//------------------------------// // Confronting Two Stallions // Story: I Thought I Knew Him // by Omegathyst //------------------------------// As Spike ran to the Golden Oak Library, the mares’ arguing still ringing in his head, he grabbed the closest empty scroll he could find and unraveled it, grabbing a pen and writing in the scroll. Though his pony sister preferred elaborating quite often with big words when it came to her letters, Spike decided on writing a very short letter: Dear Prince Bolero and Shining Armor, Twilight is not happy, watch out. From, Spike Spike closed up the scroll and blew green fire on it, sending it to Canterlot castle. He nearly pissed himself as he heard Twilight teleport into the castle, and ran out the door before she could see him. Bolting to the train station, he hoped Twilight would pack his belongings as well. As he arrived, he noticed the only one to already be at the train station was Applejack of all ponies. She stared off into the distance with a dark green suitcase with apple patterns at her side, giving a long deep breath before she looked over at the dragon. “Ya told ‘em?” Applejack asked. “Y-Yes, I did,” Spike nodded, feeling his head begin to hurt as he glanced back at the library. “Listen, you can’t tell her. I’m not trying to take sides here...they’re both family to-” “Say no more, sugarcube,” Applejack sighed. “I understand exactly how ya feel. Ya did what you could, just leave the rest to them.” Fluttershy landed in front of the Golden Oak Library, flinching as soon as she opened the door. Various books, clothing, and other items were flung across the library and into an open suitcase that was close to the door. Stepping inside, surveying the area until she found Twilight stomping around her bed, Fluttershy flew to her side and took a deep breath before speaking. “Twilight,” Fluttershy smiled despite the unicorn not making eye contact with her as she threw everything on her nightstand into the suitcase. “Don’t think of it as two stallions getting married, think of it as your brother and former foalsitter finding love! With each other! Isn’t that exciting? Why, I’m sure that-” Twilight lit her horn up, causing the open suitcase to close, and teleported out of sight. The suitcase disappeared as well, and Fluttershy stared at the empty space where Twilight used to be. Her shoulders dropping as she frowned, Fluttershy flew out the library to pack her stuff at the cottage. Flying to the train station with only a decently-sized handbag for her travel stuff, she landed beside Applejack. Rainbow Dash and Rarity were on their own bench, the former talking about her Sonic Rainboom and the latter about her dresses, while Pinkie bounced in place as she waited for the train to arrive. Twilight was far away from the others, her ears flattened to her head as she grumbled out of earshot. “Fluttershy,” Fluttershy jolted at the touch of the farm mare’s hoof on her shoulder, then went still as she looked at Applejack. “Logic isn’t on her side for a change, let her learn when her brain lets her.” “Right,” Fluttershy sighed. “It isn’t your responsibility,” Applejack assured her, her hoof trailing lower down Fluttershy’s foreleg. Feeling her wings beginning to unfurl, Fluttershy blushed as Applejack’s hoof began to reach her own and oh Celestia what is happening- The train appeared, and Applejack scowled as she pulled her hoof back and got up, tugging her suitcase along as she made her way towards the train. Twilight teleported into a corner seat of the train with her suitcase beside her, and the rest of the Mane 6 got into the train, Fluttershy trailing behind with a clear blush on her face as she eventually sat down next to Applejack. Fluttershy slowly unfurled one of her wings and rested it on Applejack’s back. Twilight frowned as she stared at the two of them. I’m sure it’s just Fluttershy cooling off Applejack’s attitude from earlier. I mean, what was her deal anyway? Doesn’t matter, need to focus on the situation at Canterlot. It has to be a prank! Shining Armor wouldn’t just turn on our parents like this, they didn’t tell us stuff for the heck of it, they were real values that guided us into adults! They were saving us from pain! Twilight’s mind went back to the imagery of two stallions she saw as a filly out and about in Canterlot with her family. The details of what they looked like were too vague to comment on, only that they were together and smiling, kissing each other on the cheek and forehead. Having remembered how mommies and daddies create foals, Twilight frowned as she looked up at her parents. “Why are they kissing each other?” Twilight asked, already feeling her body tense at the expression on her father’s face. Night Light