The Thing About Maturity
Chapter 4 "I name thee Brother and Sister"
By: Scekkel
My Little Pony © Hasbro
When Twilight got home she saw two big shadows standing outside her tree. When she came closer she noticed, that it was two big ponies with capes on. She progressed with caution and moved nearer and she opened her mouth as to speak, but then one of the ponies turned around and Twilight was so shocked that she kept her mouth open.
It was Luna, her mane shining bright in the moonlight as she took off her cape, next to her was Celestia who did the same thing, although her mane looked quite pale in the moonlight.
“Hello Twilight” her old teacher said with a smile on her lips. Luna smiled seeing Twilight with her mouth still open.
“I believe you have used a stun spell on your former student, dear sister.” Luna said.
Twilight realized how ridiculous she looked and hurriedly tried to look normal. She bowed for the princesses.
“Twilight, there is no need for this formality we are not in public.” Celestia said.
“Sorry princess”, she said and blushed. “It has just become normal to me. Why are you here?”
“We are here to discuss some important things with you. So may we come in?” Luna said with a smile.
Twilight unlocked the door and had the princesses enter first. Luna looked searching at Twilight while she continued inside the tree. She showed them to the big table in the middle of the living room.
Luna sat down opposite Twilight and Celestia took the place at the end of the table. Twilight became aware that she was the hostess and thought it rude not to have offered her old mentor and her beautiful sister anything to drink yet. “Do any of you want something to drink?” She asked hastily. Celestia politely said no, but Luna would very much like a cup.
As Twilight made her way to the kitchen the two princesses began to whisper to one another. “Tia!” Luna whispered. “Do you really think she will say yes?”
Celestia looked at her younger sister, even after all this time back from the moon she was still uneasy about other ponies. She had not yet found a way to become her old self again. A thousand years ago Luna had been a pony a princess with integrity and bravery. Now she looked to Celestia before taking any decisions. “Luna”, Celestia whispered back. “She is your friend, even if she says no you should not feel bad, but I am sure she will not, you are important to her. After all she did on nightmare night for you, you still doubt her”?
Luna looked down, she knew it was not fair to be thinking that Twilight would not like her, but she could not help it, as soon as she had rejoined Equestria and her sister she had felt like she did not belong and as though she had no right to do anything much less be a princess after all she had done. “But Tia…”
She was cut off as they heard the kettle from the kitchen and soon Twilight walked in with a tray and three cups. “I brought an extra in case you changed your mind Celestia” She sat down the tray and poured up the tea. “It is my favourite tea”. Twilight said smiling.
Luna tasted the black liquid and could not remember she had tasted better tea in her time. “It really is good” Luna tried a smile but it came off quite hollow.
Twilight did not notice and just smiled. “My friends Zecora makes it” she said glad.
Celestia made herself noticed by coughing. “Twilight we have something to talk to you about.”
“Good morning Spike.” Twilight said playfully, but when he didn’t react the slightest, she put her lavender hoof on his body and push him gently until he slowly began to sit up.
Spike felt like he had been hit with a hammer, his head felt really heavy like if he had been sleeping for 2 days or something. As the blur in front of his eyes began to clear he could recognize the lavender spot in front of his eyes.
Twilight looked worried down at her number one assistant, who sat on the bed with a claw to his head. She thought it best not to tell him, that she and Zecora had made him sleep for over 48 hours, right away. Instead she bowed down her head and said “Spike? Are you okay?”
Spikes ears recognized the sound, but his brain refused to process it, he was still too sleepy.
Twilight got a little impatient and decided to summon some water with her horn. Her horn buzzed a little as her lavender aura sparked from her horn. The water began to show inside the aura and continued to grow until Twilight stopped the spell. She hovered the water above Spike and with a grin, she let go of the liquid.
Spike flew up from the bed, with a loud whelp, like someone had burned his tail, but as soon as he regained consciousness he saw Twilight grinning next to his bed and got quite embarrassed over his loud scream.
Twilight laughed a bit while Spikes cheeks got even redder.
“What are you doing here, Twilight,” the purple dragon suddenly asked. “How did you know I was here?” As lovely it has been to be awoken by Twilight, he did not understand how she could be here. He had left Ponyville and as far as Rarity and Twilight should know it had been for good or a very long while at least. He had thought her to be angry, but there she was as happy as ever, smiling at him.
