembered about the last book fair was waiting in line to see Princess Twilight. The place was overcrowded because parents all wanted a picture of their kid with the princess. He saw the princess interact with other foals, she seemed good at breaking the ice with the nervous ones, and always asked every other colt or filly what books they liked. When it was Shiny’s turn they just stared at one another, until the photographer snapped a picture, and they sent in the next ankle biter.
I was surprised Shiny could even remember all that, he was only six at the time.
The year after that, he met Twilly and they spent a fun day together. They had ice cream and just talked about what books they liked.
He asked her what her name was, and she uttered the infamous line, “Just call me Twilly.” He asked where she lived, and the answer was “I move around.” He described her as frustrating, but in a coy and playful way.
After that they became pen pals. They’d only meet once a year, until he found the Canterlot Library newsletter, and was old enough to travel, then he’d see her four or five times a year.
Spike thought about this. “Hold on, you said they were pen pals. That means he had a mailing address.”
“No, she just told him to wait until the weathervane pointed west, think about friendship and throw his letters into the sky.”
Spike nodded as though that was a perfectly reasonable explanation.
“Hold on, didn’t that make him suspect that she was Twilight?”
I asked him, “Doesn’t that make you suspect…”
“Twilight Sparkle,” he finished my sentence.
Shiny laughed and said that for a while he figured that must be it. Once at a book fair, he told her he’d figured it out. He announced, probably a little too loudly, “You’re Twilight’s secret daughter!
Twilly was quick to deny it, though the idea made her blush.
Shiny had long since concluded that she was just a Twilight fangirl, who learned an impressive spell for her age. Besides, the only source that ever backed up the secret daughter theory was the Canterlot Enquirer.
After my talk with Shiny, and no, by this point I had not yet told him the secret about his birth, I made my way to Twilight’s castle.
Princess Twilight was known for being friendly, obviously, if you knocked on her castle door she’d usually answer it herself.
This time a guard answered. He told me to state my business.
Shiny was once a Royal Guard, and usually I understand why they try to project an air of stern authority. I admit I was in a bit of a mood, and ended up being short with him. I actually lifted my nose and said, “Do you know who I am?”
Looking back, I feel bad about it. Twilight was in a bubble bath, she actually rushed for me and came out with a towel around her hair. Once she was there, I realized I didn’t even know what to say to her. She didn’t quite pick up on how I was feeling, and decided to start off with our usual greeting.
‘Sunshine, Sunshine;
Ladybugs awake;
Clap your hooves and do a little shake.’
Y’know it’s still harder to synchronize it properly now that Twilights taller than I am.
At the time I thought I would drop a few hints, rather then accuse Twilight of anything directly. I asked her if she remembered that old story, about how once a year Celestia would use a magic necklace to become an ordinary pony and walk unnoticed among her subjects.
“Did something like that happen?” Twilight asked. “The story sounds familiar.”
“I was wondering what you thought of the idea, using some magic item to blend in, pretend you’re not a princess. Perhaps you’ve even done something like that yourself?”
“Nope,” Twilight answered, “can’t say that I have.”
At the time, I was certain she was lying.
Twilight fixed up her wet hair a bit as we continued talking. She said, “It’s an interesting notion. I can picture Applejack complaining that such a spell would be dishonest, though I can definitely see the advantages.”
“I remember ponies made a bit of a fuss when I first became an Alicorn, but now that I’m queen and maybe also because I’m…”
“Three cakes away from looking just like a purple Celestia.”
I realized right away that I’d just made a very catty comment, and I would have apologized it the joke didn’t make Twilight laugh herself. She said: “If only it were that simple. Celestia knew how to pack it in all the right places.”
Spike groaned, sitting so that his head rested on his own knuckles. She really didn’t need to be repeating bad mom jokes in her story.
Twilight then asked what I wanted with a magic necklace. She asked if the pressure of being a princess was getting to me.
