//------------------------------// // Aunty Twilight // Story: Love is Blind // by RaijingtheClockworkPony //------------------------------// Cadance had never seen her husband so nervous before. Well, that wasn't entirely true. He had been a wreck of nerves when he had proposed to her, but that had been rather amusing at the time as well as romantic, whereas at the moment it was starting to make her uncomfortable as well. They were both waiting for Shining to go meet his sister at the Canterlot Royal Library to talk about her adopted niece. "Shining, dear, stop pacing so much. You will wear a hole in the floor." The stallion shook his head. "I can't, I think best when I'm moving. Twilight won't be like my parents. She's got more of a grudge against the changelings than any member of this family. You should have heard her when she suggested some tactics for hunting the rest of the changelings down at our reception. She won't take this well at all; I know that for a fact." "I don't think it's that bad. She's very understanding. I wouldn't be surprised if she acted like her mother, and ends up cuddling Rose for an hour." At the mention of her name Rose nuzzled up to Cadance and pulled a nearby blanket over herself and the pink princess. "Rose, that's very kind of you." The princess cuddled the filly and kissed her lightly on the forehead. She looked back at Shining to see him looking at them with a worried frown. "Relax. She will understand and will support us both. If she has a problem with it we can talk it out. Don't worry so much." Cadance gave a quick glance at the clock. "You better get going to meet her. You know how she is with being on time." "Okay. I'll go get her then." Shining walked over to Rose and gently nuzzled her. "Keep Cadance out of trouble." "Bye Zhining!" Cadance gave the stallion a quick kiss then started tickling the little changeling next to her. Shining walked through the castle hallways wondering how he was going to break the news to Twilight. He knew that she would be harder to convince than his parents, but how much harder was something he didn't know. He reached the floor that the Royal Library was housed on and took a deep breath. He knew that his day was only about to get harder from here, and maybe even down right difficult. However he had faith that his sister would understand. Cadance is right. Twilight is very understanding after all, and maybe she will want to study Rose. The white stallion chuckled for a moment at the mental image of Twilight following Rose around with a clipboard writing things down. The Captain of the Guard walked into the library and settled down at the closest table he could see. Around him was an impressive collection of books that covered nearly every subject know to ponies. Shining spent many a night visiting the library during his early guard days to send students home, or to make sure that everything was put away. A smile came to the stallions face as he recalled one incident where he had found his sister asleep, face resting on a magical tome. I had to carry her all the way to her room. And she didn't even wake up until after I placed her in the bed. Kept asking about if the book was put back. Shining chuckled for a moment then sighed. He didn't know how to tell Twilight about Rose. Hey Twily, we adopted a changeling... The stallion rolled his eyes. Yeah she'll take that well... The guard rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed again as a small flash happened in front of him. He looked up to see a purple unicorn smiling at him. "Shiny!" She rushed forward and hugged the stallion tightly. "I'm a little early, I hope that's alright." "Yeah... it's fine. I wanted to talk to you about something important." Twilight gave the stallion a small look of concern. "What's going on?" Shining looked at his sister for a moment then motioned for her to follow him. "Well... Cadance and I have recently taken it upon ourselves to 'adopt' a creature we found." A shocked look passed over the lavender pony's face. "You did what!? What, where, why?" "We found her after we got back from the honeymoon and she was hiding in the bathroom, starved and dirty. She was scared and Cadance fed her and cleaned her. I was... skeptical at first but Cadance convinced me to give the creature a chance. They have been with us for a few weeks now and it looks like they are back to health." Shining paused for a moment and took a breath. "The reason we kept her with us was because we both realized that she needed us, and without us she would face a very harsh life. We've grown fond of her." The lavender unicorn looked at her brother for a moment and gave him an approving smile. "You both took in a creature that needed help. That's really sweet and kind of you both... You didn't answer the ‘what’ part of my question though." The white guard took a moment to take a breath. He wasn't looking forward to this part of the talk at all. "Well... that's where this whole thing gets very complicated. Her name is Rose, and she's not a pony... in fact she's of a race that ponies have been in conflict with..." Twilight looked confused for a moment and a small look of clarity. "A minotaur calf? I know that they have been getting more and more aggressive with us over the last few years." The elder stallion shook his head. "No. She's not a minotaur." Confusion covered the mares face for a moment before sudden realization came to her. In a flash she tackled her brother and started channeling a spell. "Twilight wha—" "Stop moving, I'm making sure you aren't under a mind control spell, again." The guard pushed his sister off of him with a slight scowl. "I'm not under any form of magical control." Twilight moved towards him, magic channeling in her horn. "You said that last time and that was when their queen had complete control of you." Shining rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'm not under any mind control spell. Test me, without poking around in my head." "Fine. Tell me something only Shining would know." "When you were six you wanted a doll. Instead of buying you one, mom went out and made you Smarty Pants. You were so happy to have him that you tried to make breakfast for them, pancakes. They had some and got sick because of the "secret ingredient" you put in, which was—" "Okay, okay! I believe you... You promised to never talk about that again..." Shining chuckled and nodded. "Okay, so we got that out of the way..." The stallion turned to lead his sister to Rose and Cadance when he heard a relieved sigh behind him. He turned to