“Let me just try to get everything clear,” Shining Armor tried to massage the headache he was getting away, “You discovered that there's countless other worlds out there, several different races of beings, witnessed a massacre, saved lives, lost your leg, and decided you were going to help them fight. This was all in less than a month? I'm afraid to hear the rest.”
“Your trip does seem like it was... eventful,” Cadence added.
Nods of assent were given by everypony else.
“That's putting it mildly, your highness,” Rarity commented.
“Twilight,” Applejack said, “What happened to the box that merchant fella gave ya?”
“That was forgotten about for a long time, but I'll get there,” Twilight answered, “Anyway, I was ready to fight. After...”
“Twilight,” Princess Celestia cut her student off, “I think it's a good idea to stop there for now.”
“Why? If you don't mind me asking.” Twilight said.
“I think it's time you stop putting something off,” answered the solar princess.
Twilight winced, knowing exactly what she was talking about. It was the one thing that scared her the most about her return. She had to tell her parents, that much was a given, but even that wasn't as scary as facing the one that she knew was with them: her number one assistant, Spike.
“He took it really bad, Twily,” Shining said, “When he heard that you were gone he locked himself in your room and refused to leave for two days. Applejack had to break the door down just to get him out. He needs to know you're okay.”
Twilight nodded, “I'll need a pen, parchment, and a half hour to...”
“No you don't.” Cadence interrupted, “No lists, no plans. You're going to go by your heart. It's the best way, trust me.”
Twilight slumped her shoulders in defeat. They were right and she knew it.
This is going to be painful.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Her parent's home loomed over her. It was a moderately sized house by Canterlot standards, but that also meant a palace to Ponyville. It was a simple white, with baby blue accents. The door had stained glass windows on either side depicting a beautiful dawn sky. Flowerbeds in front gave a bit extra color to the place, while a decorative white picket fence finished it off.
Twilight approached her foalhood home while her brother and sister-in-law walked behind her. They were watching her carefully. The purple pony didn’t seem to notice them as she was deep in thought.
OK, Twilight, this is easy. I just walk up knock and say ‘I’m home. Sorry I disappeared for so long. I was off in space killing stuff, and cursing, and smoking, and making lewd jokes and innuendos, and oh yeah, I’m a fucking tripod... It’ll be easy.
Twilight took a deep breath to steel her nerves, then immediately tried to bolt in the opposite direction, only to be stopped by her brother's telekinetic grasp.
“Where do you think you're going?” he asked.
“I can't do this, Shiny,” she whimpered, “I can't tell them their sweet, innocent daughter is a killer. What if they hate me for what I've done? What if the disown me and tell me they never want to see me again?”
“Listen to yourself, Twilight,” Cadence placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, “These are your parents you're talking about. Do you really think they would ever hate you?”
Twilight looked into those calming eyes. Those eyes still had the same effect they did when she was a filly.
Twilight closed her eyes and took a calming breath. "No. I'm just nervous. I don't want them to be disappointed in me. And what if Spike feels that I abandoned him?”
“That's just as ridiculous, and you know it. He thinks the world of you,” Cadence assured her former charge, “Now go knock on the door.”
Shining Armor put his sister down on the porch, and stood at her side with Cadence on the other. She rose her hoof and hesitated again. A pink aura surrounded her hoof and drove it into the door a few times before she could react. Twilight gave a look of betrayal to her grinning (ex)favorite foal sitter. Soon the door was opened by a familiar purple dragon that stood a head taller than herself. He took one look at at the lavender unicorn and screamed, slamming the door in her face. Twilight's heart fell, her fears coming true. After a few agonizing seconds, the door was opened again. This time by a blue unicorn stallion with a darker blue mane with just a touch of gray.
“I apologize for Spike, he's having...” The stallion froze when he saw who was at the door.
“Honey,” called a feminine voice from the stairs, “Spike's saying the hallucinations are back. Who's at the door.” A gray mare with a white and lavender striped mane came into view and froze along side her husband.
Twilight swallowed, her throat suddenly extremely dry, “H-hi, mom, dad... I'm h-home.”
“Twilight? Is that... is that really you?” Her father finally asked in disbelief, “I-we thought...”
