The Friendship Express chugged merrily along, up and around the tunneled mountainside. Ahead lay its final destination at the end of the line, the white marbled tower walls of Canterlot station. Pulling into a braking halt, the train let out a mighty whistle for all passengers to disembark.
"Woaaaah..." was all Blossomforth could say to all the decorative glass paneling, bejeweled cone rooftops, and colorful flag banners. "Fancy."
"Manehattan may be one of the most cosmopolitan cities in my book, but this place takes high society to a whole 'nother level!" Honey agreed.
"No time for touring now," Twilight called back to her friends who were staring around the station interior. Throughout the entire train ride, her plucky determination had not diminished in the least. In fact, given that all she could do was sit and think on the way, it had actually intensified. "We are mares on a mission. First things first, we're heading straight for Moonlight's house!"
As she began to gallop off, Orange Sherbet called after her. "Twilight, dearie. Do you know where the Lulamoon estate is in Canterlot?"
That sent all fours screeching to a halt. Plodding back with her head low and ears flat, Twilight gave a half-sheepish pout. "Ah heh heh...no."
The full implications of that fact slowly sunk in. "I...don't know where she lives, I don't know how to find out, who to ask, what to say, anything! I-I came here without a plan! I didn't think things through! W-what am I going to do? What am I going to do?! I have to do something now that I'm here but I have no idea what! How could I just charge in blindly like this? And-and this is such a critical task! I can't afford to make mistakes or waste time! I-"
A firm grey hoof pressed against her chest before she could make her tenth circle in place. "A mind that is always thinking can never stop to think about what needs to thought of. You have to stop worrying what will be Twilight, and concentrate on what we have right now."
Twilight stiffened, then relaxed. "Right...right! Yeah, you're right. It's not like Canterlot is going anywhere. We can work with what we know and go from there."
"We did count on staying in Canterlot for an extended time," Sherbet lead off. "Perhaps we can find proper lodging first so as to get our heads straight on later."
A thought hit Canterlot born unicorn then. "Perfect! I know just where to go for rest and a lead!"
She lead the group off the station steps with rekindled vigor. "Come on, Spike. We're going home!"
"Yeah yeah," groaned the tower of suitcases from the top of the steps. "Hold your horses for a sec, could you?"
Marching up to the palish periwinkle two-story residence, three if you counted attics, Twilight stopped before the red double doors and ran a hoof over their gold painted frames.
Since the whole reunion event with Auntie Sherbet's family, she had acquired a longing to see hers again, and Princess Celestia had given her permission*. Still, she hadn't gotten to arranging it specifically between then and now. So of course at this very moment the unicorn mare would suddenly be a rush of dozens of emotions, nostalgia, happiness, nervousness, curiosity, impatience, hesitation...
Her assistant decided to skip ahead a few frames as he rapped the mahogany for her.
Her whole body tensed as the steady clop of hoofsteps signaled the opening of the door, and an older blue stallion with a darker navy mane filled her vision.
"Yes? How may I help-?" The stallion stopped as he took in the little purple unicorn filly that he saw from his perspective. "Twilight?"
"Dad..." Twilight shifted her hoof ever so slightly. "Hi. I've been...uh, meaning to write and all, and I know this is completely without warning but...uh, I'm here for a visit?"
The response she received was a warm smile only a father could give to his daughter. "Welcome home, punkin." He stepped back to give room to enter. "Come on in, and give your old stallion a hug."
Twilight then let go of all restraint and decorum and lunged forward in a happy-happy tackle hug. She could not help but giggle as he squeezed back. "Oh daddy, I missed you so much!"
"As I did you, punkin," was all he needed to say back. "As I did you."
"Can we move this along?" Spike slightly groaned under the weight of everypony's luggage. "Some of us are carrying more than emotional baggage here."
A golden moon yellow aura wrapped around the tower of carry-ons, freeing the little purple dragon from his burden. "Let me get those for you, little guy." As he brought them in, he ruffled the frills of his daughter's number one companion. "Ah, you look taller since I last saw you. Grown an inch, perhaps?"
"Three and a half to be precise," Spike protruded his chest as if he were trying to do a pectoral flex.
"Oh yes," the stallion humored him. "You're certainly not a baby dragon anymore."
He then took note of the quartet of mares walking in behind him. Twilight took his nonplussed smile as her cue to began introductions.