glared at the two, guiding Twilight away from the pair as Twilight Velvet did the same to Shining Armor. Shining Armor stared after them even as he walked farther away, until he tore his gaze away to scowl at their mother. Now Twilight had to know the answer, and Night Light’s glare melted away as he glanced down at his daughter. “Er, sometimes stallions don’t become daddies and are very lonely and sad,” Night Light told her. “So they settle for another stallion. You like chocolate ice cream, right?” “I love chocolate ice cream!” Twilight grinned, feeling her body start to relax. “Well, imagine if you got broccoli instead,” Night Light said. “You wouldn’t like it very much, but you’d still eat it if you had nothing else. That’s what those stallions choose to do when they don’t have mares.” “Huh,” Twilight’s ears perked up as she heard Shining Armor speak. “Those stallions seemed pretty happy to-OW!” Twilight Velvet bumped into her son, causing the stallion to stumble and glare at his mother less subtly than before. Night Light leaned over to his wife, whispering to her before turning back to his daughter. “Not everypony is willing to accept that loneliness drives stallions to date stallions, and mares to mares,” Night Light told her. “So don’t go around telling everypony that, they can be pretty mean when faced with the truth. You and your brother need to be better than that and find ponies to have foals with. A mare won’t give you happiness or foals.” “Dad, she’s too young to even think about that,” Shining Armor snapped. “If you like foals so much, why don’t you two have more?” “That’s enough!” Twilight flinched at their father raising his tone, Night Light walking past his wife to approach Shining Armor. “Velvet, walk Twilight home. We’ll meet you there.” Twilight felt her voice dying in her throat as Night Light walked another direction with Shining Armor following him. What was Shining’s problem? Dad was trying to teach her the importance of having a family. As Twilight thought back to it, it was as clear as day what Shining Armor was thinking. That deviant brother of hers was sympathizing with them! That was when Prince Bolero had just started his foalsitting sessions with her, did he like him then? Well, if anything was clear to her parents, it was that Twilight had taken a liking to Prince Bolero. Sure, she didn’t really feel those fuzzy butterflies that she was supposed to feel, but her parents said she had a crush on Prince Bolero, so it must be true! Right? Back when she was still a student at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, and old enough to not need a foalsitter anymore, Twilight would sit at the dinner table with her family and talk about how her day went. While friendship wasn’t her strong suit at the time, she always brought up her classmate Flashy Dazzle, a mare with a rose pink pelt and a long dark brown mane. Those dark green eyes paired with her dark red glasses were...Twilight shook her head, it didn’t matter how they looked. Her parents would interrupt her explaining what Flashy and her studied together, and prompt her to ask out Prince Bolero. The first time they did this, Twilight vividly remembered her brother spitting his drink. “Honey, wouldn’t you just love living in a castle as a Princess with such a sweet stallion?” Velvet smiled at Twilight, and Twilight pictured an invisible pony yanking each side of her lips to create such a forced smile like that. “I mean, I’d prefer becoming a Princess because of my magic,” Twilight replied, her mother’s smile disappearing as she spoke. “And then the ma-I mean stallion could live in my castle!” Twilight shook her head, she only slipped on her words that night because it’d be cool to have mares live in her castle. As friends! And in a way, with five mares as her dearest friends, she got exactly what she hoped for. Their friendship meant more to her than any stallion could. Twilight froze up. But that doesn’t mean I’d date a mare! “Woo! We’re here!” Rainbow Dash shouted over Twilight’s cluttered thoughts, zooming past the other ponies as they started to get out of their seats. Half of the ponies glared in the pegasus’ direction, while the other half grinned from ear to ear as they whispered about getting to see Rainbow Dash. As the rest of the Elements of Harmony got up, the ponies talked even more, Nightmare Moon’s name slipping into their conversations as Twilight got up and teleported out of the train before a single soul could speak to her. Landing in front of several members of the Royal Guard, Twilight dusted herself off before she got on her four hooves and spoke to him “I’m here to see my brother, Shining Armor,” Twilight said. “It’s urgent.” “We know,” one of the Royal Guard