Night Shine and Twilight Sparkle are now five years old. Things change from having a couple of new members to the family to having very talented children. Night Shine has taken what was a joke from his brother the hind leg standing, and tries it out for himself. Twilight disapproved.
"Night! You should stop doing that! You'll fall over and cry again!" She whined.
"Y-You're just jealous that I can do it and you can't!" Night claimed.
"Am not! I just don't want to get Mom and Dad to pick you up from a little fall again."
"L-Look! I'm walking on two legs!" Night showed off. "Ha! Take that Twilight!"
"Oh yeah!? Well I can do it too!" She claimed as she got up on her hind legs. However, she couldn't last very long. Only a few seconds passed before she fell backwards and hits the back of her head on the table. Night notices and goes back on all fours as he went to Twilight's aid.
"Twilight! Are you okay!?" He asked.
"Oh... It really hurts..." She cried.
Night sees blood, and starts to get scared. He races to the other room and calls out his big brother. "SHINING!"
"Huh!?" He comes out to check on his siblings. "What is it!? What's wrong!?"
"T-Twilight's bleeding! She fell and hit her head on the table!"
"Oh my gosh! Twilight!" Shining runs to her and checks her condition. "It's not too bad. Don't worry, I can make it go away."
"A-Alright..." She sniffled.
A while passes, and Twilight's head bandage is now covering the wound. Shining sighs as he asked, "Feel any better?"
"Mmm-hmm." She nods.
"Okay. Now then, what happened? How'd you hit your head on the thing? I know you're smarter than that."
"It was an accident." She claimed.
"Accident while doing what? That table was pretty tall when you think about it. You can't hit your head on it even if you just standing unless..."
"I was standing on my hind legs, like Night Shine." Twilight admitted.
"The kid's still at it? Maybe I've been doing that too much." Shining thought as he held his chin. "Anyways, why'd you do it? You never thought it was funny to begin with."
"I'm just so jealous of him Shining! Do you see how well he can do everything even though he doesn't have magic?"
"How so?"
"Well, at dinner, he always hold his forks and spoons with his hooves so easily! He can even spin them in his hooves too! Why aren't our hooves like that? I can't use my magic yet, but he can do more things than me even though we're the same age!"
"Ah! So you are envious of him." Shining chuckled. "But you don't have to copy him you know."
"But Shining! It's so unfair! Why is he so special? Why can't I be like him? Instead, I have these dumb hooves."
"Now Twilight, remember that he isn't a pony like us. Not to mention that he isn't a unicorn like you." Shining reminds her. "He doesn't have it his way either. So just let him have what he has. I'm pretty sure he wishes he was like us too you know."
"Really?"
"Yeah! In fact, I think I need to talk to the little guy right now."
Night was in his bed, head deep in pillow. Shining knocked on his door, alarming the boy of somebody's presence. Night Shine doesn't answer, allowing no resistance made to Shining's entrance. The stallion sits next to his brother as his head doesn't move from its spot.
"Is Twilight okay?" He asked without moving his face away from the pillow.
"Yeah, she just needed some help on the spot. She's good." Shining informs him.
"That's good." He sighs.
Shining Armor wasn't about to let his brother wallow away in despair. He continues his efforts to bring him up again. Or at least out of the pillow. Otherwise, what kind of a big brother would he be?
"So, I heard you tried to stand on your hind legs again."
"Yeah... It was pretty dumb of me to."
Twilight happened to be listening by the Night's room. She only peeked a little bit, but not to wear Shining could spot her head.
"I heard you did pretty good standing on you hind legs." Shining commended him. "You even walked around, right?"
"I don't want to do it again." he states.
"Why not?"
He brings his head up and shows the tears rolling off his face. "Because I got Twilight to hurt herself!"
Twilight's eyes shrink as Shining comforted Night. Night wiped the water off his face as Shining placed his hoof around him.