"Dad, I'd like you to meet some of my friends from Manehattan. This is Honey Do, Octavia Melody, Blossomforth, and Orange Sherbet. Girls, this is my father Night Light."
The two parties shook hooves respectively. "It's so good to see my daughter finally going out and getting to know ponies," Night Light greeted. "You have this stallion's gratitude for looking after her."
"The pleasure is all ours," Sherbet thanked in return.
"Do come in and make yourselves at home, the living room is in the back. I'm sure you'd all like to sit down in a real seat after that long train ride." The blue unicorn guided the group further in, then turned back to stairwell near the entrance as they got settled. "Velvet, honey, we've got guests."
A rummaging of papers could be heard from upstairs, and after a few moments a thumping of steps grew steadily louder on the wooden steps. Soon Twilight mimicked her earlier actions minutes before around another pony, a white, middle aged unicorn mare with a faded purple and white mane and a cutie mark comprised of three stars.
“Mom,” Twilight said as she squeezed the older mare tightly. It was but a single simple word, but one that carried so much weight in her heart that the other longed to hear.
"Twilight!" The mare nuzzled her daughter passionately. "Oh, it's so good to see you again!" She lifted her chin up, sizing up her little filly dotingly. "Have you been eating well? How're your studies going? Have you made a coltfriend yet?"
"Mom!" Twilight half whined at her. "Do you have to start with the questions every time?"
"Well maybe if you wrote back to me more, I wouldn't have to," she primly fussed. "But I suppose it can wait until we at least get some lunch in you. I'll have some nice cucumber sandwiches prepared in no time."
Twilight grumped a bit. What was it about mothers that had to have them smother their children in one form or another? Still, a cucumber sandwich did sound good right about now. Plus, catching up would be the quickest way to explain her situation.
"All right, all right." She followed her mother into the kitchen to help. "By the way, can our guest room accommodate four ponies? I have some friends that may need a place to sleep while I'm here..."
Meanwhile, half a hallway away, the Manehattan mares settled down upon semi-circular sofa beside a garden window as their host stacked their travel bags next to the coat closet.
"Nice place Twilight has here," Blossomforth broached. "Almost like your apartment Auntie, but roomier...and with a fireplace."
"Yes, there are a few building regulations that put a hamper on that particular addition," Sherbet quipped.
"So, tell me..." Night Light began as he joined them from across the table. "How exactly did you all become acquainted with Twilight? You may or may not know this already, but she tends to keep us out of the loop when she gets wrapped up in her work."
"Oh, well, we became friends when we helped her defeat an eons old vengeful goddess bent on covering the world in eternal darkness after breaking out of her thousand year old prison."
A moment of awkward silence passed until the white pegasus scratched her forehead. "Wow, that sounded a lot more believable in my head."
*thump*
Everypony's attention turned to the stack of luggage in the corner, where the topmost piece had fallen off onto the floor. Their unicorn host was just about to get up to put it back, when it wiggled just the ever so slightest.
"Auntie..." Honey said unsurely, "your trunk is moving."
"Yes Honey," the said owner answered in a similar manner. "I think we can all see that."
Spike gripped his lower chin as it spasmed a second time. "Holy smokes! It's haunted!"
"Spike, use your head for a moment. Ghosts aren't real," Honey argued. "And even if they were, which they aren't, why would a ghost want to possess a trunk of all things?"
"When a suitcase just won't do?" Blossomforth nervously joked.
"Let's be realistic here," Daring said as she crept up to the large piece of luggage. "More likely a small creature ended up getting inside while you were packing, like a squirrel or a rat."
The archeologist tensed up as she undid the latch, ready to defend against any small city rodent that lashed out at her. What she got however, was a bit bigger than a rodent.
"Air!" gasped Babs.
"Water!" wheezed Featherweight.
"Trixie!" panted Firecracker.
Dead silence filled the air.
"Babs?!"
"Firecracker?!"
"Featherweight!?"
"Tangerine?!"
"Hello mother!" the orange filly brightly responded, a pair of socks adorned on top of her ears. Her smile withered along with the rest of the foals as all they were greeted by were menacing scowls.
"Told you we'd get in trouble," Featherweight whimpered.
"Of all the absurd, ill-conceived notions...Tangerine, I am so disappointed in you!"
The four sat huddled together on the sofa, guarded from both sides by the two pegasi while the unicorns hung back from behind. The filly in question squirmed in her seat, fully abashed. Her mother rarely carried such a hysterical tone, and though she kept a controlled volume even at the most maddening of times, Tangerine could clearly see the sheer fright and outrage behind her mother's blue irises.
