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// 10 - Tense Dinner 
// Story: If Twilight Was a Pegasus 
// by Cxcd 
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This. Is. Stupid. Thought Twilight.
She didn’t care about how stubborn or immature she looked. She crossed her hooves angrily, frowning deeply as she leaned back in her seat and completely ignoring the plate of spaghetti in front of her. Instead, she focused her eyes onto the edge of the table.
“All I’m saying is that it might be a good idea to get you out of the house!” Velvet, for her credit, was trying as hard as she could to bargain with the little filly. She tried her best to catch her daughter’s elusive eye, but no matter how much she leaned forwards or raised her voice, Twilight was dead-set on not looking anywhere but up at her mother. “Flight Camp is a great idea, Twilight…”
“No it isn’t.” Twilight responded with an exaggerated pout. “It’s a big, bad, stupid idea.”
To say things have been rocky since Cadence left was an understatement. Shining Armor was no longer the go-lucky colt he once was, instead being reserved in his studies and most nights not coming home until later. Fortunately, he had decided to join the family for dinner. Unfortunately, he was about as non-talkative as Twilight was, idly poking his fork at his food without a single thought besides despair going through his head.
The empty seat next to him, however, was painfully apparent. Although the seat itself did nothing to garner any attention, the fact that nopony was sitting in it was enough to create what felt like a void in the room. A void that demanded attention. And Twilight was giving it attention, much to her parent’s frustration.
“C’mon, Twilight…” Night Light sighed, sitting next to Velvet, and seemed to be the only pony actually eating the spaghetti. “Ever since… you know who went on, uh, vacation, you’ve been closed off.” He gave a soft smile as he leaned forwards, doing the same trick Velvet was doing to grab her attention. “Do you remember how excited you were for Kindergarten?” He asked. Twilight didn’t react. He sighed, but tried to keep his smile up. “C’mon, now. Your food is getting cold!”
His words weren’t from a place of malice, of course. For a young filly, she was surprisingly competent with emotions, often verbalizing exactly what she was feeling. Unfortunately, she verbalized exactly exactly what she was feeling, which lead to situations like this. She knew she had been continually frustrating her teachers, and she also knew that raising her voice was bad. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t though, and more often than not, she would come home with write ups from the teacher that made her parents dissapointed.
Shining flickered his eyes away from his food and down at Twilight, who for the first time that night, had made eye contact back with him. Both of their eyes flickered to the empty seat.
Cadence wasn’t somepony she could easily forget about. After all, she wasn’t simply some foalsitter, or a caretaker. She was part of their lives. Twilight couldn’t remember a single day in her entire life when Cadence wasn’t around. And now that she wasn’t around, there was an unbearable silence that seemed to permeate the home. It almost felt like Cadence was still home, simply on the other side of the wall, or in her room. But, no matter how hard Twilight tried to look for her, Cadence was well and truly gone- and that made her frustrated.
“Maybe school isn’t for me.” Twilight said with a bitter undertone that laced her vocals. “Ever thought about that?”
“Or-” Velvet quickly said. “Or, or… You just need more interactions with your own kind!” She proposed. This actually made Twilight look up at her for once with a disbelieving look on her face. “You’ve been stuck with us Unicorns for forever. Have you thought it might be time to make some more Pegasus friends?”
Twilight blanched, looking over to Shining for help. Shining was frowning, furrowing his brow as he looked at Velvet.
“Cadence was my only Pegasus friend.” Twilight mumbled.
“C’mon, honey.” Night Light cringed, pulling himself away from looking at Twilight to his wife. “Don’t bring her tribe into this. Please.”
“I mean, it’s true, isn’t it?” Velvet retorted, focusing her attention on Night Light. “When Cadence was around, Twilight was the fastest filly around! I mean, she could- could explode clouds when she moved!” Velvet stuttered for a moment, swallowing down her words. “This is for the best, Nighty!”
“How do you think I feel?” Twilight spoke up, planting both of her hooves onto the table and standing up in an attempt to make herself look bigger and more intimidating. “You two are Unicorns! My brother is a Unicorn!” Shining’s eyes flittered downwards in what apparead to be shame. “My teachers are Unicorns. My classmates are Unicorns. When I trot to school, all I see are Unicorns, and maybe a few Earth-ponies. When I sit in the lunch room, I sit by myself, because nopony wants to sit by the weirdo with wings!” She gasped for air, although she wasn’t crying. “When Cadence was around, I never even thought about how different I am from everypony else. But now that she’s gone…” She took in another deep breath. “I don’t like to think that my wings make me different, but when your talking about sending me to Flight Camp, I can’t help it!” Twilight, finally, had a thin line of tears going down her cheeks. “Why couldn’t I just be like you two?!” She shouted, hopping down from the chair.