"I'm a bad brother Shining." Night sighed. "I just wanted to do things like you all can. But instead of being cool, I just got Twilight to hurt herself!"
"Copying me in order to be cool huh?" He chuckled.
"I know you didn't do that joke in a long time, but I still think it's funny! I thought Twilight might laugh too, but instead..."
"So you just wanted to impress Twilight like how I impressed you?"
Night Shine nodded as he wiped his eyes once more. "I... I know I can't do those magic tricks like you do. I know Twilight will be able to be more like you someday. But since I'm older than her, I thought I could still make her laugh like you did for me. But instead, I get her to do them too, only she got injured."
"Come on Night Shine. You're thinking too much into it! Besides, you two are only a few months apart! She's not that much younger than you."
"So... What should I do?"
"You should just be yourself. If you want to copy me, that's fine. But don't do it to impress anyone. Twilight will love you like a sister no matter what. Regardless if you make her laugh or not."
"You think so?"
Suddenly, Twilight runs in and calls out her brother.
"Night! Of course he's right!"
Twilight hugs Night tightly as she reassures he saddened brother.
"I don't care what you do! You'll always be my brother!"
Night simply hugs his sister back and smiles. Shining grins and leave the two alone.
On another day
Night is watching his big brother as he trains in the public reserve center. Shining was trying to work hard in order to join the royal guard. Night has always admired his brother to the point where he wants to be like him. So what if he can't use magic? He'll find other ways to be like him. Today, he wanted to prove himself worthy.
"Shining! Can I train with you too?" Night Shine asked.
"What?" Shining responded with a raised eyebrow. "You're too small for this Night. You could get hurt."
"Nuh-uh! All you're doing is playing on the playground!"
"This isn't a playground!" Shining claimed. "This place was made to work out a stallion so he can be ready for any challenge that comes his way. Maybe in a few years, you can try."
"Shining! That's not fair! I think I could do just as good!"
"Alright mister." Shining grinned smugly. "Go ahead! I want to see you try."
Night pouted at him before going on his fours and attempting the course himself. Watching him run through it was like watching a fish swim on land. Night tried his best to run through the tires, but was constantly tripping. The balance beam was hard, because Night was always out of balance, and fell into the mud. Hurdles were the worst, because, no jump was high enough at all. He constantly hits his head on them each time. Shining laughed as Night got up and continued.
Sadly, he wasn't enjoying this as much as he thought. Soon came the climbing part of the exercise. The wall before him was tall. Very tall. Night gulped as his big brother called him back.
"Night, might as well give up here. You're never going to climb that thing."
Night wasn't about to let his brother get away with that. He used his hooves, which became surprisingly useful. The things around his hoof wrapped around each object he needed to hold onto. Shining noticed how high up he was going. Almost reaching the top even! Night Shine was getting excited. His hind legs felt much better in this position. Crawling on his fours always hurts his back, but this position felt... natural. He couldn't explain it, but it was certainly getting into place.
So close to the top. It was only a few inches away. However, as Night Shine made his way up and Shining wished he had a camera, a slip up happened. Night Shine is now almost falling off the wall. Shining Armor notices and rushes to his aid.
"Night Shine!"
Quickly using his levitation, he manages to catch the boy before he hits the ground. After putting him down gently, Night hugs his brother tightly.
"Hey! You okay there?" Shining Armor asked.
"I... I was so scared...!" Night cried.
"It's alright now. Everything is okay." Shining Armor assured him. He placed his hoof over Night and brushed his hair. After a while, Shining commends Night for his ability. "You know, that was pretty good. You made it up pretty high."
"Really?" He asked while looking up to him.
"Yeah! Hey, maybe someday you can be a royal guard like me."
"Y-You think so?"
"Someday, we can become one!" Shining told him. "So let's not give up just yet!"
Night Shine's eyes sparkled at the thought. Someday, he can be a hero, standing alongside Shining Armor. With that in mind, he smiles widely.
"Then someday, I wanna be a hero like you!"