"I can't even imagine what your father must be going through right now, he's probably worried half to death to know you're missing."
"We left him a note..." she meekly squeaked.
"That doesn't change the fact he has no idea what's happening to you right now, and that goes for all of you! Firecracker, I know your parents. They're probably tearing up half the neighborhood looking for you. And Babs, your sister wouldn't let you go ten hooves from the city line without dragging you back home by the ears. What do you think she's going to do when she finds out you stole away to Canterlot?"
"Come on, Auntie!" the scrappy little redhead protested. "We just wanted to do our part to get Trixie back home! We all love her just as much as youse guys do, so why can't we help?"
The Orange matriarch finally collected herself enough to approach the colt and fillies with a smile, a disapproving one, but a smile nonetheless.
"Babs, sweetie," she ran a hoof over her niece's locks, "We know you all meant well, but problems like these often require a more experienced hoof. Running off and causing more ponies to worry needlessly isn't going to help anypony. So, do we understand what we did wrong and why?"
Her lectured disciplinee shuffled a hoof across the velvet casing. "Yes, Auntie Orange..." she answered dejectedly.
"Good." Sherbet glanced left to right from one crusader to the next. "Since we're all already here together, I suppose there's no helping it. We can decide the consequences of your actions after we get back. For now, it would probably be easiest if you stayed with us in Canterlot for the time being."
"Yay!" the crusaders cheered.
"But you're not leaving this house."
"Awww..." they groaned.
"Well, nothing to it but to help you get settled. Let's show you the bedrooms upstairs where you'll be sleeping," Velvet suggested.
"The little ones can sleep in Twilight's old room. And there should be a spare cot in there as well."
The white unicorn mare opened the door before them to unveil the cool blue decor that comprised of her little filly's bedroom. A large bookshelf stood right to side, crammed to the max with a wide spectrum of books on magic. A small work desk with the telltale signs of slight warping from the many loads of books it carried at times filled the spot to the right of her bed, along with a closet and old toy chest. Lined up against the wall of the windowed terrace off a ways was a telescope array and stargazing chart, and a circular decorative rug filled the empty space in the center.
Twilight could not help but feel more nostalgia wash over her as she took a step inside. "It always seemed a little fuzzy when I thought back to it. But now that I'm here, it's coming back all so clearly."
"You clearly went for the intellectual look when growing up," Honey said as she skimmed over the shelves.
The crusaders, being as full as energy and curious as youngsters could be, rushed ahead and decided first thing to inspect the chest to see what goodies it held.
"Hey, check out this jigsaw puzzle," Featherweight commented. "All the pieces are triangles, weird."
"What's weirder is this funny lookin' flute," Babs added. "Looks like a potato with a straw in it."
"Say, what's this?" Firecracker pulled out a ragged gray plushie from the pile.
"Smartypants!" Twilight bounded over and squeezed the doll against her cheek. "Oh, she was my favorite playmate when I was your age! I used to pretend she was doing her homework all the time. See? Here's the notebook and quill she comes with!"
The quartet seemed to give the reminiscing mare an odd look. Homework was not exactly the first thing that came to mind when they thought of playtime.
"Hey, this doesn't look like a magic book!"
Twilight turned to see Blossomforth pull a rather large cover out from the bottom shelf. Octavia gave it a discerning lookover.
"I believe it appears to be a photo album of sorts."
"Oh, yes. We keep old family pictures in that shelf as well." Velvet walked over to pick the album up. "Why, this is perfect timing. Since we're going down memory lane anyways, why don't I show you some of our more memorable moments of our little prodigy growing up?"
Warning bells lit up all over inside Twilight's head as she dropped her doll, running over. "Wait, mom! I don't think that's such a-"
Too late. The book was open and her mother was already gushing. "Oh, look how adorable you were!"
Everypony crowded around Velvet to take in sugary-cute, scandalous filly photos of their adorkable bookworm.
"Oh! Look at this one!" Blossomforth laughed. "She's chewing on the hardcover!"
Twilight grew redder with every giggle. "MOM!" she practically screeched.
"Awwww...is wittle Twiwight feewing embarwassed?" Spike teased.
Twilight steamed, but then her flush faded as she suddenly remembered something. "I wouldn't be so quick to put one over if I were you, Spike." With a glow of her horn, the pages flipped ahead a few years. "Awww...look how adorable you were!"
