No, this can't be happening. Twilight desperately thought to herself as her body was crushed against her brothers. She returned it and after several seconds began struggling. Shining Armour finally let go of her and she took a nervous step back. Her gaze drifted upwards to look upon her brother, a colt that had always supported her and took care of her. She now had to tell that colt she was going to die. He had no idea either, with a huge smile on his face he looked down at his sister.
"Twily!" He repeated.
If only he knew what was coming... Twilight's heart skipped a beat.
"Aren't you glad to see me, little sis?" Shining teased.
Time for the best acting I've ever done... Twilight thought sadly. She forced a smile to her lips. "Of course I am."
"I got your letter yesterday." Shining began to explain. "It was weird, but somehow seemed urgent. So I rushed over here. With a surprise too." His grin grew as he ruffled her mane.
Twilight flashed him a sour look. "Surprise?"
"Unless I'm not good enough to count as one." Another teasing voice, this time female.
"Cadance!" Twilight wasn't completely surprised. She had invited her former foal-sitter, and now sister in law, after all. She just hadn't been expecting both of them to be able to get away from their royal duties. A second person to inform... She could feel her smile waver.
Cadance pushed her way past her husband. "Sunshine, Sunshine ladybugs awake. Clap your hoo-" She started the movements but when Twilight wasn't returning them or singing stopped. A frown crossed her face. "Is everything okay Twilight?"
Twilight had been momentarily distracted. Cadance had snapped her back to reality though. "Uh, yeah. Sorry. Just a little..." Twilight tried to come up with a good excuse. "Tired. I just woke up."
Shining ignored what Twilight had just said. "Mind if we come in, sis?"
Yes...Leave. Now. Then you're heart won't break... "Of course not." Another fake smile.
**
Twilight set everypony up at the table. She offered each of them toast and a cup of coffee, only her brother accepted though. Now the three sat at the table exchanging pleasantries and catching up on recent events. As far as Twilight's guests knew everything was perfectly fine. Twilight had completely forgotten about Fluttershy who was peacefully sleeping upstairs. The unicorn was being pushed to her emotional limits, sitting there lying to her family. They still didn't suspect a thing, whereas she felt she was dying inside. Oh, wait. I am. She thought morbidly.
The conversations went on. The smiling, the laughing all of it went on for what felt like hours when truthfully it couldn't have been more than half an hour. The entire time Twilight thought about what she was going to do, what she was going to say. Time was running out. It was only a matter of time before one of them brought up her invitation. The distressed purple pony was even considering not telling them anything yet, starting to think maybe she wasn't ready to. Of course then her thoughts went back to how unfair that would be. She couldn't keep it from them. They deserved to know. Twilight could only imagine her brothers response if he learned only after she'd passed. She imagined it would be something similar to when she had found out he was getting married; only a million times worse.
"So, Twily." Shining Armour began and Twilight knew what was coming. "Why did you invite Cadance and I here? Your letter was cryptic, at best." He started quoting her letter. "I have some important news to share with you. Out with it then, what's so important you had to call royalty to your humble abode?" he said, always with the jokes.
This was it. No, Twilight wanted to stall some more. "I wasn't expecting the two of you so soon. You never even replied to my letter."
"No, we wanted to surprise you. It's been a pretty long time. We can't stay past the end of the day of course but we thought it'd still be nice to visit for the day." Cadance spoke with such affection in her voice. She really had been looking forward to seeing Twilight. "And when you said you had some important news to share with us it was the perfect excuse to come see my favourite sister-in-law."
"Your only sister in law." Twilight grinned, the first real one since her two guests had arrived.
"You'd still be my favourite." Cadance said sheepishly.
"You're my favourite sister too, for the record." Shining Armour chuckled.
"Thanks, BBBFF." Twilight looked down as guilt over run her.
"So come on! I'm dying to know why we came here!"
A poor choice of words.
"Well...I...The truth is. Cadance. Shining Armour." She turned to each of them in turn. "I-"
"Twilight?" Fluttershy's voice came from the top of the stairs.
All three of the ponies sitting at the table turned towards the staircase. All three of them were greeted to the sight of the yellow pegasus taking her time coming down the stairs. She had clearly just gotten out of bed, her mane was proof of that. It was messy, but not overly embarrassing, thankfully.
Fluttershy had woken up to find the space beside her empty. She worried about Twilight, thinking perhaps she'd had another 'episode'. She decided to investigate, find her marefriend. Now she had three ponies all staring at her, so she had a feeling Twilight had neglected to tell them that she was upstairs. Fluttershy's cheeks quickly took a crimson colour. She recognized both Shining Armour and Cadance of course, but it didn't make the situation any less embarrassing. She squeaked and spun on her hooves. She ran back upstairs and shut the door behind her with a loud smack.
Now Twilight had two sets of eyes on her both with confused expressions. Twilight slowly turned to face her guests. She was blushing almost as intensely as Fluttershy had been moments before. There was of course nothing to worry about, neither of them would guess that Fluttershy and her were dating based on what had just happened. That didn't make the situation any less awkward though.
"I'm so sorry! Your sudden appearance made me completely forget about Fluttershy upstairs. We were having a sleep over and obviously I wasn't expecting you."
Both of her guests laughed hysterically. It was so unlike Twilight to forget one of her friends.
All three heard the door to Twilight's bedroom open again and then the sound of Fluttershy's steps as she slowly descended towards them. She'd fixed her mane a little bit so that it didn't seem so unkempt. She definitely did not seem any less embarrassed though. When she reached the other three she managed to stutter out. "I-I'm sorry for interrupting. Twilight invited me over to help her with a new spell yesterday. We must have lost track of time and I just fell asleep. I'm so sorry Twilight, I didn't mean to spend the night here like that."
Fluttershy thought she was doing a good deed. She doubted Twilight had told her brother and sister-in-law about their relationship. In the spirit of being a good marefriend Fluttershy wanted to help her keep that secret. If that meant lying for a little bit that was okay. Fluttershy figured that her marefriend would tell her family when she was ready. Fluttershy was wearing an abashed smiled. She couldn't understand why everypony was staring at her oddly.
"Uninvited?" Shining Armour raised a brow, quizzically.
"I just finished telling Shining Armour how I invited you over for a sleep over." Twilight spoke every word with a distinct pause between each word. She wasn't upset with Fluttershy.
"Don't worry about it dear. I'm sure Twilight and Fluttershy have their reasons." Cadance gave Twilight a knowing smile and a wink.
Shining Armour had a feeling something was up but he let it go. "Let's get back to the reason you invited us here."
Fluttershy only then realized what she'd interrupted. "Oh my, I think I should go." Fluttershy started making her way towards the go.
Twilight's heart skipped a beat for a second time that morning. "No!" She practically shouted it. "Fluttershy, I need you here. Please." Twilight's voice had gone to an almost desperate tone. The look of fear on her face convinced Fluttershy that Twilight really did need her there. The pegasus could only nod as she made her way back to her mrefriend. Of course Shining Armour and Cadance now knew something was really up.
"Twily, what's going on?" No more jokes, his tone and experssion were completely serious.
Fluttershy leaned down to whisper into Twilight's ear. "You can do it, love."
Everypony was expecting her to say something. She didn't want to blurt out she was dying. It wasn't something she could just spring on those she cared about like that. What other choice did she have? Then it came to her.
"I invited you both here to tell you I have a marefriend. I'm dating Fluttershy."
Shining Armour gasped.
Fluttershy blushed.
Cadance smiled, obviously delighted at such news.
Twilight felt as though she'd just lost a part of herself for not telling them the truth.