spoke, and those two words sent a sharp jolt throughout Twilight’s body. “Hoof us over your suitcase, Twilight Sparkle.” “Why do you need my-hey!” Twilight shrieked as one of the unicorn guards tugged her suitcase towards them with their magic. As five of them began to open her suitcase, Twilight lunged. “Give that back!” “Hey!” Just as one of the Royal Guard members jumped in between Twilight and the other guards, the group of guards froze and looked over their shoulders, spotting Shining Armor in his full golden armor as he galloped towards them. The members of the Royal Guard jumped back many hoofsteps away from the opened suitcase, and Shining Armor rushed to Twilight’s side as he glared at his subordinates. “What is the meaning of this?” Shining spat, his eyes moving left to right over the wide-eyed guards. “Somepony better tell me!” “Captain, you said that your sister might be a threat,” one of the Royal Guard ponies spoke up. “We were going to check her suitcase for weapons and neutralize her.” “Are you all seriously that...she’s my sister,” Shining facepalmed. “I just needed you guys to talk her down, not whatever shit you were trying to pull just now.” “Oh,” the guards blushed and averted their gazes from their captain and his sister. “Our apologies, Shining Armor. And Twilight Sparkle.” “Ooooooh, I get it now,” Twilight’s eyes widened as a small smile appeared on her face, glancing up at her brother. “This is part of the prank, right?” “What prank?” Shining frowned. “That you’re getting married to a stallion!” Twilight laughed, not looking at the guards as half their jaws nearly dropped to the ground. “Okay, show’s over guys. You can get back to whatever you do, and Shiny can tell me who he’s actually getting married to. It is royalty at least, right? Oh, is it Luna? No wonder you’d go to this extent to pull a prank like this, the only pony that our parents would want you married to less is a stallion-” “Twilight, please stop talking for five seconds,” Shining snapped before glancing at his guards. “She’s just horsing around, get back to work.” Any possible protest that the guards’ had died in their throats as they looked away from Twilight and left in different directions away from the two unicorns. Twilight frowned as her heart started racing again, the brother that she’d known her whole life...she had to be wrong about this. It couldn’t be that- “This is a prank, right?” Twilight’s ears flattened as her lip quivered. “You wouldn’t really do this to Mom...or Dad...or me? Right?” “Twilight, for fuck’s sake,” Shining glared at her. “It’s not doing anything to anypony. This marriage is not only to somepony I’m able to love, but a pony I do love.” “How could you do this?!” Twilight cried out, causing her brother to take two steps back. “That’s a load of horse shit and you know it! There’s so many mares out there that’d love to have you, and you gave up! And let’s say in some wild hypothetical that you actually are happy, does that automatically make this right? Our parents told us this was wrong, and you’ll be embarrassing us in front of all of Equestria!” “Twilight,” Shining took a deep breath before he spoke. “Just because our parents tell us something is wrong doesn’t mean it is wrong.” “Oh, so because you’re some hotshot captain, you think you know more than our parents. The ponies who’ve been alive longer than us!” Twilight scoffed. “Even though I’ve learned so much throughout my life, I still don’t assume I’m smarter than our parents!” “Twilight, you are smarter than our parents though, you’re smarter than me,” Shining pointed out. “You’re Celestia’s student, have you forgotten that?” “That doesn’t matter! We’re supposed to marry mares!” Twilight blurted out. Shining shut up, staring at Twilight as she turned red in the face. “I m-mean, you’re supposed to marry a mare and I’m supposed to marry a stallion!” Twilight corrected herself, feeling her blood boil as she snapped. “Where the fuck is Prince Bolero?!” “He’s in the castle,” Shining sighed. “But if you so much as raise your voice at him, my guards will escort you on a one-way train ride back to Ponyville. Got it?” “Whatever, I know how to open his eyes without yelling,” Twilight huffed, walking past Shining Armor as she made her way towards the castle. As Twilight left, Shining Armor looked ahead and saw five mares gawking at the display. “I take it you’re Twilight’s friends?” Shining gulped. “I don’t have to deal with five more of you giving me that talk, am I?” “Sugarcube, of course not!” Applejack trotted over to the stallion and wrapped her forelegs around him in a hug. “Ah’m so sorry about that, she didn’t even ask how you were, let alone congratulate you!” “Congratulations by the way,” Rarity said