Spike's face lost all color as his eyes fell on the many mortifying baby photos of a certain purplish dragon.
"Holy heliography, is there one photo in here where you're not drooling?" Honey asked with a smirk.
"Ewww...is he molting in this one?" Babs asked.
Octavia practically sputtered at his first Nightmare Night costume, a little lion cub with a big black nose. It was all Spike could do at that point to raise his clawed fists to the heavens, and scream like no tomorrow.
"Oh boy, that was priceless," Honey said as she joined Twilight's mother in her study across the hall from the bedroom while the others continued to assuage said unicorn's indignity. "You knew she'd react that way, didn't you?"
"Well, it is sort of an unwritten rule in parenthood to have one expense in front of their child's friends. Though I'm fairly sure you have plenty of stories for me as well." She continued to converse with Honey as she tidied up the huge stack of papers around her desk. "Tell me, is my Twilight still the most neurotic fussbudget anypony's ever met in their lifetime?"
"You kidding? Last week she almost went ballistic when she noticed my exhibits in the reneighsance hall weren't lined up by chronological age dating." The pegasus then took a moment to survey the workstation around her. There were a couple bulletin board with some scraps on them, an entire wallspace solely for ink jars and quill holders, and the entire floor was littered with looseleafs and softcover binders. "Maid taking the day off, huh? Whatcha do in here?"
"Oh, I'm a home editor for a living." Velvet made a few marks on the current article she was reviewing. "You might say it was my day job that got my daughter so interesting in reading in the first place. She was always nosing around in my clients' drafts that were lying around back in the day."
"Really?" Honey chuckled to herself as she picked a random carbon copy out of the corner, picturing the little filly, tushie up, digging waist deep into mountain of papers in front of her. "What kind of stuff you finalize? Technical manuals on list making-?"
She trailed off as her eyes read the title on the cover she was holding.
"Daring Do and the Wendigo Shrine? Wait, this is Sandy's latest manuscript of my expedition with Jackhammer three years back. What are you doing with it? How'd you even get this?"
"Oh, Sandy Shores happens to be one of my more prolific authors. We've done so much writing together, we're practically penpals now. Do you know that she actually bases her stories on a real friend of hers-? Wait, your expedition?"
Both mares pointed at each other with the exact stupefied expression.
"YOU'RE Sandy's editor?"
"YOU'RE Daring Do?"
Quick as a wink, Velvet whisked a pith helm from out of the drawers with her magic and placed it upon Honey's head. "My goodness! You are her! It's so great to finally meet you after hearing so much from Sandy!"
Great, here we go again... Honey thought to herself as she resisted the urge to facehoof. Of all the places she hoped she wouldn't be exposed involuntarily, Canterlot had to be on the top of her list. Before she was able to open her own museum in Manehattan, she worked as a grad student in Canterlot University's equinology department. A lot of her early research was done in those halls, so here her name wasn't just celebratory, it was legendary. The fact that this city hosted some of the most uppity ponies ever only made it worst. Big egos and big fanaticism did not make a winning combination.
To top it all off, this particular pony that had unmasked her was a writer at profession and an avid reader at heart. She could all but guess where this was going to lead up to. "All right, let's get this over with. What do you want? An autograph? Personal memoir? Clip of the hair?"
"What I want is to thank you."
"Come again?" Honey dug a hoof into her ear to check to see if there had been some wax obscuring her hearing.
Velvet waved a dismissive hoof nonchalantly. "Sandy may have been one of my best associates, but she was also one of the most outrageous. It's an editor's job to trim and rewrite an author's work so it's in a presentable format. And Sandy...oh ho ho...there's absolutely no way Sandy would have been able to get her books past the publishers if I didn't tone at least every other page down an octave and a half."
A knowing smirk crept up Honey's face as she pieced together the kind of mare she was conversing with. "They're still pretty out of character, you know."
"You think the public releases are a stretch? You should've seen her uncut first draft of Daring Do and the Mermare's Tear. She turned you into a seapony halfway through it and stirred a love interest with the Antlertean prince, Atoll."
"Dear Celestia, that wasn't even remotely close," Honey snorted an uncharacteristic giggle. "I just got the ick from a sick parrotfish and Atoll was just the native island's medic who gave me mouth-to-mouth when I crashed ashore after swimming against a riptide."