“I know, daddy,” Twilight struggled to hold back the tears that threatened to fall, “I'm sor-”
Her apology was interrupted by by the sudden embrace of the older ponies. Twilight returned the gesture as her emotions finally got the better of her. They sat like that until all three ponies' shoulders were wet from holding a crying loved one. Then Twilight's thoughts returned to Spike.
She broke the hug and asked nervously, “What's wrong with Spike? Why did he react like that?”
Her parents looked at each other, before her father stepped aside and motioned for her to enter, “Spike took your... disappearance hard. He convinced himself that you weren't gone, just on a secret mission from Celestia.”
“Mom said something about hallucinations?” Twilight inquired.
Velvet and Nightlight looked at each other before Velvet answered, “Well, sweetie, he came to live with us after you vanished. One day I went to check on the poor dear and found him talking to the corner...” She hesitated, “He said it was you. He said that you would come to him and the two of you would talk. We thought it was just a coping mechanism and would pass, but it only got worse. One day he broke into the restricted section of the Canterlot Archives. When he was asked why, he said you asked him to get a book for you. That's when we knew he needed help. We spoke to a psychiatrist that had some experience with dragons and she prescribed him some medication. He hasn't had the hallucinations, but he's still mourning you.”
The group entered the living room, and all but Velvet took a seat on the plush blue couch and loveseat. The room hadn't changed much in the past few years. There was a false fire in the fireplace, as it was too warm for a real one. The oak bookshelf she got them for their anniversary four years ago was in the corner, filled with books and a few trinkets. The agave and cactus beside it were gag gifts from Shining after Twilight's acceptance into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Several pictures of the family adorned the walls, but one drew her attention more than the others: A picture of her hung by itself with a wreath of flowers around it and underneath it, an end table sat with an ever-burn candle on top. Yet another reminder of what everypony went through; what she put them through.
“I'll try to get Spike to come down,” announced Twilight's mother as she headed upstairs.
Nightlight finally got a good look at his long lost daughter, “What happened to you? You vanish for a year, and when you come back you're covered in scars, you mane is cut short, and... is that armor?”
“I'll explain it all when mom and Spike come back down.” Twilight told her father.
As if on cue, the clopping of hooves and clacking of claws came from the stairs. Twilight Velvet came into the room followed by the teenage dragon. He looked at Twilight like she were a ghost (for all he knew she was). He stopped several steps from the couch and looked the others in the room for confirmation that he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. The older couple gave him affirming nods. Twilight stood up and took a couple steps toward her little brother, but stopped as he took as many stepped back, still wary.
With tears in her eyes she spoke, “Spike, I missed you.”
“You're alive?” asked the dragon.
“Yes,” Twilight confirmed.
“Why did you leave me?” the tears and tone of his voice betrayed the pain he felt. “You abandoned me!”
“No, Spike,” Twilight pleaded, “I didn't. I was lost, and didn't know how to get home. I wanted to come home, I really did. Please believe me.”
Spike looked down to the floor, “I was lost, too.”
He looked back at his surrogate mother, and before Twilight could say another word he closed the distance between them and threw his arms around her. Twilight encircled him with her hooves, and the two cried in each others embrace. The ponies watching let their own tears fall at the touching scene. For that moment, all was right in Equestria.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Twilight was finding the floor very interesting as she awaited her parent's and Spike's reactions. She had just told them everything (except what happened to the children on Placid Harbor. Shining told that part while Twilight tried to distract herself). The silence hung thick in the air.
Nightlight was the first to speak with a simple request, “Show me.”
Twilight nodded and detached the limb once again, thankful that this would be the last time she would have to showcase her disability. Velvet put a hoof to her mouth to keep from crying out while Nightlight’s mood visibly dropped. Spike, on the other hand, was livid. He gritted his teeth and clenched his claws so hard it hurt, but he didn't care. Every ragged breath let out a small flame.
“How dare they,” he seethed, “How dare they hurt you! If I find any of those Dratali jerks I'll be the last thing they ever see.”
“It's OK, Spike,” Twilight said in a calming voice as she reattached her leg, “They're nowhere near here.”
“So,” Velvet finally found her voice, “You... k-killed.”
Twilight couldn't bring herself to look at her mother.
“Now Velv,” Nightlight interjected, “You heard what happened. What those things did... would have done... she didn't have a choice. She did what she had to to survive, and what those Dratali guys want to do... I can't blame her in the least.”