as she stood by Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie rushing over to join them. “I don’t care who fucks who, I’m just excited to do a Sonic Rainboom,” Dash grinned, before her smile faltered. “I still get to do that, right?” “Yes, you do,” Shining smiled for the first time since Twilight arrived, and even gave a small chuckle as the mare pumped a hoof in the air. “Awesome!” Dash shouted. “C-Congratulations,” Fluttershy smiled. “But you still want all of us at your wedding? After what we just watched?” “Well, besides Prince Bolero, Twily is the most important pony in my life,” Shining explained. “Part of the reason I told her about the wedding through an invitation was because I knew she needed time to process it. Celestia, who knows what disaster she would’ve caused if she found out just now and not earlier.” “But Shining Armor,” Applejack frowned. “Ah overheard what y’all were saying about your parents, how could she not even bat an eye about the turmoil you must’ve gone through growing up with those kind of folk, knowing who you are now?” “Applejack, you have to understand that they told us it was a choice for years,” Shining told her. “And with Twilight being a sheltered bookworm until recently, how was she supposed to know otherwise? I...I hoped she would’ve accepted it enough to be my Best Mare, but I should probably ask Celestia or Luna instead.” “Darling, is there anything we can do?” Rarity placed a hoof on his shoulder. Shining Armor felt his heart being tugged towards the castle, remembering the first day that Prince Bolero came to foalsit his younger sister. The way he laughed and allowed his love to flow from him to the ponies around him, the way his soothing voice calmed Twilight and did the opposite to Shining Armor, sending his heart into overdrive and bringing heat to his face as he stammered whenever Prince Bolero so much as looked at him...Shining Armor couldn’t understand why his parents reacted the way they did when he poured his heart out about Prince Bolero, but Twilight’s reaction? “No, nothing besides what Celestia already asked of you in the letter,” Shining sighed, blinking back the tears in his eyes as he walked towards the castle... Twilight’s slow walk had turned into a full-on gallop as she slammed the doors open and stopped just several hoofsteps away from Prince Bolero. The pink alicorn, taller than both Twilight and Shining, had his mane of violet, rose, and gold colors short enough to stop just below his muzzle. Twilight felt her blood boil as the prince grinned at her! She opened her mouth, only to remember Shining’s words. Taking a deep breath, Twilight channeled all her emotions in the look she gave towards her former foalsitter. “What did you do to my brother?” Twilight growled. “Well, a lot of stuff, but that’s not for me to get into detail about, especially not with his sister,” Bolero rolled his eyes as he chuckled at Twilight. Twilight growled, how could he possibly be so… Wait. “You must be a changeling!” Twilight gasped. “You and Shining Armor! Why else would the two of you be trying to piss me off? This is just some plot to turn Celestia’s student against her own family and friends!” “Ouch,” Bolero frowned. “All these years, and you think I’m trying to turn you against your brother? I suppose there’s one way of proving that I’m the real prince, but...oh aunt Celestia, I can’t believe I’m singing this song again.” Prince Bolero sighed, before dancing in place and singing. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” Prince Bolero concluded the song by facepalming himself with his hoof, the chuckles of the guards echoing throughout the room. “Oh goodness me, the guards will never let me live that down. Do you believe me now, Twilight?” “But I d-don’t get it,” Twilight was shaking now as she stared at the stallion she thought she knew. “If you’re the Prince of Love, why couldn’t you just marry a mare?” “Twilight, as the Prince of Love, yes, I’ve pursued both mares and stallions in the past. But the pony that I want to marry is your brother, and if he wants that to, then why are you so upset?” Prince Bolero asked. “Because why does he get to love whoever he wants, but I can’t?!” Twilight snapped, causing the guards to walk closer to the two ponies. “Twilight?” Any smirking or chuckling was gone now, Prince Bolero’s eyes widened as he reached a hoof out to the mare. “What do you mean by that?” “I...I…” Twilight felt her face getting hot, every coherent thought wiped into nothing as tears rolled down her face. Images of Flashy Dazzle repeated like a vicious cycle, refusing to free her from the joy and shame and joy and shame and joy and shame… Twilight sobbed as she turned around and bolted out of the castle.