Velvet brought the topic back to where she left off after a quick laugh. "So, when I got Daring Do and the Soluna Stone, imagine my surprise when I open it up to find almost nothing that needed a total rewrite. The traps were believable, the characters were well rounded, and the pretense of the expedition wasn't a fate of Equestria hung in the balance escalation for once! The letter she sent with it told me you had personally set her straight and she wasn't going to let personal feelings dictate her writings anymore. I tell you, whatever you did or said to her, I no longer have to pull all nighters to get her stuff ready by the publisher's deadline. So you have my thanks for making my job a little easier."
Honey flipped the pith helm off and playfully topped it on Velvet. "And you have my thanks too. I probably would have had to reach out a lot further to Sandy if you hadn't kept her fantasies reigned in for so long. And it's certainly a relief to know she's got a mare like you looking after her work."
"The pleasure's all mine." Velvet smiled cheerily before pulling up a stack with her horn. "Say, would you like to have a sneak peek at her most recent issue before dinner? It'd be a great boon to have some third party input, Miss Do."
Honey nodded to her newest friend. "You can call me Daring."
"Huh. That's quite a pickle you've got there," Night Light finally said after listening to his daughter disclose the events leading up to her group's arrival in Canterlot. It had taken a few hours to get everypony's living arrangements in order, and the sun was now beginning to paint the sky a golden evening glow.
"You don't know the half of it," Spike said as he helped set the table. He tossed the plates across in a manner like a professional waiter. He overshot the last one though, but Twilight caught it with her magic before it could shatter on the floor.
"I was hoping you could help me out," Twilight continued. "You work in the castle as a scribe for the royal archives, right? Could you get me in so I could find some genealogy records and maps of the city? I need to find the Lulamoon stable's estate."
"I can do you one better, punkin. I can just tell you where she lives."
"You can?!" Twilight pulled herself into her dad's complete field of vision. "You know the Lulamoons?"
The blue stallion gave a low chuckle. "I've come to know just about every other noble in Canterlot within the past few weeks. Every duke, count, and baron that's crossed my path in the castle has asked for my ear and opinion regarding the current state of affairs surrounding Princess Luna's return."
"Moonlight had mentioned something like that when she came to Manehattan, what exactly is this all about?"
Night Light adjusted the ornamental star ceramics on the table as if to make an analogy with them. "Well, how can I put it like this? For as long as anyone can remember, our Princess Celestia has been the only one absolute authority everypony has had to ultimately answer to whenever an issue of welfare, safety, or other situation regarding our nation is addressed." He then moved a large moon plate next to the sun plate that was surrounded by a lot of other small plates and silverware. "Then, all of a sudden, another powerful princess comes out of nowhere, claiming to be Celestia's long lost sister, and she is given the exact same level of authority Princess Celestia has."
"Well of course, that's what Princess Celestia wanted. For them to rule as equals, right?"
Night Light started shifting the smaller plates into various groups, placing them behind of, in front of, and some in between the two plates at various distances. "Unfortunately, not everypony can see the situation as simply as you or the Princesses do. For quite a few nobles, they see the situation as now there is another power that can veto previous decisions made by Celestia, and hope to gain her favor by forcing Celestia to give her more reign. Others believe that making the Princesses equalize their power even further will open a gap of political power that they can fill and in turn, gain more leverage in court policies. And others still are opposed to the sudden change in power, believing Luna's sudden elevation as an injustice to the hierarchy system's machinations to those who've had to work to climb the ladder, or fear she can't be completely trusted yet." He raised the moon plate right in front of his daughter. "I could go on all evening about this as there are over a dozen splintered factions at the moment and still growing, but the bottom line is this: Every noble, and I mean every noble, is arguing about what to do with Princess Luna."
Twilight was so confused. This was just simple transition from a constitutional monarchy to a constitutional diarchy, wasn't it? In principle, everything stayed the same with the exception that there were now two blocks on the top of the pyramid instead of one. Nothing else had to change, no one had to step down or step up, so the question just had to be...
"Why?"
Night Light could only answer with a shrug. "Because they have the opportunity to. You have to understand, punkin. The noble class has a different way of thinking about things. To them, every argument is a chance to make themselves look good while making others look bad in comparison. And this whole thing with having two princesses instead of one after so long, is the argument of the millennium. In fact, I'm going to be heading to an emergency consensus of the stable lords that Celestia herself is arranging to settle the disputes before they can escalate further by the end of the week."