“T-Twilight!” Velvet tried to reason, standing up. But, as she got out from her chair, all she managed to see was a dark purple tail whipping behind a wall, and the sounds of scurrying hooves up a staircase. A moment later, the three remaining ponies cringed as they heard a door slam shut.
There was silence as the three ponies remaining simply idled, not entirely sure what to do. The silence was also a terrible reminder of the missing pony. There was no talking, no laughter, no playing… simply just… silence.
“I thought mares were supposed to get all…” Night Light nodded his head side-to-side. “...emotional during their teenage years. Not single digits.”
“Dude.” Shining hissed. “Not cool.”
Velvet responded by collapsing her head into her hooves.
“We are such terrible parents!” She shouted into her hooves. “Twilight’s crying, and Cadence is gone!”
Velvet let out a surprised gasp as she felt Night Light’s hooves wrap around her waist, pulling her in tight for a hug. She looked up to see her husband, who was now leaning his chin against her head.
“We just hit a rocky spot, that’s all.” Night Light soothed, rocking back and forth. “We’ve been doing great so far, okay? It’s just… you know, sometimes, you gotta fall before you can climb! Or, run before you can walk. Whatever.”
“Sure.” Velvet sniffled, realizing there was suddenly tears running down her cheeks. “What kind of parents loose their kid?”
“Cadence’ll show up.” Night Light shifted his weight, letting Velvet rest her head against his chest. “I don’t know if it’ll be tomorrow, or ten years from now, but we’re going to see her again.” He sighed out. “Twilight’ll come around. She’s a real smart filly. Really smart. Sooner or later, she’ll realize we only care for her. I mean, I don’t like the idea of Flight Camp, either, but if she comes back with her better half…”
“We’re not going to force her.” Velvet rubbed the tears away from her eyes, sniffling. “No matter what. If she doesn’t want to go, then…” She sighed out. “Then I guess that’s it, then.”
There was more silence.
A little bit of reassurance went a long way, sure, but both ponies knew the end was nowhere in sight.
“Um, I don’t wanna interrupt or anything,” Shining started, still sitting at the dinner table. “But is it a good time to tell you guys I want to join the Guard?”
This time, the silence was tense, as both ponies slowly turned around and looked up at their son, who was sitting at the table with an awkward and tense grin on his face.
“Right now’s a terrible time, Shining.” Night Light said. “A terrible time.”
“Well- it’s just, you know…” He started, whether the ponies wanted to listen or not. “I just thought that joining the Royal Rangers might help, uh, finding ponies.” He gulped. “Certain ponies who run off, you know?”
“Shining…” Velvet grumbled, pulling both of her hooves to her head and rubbing her temples. “We just- We’ll talk about this tomorrow, okay?”
Shining gave a weak nod and went back to his spaghetti, which with at the pace he was eating at, was already cold.





When was the last time she had stared at her wings? Like, really stare, and not just for preening. Her wings were complex muscles that had what seemed like dozens of feathers lining the tough ligaments just below her skin. She took a hoof and ran it lightly through her feathers, feeling the sharp tips poke the bottom of her frog.
There was a single out of place feather. She couldn’t even feel it, yet it looked physically uncomfortable. She adjusted herself on her bed. Slowly, she pulled her wing up to her muzzle and bit down on it, slowly caressing it back into place. Once she was happy, she took a deep breath, and looked around the empty observatory.
There was Cadence’s bed. It looked identical to the way it had a week ago, when it had all went down. The dresser cabinets were still open, and a few items were spread haphazardly around on the ground. Twilight frowned, a prickling sensation developing around her eyelids as she sniffled.
She hadn’t even said goodbye.
Twilight turned her back to the rest of the glass dome, pushing her head into the pillow.
Everything was stupid. Everything. From Cadence, to the wings on her back. All at once, reality came crashing down. And for the first time, Twilight didn’t react. She felt… empty. Her tear ducts had long since ran dry, as did the emotions in her brain.
Twilight just closed her eyes in defeat. Reality had won.