Twilight wasn’t good at lying. She was actually quite bad at it. She did not like that she had to deliver wrong facts, not even touching the subject of lying to friends and how bad she felt about it. She had once tried to lie to Celestia when she was still a student of hers: She had been sneaking around the castle at night in search for a book Celestia had strictly forbidden her to look in, and of course Celestias diary had been in her sleeping quarters. Twilight snuck in, took it and made her way back to her own room. When she discovered what was in the book she felt quite bad, but as she tried to sneak it back Celestia awoke and Twilight ran out. The next morning she tried to tell her that she had seen the book in the library and thought to return it, but that she was frightened that Celestia thought she had taken it. Celestia said nothing about it all, but thanked her for returning it. Later Twilight had been feeling so bad that she confessed to Celestia who of course had known all along. She forgave her, but warned her to never lie to anypony again.
But now Twilight stood there, in spite of what her mentor had said, and prepared to lie to her number one assistant who she saw as a brother, but this of course was for Spikes benefit. It was essential that he didn’t know, what had been happening yesterday and the day before. She wasn’t sure how he would take it so had decided to put it away for the time being. Twilight opened her mouth. “Well, I am here to get some tea from Zecora, what are you doing here? She said a little harsh as though she was cross with him for leaving.
Spike looked down. “I’m sorry Twilight, he almost whispered. “I didn’t know what to do, I just felt like it was the right thing to do.”
Twilight loosened her expression and hugged the very surprised dragon. “I’m just happy you are okay Spike, but another time talk to me about it.”
Spike smiled with a little hint of guilt though, but he hugged her back.
Twilight pulled back from the embrace and said. “Well did you find what you wanted Spike?”
“Well, Zecora and I had a talk about it and I kinda understand what it means to be mature. It seems that you can never really become mature, but you can only grow with your own pace, but there will always be things to learn and so on.” To Spike it felt good to tell Twilight about this. He understood what Zecora had tried to tell him when they met in the forest, or at least he thought he did.
Twilight tilted her head and made her thinking face. “So you feel more mature now?”, she asked him.
“Well, kinda but I don’t really know, it is hard to understand, and I don’t think I look more mature yet.
“Spike,” Twilight said. “Of course you don’t look mature yet, you are not that old and even I with all my books and scrolls don’t really feel like I look mature. I’m only a few years older than you and in my eyes you are much more mature than all the other dragons I have met. You are really brave and sometimes I feel that you are much more mature than I. You always know what you want to do and you’re not scared of anything when it comes to the people you love.”
Spike almost had tears in his eyes after hearing it, but pushed them back. “So, do you think I should ask Rarity out on a date?” He said while his cheeks grew red.
Twilight remembered what she had said to Spike the day before yesterday and her talk with Rarity about it. She had been struck by guilt ever since she said those things to him and when he then ran off she felt really bad about it. “Spike, I never had any right to say those things”, she said. “I should not have intervened, but you have to understand that I was only trying to help you.” She looked down.
Spike embraced her once more. “Don’t worry Twi, I know why you did it and you were right in doing it, after all these years we are more like siblings than anything else, so I understand why you did it.”
Twilight answered the embrace. “I feel the same way brother.”
Zecora looked through the door to her sleeping chamber at the brother and sister and couldn’t help but shedding a little tear.
Half an hour later Twilight and Spike were on their way, waving back at Zecora until they were to far away to see her anymore. Then Twilight smiled and said, “let’s go home, brother.”
“Yes let’s do that, sister” Spike answered
Rarity blinked her eyes a few times before threading the needle again, the dress in front of her, that until a couple of hours ago had been a roll of fabric, some thread and other various things, now looked simply gorgeous. It was, after all, one she had made for herself and Rarity was the kind of pony who always wanted to look her best.
She took the wine red cocktail dress off the table and with use of her blue aura she put it on. She looked fabulous; it only needed a small touch up to secure the quality of a Rarity made dress. She looked at herself in the mirror and when she saw herself, she suddenly felt hollow. Spike would always be there to tell her how beautiful she looked, but now he wasn’t. It wasn’t because she needed someone to tell her how beautiful she looked it was because it was him who said it. She liked going on the catwalk for the dragon, he would always come with the last little corrections for the dresses to look, if possible, even more amazing. But none of this mattered. It was the company she missed, a friend whom she had come to like over the years, her own personal little Spikey-Wikey. She didn’t cry this time, she knew why he had left and understood why, it was mostly her fault over all and knew that if she had the chance, she would ask the dragon out herself. Even though it was not something a lady would do, she had come to like the dragon so much that she wanted to give him a fair chance, to show her what he was worth.
She suddenly thought of something and went upstairs to her bed and levitated the fire-ruby necklace around her neck and looked in her bedroom mirror. “Oh Spike,” she whispered. “If only I had said something while I had the time.”
Suddenly she heard a loud but firm knock coming from the door. She took off the dress and necklace and put them on her bed. She then made her way to the door and opened it.