Twilight nearly dropped the plate she was holding. "You're going to take part in this senseless debate?"
"I pretty much have to," Night Light explained with a wry grin. "The Princess has made it quite clear that it's mandatory for a representative from every house to attend. Keep in mind punkin, we may be minor, have no land besides our own home, and haven't made a political decision in generations, but the family title of Twilight is still a stable of Canterlot in name. It's actually funny in a way when I think about it now. Every noble is thinking this meeting to be the final deciding vote on the whole issue, and my say on the reform issues may actually be a key player in this game. It all makes sense now with your story lining up with my sudden attention with every important pony in Canterlot. Luna is basically a total enigma to all sides for and against her, so most will probably lean towards the families most relevant to the situation. Not that cozying up to me is going to help them much. If anything, you're the one that knows better on this issue than anyone. After all, Princess Luna's only back because of you and your friends."
Twilight took a moment to add it up. So that's what Moonlight meant when she said I'd have my own affairs to tend to soon enough. With every noble in Canterlot up in hooves over Luna's return to the throne, they're all looking for a perfect leader among them to spearhead their arguments. And who better than the very ones who've been in contact with her true self the most? My family's going to end up having as much influence on this deliberation as Trixie's is.
Twilight knew this train of thought was diverting from her original goal, but something this serious couldn't be ignored entirely and had to be weighed upon, especially if this was a family decision. "So...what is your stance on this issue?" she pried.
Night Light leaned over and gave Twilight a playful nuzzle. "Well, any mare that my daughter risked life and limb for to save can't be all bad, now can she? I personally would rather this whole mess just be dropped and done with so I can get back to my midnight archiving in peace. And I'm pretty sure Celestia wants it that way too." He then deftly changed the subject without so much as a breath. "But enough about politics for tonight. It's your first night back, so let's celebrate! How about we get dinner started, perhaps your favorite, sweet peas and a dandelion salad?"
"Sweet peas and dandelion salad? Is Twily back?"
Twilight's head swiveled so sharply she could almost feel her neck snap at the sound of the closing door from the entrance foyer. She scrambled and skidded into the hardwood corridor, launching herself towards the tall white unicorn that had just arrived.
"Shiny!" she squealed, clinging to him tighter than she had her mother and father.
“Easy on the neck there, Twily,” laughed the stallion, telekinetically plucking her off and setting her down lightly. “It’s good to see you too!”
"Woah hoah, woof." Twilight turned to the stairs to see her friends looking down from the railing.
"Who's the hunk of burning stallion you've got wrapped around your hooves?" asked Blossomforth.
Twilight blushed at the implications, shaking her head vigorously. "Oh no no no no no no! This is Shining Armor. He's my B.B.B.F.F!"
Everypony paused.
"Big Brother Best Friend Forever?" she clarified.
"Ohhh!"
Spike just shook his head knowingly. "I told you no one would ever get that acronym..."
The mares met at ground floor, each one shaking hooves.
"Pleasure to meet you."
"Charmed."
"A fine how do you do."
"Twilight never told us she had a brother!"
Shining put up a face of mock hurt, doing his best to stifle a bout of laughter. "Really? Not even once? Oh, Twily, you wound me! Did all those years together mean nothing to you?"
Honey stifled a laugh of her own. "Twily? Really?"
Twilight removed the white hoof that was mussing up her mane. "Oh come on Shiny! It just never came up! You know I'll always love you!"
"Yeah, I know." Shining nodded over to the other mares then. "It's good to see my lil’ sis is finally making some friends. You can't imagine how many times I walked into the palace to see her in a makeshift book fort instead of out and about with the other university students."
"Oooo...book forts? Do tell," Blossomforth inquired, she and the others already smelling juiciness.
Shining shared a knowing grin, he could tell exactly what they were expecting. "Well, there was one time where she was in the middle of learning her come to life spell and-"
"Shiny," Twilight growled, with warning dripping from her words. "Mom already showed them the album, so think your next words over very very carefully."
Shining took that as a signal that his sister had been embarrassed enough times for one day. "Alright, alright. Another time then. By the way, I brought back dessert from Pony Joe's!"
Spike pointed with glee at the box his surrogate big brother brought out from behind his back. "Doughnuts!"
Twilight snuck a peek inside the box and squeed. "Chocolate blueberry sprinkles, my favorite!"
"I got the baker's dozen, so there should be enough for all of us."
"Did somepony say doughnuts?!"