see Twilight chuckling to herself. "Something amusing?" The lavender mare nodded and gave him a small smile. "Yes. This little joke of yours." "I wasn't joking." "Right. I'm supposed to believe that my brother and sister-in-law, both of which were either imprisoned or brainwashed took in a changeling and named her after a flower. Good one Shining, you had me going for a moment." Twilight let out a laugh for almost a minute before she saw the look on Shining's face. "I wasn't joking Twilight." "Oh come on. Yes you were. You even told that story we promised to... never..." The mare trailed off as she noticed his expression harden a little and remained serious. "You were joking right?" "No, I'm serious." A small twitch came to the lavender mare's mouth. "Ha ha... very funny Shiny... the jokes over now." The captain gave her a resolved glare. "Twily, I'm not joking at all. I would never joke about this. Cadance and I found a changeling in our chambers and she needed help. We've taken her in and I would like your support for this." "My support?! You want me to believe that you, the stallion that was brainwashed, whose wife was imprisoned and almost lost her chance to live her life with you, is now taking care of one of those creatures that nearly ruined not only yours and Cadance's lives, but almost took over the kingdom, and you want me to help you with that!" Twilight took a moment to catch her breath and failed to notice the angry look on her brother’s face. "Yes. That's exactly what I'm asking of you. Cadance found her and I wanted to send her off with the rest of the changelings but Cadance stopped me. We decided to do the right thing and take care of her so she isn't put into a dangerous situation." "And did you think for one second that maybe it is putting you in danger!" Shining gave her a raised eyebrow. "How? She's a filly. Nothing she could do could possibly harm me or Cadance." The lavender mare stamped her hoof on the tiled floor in anger. "Not the one you have! What about the others that might be running around the kingdom, and don't say there aren't others, because I know that there are plenty of guards searching the kingdom for any of them that are hiding." "What about them?" "What if they come looking for it and they aren't looking to put you into a cavern or to just mind control you. By taking it in you have put everypony in the castle in danger!" The stallion was going to yell back at her but something gave him pause. She was right. If the changelings did come looking for Rose then that means they might attack himself and Cadance to get her back. For the first time in days he felt doubt about being so close to Rose. Twilight saw the doubt and pressed her advantage. "The best thing for all three of you is to ship it off with the rest of them." Shining only caught a single word of the whole sentence. It, not her. "Her." Confusion passed over the lavender unicorns face. "What?" "Her name is Rose. She's not an ‘it.’" A small groan came from the mare. "It doesn't matter! You've gotten attached to it when you shouldn't have! You need to ship that changeling off and get rid of this mistake!" "ENOUGH!" Twilight's eyes widened in shock as we brother snapped at her. The moment she uttered the word mistake Shining became enraged and then he spoke with barely controlled anger. "I asked you here to try to ask you to help us raise a filly that needs a family. I was going to ask you to be part of her life, to be her aunt, but if this is how you will act towards her, then I don't want you in her life or mine anymore!" Time seemed to stop the moment the words left his mouth. The very instant they left his mouth he knew he had crossed a line, and for a fleeting second Shining hoped that Twilight would yell at him, scream at the top of her lungs, even for her to hit him, but slowly, much to his dismay, Twilight's face slowly turned from offended rage to a shocked expression to a look of emotional hurt. Shining spoke much softer and felt horrible as he watched tears form in his sisters eyes. "Twili—" *BAMF* A quick flash and an empty hallway was all that Shining had as his sisters hurt expression and tears teleported away. The stallion stood there looking at the empty space and felt a wave of bitter emotion crash over his chest. He wanted to be mad, to rage and scream, but he only felt bitter disappointment in himself. He knew it wasn't going to be an easy conversation but he didn't think he would lose control like that. Great... try to give Rose another pony to love her and help her and I end up hurting my L.S.B.F.F. Way to go Shining. The captain looked around and noticed a guard walking into the library. He recognized him as one of the sergents. "I heard some yelling so I came to investigate. Is everything okay sir?" "Yes Sergent Hail. Everything is fine... the library is fine..." The darker stallion gave him a look for a moment then spoke again in a less formal manner. "Permission to speak freely sir?" "Granted." The stallion walked up to the captain. "Are you okay sir? I heard the tail end of that and then the sound of a teleportation." The white unicorn sighed and shook his head. "I don't think I will be. I need to go think of how I'm going to apologize to her. I hope you will be discreet and please not tell anything that you heard to anyone." The guard nodded. "Of course sir, I think you might need to take the rest of the day off." Shining nodded then sighed again. "I think you're right. I want you to close up the library for the day and then take your day off. Dismissed." The darker guard gave Shining a salute and left him alone. The captain looked around the library one last time before he turned and walked out. His journey through the hall was quicker than he would have thought, but his focus the whole way back to suite was filled with regret at his very poor choice of words. He walked back into the living room that he had left only an hour before, spotting Cadance and Rose cuddled on the couch. "Shining, what's wrong? You look pale... where's Twilight?" The stallion could only shake his head then look at Rose. "Sorry Rose, Aunty Twilight won't be visiting tonight." Cadance started to rise but Shining just sighed and walked towards the bedroom. "I need to lie down for a while. I'll talk after that." Shining laid down on the bed and felt a sudden exhaustion. He closed his eyes and saw Twilights tear filled eyes as he tried his best not to think about the things that had been said. He rolled over and looked out the window at the blue skies as tears dropped onto the pillow.