“I know,” Velvet said somberly, “It's just the thought of my little filly killing anything, even if it was a murderer, is hard to take in. I don't blame you either. If I saw what you did...” She couldn't even finish that sentence.
Spike's anger at the monsters that hurt Twilight kept building until he was forced to walk away to his room. Twilight started to go after him but was stopped by her mother.
“He needs to vent.” Velvet said, “He's still struggling with keeping his instincts under control and gets very angry at times. We converted the bathroom in your old room to an anger room for him. It's sound and fire proof and has things for him to hit.”
Twilight looked towards the teen's room, her former room. She could hear a few muffled shouts coming from the above, including a few choice words in draconic. At least he had the decency to say those kinds of words in a language few ponies understood. She remembered how his temper was worsening before she left. Being a dragon, he was naturally aggressive, but the few dragons that have been raised by ponies learn to control that nature in time.
“I should have been here for him,” Twilight felt tears in the corners of her eyes.
“Don't blame yourself for what happened,” Nightlight said sternly, “You had no control over what happened. It was that Xander pony that did this. He cast that spell that sent you away. If he weren't already dead I’d strangle him with my own hooves.”
“Stop daddy,” Twilight scolded her father, “You don't want blood on your hooves, trust me. It never goes away, no matter how bad those you killed were. They stay with you... Haunting you... In your dreams, and when you’re awake...” her eyes glazed over as she stared off at nothing.
“Um, Twilight?” Cadence said with concern in her voice.
“There's no escaping them... you see the look on his face when you drove your knife into his chest and felt his heart slow and stop...”
“Twily?” Shining tried.
“His blood on your hooves and soaking into your coat... mingling with the blood from the others...”
“Twilight, snap out of it!” Velvet pleaded.
“Huh...” Twilight was brought back to the present, “Sorry... just... bad memories.”
“Is it really that bad?” Spike had come back down just in time to hear Twilight's episode, “Killing I mean.”
Twilight hung her head, “It's the single worst feeling in the galaxy. Knowing that because of your actions, someone lost their life. You can't help but think about family and friends they had back home. The fact is, Spike, they see us as the evil ones. They think that what they're doing is for the greater good. In a way, I respect the fact that they're willing to do whatever it takes to do what they think is right, even if it means giving their own lives.”
“How could they not know they were the evil ones?” Spike asked as he sat down beside Twilight.
“No one ever actually thinks they're evil,” Twilight explained, “Luna thought she was justified when she became Nightmare Moon, because she thought she was being wronged. Discord thought ponies would like chaos. Chrysalis was trying to feed her subjects. King Bongo thought ponies were demons. You see what I'm saying, Spike. They were different from us, but they still had friends and families. Each and every Dratali I killed was someone's son, brother, father, or husband.”
“So it was wrong to kill them?” asked the adolescent dragon.
“No,” Twilight stated sternly, “They want to kill everything. They're the enemy of all life.” Twilight's gaze softened, “But that doesn't mean it didn't cause others pain.”
Twilight let out a long yawn that quickly spread to everypony else.
“Wow, it’s that late already,” Cadence observed, “We had better get back to the palace and get some shut eye.”
“Oh no, stay,” Nightlight offered, “It's too late to head back now. Shining's and Twilight's rooms are still there. All of you, stay the night.”
The three looked at each other and smiled.
“We'd love to,” Cadence beamed, “Shall we, love?”
“After you,” replied Shining with a small bow.
The alicorn walked by and swatted his face with her tail before being chased up stairs by her husband.
“You two better not keep me up like you did last time we were all here!” Twilight shouted after them with a chuckle, “Come on Spike, let's go to bed.”
“Twilight,” Nightlight stopped her, “I just want to say... I'm glad you’re back, and no matter what you've been through and how much you've changed, you're still my little filly.”
Twilight gave her father a heartfelt hug, “Thanks daddy.”
“Now off to bed,” Nightlight ordered, “I'm sure the Princesses are going to want to hear the rest of the story tomorrow, and we do too.”
The three ponies and dragon made for the stairs. Velvet stopped before she left the living room, though. She looked at the portrait of her little Sparkle. She smiled, and with a flick of her horn, extinguished the flame below. It was no longer needed.
*******************************************
AN: I won't be able to post every day anymore. I already had up to chapter 5 when I first started posting this story and that's why updates were so fast. Don't worry though, I still tend to write faster than most authors so updates will still be quite fast comparatively.