Shining took note of the four excitable foals thumping down the stairs, hungry looks in their eyes. "On second thought, I may need to make a second trip."
"Is it time to make dinner already?" Velvet was the last to descend from the second floor. "Oh, Shining! Welcome home dearie. How was my big, strong, captain of the royal guard's day?"
"Same old, same old," he answered nonchalantly, all the while keeping the box high out of reach from the four bouncing balls of energy circling around him. "Broke in some new recruits, patrolled the grounds, did my daily training, the usual."
Velvet chuckled at the sight, remembering how it wasn't so long ago a certain purple filly bounced around him every time he brought home doughnuts. "I see you've already acquainted yourself with Twilight's new entourage. Let's get that precious cargo in the kitchen before the temptation gets the better of the littler ones."
Auntie Orange took charge of rounding up the foals. "Now, now, Tangerine, everypony. Let the stallion through and you all can have one treat after dinner, okay?"
"Yes mother..."
"Yes Auntie..."
And so the children broke away, but they still followed their quarry closely into the kitchen, leaving Twilight alone with her friend for the first time since she arrived home.
"So, any other siblings we should know about?" Honey asked.
"No, only Shining," Twilight happily dismissed. "Once you have a brother like him, you'll never need to ask for another!"
"You sound like you're awfully close to him," Octavia noted.
"Well of course! Before I came to Manehattan and learned the importance of friendship, Shining Armor was the only pony I ever really accepted as a friend." Twilight's gaze drifted off as fond memories of her first and only fillyhood friend resurfaced.
When I was just a filly, I found it rather silly
To see how many other ponies I could meet
I had my books to read, didn't know that I would ever need
Other ponies to make my life complete
But there was one colt that I cared for
I knew he would be there for me
My big brother, best friend forever!
Like two peas in a pod, we did-
"Twilight! Supper's ready! Come to the table already!"
Her thought bubble popped mid-verse at the sound of her mother calling. Her ears folded at yet another attempt to wax nostalgia ruined by the very family she was trying to reminisce about.
"Should we tell your mother to hold off serving you until the second stanza?" Octavia joked.
"Har har," Twilight snarked. "Let's just eat. Mom's just lucky I love her cooking so much, and I'm pretty sure you will too."
Honey marched ahead, her grin widening. "Whatever you say...Twily."
"Only Shiny can call me that!"
"Are you sure your dad knew where to go?" Honey asked.
The five Manehattan mares trotted down the busy market road that connected the private residential districts to upper Canterlot. The Victorian style showcase displays on the shop fronts made walking through a bit of stop and go, as Blossomforth could not help but window shop every other outlet stand.
"Positive," Twilight answered, not even bothering to look up from the hoof drawn map with instructions written on it. "It shouldn't be much farther."
"Saying that five times in the course of this morning since we set off from your house isn't that reassuring," her curator friend remarked.
"Look, dad said, word for word, once we reach the end Clobbers Road, turn left onto Midnight Way, and it'll be impossible to miss it."
"Yeah, that's another thing. Impossible to miss it kinda implies we already know what to be looking for in the Lulamoon decor, when we clearly don't."
Sherbet was the first to turn the aforementioned corner and stopped, eyes wide. "Maybe not, but I'm guessing that would be a good start."
Everypony pulled their head up from Twilight's map and gawked. Head was a gated community of large finely constructed stone villas, many decorated in gold and silver, and quite a few with fountain gardens, with various marks and banners symbolizing owners. This was clearly a noble's district seeing as each estate was meant to draw the feeling of not only wealth, but power too.
But distinctly set apart from the row of custom villas, sitting alone and across, taking up almost an entire block, stood what seemed to be more like a miniature castle than a mansion. The symbol of the Lunar Princess decorated the front gate in pure silver, glowing in the broad daylight. Similar regalia and emblems were imprinted all over the black marble of the building's walls. The limestone path leading up the slight slope to the tall imposing structure winded over a small stream that bisected a pair of old weeping willows, and was lined with moonlily bushes, their flowers fully grown but closed to the bright sunlight, waiting for much cooler and silvery moonlight that would come later to awake them. The black stone gave the dwelling a much more ancient feel to it than the neighbors that lay warily away from it.
They were not even within a hundred hooves of the castle, and already its shadow eclipsed them. There was no doubt, in each of their minds, that this was their destination.
Lulamoon manor, home to one of the oldest...and most powerful families in all of Canterlot.