I told her that wasn’t why I asked, though by now she was a little infatuated with the idea. I think she was solving equations in her head, discerning how such a magical artifact could actually work.
She suggested making a pair of magic necklaces. Twilight started talking about all the fun places we could go together without drawing attention. Dancing came up. She wanted to go dancing, and maybe be short enough so another pony could lead. There was also a waterslide that she was embarrassingly too big for.
My next suggestion, was that she could transform to be a little bit younger. Twilight still didn’t drop the act. She turned up her nose at the idea, as though it was a gut reaction. All-though she did warm up to the notion, suggesting that the necklace’s could put us in a more innocent mental state when we transform.
“So you were dropping hints that you knew what Twilight was doing.”
“Yes.”
“Did you consider that maybe you jumped to the wrong conclusion. Maybe that’s not what she was doing.”
“No, I’m quite sure. Perhaps I didn’t mention this; Shiny showed me pictures of Twilly. It was the spitting image of young Twilight. There were pictures of her as a filly and pictures taken very recently, and in all of them, she wore the same necklace. The centrepiece of this necklace looked like Twilights cutie mark.”
Actually she’d seen a lot more then that. Along with his scrapbook, he had a little shoe box, under his bed, with pictures, sketches, love poems, and a fimfic he wrote when he was nine, about Twilly being Twilight’s secret love child.
The sketches were actually really good, and the poems could make a mare cry. He was rightly embarrassed by the fimfic.
Twilight was continuing to list places they could go together, with the magic necklaces, when I mentioned book fairs, this launched her into a full blown rant. Twilight told me about how she herself started a yearly book fair in Canterlot, and she couldn’t even attend them herself. The last time she went to a book fair, she got stuck sitting in a tent with a two mile line of colts and filys from five towns over, wanting to have their pictures taken with her like she was the Hearths Warming Mare.
“So Twilight never even picked up on any of your hints.”
“She did.”
I finally told her that I’ve seen pictures of a mare that looked just like she did when she was a filly.
Have you noticed that Twilight’s hair almost seems to have a life of its own. I am not speaking about how there sometimes seems to be a galaxy floating inside it, just like Celestia’s, I mean how you can turn your head for one second, and it’ll be frizzed up if she’s nervous or anxious about something.
“So you’ve seen that girl, huh?”
Twilight nibbled on her left hoof, another nervous habit.
“She always seems to show up at book fairs with a certain white Stallion. What do you know of this Stallion?”
Twilight seemed glad the focus was off the girl. She told me that she never met the Stallion. I almost believed her, until Twilight started dropping hints of her own.
She said, “I heard his mother was in the Canterlot Enquirer once.”
”The Canterlot Enquirer?” Spike questioned.
“There was this grainy photo of her being beamed into a ship. The headline read ‘Abduction From Space.’
“Oh, so what happened next?”
At that point I wanted to yell. I wanted to scream at Twilight. I just wasn’t sure what to say. If I accused her of lying, she’d just throw it in my face that I never told her about Shiny.
I played god and tried to re-create her dead brother, and I didn’t tell her a thing.
Maybe she didn’t know about my part. Maybe she just passed him on the street one day and started believing in reincarnation. I couldn’t blame her for trying to reconnect. All I did was wait for him to grow up, look in a few times without opening the door, like he was a cake in the oven.
At that point I left her castle in a huff. Twilight, actually seemed confused as I went.
When I got to the streets outside, the nearest lamp post had a poster for the next book fair. It was only in a day or two.
I ripped the poster from the lamp post and flew away with it.
“Would you excuse me a moment.”
“Aw come on, it was just getting good.”
“I need a moment.” Cadence wiped a tear from her eye.
There was parchment and quill in Spikes travel bag. When she left the room, Spike wrote a quick note, then sent it off with his fire breath.
Dear Princess Twilight,
Your secret is still technically safe.
Cadence has a few misconceptions about what really happened back then.
I’ll write more soon.